That didn't take long!
4 days actually.

Ralph Nader, an independent candidate for president, just announced
that former San Francisco Supervisor and Board President Matt Gonzalez
will be his running mate in the November elections.

"We're both honored to be running together and look forward to
addressing issues, conditions and solutions ignored by the other major
party candidates," Nader tells reporters in Washington.

So who's Matt Gonzalez and why would Ralph Nader pick him as his running mate?

Well, for one thing he's people powered, or at least he used to be.

Markos mentioned this in an open thread today

1.  CA-Sen: Damn this state for being so expensive, because I could go for a primary challenge to Dianne Feinstein.

Which is in response to Glenn Greenwald's column showing how much of a blockade DiFi has been of late.

The idea of a recall is about as far fetched as it gets, and I don't see any situation where she would retire midterm, especially not with a Republican governor. So what i'm saying right here and now is that if she decides to run for another term, we HAVE to primary challenge her.

This article made my heart skip a beat (hattip to Chris Bowers at Mydd.com)

With Democrats controlling Congress, Rep. Rush Holt says he's optimistic about achieving his longstanding legislative priority this year -- requiring electronic voting machines to have paper backups so election results can be verified.

Yes folks, that's right.

A total of 222 House Democrats and Republicans co-sponsored a similar bill Holt introduced in the previous Congress, when Republicans were in the majority, but it went nowhere. The legislation is widely expected to become law, with Democratic leaders tending to favor requiring a paper trail, analysts say.

A dirty little secret of the last congress it that Holt's bill had enough support to pass, but Hastert would never let it onto the floor for an uppadown vote. We have a real chance to end these voting machine problems ONCE AND FOR all...

I am thrilled at our upcoming Democratic majority in both houses of congress. The fact that we are going to see some real Democratic legislation passed is exciting and it makes all of the many, many hours of work and toil totally worth it.

There is something that needs to be addressed immediately, it is a problem that eats away at the very core of our Democracy and American Values. We need some to be able to address the problem of voting machines and unverified voting.

Hi everybody, so I filled out my absentee ballot and already sent it in, it's the only way to fly in Oakland since our know nothing Elections Supervisor bought a bunch of Sequoia systems fraud machines despite popular outcry... anyway here's how I voted:

Partisan Offices - statewide
----
Governor - Phil Angelides
Lt. Governor - John Garamendi
Secretary of State - Debra Bowen
State Controller - John Chiang
State Treasurer - Bill Lockyer
Attorney General - Jerry Brown
Insurance Commisioner - Cruz Bustamente (with waffling)
United States Senate - (blank) or Diane Feinstein (see below)
United States Representative - Barbara Lee
State Assembley - Sandre Swanson
Judges - re-elect
Statewide propositions.
Proposition 1A-NO!
Propositions 1B-1E Yes.
Proposition 83 - NO!!
Proposition 84 - Yes
Proposition 85 - FUCK NO!!!
Proposition 86 - Yes
Proposition 87 - HELL YES!
Proposition 88 - No
Proposition 89 - YES YES YES! HELL YES!!
Proposition 90 - NO!
---
City of Oakland
---
Measure M - yes
Measure N - YES!
Measure O - YES YES YES!

The "why's" are below the cut.

Over the past few weeks, understandably so, we have heard more about J. Dennis "Denny" Hastert then we have since most of his run as speaker. It's understandable as Tom "The Hammer" Delay was always both the real power behind the throne and the lightning rod for criticism.

What I want to know, is why on every post mentioning the Speaker of the House are we not mentioning our fantastic candidate John Laesch? A Veteran Naval Intelligence Analyst, carpenter, progressive patriot and the son of missionaries. Specifically I see all of these stories about Denny Hastert, and I don't see:
and links on them.

This needs to change.

Here's the deal folks, we are 68 days away from the election, the day where we take back the house of Representatives, the Senate, a whole ton of Governor's races, state legislatures, and many other downballot races. We are inspired, we are motivated, the other side absolutely is not, we have the will to win and the infrastructure in place to make it happen. It won't happen on it's own though.

