Tag: california

Shirley Golub is running against Nancy Pelosi in the California-8th June primary.  She has produced a radio ad calling the Speaker of the House of Representatives what she is: a coward.

Let’s help her get this ad on the air.  Go to the following web site:

http://www.shirley08.com/donat…

And donate what you can.  Pelosi has been a disaster as Speaker.  She has been among the biggest obstacles to impeachment, has allowed funding for the occupation of Iraq to continue unfettered, and failed to enforce Congressional subpoena power.  The coward needs to go, lest her cowardice and complicity in the crimes of the Bush regime further drag down the Democratic Party.

And while we’re at it, let’s help Cindy Sheehan as she seeks to unseat Pelosi.

http://www.cindyforcongress.org

The only way we can get Democrats (and every other representative) in Congress to listen, to do as they’re told, is to put the fear of something greater than the shrub and his gargoyle into them: electoral defeat.  This is a proven tactic; Iowa’s Leonard Boswell, one of the most shameless Bush dogs in the House, signed onto Robert Wexler’s impeachment efforts after fellow bootlicker Al Wynn lost his primary race in Maryland to challenger Donna Edwards.

So let’s give Shirley Golub a hand up, and send a message to Nancy Pelosi that cowardice and complicity shall be punished at the ballot box.

That’s right, I’m a candidate’s wife, it happened rather quickly too.  Well, I’ve been married to the guy for almost ten years, but the candidate part has unfolded in just a few days.

Now, why am I not the candidate?  Oh, it’s a long story and I’ve not been as good of a Democrat as my husband has been, really.  I am still registered as Decline to State.  Yes, how is that for a confession?  But Gary, my husband, has been registered as a Democrat for many years and he unabashedly calls himself a party loyalist.

So how did this come about?  Let me tell you…

Overcovered in a shameless play to the cheap seats for at least the past three days has been the fatal attack Christmas Day on 17-year-old Carlos Susa and two others who were injured by Tatiana, a Siberian tiger at the San Francisco zoo.

Not to discount Carlos’ family’s tragedy, just pointing out how this has gotten to be a real media circus with media whores coming out of the woodwork to use it as a way to get their Warholian 15 minutes of fame.

OTB (2007)

Merry Christmas Dharmaniacs!

More pics below…   (w/ apology to dial-up connections)

It’s nice to know that there are still Progressive Dems out there who actually do live up to their 2006 campaign promises.

Secretary of State Debra Bowen has filed suit against Election Systems & Software, Inc. (ES&S) for nearly $15 million after a four-month investigation revealed the company had repeatedly violated state law.

Bowen, who unseated incumbent Bruce McPherson in 2006 by a narrow 3% (officially), campaigned on a Progressive platform whose centerpiece called for cleaning up the California voting system.  True to her word, she is now aggressively pursuing claims of eVote fraud.

Secretary Bowen is suing ES&S for $9.72 million in penalties for selling 972 machines that contained hardware changes that were never submitted to, or reviewed by, the Secretary of State. Furthermore, she is seeking nearly $5 million to reimburse the five counties that bought the machines believing they were buying certified voting equipment.

“ES&S ignored the law over and over and over again, and it got caught,” said Bowen, the state’s top elections officer. “California law is very clear on this issue. I am not going to stand on the sidelines and watch a voting system vendor come into this state, ignore the laws, and make millions of dollars from California’s taxpayers in the process.”

Bowen claims ES&S fraudulently substituted almost a thousand rigged boxes in five northern California counties, including San Francisco County:      

The sales in question involve ES&S’s AutoMARK ballot-marking devices that 14 California counties use to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requirement that voters with disabilities have a way to cast ballots privately and independently. Unlike direct recording electronic (DRE) devices, the AutoMARK prints a voted ballot that is counted by an optical scanner along with other paper ballots.

   In July 2007, Secretary Bowen learned that ES&S had sold AutoMARK A200s – a version of the AutoMARK A100 that had been altered without authorization from the Secretary of State – to five counties in 2006. The counties collectively spent about $5 million for the equipment: Colusa bought 20 machines, Marin bought 130, Merced bought 104, San Francisco bought 558, and Solano bought 160. Elections officials in the five counties believed they were purchasing the certified AutoMARK A100s when, in fact, they had purchased AutoMARK A200s.

