The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant toward others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves.
– Eric Hoffer
Los Angeles Times Liberal groups expect postelection results
WASHINGTON — After toppling the long-dominant Republicans in a hard-fought election, the Democratic Party's incoming congressional leaders have immediately found themselves in another difficult struggle — with their own supporters...
My letter to the editor regarding the above article
This article provides a perfect example for showing you why Americans no longer trust newspapers, one of the main reasons your circulation is declining.
First, you create controversy where there is none. Very few people, if any, in the Democratic base are demanding immediate action on anything other than what the Party promised in the campaign--raising the minimum wage, affordable health care, bringing accountability to Congress and the administration, and so on. We will lobby for other issues, but we're not demanding that Party leaders to shoot themselves in the foot the way overeager Republicans did just after 1994.
Second, you have an amazingly poor understanding of politics. I rolled on the floor laughing when I read your assertion that "Conservatives, though splintered over Iraq, immigration and other issues, had succeeded in keeping power since 1994 in part by forging a coalition built on compromise and shared goals — a practice that Democrats have yet to perfect."
How anyone who's lived in this country for the last twelve years could believe that Republicans built their coalition on anything other than lies, hate, fear, and corruption has just not been paying attention. There was no compromise in the Republican coalition. The leadership used blackmail, fear, bribery and coercion to force their members of Congress to do what the leadership wanted. And that led to some of the most god-awful legislation ever passed in this country.
I sincerely hope the Democrats never "perfect" that kind of "compromise".
Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com
LYDIA CORNELL: AFI Best Actress Nominee, People's Choice Award winner; Actor, Writer, Director, Producer; woman and children advocate; teen mentor, comedienne, talk show host, inspirational pubic speaker best known for her starring role on ABC's "Too Close for Comfort" as TV legend Ted Knight's daughter 'Sara'; HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, and over 250 shows, episodes and movies worldwide. Turns tragedy into comedy, life-saving issues for women and equal pay for equal work...
Monday, November 13, 2006
Friday, November 10, 2006
HOPE FOR VETERANS * JOY AND VICTORY
"When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn." Harriet Beecher Stowe
"Everyone is walking around smiling and grinning and happy like the bright light of the sun just destroyed all the bloodsucking vampires." - A Comment from Mike, about Democrats winning a majority of seats in Congress.
Happy Veterans Day! GOD BLESS OUR LOST LOVED ONES... and a special THANK YOU to Clif, Desert Storm Commander; Marcus, currently stationed in Iraq — and John Conley, Marine Combat Vet who sent me his Purple Heart for speaking out against the invasion of Iraq. We need to take care of our troops, who made the ultimate sacrifice.
BUSH AND THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESS CUT VETERANS BENEFITS!! What a shameful legacy. Haliburton should pay for our handicapped Veterans' severed limbs and all the medical bills and life support these Vets and their families need. Cheney and Haliburton, war profiteers, who charged $45 for a case of Coke in Iraq! They enriched themselves at the expense of our soliders, while cutting their benefits.
DEMOCRATS TOOK CONGRESS and WE ARE ECSTATIC!! Fascism was defeated and there is HOPE again! America's glory and esteem in the world has a chance now. Good always wins over evil, because evil has no real power. There were almost too many text-book scandals on the republican side. It almost seemed like divine intervention.
Two articles I wrote on this administration, "BUSH'S LAST WILL AND TESTICLE" and "DEATH IS SEXIER THAN SEX (to Ann Coulter), will be reprinted here soon -- or you can find them in various news journals in the sidebar. The books HOW TO TALK TO ANN COULTER, IF YOU MUST ; BLOGGING WITH THE DEVIL and FALLING UP are in the pipeline, not necessarily in that order.
"Watch FOX the day after the election. It is like watching Soviet TV after Brezhnev died." Quote from my friend Steve Kelly, head of programming over at KPSI, the ABC affliiate in Palm Springs.
"I can't help but notice the history channel is showing 'The Fall of the Nazi party'.
Wonder if this was scheduled, or impromptu?" - Doctor Von Worfeus
Got this letter today:
Lydia,
Some time ago I wrote you an e-mail, my first of a few to you, in which I wrote about my fears that we were on the verge of a new dark age. You wrote me a nice e-mail back and mentioned in your blog that you were confident that things would turn around and that the people of this nation would awaken to what was going on. Never have I been happier about being wrong.Now if we can just start moving ahead. It's my hope that our party will show everyone how our government is supposed to work. A democracy is based on compromise. We mustn't act like the Republicans did in 1994. We must work together and move forward. I have no doubt that is exactly what we will do. During the past two to three years I have had little faith in the future of our nation, but now, finally, the morning has broken.
May we make the day that has dawned the beginning of a new, bright and enlightened age for all Americans, regardless of race, creed or political philosophy. May we bring that enlightened age to the world through understanding and communication.
Your faith has been rewarded Lydia. In the future I will endeavor to keep the faith myself.
Thank you, with love, Thomas J. Comer
Thank you to all commenters on this blog. Your committment and unrelenting troll-bashing have actually helped win this election in some small way, in this blog. Every single voice counts. Every prayer counts. And we actually made a difference. Also, after doing over 30 radio shows across the country from a spiritual-progressive perspective, and in the South and Southeast — I know for a fact that we changed some hearts and minds. Everything we do makes a dent in the machine.
"Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little." Plutarch
Love & Peace xoxo
Lydia
"Everyone is walking around smiling and grinning and happy like the bright light of the sun just destroyed all the bloodsucking vampires." - A Comment from Mike, about Democrats winning a majority of seats in Congress.
Happy Veterans Day! GOD BLESS OUR LOST LOVED ONES... and a special THANK YOU to Clif, Desert Storm Commander; Marcus, currently stationed in Iraq — and John Conley, Marine Combat Vet who sent me his Purple Heart for speaking out against the invasion of Iraq. We need to take care of our troops, who made the ultimate sacrifice.
BUSH AND THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESS CUT VETERANS BENEFITS!! What a shameful legacy. Haliburton should pay for our handicapped Veterans' severed limbs and all the medical bills and life support these Vets and their families need. Cheney and Haliburton, war profiteers, who charged $45 for a case of Coke in Iraq! They enriched themselves at the expense of our soliders, while cutting their benefits.
DEMOCRATS TOOK CONGRESS and WE ARE ECSTATIC!! Fascism was defeated and there is HOPE again! America's glory and esteem in the world has a chance now. Good always wins over evil, because evil has no real power. There were almost too many text-book scandals on the republican side. It almost seemed like divine intervention.
Two articles I wrote on this administration, "BUSH'S LAST WILL AND TESTICLE" and "DEATH IS SEXIER THAN SEX (to Ann Coulter), will be reprinted here soon -- or you can find them in various news journals in the sidebar. The books HOW TO TALK TO ANN COULTER, IF YOU MUST ; BLOGGING WITH THE DEVIL and FALLING UP are in the pipeline, not necessarily in that order.
"Watch FOX the day after the election. It is like watching Soviet TV after Brezhnev died." Quote from my friend Steve Kelly, head of programming over at KPSI, the ABC affliiate in Palm Springs.
"I can't help but notice the history channel is showing 'The Fall of the Nazi party'.
Wonder if this was scheduled, or impromptu?" - Doctor Von Worfeus
Got this letter today:
Lydia,
Some time ago I wrote you an e-mail, my first of a few to you, in which I wrote about my fears that we were on the verge of a new dark age. You wrote me a nice e-mail back and mentioned in your blog that you were confident that things would turn around and that the people of this nation would awaken to what was going on. Never have I been happier about being wrong.Now if we can just start moving ahead. It's my hope that our party will show everyone how our government is supposed to work. A democracy is based on compromise. We mustn't act like the Republicans did in 1994. We must work together and move forward. I have no doubt that is exactly what we will do. During the past two to three years I have had little faith in the future of our nation, but now, finally, the morning has broken.
May we make the day that has dawned the beginning of a new, bright and enlightened age for all Americans, regardless of race, creed or political philosophy. May we bring that enlightened age to the world through understanding and communication.
Your faith has been rewarded Lydia. In the future I will endeavor to keep the faith myself.
Thank you, with love, Thomas J. Comer
Thank you to all commenters on this blog. Your committment and unrelenting troll-bashing have actually helped win this election in some small way, in this blog. Every single voice counts. Every prayer counts. And we actually made a difference. Also, after doing over 30 radio shows across the country from a spiritual-progressive perspective, and in the South and Southeast — I know for a fact that we changed some hearts and minds. Everything we do makes a dent in the machine.
"Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little." Plutarch
Love & Peace xoxo
Lydia
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
SAVE AMERICA: VOTE DEMOCRAT NOV. 7
**PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS OF LOS ANGELES** SEE BELOW ON EXACTLY HOW TO VOTE AS A DEMOCRAT
BUT FIRST THIS: REPUBLICAN COMPUTERIZED PHONE SCAM! Sinister allegations Republicans are tampering with votes in Democratic dsitricts.
