Welcoming Sarah

I’m heading down to Carson this morning to see the mavericky magic happen. Sarah Palin will be holding a “Road to Victory Rally” at The Home Depot Center with “Your California Ticket.” Yeah, good luck with that.

The Courage Campaign banner blaring the message “Sarah Palin, Thanks But No Thanks: ‘No’ On Prop 4!” will be flying overhead (it’s an open air event) from around 12:30pm through the duration of the event. Can’t wait to see people’s reactions. If you haven’t yet, you can help out with the cost of our aerial welcome message to Sarah Palin HERE.

While there, I’ll be stopping by the pro-Obama protest and the California Democratic Party’s giant screen of questions for Palin. Not surprisingly, it’s being freeped, apparently one submission ended with “Reps rule, Dems drool!” You can submit your own HERE. As I’m not convinced I’ll even get into the media area, let alone have wireless at the event, I’ll be documenting the atrocities at the Courage Campaign Twitter page — if you’re not following yet, you should be! I’ll also be sending pictures to my mobile blog HERE.

And as a bonus, another mavericky picture from when I went to pick up my ticket in the extended entry.

(disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign)

Here is the stream of the CDP’s ask Palin a question screen outside of the event.

Free TV : Ustream

CA-46: Rohrabacher tries to solve RFK murder… in drag???

(It’s a bizarre story. Isn’t it about time that the 46th is represented by a leader focused on what’s important, like say Debbie Cook? – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

I’m… speechless.  This latest piece from the OC Weekly reveals that Rohrabacher actually thinks the “Arabs” were responsible for assassinating Robert F. Kennedy, and decades later visited Sirhan Sirhan in prison… in drag???

According to a September 25, 2008, Pasadena Weekly article by Carl Kozlowski, Rohrabacher believes that the Los Angeles Police Department has for 40 years hidden the fact that Sirhan Sirhan, the lone man convicted of shooting Kennedy, worked as part of a “real conspiracy” of Arabs.

Why? Well, Rohrabacher–a rabid right-wing Republican who has bragged to me and other reporters about his, uh, longtime personal ties to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)–claims he was in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles for a party at the same time Kennedy was murdered in the kitchen.

Ponder that admission for a moment and then consider the congressman’s incredible tale.

More of the disturbing tale below the fold.

In early 2007–39 years after the killing and right around the time that he blamed global warming on dinosaur flatulence, Rohrabacher decided to solve his murder mystery for “the Kennedy family.”

Anyone familiar with Rohrabacher knows this story is now headed for unadulterated, wacky bliss.

At some point, Sirhan sent Summer Reese, one of his lawyers, a letter telling her that “a Diana was coming to see him.”

Reese told Kozlowski, “Sirhan didn’t know it was the congressman because his visitor was presented as a woman.”

Rohrabacher. Undercover. In drag. Using the name Diana?

Perhaps this sheds light on why ex-Congressman Bob Dornan (R-Garden Grove) liked to call Rohrabacher “a fruitcake.”

What were you doing at Corcoran State Prison in California, Diana/Dana?

“I went to see [Sirhan] specifically because I believe he didn’t act alone and that the full story of Bobby Kennedy’s assassination has not been known,” he said. “I would like Sirhan Sirhan to finally, at long last, level with the Kennedy family and the American people, whether to clear his soul as part of his Christian beliefs or try to set the record straight.”

I need to go pick my jaw up off the floor now.

Oh, and here is the Pasadena Weekly article that was referenced.

Reese also criticized Rohrabacher’s visit to Corcoran to see Sirhan in early 2007, saying “We got a letter from Sirhan, who was told a ‘Diana’ was coming to see him,” she recalled. “Sirhan didn’t know it was the congressman because the visitor was presented as a woman.”

Reese said Sirhan was told the person was coming to talk about the atrocious conditions he faces in solitary confinement. “So, of course, he said sure, send this person in.”

Reese said no one on Sirhan’s legal team was informed of the meeting, and when Rohrabacher arrived with two aides, she claimed he “repeatedly badgered him to admit he did the killing to clear his conscience. The two aides tape recorded the whole thing and Sirhan felt very used and abused by the process.”

The timing of the visit was highly suspicious, Reese said. “Why visit after all these years, unless they’re worried about whatever new legal proceedings will produce and trying to torpedo that by getting him to admit something he didn’t do?” she asked. “We never received an answer from Rohrabacher’s office about why he was there, or tapes of the conversation that were made while he was in there. They admitted they were there, but there’s no explanation from Rohrabacher or his aides. He was not there for justice.”

