Republicans Kill Liu Nomination; Approve 19 Others

Goodwin Liu

What's that smell? I think it's the stench of "pragmatism" and horse trading. Apparently a deal has been reached between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to kill the nominations of four "controversial" federal judicial candidates in return for getting several other of President Obama's judicial nominations approved. The four judges that were anathema to Republicans just happen to be Goodwin Liu, Edward Chen, Louis B. Butler, Jr. and John J. McConnell, Jr.

MadProfessah has been following the odyssey of Liu's nomination because I met him once at joint State Assembly and Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Proposition 8, where the Dean of UC Berkeley's Boalt School of Law. Liu is an unapologetic API LGBT ally and progressive jurist who some consider a likely candidate for a Supreme Court nomination in Obama's second term.

Officials familiar with the deal said Democrats agreed not to seek votes on the nominations of Goodwin Liu, associate dean at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, and three others, while Republicans agreed to confirm at least 19 of President Barack Obama's noncontroversial nominees.

If confirmed, Liu, 40, of Berkeley, would be only the second Asian-American serving on a federal appeals court and the only active Asian-American on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and is seen by some as a potential future U.S. Supreme Court pick. However, his nomination in February was almost immediately met by Republican opposition.

"Professor Liu is an outstanding nominee and it is most unfortunate that my Republican colleagues are blocking an up-or-down vote on his nomination," U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said Tuesday. "I will keep fighting until he is confirmed."

The approval of judges means that Democratic-nominated judges are now a majority on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals and increased their margin on the 4th Circuit to 9-5. There are 11 federal circuit courts of appeals.

4 Questions To Ask Before You Vote

From Dailykos.com here are 4 questions everyone should ask themselves before they vote in the 2010 elections:

Questions:

1. What was the average monthly private sector job growth in 2008, the final year of the Bush presidency, and what has it been so far in 2010?

2. What was the Federal deficit for the last fiscal year of the Bush presidency, and what was it for the first full fiscal year of the Obama presidency?

3. What was the stock market at on the last day of the Bush presidency? What is it at today?

4. Which party's candidate for speaker will campaign this weekend with a Nazi reenactor who dressed up in a SS uniform?

Answers:

1. In 2008, we lost an average of 317,250 private sector jobs per month. In 2010, we have gained an average of 95,888 private sector jobs per month. (Source) That's a difference of nearly five million jobs between Bush's last year in office and President Obama's second year.

2. In FY2009, which began on September 1, 2008 and represents the Bush Administration's final budget, the budget deficit was $1.416 trillion. In FY2010, the first budget of the Obama Administration, the budget deficit was $1.291 trillion, a decline of $125 billion. (Source) Yes, that means President Obama has cut the deficit -- there's a long way to go, but we're in better shape now than we were under Bush and the GOP.

3. On Bush's final day in office, the Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 closed at7,949, 1,440, and 805, respectively. Today, as of 10:15AM Pacific, they are at 11,108, 2,512, and 1,183. That means since President Obama took office, the Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 have increased 40%, 74%, and 47%, respectively.

4. The Republican Party, whose candidate for speaker, John Boehner, will campaign with Nazi re-enactor Rich Iott this weekend. If you need an explanation why this is offensive, you are a lost cause.

Repeat After Me. Fox News Is NOT A News Outlet

As many progressives and liberals know, Fox News is not a news outlet. It is a right-wing propaganda arm. But now we have more ammunition because the parent company of the channel, News Corporation, has decided to give one million dollars to the Republican Governors Association:

The company's media outlets play politics more openly than most, but the huge contribution to a party committee is a new step toward an open identification between Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and the GOP. The company's highest-ranking Democratic executive, Peter Chernin, recently departed.

[...]

UPDATE: News Corp. Spokesman Jack Horner emails, "News Corporation believes in the power of free markets, and the RGA’s pro-business agenda supports our priorities at this most critical time for our economy."

The giant check to the RGA dwarfs low four-figure checks from Fox's PAC to Democrats including Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer.

hat/tip to Rod 2.0

MadProfessah Meets Markos of DailyKos

One of the amazing aspects of Netroots Nation is that you never know who you'll run into. Right before Senate MajorityLeader Harry Reid spoke on Saturday, I ran into DailyKos.com founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga and he took this picture with me. Netroots Nation started off as the annual get together YearlyKos, a gathering of like-minded people who used the Dailykos.com site to share idea and form an online progressive community. DailyKos.com is one of the biggest blogs on the Internet, getting hundreds of thousands of hits per day, nearly 4 million hits per week. Markos is now a best-selling author and frequent television commentator but he is still very down-to-earth and it was an honor to meet him.

