Have you ever seen a politician come back to the stage for an encore? Well, Maxine Waters did. During a passionate and poetic speech, Waters announced repeatedly:

I am the chair of the Out Of Iraq Caucus and I am committed to ending this war!

But what brought the house down was this refrain:

Not another nickel
Not another dime
Not another soldier
Not this time

After she left the stage the crowd chanted “Maxine! Maxine! Maxine!”

And she literally came back out for an encore to thunderous aplause and repeated the chant. Amazing.

At the press conference I posted about over at ATM Watch, a journalist told Hillary the following regarding the delegates on the floor:

“Obama has their heart, you have their head.”

Now, Obama hasn’t spoken yet (he’s on at 2pm) but his campaign is certainly the most visible here at the convention and you get the sense that his supporters are the most passionate. And while there was some excitement on the floor in anticipation of Hillary’s speech, mostly among young women, there was very little as she was actually speaking. And her speech reflected why.  She committed the cardinal Democratic sin: making a laundry list of what she will do as president.

More…

As a wise woman leaned over and whispered to me, “she has no thesis.” This is in stark contrast to Obama whose entire campaign is about the overarching theme of a new kind of politics. What does Hillary offer other than experience and a husband whom we all would on some level love to see back in the White House? Whatever it is, she didn’t make the case on the floor today. You sort of get the sense that she’s written off a certain segment of the Democratic primary electorate and she made no effort to win them over today.

At the press conference I posted about over at ATM Watch, a journalist told Hillary the following regarding the delegates on the floor:

“Obama has their heart, you have their head.”

Now, Obama hasn’t spoken yet (he’s on at 2pm) but his campaign is certainly the most visible here at the convention and you get the sense that his supporters are the most passionate. And while there was some excitement on the floor in anticipation of Hillary’s speech, mostly among young women, there was very little as she was actually speaking. And her speech reflected why.  She committed the cardinal Democratic sin: making a laundry list of what she will do as president.

More…

As a wise woman leaned over and whispered to me, “she has no thesis.” This is in stark contrast to Obama whose entire campaign is about the overarching theme of a new kind of politics. What does Hillary offer other than experience and a husband whom we all would on some level love to see back in the White House? Whatever it is, she didn’t make the case on the floor today. You sort of get the sense that she’s written off a certain segment of the Democratic primary electorate and she made no effort to win them over today.

(cross-posted from Courage Campaign also at dailyKos)

As I wrote HERE, Blackwater USA, the private "security" firm under investigation by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform for fraud and corruption for its war profiteering in Iraq, has grand plans for an 824-acre mercenary training camp just outside the tiny rural town of Potrero, CA, 45 miles east of San Diego. The facility would be a haven for war profiteers all the while ruining the peace and quiet of a tiny rural town, destroying the habitats of who knows how much local wildlife and threatening fire damage to a fire-prone area.  Luckily, we have some intrepid local opponents of the project working overtime to defeat Blackwater's best laid plans. More than 300 of Potrero's 450 registered voters have signed a petition opposing the sight; Rep. Bob Filner has vowed to do whatever he can to beat back Blackwater's advances; and Raymond Lutz, the intrepid president of East County Democratic Club, has launched a website, StopBlackwater.net, to aggregate and disseminate information about the threat of Blackwater West.

Which brings me to how you can help.

Courage Campaign has joined forces with the folks in East County to spread the word about Blackwater West and organize people on a statewide level against the project. To that end, we've launched a petition drive targeting Governor Schwarzenegger, Senator Boxer and Senator Feinstein to pressure them to do whatever is in their power to stop this dangerous project. More…

The petition reads, in part,

Blackwater is currently under investigation by the House of Representatives for their mercenary activity in Iraq and should not be able to use our great state to perpetrate further fraud against the American people. California has a history of saying NO to those who work against the public interest. It's time to take a stand against Blackwater and send a clear message that the era of war profiteering has ended.

