(Woo-hoo! A REAL netroots candidate in Orange County! What more could I possibly ask for? Oh yes, and you can also enjoy this at Daily Kos and The Liberal OC! ; ) – promoted by atdleft)

(photo from Wikipedia)
I posted this over at dKos but really wanted to put it here because it’s such an important site in California netroots.

Caution is preferable to rash bravery – Sir John Falstaff, King Henry the Fourth, Part I

Falstaff may be beloved, but he was not who you wanted leading you into battle.  Political challengers today need to be brave, brash, maybe even a little rash.

In World War II, when the gates came down in LCVPs (Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel), exposing the marines and soldiers inside to uncounted barrages of fire, they didn’t sit around discussing whether it was prudent to charge ahead with the goal of defeating a formidable enemy.  No one had to order them to go to give their lives; they just did it.  They had a world to save and they gave their lives for a cause they believed in.

Today, those of us who would defend the Constitution have a new fight.  Today, as a Democrat, a veteran, and a longtime member of this community, I’m marching off to that fight.

I’m running for Congress.

My campaign manager, Major Danby says that he likes this photo of me that he took at the Huntington Beach Fourth of July Parade, where I marched with the Democratic Party of Orange County, and that it has to appear near the top of the diary so people know who’s talking to them.  Here you go.
 

Now let’s talk about my campaign.

I’m running because Congress has let the President stomp on the Constitution, balloon the deficit, and get us stuck in a misbegotten war.  Gary Miller seems to see his position in Congress mostly as a way to make money for his friends.  I swore an oath to defend the Constitution when I was in the Air Force during Viet Nam (1966-1970), and that’s why I’m going to run.  I’m going to swear another oath to defend the Constitution as a Congressman. I didn’t see combat then but that doesn’t stop me from fighting now and when I get to Congress.

No one has elected me to “represent the netroots” in a run for Congress, but I think my opinions on issues reflect those of the broad community.  I want us out of Iraq and back to making the alliances with other countries that we /need/ to fight terrorism.  I want single-payer health insurance that is available to all.  I want a government that respects scientific facts – in global warming and otherwise – rather than fantasies that give them some political advantage – in making policy decisions.  But if there is one issue that motivates me above all others, it’s this:

*I want to defend the Constitution and the rule of law – while we can.*

There are forces in and out of our elected government who think that they have the right to ignore our laws and the fundamental basis for American values.  We see it with signing statements, defying subpoenas, ignoring constitutional amendments, evading Congressional oversight, and flouting federal law.  While this President and Vice-President have stomped on the Constitution, my opponent, Gary Miller, has held their coats.

I’ve been around for a long time and I have never before seen such a concerted effort on the part of a political party to subvert our precious and beloved form of government.  Not even Nixon.  At least Nixon had the honor to leave after even Republicans told him that it was that or be impeached and removed from office.  As I’ve written here, in effect Bush and his associates have been instituting something like a slow coup against our very system of government.  Their monarchical vision of our government is not how our system is supposed to work; we must restore our system to its proper form.

Democrats have control of the House – and control of the Senate when Joe Lieberman is thinking straight – which gives them a lot of power. It’s not total power, but it’s more than they use. Our party has the power to inform and rally and lead Americans. But too many members of our party convince themselves that it’s best to play it safe and wait until 2008, when they hope that things will all get better.

I think that’s wrong.  I think that we need to take the fight to the enemies of our Constitution.

Think back again to the Marines and Army storming the beaches of Normandy.  Imagine where we’d be if they stayed in their LSIs and waited for the enemy to leave!  It’s time that we metaphorically storm the beaches of government and take our country back from the enemy who would destroy it for their own purposes. 

If we storm all fronts, from the Water Board to every single Congressional District, we will overwhelm the enemies of the rule of law.  We will make America a better place and restore our values, honor and dignity in the world – and thus our public safety as well.

