(Cross-posted at Trash Dirty Gary)

Were you able to listen to the premiere of “Red, White, & Burke” yesterday? Did you have a chance to call into the show? Did you get to listen to the person who may be challenging Dirty Gary Miller next year?

Well, you can still listen to the show! Yesterday’s show is now in the online archives. Go ahead and listen now, or download the podcast and play it in whatever you use to play mp3 files later.

So would you like a little sneak peek as to what we talked about on the air yesterday? And would you like to know who will be coming on to Ken Burke’s radio show soon? Well then, follow me after the flip for more…

So what did we talk about yesterday? Well, we talked about some of things that have been happening at Trash Dirty Gary. We talked about the infamous Monrovia land deal. We talked about Gary Miller’s rather special relationship with the Lewis Group.

Oh yes, and we talked with that special candidate who may be challenging Gary Miller next year. And what did he say? Well, you’ll have to listen to the program to find that out! ; )

But wait, it gets better! If you thought the premiere week was good, then you’ll just have to keep listening to the show! Next week, none other than Congressional Candidate Steve Young will be appearing on the program! Steve ran in Orange County’s 48th District last year, and he’ll likely be giving John Campbell another run for his money next year. He’ll be talking about our need to bring our troops home from Bush’s occupation of Iraq soon, and of our need to care for the troops once they’re home.

Oh yes, and I’m sure he’ll also be talking about that Victory Politics Institute.

And yes, I’m sure there will be plenty more good guests to come. Keep on listening to the show. Keep on calling, and telling Ken Burke what’s on your mind. And I’ll keep you in the know on who will be on the show soon. : )

(Cross-posted at Trash Dirty Gary)

“When your seat is so safe that you’re not concerned about perception, you become too wedded to Washington and you lose touch with your constituency, and you lose touch with your real purpose.”

Want to guess who said that? Believe it or not, that was Karen Hanretty, a Republican strategist and former California Republican Party spokeswoman. And she was talking to the AP (via
The Guardian [UK]) about the lovely Republican Congresscritters like John Doolittle and Gary Miller who
have been caught up in some naughty behavior lately. So what’s happening? Are even Republicans starting to desert these crooked cons?

Follow me after the flip for more…

So what’s happening? Are the Republicans finally waking up and smelling the strychnine? Is the culture of corruption finally too much for them?

The ethics cloud is discouraging the party faithful who’ve already watched the GOP shrink to minority status in California. And they add to the dilemmas of Republican strategists aiming to retake Congress next year following election losses blamed partly on GOP ethics problems.

“There is a sort of feeling among Republican activists who work hard to elect Republicans of, ‘What the heck is going on here?”’ said Los Angeles GOP analyst Allan Hoffenblum.

So I guess they’re finally asking the questions that we’ve been asking all along. What the heck is going on here?

Why has Gary Miller been mixing his personal real estate business with his duty as a member of Congress to serve his constituents? Why has he put the desires of a developer in Upland over the needs of the people in his own district? And why the heck did he lie about “eminent domain” regarding that Monrovia land deal?

But of course, Gary Miller isn’t the only crooked GOPer here. We also have Jerry Lewis. And John Doolittle. And Ken Calvert. Well, you get the picture. Thanks to all the sleazebags in Congress, California Republicans are in crisis mode.

No wonder why they’re such a liability. Even Mr. FlashReport has to admit it:

But their problems make them less valuable allies for Republican presidential candidates looking to compete in California’s primary, newly advanced to February. And the ethics clouds discourage a GOP base already chafing at moderate Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s constant compromises with Democrats.

“This is presenting a huge distraction from the debate over ideas that really needs to happen in terms of who’s going to control Congress,” said Jon Fleischman, a GOP activist in Orange County. “It creates a degree of cynicism that is certainly real.”

Well, I wouldn’t consider it a distraction, Mr. Fleischman. If anything, it shows the true colors of these so-called “conservatives”. They’re more interested in conserving and expanding their personal wealth and power than they are in serving the voters in their districts. That actually plays a huge part in the debate of ideas. It just so happens that all of their “ideas” are just business deals that benefit themselves and are a rip-off to the people they’re supposed to serve.

No wonder why even Republicans are starting to have enough of these crooks.

(Cross-posted at Trash Dirty Gary)

Hey, have you heard the big news? We have a new progressive radio show in Southern California! The Liberal OC reported yesterday that longtime Orange County Democratic activist Ken Burke now has his own radio show on Sundays at a local radio station in the Inland Empire.

Now today, I have some more good news for all of you. One of our very own local bloggers at Calitics and Trash Dirty Gary will be among the guests on the very first “Red, White, and Burke” show. Yes, I will be on the radio to talk about Orange County/Inland Empire Congressman Gary Miller (R-Culture of Corruption), his many scandals, and why we need new representation in the 42nd Congressional District.

