Decision

The California Supreme Court will deliver its verdict on Tuesday morning at 10am PT on whether or not to throw out Prop. 8, a Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in the state. Brian Devine has the best legal description of this anywhere, which you can read here. The Court isn't really looking at the law itself, but whether a change of this type violates the limited ability of the people to amend the Constitution through an initiative; in other words, whether Prop. 8 was an amendment, which is legal through the initiative process that was used, or a revision, which requires a more deliberative process.

Based on the oral arguments, most people believe that the Court will not overturn Prop. 8, but may allow the 18,000 marriages that were consummated when same-sex marriage in the state was legal to remain that way. But the Court could surprise.

The initiative battle and particularly the aftermath of Prop. 8 have sparked a tremendous amount of activism in the state and nationally. Regardless of the outcome, the group at Day of Decision will hold nationwide events praising or protesting the Court ruling. On Saturday, 70 civil rights and progressive groups are sponsoring Meet In The Middle For Equality, a large gathering in Fresno, CA.

Lucas O'Connor remarks:

All of which adds up to yes, Prop 8 has proven to be one of the best organizing points in recent decades for the state of California. It's been a perfect storm of tactical and technological innovation from facebook and text messaging plus orgs like Courage Campaign and CREDO meeting resurgent activist energy and experience coming from the issue and the '08 presidential campaign legacy.

Like with the Dallas Principles, those battling for equality have devised new outlets for activism which have amped up the pressure for action at every level. 300,000 people have signed the pledge to repeal Prop. 8. Grassroots groups have sprung up out of nowhere, with more coming on line every day. There is no equal to the activism and organizing this has set off.

If I have any faith left in the ability for California to manage its seemingly intractable governmental problems, it's because I see this effort that has been launched in the name of rights and equality, and dream that it can be scaled up into a larger progressive movement that expands the fight for justice. Such an organizing effort has never even really been tried in the nation's largest state, and if successful could spread like wildfire across the country.

Update On The Campaign To Impeach Jay Bybee

Since my action on Saturday to spark a grassroots movement to impeach Bush Torture Judge Jay Bybee, there have been multiple developments. With respect to the resolution at the California Democratic Party convention for impeachment, which I think could advance the ball on this greatly, my grassroots petition has gained 3,177 signatures as of 1:45pm PT. And now, I'm proud to say that the Courage Campaign, California's version of MoveOn.org, has joined the fight, urging its California residents to support this resolution so that the whole state Democratic Party speaks with one voice about the need to remove the man who justified torture from office.

When President Barack Obama released the contents of President Bush's torture memos, America learned the full extent of the horror that was unleashed at Guanatanamo Bay on detainees. One of the memos was written by Jay Bybee in August 2002. It authorized the use of waterboarding, "cramped confinement", "walling" -- where a detainee's head is repeatedly pushed against a wall -- and even putting insects into a confined space with a detainee.

Jay Bybee is now a federal judge here in California, serving on the important Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco. He has not been held accountable for the lawbreaking he committed and enabled.

The California grassroots are determined to change that. Los Angeles Democratic activists John Heaner, Agi Kessler and Richard Mathews have sponsored a resolution calling on the House of Representatives to begin impeachment proceedings against Jay Bybee.

Please join the L.A. County Democratic Party, Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles, and the Crooks and Liars blog by signing your name in support of this resolution. DEADLINE: Friday 9 AM.

More groups have joined the cause. Progressive Democrats of America has a tool to ask your member of Congress to initiate impeachment proceedings. The Center for Constitutional Rights are also calling for impeachment. And Jerrold Nadler, a senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, has done the same.

Rep. Jerry Nadler, a senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called Monday for the impeachment of federal judge Jay Bybee, one of the principal authors of the torture memos released last week by the Obama administration.

"He ought to be impeached," Nadler said in an interview with the Huffington Post. "It was not an honest legal memo. It was an instruction manual on how to break the law."

Nadler is also calling for a special prosecutor to investigate Bybee and the other architects of torture. But I want to focus on building this movement for impeachment, because we need to start with something tangible as a means to growing this coalition. The case should be more than clear that someone with the appalling judgment to sign their name to a justification of torture simply shouldn't be sitting in judgment of other Americans. Ian Milhiser makes the legal case here:

OLC attorneys are not like other Executive Branch officials because their job is not to advance the President’s agenda or to defend the government’s actions. Rather, the purpose of OLC is to give neutral, disinterested opinions about what the law does or does not require. In this sense, the relationship between an OLC attorney and the President is more like that between a judge and a litigant than it is like that between an attorney and a client.