So here's the thing:

That's from Ted Geisel, also known as Dr. Seuss. It's part of the series of war propaganda pictures that he made during World War II, which is interesting in and of itself, but I post it because we are indeed fighting a war. This war is a war of ideas, and it's for the soul of the country and the world, and we must win.

(X-posted from GovernorPhil.Com)

Frank has a real winner of a post in his CA Progress Report today. Specifically progressive darling, verified voting activist and all around awesome lady State Sen. Debra Bowen, (our next Secretary of State) has proposed a bill that would bring some much needed reform to the proposition process. It would require disclosure whether signature collectors are volunteers or being paid and most importantly show who is paying for it.

Considering how Republicans, who can't get legislators elected in California based on their ideas, have utterly hijacked the proposition process. This is huge. Recently CA Republicans main strategy seems to be throw as much money as possible into paid signature collection for bogus bills designed to castrate Democratic support, and bring out touchy feely issues that will turn out the Conservative base... read on for more.

Interesting that the tradtional media only seems to pay attention to "events" when they are officially sanctioned and have the "right people". It reminds me of the rock world, where a band can be instantly famous if they have the right "members of..." in the group, whether the music is any good or not. Check out this article in the Sacramento Bee over a political website created by insiders that is launching on tuesday:

Thirty Democratic operatives -- pollsters, consultants and spokespeople -- will launch the "California Majority Report" at midnight Tuesday at www.camajorityreport.com. The big launch party is Tuesday night at Mason's in downtown Sacramento, complete with a "special guest," former Gov. Gray Davis.

Oh wow! Gray Davis... (yawn), how exciting. Heh, I guess it's good that he's keeping busy.

You may remember Bill Bradley from Dday's adventures: Wherein the biggest media insider in CA (Bill Bradley) flips out on me: UPDATED, if not... well you missed out on a hell of a diary, and you should really open that up in a new window just to check it out, and not just because Dday is a great writer either. Bradley sometimes posts on dkos, runs a side called New West Notes, and is most definitely NOT the former Senator who ran for President in 2000. Garry South is one of the most famous campaign consultants in California, he ran Gray Davis's winning campaigns, but ditched town during the recall to help Joe Lieberman with his (ahem) Presidential bid in 2004.

 Anyway, today Dan Ancona and I had a real "crashing the gates" moment on New West Notes today. Where among other things, Ned Lamont's candidacy is defended, Jim Webb's record as a netroots draftee is and I got to personally call out Garry South for being the instigator in the horribly negative Democratic gubernatorial primary in California. You know, the one that probably cost us CA-50? Read on for more:

I found this tidbit in the comments of our still brand spanking new people powered site GovernorPhil.com. It looks like Dianne Feinstein (who is up for re-election this year, and somehow managed to squeak by without getting Lamont-ed), has a problem. Namely that her campaign co-chair Angela Bradstreet, just mouthed off to the press about how she is not going to vote for Phil Angelides in the fall... and why? because she's sick of paying taxes! Ohhh... boo hoo...

"Quite frankly, I'm also sick and tired of paying taxes," she said. "And that's Angelides' solution -- raising taxes."

If I may quote the great and wise philosopher Plato: "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"
Angela Bradstreet, you are officially "on notice".

(quotes and more below the cut)

I am very, very pleased to announce the launch of the website GovernorPhil.com. Inspired by Raising Kaine in Virginia, that helped elect Tim Kaine governor of Virginia (and soon, Jim Webb), and Lamont blog which recently helped win the nomination for Ned Lamont in the Connecticut Democratic primary.

Quite simply, this election is not just about the current California recall governor. Certainly that guy is odious, in the pocket of big business and the extreme right wing, all the while acting the part of a moderate. However, while pointing out the current govenor's lies, misdirections, and dangerous policis, this site is designing to be about helping present the vision and character of California's next Governor, Philip Nicholas Angelides. Or as we hope to call him soon. Governor Phil

More behind the cut.

