Well, it looks like the hit piece on Renke and Bric, payed for by the Coalition for Responsible Leadership (which appears to be or care about none of those things,) has had the opposite effect and rallied support for both Gary and Anja. It is doubly ironic that the lack of any evidence tying the Berlins to the mailer hasn't lessened the degree to which people blame them for it. It didn't help them, however, to make the claim that the fliers might have gone out as a reaction to the "No Married Couples" lawn signs.

Not that we should be surprised (and I've heard rumors of this for years,) but now it's coming home to roost (link to article here).

WASHINGTON, March 28 — A top-ranking official overseeing the Fish and Wildlife Service at the Interior Department rode roughshod over agency scientists, and decisions made on her watch may not survive court challenges, investigators within the Interior Department have found.
...........
The report, citing a lawyer in the Sacramento office, noted that Ms. MacDonald lobbied for a decision to combine three different populations of the California tiger salamander into one, thus excluding it from the endangered-species list, and making the decision legally vulnerable. A federal district judge overturned it in 2005., saying the decision was made “without even a semblance of agency reasoning.”
...........
She twice sent internal Environmental Protection Agency documents — one involving water quality management — to individuals whose e-mail addresses ended in “chevrontexaco.com,” the report said.
...........
A copy of the report was sent to Representative Nick J. Rahall II, Democrat of West Virginia and chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources; his office provided a copy to The New York Times. In a statement, Mr. Rahall said he would hold hearings to conduct “a sweeping review on whether politics is infiltrating decisions governing” endangered species.

It should be pretty clear now that the Bush Doctrine on Government is to use all branches of government for the sole purpose of maintaining and increasing Republican Control of the Government. The snake eating it's own tail will eventually eat it's own head. We are watching that final act of unintended self-destruction happening now in the committee rooms of our Democratic Congress.

Yes, I'm an optimist.

Just got a recorded call (after a live intro) from U.S. Rep. Tom Cole, GOP head of the NRCC, asking me to be a "small business council leader" (i.e., future donor target) asking me to fight the Democrats' "anti-business" stance, since I am "a small business owner tired of being branded by Nancy Pelosi as a greedy businessman who wants no roadblocks in my path" like "being forced to raise the minimum wage, since I am a 'millionaire moneybags' with lots to be taxed," ad nauseum.

Oh, I made sure to wait through the 60-second recording by Cole, and then told the live female set-up caller that not only do I resent this tone and message since the Bush "Administration" has CUT the SBA every year it's been in power--an agency which would TRULY help small businesses--but as a self-employed small business owner, and with young family entering the workforce, I SUPPORT a long-overdue raise in the minimum wage--like most Americans--since its old level has not only choked off our workers for far too long but caused an overflow burden on other services. And finally, I told her--and I am still quoting--that they should check their registration since I have been a lifelong Democrat from a Democratic family and vote in every election, and can't believe they'd make a slip-up like this--so helping Tom Cole is the last thing I want to do....much less have a chance to "attend meetings with President Bush."

She said meekly, "Oh I'm sorry, I'll make a note of that."

What's doubly insulting to me is the local angle: Tom Cole is an Okie, represents my old district but from white-flight Moore and south OKC, an area that has grown and taken over for the GOP my home county from its north edge; it is the site of Norman, OU's base and normally a Democratic moderate-to-liberal island in Oklahoma. Cole's mother was a state senator for decades and, with time, people (no one I know) think they all walk on water. I thought at first I was being stalked!

Boy, I had a lot of pleasure holding my temper, elucidating a few facts back at that live caller, and hanging in until I could make my point.

Now, I wish I'd asked who did their database... so as to know never to hire them.

Labels: GOP fundraising, small business, telemarketer

Last week I (and I presume many of you) received a mailer attacking Anja Renke and Gary Bric. The attack on Bric seems to involve a couple of convictions 10 and 20 years ago. The allegations against Anja are considerably less substantiated, and I won't bother discussing them at all because what bothers me about this mailer is that I don't know who it's from -- and the fact that the Berlins are not included could lead one to believe it's in support of them (so an attack ad rather than a positive one about the candidates is, well, dirty politics -- something the Berlins might not want to be associated with in a small town election like ours -- IF there is any connection at all.) So I'm going to pretend there is conspiracy here and see what I can find on the internet.

