Here’s the blog from my campaign for Santa Clara County Board of Education; AHERN for County Board of Education.

I plan to resume posting here and may be starting a few unrelated blogs or web sites.

More to come…

This round of meetings may be more contentious than previous cycles due to the probable shift to a Democratic majority in the mid-term elections and war-related issues (in Iraq and Lebanon). Republicans seem to sense their weakness, so they are in attack mode. Expect very negative campaign barrages in the Fall.

The Congress members and their staff attempt to control the event, but, unlike the faux ‘town meetings’ produced for W and Dick, Congressional staffers can’t control who attends these events. The staff watches for banners and projectiles, however the peer pressure from other attendees restrains the behavior of the fringes (right, left, and off-the-wall).

Here are some tips for making your attendance at a public meeting hosted by your Congressional Representative effective and less stressful for everyone involved:

• Clearly print your specific question on the cards provided. Refer to the title of legislation, particularly if the Congress member co-sponsored it. Do some homework.

• Assume that the Congress member will not read aloud your rapier-like screed that starts “You $%*&#@ spineless coward…”

• If you absolutely must communicate your screed to the Congress member and the audience, then bring a stack of leaflets and hand them out to the incoming audience. Include contact information, in case someone agrees with you.

• Some people can’t resist loudly arguing, muttering insults, and shouting questions. The other attendees wrote down their questions and expect the Congress member to ignore the loudmouths and answer the next written question. Dissent means never having to say, “I’m an asshole, and so is everyone who agrees with me.”

• Listen to the questions other people are asking. You may have a few narrow issues that push your buttons, but try to understand the other issues that may concern large segments of your community. How are the issues related?

In the 1st District in New Mexico, which includes Albuquerque, the state’s Attorney General, Patricia Madrid, campaigns against a long-term Christian-Republican incumbent. The incumbent has collected the fourth highest cash total from Tom DeLay’s ARMPAC campaign money-laundering operation. Because Madrid has a high profile in the state and this district went for Kerry in 2004, Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball considers this election a toss-up.

In the Arizona 8th district, including Tucson, State Senator Gabrielle Giffords is running for the Democratic Congressional nomination. Robert Reich mentioned her in his blog, so I made a campaign contribution. Sabato also rates this as a toss-up. Attacks by rightist Christian-Republicans on the remaining “moderates” in the party may sufficiently damage the party organization that it might not conduct a strong campaign in November. (As an indicator of the corruption in the Christian-Republican party, the right-wing candidate recently fired his campaign manager when reporters discovered the campaign manager’s conviction for sexually abusing teenage girls.)

The national Christian-Republican machine will pour money and negative attacks into both of these campaigns. Madrid’s district includes many Hispanic voters, so the attacks may not focus on anti-immigrant race-baiting. Arizona’s 8th district includes about 1/3 of Arizona’s border with Mexico. The rightists’ candidate, a former golf pro, already uses immigration/race as his wedge issue.

So, before you log off, please take a few minutes to contribute to Giffords and Madrid.

But, then, I consider Warren Buffet’s decision to give well over $30 billion to the Gates Foundation to fight diseases worldwide and improve education in America. And, compare Larry Ellison’s decision to welsh on a $115 million pledge to Harvard for medical research. Two billionaires dispensing their wealth as personal, not community, property. Is there a discernable difference between them? Yes. While anyone would reasonably consider Bill Gates a monopolist and plutocrat, Buffet’s decision demonstrated a committment to wider concerns than Ellison could envision. One demonstrates a global vision, the other focuses on petty personal cronyism.

I also hope the White House and members of Congress listened carefully to Buffet’s arguments to maintain the aristocracy tax (a.k.a. the estate tax). He displayed a concern for his country and the world that extended beyond the privileges of his class and heirs.

While I have your attention, go make an online contribution…now.

City threatens to yank councilman’s contract reported JournalStar.com in Lincoln, NE.
Ken Svoboda’s business holds the contract to maintain the medians on the streets of Lincoln, Nebraska. Perhaps he believed his position on the city council would protect him from complaints from a dissatisfied customer. Maybe it did, for a while. When the Public Works Director threatened to terminate the contract, the councilman finally fulfilled his obligation. Of course, he blamed his failure on others; his employees (“When I’m not there, things don’t get finished.”) and the general public (“This is a casualty of public service.”).

So, does your city outsource the maintainance of public property? To elected officials?

