(I was going to post my own Thanksgiving diary, but you know what? I’ll just thank Charlie and let him do the honors. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

(Cross Posted at Daily Kos)

As Jan and I reflect on the past year, we are humbled and profoundly grateful for the tremendous outpouring of support we’ve received from people across the 4th CD and the entire country.  To all our friends (both new and old), volunteers, netroots activists, and contributors, we can never say thank you enough for believing in this campaign, and for fighting so hard to get our country back on track. 

And together, we will.  Onward to victory!

Beyond reflection, for most of us, Thanksgiving is a time to be with friends, family and neighbors—to catch up and even to reconnect with loved ones we don’t see that often.

For Jan and I, every moment together as a family is a cherished gift–never to be taken for granted. It’s an outlook that was shaped by the many holidays, anniversaries, birthdays, and even the birth of our daughter Stacey—spent apart while I was in the Air Force. 

Generations before have made similar sacrifices, and this week, so will hundreds of thousands more.

Many of the families of those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan will go about this week like any other–glued to their computers and television sets for news, hoping for a phone call, sending letters and care packages, thumbing through the pages of family photo albums, and anxiously awaiting the safe return of their loved ones.

Like many of you, Jan and I know from experience that there are really no words to describe what these families–like their relatives in harms way–are going through, nor a comfort that can be found in words alone.

This is a fact that far too many politicians tend to forget. And that’s one of many reasons why we’ve decided to make this campaign about taking action–not just words.

Over veteran’s day, I wrote a little more on why action is needed, our plans, and the human impact our efforts could have in the coming year.  I wanted to share it with all of you on another holiday where our thoughts turn to those who are serving and sacrificing in our name.  Here are a few links where you can find it.

Auburn Journal
Grass Valley Union
Sierra Sun

You can also read more about our Promises Kept: Brown For Congress Veterans Charity Challenge Here

Happy Thanksgiving to our troops, their families, and all of you. 

And thank you again for your continued support.

-Charlie

According to a blog post this week by Lisa Vorderbrueggen (Contra Costa Times)

The California Institute for Federal Policy Research has posted information about a study that shows the state would lose two of its 53 seats in Congress if the apportionment population excluded the state’s illegal residents.

.

This is just what we need.  At least it is one way to get rid of some incumbents.. I would opt for Johnny DooDoo. (CA-4)

Well that didn’t take long.  Doolittle raised a lot of eyebrows this week when he announced that he was no longer going to support Bush on Iraq.  One would have naturally expected him to vote yesterday to approve the House resolution on withdrawing troops.  But no.  It turns out those were empty words.  The Bee sure expected he would vote aye.

Rep. John Doolittle removed any thought that he was abandoning his support of President Bush’s policy in Iraq on Thursday when he voted to oppose a Democratic resolution to begin withdrawing U.S. troops within 120 days.

The measure passed 223-201 in the Democratic-controlled House. Bush, who has ruled out any change in war policy before September, has threatened to veto it.

Last week, in a meeting with his constituents and with The Bee’s editorial board, the conservative Roseville Republican said the war had turned into a “quagmire” and that his position had evolved to the point where he now favored pulling back U.S. troops from the front lines.

Whoopsies, perhaps it wasn’t the greatest idea to time the big announcement the week and a vote was scheduled.  The editorial board sure has a bone to pick now with the Congressmen.

So, Doolittle has an explanation for all of this right?  Some sort of a statement about how this wasn’t the exact right vehicle for changing the Iraq policy.  Right?  Well…um, no, not exactly.  See it’s all our fault for taking Doolittle at his word.  See what he said, wasn’t what he said.  We have it all wrong.  He really does support the president.

Doolittle said Thursday that he is not responsible for how his remarks were interpreted, but he has not abandoned Bush or given up on the president’s “surge” policy. That policy boosted U.S. troop strength in Iraq to help Iraqi forces battle insurgents in neighborhood-by-neighborhood combat.

“I’ve been a staunch supporter of the president, and I remain that,” Doolittle said. To the extent he has any differences with the president, he said, it would be on the speed with which U.S. troops are pulled off the front lines into support roles.

And what exactly did he sy last week?