The mailer is paid for by the "Coalition for Responsible Leadership" (CFRL.) Anybody know who this is? They have no website that I could find. Previous to 2006 they were called the GOOD GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE. State records for their ID# 1271600 list donations to the coalition in 2006 including $60,000 from HOME BUILDERS FOR GOOD GOVERNMENT (ID# 1264928), $25,000 from RONALD W BURKLE, $15,000 from Sarah Lulloff, Realtor, MWH DEVELOPMENT and $5,000 from CALIFORNIANS FOR A DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY.

In 2006, HOME BUILDERS FOR GOOD GOVERNMENT (ID# 1264928) made only 2 contributions, both to the Coalition for Responsible Leadership, for $30,000 each. Their receipts for that period are $25,000 from CATALINA PACIFIC UTILITIES, $14,000 from Sarah Lulloff, $19,000 Mark Handel of MWH DEVELOPMENT CORP., and $8,000 from Benjamin P. Salisbury.

So that's $118,000 in 2006 from MWH Developement and people associated with MWH. Note that MWH has a project pending in Burbank called the San Jose Villas (6 Luxury Condominiums.) Now of course I am presuming that their substantial donations from last year indicate their involvement with the CFRL this year, and since there are no records yet filed with the State for 2007 I can't know that, but for the sake of the conspiracy theory, I will assume that they have funded them and they have an interest in seeing Bric and Renke loose (and preumably the Berlins win?)

CATALINA PACIFIC UTILITIES is a general and engineering contractor located in Woodland hills that is associated with Mark Handel of MWH - so make that another $25K from MWH associates - in 2006 (can't wait to get the 2007 figures, if I still care in 6 months.)

Ronald W. Burkle (click for info) doesn't seem like a bad guy...long time Democratic Fund Raiser, friend of Bill Clinton..I've got nothing against Rich Democrats (nor against the rich in general unless they are screwing me to get or stay rich.) And again, it isn't at all clear that his donations to CFRL in 2006 have anything to with this mailer attacking Renke and Bric (unless Bric is a registered Republican? We know Anja is a Democrat.)

Benjamin P. Salisbury seems to be another developer, (BSA Development Inc, of Porter Ranch) who has donated money to Democrats.

So all I've got is that a mailer was sent out making rather specious attacks on Democrat Anja Renke (and on Bric, thus linking the two- oh, and they are against all the Charter Amendments) -- and the group behind it is funded by Developers with interests in Burbank and who seem to support Democrats (though if you want to have political influence in Southern California, you had better be backing Democrats.)

One might therefore presume that the Berlins are seen by these developers as better for their own interests -- provided the CFRL is motivated by the self interest of it's contributors, which I think we can safely assume.

(Disclaimer: I will vote for Anja because she proclaimed a deep commitment to preserving the environment and was kind enough to keep her promise to meet with the Club while her own event started without her.)

So the next thing for me to do is see who has funded our city Council candidates. More on that after I go to work so iIcan keep paying my mortgage and feeding my kids.

I was wondering about this myself:

I cannot be the only resident who has been highly disappointed in the recent coverage of negotiations between Burbank's educators and the school district here in our fair city.

It was bad enough that there was a virtual news coverage blackout of both the rally of hundreds of educators and other community members on the steps of City Hall on March 1, 2007, and the smaller but just as passionate rally outside the district the following day.

Even more disappointing was that your paper chose to use the past few weeks’ community commentary section to run letter upon letter regarding Whole Foods and the City Council race, but not one of the many letters written by the community in support of the teachers was printed until after a settlement was reached. While I agree that the City Council race and Whole Foods are important issues, these are not the only stories in town.

The final blow came in this past Saturday’s paper. When a second letter in support of educators was finally printed, the subheading above it read, “Board needs to make sure teachers get love”, a title that was insulting and condescending at best. I can assure you that the teachers of Burbank are not in need of love. The teachers of Burbank have not been speaking at school board meetings, holding protest rallies and educating the public for love, but rather a fair salary and a collaborative and respectful relationship with the district.

