(Cross-posted at BushRubberStamp.com)

As Dave wrote on Monday, last week David Dreier twisted some arms in the 26th district to get 9 local elected and business leaders, all Democrats, to sign on to a letter endorsing him for congress. You can read a pdf of the letter HERE. The gist of why they’re voting for him this year: they’d like us to believe that David Dreier is above the partisan fray.

Riiiiight. Let’s take a look at this letter.

One of the problems facing our country is that so many elected officials back in Washington, D.C. put party loyalty ahead of problem solving.  We see it on the news and read about it every day.  Partisan attacks and party line votes persist while we miss opportunities for real solutions.

Congressman David Dreier is a different kind of leader.

Um, really? According to Congressional Quarterly (behind subscription firewall), David Dreier has voted with George W. Bush 93.6% of the time between 2001-2007. That includes 100% in 2001 and 2003. And even the San Gabriel Valley Tribune conceded that:

[Rep.] David Dreier…almost always vote[s] with fellow Republicans – more than 90 percent of the time in 2007.

Dreier is nothing BUT a partisan party line Republican. But the letter gets worse…

It goes on to claim that Dreier’s real priority is solving the 26th district’s problems.

If only.

What matters to David is that there are problems to solve and he is in a position to help.  He knows that partisanship only stands in the way of progress – and he refuses to get caught up in it. […]

David is exactly the kind of leader we need in Washington right now.  He has the know-how to get things done.  We are proud to support David in his campaign for Congress.  His service and commitment to our communities will continue to benefit all of us in the district.

OK, let’s take just one important issue to Americans: high gas prices. Most people would characterize that as a problem. So how has David Dreier voted to "solve" that problem and "get things done?"  This year alone he’s stood with George W Bush and the oil companies to oppose 6 bills designed to save consumers money at the pump and help wean us off our dependence on fossil fuels, including:

Dreier voted NO on the Consumer Energy Supply Act, H.R. 6578, which would have temporarily released almost 10 percent of the oil from the government’s petroleum reserve.

Dreier voted NO on the Drill Responsibly in Leased Lands Act and on the Responsible Federal Oil and Gas Lease Act, which would have encouraged oil companies to drill where they already have unused leases.

Dreier voted NO on The Federal Price Gouging Prevention Act which would have imposed strict penalties on companies that artificially inflate the price of gas.

Each one of these bills won a large majority of support but failed to overcome the 2/3 threshold to override a Bush veto. Thanks to David Dreier and his Bush rubber stamp obstructionist buddies, these bills all failed. This is the sort of problem solving David Dreier brings to Washington.

So, when anyone endorses David Dreier, it is this blind partisan record they are endorsing and it is George W. Bush they are endorsing. I think the constituents and peers of these 9 so-called Democrats would appreciate hearing the truth about the Bush rubber stamp record that their leaders have pledged to support in November. Spread the word about Dreier’s record to district newspapers at the Bush Rubber Stamp Letter To The Editor page.

And by the looks of things, the ‘Dreier 9’ need to be informed about Dreier’s Bush rubber stamp record themselves. So give them a call them at their office numbers below to let them know Dreier is nothing but a Bush rubber stamp (numbers of elected office holders provided.)

Paul Eaton, Mayor of Montclair 909-625-9400

Roberto Campos, small businessman, Glendora/Upland

Karen Davis, Mayor of Glendora 626-833-2425

Mary Ann Lutz, Monrovia Councilmember 626-932-5503

Kurt Zimmerman, Mayor of Sierra Madre 626-355-7135

Joe Garcia, Monrovia Councilmember 626-932-5503

Anthony Fellow, Director, Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District, Arcadia 626-443-2297

Dorrie Bryan, HR Manager, Rancho Cucamonga

Eugene Sun, San Marino Councilmember 626-300-0705

Today, I am excited to announce that the Courage Campaign has officially launched our campaign to expose David Dreier (who represents CA’s 26th district) for what he really is: one of George W. Bush’s most reliable rubber stamps in congress. Check out our new ad below and please rate it up, spread the word and contribute to get it on the air in the district HERE.

More on Courage’s Dreier Bush Rubber Stamp campaign over the flip…

While Dreier’s reputation in the district (which runs from Pasadena through the San Gabriel Valley all the way east to Rancho Cucamonga) is that of a “moderate” “independent” voice in congress, the reality is that David Dreier is one of George Bush’s greatest obstructionist allies, having voted for everything from the war in Iraq to Dick Cheney’s energy bill as well as against raising the minimum wage, against expanding education benefits for veterans, against extending unemployment benefits for those hardest hit by the economy and against the recent anti-gas price gouging bill. This guy’s unbelievable. But yet so many in his district still think of Dreier as a sort of above the fray moderate and as someone who truly represents them.