Virginia election officials called in the FBI to investigate misleading phone calls in to Democratic voters (Republican callers deliberately sending Democrats to the wrong precint to vote) and a prosecutor in Ohio urged voters to beware of similar scams.
The Republicans have begun a nationwide program of making computerized phone calls (robocalls) pretending to be from local Democratic candidates in order to harass voters in their homes. The result? After repeated robocalls (supposedly from the Democratic candidate) the voter no longer wants to vote for the Democratic candidate who is harassing them. Of course, the voter doesn't know that it's really the Republican party pretending to be a Democrat.
These calls are Republican dirty tricks to steal another election with more of their corruption. Every single Republican candidate should be called on to condemn these tactics and demand they cease immediately. And when the Democrats take over Congress on Tuesday, we need to pass legislation stopping everyone from doing these kind of sleazy efforts to nullify the legitimate votes of Americans. Regardless of the party, there needs to be a sufficient penalty that this never happens again.
THIS is the GOP's "October Surprise": To crush Democratic momentum, to keep an iron-fisted grip on one-party power in government. These are people who will resort to anything in their desperation. Call your local news outlets and demand they report the story of these contemptable tactics to cheat democracy.
Please tell everyone you know about these issues!
MARCY WINOGRAD'S RECOMMENDATIONS are below. Marcy ran in the primary and is the mother/teacher/leader I most agree with on the issues. Below are her very specific voting recommendations for Los Angeles and the Westside. Marcy has really done her research.
Find your polling place: http://wwww.lavote.net
Volunteer for election protection: http://www.workthevotela.org
BALLOT ENDORSEMENTS FOR TUES., NOV. 7TH DEMOCRATIC PARTY CANDIDATES
Debra Bowen, Secretary of State
http://www.debrabowen.com/
Phil Angelides, Governor
http://www.angelides.com/
John Garamendi, Lt. Gov.
http://www.garamendi.org
Jerry Brown, Attorney General
http://www.jerrybrown.org/
Cruz Bustamante, Insurance Commissioner
Dear Friends,
Please be sure to vote (7 AM - 8 PM) tomorrow at your polling place (www.lavote.net) and to urge friends and family to vote, as well. If you encounter any election protection problems, you can call: 1-866-OUR-VOTE and/or contact: http://www.alternetvoterprotection.org/ -- also LA County ROV 1-800-851-2666 and Video the Vote at 213-48-2004.
Below are my personal ballot recommendations, though you'll note I have not taken a position on every ballot issue or candidate. Thanks again for your support during the primary, when together we drove home the importance of challenging the Bush war agenda.
Warm regards,
Marcy
P.S. Scroll to the very end for Election Night party details.
STATE MEASURES
* 1A: Transportation Funding Protection - Yes
* 1B: Highway Safety, Traffic Reduction, Air Quality, Port Security Bond Act of 2006 - Yes
* 1C: Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund Act of 2006 - Yes
* 1D: Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2006 - Yes
* 1E: Disaster Preparedness and Flood Prevention Bond Act of 2006 - Yes
* 83: Sex Offenders. Sexually Violent Predators. Punishment, Residence Restrictions and
Monitoring - No
* 84: Water Quality, Safety and Supply. Flood Control. Natural Resource Protection. Park
Improvements. Bonds - Yes
* 85: Waiting Period and Parental Notification Before Termination of Minor's Pregnancy -
No
* 86: Tax on Cigarettes. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute - Yes
* 87: Alternative Energy. Research, Production, Incentives. Tax on California Oil - Yes
* 88: Education Funding. Real Property Parcel Tax - Yes
* 89: Political Campaigns. Public Financing. Corporate Tax Increase. Campaign
Contribution and Expenditure Limits - Yes
* 90: Government Acquisition, Regulation of Private Property - No
(scroll to end for more on propositions)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CITY OF LOS ANGELES MEASURES :
H - YES Affordable Housing Bond. (Bond Measure, One Billion Dollars )
This $1 Billion General Obligation Bond Issue will pay for housing and emergency
shelters for the homeless and others in need, and will fund the City's share of the costs of local projects constructed by the State under Proposition 1C (if it passes) : YES
J - YES Regional Fire Station Sites. (Charter Amendment and Ordinance)
This City Charter Amendment would permit the construction of Fire Stations on sites smaller than two acres, where the Fire Department determines it is warranted : YES
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONGRESS
26th: Cynthia Matthews (D) Matthews supports single-payer health care and an end to the US occupation of Iraq. Her opponent, David Dreier, is Cheney's bat boy in Congress.
28th: Byron De Lear (G)
Howard Berman continues to fund the war and support eternal occupation of Iraq. Byron De Lear offers a clear alternative -- peace, not unilateral war.
33rd: Diane Watson (D)
35th: Maxine Waters (D) (Go, Maxine!)
CANDIDATES FOR STATEWIDE OFFICE
Governor: Angelides (D) has had a progressive record as Treasurer,shifting state pension funds from the stock market to community reinvestment, and promoting shareholder activism against irresponsible corporations. He supports the return of the CA National Guard from Iraq, public campaign financing, and strong environmental protections. Schwarzenegger vetoed universal health care before he even saw it, pushed hard to prevent the unjust "3 Strikes" law from being voted out in 2004, spent a ton of state and county money on a special election, cut funding for social programs and is now acting as the good boy of CA. Don’t forget, He is an ACTOR!!!
Lieutenant Governor: Garamendi (D) has defended consumers' interests
several times as Insurance Commissioner. McClintock is an arch-conservative, anti-tax, anti-abortion, anti-environment, anti-union,pro-business ideologue. More than a token position, the Lieutenant Governor sits on several important state boards and casts tie-breaking votes in the state Senate, in addition to filling in when the Governor is not available.
Secretary of State: Bowen (D) is the rare state legislator who has given
large amounts of time and staff resources to supporting a grassroots movement - in this case, to protect our right to vote and to have our votes counted. Republican incumbent Bill McPherson (R) has been trying to push through the same faulty Republican-owned electronic voting machines that produced surprising Republican victories in other states.
Controller: Chiang (D) says that going after the tax breaks for oil producers and refineries would be one of his top goals. He is the only elected state official to have organized free tax assistance for the indigent.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
STATE SENATE
28th: Jenny Oropeza (D)
STATE ASSEMBLY
37th: Ferial Masry (D) (Endorsed by Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles)
39th: Alarcon (D) has made addressing poverty a focus of his work.
41st: Brownley (D) has great positions on the environment and health care.
43rd: Krekorian (D) has supported green building policies at the Burbank
school district.
44th: Portantino (D) has a good record of supporting open space and has
avoided the temptation of being a "centrist" even though he represented a
heavily Republican town. Costa (G) is also a good candidate with a clearly
progressive agenda.
47th: Bass (D) is a strong voice for progressive causes.
49th: As a Monterey Park councilmember Eng (D) has supported environmental
bills at the state level.
51st: Price (D) supported the campaign to stop Wal-Mart in Inglewood.
53rd: Ted Lieu supports single-payer universal health care and has appealed to Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles to work together on progressive legislation. Peter Thottam, backed by the Greens and ICUJP, says he would challenge Lieu's support of the military industrial complex in Torrance and El Segundo.
56th: Mendoza (D) was endorsed by labor and environmental groups in the
primary.
57th: Hernandez (D) was endorsed by labor and environmental groups in the
primary.
61st: Soto (D) has a good record as a state senator.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Koretz for West Basin Water Board
(From Gary Shay of the Democratic Party ...)
For those of you in the West Side of LA County, wondering about the West Basin Water Board, I am supporting Assembly Member Paul Koretz as is the California and Los Angeles County Democratic Party.
The West Basin District has been plagued with a culture of corruption and mismanagement including paying for fancy trips and teeth whitening for a Board Member.
Life long active Democrat, Assembly member Paul Koretz, is running for the West Basin Board in Division 4, which includes all of El Segundo, Culver City, Malibu and West Hollywood, as well as several other areas. I am proud to support Assembly member Koretz because I know that his many years of environmental activism as well as his 18 years of service as a Council member and Assembly member will bring a new dimension to the Water Board.
Two of Assembly member Koretz's top priorities will be to stop wasting taxpayer dollars on lawyers for ventures into redistricting and making sure the District’s large reserves (over 80 million dollars) are in strong, safe investments.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
From a friend in the progressive community ...
JUDICIAL - SUPREME COURT JUSTICE
YES Joyce L. Kennard
NO Carol A. Corrigan (arch conservative appointed by Schwarzenegger)
JUDICIAL - COURT OF APPEAL JUSTICE
(Counties: Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura)
YES Robert M. Mallano
? Frances Rothschild
NO Roger W. Boren
NO Victoria M. Chavez
NO Patti S. Kitching
NO Richard D. Aldrich
NO Norman L. Epstein
NO Thomas L. Willhite
? Nora M. Manella
NO Steven Suzukawa
NO Richard M. Mosk
NO Sandy R. Kriegler
YES Arthur Gilbert
YES Dennis M. Perluss
NO Fred Woods
YES Laurie D. Zelon
YES Candace D. Cooper
YES Madeleine Flier
JUDICIAL
JUDGE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT
(County: Los Angeles)
Office No. 8: Deborah L. Sanchez
Office No. 18: John C. Gutierrez
Office No. 102: George C. Montgomery [with reservations]
Office No. 104: [do not have a recommendation]
Office No. 144: Janis Levart Barquist
Also recommended are: Zacky and Bobbi Tillmon
STATE SENATOR
24th: Romero (D) has been a leading advocate for stopping the emphasis on
imprisoning youth.
