Greetings from Oroville !

*

*

680_2  Charlie Brown , Mayor Jernigan, Mrs Jernigan

*

*

Saturday, September 20, 2008, at the Veterans Hall in Oroville, CA.  Left to right, Mrs. Jernigan, Mayor Steve Jernigan of Oroville, Charlie Brown, candidate for Congress in CA’s 4th district, and a volunteer for the Town Hall and BBQ  event.  

There’s lots more pictures and news of upcoming Charlie Brown events, if you’ll continue with me over the fold:

*

*

650  Serving BBQ Lunch,



Volunteers from Oroville and Charlie Brown serve Lunch at the Town Hall on Sept 20, 2008

*

*

658_2   Mayor Jernigan of Oroville



Mayor Steve Jernigan of Oroville Speaks to the Town Hall, and Introduces Charlie Brown  

*

*

669_2  Charlie Brown talks to Oroville



Charlie Brown talks to citizens at the Oroville Town Hall on Sept 20  

*

*

668  Crowd listens and asks



Some of the attendees listening to questions being asked

*

*

667  Man asking Q



Asking about Presidential signing statements  

*

*

0684  Friends & Vets



Friends and Vets, Oroville, Sept 20  

*

*

686_2  The Volunteer Cooks, @ Oroville, & Charlie Brown



The Volunteer Cooks & Charlie Brown  

*

*

*

This was a fun event, and I am looking forward to more of them and hoping to see more CA- 04 people at them!   There was a BBQ lunch, grilled  tri – tip,  potato salad, beans,  made and served by the great people in the last photo, and then Mayor Jernigan, “the most popular person in Oroville,” as one person called him, spoke for a bit and introduced congressional candidate Charlie Brown.   Charlie spoke and then took questions from the crowd.

 Oroville is a lakeside community about an hour and a half north of Sacramento, in Butte County, with a city population of about 14,000, and a combined city/suburban/summer area population of about 55,000.  There are a lot of retirees because it’s an easier pace than The Big City.  The most distinguishing feature of Oroville, besides the big Dam & Reservoir,  is the big Table Mountain Ridge which flanks the northern part of town and lets you know that you’re in foothills Gold Country, for Oroville was founded during the Gold Rush.  Oroville also does what has to be the the most spectacular Northern CA 4 of July fireworks show over the Lake every year that draws such a huge crowd, that they run shuttle buses from town to the lake, and it’s a big lake .  So Oroville, which also has Feather Falls Casino, depends on tourism for a lot of its revenues, and when the economy has a downturn, and people don’t travel as much, they are sensitive to that aspect of it.   The people attending the Town Hall  were also talking and asking a wide range of questions about the future course of our country and how do we encourage local jobs growth for the younger generation.  They can tell, that the things that happened in Washington DC over the course of the last 7+ years, and that the course the current administration had set the country on,  had not taken into account the long term effects upon their neighbors and friends’ everyday lives.

One of the questions I didn’t expect but was really glad to hear was “How do we stop the other guy (McClintock)  from Swiftboating you?”

You see how that works?  Open Democracy is Empowering.  It was “how do we” do something,  not  “which consultant do we send a check to  ?”

There was such a contrast to the other candidate running for congress in the same district it was mind boggling.

___________

NEXT UP:  41 DAYS TO CHANGE

•Charlie Brown will be holding another Family BBQ and Town Hall Meeting in South Lake Tahoe next Saturday, September 27 th.

WHO: Congressional candidate Charlie Brown

WHAT: BBQ and Town Hall meeting

WHERE: Bijou Park, 1099 Al Tahoe Blvd, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150

WHEN: Saturday, September 27, 2008, time:   12pm-3pm  

http://www.charliebrownforcong…

•PLUS, NEXT SATURDAY IS ANOTHER DISTRICT WIDE, CA- 04   DAY OF ACTION !  

DISTRICT WIDE DAY OF ACTION SATURDAY 9/27 08

Time:    10 am to 2 pm    Place: Roseville , Grass Valley, Quincy, Placerville,  Truckee,  Auburn,   South Lake Tahoe,  all have district offices and will be doing canvassing and phone banking

•EARLY OCTOBER,  MARK YOUR CALENDERS AND GET READY TO RUMBLE !  DEBATE !

  THE FIRST CA- 04 DEBATE:    CHARLIE BROWN DEBATES TOM MCCLINTOCK IN OROVILLE  THURSDAY OCT  2 , 2008 , 8:00pm   to 9:00pm  

Charlie Brown Debates Tom McClintock in Oroville

Thursday October 2, 2008 | 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM

The League of Women Voters of Butte County, along with the Chico Enterprise-Record and the Oroville Mercury-Register, are co-sponsoring a televised voters forum at the Southside Community Center in Oroville. For more details, please visit ChicoER.com or OrovilleMR.com.

