Below is the text of a letter I sent to members of the LGBT Legislative Caucus and Equality California, in response to an email EQCA sent on May 16, on behalf of the LGBT Caucus which urged "Yes" votes on Propositions 1A-1E.

I am writing to express my disappointment in both EQCA and the members of the LGBT Caucus for the email regarding the May 19 special election. First of all, I want to say that I understand that the propositions on the ballot exist only because California has a totally screwed-up budget process and that these propositions were part of the compromise that finally saw the budget ratified. I appreciate that the LGBT Caucus is probably merely holding up their end of the bargain in urging a blanket "Yes" vote on all the propositions -- at least I hope that is their reason. I also respect the fact that as the primary LGBT-lobbying organization in the state, EQCA has a reciprocal relationship with members of the LGBT caucus and, though without taking an official position on the propositions in question, did the Caucus a political favor by sending this message out to the EQCA listserv.

But now I want to take a moment to hopefully help you to understand my situation, and why I am so tremendously disappointed in both the LGBT Caucus and EQCA for what I believe is ultimately a cynical, political accommodation that will have grievous effects on many families. A simple disclaimer does not absolve EQCA of its social responsibility to the members of the LGBT community who look to them to provide sound political and legislative advice. Nor does being LGBT entitle the Caucus to use an organization like EQCA to facilitate its backdoor political deals.   Read More »

Matt Stoller at Open Left has reproduced a letter from progressive Democrats in the Congress demanding changes to the proposed bailout package. Barbara Lee and Lynn Woolsey are the two lead authors, and other California members of Congress who have signed it include Hilda Solis and Pete Stark.

The letter insists that 4 kinds of reform be included in any bailout:

• A 0.25% tax on all stock trades and "exotic transactions" such as derivatives trading as a kind of "progressive PAYGO" to ensure that the taxpayers won't be paying the costs of the bailout.



• Equity shares in any companies that benefit from the bailout



• "Major bankruptcy reform" including homeowner renegotiation of mortgages. Obama undercut progressives on this when he said bankruptcy reform didn't need to be part of the package, perhaps a telltale sign of how unprogressive an Obama administration might be. But it's still a necessary part of any financial solution.



• A detailed list of new regulations to protect consumers and provide more stable, responsible regulation of the financial industry to prevent a recurrence of this crisis.

The progressives' move in Congress comes as more economic observers question the need for a bailout. It's possible that this represents the first move by the 74 members of the Progressive Caucus to block a bill that in particular lacks bankruptcy reform. Even so, an axis of Bush Dogs, House Republicans, and timid/weak/complicit House Democratic leadership may prove to be too much for the Progressive Caucus to overcome.

Still, this letter is a welcome move by California progressives like Barbara Lee and Lynn Woolsey. The bailout needs to be either made a fundamentally progressive policy move or stopped entirely. If a progressive coalition is to come together to stop it leadership from the Progressive Caucus is a necessary component. Even if it is too little too late, it potentially marks the beginning of a push for truly progressive solutions to our economic crisis - the kind that FDR and the Democratic Party stood for 75 years ago, but that current Democratic leaders from Obama on down have now eschewed.

Building A New Energy, Economic, Environmental, Educational Future For Our Country and Our Planet

Democratic candidate for California's 24th Congressional District, Marta Jorgensen has formulated a bold new campaign platform called E-Revolution. She believes this platform, so named for its focus on the strong and productive reform of federal energy, economic, environmental, and educational policies as well as on citizen engagement, is necessary for the United States to compete and survive in the new millennium.

The first pillar of E-Revolution is energy reform. As our older energy sources continue to pollute our environment, make us dependent on foreign governments, and slowly get used up, we must adopt clean, independent, and renewable forms of alternative energy like solar power, wind power, tidal power, geothermal power, and biofuels.

Countries like Denmark, which already gets 25% of its energy from wind power, and Germany, which expects to get 45% of its power from renewable energy sources by 2030, have already recognized the dangers of an addiction to oil and coal. But Marta Jorgensen believes that the United States can meet this challenge head on; we can take back the mantle of energy pioneer we once held by supporting these new technologies with tax breaks and federal mandates.

The second pillar of this platform, economic reform, seeks to return the American economy to the robust strength it once had and to create new Green and higher paying jobs for American workers. This can be done by steering our economy toward alternative energy sources, by making our economy more efficient, by working to overcome global warming, and by creating more favorable trade agreements.

