Berman Blows It

From LA Daily News - Berman with GOP on Iraq:

Capping two days of rancorous partisan debate, Rep. Howard Berman, D-Van Nuys, broke with most of his party Friday and voted to approve a Republican-backed resolution to reject a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq.

So many Democrats wag their fingers at progressive activists, saying that we're more concerned with the shade of blue our Democratic representatives are, instead of worrying about gaining a Democratic majority in Congress. But do we really want the sort of "Democrat" in Congress who will vote along GOP lines? One who says:

"I voted for today's resolution on Iraq because I agree with what it calls for: success in the 'mission to create a sovereign, free and united Iraq.' I still have hope that we can accomplish that mission," Berman said in a statement.

Some have said that the Iraq War is not the only issue that liberals have to worry about, so we shouldn't "use it as a litmus test" in the support of political candidates. But when the Iraq War is siphoning off so many resources that it horrifically impacts the majority of issues liberals care about and causes the deaths of our soldiers and Iraqis, it becomes the main issue we should act upon. And it becomes the main issue for which we should hold our electeds - as well as prospective electeds - accountable.

Personally, I want my Democratic representatives to be as blue as blue can be, not bright magenta. I know I'm not the only progressive Democrat who thinks so.

A Profile in Courage

John Kennedy while recuperating from his back injury wrote; his greatest was of course "Profiles In Courage". In this he detailed acts of moral and political courage by members of congress. While I claim no literate connection; I will do what I can to detail a modern profile in courage.

As an Irish Catholic, I remember the tale of the boxer and the Blessed Virgin; and an Irish- American, I am proud of the tale of the Boxer as his strives for peace. As a native Californian I am equally proud of our own Boxer; Senator Barbara Boxer.

She was one of five Democratic Senators who joined in supporting John Kerry's call for a Senate Resolution to withdraw from Iraq by the end of the year! She joined Senators Harkin, Byrd, Kennedy, Feingold, and of course Kerry in voting yes. The silence of the other Senators was anything but courageous. When she stood in the well of the Senate with members of the House Congressional Black Caucus to force a congressional response she stood alone with no other senate colleagues - that was an act of courage. Time, time and again; this diminutive power house of senatorial courage has stood by her principles and made us in California very proud. She is criticized as being too liberal; that is impossible. In the 2004 election the third highest vote getter after Bush and Kerry was Boxer. The highest vote for any Senator in the history of our republic.

I hope to spend some blog time over the next months in revisiting Barbara Boxer and her courage, committment to California, our nation and our world! This will be between more strident words on the fallacies of our national administration. For now be warmed and proud of our Senator and call, write or e-mail a thank you for her continued courage.

From Brad Friedman: No Confidence in the Busby/Bilbray Election

In today's Huffington Post - No Confidence in the Busby/Bilbray Election:

I don't know how else to put it, but every voting machine used in last week's special election run-off for the U.S. House seat vacated by the disgraced Randy "Duke" Cunningham in California's 50th congressional district was illegal. By federal standards, rules and provisions and by California state rules, laws and provisions.

And now, by the San Diego County Registrar of Voters own admission.

TO REVIEW: The election was run on highly hackable Diebold voting machines that were sent home overnight and unsecurely with poll workers for days prior to the election which rendered the machines both illegal and uncertified for use in the election under both federal and state laws, requirements and statutes. The GOP has since rushed to swear-in Bilbray before the votes were counted, or the election even certified by the state of California.

See any of the links above for corroborated, sourced and detailed information.

Regarding recently discovered massive security flaws, David Jefferson - a member of MacPherson's own team of independent analysts - was quoted as saying:

"[This] is the most serious vulnerability that we've ever seen in a voting system. This particular vulnerability is serious enough that you can affect multiple machines from a single attack. That's what makes it so dangerous.

PDA has also voted No Confidence in the 50th CD results and is calling for a handcount. Please sign the Velvet Revolution petition to help it to happen.

ACTION ALERT: Net Neutrality in Danger - Contact Your Representative!

I know this is old news by now, but it's still all too important - we've got to keep Net Neutrality alive!