I was hoping the League of Women Voters of Butte County would have this event listed on their calender page, but I would keep checking back until they update it:  

 http://www.lwvbuttecounty.org/      League of Women Voters of Butte County     1 530  895  VOTE

NOTE TO PEOPLE USING MAPQUEST and GOOGLE TO FIND THINGS:  THERE ARE 2 COMMUNITY CENTERS LISTED FOR OROVILLE, and they’re NOT the same thing. One’s in the north part of town and the other is in the south part of town.   Please confirm location before attempting navigation.  (Don’t ask me how I know this, but the people at the south one are super about giving directions …..)    The Chico Enterprise Record does not have this listed on their events calender yet.

_____

and on a final note:

It’s SEPTEMBER 24 !  Less than  one week to the Sept 30  FEC  3rd Quarter donation deadline ,    41 DAYS TO CHANGE , where we can  SEND  MC DOLITTLE DUCK – the real  – issues back to Ventura County !    

Ya wanna see what he did recently?  click on my name and read those previous 2  diaries, he doesn’t rate any exposure here.  No Show Tom, Fake Schedule, Swiftboating, & Keystone Kops

http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

McClintock, Ron Rogers, Kevin Ring, and THAT swiftboat ad     http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

Ya wanna see what it looked like the last time I saw a Republican congressional candidate in Oroville, during the pre- Primary?  Click here, scroll down to the middle, and enjoy the “bonus humor photos” of Doug Ose’s crew riding around on oil barrels in front of a moving van (Ose’s family is in the mini storage busines, so home foreclosures and people moving works out very well for them )

http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

By the way, Republican Doug Ose formally endorsed Tom McClintock.  thank you.  Doug Ose, on the night he lost the Republican Primary,  on teevee “well, I guess I’ll just go back to earning more money.”  You said it, Mr. Multimillionaire Self Funding Carpetbagger Candidate Developer who took Abramoff Money.

Why does the 3rd Quarter FEC deadline matter? Because the candidates then have to file the reports online, and it’s possible to see the true financial support levels of each candidate.  And that influences financial supporters in the last quarter. They want to see the candidate can win.  Charlie Brown has thousands of supporters, and is getting individual donations from inside the district.    McClintock on the last filing had just around 800 individual donations.  Yes. ONLY 819 people, and many of these were duplicates from the same business entity using multiple names of family members, or from other Republican candidates that had already dropped out.   And the majority of them were from out of district. A great deal of them were from Southern CA.   I went thru the entire list  and I counted it.  McClintock has no money, going down the home stretch (shockingly little, around a hundred thousand)  unless he sells his soul at this point to some nefarious Bush administration supporter trying to curry future favors.  

Charlie Brown lives, raised a family, and worked in the district, and wants to represent the people living here now in 4.   To McClintock, who resides in Lungren’s district 3 but represented yet another in the state senate legislature so as to collect the tax free per diem,  it’s just another mailing address.

Charlie Brown’s contributions page link:       https://www.charliebrownforcon…

Actblue link:    http://www.actblue.com/entity/…

______

photos by diary author.  grateful for assistance provided by diary spouse that day

cross post at dailykos and progressive blue  

( – promoted by David Dayen)

With a little less than 50 days until the November 4th Election, the stakes couldn’t be higher in the race for California’s 4th House of Representatives seat. We have an awesome opportunity to put a different kind of leader in Congress, one who is results-driven and ready to put patriotism before partisanship.  

Charlie Brown has been known to be the local favorite in this campaign. He is the only candidate in this race who has lived, worked, and raised his family in this district, now going on 17 years. And as such, Charlie Brown is hitting the road every day of this campaign to make his case to the voters. In the first of a series of BBQ Town hall meetings, Charlie visited El Dorado Hills’ Bertelsen Park to meet with voters and take their questions.

As the burgers were being flipped, Charlie chatted it up with people one-on-one, Diet Coke in hand, discussing the important issues of the economy, the foreclosure crisis, infrastructure, rising gas prices and the war in Iraq.

Introducing Charlie was an El Dorado County giant– former United States Congressman Jerry Waldie. Waldie, a World War II veteran, served in the House for 8 years before running for California’s governor in 1974 against Jerry Brown.

Charlie then took to the “stage,” a grassy area by the picnic tables, to address the crowd and get their input on a host of issues.

One question that was asked from a local voter revolved around the issue of privacy and spying on American citizens. Charlie, a former intelligence officer in the Air Force, explained his role working on surveillance programs for the National Security Agency (NSA). He explained his view and drew thunderous applause from the group.

Charlie was also asked questions regarding a host of local issues, most notably water. Like everyone who lives in the 4th District, Charlie understands the importance water flowing through the 4th district has on California agriculture, and why adequate supply and proper stewardship (including keeping all of it from being shipped to Southern California) is so critical to the future of our region and our state. You may have also heard that it’s been especially dry out here in Northern California this summer.  

Overall, a healthy-sized group with a healthy-sized appetite for burgers and answers got their fill in El Dorado Hills this weekend. Next week, Charlie is heading up to Oroville to continue the conversation. Please check out our website for dates and times of when Charlie comes to your neighborhood.

On Tues, Sept 16, the Tom McClintock (R) carpetbagging campaign for CA- 04 up here in Northern California, running against Democrat Charlie Brown, sank to a new depth akin to the stock market crash of 2008.

