Rick Jacobs, Courage Campaign chair, originally published this article at HuffingtonPost.com 

The political blogosphere has come of age here in Chicago. The highlights for me of day one are not the big names or the headliners to come. I'm always happy to see Howard Dean, who reminded the crowd of our growing influence. And it'll be fun to see the presidential candidates (sans Hillary Clinton, who apparently got some sort of internet flu at the last minute). Their presence here tonight and over the next three days energizes the crowd and says that the establishment has to pay attention to the netroots, to open democracy. But the key to success in organizing of any form is, well, organizing.

By November 2006, the blogosphere and online organizers (not one and the same) had been known for talking and writing a lot, leading the mainstream media to focus on certain stories, raising money and having some pretty spectacular victories in a few races. But can we organize? Can we cohere? Can we agree on how to work together for the long haul?

The answer from Chicago is decidedly yes. Today at a heavily attended session on local and state blogs, a roomful of otherwise nearly invisible writers introduced themselves and offered best practices to each other. Screen names such as Kid Oakland came alive to applause as the real life Paul, who played a key role in putting the words "former congressman" in front of Richard Pombo's name, leading the netroots and others to replace him with Jerry McNerney. Bearing witness to several candidates running against truly odious members of Congress, including David Drier, the group understood that with the decline in newspaper coverage of local politics, local and state blogs are all the more important. These thoughtful, determined and focused activists are in many ways the descendants of Ben Franklin, who was the first blogger with his locally produced and easily accessible writings. The skeleton and muscles of a progressive structure are clearly emerging.

The follow-up session was a regional (California in my case) meeting of bloggers and a few online activists. Again, introductions took up most of the session, as 100 or more people told their brief stories, many meeting for the first time. The central question for this group was how to get Californians to care about California, something we at Courage Campaign and the bloggers at Calitics have been working on for a couple of years. And it's a tough one, because national issues are the most attractive. Yet, we all know that if our state leads on marriage equality and on election protection, for example, two issues high on the agenda right now, the nation will follow. It always does.

And that's the real learning here. The "movement" is growing up fast. People want to build from the ground up, taking the best of ideas, research and activism to lead on local and state issues. That's what the right wing did for decades. They worked slowly but inexorably on issues. The candidates they ultimately elected carried those issues for them and contorted America. The online communities are embracing the slow work necessary to build and win, aware that working locally can, and always does, lead to national success, aware too that online activism is transparent and increasingly the bedrock of democracy.

Yearlykos, the annual convention of progressive bloggers hosted by the good people at DailyKos.com, is in full swing in Chicago right now. This year, labor is well represented at the convention with SEIU and UHW leaders speaking about the urgent need for universal healthcare.

Sal Rosselli, president of UHW, told Earthtimes.org: ""Our members are committed to achieving quality healthcare reform, and we have seen how effective the online community can be at bringing attention to this and other vital causes."

Courage Campaign Chair Rick Jacobs added: "Labor and the online communities usually have common agendas. Communication between us is key to more victories."

Stay with CourageCampaign.org in the coming weeks for a major announcement toward making universal healthcare a reality.

Grassroots champion and Secretary of State, Debra Bowen, must decide by this Friday, August 3, whether to decertify suspect electronic voting machines.  You can take action to support Secretary Bowen's plan to make our votes secure.

Sign here today to support Secretary of State Bowen in demanding the sanctity of each and every vote.

None of the voting machines were secure. Every one of the voting systems had flaws that would allow anyone with a bit of know-how to change the vote records. That's not surprising - we've heard for years about the problems of secure computers (they don't exist) and the necessity of a paper receipt for votes to back up the computer systems What is surprising, however, is just how awfully bad the security systems are on these voting machines - machines which were already certified for use!

The leader of the investigation, a computer science professor at the University of California, told the Chronicle that he was "surprised" by the weakness of the security system in the voting machines. "The security seems like it was added on," he said, rather than built-in to the system's design from the start. His team of hackers broke through security barriers both at network hubs designed for election headquarters and also in voting machines at deployed at individual polling places.

You'd think that such a damning report would make elections officials all across California shocked, angry, and demanding answers from the corporations (like Diebold) about why their voting machines were so easily compromised. Nope. Instead, you've got elections officials sounding more like Diebold PR people. The line of the corporations and their supporters goes something like this: the test wasn't fair, the machines will hold up in "real world" conditions, and we already gave Diebold and other corporations millions of dollars, so we can't turn back now.

Contra Costa County clerk-recorder and head of the state Association of Clerks and Election Officials, Steve Weir, is among the California elections officials willing to give the voting machine corporations a pass on making their machines completely reliable. He says that the computer scientists were given too much help (in the form of access to computer manuals and the like) in their attempts to break the locks on the machines. Computer experts disagree.

According to Ars Technica, a computer enthusiast publication, the testing was actually done with limited access to computer manuals, and the researchers had extreme time constraints - less than 30 days to test and then write up a full report to Bowen's office. The tests and reports were further constrained by non-disclosure agreements with Diebold. Still, the researchers were easily able to find numerous vulnerabilities - both in the physical and the technological design of the voting machines.