Telecommunications companies may already be blocking content when they so desire, according to SaveTheInternet.com:

There’s a pervasive myth that there has been no Internet content discrimination by the large phone and cable companies. “That is simply untrue, ” writes Matt Stoller of BlogPAC.

Stoller points to Cox Cable, which for three months has blocked their customers from accessing the online classifieds super-site, Craigslist. (Disclosure: the company’s founder, Craig Newmark, is a charter member of this coalition).

Go to SaveTheInternet.com and sign the petition - send your representatives the message that you know the COPE Act is meaningless and offers no real protection for Net Neutrality.

The silver lining in the 50th

So Busby went bust.

Maybe Democrats will finally learn two things:

1. Local races are local. Voters are angry about Washington, but they're voting on Main Street. Running against "Washington" just doesn't win neighborhoods.

2. Don't turn non-referendums into referendums. It was Busby who spun her candidacy as the foamline on a forthcoming tidal wave. Smart for her, but the national party shouldn't have allowed it. Immediately after the primary, it became clear she was the underdog -- and that was the initial reporting. But now it looks like Democrats lost on their own referendum. Babe Ruth never called a home run only to whiff.

The Silver Lining:

1. Going into November, Dems won't be complacent.

2. There's still time to run local.

Boy, I'll bet he and his log cabin feel stupid now

As Mark Evanier points out, Andrew Sullivan was just recently writing about the new, kinder gentler Bush, a good man who loves the gays in his heart. That is, when he's not attacking them in a desperate ploy to motivate his base prior to a disastrous mid-term election.

A Divider, Not a Uniter

'Cause, y'know, if you can't catch Osama bin Laden, or manage to figure out if FEMA is actually getting supplies to homeless drowning people, or balance the budget, or win the war on terrrrrr, at least you can keep gays apart.

A tale of two Generals

As we look to a Senate confirmation and we debate the power of the military and the rule of law I am reminded of an earlier General who was President. We have had many General/Presidents since the founding of the country.

President and former five star General Dwight Eisenhower upon his leaving office warned of the acculmulated power of the Military Industrial Complex! His words seem more prophetic today as we view the blurred lines of Intelligence gathering, the DOD [Department of Defense] and a world back on the brink!

The second General is General Hayden, former head of the National Security Agency and proposed DCI [Director of Central Intelligence] to head the civilian agency of the CIA! It isn't his military rank but the fact he is one of the prime architects of the NSA wiretap programs, and also that he took to the press circuit and defended this violation of law and the administration. He is both a political cypher and a man who demonstrates the amoral face of government that leads to our abridgement of basic freedoms by our own government.

Beautiful Blossoming

Last week Illinois took the first step in trend-setting: its legislature is looking at a resolution calling for the impeachment of Bush:

State Rep. Karen Yarbrough (D-Maywood) has sponsored a resolution calling on the General Assembly to submit charges to the U.S. House so its lawmakers could begin impeachment proceedings.

How do I know it's a trend? Because California is doing the same thing. Better yet, it's going one step further, bring Cheney in on the impeachment:

California Assemblyman Paul Koretz of Los Angeles (where the LA Times has now called for Cheney's resignation) has submitted amendments to Assembly Joint Resolution No. 39, calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney. The amendments reference Section 603 of Jefferson's Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives, which allows federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state legislature.

This is an beautiful idea which shows promise of blossoming across the country. Granted, the chances of success in a Republican controlled Congress is slim to none, but if enough state legislatures hop on board, it would send a very powerful message to our electeds. Hopefully one that could not be ignored.

Even prouder for this humble contributor is that my birth state is Illinois and Paul Koretz is my assemblymember, at least until he terms out this year.

I believe my heart swelled with pride three sizes today...

Incumbency - isn't sacred

There seems to be a raging discussion, dare we say argument, between progressives and more tradition bound democrats and even a few independents over the question of primary contests between seated Democratic Members of Congress and their challengers. Let's rid ourselves of the first fallacy; the one that says that allowing a challenge to a seated Congressman/woman in a Blue District is not consistent with this election cycles committment to turn the House Blue! Whether you agree with or are opposed to the convenient reapportionment; it did almost assuredly guarantee that Blue districts remain Blue. So if a qualified opponent to a seated incumbent wins in the Primary; then he or she will be the next elected MC [Member of Congress] for that district.

