CAPITOL AREA PROGRESSIVES (CAP) - DEMOCRATIC CLUB OF ELK GROVE

Elk Grove Chili Cook Off, June 6 - Help CAP do Voter Registration!

Dick Cheney Forgets His Oath?

by LiberalViewer (Allen Asch)

Call for Action from the Hmong Community in Sacramento

Dear Friends,

Doctors without Borders has pulled out of Thailand leaving 5,000 Hmong hopeless, starving, dehydrated and ill.  Please spread the word to your families, friends, and neighbors and ask them to call the White House to pressure the Thai government to stop the humanitarian crisis, to stop the forced repatriation and resettlement of the Hmong to third countries.

Our Hmong familiies are in desperate need of help from the International Community. 

The calling campaign will start on Monday June 1 to Friday June 5, 2009.  Our goal is to deliver at least 500-1000 messages to the White House so they will pay attention to the crisis in Thailand.

Below (click on the link “read more") is the phone script and phone # to the White House. Also listed below (click on the link “read more") is the Press Release from Doctors Without Borders reaching out to the International Community for help for the Hmong in Thailand. Our fellow Hmong brothers and sisters deserve respect and dignity here and abroad.

Please help the Hmong community and their families who live in Thailand and Laos by calling the White House this week. Thank you for any help you can provide. It will be sincerely appreciated.

Pao Vang

GOP Wastes No Time In Embracing Frank Luntz’s Vapid ‘Patient-Doctor’ Health Care Rhetoric

Earlier this week, a memo written by right-wing message guru Frank Luntz was leaked instructing the Republican Party on how to frame the health care debate in order to defeat progressive reform. Since his pivotal role in helping craft Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America, Luntz has had an impressive record of cloaking regressive and conservative policies with carefully poll-tested language. For instance, Luntz is credited with persuading Republicans to use the intentionally misleading term “death tax” to describe the estate tax.

According to CQ, Republicans are enthusiastically embracing Luntz and his health care memo. At a private workshop organized by the House leadership, Luntz was welcomed with applause and cries of “Welcome home!” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) gushed, “We look to him for how do we express the things that we believe in ways that are effective.”

Luntz’s health care memo urges Republicans to denounce progressive reforms as ideas based upon a “committee of Washington bureaucrats.” The memo then calls for Republicans to strongly emphasize the “protection of the personalized doctor-patient relationship” because this approach allows Americans to believe that the GOP is doing something to “protect and improve something good“:

ThinkProgress compiled a video featuring Rep. Phil Gingrich (R-GA), Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX), Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) all embracing the vapid “patient-doctor” talking point in the past 48 hours. Watch it:

As the Wonk Room’s Igor Volsky details, Luntz’s strategy is to “obstruct health reform by ignoring what Obama is actually offering.” In all fairness, Luntz is very candid about his strategy of misdirection. Since Republicans currently have absolutely no plan for reforming health care, Luntz says to avoid projecting a policy plan and instead focus on language that “captures not just what Americans want to see but exactly what they want to hear.”

Indeed, Luntz also provides his polling and language advice to a plethora of health insurance companies.

NO SOCIALISM HERE!

REGULATION VACATION CELEBRATION!

Gov. Schwarzenegger Declares Swine Flu Emergency in California

abcnews.com 04/28/09
By ZOE MAGEE, LAUREN COX, KATE BARRETT and DAN CHILDS

Alarmed by the growing number of swine flu cases and the possibility that a California man may have died from the disease, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency today to help deal with the outbreak.

The swine flu virus outbreak spread to two more states and the total number of cases confirmed in the U.S. jumped to 69, health officials said. That figure is expected to keep rising.

“I do expect more cases and expect more states to be affected,” Rear Admiral Dr. Anne Schuchat, interim deputy director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s science and public health program, told a Senate hearing today. “I think we need to be prepared that even if it starts to look a little better, it may get a little worse.”

California has confirmed 13 cases of swine flu, and today it was investigating whether two deaths occurred as a result of the virus. According to Los Angeles County public health official Jonathan Fielding, one of the deaths has been discounted as resulting from swine flu, but the other is still being investigated. If this case is confirmed, it would be the first death in the U.S. attributed to the illness.

Richard Besser, acting director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, declined to comment on the California investigation, but said, “I fully expect we will see deaths from this infection.”

The Nutcase Michelle Bachmann is Back!

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/28/bachmann-flu-democrats/

Bachmann: It’s ‘interesting’ that the last swine flu outbreak also occurred under a ‘Democrat President’

During an interview with PajamasTV today, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) falsely claimed that the last swine flu outbreak occurred under “another Democrat President, Jimmy Carter.” Bachmann, however, insisted she was not trying to blame either man for the outbreaks:

BACHMANN: I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under Democrat President Jimmy Carter. And I’m not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it is an interesting coincidence.

