Al is the son of a Hoosier Republican farmer/teacher who damned FDR all the way to the bank to cash his AAA check, Al arrived on planet earth just before the crash of 1929 and, at only ten years old, he helped his family to weather the depression by working as a farm laborer. Near the end of WW II, he acquired a Railroad Retirement Board social security number by doing what his grandfather had done, working on the railroad. Jobs in bridge building, food service, insurance fraud investigations, and classroom teaching provided means for higher and higher education, as did a tour in naval intelligence during the Korean War. He completed his Ph.D. degree using the GI Bill, scholarships, and teaching positions to support the wife and family that came while he was attached to the Fifth Naval District command in Norfolk.

In 1959, degree in hand, he followed Horace Greeley’s advice to go west to join the faculty of San Fernando Valley State College, now CSUN, where he taught until his retirement in 1995. At Northridge he combined teaching, research, and textbook writing with activism in Democratic politics. He became president of the Northridge Democratic Club in 1963, an elector in the Electoral College in 1964, a regional officer in the CDC, and an intermittent delegate to the California State Democratic convention. His outspoken stand against escalation of the Vietnam War temporarily alienated him from mainstream politics and led to a long-term avocation in Renaissance and Baroque recorder music. Fully back in the swing of things by the 1980s, he combined political activism with political database building , maintaining the data base for the Nuclear Freeze in Southern California. He was also involved in many local and congressional elections in Los Angeles in the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1987 he became a commuter professor and (temporarily) absentee landlord, moving, with much political baggage, to Oxnard. GOOD Club officers quickly snagged him at the county fair, and he was appointed by Mayor Lopez to the Oxnard Public Library Board. Then it was the Ventura County Living Wage Coalition and CAUSE, the County Democratic Central Committee, and the California Clean Money Campaign. In the 1990s he served two terms as president of the GOOD Club. As a member of the Ventura Country Democratic Central Committee he worked on the executive board to provide inexpensive electronic voter data to clubs and candidates. In 2001 he was named Volunteer of the Year for Region 10 of the party for coordinating county voter registration. From 2004 to 2006 he served as precinct coordinator of the GOOD Club, receiving major recognition from labor, the party, and legislative bodies. Then, recovered from an illness, he again became president of the GOOD Club and resumed activity in the County Democratic Central Committee and the Fair Elections Campaign.

Behind this activism has been the conviction that the social contract that mitigated the economic collapse of the 1930s, the (con)federalist vision that U.S. provided the world and especially Europe at the end of WW II, and the domestic programs that treat all Americans as stake holders have been indispensable to our achievement of a “more perfect union,” domestic tranquility, and national security. Successful capitalism must provide incentives to more than a few winners who commandeer the rest. Our social fabric has been systematically undermined by the Friedmans and the Reagans whose deeds contradict their creeds.

Responsible parenthood and custody of our natural endowment are likewise indispensable perquisites for a rule of law that recognizes real persons, not corporate collectives, as participants in our polity. Activism is a commitment without end. Some dedicated band must fight for equity lest civilized society wither. As a professional historian, Al is all too aware of the historical record of imperial adventurers whose waste of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness constitute boundless marches of folly commonly celebrated as national epics.

Married for 28 years to Susan, Al has two sons and a grandson in Sacramento and a daughter in Oakland. Marriage added three stepsons and two granddaughters, who now reside in Palo Alto.

Allen Dirrim with editorial help from Dori Maria Jones.

Join us on Saturday, 27 February at 4:00 as we come together to organize Marie Panec’s campaign for the 24th Congressional District Democratic Primary Election.

Meet with Marie, members of her grassroots leadership team and new campaign staff. Share your concerns for the district, bring your ideas and help plan a course of action for the campaign and let’s win this election together!

Marie invites you to get engaged in her campaign. Enjoy some good food. Find out how you can be part of something great, take meaningful action, and make a difference in your own community.

4:00 pm – Saturday, 27 Feb. 2010
14886 Marquette St. Moorpark, CA 93021
R.S.V.P: panec4congress@gmail.com

Hosted by: Min Gu & John Baker
Sponsored by Friends of Marie Panec for Congress
www.panec4congress.com

Jim Dantona, an independent businessman and veteran of local, state and national government, has announced his candidacy for the office of Ventura County Clerk and Recorder.  Promoting fair elections, fiscal responsibility and protecting our future, Dantona has already secured the endorsement of the Ventura County Firefighters.

Dantona acknowledges “The average voter may not realize just how important is the work of Clerk and Recorder.  Besides recording and securing vital public records, the Elections Division is ultimately responsible for guaranteeing fair elections and timely results. In recent years, I think we’ve seen mistakes that call into question whether or not Ventura County has always accomplished that.”