Sacramento News Channel 10, ( ABC ) ran a story about a swiftboat ad release by the McClintock campaign, and did not tell who the people were in the video nor who was involved in the making of it. (edit: added link  http://www.news10.net/news/sto…        )        They did not note that the “uniform” was just a jacket over a tee shirt and jeans.  They edited video in such a way as to disguise an incident of potential assault by a McClintock campaign advisor.  They did not say that the event was written up as a press conference by other sources, to imply open access, when the McClintock campaign decided to call security to prevent access by observers, and was not letting them see the event.  I witnessed the event (or rather, the closed doors, mostly except when they opened ) from the hallway but was prevented from recording it and was threatened with removal from the building by someone who would not identify themselves or their job title.

Regarding the video on the News 10 site, now that I have seen it:

The dark haired man in the suit facing the camera is John Ruiz, a “campaign consultant” or “advisor” for the McClintock campaign, previously associated with John Doolittle and Richard Pombo,  who also is financially involved with Southern California Casinos being financed by the Malik family of Detroit.  http://www.theverifiabletruth….        This Malik family has given thousands of dollars to campaigns of Tom McClintock.  He (Ruiz) had just previously committed what is known legally as “assault” upon another person in the photo, which has been edited out of the News 10 video, by grabbing the person’s arm and threatening them under his breath. He then made another comment out loud trying to provoke a fight.  Only the person’s reaction, saying “do not touch me again,”  is shown in the video.

The person in the print shirt with his back to the camera is a real veteran and did not assault anybody. The person standing behind Ruiz is a real veteran and did not assault anybody.  

Politico said it was a press conference.  ABC is claiming it was a private meeting so they had the right to restrict access.

(edit, to add) My previous story on that entire day is here: CA- 04, No Show Tom, Fake Schedule, Swiftboating and the Keystone Kops     http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

So where’s Tom McClintock? He knows and won’t admit it.    

*

*



McClintock at the Auburn Gold Country Fair in flyer form touting his “virtues.”  Nope, not photoshopped.  photos by author.

The McClintock employee lied about McClintock’s whereabouts that day deliberately.  McClintock did not go to Lincoln that morning, where he was expected at the Chamber of Commerce, and where they already had the campaign handouts stapled to the day’s agenda.  The employee who said he didn’t know where McClintock was going to be that day was there at the “press conference” guarding the door to it and refusing entrance.   McClintock posted a phony schedule, claimed a budget victory when there wasn’t one, didn’t show up at places, including this “press conference,”  and ran off to the Elks lodge in Auburn (again, restricted access) to eat lunch with a bunch of mostly older while males while his surrogates were down at the Hyatt doing his dirty work.

The woman speaking in the ad they released was Debra (or Deborah)  Johns.  She is a member of Move America Forward.  http://www.moveamericaforward….                                         She is their “director of military relations” per their website.  She is a paid professional Public Relations person, not just a private citizen. MAF puts solicitations up on the internet made by “military moms” with pleas for money to “support the troops”  by funding an advertisement.   This money is then used to make hit pieces against certain Democratic candidates. Where the money goes is all to the same po box in Sacramento.   They pull the solicitations down after they get the money, but the ads remain online on You Tube.  Think of her as a media hit person, not as a “military mom,” her online persona.  

Move America Forward, aka MAF,  is the alleged non profit wing of “Russo Marsh and Rogers” Public Relations firm, which does media PR and swiftboating for Republican Candidates. Move America Forward a front group which claims non profit status based on issues advocacy.  I don’t see how they can claim to be non partisan, they’ve never, ever supported anything but right wing extremist Republicans and they do sleaze swiftboating.  They ask for money online to pay for campaign ads.  This is not non partisan.   The notorious right wing radio talk show host Melanie Morgan, who is shown wearing a camoflage pattern tee shirt under her suit jacket on her own website, is “chairman” of this MAF group.  Melanie Morgan   http://www.moveamericaforward….    

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M…          has an online store  http://www.melaniemorgan.com/               that sells tee shirts and mugs with religious and racially offensive slogans that extremist right wingers might find appealing or might intrepret as being an affirmation that advocating violence against an AA candidate is okay.  

It is not “okay.”  It is provocative and IMO, evil.

The “Rogers” in RMR  is  Ron Rogers, a former staff member of Rep. John Doolittle’s who was subpoenaed last September 2007 in the DOJ/FBI investigation of John Doolittle.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

Rogers bio on the RMR webpage is missing that aspect.  He’s a PR guy who has dissapeared the fact that he used to be Doolittle’s Chief of Staff.  

http://www.rmrwest.com/index.p…

As an ex COS of Doolittle, he has certainly been heavily involved in the ongoing coverup of Doolittle’s corruption investigation and alleged crimes,  for Doolittle has been fighting the subpoenas of his staff for a very long time.

