We don’t do enough on this site to defend our own Speaker Pelosi from ridiculous media hit jobs. Sure, blogswarm put this one in the Quick Hits, but it deserves wider attention because it falls into a predictable pattern. The nutjobs in the House Republican Caucus put out some kind of non-factual press release, a still-unsuspecting-after-all-these-years news organization dutifully types it up, Drudge and the right-wing noise machine links to it, and by the time the charges are completely discredited, the media schoolchildren and Republican outrage-bots have moved on to the next thing. The entire idea is to “get it out there,” to plant a seed of malfeasance in the mind of the voter despite the complete disregard for the facts. This has happened at least four times that I can think of, in just the first four months-plus of the Pelosi Speakership. And I’m sick of it.
over…
In this instance, the right is claiming that Pelosi inserted Port of San Francisco waterfront improvements into a water redevelopment bill passed by the House last month. (Ever wonder why they always catch these things long after they’ve voted on them? It’s like they don’t care about the legislation, just having an issue. Hmmm…) They claim that the improvements would benefit Pelosi’s husband’s rental properties.
Except the properties are a mile away from where the improvements are to be built, and the Port of San Francisco requested the improvements. This was confirmed within five minutes by Greg Sargent. But the writers and editors at the AP let that slip by, and just uncritically printed the “controversy” that was made up out of whole cloth without any factual basis.
You can add this to the Speaker requesting a phat jet so her Entourage (including Turtle) can party on the way to DC, her lowering the minimum wage in American Samoa to benefit Starkist Tuna, her going to Syria and undercutting American foreign policy, etc etc. None of these allegations where even close to being true, and all of them folded under scrutiny. Of course, that wasn’t the point. The point was to get Suzanne Malveaux to call Pelosi “the most controversial Speaker yet!” The point was to make sure the low-information voter has this vague sense from Rush and Fox News headlines that Pelosi is some corrupt politician who’s robbing the federal treasury for perks for her friends and allies. And this is done so that, when GOP Congressman have their houses raided and some actual tales of corruption come out, the Republicans can stamp their little feet and scream “Pelosi too!!!”
We’re way too forgiving of this tactic. It’s because we have actual respect for the truth. But the Republican operatives who keep feeding the AP this obvious bullshit have none. And what’s more, they count on the fact that once-proud news organizations like the AP are too lazy to know the difference between reality and lies, and they’ll print virtually anything as long as they can put it in the familiar “he said/she said” context, keeping them one step away from reporting the story. There’s no value placed on objectivity anymore, which isn’t just going to each side for a quote. There are incontrovertible facts here, and that ought to go into the decision to run with a trumped-up “story,” especially when delivered by political operatives. I’m fuming at this incident, and while certainly Speaker Pelosi can take care of herself, she needs to know that the progressive movement, at least out here in California, has her back and will not let this stand.
Two big revelations came to light as the Senate conducted oversight over the ‘secret’ plan to build a new death chamber at San Quintin.
Governor Schwarzenegger’s staff knew about the plan before it became public, something he contradicted in his own public statements on the matter.
U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel did not order the state to build a new death chamber. He merely required that the state keep him apprised of what it does with regards to the death penalty process.
This afternoon Kingston “Bud” Prunty, the undersectetary of the CA Dept. of Corrections of Rehabilitation testified, bringing the subject of what did they know and when did they know it to the forefront. Meyers has audio of Prunty’s back and forth with Sen. Gloria Romero.
As for the second:
And one of the key topics of the hearing was that U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel had never demanded that the state needs a new death chamber, but rather that the state needs to inform him of what changes the state plans to make to the death penalty process. Nonetheless, several internal state documents show that CDCR officials claimed that Judge Fogel had “ordered” them to create a new death chamber.
But then the questions went beyond who gave the OK… as senators asked Prunty who else had been at the meetings where the decision was made.
Undersecretary Prunty said that there were several meetings (which another witness said began the first week of January) about how to comply with Judge Fogel’s wishes. And he said that one result of those meetings was an agreement to build a new death chamber.
And was the plan, asked Sen. Mike Machado (D-Linden), discussed in the presence of staffers from Governor Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown?