So Bybee’s memos instructing Executive Branch members that they could exploit a captive’s fear of stinging incects by locking him in a coffin with bugs, or nearly drown that captive, or deprive him of sleep for 11 days at a time, were not simply a lawyer offering incompetent advice on how his client could comply with the law. Rather, these memos were a total abdication of his unique role as an OLC attorney—to tell the President “no” when the law clearly and unambiguously says that what the President wants to do is illegal [...]

The Federal Torture Statute prohibits U.S. officials outside of the United States from inflicting “the threat of imminent death” on another person within his custody. Yet Bybee specifically advised the Bush Administration that they could waterboard detainees; an act which, by definintion, is intended to cause its victim to believe that they are in imminent danger of death by drowning. In other words, it is very unlikely that Bybee was actually providing legal advice to the Bush Administration—if he was, that he should be disbarred for sheer incompetence—and far more likely that he was simply seeking to apply the patina of legitimacy which an OLC opinion provides to the Adminstration’s pre-selected policies. He was far more an accomplice than an advisor.

Those Bush apologists cannot defend the indefensible. Bybee hid the truth during his confirmation hearings and should be compelled to answer for his role in perpetrating war crimes.

I believe the best way to start this is to urge the California Democratic Party to follow the lead of its branch in Los Angeles County, and resolve to impeach Jay Bybee. You can sign my petition to call on the CDP to support the resolution. And you can let the leadership of the California Democratic Party know personally your thoughts on this issue.

Sacramento Office
(916) 442-5707 phone
(916) 442-5715 fax

Los Angeles Office
(310) 407-0980 phone
(310) 407-0981 fax

email contact form

Please get involved in this growing movement. Thanks.

UPDATE: People for the American Way has just jumped aboard. From their email;

Yesterday the New York Times published an editorial calling for the impeachment of U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Jay Bybee, for his role in trying to bend the law to justify the Bush administration's torture policies when he headed the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. Of the memos written by Bybee, the editorial states, "These memos make it clear that Mr. Bybee is unfit for a job that requires legal judgment and a respect for the Constitution."

We agree.

Please speak out and urge Congress to bring impeachment charges against Jay Bybee.

UPDATE II: The Center For American Progress, a think tank, has through its American Progress Action Fund called on Congress to impeach Jay Bybee. This coalition continues to grow. And Rep. Linda Sanchez, a California Democrat and senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, released this statement:

During my time as Chairwoman of the Commercial and Administrative Law Judiciary subcommittee, I made it clear that no one is above the law and Congress should hold accountable public servants who dismiss that. Americans spoke loud and clear in November: they were fed up with the Bush administration's disregard of the law.

Bybee twisted legal reasoning to desecrate basic fundamentals of our country, and I am not comfortable with the fact that he will be on the federal bench for a lifetime appointment. While I am pleased that the Obama Administration is fulfilling pledges of transparency, I feel that if we fail to act on these detestable facts, we are sending the wrong message.

If you're not comfortable with his lifetime appointment, Rep. Sanchez, you have options. Impeach.

Feinstein's Dishonest Spin on Employee Free Choice

At The Plum Line, Greg Sargent takes a look at Dianne Feinstein's lack of support for the Employee Free Choice Act. She remains the only Congressional Democrat from California not to co-sponsor the bill, and according to her spokesman, she's looking for the mythical bipartisanship pony.

“I have thought for some time that the way to approach this issue is by trying to see if there can’t be a compromise between the business community, the agriculture community and labor. This is an extraordinarily difficult economy and feelings are very strong on both sides of the issue. I would hope there is some way to find common ground that would be agreeable to both business and labor.”

This is complete nonsense. Employers are firing workers who try to organize. They intimidate workers into voting against their better interests. One out of every four unions elections were marred by illegal firings in 2007. I don't know how you can possibly reconcile the two sides given that scenario.

Furthermore, the invocation of the "difficult economy" is another red herring. Sen. Tom Harkin has already done away with this nonsense by pulling out his history book.

The bill's supporters are pointing to the downturn as the ultimate proof of their arguments that labor's decline has helped put the economy out of balance and that only by restoring workers' purchasing power can the nation return to broadly shared prosperity.

