In my activist days I have never seen an organization take of quite as fast as this one. That includes the Tea Party. The following is a request for your participation in directing where the organization should go. Another great thing is the folks behind this know the internet, social media and costs/money. Needless to say I am impressed. I think you will be, too.
Three weeks ago, I announced the launch of Rebuild the Dream, and we started the process to create a Contract for the American Dream. I was hopeful and optimistic. But honestly, the whole idea was unproven. I wasn't quite sure if everyone else felt the same sense of energy and opportunity that I felt.
Now I'm convinced-because in the past three weeks more than 13,000 people have signed up to gather at American Dream house meetings, 16,000 ideas have been submitted for possible inclusion in the Contract for the American Dream, and together we've rated them more than 3.5 million times!
Today I'm writing to ask you to help finish collecting and rating the very best solutions. We will feed these ideas into our discussions at next week's meetings about what belongs in the Contract.
The final area we're focusing on is how to protect the foundation for strong communities and a thriving middle class in this country: good schools, access to healthcare, a clean environment, robust Social Security, and a strong safety net for when hard times hit.
To remind us how we ended up here, we put together a funny and informative new video that lays out how the middle class got in trouble in the first place.
Check it out. Then let's finish choosing the best Contract for the American Dream ideas:
I have to hand it to Nancy Skinner (AD-14). She understands what it takes to get the public to be responsible for their own energy use and cost. Her sponsorship of AB560 would expand the amount of independently produced solar energy that the states utilities are required to buy from 2.5% to 5.0 percent. The mechanism is called net metering. It did not even get out of committee.
Van Jones is clearly controversial. His signature on the truther document is rather unfortunate, and a mistake. He has acknowledged that mistake. The Republicans as assholes thing seems pretty petty to me. All in all, Republicans have done a lot worse things, illegal things, and stayed in their jobs. But, IOKIYAR, right?
Van Jones made some remarkable changes here in the Bay Area and across the state. That the White House was not there to support him is beyond unfortunate. It hands a scalp to the nearly mortally wounded Glenn Beck and it empowers the right-wing extremists.
I'm heartbroken over Van's departure because it's these little meaningless concessions that undermine people's faith in the system. You get folks all riled up about change. You empower a man who embodies that change. And they you let him be run out of office by fucking Glenn Beck? So Glenn Beck is running the White House now? Is that how it's gonna be? Just tell me that I knocked on all those doors for nothing, and I can start the grieving process, but don't pretend this will solve anything.
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How do you expect folks to continue to go to the mat for your agenda, when you so easily sacrifice our best and brightest at the whim of an illegitimate lynch mob? How do you expect the next generation to invest themselves in the political process when they see that despite their good works, they can be taken out over nonsense, especially when the double standard is so abundantly clear? How can you ask from us what you won't do for us? And when will you realize that you cannot negotiate with terrorists?
Van Jones, in my book, is a guy who a) knows his stuff and b) can get things done. Just the kind of guy you want in the administration. And as we try to get the Green Jobs thing moving, his role as the green jobs czar will be increasingly important. And Jones tells it like it is. When asked why Republicans were able to pass legislation despite their relatively smaller minorities, Jones answered in a brutally honest fashion:
JONES: Well the answer to that is, they're assholes.
QUESTIONER: I was afraid that was the answer.
JONES: As a technical, political kind of term. And Barack Obama is not an asshole. Now, I will say this: I can be an asshole, and some of us who are not Barack Hussein Obama, are going to have to start getting a little bit uppity. (HuffPo)
Now, if you read this whole quote, you will see that he's not really using the term in a pejorative sense, after all he goes on to call himself an asshole as well. As I read it, he is essentially saying that the Republicans were hard-nosed and dedicated to their cause. They pushed it through no matter what. Jones is saying that is what is needed, and that he can do the same thing.
Of course, Fox News and the Gang are UP IN ARMS over this. Of course, they don't look at the whole context, but take away the one line and go play the victim on national TV. Van Jones is a bully, they say, and just plane rude. And a communist, of course!
Steve Poizner, who seems to be growing a little antsy by all the attention that eMeg is getting, thinks that he can tie this all together. A few weeks ago, eMeg commented on Jones and the time that she spent with him on a cruise to the Antarctic for a research/publicity kind of thing. She gave him a few shallow comments, calling him bright, articulate, and passionate.
Poizner is now making it an issue after the leaders of the GOP, aka the radio shock jocks made it an issue. One "Jaz McKay" is having none of this mushy middle:
JAZ MCKAY: Just to do it. I'm just going to. I'm not voting for her. I'm telling you right now. Her position on the 2nd Amendment has already pissed me off to no end. I ain't voting for her.