The only problem is that the last U.S. outbreak of swine flu did not begin under Carter. Rather, it began in February of 1976, when Republican Gerald Ford was president.

CAPMEET - CAP’s General Membership Meeting - Thur Apr 23 6:30pm

Attention Convention Delegates Re Death Penalty Resolution

04/19/09

Dear Convention Delegate

Over the past 20 years, four or five resolutions have passed in favor of eliminating the death penalty in California. The normal progress of issues is from Resolutions, to Platform, to Legislative action. Nonetheless, this specific class of resolutions has consistently died after passage.

For many years we have tried to get opposition to the death penalty into the CDP platform, reflecting the stated position of a long string of conventions, but have been stymied at every turn.

I understand that there are those who still support the death penalty, but it is the opinion of many, including many law enforcement and legal professionals, that the punishment fails on all counts. It does not deter crime. As many relatives of victims oppose the death penalty as support it, putting in question the subject of “closure”, particularly when almost all discussion of :closure” is in terms of revenge. It costs the state and local governments millions of dollars a year that other remedies do not incur. To many it is morally repugnant to have the government kill anyone except as a last resort in defense of everyone.

A poll was taken at the 2007 convention which showed overwhelming support for abolition of the death penalty. A subsequent poll was taken by email to all delegates, which again showed support for abolition by a huge majority.

Most recently a resolution was presented at the November Eboard meeting, but due

Of Black Holes and Radio Silence

Monday 20 April 2009
by: Elizabeth de la Vega, t r u t h o u t
http://www.truthout.org/042009R

A former prosecutor examines the special prosecutor debate

There is no doubt that sometime in 2002 - if not before - Bush administration officials and their lawyers began orchestrating a torture campaign, which they calculatedly attempted to justify through specious legal memos. They continued to abuse prisoners, and to conceal that mistreatment from Congress and the public, through at least 2008. In all of this conduct, they have committed grave crimes for which they must be held accountable. I believe this to be a national imperative of the highest order. I have pored over every available book and report about torture, disturbing as they are, and I have read the lurid facts and twisted legal reasoning laid out in the Office of Legal Counsel torture memos just released by the White House. I am increasingly outraged by the day, disgusted by years of inaction, and impatient for results. Consequently, I would like nothing more than to join with so many friends and associates whom I respect in calling for immediate appointment of a special prosecutor.

Unfortunately, however, I can’t do it. Not yet. We must have a prosecution eventually, but we are not legally required to publicly initiate it now and we should not, as justifiable as it is. I’m not concerned about political fallout. What’s good or bad for either party has no legitimate place in this calculus. My sole consideration is litigation strategy: I want us to succeed. And our best hope of doing that is to unflinchingly assess - just as any lawyer would do when contemplating choices of action in a case - what we would have tomorrow if we got what we think we want today. We should obviously think twice about pursuing an intermediate goal, however satisfying it may appear, if it would be counterproductive in the long term. There are times when it’s smarter to wait before taking a prosecutive step and this is one of them. 

The Walled Garden: fading away at the CDP

By Brad Parker, April 2009, Officer of the Progressive Caucus
Endorsed by CAP
Candidate for Chair of the Progressive Caucus
California Democratic Party

Like Dorothy and her intrepid trio of lovable dreamers arriving at Oz, the Progressive Movement barreled into the Democratic Party in 2005 with high ideals and even higher hopes. Now, four scintillating years later we realize it was all a mirage of our own creation. The Party of the Left has been reduced to an incumbency business commandeered by Crony Corporate Pirates off the coast of reason and principles. With some notable exceptions like the 2008 CDP Platform, the Net Neutrality Resolution and the Out of Iraq Resolution our Party is fast becoming a dog and donkey show. The drawbridge is being pulled up and the leadership is retreating into a Walled Garden. The Democratic Party is risking irrelevancy as Decline To State registration increases. More and more it appears that, as Gertrude Stein once famously remarked about Oakland, California - there is no there, there. Or so it seems.

Today, our Progressive beachhead inside the Party feels more like washing up on the island in the TV show LOST. You can never tell who is on your side or what year it is. Winning the last two election cycles has only made matters worse. A crazy mad circus of ascendancy is consuming the body politic. In the center ring of the circus, the Blue Dogs are squared off against the Progs in an epic struggle for the soul of the Democratic Party. On the periphery Crony, grasping to maintain status quo hegemony, is manipulating as many ambitious pols as possible. Washington, Sacramento and your local City Hall have become closed systems operated more by lobbyists, consultants and big donors than citizens. The Party is hunkering down in arrogance and obstinacy, while the members clamor for a bigger piece of the pie. What then shall we do?

