WASHINGTON D.C., May 07, 2010 – National peacekeeping group, Citizens for Global Solutions (CGS) gave progressive democrat, Tracy Emblem the thumbs up in her race for United States Congress in North San Diego County’s 50th district with their official endorsement for her candidacy in the June 8th Democratic Primary.

CGS is a membership based ‘big idea’ group working to promote the International Criminal Court (ICC), reform the United Nations and encourage the United States to adopt a multinational foreign policy, which includes working together with other nations to abolish war, protect our rights and freedoms, and solve the problems facing humanity that no one nation can solve alone.

“I am proud to have the support and endorsement of the Citizens for Global Solutions and to work together to promote the end of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. We all have a responsibility to be part of the solution,” said Tracy Emblem upon receiving the news.

CGS remains one of the leading U.S. based organizations focused on the ICC. Through the work of members, they have been able to roll back the anti-ICC policies adopted by Congress and the Bush administration. They are currently meeting with members of the Obama administration to build a truly positive U.S. relationship with the Court.

As a founding member of the Partnership for Effective Peacekeeping, CGS successfully lobbied Congress to appropriate an additional $524 million to help address critical shortfalls to funding U.N. peacekeeping missions. Overall, they were able to help reduce, by more than 20%, U.S. debt to the U.N. They will continue work to bring this to zero and to put blue helmets back onto U.S. troops.

Close to 90% of the 183 candidates endorsed by Global Solutions PAC in the 2008 election cycle won, including 5 new senators and 5 new representatives.

Tracy is running for U.S. Congress in San Diego’s 50th District against Francine Busby, a Cardiff School Board trustee, to unseat the incumbent Republican Brian Bilbray.

With the June primaries fast approaching, we have three candidates facing challengers for the party’s nominations. As we pursue our goal of a governing progressive majority, you’ll be hearing from each of them. Our hope is that you will find an hour or two to help elect true progressive candidates like Tracy Emblem in California’s 50th congressional district. -Tim Carpenter

Republican Brian Bilbray has stood as a living roadblock to every meaningful piece of legislation. He voted NO to Regulate Predatory Lending Practices while people are losing their homes due to foreclosure. He voted NO to Health Care Reform, even after his friends in Congress stripped the Public Option back to nothing less than another private insurance bailout. He voted NO to Ending the War and to bring our troops home. In fact, the only consistent YES vote he has cast is to participate in the Obstruction of Progress.

The RNC considers the 50th a vulnerable district. In 2008, President Obama won with over 14,000 votes. The district is 97.8 percent urban and is ready for change and progressive leadership in Congress.

I am running in a contested Democratic Primary against the party “blue dog” candidate who has already run and lost three times. I have the support of California’s working families, the California Labor Federation, the California Nurses Association, National Air Traffic Controllers and almost 20 individual unions in the AFL-CIO. Labor supports me because they know it will take a progressive leader to deliver a victory. Your support will help to level the playing field against the party machine.

With only days until the primary, I need your help now more than ever to win this fight. Please volunteer to make calls to help us reach voters in this critical Southern California district. Together, we can work for true progress to make America stronger.

Yours truly,

Tracy Emblem

P.S. Your campaign contribution of $10, $25, $50 or whatever you can afford will help us reach voters in this critical time. Please visit www.TracyEmblemforCongress.com.

P.P.S. Join Tracy this Thursday on the “Inside the Party” call. Register here.

ESCONDIDO, CA April 23, 2010 – The California School Employees Association (CSEA) joins the California Federation of Teachers (CFT), the California Labor Federation (CLF) and nearly twenty diverse labor unions from building trades to health care specialists and service employees in their official endorsement of Tracy Emblem for United States Congress in California’s 50th district.

CSEA represents nearly 230,000 classified employees in California public schools and community colleges.

These school support staff, known in California as “classified school employees,” perform a wide range of essential work, including security, food services, office and clerical work, school maintenance and operations, transportation, academic assistance and paraeducator services, library and media assistance, computer services and more.

“I am proud to have the support and endorsement of the working men and women who keep our schools and colleges open and running. California’s Classified Employees work hard every day to ensure that our learning environments are safe, clean and ready for our students, young and old. It is essential that we have a quality, skilled workforce which is why I support rights for employees to organize, pool their resources and collectively bargain for benefits. Investing in our local communities will have lasting results for generations to come,” said the jubilant Tracy Emblem.

