Apparently Carly Fiorina believes she has the Republican US Senate nomination locked up, because now she's going after Barbara Boxer in this ridiculous ad airing on TV stations across California.

The ad features Carly Fiorina saying "Terrorism kills - and Barbara Boxer's worried about the weather." In other words, Fiorina thinks global warming is nothing more than mere weather, that its potential to flood part of the Bay Area, devastate our wine and agricultural industries, worsen fires, and produce statewide water shortages is just mere weather.

Fiorina's attack is intended to mock Boxer's statment that climate change is a national security issue. But do you know who else sees climate change as a national security issue?

The Pentagon:

The National Intelligence Council, which produces government-wide intelligence analyses, finished the first assessment of the national security implications of climate change just last year.

It concluded that climate change by itself would have significant geopolitical impacts around the world and would contribute to a host of problems, including poverty, environmental degradation and the weakening of national governments.

The assessment warned that the storms, droughts and food shortages that might result from a warming planet in coming decades would create numerous relief emergencies.

“The demands of these potential humanitarian responses may significantly tax U.S. military transportation and support force structures, resulting in a strained readiness posture and decreased strategic depth for combat operations,” the report said.

Fiorina's attack shows not only that she is anti-science and apparently supportive of the crippling effects of global warming on California's economy - but that she is also totally delusional about the threats facing this country. She is, in short, as unfit to be in the US Senate as she was unfit to be the CEO of Hewlett-Packard.

She's Silicon Valley's Sarah Palin. No wonder the former Alaska governor endorsed Fiorina.

California's Sarah Palin (aka Meg Whitman) has taken notice of the Courage Campaign radio ad launched today on radio stations across the state educating the public about Whitman's position on global warming. She just sent this email out to her list:

Dear Supporter,

A group of liberal activists headed by Howard Dean's former California campaign chair today launched a negative radio ad attacking Meg Whitman for her common-sense, pro-jobs environmental policies.

Fight back with Meg. She has led the call to put a one-year moratorium on California's AB 32, which has been estimated to negatively affect one million jobs in California. California cannot afford to hastily implement new environmental regulations that could further delay our economic recovery.

Coincidentally, the attack ad debuted on the same day that a new poll was released showing that Meg is beating the likely Democratic nominee Jerry Brown among independent voters.

National Democrats have already named Meg a top target and now the liberal "Courage Campaign" is taking up the call.

See their attack here.

Can we count on you to help beat these special interest groups and restore California? If you can contribute $15, $25 or $50, please link here to help fight back.

It's not surprising that Democrats and their special interest groups are already working hard to try to defeat Meg in the Republican primary. They want their chosen candidate, likely Jerry Brown, to face a different, weaker Republican candidate next November. We are not going to let that happen.

Thank you,
Jillian Hasner
Campaign Manager, Meg Whitman 2010

Some quick points. First, it was indeed entirely coincidental that our ad launched the day the PPIC poll came out. We'd been planning this ad for about a week now, but had no clue that PPIC was even doing a poll, certainly not that they were going to release it today. Not that it would have made any difference.

Contrary to Jillian Hasner's claims, the Courage Campaign does not endorse candidates for elected office. Jerry Brown is not our "chosen candidate" - we don't have one, period.

The Courage Campaign's goal is simply to make the public aware of Whitman's views on global warming legislation. Specifically, that she believes AB 32 should be suspended.

Looks like we've succeeded in that quest. If you want to help get that message aired more broadly on radio stations in California, click here to listen to the ad and donate to expand the buy.

Earlier this week I announced that Courage Campaign was going to produce an ad showing how Meg Whitman is California's Sarah Palin when it comes to global warming legislation. Palin and Whitman both oppose laws that mandate reduction of carbon emissions. Whitman has even said that she will order an indefinite suspension of AB 32 as her *very first act* as governor.

The Courage Campaign thought Californians should know about that. And our members agreed, putting up the money to get this ad produced and now aired on stations in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and the Silicon Valley.

You can hear the ad by clicking this link. And you can donate to help support and expand the ad buy at the same link. Just a few dollars - $25, $50, $100, whatever you can give - will help spread the word.

