Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Censure Dianne Feinstein?
Over 12,000 Californians voted on one of the most important questions we have ever asked our community: whether or not the Courage Campaign should re-launch a censure resolution against Senator Dianne Feinstein at the next meeting of the California Democratic Party.
And here's the answer:
95.4 percent (11,524 people) voted YES.
4.6 percent (556 people) voted NO.
And, driven by your mandate to take action, that is exactly what we're going to do. From her FISA votes supporting telecom immunity to her shocking swing votes confirming Bush nominees Michael Mukasey and Leslie Southwick, enough is enough.
For this people-powered "Censure the Senator" movement to succeed, we need your support before the California Democratic Party (CDP) executive board meets again. To hold Sen. Feinstein accountable, it will take money to organize people. It's as simple as that.
http://www.couragecampaign.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
SIGH
Opponents to immunity argue that only in court will the full extent of the program be understood, and only a judge should decide whether the program broke the law.
Just under a third of the Senate, including presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, supported an amendment proposed by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., that would have stripped immunity from the bill. It was defeated on a 32-66 vote. Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain did not vote.
Specter proposed an amendment to require a district court judge to assess the legality of warrantless wiretapping before granting immunity. It failed on a 37-61 vote.
Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., proposed that immunity be delayed until after a yearlong government investigation into warrantless wiretapping is completed. His amendment failed on a vote of 42-56.
Monday, July 07, 2008
Gather in Burbank to support Obama
[From Moveon.org]
Have you seen the latest ad from the RNC? With holiday travel and gas prices on every channel, the Republicans are spending over $3 million in the next week to convince voters that high gas prices are Barack Obama's fault.
What's scary is that their strategy is working—even though the Republicans' energy policy got us into this mess!
So this Wednesday, we're pushing back with our National Day of Action for an Oil-Free President. We'll be gathering at gas stations around the country to reach out to voters and make sure they know John McCain is Big Oil's candidate and that he won't solve our energy crisis. Can you join the event in Burbank?
Host: Charlene B.—fellow MoveOn member
Where: Shell Station on Hollywood Way & Verdugo (in Burbank)
When: Wednesday, Jul. 9, 2008, at 5:30 PM
Here's the link to RSVP:
We'll be in front of gas stations with signs and fliers to remind people that McCain is in the pocket of Big Oil. His campaign is run by oil industry lobbyists,1 and he looks to Big Oil for big campaign contributions.2 We can't count on him to push for alternative energy solutions or help lower gas prices.
But soon ads blaming Obama for gas prices will be up all over the country. And people squeezed by energy costs may forget that it was another Republican with close ties to Big Oil and former oil lobbyists advising him in the White House who brought us to this point.
Now is the time to make sure voters know John McCain won't solve our energy crisis. Sign up to attend a gas station event now:
Hope you can make it! Thanks for all you do.
–Noah, Andrea, Stephen, Anna, Lenore and the rest of the team
P.S. Can't make this event? Here are a few other events near you:
Northeast corner of La Cienega & Beverly Blvd, catty-corner from The Beverly center, West Hollywood at 5:30 PM—RSVP
The 76 Station at Crescent and Burton Way across from Beverly Hills City Hall, Beverly Hills at 5:30 PM—RSVP
Chevron Station, Los Angeles at 5:00 PM—RSVP
Shell Station, Overland Ave & Venice Blvd, Culver City at 5:00 PM—RSVP
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Jeb & His Hacks Still Hacking at the Church/State Wall
Think again. My buddy monitoring church/state relations and militant creationists attacking science education sent me this scary piece, from AlterNet.org:
... If former Gov. Jeb Bush and his allies have their way, all of these [Florida mainstream religious] schools – and private academies like them around the state – will soon be eligible for massive new streams of public funding, courtesy of the state’s taxpayers.
Bush has engineered onto the November ballot two initiatives that would eliminate the state constitution’s strict church-state separation provisions, mandate funding of religion and water down language requiring a quality public school system.
For advocates of church-state separation and strong public schools, it’s a political showdown with breath-taking possible consequences. ...