These endorsement’s bring the total labor support of Tracy’s campaign to almost 20 unions. Tracy is also the candidate endorsed by the Progressive Democrats of America.

Tracy is running for U.S. Congress in San Diego’s 50th District against Francine Busby, a Cardiff School Board trustee with only one endorsement by labor (California Teachers Association), to unseat the incumbent Republican Brian Bilbray who has no endorsements by labor.

Vote Now for Tracy Emblem the True Progressive Candidate

We all know in our hearts who the real progressive candidate is — Tracy Emblem. The other 50th District candidate has lost the general election three times, and is now attempting to gain the DFA endorsement as a “progressive” candidate. She is not a Progressive Democrat who DFA should endorse. In fact, the DFA does not want Blue Dog or Corporate candidates to represent the party as stated in a recent email from DFA.

To our fellow democrats who are Busby supporters we say that your friendship and loyalty to her is admirable, but we all know friends don’t win elections. It is the best qualified candidate who should move on to defeat Brian Bilbray. Let’s all make it happen, and as our opponet says – “Let’s rally the troops.”

Why support Tracy Emblem as the Progressive Candidate?  Progressive Democrats of America and Progressive Push – both national progressive organizations have endorsed Tracy.

Tracy has the support/endorsements of 16 labor unions who represent hundreds of working families in the 50th District.

This district can only be won by a strong opponent — Tracy has been a civil rights attorney protecting and fighting for people’s constitutional rights!

Please Click on the Link Below & Vote for Tracy Emblem

http://www.primariesmatter.com…

Lately, interviews concerning healthcare reform have been plastering the news with droning answers that seem to always slip into over-complicated political jargon. In an interview on Fox 5 San Diego, Francine Busby and Brian Bilbray weighed in on the effect of healthcare reform.  The two candidates running for the seat in California’s 50th district have competing views of what needs to be done to pass healthcare reform.  Francine Busby, addressed the problem head on, and put forth a solution with a fresh display of knowhow and vision.  Busby focused on what needs to be done to make healthcare reform relevant to families around the dining room table here in San Diego, rather than the compromising table in Washington.  Busby is in support of passing this healthcare reform bill to help the 108,000 uninsured people in her district obtain health insurance.  She is willing to do what it takes to make sure the issues relate to the American people and not the American bureaucracy.

Brian Bilbray’s comments were all about POLITICS.  When asked about the votes needed to pass the bill, Bilbray pinned the blame on the Democrats, their 40-vote majority and lack of bipartisan cooperation, but the moderator did not let him get very far.  He claimed that the Democrats are not including the Republicans enough on negotiations, and are strictly going after their own votes.  But in reality, when was the last time a President has put together a healthcare summit with both parties present for discussion?  Never.  President Obama’s actions have exceeded any prior attempt at a bipartisan agreement on a bill.  Then I still ask myself, why has there been no compromise?  The answer that Bilbray poses is: politics.

The moderator further expressed her disgust with the Republican’s political games when she said, “You guys are going to lose those votes anyways. You are going to lose at the polls, because people are sick of it Congressman. People are really fed up and tired of all the politics.”  This Fox Network moderator conveyed the distrust and disgust that the people of America truly have for this broken system of governance.  The American people want healthcare reform.  They want cheaper insurance premiums.  They want a choice! Republicans are playing election games instead of doing their job, which the American people have to remind them of.  Stop the political nonsense and pass a bill that will help Americans.

The Republicans, including Bilbray, are focused on the midterm elections in November rather than what is right for the country.  Brian Bilbray simply refused to answer the question about how he was going to help the 46 million uninsured Americans. For Bilbray, denying healthcare reform is a political victory for the GOP.  Bilbray tiptoed around the issues and reinforced the fact that Republicans are playing politics and using buzzwords in attempt to win elections.  The moderator showed more exasperation with Bilbray by saying, “This is frustrating.”  Then she promptly ended the interview.  I agree with her.  The California 50th Congressional District deserves better than a question dodger.  They deserve someone who will help healthcare reform pass and help them get what they need.  The Republican’s “No First,” mentality has lasted too long.  The only way things will change is if we fill our government with people that are dedicated to making things better for the American people. Francine Busby is one of these people.  Please Congressman Bilbray, no more politics in this healthcare bill: just results.

http://www.fox5sandiego.com/vi…

Anyone who understands the fundamentals of campaigns knows that Tracy Emblem, despite her passion and earnest efforts, has no chance to win the democratic primary in the 50th congressional district.  Emblem’s spin on the strengths of her campaign misrepresents reality.  Her minor endorsements and negative campaign strategy has not moved her closer to the only viable candidate for the Democratic nomination, Francine Busby.  

