Sorry for the short diary, but I had to interrupt my Obama canvassing here in Henderson, Nevada to bring you the big news: the No on 8 web ad written and produced by myself, hekebolos and theKK, and backed by the Courage Campaign is going on TV with a big election day ad buy in the Los Angeles and San Francisco markets.  The ad has been spreading around the blogosphere, but this is the biggest news yet.  If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the ad:

Thousands of wonderful last-minute donors to the Courage Campaign Issues Committee have helped make this ad buy possible.  I can’t tell you the numbers behind the buy, but they’re big: big enough to get us on the air on a wide array of big cable channels, including CNN, MSNBC and Comedy Central, in the San Francisco and Los Angeles markets throughout election day.  I can’t thank our donors enough for their generosity in helping the Courage Campaign make this happen.  Remember, folks: this ad was a labor of love from the beginning–a completely unfunded project dependent solely on the time, energy and out-of-pocket expense of a few netroots activists and generous volunteers from progressive actors, directors, editors and crew in L.A.  Special thanks also to Sam Rodriguez, who helped us with the last-minute ad buy. It is the first and only No on 8 ad to feature actors portraying a gay couple on screen, and to explicitly call out the LDS church on their extraordinary efforts to change California’s Constitution from the outside.

Getting this video on the air follows right on the heels of the LDS Church’s rejection of a Courage Campaign petition signed by almost 17,000 people asking them to stop the lies and blackmail on Prop 8.  Both of these efforts are featured in the Courage Campaign’s latest email and press release:

We set a mission to deliver 17,345 signatures to the Mormon Church. And we accomplished that mission. After getting the run-around from the “Yes on 8” campaign, security guards and a Mormon Church member in Los Angeles, we delivered your signatures and created a media stir in Salt Lake City. It’s all on video and we hope you watch it.

Meanwhile, two of our friends in the progressive movement — netroots activists and brothers Dante Atkins and David Atkins — produced a provocative 60-second ad for Courage that we will be airing on CNN, MSNBC and Comedy Central in select markets on Election Day. “No on Prop 8: Home Invasion,” which satirically skewers the Mormon Church’s dictation of public policy to Californians, has been featured on Daily Kos, AmericaBlog, Calitics, Wonkette and many other blogs in the last 48 hours, garnering tens of thousands of views.

The LDS Church is freaking out and is releasing a statement denouncing the ad.  In the meantime, local Salt Lake media is covering the controversy.  Is it a step too far?  Hardly.  The Mormon Church has been invading California households for months with its lies about a bigoted ballot measure that would take people’s rights away.  It’s just too bad we couldn’t have had this ad out sooner.  The ad is called “Home Invasion”, and that’s really what the LDS Church has been doing for the last several months with their deceitful and despicable lies about Proposition 8.

Remember, though, that there are a number of wonderful LDS members out there.  About 700 people, most of them LDS members, held a candlelight vigil in Salt Lake City last night in opposition to Prop 8.  This is not about religion or religious affiliation: it is about the hateful actions of the Church Leadership and some of its most hateful members.

There are so many fights tomorrow to stomp out the hate and vitriol on the Right.  Electing Barack Obama is the most important of these, but quashing the Right’s anti-gay bigotry at the polls in California would be an extraordinarily sweet victory that would have major implications for the future of this issue all across America.

GOTV GOTV GOTV!  If we get our voters out there, we win just about everywhere.  Let’s do this!  And if you want to help out with the Courage Campaign’s efforts on this, they could definitely use some donations in the final stretch…

Update: I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you that the beautiful and hilarious Bridget McManus is featured as the brunette in the ad.  Big thanks to her for volunteering her time and fame to this effort!

I mean this is really getting out of hand. And before it goes any further, we need to establish a few things that the Yes on 8 campaign seems not to understand.

The current state of marriage does not make the words “bride” and “groom” hate speech. Gays are not the same as unicorns. No matter what Tom McClintock thinks, gays are not dogs either. The notion- in this country of all places- that equality would be “armageddon” should be outrageous to anyone. And most certainly, eliminating human rights would not be the same as defeating Hitler. Just stop. But hey- Yes on 8: if you’ve got an actual point, let’s hear it. No really. One that’s true.

