links for 2010-11-17

Enacting one of the nation's most aggressive environmental measures, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to ban plastic grocery bags in unincorporated areas of the county.

The vote was 3-1, supported by Supervisors Gloria Molina, Mark Ridley-Thomas, and Zev Yaroslavsky, and opposed by Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich. Supervisor Don Knabe was absent.
The ban, which will cover nearly 1.1 million residents countywide, is to the point: “No store shall provide to any customer a plastic carryout bag.” An exception would be made for plastic bags that are used to hold fruit, vegetables or raw meat in order to prevent contamination with other grocery items.

If grocers choose to offer paper bags, they must sell them for 10 cents each, according to the ordinance.
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Radical environmentalism and more nanny statism in California

At a private meeting on Tuesday afternoon, George Soros, a longtime supporter of progressive causes, voiced blunt criticism of the Obama administration, going so far as to suggest that Democratic donors direct their support somewhere other than the president.

The Hungarian-American financier was speaking to a small side gathering of donors who had convened in Washington D.C. for the annual gathering of the Democracy Alliance — a formal community of well-funded, progressive-minded individuals and activists.
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George Soros throws Obama under the bus.

On the night of the midterm elections earlier this month, Sarah Palin stayed up until 3 in the morning. From her hotel bedroom in Manhattan, she and her husband, Todd, followed the returns while she wrote e-mails on her iPad — congratulating winners, consoling losers — while reading others from people who wanted her to know that they had cast their vote for her daughter Bristol on “Dancing With the Stars” the evening before. Like much of her recent life, Palin’s day had been replete with reminders of the clout she had rapidly acquired.
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Read it all

But the jet-setting billionaire says he's is not daunted by the long haul. He has pledged to invest at least $20 million of his own fortune into a new organization aimed at realizing a long-term vision for improving California's system of governance.

"How much time will it take? Years," Berggruen said in an interview with The Bee editorial board today. "Luckily we are still reasonably energetic, and so we will be at this for years."

The private investing company chairman has invited an ideologically diverse group of political power-hitters to join him on the "Think Long Committee for California," a new effort launched as part of his nonpartisan think tank. The panel's brain trust includes former Gov. Gray Davis, former Assembly Speakers Willie Brown and Robert Hertzberg, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, philanthropist and investor Eli Broad, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor executive secretary-treasurer Maria Elena Durazo
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Sounds like left-wing political takeover to me.

The election is over, and the record-shattering $140 million she personally invested in her failed run for governor is gone. But Meg Whitman still faces one unsettled score.

Today, the billionaire must answer to a claim that she owes Nicky Diaz Santillan, her former undocumented housekeeper, $6,210 in alleged unpaid wages and mileage.

Diaz Santillan, who worked for nine years in Whitman's home, will appear at a state Department of Industrial Relations office in San Jose to make her case that the defeated Republican candidate owes her money. The conference is closed to the public.
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Now, shouldn't she be arrested and then deported?

It seems everyone wants a piece of Palin these days. Some are fans, some are hostile foes. But regardless, we just can't stop talking about her. Will there ever be a time when we decide that we've figured her out and there's nothing else to say?

And then it hit me. The reason Palin has become such a lightening rod, a kingmaker and a punching bag, a celebrity and a power player, is simple. It's because she's so gosh darn happy.

For her fans, like the ones I had the pleasure of meeting in Chicago, she's refreshingly upbeat and resilient, the bubbly friend from childhood who was always great at cheering you up and cheerleading you on.

But for her detractors, nothing raises the ire of cynical liberals more than a happy-go-lucky, totally unburdened, freethinking and self-assured conservative woman who has everything she wants and then some. And without anyone's help.
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Absolutely correct and what irked the Left with Reagan

Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol won through to the final of hit US show "Dancing with the Stars", bouyed by public support in defiance of judges' skepticism about her dance floor talents.

As her mother continues to shine in the political spotlight, the 20-year-old is enjoying the media limelight generated by her unexpected success on the hugely popular TV talent show.

Palin was again ranked last by judges in the semi-final of the show, in which celebrities partner with professional dancers, but voting by viewers pushed her score with partner Mark Ballas up into third place.
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Congrats Bristol!