But wait, that’s not all! I hear that there will be another special guest on Ken’s radio show at noon on Sunday. I’ve heard that someone who’d like to challenge Gary Miller next year will also be on the air on Sunday. This might be a chance for all of us to learn more about just how serious of a challenge Dirty Gary might get next year. I know I’m looking forward to it!

But wait, there’s more! Follow me after the flip to find out how YOU can participate in this very special radio show on Sunday…

So would you like to be a part of Ken Burke’s first radio show? Do you have a question that you’d like to ask this candidate looking to challenge Gary Miller should this candidate come on the air? Would you just like to say hi to me, and tell us that you just love reading the blog? Well, call into the radio show, and let Ken know that you’re listening!

Call (909) 888-5222 to talk to us on the show!

And oh yes, if you’re in the Inland Empire, you can listen to the show on KCAA at 1050 on the AM dial. The show is now on every Sunday from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM. Perhaps you can even get the signal from Los Angeles or Orange County if you try.

But if you don’t live in the signal area, then don’t worry. You can listen to the radio show online! And if you can’t listen on Sunday, then get the podcast later. This just might be a program that you won’t want to miss! : )

Even at 100 degrees Farenheit, the Coachella Valley is gorgeous.  Here’s a pic from a house party for Manuel Pérez, Democratic candidate for the 80th AD.

As I mentioned earlier, I support Pérez because he is the strongest, best qualified candidate of a good set of Democrats.  As dday notes, this House seat leans Dem:

AD-80 (Bonnie Garcia)

Democratic: 45.59%
Republican: 37.37%

Follow me over the flip for more photos and a breakdown of why Manuel Pérez is the best Democrat to represent the 80th, and the most likely to beat the predicted Republican candidate, Palm Springs police chief, Gary Jeandron. 

Here’s another photo of Pérez speaking to supporters in Bermuda Dunes. 

Here’s a Map of the CA 80th AD.

Now, about the primary challengers:
The other Democrats in this race are Greg Pettis, Cathedral City councilman, and Rick Gonzales, Wells Fargo investment banker.  Both are great guys.  If Manuel Pérez didn’t match their strengths and up the ante considerably, I’d probably be stumping for one of them.  (A recent addition, Gilbert Ramirez, Jr. just jumped in, but I know little about him yet.  The little I do know tells me he’s no threat to Pérez.)   But as I noted in a previous diary, we have a good farm team of liberals growing in this district now, and I feel strongly that Pérez is the best in this race.

In Greg Pettis’s case, he represents a solid vote for gay rights and labor.  However, Pérez is a lifelong advocate for all civil rights, including protection for gay students, and you don’t get more pro labor than Pérez, whose UFW parents met working in the fields right here in the 80th district.  Also, Perez is a married Latino family man who is both prochoice and pro gay rights.  That’s a powerful combo for our advocate in Sacramento.  Greg’s been a fixture of Democratic politics in the area for some time, but he’s lost this race before.  Pérez is new to politics and offers a very compelling new option. 

Rick Gonzalez has a great background in D.C., working with Bill Clinton and Al Gore years back, but he doesn’t have Pérez’s experience and track record of working for social justice here in the 80th.  Rick has roots here, but so does Pérez, deep and broad roots.  As my initial Pérez diary indicates, Manuel Pérez served Riverside and Imperial Counties his entire career.  Other than short absences to attend Harvard and to work in Sacramento, Pérez has been bringing healthcare and education to the 80th as a nonprofit manager and CVUSD trustee.  Rick has excellent businesss experience with Wells Fargo, but so does Pérez, with local government and nonprofit healthcare.  The biggest difference: Gonzalez doesn’t have Manuel Pérez’s support from labor.

Finally, Steve Clute, the previous Democratic candidate for the CA 80th AD who garnered 49.57 % of the last vote, endorsed Pérez. 

At the house party, Pérez talked about the interaction between California’s schools, our prisons, and our social services, and how they don’t work cooperatively.  He knows what it is to be the at-risk-youth, the teacher, and the policy wonk.  He knows it from experience acquired here, and he can express it equally well in the salons of Rancho Mirage y las iglesias de Coachella.  This is the candidate we’ve been waiting for.

About Gary Jeandron, I hear he’s well-liked in Palm Springs where he’s been police chief for some time.  However, this Desert Sun article about veteran volunteers getting an unceremonious boot from the Citizens on Patrol program doesn’t speak well for Jeandron’s judgement.  Nor does his willingness to have intelligent design taught in Palm Springs public schools, according to this Press Enterprise article about his school board race. 