Dana Ragle

They probably use traditional math, as expressed here by Ma and Pa Kettle.

Yesterday women's health suffered a significant setback. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued a shameful ruling that limits access to birth control. It all started when Union Pacific, the largest railroad in North America, made a reprehensible decision to cover Viagra and deny coverage for birth control.

Birth control is basic health care and insurance plans should cover it -- just like they cover other prescription drugs. Contraceptive coverage provides women with critical access to birth control they might not otherwise be able to afford. Yet, Union Pacific deliberately chose to exclude coverage of prescription contraceptives from its health care plan. And now, in a decision made public yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has decided to let them get away with it.

Planned Parenthood has worked for years in Congress and the courts to advocate for this basic fairness issue. We know that access to birth control leads to healthier pregnancies,
children, and families. Help Planned Parenthood continue its vital programs and fight back against this outrageous step backward for women's health.

Donate Now: https://secure.ga0.org/02/union_pacific/n6p_Jtx51TA6R? Planned Parenthood Federation of America must step up its Prevention First campaign making it against the law for health plans to deny coverage for prescription birth control.

Planned Parenthood attorneys helped win an earlier district court decision that rejected Union Pacific's unfair treatment of its women employees. That court refused to let Union Pacific get
away with denying women coverage for prescription drugs and devices to prevent pregnancy, while providing coverage for a broad array of prescriptions to prevent other non-pregnancy-related conditions.

The court called it what it is -- illegal "pregnancy discrimination."

But now, in a split decision, two judges (one appointed by George W. Bush, the other by Ronald Reagan) have decided that, in spite of this different treatment of women, Union Pacific is
not guilty of sex discrimination.

This wrong-headed decision is binding on courts within the seven states in the Eighth Circuit -- Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. And it will
have a deep and damaging impact on all unionized women employees of Union Pacific, wherever they live.

That's why we have to step up our efforts to undo the damage by urging Congress to pass the Prevention First Act. Donate Now: https://secure.ga0.org/02/union_pacific/n6p_Jtx51TA6R?

The Prevention First Act advances a wide range of measures:
expanding access to reproductive health care services and education programs, increasing access to family planning services, preventing the spread of STIs, and giving women the
tools they need to make the best decisions possible.

If we can get this done, Union Pacific and the judges that have excused their reprehensible actions won't be able to disregard women's health any longer. Let's get to work. Let's win a big,
powerful victory for contraceptive equity!

Sincerely,

Cecile Richards
President
Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Former Senator George Allan (aka Felix Macacawitz), after having lost a close race to a real human being, in fact, a man's man and war hero, James Webb, is considering running for the Senate in '08 if John Warner retires.

Speculation has that Senator Macacawitz could run under both the Republican and Nazi Party banners, while eating a ham sandwich.

Felix refused to speak to assembled reporters after struggling for 20 minutes to remove his foot from his mouth and his head from his ass.

Karl Rove, quoted on deep background, said "Great! I hope he runs. After all the work that I've done to destroy any claim of decency or honor, much less honesty or patriotism, that the Republican Party could cling to, I think it is time that we reach out to our core of blatant racists! You know, the values voters who value their pasty white skins and gas guzzlers."

Polling experts are running models even now to measure what percentage of Virginia Republicans are so dense that they will vote for Mark Warner thinking that they are voting for John Warner.

Democrats across America have wet themselves laughing at the thought of a second opportunity to run against the only man in politics so stupid he makes George Bush look sentient.

(Jerry Lewis, by the way, was on Carol Lams list of corrupt politicians related to the Duke Cunningham case ... right before she got canned by the Attorney Generals Chief of Staff, who's emails with Roves office suggested she be fired for not ending her investigations into corrupt Republican politicians...which probably means Lewis had better keep toeing the line for Bush and His Failed War or he, too, might get thrown under the bus.)