Pretty cool, eh?

Thanks again to Mike Rogers and the Citizen Journalist/ Blogger Initiative for the financial support to attend the conference for the second year in a row. Next year it is in Minneapolis!

Celebrity Friday (Extra): Pamela Karlan

MadProfessah and Law Professah Pam Karlan

Today after the excellent panel at Netroots Nation 2010 in Las Vegas entitled "Liberal Perspectives on the Kagan Supreme Court Nomination" which featured Dahlia Lithwick, Nan Aron, Keith Kamisugi, Joan McCarter and Pamela Karlan. MadProfessah took a picture with one of my idols, Stanford Law Professor (and former Dean) Pamela Karlan, who has been on progressives' wet dream short list for the United States Supreme Court.

Karlan explicitly mentioned the Goodwin Liu nomination to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (which we have been following here at this blog), and said that progressives should pay careful attention as to whether the UC Berkeley Law Professor gets approved by the Senate. Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that he is putting a hold on all appellate-level federal judicial nominees before the mid-term election, so things do not look good. To support the nomination of a principled progressive to the 9th circuit, click here and here.

Take a look at the picture. Notice anything? Yes, we co-ordinated our colors. It's not pink, it's fuchsia! I think she wears the pearls better than I do, yes?

Schooling Fools: Race, LGBT Rights and Immigration

MadProfessah friend Hans Johnson has written an interesting piece in the Huffington Post which connects the dots between anti-gay purges of the past and the current anti-immigrant legislation coming out of Arizona. In it, he says:

The past is not the only guide toward greater solidarity with immigrants. One would think an entire decade of antigay ballot measures that played on stigma and bigotry to ban recognition of same-sex partners' freedom to marry would make the gay community staunch foes of anti-immigrant bias and its deployment in state law. That is mostly the case, in part because thousands of LGBT people are themselves immigrants or have partners or family members who must navigate the exploitation, suspicion, ignorance, and outright hate that greets immigrants, undocumented and otherwise.

Yet gay people are not immune from fecklessness in the face of anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy-making. In a well-publicized essay from 2006, lesbian commentator Jasmyne Cannick from Los Angeles all but told immigrants then denouncing a hostile bill in Congress and demanding reform that provides a path to legal citizenship, to wait in line behind the native-born. "It's a slap in the face to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people to take up the debate on whether or not to give people who are in this country illegally any rights when we haven't even given the people who are here legally all of their rights," Cannick wrote.

Whether callousness or merely lack of foresight, one chilling consequence of what Cannick voiced came to life just two years later in the outcome of California's voting on Proposition 8, which eliminated access to civil marriage for same-sex couples. Many California immigrants, Latino and otherwise, ignored gay people's pleas for justice and against being singled out by the policy-making process and voted to add Prop 8 to the state constitution. Thanks to that ballot measure, it is now embedded there. The lesson may be clear in retrospect. Turning away from unfairness, and spurning a chance for coalition, can cause reciprocal injury.

It's pretty amazing that any disenfranchised group would tell another "the line to get equal rights starts behind me" but that's arguably what the short-sighted Cannick was saying (and Johnson was laudably calling her out on).

Cannick's pieces have appeared at the Black politics blog Jack and Jill Politics, but happily there are people there who see understand the importance of solidarity and coalition building. In "What Part of ‘If You Ain’t White’, don’t you understand?" rikyrah points out this disturbing response to Arizona's recent xenophobic actions:

Nearly two-thirds of Americans back Arizona’s new anti-illegal immigration law, which makes it a state crime for a person to be in the country illegally. The law also requires local and state law enforcement officials to question people about their immigration status if they suspect they’re in the country illegally.

Sixty-four percent favor this law, while 34 percent oppose it. But those numbers are essentially reversed among Latinos — with 70 percent of them opposing the law, and only 27 percent supporting it.

Even though almost two-thirds of the public supports Arizona’s law, nearly an identical number (66 percent) believe it will lead to the discrimination of Latino immigrants who reside in the U.S. legally.