Please join us in opposing Blackwater in California by signing the petition today:

http://couragecampaign.org/page/petition/Blackwater 

In addition, we are going to do whatever we can to support Lutz in his latest endeavor: passing a resolution on the floor of the CA Democratic Convention in San Diego this weekend. Please spread the word to all the delegates you know to support this resolution. Lutz is going to present it to the resolutions committee on Friday and hopefully it will make it to the floor without having to get 300 delegates to sign it, but if we need to do that, we'll do that. Proposed text of the resolution is as follows:

  WHEREAS, Blackwater USA, a North Carolina-based private security firm under contract to the Pentagon to supply armed personnel for duties in the Iraq War, proposes to build a large mercenary and paramilitary training compound called Blackwater West near Potrero, in San Diego County, on an 824-acre parcel that includes Cleveland National Forest acreage, borders a proposed wilderness area adjacent to the Hauser Wilderness, and is both an important watershed and an environmentally sensitive habitat for wildlife; said mercenary and paramilitary activities are inherently dangerous and pose serious risks–including severe fire danger–to surrounding communities and wilderness areas, will deplete groundwater, substantially increase traffic, increase noise from shooting ranges, driving track, and helicopter activities, among many other environmental concerns.

  WHEREAS, Blackwater USA and other private contractors are not subject to an effective system of oversight and accountability with respect to their operations and government contracting activities, and are the subject of ongoing hearings before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee regarding allegations of waste, fraud, and abuse; Blackwater USA has resisted attempts to subject its private soldiers to the Pentagon's Uniform Code of Military Justice, claiming they are civilians, and has simultaneously claimed immunity from litigation under civil law in the United States, asserting its forces are part of the Pentagon's "Total Force."

  AND WHEREAS, the "John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007" (H.R. 5122), which was signed into law by President Bush in October 2006, seriously weakens two bulwarks of liberty–the Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act of 1807–by expanding the power of the president to declare martial law and use troops as a domestic police force in response to a "public emergency" or any "other condition"; and Blackwater troops (which were deployed domestically in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina) or other private mercenary and paramilitary forces pose a severe threat to the civil liberties of the American people and now could be deployed to quell public dissent, put down popular uprisings, or even to stop opposing points of view through intimidation or outright force.

  THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the California Democratic Party opposes mercenary training by private concerns anywhere in the State of California, including the Blackwater West project.

  BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that all military, paramilitary, or related security/law enforcement training operations in California, whether private, governmental, or some combination of the two, will be conducted on, and only on, secured U.S. military bases or other established government-regulated facilities designed for that purpose.

Just to reiterate, this language may change still, but this is as it stands now. Again, please spread the word to CA delegates to please support this resolution when it comes up for a vote this weekend.

Look for updates on the progress of the resolution all weekend. 

(cross-posted from Courage Campaign also at dailyKos)

Oh, hell no!

It’s bad enough that an ex-Blackwater lobbyist holds a prominent position in the California Department of Homeland Security. But now the private “security” firm Blackwater USA wants to build an 824-acre mercenary training camp outside the tiny rural town of Potrero in San Diego County.

If it is approved by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, the “Blackwater West” training facility would mark the third point in a so-called Blackwater Triangle that already includes their main base in Moyock, NC and their just recently opened facility, Blackwater North, in Mount Carroll, Illinois.

Creeped out yet? More on the project and the efforts underway to stop it over the flip.

According to a great Raw Story piece from earlier this month, the proposed Blackwater West facility

would include 15 firing ranges for automatic and semi-automatic weapons and small caliber guns, as well as an emergency vehicle operator’s course the length of ten football fields — 3,280 feet in length and 1,320 feet in width, according to a project description. The facility would also include bunkhouses and commando-type training facilities, ship simulators, and law enforcement and rescue safety training towers with rock-climbing walls and platforms.

The facility would house as many as 360 instructors and students at any given time, in a town of only 840. Remarkably, the project has already been approved by the Potrero planning group (an advisory body) in a 7-0 vote last December. Not that all members of the planning group support Blackwater mind you.