28th: After surviving cancer, Oropeza (D) has become one of the strongest
advocates for environmental justice.
JUDICIAL - COURT OF APPEAL JUSTICE
YES Mallano - Progressive rulings.
? Rothschild - Could not determine.
NO Boren - Conservative, endorsed by Republicans.
NO Chavez - Endorsed by Republicans.
NO Kitching - Conservative, endorsed by Republicans.
NO Aldrich - Conservative, endorsed by Republicans.
NO Epstein - Conservative, endorsed by Republicans.
NO Willhite - Conservative, endorsed by Republicans.
? Manella - On balance liberal, but some cases give pause.
NO Suzukawa - Conservative, endorsed by Republicans.
NO Mosk - Consistently anti-Iranian rulings on Iran-U.S. Tribunal.
NO Kriegler - Conservative, endorsed by Republicans.
YES Gilbert - Gave clear thought to clemency for death penalty cases.
YES Perluss - Progressive rulings.
NO Woods - Wrote ruling restricting sex discrimination cases.
YES Zelon - Champion of improving legal rights of the indigent.
YES Cooper - Strong advocate of affirmative action.
YES Flier - Progressive rulings.
JUDICIAL: JUDGE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT
8: Sanchez's opponent is a death penalty prosecutor.
18: Gutierrez's opponent is an anti-gang prosecutor.
102: Montgomery is less objectionable since he gives support to due process.
104: [no position]
144: Barquist leans liberal; her opponent is an anti-gang prosecutor.
-------------------------------
Endorsements from the Santa Monica Democratic Club
Santa Monica City Council
Kevin McKeown Gleam Davis
Santa Monica Rent Control Board
Jennifer Kennedy Zelia Mollica Marilyn Korade/Wilson
Santa Monica College Board of Trustees
Nancy Greenstein David Finkel
Andrew Walzer Louise Jaffe
Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District
Oscar de la Torre Emily Bloomfield
Kelly McMahon Pye Barry Snell
Local Measures:
Measure BB (School Bond) YES
Measure U (Charter Amend - Remove City Dept Heads from Civil Service . . .) NO
Measure V (Clean Beaches/Ocean Parcel Tax) YES
Measure W (Charter Amend - Change Campaign Contribution Restrictions) NO
Measure Y (Muni Code - Make Marijuana Use Low Enforcement Priority) YES
PROPOSITIONS: (A friend sent this to me and I'm passing it on ...)
YES Prop 84 Authorizes $5.4 billion to fund projects relating to safe drinking water, water quality and supply, flood control, waterway and natural resource protection, water pollution and contamination control, state and local park improvements, public access to natural resources, and conservation efforts. (nearly 1 billion available for parks & water projects in LA County)
http://www.easyvoter.org/site/evguide/content.php?type=1&id=70
YES Prop 87: Alternative Energy
This is NOT a gas tax, and won't raise your gas prices. What it will do is make companies extracting oil out of California pay a similar amount of money as they do in states like Texas and Alaska -incredibly, California basically gives away our resources virtually free,unlike everywhere else - and invest that money in alternative energy. You know it has to be something real good if the oil companies are spending $100 MILLION (!) to defeat it. It would establish a $4 billion program to reduce oil and gasoline usage by 25%, with research and production incentives for alternative energy, alternative energy vehicles, energy efficient technologies, and for education and training. The proposition prohibits producers from passing the tax on to consumers. Program administered by California Energy Alternatives Program Authority.
YES Prop 89: Campaign Finance Reform
Prop 89 will help take back our elections from special interests and create a level playing field for candidates to compete.
Maine passed a universal health care plan thanks to grassroots candidates being able to challenge the insurance-funded incumbents. The money for the campaigns will come from a 0.2 percent corporate tax increase. This system has proven to loosen the death grip corporate lobbyists hold over government, though it won't make every politician honest! The public campaign funding will be received through the Fair Political Practices Commission, in amounts varying by elective office and type of election. The proposition also imposes new limits on campaign contributions to state-office candidates and campaign committees, and new restrictions on contributions and expenditures by lobbyists and corporations.
Proposition 90:
“Prop 90 is the single most dangerous threat that has ever been leveled at our
state's environment” Robert Redford.
If Prop 90 is enacted, environmental protection will grind to a halt, because we the taxpayers will be unable to afford the billions and billions in payouts.
And guess what? Paralyzing government is exactly what Prop 90 aims to do.
This cynical ploy is so insidious -- and yet potentially popular -- because it's masquerading as a law that will protect our homes and businesses from
government seizure under the power of eminent domain.
This measure being pushed by conservatives and developers would force taxpayers to pay some land owners to follow laws already on the books--or give those land owners a waiver to pollute or break other laws. For example, if a company decides they want to build a polluting factory on their property that’s not allowed by current zoning, the government would have to pay them for the forgone opportunity. It could cost state and local governments billions of dollars to maintain current protections. It is supported by the California Republican Party and the National Federation of Independent Businesses. Proposition 90 is opposed by a broad and diverse coalition including: the League of Women Voters, the Sierra Club, The Nature Conservancy, Natural Resources Defense Council, Defenders of Wildlife, dozens of other environmental groups but also Working Assets, California Labor Federation, California Professional Firefighters, the NAACP and the California Chamber of Commerce
YES Prop 1C- Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund Act: Allow state government to sell $2.85 billion in bonds for: housing projects and related development in urban areas and near public transportation, assistance for renters, first-time and low-income homebuyers farm worker housing, homeless shelters and other programs. Bond financing is regressive and from working in this industry I know how much money goes to waste and never reaches its targeted destination. Never the less, I think I will vote for it and pray…
http://www.easyvoter.org/site/evguide/content.php?type=1&id=66
YES Prop 1D (with reservation)
Allows state government to sell $10.4 billion in bonds to build and upgrade education facilities:
• $7.3 billion for K-12 schools, most of which would require local matching funds
• $3.1 billion for community colleges and public universities
Funding formula is not favorable to districts that have the greatest need. Bond financing is regressive.
http://www.easyvoter.org/site/evguide/content.php?type=1&id=67
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
## ##
BUT FIRST THIS: REPUBLICAN COMPUTERIZED PHONE SCAM! Sinister allegations Republicans are tampering with votes in Democratic dsitricts.
Virginia election officials called in the FBI to investigate misleading phone calls in to Democratic voters (Republican callers deliberately sending Democrats to the wrong precint to vote) and a prosecutor in Ohio urged voters to beware of similar scams.
The Republicans have begun a nationwide program of making computerized phone calls (robocalls) pretending to be from local Democratic candidates in order to harass voters in their homes. The result? After repeated robocalls (supposedly from the Democratic candidate) the voter no longer wants to vote for the Democratic candidate who is harassing them. Of course, the voter doesn't know that it's really the Republican party pretending to be a Democrat.
These calls are Republican dirty tricks to steal another election with more of their corruption. Every single Republican candidate should be called on to condemn these tactics and demand they cease immediately. And when the Democrats take over Congress on Tuesday, we need to pass legislation stopping everyone from doing these kind of sleazy efforts to nullify the legitimate votes of Americans. Regardless of the party, there needs to be a sufficient penalty that this never happens again.
THIS is the GOP's "October Surprise": To crush Democratic momentum, to keep an iron-fisted grip on one-party power in government. These are people who will resort to anything in their desperation. Call your local news outlets and demand they report the story of these contemptable tactics to cheat democracy.
Please tell everyone you know about these issues!
MARCY WINOGRAD'S RECOMMENDATIONS are below. Marcy ran in the primary and is the mother/teacher/leader I most agree with on the issues. Below are her very specific voting recommendations for Los Angeles and the Westside. Marcy has really done her research.
Find your polling place: http://wwww.lavote.net
Volunteer for election protection: http://www.workthevotela.org
BALLOT ENDORSEMENTS FOR TUES., NOV. 7TH DEMOCRATIC PARTY CANDIDATES
Debra Bowen, Secretary of State
http://www.debrabowen.com/
Phil Angelides, Governor
http://www.angelides.com/
John Garamendi, Lt. Gov.
http://www.garamendi.org
Jerry Brown, Attorney General
http://www.jerrybrown.org/
Cruz Bustamante, Insurance Commissioner
Dear Friends,
Please be sure to vote (7 AM - 8 PM) tomorrow at your polling place (www.lavote.net) and to urge friends and family to vote, as well. If you encounter any election protection problems, you can call: 1-866-OUR-VOTE and/or contact: http://www.alternetvoterprotection.org/ -- also LA County ROV 1-800-851-2666 and Video the Vote at 213-48-2004.
