Josh Lyman Talking Dirty (Tricks)

( – promoted by Robert in Monterey)

Bradley Whitford, the actor who played Josh Lyman on the beloved show “The West Wing”” is riled up about the dirty tricks initiative.  Rick Jacobs asked him to film a video for Courage Campaign. 

Brad sat down and wrote his own heartfelt script and they filmed it in his house surrounded by all of his children’s toys. As Brad says: “I don’t know about you, but my children cannot afford another Republican president.”

Watch the video and check out the new official No Dirty Tricks website.  Oh and join the conference call with Brad, Rick, Jane Hamsher (Firedoglake), John Amato (Crooks and Liars) and Ben Tulchin (pollster) at 4 pm today.  They will be answering questions from those on the call and a few submitted ahead of time.

You can support the campaign, and our ability to create these videos and hold these conference calls by contributing via ActBlue.

Don’t Let “Signature Blockers” Intimidate You on California Tribal Casino Referendum

Cross posted from:  California Progress Report

http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/09/dont_let_signat.html

A little intimidation could go a long way.

Cheryl SchmitThat’s my impression after a lunch hour of signature gathering on Sacramento’s K Street Mall and it’s an additional reason to be very upset by paid campaign workers hired to interfere with attempts to put the unfair Big 4 gambling compacts before voters on the February ballot.

Wednesday I joined other signature gatherers downtown to share with reporters what I witnessed at my local grocery store and I am more convinced than ever that those who try to block Californians from signing petitions to put measures on the ballot are the very enemies of democracy.

To start at the beginning, the Legislature recently ratified new compacts with four of the richest and most powerful – and, not coincidentally, largest campaign contributors – among California tribes: Morongo, Agua Caliente, Pechanga and Sycuan.

These outrageous agreements would allow one of the largest expansions of gambling in U.S. history. Some of the casinos allowed would hold two and a half times the number of slot machines of the largest Las Vegas casinos!

The unfair compacts would result in the Big 4 tribes receiving a third of California’s gambling pie. They are four out of 108 tribes in the state.

Perhaps worst of all, the compacts fail to provide taxpayers with a fair and accountable share of revenues with a payment system that is ripe for manipulation.

As we gathered the necessary signatures to referend these new gambling schemes, a paid “blocker” working for the Big 4 showed up. He was polite and friendly, but he knew there would be news media present.

That was a far cry from what I experienced in my hometown.

Standing outside my neighborhood grocery store, a signature gatherer was inviting voters to sign the referendum petitions. That’s when I saw him, one large man, slowly pacing back and forth in front of the table, literally blocking people from seeing what the petitions were actually about. Moments later, he verbally challenged the signature gatherer, questioning if he even had the right to gather signatures.

I learned, the man putting himself between voters and petitions was only “doing his job.” Those Big 4 tribes, with the new compacts, have hired an army of “Signature Blockers” to try and stop you from reading and signing the petition to place those unfair compacts on the ballot and ultimately stop you from voting on this issue.

While these blocking tactics are somewhat unusual, it is no surprise. The gambling deal politicians gave the four rich casino-owning tribes are a bad deal for California and those tribes know it! The Big 4 tribes are afraid that voter scrutiny will mean defeat of these unfair schemes.

The Big 4 compacts represent a dramatic shift in California’s Indian gaming policy and the long-standing gambling policy of this state.

While the unfair compacts would concentrate a full third of the state’s gambling revenue pie in the hands of just these four tribes, representing fewer than 2,100 individuals, less than .07% of our states total Indian population, they do nothing to increase the share of gambling revenue that goes to non-gaming tribes. On top of it, the flawed agreements include a growth inducing fee formula that ensures larger and larger casinos for these four money-flooded tribes.

What they don’t ensure is that the state will see its share of money promised in the compacts. Previous compacts had a transparent fee per machine plan that allowed all parties to complete a simple task of counting machines and applying the agreed upon fee structure. Moreover, this transparent fee per machine discourages the proliferation of slot machines and is consistent with the limited exception voters granted Indian tribes in 2000.

The unfair Big 4 Gambling Compacts have a new scheme. The scheme would allow the tribes to declare the “net win” per machine and then pay a percentage of the self-regulated amount to the state.