Jan Hedlun is the lone Potrero planner opposing the project. Elected in November, Hedlun didn’t vote at the December meeting because she says she wasn’t told she was eligible.

“I’m in the middle of a battle,” Hedlun said. “I am a lamb in a lion’s den. They’re pushing this through quicker than anything I’ve ever heard in my entire life.”

The San Diego Reader concurs, calling it an “ambush.” While Blackwater was busy laying the groundwork gaining the support they’d need to get the OK from the planning group during much of last year, the public wasn’t informed of the plan until October.

The planning for this assault was well down the road before Potrero citizens even knew about it. “They have been trying to build support without notifying anybody here,” says resident Carl Meyer. “I have proof that since May they [Blackwater] have been meeting privately with Department of Planning and Land Use personnel. They have been trying to get standards lowered” in noise, roads, and other parts of the plan.

Not even Representative Bob Filner, in whose district the training camp would reside, was immune from the ambush. According to The San Diego Union Tribune:

company officers did not contact him until after they met with county planners, and after the local planning group unanimously approved a preliminary proposal.

Now that people are aware of it, however, they’re not happy. Of the 450 registered voters in the town, more than 300 of them have signed a petition opposing the project. There may even be an effort underway to recall the 7 members of the planning board that voted in favor of the project last year. And Filner is working to block the project.

He told the AP that he is exploring legislation that would block the deal pending further review by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has included Blackwater in its review of Iraqi war contractors.

In addition, the grassroots uprising has been phenomenal. An April 5, a Department of Planning and Land Use scoping meeting to discuss the environmental impact of the proposed facility attracted more than 100 protesters. Video is HERE and a local NBC news report can be viewed HERE.

In addition, Raymond Lutz, president of the East County Democratic Club has started StopBlackwater.net, which links to a great wiki. He’s been really leading this fight. 

And Terry over at TerryFacePlace has been intrepidly blogging on the subject. 

Now, the good news is that Blackwater West is not in danger of becoming a reality any time soon. Because the area is currently zoned for agriculture, an environmental impact report is required to change the zoning before it actually goes to the Board of Supes. This process should take up to 22 months. So we have time, but all the more reason we need to fight now.

Stay tuned for more very soon including what YOU can do to help!

So in a strange twist of fate, when I got home last night, there on CSPAN was our friend Crazy Dana Rohrabacher presiding over (to the extent that the ranking member can) the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Human Rights from last Tuesday, defending tooth and nail the right of the United States to engage in the abhorrent practice of extraordinary rendition. It was the very hearing, of course, that was written up by dday here on Friday and I must say that seeing his statements in full, context and all, really was sickening.

Seeing Rohrabacher on one hand say that the ends justify the means with respect to extraordinary rendition because of the many lives he claims the practice saves yet to then turn around and wish harm on loved ones of those in the audience, was one of the more pathetic displays by a congressman who is no stranger to compassionless conservatism. I was embarrassed as a Californian and as an American, that Dana Rohrabacher represented us in front of these members of the EU parliament. And so, of course I had to share it with you. I was going to try to upload my DVR’d video to YouTube but luckily did a search and found that mardish had beaten me to it. Let’s go to the video tape (offending remarks begin at about the 8 minute mark.)

More thoughts over the flip. Also read k/o’s thoughtful (what else?) dailykos diary on the subject.

Rohrabacher’s combativeness in this hearing is clearly rooted in his, and the entire conservative movement’s, utter contempt for Europe. But it is the Europeans here that come off as intelligent and thoughtful and it is Rohrabacher who appears curt, rude and vulgar. So it is especially satisfying to see our European friends make points that shut down Rohrabacher’s f’ed up logic that the relatively small number of people who are mistakenly abducted and tortured is the price we pay for greater security.

Take Sarah Ludford, Vice Chair of the EU Parliament Extraordinary Rendition Committee, who shoots him down at 2:35:

Are we safer as a result of what the European Parliament believes has been illegal practices the last 5 years? I believe that most intelligence services would say no. The number of recruits to terrorism, the threat is greater than it has ever been both to Europe and the United States and the potential pool of terrorists is growing.