—By Joseph L. Conn, Church & State Magazine
FISA Delayed - Stay Vigilant
TPM Election Central | Talking Points Memo |
Looks like the Senate vote on the FISA cave legislation, which was set for as early as today or tomorrow, has been postponed until Senators come back from recess in July:
Senator Boxer on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
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Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Charlie Brown on FISA
Calitics California Politics Blog
Brown was concerned that we seem to continue granting immunity to the wrong people, and not just the telecoms. We bail out Bear Stearns but not individual homeowners. We throw individual privates in jail for Abu Ghraib but never go up the chain of command. "There is an accountability problem in Washington, DC," as Brown put it. And the Title I aspects of the bill, which allow warrantless spying of bulk targets under executive-proclaimed "exigent circumstances," particularly with no need to throw out the intelligence gained that way if later found to to be illegal, was a concern as well.
If Charlie Brown can manage to run for office in what has traditionally been a heavily Republican district and understand that Constitutional principles and federal statutes must come first, then it's just impossible to take Bush Dogs who voted for FISA out of fear seriously. "Conservative Republicans should never vote for this kind of bill... they ought to be skeptical of government power and protective of civil liberties."
Monday, June 23, 2008
Beating back the offshore drilling hysteria
As Crooks and Liars notes:
... The oil industry has drilled in only 19 percent of the more than 40 million acres they already can that are not covered by the current ban — 40 million acres that represent 79 percent of America’s technically recoverable offshore oil reserves. Using generous estimates from the latest analysis from Bush’s own Department of Energy, allowing unlimited drilling both offshore and in ANWR “would lower the price at the pump by less than 6 cents by 2025.”
As Sen. Reid correctly pointed out, this recent push by George Bush & John McBush represents “nothing more than a cynical campaign ploy that will do nothing to lower energy prices, and represents another big giveaway to oil companies already making billions in profits.” and the NYT went further to note that “the only real beneficiaries will be the oil companies that are trying to lock up every last acre of public land before their friends in power — Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney — exit the political stage.“
Friday, June 20, 2008
Stop Steny's FISA cave-in! CALL NOW!!
Author/blogger Glenn Greenwald is taking the lead, but as the New York Times’ editorial board says of Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s outrage:
[..]The bill is not a compromise. The final details are being worked out, but all indications are that many of its provisions are both unnecessary and a threat to the Bill of Rights. The White House and the Congressional Republicans who support the bill have two real aims. They want to undermine the power of the courts to review the legality of domestic spying programs. And they want to give a legal shield to the telecommunications companies that broke the law by helping Mr. Bush carry out his warrantless wiretapping operation.
And from unity@Democrats.COM:
Steny Hoyer's warrantless wiretapping bill is obscene because it gives complete immunity to the telcos that have spied on us illegally since 2001, as well as the Bush Administration officials who illegally asked them to break the law. And it lets them continue spying on us by creating Big Brother with a figleaf of meaningless "protections."
On May 14, Democrats defeated a similar immunity bill 213-197. There is absolutely no reason for any Democrat to change his or her vote now except corrupt greed for telco campaign cash.
What to do?? The club's Executive Board advises:
Call both our Burbank congressmen, Adam Schiff and Brad Sherman, and ask them to vote against this FISA bill! Call them at their Washington offices and at their district offices. Then e-mail them. And two hours latter, call again! And fax! You can call 24/7/365 and leave a message.
Brad Sherman:
http://bradsherman.house.gov/sherman/contact/
Local Phone: 818 501 9200 Local fax: 818 501 1554
Adam Schiff:
http://schiff.house.gov/HoR/CA29/Contact+Information/Contact+Form.htm
Local phone: 626 304 2727 Local fax: 626 304 0572
Then Nancy Pelosi. She can decide that this bill will not even be considered.
Phone (202) 225-4965, Fax (202) 225-8259
Get after Steny Hoyer and tell him this is a bad deal:
Phone (202) 225-4131, Fax (202) 225-4300
And call Barack Obama at both his Senate office and his campaign and demand that he take a clear and unambiguous stand against this bill.
Senate: Phone (202) 224-2854, Fax (202) 228-4260
Campaign: (866) 675-2008
And here are more congressmen who need to hear from you! http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/19/115414/787/632/538388
Make no mistake about it: This is a Get out of Jail Free card for W and Dick!