There is currently a lawsuit by a former agent of the state gambling commission which is raising many of the concerns people have with a “net win” formula that was in earlier 1999 compacts. Later compacts resolved that issue by relying instead on an accountable, easily verifiable per machine fee. Sadly, the Big 4 deals did not include that more accountable fee structure.

Here’s how a San Francisco Chronicle editorial described the problem with the Big 4 compacts: “They’re horrible deals for the state. … They allow the tribes themselves – instead of an independent auditor – to determine the amount of net winnings that would be subject to revenue sharing with the state.”

While it is possible to have an honest difference of opinion about the Big 4 compacts, it is difficult to understand why some feel the need to engage in misguided activities to try and undermine the effort to put the agreements before voters.

Should you experience any blocking effort that makes you feel uncomfortable participating in what every California voter should understand is his and her right to vote on these matters, then please report the problem to the Secretary of State’s voter fraud hotline at (800) ) 345-VOTE (8683).

I was encouraged by my experience Wednesday realizing that California voters are very familiar with their referendum/initiative/recall powers and want to participate. It was also clear that paid thugs like those hired by the Big 4 tribes could easily scare away intimidated voters.

Please stand up for our rights, report intimidation and join us in February by voting down the unfair Big 4 gambling compacts which will send them back to the negotiating table.

Cheryl A. Schmit is the Founder and Director of Stand Up for California and has been involved with issues associated with Indian gaming for many years. Stand Up For California acts as a resource of information to community groups as well as local, state and federal policy makers. Her activism includes speaking engagements to community groups, local government and professional organizations. She has organized and hosted conferences in Sacramento. She sits on the Tribal County Advisory Committee in Placer County developed to provide a public forum and voice in the ongoing developments of the United Auburn Indian Community gaming facility.

Crisis in Water, Absent Senators

( – promoted by Robert in Monterey)

I have not posted anything here for quite a while.  Frankly, most of my political time has been spent becoming more educated on the issues surrounding California’s Water Crisis.  What I figured out is that it is just basic common sense.

I have been posting most of my observations on my main blog, California Greening.   I have been reading Aquafornia almost every day lately. This all leads to some interesting conclusions.

A. The primary focus of the environmental movement  is on Global Warming.  Not enough attention is being paid to the issues of water, even though those two are intimately related.  Global warming will make the ocean level rise.  It will change rainfall patterns.  It may make some current dams useless as they will not catch enough water to keep their reservoirs full. California environmentalists need to pay more attention to water.

B. The local newspaper coverage on the “water crisis” is pretty good. Much of it is summarized faithfully at Aquafornia (link above).  The editors of all the major papers seem to understand the urgency (Orange County Register is not one, though.)  They differ somewhat in their idea of the proper solution, but they all seem to understand the we have put off doing anything and it is now time to pay the piper.  I have summarized much of the editorial coverage at CA Greening.  As I indicated before, on the extreme Libertarian views of the OC Register fail to understand the need to spend a dime.  They don’t understand global warming either.

C.  It is really important to follow the special session of the legislature called by the Guv.  This will be an ideological battle.  It may happen in a short time. Schwarzenegger wants it on the February Primary Election ballot and that means action in Sacramento no later than mid-October. Hah!  If they do get it on the ballot for February, it just may be that they have to deliver two versions, Schwarzenegger’s and Perata’s. Highest vote total wins.

The real reason for doing it in February is that there is generally not a very high turnout in a primary election, even a presidential primary.  So, they will want to sneak this through.

D.  The focus on the “progressive netroots” on Iraq, etc. will prevent their being much of a participant in this unless we do something (like I am trying to do now) about getting them energized. 

E.  In the marketplace of idea, the survivors often are the ones with the biggest Ad Budgets.  This may be the Governor and the Association of California Water Agencies.

F.  The biggest question for us all is whether or not the general voter will care enough to think about water until the faucet is shut off or the levees fail, just as they did in NOLA.

This is truly worth spending a lot more time on and I hope that you all do just that.  I also hope that you will help me put increasing pressure on our legislature to make sure we do the right thing, not just look to grab all the water for their favorite user… which is normal practice for a legislator. 

