Happy to have the press attention about the “secret” meeting at her DC home, DiFi said:

Mrs. Feinstein said she did not need to urge Mrs. Clinton to hold a meeting. “I didn’t urge anybody to do anything. I know it’s a natural instinct. People, particularly in this case because Hillary represents a very large bloc of voters — the largest ever for anybody that has come in No. 2, and has the popular vote.

Yeah, Dianne, that's what we need to create party unity: misinformation. Keep up the good work.

The California Supreme Court made the right call again!  

The bigot opponents of equal rights filed a petition asking the California Supreme Court to have another hearing on its decision to grant all couples the equal right to marry.  The equal rights opponents also asked the Court to stay this decision until after November, which is when they are asking California voters to approve an initiative which would write discrimination into California's Constitution. 

The Supreme Court just denied both requests. It did so by the same 4-3 split that decided the May 15th case in the first place.  Chief Justice George and Justices Kennard, Werdeger, and Moreno voted to deny the bigot's petition.  Baxter, Chin, and Corrigan again sided with the bigots and voted for the rehearing.

As a consequence of the Court's decision today, the last obstacle has been removed and the Court's May 15th decision will go into effect at 5:00 p.m. June 16th!  Who's planning the party?!

In less than two weeks, all couples in California finally will have the equal right to get married.

Mark Leno finished the night with an incredibly strong showing.  With 100% of the precincts now reporting, Mark Leno won the election with 43 percent of the vote.  Joe Nation had 29 percent and the incumbent, Carole Migden, had 27 percent.

Congratulations, Mark, on a campaign that was both well fought and very well received.

At his victory party last night, Mark Leno spoke directly to the divide that this primary contest has created in the progressive community and in the LGBT community.  He called on all of us to put this primary behind us and come together in unity to begin to fight the heinous anti-marriage initiative that is on the ballot in November.  And he is right.  If we (meaning both Mark’s supporters and Carole’s supporters) can keep the momentum and harness the passion that has been poured into this race from both sides and apply that to fighting this discriminatory initiative, we will certainly prevail in November.  

I hope Senator Migden joins Mark’s call for uniting together as a community for this important goal.

Regardless of how you feel about Carole Migden, one thing is clear: she will not be the next Senator from SD-3. In every poll, she comes in a distant third. It's a two person race between Mark Leno and Joe Nation. And Carole Migden staying in this race only serves to siphon off votes from Mark Leno and make it more likely that Joe Nation will be the next Senator.

The corporate interests are salivating at the chance to have someone like Joe Nation in the Senate to do their bidding for them. That's why they have spent more than $340,000 to send out pro-Nation mailers.  That's why his list of donors is a Who's Who of corporatist values. (Go to the flip if you want the details)

We must keep this seat in the hands of a solid progressive like Mark Leno. The only way we can do that is if all progressives put the Leno/Migden bickering behind them and stand with Mark Leno. Anyone who casts their vote for Carole Migden is, in effect, voting for Joe Nation.   Please don't.

So, who's funding Joe Nation's bid?

Those who don't like rent control

San Francisco Apartment Association PAC – $3,200

California Apartment Association – $3,600

Grubb & Ellis' Real Estate's Senior V.P. – $2,000

Those who don't want injured people to be allowed fair compensation:

Civil Justice Association of California – $340,000+

Cooperative of American Physicians: $100,000

MICRA California PAC of Norcal Insurance Co. – $3,600.00

MEDPAC – $3,600

The Doctor's Company PAC – $3,600 

Cooperative of American Physicians – $3,600 

California Defense Counsel PAC – $3,000.00

Wondering Why Joe Nation Voted Against Jackie Spier's Privacy Legislation?

Visa USA – $1,500

And let us not forget Greenberg Traurig (the former employer of Jack Abramoff) – $1,000

The list goes on.  And on. 

The race in Senate District Three is essentially between Mark Leno and Joe Nation.  Mark Leno is the proven progressive.  Joe Nation is pretending to be a progressive in order to skate through to victory.  His true stripes, however, are unquestionably pro-corporate.  In case there was any doubt that Joe Nation is in the pocket of big business and will quickly drop his progressive charade if elected, the recent expenditures for his campaign put those doubts to rest.

The anti-consumer, “tort reform” group Civil Justice Association of California recently spent $240,000 sending out mailers for Joe Nation. A group like this does not spend a quarter million on a politician without expecting something in return. What does this anti-consumer organization expect in return?  You need look no further than their own description: “Industry-sponsored California group, advocating legal reforms to restrict tort recovery.”

Put simply, groups like this want politicians to put business rights ahead of consumer rights.  They want to erase or water down all of California's laws that protect injured consumers and introduce new laws that protect businesses at the expense of taxpayers and consumers. 

Joe Nation already has proven that he will side with businesses over consumers.  For example, he joined the Republicans and the credit card companies and voted against Jackie Spier's landmark privacy legislation.  He has sided with Republicans and the insurance companies in opposing a single-payer health solution.  Now, Joe Nation has 240,000 new reasons to side with the anti-consumer, pro-corporate interests. 

Joe Nation is no progressive.  Don't be fooled into thinking he is.

(dKos link. Here’s an ActBlue Page to fight against the marriage initiative. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

4-3 DECISION!!   THE GOOD GUYS AND GALS WON!!!!!

The decision can be read here.