Below are my personal ballot recommendations, though you'll note I have not taken a position on every ballot issue or candidate. Thanks again for your support during the primary, when together we drove home the importance of challenging the Bush war agenda.
Warm regards,
Marcy
P.S. Scroll to the very end for Election Night party details.
STATE MEASURES
* 1A: Transportation Funding Protection - Yes
* 1B: Highway Safety, Traffic Reduction, Air Quality, Port Security Bond Act of 2006 - Yes
* 1C: Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund Act of 2006 - Yes
* 1D: Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2006 - Yes
* 1E: Disaster Preparedness and Flood Prevention Bond Act of 2006 - Yes
* 83: Sex Offenders. Sexually Violent Predators. Punishment, Residence Restrictions and
Monitoring - No
* 84: Water Quality, Safety and Supply. Flood Control. Natural Resource Protection. Park
Improvements. Bonds - Yes
* 85: Waiting Period and Parental Notification Before Termination of Minor's Pregnancy -
No
* 86: Tax on Cigarettes. Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute - Yes
* 87: Alternative Energy. Research, Production, Incentives. Tax on California Oil - Yes
* 88: Education Funding. Real Property Parcel Tax - Yes
* 89: Political Campaigns. Public Financing. Corporate Tax Increase. Campaign
Contribution and Expenditure Limits - Yes
* 90: Government Acquisition, Regulation of Private Property - No
(scroll to end for more on propositions)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CITY OF LOS ANGELES MEASURES :
H - YES Affordable Housing Bond. (Bond Measure, One Billion Dollars )
This $1 Billion General Obligation Bond Issue will pay for housing and emergency
shelters for the homeless and others in need, and will fund the City's share of the costs of local projects constructed by the State under Proposition 1C (if it passes) : YES
J - YES Regional Fire Station Sites. (Charter Amendment and Ordinance)
This City Charter Amendment would permit the construction of Fire Stations on sites smaller than two acres, where the Fire Department determines it is warranted : YES
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONGRESS
26th: Cynthia Matthews (D) Matthews supports single-payer health care and an end to the US occupation of Iraq. Her opponent, David Dreier, is Cheney's bat boy in Congress.
28th: Byron De Lear (G)
Howard Berman continues to fund the war and support eternal occupation of Iraq. Byron De Lear offers a clear alternative -- peace, not unilateral war.
33rd: Diane Watson (D)
35th: Maxine Waters (D) (Go, Maxine!)
CANDIDATES FOR STATEWIDE OFFICE
Governor: Angelides (D) has had a progressive record as Treasurer,shifting state pension funds from the stock market to community reinvestment, and promoting shareholder activism against irresponsible corporations. He supports the return of the CA National Guard from Iraq, public campaign financing, and strong environmental protections. Schwarzenegger vetoed universal health care before he even saw it, pushed hard to prevent the unjust "3 Strikes" law from being voted out in 2004, spent a ton of state and county money on a special election, cut funding for social programs and is now acting as the good boy of CA. Don’t forget, He is an ACTOR!!!
Lieutenant Governor: Garamendi (D) has defended consumers' interests
several times as Insurance Commissioner. McClintock is an arch-conservative, anti-tax, anti-abortion, anti-environment, anti-union,pro-business ideologue. More than a token position, the Lieutenant Governor sits on several important state boards and casts tie-breaking votes in the state Senate, in addition to filling in when the Governor is not available.
Secretary of State: Bowen (D) is the rare state legislator who has given
large amounts of time and staff resources to supporting a grassroots movement - in this case, to protect our right to vote and to have our votes counted. Republican incumbent Bill McPherson (R) has been trying to push through the same faulty Republican-owned electronic voting machines that produced surprising Republican victories in other states.
Controller: Chiang (D) says that going after the tax breaks for oil producers and refineries would be one of his top goals. He is the only elected state official to have organized free tax assistance for the indigent.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
STATE SENATE
28th: Jenny Oropeza (D)
STATE ASSEMBLY
37th: Ferial Masry (D) (Endorsed by Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles)
39th: Alarcon (D) has made addressing poverty a focus of his work.
41st: Brownley (D) has great positions on the environment and health care.
43rd: Krekorian (D) has supported green building policies at the Burbank
school district.
44th: Portantino (D) has a good record of supporting open space and has
avoided the temptation of being a "centrist" even though he represented a
heavily Republican town. Costa (G) is also a good candidate with a clearly
progressive agenda.
47th: Bass (D) is a strong voice for progressive causes.
49th: As a Monterey Park councilmember Eng (D) has supported environmental
bills at the state level.
51st: Price (D) supported the campaign to stop Wal-Mart in Inglewood.
53rd: Ted Lieu supports single-payer universal health care and has appealed to Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles to work together on progressive legislation. Peter Thottam, backed by the Greens and ICUJP, says he would challenge Lieu's support of the military industrial complex in Torrance and El Segundo.
56th: Mendoza (D) was endorsed by labor and environmental groups in the
primary.
57th: Hernandez (D) was endorsed by labor and environmental groups in the
primary.
61st: Soto (D) has a good record as a state senator.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Koretz for West Basin Water Board
(From Gary Shay of the Democratic Party ...)
For those of you in the West Side of LA County, wondering about the West Basin Water Board, I am supporting Assembly Member Paul Koretz as is the California and Los Angeles County Democratic Party.
The West Basin District has been plagued with a culture of corruption and mismanagement including paying for fancy trips and teeth whitening for a Board Member.
Life long active Democrat, Assembly member Paul Koretz, is running for the West Basin Board in Division 4, which includes all of El Segundo, Culver City, Malibu and West Hollywood, as well as several other areas. I am proud to support Assembly member Koretz because I know that his many years of environmental activism as well as his 18 years of service as a Council member and Assembly member will bring a new dimension to the Water Board.
Two of Assembly member Koretz's top priorities will be to stop wasting taxpayer dollars on lawyers for ventures into redistricting and making sure the District’s large reserves (over 80 million dollars) are in strong, safe investments.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
From a friend in the progressive community ...
JUDICIAL - SUPREME COURT JUSTICE
YES Joyce L. Kennard
NO Carol A. Corrigan (arch conservative appointed by Schwarzenegger)
JUDICIAL - COURT OF APPEAL JUSTICE
(Counties: Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura)
YES Robert M. Mallano
? Frances Rothschild
NO Roger W. Boren
NO Victoria M. Chavez
NO Patti S. Kitching
NO Richard D. Aldrich
NO Norman L. Epstein
NO Thomas L. Willhite
? Nora M. Manella
NO Steven Suzukawa
NO Richard M. Mosk
NO Sandy R. Kriegler
YES Arthur Gilbert
YES Dennis M. Perluss
NO Fred Woods
YES Laurie D. Zelon
YES Candace D. Cooper
YES Madeleine Flier
JUDICIAL
JUDGE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT
(County: Los Angeles)
Office No. 8: Deborah L. Sanchez
Office No. 18: John C. Gutierrez
Office No. 102: George C. Montgomery [with reservations]
Office No. 104: [do not have a recommendation]
Office No. 144: Janis Levart Barquist
Also recommended are: Zacky and Bobbi Tillmon
STATE SENATOR
24th: Romero (D) has been a leading advocate for stopping the emphasis on
imprisoning youth.
28th: After surviving cancer, Oropeza (D) has become one of the strongest
advocates for environmental justice.
JUDICIAL - COURT OF APPEAL JUSTICE
YES Mallano - Progressive rulings.
? Rothschild - Could not determine.
NO Boren - Conservative, endorsed by Republicans.
NO Chavez - Endorsed by Republicans.
NO Kitching - Conservative, endorsed by Republicans.
NO Aldrich - Conservative, endorsed by Republicans.
NO Epstein - Conservative, endorsed by Republicans.
NO Willhite - Conservative, endorsed by Republicans.
? Manella - On balance liberal, but some cases give pause.
NO Suzukawa - Conservative, endorsed by Republicans.
NO Mosk - Consistently anti-Iranian rulings on Iran-U.S. Tribunal.
NO Kriegler - Conservative, endorsed by Republicans.
YES Gilbert - Gave clear thought to clemency for death penalty cases.
YES Perluss - Progressive rulings.
NO Woods - Wrote ruling restricting sex discrimination cases.
YES Zelon - Champion of improving legal rights of the indigent.
YES Cooper - Strong advocate of affirmative action.
YES Flier - Progressive rulings.
JUDICIAL: JUDGE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT
8: Sanchez's opponent is a death penalty prosecutor.
18: Gutierrez's opponent is an anti-gang prosecutor.
102: Montgomery is less objectionable since he gives support to due process.
104: [no position]
144: Barquist leans liberal; her opponent is an anti-gang prosecutor.