I want to be part of the second landing wave. The first wave consisted of Jon Tester and Jim Webb, of John Hall, Paul Hodes, Nancy Boyda, Jeremy Kalin, California’s own Jerry McNerney and others who were encouraged – some say in part put into office – by the blogosphere.  It consisted too of people like Brian Keeler who fired a shot across the bow of those who cling to power without serving the public good.  We were part of the solution in 2006.  I believe that we’re helping to foster a fundamental change in America.

I’ve been part of this community for 2-1/2 years.  I’m not a candidate coming /to/ the netroots for support; I’m a candidate coming /from/ the netroots.  I believe that I’m the first “homegrown” netroots candidate to run a viable campaign for the United States Congress.  I won’t be the last.

This is not a vanity or protest campaign. California’s 42^nd district is Republican-dominated, but increasingly independent – which means that it’s full of people who think like Democrats whom we have to convince to /vote/ the way they /think/.  It’s a district I can win.  The local party establishment supports me.  My opponent, Gary Miller, has been swimming so long in the ethical cesspool of Congressional privilege that he’s grown gills.  He’s vulnerable – but no one was on the ballot against him in 2006.  No local elected politician in the district – which has too few elected Democrats – is running against him next year.  So I’ve rashly stepped up and strapped up; now I’m going to show up and make people sit up and pay attention.

Part of why my campaign will be noticed – one reason that it has captured the interest of people /outside/ of the blogosphere – is that I am from the netroots and they’ve seen what it can accomplish.  Among the netroots who have been part of an incredible brain trust so far are thereisnospoon, Hekebolos, occams hatchet, clammyc, OrangeClouds115, atdnext, Shockwave, dday, vernonlee, theKK and the many others who’ve been part of this by means of offering their support and good wishes and still keeping it a “secret”. Major Danby will be managing my campaign full-time.  You probably recognize some of those names.  You’ll be reading a lot of diaries about the campaign from them in the days to come.

My aim in this campaign is to bring the netroots to the many wonderful people I’ve been meeting in the grassroots, and to bring back here some of what they have to offer.  With the spirit and broad expertise of the netroots and the local knowledge and drive of the grassroots, I think we can create something different and new.

I will come here looking for money like other candidates do; for the netroots to come out strongly for my campaign will get attention throughout the political world.  But today, having just announced, is not the day for a hard sell.  I’ll just say this: if you’d like to be among the first to contribute to my campaign, please go to my ActBlue page.  The amount of money that people donate, and the number of people donating, will for better or worse dictate much of the reaction that the world beyond the netroots will have towards my campaign.  To show them that we have a chance, we need to show them that we have a base.

This is not just about one candidate or one campaign, but about building a movement.  It’s about the netroots making connections with the grassroots, and with the voting public. The future of our movement is everywhere in the country, in whatever races we choose to focus our efforts.  It’s about re-establishing the rule of law.  It’s about defending America and American ideals. Are we ready to do that together?

As part of a quest to communicate with a greater population in the state, we’re looking for contributors who can write in Spanish.  As I was telling jsw yesterday, sure, I can understand Spanish and communicate a bit, but I don’t really feel comfortable writing about politics in Spanish. But, I’m hoping that somebody out there does.  So, if you are interested in writing for Calitics en español, please let me know.

Also, if any politicians release bilingual statements, send those my way as well. I can usually hack my way through those. I’m afraid I won’t be able to do much with other languages. And, of course, diaries by elected officials, in any language, are much appreciated around here. I don’t actually know how SoapBlox would deal with Asian languages, however.

Apparently the Republicans have a GREAT idea to cut the budget deficits. See, there’s a lot of money in them there schools, and really, we don’t need them, right? Right? I mean, slashing the schools would work great with W’s plan to use No Child Left (Behind) to privatize public schooling. So, we place unrealistic demands and then take away all their money.  Seems like a two-fer.  So, ssh, here’s the plan:

Republican legislative leaders, vowing to block passage of a state budget until Democrats agree to more spending cuts, have proposed in secret talks to slash $400 million from schools, according to education groups that were briefed on the negotiations Tuesday.

