[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

One year ago, Dean Andal announced his candidacy for Congress in California’s 11th congressional district. Since then, his campaign has been noticeably quiet, and Andal’s fundraising has started to dry up. (Perhaps Andal is too focused on his latest development project to be bothered with his campaign?) Regardless of his excuse, many observers have taken note of Andal’s conspicuous absence from the campaign trail ("GOP recruits show lagging fundraising").
 
However, we haven’t forgotten about Dean and his run for Congress, so we thought posing a few unanswered questions to him might jolt him back onto the trail.
 
Stockton has the highest home foreclosure rate in the United States. How do you plan to address the foreclosure crisis?

Last week marked the five-year anniversary of President Bush’s infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech. Do you support President Bush’s "stay the course" plan for Iraq?

Where do you stand on expanding the state children’s health insurance program (SCHIP) and California Healthy Families to provide health care to millions of uninsured children?

There's more...

Image courtesy the Lodi News-Sentinel.

[courtesy of Blog for America]

Providing for the common good, making people feel secure in their communities and homes - this is the central job of government. it's why all of us are here serving our state and our people.  John Baldacci

I interviewed Scott Henderson in Los Angeles. Scott who told me the Common Good was the most important progressive value and 'we're all in it together'.  He tells a story about growing up in the 50's and feeling a sense of community, but that we've lost that now.  He thinks conservatives characterize progressives as wanting to be supported by the state and thinks conservatives have good intentions and mean well, but don’t fully comprehend the importance of all of us supporting each other.

Progressive Values Stories: Scott Henderson on the Common Good

[courtesy of Blog for America]

Washington Post columnist David Ignatius goes to Afghanistan on a US sponsored trip and, lo and behold, winds up believing all the "good news".  He writes about it in the Washington Post and, feeling good about all his learned observations, goes on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.  That's where he runs into:

...Barnett Rubin—someone who actually knows something about Afghanistan. Rubin’s perspective was informed by decades of scholarship focused on the country and extensive travel and work there, including over the course of the last five years—not a pop-in and pop-out hosted by U.S. Government media relations professionals with a message to sell. Watching Rubin review Ignatius’s commentary was like observing a fresh chunk of gristly brisket being put through a meatgrinder. Rubin was polite, but in the end, Ignatius was reduced to a bloody mass on the counter.

Visit Harper's Magazine for the full story.

Danny
Communications Director

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) statewide survey released today showed that the majority of Californians rank education as a top priority, and that they want to protect schools from budget cuts. The poll also shows that parents believe schools are not currently receiving enough funding -- further demonstrating that the Governor’s proposed $4.8 billion in cuts to schools and students is out of sync with the values and priorities of most Californians.

Below are excerpts from some of the PPIC findings.

Education is a top priority for most Californians:

"Education continues to rate high on Californians’ list of the major issues facing the state."

Californians don’t want to cut schools:

"Californians agree that K-12 education is the major spending area they most want to protect from state budget cuts and are concerned that the state’s budget gap will cause significant spending cuts."

Californians believe more money would help public schools:

"A majority of residents agree that additional state funding would lead to higher quality K-12 education (63%)."

There's more...

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Senator Art Torres (Ret.), Chairman of the California Democratic Party, issued the following statement on the five-year anniversary of President Bush’s declaration of "Mission Accomplished." Just days after Bush’s speech on the U.S.S. Lincoln, John McCain said "it’s clear that the end is very much in sight." Now -- five years, more than 4,000 lost lives, and at least $500 billion later -- John McCain says keeping our troops in Iraq for 100 years would be fine with him.  "John McCain is wrong on Iraq, and the wrong choice for California," said Torres. "After standing side-by-side with President Bush as he misled us into war and declared ‘mission accomplished’ before it was over, John McCain has been the President’s most loyal supporter every step of the way. John McCain doesn’t understand that Californians are not ‘fine’ with our troops staying in Iraq for 100 years under any circumstances. It is time to start using some of the $435 million a day, $3 billion per week, $12 billion a month we spend in Iraq to address the real threats to America's security, take care of our injured veterans and invest in confronting the challenges we face right here at home. Clearly, the only way to do that is to put a Democrat in the White House. Californians will vote to do just that come November."

[courtesy of Blog for America]

The Supreme Court continued its assault on, well, everything.  From the New York Times:

The Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s voter identification law on Monday, concluding in a splintered decision that the challengers failed to prove that the law’s photo ID requirement placed an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote.

Here is a link to the opinion and the dissents.

Danny

Communications Director

[courtesy of Blog for America]

I  have news for the forces of greed and the defenders of the status quo;
your time has come and gone. It's time for change in America.   Bill Clinton  
 

In his Pennsylvania primary speech, Barack Obama talked about change and how the Status Quo resists change. As I interview people about what are Progressive Values and about how Conservative Values have Failed, the interviewees repeatedly talk about the conservative fear of change and the promotion of the status quo.

We start off with this exploration of the Failed Conservative Value of the Status Quo with Barack Obama's speech on change versus the status quo.

 Failed Conservative Values: Barack Obama Status Quo v Change
 http://youtube.com/watch?v=IBCaqdH1FDY