Then there’s Jonathan Evans, EU Parliament member from Wales, who outclasses Rohrabacher from moment one and echoes a lot of what many on the left have felt about post-9/11 conservatives, that in their efforts to protect America, they’ve made it something unrecognizable.

Our case is that we must act under a due process of law. Listening to the litany of points that you have raised. I think it might be churlish to do so but I think that one could raise the argument that in a sense the end always justifies the means and having any sort of judicial process is just a further impediment. Judicial processes have developed in our countries as proper safeguards. We Europeans hold your country in high respect because you have developed those processes. And we have also for our part endeavored to develop them as well.

Evans eloquently puts into words the real loss in moral standing we’ve suffered in the world, a loss we’ve suffered because of conservatives like Rohrabacher who say things like this:

We are at war and we’ve got to make sure that we do not let go 50 terrorists who will go out and plant a bomb in London and kill 20,000 people in order to protect that one person who we arrested accidentally because his name is the same. That’s that type of unfortunate consequence…[faint boos can be heard] well I hope it’s your families, I hope it’s your families that suffer the consequences.

In his appearance at this hearing, Dana Rohrabacher personified the very image of the ugly American…and he did it in the halls of Congress. At what point are his extremist rantings going to finally cross the line for those in his district? Let’s make sure that 2008 is the year that we finally boot the ugly American.

In the wake of the raid on his Virginia home last week, Rep. John Doolittle has decided to “temporarily” give up his seat on the House Appropriations Committee.

The lawmaker’s decision followed by a day the disclosure of the raid on Doolittle’s Oakton, Va., home last Friday. FBI agents had a search warrant for information connected with a fundraising business run by Doolittle’s wife, Julie, that had done work for convicted GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Bob Ney “temporarily” stepped down from the chairmanship of the House Administration Committee last year and we know how that turned out. Can you say beginning of the end?

UPDATE: So, CA-04 experts, what happens next? What are the possible scenarios that could play out? If he does resign and we have a special election will it work the same way CA-50 did last year? And if so, who are the Republicans waiting in the wings and is Charlie Brown well-positioned to NOT be this cycle’s Francine Busby?

And speaking of Charlie, don’t forget to vote for him in DFA’s Grassroots AllStar Competition and give him some love at our ActBlue page.

As debate opened in the Senate this week on a bill that would expand federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and reject the restrictions put in place by Bush’s 2001 executive order, Sen. Dianne Feinstein said:

“This bill eventually will become law. If not this year then next year. If not next year then the following year.”

If the Democrats (and a good amount of Republicans) had their way, of course, it would be law already. Back in January the House passed their version and today the U.S. Senate voted 63-34 in favor of expanding stem cell research funding (last year’s 63-37 vote for a similar bill prompted the first veto of Bush’s presidency.)

Unfortunately, the 2006 elections did not garner us a veto-proof majority in either house. But we’re getting closer. In the Senate, the Nays have been reduced by 3 since last year’s vote (Dodd, Landrieu and Johnson, all Ayes last year, did not vote this time.) And in the House, 2005’s 238-194 vote in favor of expanding funding shifted dramatically to this year’s 253-174.

Further evidence that the wind is at our backs on this issue came in the form of some good news for diabetes patients…

Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago released results of a study that shows great promise for stem cells in halting the progression of type 1 diabetes.

Researchers have demonstrated for the first time that the progression of Type 1 diabetes can be halted – and possibly reversed – by a stem-cell transplant that preserves the body’s diminishing ability to make insulin.

Remarkably…

The experimental therapy eliminated the need for insulin injections for months or even years in 14 of 15 patients recently diagnosed with the disease. One subject, a 30-year-old male, hasn’t taken insulin since his stem-cell transplant more than three years ago.

These are the sorts of advancements we’ll see more and more of over the coming years, making opposition to federal funding of stem cell research a political liability.

Right here at home, Geron of Menlo Park, CA intends to begin human trials of an embryonic stem cell therapy for spinal cord injuries by the end of this year.