Now, that piece doesn’t say if Rohrabacher was actually in drag; it seems he was just pretending to be a woman to… well… I don’t know why.  Does Sirhan refuse to accept male visitors or something??

I’m officially creeped out now.

Charlie Brown on “hell to pay”

There’s a weekly feature from now through the election on Daily Kos that’s called “Hell to Pay”, in which a contest is held among candidates from the Orange to Blue ActBlue page.  The winner of the contest has a special fundraising drive held for them on DailyKos on Saturday night.  The winner can usually count on racking up donations into the five figures.

Calitics favorite and CA-04 Congressional candidate Charlie Brown is one of this week’s contestants.  Voting is open right now, so if you have a DKos account, go vote.

P.S. I absolutely love Dan Seals, the candidate in IL-10.  Personable, friendly, wickedly smart, very receptive to the netroots, and an all around good guy.  It’s a Chicago suburb that we should be able to win and hold.  I hope he wins next week.  But right now, let’s get Charlie Brown an extra boost and send Tom McClintock back down to my neighborhood to go lose an election for some other office.

Prop Watch

Welcome to a probably not-so-regular feature, offering the latest news on the ballot propositions.  The Calitics Editorial Board will be out with their endorsements on these initiatives sometime next week.

• Prop. 1A: A lot of good stuff on this race at Robert Cruickshank’s California High Speed Rail blog.  For instance, Arnold has come forward with his support:

There is far more economic opportunity in fighting global warming than economic risk….We shouldn’t let the budget crisis hold back good things for the future. 20 years from now you can’t look back and say “well they had a budget crisis so we didn’t do it.” Just because we had a problem with the budget does not mean that people should vote “no” on high speed rail. Our rail system in America is so old, we’re driving the same speed as 100 years ago, the same system as 100 years ago. We should modernize, we should do what other countries do…We should start in this state, we should show leadership.

Absolutely, especially when you consider that initiatives which reduce emissions routinely save money and improve quality of life.  A recent study showed that HSR would be a tremendous economic benefit to the Central Valley, with $3 billion in direct benefits and the creation of over 40,000 new construction jobs.  You can add that to the reduction of billions of pounds of CO2 annually, which would be significant in that region at a time where interest groups are successfully suing the city of Fresno for its failure to curb pollution and protect the environment.

In other news, The LA Times has come out in favor, and check out this neat little graphic anticipating the train route.

• Prop. 2: You can see it by clicking on the ad on the side, but, you know, Piggy Wonder deserves some main-page love.  Joe Trippi is apparently involved in the Prop. 2 campaign, which would help stop animal cruelty; I got an email from him promoting this video.

• Prop. 5: The LA Times has a series of profiles on all the propositions, and here’s their edition on Prop. 5, which would finally increase treatment for nonviolent offenders like drug users instead of warehousing them at our overstuffed prisons.  Opponents are smearing this by saying its true intent is to legalize drugs, but the failed Drug War is the great unmentionable sinkhole in state and national budgets, and a smart policy emphasizing rehabilitation is desperately needed, especially in California.  The No on 5 people must have better spinmeisters, however, as most of the newspapers in the state have come out against the measure.  Right, because the policymakers have done such a stellar job in sentencing law, we should just leave it to them.

• Prop. 8: An update on those million yard signs that were “in route” from China to the Yes on 8 campaign: they’re still not here.

It seems that the signs, some of them outsourced overseas, didn’t all arrive in time for the September event. And many still haven’t reached supporters of the measure that would amend the state Constitution to ban gay marriage.

“It takes longer to get a million than we thought,” said Sonja Eddings Brown, deputy communications director for the Protect Marriage coalition […]

Brown tried to spin the production glitch as a positive thing for the campaign — a sign, so to speak, of the overwhelming demand for lawn signs by voters who wanted to participate in “the most unprecedented and largest grass-roots effort ever attempted in California.”

Oh that’s just a FAIL.

Meanwhile, when the most reactionary editorial board in the state, the Orange County Register, comes out against your proposition, you know you’re having a tough time selling it.  As for the right-wing boycott of Google for opposing Prop. 8, the website orchestrating it advises its supporters to follow the fate of the proposition – on Google News.

I think I’m going to miss this initiative, it’s been hilarious so far.