"In 1935, we passed the Wagner Act that promoted unionization and allowed unions to flourish, and at the time we were at around 20 percent unemployment. So tell me again why we can't do this in a recession?" said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), invoking the pro-labor changes of the New Deal. "This is the time to do it. This is exactly the time we should be insisting on a fairer playing field for people to organize themselves."

Because of Sen. Specter's announced opposition, the Employee Free Choice Act faces an uphill battle. But at the very least, Californians should expect that all of their representatives in Washington would understand the need to strengthen unions as a means to strengthening the overall middle class, increasing wages and BOOSTING, not hurting the economy. Feinstein has a choice to make, and you can sign this letter from the Courage Campaign to let her know you're watching her.

Dear Senator Dianne Feinstein,

In this time of economic crisis, we are distressed to hear that you have not yet endorsed the Employee Free Choice Act, especially as conservatives launch a massive campaign to discredit and oppose the bill.

The Employee Free Choice Act, which you co-sponsored and voted for in 2007, is a centerpiece of progressive efforts to help working Americans recover from this economic crisis. As in the Great Depression, the best way to rebuild the middle class is to allow workers to form unions. Workers covered by a union contract have better wages and benefits. Non-union workers benefit from these higher standards when unions are strong in their areas.

We, the undersigned, call upon you to endorse and to co-sponsor the Employee Free Choice Act. We ask that you join President Barack Obama, Senator Barbara Boxer, the entire California Democratic delegation in the House of Representatives, members of labor unions and progressives across America in ensuring that this act becomes law in 2009.

Why Invoke?

We're in the phase of the Rick Warren scandal where people dutifully collect all the soundbites of things he's said over the years. And while sometimes this tends to take people out of context, I don't think the media had a problem applying that standard to Jeremiah Wright, so here goes. Warren thinks that gay people are just immature and lack character and if they could only sublimate their desire like, say, a rapist who doesn't assault every woman who walks down the street (which he compares to HIMSELF), or a violent man who doesn't punch everyone he sees, then they could join civil society. As a result, Warren BANS unrepentant gays from membership at his church. And he's apparently sponsored ex-gay "recovery" sessions at Saddleback. And there are probably a dozen other things, but these are the ones that struck me.

Now, the idea that liberals have to accommodate someone like this at the inauguration because we have to be "inclusive," but Rick Warren doesn't need to accommodate a damn thing, is obviously disappointing and maybe shows you where the Obama campaign's head is at. I also understand that this is that thing called politics, and plenty of other execrable fellows are going to be traipsing in and out of Obama's White House, although unlike The Editors, I think you can answer the question of whether this will help Obama with white evangelicals (hell to the no; he got 25% in 2008 after appearing with Warren on stage, offering expanded faith-based initiatives and creating a whole "Matthew 25" movement. This is tribal. It ain't happening).

However, the comment over the last couple days with which I identify the most is clearly from bmaz.

Why is any of this, Warren, Lowery, or any other religious figure, an official part of the inauguration? If a religious aspect is desired for private parties later etc., fine, but why should overt religion be sanctioned as part of the official initiation of a Presidency? No matter how it is configured, it is going to be offensive to many groups inherently; i.e. those whose religions are snubbed, and those such as the LGBT community, for instance in relation to Warren. Probably some groups somewhere will be similarly put off by Joe Lowery; and, of course, the non-believers and/or atheists don't like any of it.

"America" should not have a preacher. If individuals wish to consider religion vis a vis their government, that is most excellent, but it should be and by individual choice only. God is not for a nation to possess, nor claim the mantle of; that is the province of the individuals in the nation to do, or not do, on their own.

Seven percent of the country does not believe in God. They aren't organized or a political force by any means, but they are Americans, and they are certainly not "included" in this civil ceremony inaugurating a President. What's more, 17% of Americans say that religion is "not very important" in their life, and 57% don't attend church weekly. Are they factored into this inclusive inauguration, with its opening invocation and closing benediction? I see absolutely no reason for this to be part of a Constitutional handover of power.

But I'm probably in the minority. However, doesn't that mean that I should be given a platform and that others will have to "agree to disagree" with me?

Meanwhile, the Courage Campaign is proposing a debate between Warren and Reverend Eric Lee of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Todd Beeton has the details:

We can not ignore Rick Warren's fervent support for Proposition 8 or his mobilization of thousands of evangelical Christians to enshrine discrimination into our state constitution.

