by Bob Brigham [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

The United States Senate will soon vote on whether to provide retroactive immunity to the big telecom companies who broke the law with George Bush and violated the constitution with warrantless wiretaps (beginning before 9/11). From her absurd perch on the Judiciary Committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein has been leading the push to protect Bush by protecting the telecoms and preventing discovery in the case so the American people never get their day in court and our country may not be able to find out the true extent of shredding of the Constitution that DiFi enabled. Senator Feinstein put our presidential nominee in an awful position with her representation of the administration and made a joke of Art Torres.

Today is the big day and if Senator Feinstein violates her oath of office and does not defend the Constitution, she is likely to face censure again. And while DiFi never responded to the outcry by over 40 wonderful organizations leading the push to censure her, we do know where she stands on censure. You see, Feinstein once pushed her own censure resolution and tell me if the language she used doesn't sound like she thinks she should be censured.

by Bob Brigham [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

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

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

“Simply put, I cannot vote for another $165 billion to give President Bush a blank check”

By Dianne Feinstein
United State Senator
California

Simply put, I cannot vote for another $165 billion to give President Bush a blank check and fund the continuation of the war in Iraq, without condition, for over another year.

This is a difficult decision and not one I take lightly. But I believe that the time has come for Congress to exercise the power of the purse and bring this war to a conclusion.

I am a strong supporter of our troops in the field. They have done a tremendous job under difficult circumstances. They weren't greeted as liberators as Vice President Cheney said they would be.

Instead, they found themselves targets in an internecine battle, whose roots go back hundreds of years. They found themselves in the crossfire between Sunni insurgents and Shia extremists. They've done everything asked of them, with the courage and dedication that we expect from our service men and women.

But President Bush has never provided an exit strategy for Iraq. He has never laid out a plan for bringing our troops home.

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Senator Dianne Feinstein doesn't get a whole lot of props around here, but I will make note of her appearance on a Senatorial Bandwagon today.  She announced that she will now be cosponsoring Byron Dorgan's (D-SD) a response to the FCC's ignoring a Senate Resolution (not law), Media Ownership Act of 2007.  

This bill would"void the FCC's December 2007 rule change and reinstate the previous rule that prohibits cross-ownership of newspapers and broadcast stations in the same market." However, there's one big stumbling block: this bill is going to require a veto-proof majority as the President is sure to side with his media buddies, like Murdoch, on this one.

Let's see what Senator Feinstein's radical centrism can get for us this time. Let's see if she can help Dorgan whip up the 67 votes in the Senate, and perhaps lay the foundation for 2/3 over in the House as well.  It seems a tall task given the Republicans repeated love-affairs with the Murdoch's of the world.

Press release over the flip.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

You'd think the guy who promised to be the "Collectinator" and who stumped for President Bush in his re-election would be able to do more than whine about the lack of federal funds for California and the Administration's pulling of much of our state's National Guard equipment to fight the war in Iraq. But judging by the reports on Gov. Schwarzenegger's trip to the nation's capital, it appears that our Republican Governor has about as much clout with the Bush Administration as he does with the California legislature.

Over the course of his governorship, Schwarzenegger hasn't moved the needle in the amount of federal funds the state gets from D.C. It's stuck at about 79 cents that we get back from DC for every tax dollar we send. The Governor's D.C. lobbying office has gone thru several directors over his administration and Congressional insiders privately  say it hasn't been rejiggered to take into account that Democrats now control Congressional purse strings.

On top of that, Schwarzenegger is proposing to forfeit millions of dollars more in federal because of his budget cuts. Several proposals in Schwarzenegger's slash-and-burn budget proposal means losing state dollars that the feds match on a one-to-one basis.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

Their names have been known to the media who are trying to keep tabs on their leanings for Clinton or Obama, but not known to most Californians, even those who take their politics seriously. Here is the list of “Super Delegates” to the 2008 convention that will nominate the Democratic candidates for President and Vice-President, adopt a party platform, and make other decisions regarding future rules and practices of the party.

California, the largest state and largest delegation to the Convention has Super Delegates based on the following:

33 Democratic National Committee (DNC) Members, 31 Congressional Members, plus the vacant Tom Lantos seat which should be filled prior to the convention, and 1 former DNC Chair, Charles Manatt. Actually, there are 35 Democrats in Congress (33 House & the vacant Lantos seat, plus Senator Boxer and Senator Feinstein) but four of our Congressional Members are also on the DNC and therefore are counted as DNC Members.