Bachmann Blasts Obama’s “Economic Marxism,” Calls For “Orderly Revolution” To Save Freedom

Talking Points Memo DC
By Eric Kleefeld - March 27, 2009

Wow. Just plain wow. This past Wednesday, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) appeared on Sean Hannity’s radio show, and sharply reiterated her calls for revolution in America, warning against the imminent dangers of tyranny under Barack Obama:

“We are headed down the lane of economic Marxism,” said Bachmann. “More quickly, Sean, than anyone could have possibly imagined. It’s difficult for us to even keep up with it day to day.”

And then came this:

At this point the American people - it’s like Thomas Jefferson said, a revolution every now and then is a good thing. We are at the point, Sean, of revolution. And by that, what I mean, an orderly revolution—where the people of this country wake up get up and make a decision that this is not going to happen on their watch. It won’t be our children and grandchildren that are in debt. It is we who are in debt, we who will be bankrupting this country, inside of ten years, if we don’t get a grip. And we can’t let the Democrats achieve their ends any longer.

“If Tim Geithner is successful under President Obama, and they move us to an international currency,” Bachmann warned, “Then we have no hope of standing on our own as a sovereign nation with our own economic system. It’s over. We can’t do that.”

Bachmann also declared: “Economics works equally in any country. Where freedom is tried, the people rejoice. But where tyranny is enforced upon the people, as Barack Obama is doing, the people suffer and mourn.”

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/03/bachmann-blasts-obamas-economic-marxism-calls-for-revolution-to-save-freedom.php

KY Election Officials Arrested, Charged With ‘Changing Votes at E-Voting Machines’

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7001
Posted By Brad Friedman On 19th March 2009

Circuit court judge, county clerk, and election officials among eight indicted for gaming elections in 2002, 2004, 2006

Used popular, unverifiable ES&S touch-screens to flip votes…

[Now updated at bottom with details from the indictments.]

Those of us who have demanded transparent voting systems because we understand that only the ability for complete citizen oversight and transparency can effectively counter those who would game elections, have been disingenuously criticized over the years as somehow questioning the integrity of the hard-working, honest election officials out there.

The fact is, those who know anything about computer security understand that it is the insiders who are, by far, the greatest threat to security on such systems, as even the phony, GOP-operative-created [1] Baker/Carter National Election Reform Commission determined [2] in its final report: “There is no reason to trust insiders in the election industry any more than in other industries.”

The best election officials in the country, however, will underscore that point, and agree that there is no reason any citizen should ever have to simply “trust” them.

Over the years, we’ve detailed the arrests and other unsavory behavior of many of the not-so-good election officials who, we were told, should simply have been trusted (our “favorite” has always been the case of Monterey CA’s Tony Anchundo [3], who told us on air we should “trust” him, just a month or two before being arrested on 43 counts).

Well, now we’ve got a whole passel of still more crooked officials to add to the list. Moreover: The Kentucky officials arrested and indicted today, “including the circuit court judge, the county clerk, and election officers” of Clay County, have been charged with “chang[ing] votes at the voting machine” and showing others how to do it!

Hello?!…

They Got the Wrong Guy - Why Congress’ confrontation with AIG’s CEO was a failure

http://www.slate.com/id/2214107/
By Daniel Gross, 03.18.09

Edward Liddy, chairmain and CEO of AIG The appearance by AIG CEO Edward Liddy before Congress on Wednesday was billed as an epic confrontation between the angry tribunes of a furious public and an arrogant Wall Street. Chris Matthews hyped it on MSNBC as “Watergate Redux.” But the actual hearing—Liddy’s appearance and questioning lasted barely longer than the two-hour preliminaries—was disappointing and misguided.

Watch Edward Liddy at a congressional hearing on AIG:

The proximate cause of the hearings was the revelation that AIG had paid $165 million in “retention businesses” to executives at AIG’s Financial Products division, the tiny unit whose reckless bets and issuance of insurance on financial products blew up the whole company. Liddy acknowledged that

Obama Treasury Department pushed to cut language restricting bonuses, senator says

http://rawstory.com//printstory.php?story=14878
03/19/2009 @ 8:50 am, by John Byrne

The Obama Administration’s Treasury Department pushed to strip language that would have restricted the bonuses paid to staffers of bailed-out companies from the stimulus bill, a Democratic senator revealed late Wednesday.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) disclosed that he was responsible for inserting a clause into the stimulus bill that allowed bailed-out firms to continue forward with eye-popping bonuses to executives that may have shared responsibility for some of the companies’ woes in the first place.