Things I'm thinking about:

• How about sending Bush and Cheney to Dubai with the company they have served at the expense of the country they should have served? Is it worth it to let them take the money and run as the company is seeming to want to do?
• And having the second in command be the fall guy for Gonzalez in the Justice Department firings and misuse of the Patriot Act is just another in the long pile of straws.
• Oops, there's another one: The US will now help dictator Kadafi, (who blew up the plane over Lockerbie, Scotland,) to build a nuclear plant in his middle eastern country while the US now demands that the elected, though highly imperfect, democracy in Iran stop its nuclear program entirely.
• They have broken the promise to our military, caused our military to be unreflective of the whole country, just used them as insignificant fodder to their horrendous theft by ignoring their crimes while sayng persons born with homosexual traits are not acceptable in their military based on "morality" not biology.

I sure hope Congress has reached the end of its patience and is ready to impeach and jail all these Neocon guys and pass legislation that makes Halliburton return all the money it stole from the US taxpayers. It's no longer a question of small steps around the door blockers in the Senate.

Forget ending just the war, it's time to end the warmonger's stranglehold on the US. Let's send them all to Dubai with no help or further truck from us.

And let's send their trucks, too. Let them have their own sociopathic life in their own country away from ours. It's time to get us back to a locally sustainable economy, a locally and nationally sustainable democracy, and a worldly sustainable ecology in every part of America.

Global warming is only half the the moral battle facing the world -- ridding the world of corrosive, warmongering greed is the other half.

No more war!

No more warmongering!

No more "Moral" morass!

No more "More than you"!

Enough is enough!

Really, Enough is quite enough for all of us! Take the economy away from those who,for their own greed, are destroying all our hopes and dreams of a considerate, cooperative society and let's start our own with real values, decent, considerate American values.

And I don't see why every penny spent and earned on the materials and processes of war production cannot be spent and earned instead on the infrastructure materials and processes of a societal choice to live together in a sustainably peaceful way. Have your profit, but make something useful to society instead of destructive of it.

Congress, make it unprofitable to do business any other way but to be humanly and societially considerate. Take away the corporate protections for thuggish behavior to states and individuals. Competition and success are good as far it goes up to the point where those things harm perfectly sustainable life and society themselves.

If you insist that corporations are persons, make them behave as the rest of us do. Is that too much to ask?

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH FOR ME.

DON'T YOU THINK ENOUGH IS ENOUGH FOR EVERYONE?

March this weekend - Saturday, March 17. Global Day of Action in LA.

I've noticed a tendency on the right and echoed in the press, that if a Democratic Politician is rich, he must be a hypocrite or on the take. And it certainly seems that the public holds Democrats to higher ethical standard when it comes to money than they do the Republicans. So with that in mind, enjoy the following New Yorks Times review of Barak Obama's finances.

In ’05 Investing, Obama Took Same Path as Donors

Less than two months after ascending to the United States Senate, Barack Obama bought more than $50,000 worth of stock in two speculative companies whose major investors included some of his biggest political donors.

I read the whole thing. In the end it seems like a lot of noise over nothing, but if you don' t read the whole thing carefully, it really does seem like the NY Times is suggesting that Obama is already on the take and even wrapped up in the Republican ethical scandals that led to the Democratic take over of the Congress. It's going to be LOOOOOONG primary season.

Good and decent people understand that Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson are hell spawn, yes?

They are party to an evil cabal centered in the CIA to destroy baseball and apple pie, oh, and the presidency of George Bush.

This is the timeline of their horrific and un-American assault on all that is right and Christian in the world

Sept 11, 2001, some guy named been Forgotten does something to hurt America, it cannot have been very important, seeing as we had done nothing to capture or kill him.

Six months later: Feb 02, Good VP Richard Cheney (thank you God for preserving him and his weak heart this long to so nobly serve America) gets wind of a deal between Saddam and Niger for yellow cake, and asks nice and sweet for an investigation, meanwhile:

Deep in the bowels of darkest CIA the Evil Witch Plame hatches a plan. She perceives that eleven months in the future, Our God-Sent President, GWB, will cite a foreign government’s report of this deal, but it will based on claims in a bogus document. Aha! The opportunity to do evil! She's an evil-doer!