School officials say they were shocked to learn of the proposal at a briefing on the state budget impasse — now in its third week — by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland).

The officials said they were told that, under the GOP plan, the money would be cut out of cost-of-living adjustments for salaries and other expenses and funding for the growth of student populations. The cuts would apply to schools with kindergarten through high school classes and to community colleges. (LAT 7/18/07)

I’m hearing that Arnold doesn’t want to get anywhere near cutting into Prop 98 education funds, given the problems that got him in 2005 and the fact that he lost a lawsuit to the CTA. So, I’m not sure how this is going to work given the fact that Arnold seems a lot closer to the Dems than his fellow Republicans at this point.  Well, let me rephrase that, I think Arnold would go along with pretty much any compromise that could emerge from the Legislature.

But, Arnold does love him some privatizing, but I really doubt that schools would really be his target. But, the GOP, man, they never give up with this crap, do they?

One of the few constants in California history is fighting about water. And in this, the worst drought since recordkeeping began in the 1880s, the fight is shaping up to be a big one. On Tuesday Arnold went to San Luis Reservoir and announced plans for a $6 billion water bond for the November 2008 election. It is based on building 2 new dams in the Sierra and reviving the old Peripheral Canal, one of the most contentious infrastructure projects in our state’s history, going down to defeat in the 1982 election.

Dems have blocked his bill so far, and Don Perata has offered a $5 billion bond plan that steers clear of either new dams or a Peripheral Canal. But Arnold’s interest in new water storage is clear, and so it is worth examining for a moment exactly why this is not the best way to respond to a drought, to climate change.

Over the last 30 years California has repeatedly experienced drought conditions. The longest was the 1986-93 drought, which any of us who lived here or grew up then remember clearly, from dead lawns and 3-minute showers; one of the worst was in 1976-77, when Marin County had to run a hose across the Richmond Bridge to get water from East Bay MUD and SoCal pools went dry, to the delight of skateboarders.

But these are a drop in the bucket compared to megadroughts that hit this state several centuries ago. As Mike Davis recounts in his crucial environmental history of Southern California, Ecology of Fear, researchers have discovered a 200-year period of drought hit the state around the 1200s, and suspect many more exist in the historical climate record. (This is the same drought believed to have forced the dispersal of the Anasazi culture in Arizona.)

Climate change in California is expected to produce a hotter and drier climate, with a reduced snowpack. Precipitation in the Sierra is expected to fall as rain more often than snow, forcing significant shifts in how water is stored.

But the problem isn’t just that the Sierra will see less snow and more rain, but that it will see less water, period. And the problem isn’t limited to the Sierra – as anyone who’s been to the Southwest recently knows, the whole region is suffering from reduced rainfall. Some experts suggest we may be on the verge of a 90 year drought in the US Southwest, and that Lakes Powell and Mead may never return to their previous levels.

Faced with the prospect of prolonged drought, it seems foolish for California to assume it can solve its problem merely through added storage – why build more storage for less rain?

Further, as Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, of Restore the Delta, notes at the California Progress Report, the dams and especially the Peripheral Canal will likely only cause further damage to the Delta, and Arnold’s water spending priorities do absolutely nothing to address the critical need to repair obsolete and vulnerable Delta levees.

No, the solution to our worsening water woes is not to assume that we can just add storage and continue our usual ways. As with energy consumption, reduction in demand – conservation – is THE vital piece of the puzzle.

Friends of the River, a statewide water advocacy group, points out that the state’s own water assessment plan shows that conservation can eliminate the “need” for these new dams.

Some might argue that Californians are too wedded to regular carwashes and hosing down their sidewalks and taking 20 minute showers to actually reduce their water usage. But this is not so. Here in Monterey County we have successfully met water conservation goals. Californians rose to the occasion during the drought of the late ’80s and early ’90s, as they had during the ’76-’77 drought. Explain to Californians the truth of the matter, that we are facing reduced supply and may be facing it for some time to come, and they will act.