In a step further, though, he told CNN that the language was sought by the Obama Administration’s Treasury Department, which feared that the government would face lawsuits by including the provision.

A senior Treasury Department official purportedly confirmed Dodd’s assessment. It remains unclear whether the Treasury Department knew the insurance behemoth AIG planned to pay some $165 million in bonuses to employees at the time.

The Connecticut Democrat appears to have gotten caught on the spot by the cable news network. On Tuesday, he told the network that he had nothing to do with the bonus language—which now seems to have been a lie.

On Wednesday, a Treasury Department official confessed to CNN that the administration had pushed to have the bonus measure nixed, forcing Dodd’s hand.

With McClintock in D.C., why hire lobbyists? Another View

By Charlie Brown

Like many California counties facing huge budget shortfalls this year, the Plumas County Board of Supervisors recently decided, by a 3-2 vote, to spend $25,000 retaining the Ferguson Group to lobby for funds made available by the recently enacted $787 billion federal stimulus package.

In a spirited debate on whether a county that already implemented a 25 percent general fund cut, layoffs and furloughs, could afford to spend its limited resources on such an effort, newly elected Supervisor Lori Simpson — an opponent of the contract — asked, “Well, we have three representatives in Washington now … what are they doing for us, what do they get paid for?”

It’s a fair question. 

The Obama Code

By George Lakoff
Berkeley, CA. February 24, 2009.

As President Obama prepares to address a joint session of Congress, what can we expect to hear?

The pundits will stress the nuts-and-bolts policy issues: the banking system, education, energy, health care. But beyond policy, there will be a vision of America—a moral vision and a view of unity that the pundits often miss.

What they miss is the Obama Code. For the sake of unity, the President tends to express his moral vision indirectly. Like other self-aware and highly articulate speakers, he connects with his audience using what cognitive scientists call the “cognitive unconscious.” Speaking naturally, he lets his deepest ideas simply structure what he is saying. If you follow him, the deep ideas are communicated unconsciously and automatically. The Code is his most effective way to bring the country together around fundamental American values.

For supporters of the President, it is crucial to understand the Code in order to talk overtly about the old values our new president is communicating. It is necessary because tens of millions of Americans—both conservatives and progressives—don’t yet perceive the vital sea change that Obama is bringing about.

The word “code” can refer to a system of either communication or morality. President Obama has integrated the two. The Obama Code is both moral and linguistic at once. The President is using his enormous skills as a communicator to express a moral system. As he has said, budgets are moral documents. His economic program is tied to his moral system and is discussed in the Code, as are just about all of his other policies.

Behind the Obama Code are seven crucial intellectual moves that I believe are historically, practically, and cognitively appropriate, as well as politically astute. They are not all obvious, and jointly they may seem mysterious. That is why it is worth sorting them out one-by-one.

1. Values Over Programs

The first move is to distinguish programs from the value systems they represent. Every policy has a material aspect—the nuts and bolts of how it works— plus a typically implicit cognitive aspect that represents the values and ideas behind the nuts and bolts. The President knows the difference. He understands that those who see themselves as “progressive” or “conservative” all too often define those words in terms of programs rather than values. Even the programs championed by progressives may not fit what the President sees as the fundamental values of the country. He is seeking to align the programs of his administration with those values.

Capitol Area Progressives Endorses Brad Parker for Chair of the Progressive Caucus of the CDP

I ask for your vote for Chair of the Progressive Caucus and I thank you for your support

Brad Parker
Valley Democrats United, President
Progressive Caucus of the CDP, Officer at Large
Platform Committee of the CDP
DSCC, Delegate, 42nd AD
Progressive Democrats of America, Board of Trustees
A.F. of M. Local 47
riozen@riozen.com

Progressive Democrats,

Email, meetups and rabble-rousing speeches. Enewsletters, blogs, websites, listserves and labor rallies. PDA, DFA and MoveOn. CODEPINK, Wellstone Action! and the Courage Campaign. Like a phoenix from the ashes of the Liberal ideal we rose, just four short years ago. We are the resurrection of the Spirit of 76’. We are the flame of liberal thought burning down the neo-con, neo-liberal, DLC Blue Dog, stand for nothing house. We are the Progressive Movement. We are the Progressive Swarm. We come to every Democrat with the Progressive Plan in our left hand and with our right hand open, extended in inclusion and dialogue. We are the circle that draws everyone in. The Progressive Caucus is our home in the California Democratic Party.