So far there isn’t one. I’m actually a little surprised. Given the tens of millions being rushed to California by Mormons and the great monied patrons of the religious right and the lather being worked up, you’d think that somewhere there would be a reasoned argument. Even if it wasn’t front and center. There’s lying and there’s fear mongering and there’s divisiveness. I’ve gotten those messages. And it’s all capped by the evocation of the most horrific genocide the world has ever known.

And then there’s The Call. Leading untold thousands to my city on Saturday to pray for Proposition 8. You do that. I’d like to think that this will be a positive event, but nothing so far leads me to expect a break from the nonstop divisiveness and the out-and-out lying and the histrionics (not to run this into the ground, but in the world of rhetoric, a Hitler comparison is the last stop on the hyperbole express). I’m sick of it, and if that’s what I can expect on Saturday, take it elsewhere. I’m sick of the lies, I’m sick of the blackmail of my local small businesses, I’m sick of this being considered a remotely appropriate level of political discourse, and most of all I’m sick of being told that people are not created equal. That’s the entire point of this country existing. It’s the very first self-evident truth. Don’t get angry at me if you don’t like it. Take it up with the Declaration of Independence.

So while Prop 8 supporters pile into Qualcomm to pray, the Courage Campaign is joining with other allies of equality and freedom calling for volunteers to stop Prop 4 and Prop 8. When Rick Jacobs emailed Courage members earlier today, he noted that “the religious right is calling Proposition 8 its ‘decisive last stand,'” which tells you the stakes on this. If you doubt at all how seriously they’re taking it, check out the Call video on the volunteer page. It’s pretty shocking.

Look: this is how the religious right keeps winning elections. For all the (very important) stories of voter suppression and ballot box rigging and corruption, the fundamental strategy hinges on drowning everyone in so much vitriol and general negativity that they give up entirely and stay home. It can’t work this time. We can’t let it. There’s simply too much on the line. At a time that it’s almost hackneyed already to rally around hope and change, it’s all the more vital that California stand up collectively and say enough is ENOUGH. Lying to us won’t work. Trying to wear us down with the rhetoric of alienation will not keep us home. Trying to make us miserable will not keep us quiet.

6 days left. I’m spending my Saturday with Lou Engle and James Dobson because there’s some question as to whether equality is a human right in this country. How can we allow this to be a debate any longer? Enough is enough. Do something. And if you have time, do one more thing. If we don’t stop this crap now, then when?

full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign

Seriously, this is the biggest race in California and members of the Mormon Church are responsible for at least 40% of the cash into the Prop 8 campaign and who knows how many volunteers.  Quite honestly, the California papers have been following the lead of the Salt Lake Tribune, but the LA Times is nowhere to be found.

First, the SLT reported on Friday that the Mormon Church was closing their church based call centers in Utah and other states.  The SacBee picked that one up on Saturday, mentioning the Courage Campaign’s petition (delivery is Tues AM) to the LDS Church.

Yesterday, the SLT reported on the strife within the Mormon Church about their unprecedented level of involvement.  Here is the lede:

The thought of going to church in her southern California LDS ward makes Carol Oldham cry. She can’t face one more sermon against same-sex marriage. She can’t tolerate the glares at the rainbow pin on her lapel.

Oldham, a lifelong Mormon, is troubled by her church’s zeal in supporting a California ballot initiative that would define marriage as between one man and one woman. She feels the church is bringing politics into her sanctuary.

“It has tainted everything for me,” Oldham said, choking up during a telephone interview/.  “I am afraid to go there and hear people say mean things about gay people. I am in mourning. I don’t know how long I can last.”

Now check out this lede by the Chronicle today:

Christine Alonso’s body trembled and her lips quivered as she walked up and spoke to a few of the 50 protesters in front of the Mormon Temple in Oakland on Sunday.

“Don’t think they’re all against you,” said Alonso, 27, explaining that she was Mormon and that despite her religious leaders’ support of a ballot measure banning same-sex marriage, she was actively opposed.