Riverside and Imperial Counties deserve a strong, compassionate, smart progressive for a change.  And the California Assembly needs all the Democrats we can get!  Please help us get there – come pay a visit to my ActBlue page for Manuel Pérez.

Crossposted from Daily Kos

Gila has a great story on The Liberal OC about the Birthright Citizenship Act, Rep. Gary Miller’s (R-Culture of Corruption) new bill that would deny US citizenship to infants born in the US to undocumented immigrants. He says that this would end the practice of “rewarding illegals” by granting citizenship to children born in the US to “illegal aliens”. But would this legislation really solve the problem? Would it just create more problems?

Follow me after the flip for more on this bill…

Here’s what was written in Gary Miller’s last weekly email to constituents:

?Currently, babies born on U.S. soil to illegal aliens automatically become U.S. citizens. Congressman Miller has joined more than 40 of his colleagues in again cosponsoring the Birthright Citizenship Act, which would deny citizenship at birth to children born in the United States to parents who are not citizens or legal permanent resident aliens. Specifically, this bill requires a child to have at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen, a legal permanent resident alien, or an alien performing active service in our armed forces in order to gain birthright citizenship.”

So what’s wrong with Gary Miller’s bill? Plenty! This does not address the issue of what legal status would be given to children of people who are here legally, but not US citizens or permanent residents. What about the children of refugees? What about the children of temporary workers? Do we leave them stateless? And if we leave them stateless, should we risk following the example of such nations as China, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, and Iran? They have been condemned by the UN for this very human rights violation of leaving children stateless and helpless as they have no legal home.

And how would we manage fraud under Gary Miller’s new bill? This would probably create a new “industry” of fraudsters willing to claim paternity of these infants in order to help their mothers obtain citizenship for their kids. How would we deal with that? And how about parents who illegally gain “legal status” by paying people to falsify documents and commit perjury in court for them? Will their children still be legal? 

Sorry, but this bill is impractical and unworkable. Once again, Gary Miller has failed us by trying to “solve” this problem with an unrealistic solution. This is just what we don’t need.

(Cross-posted at Trash Dirty Gary)

How many of you get the “Capitol Connection”? It’s Gary Miller’s weekly newsletter. You can sign up to have it delivered in your email inbox every Friday at Gary Miller’s official Congressional web site.

But anyways, in his latest newsletter Miller tries to explain his latest vote to continue George W. Bush’s failed war in Iraq through the summer:

After more than a hundred days of delay, the House on Thursday finally passed a responsible troop funding bill to meet the needs of our men and women in uniform. The measure funds ongoing combat operations in the War on Terror and protects members of our military from harm by providing added funds for body armor and mine resistant vehicles. Congressman Miller was proud to support this bill because, unlike previous legislation, it does not tie the hands of our commanders on the ground or set a date for surrender. Following passage by the Senate, the bill now heads to the President’s desk where it is expected to be signed into law shortly.

Follow me after the flip to see why Gary Miller is wrong…

Meet the needs of our men and women in uniform? Added funds for body armor and mine resistant vehicles? Tie the hands of commanders on the ground? Bush didn’t provide for ANY of that until the Democrats in Congress offered legislation that fully supported the troops. But of course, Bush could not sign that legislation because that legislation also included provisions that would redeploy our troops out of Bush’s failed war in Iraq and refocus our resources on actually combating terrorism.

Bush’s stubbornness, which was enabled by members of Congress like Gary Miller who sustained Bush’s veto of this important legislation, has resulted in this final legislation. And while it does provide for better equipment for our troops than Bush initially wanted, it still keeps them stuck in the midst of a civil war that our troops shouldn’t be involved in. Thanks to Miller and all his colleagues who sustained Bush’s veto, more of our brave soldiers will be dying for a failed state that George Bush created.

So why doesn’t Gary Miller want to end this war? Why does he want to waste more of our tax dollars on George Bush’s misguided attempt to promote “democracy” on the Middle East by gunpoint? Why does he want any more of our brave troops to die for a cause that we can’t even determine any more? Why doesn’t Gary Miller want to end this war?

(people seem to have issues with official records today – promoted by juls)

Rep. James Oberstar had an OpEd in our local paper, The Desert Sun, today.  Seems the Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure doesn’t appreciate Mary Bono’s attempt to hide her incompetence by smearing him.

Her statement that I “was simply unwilling” to include the project in the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) legislation that was passed by the House on April 19 is not only a mischaracterization of my personal conversations with her, but it is contradicted by the official record of the floor debate on the bill.

Translated from DC euphemese:  Mary Bono is a bald-faced liar.  She failed to follow through with her constituents’ major concern, the Salton Sea, last year.  I helped her out, and promised to fix it for her, and this is how she thanks me.