Do you believe in miracles?

Monday, September 24, 2007
Shoot for the Stars

With only 6 days left before the third fund raising reports are due, the Obama Campaign is posed to once again make history. We are well with-in reach of having 350,000 individual contributors who together will make 500,000 contributions. Oh, we will have raised millions and millions of $ but that is not the story. The story is about 350,000 individual citizens like us who have been so moved by the message of Hope and Change of the Obama campaign that they are, most for the first time ever, are contributing their own money to a poltical campaign. In small amounts of $10 and $25 they are speaking not so much from their pocketbooks as from their hearts. They want to once again have their country act in a way that they can be proud to say, I am an American. They believe, and want their country and their fellow citizens to once again believe in equal chance to be all that you can be. To have fairness and equal justice regardless of your race, gender or sexual orientation. They want a country that is eager to join hands, roll of their sleeves and together find solutions to our common problems. These Americans like ourselves understand that no one person can do it alone. But 350,000 can become 3 million and 3 million can become 30 million and more. And when that happens, anything is possible; even miracles. YES WE CAN…YES WE CAN…YES WE CAN

Posted by Paul Servelle at 12:11 PM 0 comments 

While California Dreams- Weekly Update Vol.1 No. 16

This article written by: Former Assemblymember Hannah-Beth Jackson of Speak Out California

A weekly update on the goings-on in Sacramento
For the week ending September 22, 2007

Key bills and issues we’ve been following during the past week and beyond

Now that the regular session of the legislature has ended and a variety of bills are waiting the Governor’s approval or veto, the special session is in full gear. The big battles over water and health care reform have taken over the stage front- and -center. And with Hillary Clinton’s unveiling of her version of healthcare reform, the issue has become even more prevalent in political debate not only in California, but nationwide.

With a new report from the Public Policy Institute of California coming out this week as well, we’ve seen how the failure to produce meaningful healthcare reform and a swift resolution of the annual budget stand-off has impacted the popularity of our Governor and the legislature. Not good news for either side.

Talk of ballot initiatives already moving along, plus threats of new ones emerging for 2008 continue to gain public attention and comment. With the veto last week by the Governor of the Iraq War initiative, which would have allowed Californians to register their opinion on that military and political fiasco, some of the interest has been muted in the early measures, but there is still enough out there (not the least of which are the Presidential primaries) to keep the public interested for the next several months.

And now for the week’s goings-on please visit our website HERE

UAW Workers Face Tough Negotiations in California – Not Just Detroit

You may have heard today’s news that UAW is striking at General Motors over stalled contract negotiations in Detroit.

You may not know that UAW Local 2865 is bargaining with the University of California (UC) right now as well.

At every UC campus, the UAW represents more than 12,000 academic student employees – tutors, teaching assistants, and other academic workers. The UAW represents more student workers across the country than any other labor union. The contract which governs the employment of these UC teachers and tutors expires this Sunday, September 30. (I’m one of those UC employees, working as a teaching assistant at UC Santa Barbara. As a member of UAW 2865, this article is my personal opinion and does not necessarily reflect the position of the union.)

Bargaining with the UC hasn’t been much easier than bargaining with GM. In both cases, management has been stalling at the bargaining table, and refusing to take responsibility for employee health care, wages, and basic worker’s rights. Back in my first year at UCSB, my union was forced to call a strike due to the UC’s unlawful negotiating tactics. The UC does things like failing to provide information, failing to send negotiators with the authority to bargain, and they are famous for canceling or changing the time and location of bargaining sessions at the last minute. All of these sorts of tactics are illegal, and it appears like the UC is bargaining in bad faith yet again this year.

The stakes for workers are high both in Detroit and in California. The UC has proposed canceling full health insurance for all teaching assistants and tutors. The UC has also proposed making student employees pay expensive registration fees, ending their current practice of paying academic fees for employees who also are graduate students. The UC has proposed a real cut in wages, and looking for ways to keep costs down by increasing class size, the UC has also resisted better contractual workload protections for teaching assistants and tutors. The UAW’s proposals protect health care and protect the quality of education at the UC. Why would UC resist these proposals?