Dantona’s government experience includes work with both Democratic and Republican leadership which he sees as a major advantage in this non-partisan position. “I have always said we do not need new taxes. What we need is new leadership and strict fiscal accountability to halt the waste of taxpayer dollars.  I will work to create more efficiency and embrace competent, proven technology that saves money and protects our records and our votes. And if Sacramento comes knocking on Ventura County’s door, I have the ability, the contacts and the guts to oppose them for trying to cover their own mismanagement of taxpayers dollars by raiding Ventura County funds.”

Dantona says he relates to many county residents today who are struggling through personal and professional hardship. “Believe me, I have been there and my past opponents have tried to exploit that fact, but I know that leadership, hard work and determination are what will ultimately get us through.”  A single parent, Dantona raised his three children on his own, founded an award-winning non-profit organization dedicated to keeping young people off drugs, in school and out of gangs, and was honored by     the FBI for doing so.  He has also managed large staffs for the State of California and consulted for two U.S. Presidents.

At the request of Carmen Ramirez

Now is a once in a Lifetime chance to save and fully restore, clean and protect the Ormond Beach Wetlands in Oxnard.  We Need Your Help to Rewrite the Map!   Let the Oxnard City Council  know that you want Ormond Beach protected!

For too long, the Oxnard Coast has been allowed to be abused and neglected.  Especially, the Ormond Beach wetland area, like many coastal wetlands, has been degraded and diminished by urban and industrial development – including the Halaco facility, which is now a Superfund site. Despite these impacts, the area is still considered a treasure by scientists and nature lovers. The California State Coastal Conservancy is also leading efforts to permanently protect and restore the wetlands. If successful, this could be one of the largest coastal wetland areas in Southern California. The Conservancy’s plan also envisions interpretive facilities, a trail network, boardwalks and wildlife overlooks, which would make Ormond Beach a amazing destination for residents and out of town visitors – a benefit to our entire community and our local economy.
 
However, a decision will be made on February 9 by the City of Oxnard about the Oxnard 2030 General Plan, and it could directly impact whether this restoration plan will be achieved. The 2030 General Plan describes Oxnard’s vision of what the City will look like through the year 2030. Unfortunately, Oxnard’s vision for Ormond Beach still includes significant industrial land use, including authorizing new industrial development on land still free from urban development. Industrial land use is incompatible with wetland protection, and the General Plan places it directly in the Conservancy’s wetland restoration planning area.
 
Your participation at this hearing is critical. If you can join us, please attend and let the City Council know the 2030 General Plan should not be adopted because:
 
       You support the State Coastal Conservancy’s efforts to acquire, permanently protect and restore Ormond Beach. The City should promote the Conservancy’s efforts at Ormond Beach and make any changes to the 2030 General Plan that conflict with the Conservancy’s preferred restoration plan (most recently identified as Alternative 2U in the Ormond Beach Wetland Restoration Feasibility Study), including changing to “resource protection” the Gateway Park area, the Halaco foundry site, the Reliant power plant, the Agromin site, and the area south of Hueneme Road between Edison and Arnold Roads.
 
      You support the current designation of the Halaco slag heap property as “resource protection.” The Halaco foundry site, which is still designated “industrial,” should also be designated “resource protection.” U.S. EPA will consider the 2030 General Plan when it makes its cleanup decisions for the Halaco site, and the City should send an clear message to EPA that it intends Ormond Beach to be free of polluting facilities that threaten human health and the environment.
 
     You support eliminating the residential development land use designations north of Hueneme Road. Residential development presents significant threats to wetland species. The land should remain designated “open space” to continue to buffer the Ormond Beach wetland area from urban impacts.

Oxnard 2030 General Plan Hearing
Oxnard City Council Chambers
305 W. Third Street, Oxnard
 Tuesday evening, February 9, 2010
7:00 PM 

If you cannot attend the hearing, please email the City Council members:
 
Mayor Tom Holden: drtomholden@aol.com
Mayor Pro Tem Andres Herrera: andres.herrera@ci.oxnard.ca.us
Council Member Dean Maulhardt: deancity@yahoo.com
Council Member Dr. Irene Pinkard: irene.pinkard@ci.oxnard.ca.us
Council Member Bryan MacDonald: bryan.macdonald@ci.oxnard.ca.us
 
Let them know that you care about the future of our city!

