All posts by David Dayen

California

Lots of California Republicans Can’t Raise Money

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I noticed this before Swing State Project codified it, but there were some stunning numbers in the Q1 Congressional fundraising reports that augur well for Democratic upsets in November.

We know that Charlie Brown is raising tons of money and has close to $600,000 cash on hand, and his challengers are spending all their money in a bruising primary race (Doug Ose has a million dollars in debts on his books).  We know that three California challengers raised six figures in the first quarter (Brown, Russ Warner and Nick Leibham) and have been consistently doing so.  What’s notable is the lack of fundraising prowess among key Republicans.

Dean Andal is supposed to be one of the top GOP challengers in the whole country.  Yet he could only manage $90,000 in the first quarter, which considering how much effort the GOP is putting into his race is embarrassing.

More interesting to me are the incumbents.  David Dreier raised $136,000, not all that much more than Russ Warner’s $110,000.  Dan Lungren raised around $100,000, not much more than Bill Durston’s $75,000 (very respectable for his grassroots campaign).  And then there are two in Orange County that are shocking.  Dana Rohrabacher was OUTRAISED by Debbie Cook in CA-46: $47,000 to $39,000.  And Cook didn’t get a full quarter in because she didn’t announce until late January.  (On a similar note, Julie Bornstein was able to raise $29,000 in just a few weeks after her announcement).  And in CA-42, Gary Miller was outraised by Ed Chau, a carpetbagger from Montebello, and if you add in Ron Shepston’s total Miller was significantly outraised by his challengers.

That’s quite incredible.  Miller and Rohrabacher might be dismissing the effort against them, and they still have plenty of cash on hand.  But as a symbol of support in the district, clearly Democrats have the momentum all over the state.  We’re going to be very competitive this cycle, and if one of these districts hits, the cash-poor NRCC and the pathetic fundraising prowess of these Republicans isn’t going to save them.

California, education

Bottom-Up Change Comes to California

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Over the last three days, organized labor has been working in solidarity with one another in a project called Hollywood to the Docks, a three-day march and protest involving both Change to Win unions and AFL-CIO members, from the Teamsters to SAG, from the ILWU to the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports.  They’ve literally walked from the heart of Hollywood to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach for the last three days, concluding with a concert on the docks tonight and appearances by Speaker-Elect Karen Bass and LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Next Monday, April 21, will be a day of action across the state put together by a coalition called Students for California’s Future, representing 3.2 million students, with major rallies planned in Los Angeles and at the state capital.  They are rallying against cuts to education and the university system, and this will be just the beginning of a year-long effort to call attention to education funding.

And tomorrow, at 4:00 at the ABC/Disney headquarters in Burbank, in protest of the historically awful, content-free Democratic debate aired on ABC last night, the Courage Campaign and local LA activists are going to offer lapel pins to Disney employees.  Otherwise, their network news anchors George Stephanopolous and Charles Gibson will think they hate America, which they obviously wouldn’t want. (We’ll have a lot more on this later)

Angered by eight years of conservative failure and inspired by a fiercely contested Democratic primary, a rejeuvenated grassroots is building all over the country and in California.  Find an organization that speaks to you.  Participate.  Organize.  And inch by inch, we’re going to take this state and this country back.

Uncategorized

CRAFT To Replace CRaP

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OK, this is pretty hilarious.  Remember when Larry Dodge, the guy who was going to retire the California Yacht Party’s entire debt, threatened to withhold three million bucks unless the party overhauled its inept operations?  Well, I guess he got his answer, because now he’s starting up his own organization outside the party.

A who’s who group of California Republicans will announce on Wednesday the formation of a new political organization whose mission will be to recruit and elect GOP candidates to statewide office in California.

The group will be chaired by Larry Dodge, the wealthy Republican donor who has been unhappy with the organization of the California Republican Party accusing the party of lacking “professional management.”

Former California GOP Chairman Duf Sundheim will serve as executive director of the group, which is calling itself California Republicans Aligned for Tomorrow (CRAFT).