Emblem has failed the key tests of any serious candidate.  First, Tracy Emblem’s scorched earth campaign against Busby is doing a disservice to her party. Second, her funds are not sufficient to compete against an incumbent candidate.  With $8,000 in the bank and over $45,000 in debt, it is impossible to run a campaign and rally support.  Francine Busby has raised almost $290,000 dollars in her race to unseat Bilbray and take back the 50th congressional district for Democrats.  The money, support, and endorsements make it clear that Busby is the only viable candidate in this race.

Emblem’s continued mudslinging is a losing strategy.  This approach has created a false dichotomy between the right choice, Busby, and the empty choice, Emblem. Emblem’s claim that Busby’s support is overwhelmingly due to long time loyalties is petty and insulting to Busby’s supporters and endorsers.  If anything, this indicates that Emblem is in denial about her lack of appeal, and ability to build a broad base of support. Francine’s broad name and face recognition are huge assets that any candidate needs to win. Tracy has no name recognition and no means to achieve it. Although Tracy claims that she is a candidate running for the issues, her only issue seems to be Francine. Having no money and little support, Tracy Emblem’s campaign is over.  The only choice left for Emblem is to graciously withdraw.  

The Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) Metro San Diego Chapter voted Monday evening to endorse Tracy Emblem for the 50th Congressional District race.

In a very transparent voting process where the member’s ballots were collected, counted and verified in front of all present, the final tally was 19 votes for Emblem, 7 votes for Busby and 2 voters chose to abstain. This brings Emblem’s local Democratic club endorsement tally up to three, which has her closing in on Francine Busby, her competitor for incumbent Republican Brian Bilbray‘s seat. The other local clubs endorsing Emblem include: North County Women’s Democratic Club and Latino American Democratic Club.

Four local clubs have endorsed Busby thus far: Chicano Democratic Association, San Diego Democratic Club, San Diego County Young Democrats, and Rancho Santa Fe Democratic Club.

PDA is the second progressive organization to endorse Emblem this week. The Progressive Push PAC endorsed Emblem on Saturday. Luis A. Cuevas, the National Director, stated on Emblem’s Facebook page that he was proud to endorse “the real progressive in California’s 50th Congressional District race”.

Additionally, Emblem has the formal endorsement of four local labor unions, while Busby has the endorsement of a national women’s political caucus.

However, four San Diego Democratic clubs have withheld endorsements for this seat: Mesa Democratic Club, Lake San Marcos Democratic Club, Black Mountain Democratic Club, and the Democratic Club of Oceanside/Carlsbad. These clubs are withholding a formal endorsement until after the June 8, 2010 primary so that voters in their communities can decide upon the most viable candidate. After the primary, these clubs will endorse the winner.

The Town Hall budget forum in San Diego High’s Library drew over 100 concerned parents on Thursday Night. School Board interim Superintendent Bill Kowba and Board member Richard Barrera made a power point presentation that outlined the funding shortfalls faced by local educators with expected State contributions for the 2010 fiscal year.

The bottom line, as presented in this meeting, is that ALL of the cuts in programs that have been bandied about in the news media and various on-line discussions will not cover the expected deficit.

Sports programs, arts & music curricula, magnet schools, bussing, libraries, school nurses, classroom size limits, magnet schools, many instructional and administrative positions-along with benefits provided to district employees-can all be eliminated and the district will still be short of balancing its budget for the next fiscal year.

Reductions in school funding over the last three years have already taken a toll. Experienced educators have fled the district in droves (over 1000 last year). The administrative staff for local schools has been decimated, meaning that teachers are now diverting their efforts from classroom activities to do such mundane tasks are making copies and completing State-mandated paperwork. For the San Diego Unified School District, this has meant a reduction of nearly 20 percent in school funding over three years, while the enrollment has increased by nearly 2 percent. These reductions add up to $180 million over the last three years-and local schools are facing another$16 million shortfall before the end of the 2009-10 school year.

And it’s going to get worse. California State budget analysts are now estimating that next year’s cuts could be as high as $200 million for San Diego schools.

There were lots of parents at the Town Hall who’d come to fight for individual programs that they perceived might be on the chopping block for next year. The likelihood that ALL those programs were facing elimination seemed beyond their grasp, in part, because of past School District claims of impending cuts that proved to be premature. Other parents in attendance whose kids programs were cut last year were sad reminders of what’s likely to come next year.