Harvey Milk did not ignore John Briggs in 1978, when Briggs sought to pass Proposition 6 -- the infamous "Briggs Initiative" that attempted to ban gay and lesbian teachers, and anyone who supported them, from our California's public schools. Milk challenged Briggs to debates across the state.

Sign the petition. Let's have a debate. Maybe they'll even put an atheist on the stage!

SD-19: Progressive Movement And Enviros Team Up To Fight Greenwashing

The most hotly anticipated State Senate election this year is in the 19th District covering Santa Barbara and Ventura County, between Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson and Republican Tony Strickland. Though the two are almost polar opposites, the chunk of the district in Santa Barbara, where residents have long memories about the 1969 oil spill, makes it impossible for Republicans to win with their "Drill Now" message on energy. So Tony Strickland opted to run some ads that Al Gore might have run were he to be contesting in the district, highlighting renewable energy through wind, solar, algae, tidal and other forms. This is completely at odds with Strickland's doctrinaire Republican record, with votes against green building standards, minimum renewable energy standards, and even fuel-efficient tires. Strickland has taken money from Big Oil and stood with global warming denialists in the recent past. It's incongruous for him to carry a pro-environment message.

So I hooked up with the Courage Campaign and the California League of Conservation Voters to put together a little video highlighting this incongruity.



What's interesting is that the Courage Campaign's Web tool invited those supporters who received their email blast to spread the word, and they were so successful, both online political reporters at the Ventura County Star, the region's biggest newspaper, covered the video. More important, the Jackson campaign has been energized to fight back against some of Strickland allies' misleading ads on taxes, and in doing so buttresses the outside groups' take about Strickland's terrible environmental record.



So progressive groups are ensuring that Strickland gets away with nothing in this race, and in turn the Jackson campaign is fighting back as well and counter-punching swiftly and effectively. This is a growing success story in the 19th.

Arnold and Them

Bravo to the Courage Campaign for putting together this excellent video, in the "Roger & Me" style, about trying to deliver petitions to Governor Schwarzenegger from over 28,000 constituents who don't want to see state workers get shafted with a slash in salary to the federal minimum wage because the lawmakers can't come up with a budget. They also would like you to call Arnold.

On the same day that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger received 28,016 petition signatures from the Courage Campaign, True Majority, and CREDO Mobile, Arnold announced that he would delay signing an Executive Order slashing the wages of over 200,000 state workers to $6.55 an hour, the federal minimum wage.

That's the good news. The bad news is that Arnold delayed the Executive Order signing to Thursday.

That's 24 hours from now. Which means we still have time TODAY to pressure Arnold to stop holding state workers hostage to his political budget negotiation games.

As a community of concerned citizens, we've got just a few hours to take action together. On behalf of hundreds of thousands of state workers, please pick up your phone right now and call Arnold.

Let's flood the Governor's phone lines. Here are several numbers for Arnold -- call one, call some or call them all:
Sacramento: 916-445-2841 (press 1, 2, and 0 to speak to a live person)

Fresno: 559-445-5295 (a live person should answer your call)

Los Angeles: 213-897-0322 (a live person should answer your call)

Riverside: 951-680-6860 (a live person should answer your call)

San Diego: 619-525-4641 (a live person should answer your call)

San Francisco: 415-703-2218 (a live person should answer your call)

Washington D.C.: 202-624-5270 (press 0 to leave a general message)

This is great citizen activism - it's not necessarily going to stop Arnold from this callous action, but it'll raise awareness to exactly what he's doing. Meanwhile, John Chiang has vowed not to carry out the policy, and he'll need backup.

The Fight For Health Reform

Today begins the AHIP (Association of Health Insurance Plans) conference in San Francisco, and Hillary Clinton's lead shill Terry McAuliffe will be addressing the crowd. The health insurance industry is the single largest force blocking meaningful reform in the United States, and for any Democrat to treat them as a partner and an ally - and to take money from them in speaking fees - is unacceptable. McAuliffe, of course, is part of the establishment crowd who is very cozy with corporate interests and dismissive of conflicts with the values and principles they don't seem to have. David Broder makes a mint on corporate speaking deals even though he covers a lot of the corporations that pay him. They don't see a problem with this - it's how things are done in Washington. Which is why the rest of us see no progress on the issues that affect us.