I have worked with many of you over the last four years on issues of importance to Progressives across the country. It has been a pleasure to serve the membership as an officer of the caucus. In fact, it has been lightning in a bottle. We have had some successes like the Net Neutrality resolution that I brought forward in 2007. Collaborating with Labor Chair, Jim Gordon, we produced an unprecedented victory for all of America on this essential issue. After that I chaired and co-wrote the Internet plank of the CDP platform with Dante Atkins. I worked with our Co-Chair Jo Olson and our Vice Chair Ahjamu Makalani on the “Immigration Town Hall”. Once again, our caucus blazed a new trail in the CDP by organizing a multi-caucus event on a critical social issue.

The proposal that I worked on the hardest and am most proud of is the, “Progressive Plan” (http://www.progressivecaucuscdp.org). I co-authored this blueprint for Progressive organizing, strategizing and energizing with Ahjamu Makalani. We also received valuable editing from our fellow officers - Jo Olson, Joye Swan, Dotty LeMieux and Mayme Hubert. Not only does the analysis of the CDP and Democratic Party political infrastructure, found in the plan, still hold true today but also our proposals for change have been fundamental in building our Progressive movement in California and across the nation.

Because I believe that I have the vision and a plan to represent you faithfully and forcefully over the next two years - I am a candidate for Chair of the Progressive Caucus. Over the next few weeks I am going to share with you my plan for our next Progressive Caucus agenda. In this article I want to share my core policy initiatives. I look forward to your collaboration on all of these proposals.

PROGRESSIVE POLICY

My principal issues objective, as Chair, would be to build on our original platform and the policy initiatives it embraced. That platform changed our state Party, the national Party and the political dialogue in America. Even with the invigoration it provided for all Americans, its goals remain to be achieved:

– Out of Iraq
- Immediate withdrawal and renunciation of preemptive war
– Universal Healthcare
- Single-payer healthcare for all Americans
– Election Integrity
- Election Protection (count every vote as cast)
- Clean Money (public financing of campaigns)
– Poverty
- Eliminate its causes
- Alleviate its affects

PROGRESSIVE GRID

Progressives have pioneered the use of the Internet and its micro-media communications in the 21st Century. Progressives use the modern technology of the Internet to organize in a new way and yes - we do get people elected. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. In the coming years, we need to up the ante of our technological innovation. What we need to do now is project our liberal ideals across the Party and the nation by building a Progressive Grid.

I propose to you that we build a network of networks, linking the local Progressive clubs, statewide activists, the AD groups and individual members from around the 58 California counties with the Progressive Caucus. We should then link the Caucus to national organizations and build out through the states across the nation. Most importantly, we must actively help to create a Progressive Caucus in each of the 50 state Parties and add them to the grid.

With a Progressive Grid, a Smart Grid, we can focus Progressives, from local to state to national, to wherever the most activism is needed. In essence, we will create an inter-connected communications wheel with the Progressive Caucus at the hub - a multi-directional democratization of information. The Internet not only makes this possible but achievable through the social networking software already available.

PROGRESSIVE ECONOMICS

Crafting initiatives of sound Progressive economic policy should be an integral part of the work of the next Progressive Caucus.

The economic theories of the last thirty years of unbridled greed have collapsed. We must demand that the DLC Blue Dog practices of compromising the needs of the people to Crony corporate protocols of narrow self-interest must give way to enlightened self-interest. America needs a complete reexamination of the entire monetary and fiscal policy apparatus as well as a more local, sustainable, renewable and humane ethic for all businesses, going forward.

Progressive economics is the best long-term design for creating prosperity and opportunity for all. To that end, I have been writing and collaborating on the problem and the solution. You can find my essay, “Who’s Minding The Store?” at: http://www.riozen.com/salon2.html. In it, I explore the social aspects of the new economic realities. Then please read, “Progressive Economic Principles Essay” at: http://www.economicsfordemocrats.com. I co-wrote that article with Mark Pash. In it, Mark shares his vision for creating a quality economy through Progressive economics.

further…

Attention Delegates! - VOTE FOR HILARY CROSBY FOR CONTROLLER OF CA STATE DEM PARTY

OUR SEAT AT THE TABLE FOR CRITICAL PARTY DECISIONS

As Party Controller, Hilary Crosby will be our seat at the table to make sure our grassroots voices are heard and our knowledge and experience are factored into critical decisions. Successful Party fundraising and implementation of the 58-County Plan will depend on both sound financial management and on a strong partnership between the Party and its grassroots. Hilary is the candidate with the right finance skills and perspective to strengthen and build the California Democratic Party.