While the SD Unified School Board’s dismal record at predicting the consequences of past funding reductions has skeptics wondering if they are once again simply crying “wolf”, a closer examination of the State of California’s projected revenue shortfalls does seem to indicate that there really are hard times ahead for education. (Go here to see the figures.)

The second part of the Town Hall budget forum-and most of the evening-consisted of getting the crowd divided into smaller working groups who were directed to envision and articulate pro-active solutions to the looming budgetary crisis. The divided nature of support for education reared its ugly head here, as proponents for individual programs and schools voiced their concerns. The isolation of these groups and individuals demonstrated the need for co-ordination and communication along with a unified agenda aimed at opposing all reductions in State funding for education.

The political challenges facing area schools are daunting. The only real solution is to increase funding, yet the Governor is defining the current revenue shortfalls as a “spending” crisis; slightly more one third of the State’s Legislators are pledged to oppose any steps that might be taken that could resolve the shortfalls. This representative minority will likely remain an effective deterrent to continuing educational programs unless parental groups can make their voices heard in a manner that implies that political winds are changing around the State. After all, the one thing that politicians all try to excel at is getting re-elected (or, in these days of term limits, continuing their philosophy of governance).

The arguments relating to budgets need to be re-framed, and quickly. The cost of education is not about “spending”; it’s an investment. Each dollar spent on education returns three in future taxpayer dollars. The cost per pupil of education in California has fallen from slightly less than $6000 per year to under $5000, putting the State on a par with such bastions of educational excellence as Mississippi and Alabama. Further cuts in education will increase the dropout rate in high schools, which will in turn lead to crime rates increasing. (Consider that the average inmate in a California correctional institution costs taxpayers over $60,000 per year!) And then there is the matter of having a competitive and competent workforce as a bulwark against further exportation of jobs in the face of globalization.

The forces that stand opposed any increase in State funding for education are deeply entrenched and hide their true agendas through a bewildering array of misinformation, deceit, and a core cadre of voters that have bought into their basic premise that doom and gloom are just around the corner unless further reductions in government programs occur. The surest example of this in the San Diego area is the editorial and news policies of the Union-Tribune Newspaper; they have built their entire point of view on the premise that the teacher’s unions are at the root of all evil. Any suggestion to the contrary is simply ignored, as was demonstrated when the paper failed to send a reporter to cover the San Diego High meeting.

If you care about the future of education in San Diego, now is the time to get involved. The Governor will be sending his budget proposal to the Legislature in January; school budgets must by law be based on the available funding in that plan. The school district must inform employees of impending layoffs by March. So all the phone calls and letters you can send supporting education (do it early & often!) over the next couple of months could make a critical difference.

E-mail or call every legislator from the San Diego area and the Governor to tell them your concerns about cuts to education funding. We need a united San Diego effort to pressure the Governor and legislature. Here’s the link for contact information with the Governor and local legislators, along with a rather meek and mild suggested letter. (Personally, I think something along the lines of “vote correctly or suffer the consequences” sounds much better.)

  In the world of right wing talk radio hosts, San Diego’s Rick Roberts has to keep ahead of the curve. His daily show on KFMB-AM Radio ranks behind competitor KOGO-AM (Chip Franklin) and his audience is pretty much limited to the teabagger fringes of the Republican rank and file.  Need to know what topics will be covered on his show this week?  Just surf over to any of the Fox News discussion boards and look for the most inflammatory material: that’s what you’ll be hearing on the show this week.  

 Basking in the glory of helping out his buddy Congressman Darrell Issa (and regular recipient of Big Pharma/Healthcare PAC $$) fill a couple of “Town Halls” this past week, Rick wants you to know about the next big thing on the horizon: a boycott of schools on September 8th.

  That’s because President Obama is making a speech next week aimed at school kids.  In a recent interview with student reporter, Damon Weaver, President Obama announced that on September 8 — the first day of school for many children across America — he will deliver a national address directly to students on the importance of education. The President will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning.

 So “Stay in school” is being called “indoctrination” and an attempt to “get ’em while they’re young,”.  Roberts, along with Glen Beck and the usual collection of tin foil hat wearing pundits are now warning, “They are capturing your kids” and “your republic is under attack.”

 It’s not that other sitting Presidents haven’t done pretty much the same thing.