The point here is that Americans are willing to support a law which they admit will discriminate against some people, because they don't think that law will impact them. rikyrah also points out the direct correlation between Arizona's SB 1070 and its explicit legalization of racial profiling:

There’s a Black person, more likely, a Black Man, racially profiled EVERY DAY in this country.

The only way that we’ve remotely been able to fight this, is because it was ILLEGAL.

Now, if this happens when it’s ILLEGAL, what do you think is going to happen if they make it LEGAL?

Well, I’m not willing to find out.

IS there a Black person out there that thinks that doesn’t recognize THAT WE ARE NEXT ON THE LIST?

Please point to me something in the history of Black folk and Law Enforcement in America that could make me conclude anything OTHER than this?

So, it’s opposition to SB1070 for the selfish reason of SELF-PRESERVATION for me

So, to summarize, there are clear reasons why LGBT people should support immigration reform and oppose anti-immigrant legislation (especially if we expect immigrants and non-gay people to oppose anti-gay legislation) and there are clear reasons why Black people should be interested in promoting immigration legislation and opposing xenophobic public policy (anti-immigrant furors are always based in race, and will not remain targeted at non-Black racial groups for long).

You'd think someone who is Black and gay wouldn't need to learn these lessons in 2010 but, happily, there are several people, including yours truly who are prepared to school fools on the greater good.

WATCH: Julia Sugarbaker's Greatest Rants

WATCH: Karen Bass Answer Questions On LGBT Rights

Today is Saturday which means it is local politics day at MadProfessah.com. This week, I attended a "Millennials for Karen Bass" event this week which was streamed live on the internet and recorded. It can be accessed here.

The event was to raise fund for Karen Bass' run for the 33rd Congressional District of California. The Democratic Primary is June 8, 2010. At the event, surprisingly, Speaker Bass took questions from the audience and was unabashed about her support for marriage equality and viewing LGBT rights as a question of justice and equality. "A hard vote for some but not for me" is how she described voting for marriage equality (twice!) in the state legislature.

Karen Bass will be a true progressive voice in the halls of Congress. Please help get her there.

Celebrity Friday: Nancy Pelosi

Today, Friday March 26th is the 70th birthday of Speaker of the U.S. House Nancy Pelosi. On Sunday night, she presided over the final passage of the most sweeping social justice legislation in over 40 years, Obama's national health care reform bill. Let's hope she has a good celebration of her 70th birthday!

Pssst, Nancy! We still expect ENDA and DPBO to pass before November. Don't let us down.

AD-43: Shock! Nayiri Wins Stonewall Dems Nod

Nahabedian	Gatto

In a shock to most political insiders, Nayiri Nahabedian, Glendale School board members and AD-43 candidate, won the endorsement of the Stonewall Democratic Club, one of the oldest and most prominent LGBT democratic clubs in the country, despite the fact that her main opponent Mike Gatto, has been a longtime paid member of the club for well over a decade and a strong LGBT ally.

MadProfessah is a Stonewall Democratic Club board member (technically, elected Steering Committee member) of Stonewall, and although I have participated in other endorsement panel hearings, I was not on the committee that recommended an endorsement for Gatto by a vote of 4-3. However, at the meeting of the membership on Monday March 22nd, the vote was 23-10 to endorse Nahabedian, which observers chalked up to an impassioned speech by former Assemblyperson Jackie Goldberg, who is openly lesbian and best well-known for the primary author of AB 205, California's Comprehensive Domestic Partnership Act. Stonewall does not allow candidates to speak at a club meeting in which their race is being considered by the membership, but allows 3 people to speak in favor and in opposition to motions on the floor.

Gatto has been endorsed by yours truly, but more importantly he has been endorsed by the California Democratic Party. This surprising result at the Stonewall Democratic Club is the second time that Nahabedian has mobilized (some would say "packed") a Democratic club meeting to overturn the recommendation of a club's endorsement committee for Gatto. DPSFV (Democratic Party of San Fernando Valley) had recommended Gatto but the endorsement was changed to open endorsement by a vote of the membership.

The special primary election will be help on April 13th to see who will replace Paul Krekorian and then on June 8th the Democratic primary will be held for who gets the nomination for the November election to represent the 43rd Assembly district in January 2011.