This is a party defined by giving tax breaks to yacht owners, and so its richest donors build a new group called CRAFT… which is another word for yacht.  You can’t make up this stuff, folks.

The Yacht Party’s richest members have such little faith in their party organization that they decide to build a new one, in the fleeting hope that somehow THAT was the problem, and not a set of policies that Californians almost unilaterally reject.

I must say that the Courage Campaign must be flattered over this imitation, the difference of course being that they are committed to empowering members from the bottom up, while CRAFT sounds pretty top-down to me.  In fact, it’s unclear that this is anything but a money-laundering organization that can be more flexible than the state party.  All the same players are involved.

Among those set to announce the group’s formation on a Wednesday conference call include both GOP legislative leaders, Assemblyman Mike Villines and Sen. Dave Cogdill, Party chairman Ron Nehring, former Gov. Pete Wilson, Rep. David Dreier, the chair of the California Republican congressional delegation, freshman Rep. Kevin McCarthy and Assemblywoman Sharon Runner.

Six old white guys and one old white guy (George Runner)’s wife.  CRAFT diversity fever – catch it!

In the spirit of comity, I’ll offer one word of advice: don’t kick off your conference call by noting how much your candidates totally suck.

The new group notes that since 1994, Republicans have won only four of 24 possible statewide elections in California.

Budget, Health Care, Prisons

This Is A $25 Billion Deficit Now

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California’s prison health care czar is asking for seven billion dollars to improve prison medical care.  Before you think this sounds like a luxury, actually it’s mandated

As the state faces a chronic budget deficit of at least $8 billion for the fiscal year that begins July 1, paying off both prison bond packages would cost taxpayers more than $1.2 billion a year over the next quarter-century.

“This issue is not an elective,” said Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer. “It is a directive. We are under a federal court order to bring the level of health care in our correctional system up to a constitutionally acceptable standard after years and years of under-investment. So in a sense, we are having to catch up for years where this was not adequately financed.”

The alternative is mass release, which to most legislators in Sacramento is not an alternative.  The federal receiver urged some kind of resolution without delay.  We just passed AB900, which called for $7.4 billion in prison expansion bonds.  Now here’s another $7 billion in the same sector.  Lawmakers are not pleased.

Legislators gulped hard Monday as the financial toll of future prison construction rang loud and clear.

Add up the interest and principal on two years’ worth of prison bonds, and the annual hit on the general fund over the next 25 years would be $1.2 billion.

“It borders on the incredible,” said state Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, at a budget hearing on prison bonds.

Actually, what borders on the incredible is that you think you can keep throwing nonviolent offenders in jail and raising sentences for decades and not have that come back to haunt you.  Nobody funded the ancillary structures associated with the prisons and they fell into disrepair.  If you don’t address issues immediately they become more costly.  What’s so hard to figure?

These should not be funded through bond trickery again.  It’ll cost the state four times as much in the long run to do so.  The prudent thing to do is actually bite the bullet and pay it now, or release enough prisoners to comply with the federal magistrate.  Your choice.  You made the bed, now lie in it.  This is a $25 billion dollar deficit now.  Deal with it.

California

John McCain’s California Campaign Manager’s Sparkling Résumé

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John W. McCain has set up a series of “regional campaign managers” who will oversee the campaign throughout the country.  Take a look at the guy they got for California.

John McCain’s campaign has tapped John Peschong to serve as regional campaign manager for California, Republicans close to the campaign said.

Peschong has been a campaign adviser since 2007. He has a large amount of experience in California, having served as GOP executive director there in the 1990s and recently as Northwestern political director for the Republican National Committee in 2004. He was also executive director of Dan Quayle’s political action committee.

So, he helped run the Yacht Party during the Wilson and post-Wilson years just when it ran aground and became the sorry shell it is today.  He was Northwestern political director for the RNC in a year where Republicans lost the swing states in the Pacific Northwest and lost the governorships in Washington and Oregon.  And he was executive director for QUAYLE’s PAC.