With the abolition of the aristocracy tax (a.k.a. the estate tax, a.k.a. the death tax), generations of the Gates family could live in slendor without demonstrating that they add any value sufficient to deserve their wealth. (Consider Paris Hilton.)

However, I have to give the Gates family credit. My understanding is that Bill Gates plans to structure his estate so that only 10% of his wealth passes on to his heirs. Also, his father opposed the abolition of the aristocracy tax because he feared that it would create an aristocracy in America as risk-averse and valueless as the aristocracy in the EU.

Unlike the Bush family, the Gates family seems to care more about America than their heirs.

For a glimpse of what we might expect from the political operatives appointed to the US Supreme Court by Bush the First and Bush the Second, consider;

Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht crossed an ethical line last year when he quietly assured conservative leaders about high court nominee Harriet Miers’ views on religion and abortion, a judicial review panel concluded.

Hecht also erred in coordinating his advocacy of Miers, a controversial and ultimately unsuccessful nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, with the White House providing daily reports of his media contacts and allowing administration officials to send reporters his way, according to a public admonition by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.

In more than 120 interviews Hecht used his solid credibility as a Christian-Republican politician to drum up support for Miers. The White House even recruited him to lobby James Dobson, of Focus on the Family, who infamously stated “When you know some of the things that I know, that I probably shouldn’t know, you will understand why… I believe Harriet Miers will be a good justice.”

As we work our way through the primary season and approach the general elections in November, be sure to research the candidates for judge in your area. Do we really need another former prosecutor running our criminal courts? If Christian-Republicans control the judiciary from municipal courts to the US Supreme Court, where will America find merciful justice?

For most of us above the median income, the cost of our homes is relative based on the number of acres, bathrooms, detached buildings, and stainless steel applicances. For those well below the median, the cost of a home involves the more basic issues of safety, access to grocery stores, and the day-to-day security of having a place to call home.

During a recent discussion of financing “deeper affordability,” an expert mentioned Low Income Housing Tax Credits as a Federal housing program unlikely to be slashed by the Bushies. Would Bush cut a tax credit that primarily benefits insurance companies and pension funds? That the credit may help low income people have a stable home probably doesn’t factor into the equation when an insurance company ‘pencils out a deal.’ However, like the Earned Income tax credit, it may be necessary to structure a ‘tax credit’ rather than an ‘income subsidy.’

For information about Low Income Housing Tax Credits, check out Novogradac and Company LLC at http://www.novoco.com/resource.shtml Don’t be put off by the fact that this is a CPA firm. Click the Policy and Legislation tab.

What agencies (public and private) in your area provide local financing of low income homes? How are Community Development Block Grant funds allocated?

Here are three simple, cost-effective ways to increase voter turnout:

• Make it possible and preferable for everyone to vote by mail.
• Set the election deadline (or voting day) on Saturday.
• Hold all primaries on the same day across the country.

Of course, the traditionalists of the Christian-Republican Party oppose general efforts to increase voter turnout, so election reform will attract opposition. Notice that the Enquirer only endorsed candidates in the Republican primary and did not propose any reforms intended to increase voter participation. So, was the Enquirer’s intention to increase voter turnout, or GOTV (Get Out The Vote) for their favored Republicans?

…so, why isn’t any Democrat running for Commonwealth Attorney in Kenton County, Kentucky? Too scared to lose?

Read the recent American Prospect special report on election reform; The New Ballot Box.

Despite the title, the book does not simply focus on opposition to the rightist movement. It provides ideas about positive activities for progressives and liberals to address political, social and economic issues.

The suggested Things You Can Do are grouped under three headings; Simple Steps, It Takes an Effort, and For the Committed. These headings give the reader some sense of the level of commitment, in time and resources, that may be necessary to successfully complete an activity.

Each of the fifty activities usually begins with a fact or quotation, a Background section, some general information, Simple Things You Can Do, and a Resources section. If your attention wanders at the description of familiar ‘things-to-do,’ the authors provide red-meat quotations from some of the nastiest rightists; James Dobson, Ann Coulter, and Tom DeLay.

Thus instructed and inspired, I got involved in ‘thing-to-do’ #32, Volunteer for a campaign. So, Saturday I spent two hours waving a laser wand across call sheets to digitize the results of campaign phone banking earlier in the week

For ten bucks 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Fight the Right provides motivation and activities worthy of your time and energy. Buy it today…and do something new tomorrow.