by Lucas O'Connor [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Rick Jacobs
Chair
The Courage Campaign

This is personal.

I was quite surprised when I learned that Terry McAuliffe was going to appear at a major convention of health insurance corporations in San Francisco on June 19.

After all, how could the former Chair of the Democratic National Committee show up as a guest of health insurance executives -- much less accept any money for his appearance at the AHIP (America's Health Insurance Plans) convention? This appearance seems inappropriate at best, especially after Barack Obama and Howard Dean courageously directed the Democratic National Committee last week to reject contributions from lobbyists, including the health insurance industry.

And now it's personal. My sister, who suffers from severe and rapidly deteriorating hearing loss, just told me that she has been denied useful health care coverage. Again. Why? Because her hearing problems have been diagnosed as a "pre-existing condition," precluding her from receiving cochlear implants so she can hear again.

by Lucas O'Connor [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by Lucas O'Connor [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

OK, so I should mention the results of our Courage Campaign protest yesterday at the ABC/Disney headquarters.  It went really well.  Consider that I had this idea sitting on my couch at 12:00pm Thursday, and by 4:00pm Friday we had 60 or 70 people out there in Burbank.  Considering that in the current age there's almost an allergy to protest, that's not bad (especially in gridlocked L.A.), and we were able to get the word out without making one phone call.

I'll give you the AP's impression (over):

UPDATE: Here's coverage from KTLA News:

by occams hatchet [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

I met Darcy Burner for the second time last night.

It was pretty exciting, meeting a future president.  If you have to ask why I would say that, why, then, you haven't had the pleasure of meeting Darcy Burner.  

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

The Courage Campaign's hilarious tv ad attacking Republican supporters for keeping open the yacht tax loophole apparently has gotten under the skin of one Assembly Republican, Sam Blakeslee of San Luis Obispo.
 
Blakeslee is complaining to the Sacramento Bee that he actually voted to close the loophole. Which he did before flip-flopping and voting against it when the Senate-approved bill arrived in the Senate.
 
Here's what the Courage Campaign's Rick Jacobs has to say about that:

"Mr. Blakeslee needs to decide whether he wants to be in 'solidarity' with the people of California or a small band of right-wing Republicans protecting the super-rich from paying sales taxes on yachts," said Rick Jacobs, founder and Chair of the Courage Campaign. "Until Mr. Blakeslee sides with the people, we will continue to brand him and his extremist Republican friends as the 'Yacht Party'."

"By voting for it before he voted against it, Mr. Blakeslee is standing in lockstep with the status quo on the votes that matter, blocking the Assembly from achieving a 2/3rds majority to close this appalling yacht tax loophole," said Jacobs. "Mr. Blakeslee, please vote your conscience, not your club membership."