But Thursday, Doolittle characterized the war as a “quagmire” and said America should soon step back to a training and advisory role for Iraqi forces.

“We’ve got to get off the front lines as soon as possible,” Doolittle told a gathering at the Rocklin City Hall chambers. “And in my mind, that means something like the end of the year. We just can’t continue to tolerate these kinds of losses.”

Off the front lines as soon as possible you say?  How about 120 days?  Gee, it sure is hard to understand why the Bee is pissed with Doolittle today.  Doolittle is losing it here with those sharks circling.

(I added (and fixed!) the audio to the post. Oh, and how about voting for Charlie or just buying a ticket for the Blue House @ The Brew House event. Sorry, dday – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

You have got to be kidding me with this.  Doolittle tried to fend off some serious media heat by having a press conference today.  The ending is a real pearler.

I have been an effective representative for the region and shall continue to be one despite this situation. Finally I will just say that if there is anything we should have learned from the Duke lacrosse case, it is that the destruction of the reputations of innocent people can occur when the government, the press and the public jump to unfounded conclusions. I ask everyone to withhold judgment until the all facts are known and the truth can prevail.

You can hear him read his prepared statement on the SacBee’s site.  Har har har, new meaning to the phrase “Doolittle raiders”.  The FBI searching the house of a sitting Congressman is so hilarious. 

If you listen to the whole thing he asks for questions unrelated to the FBI raid, but obviously the reporters do not stick to that.  He claims that stepping down from Approps was his idea and was not forced upon him by Boehner. 

[UPDATE] -by juls Salladay has the Q and A transcript up.  Needless to say, Doolittle is not resigning (yet).

Well ladies and gentlemen, this should be an interesting phone call. As one of my staff members said, this should give new meaning to the phrase “Doolittle’s raiders.”

I’m going to open with this statement about this subject of greatest interest. And I think you can understand this is just going to have to understand that this is going to have to suffice for now since this has been checked by our attorneys. But it expresses my thoughts. And I assure you there will be more interesting things to come in the future.

I know you have questions about this week’s events, and I understand and appreciate your interest in asking them. However I have been advised by my attorney not to make any further public statements other than those that I have already released and the one I shall now make.

First I would like you to know I have no intention of resigning from Congress and I have every intention of running for reelection again. Over past last two days the support I have received from colleagues in the House and elected officials from my district has been overwhelming. I am honored to serve with such fine people whose faith in me has not wavered. Julie and I also appreciate the outpouring of love and support from our friends and supporters.

As difficult as this week has been, I do I do believe that the events that have transpired will bring more immediate closure do to this situation, which is a good thing. Our family and my constituents have been dealing with this situation for more than three years now and I think we all deserve a resolution to it soon. Julie has complied with every request that has ever been made of her. And while I do not think the search of our home was necessary, I do believe that it will demonstrate that she has been completely forthcoming and has had real clients with real work.

As I stated yesterday I felt my temporarily stepping down from the Appropriations Committee was appropriate under these circumstances. I approached Minority Leader Boehner about my decision and he agreed that it was a good idea. The notion that I was forced to make this decision is a misstatement. I have every intention of serving again as a member of the appropriations committee and hopefully I will be able to resume those duties soon.

Despite my temporary absences form the appropriations committee, I will continue to perform my duties as the representative of the Fourth District to the best of my abilities. I will continue to return to my district to meet with my constituents and fulfill my commitment I made to them to be more accessible and responsive. I will work hard to make sure important projects in my district are funded this year, and that transportation, water projects and flood control efforts that are so critical to the region are completed.

I have been an effective representative for the region and shall continue to be one despite this situation. Finally I will just say that if there is anything we should have learned from the Duke lacrosse case, it is that the destruction of the reputations of innocent people can occur when the government, the press and the public jump to unfounded conclusions. I ask everyone to withhold judgment until the all facts are known and the truth can prevail.