The second fallacy is that the incumbent might have high or even 100% ratings on key Democratic progressive issues; not withstanding that they might be a bit of a Yellow Dog Democrat with a DLC centrists affection for many of the White House policies that facilitate moderate centrist protection of power in the timid hands of Democratic MC's that won't support Jack Murtha, Russ Feingold, or Barbara Boxer when she confronts the whole Senate as she did when standing up in solidarity with the Black Caucus!

Whether you think that Senator Joseph Lieberman should be challenged as a new type of Democrat, which many of us know means he is a closet republican, or think he should be defended; the dialogue is necessary to keep the democratic spirit alive. There are no wrong questions; just failing to engage in a meaningful exchange of opinion. We find this is also the case in the challenge that Marcy Winograd has mounted to Congresswoman Jane Harman. It is amazing how Congresswoman Jane is now a born again grassroots activist who always was so concerned about the concerns of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party! That this doesn't match up with her prior, if not current, membership in the Centrist, Corporate, Democratic Leadership Conference or in one of it's subsidiary organs for electeds should come as no surprise. When an entranched incumbent is challenged by a fresh new opponent in the primary they start to remember the principles of the Democratic Party that they had abandoned so recently. At the end of the Day Incumbency is not sacred!

Ya Think?

A few months ago this space featured an article regarding the importance of obtaining accurate rally counts, as a way to foster legitimacy, amongst others. Well, seems like the Los Angeles Times has taken notice of the need for accurate numbers:

There is no question that last Saturday's immigration march in downtown Los Angeles was massive.

But were there 500,000 protesters?

No one knows for sure.

The Los Angeles Police Department estimated the crowd at about half a million at its high point, after officers in a helicopter made a guess about the density of the crowd.

"It's not an exact science," said LAPD Lt. Paul Vernon. "They didn't use any kind of grid system. It's just an estimate."

Organizers, meanwhile, insist that 1.3 million people attended, and they vowed to prove it.

Engineers volunteering their time have obtained aerial photographs of the march from Spanish-language television networks and are studying them, said Nativo Lopez, president of the Mexican American Political Assn. They should have results in a couple of weeks, he said.

It all underscores the fact that measuring the turnout at protests and other organized public events has become a controversial issue in recent years. Experts say there are scientific ways to gauge crowd size using complex grids, aerial photos, density ratios and flow analysis.

I'm tellin' ya, people, we've gotta start employing counting methods that are effective. The grid/video method mentioned in our previous article (two-thirds down the page) is an easy and excellent way to count march participants.

My friends, we've got to start counting NOW.

Oh dear! What's a lemming to do?

This is both hilarious and scary. Watch the new GOP web-based video ad. Catch it here at Crooks & Liars in case it gets taken down from GOP.com.

CA-50

This is an unlikely scenario, but fun to consider.

While Francine Busby has a huge lead on her Republican rivals in the latest polling for the April 11th CA-50 special election -- 45% to 14% for the second place challenger -- it will still be a difficult task to get to 50% by Election Day to avoid a June runoff. Howard Kaloogian, who's shown himself to be a complete doofus this week over so many things that came to light -- the "Baghdad" photo that was actually taken in Turkey, ridiculous explanations and followup, falsified endorsements, etc -- is polling in third place with 12%. (For the best place to follow the comedy of errors this week, go to Talking Points Memo.)

As I originally suggested, Kaloogian's support may fall apart, and other Republicans (and Independents and somewhat indifferent Democratics) may see one more reason not to trust Republican candidates this time around, period. That could transform the election into a Busby win outright.

On the other hand, Kaloogian's outlandish claims of being victimized by liberals and the media, as he only made an honest mistake and then owned up to it, may earn him brownie -- gotta love than term now -- points and sympathy votes with the brain-dead from the far right.