We've already been getting some earned media attention on this ad. Last night Candy Crowley mentioned it on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360° show. And on Tuesday, Carla Marinucci covered it at the SF Chronicle blog.

We'd love it if you could help us expand the buy. Meg Whitman is blanketing the state with her ads. The Courage Campaign doesn't have those kind of resources, but with your help we can get this ad on more radio stations and hold Whitman accountable.

Over the flip is the transcript of the ad.   Read More »

Sarah Palin, WaPo op-ed, December 9, 2009:

Meeting [carbon reduction] targets would require Congress to pass its cap-and-tax plans, which will result in job losses and higher energy costs... The last thing America needs is misguided legislation that will raise taxes and cost jobs.

Meg Whitman, San Jose Mercury News op-ed, September 16, 2009:

In January, the first AB 32 mandates take effect and will lead to higher energy costs at a time when we can least afford them. They will discourage job creation and could kill any recovery.

Notice the similar phrasing here: "higher energy costs," "cost jobs/discourage job creation."

It's not just similar phrasing that Whitman and Palin share: it's similar policies. Palin's op-ed was written to attack the Copenhagen climate summit and to oppose the Congressional cap-and-trade bill. Whitman's op-ed was written to attack AB 32, which she said she would order suspended indefinitely as her very first act as governor.

Earlier today in Copenhagen, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger slammed Sarah Palin's climate stance:

"You have to ask: what was she trying to accomplish?" he told the Financial Times. "Is she really interested in this subject or is she interested in her career and in winning the [Republican] nomination [for president]? You have to take all these things with a grain of salt."...

"I think there are people that just don't believe in fixing and working on the environment. They don't believe there is such a thing as global warming, they're still living in the Stone Age, which is OK, we need people like that, too," he said.

But will Arnold say similar things about Meg Whitman, who shares Sarah Palin's attitude about global warming legislation?

The Courage Campaign isn't going to wait to find out. That's why we are going to produce and air a radio ad that will broadcast on stations across California later this week. The ad will explain to the listener that Palin and Whitman share the same views on the climate crisis - views that are NOT shared by President Obama, Governor Schwarzenegger, and most Californians.

We're a small organization and can't simply cut and air the ad ourselves. We need your help to get this on the air. Please click here to kick in $25 to get this ad produced and aired.

Why a radio ad? Well, as you probably know, Whitman has launched a big radio ad buy in recent weeks. Whitman's ads are designed to raise her name identification with voters and boost her poll numbers by presenting herself as a friendly moderate who wants to help fix our broken state.

The Courage Campaign thinks that the public needs to hear the truth about Whitman's stand on global warming, which is why we're going to the radio airwaves. Will you join us? Donate now!

Once the ad is ready to be aired, I'll be sure to post it here so you can listen. Over the flip is the email we sent to our members today launching this campaign.   Read More »

California is and has for quite some time been a bit of a foregone conclusion at the Presidential level. It's led a number of people to focus on Western swing states for their volunteering. But while Prop 8 has started to bring people's attention back to California, the fight over parental-notification via Proposition 4 is still often getting lost in the shuffle.

So when everyone's favorite Sarah Palin came to Southern California recently, it was an opportunity to remind folks of the stakes when we hit the polls in a few days. We sent Todd Beeton down to check things out, and yesterday he shared his report:   Read More »

I know. I watched the debate too, so really- I could be talking about any number of things with that title. But in this case, I'm not even talking about anything from the debate.

I'm talking about Sarah Palin's Couric interview, where Couric asked, "If a 15-year-old is raped by her father, you believe it should be illegal for her to get an abortion. Why?"

Now, during tonight's debate, Palin noted with no shortage of dogmatic conviction in her voice the "dictators who hate America and hate what we stand for, with...our respect for women's rights..." But her response to Couric?

"I am pro-life. And I'm unapologetic about my position..."

I'm glad that America respects women's rights since Sarah Palin doesn't seem to; not even the rights of our children. She's not alone on that fringe, even in California. The assault on women is going to the ballot in November, and earlier today Rick Jacobs explained the connection and what's at stake:   Read More »

It hasn't been a good week for the McCain/Palin ticket. Sarah Palin was interviewed and thoroughly embarrassed by Katie Couric. Katie. Couric. Senator McCain suspended his campaign to rush back to Washington DC and save us all from economic collapse, but by most accounts ruined the bailout compromise that was being negotiated and then claimed credit for its passage in swing states as it failed to pass the House.

