That’s what the banner flying over Mitt Romney’s Orange County fundraiser said today. Why?

First it was Wisconsin. Then it was Ohio. Now the Koch Brothers, Karl Rove and the Tea Party have their eyes on an even bigger prize: the eighth largest economy in the world. Home to 35 million people, 10% of the nation’s population. Yep. The ultra-right Koch Brothers with the help of Karl Rove and the Tea Party have just made a major investment in deep blue California.

The Koch Brothers and Karl Rove recently joined the Lincoln Club, Charlie Munger, Jr. and a few other billionaires to buy passage of Prop. 32 in California this November.  If Prop. 32 passes, 3 million members of labor unions will no longer have the ability to participate in politics.  Why? Because Prop. 32 tells the lie that it would get money out of politics in California when what it really does is get worker money out of politics and double down on the ability for corporations and the wealthy to buy their own private legislation.

The Kochs, Mr. Rove and Mr. Munger understand that in this Citizens United world, the only bulwark against a complete takeover by big companies and the uber rich is organized labor (you know the folks that brought you the 40 hour work week and a little thing called the weekend). And the only way members of unions can participate in politics is by signing up for payroll deduction so that their union has the money to fight for or against candidates and ballot measures who seek progress, not an exaggeration of the wealth gap.  Individual union members simply cannot express their voice if they cannot pool their money.  Can you imagine a $12 an hour janitor hiring a lobbyist in Sacramento to fight the Kochs?  Of course not. But 100,000 janitors can pool their money and keep the Kochs and Bain and Mitt Romney from firing them if they get sick or have a baby.

The Kochs and Rove understand that if they can keep union money out of politics, they win hands down. If Prop32 passes in California, one-third of SEIUs political budget is gone, with sizeable chunks taken from the AFL-CIO and just about any other big national union you can think of.  

You may or may not “like unions.” Like any other institution, they are not monolithic, are run by fallible human beings and don’t always move a perfect progressive agenda. But if you care even one whit about the successes we’ve had on maternity and paternity leaves, freedom of speech at the work place, increasing the minimum wage, basic decency between the boss and the worker, then you’d better care a lot about Prop. 32.  

If you cared about Howard Dean having a voice and reshaping politics when he ran for president, you’d better care about this because unions backed him at a crucial time.  If you care about Democrats winning the White House or key congressional elections, you’d better care about this. If you care about building progressive power on the ground, you’d better care about this.

And if you care about taking back our democracy from the super rich and corporations, you better fight against this.  

The Kochs, Mr. Rove, the Lincoln Club (which brought us Citizens United in the first place) and their merry band of billionaires have one goal:  make as much money for as few people for as long as possible. Nothing else matters to them. They don’t really care if their rapacity brings down the nation; they’ll have enough money to live happily ever after behind armed walls, in private jets and on any islands they choose to buy.

We saw what happened in Wisconsin. We see what they are trying to do in state legislatures across this country. The Tea Party, Karl Rove, the Koch’s, ALEC are all trying to beat back democracy, tear down the middle class and destroy unions all in favor of advancing a far right agenda meant to put profits over people.

We in California can put a stop to this. We can say no to the Koch brothers/Karl Rove/RomneyBain and show them that people power can still beat corporate money. We can also tell them that the eighth largest economy in the world is not up to bid to the highest bidder.

For more on the campaign to defeat Prop 32, and for information about how you can join the fight, please click here.

This was crossposted from The Huffington Post.

This piece was cross-posted in the Huffington Post. It was also co-authored by Joshua Pechthalt and Anthony Thigpenn.

When we think of California, we imagine the state that allowed the three of us to be who we are, a state that gave us the California Dream. For years now, that dream has been quickly slipping away and now it’s in danger of being lost forever.

California is not in crisis; crises are sudden and acute. California is in a chronic, grinding decline and it’s providing a window into America’s tomorrow.  Here we have the richest and poorest, the most diverse population, high technology centers which lead the globe. And yet, here with 38 million people – 20% of the United States – we cannot find a path to leave the bounty that invigorated us for the next generation.

