Remember how the little girl from Hillary’s 3AM ad turned out to have grown into a young woman who was working her ass off for Obama? Well, there is now a California version. The girl from the Yes on Proposition 10 ads has a simply devastating response ad blasting the initiative.

She goes through it all. How the Sierra Club and every major environment group oppose Proposition 10. How the League of Women Voters says Proposition 10 misspends $10,000,000,000. How the Chair of the Air Resources Board says Proposition 10 increases global warming. And bonus points for pointing out how the wasted money will probably go out of state.

No wonder a Texas oilman has dumped $19 million into the Yes campaign — it is but a small investment. Vote no on Proposition 10.

Like many of you, I am increasingly worried about how an early call in the presidential race will affect turnout in California during the critical hours before the polls close. And I’m not encouraged by a giant No on 8 party starting at 6 PM and the email I received this morning that Jackie Speier’s election night party will start at 7:30 (polls don’t close until eight). When it comes to GOTV, volunteer all the way until the end, regardless of what went on in the east coast. That is why I love this new program by the California Democratic Party (from email):

Finally, think about all your friends and family in California who will share that joy with you. Is there a chance, even a small chance, that if they hadn’t voted by 6pm, people you know just might not vote at all? Maybe they’ll just be tired after a long day at work. Maybe they won’t be quite sure where to vote. Maybe they’ll see a long line at their polling place and figure “Obama’s gonna win California, so why bother?”

Help us make sure that your family and friends don’t give into temptation. Help us make sure your friends and family vote to defeat Propositions 4, 8 and 11 by sending them a quick text message.

Research shows that one of the easiest and most effective ways to get someone you know to vote on Election Day is to send a text message reminding them to vote. There is no better person to remind your friends and family to vote than you!

Use our free tool today to write an Election Day text message to your friends and family in California and we will send it to them for you on November 4th.

http://www.txtoutthevote.com/p/ca

Take a minute and set it up today. And spread the word.

Howie Klein has a look at the state of congressional races in California as voters are heading to the polls in what should be a tsunami year for Democrats.

Over the flip…

The most likely district to go from Republican to Democrat this year is CA-04 where corrupt Republican incumbent John Doolittle– along with the equally corrupt Mrs. Doolittle– will soon be headed for prison and the GOP is trying to slip in an ideological doppelganger in the form of L.A. right wing extremist Tom McClintock. First McClintock, widely seen as an interloper and carpetbagger, will have to get by the Democrat who came close to beating Doolittle in 2006, local boy Charlie Brown, a retired Air Force Lt. Colonel known for standing up for working families.

There are two other Blue America candidates running strong races, Russ Warner in CA-26 and Debbie Cook in CA-46, both awakening red districts represented by entrenched rubber stamp Republicans David Dreier and Dana Rohrabacher. No one ever mentions the two most glaring anomalies about the two Republicans: Dreier is a hypocritical, self-loathing closet queen who takes his lover/overpaid chief of staff on exotic vacations all over the world at taxpayer expense; and Rohrabacher is out of his mind and the biggest– probably only— supporter of Taliban terrorists in Congress. Instead, battles in both districts are being fought on familiar turf– both incumbents have taken massive amounts of “donations” from special interests like Big Oil and commercial banking and insurance and have always voted for their interests instead of the interests of the working families in their districts.

Three other California Democrats are making credible cases to displace out of touch incumbents. Up near Sacramento, far right extremist Dan Lungren is facing his stiffest challenge ever from Bill Durston. Meanwhile Mary Bono Mack, who doesn’t have any connect to her district any longer, is getting a run for her (big corporate contributors’) money from Julie Bornstein. The sixth challenger with a real shot at winning is Nick Liebham who’s taking on corrupt rubber stamp lobbyist Brian Bilbray in Northern San Diego County. This afternoon Nick talked with me about Bilbray’s shameful record concerning veterans. “Bibray’s voting record as it concerns veterans really speaks to his distorted priorities and values,” said Nick. “Irrespective of how you feel about the war, and I have called for a timeline to withdraw our troops, we as a nation have an obligation to provide for our heroes when they return home.  Brian Bilbray will send them to a war into perpetuity but wont send them to college.  He is a disgrace.” Nick’s campaign got a tremendous boost in the last couple of weeks when a local hero, former Marine Gen. Joe Hoar not only endorsed Nick, but started campaigning for him and cut a devastating TV commercial as well.

As Howie notes, the disgusting decision by Democrats to focus on an incumbent protection redistricting following the 2000 census means that we are in the second cycle in a row where it is unbelievably difficult for Democrats to take advantage of a nation that has realized Republicans are an awful choice. While it is important to talk to your parents about voting Republican, it is quite difficult to beat them in California. So if you live in a competitive district, please do all you can to help out. And since it is likely you don’t live in a competitive district, sending money is helpful. And hopefully, following the 2010 census, Democrats will follow a Burton redistricting model that is far more Phil than John.

( – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

For some unknown reason, Sunday’s New York Time begins a puff piece on Steve Schmidt with this anecdote:

ST. PAUL – It was what aides to Senator John McCain describe as probably the worst night of his campaign. As Senator Barack Obama claimed the Democratic nomination before a cheering sea of faces on national television, Mr. McCain countered with a lackluster speech in a half-empty hall, posed in front of a pea-green screen that became fodder for late-night comedy.

Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser to Mr. McCain who worked on President Bush’s campaign in 2004, could barely hide his fury in the coming days, as he announced – to anyone who would listen – that he would personally make certain the McCain campaign would never again embarrass Mr. McCain.

“Fun Steve is dead,” Mr. Schmidt said.

Unbeknown to NYT scribes Adam Nagourney and Jim Rutenberg, fun lived on, in fact in far funnier terms just last Thursday as the McCain campaign embarrassed McCain even better — during the largest audience of his career. Fun Steve made many laugh. According to Politicker CA the, “Democratic side of the California political blogosphere exploded with delight Friday afternoon as word of an embarrassing gaffe in Sen. John McCain’s acceptance speech Thursday at the Republican National Convention spread.”

Hell, even the NYT Times headlined (Friday), “McCain and the Green Screen” while The Oregonian headlined, “GOP oops?: McCain’s rematch with the green screen”, and CNN went with, “Seeing Green during McCain’s speech”. It was also picked up from The LA Times to Contra Costa Times to Hartford Courant to Boston Globe to friggin Agence France-Presse. Ouch all around.

On so many levels, this is a rich statement by the RNC Convention’s Parliamentarian:

California Rep. David Dreier said Palin’s daughter’s pregnancy demonstrates her connection to other families who have similar issues.

Ah, empathy from an unmarried congressman who is trying to connect with voters instead of answer the questions about McCain’s vetting process for who he thinks should have their finger on the trigger if his cancer catches up with him.

But it isn’t about the daughter of Palin (who will probably join the Harriet Miers club faster than you can say “troopergate”). It is about McCain’s reckless recklessness. Here he goes again, the polls showed that if he put Joementum on the ticket he’d be hated by everyone but Joe Klein so instead he over-reacted to his advisers and put on somebody with literally no qualifications and obviously zero vetting as troopergate is more than enough for her to look less mentally unbalanced than Eagleton.

But here in California, once again we have David Dreier working against the facts. Nobody thinks an abstinence-only/creationism debate is going to help the GOP, yet David Dreier sticks out his credibility once again to be a Rubber Stamp for the Bush Administration. This time, the Third Bush Administration.

On so many levels, this is totally uncool:

Most political observers expect that if Feinstein were to run, she would be the overwhelming favorite, since she is the best known and has been popular in the state since her 1992 election to the Senate.

“If she decides to enter the race, it’s cleared,” California Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres said.

Over the flip are reasons why I think this is uncool:

Here are a few of the reasons why this is uncool:

• Either Art Torres is a fool when it comes to media or he is intentionally trying to clear the field.
• Either Art Torres hasn’t been paying attention to why Hillary and Lieberman lost or he is lying to the press about DiFi’s inch deep support carrying her through.
• Either Art Torres is out of the loop with the campaigns that are going forward or he is making assumptions against the evidence that the other campaigns realize DiFi can and will lose.
• Either Art Torres doesn’t care that he made an ass of himself when DiFi lied to him about retroactive immunity or he is willing to burn what little crediblity he has left in the hopes of trying to get the California Democratic Party to have a crappy nominee.

Why doesn’t Art Torres want the CDP and Democratic voters to have a choice?

Few events have proven the folly of letting people who hate government run government like Hurricane Katrina. Everyone predicted the flooding of New Orleans was one of the “three likeliest, most castastrophic disasters” along with a terrorist attack on NYC (Bin Laden determined to strike US) and a San Francisco earthquake, yet the Republican Party’s focus on hating government has already crossed off 2/3 of the worst case list.

Is Karma getting getting involved in the news cycle?

NEW ORLEANS (AP) – On the eve of Hurricane Katrina’s third anniversary, a nervous New Orleans watched Wednesday as another storm threatened to test everything the city has rebuilt, and officials made plans to evacuate people, pets and hospitals in an attempt to avoid a Katrina-style chaos.

Forecasters warned that Gustav could grow into a dangerous Category 3 hurricane in the next several days and hit somewhere along a swath of the Gulf Coast from the Florida Panhandle to Texas – with New Orleans smack in the middle.

Taking no chances, city officials began preliminary planning to evacuate and lock down the city in hopes of avoiding the catastrophe that followed the 2005 storm. Mayor Ray Nagin left the Democratic National Convention in Denver to return home for the preparations.

This is looking to hit on the eve of the GOP Convention. Yet I doubt Republicans will change the program to talk about global warming and effective government and protecting America. And speaking of the RNCC, are any obstructionist legislators planning to go to the convention while still holding the state hostage to the tyranny of the minority?