Right now California, like the rest of the country, stands at a tipping point. We now agree that climate change is real. We know it is happening and we have a pretty clear idea of what its consequences will be. And we know what we can do to help us survive it without catastrophic disruption. Californians have shown that they can conserve. Will Sacramento fully embrace that ethic, or will Arnold’s “party on, dudes” attitude prevail?

Copley News Service has gotten hold of Duke Cunningham’s (R-Tucson Federal Correctional Institution) jailhouse FBI interview (pdf) and let’s just say that Brent Wilkes is gonna have a rough go of things as a result of this:

“Cunningham said that there was never a sale,” said the FBI report. “Cunningham stated that he and Wilkes created the cover story of a boat sale to explain, if anyone ever found out and asked, his receipt of $100,000 from Wilkes.” Cunningham told investigators that Wilkes fully understood that there would be “no actual change in ownership” of the yacht. The two men agreed to divide the $100,000 into two checks because both “felt that the smaller checks might be less noticeable.”

The documents show that Cunningham had first asked Wilkes for $550,000.

“Wilkes said no to the $550,000 but then countered with an offer of $100,000 if Cunningham would ensure that the support and earmarks would continue to happen. Cunningham promised Wilkes that he would ‘fight like hell’ for Wilkes/ADCS.”

But it doesn’t end there.  The 11-page report details how Duke Cunningham put himself up for sale and loved the swanky lifestyle it afforded him.  His interview sheds more light on the illicit affairs of several of Duke’s other partners in crime, including Mitchell Wade of MZM (guilty plea, awaiting sentence) and launderer Thomas Kontogiannis (guilty plea recently released), neither of whom was gonna get off, but both of which will probably find the water a bit warmer as a result of Duke’s interview.  It’s almost enough to make you wish that San Diego had a tenacious US Attorney commited to rooting out corruption in government huh?  Small solace that it may be, it looks like the rocks tipped over by Carol Lam are still rolling downhill.

Copley’s done a great job of culling through the FBI report and the related Hattier affadavit (big pdf) to pull out the high points in a list at the end of this article, and I recommend you go through the whole list.  But I couldn’t resist pulling out a few of my favorites (all quoted):

– The Rolls Royce that drew so much attention early in the investigation was not the only car that Cunningham made the contractors buy for him. In only two days in early 2002, the congressman bought a $43,000 Thunderbird and a $41,000 BMW from Bob Baker Ford in San Diego with $63,000 of his payment coming from bribes. That was three months before Wade gave him $10,000 toward the used Rolls Royce.

– In mid-2004 when Cunningham needed to make repairs to his boat, he called Wade and demanded $6,500 cash. Wade took the money out of his petty cash, stuffed the cash into a bulging envelope and rushed it over to a Cunningham fundraiser at a Washington restaurant, giving it to a Cunningham staffer.

– Made Wilkes buy Cunningham’s daughter a computer when she went to college and then pay for its later repair.

– Made either Wilkes or Wade pay his way to the 2003 Super Bowl, Jimmy Buffet concerts in Chula Vista, and several Washington Wizards and Redskins games.

And in case anyone’s curious, FCI Tucson is hiring.

Today’s Blog Roundup is on the flip. It includes the experiences of a couple bloggers with arguments against impeachment (or evasions regarding the same), a few pieces on our environment (including our farms and fisheries), land use, another attempt at treating our gay and lesbian citizens fairly, and a smorgasbord of other items.

As always, let me know what I missed in comments.