The Courage Campaign (I've done a little work for them but am not an employee) has highlighted this disconnect and is rallying in San Francisco today.

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.

The last I checked, being able to hear is not "optional" medical care. Unfortunately, my sister is one of over 100 million Americans who either have no health insurance coverage or are underinsured. My entire family worries about her, but the system is designed by these health insurance executives to keep her out -- not to help her.

Health care is a human right. The middlemen have a fiduciary obligation to their shareholders to deny that. Politicians and insiders like Terry McAuliffe get paid off by these middlemen to legitimize it.

The coalition is building to end this perversion. In California we're going to end rescission and ban junk insurance. It's a game of inches, but we're putting an end to the stranglehold groups like AHIP have over public policy.

Bigger Than Dirty Tricks: The Corruption of Direct Democracy

So I edited this video for Courage Campaign about the dirty tricks initiative. Erik Love went up to UC-Santa Barbara and explored the foul underbelly of paid signature gatherers.



There's no smoking gun here, and yet there's a lot of smoke. Clearly the petitioners are luring potential signers over there with the prospect of helping kids survive cancer, and then the dirty tricks initiative is sprung upon them. I think the most damning bit is when the signature gatherer admits that he has nothing to do with the procedures and he is just told how many signatures to get. There's a "by any means necessary" approach that goes beyond this initiative and to the signature gathering process as a whole. It's a scummy, dirty business, and this gives it a little bit of sunshine.

Erik has more at DKos.

UPDATE: And more shenanigans.

The chairman of a committee formed to fight a ballot initiative to change how California’s electoral college votes are apportioned has asked the city attorney here to investigate a report that a group collecting signatures for the initiative has offered food to homeless people in exchange for signing the petitions [...]

Mr. Steyer’s letter, dated Nov. 19, stems from an article in The Los Angeles Downtown News that detailed reporters’ observations of signature gatherers asking homeless people on the city’s notorious Skid Row for their signatures to help qualify the electoral vote initiative and three others, as well as asking them to fill out voter registration cards.

In exchange, the paper reported, homeless people and those in nearby shelters were given Snickers bars, instant noodles and other snack foods.

If California outlawed initiatives tomorrow, I don't think I'd miss them.

A Turning Point For The Progressive Movement in California

Here we see California Democratic Party strategist Bob Mulholland acting like a four year-old because he feels the grip of power slipping away.



Julia Rosen has the full story on this at Crooks and Liars. Much ink has been spilled from the results of the executive board meeting and the squashing of the censure resolution of Dianne Feinstein, but the bottom line is this. That meeting will be remembered as the moment when the grassroots rose to prominence in California. It will be remembered as the moment that Courage Campaign became the MoveOn.org of California. And it will be remembered as a turning point, the moment when the establishment that has been running the Party their way for decades finally got nervous.

Art Torres' message to the party was cleverly edited to make it look like he just spent a few minutes on the Feinstein situation. Actually, he spent about a half-hour on it, extolling the virtues of the senior Senator and pleading with the members not to go forward with condemning her. The scene in the Resolutions Committee resulted in the chairman phsyically shoving an activist for putting up a sign. That's a defensive posture, and it springs from the mentality of a leadership which chooses not to work in concert with, or even listen to, its base.

Bob Mulholland is nothing but a firewall. He was sent in to hold back the rabble, and this past weekend he did his job. That he's paid by the rank and file of the party to ensure that their voices aren't heard is certainly perverse, but the bigger problem is who's paying him. Last weekend's events did change the conversation. The Party leadership has two options. They can listen to the concerns of the rank and file, and build lines of communication to facilitate that, or they can continue this practice of stonewalling and plowing forward with their own agenda. The former could succeed; the latter is destined to fail.

DiFi Watch: MoveOn Calls For Censure

Adding to the dozens of organizations trying to hold Sen. Feinstein accountable is MoveOn, who sent their 500,000-member list in California this today:

Dear fellow Californian,

Last week, every member of the Senate had a chance to take a stand against torture. Most Democrats did-they opposed the nomination of Michael Mukasey for Attorney General because he left the door open to torture. He wouldn't, for example, say whether water-boarding-an interrogation technique that simulates drowning-constituted torture.

But Senator Feinstein wasn't with the majority of Democrats-she actually cast a pivotal vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee to confirm him.