-------------------------------
Endorsements from the Santa Monica Democratic Club
Santa Monica City Council
Kevin McKeown Gleam Davis
Santa Monica Rent Control Board
Jennifer Kennedy Zelia Mollica Marilyn Korade/Wilson
Santa Monica College Board of Trustees
Nancy Greenstein David Finkel
Andrew Walzer Louise Jaffe
Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District
Oscar de la Torre Emily Bloomfield
Kelly McMahon Pye Barry Snell
Local Measures:
Measure BB (School Bond) YES
Measure U (Charter Amend - Remove City Dept Heads from Civil Service . . .) NO
Measure V (Clean Beaches/Ocean Parcel Tax) YES
Measure W (Charter Amend - Change Campaign Contribution Restrictions) NO
Measure Y (Muni Code - Make Marijuana Use Low Enforcement Priority) YES
PROPOSITIONS: (A friend sent this to me and I'm passing it on ...)
YES Prop 84 Authorizes $5.4 billion to fund projects relating to safe drinking water, water quality and supply, flood control, waterway and natural resource protection, water pollution and contamination control, state and local park improvements, public access to natural resources, and conservation efforts. (nearly 1 billion available for parks & water projects in LA County)
http://www.easyvoter.org/site/evguide/content.php?type=1&id=70
YES Prop 87: Alternative Energy
This is NOT a gas tax, and won't raise your gas prices. What it will do is make companies extracting oil out of California pay a similar amount of money as they do in states like Texas and Alaska -incredibly, California basically gives away our resources virtually free,unlike everywhere else - and invest that money in alternative energy. You know it has to be something real good if the oil companies are spending $100 MILLION (!) to defeat it. It would establish a $4 billion program to reduce oil and gasoline usage by 25%, with research and production incentives for alternative energy, alternative energy vehicles, energy efficient technologies, and for education and training. The proposition prohibits producers from passing the tax on to consumers. Program administered by California Energy Alternatives Program Authority.
YES Prop 89: Campaign Finance Reform
Prop 89 will help take back our elections from special interests and create a level playing field for candidates to compete.
Maine passed a universal health care plan thanks to grassroots candidates being able to challenge the insurance-funded incumbents. The money for the campaigns will come from a 0.2 percent corporate tax increase. This system has proven to loosen the death grip corporate lobbyists hold over government, though it won't make every politician honest! The public campaign funding will be received through the Fair Political Practices Commission, in amounts varying by elective office and type of election. The proposition also imposes new limits on campaign contributions to state-office candidates and campaign committees, and new restrictions on contributions and expenditures by lobbyists and corporations.
Proposition 90:
“Prop 90 is the single most dangerous threat that has ever been leveled at our
state's environment” Robert Redford.
If Prop 90 is enacted, environmental protection will grind to a halt, because we the taxpayers will be unable to afford the billions and billions in payouts.
And guess what? Paralyzing government is exactly what Prop 90 aims to do.
This cynical ploy is so insidious -- and yet potentially popular -- because it's masquerading as a law that will protect our homes and businesses from
government seizure under the power of eminent domain.
This measure being pushed by conservatives and developers would force taxpayers to pay some land owners to follow laws already on the books--or give those land owners a waiver to pollute or break other laws. For example, if a company decides they want to build a polluting factory on their property that’s not allowed by current zoning, the government would have to pay them for the forgone opportunity. It could cost state and local governments billions of dollars to maintain current protections. It is supported by the California Republican Party and the National Federation of Independent Businesses. Proposition 90 is opposed by a broad and diverse coalition including: the League of Women Voters, the Sierra Club, The Nature Conservancy, Natural Resources Defense Council, Defenders of Wildlife, dozens of other environmental groups but also Working Assets, California Labor Federation, California Professional Firefighters, the NAACP and the California Chamber of Commerce
YES Prop 1C- Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund Act: Allow state government to sell $2.85 billion in bonds for: housing projects and related development in urban areas and near public transportation, assistance for renters, first-time and low-income homebuyers farm worker housing, homeless shelters and other programs. Bond financing is regressive and from working in this industry I know how much money goes to waste and never reaches its targeted destination. Never the less, I think I will vote for it and pray…
http://www.easyvoter.org/site/evguide/content.php?type=1&id=66
YES Prop 1D (with reservation)
Allows state government to sell $10.4 billion in bonds to build and upgrade education facilities:
• $7.3 billion for K-12 schools, most of which would require local matching funds
• $3.1 billion for community colleges and public universities
Funding formula is not favorable to districts that have the greatest need. Bond financing is regressive.
http://www.easyvoter.org/site/evguide/content.php?type=1&id=67
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
## ##
Monday, October 30, 2006
VOTE OUT THE BROOD OF VIPERS!
Please send CARE packages to our troops. They all need our love and care. Also, check out a soldier on our blog who writes at ANGER MANAGEMENT
News Alert: George Allen's staffers beat up a Marine for asking the Senator an uncomfortable question!
WILL THIS ELECTION BRING A BRIGHTER DAY OR THE END OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY?
If there were ever a more urgent reason to replace each and every member of Congress virtually without exception, one need only look at the breathtaking new martial law powers granted to the Bush administration this month. It has always been a sacred tenet of our Democracy that the U.S. military should not be deployed AGAINST American citizens. But literally in the dead of night and almost without comment, an amendment to the Insurrection Act was slipped into the just passed Defense Authorization bill stating:
"...The President may employ the armed forces, including the National Guard in Federal service, to restore public order and enforce the laws of the United States when . . . the President determines that domestic violence has occurred" !!! ARE YOU READING THIS?
Shame on each and every member of Congress who allowed this to happen with hardly as much as peep or a whimper. Shame on them for their lack of diligence and lack of oversight.
So let's just say for example that the electronic election results in 8 days are so far out of line with pre-election and exit polling data so as to defy credulity. And let's just say that people organized massive peaceful protests of the theft of their elections. And let's just say that the Bush administration provoked "police" riots, or even had their own provocateurs commit violent acts so as to justify a military crackdown. Voila . . . now you have American soldiers shooting at otherwise peaceful political protesters. And you thought Kent State was a party!
And if you don't think that could ever happen, then why the hell have they pushed for such changes, which are now the law of the land?
The whole concept of the president as an unaccountable determiner, or "decider", insulated from any kind of oversight by Congress or the Courts has been the hallmark of the Cheney/Bush executive coup, which just keeps steamrollering along while our presumptive protectors in Congress are asleep at the switch, or cowering in their cloakrooms.
But there are some candidates who ARE fighting to be the people's voice. There are candidates who were calling for our troops in Iraq to start coming home, and standing strong on that call, BEFORE the general public began to realize the scale of the Iraq disaster, doomed as it was from the start by its illegal and immoral underpinnings.
SUPPORT THE PEACE TEAM CANDIDATES NOW: PEACETEAM.NET
And what we are asking you to do, in this last 7 days before the upcoming election, is to donate anything you can, if you have not done so already, to help the brave candidates on the Peace Team to get their Lie/Die TV spots on the air, so the people know that there is at least somebody out there taking a stand on principle.
CREEPY & SPOOKY: VOTE OUT THE BROOD OF VIPERS!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN. IS BUSH COMMITTING TREASON? We must get rid of the thugs running our country NOW. Democrats will win Congress next week. Please VOTE next Tuesday, November 7, 2006. There is still hope for a civilized, peaceful, powerful, united AMERICA. But onlyl if you vote out the corrupt politicians currently in power. There is nothing more dangerous to our freedoms than these politicians. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. These Godless people are hiding behind a false version of "Christianity" that is not only anti-Christian but amoral. This is something no Christian or upright moralist can condone.
Please read Larisa Alexandrovna's (Raswtory.com) great article below. Got this email from the insightful Garth Bishop: "The end of habeas corpus may just be a smoke screen (which the Sup Court will overturn) to cover the fact what it's really all about----giving GW Bush and his wrecking crew a "get out of jail free" card. I'm trying to find a complete copy of the "MCA of 2006" to find out what I heard about the real reason for this act. In the document, according to my sources, ALL WAR CRIMES committed prior to December 30, 2005 are forgiven. So in essence WBush is pardoning himself (and all) in advance. Anyone with info please advise. Meanwhile I will find and read the entire bill to verify this startling fact which I'm convinced is true." - Garth Bishop
Excerpts From "Bush Signs the Reichstag Fire Decree" By Larisa Alexandrovna RAWSTORY.COM
"I am certain that my right-wing fellow Americans will no doubt soil themselves silly and cite Biblical curses at me for daring to label their beloved leader a traitor to the United States of America. But he is not only a traitor, he is an aristocratic wannabe despot who is so mentally deranged, that he believes that God tells him to go out and spread Americana into the world, and in the process murder hundreds of thousands of people abroad and destroy thousands of lives at home. Does that sound like something a sane person would do, or even attempt to justify, in public by evoking Jesus, the complete antithesis to these activities?" - Larisa Alexandrovna
With a flip of the wrist, Bush signed into law the anti-Habeas Corpus, pro-torture law (cleverly repackaged as the Military Commissions Act of 2006), signaling with it the end of American democracy. On October 17, 2006, however, the latest Bush scoundrel outdid his kin at sucking the marrow of this nation and signed into law that which our founding fathers would have called treason, essentially taking the people's rights of liberty, justice, and property solely for himself. What Mr. Bush signed was, in essence, the final assault of a carefully orchestrated, six year long war on the Constitution of the United States.