Sorry, Congressman, the honeymoon’s over.

In addition to our ad (which we hope will be the first of several,) we’ve launched a website over at — where else — BushRubberStamp.com where, among other things, you will find a partial, but still quite damning catalog of some of Dreier’s worst votes.

So, again, please watch the ad, spread it around and contribute to get it up on the air in the district HERE — anything you can do to help us expose David Dreier’s Bush rubber stamp record.

(cross-posted from the Courage Campaign blog)

I received my Democratic primary ballot in the mail and I was pleased to see right there at the top of page 1 these fateful words: "NONPARTISAN VOTERS ARE NO LONGER REQUIRED TO MARK AN ADDITIONAL BUBBLE TO CROSSOVER."    

Check it:

Back in February, The Courage Campaign led the charge not only to educate DTS voters in LA County about the bizarre requirement to fill out the "Democratic Party" bubble in addition to requesting a Democratic presidential primary ballot but then faught hard to get the LA County Registrar of Voters to count the votes of DTS voters in February 5th’s primary. Thanks to that effort, acting LA County Registrar Dean Logan reversed himself and ended up counting 50,000 or so Democratic presidential votes where the intent of unaffiliated voters was clear.

What’s great about the triumphant post-script that the disclaimer at the top of the LA County Democratic ballot represents is that it signals that our victory was not fleeting and it was not merely putting a bandaid on a wound. Thanks to the mobilization of progressives by the Courage Campaign and Secretary of State Debra Bowen’s leadership, thousands of Los Angeles DTS voters will no longer have to fear being disenfranchised because of a stupid rule and a poorly designed ballot, which is progress indeed.

I wanted to write a proper thank you post for all the nice words in the comments of juls’s post. Today was pretty crazy jumping on board with mydd and I discovered the post late. This is not a GBCW by the way, I’m not really going anywhere although out of necessity I’ll be posting here a lot less as you can imagine. But I’m continuing with Courage Campaign and look forward to remaining an active part of the calitics community (especially if my Dean post never leaves the Rec list! 🙂 )

A bit more self-indulgence and some meta over the flip…

I wrote to some of you that the whole mydd thing would not have happened without my experience here at calitics, which of course came out of my blogging at Courage Campaign and it’s so true. And it got me thinking about how great it has been to be here for the emergence of the California blogosphere and to experience first hand the vitality and importance of local blogging. It seemed to really grow out of an organic need for change and despite the size of the state and our various interests and issues, we coalesced as a cohesive whole and developed, seemingly effortlessly, a chemistry that is as strong offline as it is on.

What I’ve experienced here at calitics is exactly what local blogs should be doing — developing conventional wisdom, driving stories from the ground up into the national netroots and ultimately into the media and driving narratives. I’ve seen you guys do it so many times, it’s really been cool.

After originally blogging the hell out of the 04 election and finding much needed focus to my blogging here in the California netroots in early 06, as you know, I’ve definitely found myself back in election mode — I think there’s something about that election on the horizon that is motivating and the unlimited and unknowable variables make it exciting. I’m extremely lucky it happened to be what Jerome was looking for and I look forward to blogging the frak out of the 08 elections even more. And if I can give some extra exposure to my California friends along the way, all the better.

Anyway, thanks again and consider this a late night (although probably morning by the time anyone reads it) thread.

(cross-posted from Courage Campaign)

Yesterday, the Dreams Across America train took off from L.A.'s Union Station, one of four trains around the country carrying 100 “dreamers” to Washington, D.C. to tell the stories of their own immigration or how immigrants have touched their lives. There will be blogging from the train (Courage Campaign's own Rick Jacobs will have daily updates) to capture these stories both in written and video form, the goal being to humanize and personalize immigration the way a rally of hundreds of thousands in the street can't.

All of the immigrants on the train are legal American citizens but that didn't stop Lou Dobbs from attacking the Dreams Across America campaign yesterday. He likes to call it “The Amnesty Train” or “A Train” for short (ain't he clever!) So today, one of the dreamers, Cathy Gurney, shot back, challenging him to get on the train to hear the real stories of immigration in this country.