As she walked away, she said, “I’m afraid that a gay or lesbian friend might hear that I’m Mormon and think that I want to tear their marriage apart.”

Oldam and Alonso are not alone in being extremely troubled and distressed about their Church’s overwhelming involvement in the Prop 8 campaign.  You don’t have to look much further than right here on Calitics for the same anguish. Chino Blanco wrote earlier today:

The “Yes on 8” campaign has directed more than $10 million dollars (so far) from Mormon donors to a narrow political campaign. Much of this money was raised after the Church reviewed its tithing records and identified wealthy Mormons to recruit even larger donations from, using special conference calls with Church elders. Why are tithing records being utilized this way? What does this reveal about the way the wealth of individual members has played a growing role in church leadership decisions? How many lives could this money save through the Church’s Humanitarian General Fund? How many educations could this money pay for through the Church’s Perpetual Education Fund? Why does our concept of morality focus so zealously on gender and sexuality at the cost of efforts to end death by disease or starvation, proclaim peace, relieve the debtor, or show stewardship for God’s creation?

The whole thing really is worth a read.  This path that the proponents of Prop 8 have taken is tearing people apart, inside and out.

The LAT is the biggest paper on record here in California, one of the largest in the country and they are missing this wrenching story.  How about we suggest some story lines here in the comments.

I will go first: dig into the enemy of my enemy is my friend story to look into how well the evangelicals, who are no fans of the Mormon Church are working with Mormons within the campaign.

(full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign)

Estimates of donations by Mormons to Prop 8 are now up to $10 million, funding all of those lies and distortions on our airwaves.  They have been fueling their volunteer base from here in California and across the country, using their church organizing networks to turn out volunteers to phone bank and knock doors.  And Mark Jansson, a “Yes on 8” Executive Committee member and self-described LDS member, was one of four signers to the blackmail letter sent to Equality California donors. The Mormon Church is heart of the Prop 8 campaign, but for a long time the scope of their involvement was not known.

Well, now that it is out in the open and attention is being paid to it, the Mormon Church is squirming and at least in one case, backing down.  They are simply not enjoying this attention. From today’s SacBee:

The Mormon church, whose members have emerged as the leading backers of a ballot measure to end same-sex marriage in California, is scaling back its Utah campaign operation but will continue to support the initiative.

Church members will no longer be making phone calls from Utah to California voters, Kim Farah, a spokeswoman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said in a prepared statement Friday.

Good.  They shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.  Pressure on the Mormon Church to cease their funding of the lying, blackmailing Prop 8 campaign is working.

The Courage Campaign has been keeping the heat on with our petition to LDS President-Prophet Thomas Monson demanding that his church cease funding the Prop 8 campaign and all forms of advocacy for the ballot measure, which was referenced in the SacBee article.   Flip it:

(oh and full disclosure: if you didn’t know it already, I work for the Courage Campaign)

Opponents of the measure have criticized the church’s involvement in the campaign.

The Courage Campaign, a liberal advocacy group, plans to deliver a petition to a Mormon church in Los Angeles next week demanding the church stop funding the Yes on 8 campaign.

But a spokesman for the church, which holds traditional marriage is a sacred institution ordained by God, said the church continues to support the measure despite curtailing its Utah phone bank operation.

We are not the only ones ruffling their feathers.  Dante sure got under their skin with his Daily Kos post suggesting kossacks work on a distributed research project to look into the Mormon donors to Prop 8 and see if there is any dirt.  The info is all out in the public domain and he was not doing anything illegal and unethical, but when the blackmail story broke the Prop 8 campaign tried to use it as an excuse.

His post was the subject of a story by the Salt Lake City ABC affiliate.  It’s really funny to watch the newscaster emphasize “damn” and “hell” as in Hell to Pay, the competition on Daily Kos that netted $150,000 for the No on Prop 8 campaign.

The lesson we should take from all of this is to keep it up.  Keep up the focus on the Mormons.  Keep exposing their lies and blackmail.  Keep pointing out the hypocrisy of a religion funding lies and distortions.  We can respect their freedom to choose not to conduct same-sex marriages, we only ask that they respect Californians to make up our own minds on whether we should take away the rights of loving couples to marry.