Now, what happened recently?   KEVIN RING WAS ARRESTED AND INDICTED in the Abramoff scandal investigation.  Ring is another ex staffer, the former legislative director of John Doolittle,  who went on to become a lobbyist and work with Jack Abramoff and who had many, many interactions with John Doolittle, esp. concerning having Julie Doolittle go to work for an Abramoff sub- company being funded by laundered money from Indian Tribes and foreign governments.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

Ring, married with a young family, is being heavily pressured to flip and tell on his ex boss.  Surely he doesn’t want to go to jail.

Now, in ALL THIS FLAPDOODLE about the “effigy”  what else happened this week?  The AP reports that the Federal Prosecutors  are about to turn over “millions of pages” of documents” of evidence for KEVIN RING’s DEFENSE ATTORNEY TO USE.    This includes correspondence with former DOJ officials Clements and Ayres,  who used to work for former US ATTY GENERAL JOHN ASHCROFT.  Hey, guess what?  RING used to work for Ashcroft, too.   So did another convicted DOJ  employee, Robert Coughlin.

http://ap.google.com/article/A…

The charges against Ring include an episode in which he allegedly  

lobbied Justice Department officials for money to build a jail on a  

reservation for a tribal client. One of the officials involved –  

Robert Coughlin, former deputy chief of staff of the Justice  

Department’s criminal division – already has pleaded guilty to  

criminal conflict of interest in the case.  

So it’s time for a big DIVERSION.   No kidding.  People are sitting in jail cells because of this Doolittle coverup, and the roof is about to blow off.  

Channel 10 is an ABC affiliate which is owned by Disney.  Disney owns the radio station in SF where Melanie Morgan of MAF had her right wing talk show.  Disney/ABC ran the horrible “Path to 9/11 ” documentary full of lies, blaming the Clinton administration for the disaster.  

ABC is now allied with Fox News as part of the coverup party of the corruption of the Dept. of Justice under the Bush administration.

One of Doolittle’s and McClintock’s biggest local financial supporters is posting pictures from ABC Channel 10 on the Auburn Journal blog, making bogus claims about what happened Sept 16, 2008 at the Hyatt in Sacramento.  Great diversion.  Not.

_____

edited 8:20 pm 9/19  to add links, and photos by author  

I’m going to try and do these once a day.  No promises!

• CA-04: In partial response to the kerfuffle from yesterday’s deceitful attack ad, Charlie Brown released two radio spots and a TV ad today.  His wife Jan Brown narrates the TV spot, which foregrounds Charlie and his son’s military service. (Sorry, not embeddable)

The radio spots are both solid attacks on Venturian Candidate Tom McClintock.  Two men, two paths contrasts Brown’s service and leadership with McClintock’s life in politics, and his record on veterans (including donating 5% of his campaign funds) with McClintock’s (voting against veteran’s funding).  Vote is a humorous spot discussing how McClintock can’t vote for himself because he won’t move into the district.  There’s also a lot on McClintock’s per diem expenses from the State Senate.  “L.A. Tom” is the frame they’re going with, and they ask, “if he won’t vote for himself, why should we?”

• CA-11: State Senator Ellen Corbett and Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi sent a letter to women in Jerry McNerney’s district urging them to reject right-wing extremist Dean Andal.  His record on women’s issues is really retrograde.

To the Women of Congressional District 11:

If you are anything like us, you want a representative in Washington that not only reflects your values, but who also respects you.

Dean Andal just doesn’t qualify. In fact, Dean Andal’s record on women’s issues shows just how out of touch and extreme his views are.

In 1994, as a member of the State Assembly, Dean Andal opposed a common sense law that would have allowed women to wear pants in the workplace instead of being forced to wear skirts and dresses.

Andal also voted against requiring health insurance plans to cover cervical cancer screenings. He even voted against making sure that information about sexual harassment be included in mandatory workplace anti-discrimination posters.

Yet the most egregious affront to women he offered in his short term in the Assembly was his vote to restrict the definition of rape to exclude attacks where an incapacitated woman cannot resist.

And what’s worse, Andal’s was the only vote in the Assembly against expanding the definition. The only one.

Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, all women should be proud of the progress we have made. That’s why it’s so important that we don’t send someone like Dean Andal to Congress. Someone with a record like Andal’s can be counted on to turn back the clock on all we have achieved.

• LA Board of Supes: There’s a runoff in this seat between Councilman Bernard Parks and State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas.  While Ridley-Thomas is a solid progressive who understands the fundamental dysfunction of state government and will fight for progressive values on the powerful Board of Supes, Bernard Parks has hired Republican fixer Steve Kinney to help him win the race.  Parks, who has a business-friendly record on the City Council, is receiving help from BizFed, a PAC notorious for pushing the same agenda.  The wingnuts at the Lincoln Club have reportedly offered him support as well.  At least the choice is now clear to voters – one candidate on the side of the corporate vultures, the other on the side of the people.

• Misc.  I should note that Chris Bowers’ House race forecast is up, and among California races, he lists CA-04 as a tossup, CA-11 as Lean D, and CA-26 & CA-50 as Likely R.  I think he’s selling a couple races short, but that’s a pretty good conservative estimate.

