Daily Archives: October 24, 2007

Central Valley, Coachella Valley, Marriage Equality, San Diego

Message to George Bush & Arnold: Where is the National Guard?

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(I’m going to promote this because it’s starting to get a good deal of attention. Half of the equipement needed by the Naitonal Guard to aid in recovery and assistance is not in the state, and we’ve known about this for months. Sen. Boxer raised this concern yesterday. It’s hampering efforts and I think it’s worthy for consideration. – promoted by David Dayen)

Dear George W Bush & Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger:

Where is the National Guard?  Why is not the National Guard involved in protecting the people of Southern California, San Diego County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County, Ventura County, and Los Angeles County from the fire storms?

Might they be in Afghanistan?
Might they be in Iraq?
Might they be on the border of California & Mexico?

Is it not the job of the President and of the Governor to insure the safety and security of persons and property in the State rather than in an ill-conceived overseas venture?  Just a thought.

Coachella Valley

Blue Palm Springs: Get-Out-The-Vote Rally & Fundraiser for the Desert Stonewall Democrats

Once upon a time, you looked out across the Coachella Valley and all that you saw was sand, desert, windmills, golf courses, persons of a certain age, and lots and lots of Repugnants.  But, as you should know by now, the times, they are achangin’!  Palm Springs, Desert Hot Springs, Cathedral City, Indio, and Coachella each gave a majority of their votes to the Kerry/Edwards ticket in 2004.  In the CA 80th Assembly District, the Democratic voter registration outnumbers that of the Repugnants by about 13,000!!!  The city council of Palm Springs has a majority Democrats including the outgoing mayor, Ron Oden, and City Councilpersons Ginny Foat and Steve Pougnet.  The Cathedral City City Council enjoys the benefit of having two Democratic members including Greg Pettis and Paul Marchand.  The City Councils of Palm Springs and of Cathedral City each has three openly-gay council members (if in Cat City, you count the member who is only openly gay in the predominantly gay Cove district and is a member of the Log Cabin Repugnants but is closeted in the hetero parts of Cat City).

To celebrate the Bluing of the Coachella Valley, the Desert Stonewall Democrats threw a Get-Out-The-Vote fundraising party in order to support its slate of candidates in the upcoming November 2007 local elecctions!  Steve Pougnet, Candidate for Mayor of Palm Springs, John Williams, Candidate for Palm Springs City Council, Rick Hutcheson, Candidate for Palm Springs City Council, Craig Ewing, Candidate for the Water Board, Jono Hildner from NO ON C, Adam Sanchez Candidate for Mayor of Desert Hot Springs, Karl Baker, Candidate for Desert Hot Springs City Council, Ginny ‘Ma’ Foat, Palm Springs City Council, Greg Pettis, Cathedral City Mayor Pro-Tem and Candidate for the CA 80th AD, Paul Marchand, Cathedral City City Council, and George Zander, President of the Desert Stonewall Democratic Club, amongst others, hosted the soire.

More details and names are named below the flip…

Steve Pougnet, Candidate for Mayor of Palm Springs, was quite knowledgeable about the electorate and is a Gary Bosworth-in-waiting.  Meaning, he has quite the grasp of the Palm Springs voter stats.  Pougnet clued this writer into the 13,000 registration advantage that the Democrats have over the Repugnants in the CA 80th AD.  Also, he reported that he has quite the ad campaign hitting the stands in the upcoming ‘Bottom Line’ and elsewhere.  Check it out for some great pics of the Candidate for Mayor and his amazing family.

John Williams, Candidate for Palm Springs City Council, was quite the socializer.  He attended the Desert Women for Equality Board Meeting prior to also attending the Desert Business Association Mixer, and then the DSD fundraiser.  Rick Hutcheson also ran the Monday night gauntlet, attending both the DSD fundraiser and the DBA meeting.  Craig Ewing was quite knowledgeable re the water needs of the District and will give waterboarding a good name (pun intended…please cite me as a reference in the retelling).

George Zander, President of DSD, and Bob Silverman, Treasurer of DSD mingled and schmoozed with the revellers.  Tracy Turner, of Vets for Peace had a great anti-war sticker that he promised to get me.  Jono Hildner of No on C circluated easily and was quite well received.  Mike Balassa and Carol Balassa, leaders of PFLAG-Coachella Valley, regaled me with stories of the Equality California Fundraiser.  Apparently, Carol was quite the socialite and Mike the bon vivante!