“Yes,” said Prunty.
That flatly conflicts with what the governor said at an April 24th press conference, two weeks after the death chamber was made public.
“They went about it in the wrong way by not sharing the information and including the legislators,” he then told reporters.
Late this afternoon, the governor’s press secretary said that while top Schwarzenegger advisers knew that a new death chamber was the preferred plan, they did not know that it was actually being built.
Let’s recap here shall we…
The judge never told them to build it. The corrections department had several meetings about it, which included Schwarzenegger’s staff. They decided to build it anyway and tried to claim it would cost less than $400k so the legislature would not have to be informed. It runs over, to the tune of $850k. The legislature finds out, gets pissed. Arnold say he knows nothing. The legislature decides to shine a little light on the subject, thereby exposing the above. Fan-flippin-tastic.
And we are now supposed to trust Arnold and the prison system to adequately administrate the spending of billions of dollars in new construction. Like Frank says, we need some serious sunshine on our prison system.
One hopes that the latest revelations over the death chamber will cause the Governor to reconsider his actions of last year. They show how systemic the problems are in the prisons and that even the head of the CDCR does not know what is going on inside the massive bureaucracy under his charge. No one man or woman can ferret out what is going on, and that is where the media–as the public’s eyes and ears–and the legislature’s and Governor’s first line of warning–come into play. Without this, even people of good will, in which the committee appeared to include Tilton, will have abuses and problems hidden from them.
If you've been following the story up to now, you know that Blackwater USA, the war profiteering private mercenary firm currently under investigation by Congress, has plans to open a mercenary training camp outside of the tiny, peaceful rural town of Potrero in San Diego County. Luckily, many community members and activist groups around the state have other plans entirely.
Since we launched our petition calling on our governor and senators to do whatever is in their power to block this project, I've been amazed at the diverse coalition that has united in opposition to Blackwater West. Everyone from anti-war groups such as Code Pink, to environmental groups such as The Sierra Club to progressive faith groups such as United For Peace and Justice have been fighting Blackwater's invasion of California. But truly the most moving appeals I've heard in opposition of this training camp have been from people who actually live there, who would actually have to live with a mercenary training camp in their backyard.
Some local perspective over the flip…
Anne in Jamul, CA signed our petition and offers this plea:
I moved to Jamul, CA to be in a peaceful, quiet place. I can see where the proposed "Blackwater" site will be built from my front window. However, I'm most concerned with the possiblity for fire that keeping many bunkers of amunition create. There have already been at least 4 fires that required evacuation from my area since I have lived there and I do not believe that corporation will take the measures necessary to keep the civilians in the area out of harms way, if they can make some money.
And this from Cheryl, also in Jamul:
I am opposed to this project on many levels. Locally, it would be an environmental disaster and would destroy the community character of Potero forever. Traffic and other environmental impacts would have far reaching effects. Every community along scenic Hwy 94 would be impacted negatively. Communities would likely suffer from the influence of and potential harm from the unsavory characters that this project would attract.
And Coral:
I am vehemently opposed to the training center being built there. I am afraid that one of the last family oriented back country communities will be destroyed by noise and war training by Blackwater. This will be devestating to our peaceful living environment. We moved out here 6 years ago to live in the peace and tranquility of natural suroundings. Please don't destroy our community and don't devalue our property.
You probably won't be shocked to learn that starting in May of last year, Blackwater began to infiltrate the local planning board, which is an elected advisory committee. Between May and October, there were meetings where local residents were largely left in the dark to the point that once the community began to rise up in protest of the proposed training camp that fall, it was too late to prevent the planning group from voting 7-0 in favor of Blackwater moving forward. Well, they may come to regret that vote.
Terry at TerryFacePlace has a great post about what's going on locally on this issue. She informs us that…uh oh, one of the planning group members who voted in favor of Blackwater isn't even eligible for the post.
A little bit of digging has revealed that Potrero Planning Group member Emil Susu is not a registered voter and not eligible to hold the elected office. The County has declared his seat vacant. Susu is registered to vote in Florida, not California. Mr Hammers says when Susu reregisters in Potrero, he'll appoint him to the PPG. Sounds like a nice little kingdom he's got out there.