JOHN HAWKINS: Come on. Who doesn't love a Republican who wants to take your guns?
JAZ MCKAY: Who doesn't love a Republican who goes on global warming cruises with communists, right?
JOHN HAWKINS: And talks about how much she loves them after.
JAZ MCKAY: Ah, just loves them.
Whitman and Poizner have been swapping barbs for a while now over some really petty stuff. But hey, grab a snack, and just enjoy. Jones isn't going to lose sleep over this, and this will make not one iota of difference in the grand scheme of things. It's just another distraction from the real issues that face Californians.
Peep the flip for the radio transcript and a video of Whitman talking about Jones.
Yesterday I was excited to announce that the SEIU California State Council has endorsed me in my race to represent California's 10th Congressional District, a Northern California district encompassing parts of Contra Costa, Solano, Alameda, and Sacramento counties. With 700,000 members, SEIU is the largest labor union in California, and their ranks include a broad cross-section of working Californians, including social workers, nurses, classroom aides, security officers, college professors, homecare workers, janitors, and more.
Why I'm motivated to lead on single-payer health care, the Employee Free Choice Act, and green-collar jobs over the flip...
(A post from Mayor Newsom. As a reminder, elected officials are encouraged to post on Calitics; we'll do our best to promote them to the front page promptly. - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
Every day more San Francisco residents and businesses are signing up for two San Francisco programs that will cut monthly utility bills and help the City meet its greenhouse gas reduction goals. One is SF Energy Watch, which provides technical assistance and financial incentives that pays over half the cost of energy efficiency upgrades to commercial and multifamily properties. The other is GoSolarSF, which, when combined with federal tax credits and state incentives, can reduce the cost of installing a residential solar power system by more than 50 percent.
Edited by Brian for space. See the flip for the rest of the post.
It's great news that Van Jones has been tapped for a high-level job in the Obama Administration, as a special adviser for green jobs. Having his voice at the Presidential level is bound to be valuable, and great for at-risk communities who will not be forgotten with Jones as their defender. At the same time, I have to agree with the first comment in this Grist story.
If it is more than a rumor, then Van faces some decisions that would keep me awake at night. Would he be more effective where he is, or on the insde of the administration??? How much power would he really have?? Could he go along with the administration the next time it starts talking about "clean coal?"
Indeed, he might have to make that determination almost immediately. Because the FutureGen project, a "clean coal" research facility in Illinois, is likely to be funded with stimulus money in the short term. This is just research, of course, and even Energy Secretary Steven Chu supports it "with modifications." But the fact is that clean coal technology hasn't worked and offers a false sense of hope that we can just keep burning dirty fuels and not get dirty ourselves. It would be nice to have Van Jones' perspective on this, but he's embedded inside the Administration now.
Leadership is self-generating, but leadership like Van Jones' comes around only once in a long while. We have a lot of battles in California over green jobs and alternative energy that could have used a strident voice like Jones'. There's an effort to triple our commitment to clean energy through a renewable portfolio standard. The Senate leader's top priority is career tech education with an eye to green jobs and the new economy. Perhaps Jones' departure means that new leaders will take hold of these issues and push them forward. But perhaps not. It leaves a big hole.
I congratulate him as I've congratulated other Californians who have moved to Washington. But it's interesting, from my perspective, that the two individuals most likely to be able to drive a movement politics in the Golden State - Hilda Solis and Van Jones - have packed up and joined the Obama Administration. I can't say I blame them, this state is a basket case. And their talents will be used well.
I yearn for the day I no longer have to write titles like that:
Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in a months-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline prices this summer.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., told reporters Tuesday that a provision continuing the moratorium will be dropped this year from a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running after Congress recesses for the election.
Republicans have made lifting the ban a key campaign issue after gasoline prices spiked this summer and public opinion turned in favor of more drilling. President Bush lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling in July.
"If true, this capitulation by Democrats following months of Republican pressure is a big victory for Americans struggling with record gasoline prices," said House GOP leader John Boehner of Ohio. (AP via SFGate)
To her credit Dianne Feinstein is outraged, sending out this statement a few minutes ago:
I think it's awful. This battle is not over. We will come back and fight another day - that's for sure.
I regret the House appropriations committee didn't see fit to go with a better, more widely accepted alternative, which would have kept in place a moratorium 50 miles or more off shore. In my view, there were better options than this.
Once again the Democratic Congress caves to Republicans who say "boo!" Drilling had faded from public consciousness and Democrats would have done well to insist it not happen.
Especially as bailouts are being discussed, you'd think Democrats would not want to be sending any signals that they can wave the white flag if pressured to do so.