The bottom line is that we shouldn't be using voting systems that aren't secure. Thank goodness we have a secretary of state in California that's actually doing her job, instead of trying to get a job at Diebold.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff praised the pact as an "essential screening tool for detecting potentially dangerous transatlantic travelers." If available at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Chertoff said, such information would have, "within a matter of moments, helped to identify many of the 19 hijackers by linking their methods of payment, phone numbers and seat assignments."

Although Homeland Security has said it will move passenger information to "dormant" status after seven years and "expects" to erase it after 15 years, it notified the E.U. that expiration of data will be subject to "further discussions."

Over the weekend, California Republican Senators were given some homework – since they couldn’t stop voting “No” on a compromise budget plan approved by Democrats and Republicans in the Assembly, the Senate Republicans had to come up with their own budget plan.  In a lucky coincidence, President Bush had a colonoscopy on Monday, and doctors apparently found the Republican budget plan lodged somewhere in the First Colon.

How else can we explain where this GOP budget came from?  The Republican proposal would leave tens of thousands of poor people to die, would end several environmental protection laws (??), and would close down several University of California institutes.  And that’s just what they made public.  Apparently there’s even more draconian and unnecessary spending cuts they’re holding back for some reason.  Maybe the rest of the spending cuts are still stuck up Bush’s… colon.

OK, all kidding aside -- I don’t want to be accused of just slinging mud, so let’s take a closer look at the main parts of the GOP budget proposal.

California still doesn’t have a budget, after weeks of Republican obstructionism.  The budget may not be flashy, but it’s arguably the most significant piece of legislation passed every year.  The Democrats in Sacramento crafted a tough compromise with Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger which significantly cuts the state’s fiscal deficit by making big cuts in things like public transit ($1.1 billion) and higher education (fee increases at UC and CSU).  But these cuts aren’t nearly severe enough for Republicans in the California Senate.

Looks like the GOP in Sacramento is reading the same script as the GOP in DC.  Republicans in Washington are on pace to set a new record for obstructionism – they’re using the filibuster to block more bills than ever before.  Even though the Democrats have a slim majority in the US Senate, they cannot get a bill to end the war in Iraq through a GOP filibuster.  Same story in Sacramento, where the Republicans are capable of blocking the budget even though they’re in the minority.  The budget requires two-thirds of the Senate to vote “Yes” in order to pass – which means that at least two Republicans have to vote with the Democrats to get the budget through to the Governor’s desk.  The Senate Republicans seem to want cuts in education spending that will not fly with either the Dems or the Republican governor.  Not a single Republican is willing to cross the aisle, so we’re stuck in this impasse.

Over the weekend, Senate leader Don Perata (D-Oakland) finally had enough, saying to the GOP: “We have no freaking idea where you want to go [with the budget].”  Then he gave the stubborn Republicans a new task.  Instead of voting “no” on the Democrats’ budget again and again, Perata told the Republicans to go come up with their own budget.  Then, Perata says, “Who knows, maybe we can find a meeting of the minds.”  The Senate will reconvene on Wednesday morning to discuss out the new GOP plan.

Who says the budget isn’t exciting?  Will the Republicans in the California Senate and the US Senate ever vote “yes” ever again?  Will Republicans slash funding for K-12 education?  Find out – Wednesday at 9am!

The speaker said she had "no hesitation" criticizing the president about his handling of the war, but said there were more important priorities for lawmakers -- such as health care and creating jobs -- than the divisive pursuit of impeachment.

"Look, it's hard enough for us to end the war. I don't know how we would be successful in impeaching the president," Pelosi said.

She did note that calls for the president's removal are not coming just from San Francisco.

"I'm not unsympathetic to the concern people have -- I hear it all over the country. People here have said to me, 'Well, people on the left want the president to be impeached.' I hear it across the board across the country. It's not just the left," Pelosi said.

By Elliott D. Petty

In a recent web-only article in The New Republic, anti-civil rights crusader Ward Connerly clearly empathized for the plight of the average Klansman.  In fact, he appears to believe that the Klu Klux Klan has converted to the cause of Connerly-style racial equality since supporting his efforts to pass Michigan's version of Prop 209. 

"I think that the reasoning that a Klan member goes through is - blacks are getting benefits that I'm not getting.  It's reverse discrimination. To me it's all discrimination. But the Klansmen is going through the reasoning that this is benefiting blacks; they are getting things that I don't get... A white man doesn't have a chance in this country," so says Connerly.

I've heard over and over and over again that the Democrats should impeach the President and Vice President.  Many of my friends - both on the left and in the "center" - say that the Congress is a failure if they don't impeach the President.  My response has always been that unless there's a way to somehow convince 67 United States Senators to vote for a conviction (and remember that only 49 of them are Democrats), then the Congress is better off spending its time on other issues like getting the troops out of Iraq, improving education, making it easier to join a union, and so on.  Still, fervent calls to "Impeach!!" continue, and there's a lot of frustration that the Congress isn't listening.

Well, you know what, the Congress is working on impeachment, and they're working on it hard.  For months now, both the House and Senate have been digging deeper and deeper on the Attorneygate scandal, trying to see just how involved the President and Vice President were in the decision to fire US attorneys in an act of unabashed political cronyism.  Testimony at the ongoing hearings, coupled with unprecedented use of "Executive Privilege" to compel former White House counsel not to speak with Congress, all suggest a huge and probably criminal cover-up.  (Speaking of cover-up, this week, Democrats in Congress will open hearings into the Libby commutation, which looks like yet another unprecedented abuse of presidential power.)

In order to successfully impeach, there needs to be solid evidence of criminal wrongdoing - the kind of smoking gun that Nixon faced during Watergate.  The CIA leak, the Libby commutation, and the Attorneygate scandals might provide that smoking gun after the investigation runs its course.  The Democrats, particularly Judiciary Committee Chairs John Conyers in the House and Patrick Leahy in the Senate, continue to run their investigations despite finding little public acclaim or reward for churning in minutiae.  If you're looking for impeachment, it might be best to show support for these stalwart Democratic investigators.

Even though Bush and Cheney clearly did lie to the American people to get us into the Iraq War, I really don't see 67 Senators voting to convict Bush and Cheney on charges of lying and fabricating intelligence.  But the ongoing investigations on Capitol Hill have the White House scared and stonewalling in desperation.  If the Democrats find impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors - and have evidence to prove it - then impeachment over Attorneygate and the criminal cover-ups surrounding it might become very possible.  Those of you crying out "Impeach!!" it looks like the Democrats are listening.

By Elliott D. Petty

Many African-American Section 8 families now living in the Bay area suburb, Antioch moved there from San Francisco, Oakland, and other East Bay cities in search for affordable housing, safer communities, better schools for their children, and proximity to jobs that are increasingly concentrated in the suburbs.

Instead of meeting new opportunities in their new town, they have met nothing but hostility and good ole fashion racial discrimination from the Antioch Police Department.

According to Public Advocates Inc. and Bay Area Legal Aid, the City of Antioch created a Community Action Team within its police department in 2006 to address "quality of life" issues.  Critics charge that this team has African American families in the federal Section 8 housing subsidy program, including attempts to terminate the leases and housing subsidies of a number of these residents, effectively forcing them to leave Antioch .

While Section 8 families make up less than 5% of the city's residential stock, these households were the focus of nearly two-thirds of the so-called Community Action Team's activity during its first sixth months of operation.

by Erik Love

By Erik Love 

I've heard over and over and over again that the Democrats should impeach the President and Vice President.  Many of my friends - both on the left and in the "center" - say that the Congress is a failure if they don't impeach the President.  My response has always been that unless there's a way to somehow convince 67 United States Senators to vote for a conviction (and remember that only 49 of them are Democrats), then the Congress is better off spending its time on other issues like getting the troops out of Iraq, improving education, making it easier to join a union, and so on.  Still, fervent calls to "Impeach!!" continue, and there's a lot of frustration that the Congress isn't listening.

Well, you know what, the Congress is working on impeachment, and they're working on it hard.  For months now, both the House and Senate have been digging deeper and deeper on the Attorneygate scandal, trying to see just how involved the President and Vice President were in the decision to fire US attorneys in an act of unabashed political cronyism.  Testimony at the ongoing hearings, coupled with unprecedented use of "Executive Privilege" to compel former White House counsel not to speak with Congress, all suggest a huge and probably criminal cover-up.  (Speaking of cover-up, this week, Democrats in Congress will open hearings into the Libby commutation, which looks like yet another unprecedented abuse of presidential power.)

In order to successfully impeach, there needs to be solid evidence of criminal wrongdoing - the kind of smoking gun that Nixon faced during Watergate.  The CIA leak, the Libby commutation, and the Attorneygate scandals might provide that smoking gun after the investigation runs its course.  The Democrats, particularly Judiciary Committee Chairs John Conyers in the House and Patrick Leahy in the Senate, continue to run their investigations despite finding little public acclaim or reward for churning in minutiae.  If you're looking for impeachment, it might be best to show support for these stalwart Democratic investigators.

Even though Bush and Cheney clearly did lie to the American people to get us into the Iraq War, I really don't see 67 Senators voting to convict Bush and Cheney on charges of lying and fabricating intelligence.  But the ongoing investigations on Capitol Hill have the White House scared and stonewalling in desperation.  If the Democrats find impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors - and have evidence to prove it - then impeachment over Attorneygate and the criminal cover-ups surrounding it might become very possible.  Those of you crying out "Impeach!!" it looks like the Democrats are listening.

By Elliott D. Petty

You will not find it in the LA Times, but Courage Campaign is dedicated to reporting fair and accurate news.  Several hundred workers at the LA Times printing press facilities in both Los Angeles and Orange County have won representation by a union.

The National Labor Relations Board certified the International Brotherhood of Teamsters as the bargaining agent for workers at the Times' two printing facilities, after turning back an appeal from the company.

One of the primary reasons the workers prevailed in their quest to form a union at the newspaper was a feeling that they'd been asked to work a lot harder without getting much in return.  From paltry pay increases to deteriorating benefits despite huge increases in productivity.