Sarah Palin has been hard at work (presumably) at debate preparation in the lead-up to Thursday evening's Vice Presidential debate, but apparently her prep hasn't included Supreme Court decisions or the names of newspapers. John McCain today had to cancel a big-dollar Hollywood fundraiser to rush back to Washington (again) in order to vote for the new bailout plan- the one that was negotiated successfully as soon as he left town- which broke his streak of not having shown up for a vote since April 8. A truly bizarro-Ripken streak of absenteeism.

And in the process, Obama has surged dramatically in swing state polling and more than doubled his national lead to a point that is threatening to push past the 50% mark. All of this has gone on without much action for our own California. John McCain may have been forced to call off his visit to Hollywood, but Sarah Palin is still coming to Carson on Saturday. She'll be here to advocate in one way or another for her extremely conservative social policies- policies that put her outside the mainstream of America and even further outside the mainstream of California.

She'll come here as the face of the intolerance represented by Proposition 8 and the reckless treatment of women's health represented by Proposition 4. And Courage Campaign is looking forward to extending a welcome to Governor Palin.

So Eden James emailed many of our supporters yesterday asking for suggestions for a simple airplane sign message that would express our feelings about her and the values she represents. He explained:   Read More »

Yesterday's Courage Campaign blog described the significant judicial victory which clears the way for the nation's busiest trade hub, the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to allow only trucking companies with clean-burning fuel trucks to serve their ports. Their program is partially paid for by a new fee on each container passing through the ports. Long Beach state Senator Alan Lowenthal passed a similar measure at the state level for a range of air pollution reduction initiatives including train engines and railway improvements. Gov. Sarah Palin has asked our governor to veto the state measure approved by the legislature earlier this year.

Why does Palin oppose clean trucks and trains, thus clean air in California? It could be that she represents entrenched special interests such as the American Trucking Association who opposed the local and state programs. It could also be that she represents entrenched special interests such as Wal-Mart which sources more than 80 percent of its products from China, and must ship most of it through the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.   Read More »

I've already made it pretty clear that Sarah Palin pissed me off during her acceptance speech a few days ago. And from what I gather, I'm hardly the only one.

She inappropriately attacked a number of groups during that speech, community organizers was just the one that struck closest to home for me. But as John McCain reminded us one night later, it's his campaign and, quite frankly, his arrogance and incompetence that we're battling through November. He's the one who chose Sarah Palin as VP, and he's also the one who had the belligerent speech written before even picking Palin to deliver it. It was carefully crafted to be his message, and he can rest assured of one thing: message received. We know full well now the contempt that he has for community organizers and activists at all levels and in all capacities across the country.

Part of organizing the best possible response is collaboration. On Wednesday night, Courage Campaign will be hosting a 6-7pm conference call with Markos Moulitsas, founder of DailyKos and author of the new book "Taking On the System" which he'll sign for you with your RSVP.

On the flip, check out Eden James' email to Courage supporters about Palin, organizing, and the upcoming call:   Read More »

Last night, the country was officially introduced to John McCain's Vice Presidential pick, Governor Sarah Palin. She gave a speech full of vitriol, condescension and outright lies, but perhaps nothing was more shocking than her belittling insult of community organizers. Trying to minimize the work of Barack Obama, she said "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities."

Shocking. Just a quick sampling of community organizers would include Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Founding Fathers of the United States, and Jesus. Much, much further down that list would be organizations like the Courage Campaign, which exists expressly to empower online and offline grassroots activism. Because we know, like so many others, that concerted community effort is what it takes to bring about meaningful change in this country- something we could really use after eight years of Bush/McCain policy.

Well last night Sarah Palin laid out how the McCain/Palin ticket intend to run this country: With scorn and belligerence for anyone who tries to bring their communities together to make things better. The Courage Campaign has spent years trying to empower exactly the sort of grassroots initiative that's vital to bringing about meaningful change. If we're ever going to address the fundamental failings of our government, we need a new presidential administration that doesn't try to squash the little guy.   Read More »