The University of California might be one of the finest institutions of higher learning in the world – but they have a terrible track record when it comes to employee relations. Governor Schwarzenegger and the UC regents have raised student fees every year for the past four years. While providing hefty bonuses for high-level administrators, the UC’s benefits package for workers is now so weak as to be completely uncompetitive with other American universities. Tuition is so high for international students and in-state students alike, that the UC will continue to have difficulty attracting talented students and teachers. While Schwarzenegger looks to spend billions of public dollars to build more prisons, the UC is stagnating.

By demanding a higher standard, the UC workers represented by the UAW play a special role in the struggle for progressive values like health care, education, and workers’ rights. Be ready to support the UAW as it strikes in Detroit, and also if the UC forces teachers and tutors to strike here in California.

Labor & Healthcare–The Issue of Our Time

The UAW’s strike against GM is not just about their members’ healthcare…but also about the healthcare of millions of people not represented by a powerful union.  We’ll look at the potential impact of this historic strike and what it means for workers and the nation that is healthcare increasingly becoming the central issue for labor, both in bargaining and activism…

…cross-posted at the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association’s Breakroom Blog, as we organize to make 2007 the Year of GUARANTEED healthcare on the single-payer model.

You probably know that the UAW has called a national strike against GM.  This is the first auto strike since 1976, the first strike against GM since 1970…and the first strike since the AFL endorse a “Medicare for All” style guaranteed healthcare plan.

And what are they fighting for?

G.M., in return, had pushed for the creation of a trust that would assume responsibility for its $55 billion liability for health care benefits for workers, retirees and their families….Union officials criticized G.M. for continuing to pay bonus compensation to its executives, while pressing U.A.W. members to make concessions.

No one keeps the stats, but about 90 percent of strikes are caused by the issue of healthcare.  The labor movement remains at the heart of the movement to protect and expand access to healthcare for all people, while employers are looking to get out of the healthcare field.  It is cruel and short-sighted of employers to just want to drop benefits rather than look for solutions that are in everbody’s interests.  Don’t take my word for it.  Ask GM Canada:

Just two years ago, GM Canada’s CEO Michael Grimaldi sent a letter co-signed by Canadian Autoworkers Union president Buzz Hargrave to a Crown Commission considering reforms of Canada’s 35-year-old national health program that said, “The public healthcare system significantly reduces total labour costs for automobile manufacturing firms, compared to their cost of equivalent private insurance services purchased by U.S.-based automakers.” That letter also said it was “vitally important that the publicly funded healthcare system be preserved and renewed, on the existing principles of universality, accessibility, portability, comprehensiveness and public administration,” and went on to call not just for preservation but for an “updated range of services.” CEOs of the Canadian units of Ford and DaimlerChrysler wrote similar encomiums endorsing the national health system.

And guess what?  It’s only going to get worse.  Just like GM will try to dump their U.S. employees out of the healthcare system, and end their own interest in solving the healthcare crisis, many of the healthcare reform proposals being floated by politicians will encourage the same thing to happen. 

Let’s look at the emerging deal between Schwarzenegger and the legislature in California:

Employers spend between 12% and 15% of payroll on average for health care, and CNA fears either the 4% or 7.5% plan would encourage them to move to high-deductible insurance policies with limited services, Communications Director Chuck Idelson said.

“If you think we have a lot of labor strife now over health-care benefits, wait until this plan goes into effect,” Idelson said of the Democratic bill.

Unlike employers, labor unions, however, won’t give up the fight for guaranteed healthcare.  Why?  Because more and more employers think of Medicaid and charity care as their health benefit.  And now even healthcare workers are in danger of losing their healthcare. 

Strikes like the UAW’s will help us build momentum for guaranteed, single-payer healthcare-and force corporations to really grapple with the crisis.  The rapid unionization of America’s RNs will also provide the movement with a committed, organized, knowledgable group of activists who are personally committed to improving patient care. 

