HOWIE'S HEADING OFF TO THE DESERT-- TO THE DEMOCRATS OF THE DESERT

Same Howie, different desert (same shoes though)

A week from today, on Wednesday, May 16, I'm driving out into the heart of Red America. No, not Utah or Alabama; I'm going to visit Riverside County, California, the fastest-growing part of the Golden State. The entire state (including the rapidly developing Inland Empire) has a growth rate of 6.7%. Riverside County has a growth rate of 26%... per year! The folks in the oldest Democratic Club out there, Democrats of the Desert, invited me to come talk with them about netroots activism in regard to the 2008 races. If you're in the area, please come by and say hello. The meeting is from 5:30 'til 8pm in Cathedral City. The address is 68-727 East Palm Canyon Dr.

If you can't make it out, Irwing is going to try to live vlog the event. More about that on Tuesday. I'll also be on the radio out there on Monday morning at 7:30am, PT. They have me on the AM powerhouse, KPSI, Newstalk 920, home of Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Lielly, Laura Ingraham! Fortunately I'm being interviewed by local talent, Steve Kelly, a reasonable moderate who hosts the popular morning-drive show. Perhaps you've read my theories about why people in exurban areas like the Inland Empire go crazy and vote for Republicans. KPSI is where they go crazy. I hope I can straighten them out.

You may recall that DWT and then Blue America got involved with the congressional race between Bush Regime rubber stamp Mary Bono and progressive Democrat David Roth. Bono, who has been getting more and more reactionary dropped over 6% from her 2004 win. David and Democrats still have a long way to go, but it's just a matter of time before that congressional seat, the 45th, goes blue.

Today Mary Bono is still voting to support every disastrous move the Bush Regime makes in Iraq. She votes against each and every proposal Democrats make to end the war. Remember this oldie-but-goodie from last year:




UPDATE: SOMEONE NOTICED!

Yeah, Howard Dean and Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid and... me?

BLUE AMERICA: DAVID ROTH v MARY BONO

Mary Bono was appointed to her congressional seat (CA-45) in 1998 after her husband Sonny, Cher's sidekick, died in a skiing accident. She has never had any serious opposition. Until now. She's an airhead and a rubber stamp with not a lick of sense. She is petrified to be seen in the same vicinity of David Roth, the progressive Democrat challenger her re-election bid, and she absolutely refuses to debate him. It would be like a slow 4 year old debating a brilliant professor. She has had the sense to try to cultivate a moderate image. Unfortunately, a quarter inch of scratching under the image is a stepford supporter of the most outrageous and hideous of the entire Bush/Big Business agenda. A member of the Scientology cult, she is quite used to having authority figures make decisions for her.

I don't think you will find a bigger contrast between candidates anywhere in America than the one between Mary Bono and David Roth. When I spoke to David for the first time a couple weeks ago, the very first thing he said to me was, "I am convinced that politics is noble. I have believed for my entire life that politics is about empowering people, empowering communities." David is a take charge kind of can-do person. But he's apprehensive that our very democracy is teetering on the brink-- not just because of the excesses of the Bush Regime, but because people seem to have lost faith in our government.

Like many people in the Southern California district, David doesn't hold Bono in high regard. "I haven't met anyone who is pleased with the direction our nation has been taken nor with the results or the actions of my opponent... She wasn't prepared for this job when she was selected for it and she hasn't been able to rise to the challenge any day since. You have to care and you have to lead and you have to stand up. If you want to read about a leader who has a record of caring and of standing up and who accomplishes things, let me point you to David's inspiring biography.

Talk to David and everything about him reads "winner." And he isn't taking any chances. He's put together the largest and most robust field campaign in the history of Riverside County. He's the first Democrat who has ever raised enough money to compete effectively in this district. "My campaign is about winning," he told me, "and about change and about substance and what I can bring to the people who I will be serving... Her campaign is just a big ad buy. She's raised a great deal of money. She'll never walk a precinct or go to a house party or attend a town hall meeting. And she'll never debate me. She's refused every opportunity to debate, not just from my campaign but from community organizations like AARP and the local media."

When I asked David what the most crucial issues he's hearing about from people in the district he reels 'em right off: gas prices and energy, health care, the war in Iraq and the educational infrastructure (his specialty). "My message resonates with the majority of the people in the district-- a very diverse district; they just haven't voted in the past. My campaign has been geared to change those patterns. We've been organizing-- from voter registration right up through energizing thousands of people who have never been part of the political process before."

David's campaign defines a grassroots effort, albeit a relatively well-financed one. But he has had a great deal of help from progressive luminaries, campaigning with Barbara Boxer, Barney Frank, Maxine Waters, Linda Sanchez, Henry Waxman, etc. Of course, he's too progressive and anti-war to expect any assistance from Rahm Emanuel but real Democrats like Frank and Boxer see a winner in David and they're helping him get his message out. If you'd like to lend a hand, we've added David to the Blue America ActBlue page and the first 25 contributors for his campaign there today will be mailed an exciting CD called What Is Hip?, a compilation of contemporary remixes of classic songs by Rod Stewart, the Doobie Brothers, America, DEVO, Todd Rundgren, George Benson, Gary Wright, and many others. If you just want to help David's campaign and don't want the CD, please add a penny to your donation so we'll know not to send one.


UPDATE; MSM IS PAYING ATTENTION TO YOUTUBE AND IN PALM SPRINGS, THAT'S BAD NEWS FOR RUBBER STAMP BONO

I guess everyone wants to know why YouTube sold for $1.6 billion. The biggest local paper in CA-45, Palm Springs' Desert Sun, poked around a little and figured out something else: it's time to throw Mary Bono out.

THERE IS ANOTHER CALIFORNIA SEAT THAT THE GOP MIGHT BE GIVING UP THIS YEAR-- MARY BONO'S

Next Wednesday our Blue America featured guest will be David Roth, the first Democrat to give entrenched rubber stamp Republican Mary Bono a run for her Big Business' money since she was first appointed. Bono is a complete dolt and a pathetic cardboard cut-out, the quintessential Stepford candidate. Roth's as smart as a whip and very quick on his feet. Bono wouldn't stand a chance against him in a debate, so she won't. She's on the run but in a district filled with retirees, her vapid and unblinking support of the Doughnut Hole will probably cost her the election. David will join us live next Wednesday at 2:30 PM (PT) at Firedoglake. If you want to get a feel for what Mary's all about before that, let me recommend this powerful 30 second video clip that shows you exactly what David is fighting.