The event took place on Monday, October 22, 2007 from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at the Look Restaurant in Downtown Palm Springs.

If you were unable to attend and still wish to send money, Zander says to send it to:

Desert Stonewall Democrats
31855 Date Palm DR #3 PMB #275
Cathedral City CA  92234

San Diego

Bill Richardson: Neighbors Help Neighbors in Need

This displaced Southern Californian sends her most heartfelt gratitudes out to Governor Bill and the New Mexico firefighters for their generosity. Bill also donated $10,000 to the Red Cross to help assist in the recovery efforts. This has led me to believe that under a President Richardson administration, the National Guard will be home to support their fellow citizens in a time of natural emergency. That is just one reason why I support Richardson for president.

http://www.dailykos….

Bill Richardson ordered New Mexico firefighters today to assist in bringing the devastating fires in Southern California under control. He noted, “Neighbors should help neighbors in their time of need.”

This is another illustration of Richardson’s leadership skills in operation. Richardson’s vision of neighbors helping neighbors, however, is not limited to domestic matters. Last week Richardson gave a well received speech in Iowa on the role the U.S. can play in improving the welfare of the planet and human race.

California

Elizabeth Edwards at The Women’s Conference 2007: “Live Deliberately”

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For the first time in history,  Presidential candidates’ wives from both parties sat on a panel together at the Women’s Conference 2007.  Democrats Elizabeth Edwards and Michelle Obama and Republicans Jeri Thompson, Ann Romney, and Cindy McCain shared their views and experiences of being a candidate’s wife with an audience of 14,000.

The  nonpartisan discussion was dominated by descriptions of the challenges of balancing family, work and a political campaign, all while remaining grounded. The participants generally agreed on the role of a candidate’s wife in a Presidential campaign. Elizabeth Edwards stated that the idea of candidates’ wives as “strategists is overplayed.”

Following the Candidates’ Wives Panel, Elizabeth delivered a moving speech in honor of women surviving breast cancer.  

Oh, and if you are wondering about Hillary’s spouse Bill,  yes he was invited. According to First Lady of California Maria Shriver, who hosted the Conference, he was asked to come and serve coffee, but declined.

Watch highlights of Elizabeth Edwards at the Women’s Conference 2007 here:

Elizabeth Edwards: “Live Deliberately”

San Diego

Third Fire Thread – One Million Evacuees

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( – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

The Associated Press is reporting that one million people have now been evacuated throughout California.  1,300 homes have been consumed in the fire, and efforts have moved from putting out the blazes to just saving buildings.  Until the winds subside tomorrow, that's going to be the bulk of the efforts. Use this as a new thread. Thanks to flickr use vissago for some powerful photos.

The Los Angeles County Public Health office has updated their 211 page to reflect resources to assist Southland Fires 2007. Here's the page from San Diego County San Diego County Fire information. Speaker Fabian Nunez and the Assembly Dem Caucus have a new Emergency Services Website.  Here's one Google Map with Fire information, and another, KPBS Google Map of San Diego fires.

Blood donations are greatly needed. The San Diego Blood Bank will hold blood drives Tuesday at two wildfire emergency evacuation sites, Qualcomm Stadium and the Del Mar Fairgrounds, officials said. We'll update with tomorrow's blood donation schedule. If you would like to donate money, our recommendation is the San Diego Foundation's After the Fire Fund. You can donate online here.

 Here are some phone numbers to get information:

Animal Evacuations: 818-991-0071
Arrowhead Schools 909-499-9900
Buckweed, Canyon Fire: 323-881-2411
Coronado Hills Fire: 619-590-3160
Grass Valley Fire: 909-383-5688
Harris, Rice, McCoy Fire: 619-590-3160
Irvine: 714-628-7085
Lake Forest 714-628-7085
Malibu: 310-456-2489
Orange County 800-540-8282
Ranch Fire: 626-574-5208
Riverside: 909.988.3650
Roca Fire: 951-940-6985
Santa Clarita Evacuations: 661-295-6366
Santiago Fire: 714-573-6200
Sedgewick Fire: 805-681-5546
Slide and Witch: Fire 619-590-3160
US Forest Line: 626-574-5208

UPDATE (3:30am Brian): The 5 is closed near Camp Pendelton(b/w 78 and Cristianitos) due to a fire on the base. Traffic is being rerouted back to I-15. The Witch Fire and the Poomacha fire are close to converging, if they haven't already. Add'l Mandatory Evacuations: Fallbrook (again), Bonsall, San Luis Rey Heights and Winterwarm

UPDATE (9:45pm) Here are some statistics to take note of. 420,424  acres burned, 1,115 homes burned, 881,500 people evacuated.