As UAW is standing up to GM, California’s nurses will take the lead in standing up to the fake healthcare reform bill that is being pushed by a “coalition of the willing” Sacramento insiders.  Healthcare hero Sen. Sheila Kuehl, author of the groundbreaking single-payer bill SB 840, gives an update on the strategy:

  “I continue to believe that the movement that’s been building for single payer, a movement that has seen support for a single payer universal health care system more than double over the last six months alone, will continue to build in ’08 in’09 in 2010,” Kuehl said. “Then, with a new governor, perhaps there might finally be a chance to get a signature on the bill that is actually the best solution for businesses, for employees, and for all the people in California. Because if you take the insurance companies out of the system, and they are the only entity that adds no value at all to the provision of health care, the overall costs for health care in California drop $19 billion in the first year alone, simply because we’re finally not paying their inflated overhead and profit.” 

And finally, Zenei Cortez, RN, a member of the Council of Presidents of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee issued the following statement on the UAW strike:

America’s registered nurses recognize that the UAW is standing up not just for their own healthcare-but for the healthcare of all our patients.  The California Nurses Association and National Nurses Organizing Committee strongly supports their efforts, and will continue to work to see guaranteed healthcare won for autoworkers and everyone else in this nation.

To join the fight for guaranteed healthcare (with a “Medicare for All” or SinglePayer financing), visit GuaranteedHealthcare.org, a project of the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association.

Lobbyists influence continues to spread

  Isn’t it amazing
The Obama Campaign & Movement 

Lobbyists continue to extend influence
Posted 9/20/2007 11:41 AM

Okay be honest, you expect this to be about you know who. Well, not today sweet heart. No this is not about the darling of MSM pundits, Ms. HRC (don’t be too disappointed after all she is getting a lot of ink, air-time and blog time about her embracing lobbyists as a useful partner in a democracy). In, dare I say it, another local paper, I found this quote: “Those who have the ears of decision makers have an advantage over those who don’t.”

This bit of wisdom comes from Moreno Valley City Councilwoman, Bonnie Flickinger. She was quoted in a story titled, More cities turning to lobbyists by Dan Lee in today’s The Press-Enterprise. Other inland cities identified as employing Wash. DC registered lobbyist, include Hemet, Moreno Valley, San Jacinto and Temecula. I wonder about Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Indian Wells and other Coachella Valley cities.

I guess this is defended in the same way we did as children when our parents caught us doing something we should not be doing. The old canard, “Well, geez, everybody else is doing it.” Remember our parent’s end of conversation  response? “That doesn’t make it right and that doesn’t make it okay.”

Just because HRC and desert cities use registered lobbyists doesn’t make it right, and it doesn’t make it okay.
 

(80th AD) San Bernardino, Riverside Building Trades Council Endorses Greg Pettis’ Bid

The following is based on a news release that I received from the Greg Pettis campaign for the 80th AD.

The San Bernardino, Riverside Building Trade Council of the State Building & Construction Trades Council endorses Greg Pettis’ bid for the 80th Assembly District.

For Immediate Release:  September 24, 2007

For More Information:  Richard Oberhaus
  760-413-7938

PETTIS ENDORSED BY BUILDING TRADES

The San Bernardino, Riverside Building Trade Council, the local
  affiliate of the State Building & Construction Trades Council, represents 32 locals and over 11,000 workers
  throughout the Inland Empire and they are joined by the 198 locals
  across California with over 350,000 workers supporting Greg Pettis.

“We are pleased to support Greg Pettis for Assembly,” said Bill
  Perez
, Secretary-Treasurer of the San Bernardino, Riverside Building Trade Council. “His 13-year record in Cathedral City demonstrates his
  commitment to working families.”

The local Building Trade Council joins the Riverside/San Bernardino Labor
  Council
, Riverside Mayor Ronald Loveridge, Palm Springs City
  Councilmember Ginny Foat
, Desert Hot Springs Mayor Alex Bias, Cathedral City
  Councilmember Paul Marchand
, El Centro City Councilmember Sedalia Sanders and
  former Coachella Mayor Juan DeLara in supporting Pettis .

Pettis is considered the Democratic frontrunner in the race to replace
  Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, who will be stepping down due to term
  limits. He has raised more money and has more donors than all the other
  Democratic candidates combined based on the last filings with
  California’s Secretary of State.

He has a long list of accomplishments including making homes more
  affordable for first-time homebuyers, creating safer routes to school for
  children, negotiating the Multi-Species Habitat Program and standing up
  to Wal-Mart’s unfair labor practices.