The answer will not come from Sacramento, just as on the national level it cannot come from Washington. It needs to come from all of us. It’s simple: government has a central role in providing the basics of civilization and that costs money.

The first step is admitting that we need more money to pay for our present, much less our future. That’s why it’s time for the 1%, those who benefited the most from our state’s past investments, to invest in our state’s future. Our state needs perhaps $20 billion a year in new revenue to assure that kids grow up to lead. That will take time, but for now, we see a clear path to $6 billion or so a year that would at the very least restore a large portion of the most recent cuts to education, healthcare, safety and transportation. All it takes is the 1% chipping in and paying more income tax.

Warren Buffett said it best: “If anything, taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further. But I think that people at the high end – people like myself – should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we’ve ever had it.”

It’s been a brutal decade for most Californians. Our schools, universities, hospitals, roads, and bridges – which used to be the envy of the nation – are in tatters. The unemployment rate hovers around 12%, and Sacramento continues to talk only about what to cut next, perpetuating the downward spiral.  

Students are rightfully disgusted as they take to the streets and create their own Occupy encampments to protest the relentless inflation of tuition at California’s legendary colleges and universities. Working families who dream of providing their children with a higher education watch in horror as costs continue to skyrocket.

A couple of weeks from now, we face a massive $2 billion in additional cuts that will be “triggered” based on a summer budget deal passed on a wishful premise that the economy will get better before it gets worse. On the front lines once again will be children, the elderly, and disabled. The axe will fall on everything from public schools (where California already ranks 47th in per pupil spending) to in-home health care.

A Washington Post-Bloomberg News Poll from last month shows that 68% of all Americans support raising taxes on households with incomes of $250,000 per year and higher. Gov. Brown could also take his cue from the patron saint of fiscally conservative Republicans, former California governor Ronald Reagan, who raised taxes as governor and president numerous times, knowing it was for the good of our state and country.

Should every child in California have access to an excellent, rigorous, free education through college and beyond?  Should they have healthcare to assure that their minds are sharp and their bodies fit? Should they know that at any point after high school, whether they choose college or another path, they can find a good job?  Should they be the sail that lifts our economy to new heights in energy and technology solutions of tomorrow?

Yes.

We believe in our state. We believe in our country. We are patriots of the first order who know that true love of state or country manifests not in slogans, but in deeds that offer a brighter future to the next generation than to ours.

The time has come to say yes to our dreams. The time has come for the 1% to join the fray and help rebuild our state and our country. Let them come forth and pledge with us to invest in tomorrow, starting today.

Joshua Pechthalt is the president of the California Federation of Teachers, representing over 100,000 teachers and education workers. Anthony Thigpenn is president and founder of California Calls, a statewide alliance of 26 community-based organizations who have built a base of 328,000 supporters of a progressive, economic agenda. Rick Jacobs is the founder and chair of the Courage Campaign, a California-based online progressive organizing network of more than 750,000 members around the country.

I spend as much time as I can find building the Courage Campaign, a 750,000-member organization dedicated to building a progressive California and to bringing full equality to Americans nationwide. We focus on issues because elected officials can do only so much. And often they disappoint.

Our members determine the areas in which we act. Often times, we win; other times, we keep on fighting. In the course of my work as Chairman of Howard Dean’s presidential campaign in California, in building Courage and with charitable organizations such as Liberty Hill Foundation, I have seen repeateldy that America wins when political leaders stand up for principles. It’s okay to bend a bit to get something done; but to compromise so completely as to void recognition as a “political necessity” leads to disaster. Too few of our leaders understand and/or live by such principles.