Obama Nominates API LGBT Ally For 9th Circuit

Goodwin Liu

This should be the biggest judicial confirmation battle this year (barring any Supreme Court retirements, which are likely). President Barack Obama has nominated UC Berkeley Law School Professor Goodwin Liu for a vacancy on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Liu has impeccable intellectual and legal credentials. From the official White House announcement:

Goodwin Hon Liu is an Associate Dean and Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. An acclaimed scholar, teacher, and lawyer, with experience in both the private and public sectors, Liu is a nationally-recognized expert on constitutional law and education law and policy. In 2009, he received Berkeley's most prestigious teaching award.

Prior to joining the Berkeley faculty in 2003, Liu was an associate at O'Melveny & Myers in Washington, D.C. He clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the October 2000 Term, and for Judge David S. Tatel on the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from 1998-1999. Between his clerkships, Liu served as a Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary at the U.S. Department of Education. He has also worked for the Corporation for National Service, where he helped launch the AmeriCorps program.

Liu was born in Augusta, Georgia, to parents who emigrated from Taiwan, and he grew up in Sacramento where he attended public schools. Liu earned a B.S. from Stanford University in 1991, an M.A from Oxford in 2002 (where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar), and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1998.

The Los Angeles Times notes that if Liu is confirmed, he will be the only Asian American serving on an appellate court in the country.

MadProfessah is familiar with Godwin Liu because we both appeared at a Joint California Assembly-Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing in 2008 testifying that he thought Proposition 8 was unconstitutional and has written published editorials to that effect also.

Goodwin Liu is also known for testifying against Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court and will be an excellent progressive judge and Asian American LGBT ally on the 9th Circuit!

AD-43: And then there were two!

Mike Gatto, candidate for AD-43

More local political news. In the race to replace former Assemblyman Paul Krekorian in the 43rd Assembly district, another candidate has dropped out and so there are now only two main candidates remaining: MadProfessah-endorsed 35-year-old Stonewall Democrat Club member Mike Gatto and Glendale school boardmember Nayiri Nahabedian, 40.

Councilmember Herb Wesson staffer Andrew Westall suspended his campaign after the sudden death of his colleague, Wesson's chief of staff of a brain aneurysm over the weekend. Westall endorsed Nahabedian as he exited the race.

The special primary election is on April 13th, and then there's a primary election and the special general election on June 8th. The candidate who wants to be the Assemblymember from the 43rd Assembly district should win all three, but the primary election on June 8th is the most important.

According to the Secretary of State's financial records, Gatto had $200,000 plus on hand as of 12/31/2009 while Nahabedian appears to have had significantly less than $100,000. Typically (but not always, Meg!) the person who spends the most and/or raises the most wins these elections.

Celebrity (Black) Friday: Tyler Perry Donates $1M to NAACP

Tyler Perry has donated one million dollars to the NAACP, the largest individual donation the venerable African American civil rights organization (which celebrated the 100th anniversary of its creation this year) has ever received.

It's pretty shocking that with so many Black multimillionaires and billionaires in this country (hello, Oprah and Mr. and Mrs. Johnson?) this is the first 7 figure gift the NAACP has ever received.

If it weren't for the work of the NAACP it is exceedingly doubtful that they could have had the opportunities for extraordinary financial success that they have achieved.

NAACP leaders say Perry's donation will be used to support its Second Century campaign, which targets equality in education, health care and criminal justice heading into the next 100 years. The money will be distributed over four years, according to the NAACP.

Perry said in a statement that he credits the work of past NAACP leaders as helping pave the way for his success in the entertainment industry. He made his film debut in 2005 with "Diary of a Mad Black Woman," which he wrote, directed and starred in.

I wonder if this is his mea culpa (Latin for "my bad") for Big Mama!

Support MadProfessah Advertiser ALAN GRAYSON's MONEY BOMB

Florida Congressman Alan Grayson scares the %$*^!! out of Republicans because he is an outspoken progressive who says out loud exactly what most of you are thinking.

Some choice quotes from Rep. Grayson:

"The Republican health care plan is this: 'Don't get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly.'"



"I have trouble listening to what [Dick Cheney] says sometimes because of the blood that drips from his teeth when he's talking."