Top-notch talent coming out for McCain in California.

Uncategorized

Schwarzenegger Will Oppose Initiative To Ban Gay Marriage?

Hmm…

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says if an initiative to ban gay marriage qualifies for the November ballot, he’s prepared to fight it.

California’s governor was in San Diego today speaking at the annual convention of the Log Cabin Republicans, the nation’s largest gay Republican group.

Schwarzenegger said he was confident that a ban would never pass in California but called the effort “a waste of time” — joking that he wished activists would focus on allowing naturalized citizens to run for president instead.

Notice of course who he was speaking to.

Now, Arnold has vetoed bills legalizing gay marriage on two occasions.  And each time he has retreated to referencing the Knight Initiative and saying that “the people have spoken” on this matter.  Now, however, he’d like the people to speak in a different way, I guess.

Wonder what’s going on here…

Uncategorized

Annals of Los Angeles Times Journalism

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I know that the traditional press is experiencing budget cuts and staff shortages, but there’s never a good reason to use Debbie Schlussel, the low-rent Ann Coulter, as a source.  However, Peter Wallsten of the LA Times did just that yesterday in a smear of Barack Obama.  Schlussel is someone who blamed Pakistanis for the Virginia Tech massacre.  She’s a fearmonger of the rankest kind who is so unhappy about her position in the sewers of the pro-hate insaneosphere that she routinely emails cable news outlets daily reminding them of her availability.  She should not be within 100 yards of anything that makes its way into respectable newsprint.  And yet she was a source for this terrible Wallsten article.

The evidence Wallsten presents is scant and hardly alarming: Obama said nice things about Rashid Khalidi at a going away party for the respected Palestinian scholar, who moved from the University of Chicago to the Columbia University; he attended a speech by the late Palestinian expert Edward Said in 1998; he occasionally made statements supportive of Palestinians to Palestinian activists he knew in Chicago.

Yet the implicit tone of Wallsten’s article suggests that Obama is not to be trusted on matters relating to Israel. Left aside is the fact that one can be pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel (at least in Chicago). Or the fact that the majority of Israelis support a two-state solution to the conflict, the same position held by Obama. MJ Rosenberg brilliantly parodied the gist of the Times’ article in a blog post at Talking Points Memo today: “LA Times Today: Obama Not To Be Trusted, Doesn’t Hate Arabs!!”

I used to work for Sen. Carl Levin, a Jew and a strong supporter of Israel, who is a close friend of the Arab community (in part, because he represents more Arab Americans than any other senator). I’ve seen Carl at Palestinian dinners (last year I saw him at one with Condi Rice). In fact, Joe Lieberman, not exactly an enemy of the State of Israel, has always gone out of his way to keep an open door to Arab-Americans, Palestinians and others.

In other words, this article is utterly bogus. Yes, Obama has empathy for Palestinians, just as he has empathy for Israelis. The man is naturally empathetic which will help repair some of the damage inflicted to our country’s image by the current xenophobic administration.

If Arab-Americans and Palestinians trust Obama and think he plays fair, he will have considerably more leverage with them than either of the other two candidates who are not perceived that way. As Congressmen Bob Wexler and Steve Rothman, both Obama supporters, like to say, an American President who can speak to and be heard by Arabs can do a much better job in helping Israel and the Palestinians achieve peace and security than a President who is considered utterly unsympathetic to their concerns.

This is something to pay attention to and not dismiss, because the “Obama is an anti-Semite” rhetoric has been amped up as we approach the general election.  It’s foul nonsense, and Peter Wallsten, along with the LA Times’ editorial staff, ought to know better.  Of course, they believe people off the street who tell them that P. Diddy killed Tupac, so I guess this isn’t all that surprising or unbefitting of their editorial standards.

Uncategorized

Obama Campaign Does the Right Thing

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One thing I’ve noticed about the Obama campaign is that it reflects the candidate, in that they actually bother to listen and respond.