Kudos to The Desert Sun for printing it, that surprised me.  Now if they’ll just allow more sunshine on Mary Bono’s overall record, the voters might wake up in the CA-45th.

(Cross-posted at Trash Dirty Gary and Ditch Crazy Dana)

OK, so perhaps people in Southern California are finally starting to notice the immense corruption of members of Congress like Gary Miller, Ken Calvert, and Dana Rohrabacher. However, these everyday citizens and typical voters wonder how all this corruption applies to their typical everyday lives.

Why should they care about whatever Gary Miller did with some Lewis Group company in Upland? Why should they care about some land that Ken Calvert owned near March Air Force Base that just happened to benefit from Ken Calvert’s earmarks? Why should they care about Dana Rohrabacher’s Hollywood deals? How does any of this matter to people’s everyday lives?

Follow me after the flip for more…

When all else fails, voters often choose the party of their choice by default. And though the Republican Party is becoming less attractive nationwide, a good plurality of voters in this area still identify themselves as Republican. They still think the GOP is the party of low taxes and fiscal responsibility. They pretty much set their political compass to autopilot, and they just don’t have time to think too much about some silly politics in Washington.

And after all, who has the time to pay attention to these crazy political scandals? Who has time to drop everything in between the PTA meeting and the kids’ soccer game, after a hard day of work and before that fancy dinner that’s supposed to impress the new client, just to learn more about politics? Why does any of this matter?

That’s the challenge here. In order for us to defeat these corrupt Republicans, we have to get our family, friends, and neighbors to realize how all of this corruption is personally affecting them. We have to let them know that all these earmarks that go to these pet projects that just happen to be near their real estate holdings mean money that’s NOT being spent on real efforts to relieve traffic, such as improving local freeways and federal aid for commuter rail. We have to let them know that when these members of Congress try to weaken environmental laws, they are just taking away the parks and open space that we all love to hike through, bike through, and camp at, just so that they can make a little more money on their development projects. We have to make that personal connection, and make these folks realize that all that corruption in Washington really is making life more difficult for them at home in Fountain Valley and Mission Viejo and San Clemente.

That’s the key here. We have to show to them that all this federal money being spent on these shady earmarks is money that’s NOT being spent on the things that we care about. That money should go to our schools. That money should go to our parks. That money should go to our roads. Basically, that money should actually be spent toward helping our communities. These members of Congress should NOT spend that money, OUR MONEY, on projects solely meant to enrich themselves. They’re wasting our time, and they’re wasting our money. That’s why we need to kick them out of Congress!

If we want to defeat Dirty Gary and Crazy Dana and Creepy Ken next year, we need to get these voters in these districts out of their comfort zone of apathy, and force them to see the futility of sending these scumbags back to Congress. We need to get these voters to start caring again. After all, what we don’t like about politics will never go away if we never do anything to change it.

(Oooh! Sounds like it was a lot of fun! : ) – promoted by atdleft)

Howie and Irwing came to talk to Democrats of the Desert yesterday, and it was fantastic.  Howie has an encyclopedic knowledge of our district, our neighboring districts, and the interests that the DCCC and PFAW have in challenging our GOP incumbents.  Our members are longtime veterans of local politics in most cases, and they were amazed at how much they didn’t know about the current landscape.  I’m still getting emails about how great it was, and as I hoped, more people want to get active in the blogosphere. 

Howie told how he got into blogs, gave us a bit of his own history of political activism, and took many questions on what we can do here in Riverside County: how to stop eating our young, how to overcome the blind paternalism that Mary Bono enjoys, what’s coming next for crooked Jerry Lewis, and many other great questions that I lost in my previous draft diary.  Damn.  More good stuff on the flip:

Here’s Howie helping Renee and Eleanor find a Sinatra single that Eleanor has been trying to recover for years.

Irwing vlogged the session (so sorry, blogswarm, I forgot to post a reminder – I am covered in shame).  Highlights:

Our members were all active in David Roth’s campaign last year, and they knew of Blue America’s support, but hadn’t fully understood its impact.  As Howie noted, he only started working with David in the last month of the campaign.  Had we engaged the netroots earlier, who knows? 

Amalia DeAztlan came and thanked Howie for his great work on behalf of David Roth.  They hadn’t met in person before, so that was lovely.  Richard Roth, David’s father, came, too.  Howie emphasized how crucial it is that David run again now that he has name recognition and a good campaign behind him.  David’s working overseas right now, but we’re all still hoping for a rematch. 

Our treasurer, Art, asked when Howie was going to run (he does have that facility with electoral details and an easy humor that many candidates lack) and Howie answered, “I did, and I won.  I was the freshman class president of my high school.”  But no dice, we failed to recruit Howie, despite the universal admiration of the audience.