And if you haven’t already, go sign the letter to the President-Prophet.  We are going to deliver it on Tuesday and invite the press.  The more names we have with us the better.

(full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign)

Yes, you read that headline correct.  I told ya that the Mormons and others were flooding the Yes on 8 campaign’s coffers with donations.  We may have beaten them up on the air, but they have more cash to spend on their buy.  The two recent polls taken after the ads have hit the airwaves show that we are losing ground.  So, Brian is right to say “complacency is our worst enemy”.

So here is what we have to do folks, there is something every one of you can do.  It will take all of us to win this thing.

1. Contribute to the campaign using the Calitics ActBlue page.  If you have the cash to give big give big.  If you only have $5 or $10, give what you can.  Yes, your money will be spent on TV ads, but unfortunately that is the way we win elections here in California.
2. Volunteer. Show up at a local campaign office.  They are all over the state.  Or stay in the comfort of your own home to phone bank.  We win this by persuading more undecideds to vote No on Prop 8.
3. Talk to your friends and family about Prop. 8.  Lot’s of people are still confused that supporting marriage equality means voting No. To that end, the Courage Campaign has created what the Politiker is calling“the most humorous TV ad of the fall election season”.  They like it, we think it’s pretty funny, but watch it for yourself.

   It is aimed at straight people, using a privacy, “get the government out of my pants” argument.  The undecided electorate is quirky.  Some of your friends will be swayed by talk about fundamental rights being taken away.  Others with a more libertarian streak may like the video. Tailor your discussion to your friends.

Oh and keep an eye out for a new ad from the No on 8 campaign that should hit the airwaves shortly.

We can win this historic fight, but we gotta buckle down and do the hard work and contribute what we can.

Check the flip for an email I got from a Yes on 8 person who for some reason thinks I know where the lost in China lawns signs are.  

I have no clue why this dude thinks I know where the Yes on 8 signs are, but he is really eager to get a bunch for his church.

Would you please let me know how I can get those yard signs, I need lots of them, my church wants to make sure we have them.

How much do these cost? are they by packages?

Please let me know.

Thank you and God bless you.

Jack

How about you do one of the above and ignore dear ole Jack.  Deal?

The most hotly anticipated State Senate election this year is in the 19th District covering Santa Barbara and Ventura County, between Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson and Republican Tony Strickland.  Though the two are almost polar opposites, the chunk of the district in Santa Barbara, where residents have long memories about the 1969 oil spill, makes it impossible for Republicans to win with their “Drill Now” message on energy.  So Tony Strickland opted to run some ads that Al Gore might have run were he to be contesting in the district, highlighting renewable energy through wind, solar, algae, tidal and other forms.  This is completely at odds with Strickland’s doctrinaire Republican record, with votes against green building standards, minimum renewable energy standards, and even fuel-efficient tires.  Strickland has taken money from Big Oil and stood with global warming denialists in the recent past.  It’s incongruous for him to carry a pro-environment message.

So I hooked up with the Courage Campaign and the California League of Conservation Voters to put together a little video highlighting this incongruity.

What’s interesting is that the Courage Campaign’s Web tool invited those supporters who received their email blast to spread the word, and they were so successful, both online political reporters at the Ventura County Star, the region’s biggest newspaper, covered the video.  More important, the Jackson campaign has been energized to fight back against some of Strickland allies’ misleading ads on taxes, and in doing so buttresses the outside groups’ take about Strickland’s terrible environmental record.

So progressive groups are ensuring that Strickland gets away with nothing in this race, and in turn the Jackson campaign is fighting back as well and counter-punching swiftly and effectively.  This is a growing success story in the 19th.

Full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign

On Monday, Julia, Rick Jacobs and Assemblyman Dave Jones delivered more than 28,000 petition signatures gathered by the Courage Campaign to Gov. Schwarzenegger’s front door. You can click on the link to the right for a light-hearted taste of the path traveled by our intrepid petition carriers. More than 200,000 state workers have been threatened with a pay cut to just $6.55 an hour as the budget stalemate stretches on without any end in sight. The signatures and the attention were enough to convince the Governor to delay signing such an order (which incidentally he isn’t allowed to do according to the state Legislative Analyst), but only temporarily.