Things are happening very quickly in the most hotly contested campaigns in California.  Here’s an update:

• CA-04: Watching himself falling behind in the race to replace John Doolittle, perennial candidate Tom McClintock decided to borrow one of his predeccesor’s smear campaigns and release an ad claiming that Charlie Brown dishonored servicemen by appearing at an anti-war rally.

The idea that wearing a camouflage jacket constitutes being “in uniform” is ridiculous, and so is the idea that a retired military officer has no free speech rights.  But the idea is to smear Charlie as some kind of radical leftist and anti-military, despite Brown’s long record of supporting veterans and McClintock’s longer record voting against them.

The ensuing press conference put on by the McClintock campaign was a wild affair.

SACRAMENTO – A press conference on congressional candidate Charlie Brown’s actions in 2005 at the home of an anti-war display nearly descended into conflict itself, with disruptions before, during and after the event and a near-appearance by police officers […]

But before the event even began, a handful of Brown supporters – accompanied by Brown’s campaign manager, Todd Stenhouse – were asked to leave so that they wouldn’t cause a disruption.

One man loudly protested that as a military veteran and the father of an active-duty U.S. soldier, he felt he could stay. “This is not Russia,” he said.

McClintock campaign consultant John Feliz and Stenhouse eventually got the man to agree to leave, but not before security at the Hyatt hotel where the press conference took place made calls to Sacramento police to remove the man […]

But a third man who was with the veterans pointed out that Brown was within his First Amendment right to do so, prompting Feliz to ask him to leave as well, while also saying Brown should re-enlist and face a court martial for his actions.

The man, who gave his name as Bret Sherlock, said afterward that he attended because he was tired of non-veterans like McClintock smearing veterans like Brown.

“Did he do anything illegal?” Sherlock said of Brown, adding that if anyone should be able to protest the war, it should be Brown, as both a veteran and a father of a soldier who has served four tours of duty in Iraq.

McClintock campaign spokesman Bill George said the video came from a “concerned citizen.” Neither McClintock nor Brown appeared at the press conference.

After the press conference concluded, Stenhouse tried to give McClintock’s campaign a pledge to join a Brown program that donates 5 percent of Brown’s campaign contributions to nonprofit community groups that work with charities.

Feliz angrily took it and threw it down without looking at it.

They don’t want to talk about issues.  So McClintock tries to smear a decorated veteran to win an election.  Typical.

More on the flip…

• CA-11: We’ve talked before about Dean Andal’s embarrassing fall from Congressional contender to also-ran, but it’s just getting worse and worse.  The questions over Andal’s role in a botched construction project at a local community college have continued, and he’s also been caught lying about his claim that he’s raised more money than any Congressional challenger in the country.  Now his mailers are hitting mailboxes throughout the district, and they’ve been revealed as lies.

What it says: “Instead of taking action to fix America’s energy crisis, ruling Democrats shut down Congress this month (August) for a five-week vacation – with Democratic Congressman Jerry McNerney casting the deciding vote to adjourn.”

Is it true? No. The vote was 213-212 in favor of adjournment. Under Andal’s argument, all 213 members of Congress who voted in favor of the annual summer break were the “deciding vote.”

Besides, party leaders don’t let freshmen decide anything.

It’s almost sad how bad Andal is doing.  The NRCC isn’t even spending in the district.

• CA-50: The latest registration numbers for the district are in, and while Republicans continue to hold an 11-point lead, the trend is in Democrats’ favor.  Republicans are also perilously close to the 40% registration line, under which it becomes harder for them to win, as more independent voters lean Democratic.  I don’t know if Paris Hilton ads and chicken suits will get it done for Nick Leibham, whose campaign is clearly just trying to get in the headlines.  But there are lines of attack on Bilbray, particularly over his single-minded focus on immigration and not the pocketbook issues that affect people’s lives, though Bilbray is enough of a nut to say that the two are functionally equivalent.

• CA-26: There’s another smear campaign going on in this race, where David Dreier and the NRCC are trying to hold onto this seat by dredging up old news about Russ Warner and old tax liens and business license payments.  These are incidents from as far back as 1992, and Warner’s business license has since been reinstated.  It’s a pretty negative mailer considering that Dreier sounds so confident about victory.  Warner is now out with his own mailer highlighting Dreier’s many ties to special interests (like the $200,000 he’s received from oil and gas companies).  The fact that Dreier and Bush agree 94% of the time makes an appearance as well.  The fact that this race is getting so nasty so early suggests that Dreier has seen some polling that has him worried.  Maybe it’s because the Inland Empire is gradually turning blue and Dreier’s days of easy campaigns are numbered.  Enough of the district is in the IE for that to matter.

• AD-80: Manuel Perez has snagged the endorsement of the Sierra Club.  They also have an ad up on the air, which is notable for an Assembly candidate.  

Tuesday September 16 2008

No Show Tom, Fake Schedule, Swiftboating, & the Keystone Kops

Or how Termed- Out State Senator Tom McClintock (R, Anywhere for a per Diem), who is running against Charlie Brown (D, Roseville ) posts a fake schedule on his official campaign website while his campaign workers set up an assault on Brown’s field director  and the “press”  acts like the White House press corps.  