GRASSROOTS ACTIVIST

President, El Cerrito Democratic Club

Member, Contra Costa County Democratic Party Central Committee

Treasurer, West Contra Costa County United Democratic Campaign

Assistant Treasurer, Take Back Red California

PROFESSIONAL FINANCIAL SKILLS

Bookkeeper for the ACLU of Northern California

Controller for HERE Union Local #2

Treasurer and auditor of local PTA

Professor of nonprofit management for the University of San Francisco Nonprofit Management Masters degree program

CPA, Partner in woman and minority owned accounting firm for 15 years for nonprofit organizations: education, health policy, environmental justice, media, the arts, social justice, access for all and law

Served on fundraising committees for organizations and political campaigns. Meaningful financial information bolsters fundraising.

INDIVIDUAL DONOR PLAN

Expand CDP fundraising base with aggressive Individual Donor Program. The CDP currently raises less than 8% of revenues from individual donors, yet California Democrats donate millions for political aims. The CDP needs to make the case to its voters as potential donors.

Tie fundraising to specific goals: 58 County Plan, help Democratic office holders fight back against Republican dirty tricks, support Democrats running to unseat Republicans, support Democrats running for non-partisan office. Fill the pipeline.

Form a training/collaborative network for DCC and Dem Club treasures to manage ramped up local fundraising.

_______________

Hilary Crosby

Hilary Crosby will bring decades of professional experience to the Democratic State Party Controller’s office — helping to create a stronger, more accountable, and more responsive party. Over the years, our Council has experienced Hilary’s selfless hard work in action, especially in support of grassroots activists around northern California. We applaud her commitment to better training for treasurers so Central Committees are more empowered. The Take Back Red California (TBRC) Council strongly supports Hilary Crosby for Democratic State Party Controller.

- Take Back Red California (TBRC) Council

_______________

Congressman Bob Filner Endorses Hilary Crosby for CDP Controller

Dear CA Democratic Delegates,

I am endorsing Hilary Crosby for CA Democratic Party Controller because we, as a state party, especially during these trying times, have a great opportunity to put a real professional and grass roots activist at the helm of our financial organization.

She has a great resume as a CPA with a California based accounting firm that specializes in non-profits for the last 13 years. Her website says she works exclusively with non profit organizations and with their boards, finance staffs, and finance committees. Most organizations are active in environmental justice, labor, faith, the arts, and community organizing. How fortunate to have Hilary, who takes a financial leadership role every day with her clients, willing to do that for our State Party!

She’s also a lifetime, dedicated, Democratic activist with sensational ideas about fundraising, accountability, responsiveness and truly fueling our 58 county strategy. This includes creating a network of mentors amongst county and club treasurers.

Vote Hilary Crosby, a Certified Public Accountant and a Grass Roots Activist, for California Democratic Party Controller.

Take it from me,

Congressman Bob Filner, CA 51
Chairman, Veterans’Affairs Committee

Rove may be forced to testify as Obama’s lawyers get involved

rawstory.com
John Byrne, 02.14.09

Bush proxies now negotiating with new administration

White House counsel Gregory Craig issued a statement late Friday encouraging former Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove to cut a deal with Congress, an indication the new administration has begun to put pressure on President George W. Bush’s former chief adviser.

“The president is very sympathetic to those who want to find out what happened,” Obama’s White House counsel Gregory Craig said in a statement yesterday to The Washington Post’s Carrie Johnson. “But he is also mindful as president of the United States not to do anything that would undermine or weaken the institution of the presidency. So, for that reason, he is urging both sides of this to settle.”

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Bushs_lawyer_now_encouraging_Rove_to_0214.html

Documentary - Tribute: Stanley Tookie Williams, 1953-2005

February 13, 2009

Sacramento State University
Union - Hinde Auditorium

Movie Short @ 6:45 p.m.
Event Feature: 7:00 p.m.

Followed with discussion [Q&A] led by Barbara Becnel
8:40 p.m. clear the auditorium

Tribute: Stanley Tookie Williams, 1953-2005
Produced by: Barbara Becnel, Shirley Neal 2008

This 66-minute film--TRIBUTE: Stanley Tookie Williams, 1953-2005--is a powerful documentary that examines death row prisoner, Crips gang co-founder, children’s book author and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Stanley Tookie Williams. The international campaign for clemency to save him from death by lethal injection ended on December 13, 2005, at 12:35 a.m., when he was pronounced dead after clemency was denied by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

TRIBUTE includes scenes from a staged reenactment of that execution. The reenactment--as well as TRIBUTE--were produced and directed by writer Barbara Becnel and producer Shirley Neal, longtime friends of Stanley Tookie Williams. It was based on their real-life experience at San Quentin’s death chamber witnessing his botched execution--it took him 35 minutes to die. The two women filmed the staged reenactment, enabling TRIBUTE to offer a very intimate view of capital punishment. ‘We created and staged a play that replicated the execution because we wanted people to see exactly what the State of California does in the middle of the night in the name of the people of the State of California,’ explains Barbara Becnel.

