by Bob Brigham [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by Bob Brigham [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Bill Cavala
A veteran of over 30 years in Sacramento

Since Diane Feinstein’s days as Mayor of San Francisco, City politicos have made hay by pushing for local option restrictions on handgun ownership and possession.

The latest effort by Mayor Newsom was recently struck down by the California Court of Appeal and that ruling was affirmed by the California Supreme Court – a great victory for the N.R.A.

The irony lies in the Court of Appeal’s rationale. California has such a complex maze of state law regulating the possession and use of firearms, the Court reasoned there was simply no room remaining for a locality to add further restrictions: the state had preempted the field.

The state regulations that forced the demise of San Francisco’s local gun laws were enacted from the late 1980’s – commencing with two bills authored by former Assemblyman and BOE Member Johan Klehs - to the present. Klehs, – incidentally, is the father of the transfer system which has become a national model.

Virtually, without exception, those laws were opposed by the N.R.A.

by Robert Najera [courtesy of Blog for America]

Everyone Here is my email I sent to Diane Feinstein today:

 Senator,

Why do you continue to rubber stamp everything George Bush wants? I strongly urge you to vote against Mukasey as Attorney General. How can any democrat support a man who will allow torture. YOU WILL BE RESPONSIBLE (WITH SCHUMER) for putting our troops in harms way by continuing to allow torture.
A VOTE FOR MUKASEY IS A VOTE FOR TORTURE!

The Democratic party DOES NOT support torture, and neither should you. Do you want to be grouped together with Lieberman as a Bush Cronie? If you allow Mukasey to be the A.G. then I will urge my associations with DFA, Move-ON.org, and local democratic clubs to campaign against you actively with all of our grassroots resources. If it is possible we, will try to use the same law that removed Gray Davis to recall your term. You should remember that you serve our will, not your corportate sponsors.

A concerned democrat & resident of CA,
Robert Najera

You all should contact her and urge her to change her position again on one of Bush's appointees. Mukasey will not keep Bush under control legally, he will rubber stamp all Bush's policies. Lets over flow the senator's email box with demands for peace and an opposition to MUKASEY.

Contact her through her website. http://feinstein.senate.gov/public/
Robert Najera

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Palpable Enthusiasm for Democrats as Clinton Closes Doubleheader

By Frank D. Russo

You will read in today's papers bits and pieces of what Hillary Clinton said to a crowd of 10,000 to 14,000 in Oakland. There will be stories comparing the size of the crowd to the one that Barack Obama drew in February. There will be more written about the fundraisers that Clinton had in the Napa Valley, Atherton, and Diane Feinstein's home in San Francisco.

We'll tell a bit of that story, along with Clinton's schedule today where she will be appearing at Laney College, also in Oakland, to unveil her urban policy agenda with an emphasis on education and crime.

But there is another story out there in the streets that needs to be told--the excitement that Democrats here in Northern California have about the Presidential race and the opportunity to take back the White House. I arrived early to see the opening of the Barrack Obama headquarters in Oakland--only two or so blocks from where Hillary Clinton spoke a few hours later. I wandered through the crowd there and then over to the Clinton side of the street.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Bill Cavala
A veteran of over 30 years in Sacramento

The words are those of Governor Schwarzenegger. Not since Diane Feinstein chided the liberals of my party on capital punishment has a public figure faced down the activists that dominate Party conventions in a major speech.

Schwarzenegger’s criticism of the Grand Old Party were funny and accurate. The Republican position on global warning is “to doubt it”. But they also drew blood: “If it is our policy to ignore the majority of the world’s scientists, then we are a Party at odds with the future”.

The tension that exists between activists who believe their party’s elected officials should be faithful to platforms they adopt regardless of the opinion of the voting public is not new and not unique to Republicans. The greater the divide between the votes needed to win elections and the opinions of activists, the greater that tension.

To the activists, the principles and ideology define the Republican Party. While lip service might be paid to victory at the polls, it isn’t victory if the price is compromise of those principles and ideology. Who wants to work to elect Tweedle Dee? Of what value is the principle of “me too”?