( – promoted by SFBrianCL)
Lockyer has obtained a warrant, and Department of Justice agents are now searching Tan Nguyen’s campaign office.
I’ve got photos on the website, click here.
The press conference has now been canceled.
Daily Archives: October 20, 2006
Robin Swanson Derides Netroots
(She’s the Mike McCurry of California. – promoted by SFBrianCL)
From the San Jose Mercury News:
Swanson derided supporters’ glee over the Internet wave washing over the ad.
“Sixteen thousand hits? That’s a drop in the bucket compared to the 4 to 5 million people they’ll need to convince,” Swanson said. “Everyone heralded the netroots as the next great thing, and you saw it propel Howard Dean initially. But when it came to translating it to votes, it didn’t happen.”
The irony is that this story is about an ad from Bill Hillsman and talks about the Lamont campaign, which translated enough votes to win, beating a sitting US Senator.
It really isn’t surprising that Swanson, who is the shill for big insurance and big oil, would bash the netroots.
However, the idea of integrating youtube into campaigns to get exposure is something that is going far beyond politics.
For example, tonight on PBS, Bill Moyers is devoting Now to the topic of public financing of elections. So PBS put a preview on youtube.
The TV insider publication Broadcasting and Cable took notice:
PBS is getting serious about getting more bang for it promotional buck–or make that no buck–via the Internet.
It has set up a “directors account” on YouTube–allowing for longer clips and some other perks–and begun showcasing promos, with a link to the PBS homepage and the show’s site.
PBS President Paula Kerger has said from the get-go that the noncom service needed to be on the cutting edge of getting its programming to where the eyeballs are, and CPB President Patricia Harrison said just this week that programmers “can no longer broadcast to an audience where you last saw them.”
The PBS clips–14 of them so far–include tune-in information, like “check your local listings.” Kevin Dando, director of education and online communication, for PBS, says it is helping to promote the shows to a huge audience–100 million views a day to all of YouTube. And you can’t beat the price of the screen time: free.
“It’s a great way to get in front of a broad variety of audiences,” Dando says. He points out that the clip promoting a NOW program on “clean elections” is now among the top-50 most viewed recent video posts to the site with 13,600 views to date.
“It’s where the market is headed,” he says.
To increase the chances of getting noticed, PBS loads the clip with tags so that it will come up on a variety of searches–for the NOW show, the tags were “NOW,” “PBS,” “votes,””sale campaigns,” “democracy,” “clean elections,” “election,” “proposition 89,” “vote voting.”
Indeed, it is where the market is headed. Which makes Robin Swanson look extremely out of touch when she bashes us.
The Merc News story quoting Swanson also had some other quotes, from people who actually understand politics:
“I don’t know if we’ll pull this off,” said Bill Hillsman, who created the ad and is the media consultant for Connecticut senatorial candidate Ned Lamont’s insurgent campaign against Sen. Joe Lieberman, “but if the spot goes out enough, people will say this is how I feel, and if for no other reason but this, I’ll go out and vote.”
Joe Trippi, the San Jose State University graduate who helped revolutionize the convergence of politics and the Internet as former presidential candidate Howard Dean’s campaign manager in 2004, said the ad “really captures” the mood of the voter.
“It’s the perfect spot,” said Trippi, a consultant to the Proposition 89 campaign. “It helps create the echo chamber between the Internet and TV that it will need to make that big move. This is getting moved around pretty virally right now.” […]
“We’ve learned from working with underdog and insurgency campaigns that if you do an ad that people are watching (on the Internet),” Hillsman said, “you get a multiplier effect that makes it three to five times worth the amount you paid for it.”
Hillsman’s ad campaign for Lamont was the first political effort to tap into the YouTube phenomenon. YouTube, which was recently acquired by Google, is one of the largest and fastest-growing free video sharing Web sites.
If you haven’t yet, check out the ad and use our tools to email it to your friends.
And check out the youtube promo for tonight’s PBS special on public financing (which I recommend watching).
guv losing votes over global warming law re-write
OK, well maybe it’s not a whole hell of a lot of votes yet, but check out Thursday’s SF Chronicle story, “CAMPAIGN 2006: Governor’s Race: Mark Leno rescues one Berkeley Dem’s vote for Angelides.”
and please note, despite the headline, the truth is the calls from SF Assemblyman Leno started giving Berkeley voter Mary Canavan “second thoughts” about voting for Schwarzenegger, sure, but it wasn’t until she read Mark Martin’s Chronicle story, “Núñez slams governor on emission law,” that she tipped to Angelides. Martin’s Tuesday story reported that Scharzenegger was to sign an executive order that day to re-write the global warming law he’d signed this summer to such international fanfare.