Bowen has also gone after ES&S in Los Angeles, where she decertified the company’s InkaVote boxes that had been scheduled for use in February’s Presidential primary/electoral college referendum:

Both of these actions have come as a result of an an unprecedented top to bottom review of California voting systems.

This is exactly what she promised to do as Secretary of State and she is delivering in a big way. Echoing language she used on the campaign trail last year, she said in a statement (PDF):

   

“California voters are entitled to have their votes counted exactly as they were cast. This top-to-bottom review is designed with one goal in mind: to ensure that California’s voters cast their ballots on voting systems that are secure, accurate, reliable, and accessible.“

Thank you, Secretary Bowen, for keeping your promise.

In my last post in my “Quotes for Discussion” series, I posted quotes from both 19th Century and current anarchists.  In response, both andgarden and Meteor Blades brought up the issues of private firefighters and private police forces.

While I didn’t mention it at the time, of course there are many private police forces.  And not simply mercenaries like Blackwater; anyone visiting a bank, a shopping mall, or a gated community is familiar with private security guards.  But I didn’t think there were private firefighters out there.  Naturally, I was wrong. 

“What we’re trying to do here is provide our policyholders an additional level of protection,” said Stan Rivera, director of wildfire protection for AIG Private Client Group. The average home insured by the unit is valued at $1.7 million.

AIG this year expanded its Wildfire Protection Unit to 150 ZIP codes in California and Colorado, up from 14 when it was formed in 2005. The unit has had the busiest week since its inception as fires burned at least 719 square miles (1,861 square kilometers) from Santa Barbara to San Diego, destroying 1,342 homes and 34 businesses and causing at least seven deaths.

This was the evening news from Armageddon…

After discovering a suspicious man in a brush area on the San Bernardino campus  of California State University, police attempted to detain a 27-year-old on suspicion of arson.
Following a chase, officers opened fire and killed him, police said.

“They thought there could be the possibility that he’s an arsonist,” Patterson said. The area “is in the path of the fire.”

Four charred bodies were found Thursday in an apparent migrant camp burned by one of the wildfires raging across southern California, authorities said Thursday.

As wildfires were charging across Southern California, nearly two dozen water-dropping helicopters and two massive cargo planes sat idly by, grounded by government rules and bureaucracy.

A news crew was taping a cabinet meeting at the White House as the president was giving a briefing on the California wildfires. The news crew taped Cheney as he appeared to be nodding off.

“There’s all kinds of time for historians to compare this response to that response,” Bush said during a tour of the state’s fire-ravaged communities.

“A lot of people are going to lose their homes today,” San Diego Fire Capt. Lisa Blake predicted earlier.

According to estimates, nearly 1 million southern Californians have been displaced in the biggest evacuation in state history as a result of at least 16 simultaneous wildfires. More than 350,000 houses have been evacuated.

People who need it can get help with “home reprayer – repair,” said the president, handing out the FEMA phone number and Web-site for victims of the wildfires.

“Arnold Schwarzenegger is right. These fires are going to go out… but there are still going to be needs and concerns,” Bush said. “We’re not going to forget you in Washington, D.C.”

These fires are going to go out, and hard work will remain, but I am not counting on Bush to set things right. After the jump, I will tell you what you can do right now to help the people hurt by this crisis.

California Wildfires

Governor George Bush toured the damage today in California popping up like Alfred E. Newman from one ruined dream to the next, smiling while walking on the remnants of people’s destroyed lives and livelihoods.  In his photo op he said that the Federal Government has every intention of helping out.  Once again leaving himself an out.  The man that will commit to nothing but illegal war and torture.

So what’s a burned out homeowner to do in these troubled times of global warming?  Luckily the White House was quick to respond with a hand written list.  Experts say the handwriting looks a lot like Barbara Bush’s style but will need at least three tv talking heads to confirm their hunch before coming forward.  Jump to see the list. 

I live in CA, and am luckily up north.  I am fortunate that my friends and family in So Cal are safe.  I have been receiving a lot of info regarding services, benefits, and more, and wanted to share them with you all.  Hopefully, you can share this info in kind, with those you know who are in need, or maybe can take time to donate or volunteer with these efforts.  Continue beyond the fold, please…

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