This was my day today.

1.  8 am Lincoln Area Chamber of Commerce  Government Affairs Committee , Holiday Express Inn, Ferrari Ranch Rd, Lincoln  

Tom McClintock, the guest speaker, is a NO SHOW.  Instead, an aide, Mark Spannagel, says that Tom can’t be there because they passed the budget last night (??)  After Spannagel’s spiel, and after the rest of the meeting, he comes up to me and says very sarcastically, “say hello to Todd.”   I ask him if Tom McClintock is going to be at any other scheduled events that were shown on his website, since he skipped this one.  He says he doesn’t know.  I ask him again (politely, in front of Jennifer Perreira )  if Tom McClintock was going to be at anything as shown on his site schedule. He says that they’re “going to roll with it” but that he didn’t know.

2.  The Surprise Super Secret “Managed” Press Conference.  In Roseville, I call Todd.  Does he know where Tom McClintock is going to be today?  Yes.  Supposedly there is a press conference downtown in Sacramento, at the Hyatt Regency at 12th and L street to announce that the budget has been passed, to start the campaign. They’re also announcing “something.”   When is this?  In a half hour.  Do you want a camera there? Okay. On my way.   I know what the Hyatt looks like.  That’s where Dick Cheney comes to do photo opps.  It’s across from the state Capitol building where Crazy Tom had his big ” BUILD THE WALL, DEPORT THEM ALL”  sign up when he was calling for Federal funding to be cut off to San Franciso and Los Angeles during the budget impasse during the Minuteman “Get Your Hate on for Latinos” rally.    

about 40 minutes later……

I ask at the entry where the McClintock press conference is, and they tell me upstairs. Then they don’t let me in the room.  The room is being guarded by Mark Spannagel, (fancy that! he doesn’t look too thrilled to see me) and an unnamed male person I will have to call “SpannaCompanion”.   Spannegel whips out a camera and takes my picture “for the file.”  (“File?” They keep “files?” )  So I oblige and take his again for my notes.   Nick P , Brown’s field director,  is waiting outside the room.  He’s been thrown out.  Several other veterans have been thrown out. Where is Todd?  He’s in the room.  Can I go in the room?  No.  But I am supposed to be in there. No. Can I give my camera to somebody in the room who requested it. No. Who the hell IS in there?  Todd and the press.  Who else ?  McClintock’s people. Is McClintock in there? Nobody knows.  

What the heck.  Take video camera out and start interviewing Nick P.  What happened? McClintock’s campaign John Ruiz grabbed his arm suddenly and told him to leave? That he asked him to let go of his arm, and instead Ruiz started yelling at him, “Do you want to beat me up?”  Nick said this, incredulously, in the way that someone does who just witnessed bat-chit crazy, and then added that he does not hit people.  (Nick is a very mild mannered person. This is beyond ridiculous)  How does he feel about being kicked out of the room? He wishes Democracy was a more open process.  Pan around with the camera.  Ask the door pugs Spannagel and SpannaCompanion what their names are, who do they work for, why are they doing this, and they both say NOTHING, get a “deer in the headlights look” and freeze up.  After a while, the door opens and a few people go out and in.  I start towards the door again and more people place themselves directly in front of me and block the open door.  Holy crap.  What the hell are they doing in there?  I try to hold the camera up and TALLER PEOPLE come and put themselves in the doorway.  I am only of average height.  This one blonde woman must be at least 6 inches taller than I am.

Another Taller Male Person in a dark suit comes and puts his hand over the camera lens and tells me I am not allowed to film anything. I tell him I was asked by a person who is in the room to come. He tells me (hand still over my camera) that I am not allowed to film anything as this is private property, a private meeting, and that if I do not stop, I will be escorted out of the building. He also makes me identify myself but will not tell me who he is or who he works for. I ask him several times to please identify himself. He won’t. I take this to mean he must be private security or imitating it, and I’m not going anywhere with him if I can help it.  This is creepy.   What if I want to enter the room without filming? Are not other people in there taking notes?  I can’t do that unless I go down to the office and ask permission. I am not on the list.  I have to turn off the camera now.  He is emphatic. I must turn off the camera now or leave.  I press my thumb on the button and put my hand down.

I return to the opposite side of the hall with Nick and the veterans and wait for the room to open up.  Eventually the room does open up, and Todd and the reporters come out.  They interview Todd in the hall.  I can tell by the issues and topics that Todd is speaking on, that whatever went on in the room must be complete ****ing bullshit.    The one reporter for the SacBee also talks to one of the veterans and to Todd.  We go downstairs and I then tell Nick P that one of the original door guards was Mark Spannagel, and that he was at Lincoln subbing for McClintock and refused to say where McClintock was going to be today.  

3.  The Auburn Rotary  at the Elks Lodge, Pine Street, Auburn.  When I had left the house that morning, I had no idea that I was going to be doing anything other than running an errand down to Lincoln and back, and then maybe sending an email of my notes and writing something.  But now I’m all the way downtown, and it’s easier to get on the freeway and go straight up north to Auburn than to try to go home.  So I head back to the parking garage, call my spouse, ask him to check McClintock’s website schedule to see if the next event is still listed, ask him to look at a map and tell me which exit, and head out of downtown Sac, back north towards the mountains.  This is going to be a bit of a push, as I have about a half hour to try to get there by noon.