Over the past eight years, I have worked closely with Debra Bowen. Time and again, she has stuck to her principles and accomplished heroic deeds. While she was a state senator, we collaborated on initiative reform, a dry and perhaps procedural matter but one which put us in our current mess. Debra understood clearly that the people want and deserve a voice in government, but the initiative process, originally designed to thwart large corporate and moneyed interests, has been turned on its head. She tried to make changes even though it was tough sledding. There's no reform constituency. Debra would not get campaign money from insiders or oil companies for doing the people's business. She just did the work.

As Secretary of State, Debra operated under the principle that democracy thrives when people participate; it collapses when they do not. Therefore, Debra determined to build trust in our state’s voting regime. Palm Beach and butterfly ballots of 2000 or Ohio of 2004 may seem ancient history, but when Debra took office as Secretary of State, many did not trust the vote counting system. As a result, some felt that voting was not worth their while. Debra focused completely on rebuilding that trust by holding public meetings about electronic voting machines, engaging the skeptical public. She banned the use of certain types of machines much to the chagrin of some country registrars. But she showed people that they could trust the system, which improved the level of participation.

Debra is honest. She cares. She works for the people, not for herself or her self-interest. She listens, but she decides. And if she does not agree with you, she’ll tell you. When Debra goes to Congress, I’ll know that she’ll learn, think, consult her conscience and then stick to her principles. She'll never look to the consultant class to tell her how to vote. And she'll never put her political career ahead of her constitutional responsibility. If you want a member of Congress who cares only about her constituents and our country, Debra is the one. 

(My endorsement is my own and in no way reflects the views of the Courage Campaign which does not endorse candidates.)

( – promoted by Julia Rosen)

It’s election day in California and several other states.  With the exception of one statewide race, (AG) Democrats and progressives won’t be compelled to the polls.  Republicans will because of the battle of the billionaires (okay, one billionaire two multi-millionaires).  We can only hope that enough of us vote(d) to beat back two odious ballot measures put on by two big corporations.

But there was already big news today in California about “the trial of the century.”  Judge Vaughn Walker today issued a series of questions for the parties to the federal Prop. 8 trial that began in January and was put on by Ted Olson and David Boies and colleagues and defended by the oxymoronic “Protect Marriage” proponents of Prop. 8.  

The questions are stunning in their breadth, complexity and essence.  Here are just a few:

What empirical data, if any, supports a finding that legal recognition of same-sex marriage reduces discrimination against gays and lesbians?

What are the consequences of a permanent injunction against enforcement of Proposition 8? What remedies do plaintiffs propose?

If the evidence of the involvement of the LDS and Roman Catholic churches and evangelical ministers supports a finding that Proposition 8 was an attempt to enforce private morality, what is the import of that finding?

The court has reserved ruling on plaintiffs’ motion to exclude Mr Blankenhorn’s testimony. If the motion is granted, is there any other evidence to support a finding that Proposition 8 advances a legitimate governmental interest?

Why is legislating based on moral disapproval of homosexuality not tantamount to discrimination? See Doc #605 at 11 (“But sincerely held moral or religious views that require acceptance and love of gay people, while disapproving certain aspects of their conduct, are not tantamount to discrimination.”). What evidence in the record shows that a belief based in morality cannot also be discriminatory? If that moral point of view is not held and is disputed by a small but significant minority of the community, should not an effort to enact that moral point of view into a state constitution be deemed a violation of equal protection?

What does it mean to have a “choice” in one’s sexual orientation? See e g Tr 2032:17-22; PX 928 at 37

I am not a lawyer, but I can without doubt say that never before has homosexuality been on trial in America in this way.  The testimony in January, which I liveblogged, was breathtaking and so sweeping, that the defense (the folks who put Prop. 8 on the ballot) were left with only one argument: marriage has always been between a man and a woman so it should always be between a man and a woman.  And Professor Cott and other experts even destroyed that argument.  Even so, it’s a bit like saying that some people were always forced to live in a certain place so they should always be forced to live there.