Impeachment Experiences

• Burbank Democratic Club: My Response to Adam Schiff’s Lack
  of Response
  http://burbankdemocraticclub.blogspot.com/2007/07/my-response-to-adam-schiffs-lack-of.html
• D-Day: How an insider consultant changed my mind on
  impeachment
  http://d-day.blogspot.com/2007/07/how-insider-consultant-changed-my-mind.html

Environment and Land Use

• Surf Putah: On the Farm Bill, Organic Agriculture, and the
  Urban-Rural Divide
  http://surfputah.blogspot.com/2007/07/on-farm-bill-organic-agriculture-and.html
• Daily Kos: Climate Change/Extreme Drought Cited in Calif.
  Farm Failures
  http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/7/17/54114/5839
• California Progress Report: Governor Schwarzenegger Misses
  Opportunity to Fix Big Problems in the Delta
  http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/07/governor_schwar_10.html
• Working Californians: Air Board Flap Continues
  http://workingcalifornians.com/blog/julia_rosen/2007/07/17/air_board_flap_continues
• The People’s Vanguard of Davis: COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
  NEED TO VOTE TO PROTECT DAVIS’ BORDERS
  http://davisvanguard.blogspot.com/2007/07/commentary-county-board-of-supervisors.html
• The People’s Vanguard of Davis: The County Determines the
  Future of Davis
  http://davisvanguard.blogspot.com/2007/07/live-from-woodland-county-determines.html
• Greetings from Downtown Huntington Beach: HB Independent
  Doesn’t Understand Main Street
  http://hbdowntown.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/07/hb-independent-.html

Basic Fairness

• California Progress Report: Same-Sex Marriage Bill Passes
  Key California Senate
  Committee
  http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/07/same-sex_marria.html
• The Liberal OC » AB 43 Passes the State Senate
  http://www.theliberaloc.com/2007/07/17/ab-43-passes-the-state-senate/

All The Rest

• California Notes: Elizabeth Edwards graces Sacramento
  http://bayneofblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/elizabeth-edwards-graces-sacramento.html
• Creek Running North » Speeding kills bears
  http://faultline.org/index.php/site/comments/speeding_kills_bears/
• California Progress Report: Delegate Selection and Net
  Neutrality Top California Democrats’ Agenda at Meeting of the Party
  http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/07/delegate_select.html
• A Progressive Alamedan: Campaign to keep TVs off of BART
  http://progala.blogspot.com/2007/07/campaign-to-keep-tvs-off-of-bart.html
• California Notes: Two months left before next deadline for
  CA health care bills
  http://bayneofblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/two-months-left-before-next-deadline.html
• Speak Out California!: The Big Corporate Bullies Are At It
  Again
  http://speakoutca.org/archives/2007/07/post_25.php
• California Notes: Port of Stockton projects get initial
  funding approval
  http://bayneofblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/port-of-stockton-projects-get-initial.html
• California Progress Report: Reporting on the Budget
  http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/07/california_stat_9.html

Dday wrote yesterday about Arnold’s absence in the budget negotiations, and I think he got it spot on. Well, now we have the words directly from the mouth of Speaker Nunez. The SacBee did an interview with the Speaker, and well, he notes that Arnold doesn’t really have any sway over the Republicans. Check the video here.

But, it looks like the Republicans are digging in for a fight. From my prospective, it’s not clear what they have to gain from a protracted fight, but both sides seem set to do battle.  So, on we march.  The Speaker has even canceled the summer recess until the budget is passed. Woooo, that’ll get them.

On the Dem side, the Speaker has announced that he plans to call a vote on a plan that will cut the operating deficit by a billion of so. That’s actually about the same, if not more, as the Governator’s original budget proposal. But, you know, the governor’s plans seem to be pretty irrelevant at this point. So, I’m guessing that the vote tomorrow won’t garner much, if any, GOP support, and so back we go.  I guess we’ll just play the Circle Game for a while, and hope that someday, Joni Mitchell will demand her lyrics back.

But, it appears that Nunez and Perata want this battle in the public. It’s a calculated risk, in that the public might see the obstinance of the GOP as annoying, or it could just become a general Pox on both your houses type thing.  But perhaps it might be time for some real risks.  And hey, maybe at some point we could talk about that damn 2/3 rule.