(Some words from one of the guests of honor at next week’s blograiser. – promoted by dday)

Thank you all for your support.  Last year was a great victory for Congressman McNerney and a near miss for me.  I look forward to your continued support so I can join Jerry in Washington.  There is much to be done, but our numbers, energy, and ability to organize will prove that the netroots can win elections. 
Please vote for me in the DFA Allstars campaign and send the link to your friends and ask them to vote for me also. 
I met some of you at the Yearly Kos Convention in Las Vegas, and hope to meet a large group in San Diego.
It’s time to take our country and government back!  Charlie

(Please go vote for Charlie Brown to be this cycle’s first DFA All-Star – promoted by blogswarm)

Holy Crap!  Hank Shaw has the scoop.

A source with pretty good knowledge of such things just tipped me off that the FBI raided Rep. John Doolittle’s house in Virginia today. Doolittle, R-Roseville, has all kinds of ties to the felonious ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

I will put up more as I have it.  This is fricken huge!

Roll Call confirms:

FBI Raids Doolittle’s Home: The FBI has raided the Northern Virginia home of Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.), according to Congressional sources. No details are publicly available yet about the circumstances of the raid, but Doolittle and his wife, Julie, have been under federal investigation for their ties to the scandal surrounding imprisoned former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Think Progress has more.  Looks like that canary is singing.

Lobbyist Kevin Ring, a former aide to Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA), resigned from his law firm last Friday, the same day as the raid on Dolittle’s home. As Politico reported, Ring “often served as an intermediary between Abramoff’s clients and Doolittle’s office, according to news reports, and has remained close to Doolittle and his wife, Julie, who did consulting work for Abramoff.” It’s suspected that Ring may have reached a plea agreement with prosecutors.

via email here is Charlie’s statement.

This is a sad day for the people of the 4th District, for our Congress, and our country.  It is my sincere hope that the ongoing investigation will bring the era of corruption and scandal ridden politics to a close, so that we can move forward on addressing the real priorities of the American people:  like ending the war in Iraq, winning the war against Terrorism, securing our borders, keeping faith with our veterans, expanding economic opportunity, and achieving energy independence.

x-posted from Ruck Pad

Wonders will never cease.  His wife will no longer take a 15% cut of his political donations.  He has hired an outside fundraiser.  Of course, he is still petulant about it, refusing to admit it was wrong in the first place.

From the SacBee:

“Because I believe it is proper for my wife to raise funds for my campaign, I encouraged her to step in at a critical time when her talents were desperately needed,” Doolittle said in a statement. “However, because I reocgnize that this issue has been a concern and distraction to some of my constituents, I have retained an outside fundraiser to take over those duties.”

I will repeat again.  The problem with Doolittle’s wife position was not that she had it in the first place, but rather it was a percentage cut.  One usually works on commission as an incentive.  You would think that the Congressman’s wife would not need such motivation.  If he had paid her a straight salary, this would not have been an issue in the campaign.  Instead his big donors knew he was benefitting personally and politically from their largesses.

See also Dump Doolittle.

(I had the pleasure of helping out Nick and Neil on the Brown campaign. They were greatly affected by what they learned about the Marianas and hopefully can draw greater attention to the atrocities. – promoted by juls)

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) has been a sore issue with certain politicians in Washington. Political leaders such as Tom DeLay, John Doolittle, Richard Pombo, Conrad Burns, Ralph Reed and even President George W. Bush have been linked to the scandals involving Jack Abramoff and the horrific human rights abuses on these tiny Pacific Islands under US supervision. As concerned citizens who first learned about the Marianas while working as staffers on the Charlie brown for Congress campaign, Nick Shepard and myself (Neil Pople) decided to create a non-profit group that would address the issues our elected officials and political leaders seem unwilling and unable to tackle…

More below the fold…

Calling ourselves “Ripples of Hope” after an amazing 1966 Robert F. Kennedy speech in Cape Town, South Africa (http://www.americanr….), we hope to affect change in the world, one issue at a time, causing ripples of hope to the disenfranchised people who live on American soil. Our first in what we hope to be many projects spanning the globe, we decided to tackle the egregious human rights and labor abuses going on in the Mariana Islands. These three tiny islands just miles from Guam, are composed of Saipan, Tinia and Rota. While the islands themselves rival Fiji and Maui in their natural beauty, there is a dark and ugly side that needs to be discussed.