As Mary Canavan said:
“That was a page right out of the Bush playbook,” she said. “I realized that I might not be getting who I thought I was getting.”
Thank you Mary!
And here in my Daily Kos diary, “Schwarzenegger uses “executive order” to rewrite global warming law,” we’ve got one Democratic Schwarzenegger voter vowing he’ll now vote for Angelides, plus a couple more potentials.
So, it seems to me that the more on-the-fence Democrats find out about this executive power grab belying Schwarzenegger’s “green” and “bipartisan” masks — the more they’ll decide to go with Angelides instead.
here’s the Martin story, for those who haven’t seen it. It’s got an apparently angry Nunez saying:
“You can’t rewrite a law through executive order…. This is totally inconsistent with the intent of the law and with the way that it is written.”
here’s the lead here:
Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez and some environmental groups charged Monday that an executive order Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to sign today undermines an agreement the governor struck with Democrats on the state’s landmark global warming law.
Schwarzenegger will sign an order giving the secretary of the Environmental Protection Agency the duty of overseeing parts of the law’s implementation and emphasizes the development of a new market allowing companies to buy and sell greenhouse gas emissions credits.
Núñez said that the executive order gives more power to the executive branch than the law calls for and that the governor’s emphasis on a market-based approach to lowering greenhouse gas emissions ignored other aspects of the law. He suggested the governor was reinterpreting the law based on proposals he had suggested to lawmakers during negotiations over the legislation this year but that had been rejected by the Legislature.
And I also believe that if voters understood that the same corporate PR and White House “power team” that sold the country Bush and his Big Lies in 2004 is using the same techniques and strategies to sell the “repositioned” Schwarzenegger to Californians this time around — they’d start worrying that a vote for Schwarzenegger might well bring on the same kind of “buyer’s remorse” that plenty of Bush voters are feeling right now.
hopefully voters will understand this before the election! Let’s hope the Angelides campaign is pounding on this.
I’ll also post a link to an interesting Sacramento Bee story today, “In skilled political hands, Schwarzenegger campaign hums: Two key GOP operatives credited for reversing governor’s political fortunes.” Although with a far different take than my diary, the story is getting some of the same information out and definitely confirms what I believe about CA guv 2006 being a trial run for GOP Prez in 2008 — as far as “repositioned” GOP candidates and strategies go — because “repositioning” is clearly what the GOP needs.
As the Bee story reports:
But in Washington, potential candidates for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination have noticed the work [Schwarzenegger’s team has] done.
While Dowd is reportedly not interested in running another national campaign, Schmidt has emerged as one of the hottest young political consultants in the business and is drawing interest from several presidential contenders.
“They’d be crazy not to hire him,” said Ed Gillespie, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, who has worked with Schmidt and Dowd.
Time to remind our CA friends and relations who Scharzenegger really is, and who he’s beholden to! Thursday’s Chronicle story is an easy one to send around to friends who aren’t such political junkies. It’s kind of a human interest type story, not too wonky, but definitely gets the point across.
and here’s the Angelides website, just in case anybody needs it.
Don’t forget Howard Dean (Oct. 26, UCLA) and Barack Obama (Oct 27, USC) will be in California next week campaigning for Angelides. Can we get Al Gore back out here to give a spotlight to Schwarzenegger’s sneaky global warming move?
Brandt respons to Voter Intimidation Letter
This is an outside submission that Calitics recieved, it is A press release from Jim Brandt
JIM BRANDT RESPONDS TO VOTER INTIMIDATION EFFORT IN 47TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
Huntington Beach, Calif., Oct. 19, 2006—Jim Brandt, Democratic candidate for the 46th Congressional District, expressed disappointment today after reports that the Republican candidate in the 47th Congressional District race was allegedly involved in a voter intimidation effort. As the Los Angeles Times and Orange County Register reported, more than 14,000 voters with Hispanic last names received a letter in English and Spanish saying that immigrants cannot vote. The Spanish version actually says, “You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time.” This assertion is false. Immigrants who are naturalized citizens can vote. The letter further tried to intimidate legal voters by alleging that “the state has developed a tracking system that will allow the names of Latino voters to be handed over to anti-immigrant groups.” This is patently false.
This disgusting letter is an obvious and reprehensible attempt to suppress the vote among legal, naturalized Hispanic citizens.
“I join the Democratic Party of Orange County and its Chair, Frank Barbaro, and Vice Chair, Rima Nashashibi, in calling for the withdrawal of Republican candidate Tan Nguyen from the race in the 47th Congressional District if he or anyone with his campaign is involved in this despicable act,” said Jim Brandt. “All voters in the 47th District deserve respect. This letter clearly demonstrates a basic lack of respect for voters and for the democratic process.”
