For those of you who haven’t gotten an invite to Governor Schwarzenegger’s inauguration on January 5, don’t wait up. Sacramento’s most famous transient is inviting the well-connected and well-funded to his first and only inauguration the first Friday in January at 11 a.m. at Memorial Auditorium. Today the Inaugural Committee announced former SF Mayor Willie Brown will emcee. If that motivates you in any way, ambition and $22,300 might just get you in the door.

On a related note, mark January 5 as bring your lunch to work day if you live anywhere near downtown.

Did you know we have our very “arm” of Homeland Security here in Sacramento? In dealing with Customs last week here at SMF, I noticed the DHS patch on the men in blue.

The office at SMF is a little tiny hotbox where you talk to the officials through thick, darkened glass reminiscent of the old KFC on Alhambra/Broadway about 15 years ago. The window is better than those in any modern-day bank. It looks impenetrable.

As with any government entity, Homeland Security requires paperwork. Since 9-11, the usual process now contains extra paperwork, signatures, stamps and more. It brings to mind the argument often made about gun waiting periods: criminals won’t wait to get a gun–they’ll do it illegally. It’s the average joe who will be inconvenienced.

I see a similar application to Homeland Security. The average joe or juan or ivan or however you want to call him will be inconvenienced and forced to pay extra, but the criminal/real terrorist will always have an expedient way around the red tape.

Some may say it was a political move that the Governor got swabbed for the Bone Marrow registry, but if it gets the word out, it is a political move I highly endorse.

Fifteen years ago, I worked in a hospital in the finance department where we helped patients and their families locate funding for Bone Marrow Transplants. Many of the patients were children. The biggest problem was not the actual procedure, but finding someone whose tissue would match. A majority of the patients never lived long enough for the procedure, because a match couldn’t be found.

It is an even more difficult task to find a match in “historically underrepresented” groups, such as the African American and Asian communities.
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By now just about everyone’s heard that Arnold will be continuing on as our governor, but has there been any further talk about his living arrangement? To bring everyone up to speed, he’s been shacking up at the Hyatt across from the Capitol for the past three years. I’m sure it’s nice and comfy there, but is there nowhere in Sacramento good enough for the Governator?

If they’re built on schedule, he could still snag a place in The Towers on Capitol Mall before his term ends. Their billboard says they’re “Where Donald Would Live”–is that as big of an if for Schwarzenegger?

I was glad that we voted in a garage on Tuesday and not in the hall of a local church as we did a few years ago, in 2004. Picture this…a first time voter (naturalized citizen) comes from a mostly atheist country and gets to vote in a church. Not only was the voting in a church, it was in the main hall where they have services, and Jesus was staring down at us from the wall wearing a bloody crown of thorns. We’re talking a two foot tall face of Jesus. It was the presidential election….and Jesus wept. Then the African American female registrar thought I would be “influencing” my husband’s vote and so basically told us not to talk or share information during the process. Well, we’d made only one list after discussing each topic and of course we had to pass it back and forth. (Any other married folks out there discuss or “influence” your spouses in an election–come on, people!) My husband came out of the Jesus hall pissed.

This time voting went much better, although
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Q. Where does a polar bear vote?
A. The North Poll.

I’ve been so busy reading concession speeches I haven’t had a chance to blog in. Or something like that. It certainly is one of those historically significant moments. Not necessarily about the change in power–because right now the dems are talking bipartisanship, but who knows how the rhetoric will be after a decade of power? We all have seen how power corrupts. Up close and personal. No, it’s not that….it’s the moment where Nancy Pelosi becomes the first female to be Speaker of the House. Hey, we’re in the 2000s and we’re just now letting women get into the powerful seats? Depressing that it took so long, but exhilarating that it might finally happen.

The Russians have a saying and here’s my loose translation: “The man is the head of the family, but the woman is the neck.” Basically, whatever she wants him to look at is what he will look at. Well, I say it’s time for the men to step back and let the women lead. After all, look at that mess we’re in! If you think I’m a feminist, you’re wrong. I’m a realist. And you can take that to the polls, baby.

As a matter of fact, yes, lots of people went to the polls today and, wouldn’t you know it, voting bloggers across the Metroblogging network hit the polls. You can check out some of their reactions here, or by selecting any of the US Cities available in our handy drop-down to your right (pssst, click on the map).

Any good stories from your polling place? Long lines? Tumbleweeds? Electronic voting machine glitches? Uncontrollable inkblots? Absentee ballot panic? Sever fatigue by the time you made it to Prop 90 and the various county measures? They say if you don’t vote you can’t complain. So if you voted - bitch away. That’s why we’re here.

Today is the last day to get your voter registration in the mail (and POSTMARKED) if you’d like to cast a ballot on November 7. Click here for more information.

If you’ve moved, etc, don’t forget to change your registration. Also, don’t assume that an address change with DMV will cut it.

A reminder: don’t forget that if, in this flurry of last minute registrations, your name doesn’t appear on the rolls at your polling place, you ALWAYS have the right to cast a provisional ballot. Period. No matter what.

Happy voting!

The Bee and the News & Review both came out against Measures Q & R this week, the so-called quality of life measures that would be financed by a cup of coffee a month per household, according to the “yes” camp. Has anyone calculated how many bottles of French Bordeaux this is per household?

And not just for your beautiful trees and expensive homes. You really have put Sacramento on the map. The political news map, that is. Who among us doesn’t know who Steve Pearcy is? Why, he’s the Cindy Sheehan of our time–but wasn’t Cindy from here, too? Nope, she’s not a resident of Land Park, but close enough. Land Park is becoming the new Berkeley, anyway. Radical.

As for the latest on Land Park’s Julia Wilson, I am of two minds when I read her story. Straight A student or not, as a parent, I would have gone to the school and taken her out of class myself in order to avoid embarrassment–and risk. We’re talking Secret Service here, not Joe Bozo security guard coming to your house asking to speak with your child. Julia’s mother shows her gumption in trying to put them off.
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