A week of rain brings out the best in travel and food bloggers -- why not beat the weather and take a trip or stay indoors to cook something nice? Ginevra Kirkland leverages the internets to take a vacation to Hawaii without leaving her desk, while Bay Area Bites looks to foodie blogs for culinary inspiration. Bacon Press takes in the almond blossom season in the Central Valley. Still, nothing better to chase the dreary weather blues away like a burrito. more ›

Sasha dishes the news about TechConnect -- RFP deadline went by without so much as a press conference. Big news is that Google and Earthlink have teamed up, and that Houston's recent WiFi RFP was made public (The City threatened to sue when theirs was leaked). Francisco De Costa claims a victory after the public forum on Bayview redevelopment. San Jose Inside's Single Gal takes a look at the six folks who want Ron Gonzalez' job. And Pepper offers some analysis on the reports that Herr Governator's rising in the polls again. more ›

This may seem hard to believe, but after all that fund raising and all that ass-kissing, and all those Stones concerts, as the new year dawns and his re-election mounts, Herr Governator's campaign is almost completely broke. As in having no money-- nada. As in having only slightly over $140,000 in hand, something which wouldn't even cover a political consultant's expensed lunch. Throw in all the outstanding fees he has and he's actually over $400,000 in debt. Expect his next big fund-raiser to be a potluck in his living room with one of his children DJing with their iPod. more ›

It's part of the Politician Rulebook that for Martin Luther King Day, the politician goes to find some civil rights type group, gives a speech in which they give a bunch of homilies in praise of the good Dr., says there's still a lot of work to do, then goes back to not doing anything to accomplish any of it. Which is what Herr Governator did this Martin Luther King Day: he gave a speech at a labor-sponsored Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast in San Francisco. It didn't go over very well more ›

With the economy getting better (we'll leave a discussion as to whether the economy is that good or not to others because we barely passed Macro Economics), it means more money for the state coffers. And with more money going to the state coffers, Herr Governator has more money to spend. So he made a decision as to what do to with it-- give it to the UC and CSU system so that schools don't have to raise fees this year. The schools were all set to raise fees by 8% for undergrads, 10% for grad students. more ›

Some people are sooo thin skinned. Like our Governor. A bunch of tree hugging Austrian hippies got all huffy because Arnie executed some dude and now the Governator is all pissed. On Monday, he faxed the Mayor of Graz (what? He couldn't get the Mayor's e-mail address?) and asked that his name be taken off a stadium that was named in his honor. He also asked that his name no longer be used in the promotion of Graz and returned his "Ring of Honor" that the city bestowed on him in 1999. About the ring, Arnie said in his fax: now that "official Graz appears to no longer accept me as one of their own, this ring has lost its meaning and value to me. It is already in the mail.” Oh, snap! more ›

Our Governor has often said that he's torn about capital punishment. He has, in fact, said that the debate inside of him is a duel between his "Austrian brain and the American brain." Well, as we all know, the American brain recently won out. And while the Republicans and the Law-and-Order types are happy, the Austrians are not amused. So not amused they're trying to protest his decision by getting the name of Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium changed. This after an attempt to get his Austrian citizenship revoked was shot down. more ›

Ian over at WULAD must have smoked some Ombuds before deconstructing some political graffiti. Dinah Sanders explains her votes in the election -- before a new TV campaign from Herr Governator can get to her. In a mood to protest, but not to get off the couch? The UK brings us two technologies to let folks tele-protest via SMS. more ›

The big story concerning Herr Governator is that according to a new poll, his ballot initiatives are actually winning right now. Is it due to all those super-expensive Hollywood style campaign stops he's been doing? The forcing of poor tired fire-fighting firefighters to be dragged out for photo-ops? Or is it the overwhelming popularity of his stand against freshness in school kid's lunches? Or maybe it's due to wonky polling? We don’t know. We do know that the recent poll numbers were so unusual that they haven’t been officially announced. Instead, they've merely been leaked to the internet. All we can say is that considering how lousy our "John Kerry Victory Party" was, we learned a long time ago not to trust polling numbers leaked onto the internet. more ›

When we last saw our favorite Republican bigwigs, Arnie and George, they were having a bit of a problem getting together. Twice, during the President's extended and ill-fated vacation, he visited our fair state and twice he did so without the presence of Herr Governator. The Governor was just too busy to hook up with the President and we totally can sympathize-- it's always hard to try and reconnect with old friends. Especially ones who have lower poll numbers than us. Anyways, both teams said there was nothing to see there and no big deal and nothing going on and that they'd love to toss a few non-alcoholic (or, as the rumors are saying, alcoholic) brewskis together. Then again, maybe not. more ›

Well, we're one step closer to being ahead of the curve on yet another issue here in California thanks to the efforts of State Senator Mark Leno, D - San Francisco. The farm bill that he gutted to expedite a vote on marriage equailty, AB 849, has passed, 21 to 15. Now it goes on to the full Assembly for concurrence. If passed there, it lands firmly on the 'moderate' lap of Herr Governator (who, funny, had to watch helplessly as the "Schwarzenegger Museum" in Austria was unceremoniously shut down recently). more ›

Schwarzenegger's approval ratings maybe dropping like a coked-out c-level starlet's weight (he’s polling worse than the President in the state) but that doesn't mean he's in big trouble if he decides to run for re-election next year. In fact, he's in fairly decent shape for the same reason Republicans are always in a fairly decent shape come election time, lame Democratic candidates. Right now, the two main contenders to try and take the governship, Steve Westly and Phil Angelides, have been drawing nothing but the big yawn from the collected mass of California voters. And yes it's way early and yes, neither of them have been out and about doing the baby-kissing thing. But both of them are, how shall we say it, charisma challenged and while that hasn't stopped people from winning the Governership before (see Davis, Gray), they never ran against somebody who took down an entire police station with nothing but a car and guns in a movie. So the big parlor game in certain circles is trying to come up with a better candidate to run against Herr Governator. more ›

Because there's so much going on with Herr Governator, we thought we'd need to turn it into a weekly feature. Yay? more ›

Hey, want to spend an evening with an aging former drug abuser watching four other aging former (?) drug abusers shake their wrinkled heines on stage? For $100,000 and the cost of some plane tickets, you can go see the Rolling Stones perform at Fenway Park in Boston with Herr Governator! We think it would be worth it to watch him dance to the Black Eyed Peas and maybe spark a 'special' cigar. It's all possible thanks to the benificence of Ameriquest, which is sponsoring the Stones' rolling around America on tour and funding Arnie's pet projects to the tune of $1.5 million. more ›