And that's not all. In recent months, Senator Feinstein backed the president on issues ranging from right-wing judges to immunity for phone companies that broke the law.

Now, California Democrats-led by our friends at the Courage Campaign-are seriously organizing to get her attention. They've launched a grassroots campaign to ask the California Democratic Party to officially censure Senator Feinstein when its executive board meets this weekend.

The medium is really the message here. The actual censure resolution is not going to pass. Establishment CDP types will squash it at the Resolutions Committee and ignore the grassroots call for change in the process.

"It is going to be thrown out and rejected," said Bob Mulholland, a veteran party strategist in Sacramento. "Sometimes people can't anticipate or can't understand the big picture."

State Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres did not return messages seeking comment. But his spokesman Roger Salazar told the Sacramento Bee, "this party supports our Democratic senator and will continue to do so...Period."

Bob Mulholland, by the way, is unbelievably out of touch.

I'm told that PDA is set to go forward with signature gathering to bring the censure resolution to the floor if it's blocked in committee, but apparently, because it's a late resolution, that would be out of order. The CDP bigwigs are likely to succeed in protecting their own little fiefdom here.

However, the real benefit is in the attention this garnered. Not just in the blogosphere, where stalwarts like Glenn Greenwald ripped apart the CDP's incumbency-protection-at-all-costs statement...

The Chairman has so decreed. And one can only marvel at the patronizing explanation that those who are angry about Feinstein's Bush-revering simply "can't understand the big picture."

So, in other words, they'll blindly support Feinstein no matter what she does. And she'll continue to support the Bush administration no matter what. That means, by virtue of the transitive property, that the Democratic Party apparatus will continue to support the Bush administration no matter what -- which is, of course, what explains what has been happening the last several years, and particularly this year.

...but throughout the progressive movement. Not all of MoveOn's membership aggressively follows the news. They share the organization's values and rely on it for information about what's happening. The liberal base of the party just got dropped on what Dianne Feinstein's been up to, and this will only snowball the calls for action.

The CDP has changed a little for the better overall, but at the upper echelons, they're still a relic, a by-product of insider hacks and wannabe politicians who worship at the altar of power and are stuck in a DLC-type mindset. The Legislature is too swamped by money and too concerned with self-aggrandizement. The reforms needed are obvious but there's a brick wall or hackdom you have to cut through to get to them. This mini-revolt against Feinstein is not an isolated incident, it's a symptom of something much bigger that's wrong with the Party. With a trashed Republican brand, we can do so much better than where we are right now.

Murder

An Iraqi official tells it like it is.

The Iraqi prime minister’s office said Sunday that the government’s investigation had determined that Blackwater USA private security guards who shot Iraqi civilians three weeks ago in a Baghdad square sprayed gunfire in nearly every direction, committed “deliberate murder” and should be punished accordingly.

Iraqi investigators, supported by Iraqi witness accounts, have said unofficially that they could not find evidence of any attack on the Blackwater guards that might have provoked the shooting on Nisour Square, which the Iraqis say killed 17 and wounded 27. But the statement by Ali al-Dabbagh, a spokesman for the prime minister, is the first indication that the government considers its investigation completed and the shootings unprovoked.

“This is a deliberate crime against civilians,” Mr. Dabbagh said. “It should be tried in court and the victims should be compensated.”

Murder is what we're talking about here, nothing different. And unprovoked murder, at that. And if the system is the same today as it was last Christmas, those murderers will end up with a new job within weeks:

The Blackwater guard who drunkenly shot a bodyguard for Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mehdi in December 2006 was back working for a Department of Defense contractor by February, CNN reported this morning.

And in a letter House oversight committee Chair Henry Waxman (D-CA) sent to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today, he asks why. He suggests that the reason it was so easy for the guard, Andrew J. Moonen, to get back to work, was because the State Department didn't inform the Defense Department about what the ex-Blackwater employee did to get initially expelled from Iraq. Moonen returned to Kuwait in February, CNN reported, working for Defense Department contractor Combat Support Associates (CSA).

This is about more than Blackwater. It's about the entire contracting process, and about the entire legal murky waters surrounding it. But Blackwater is a powerful symbol. And keeping them out of California is paramount right now. The Courage Campaign is trying to stop Blackwater from building a mammoth training facility in San Diego County. They organized over 300 supporters in San Diego just yesterday to protest it. Blackwater is pulling out all the stops to circumnavigate any real oversight and get their training facility. We need to tell them no.