....To add insult to injury, when Bush was finished with his butchery, this half-witted crook had the audacity, the sheer nerve, to claim that he was slitting the throat of America in the memory of those who died on September 11, 2001:
"And now, in memory of the victims of September the 11th, it is my honor to sign the Military Commissions Act of 2006 into law." Yes, those in attendance not only applauded the man who cannot be bothered to govern or to attend to any business beneficial to the health and vitality of this nation, they actually cheered the destruction of this country and allowed Bush to claim the memory of those who died because of his very own indifference.
(see Rawstory.com)
Please support California Secretary of State www.debrabowen.com for the latest on the Diebold touch-screen voting problems in the upcoming election.
News Alert: George Allen's staffers beat up a Marine for asking the Senator an uncomfortable question!
WILL THIS ELECTION BRING A BRIGHTER DAY OR THE END OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY?
If there were ever a more urgent reason to replace each and every member of Congress virtually without exception, one need only look at the breathtaking new martial law powers granted to the Bush administration this month. It has always been a sacred tenet of our Democracy that the U.S. military should not be deployed AGAINST American citizens. But literally in the dead of night and almost without comment, an amendment to the Insurrection Act was slipped into the just passed Defense Authorization bill stating:
"...The President may employ the armed forces, including the National Guard in Federal service, to restore public order and enforce the laws of the United States when . . . the President determines that domestic violence has occurred" !!! ARE YOU READING THIS?
Shame on each and every member of Congress who allowed this to happen with hardly as much as peep or a whimper. Shame on them for their lack of diligence and lack of oversight.
So let's just say for example that the electronic election results in 8 days are so far out of line with pre-election and exit polling data so as to defy credulity. And let's just say that people organized massive peaceful protests of the theft of their elections. And let's just say that the Bush administration provoked "police" riots, or even had their own provocateurs commit violent acts so as to justify a military crackdown. Voila . . . now you have American soldiers shooting at otherwise peaceful political protesters. And you thought Kent State was a party!
And if you don't think that could ever happen, then why the hell have they pushed for such changes, which are now the law of the land?
The whole concept of the president as an unaccountable determiner, or "decider", insulated from any kind of oversight by Congress or the Courts has been the hallmark of the Cheney/Bush executive coup, which just keeps steamrollering along while our presumptive protectors in Congress are asleep at the switch, or cowering in their cloakrooms.
But there are some candidates who ARE fighting to be the people's voice. There are candidates who were calling for our troops in Iraq to start coming home, and standing strong on that call, BEFORE the general public began to realize the scale of the Iraq disaster, doomed as it was from the start by its illegal and immoral underpinnings.
SUPPORT THE PEACE TEAM CANDIDATES NOW: PEACETEAM.NET
And what we are asking you to do, in this last 7 days before the upcoming election, is to donate anything you can, if you have not done so already, to help the brave candidates on the Peace Team to get their Lie/Die TV spots on the air, so the people know that there is at least somebody out there taking a stand on principle.
CREEPY & SPOOKY: VOTE OUT THE BROOD OF VIPERS!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN. IS BUSH COMMITTING TREASON? We must get rid of the thugs running our country NOW. Democrats will win Congress next week. Please VOTE next Tuesday, November 7, 2006. There is still hope for a civilized, peaceful, powerful, united AMERICA. But onlyl if you vote out the corrupt politicians currently in power. There is nothing more dangerous to our freedoms than these politicians. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. These Godless people are hiding behind a false version of "Christianity" that is not only anti-Christian but amoral. This is something no Christian or upright moralist can condone.
Please read Larisa Alexandrovna's (Raswtory.com) great article below. Got this email from the insightful Garth Bishop: "The end of habeas corpus may just be a smoke screen (which the Sup Court will overturn) to cover the fact what it's really all about----giving GW Bush and his wrecking crew a "get out of jail free" card. I'm trying to find a complete copy of the "MCA of 2006" to find out what I heard about the real reason for this act. In the document, according to my sources, ALL WAR CRIMES committed prior to December 30, 2005 are forgiven. So in essence WBush is pardoning himself (and all) in advance. Anyone with info please advise. Meanwhile I will find and read the entire bill to verify this startling fact which I'm convinced is true." - Garth Bishop
Excerpts From "Bush Signs the Reichstag Fire Decree" By Larisa Alexandrovna RAWSTORY.COM
"I am certain that my right-wing fellow Americans will no doubt soil themselves silly and cite Biblical curses at me for daring to label their beloved leader a traitor to the United States of America. But he is not only a traitor, he is an aristocratic wannabe despot who is so mentally deranged, that he believes that God tells him to go out and spread Americana into the world, and in the process murder hundreds of thousands of people abroad and destroy thousands of lives at home. Does that sound like something a sane person would do, or even attempt to justify, in public by evoking Jesus, the complete antithesis to these activities?" - Larisa Alexandrovna
With a flip of the wrist, Bush signed into law the anti-Habeas Corpus, pro-torture law (cleverly repackaged as the Military Commissions Act of 2006), signaling with it the end of American democracy. On October 17, 2006, however, the latest Bush scoundrel outdid his kin at sucking the marrow of this nation and signed into law that which our founding fathers would have called treason, essentially taking the people's rights of liberty, justice, and property solely for himself. What Mr. Bush signed was, in essence, the final assault of a carefully orchestrated, six year long war on the Constitution of the United States.
....To add insult to injury, when Bush was finished with his butchery, this half-witted crook had the audacity, the sheer nerve, to claim that he was slitting the throat of America in the memory of those who died on September 11, 2001:
"And now, in memory of the victims of September the 11th, it is my honor to sign the Military Commissions Act of 2006 into law." Yes, those in attendance not only applauded the man who cannot be bothered to govern or to attend to any business beneficial to the health and vitality of this nation, they actually cheered the destruction of this country and allowed Bush to claim the memory of those who died because of his very own indifference.
(see Rawstory.com)
Please support California Secretary of State www.debrabowen.com for the latest on the Diebold touch-screen voting problems in the upcoming election.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
WHERE HAVE ALL THE SOLDIERS GONE?
Destiny and I opened at PECHANGA CASINO Theater for Paul Rodriguez on Friday night. It's a 1500 seat theater, and Seinfeld performs there next month. It was a great show. Rodriguez really reaches out to the Hispanic and Indian communities.
The Indian Chiefs come to see him and are big fans of his.
Doing comedy is like sculpting the air with jokes. Being an actress, I always think I need a script, but it's more fun being surprised — improvising. We got to experiment with a large theater and not freak out! Actually we didn't have any time to rehearse, so I had to take a leap of faith. But the moment we stepped onto the stage, all the fear went away and Destiny and I just played with each other. We are just trying out our new material and getting comfortable with each other. It's kind of scary.
Paul Rodriguez has some very important things to say about Latino immigrants and the sad idea of putting up a wall at the border. He also has a lot of wisdom about Iraq.
KOKOMO, INDIANA: Larry Johnson is an amazing spirit and has a great mission, a great radio show.
Also did a 3-hour co-host gig on Allan James' show (WIOU 1350 AM and WZWZ 92.5 FM The "Z93 Morning Show".) Robert Dreyfuss, investigative journalist for Rolling Stone, The Nation and Mother Jones joined me. We had a blast and did newspaper interviews for the labor unions. We must support the workers of America! They are our backbone. I'll have a full story on this whole trip soon. Where have all the young men gone... to coffins in Iraq.
“ To learn that not only you suffer, but the other person also suffers, the other group of people also suffers… when you touch the suffering in other people you want to help, and when you want to help, compassion is born in you… you don’t suffer anymore, and you are motivated by the desire to do something, to be something for other people…and that is Peace. ”
~ Thich Nhat Hahn
Zen Buddhist monk, nominated by Martin Luther King, Jr.
for the Nobel Peace Prize for his tireless work to end the Vietnam War
Here is a new letter from Marcus Byrne, our brave resident soldier in Iraq:
I've come to realize there is an inherent flaw in Neo Cons running a war of stability and support operations (SASO). They lack the morals and values necessary to fight such a war correctly. To fight a an insurgency correctly requires empathy, to know how the people are suffering and being able to correct it before your enemy can. It require an ability to understand complex social structures and networks and work within those networks to achieve compromise amongst the indigenous people. In other words, a war such as this requires flexible diplomacy from the strategic to the tactical level with a common goal. That goal was unapparent in the beginning months of this war and that's when we lost our momentum. The Neo Cons don't even care about the people they supposedly govern, I reference Hurricane Katrina as one example, why would they care about the plight of people who can't unelect them, or have no power to stop them. Terrorism is the war of the powerless, and war is the terrorism of the powerful. So, what are the powerless going to resort to when they see their grievances, inflicted by us, are not being addressed? The war of the powerless. So, Neo Cons, lacking simple human emotions, morals, and values, and having no other goals but unlimited power, are the wrong people to fight any war, much less a war where the will of the occupied is the center of gravity, and the deciding factor for victory. http://www.airbyrne.blogspot.com/
Great Words from Great Writer E.L. Doctorow, written earlier this year:
I fault this president (George W. Bush) for not knowing what death is. He does not suffer the death of our twenty-one year olds who wanted to be what they could be. On the eve of D-day in 1944 General Eisenhower prayed to God for the lives of the young soldiers he knew were going to die. He knew what death was. Even in a justifiable war, a war not of choice but
of necessity, a war of survival, the cost was almost more than Eisenhower could bear.