Dems would have done well to listen to Van Jones, who at Netroots Nation in July explained the need to move from opposition to proposition - that the only way we will beat back the drilling push is to aggressively propose a more sensible and sustainable alternative. Dems didn't do that, and once again they've failed at politics and failed America.
Sure, they might restore the ban next year - but it's not clear if it will be a total moratorium, or if this will have opened a door that can't be closed again. And if McCain wins, Congress will have a very difficult time reimposing a moratorium.
Otherwise they've signed a death warrant for California's oceans and those who depend on them for a living.
Some great people have been sashaying through the Big Tent to huddle up with the bloggers. And the traditional media has joined them, to take exciting pictures of people typing to show how the bloggers kick it. Rockin'!
I did get a chance to spend a few minutes with Van Jones, an environmental and green jobs activist, to talk about the future of energy and how we can beat the Republicans at their own game. He also offered a candid assessment of the state of the Presidential campaign.
Jones thinks that the progressive movement and Democratic groups have been "hurt by having a good candidate. We were so galvanized against Bush in 2004 that every outside group went nuts, threw everything we had at the Republicans, and we almost came up with the win despite a less inspiring candidate. This year, the spirit of 2004 has been lost. Obama made the mistake of defunding the outside groups and we've become complacent to an extent." Jones said that last week's hit by the Obama campaign on the McCain housing issue was good, but it needs to be a 10-week phenomenon, not a 1-week phenomenon.
On green jobs, which is Jones' real focus area, he stressed that we need to move the environmental conversation from a cultural one to a political one. The green-collar economy "can be a place for people to earn money, not spend money. We need collective action for green citizenship, to create the jobs of the future in a Green New Deal. As long as carbon is free we're never going to move forward." He was pleased by the recent efforts by municipalities and states (green jobs bills have been passed in Massachusetts and Washington state, and the US Conference of Mayors is on board as well), but recognizes that the federal government must be involved as well. "This is about laws, not gizmos. Technology cannot be the savior. This has to be a bottom-up, inside-outside AND a top-down strategy. If the Feds are MIA, human life will be MIA in the future."
We talked about the offshore drilling debate, where Jones clearly stated that the Republicans won the day by lying to the American people. He had three major points:
• There is no such thing as American oil. There is oil drilled by multinationals that is sent overseas to China and India. American offshore driling will do nothing to solve any American oil problems.
• We banned drilling in offshore areas not to save birds and fish, but because of coastal families and coastal communities, because kids were walking into the water and coming out with oil on them, because property values were plunging. Democrats should not be willing to throw away America's beauty for a 2-cent solution in 10 years.
• We've seen the new phenomenon of the "dirty greens," who want to have an "all of the above strategy" on energy, with solar and wind, but also clean coal and drilling offshore and shale and all these dirty polluters. "All of the above" is not a strategy. It's not a wise choice, but a stupid swipe at a persistent problem.
Democrats are right on price - if you cut demand and expand supply through renewables, the price will drop. They are right on people, because those steps will create millions of jobs. And they're right on the planet, because it's the only solution to preserve our environmental future. What the Republicans are offering is Happy Meal Politics, the kind of politics that offers everything for free with no residual consequences.
Jones is a great messenger, and a real leader in the green movement. Democrats would do well to listen to him.
UPDATE III:Our friends from Color of Change stopped by to say, "Big news -- James, our director, talked with a credible reporter who talked with Carolyn Kilpatrick, who, after being pressed, said that there is a Fox debate in the works, it just hasn't been announced." Is Barbara Lee going to let this happen?
UPDATE II:ColorofChange worries that the CBC Institute is still in talks with Fox and says, "This is no time to let up the pressure. They could be waiting for it to blow over so they can announce next week."
UPDATE:No need to call, the CBC Institute made a smart move, Fox lost out to CNN. Huge victory for Color of Change and a great day for the Democratic Party
Can a couple of Californians -- armed with little more than internet connections and the truth -- change the Congressional Black Caucus?
Fox News has a horrible record of attacking Black people, leaders, and cultural institutions. But at this very moment, the Congressional Black Caucus Institute is negotiating to partner with Fox to host presidential debates prior to the 2008 elections.
For the CBC Institute to partner with an organization like Fox News-given its hostility to Black political interests-would be shameful. You can help prevent them from making this serious mistake by calling on them to drop negotiations with Fox [...]
Given its record, Fox News shouldn't enjoy the support of Black political or cultural institutions connected to the Congressional Black Caucus. We believe the CBC Institute will change course once it realizes that Black America, if not all of America, is watching. Please join us in making sure they hear us, loud and clear:
