A dark cloud descended on San Diego today. And yes, it is true, the dark cloud always travels with an ambulance.

Fresh from fundraising for Doolittle (CA-04) and Pombo (CA-11), two of the worst and most corrupt representatives in congress, Dick Cheney flew down to San Diego to fundraise for former congressman-now-lobbyist Brian Bilbray. He chose the Harbor Island Sheraton, which is about 100ft from the airport (google satellite map), for maximum lack of exposure to the unwashed masses. Because the unwashed masses (all but the backwash 18% of them) have a message to send him that he doesn’t want to hear. We hate your war, we hate your incompetence and we hate your corruption. We hate what you’ve done to this country. We hate what you’ve done to this world. And by the way, if Brian Bilbray is a friend of Dick Cheney, Brian Bilbray is no friend of the citizens of CA-50. Ray Nanninga of the Coast News summed it up perfectly:

Dick Cheney is a lying piece of corporatist flesh.

Dick Cheney is all about oil and war, and wars for oil. Cheney wants to expand oil drilling along the California coast. …Dick Cheney represents the politics of oil extraction, partisan posturing and poisonous patriotism. Dick Cheney does not represent the best interests of California’s 50th District.

Dick Cheney represents Halliburton …

Dick Cheney wants you to vote for Brian Bilbray.

Cost of a photo w/Cheney at the luncheon fundraiser: $2100

Bilbray showing his true (anti-moderate) colors: priceless

Here are the pics (click to enlarge):

Hiding behind “The War is a Lie” is a great one “[STOP sign] the Lying / Spying / Dying”–that pretty much sums up this administration.




The “Illegal?” sign was quite a message. She held the sign over her tiny baby (in a snugli, you can just see his head). Bilbray has been one of the loudest voices in favor of elimintaing citizenship for babies born in the United States, if their parents are not here legally. Would just minutes-old infants be felons as well, under the new House bill? Sad.

That’s me and the mini-mes. The text on their shirt are the names of Iraqi children killed in airstrikes, that are roughly the same age and gender. I don’t blame the military–maybe I’m gulible but I do think they’ve been doing their darndest to prevent civilian casualties. No, the fault is with Bush, Cheney, Rumsfled, Wolfowitz, et al. There is no such thing as a war without civilian casualties. When you CHOOSE to go to war, you choose to kill children that somebody loves just as much as I love these cuties. Someone at the protest commented on their cuteness, saying “you have an embarrassment of riches.” It is true. But there are mothers in Iraq, and mothers here in the US, who are poor beyond words at the loss of their richest blessings.
 

Thanks to Iraq Body Count and their database of recorded civillian casualties in Iraq for the information.

Here is one of the T-shirt images:

The birth year is approximate based on the age given (2 yr old).

(cross-posted at dailykos)

[Originally posted at NorCal Politics by Cheryl on December 19, 2005]

The recent execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams at San Quentin prison has brought the death penalty issue home for all of us. Many in the CA State Assembly are on board with re-examining the death penalty process in our state, and a bill has come up for a vote to re-evaluate how capital punshiment is carried out here. The bill, Assembly Bill 1121, would institute a two-year moratorium on the death penalty in Caliornia, and many assemblymen in NorCal need to hear your thoughts on this issue before the bill comes up for vote in January 2006.

According to the San Mateo Daily Journal:

The statewide commission began meeting this fall to look at potential flaws throughout the process and has 24 months to complete a final report. However, much of the work has been overlooked by those who believe it will play a role in the future of the death penalty.

“The charge of the commission is to review the criminal justice system and determine if there are cases where people are wrongfully convicted. Many believe a reversal means it was a wrongful conviction but that’s not always the case,” [San Mateo County District Attorney Jim Fox] said.

Fox, who personally opposes the death penalty, feels that the bill is unnecessary. 

On the other side of the fence, Leland Yee, assembly speaker pro tem (D-San Francisco), supports the bill and believes, somewhat optimistically, that many inmates on Death Row have the capacity for rehabilitation. "We should hold them accountable and get them back to society, not simply warehouse them for the rest of their lives." 

Assemblyman Paul Koretz (D-West Hollywood), who co-authored the bill, says that with more than 600 inmates currently on death row in California, the bill looks to reduce the chance that a person who is innocent is executed.