We launched Testimony: Equality on Trial because this court case has already changed history.  As we can see from the Judge’s questions – read them and pick your own favorites–the entire scope of the debate has been encapsulated in this trial.  But the defense has worked at every juncture to stop you from seeing what happened and will happen in the courtroom.  We seek to make this your trial.  And soon, we’ll seek to hear your testimony.

For now, as voting for initiatives and candidates across the state and country winds to a close, we can see unfolding the true story of human rights in America.  

Watch the court. Whatever the ruling, this trial is history.

UPDATE:  You can join us for a Courage Campaign Conversation with Ted Olson Wednesday at 6::00PM PDT to learn more.

In the aftermath of Katrina, nearly everyone pitched in to help (except George Bush, but that’s an old story).  Even Wal-Mart lent is vaunted logistics expertise to the devastated Gulf Coast.

This time around, in a man-made disaster more insiduous than Katrina, the oil industry that chomps at the drilling bit to pump crude from any crevice without regard to consequence, sits idly by, unwilling to lift so much as a pen to help out in the Gulf.  Worse still, Occidental Petroleum, Tesoro and Valero, along with a few secretive allies, have put up over $2 million to pass an initiative here in California that would effectively elminate AB 32, our land mark green economy and clean air legislation, simply to make more money from fouling our state. They see BP and raise a California.

That’s why Courage Campaign Thursday called on those companies to donate at least that much money to efforts to rehabilitate the Gulf, to help the tens of thousands whose lives have been upended or worse by the petro-sharks.

The usually incisive Josh Richman of the Contra Costa Times  had this to say:

But… really? Isn’t demanding that Tesoro and Valero pay to mitigate a BP oil spill sort of like demanding that Honda recall and fix Toyota’s cars? Think what you will of out-of-state oil companies buying a California ballot initiative to protect their profits, but it’s odd to advocate expanding one company’s responsibility and liability to an entire industry just like that. Or, were we supposed to think that big oil – one of the world’s richest, most politically connected industries – would instantly abandon all of its political efforts and slink away due to BP’s ecological and economic trainwreck

It does not seem odd at all. Honda did not seek to weaken safety laws when Toyota began to fail. Imagine if Honda had put millions of dollars into a ballot measure that called for a moratorium on safety checks for five years. You can’t.  No other industry would be so brazen and outrageously rapacious.  That’s the analogy here.  

A well-run company (think Berkshire Hathaway) works toward sustainability which is in the best interests of its shareholders.  Putting tons of oil into the sea and investing in legislation that encourages similarly destructive practices is short-term thinking at its worst. This is the same thinking that allows employee-CEOs to become billionaires by cutting corners and taking profits without investing in the future.  It’s not only legitimate to call on these companies to help out when their industry fails so blatantly, it’s a kind of litmus test.  If they are not willing to help out when people, animals and the nation itself are drowning in dirty crude, we can imagine what will happen if they pass this legislation in California. Screw California and the country:  we want our bonuses.

The end of a green economy and a continual reliance on oil at any price from any place will not be their problem.  It’ll be ours.

I used to work at Occidental Petroleum.  I know that companies can do bad and good.   Oxy, Valero and Tesoro should at least take a page from Wal-Mart’s book–no corporate Boy Scout–and lend a hand in this time of need.  It won’t make them any money, but it’s what good citizens and sustainable businesses do.  

John Perez is not a household name. Yet. In the coming days, Perez may well make history, becoming the first openly gay speaker of any state legislature in the United States.  

This, from the California that narrowly voted to undo same sex marriage.  This from the same California that faces as much as $40 billion in deficits in 2010.  This from the same California that has a minority majority population, but where Latinos are fast becoming the majority.  This from the same California that used to provide the best education on the planet to all and now can not graduate the majority of most high school students in Los Angeles.

John Perez is  California.  He’s openly gay.  He’s Latino.  He’s a son of Los Angeles.  He’s an intellectual, a strategist, an environmentalist, a labor leader.  He’s an organizer, a skilled consensus-builder, a unifier and a stunningly disarming public speaker.  John is that rare elected official that we know will hold the public interest at heart.  