In his own unique magnanimous way, Arnold’s decided to delay until Thursday. That would be tomorrow. That means we don’t have much time to drive home the point that Californians will not stand for this sort of attack on so many of the workers who keep this state functional. Just because Arnold can’t get the legislature to work doesn’t mean he should punish the people who are still getting their jobs done.

Please take this opportunity to get on the phone and call Governor Schwarzenegger. Phone numbers, a sample script, and a form to report back with your experiences are available, so get dialing cause we have a narrow window in which to get through to him. State Controller John Chiang has already stood up strongly against this proposal, but Arnold isn’t going down without a fight. As the Governor said today, “The controller has his opinion of what he wants to do. He’s a constitutional officer and he runs his office his way. I think the law is very clear that he has to follow through and do exactly of what our executive order says.”

He’s not backing down, and neither will we. But it takes people power to drive this message home, so call Arnold now.

(full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign)

Weintraub thinks it is a dumb idea.  And we know how Caliticians think about it.

So, Courage was up late last night putting together a petition to Arnold, calling on him to drop this unconscionable plan and to get back to work on the budget.  We grabbed from the comments and blog posts here and used it for an email that went out to our full membership earlier today.

True Majority liked it so much that they sent it out to their members in California.  Now, thousands of Californians have signed their name on the petition to Arnold.  It truly has been an overwhelming response and growing by the second.  If you haven’t already, please go sign.  I personally will be delivering them to the governor’s office on Monday.

Our email is on the flip.

This is devastating.

Last night, news broke that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will sign an Executive Order on Monday slashing the wages of over 200,000 state employees to the bare minimum.

Not California’s minimum wage of $8 per hour. The federal minimum wage of $6.55. Six dollars and fifty-five cents an hour.

Imagine trying to pay your bills on $6.55 an hour. Now imagine what will happen to thousands of vital service workers forced to live on poverty-level wages. A nauseating irony: many state employees may need to seek aid from the very state services that employ them.

As Karyn, a state employee, said in the comments to the Sacramento Bee story that broke the story statewide last night:

“$6.55 an hour only amounts to $1,048 per month. After my rent, that would leave only $218 left. How many of you can live on that? Hardly, am I a rich state employee. As a clerical, I am usually broke by the 10th of the month, and the other 3 weeks of the month I am barely getting by.”

This is absolutely outrageous. And the only way we can stop Arnold is by raising our voices as loud as possible in protest before Monday morning. Please sign our “Stop Arnold” petition to Governor Schwarzenegger. On Monday morning, we’ll deliver thousands of your signatures to the Governor’s office:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/StopArnold

The Governor’s plan, rather than fixing California’s massive $15 billion budget deficit, will instead make our budget crisis worse while delivering a serious blow to our struggling economy. As the recession deepens, gas prices skyrocket, stores close, and home foreclosures surge, the governor’s wage cuts will force many working families over the financial edge.

To add insult to injury, the Governor is slashing workers’ wages instead of taking leadership to close the “Yacht Tax” loophole that Arianna Huffington and the Courage Campaign told you about a few months ago.

That’s right. While his rich friends get off tax-free on yacht and private jet purchases, Arnold is making devastating cuts that endanger the livelihoods of state workers and all of us who depend on them.

We’ve got to stop the Governor before it’s too late. If enough Californians speak out, Arnold may halt these devastating wage cuts before August 1. Please watch our “Yacht Party” TV ad and then sign our “Stop Arnold” petition to Governor Schwarzenegger before we deliver thousands of your signatures at 9 a.m. Monday morning:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/StopArnold

The Governor is claiming that he will pay state workers retroactively for wages lost during this budget crisis. But that won’t pay their rent or prevent their home from being foreclosed upon before a state budget is eventually passed.

Instead of closing the yacht tax and so many other loopholes that favor the rich, Arnold is borrowing on the backs of state workers. He is claiming there is not enough cash in the state coffers to pay them, an assertion strongly refuted by Controller John Chiang.