Because of this, Republicans have recruited a Latino Republican named Armando Gutierrez to run against Grayson and targeted him wth a website mycongressmanisnuts.com, which is a response to Grayson's congressmanwithguts.com.
Grayson says his re-election race in 2010 will probably cost $2 million dollars thanks to the national profile and the targeting that he will receive from the Republican National Committee.

Today Monday November 2nd Grayson is doing a money bomb where he is trying to raise four hundred thousand dollars online from progressives nationally. I am hoping that a significant number of MadProfessah readers will click on the Alan Grayson Money Bomb ad in the top right corner of this blog, and kick in $10 via Actblue. I'm hoping that we can raise $100 to support his moneybomb. Please click on the ad and donate now!

Principles of Comprehensive Immigration Reform Unveiled

The principles of comprehensive immigration reform legislation are being unveiled today and I am happy to report that they are LGBT inclusive:

25 KEY PRINCIPLES TO MEANINGFUL REFORM

1. End policies that rely only on enforcement and deterrence as the sole means of regulating migration.
2. Address the root causes of immigration, and change US policy so that it doesn't foster and produce conditions that force hundreds of thousands of people each year to leave their countries of origin in order to simply survive.
3. Tie all current and future trade, military, and foreign aid agreements to not only worker protections both here and abroad, but also to their ability to foster economic progress and social justice for the working class and poor in sender nations.
4. Formulate a reasonable, humane, fair and practical method for determining the levels of immigration going forward. Establish an independent commission free from the pressures of political expediency and business interests to review all the pertinent data and set admission numbers based on labor, economic, social, and humanitarian needs.
5. Provide a path to legalization for all current undocumented immigrants living and working in the US, free of restrictions based on country of origin, economic status, education, length of residency, or any other “merit based” criteria.
6. Secure the borders by first ensuring that the vast majority of new immigrants have the ability and opportunity to legally enter the country through legal ports of entry by increasing the availability and equitable distribution of green cards. This would curtail the flow of migration through illegal channels. Only after that, should enforcement begin to ensure compliance, or any work to physically secure the border take place.
7. Increase the focus on enforcement of all labor and employment laws. Increase penalties on employers who engage in unfair or illegal labor practices. Increase funding for government oversight and inspection.
8. Opposition to a "temporary guest worker" program on the grounds that it provides no benefit to the American people or the immigrants themselves. It only provides big business with a disposable work force, and prevents immigrants from becoming a viable force in the workplace or full fledged members of society.
9. Foster an immigration policy that strengthens the middle and working class through encouraging unionization, increased naturalization, and immigrant participation in the electoral process.
10. Include the language of the DREAM Act that would allow children and young adults brought here as children, and raised in the US, a conditional path to citizenship in exchange for a mandatory two years in higher education or community service. Undocumented young people must also demonstrate good moral character to be eligible for and stay in conditional residency. At the end of the long process, the young person can have the chance to become an American citizen or legal residency by completing their educations and contributing to society.
11. Included the language of the Uniting American Families Act that would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to allow permanent partners of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, including same-sex partners, to obtain permanent residency.
12. Include the language of the AgJobs bill that seeks to relieve chronic farm labor shortages by supplying undocumented migrant agricultural workers a legal opportunity to enter the county and a path to legal status and eventual citizenship. It also bolsters labor rights and protects workers from exploitation.
13. Repeal the sections of the 1996 law that redefined vast numbers of crimes as deportable offense when committed by immigrants. Imposing harsh penalties--often permanent exile--on immigrants for minor criminal convictions like shoplifting or possession of marijuana.
14. End permanent detention of all migrants for immigration violations not related to violent crimes.
15. Simplify the immigration system by eliminating and condensing the hundreds of various visa classes into a smaller, more manageable, classification system that allows for not only easier navigation of the system, but better analysis of current immigration needs.
16. End policies and programs that rely upon state and local law enforcement agencies to usurp the role of the federal government and engage in the enforcement of federal immigrations codes.
17. Bring U.S. immigration law in line with international human rights law by reforming asylum and refugee law and strengthening protections for children, crime victims, and victims of human trafficking
18. Modernize and streamline the immigration process and eliminate the backlogs for those already in the queue. Simplify the paperwork process and utilize technology to cut wait times and bureaucratic delays.
19. Make family reunification simpler by expanding the “immediate family” classification to reflect the cultural realities of many non-western or traditional societies from which immigrants come.
20. Allow immigration judges the discretion to treat cases on an individual basis and make decisions based on the specific the circumstances and outcomes of the case.
21. Make punishments of immigration crimes commensurate with comparable crimes in other areas of the law. A misdemeanor or civil violation of immigration law should not carry with it a punishment that would be comparable to a felony in a criminal case.
22. End, or raise, the per-country cap that favors smaller nations with fewer immigrant applicants over larger developing nations and those countries that have long traditional ties to the US.
23. Update the Registry Date in Sec 249 of the Immigration and Nationality Act to reflect the historical pattern of periodic updating. Current date should be updated to 1996.
24. Eliminate 'crimes involving moral turpitude,' an amorphous legal holdover from Jim Crow
25. Recognize that immigration is a vital part of maintaining a healthy and vibrant America. It is what has set this nation apart from all others since its inspection. To close our borders to new immigrants is to cut off the lifeblood that has always made this nation grow and prosper.