TRIBUTE includes provocative eulogies by Snoop Dogg, Tony Robbins and Louis Farrakhan--speaking at the memorial service of Stanley Tookie Williams--and never-before-seen footage of his ashes scattered by Becnel and Neal in Soweto, South Africa. This was his last wish.

http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/stanley_tookie_williams_1953_2005/local/Calendar?oid=900113&preview=1

Sponsors:

Stanley Tookie Williams Foundation
Sacramento Progressive Alliance
CAP Capitol Area Progressives
DPF Death Penalty Focus - Sacramento
CEDP Campaign to End the Death Penalty - Bay Area
AI Amnesty International - California
California People of Faith
Green Party of Sacramento
Justice Reform Coalition
ACLU Sacramento

AUSTRALIAN WILDFIRES RAGE: Nearly 100 Killed, Entire Towns Destroyed

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/08/84-killed-in-deadliesteve_n_164975.html

A fire truck moves away from out of control flames from a bushfire in the Bunyip Sate Forest near the township of Tonimbuk, 125 kilometers (78 miles) west of Melbourne, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2009. Walls of flame roared across southeastern Australia, razing scores of homes, forests and farmland in the sunburned country’s worst wildfire disaster in a quarter century. (AP Photo)

HEALESVILLE, Australia — Entire towns have been seared off the map by wildfires raging through southeastern Australia, burning people in their homes and cars and raising the death toll to 84 on Sunday in the deadliest blaze in the country’s history.

Searing temperatures and wind blasts created a firestorm that swept across a swath of the country’s Victoria state, where at least 700 homes were destroyed and all of the victims died. More victims were expected to be found, officials said.

“Hell in all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria,” Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said. “It’s an appalling tragedy for the nation.”

The skies rained ash and trees exploded in the inferno, witnesses said, as temperatures of up 117 F (47 C) combined with blasting winds to create furnace-like conditions.

The town of Marysville and several hamlets in the Kinglake district, both about 50 miles (100 kilometers) north of Melbourne, were utterly devastated.

At Marysville, a winter tourism town that was home to about 800 people, up to 90 percent of buildings were in ruins, witnesses said. Police said two people died there.

“Marysville is no more,” Senior Constable Brian Cross told the AP as he manned a checkpoint Sunday on a road leading into the town.

At least 18 of the deaths were from the Kinglake area, where residents said the fire hit with barely any notice.

To donate to the Red Cross State Government Victorian Bushfire Appeal Fund:
* Visit http://www.redcross.org.au
* Phone 1800 811 700
International callers seeking information about family and friends should call 0011 61 3 5332 5015 or 0011 61 3 8327 7814

We’re All Neocons to This Day

http://welcomebacktopottersville.blogspot.com/2009/02/wee-all-neocons-to-this-day.html

Remember back in the good ole halcyon days when the whole world, including Iraq, was our oyster and America, to paraphrase Chuck Krauthammer, bestrode the world like a colossus arrogantly dangling its unilateral genitalia over that oyster of a world?

Judith Miller notwithstanding, the American mainstream media, while it didn’t exactly lie us into Iraq, nonetheless acted like a gigantic cheerleading squad repeating everything ever uttered by Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rice, Rumsfeld, Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan as if they were the fifth gospel of Jesus fucking Christ. “Gimme a Dubya!” “W!” “Gimme an A!” “A!” “Gimme an R!” “R!” “What’s that spell?” “P-E-A-C-E!”

Note that all these pronouncements of early victory came before George W. Bush’s famous goony bird landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003 to announce the end of major military operations in Iraq. Note, also, that not all of these blowhards are of the odious ilk of Krauthammer, Judith Miller or Bill O’Reilly and the other fortune cookie prognosticators at Fox “News” but the “liberal” NY Times, the LA Times, NPR and Fox’s token liberal, Alan Colmes.

