May 24 Open Thread

CDP gave a couple million bucks to Jerry Brown's campaign (0.00 / 0)

It's not odd that people who've been following the CDP for a few years would assume that the we acted as a "conduit" on behalf of the Brown campaign.  But there's a new sheriff in town, and we are actually working on behalf of our candidates these days.  Our chairman, John Burton, our executive director Shawnda Westley and our CFO Angie Tate have been working: planning a kick ass convention, ramping up aggressive voter reg in red districts, running trainings all over the state, and raising money to keep the party doors open.  On top of that, they actually raised money to make sure the better candidate for governor (who is Jerry Brown regardless of which billionaire money grabber buys - oh, I mean wins - the Rep nomination) has the resources to campaign for the November election.  
We don't want a repeat of 2006 when our nominee entered the race against a movie star with NO money for the campaign.
Of course, "a couple million" would be chump change to the mercenaries we're running against, but we also have a corps of re-energized party activists.  So those guys can eat our f**king dust.  (Having John Burton for chair is so liberating!)

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by: Hilary Crosby @ Tue May 25, 2010 at 15:09:43 PM UTC

Amazing, really. (0.00 / 0)

Age old strategy aphorism:  If your enemy sleeps, do not wake him.  
Supposedly business savvy Whitman went savagely negative way to soon when she had no need to do so, provoking a similar and highly effective response from Poisoner.  She could have sat on her lead.  What a dumb move.  Would she be any smarter as governor?  Doubt it.

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by: SGWM @ Tue May 25, 2010 at 16:44:22 PM UTC

Alaska comparison makes no sense (0.00 / 0)

The article explains that legalization of weed in CA will lead to the same situation as in Alaska, where people have a false belief that smoking weed is legal, when in fact, all they have is a privacy right to do what they want in their homes. Further the article posits that Alaska has an extremely high rate of drug abuse rate, which will occur in CA if weed law is passed.

Ok. To start with the first comparison, the legalized weed proposition would make weed legal in California for those 21+ depending on county participation. In Alaska, the only thing that is legal is well.. nothing. Weed is still illegal under state law, but they can't bust down your door for smoking it in your house. The article notes that it is still illegal federally. But that overlooks the fact that local police don't enforce federal law. They enforce local and state law, which again, Alaska never made weed legal. They just made it so they can't arrest you for smoking within your home. The fact that feds will still enforce federal law concerning weed is not inconsistent with how medical marijuana works today. If weed is legalized, it would make sense that the feds would go after real law breakers, like those who plant weed illegally in national forests, and those who smuggle it across the border.

Second, you can't compare drug abuse in Alaska to California. I'm willing to bet 100% that Californians do more weed than in Alaska. And as far as other drugs go... Dude. It's fuckin Alaska. There is nothing to do there. Not to mention the fact that Alaska still lives in 1800's America.

This is just a poor comparison meant to scare people away from the voter initiative. The truth is that we are doing a lot of trailblazing with weed in this state for which there is no apt comparison.

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by: largo @ Fri May 28, 2010 at 17:46:16 PM UTC