Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Assembly vote 'disappears'
The Assembly, in an unusual turn of events, erased all traces that it voted today to kill a controversial cocaine bill.
The tally immediately was expunged, ensuring that it can't be used by challengers in this year's elections.
For the curious, however, the final vote was 37-33 -- four short of the number needed for passage.
The contested measure, Assembly Bill 337, would have reduced criminal penalties for possessing crack cocaine or purchasing it for the purpose of sale. It would have increased similar penalties for powder cocaine.
Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally, a Compton Democrat who proposed the bill, has argued for years that stiffer penalties for crack than powder cocaine disproportionately affects African Americans and low-income groups. His bill would have equalized the penalties.
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Monday, January 28, 2008
Clinton Cheerleaders banned from CNN
Horses Mouth January 24, 2008 7:11 PM
CNN has told top Dem strategists James Carville, Paul Begala, and Robert Zimmerman -- who are CNN mainstays but are all Hillary supporters -- that they will not be doing any more political analysis on the network until the Democratic primary has reached a conclusion.
I'm also told that this move came after the Obama campaign repeatedly complained to high level officials at CNN about the presence of Carville and Begala on the network.
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Friday, January 25, 2008
Fingers Crossed!
More Clinton Dirty Tricks
Now that she's won Michigan and has a lead in Florida, she thinks the pledge she signed shouldn't count. As Josh points out, this isn't playing hardball, this is making up the rules when it suits you. The DNC had better stick to there guns.
Talking Points Memo
Talking Points Memo
The Clinton camp really needs to be shut down on this new gambit of theirs to muscle the party and the other candidates into seating the Michigan and Florida delegate slates.
...that was the decision -- one that each of the candidates at least
implicitly agreed to. Indeed, each agreed not to campaign in either of
these states, again implicitly agreeing to the decision not to seat the
delegates.The Clinton camp is just pushing to seat these delegates now because
the contingencies of the moment mean that the decision would favor
Hillary. She was the only one whose name was on the ballot in Michigan,
thus insuring her win. She has a wide lead in every Florida poll taken
this month.
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Wednesday, January 23, 2008
935 LIES
Not that it's news to us....
Iraq: The War Card - The Center for Public Integrity
Iraq: The War Card - The Center for Public Integrity
President George W. Bush and seven of his administration's top officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, made at least 935 false statements in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Nearly five years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, an exhaustive examination of the record shows that the statements were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.
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Friday, January 18, 2008
Prop 91 was never meant to be.....
The Latest From Capitol Alert - Capitol Alert - The Sacramento Bee - Finally, a vote for 91
After lawmakers struck the deal, proponents of what's now Proposition 91 were supposed to stop submitting signatures. But they were victims of their own success, having already turned in enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.
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Thursday, January 17, 2008
Your NO vote on 94-97 may not matter
The Latest From Capitol Alert - Capitol Alert - The Sacramento Bee - Return to sender...
Embarrassed by the “misplacing” of four California Indian casino compacts that resulted in the deals being approved without being reviewed, federal Interior Department officials said today they are taking steps to see “we don’t ever have a repeat of this.”
The compacts, which are the targets of referendums (Props. 94-97) on the Feb. 5 ballot, were sent to the department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs in early September. But they then disappeared for 80 days, well after a federally mandated 45-day review period had lapsed. That meant the bureau had no choice but to automatically approve them, without review.
The incident has the potential to become far more important than just a
run-of-the-mill bureaucratic bungle if California voters reject any of
the compacts. That’s because the tribes involved might claim the
federal government’s approval trumps voter wishes.
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Wednesday, January 16, 2008
American Taliban
The Raw Story | Huckabee: Amend Constitution to be in 'God's standards'
"I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution," Huckabee told a Michigan audience on Monday. "But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that's what we need to do -- to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view."
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Monday, January 14, 2008
Open Letter to Dianne Feinstein
The club sent this e-mail to DiFi today:
Senator Feinstein,
Let me make perfectly clear the view of the Burbank Democratic Club regarding your position on FISA renewal: we object utterly to your stated position and intentions.
Your proposed amendment to the bill under consideration, the bill that includes Telco immunity, is nothing but a Trojan Horse.
You know full well that the amendment is dead on arrival. As do we, and we are done with being played for suckers by you. Your only purpose in offering the amendment is to provide yourself cover with those of us out in the real world who give a damn about our constitutional rights.
And the only purpose of the immunity provisions is to shield BushCo from the discovery process of the pending lawsuits.
We demand that you forthwith abandon your amendment and announce your support of Chris Dodd's filibuster.
The Burbank Democratic Club.
Senator Feinstein,
Let me make perfectly clear the view of the Burbank Democratic Club regarding your position on FISA renewal: we object utterly to your stated position and intentions.
Your proposed amendment to the bill under consideration, the bill that includes Telco immunity, is nothing but a Trojan Horse.
You know full well that the amendment is dead on arrival. As do we, and we are done with being played for suckers by you. Your only purpose in offering the amendment is to provide yourself cover with those of us out in the real world who give a damn about our constitutional rights.
And the only purpose of the immunity provisions is to shield BushCo from the discovery process of the pending lawsuits.
We demand that you forthwith abandon your amendment and announce your support of Chris Dodd's filibuster.
The Burbank Democratic Club.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
An ugly picture for the GOP come November
George Will writes in the Washington Post:
The entire column at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/11/AR2008011103279.html?hpid%3Dopinionsbox1&sub=AR
Obviously one wants to be cautious buying into the bloviation of pundits, But Will is one of the less obnoxious of the Reactionary pundits, and this is certainly not the first bit of analysis that makes this point.