But this president does not know what death is. He hasn't the mind for it. You see him joking with the press, peering under the table for the WMDs he can't seem to find, you see him at rallies strutting up to the stage in shirt sleeves to the roar of the
carefully screened crowd, smiling and waving, triumphal, a he-man. He does not mourn. He doesn't understand why he should mourn. He is satisfied during the course of a speech written for him to look solemn for a moment and speak of the brave young Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
But you study him, you look into his eyes and know he dissembles an emotion which he does not feel in the depths of his being because he has no capacity for it. He does not feel a personal responsibility for the thousand dead young men and women who wanted to be what they could be.
They come to his desk not as youngsters with mothers and fathers or wives and children who will suffer to the end of their days a terribly torn fabric of familial relationships and the inconsolable remembrance of aborted life.... They come to his
desk as a political liability which is why the press is not permitted to photograph the arrival of their coffins from Iraq.
How then can he mourn? To mourn is to express regret and he regrets nothing. He does not regret that his
reason for going to war was, as he knew, unsubstantiated by the facts. He does not regret that his bungled plan for the war's aftermath has made of his mission-accomplished a disaster. He does not regret that rather than controlling terrorism his war in Iraq has licensed it. He does not feel for the families of the dead; he does not feel for the thirty five million of us who live in poverty; he does not feel for the forty percent who cannot afford health insurance; he does not feel for those who retire only to lose pensions; he does not feel for the miners whose lungs are turning black or for the working people he has deprived of the chance to work overtime at time-and-a-half to pay their bills --- it is amazing for how many people in this
country this President does not feel.
But he will dissemble feeling. He will say in all sincerity he is relieving the wealthiest one percent of the population of their tax burden for the sake of the rest of us, and that he is polluting the air we breathe for the sake of our economy, and that he is decreasing the safety regulations for coal minesto save the coal miners' jobs, and that he is depriving workers of their time-and-a-half benefits for overtime because this is actually a way to honor them by raising them into the professional class.
And this litany of lies he will versify with reverences for God and the flag and democracy, when just what he and his party are doing to our democracy is choking the life out of it.But there is one more terribly sad thing about all of this. I remember the millions of people here and around the world who marched against the war. It was extraordinary, that spontaneously aroused every soul to alarm and protest that transcended national borders. Why did it happen? After all, this was not the only war anyone had ever seen coming. There are little wars all over the world most of the time.
But the cry of protest was the appalled understanding of millions of people throughout the world that America was ceding its role as the last best hope of mankind. It was their perception that the classic archetype of democracy was morphing into a rogue nation. The greatest democratic republic in history was turning its back on the future, using its extraordinary power and standing not to advance the ideal of a concordance of civilizations but to endorse the kind of tribal combat that originated with the Neanderthals, a people, now extinct, who
could imagine ensuring their survival by no other means than pre-emptive war.
Friday, October 20, 2006
FBI INVESTIGATING VOTING CODE THEFT
WASH POST: DIEBOLD TOUCHSCREEN SOURCE CODE DISCOVERED STOLEN IN MARYLAND!
ALSO: State Report Finds Sensitive Voter Registration Database Vulnerable to 'Across-the-Board Access'
Diebold, State Election Director Lamone Continue State of Denial…
The Washington Post is reporting in Friday editions that the FBI is investigating the "possible theft" of Diebold electronic touch-screen voting system source code in Maryland.
While the Maryland State Board of Elections admits that the disks contained "the software…used in Maryland in the 2004 elections," Diebold denies everything. Of course. They gave their catch-all apologia — the software is for "versions…that are no longer in use in Maryland" — although they were forced to acknowledge "the version of one program apparently stored on the disks is still in use in 'a limited number of jurisdictions.'"...
COMPLETE DETAILS
This from Marcus, our soldier in Iraq:
Whoever that guy was that said we dealt with Iraq in "stupidity" and "ignorance" finally got it right. I thought we were about to come into some real honesty in this debate. But...he retracted his statements. Doesnt matter though they have already been broadcast on Al Jazeera.
I felt better if only for a minute. It scares me that they are just going to deny reality all the way unitl the end. Just keep denying. It doesnt matter what everyone else says I guess they have made no mistakes. The end of what...I dont know. The Iraq Debacle, the elections, the world perhaps.
Kokomo...big UAW town. The factories span US 31 from the north side to the center of the city. My dads in the UAW. You dont know how much our quality of life improved once my Dad got the union gig at Rolls Royce Engines.
ALSO: State Report Finds Sensitive Voter Registration Database Vulnerable to 'Across-the-Board Access'
Diebold, State Election Director Lamone Continue State of Denial…
The Washington Post is reporting in Friday editions that the FBI is investigating the "possible theft" of Diebold electronic touch-screen voting system source code in Maryland.
While the Maryland State Board of Elections admits that the disks contained "the software…used in Maryland in the 2004 elections," Diebold denies everything. Of course. They gave their catch-all apologia — the software is for "versions…that are no longer in use in Maryland" — although they were forced to acknowledge "the version of one program apparently stored on the disks is still in use in 'a limited number of jurisdictions.'"...
COMPLETE DETAILS
This from Marcus, our soldier in Iraq:
Whoever that guy was that said we dealt with Iraq in "stupidity" and "ignorance" finally got it right. I thought we were about to come into some real honesty in this debate. But...he retracted his statements. Doesnt matter though they have already been broadcast on Al Jazeera.
I felt better if only for a minute. It scares me that they are just going to deny reality all the way unitl the end. Just keep denying. It doesnt matter what everyone else says I guess they have made no mistakes. The end of what...I dont know. The Iraq Debacle, the elections, the world perhaps.
Kokomo...big UAW town. The factories span US 31 from the north side to the center of the city. My dads in the UAW. You dont know how much our quality of life improved once my Dad got the union gig at Rolls Royce Engines.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
A HIGHER MORAL POWER
Hey everyone, please try to send CARE packages to our troops. They all need our love and care. Here is a letter from one of our brave soldiers stationed in Iraq, who writes a blog called ANGER MANAGEMENT
Lydia,
Yes, my wife and I are fine. We are pretty angry about the extension because what's another month and a half in an infants life without their parents. It is just too stupid. It seems like our brigade is losing people on a daily basis. My wife is the Executive Officer for the brigades Medical Support Company so she get's to see the casualties everyday, worrying whether or not I might be on the next MEDEVAC into her aid station. It doesnt seem to be getting any better.
I have not received any packages yet, but the mail takes time around here. I'll get it eventually.
As Wayne Dyer says, "There's a spiritual solution to every problem." For SPIRITUAL SOLUTIONS to the world crises, along with some amazing prayer miracles in the next few weeks, please check out RADICAL PRAYER at my other blog THE PEACEMAKERS* LIGHT OF TRUTH
"We all have built into us the capacities for kindness and creativity and beauty. It's a matter of perspective. As Einstein said, "The single most important decision any of us will ever make is whether or not to believe that the universe is friendly." It's our choice.
When Jesus told us to 'love our enemies,' I really don't think he meant "go and kill them." When children perish (in Iraq in such a manner) there is no moral person in this world who sees it as "self-defense."
"As I read some of contents of this detainee bill which is called ‘Military Commissions Bill (S. 3930)’ it states categorically, “Re-establishes President Bush's military tribunals, which were rejected by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional." How can any elected official including Bush place their hand on the Bible and take an oath to uphold the United States Constitution, and then support a bill that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected?"
Congressman, Tim Bishop: “Why Fear a Trial?”
By Mary MacElveen
As I attended a debate between Congressman Tim Bishop (D 1st Cong. District, NY) and his Republican challenger, Italo Zanzi: when both were asked of the detainee bill recently approved by Congress which will be signed by Bush today, this is what candidate Zanzi stated that he “doesn’t believe Bush can claim anyone as a terrorist.”
As I read some of contents of this detainee bill which is called ‘Military Commissions Bill (S. 3930)’ it states categorically, “Re-establishes President Bush's military tribunals, which were rejected by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional." I want candidate Zanzi to focus in on the word ‘unconstitutional’. I want candidate Zanzi to focus in on the word ‘unconstitutional’. How can any elected official including Bush place their hand on the Bible and take an oath to uphold the United States Constitution, and then support a bill that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected? It is not so much that directive, but this one that disproves Zanzi’s assessment of this bill that it, “strips legal residents of the U.S. of their right to challenge their detention in court if they're accused of being “enemy combatants,” So, if an American is arrested that is accused of being an “enemy combatant”, don’t they have the right to due process of law?
