Pacific Progressive

WSJ's Fund Tells Lou Dobbs to Look Beyond ACORN to Its "Twin Brother" SEIU

From Media Matters.

John Fund appeared on Lou Dobb's radio show on September 21, 2009 and called SEIU "ACORN's twin brother."  Fund warns that SEIU "populates" Obama's administration and provides a window into the "new American left>'

Birther John Campbell Targeted by Stand Up America PAC

John Campbell is one of five Republicans being targeted for their hate-filled rhetoric by the Stand Up America PAC.  The objective is to get these five marginal  (in terms of vote getting, performance in office and ability to deal with a changing electorate) out of office so a more effective person can take their place.

The targets are John Cambell (CA-48), Jean Schmidt (OH-2), Eric Cantor (VA-7), Joe Wilson (SC-2), and Michelle Bachman (MN-6).  These Representatives don't adequately represent the changing interests of their districts and need to be replaced.

• John Campbell is well known for co-sponsoring the "birther bill" requiring a President to produce an original birth certificate.  Southern Poverty Law Center lists birthers as a hate group.  At the same time Campbell is engaging in hate speech, Aliso Creek continues to deteriorate.  Funds from the Army Corps of Engineer are available to fix Aliso Creek, but John Campbell won't ask for them. Rep. Ken Calvert asked for the funds to fix Aliso Creek, but the Army Corps of Engineers told him Campbell would have to ask for the project to receive priority.
• Jean Schmidt is known for calling Rep. John Murtha from Pennsylvania, who is a Marine veteran, a coward on the floor of the House.  Schmidt opposes health care reform and favors warrantless wiretapping.

Alameda GOP Central Committee Suing to Remove Republican Liberty Caucus Members

The Alameda County Republican Party Central Committee has filed suit to block several members affiliated with the Republican Liberty Caucus and Golden Gate Minutemen from taking seats on the Central Committee.  The former chair of the Alameda Republican Central Committee has been joined by the California Republican Party in the suit.

The Southern Poverty Law Center Hatewatch blog flagged the Contra Costa Times article about this issue.  Additional research on the subject was done for this report.

The ongoing litigation arises from the election of seven members of the Republican Liberty Caucus in a June 2008 election.  The suit asks that current vice chair Walter Stanley III (AD 15), Casey Fargo (AD 15), Lea Smart-Fargo (AD 15), assistant treasurer David LaTour (AD 18) Deslar Patten (AD 18), Christopher Kuhn (AD 18), and John Bartlett (AD 20) be removed from the committee because they did not meet Republican Party membership requirements.  Jerry Salcido (AD 20), a current Central Committee chairman, is representing the seven members.  

The seven members are "Constitutional Republicans" who believe government should have a very limited role in daily life, advocate for using schools outside of the public school system including homeschooling,  and ending social programs.  The Contra-Costa Times reports that Casey Fargo is a former president of the Golden Gate Minutemen.

California Initiatives - August 2009 Update

Initiatives for the June 2020 ballot are circulating.  Many circulate, few actually qualify.  

So, what is out there, gathering signatures and waiting to gather votes at the polls?  The initiatives include calls for a California Constitutional Convention, changes to the number of votes needed to raise taxes and/or pass a budget, restrictions on who can voter or receive public benefits, allowing same sex couples to marry, allowing insurance companies to change the way they determine rates for some drivers, and legalizing pot.

Initiatives Which Have Been Approved

SCA 4 - Property tax: new construction exclusion:  seismic retrofitting - Under provisions of this constitutional amendment, construction on an existing home for seismic retrofitting would not be taxed as new construction.

AB 583 - Political Reform Act of 1974:  California Fair Elections Act of 2008 -  Creates a Fair Elections Fund public financing system for elections.

SCA 4 - Elections: open primaries - The top two candidates who receive the most votes in a primary move to the general election regardless of party affiliation. The provision applies to state and congressional offices.

Constitutional Convention Items Still Circulating 

1372 - Changes Constitution to Allow Voter to Call a Constitutional Convention with an Initiative.  Initiative Constitutional Amendment - Allows voters to call a constitutional convention and write a new state Constitution by passing an initiative.

Stopping Rape in the Congo - Efforts of Senator Boxer and Secretary Clinton

The Democratic Republic of Congo has had a devastating, ongoing civil war in which rape is a common weapon against women and young girls. The sexual violence both leaves the women traumatized and the resulting stigma creates societal problems for the women.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced $17 million is now available to fight sexual violence in the Congo, including initiatives to train all-female police units, train doctors, and supply rape victims with video cameras to document violence.