You didn't think the heavy lifting would stop after health care reform gets done, did you?

And Franken Makes 60...

Al Franken was officially declared the winner of the November 2008 Minnesota Senate race on Tuesday by 312 votes, after that state's supreme court unanimously rejected Norm Coleman's lawsuit.

The win means that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will now have the votes of 60 people caucusing with the Democrats, although this includes two independents (Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of Vermont) as well as Republican-turned-Democrat Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.

Since it takes 60 votes to end debate and proceed to a majority vote in the 100-member Senate, many Democrats are celebrating Franken's win of the Minnesota seat after a long 8 months. However, the Democrats have had 59 votes since January and still they have not been able to pass truly progressive legislation.

It can't hurt the attempt to pass LGBT legislation, but I think the significance of the "60 vote barrier" has been overstated.

Feinstein Responds To Health Care Criticism

A spokesperson for Senator Dianne Feinstein responded to questions about the Senator's support for enacting health care reform after several bloggers (including yours truly) noted her unhelpful appearance on television recently.

In her email, the Senator says:

I support:

1) Reducing costs and expanding coverage

2) Prohibiting the denial of insurance because of pre-existing conditions

3) Moving toward either a non-profit model of medical insurance or to one where premium costs can be controlled, either through competition in a public or cooperative model or through a regulated authority.

4) Assuring the financial survival of Medicare, because it is slated to run out of money in 2017.

5) Preventing the transfer of Medicaid costs to states, which could result in billions of dollars of additional loss to the State of California.

6) Establishing means testing for programs like Medicare Part D, which pays for prescription drugs

Clearly, the individual mandate - and how it is funded - is the critical, and as yet unanswered, question.

Jason Rosenbaum over at Calitics.com is not impressed:

Feinstein wants to control costs? The Commonwealth Fund estimates a health reform bill with a public health insurance option will save an extra $2 trillion over 11 years.

Feinstein wants to expand coverage? Jacob Hacker argues [pdf] that the public health insurance option in conjunction with reform is the way to best provide expanded and quality coverage, while preserving choice.

Feinstein wants to stop insurance industry abuses? Then she'll have to help pass a law that mandates these things, because the insurance industry will never voluntarily accept these concessions, as their testimony before Congress made abundantly clear.

And Feinstein wants to save Medicare and Medicaid? Well, the only way to do that is to aggressively control costs, as Budget Director Peter Orszag points out, is to reform health care in a real way.

In short, if Senator Feinstein wants to achieve any of the goals she says she wants to achieve, she's going to need to support robust health reform, including the choice of a public health insurance option.

[...]

So keep calling her office at (202) 224-3841 and sign the petition and ask her to just come out and say it, "I'm with the President and commit to using all my muscle to pass real health care reform this year, including a choice of a public health insurance option, to achieve the goals I've laid out for our health care system."

I'll say it once again: Senator Feinstein can either make history, or stand in the way.

VIDEO: Obama On Marriage Equality Before Becoming POTUS

Voters Say NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, YES to Propositions

California voters said to the Governor and Legislature yesterday, we really, really, really don't like you, and rejected all five of the budgeting propositions and approved the one proposition which had almost no budget impact but prohibits legislative pay raises when budgets are not completed.

CA-GOV: Newsom Announces Gubernatorial Candidacy