As a Commonwealth of the United States of America, the islands are under the sovereignty of this country. US Federal laws apply to the CNMI, with the following exceptions:

• The CNMI is not within the customs territory of the US
• Federal minimum wage provisions do not apply
• Federal immigration laws do not apply
• The CNMI can establish its own tax laws
• The Jones Act, requiring goods shipped between US ports to be carried on US- registered ships, does not apply to the CNMI [1]
The 1995 CNMI Census data showed that 53% of the population are not American citizens. Non-residents are precluded by law from certain occupations and are largely working in the tourist, garment, construction and domestic service industries [2]. The CNMI is advertised as a place for foreign workers to come for “good American jobs.” They came to pursue the American dream, but what they unwittingly walked into was a labor nightmare, complete with shadow contracts that set extremely strict guidelines that limit the personal freedoms of the workers. The immigration laws on the Marianas do not comply with US law. In addition, these laws allow uncontrolled immigration to American soil (a serious security threat) and at a direct economic benefit to Communist China, which owns many of the garment factories, casinos and sex shops on CNMI.

The garment industry itself has been dominated by Chinese manufacturers employed by such major designers as Polo-Ralph Lauren, GAP, Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. These companies enjoy the fact that, as a US Territory, the Mariana sweatshops get to sew “Made in the USA” on the labels of Chinese-manufactured clothing brought in duty-free to the islands. 

Garment workers on the Marianas often aren’t paid at all, work 16-20 hour days, are forced to pay huge “recruitment fees” to foreign recruiters, live in squalid housing, are malnourished, forced by employment contracts to have abortions if they become pregnant, and fired if they attend church. Many do not even have promised jobs waiting for them when they get to the islands, and are forced by their recruiters to be a part of the islands’ growing sex trade, or face being sent back to their home country… penniless and in violation of legal contracts that could force them to see jail time.

A 1999 Department of the Interior report described that the federal government was well aware of the human rights abuses, immigration policies and minimum wage violations:

“Even though the (Federal-CNMI Initiative on Labor, Immigration and Law Enforcement) Initiative has provided increased resources to address the problems, the Administration finds that the government of the CNMI is unwilling to alter its basic immigration, minimum wage, and garment manufacturing policies, and that there are  fundamental weaknesses in CNMI law enforcement [3].”

Despite this report, the House of Representatives failed to take action, and bills proposed by Congressman George Miller and Senators Frank Murkowski and Daniel Akaka were killed in committee over 29 times in the last decade. Progress and basic human rights have been denied the immigrant workers virtually enslaved on the Marianas. There is a time to sit back and there is a time to take action. Now is the time to take action.

Please take a look at the links to the following websites. They will prove useful in your basic understanding of the desperate situation in Saipan. We all need to get educated on this issue if we expect to make ripples…

http://www.msmagazin….
http://www.hartford-….
http://www.house.gov….
http://www.americama….
http://akaka.senate…..
http://www.pacificis….
http://www.truthout…..
http://www.pacificis…

These are but a very small sampling of the diverse groups and individuals working on stopping the abuses on the Marianas. With your help writing your Congress and pledging support for Ripples of Hope, we can “build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

Thank you for your time and efforts,

Neil Pople and Nick Shepard
Founders, Ripples of Hope

PS- If you are interested in pledging support for our cause, please feel free to email us at [email protected].

[1] U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of Insular Affairs: A Report on the State of the Islands, 1999 page 25
[2] U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of Insular Affairs: A Report on the State of the Islands, 1999 page 26
[3] U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of Insular Affairs: A Report on the State of the Islands, 1999 page 6

Need anyone say more……Dump John Doolittle.

(Edited to embed the video. Doolittle are getting some fundraising help from President Shrub today. If you are in the area, check out the Rally for a Real Choice. – promoted by SFBrianCL)

Hi – My first visit ever to calitics (sorry to say), but at Brian’s suggestion I’m posting this youtube video of Charlie Brown (CA-04) ‘debating’ w/Doolittle’s proxy re: the issue of the Marianas Islands. Not sure what he found so funny about forced abortions and sex slaves.

p.s. I’m not a member of Charlie Brown’s staff or campaign, just a volunteer.

Hope to see some of you at the Rally for Change tonight at 5:30 in Loomis!