Earlier in 2009, Senators Barbara Boxer and Russ Feingold (D-WI) chaired a joint Foreign Relations hearing that focused on rape and sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and other conflict zones.  Senator Jeannne Shaheen (D-NH) joined Senators Boxer and Feingold in contacting Secretary of State Clinton and asked that the US develop a plan to train and deploy Congolese surgeons to treat victims of sexual violence and develop all-female police units to deal with sexual violence. Secretary Clinton acted upon this request and allocated $17 million for the effort.

Rape is a horrific crime anywhere in the world, but is increasingly being used as a tactic in war zones.  UNICEF estimates that "hundreds of thousands" of women and girls had been raped in Congo since 1994, with over 1,000 raped each month (12,000 rapes per year.)  In recent months, tactics are changing to increase the terror and men are being raped.  Currently, the United Nations has deployed a peacekeeping force with over 18,000 troops with an additional 3000 scheduled for deployment.

 

White Supremacists Promote "Birther" Controversy - SLPC Hatewatch Headlines

Rep. John Campbell (CA-48) has signed on to a "birther bill" which would require a Presidential candidate to produce their "original birth certificate."  Southern Poverty Law Center (SLPC), a group which has scored a number of legal victories against hate groups, has been tracking "birther" groups on their Hatewatch blog.

On a recent edition of Hatewatch, a report from the Santa Fe Reporter talks about the growth of white supremacists groups during 2009:

It's the worst of times for the white pride movement.  

In January, the nation's mixed-race President, Barack Obama, was sworn in. In July, that President publicly scolded a white police officer for arresting an African American Harvard professor. And in August, the US Senate confirmed that President's pick for the Supreme Court:  the first Latina judge to sit on the panel.

Yet, 2009 my be also be the best of time - at least for recruiting.  The national climate is spurring racist organizations to regroup and reinvent themselves by latching on to "birther" conspiracy theories, homophobia and immigration fears, while promoting new philosophies of semi-tolerance and non-violence.

John Campbell has openly promoted his "birther" views.  Time will show if John Campbell  pushes on to become closer to  groups which are more open in their hate,  like white supremacists and neo-nazis. 

Behind the "Birther Movement"

By Sam Fulwood III, Center for American Progress

Poor Rep. Mike Castle never saw it coming and had nothing to say. The Delaware moderate Republican congressman fixed a Bambi-in-the-headlights gaze on his face when the flag-waving woman in red whipped an otherwise unremarkable town hall meeting into a display of mass insanity.

Like others sharing her corner of the far-far-right lunatic fringe, the woman in red belongs to the “birther movement,” an ad hoc group of skeptics who passionately believe that President Barack Obama isn’t a “natural born citizen,” and as such, is constitutionally unqualified to sit in the Oval Office. Or, as this sad and misguided woman shouted to Castle, “He’s not an American citizen; he’s a citizen of Kenya.”

Watching Castle try to retain his dignity and set the woman straight made me feel sorry for him because he completely lost control of the situation. Truth be told, it was his own fault because Castle clearly isn’t monitoring the avatars of the right—the entertainers posing as authoritative journalists on radio and cable television chat shows.

And that’s why Castle was blindsided. None of this would have happened if Castle paid more attention to right-wing taking heads such as Liz Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, and, most significantly, CNN’s daily afternoon talker Lou Dobbs—all of whom have given the birther movement a media-endorsed fig leaf to hide its naked ignorance.

Rules for (Dealing with) Radicals

by Henry Fernandez, Center for American Progress

Progressives around the country are pointing with concern to the antics of conservative activists over the course of the last few weeks. Left-leaning blogs such as DailyKos and ThinkProgress are afire with examples of conservatives acting badly:

• The hanging of Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-MD) in effigy at a rally
• Groups of conservative activists disrupting town hall meetings
• Leaders in the conservative movement calling now Supreme Court Justice Sotomayoran affirmative action hire and a member of the Latino KKK
• CNN talking head Lou Dobbs legitimizing fringe characters' racist conspiracy nonsense about President Barack Obama being born in Kenya
• Fox News’s Glenn Beck calling on patriots to take back America while saying thatPresident Obama hates white people

Progressives deride these awful, frequently dangerous, and racist behaviors, and they then rightly call on conservative leadership to distance itself from these activities. Let me suggest though that if we wait for conservative leaders to show concern about the threat to civility and public safety in this new wave of “activism,” then progressives might as well surrender on climate change, health care reform, immigration, and just about everything else we stand for.

For many progressives, this same type of angry, scary conservative activism was first on full display less than a year ago at the presidential rallies of Sen. John McCain (D-AZ) and Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, when activists at their rallies shouted "terrorist," and "kill him" about Barack Obama. But for those of us who work on immigration reform, we had seen this type of extreme right political theater well before then.