She calls up her trusty partner in the destruction of all things good and American, her husband Joe. He punches his mother in the mouth, then packs his surfboard and goes to Niger. Between catching waves and drinking Mia-tias (The Evil Witch Plame had to stay home to care for their 2 year old twins) he concludes that there is no way that Niger is going to sell yellowcake to Iraq.

Joe returns and makes his report to that Center of all Things Evil, the CIA, which then briefs the good VP Richard Cheney (did I thank God for Richard?) Then the evil team waits patiently for the SOTU in eleven months.

January, ’03, God’s Gift to America, GWB, tells the nation the fateful 16 words. The great evil-doer Wilson sees his opportunity, and begins asking around among his former colleagues if Sainted GWB meant Niger? because he wants to be sure when he springs the trap!

Evil Joe waits patiently another two months until the war starts. This puts us at March of ’03. He soon begins telling reporters on background that the president made a boo boo in the SOTU.

By July of 03 the Evil Witch Plame adjudges that the time is ripe to destroy the Good VP and God’s Gift, and writes an op-ed that she orders Joe to sign (Joe being too stupid to be able to write, having spent his whole life surfing.)

And the rest is history.

The time line again:

9/11/01 Saddam destroys the twin towers with an exploding cigar.

2/02 Plame and Wilson begin their cabal to destroy Bush. They have long since sold their souls to Satan!

1/03 Bush innocently reads the 16 words. He doesn’t understand the words! Cut him some slack!

3/03 The US begins the tenth Crusade, all glory to the Christian and only true God!

7/03 Wilson finally nails Bush to the table like a butterfly on a pin.

Wow! Plame and Wilson can see the 16 words coming eleven months before God’s Gift to America speaks those earth-shattering words! Eleven months and they hatch the most heinous, nefarious plot ever concocted in these United States!

Are they available to advise me on my stock portfolio?

A binding resolution this time:

"The President's strategy in Iraq is not working, and Congress must decide whether to follow his failed policies or whether to change course," said Senator Reid. "Democrats believe, as does an overwhelming majority of the American people, that the time has come to transition the mission of U.S. forces in Iraq. Hopefully, Senate Republicans will now join Democrats and the American people in calling for a change in course. They must put doing the right thing above protecting the President."

Still no chance it will get to the floor...unless it gets attached to a military funding bill - forcing Republicans to vote NO on funding the troops or YES for redeployment.

Via MyDD, here is a link to the resolution.

[NOTE: The letter did get published in the Leader on Saturday, March 10. Fully one week after its necessity and with no article about any results of negotiations. BT)

(My letter to the Burbank Leader about the refusal of the Burbank School Board to negotiate a contract with the teachers was not published. No other letters about the contract talks were published. No stories about the contract talks were published today.)

Has the Burbank School Board become hopelessly stuck in a Neocon-like stance of outdated Reaganism that would rather let our schools wither through brain drain and talent starvation than allow understanding and reason to prevail?

Speaking of upcoming mediation -- that he caused by refusing to negotiate up to this point -- school Board president Ted Bunch said "if both parties aren't willing to go halfway" negotiations don't work. Right. And which party is refusing to negotiate, Mr. Bunch?

Since the Board has already twice refused to counter the moving-toward-middle offers of the teachers, and because he says community input has no effect on his negotiating team, such as inspiring them to negotiate at all, it makes me think that he has no intention other than to freeze out the teachers the way Reagan closed out air traffic controllers twenty some years ago.

It feels to me like the same philosophy. The Burbank school district is training good teachers who are leaving in droves to take jobs in school districts that pay them a more reasonable salary given the costs of living around here. They would stay here but Burbank pays them four percent less than the county median. They are not asking to be paid more than anyone else, they're asking for just the same as anyone else so Burbank can benefit from their talents and dedication.

No feelings of dedication can be built up in an environment of obdurate refusal. We're all in this community together. Let's work it out together for the benefit of our children who deserve the best educators our communty can give them.

Burbank citizens, take more interest in what's happening locally and don't give away our community resources to the Grover Norquists of the world because you weren't paying attention. Somebody get this school board back on the right track.