California Yachting Association Call-a-Thon: Day 2

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Yesterday we got almost a thousand views of this video message from the California Yachting Association, and we shut down the California Republican Party's phone linestwo days before their state convention.  But I'm not certain that the CRP got the message yet.  They need to hear from us again today.

916.448.9496.  Please call.  Operators are standing by!

In all seriousness, this visibility campaign is of a piece with some contemporaneous attempts at legislative activism.  Yesterday seniors and the disabled descended on the Capitol to protest cuts to the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program.  Low-income community groups are organizing against what they believe is an insufficient state cap-and-trade program that would allow polluting industries to buy the rights to continue to pollute (I'm not sure if I totally agree with them, but it's an interesting article).  This entire year is going to require this kind of activism if we want to wind up with a state government that doesn't dismantle its public education system, make health care less accessible and preserve tax avoidance strategies for the wealthy like evading the sales tax on yachts.  These people have to be watched, vigilantly, and through that sunshine will come eventual change, whether they accede to it themselves (unlikely) or we go ahead and take their seats away (likely if we work our butts off).