by Dante Atkins (hekebolos) [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Anyone who knows Eric Bauman, chair of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, knows that he has no compunction about giving fiery speeches and telling anyone exactly what's on his mind.

And--in something the current CDP leadership should take note of--that includes Senator Dianne Feinstein.  Below the fold you'll find Chairman Bauman's full letter to Senator Feinstein regarding the upcoming FISA legislation to be considered in the Senate.

I fully expect that Eric's name will be on the tongues of many grassroots CDP delegates this winter, as he is one of the early declared candidates for the CDP chairmanship.

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Glenn Greenwald has it on good authority that my Representative, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, is planning on letting the Republicans pwn the Constitution: (h/t FDL)

As has been expected for a week now, the House Democratic leadership has prepared and is now currently circulating (while trying very hard to keep it confidential) their so-called "compromise" FISA bill. Their soon-to-be-unveiled bill, unsurprisingly, is designed to give the White House exactly what it has demanded, with only the smallest and most inconsequential changes.

read more »

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

In the wake of yesterday’s defeat in the Senate Health Committee of AB 1X 1—a compromise bill between Speaker of the Assembly and Governor of California—and barring a miracle, California will not see comprehensive health care reform this year. There’s just no other way to make sense out of the bills in the legislative hopper, the negotiations that have taken place in the last year, and sifting through the welter of statements made after the committee’s vote, many of which we will be posting soon in a separate article.

Try as he may, Speaker Fabian Nunez’s characterization of AB 1X 1 as a “bipartisan” bill is illusory, unless bipartisanship means having one Republican (Arnold Schwarzenegger) supporting it and all Republicans in both houses of the legislature (without exception) opposing it. The bill was passed by the Assembly solely with Democratic votes.