Brandt continued, “This incident proves the importance of the renewal of the Voting Rights Act. This critical legislation protects all voters’ right to vote. The historic benefit of bringing more Americans into the political process and protecting them from that right being denied is immeasurable, so I was disappointed in Rep. Rohrabacher’s vote against renewal.”
“Rep. Rohrabacher must make a statement about this incident. I also call on him to join his fellow Republicans in calling for Republican Nguyen’s withdrawal from the race in the 47th Congressional District.”
Odds and Ends 10/20/06
I’ve been putting all the Odds, and all the Ends, in the extended. But this one, this one, gets front page treatment: The Sacramento Bee has endorsed Jerry McNerney:
If you prefer the politics of extremes; if you’re OK with selling off national parks; if backroom deal-making and tainted money suit you; if you embrace out-of-balance budgets and the concentration of wealth — Pombo’s your man. But he is no longer representing the true interests of his district, state or nation. That’s ample reason for voters to send Jerry McNerney to Congress.
The Bee becomes just the latest in a string of endorsements of McNerney and fellow Dem Charlie Brown. Now, let’st get to the teasers of the stuff over the flip: Schwarzenegger drops another $3.5 mil, Garamendi cleared, Pooch’s frivilous lawsuit, Dick Mountjoy being…Dick Mountjoy, and more…
Jerry Lewis fires investigators…that were investigating him
The Congressional Quarterly (sub. req.) (via TPM Muckraker) is reporting that Jerry Lewis, the Chairman of the House Appropriations Cmte (for now) has fired almos all of the Cmte’s investigators. It seems that they were doing too good of a job. You know, and actually investigating…him.
House Appropriations chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) is under federal investigation for possible improprieties in how he oversaw Congress’ spending of $900 billion annually. Yesterday, we reported that Lewis had dropped nearly $800,000 in legal fees to defend himself against the probe.
This evening, Congressional Quarterly reports (sub. req.) that in a round of calls Monday evening, Lewis fired 60 investigators who had worked for his committee rooting out fraud, waste and abuse, effective immediately. As in, don’t bother coming in on Tuesday.
Unfortunately, we do not have a serious challenger for that seat. We will not make that mistake again when 2008 rolls around.
Booze for Votes in Berkeley
I (Brian) will be using this for submissions that I receive over the series of tubes. I was sent an Internet with the following story. I have not edited it in any way. I have not confirmed this story, so make of it what you will.
Subject: Options for Recovery Board Member protested by students for buying student votes with free booze at Blakes on Telegraph 7-10 pm October 18 2006
Options for Recovery Board Member George Beier did not fool many students last night with his attempts to buy student votes with booze. Parents, students, and neighbors protested Beiers free alchohol for votes outside of Blakes on Telegraph last night.
Across town at the UCB campus, candidate Beier ducked out of the ASUC candidate debate midpoint before students could ask him hard hitting questions, leaving ten year incumbent Berkley City Councilman Kriss Worthington alone to talk to students about their concerns.
UCB police and Berkeley Police have just been given money by the State of Calfornia to combat the serious alcohol related problems on and near the UCB campus.
Beier’s judgment may be flawed if he thinks that a member of the Board of Directors of Options for Recovery should give free booze to UCB students to buy their votes.
Options should take a serious look at how Beier has used being on the board of Options on his candidate statement online to show how he understands Berkeley alcohol and drug problems, then in a hypocritical move gives free beer to students to buy their votes. His myspace.com/votegeorge website shows him with a wall of hooka marijuana pipes behind him in one photo. What messages about drug and alchohol use is this candidate sending our youth as his website completely pinpoints UCB students as his voter targets. UCB students in photos used to supposedly show support for the candidate -on the candidates website- are angered that their photographs are used without their knowledge or permission.
Does Options for Recovery need to be used to further the political ambitions of a candidate?
Do the parents who have such high hopes for their children want to have a candidate pushing free booze on their children to further his political ambitions and push the agenda of big money interests?
Is there a California State Law, regarding Privacy Rights of Minors, preventing photographs of minors be made public without consent? Is this under the Welfare Code Child Abuse statutes?
Who gave candidate Beiers campaign money to buy booze for UCB students to buy their votes?
Respectfully,
Patty Pink (mother of students attending college in Berkeley)
Pombo strikes back! and DHS renews hookergate limo contract
This diary is really two short diaries combined into one. First, Pombo is a sore loser. Below the fold, why would DHS renew the contract with the limo company implicated in the Duke Cunningham scandal?
SallyCat on dkos pointed me to this letter to the editor from Pombo to the SF Chronicle, re: Chronicle endorsing McNerney:
I did not expect to receive the San Francisco Chronicle’s endorsement, but when you gave your blessing to my opponent I certainly did not expect it to be based on factual inaccuracies or laden with political innuendo and heresy.