The only real question is why John would want the job?  If he becomes Speaker of the California State Assembly, he’ll face the worst problems this state has seen since the depression or even before. But he wants the job — and I can’t imagine a better leader in Sacramento to take it on. John has all of the qualities, and from what I hear, most of the support necessary to win. If the Democrats in the assembly unify behind John and avoid the “speaker wars” that have often marred the period since term limits passed, he will become the speaker.

I’ve known John for nearly six years.  We met in March 2003, when I was a relatively inexperienced but highly motivated supporter of Howard Dean’s candidacy for the White House.  I had, for years, been involved in politics, but never so deeply as Dean’s inspiring campaign to reverse the direction of our country.  

At the suggestion of a mutual friend, John met with me at  a restaurant at Universal City Walk right after one of the first Dean “Meetups” that would propel that campaign forward. He sat with me, very patiently explaining the who and the what of California labor and progressive politics.  He did not need to do that; he could easily have looked at this relative neophyte in state politics and said, “if this is what Dean has to offer, I’m out of here.”   But he did not.  And he was always there to help, after I became Chair of Dean’s presidential campaign in California and then went on to found the Courage Campaign.

California rarely has the opportunity to place the assembly in the hands of a speaker for more than a year or two.  John would follow Karen Bass, who has lived through one of the worst imaginable times in our history.  Karen is a true progressive, and she supports John.  So do I.  And while these leadership battles seem very arcane and insider, it’s time for all of us in this state who support progress to understand that we have a stake in who leads our assembly.

In the next few days, John Perez may well make history.  And, as progress marches on, he will eventually live in a state that allows him to marry the man he loves.

(Cross posted on Huffington Post)

Rick Jacobs is the Founder and Chair of the Courage Campaign.

I’m at a beautiful retreat house on a hilltop in the mountains north of San Luis Obispo as thirty volunteers led by Courage Campaign’s brilliant field team learn the skills to be community organizers. The spirit and energy in the room outshine the magnificent California countryside.

Every four years, California exports labor and capital for presidential campaigns. I witnessed that firsthand as chair of Howard Dean’s presidential campaign here in California when, in 2003/4, we sent hundreds of people to Iowa, New Mexico and Arizona to fight in the early primaries. And we raised millions online from California to make Howard Dean the voice that forever changed the Democratic Party. But then what?

We did it again in 2008 with the Obama Campaign. California exported tens of millions of dollars (maybe hundreds of millions) for the Clinton and Obama campaigns. Thousands of Californians went to Nevada to turn that state blue, to Florida and Pennsylvania and even Montana. Some 60% (maybe more) of the telephone calls to voters were made from California so that volunteers in those other states could actually meet with the right voters.

But no one from Oakland went to Fresno. And no one from West LA went to San Bernardino. No phone calls were made to the Imperial Valley. No money was spent on building infrastructure or focusing progressive messages on the conservative parts of our state. And not one penny was spent bringing people together to figure out why our state is broken, much less how to fix it.

The folks in this room today are here to change that. These nearly three dozen volunteers applied for the position of Deputy Field Organizer. They are from all over the state. Born of the post-Prop. 8 wake up call, Cole from Humboldt, Erin from Glendale, Matthew from San Francisco, Sara Beth from San Diego and a couple of dozen more like them are here because they know that they are leaders who can change their own communities.

Sarah Callahan, the incredibly skilled and experienced Courage COO, is right now teaching the team how to create a stakeholder analysis, what to do with that analysis and how to organize around that understanding. Earlier in the day, everyone broke into teams to learn their own story of self and then how to teach the story of self for organizers.

Most people came to this energizing space because of marriage equality and LGBT rights, but all want to work to assure that we have universal health care, affordable education and good jobs. On my ride up here, I listened to NPR (of course). The news is not great. The wars in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq are sapping our nation’s resources. The financial system continues to reward the few at the top, while jobs remain far fewer than willing workers. Houses once at the heart of the California and American dreams stand empty because former owners can’t make ends meet.