And so:

David Plouffe just sent out this email…

There has been an extraordinary outpouring of grassroots support for Senator Obama among Democrats and Independents in all 53 California Congressional districts.

In recognition of this tremendous enthusiasm, our campaign has asked the California Democratic Party to allow all persons who have filed to be a district delegate candidate for Senator Obama at the Democratic National Convention to participate in the caucuses this Sunday, April 13, 2008.

We are confident that delegates elected from this pool will reflect the Senator’s commitment to a diverse and unified delegation at the National Convention.

An overwhelming number of supporters have signed up to run for delegate, so there will likely be lines and tight space at the caucus locations. We ask for everyone’s patience and cooperation.

Most of all, please enjoy this opportunity to meet other Obama supporters and elect delegate candidates to the Convention in Denver.

If you have any questions, please contact Daryl Sprague at [email protected].

Thanks for your interest and active participation in Barack’s campaign to change politics and change America.

David

David Plouffe

Campaign Manager

Obama for America

In the end, the weird randomness of the pruning and anger from sections of the grassroots necessitated this.  I didn’t have as big a problem with it as everyone else, but I’m glad it reached a good resolution… until Sunday, that is 🙂

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Budget

Evening Open Thread

Some links that I’ve picked up along the way:

• Assemblymember and former Banking Committee Chair Ted Lieu had a good piece yesterday on the foreclosure crisis and how continuing a laissez-faire attitude toward a deregulated lending industry is a recipe for even more disaster.  AB 1830 is the vehicle to crack down on irresponsible lenders and ban risky loans.

• Steve Wiegand writes about the circuitous route the Governor has taken this year, first toward fiscal austerity, then toward revenue enhancement, and everywhere in between.  Schwarzenegger is completely squeezed, knowing his legacy and reputation is on the  line and at his wit’s end over how to bridge the chasm between Republican intransigence and a way forward for California.

• The California Labor Fed has released its endorsements for legislative races.  Not a lot of surprises here, nor a lot of variance from the CDP endorsements, although Carole Migden and Bob Blumenfield didn’t see their endorsements vacated on the convention floor.  The Labor Fed can endorse multiple candidates in one race, which allows them to wiggle out of some of the more contested primaries (in AD-14 they actually had a TRIPLE endorsement).  The Labor Fed does bring member education, and in some cases money and volunteers, so it’s not a little thing.

• Wired’s Autopia looks at LA’s future in mobility.  In a word, I would call the report frustrating.  It’s basically going to take forever until the city truly has the transit system it deserves; right now, just 7% of the city uses mass transit.

• Mayor Villaraigosa takes a strong stand against ICE raids.

“I am concerned that ICE enforcement actions are creating an impression that this region is somehow less hospitable to these critical businesses than other regions,” Villaraigosa wrote in a March 27 letter to Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security […]

In his letter, Villaraigosa said ICE has targeted “established, responsible employers” in industries that have a “significant reliance on workforces that include undocumented immigrants.”

“In these industries, including most areas of manufacturing, even the most scrupulous and responsible employers have no choice but to rely on workers whose documentation, while facially valid, may raise questions about their lawful presence,” he wrote. He said ICE should spend its limited resources targeting employers who exploit wage and hour laws.

“At a time when we are facing an economic downturn and gang violence at epidemic levels, the federal government should focus its resources on deporting criminal gang members rather than targeting legitimate businesses,” said Matt Szabo, the mayor’s spokesman.

In general I agree with worksite rules enforcement, but the issue does seem to be out of proportion and balance.  It’s selective.

• This is a really interesting and refreshingly honest article by Brad Plumer on the SEIU/UHW situation.

Uncategorized

Yoo’s Law: And Why We Cannot Be Silent

As I wrote earlier today, the revelation that top-level officials in the White House actually debated what interrogation techniques to use on high-value targets, including torture, just sickens the stomach.  In this context, it’s clear that torture lawyer John Yoo was writing a document that was already written – a justification for the most heinous of crimes.  That the Administration had to dip all the way down into the mid-level of the Justice Department, bypassing even the Attorney General, shows how difficult it was to find a cad willing to cover up their misdeeds, someone willing to disgrace the office and disgrace himself.  