UPDATE: The Iraqi government is again calling for the removal of Blackwater USA, as well as $8 million in compensation for each of the families of men and women killed in the incident at Nisour Square. When the United States refuses to do so, expect Iraq at some point to erupt.

No Dirty Tricks - The Movie

I was up half the night putting together this little video for the Courage Campaign's effort to fight this Republican dirty trick to split California's electoral votes and steal the Presidential election. We got a handful of semi-famous bloggers together (Jane Hamsher from Firedoglake, John Amato from Crooks and Liars, Howie Klein from Down With Tyranny, some Kos diarists, and more) and sent a message that we can fight this thing, energize California Democrats, and make the Republicans wish they never brought it up in the first place.



The Courage Campaign is setting up a conference call featuring Bradley Whitford of The West Wing to discuss the next steps. You can RSVP for it at the link.

From The People Who Brought You The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth...

The San Jose Mercury News has delved deeper (reg. req'd) into the connections between the GOP law firm pushing the dirty trick initiative to steal the 2008 Presidential election, and past ratfucking operations of years past. At the top of the list is the key financier from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Lawyers behind a California ballot proposal that could benefit the 2008 Republican presidential nominee have ties to a Texas homebuilder who financed attacks on Democrat John Kerry's Vietnam War record in the 2004 presidential campaign.

Charles H. Bell and Thomas Hiltachk's (Arnold's former personal lawyer --ed.) law firm banked nearly $65,000 in fees from a California-based political committee funded almost solely by Bob J. Perry that targeted Democrats in 2006. Perry, a major Republican donor, contributed nearly $4.5 million to the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that made unsubstantiated but damaging attacks on Kerry three years ago.

The Perry-financed committee in California, the Economic Freedom Fund, continued to spend money this year, mostly on legal expenses tied to an ongoing legal dispute in Indiana over phone calls made to voters in 2006. It lists the Sacramento law office's address as its home and its Web site directs contributions to the firm, Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk. In addition, Bell serves as the committee's treasurer.

I highlighted that other bit because it's significant that Perry also financed the major dirty trick of the 2006 election: numerous illegal robocalls to voters in swing districts, pretending to be from Democrats. So the same law firm trying to split California's electoral votes have taken cash from the major Republican dirty tricks operations over the last several years.

It's unclear whether Perry has given to this current power grab. But with his name in the rolodex, it would be absurd to think he won't.

Here's a little more on the law firm, Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk:

Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk is one of the most politically involved law firms in the state. According to a news story on its Web site, Bell keeps a life-sized cardboard image of President Bush in his office. Federal records show the firm does legal work for a host of political committees, most with Republican or business ties.

"It comes across as a power grab," said Republican analyst Allan Hoffenblum, who predicted the proposal would likely fail in the Democratic-leaning state. Even Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger offered a lukewarm assessment of the idea.

Here's Digby on the power grab.

They really couldn't be more obvious.

I suspect this is as much mind fuck as anything, and perhaps a simple desire to force Democrats to spend money on something they don't want to spend it on, but you cannot take that for granted. These people have no compunction about cheating. They've shown that. Look what it got us in 2000. And if they succeed again, the press will just laugh and giggle about haircuts and cleavage and tell everyone to get over it. Just like last time. And the time before. And the time before that.

This is about spending money, certainly, but I do think it could backfire by energizing California and national Democrats in a way that they are rarely energized about anything. If we build a broad-based movement around first fighting this dirty trick and then making them pay, they could rue the day they ever put this out. Courage Campaign is raising money to fight this at the grassroots level, with low-dollar, broad-based donations. They've already raised $7,000 from over 250 contributors within less than 24 hours. Let's get to 1,000.

This is something that impacts everyone around the country. A strong people-powered movement in California will resonate everywhere, and this can be the spark that will light that movement. Let's not let the type of tactics we saw with the Swifties predominate. Let's make these thieves pay.

UPDATE: It was a blogger, our own Frank Russo of the California Progress Report who exposed Bell, McAndrews and HIltachk's involvement with the Swiftboaters. If you want to see more digging like this, more people-powered exposure of these dirty tricksters, give to the Courage Campaign fund to stop this power grab in its tracks. You can give at the donation box to your right through my ActBlue page.