I love that opening, “I didn’t want your stupid endorsement anyway!” And “heresy”? Although I know the GOP likes to think of itself as God’s Own Party, I’m assuming he meant “hearsay.” (that vocab mixup is only the first piece of evidence that he didn’t send this one through the campaign staff filter before sending it)
More Pombo:
…your endorsement appears to have been a forgone conclusion based on the fact that he places a (D) instead of an (R) at the end of his name and reads like it was drafted using a blend of Greenpeace talking points and Democrat National Committee scripts from the “character assassination” file. Coming from a publication whose readers count themselves among America’s liberal and intellectual elite, this conservative “dullard” is not impressed.
Maybe the SF Chron is liberal-leaning, but how does he explain that the Modesto Bee, who endorsed him every race prior to this one, also endorsed McNerney? That endorsement contains several gems, including the line that “[Pombo] is at the diseased heart of the quid-pro-quo process that defines Washington.” Tip for Pombo: wise was he who said, “don’t send an email when you’re angry.”
Ok, Part II:
Remember the Dusty Foggo, Duke Cunningham, poker-and-prostitutes-at-the-Watergate Hotel scandal? Well, remember how there was a limo company at the center of it, who would pick up the, um, ladies, for Dukestir? And remember how they were repaid with a nice fat Department of Homeland Security contract, despite the fact that the owner of the company had a long criminal past, and the company had no history of managing that size contract before?
Well, Rep. Louise Slaughter wants to know why that limo company’s DHS contract not only hasn’t been summarily cancelled, but in fact has just been renewed. Good question. I’m assuming, as always, “follow the money.”
Voting SNAFUS Abound On Bruce McPherson’s Watch
( – promoted by SFBrianCL)
Umm, McPherson knows he's in charge of ELECTIONS, right? Because we're less than 3 weeks to election day and things are already going to hell in a handbasket.
First, last week Debra Bowen alerted us that McPherson had sent out absentee ballots that were so big that they require more than 39 cents postage without informing recipients of the need for extra postage. This SNAFU led to a funny exchange in the Secretary of State debate yesterday when McPherson, put on the defensive by Debra Bowen with the accusation that he was "left scrambling to strike deals with the post office" to make sure all absentee ballots arrived, McPherson fired back:
I don't make deals with the post master or anyone to do my job.
Yikes, defensive much?
To make matters worse, we're now hearing of a rising number of defective absentee ballots in the Sacramento area, 85 separate instances in 17 voting zones as of Tuesday afternoon. Here's the deal:
Absentee voters should receive two different double-sided paper ballots — one listing candidates for local and state races, and the other state and local ballot measures.
But voters from a wide range of voting zones — from Natomas to Elk Grove — are reporting errors in their mailings. In some cases, voters received only one ballot card; in others, voters got two of the same card.
In additions, voters are being asked to check their absentee ballots to ensure they match their sample ballots, which were mailed earlier.
If they don't match, they could miss voting in school board, water board, park and recreation and fire district races, for example.
As for who's to blame, two local vendors who handled printing, sorting and distribution of the ballots, Admail West and Eagle Press are playing the blame game. If McPherson had any leadership qualities, he'd take responsibility and fix the problem. As it is, there's the distinct possibility that people may send in two duplicate ballots, in other words, they would have voted twice. Who trusts anyone in this process to weed those out? yet at the same time, this "double vote" shouldn't invalidate their vote entirely.
Meanwhile in Yolo County, it was only as a result of the vigilance of county clerk recorder (and e-voting skeptic) Freddie Oakley that the electronic voting machines for vision-impaired voters will be functional on election day.
two weeks ago, when officials began programming the machines, the directions for use by voters with vision disabilities came out in Vietnamese.
Yep, the Austin-based software company Hart had provided them with the wrong audio instructions, which is what allows the vision-impaired to vote "privately and independently" as McPherson was so fond of boasting in yesterday's debate. Well, this SNAFU happened on his watch, no champion of voting rights he. If not for the paranoia of Oakley, vision-impaired voters in Yolo would have been disenfranchised on November 7. Certainly it was no thanks to McPherson who has thrust the state headlong into e-voting without seeming to be prepared for the myriad potential problems that go along with that.
"We will never go to complete paperless voting in Yolo County as long as I'm clerk," Oakley said.
Make no mistake, all these problems lay squarely on Bruce McPherson’s shoulders yet I doubt he will take any responsibility for any othese problems. This election is about competence and taking responsibility, neither of which characterizes Bruce McPherson. Lucky for us, competence and responsibility are exactly what we will get in Debra Bowen.