(Video courtesy of CatalinaPhotographer.com)

Here’s an update from today’s OC Register on the Catalina Wildfire:

A wildfire that has burned an estimated 4,200 acres of hillside brush on Santa Catalina Island is now about 50 percent contained, according to a report released this morning.

Full containment is expected sometime Monday, one day earlier than previously expected. Cool, moist weather assisted firefighters overnight in making progress on containing the fire.

Residents have been allowed to return but visitors are still barred from the island until further notice.

About 4,000 people were evacuated from Avalon on Thursday night and Friday morning, as officials worried about the fire possibly creeping into town. But fortunately, Avalon has mostly been spared. Only one home and six industrial buildings on the outskirts of town have so far been destroyed.

And thank goodness for all the brave firefighters who have been busy controlling this blazing inferno! Some 21 firefighters and 5 fire engines from Orange County have been assisting all the LA County firefighters in containing this blaze. Hopefully soon, all these courageous individuals will be allowed to come home once this fire is dead and gone.

Yesterday, Jonathan Singer took a great look at calls to action. While some are the typical email harvesting wankery that was abused last cycle, there is a great potential for the tactic (as long as people don’t tune them all out after tiring of the worthless ones). Today, John Edwards launched a new effort in the battles against the Iraq Occupation and brevity:

www.SupportTheTroopsEndTheWar.com

I’m glad to see him using distributed events over Memorial Day weekend — it just makes sense on so many levels. There aren’t too many California events yet, but the site has only been up for an hour or so and this gives people a great excuse to organize an event.

UPDATE: Just to clarify, I love this action. The email harvesting line wasn’t directed at Edwards. I’d recommend wearing Red, White, & Blue — there is no better way to show your patriotism this Memorial Day weekend than by joining this action.

A great read from Brad Parker:

Debate is anathema to the DLC, Blue Dogs, Establishment Democrats and their courtiers, the lobbyists and consultants. Why? They won’t debate because they can’t win a debate of ideas; they have none. All they posses are their discredited neo-liberal rationales spewed forth from the dubiously monikered Progressive Policy Institute, the Third Way and the Democratic Leadership Council – the DLC. The smoke and mirrors promulgated by these Clinton-led men behind the curtain fronts are thinly veiled propaganda broadsides for the Cronies. In our current parlance they are nothing more than political “greenwashing”. Greenwashing is defined as: the dissemination of misleading information by an organization to conceal its abuse of the environment in order to present a positive public image. In this case it’s the political environment.

So, the DLC establishment, too craven to debate, has given up that field of struggle due to their paucity of ideas and stupendous flops at the polls. They have now retreated to parliamentary procedure and Roberts Rules of Order to stabilize their waning control over the Party. That tactic was on full display in San Diego at the CDP convention.

With great irony the conservative wing of the Party did everything they could, including bad faith bargaining at the last minute, to preserve the resolution they most coveted, the so-called `Unity in 08″ resolution and to stifle debate on the truly important issues of the day, transparency, accountability and open access to information, not to mention race, economics and war – Dr. King’s triple evils. All weekend the will of the majority of delegates and Democrats across the state was squashed by referrals, arcane rules and a quorum call in the name of pragmatism, Presidential candidates and “Unity”. The only question that remained after our weekend at the circus was; who orchestrated this obfuscation?

The Hillary people’s push for “Unity” really was the funniest thing of the weekend — kinda of the exact opposite of inspiration. Instead of pushing for a candidate who will actually unite, the basis seemed to be the assumption we’ll get a crappy nominee but the all powerful CDP will be able to “unite” by decree.

(Am I lucky to have her as my Congresswoman, or am I just blessed that I have such great representation in Washington? : ) – promoted by atdleft)

I just love my fabulous member of Congress. Loretta Sanchez has always done a great job for all of us in Central Orange County, really taking into account what’s best for our communities. And yes, she did this again in voting to hold TCA to our state environmental laws as it considers its plans to extend the 241 Toll Road. San Onofre State Park is one of the top five most visited state parks in California, and its beaches are among the few unspoiled beaches left in Southern California. People here love this beach, and Loretta Sanchez made the right choice in deciding to save Trestles by requiring TCA to simply comply with the law.

However, our favorite Mr. Republican Insider at Red County/OC Blog is whining because Loretta did not capitulate to TCA and its convoluted fantasy of a toll road to nowhere. But that’s OK. He’s not Loretta’s constituent… WE ARE in Central OC! And yes, we do care about the natural resources in our area.

Follow me after the flip for more on why Loretta really did vote for what’s best for Orange County this week…

Loretta has always been great on environmental issues. Last year, she received a PERFECT 100% SCORE from the League of Conservation Voters. She knows that people here in Central Orange County care about the quality of air that their families breathe, the quality of the water that their families drink, and the nice open spaces where they and their families can retreat to when they just want to escape the busy city life. San Onofre State Park offers a good retreat, with its pristine beaches and pleasant campgrounds.

Yet Republican insiders and consultants, like the creepy critters at Red County/OC Blog, mistakenly think that we urban voters in Orange County don’t care about our natural resources and our quality of life. They think that if they dangle “JOBS!” and “TRAFFIC RELIEF!” in front of our faces, that we’ll take their deadly bait. However, they are firmly mistaken.

We know that extending the 241 to Trestles would do nothing for traffic. We know that this project would violate the state laws that protect our precious coastline from precisely these types of idiotic attempts to destroy our natural resources for short-term profit. And yes, we know that we don’t have to sacrifice the environment in order to create more jobs. Basically, we’re not the complete idiots that these Republican consultants make us out to be!

So yes, Loretta did the right thing this week. She voted to ensure that TCA follow the full letter of the law. If TCA wants to extend the 241, then they should do it legally by NOT TRESPASSING INTO A STATE PARK! Trestles is just too precious of a place to be discarded in favor of an imbecilic toll road that does nothing to relieve Orange County traffic, and I am glad that Loretta will not allow for state law to be violated in order for this short-sighted and utterly ludicrous Toll Road to Trestles to be built.

And for that, Loretta Sanchez truly is the people’s environmental champion! : )

Viva Democracy. I’m on a high note this weekend. Here’s my (and KEXP’s) official welcome to the weekend song. Be optimistic and be open in your threadiness. And in case you missed it, shiny new charges for Wilkes and Foggo alleging the trade of government contracts for vacations and jobs. Just another tasty treat from your friends at Calitics, your progressive open source news organization for California politics. And now, Mint Royale feat. Pos – Show Me

“After war, pass peace pipe”

Earlier today I wrote that Ken Calvert got John Doolittle’s “token corrupt Californian” seat on the House Appropriations Committee.  What I didn’t know is that this has raised the ire… of the right?

I care a lot about the House of Representatives, I care a lot about our members and once someone is ethically challenged and gets in trouble it effects all of us. … I appreciate the high ethical standards that [Boehner] has set … but I believe the bar was lowered today when our conference chose to vote Ken Calvert onto the Appropriations Committee.

That was Ray LaHood of Illinois, going after one of his colleagues in the media.  And it doesn’t stop there.  RedState has declared war on Calvert.  Minority Leader John Boehner is getting a lot of heat from organized phone campaigns.

Wow.  Do they not know that half their delegation is just as corrupt?  (Incidentally, Calvert’s going to be moving up in my next House target list.  Do we have a candidate?)