This letter is an appeal for contributions to support California Secretary of State candidate Debra Bowen.  As we did before the primary, we are again collecting contributions to run Spanish-language radio ads.  Getting Debra elected is a huge priority in the Golden State as he has been at the forefront of protecting the vote.  Thanks for any support you can give, no matter how small.  If you can't give money consider volunteering.

Letter on the flip...

During her tenure in the State Senate, Debra Bowen has been working tirelessly for reliable voting systems and improving the public's access to the government.  She was overwhelmingly endorsed by the California Democratic Party and by groups and newspapers up and down the Golden State.

You can help Debra Bowen by donating to a grassroots-sponsored radio campaign!  Latinos for America has produced pro-bono Spanish-language radio ads for the Los Angeles market that will run in Spanish talk and religious radio on Monday and Tuesday of next week.  We need your help to get them on the air.

Valley Grassroots for Democracy has teamed up with Latinos for America to collect contributions for the ads. Please go to https:/secure.actblue.com... and make a contribution and end the contribution with $.06 so we know that the contribution is for the radio ads.  For example, give $25.06 or $50.06 or however much you can give.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9266986/

Of course he still has a home, a dog, and a wife to return to.  And he has the money to go out for his fine Mexican meal and margarita.

Maybe if he had done his job right a bunch of people in Louisiana would be doing the same thing tonight...

Independent Journalist DAHR JAMAIL

and Gold Star Families for Peace NADIA McCAFFREYand JANE BRIGHT

Plus a revealing VIDEO PRESENTATION:A 30 minute documentary and exclusive film footage of Falluja.

(details on the flip)

To vote call (818) 883-6397 and enter category code 3636.  Press 1 if you support the special election, press 2 if you oppose the special election.

C'mon and use your free weekend cell minutes and make a call (or two)!

You must vote by by 5:00 pm Pacific (8:00 Eastern) today, Saturday, and results will be printed in the Sunday Daily News.

Ok, so they have attacked our right to marry.  Now is our right to love next?

And you can get to the CD from a link here: http://www.hrcactioncenter.org/actioncenter/our_love_rocks.html

http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~25405~2487608,00.html

If 740,000 pounds of explosives are missing and it takes about a pound to blow up a plane (as happened with Pan Am 103), that means the amount of missing explosives is enough to blow up every Boeing and Airbus jet ever manufacturered 53 times over!

Now try saying that this isn't a big deal.

(edit: I did my math wrong. it's 53 times over, not 55.)

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,134589,00.html

Story at http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-granny5oct05,1,1135146.story
(registration required)

Some excerpts below the fold.

The implications for Dreier are pretty much summed up in the last paragraph:

Link:  http://laweekly.com/ink/04/44/news-ireland.php

(Edit: Corrected reference to Raw Story.)

Kerry should take pointers from a debate for candidates in CA-49, the district currently represented by recall financier and indicted felon Darrell Issa.  Issa was invited to the debate but refused to attend.

After the debate, candidates [Democrat Mike] Byron and [Libertarian Lars] Grossmith posed with a "stand-in" for candidate Issa, a bright red, live hen. The hen did not offer any profound political opinions that could be interpreted by the attendees, preferring instead to attend to the privatized provision of oats that had been scattered on the tabletop for its personal consumption, generously provided by a private donor and therefore at no cost to the hen or to the taxpayers. However, the attendees were appreciative that the Republican candidate was at least represented in absentia in the "flesh" and with a fair amount of pizzazz, for a politician, and at no taxpayer expense, which is unusual for a Republican politician. The donation, of course, will be listed on the hen's second-quarter financial statement to the Federal Election Commission.

(from http://byron.blogcap.com/archive/June04.php)

According to an article in today's LA Times, up to 250,000 applications were mailed in for 3,000 temporary longshore jobs at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.  Of course the reason for this is because of the flood of cheap imports to supply places like Walmart.  On the TV news this morning someone was quoted as saying that this was the only place that was hiring other than Walmart.

From the article:

The 3,000 slots, which are being offered to help handle a record amount of cargo coming through the ports, will pay $20.66 to $28 an hour -- substantially higher than the average $8.38-an-hour entry-level wage in Los Angeles County. On Friday, the state reported that California's employers cut a net 17,300 jobs in July, illustrating how cautious many businesses remain when it comes to hiring.

"It's very rare in this economy, particularly for non-college-educated positions," to be so lucrative, said Michael Mische, a principal at WCL Consulting Co. of Long Beach and an adjunct professor of management at the USC Marshall School of Business. "These are highly desirable jobs, with the opportunity of becoming skilled in a vocation" that could lead to better things down the road.

We had about 100 people make 231 care packages.  We had donations of boxes and all kinds of stuff to put in the boxes, as well as donations of money for postage.  We had a postal truck come by twice to pick up all of the packages.  There was a lot of leftover stuff and we hope to have another event in the near future.  We may need some help with covering postage costs, but we won't know until the post office finishes metering the packages on Monday.  If you would like to help with postage costs send me an email at webmaster@valleyfordemocracy.com.

We had media coverage from KNX Newsradio and KNBC Channel 4.  State Sen. Richard Alarcon, who is running for mayor of LA, spoke and, when he started to help people put their boxes together, the TV camera was right there to catch it.  I figured that he would stop when the news crew left.  But he stuck around for another hour helping people out.  I was already leaning towards supporting him (he was an early Dean supporter and did a lot for our local Dean grassroots campaign) but that pretty much decided it for me.

Valley for Democracy and the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley are sponsoring a care package party and picnic this Saturday at Woodley Park in Van Nuys starting at 4 pm.

Details are below and a downloadable flyer are at http://www.valleyfordemocracy.com/

While someone else was trying to figure out my camera I said "The next time you see John Kerry, tell him he made a great choice" and he said "I think he made a great choice, too."

http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/articles.asp?id=29642

Right after Reagan died, two of these signs were erected in front of the construction site, one on the Westwood Plaza side (in the middle of campus) and the other on Gayley Ave, which faces a public street.  

I drove down Gayley this morning (not part of my normal driving route) and the sign had been turned around to show bare plywood.  I don't know why, I imagine it was either the bad press about the name or it had been vandalized.  There are frat houses across the street, after all.

But spraypainted on the plywood in huge letters was:
"Future home of the Bill Clinton Medical Center"

Ah, a vandal with a political bent :-)

So now that you know where it will be playing, you have a couple of weeks to get your group, Kerry literature, and voter registration forms together!

In related news, an article in today's LA Times that it will be rated R, but Moore is challenging the rating.  Leave it to Jack Valenti and our friends at the MPAA to try to limit viewership.  The story also said that execs at Lions Gate are trying to change the opening date to June 23.