The strategies used by the "tea-party" clique, screamers in town halls, as well as conservative talk radio and television personalities were perfected in fighting progressive immigration reform. So here are some lessons that we have learned that hopefully will help our progressive allies in the health care reform, climate change, and energy debates as they go up against protesters organized and directed by a clutch of extreme right-wing groups in Washington, D.C.

These forces are organized and driven from above

Redlands Town Hall Hosted by Congressman Jerry Lewis (41st District)

Representative Jerry Lewis (R- CA 41st) is having a town hall on Thursday, August 13, at 7 PM at the Orton Center, University of Redlands, 1200 E Colton Ave, Redlands, CA.  

The town hall is being cosponsored by the 9-12 Patriots, and Redlands Tea Party. 

An email message about the town hall contained the following: 

• The organizers desire a "Republican only" town hall
• Do you think Obamacare will kill seniors?
• Do you think there are no problems with your healthcare?
• Do you think too bad if you are uninsured?
• Do you think that birthers are right? 

The email announcing the "discussion subjects" did not directly come from Rep. Lewis' office but appears to have come from another group with a very clear agenda. The scheduled town hall has been mentioned in a number of sources besides the email with the "discussion points."

Call Representative Jerry Lewis at 909-862-6030 or 1-800-233-1700 (within California) for more information. 

Astroturf Exposed - Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks

This Astroturf action is brought to you courtesy of Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks.  The Center of American Progress Action Fund has done excellent research about the groups.  The New York Times also has an excellent article about David Koch and the reach, political and financial, of Koch Industries. (Billionaire Pledges $100 Million to New York State Theatre, July 10, 2008)  The groups are, effectively, political groups for Koch Industries, a huge multi-national energy conglomerate. The founder of Koch Industries, Fred Koch, also helped found the John Birch Society, a group founded to find and stamp out communism and its sympathizers in the United States. 

Koch has a far-right agenda which includes privatizing social security, denying global warming, cutting corporate taxes, opposing affirmative actions, opposing Title IX, and opposing domestic violence laws and equal pay.  With this type of agenda, the type of hate speech seen at the anti-healthcare rallies is not surprising. 

Americans for Prosperity 

Americans for Prosperity is an astroturf factory. 

Currently, the group is sponsoring a bus tour, Patients First/Hands Off My Health Care, thru mostlmidwestern states.  The group also sponsors town hall disruptions and the Recess Rally website.  The group also works with the John Locke Foundation, the Nevada Policy Research Institute (NPRI), Platte Institute for Economic Research, and Heartland Institute Conference on Climate Change, Internet Freedom Coalition, Townhall.com, and  The Sutherland Institute. 

Americans for Prosperity supports smoking as a property and personal right.  

Astroturf Town Hall Disruptions Brought to You By Our Sponsors

The recent disruptions of townhalls has been news.  The disruptions are as scripted as a movie.   Recess Rally even lists the sponsors.  Who is paying for and sponsoring these disruptions of the public process?
 

Rachel Maddow did a segment on the sponsors.  

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Here is a list of the sponsors:

Ask CNN to Take Lou Dobbs Off the Air

Media Matters, a progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing and correcting conservative misinformation in the US media, has created a commercial which will air on CNN. The commercial is about CNN's Lou Dobbs Problem - Dobbs has been espousing conspiracy theories about President Obama's birth certificate.  In the process, Dobbs is playing to racists and hate groups within the United States.

Write to CNN to ask them to take Dobbs off the air.

Support Media Matters on CNN's Dobbs Problem and help them run this commercial as many times as they can.  Lou Dobbs must get off the air!

Ask CNN to Take Racist Lou Dobbs Off the Air

This is a request from Southern Poverty Law Center to help them get Lou Dobbs off the air.  Southern Poverty Law Center(SPLC_ works to reduce and eliminate hate groups.  In Orange County, Congressman John Campbell is leading an effort to make Barack Obama produce his birth certificate.  Campbell is espousing the same hateful, bigoted views at Lou Dobbs.

Please help get Dobbs off the air.

Dear Friend,

Tell your friends Send a message to CNN

A lot has happened since I contacted you last week about Lou Dobbs and his latest racist conspiracy-mongering.

As you recall, we asked you to join our call to CNN to take Dobbs off the air because he refuses to stop peddling extremist propaganda in the guise of journalism.

We've had an overwhelming response, and many other organizations are also now demanding that CNN and Dobbs stop mainstreaming hate and extremism. Dobbs has dug in his heels, saying he will continue to raise questions about whether President Obama was really born in the U.S. and therefore eligible to be president. He's even suggested that Obama is an undocumented immigrant.