If Francine doesn't get the necessary 50%, then I'd love to see KaLULUgian end up second, because she'll be able to absolutely mop the floor with this creep one-on-one.

Francine needs your help to get over the top:

• Contribute or sign up to volunteer at her web site
• Make phone calls from your home to motivate likely Busby voters (organized by MoveOn)
• Sign up for final week (Apr 8-11) get-out-the-vote by contacting BlueHouse@SoCalGrassroots.org

Color Me Shocked

Frist's Senate Leadership Faulted as Self-Serving:

As he prepares to leave the Senate and position himself for a presidential bid, Bill Frist faces mounting criticism that he has proved an ineffectual majority leader whose legislative agenda increasingly is dictated by his White House ambitions.

Complaints about the patrician Tennessean by fellow Republicans intensified this week, sparked by his decision to force Senate debate on illegal immigration. Some GOP lawmakers say his move spotlighted a squabble within the party over a hot-button issue in an election year.

Frist? Ineffective? Self-serving?

Next thing ya know, you're gonna tell me that this whole war thing in Iraq is just a big mess.

Oh. Right.

My Kind of Town...

According to The Chicago Sun Times, that august city may decide not to enforce criminalization of illegal immigrants:

If the great immigration debate now raging in Congress is decided in a way that turns illegal immigrants into criminals, Chicago Police officers and other city employees would not enforce it, the City Council decided Wednesday.

Three weeks after a massive rally in Chicago demanding better treatment of immigrants, Chicago aldermen blazed another trail on the red-hot issue.

They turned a 1989 executive order on immigration into law.

I was born in Chicago nearly 40 years ago, but was a mere babe when my family moved away and have not been back since. I've always wanted to check out the city of my birth. Now I have an additional reason to do so.

I hope Los Angeles follows the same path.

Hear me Rohr--abacher

From AP: "I say let the prisoners pick the fruits," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California, one of more than a dozen Republicans who took turns condemning a Senate bill that offers an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants an opportunity for citizenship.

Little Brother

Click through and enjoy. Buy a shirt. (I bought two.) Wear it everywhere, so people know that somebody else is watching, too.

We print, you decide

Scaliosis: uncontrollable hand gestures. No known cure, highly contagious.

Image from Peter A. Smith, Boston Herald

Go Busby!

In the latest Survey USA poll, Francine Busby is up to 45% (+/- 5% margin of error) in CA-50. 50% +1 vote needed to avoid a runoff. With Kaloogian's (12%) latest flap, that might throw a few more percent from his column up for grabs and also raise additional disdain for any Republican.

Our efforts are paying off. Almost there.... keep it up!

Oh, brother! CA-50

Updates at bottom....

Howard Kaloogian, Bush apologist extraordinaire, is one of the handful of Republicans chasing frontrunner Democrat Francine Busby in the April 11th special election to fill the 50th Congressional District seat.

The graphic above, borrowed from Jesus' General, is a wonderful parody on a photo that Kaloogian posted on his site. Seems that Kaloogian was in Iraq recently, and in order to demonstrate how peaceful and normal things are in Baghdad he posted this photo:

with this caption: Downtown Baghdad We took this photo of dowtown [sic] Baghdad while we were in Iraq. Iraq (including Baghdad) is much more calm and stable than what many people believe it to be. But, each day the news media finds any violence occurring in the country and screams and shouts about it - in part because many journalists are opposed to the U.S. effort to fight terrorism.

Something not look right about this photo of "Downtown Baghdad"? Seems that a large consensus has developed that this photo was not taken in Baghdad or even at another location in Iraq, but most likely in Turkey. Follow the details under anthonyLA's diary at Kos or at Democratic Underground.

Kaloogian's site has been funky today and who knows how long before the photo is possibly taken down, but you can check it out here.

Kaloogian: Bush apologist.... and apparently he has the same ethics as well.

Support Francine Busby here.

Update! Proof that Howie's photo was taken in the Istanbul suburb of Bakirkoy.

Is Howard a liar? Check here.... and more at TPM Muckraker.

Update 2! Oh, brother. Is that guy a bad/sad joke or what??? See here...