I'm a pragmatist, most definitely, I like to think of myself as a pragmatic progressive populist. I like to win, I think we need to. We also need to beware of making winning the only thing. For instance back in early 2004, I remember when we had the first blogosphere announcements of the kos dozen.The criteria that people voted on were varied and numerous, some people voted tactically, some based on analysis of poll results and previous trends, some based on strength of character. You name it.

Personally, I loved the entire process, and it's one of the things I lament the most about the change in "netroots endorsements", but I digress, perhaps part of it can be chalked up to things like redstates constant taunting and their increasingly "inventive" math to try to paint anything we do as unsuccessful, but it seems like pragmatism has been the watchword of the day, to the point that we (the blogosphere) have been ready to throw good candidates under the bus, or leave them at the bus stop at least.

However, what of the giant killers?
(much, much more behind the cut)

Long, long ago, in 2004, I wrote a diary about "courting Howard Stern", in it, I mentioned how Stern and his, usually politically unplugged audience, had helped swing many close elections (ask Mario Cuomo about that or Christie Todd Whitman). Stern is very proud of this, and has mentioned many times that he loves being involved with politics.

The Stern show is perfect for a Paul Hackett type straight shooter to go on for some support. Yet so many Democrats, always fearful of offending anybody, refuse to talk to him or go on his show. Kerry, for instance went on that irrelevant waste of flesh Imus's show, when practically the entire Stern staff (with the exception of moron Dittohead Scott the engineer), had already endorsed himy. Heck, in 2004 when he was going on vacation for a week, Howard considered having Michael Moore guest host... but I digress...

Stern and the Stern show don't like Lieberman at all. Understandable as Mr. censorship is very loathable, recently his producer Gary "Baba Booey" Dell'Abate (who lives in CT), said that he plans to vote for... wait for it!!... NED LAMONT!.

(transcript below)

x-posted from Mydd
You know, since nobody else seems to be. :)
I'm going to break my self imposed rule of not talking about 2008 until 2006 elections are over for a few moments here to get this post out and talk about Maurice Robert Gravel, aka former Senator Mike Gravel.

Who? Why?
Well, yeah, see that's most peoples reaction... Yet he's running and over and over again he's not included in straw polls, he is a declared candidate, fringe though he may be.

So who is Mike Gravel anyway?
More below.

In continuing my role as amateur documentarian, a role I accidentally (but gladly) was saddled with in yearlykos, I took my trusty Canon SD400 camera down to see Jon Tester. Moreover, as I was acting boss of my department, I took off work early to go get some retail politicing/fundraising/drinking done with our boy the next Senator from Montana... Jon Tester!

Tester said it was the kind of fundraiser he liked and could afford. I agree with that! After some engaging Q&A and engaging beer drinking, we headed over to drinking liberally at Zeitgeist... where we proceeded to do exactly that.

As always, there's more, and if you like what you see, feel free to reco.
You can also see the whole gallery here.

Me and the next Senator from Montana, Jon Tester.
He's a tall guy.
Also, guess where i'm from?

The next Senator from Montana, with the daughter of the Next Senator from Nevada, Sarah R. Carter.

Let me set something straight here folks, here in California we will have a new Governor in November and his name will be Phil Angelides. Arnold Schwarzenegger will go back to making bad movies and California will be delivered from Wilson-ian nefariousness.

However, I am now going to use this post to both tell you why this will happen, and take a few well deserved potshots at naysayers, people still fighting the primary and a few other folks (including Arnold)...

Somebody suggested to me that yearlykos was like a summer camp. There were sad but hopeful goodbyes for people that were absolute strangers mere days before and fast friends now. And there is some truth to that, but that also reinforces the tired (and inaccurate) narrative of the netroots as young and inexperienced. Unlike my convention roommate and cohart Tack I was never in the armed services, but I would imagine that a better description could be made by calling in a combination of boot camp, the most fascinating series of academic discussions you can think of, and the friendliest and smartest party you've ever been to.

This wasn't adolescent, this wasn't juvenile, this was real people power. This is the Democratic party, this is America.
I mean you could feel the energy in the room with every person there, and if (pale and pasty) Maureen Dowd or Byron York doesn't get it? Screw them, they are the dinosaurs, they are becoming irrelevant with startling quickness.