If you think these wage cuts are unconscionable, please forward this message to your friends in California. The more signatures we collect before Tuesday, the more pressure we can put on Arnold.

Thank you for stepping up to stop Arnold and the California Republican Yacht Party from sinking our state.

Rick Jacobs

Chair

P.S. Believe it or not, John McCain is charging $100,000 per person to enjoy a lavish dinner with his Yacht Party cronies in San Francisco on Monday. Meanwhile, Governor Schwarzenegger — who endorsed McCain and his regressive economic policies — is preparing to push thousands of state employees to the brink of financial disaster.

Enough is enough. Please sign our “Stop Arnold” petition before Monday at 9 a.m.:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/StopArnold

 you’re such a pushover — i know its HARD work bein’ a dem 🙂

John Rapf wrote:

Too much for one reading.  I cut to the end.  I agree.   Off to the bar! – JR

—– Original Message —–

From: Becky Curry

To: John Rapf ; [email protected] ; [email protected]

Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2008 3:42 PM

Subject: Re: L’ affair du Singh and Feinstein Censure

i agree w/the whole gabriel thing  – he is doing nothing to foster party building — he’s really mad about something, and feinstein just happens to be the target d’jour.

ooooh more french 🙂

however, while i think that we get distracted sometimes by the resolution of the moment and I think  this feinstein thing is the biggest waste of time i can imagine,  (at times i feel like it’s a way to distract us about where to put this word or that word in order to keep us from focusing on the big picture and allowiing people get lost in the minutiae of the process)

People are losing focus. Feinstein has a good record on most of the practical stuff I care about.

If we are not faulting Obama for sliding on this one, what’s the percentage in getting our knickers twisted over her  unsurprising  and predictable positions regarding ‘national security’ and ‘terrorism’?

However, I diverge from John about being an activist regarding issues and the policy that results.

I believe it is extremely important for local dem clubs to be activists about issues – issues and policy are what make us Democrats, not candidates who are nice and make us feel good.

And I believe it is up to us to let our elected people know where we stand on issues – we elect them, this is not a feudal system.

Those issues drive our candidates  and drive the activism behind a candidate,  you know, that stuff that gets them elected?

Our job is to reach out and carry the democratic message and policies to the peeps and put candidates forward who will

embody our policies and provide solutions to what we know are  the issues that need addressing.

We have been working in LC on single payer health care for close to two years, we have followed legislation, written letters, we have gone to rallys with our labor folks, we have  hosted forums, networked w/retirees, other dem groups, we called big time b.s on the ‘compromise’ that our State Dem leadership tried to cram down our throats early in the year.

We have instigated a campaign that is spreading out, to have citizens call upon their local elected jurisdictions to actually DO THE MATH, and see what the savings would be to taxpayers if California passed single payer.

Sheila Kuehl walks on water as far as i’m concerned (and i bet she’s nice and she does make me feel good 🙂 )

We have written numerous ltte to the local media, staking out our ground as dems on the issue, we brought “sicko” to our teeny little commercial theater by working with many other groups in the county, to packed houses for several showings a day for 4 days i may add.

i would venture to say that if anyone asked who has done the most to bring the message of single payer  and a modicum of understanding about the issue, into the mainstream conversation, in LC  they would say ‘the local democrats’

Same with the war, while we dont spend all month every month focusing on activism, we feel we must stake out the territory and define the ISSUE as democrats — and sometimes it comes to us in the form of actions from other dem orgs.

LC endorsed and wrote to all our federal legs, urging them to consider endorsing the responsible plan 3 months ago.

i’m glad to see the uber liberals in alameda county catching up 🙂

In order to define ourselves, frame our message, and take control of the dialog we must take positions on issues.

Same w/the SS privatization scam in 2005, we packed Mikey’s pro forma forum — he was stunned to see that people actually were paying attention. We knew he would do the right thing, but we wanted him to know how much it meant to actual people that he do that right thing.

Because i think the candidate needs to pull the cart, carrying policies we want, not the other way around.

He doesnt just say. “i’m a dem, we’ll figure all that policy stuff out later, you guys just jump on please”

yes i have to compromise many times in order to actually win at the ballot box, in order to foster dialog w/my electeds, in order to formulate a position that as many people can buy into as possible, but any negotiation begins from the high ground and i have every intention of staying there, until i am dragged off.