“Iraq Is All but Won; Now What?” (Los Angeles Times headline, 4/10/03)

“Congress returns to Washington this week to a world very different from the one members left two weeks ago. The war in Iraq is essentially over and domestic issues are regaining attention.” (NPR’s Bob Edwards, 4/28/03)

Eliminate Filibuster and With it the Need to Debate Republicans

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/39624
By David Swanson, 02.08.09

From the pains Democrats take to out-argue and/or to compromise with the fringe minority party called the Republicans you’d think no other course of action was available, specifically you’d have to assume that the filibuster—the power of senators representing 11 percent of us to block all work by the House and Senate—is written in stone. In reality, 51 senators could eliminate the filibuster or change the number of votes required to use it. This nation got along for many years without the filibuster and could do so again. It is no more a part of our Constitution than the CIA, enemy combatants, corporate persons, or the political parties that allow the filibuster to wreak such havoc with our so-called democracy.

For the most part we no longer have representatives in Congress, because of the corruption of money, the weakness of the media, and the strength of parties. There are not 535 opinions on Capitol Hill on truly important matters, but 2. Our supposed representatives work for their party leaders, not for us. Luckily, one of the two parties claims to want to work for us.

When the Democrats were in the minority and out of the White House, they told us they wanted to work for us but needed to be in the majority. So, in 2006, we put them there. Then they told us that they really wished they could work for us but they needed bigger majorities and the White House. So, in 2008, we gave them those things, and largely deprived them of two key excuses for inaction. We took away the veto excuse and came very close to taking away the filibuster excuse, and—in fact—the filibuster excuse could be taken away completely if the Democrats didn’t want to keep it around.

This is not to say that either excuse was ever sensible. The two most important things the 110th Congress refused to do (ceasing to fund illegal wars, and impeaching war criminals) did not require passing legislation, so filibusters and vetoes were not relevant. But the Democrats in Congress, and the Republicans, and the media, and the White House all pretended that wars could only be ended by legislation, so the excuses for not passing legislation loomed large. The veto excuse is now gone. The filibuster excuse could be gone this week if Senator Harry Reid wanted it gone, or if President Obama appointed a Republican senator from a state with a Democratic governor to a cabinet position without allowing a corrupt deal on the senator’s replacement, or if the House and Senate were to give Washington D.C. voting representation.

The filibuster excuse works like this. Any 41 senators can vote No on “cloture”, that is on bringing a bill to a vote, and that bill will never come to a vote, and anything the House of Representatives has done won’t matter. Plus any of the other 59 senators, the 435 House members, the president, the vice president, television pundits, and newspaper reporters can blame the threat of filibuster for anything they fail to do.

Supporters Of $1.3Tril Bush Tax Cuts In ‘01 Now Call $900B Recovery Plan ‘Too Much’

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/02/07/recovery-v-bush-tax-cuts/

As the senate version of the economic recovery package makes its way through Congress, a significant (though misguided) criticism of the package from Senate Republicans is that it is “too big.” For example, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) claimed, “from the very first moment of this debate, there’s been strong bipartisan agreement on one thing: the original version of this bill was too big.”

Similarly, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) lamented, “[T]his bill spends far too much,” while Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) said, “It’s very wasteful…if you throw in the interest it’s about $1.3 trillion.” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) called passing such a large package this week “just unthinkable.” Watch a compilation of these and other complaints about the size of the package:

RNC chair denies fraud charges: ‘It’s all false’

John Byrne and David Edwards
Sunday February 8, 2009

A U.S. Attorney’s office “erroneously” sent a confidential court document to The Washington Post after the Post requested a different file, exposing that the newly-elected chairman of the Republican National Committee had his 2006 Senate campaign pay his sister’s defunct company for services that were potentially never performed—including $37,000 for “catering/web services” paid to her company 11 months after she filed to have it dissolved.

Federal agents have contacted Steele’s sister, the chairman’s spokesman told the paper. Former Steele campaign finance director Alan Fabian offered the information to the US Attorney’s office as part of attempt to seek leniency for himself in another case.

Wikileaks publishes a billion dollars of semi-secret reports

RawStory.com
02/08/2009

The whistleblower site Wikileaks has released more than a billion dollars of Congressional Research Service Reports, semi-secret reports that are prepared for Congress and not classified but not deliberately circulated to the public.

The publication of the reports online marks a new day for public transparency in government.

Many of the reports had been made available by blogs like Secrecy News, which regularly posts Congressional Research Service reports, but their publication has never been so extensive.

You can view the chronological listing of reports here http://www.wikileaks.com/wiki/CRS_reports_by_date and the alphabetical listing of reports here http://www.wikileaks.com/wiki/Category:Congressional_Research_Service .

Wikileaks has released nearly a billion dollars worth of quasi-secret reports commissioned by the United States Congress.

Red to Blue Dinner at the Democratic Party State Convention - Take Back Red California