This is the "real time" story of a union organizing campaign, pervaded with the ideals of the First Amendment as carried out by our Fourth Estate. As was noted in a Diary by E Love, management at the Santa Barbara News-Press -- a venerable, well-read long-established local institution serving a wealthy town with Spanish-tiled adobe charm 90 minutes from LA, and studded with prominent celebs - has been on a rampage, trashing the wall that's supposed to separate the paper's editorial stance from the news reporting in the field, leading to the mass departure of editors, followed thereafter by a continued rush to the exits by veteran columnists and reporters.
In today's Los Angeles Times, there is a story of a very tangled web, that ends (right now) with popular Democratic LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa declining to endorse the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Phil Angelides.
As reported in the Los Angeles Times today, George Bush is going to set aside a vast sea-based preserve near Hawaii. Why has Dubya -- presiding over an administration that has ravaged the environment for cronies' enrichment and set aside less land than any administration in decades -- all of a sudden gone seal-hugger on us? Because of a Cousteau movie that inspired him!!!!
How long have progressive Democrats been debating whether to take the plunge and support a true, dyed-in-the-wool no-holds-barred Democrat against a "blue dog", a "post-9/11 security saber-rattler", a DLC-er, a triangulator, a just plain "lesser of two evils"? Those of us in the 36th CD have that rare opportunity to make a difference, and there is no down side here!
This is another weekend where sausage is being made: we witness and participate in the electoral process, and have the opportunity to improve the party. There are the easy fights, like knocking out Schwarzenegger, which obviously no one opposes. But then there are the issues about which Democrat is best for each seat, and should we be fighting incumbents?
Marcy Winograd is the upstart progressive Democrat surging forward to upend incumbent Congresswoman Jane Harman in the 36th Congressional District in Southern California. Winograd is the progressives' dream candidate: longtime organizing and grassroots activism, pre-2003 anti-Iraq war credentials, fighting against a Blue Dog Democrat who, when running for governor in 1998, proudly accepted the mantle of "Best Republican in the Democratic Party." Fortunately, she lost that race to the uninspiring Gray Davis, but that led her back to the House, where she squeaked by in 2000.