If I dont  have a starting place, i’m (and we are) lost — or spineless, or whatever the disaffected want to call us these days.

For instance this FISA thing is absolutely incomprehensible, but I realize the sad fact that many of our Dems, our party’s standard bearer included, are covering their butts in a corporate reality, perhaps not of their making, but they certainly whistled past the graveyard many times, in order to be put in the positions they are in now. They have  nowhere to go, but to take cover and play the game and hope no one notices — too much, again, …

But that’s not even the problem…the telecoms wont be prosecuted – so what?

Who  lost out when the s&ls collapsed in the 80’s? A few were made examples of.

How many women workers died in the Triangle shirtwaist  factory fires at the turn of the century?

How many miners were killed in during the Cripple Creek mining wars in Colo by coroporate thugs?

The history of this country is the rank and file working class sacrificing  their liberties, their rights, not to mention life and limb for an inch of progress.

Nothing to see here, move along —  in the 200 plus years of this country, it has ever been thus.

This is nothing new, and i’m inured to it, I have read my Howard Zinn.

The ISSUE that is being totally overlooked is the SPYING!!! — sure let the bigwigs off the hook for breaking the law, happens every day, but the fact remains that these congress critters  are either too dumb (which I doubt) or think that we’re too dumb (which i suspect) to know that the  4th amendment is on life support, barely breathing.

Oh dont worry, i hear, when the Dems get in it will all be fixed — as my nineteen year old nepew would say, “uh seriously dude?” — not unless we take the issue on head on and fight for it.

Issues and policy,  not candidates,  not personalities, issues and policy– and upholding the US constitution is a pretty huge issue w/me and a policy i’d like my elected Dems to adhere to.

I think it’s Martini time! 🙂

John Rapf wrote:

Some thoughts regarding the recent comments to & from Gabrial Singh that I think kind of cross flowed between the Rural Caucus and TakeBackRedCalifornia….

First, regarding the process that TBRC follows to decide whom to support, obviously temperament must be an important attribute.  If an individual has not mastered the art of disagreeing without being disagreeable, then that person probably would not serve our interests well in government.  One reason I support Jeff Morris for Congress and that I hope TBRC will support also, is that having watched Jeff as a Supervisor I know he has an ability listen and work with people he does not agree with.  Government in a democracy cannot function otherwise.  Jeff will make an excellent Congressman, whereas Gabrial’s talents are probably better suited as an op-ed writer.

Regarding the Feinstein censure, folks who know me know that I take a dim view of these things.  If we value diversity, then we should recognize that it is not just racial, ethnic, religious or etc., but also ideas and perspective.  Some of the most important lesson’s I’ve learned have come from people who come at problems from a much different viewpoint than I.  I may be wrong, but Senator Feinstein has received more votes, both in numbers and percentage, than any other Democrat in recent CA politics.  She must be doing something right.  I also think that she probably votes pretty consistently, but certainly not always, the way Progressive Democrats would like.

As constituents, if we have disagreements with an elected politician then we should as individuals let that person know.  As Rural Caucus and TBRC members we should be looking to build a farm team of progressive politicians that might better reflect our respective organizations values and goals.  The next time Feinstein runs, then folks who feel strongly enough should promote a candidate to challenge her in the primary.

As we enter into the Fall election campaign we have, in my view, a historic opportunity to elect Democrats all the way down the ticket.  That should be our complete focus.  We should not be spending one iota of time on Censure or Responsible Plan (another one making the rounds) Resolutions.

John Rapf

Northern V-P CDP Rural Caucus

Area 1 Team Coordinator, Trinity,

Obama for America Campaign ’08

Si se puede!

CDP Rural Caucus  not only wants to hold our current legislators feet to the fire. We want to move the Party forward in some new directions. Please visit our website link in the Caucus section of www.cadem.org to participate in drafting our Questionaire for ’09 CDP Chair candidate.or join our Yahoo Newsgroup to continue the dialogue.

Jhotchkiss2- Moderator CDPRC Newsgroup