While the American oil and coal industries are losing jobs, renewable alternative energies can create and support millions of new jobs. According to studies, wind power can account for nearly 350,000 jobs, solar power for over 260,000 jobs and $45 billion in economic investment, tidal power for thousands of jobs per plant, geothermal energy for over 20,000 jobs; and biofuel for over 200,000 jobs. California is the natural home for many of these industries, and with them our state's economy, already one of the largest in the world, will surely grow even larger.

We can also make our economy more efficient. For example, one study found that an increase in fuel efficiency standards starting in 2001 could have saved drivers in upstate New York more than $2.4 billion in gas by 2012; the savings for California, with its much bigger economy and many more residents, could have been astronomical. Calling for stricter fuel efficiency standards and supporting the creation of new cars with alternative forms of power like electricity, hydrogen, or fuel cells can make our economy more efficient and each of us better off.

Switching to alternative energies and making our economy more efficient as well as working to reduce pollution and instituting a carbon tax will have the additional and very important effect of helping to ward off the effects of climate change. The costs of untreated global warming is an increase in wildfires, water conservation, public health, agriculture, and flooding could be incalculable; if we take steps now to mitigate those effects, we will be able to sustain and grow our economy far into the future.

In addition, we can take steps to keep our thriving international trade alive and growing while fixing bad trade agreements so that our only exports are American products, not American jobs. We can also address the issue of our crumbling dollar by reducing the federal deficit and paying down the federal debt. These policies form an important part of Marta Jorgensen's platform.

Such sweeping economic reform may sound difficult, but it is nowhere near as hard as keeping our economy beholden to the old energy sources, old technologies, and bad trade agreements that have made our economy so weak. But America is no weakling, and Marta Jorgensen believes that we are strong enough and motivated enough to do what we must to secure success for our economy.

The third pillar of change in E-Revolution, environmental reform, is closely related to Jorgensen's call for both energy and economic reform. We face serious peril from the effects of global warming, including a catastrophic rise in sea level, widespread drought, and myriad extinctions in plant and animal species all over the planet, effects that will change our world for the worse. But Marta Jorgensen thinks we can change the world for the better; Marta Jorgensen has a plan.

First, she calls for freezing carbon emissions and instituting a carbon tax, which will go a long way to reduce any further impact we might have on the atmosphere. But we also need to further reduce our creation of greenhouse gases by instituting a moratorium on coal plants not outfitted with carbon capture features, calling for the replacement of inefficient incandescent light bulbs, and building a more efficient electrical grid. In concert, these changes will drastically reduce our negative impact on the environment.

Of course, while we in the United States bear well more than our fair share of responsibility for global warming, we cannot address this problem alone. That is why Marta Jorgensen will call for a new and stronger global treaty, more effective than the Kyoto Protocol and with a closer compliance date, and she will do all she can to make sure that this time, we sign on and we stay on.

The final pillar of E-Revolution, educational reform, centers on the need to teach our children how to succeed in an E-Revolution world. We need programs to teach them how to work on a wind farm, how to design a better solar panel, and how to build a more efficient energy grid. We need to make sure that they know how important our environment is what they can do as individuals to make sure we maintain it. In short, we need comprehensive environmental education, and we need to do it on the national level.

The four pillars of E-Revolution are closely related; if one of them fails, the success of the whole project would be cast into doubt. Without energy reform to create new jobs in alternative energies and to make the economy more efficient, true economic reform is impossible, and without a switch to cleaner energy sources, true environmental reform is impossible. Without economic reform to create and maintain alternative energies, true energy reform is impossible, and without a more sustainable economy, true environmental reform is impossible. Without environmental reform to wean us off our addiction to fossil fuels, true energy reform is impossible, and without an environmental policy that seeks to overcome the problems of global warming, true economic reform is impossible. And unless we have educational reform to teach our children how to thrive in this new world, all the gains of the rest of the project will be for naught.

We need to make E-Revolution a reality; we need to elect Marta Jorgensen.Please support Marta Jorgensen's campaign to unseat Republican Elton Gallegly in California's 24th Congressional District.

Visit her website at: www.jorgensenforcongress.com.
805-742-0163 headquarters - jorgensenforcongress08@gmail.com

Despite the enviable combination of financial resources, strategic thinking, the capacity to mobilize its members and accountable leadership; UHW believes it has a lot to learn from the "netroots" community.   Read More »