The county is negotiating with the Building Industry Association behind closed doors and it must STOP!

Sacramento has the best affordable housing ordinance in the United States.

If it isn't broken don't fix it!

The Building Industry sued the county over their affordable housing ordinance but the lawsuit was found to be without merit and thrown out by the judge.

For absolutely no reason, the County entered into secret back room negations with the Building Industry to discuss a settlement of this meritless lawsuit!

We strongly object to any back room deals affecting the ordinance. Please help us tell the County to cease in their illogical and immoral dealings with the Building Industry!

Please visit Sacramento Housing Alliance's website: www.sachousingalliance.org and sign their open letter to the board of supervisors protesting this inappropriate behavior that threatens so much that our county has accomplished in affordable housing.

Hat tip to CrooksAndLiars.com for this one. Do you think we can get Gov. Arnold to do this as well ;o))
--Bill

Ore. gov. starts week on food stamps
By JULIA SILVERMAN, Associated Press WriterWed Apr 25, 3:27 AM ET

If Gov. Ted Kulongoski seems a little sluggish this week, he's got an excuse: he couldn't afford coffee.

In fact, the Democratic governor couldn't afford much of anything during a trip to a Salem-area grocery store on Tuesday, where he had exactly $21 to buy a week's worth of food — the same amount that the state's average food stamp recipient spends weekly on groceries.

Kulongoski is taking the weeklong challenge to raise awareness about the difficulty of feeding a family on a food stamp budget.

GENEROSITY SUNDAY

APRIL 15, 2007 TIME: 3:00 – 4:30 PM.

A national day of action in support of replacing America’s strategy which puts so much emphasis on the military, with a strategy of generosity, caring for others, and genuine understanding of the interconnectedness of all the people on the planet.

Specifically, we endorse
The Global Marshall Plan
1%-5% of the gross domestic product each year for the next twenty to end global and domestic poverty, hunger, homelessness, inadequate health care, inadequate education, and to repair the environment.

Featured Speaker – Mary Wind
Mary is the President of Teach Peace and is a key member of their speaker’s bureau. Also, a new video by Michael Lerner on Generosity Sunday will be shown.

WHERE: St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, 2391 Saint Marks Way, near El Camino and Watt Ave., turn right onto Butano off El Camino just behind Country Club Center, turn left on Lusk for two blocks east to the Church.
Time: Sunday, April 15, 2007 - 4:00pm PST

The Brutal Policies Of The Bush Administration Wreak Havoc On America and The World
By Lynda Carson
Saturday Feb 10th, 2007

On Friday, February 9, I awoke from an afternoon nap to hear a woman screaming outside my window. "That bitch stabbed me, she stabbed me", the woman cried out in pain. Immediately afterward, her cries were followed by the screams of a young man crying out, "Call 911, someone call 911".

I peered out my window, only to see two shadowy figures standing up against the wall of a building next door in the drizzling rain, and I immediately turned around to pick up my phone to dial 911. A polite voice curtly told me that someone had already called in about the stabbing, and is giving details to an operator at that very moment. I was not asked if I saw or knew anything about the stabbing, or where I was at, and the 911 operator quickly hung up on me.

It wasn't long before the screams of a siren ushered in a parade of fire trucks, police cars and an ambulance, to haul the victim away, as the rain quietly washed her blood from the perilous streets of Oakland.

You can see that Sen. Kennedy is truly passionate about the minimum wage. He really lays into them about 4:45 into this video clip. --Bill

Kennedy to Republicans: "What is it about working men and women that you find so offensive?"
Bob Geiger

It's a sure bet that Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) has a lot of bottled-up frustration from years of fighting the Republican party to get a simple minimum wage increase for America's families and it boiled over on the floor of the Senate Thursday night.

Angry about Republican filibustering of the minimum wage increase that easily passed the House of Representatives two weeks ago, Kennedy erupted on the Senate floor, demanding of the other side of the aisle "When does the greed stop?"

Let's compare and contrast

This is where Arnold lives

This is where some of the constituents he's speaking of, live

Arnold Schwarzenegger to TERMINATE aid to Poor Kids

From the Mercury News

A beaming Arnold Schwarzenegger began his final four years as governor Friday with a grand inauguration befitting what he promises will be an ambitious second-term agenda. But ambitious means expensive, and this week the governor will begin to reveal how he plans to pay for a massive expansion of health care for millions of Californians, as well as billions of dollars for new prisons and other infrastructure.

Sunday, the governor offered a glimpse of how he plans to pay for some of it: proposing an end to state welfare payments to poor families with children after five years. Aides said the plan would promote personal responsibility and save nearly $500 million.

Charlie Brown, Democrat, to debate John Doolittle (R) in Rocklin tonight wednesday, October 11, 7:30pm to 9:30pm Local cable, channel 4 Starstream in Lincoln/Rocklin/Granite Bay/Loomis area.
Also to be live streamed on the web by newschannel 10, http://www.news10.net
Doolittle gave very short notice, don't miss this if possible.

