(Now how much more American can this get? : ) – promoted by atdleft)

Last night the Democratic Party of Orange County elected Bill Dalati (among others) to represent Orange County Democrats to the state central committee. Dalati was recently a candidate for Anaheim city council, when he was groundlessly accused by prominent Republicans of having a radical anti-American agenda.

Dalati is a native of Syria and a Muslim. Formerly a registered Republican, Dalati re-registered as a Democrat after being attacked by his former party.

(More after the flip)

I’ve met Bill Dalati two times and, other than what I read online and in the papers, all I know about him is that he’s a very nice person with a genuine and extremely warm manner. From all accounts Dalati is a normal middle-class businessman with a spouse and kids. Only someone with his or her own radical agenda would think he fits the profile of a terrorist.

I’m pleased to report Dalati seems to be finding the Democrats much more welcoming and inclusive than the Republicans, and I think their loss is our gain.

(Oh… My… Gawd! The OC Republicans are at it again! – promoted by atdleft)

Interesting new development in the OC Supervisors’ Race. GOP candidate Janet Nguyen sent out a press release in Vietnamese with some pretty astounding racist content. (Click here for larger image.)

(Translation after the flip)

When Nguyen’s campaign was asked for an English translation of the press release, they provided some innocuous text about how Nguyen can win if the Vietnamese community unites behind a single Vietnamese candidate. (There are 4 Vietnamese on the ballot.)

But an anonymous blog reader provided a more thorough translation of the original release:

In less than two weeks, Vietnamese Americans will vote for a County Supervisor, either Mexican, American or whatever; to supervise an area of Orange County where Vietnamese are the majority population. Or we will put a Vietnamese into an important position of real power, making history in Orange County’s 30 year old Vietnamese community. If the Vietnamese community is able to accomplish this, it will be a remarkable action which reflects the political maturity of the community.

As of January 23 11,000 absentee ballots had been received by the Orange County Registrar of Voters. More than 43% of these were from Vietnamese, 10% from Mexicans, and 46% from other ethnic groups. The returned ballots came from Republicans (51%), Democrats (33%), and Decline to State or other parties (16%). City breakdown was 43% Garden Grove, Santa Ana 23%, Westminster 25%.

Based on the this information, the candidate most likely to win and bring victory to the Vietnamese community is Janet Nguyen. She will be the youngest Asian to become Supervisor of Orange County and California, bringing pride to our community. Even though there are other Vietnamese candidates, the absentee balloting and professional campaign analysts recognize Janet Nguyen’s advantage. The very small absentee ballot return rate by Mexicans, in addition to low returns from Santa Ana, compared to Garden Grove, the Republican Mexican’s [a reference to Republican Carlos Bustamente] odds of winning have vanished. The Santa Ana and Democratic voting percentage is low compared to the Republicans, thus the Democratic candidate will not have a chance. Due in part to Mexican voters dividing their votes, and in part to the former Democratic US President’s [apparently a reference to endorsed Democrat Tom Umberg] cheating on his wife and kids and lying about his military responsibility, the Democratic voters are disillusioned, and no longer want to vote.

The main reasons Janet Nguyen will win are the large number of Vietnamese absentee votes and previous polls showing that more than 60% of the Vietnamese community trusts Janet Nguyen. Garden Grove is her territory. She will also get votes from other ethnic communities, women, seniors, Republicans who do not like Mexicans, and people from Westminster. She has endorsements from the mayors of Garden Grove and Westminster. Furthermore, the campaign has brought several Vietnamese community issues have brought to light. There has been dirty campaigning and evidence of shady integrity in the other Vietnamese candidates, bringing about distrust in the Vietnamese community. The Vietnamese community will vote for Janet Nguyen. Her victory is assured.

Save the Date —
8th Annual Organizers’ Collaborative Grassroots Use of Technology Conference
Friday & Saturday, June 22-23, 2007
co-located with the Grassroots Radio Conference and hosted at the University of Massachusetts Lowell

Organizers Collaborative’s 8th annual conference will be co-located with the Grassroots Radio Conference, a gathering of grassroots, volunteer-powered, community radio stations. We look to expand our impact in using grassroots communication tools for social change.