Yoo was a pawn bit none of this absolves him from blame.  House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers would like a word with him.  Attorneys for Ali al-Marri, a so-called “enemy combatant” at Guantanamo, are using the memo to make the legal argument that his detention was actually illegal, since the memo was eventually withdrawn after al-Marri was captured and detained based on its legal theories.  The “footnote” contained in the memo, that a previous memo waived the Fourth Amendment with respect to “domestic military operations,” is causing Administration officials all sorts of grief on Capitol Hill.  (That worm Mukasey, by the way, wouldn’t say whether or not the Fourth Amendment waiver memo has been withdrawn.)

And now the National Lawyers Guild has called on Yoo to be disbarred and removed from the Boalt Hall School of Law, and for the Congress to repeal that part of the Military Commissions Act which gives him essentially legal immunity for his crimes.

In a memorandum written the same month George W. Bush invaded Iraq, Boalt Hall law professor John Yoo said the Department of Justice would construe US criminal laws not to apply to the President’s detention and interrogation of enemy combatants. According to Yoo, the federal statutes against torture, assault, maiming and stalking do not apply to the military in the conduct of the war.

“John Yoo’s complicity in establishing the policy that led to the torture of prisoners constitutes a war crime under the US War Crimes Act,” said National Lawyers Guild President Marjorie Cohn.

Congress should repeal the provision of the Military Commissions Act that would give Yoo immunity from prosecution for torture committed from September 11, 2001 to December 30, 2005. John Yoo should be disbarred and he should not be retained as a professor of law at one of the country’s premier law schools. John Yoo should be dismissed from Boalt Hall and tried as a war criminal.

For those who want a “variety of views” to be expressed in the academic sphere, I think the National Lawyers Guild has a broader perspective about the First Amendment and freedom of expression.

There are things we can do at home as well.  First, Mark Ridley-Thomas’ resolution on torture must be passed, and used as a means to discover more about how medical professionals served this lawbreaking and who was involved all the way to the top of the chain of command.

As we recently commemorated the non-violent life and legacy of Dr. King, we cannot ignore the immorality of war that, he said, ravages our economy and “mutilates our conscience.”

Nowhere is that “mutilated conscience” more evident than in the alarming issue of health professionals involved in torture in the Iraq War […]

Reports from the International Red Cross, The New England Journal of Medicine, the British Medical Journal, military records, and first-person accounts, provide overwhelming evidence that military physicians and psychologists have directly participated in the development and cover-up of torture and abuse of detainees in U.S. custody.

Medical professionals are reported to have advised interrogators as to whether particular prisoners were fit enough to survive physical maltreatment, informed interrogators about prisoners’ phobias and other psychological vulnerabilities that could be exploited during questioning, failed to report incidents of alleged torture, force-fed prisoners who were on hunger strikes, and altered the death certificates of prisoners who died […]

As professional licensure and codes of ethics are regulated by states, California has the obligation to notify members of laws concerning torture that may result in their prosecution.

This week, I will put to a vote Senate Joint Resolution 19 on the floor of the Senate that states that the U.S. Department of Defense has “failed to oversee the ethical conduct of California-licensed health professionals related to torture.” […]

Torture is much more than a political issue. It is an ethical, moral and spiritual issue that has not only become a shame, but it is an evil in our midst.

Dr. King would not remain silent on an issue of such moral importance. Nor will I. Dr. King repeatedly warned us that, “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.”

And perhaps most important, on April 14 at the Bancroft Hotel, Yoo will make a public appearance in an event with Georgetown Law Professor David Cole and others.  Perhaps citizens who stand against the torture and murder of human beings in service to a failed theory of extreme executive power ought to stop by and let him know how you feel.  

April 14, Bancroft Hotel.  Be there.

UPDATE: The American Freedom Campaign has also called for the dismissal of John Yoo.