UPDATE (8:04pm Robert) OC's Santiago Fire has burned a dozen homes in Modjeska Canyon – and has made an ominous turn back toward the south. Trabuco Canyon, O'Neill Regional Park, and Rancho Santa Margarita are potentially threatened. OC Sheriffs have closed roads leading into those areas, but no evacuations have yet been ordered.

 UPDATE (6:53pm Shayera) A little bit of good news. The fire that broke out in Acton this afternoon appears to have been fully contained.   

UPDATE (6:13pm David) Someone tell me what Rush Limbaugh's on about here.  It's actually unreadable.  It's just a mish-mosh of every bugaboo tangentially related to California and nature just drizzled on top of one another.  I honestly can't find the unifying thread.  There's class envy, global warming denialism, anti-government screeds, all squished together with a cherry on top.

I've been looking at these fires from my California town (which is near the beach so I'm not supposed to live here, according to Rush, even though humans have organized around bodies of water for 10,000 years, and Rush himself lives – wait for it – by the beach), and a lot of things have gone through my head about the fires, but never once did I think to BLAME somebody for them. 

California

Democratic Clubs of California unite

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so that the national leadership hear our voices.  A group of Democratic Party clubs in Northern California have decided to communicate with one another via a list-serve hopefully that will link together all of the Democratic Clubs in Northern California or even possibly the whole state.  The motivation for this is from a strong sense that the clubs have traditionally been used to support the national party and receives instructions from the state and national party but that mechanisms for communicating back up were lacking.  Especially in recent months we have seen some of our more active members leave because of frustration with the actions of Democratic representatives in Congress. Recently our club has started to take on national positions and communicating them to the state and national level.  Surprisingly, we have received some feedback indicating that our voices are being heard.  Therefore, we decided to set up a communication network with other clubs to let them know what we are doing and to invite them to also take such actions and let us know what they suggest.  Hopefully, collective action from multiple clubs could get our voices heard, especially over all of the opaque lobbying activities that seem to determine the outcome of so much congressional action.  We see this as an extension of the grass-roots and net-roots efforts to influence national party position on major issues.

As an example our first suggestion is to send letters to our representatives urging them to try to constrain an out-of-control Bush-Cheney from going to war with Iran.  Our club sent:

“The Executive Board of the Davis Democratic Club in Davis California has expressed serious concern about the numerous threats made by US officials against the nation of Iran.  Among other actions we are seriously concerned by the recent Kyle-Lieberman amendment that declares sections of the official Iranian military forces as a terrorist organization.  We believe that given the wording in the authorization to engage in military action against Iraq from October of 2002 that this latest vote could be interpreted as expressing the will of congress to engage in military action against Iran.  Last winter many of us as individuals voiced our concern about this dangerous situation and were reassured by some that congress was working on a resolution to request direct authorization for military action against Iran.  This putative resolution was inexplicitly tabled by Speaker Pelosi.

In light of these concerns the Executive Board of the Davis Democratic Club has passed by a vote of 15 to 0 a resolution urging that Senators Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein and our Representative Mike Thompson work on reinstating a resolution and work on passing the said resolution that resolves the following.

1) That no previous congressional resolutions have authorized the Executive branch of the US government to engage in military action against the state of Iran.

2) No military action against the state of Iran will be conducted unless congress exercises its constitutional prerogative to declare war against that country.”

And we would urge others to do likewise.

This will be a pass-word protected list-serve where one person from each club will have posting privileges.  If you belong to a club that might be interested in joining please contact Claude Garrod at:  Garrod at pro2 dot abac dot com. Include in your message the name of your club and the name and email address of the person who will represent the club and have listing privileges.  This project is still being put together and we invite any suggestions for ways that it might be improved.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Blog Roundup, Environment, Health Care, San Diego, San Francisco

October 23, 2007 Blog Roundup and Open Thread

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Today’s Blog Roundup is on the flip. Let me know what I missed in comments, or just use this as an open thread.

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Read This

Southern California is
Burning

Republicans Renew Dirty
Tricks Campaign While Socal Burns

Dem Leadership Fails
(Peter Stark and Us)

Local

The Rest