The 2007 Conference will present tools intended to ease the challenges nonprofits and organizing groups face in meeting their missions. More effective use of email, dynamic websites, ideal data use, new social networking tools, and rich online media are technologies that should and can be used by organizations and movements to achieve thier goals.

The first day (June 22) will be devoted to highlighting Free and Open Source Software (F/OSS) solutions for NPO techies and managers. Our co-location with the Grassroots Radio Conference will allow us to expand our mission to bring the technology of radio to communities.

As always, the Grassroots Use of Technology conference is one of the only events that brings technology and endusers together, allowing us to learn from each other.

This event is also presented in collaboration with the CTC VISTA Project at UMass Boston.

Registration will open in February 2007.

More info: http://organizerscollaborative.org/conference

(Good question! – promoted by atdleft)

The LA Times had a good article last week about the so-called “First 100 Hours” agenda, which comprised ethics reform resolutions and several bills that had long been stalled in Congress. Here’s the Times’ graphic about those measures and the roll call vote. Go to the flip to see how each individual California rep voted.

One hundred fifty-two Republicans voted against a bill to end secrecy on earmarks. One hundred fifty-nine (and 4 misbegotten Dems!) voted against a bill to end tax breaks for oil companies.

Now, I can forgive the Reeps for voting against an increase in the minimum wage and against funding for stem cell research. I don’t agree, but those things run counter to GOP philosophy. I respect that.

But ending secrecy on earmarks? Tax breaks for oil companies? What the blazes is up with that?

The Times’ article started me wondering — how did each of our California Representatives vote on these measures?

I went on thomas.gov and copied down all the votes by the California representatives. Here they are, for your viewing pleasure.

I didn’t bother with the first 3 items the LA Times listed since they were all but unanimous. As you’ll see, the names of California’s Dems are in blue and the Reeps are in red. The “yes” votes are blue and the “no” votes are red.

(Anybody have ideas? We helped, but what were the other factors? – promoted by juls)

It seems that lots more candidates and voters showed up this year for the ADEMs than in the past. Juls and I were wondering, in email, how that happened.

In my own AD and a few other nearby ones I believe the surge came because a Congressional candidate (Steve Young, CA-48) and I publicized the ADEMs a lot. My AD (73) had twice as many candidates running as in 2004 and more than twice as many voters. From what I’ve read similar things happened all over the state. (Or is this incorrect? Please comment if your experience was otherwise.)

What caused this explosive growth? How did delegate slots in sleepy red ADs somehow become competitive?

I suspect some of it was the CDP’s registration process for candidates. I find that when people make a written comittment to something they’re more likely to follow through.

Another part of it was the blogs and email. South Orange County was certainly not the only area where there were email blasts promoting the ADEMs. But 2 years ago DFA was trying mightily to get their people to run for ADs as well, and I’m told that the biggest surges generally come in the year immediately following a Presidential election. (Which this year wasn’t.)

Probably an additional reason for enthusiasm was the Democratic Congressional victories in 2006.

And by the way, I don’t think it’s just happening in the ADs. The Orange County Democratic Central Committee has a much-needed new lease on life, too!

I feel like someone’s putting something in our water. Where’s all the increased interest coming from?

(Our own gjones is quoted in the article. Go give it a read. – promoted by juls)

There’s
an article in the Orange County edition of the Los Angeles Times today about how some newly-elected trustees of the Capistrano Unified School District (CUSD) are showing an interest in changing the name of our winter break to “Christmas break.”

I’m quoted in the story, but that’s not why I bring it up. My concern is that this is a trial balloon and that they will probably soon move on to issues of more substantive concern to the religious extremists. Discrimination against sexual minorities is possible next step, as is the teaching of creationism.

(I didn’t attend the meeting in which the discussion took place and am loathe to give too much second hand information, but I’m told the new trustees also challenged one or more books that were being proposed for use in the curriculum.)

I’m not a Christian myself but I am a person of faith, and as such it bothers me greatly when members of one religion show intolerance toward those of a different faith. I’d like to believe our society is more “advanced” than those where people of different faiths make war on each other, but over and over I see evidence we’re really not.

We’re just a bit more subtle about it.