Grassroots progressives are picking up on my plea to call representatives to publicize what the party has voted to endorse and ensure that state and federal lawmakers will answer the call of their party and support these initiatives.  The first resolution I mentioned was net neutrality; now we should push the resolution on sentencing reform, which I’ve included in the extended entry.

We know that our criminal justice system nationwide is perverse.  For violent and nonviolent offenders alike, it has become a crucible which demands MORE violence as a means to survive. 

This is what our system of justice does: It takes the unlawful and makes them more violent. It takes criminals and makes them worse, reducing their future options, encouraging them to become more physically brutal, cultivating their marginalization from society. Such is the irony of the politics of crime in this country. We are so afraid of violent criminals that we force our politicians to continually worsen their punishment, condemning them to prisons that have been shown to make inmates more violent.

This is especially true in California, home to the highest recidivism rate in the nation, because all of the overcrowding has for all practical purposes eliminated any treatment or rehabilitation programs and turned the jails into human waste dumps.  This is not something we can build our way out from under; it’s too far gone.  Only some meaningful reform that silences the “tough on crime” crowd and revisits the role of incarceration as an opportunity for redemption and a return to civil society will fix this crisis.  AB 900, which enabled the Governor to add 53,000 beds in exchange for token accountability, is already causing concern that even that accountability will be circumvented.  Enough.  The Governor’s plan is overly cautious and seeks to kick the can down the road.  We need real reform.

Schwarzenegger’s prison managers have begun to implement a program to assess each inmate and give him or her an individual program to follow while in prison. They have also begun a comprehensive re-evaluation of every rehabilitation program to determine which work and which should be abandoned.

But the biggest reductions in overcrowding would come from changes in sentencing laws and parole policies. On those issues, Schwarzenegger must lead the way.

California has the highest recidivism rate in the country, with 70 percent of inmates returning to prison within three years after release. What the state has been doing for a generation is not working. The current policies are draining the treasury and making the streets less safe. It’s time to try a new approach.

over…

This weekend at the CDP E-Board, progressives passed a parole and sentencing reform resolution that mirrors Gloria Romero’s legislation to create an independent sentencing commission to address this runaway train we’ve created with our prisons.

CDP RESOLUTION TO SUPPORT PAROLE & SENTENCING REFORM TO ADDRESS OVERCROWDED PRISONS

PASSED at E-Board meeting of the California Democrats in Sacramento

WHEREAS Governor Schwarzengger and California legislators decided to build 53,000 new prison and jail beds at a 25-year cost of $15-billion dollars in construction and debt service funds;

WHEREAS this legislative decision was made without a single public hearing in a state that, according to the California Legislative Analyst, currently incarcerates 240,000 inmates in prisons and jails, almost 70% of  whom are people of color, 29% African American, even though African Americans constitute only 6% of the Adult population;

WHEREAS the current plan to build new prison and jail beds ignores the Governor’s Independent Review Panel and the Little Hoover Commission recommendations for parole and sentencing reform that would immediately and drastically reduce California’s prison population and address the problem of overcrowding in a state that, according to the California Legislative Analyst, spends $43,000 each year to incarcerate but only $8,000 to educate a student in our public schools;

THEREFORE BE  IT RESOLVED the California Democratic Party supports implementation of the state’s Independent Review Panel and the Little Hoover Commission’s parole and sentencing reforms: releasing selected low-risk non-violent offenders without parole; moving parolees off parole automatically after 12 clean months; providing community alternatives, not prison, for technical violations of parole; creating a sentencing commission that would recommend changes to penalties.

THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED the California Democratic Party, recognizing a disproportionate percentage of minorities is behind bars, supports implementation of these reforms to address overcrowding in prisons and jails.

Time to call your Democratic legislators in the state and tell them that their party has endorsed this resolution and that you would like them to support it as well.  Make sure you get an answer.  The Romero bill is in the Assembly right now, so that’s where your phone call will do the most good.  Please give our prisons a chance at success and make this state safer by calling now.