 Roberts and his cohorts apparently have forgotten that, while president, George H.W. Bush gave a speech to schoolchildren intended “to motivate America’s students to strive for excellence; to increase students’ as well as parents’ responsibility/accountability; and to promote students’ and parents’ awareness of the educational challenge we face.” The White House sent letters to schools across the nation to encourage teachers and principals to allow students to tune in the speech; live television and radio coverage was arranged at the request of the Education Department.

 Also forgotten is former President George W. Bush posting a “teacher’s guide” on the White House website intended to help students understand the “freedom timeline” and encouraging them to “explor[e] the biographies of the President, Mrs. Bush, Vice President, and Mrs. Cheney.”  Of course, we’ll never forget the seven minutes that President Bush took out to continue reading to school children in front of TV cameras after learning that the World Trade Center had been bombed.

 Then there’s Ronald Reagan’s “educational” event on November 14, 1988, where he addressed and took questions from students from middle schools at the Old Executive Office Building. The speech was broadcast live and rebroadcast by C-Span, and Instructional Television Network fed the program to schools nationwide over three different days. Part of the President’s speech that day included a discourse on supply side economics and reduced taxation, plus a spiel about gun control.

How long did it take the right to go from: “if you criticize the President you are a traitor” to “School children should not trust the President”? So President Obama speaks to the nation’s youth and it’s:

The fascist in chief is taking his special brand of brainwashing to the classroom. Keep your kids home. I think this man is a threat to our basic unalienable rights. I don’t want him indoctrinating my children. Seriously.

Ask your school what their participation is in this leftist indoctrination outrage. Keep politics out of the classroom. Keep communists and their propagandists away from small children

 

And….

Unless we get public assurances from the White House that the president won’t address health care or global warming or the homosexual agenda (under the color of “human rights for people different than us”) this might be a great time for parents to exercise their opt-out authority and give their students a biography of George Washington to read while the President turns the minds of an entire generation to mush.

The difference is, when the right wingers used to go on about how everyone should respect the President they really meant that they would only respect Presidents that they liked.

The other difference is, this President is black.  Maybe they avoid letting their children see Obama on TV because they’re afraid their kids will get the image of a black President in their minds and might think it is OK.  That might be the “indoctrination” they’re worried about.

Or maybe it’s that this President has “secret powers” that allow him to sway minds in a 15 minute speech.  But I don’t think so.  The American people voted Dick “secret powers” Cheney’s party out of office.

So, in the spirit of this sort of ongoing over-the-top righty responses, we’d like to propose a few more White House initiatives:

**National Dental Health Day.  That way, Roberts & his crew could claim there is a nationwide conspiracy of dentists seeking to implant transmitters in the teeth of “true patriots”.

** A Presidential speech announcing that the world is, in fact, round.  It’d be nice to get the flat earth society types out of the closet.

cross posted with cool graphics at obrag.org

(Keep the town hall reports coming… – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

Congresswoman Susan Davis spoke about health care at a town hall meeting this evening in the Hillcrest neighborhood of San Diego.  About 450 people showed up prior to the doors opening; the hall held maybe 300, lacked adequate ventilation and was supplied with a sound system that made it difficult to hear beyond the first few rows of seats.  A couple of disruptors made it into the hall, but, for the most part, things ran smoothly inside.  

I was there along with other associates of the OBRag.org community blog to cover the action. Some of us went inside. Other stayed outside.  We all took pictures, made a video or two and will post our observations over the next few hours.  I took a a quick look at our web stats after getting back from the meeting, and discovered that we had been identified by a local right wing blog as being somehow responsible for the turnout. (I can’t wait to moderate those comments.)

Most of the real action was outside the Joyce DeBeers Community Center.  The crowd outside was overwhelmingly pro health care reform and stayed to show their support of the cause to the assembled media. The handful of right wingers who showed up hoping to disrupt the event ended up across the street. They had a couple of bullhorns, a few signs, and no obvious leadership.  

And the rest of crowd outside the hall was ready with a response to the wingers’ taunts.  We laughed at them. Loud and hard. And we laughed some more, pointing at these clowns, and drowning out their pitiful pleas for attention.

When we got tired of laughing, the chants of “Yes We Can” and “Health Care Now” filled the air. For even more variety, there was a rousing chorus of “Racists Go Home” and then it was back to laughing and pointing.  After the meeting was over, one of the right wingers was arrested by the police for disturbing the peace.  Other goons attempted to bait the departing crowd, making comments like “go home to your mamas, faggots.”  Their frustration was obvious.  So was our victory in this skirmish.