INVEST IN AMERICA: BUY A CONGRESSMAN
LOYAL TO BIG OIL BRIBES REPRESENTATIVE DOOLITTLE FOR HANDOUTS

“BILLIONAIRES” ATTEND FUNDRAISER TO THANK
REPRESENTATIVE DOOLITTLE AND PRESIDENT BUSH

WHAT: LOYAL TO BIG OIL DEMONSTRATION - “BILLIONAIRES” DRIVING A HUMMER THANKING BUSH FOR OIL INDUSTRY SUPPORT – SIGNS, BANNERS, COSTUMES
WHEN: 9AM TO 12:30PM. [BEST TO PICK ONE MEDIA TIME!]
WHERE:CORNER OF SERRANO PARKWAY AND EL DORADO HILLS BOULEVARD

Wake Up Wal-Mart, Democracy For America and MoveOn are coming to Sacramento on Wednesday with the "Change Wal-Mart, Change America Tour." You can meet with local and national leaders and join the fight for better wages and health care at Wal-Mart and around the country. Here's the details:

What: "Change Wal-Mart, Change America" rally for health care, better wages, and a better America
Where: State Capitol, West Steps, Sacramento, CA 95814
When: Wednesday, August 30th at 11:00 AM
Who: Local and national leaders, Wake Up Wal-Mart staff, and local workers

You can join us in striking a mighty blow for working people in Sacramento tomorrow:
RSVP at: http://wakeupwalmart.com/ucp/express/?eventkey=42cfd235dbf1a3d3124a00b1d4ef9266
Time: Wednesday, August 30, 2006 - 11:59am PST

Here's the press release that George Miller's Office sent out today regarding the refusal of the Bush regime and the Republican Congress to give immediate disaster relief to salmon fishermen forced off the water by the decimation of the Klamath River salmon fishery. The Karl Rove-engineered change in water policy in 2002 produced the Klamath fish kills of spring and fall 2002 and huge juvenile fish kills every spring and summer over the past three years.

I streamed Hour 4 of the Randi Rhodes show on Tuesday, 6/13. She said that every Democrat during the House budget debate encouraged all persons to consolidate their student loans before July 1 interest rate hike. Also to call their Representative or a Democratic representative for any assistance.

Rep. Henry Waxman has some helpful information here

Heard on Thom Hartmann today.

Quietly but systematically, the Bush Administration is advancing the plan to build a huge NAFTA Super Highway, four football-fields-wide, through the heart of the U.S. along Interstate 35, from the Mexican border at Laredo, Tex., to the Canadian border north of Duluth, Minn.

Oy vey! Read it here.

14 Points of Fascism

In his original article, "Fascism Anyone?",  Laurence Britt (interview) compared the regimes of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Suharto, and Pinochet and  identified 14 characteristics common to those fascist regimes. This page is a collection of news articles dating from the start of the Bush presidency divided into topics relating to each of the 14 points of fascism. Further analysis of American Fascism done by the POAC can be read here

Read the all 14 points at Project for the Old AmericanCentury

Molly Ivins: Now, back to the real crisis

AUSTIN, Texas (CREATORS) -- Thank goodness the Republicans are around to tell me what to worry about. The flag-burning crisis -- here in Austin, there's that pall of smoke rising from the West every morning (it's from an area called Tarrytown, where they burn hundreds of flags daily).

It's hurricane season.. Quicktime video [click]

This week Bono began a six-country tour of Africa. His trip will shine the global spotlight on some of Africa's poorest nations. On Tuesday evening, May 23rd, for the first time in history, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams will broadcast live from Africa; we are going to make sure this is an event to remember.

That night, ONE members all across the country will host house parties to watch this historic broadcast and get their community involved in the movement that is making poverty history. Please join us as we help Bono focus the world's attention on stories of hope and inspiration from Africa. Join your friends, have a bite to eat, watch the broadcast, and find out what's next. You will bring us one step closer to changing the world.

Can you host or attend a watch party this Tuesday?
Time: Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - 6:59pm PST

Picking the Pockets of the Aged, Disabled

George Skelton
Capitol Journal
May 15, 2006

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said it himself while unveiling his $131-billion revised spending plan: A Budget is "much more than just ledger sheets ... A budget is all about values."

"It's an expression of who we are," he continued, "and what we really care about."

Right. So I won't be joing the large cheering section for this annual "May revision" of the governor's proposed budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.

Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization Act - Call Senators Boxer ((916) 448-2787) and Feinstein ((415) 393-0707) or toll free in Washington at 888-355-3588

S. 1955, the Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization Act (HIMMA), was introduced by Sen. Michael Enzi (R-WY) and is slated for a floor vote in the U.S. Senate the week of May 8. This legislation, if enacted, will strip away almost all state-enacted consumer protections for people buying insurance individually or through their employers.

Look outside: The weather seems great, but one or two warm storms out of the tropics melting the snowpack (which is at 200%) and we have 1997 again; or one earthquake on one of the faults in the East Bay knocking out those 150 year-old levees and disaster hits; not just for Northern California but Southern California, and the Central Valley, (the pics are illustrative) which means - much less water for swimming pools, golf courses and most importantly several crops go dry and whither away.

Confessions of a Repentant Republican

"I supported George W. Bush in the presidential election in 2000, believing then that he best reflected my love for America and for our tradition of liberty. I supported the war in Afghanistan. In March of 2003, I believed that the invasion of Iraq was justified based upon pre-war revelations presented to Congress and to the American people. Acordingly, the indictments contained herein apply, first and foremost, to myself.