The conclusion of the majority is:

in light of the conclusions we reach concerning the constitutional questions brought to us for resolution, we determine that the language of section 300 limiting the designation of marriage to a union “between a man and a woman” is unconstitutional and must be stricken from the statute, and that the remaining statutory language must be understood as making the designation of marriage available both to opposite-sex and same-sex couples.  In addition, because the limitation of marriage to opposite-sex couples imposed by section 308.5 can have no constitutionally permissible effect in light of the constitutional conclusions set forth in this opinion, that provision cannot stand.

The Court goes on to say: “

Plaintiffs are entitled to the issuance of a writ of mandate directing the appropriate state officials to take all actions necessary to effectuate our ruling in this case so as to ensure that county clerks and other local officials throughout the state, in performing their duty to enforce the marriage statutes in their jurisdictions, apply those provisions in a manner consistent with the decision of this court. 

 Hmmm, “appropriate state official”?  Who might that be?  Oh yeah, Mark Leno!

And a nice little touch concludes the directive: “Further, as the prevailing parties, plaintiffs are entitled to their costs.”  Ha!! Take that bigots!

Justices Baxtar, Corrigan, and Chin dissented.  All of them, however, wrote that they believe that same sex marriages should be recognized.  However, they do not believe that the Constitution mandates such recognition.

The Court holds that “Seperate but  Equal” is not permissive in this context for three reasons:

First:

because of the long and celebrated history of the term “marriage” and the widespread understanding that this term describes a union unreservedly approved and favored by the community, there clearly is a considerable and undeniable symbolic importance to this designation. 

Second:

particularly in light of the historic disparagement of and discrimination against gay persons, there is a very significant risk that retaining a distinction in nomenclature with regard to this most fundamental of relationships whereby the term “marriage” is denied only to same-sex couples inevitably will cause the new parallel institution that has been made available to those couples to be viewed as of a lesser stature than marriage and, in effect, as a mark of second-class citizenship.

Third:

it also is significant that although the meaning of the term “marriage” is well understood by the public generally, the status of domestic partnership is not.  While it is true that this circumstance may change over time, it is difficult to deny that the unfamiliarity of the term “domestic partnership” is likely, for a considerable period of time, to pose significant difficulties and complications for same-sex couples, and perhaps most poignantly for their children, that would not be presented if, like opposite-sex couples, same-sex couples were permitted access to the established and well-understood family relationship of marriage. 

Barack Obama was crucified a couple weeks ago for making a comment that people who are economically disenfranchised find themselves turning to things like religion because they no longer believe the government will help them. 

The front page story in the San Francisco Chronicle's business section really brings home truth of this idea:  

[Rocky] Twyman – a community organizer, church choir director and public relations consultant from the Washington, D.C., suburbs – staged a pray-in at a San Francisco Chevron station on Friday, asking God for cheaper gas. He did the same thing in the nation's Capitol on Wednesday, with volunteers from a soup kitchen joining in. Today he will lead members of an Oakland church in prayer.  

Yes, it's come to that.  

"God is the only one we can turn to at this point," said Twyman, 59. "Our leaders don't seem to be able to do anything about it. The prices keep soaring and soaring."

 While perhaps not politically palatable, it seems that the truth of what Obama said cannot seriously be denied.

In an admittedly unscientific online poll at the Marin Independent Journal's website, among the two viable candidates in the Senate District 3 race, Mark Leno is leading Joe Nation by a wide margin. Leno has 66.7 percent of the vote to Nation's 27.5 percent.

In the “is she really still here?” category, Carole Migden registers a whopping 5.8 percent.

Cast your vote and see the latest numbers here.

I am fairly certain that it was the money we raised for Leno during last week's Calitics Challenge that gave him the “Calitics Bump.”  Keep contributing  to his campaign here. 

Earlier this week, I challenged the Calitics community to contribute to Mark Leno by promising to match all contributions up to $500 made on the Calitics ActBlue page through Friday night.  The challenge was a success.  In fact, we raised more than $500.00.    

Ten people contributed a total of $550.00 to Mark's campaign.  I have matched the entire $550.00.  So together, we raised a total of $1,100.00 for Mark's campaign.  Thanks to everyone who contributed for making this challenge a success!

Mark still needs our help.  So feel free to keep contributing to his campaign right here.

 Thanks again!

If you read Spots or have ever had the opportunity to see me fail in trying to start a chant, you know I have a big mouth.

So here's your chance to make me put my money where my mouth is.

I am going to match, up to $500, the contributions made to Mark Leno's campaign through the Calitics Act Blue page through midnight Friday night.

See why on the flip, and donate right here:

Although Migden has imploded, she continues to play the spoiler role in this race. It's now a two-person race. In one corner we have Mark Leno, a champion of some of the most progressive legislation in California. In the other corner we have Joe Nation, who is one step away from being a Republican. SD-03 is a solidly Progressive district that would be best represented by Mark Leno. But Migden's refusal to drop out of a race that she cannot win creates the very serious risk that Nation could win.

Seeing the rare opportunity for a conservative to pick up what should be a safe Progressive seat, the conservative interest groups are lining up to funnel money into Joe Nation's campaign. The HMOs are salivating at the possibility of having someone like Joe Nation represent SD3 and do their dirty work in Sacramento to obstruct any hope we have of rational healthcare in California. All the while, Carole Migden is going to be using her illegal campaign funds to unfairly attack Mark Leno.

Mark Leno has always supported the netroots, has attended several Calitics events, and was the first guest on the Calitics podcast. So let's get together and help support him. Open up your wallets and make me open up mine.  $5?  $10?  $50?

DONATE HERE!