In the meantime, the health insurance companies dump hundreds of millions of dollars of premium fees into ads designed to protect and enhance their profits by thwarting reform. Climate change, full equality for LGBT people, immigration and education reform are not even really on the agenda yet.

But there’s only room for optimism. The movement that put Obama into office is growing. It demands progress and it is organizing itself right here in Bradley, California and across our country. The leadership of the movement in many ways comes from the LGBT community. We’ll win marriage equality and full equality as we build a progressive state–and nation–for all of us.

Now that’s Courage.

(Cross-posted at Courage Campaign)

(From the Courage Campaign’s own Rick Jacobs. – promoted by David Dayen)

About thirty of us gathered in front of the closed Starbucks on the plaza in front of the LA courthouse to assemble our petition materials for the rally and march a few blocks away. MoveOn.org, Courage Campaign (full disclosure: I founded Courage) and Credo Mobile have, over the past week, gathered over 200,000 signatures on a pledge to repeal Prop. 8. Our group that met for the first time this morning, was volunteers who signed up to get more sigatures from the crowd. And boy did they ever!

We made our way to the staging area outside of City Hall where we were greeted by thousands of jubilant folks with home made signs. The backstage set up reminded me in some ways of the May 1, 2006 immigration march on Wilshire Boulevard that had also sprung up from the peoplem, but was managed by organized labor: there was security, a rope line, a little blue tent under which speakers gathered before their turn. Rodney Scott, who puts on LA Pride every year, did a brilliant job with logistics along with a new group of young people called FAIR.  

Just once, it would have been great to have a crowd with that energy and spirit talk to the people on the podium rather than have the elected officials and others talk to them. Theprogram was generally good, but way too long, ninety minutes while people waited in 90 degree heat. One speaker went on for nearly twenty minutes, apparently mistaking a rally for a filibuster.

Mayor Villaraigosa broke away from these horrible fires that have now dumped smoke into all of LA and destroyed numerous houses, to give an impassioned speech in English and Spanish telling us all to go talk to our neighbors and at churches, not to wait for another election. Meet people whom we do not know, break down barriers with familiarity. And he's right. That's the only way to win human rights struggles.

Rev. Eric Lee, President of the Southern Chrisitan Leadership Conference of California, gave a stirring and powerful speech about the need to put God back into church when it comes to this issue of human rights. He said, "I'm a straight black man who went" with me to the Mormon Temple three weeks ago to try to deliver 17,000 letters from Courage Campaign members to the President of the Church. He went because it was the right thing to do. He is a stand up guy, a true friend of the LGBT and progressive communities, a powerful voice for civility and dignity in our march to justice. We all need to get to know him much better.

Many of the other speakers were great, too, including City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and long time LGBT activist Torie Osborn. There were just too many of them.

At last, we marched. The crowd was animated, colorful, respectful and determined.

The most meaningful part of the day, though, was a meeting late this afternoon at the apartment of a young man named Vincent Jones. Vincent, a gay African American, pulled together about a dozen gay, straight, white, black and brown men and women for a serious conversation about how to build real conversation in communities where we lost. I was knocked out by these folks.

Zach Shepard, one of the guys who led the first spontaneous march here in LA two Wednesdays ago said, "In places like San Bernardino County we lost 70-30%, but that means that we have 30% of the voters there who support us. We need to find them, engage them and empower them to start talking to their neighbors." One of the other participants said, "come to church. Meet people. You will be welcomed." And she's right. As Woody Allen says, 90% of life is showing up.

We did not show up before the election; we will now. The power of today's march here in LA came was in the numbers and determination of individuals who are themselves leading a movement. The are not looking "up" for any established organization to tell them what to do. They know we can win next time, provided we organize, communicate and build.

This time, the campaign will be the peoples, a real movement. And this time we will win.