"Basically, my concern about the death penalty is the accuracy of it more than anything else," Koretz said. "There is nothing more horrifying then the state committing what in essence is the murder of an innocent person."

Koretz said the bill works to exhaust every effort in making sure if someone is on death row that they are guilty of the crime they are accused of committing.

In the Bay Area, the following cities and counties have already passed moratorium resolutions:

• San Francisco county
• Santa Clara county
• Marin county
• Alameda county
• Salinas
• Palo Alto
• Menlo Park
• Oakland
• East Palo Alto
• Santa Cruz
• Sebastopol
• Berkeley

The bill comes up for vote in January. Not very many Assemblymen have given their opinon on the bill as of yet. Probably because of the holidays. Here’s your chance to make your voice heard on this issue. Write your state assemblyman today.

[Originally posted at NorCal Politics on January 30, 2006]

Today was a bad day in the United States Senate.  Nineteen Democratic Senators chose to surrender, rather than fight for their country.

Our Senators were not among them.  Both Senator Feinstein and Senator Boxer voted against ending debate on the confirmation of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court.

Please take a moment to thank both of them.  They made Californians proud today.

Contact information for Senator Boxer.

Contact information for Senator Feinstein.

[Originally posted at NorCal Politics on February 7, 2006]

I’ve had this Dan Walters column bookmarked for several days now.  It’s a discussion of AB 583, the clean money bill recently passed by the California Assembly, entirely without Republican support.  The bill itself is modeled after recent legislation in Arizona and Maine, and essentially allows candidates who raise a certain amount of small donations to then run their campaign with public financing.  The goal is to minimize the role of moneyed interests in California’s politics, which I believe is a worthy goal.

Continue reading [From NCP] Walters Scornful, Incoherent on Clean Money Bill →

In a quick follow-up to yesterday’s post on AB 583, the clean money campaign finance reform bill, I offer two items:

• This LA Times Op-Ed by George Skelton on AB 583.  Note in particular the last few grafs of the piece, in which he notes that the Republican opposition to public financing is basically the same as Dan Walters’ position.
• Were you aware that all three candidates for Governor are multi-millionaires?  I’m not saying that a multi-millionaire can’t represent working people well, but wouldn’t it be nice to make it easier for someone who wasn’t a multi-millionaire to run for office?

[Originally posted at NorCal Politics on February 9, 2006]

The Proposition 73 people are back:

Backers of a failed special election measure that would have forced doctors to notify parents or guardians before performing abortions on underage girls are circulating petitions to have Californians vote on nearly the same measure next November.

Like Proposition 73, the initiative would require a girl younger than 18 to wait 48 hours after a parent or legal guardian is notified of her intention to get an abortion. Secretary of State Bruce McPherson on Monday cleared supporters to begin gathering signatures.

The text of the initiative is not yet up at the Attorney General’s office.  We’ll watch for it and report back when we find it.  Money says it’s pretty much exactly the same as Proposition 73, probably even including the stealth language turning an embryo into a person in the California Constitution.

What is interesting is the “rationale” the anti-choice crowd is using to explain the failure of Proposition 73:

Albin Rhomberg, a spokesman for the Parents Right to Know and Child Protection initiative, said the special election wasn’t representative of the California electorate because unions and Democrats mobilized supporters to turn out against the four measures promoted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“The turnout was very high in the liberal areas of the state and surprisingly low in some of the more conservative areas,” Rhomberg said. “It would be foolish to not put it before the voters in a larger general election.”

Statewide turnout for the special election was 50 percent of California’s registered voters, higher than expectations.

I don’t buy this.  I think it was a deliberate strategy to put Prop. 73 on the ballot in an off year when the anti-choice crowd could get motivated and turn out.  It’s a real shame that the turnout was so high, and Proposition 73 was shot down.  Turns out the hope that Schwarzenegger and the anti-choice people had of piggybacking on each other’s issues backfired.  Too many people of the wrong sort voted on issues that affected them directly.  What a shame.

Progressives would do well to note the remarkable stubbornness of the anti-choice crowd though.  They just keep bashing away at the same wall, no matter how badly they lose, and every defeat is spun away, because it’s not possible that they’re actually wrong.