Cathy Gurney's statement and her story over the flip…

Her statement:

To me, talking about fixing a broken immigration system is not about policy; it’s about my life. I work hard each and everyday to live the American dream, which is really the American story:  to be my own boss, to run my own business that I can pass along to my children. My husband and I have worked very hard to build our dream.

Mr. Dobbs has one opinion on the broken immigration system in this country. I am part of a group telling a hundred stories of real people who deal with this issue everyday. Therefore, I call on Mr. Dobbs to join us on this tour, to see the real America and hear the real stories of our broken immigration system.

Gurney and her husband run a landscaping business in Chico. For her, a lack of a legal workforce could mean the end of her business, her livelihood. As she says in her video:

Am I breaking the law by trying to support my family?

She goes on:

I understand that they came to this country illegally, but I also understand that they came to this country for the same reason my grandfather, a hundred and some odd years ago, came to this country through Ellis Island from Russia because he was coming for the American dream.

Gurney makes the compelling case that lack of action on immigration reform not only stifles entrepreneurism but it threatens her livelihood. What's interesting about this story is that it hits at such so-called conservative values as the virtue of free market enterprise and the importance of the family. That's what this whole Dreams Across America project really is about, reframing what immigration reform means. There are a ton of really cool stories on the website that help do just that.

You can join the dreamers virtually on the train, letting them know you stand with them, by signing the Dreams petition HERE. And if you have an immigration story YOU want to tell, you can do that too HERE.

While the project doesn't take a side in the legislative debate, clearly a path to citizenship is central to a humane immigration policy. Stoller had an interesting piece the other day about why the issue is so difficult for progressives. As we know, conservatives are a lot clearer and a LOT more vocal on the issue, which is largely why the bill died in the Senate last week. Certainly it wasn't because the American people are opposed to reform or even a path to citizenship. A new LA Times poll shows that only 23% of Americans oppose a path to legal status for the undocumented.  Part of what Dreams Across America hopes to accomplish is to engage the progressive community on this issue by appealing to our values of fairness and the expansion of opportunity.

(Find your Assembly member and contact them. Email contact info here. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

Following up on Brian’s earlier post, which focused on Assemblywoman Patty Berg’s framing of AB374: The Compassionate Choices Act, I wanted to go directly to the source, a piece that Berg herself wrote for CPR.

In it she describes the disturbing triangulation the right is engaging in to try to defeat the bill. Republicans know they can’t win if Berg sets the terms of the debate, i.e. if Berg’s frame that allowing a terminal patient to end ones own life as he or she chooses IS a matter of choice wins the message war and it becomes pro-choice forces vs. anti-choice. The bill would pass. So they’ve marginalized the right-to-lifers and instead attacked Democrats where they’re vulnerable.

If you think California should be immune to the anti-choice message, you’d be right. But that’s what makes this play so unnerving. Anti-choice organizers are keeping the zealots in the closet, and cloaking themselves as protectors of the underclass. In short, they’re using liberal ideology against the liberals.

UPDATE: from da in the comments, use this great Speak Out! tool to send an e-mail to your Assemblymember in support of AB374.

More…

While Berg doesn’t explain exactly how they’re doing it, the bill’s opponents are essentially making the case that AB374 would hurt the poor.

They’re trying to get good solid Dems to ignore the strong support of the ACLU, MALDEF, NOW, AFSCME, one of the state’s largest physician organizations, and every major Senior Citizen group in the California. Heck, the Speaker of the Assembly is one of the authors of the bill – when was the last time he did anything to hurt the poor?

The rightwing anti-AB374 campaign is joining forces with the Catholic church to target “fence-sitting” Democrats to convince them that their support for this bill would result in political catastrophe for them.

You kiddin’ me?

Never mind that statewide polling consistently shows that 70 percent of California voters support choice at the end of life. Never mind that support among Democrats is closer to 80 percent. Never mind that the Democratic Caucus’ most trusted private pollster says there is no way anyone could be hurt by this vote – the anti-choice campaign is nonetheless gaining traction.

Berg calls on us to urge all of our Assemblymembers not to fall for these tricks and to stand up for the will of the people of California and for the rights of the terminally ill to end their lives on their terms, with dignity. As Berg has said, it’s not suicide if life isn’t one of the options.

I’d really like to hear Assemblyman Levine’s take on this as both one of the bill’s authors and a calitics diarist. I know it’s a busy week but if he could give us a real time status report and further context, it would be much appreciated.