Terry also informs us that local residents have launched a recall movement against several members of the Potrero Planning Group and one resident has filed suit to have the 7-0 vote thrown out.
The suit alleges several violations of the Brown Act, the open government mandate in California, including issues involving the inadequate public notice, and the right to anonymous comment. The Brown Act states that citizens may not be compelled to sign in at a public meeting in order to be allowed to speak. Hammers would not allow this individual to comment at the March meeting because she didn't feel comfortable signing in and wanted her name off the written record. Raymond Lutz of Citizen Oversight was attending that meeting, and read the provision of the Brown Act aloud to the PPG and they still would not allow her to speak.
Additionally, In their December 14, 2006 meeting, the PPG mandated certain conditions for their endorsement of this project, including satisfactory results in a "live fire" noise test in the valley. That noise test has not occurred, because the current owner of the property would not allow it. Additionally, a review of the County records reveal the vote record that was turned in to the County reflecting the PPGs approval of the Blackwater West project is blank, and there is nothing in the record documenting the PPG's noise test requirement. There are also no meeting minutes, nor a transcript of that meeting. Based on the written record, you'd never know that anyone in Potrero was opposed to Blackwater USA setting up camp in their backyard.
And speaking of that live fire test, this is classic:
I understand that Mr Hammers took his gun out to the valley, and shot off a few rounds and is satisfied noise won't be an issue.
Unfortunately, his private and personal live fire test made enough noise that a resident across the valley called Jan Hedlun, another PPG member (and the ONLY one opposed to this training camp) and said, "someone is firing a gun in the valley".
As for Ms. Hedlun, she has been a forceful voice as the lone planning group member opposed to Blackwater West (it should be noted that she was elected to the planning group in November and was not made aware that she was eligible for the Blackwater vote; she would have voted against it.) I had the pleasure of meeting her when I was in San Diego for the CDP convention and she told me that some of the other members of the planning group were flown to Blackwater's home base in North Carolina to see first hand just what a pleasant place a Blackwater training camp can be. Funny, Jan wasn't invited.
Here's video I took of Jan at a press conference down in SD:
So where does Blackwater West stand now? Well, because the 824-acre plot of land that Blackwater wants to build on is currently zoned for agriculture, there are a bunch of hoops that they need to jump through before this can go forward in any meaningful way. The first is an environmental impact report, public comment for which is being taken until the end of the month. Ultimately it will be up to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, which may not take up the issue until 2009, but that's why we need to work to defeat it now.
In addition, Congressman Filner has vowed to do whatever he can at the federal level to stop Blackwater in their tracks. He has sent letters to Congressman Waxman and thinks the way to stop them is put a hold on any private development until the investigations into the waste and fraud charges currently under way in the House are resolved. Thank you, Congressman for all your hard work. And thanks to everyone who has signed and forwarded our petition. In just ten days, it's gotten over 2,300 signatures and steadily climbing every day. Please add your name to it today to let California's statewide leaders know you oppose Blackwater in California and let the local community know you're standing with them. It is, after all, their backyard.
(Horray for people power! : ) – promoted by atdleft)
Over 1,000 nurses and patients marched on the California State Capitol today to demand guaranteed healthcare, at an event sponsored by the National Nurse Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association.
This is why we’re going to have genuine healthcare reform: because we have a beloved, engaged constituency pushing for it. What do the insurers have? A bunch of mercenary lobbyists. We’re linking to some pictures here…take a look.
Why are we calling it guaranteed healthcare? Because today, no matter what insurance you have, you can be denied care for any reason. No other nation in the world has their healthcare set up this way, and neither should ours. State Senator Sheila Kuehl has proposed SB840, a guaranteed healthcare bill with single-payer financing: patients choose a private caregiver who is paid from a non-profit, statewide fund. And here’s what a health care hero looks like:
We also debuted a new Web site at this rally, devoted to one simple thing: letting people upload videos telling the story of their mis-treatment at the hands of the healthcare insurance industry. We all know it’s a crisis-but we need to see the faces behind the crisis to be moved to action. Go visit GauranteedHealthcare.org and upload your story.