Hell, both Gingrich and DeLay have predicted a Clinton presidency.
The first year of the 2008 campaign -- think about that -- has clearly established that the Republican Party's prospects are cloudy. In the first two major contests, Mike Huckabee has finished first and third, John McCain fourth and first, Mitt Romney second twice. Rudy Giuliani has been treading water, waiting for Florida, which on Jan. 29 will allocate more convention delegates (114) than Iowa, Wyoming and New Hampshire combined (92). So, clinging to cliches as to a lifeline, Republicans congratulate themselves on how evenly the party's strengths, such as they are, are spread among their candidates.
But although only one-third of 1 percent of the national electorate -- those who have participated in the Iowa, Wyoming and New Hampshire nominating events -- have spoken, the Democrats have even more reason than they did three weeks ago to look forward to a rollicking November. Realistic Republicans are looking for shelter.
Nov. 4 could be their most disagreeable day since Nov. 3, 1964. Actually, this November could be even worse, because in 1964 Barry Goldwater's loss of 44 states served a purpose, the ideological reorientation and revitalization of the party. Which Republican candidate this year could produce a similarly constructive loss?
Today, all the usual indicators are dismal for Republicans."The entire column at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/11/AR2008011103279.html?hpid%3Dopinionsbox1&sub=AR
Obviously one wants to be cautious buying into the bloviation of pundits, But Will is one of the less obnoxious of the Reactionary pundits, and this is certainly not the first bit of analysis that makes this point.
Hell, both Gingrich and DeLay have predicted a Clinton presidency.
NSA Director agrees with Obama?
McConnell Weighs in on Waterboarding - Politics on The Huffington Post
In discussing Osama bin Laden, McConnell said if the U.S. got a read on the al-Qaida's leader's precise location, it would not hesitate to cross the Pakistan border to capture or kill him. "You cannot indiscriminately attack a sovereign nation," McConnell said, but said "we'll bring it to closure." He says bin Laden is in the lawless region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
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Friday, January 11, 2008
Kerry Endorses Obama....
And what a whirlpool of hysteria that has created. I have seen dozens of comments on blogs damning Kerry for "dising" Edwards. Utter nonsense.
I am an Edwards supporter. Regrettably, Edwards did not close the deal in NH. He had half of what each of the other two got. He needed to be a close third, and he most definitely was not.
Kerry stood aside long enough to give Edwards a chance to sell his message, and for reasons beyond my control, Edwards failed to make the sale.
Possibly Kerry could have given Edwards room to fight in S. Carolina, but he clearly has made the calculation that Edwards is simply not going to get the nomination.
So Kerry, who obviously does not want Clinton to be the nominee (set aside his motivation), has made the strategic calculation that his endorsement and his doner and e-mail lists would be most valuable to Obama now, before Super Tuesday gets any closer.
We all understand that this is over on Feb 5, right? Three weeks and a weekend from now? How many of these simple minded critics would be dogging Kerry out if he had endorsed Obama on Feb 3? Too little, too late, they'd be shrieking.
Damn. Give the man a break. The Clintons did squat to help him in '04.
I am an Edwards supporter. Regrettably, Edwards did not close the deal in NH. He had half of what each of the other two got. He needed to be a close third, and he most definitely was not.
Kerry stood aside long enough to give Edwards a chance to sell his message, and for reasons beyond my control, Edwards failed to make the sale.
Possibly Kerry could have given Edwards room to fight in S. Carolina, but he clearly has made the calculation that Edwards is simply not going to get the nomination.
So Kerry, who obviously does not want Clinton to be the nominee (set aside his motivation), has made the strategic calculation that his endorsement and his doner and e-mail lists would be most valuable to Obama now, before Super Tuesday gets any closer.
We all understand that this is over on Feb 5, right? Three weeks and a weekend from now? How many of these simple minded critics would be dogging Kerry out if he had endorsed Obama on Feb 3? Too little, too late, they'd be shrieking.
Damn. Give the man a break. The Clintons did squat to help him in '04.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Bad news for Charlie Brown?
Politics - Source: Doolittle will retire - sacbee.com
Rep. John Doolittle will announce this morning that he will not run for a tenth term in Congress, reluctantly ending a career sidetracked by a federal investigation into his family's ties to Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff[.]
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Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Schiff Endorses Barak Obama
Or so I am told...
Los Angeles
Wednesday, January 8:
What: "California Counts" Press Conference
Location: Los Angeles City Hall
200 N. Spring Street
Time: Noon
Speakers Include:
Congressman Adam Schiff (new endorser)
LA Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke (new endorser)
Former Congressman Mel Levin (new endorser)
Assemblymember Ted Lieu (new endorser)
Mayor Norma Torres
Pomona
Mayor John Duran (new endorser)
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Sunday, January 06, 2008
Bounce
Poll: Obama, McCain leap ahead in N.H. - USATODAY.com
Obama vaulted to a 13 percentage-point advantage over New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton three weeks after they were tied here. McCain gained a four-point edge over Mitt Romney, a former governor of neighboring Massachusetts who has campaigned almost as a favorite son.
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Thursday, January 03, 2008
Biden for SecState?
Obama On Track To Win Caucus 2nd Tier Support
"Is Biden angling for a Secretary of State position in an Obama Administration?"
The Biden consultant told Offthebus, "Well, Joe would make a great Secretary of State, wouldn't he?"
Biden's son, Joseph R. Biden, III is the current Attorney General for Delaware. Should Joe Biden resign his seat and accept a major post in the next Democratic Administration in Washington, his son is positioned to replace him in the U.S. Senate.
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