At one point, I was going to write of this country’s most heinous serial killers and we gave them the right of due process. Their victims were allowed to confront them in court and in one case; Ted Bundy was even allowed to marry within a court of law. These killers had and still do have the right to challenge any law in which the prosecution said they broke. Their defense attorneys are even allowed to challenge the courts when it comes to constitutional issues.
As journalists write of the Iraq War and terrorism in general, it is this part of the bill that does disturb me that it, “names any individual, including citizens, as an “unlawful enemy combatant” if they provide “material support” to those engaged in hostilities against the U.S.” As I see it, words do have value so should be thought of as a physical entity and can be construed as ‘material support’. Journalists also write the opinions and reactions of those that are engaged in hostilities against us, so can journalists be targeted and labeled as ‘enemy combatants’ by aiding the other side with a venue in order to speak out?
What happens to an innocent American that unknowingly supplies “material support” to an enemy of the United States? Are they not allowed due process? In the past, we placed many on trial for acts of treason, gave them due process and those convicted sit in prison. The United States Constitution served us in those cases.
While no question was submitted concerning war crimes contained within this bill, this is what that bill soon to be signed into law states “legalizes U.S. war crimes committed before December 30, 2005” So, if down the road and this is directed to, Italo Zanzi, should it be found that Bush had indeed committed war crimes, does this shield him? I would also like him to speak of these ‘U.S. war crimes’ since congress felt the need to place it within this bill.
As we all know, Bush lied about the facts concerning our illegal invasion of Iraq which even the UN Security Council did not give us permission to invade since we lied about the facts. We all know that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, yet another fact not brought up as it related to this war in this debate. We most certainly do know that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. As a result of these lies it has now been reported that 655,000 innocent Iraqis have died. Wouldn’t he call that a war crime? If so, then through this bill, Bush is now shielded.
As I listened to Congressman, Tim Bishop’s answer regarding this one bill, he point-blank stated, “Why fear a trial?” which means due process under the law. He also stated that our “government should be run by rule of law” If our Constitution has served us so well in the past, why change it? That is what Congressman, Tim Bishop understands.
This is what Congressman, Bishop stated of the war in Iraq by us focusing on this war, “We allowed our concentration in Afghanistan to slip” He also stated that we do need to get our soldiers out” He then stated that it has turned into a “civil war” in which our “soldiers are not trained”
The following remarks were the ones that I focused in on. He (Bishop) stated that “70 percent of Iraqis think that it is okay to attack our soldiers” Gee, I wonder why? Bishop referred to where we would be thought of as liberators and greeted with flowers, when the complete opposite has happened. He also stated that our military is “stretched to the limit” With US Naval ships just off the coast of Iran, just how is this Bush administration going to supply the man power should we invade Iran?
This was perhaps the one most single and powerful statement made by Congressman Bishop concerning our war in Iraq that it was “a war of choice” I seem to remember Senator John Kerry stating during the 2004 presidential campaign, “You don’t use the military because you want to, but because you have to.”
When it comes to Bush’s go-it-alone foreign policy, this is what Congressman Bishop believes that we “need to return to a saner foreign policy” He also believes that “diplomacy is not a bad thing” There are some that believe diplomacy is a sign of weakness, but I am of the opinion it makes one stronger and makes this nation stronger.
By us returning to the rule of law, and through the use of diplomacy, it is then we can most certainly say that we are guided by a higher moral power.
Read the original article here
Lydia,
Yes, my wife and I are fine. We are pretty angry about the extension because what's another month and a half in an infants life without their parents. It is just too stupid. It seems like our brigade is losing people on a daily basis. My wife is the Executive Officer for the brigades Medical Support Company so she get's to see the casualties everyday, worrying whether or not I might be on the next MEDEVAC into her aid station. It doesnt seem to be getting any better.
I have not received any packages yet, but the mail takes time around here. I'll get it eventually.
As Wayne Dyer says, "There's a spiritual solution to every problem." For SPIRITUAL SOLUTIONS to the world crises, along with some amazing prayer miracles in the next few weeks, please check out RADICAL PRAYER at my other blog THE PEACEMAKERS* LIGHT OF TRUTH
"We all have built into us the capacities for kindness and creativity and beauty. It's a matter of perspective. As Einstein said, "The single most important decision any of us will ever make is whether or not to believe that the universe is friendly." It's our choice.
When Jesus told us to 'love our enemies,' I really don't think he meant "go and kill them." When children perish (in Iraq in such a manner) there is no moral person in this world who sees it as "self-defense."
"As I read some of contents of this detainee bill which is called ‘Military Commissions Bill (S. 3930)’ it states categorically, “Re-establishes President Bush's military tribunals, which were rejected by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional." How can any elected official including Bush place their hand on the Bible and take an oath to uphold the United States Constitution, and then support a bill that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected?"
Congressman, Tim Bishop: “Why Fear a Trial?”
By Mary MacElveen
As I attended a debate between Congressman Tim Bishop (D 1st Cong. District, NY) and his Republican challenger, Italo Zanzi: when both were asked of the detainee bill recently approved by Congress which will be signed by Bush today, this is what candidate Zanzi stated that he “doesn’t believe Bush can claim anyone as a terrorist.”
As I read some of contents of this detainee bill which is called ‘Military Commissions Bill (S. 3930)’ it states categorically, “Re-establishes President Bush's military tribunals, which were rejected by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional." I want candidate Zanzi to focus in on the word ‘unconstitutional’. I want candidate Zanzi to focus in on the word ‘unconstitutional’. How can any elected official including Bush place their hand on the Bible and take an oath to uphold the United States Constitution, and then support a bill that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected? It is not so much that directive, but this one that disproves Zanzi’s assessment of this bill that it, “strips legal residents of the U.S. of their right to challenge their detention in court if they're accused of being “enemy combatants,” So, if an American is arrested that is accused of being an “enemy combatant”, don’t they have the right to due process of law?
At one point, I was going to write of this country’s most heinous serial killers and we gave them the right of due process. Their victims were allowed to confront them in court and in one case; Ted Bundy was even allowed to marry within a court of law. These killers had and still do have the right to challenge any law in which the prosecution said they broke. Their defense attorneys are even allowed to challenge the courts when it comes to constitutional issues.
As journalists write of the Iraq War and terrorism in general, it is this part of the bill that does disturb me that it, “names any individual, including citizens, as an “unlawful enemy combatant” if they provide “material support” to those engaged in hostilities against the U.S.” As I see it, words do have value so should be thought of as a physical entity and can be construed as ‘material support’. Journalists also write the opinions and reactions of those that are engaged in hostilities against us, so can journalists be targeted and labeled as ‘enemy combatants’ by aiding the other side with a venue in order to speak out?
What happens to an innocent American that unknowingly supplies “material support” to an enemy of the United States? Are they not allowed due process? In the past, we placed many on trial for acts of treason, gave them due process and those convicted sit in prison. The United States Constitution served us in those cases.
While no question was submitted concerning war crimes contained within this bill, this is what that bill soon to be signed into law states “legalizes U.S. war crimes committed before December 30, 2005” So, if down the road and this is directed to, Italo Zanzi, should it be found that Bush had indeed committed war crimes, does this shield him? I would also like him to speak of these ‘U.S. war crimes’ since congress felt the need to place it within this bill.
As we all know, Bush lied about the facts concerning our illegal invasion of Iraq which even the UN Security Council did not give us permission to invade since we lied about the facts. We all know that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, yet another fact not brought up as it related to this war in this debate. We most certainly do know that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. As a result of these lies it has now been reported that 655,000 innocent Iraqis have died. Wouldn’t he call that a war crime? If so, then through this bill, Bush is now shielded.
As I listened to Congressman, Tim Bishop’s answer regarding this one bill, he point-blank stated, “Why fear a trial?” which means due process under the law. He also stated that our “government should be run by rule of law” If our Constitution has served us so well in the past, why change it? That is what Congressman, Tim Bishop understands.
This is what Congressman, Bishop stated of the war in Iraq by us focusing on this war, “We allowed our concentration in Afghanistan to slip” He also stated that we do need to get our soldiers out” He then stated that it has turned into a “civil war” in which our “soldiers are not trained”
The following remarks were the ones that I focused in on. He (Bishop) stated that “70 percent of Iraqis think that it is okay to attack our soldiers” Gee, I wonder why? Bishop referred to where we would be thought of as liberators and greeted with flowers, when the complete opposite has happened. He also stated that our military is “stretched to the limit” With US Naval ships just off the coast of Iran, just how is this Bush administration going to supply the man power should we invade Iran?
This was perhaps the one most single and powerful statement made by Congressman Bishop concerning our war in Iraq that it was “a war of choice” I seem to remember Senator John Kerry stating during the 2004 presidential campaign, “You don’t use the military because you want to, but because you have to.”
When it comes to Bush’s go-it-alone foreign policy, this is what Congressman Bishop believes that we “need to return to a saner foreign policy” He also believes that “diplomacy is not a bad thing” There are some that believe diplomacy is a sign of weakness, but I am of the opinion it makes one stronger and makes this nation stronger.
By us returning to the rule of law, and through the use of diplomacy, it is then we can most certainly say that we are guided by a higher moral power.
Read the original article here
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