Once I find the Elks Lodge, I take a picture of the parking lot full of cars, and then walk uphill, and there’s Spannagel again, probably on lookout point. I take his picture in the doorway quickly as he’s trying to duck back out of the viewfinder.   I enter the foyer.   A person asks if he can help me, and I say I’m looking for Tom McClintock and ask if he’s going to be here today….. and the man says he thinks he might be here.  Aha !  I peek in the doorway, and there’s Tom McClintock in the front of the room chock full of male Elks eating salads.  The entire building smells like cooking lunch.  I’m almost queasy after my previous encounter with “Friends” of Tom McClintock.  The man asks if I wish to come in and sit down.  Mindful of what happened the last time,  I tell him I am following McClintock as a volunteer for the Brown campaign today, based on McClintock’s published schedule,  tell him that McClintock was a no- show in Lincoln, and wouldn’t let me into a press conference in Sacramento,  and ask if there is somebody to ask for permission.   He goes and asks another person sitting in the room, who he identifies as an Elks official, and comes back and says very politely that perhaps it would be a good idea if I didn’t come in today, but I should come back next month when Charlie Brown is speaking, as today is “McClintock’s day.”  This person was wearing a name tag and trying to be very diplomatic. I told him I was thinking of maybe waiting out on the sidewalk on public property a bit, IF that was okay with him, and he said it was.   I did stay for the pledge of allegiance and the prayer, and I went ahead and snapped a photo from the doorway of McClintock sitting there in front of the roomful of Elks, having lunch, just after his campaign officials had used the Move America Forward people who specialize in Swiftboating pull up one of Rep. John Doolittle’s (R, not indicted yet)  old fabricated dirty work and try to rumormonger a bunch of paid reporters in Sacramento.  And had his flunkies refusing to say where he was going to appear.  At least I had the damned camera there if they had tried to mug a veteran.

Hey, it’s a living for some people, right ?  McClintock votes against veterans interests,  and then pays people to stop bloggers who figured out who’s paying for their smear tactics against his opponent the veteran.

I then go to the Auburn office of Brown for Congress and update them on who’s in town and the other stuff his campaign has been doing today.

I go and eat some late lunch.  I call my spouse, and tell him what’s up. He check McClintock’s site again.

4.  And then I get back on the road and head up to the last stop, the alleged 4pm Lions Club meeting in Foresthill.  That’s going to be about another half hour of mountain driving.  At least it’s a beautiful drive and I know where I’m going, thanks to the Auburn office.   I go to the Veterans Memorial Hall, a lovely big log lodge type building next to a park, where the Lions club meets, and there’s almost nobody there.  Once in a while a vehicle comes in, but leaves soon.  I take some pictures of the empty parking lot and park, and get back in the car.  It’s time to go home.  I stop at Wharton’s on the way back out, and other people stop as I rest,  and admire the view of the Canyon.  And then I drive the hour and 15 minutes home.  My car had nearly 200 miles on it today.

People, my experience today is going to be just like a McClintock term in Congress.  He’s beyond Doolittlesque.

____________________

cross posted at dailykos in a version I can’t edit right now.  crossposted at progressive blue.  photos by author.

this will start the photos, I will re arrange and add later

*

Mark Spannagel (McClintock aide) at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Sacramento Tuesday 9/16    Look how he thinks it’s funny that they’ve locked veterans out of the room and Brown campaign staff and volunteers , and he’s lied about the whereabouts of his boss

*

*

*

Tom McClintock in Auburn at the Elks Lodge eating lunch.  That is one of the Holmes brothers next to him.  (Auburn local government)  His staff had just held a private press conference at the downtown Hyatt hotel, and thrown Brown campaign staff and volunteers and veterans out of the room.  He also had hotel security prevent me from filming or assisting campaign staff while he had a known Swiftboating group passing out smears about Brown to the press.  

*

*



This person bears a very close resemblance to the other McClintock aide who was there, and he was guarding the door with him.  This was taken July 4 in Lincoln.  On the float, Mr and Mrs McClintock, somebody else’s children, 4 flags, US, Christian, CA State Flag and GOP.  

*

*

Locked Out.  Afterwards, a SacBee reporter talks to some veterans and Todd Stenhouse of the Brown campaign

 

WTF?  Is this for real?

Charlie Brown was joined by retired General Wesley Clark recently in a special volunteer project to serve our troops overseas. In conjunction with Democrats Work, a national organization geared to get people involved in community-building volunteering, folks gathered to create care packages to send to troops currently deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The sweltering Northern California summer couldn’t stop people from across the district from making their way to the Roseville Opera House. Over 100 men and women of all ages and political affiliations joined Charlie and General Clark in this project.

College students, veterans, mothers and businessmen alike joined together to show their support for the troops. Democrats, Republicans and Independents didn’t care about presidential choice or their stance on the war itself. Everyone gathered had one goal in mind: to send a small piece of comfort to the men & women doing their duty to protect our freedom.

Words and talking points from a political campaign seemed crass to Charlie, so our approach was non-partisan. This wasn’t about parties and their ideologies. It was about our soldiers and putting a smile on their faces, even if only for a brief moment.

After each package was personally created, our volunteers sat down and wrote personal letters for each box. General Clark and Charlie also wrote their own personal messages. One note, from a Republican, has been transcribed:

Dear Soldier,

I want to express my deepest gratitude and appreciation for your sacrifice and service to our country. Without your service we would not be able to enjoy the freedoms that we hold…I sincerely hope that you enjoy this care package and that it provides you some comfort & entertainment in what we all know is a harsh environment.

Take care and thank you once again.

Another note, signed by a college student:

Dear Patriot-

We thank you for your courage, professionalism, and dedication to duty. You go in harm’s way every day to serve our country, and we are proud of your commitment. Please return safely as soon as possible.

Finally, a veteran of the Korean War wrote this note:

Dear Guys-

There aren’t enough words to describe my appreciation for the job you are doing four us & this great country. Saying thank you is only a starter.

I’m a Korean War vet-put in time in New Foundland, Battin Island (Goose Bay Labrador as well) as part of a joint services job building radar sites.

Stay safe & well…

With My Very Best Wishes

Thank you for helping us bring so many people together to do some good. Thank you Wes Clark, for your service to this nation and your willingness to roll up your sleeves & continue serving. And thank you Charlie, for taking leadership and proving that all political stripes can come together for our men & women in uniform.

September 14, 2008.  Nevada City, Northern CA.  

  Southern Californian career politician Tom McClintock, fresh from a 2 month gridlock in the CA State Senate, where he has led the Republican effort to bankrupt the state during the fiscal crisis by refusing to sign  any budget (entire career ) , and still advocating Republican style tax cuts for the wealthiest during a 17 Billion dollar shortfall,   was spotted at the Constitution Day Parade in the California Sierra this Sunday.    McClintock, who is terming out of the CA State legislative offices,  and is in between runs for Lt Gov and Gov,  is searching for another job in the public sector he has made a career out of disparaging.  Lucky us. The consultants picked our district.

Meanwhile, thousands of state workers and vendors cannot pay their bills because of layoffs and the state stiffing them.  (edited update from this morning’s original post)  Now Mr. “family values” has gone back to “work” to try to throw nearly a quarter of a million children off the Medi- cal rolls.

(more below the fold)

McClintock was last seen on the steps of the State Capitol in Sacramento, with a group of ersatz border vigilantes who run email scams, calling for the resignation of the mayor of one of California’s largest cities and saying the Federal Government should cut funding off to San Francisco and Los Angeles.    Way to balance that budget, Tom.

On to the parade appearance.  Shame how campaigning gets in the way of collecting funds for his next run for office.

631



*

September 14, 2008. Nevada City,CA. The Constitution Parade.     Waiting for Godot.  Can you find the Republican Candidate in this photogragh?                  Yes, Tom McClintock.  This is a parade about the Constitution, with much historical content re the Civil War,  so we’re going to remind you that the Constitution  of the United States applies to all peoples of all races, all creeds, all beliefs, and all colors, and that Congress shall establish no religious test for office.   You don’t get to pick and choose.

*

*

631 2 2



       Somewhere in Ventura, a village is missing its Umbrella.  We found it.  

*

*

632 2



*

What, no Swiftboat?  No effigies?  Where’s Steven?  Where’s John?       Note.  That’s my caption, not a quote.  And that’s Charlie Brown (D, Roseville)  on the left side of the photo, watching the McClintock (R, Anywhere I Get a Per Diem ) entry come down the street .  Tom’s clutching the straw hat instead of the straw man here.  

*

*

633 2

Walk on by.  

Surrounded by at least 6 supporters, Southern Californian Republican Tom McClintock is safely escorted past Democratic Candidate for Congress Charlie Brown, (USAF Lt. Col, retired,) at the Nevada City Constitution Parade on September 14, 2008.  Duty, Honor, Country.  Real Person vs. demogogue trying to scare people.  

*

*

633 23



*

Peek- A – Boo !  I won’t debate You !

*

*

633 24



*

Can we load him back into the moving van yet ?  

*

*

0635



*

What about the cut – out doll ? Will that fit in the bus ?

*

*

634 222

Return to Sender. Address Unknown.  No Such Number.  No Such Home.

*

*

And that’s what happened.  And now you know.   When I checked the Republican blog last night, the blogger was still insisting that people in Florida could see Chinese oil drilling rigs off the coast stealing all of our oil.  Along with the hanging effigy garbage.  You know who’s running for President.  You know what that implies.  Does this not make you sick ?  You know from my last diary who’s paying for Tom McClintock to try to take over our district.   Please help us send McClintock back to wherever it is he exists in his alternate reality universe.  Get the word out.  We need the truth.  

http://www.charliebrownforcong…

__________

photos by diary author.