Last month I used this  space to plead for patience with President Obama’s initial bipartisan caution–but with the explicit expectation that “events on the ground” would present occasions for public pressure to make his administration pursue his promises of change more aggressively.  Such events have now occurred.
Loss of a  Massachusetts Senate seat,  marked by the massive infusion of last minute cash by special interests Obama had previously courted, witnessed major defection of independents and  perhaps some progressives as well.  Then on Thursday, January 21, five members of the Supreme Court combined to turn over our electoral process at all levels  to global corporate wealth and power.   President Obama will now have to clarify whether the change he adopted as a brand in 2008 was electoral rhetoric or a political agenda for whose achievement he will have to pull all stops.    Otherwise “we the people”—“natural-born Americans” in a very literal sense– will be supplanted by artificial “persons” created by governments for commercial purposes and gratuitously given predominance by the same Rule of Five that selected George W. Bush  in 2000.  Hopefully—and restoration of hope is crucial—an Obama-led movement to reverse this constitutional coup will bring independents back into a coalition capable of addressing the continued deterioration of our general economy, something acquiescence in Bush policies has failed to do.
Justice Anthony Kennedy’s logic in Citizens United v. FEC overturns precedents going back to the early history of the Supreme Court.  It makes a mockery of the “originalism,” deference, and modesty proclaimed by those who concurred in his opinion.  Because it extends First Amendment protection to already over-mighty “persons” created by governments, the decision produces a constitutional, not just a political, crisis.  It amounts to a coup because the case could have been decided using far more limited grounds.  Defenders of the decision are downplaying it, as the Ventura County Star did, as a so-so adjustment in campaign finance law.  Or they claim it puts business on an equal footing with labor and opens political space for non-profits, who are also allowed to contribute to independent, partisan causes right down to Election Day.  But given the disparity of economic power that has mushroomed since the “Reagan revolution,” this decision smacks of
legitimizing what Warren Buffet once called the “class war” that “we” –the rich –” have already won.”  It enshrines the radical Republican views of Newt Gingrich and others for whom plutocracy naturally evolves from democracy in a winner-take-all society.
President Obama repudiated this judicial usurpation in his State of the Union speech.  Resistance to it will not be limited to Democrats, though Democratic legislators have the initial burden of curtailing its effect before its full electoral impact is realized.  The only full answer to this decision is a constitutional amendment restricting constitutional personhood to human beings who are actually born, live, and breathe.  To contact one organization already sponsoring such an amendment, visit freespeechforpeople.org.  Acquiescence in the Rule of Five’s dictum repudiates constitutional government as Republicans such as Trust-busting Theodore Roosevelt realized a century ago.   It is time for another popular assault on the tyranny of “trusts” controlling elected officials with the backing of Supreme Court justices who have lost their democratic compass.
Allen Dirrim

Last month I used this  space to plead for patience with President Obama’s initial bipartisan caution–but with the explicit expectation that “events on the ground” would present occasions for public pressure to make his administration pursue his promises of change more aggressively.  Such events have now occurred.
Loss of a  Massachusetts Senate seat,  marked by the massive infusion of last minute cash by special interests Obama had previously courted, witnessed major defection of independents and  perhaps some progressives as well.  Then on Thursday, January 21, five members of the Supreme Court combined to turn over our electoral process at all levels  to global corporate wealth and power.   President Obama will now have to clarify whether the change he adopted as a brand in 2008 was electoral rhetoric or a political agenda for whose achievement he will have to pull all stops.    Otherwise “we the people”—“natural-born Americans” in a very literal sense– will be supplanted by artificial “persons” created by governments for commercial purposes and gratuitously given predominance by the same Rule of Five that selected George W. Bush  in 2000.  Hopefully—and restoration of hope is crucial—an Obama-led movement to reverse this constitutional coup will bring independents back into a coalition capable of addressing the continued deterioration of our general economy, something acquiescence in Bush policies has failed to do.
Justice Anthony Kennedy’s logic in Citizens United v. FEC overturns precedents going back to the early history of the Supreme Court.  It makes a mockery of the “originalism,” deference, and modesty proclaimed by those who concurred in his opinion.  Because it extends First Amendment protection to already over-mighty “persons” created by governments, the decision produces a constitutional, not just a political, crisis.  It amounts to a coup because the case could have been decided using far more limited grounds.  Defenders of the decision are downplaying it, as the Ventura County Star did, as a so-so adjustment in campaign finance law.  Or they claim it puts business on an equal footing with labor and opens political space for non-profits, who are also allowed to contribute to independent, partisan causes right down to Election Day.  But given the disparity of economic power that has mushroomed since the “Reagan revolution,” this decision smacks of
legitimizing what Warren Buffet once called the “class war” that “we” –the rich –” have already won.”  It enshrines the radical Republican views of Newt Gingrich and others for whom plutocracy naturally evolves from democracy in a winner-take-all society.
President Obama repudiated this judicial usurpation in his State of the Union speech.  Resistance to it will not be limited to Democrats, though Democratic legislators have the initial burden of curtailing its effect before its full electoral impact is realized.  The only full answer to this decision is a constitutional amendment restricting constitutional personhood to human beings who are actually born, live, and breathe.  To contact one organization already sponsoring such an amendment, visit freespeechforpeople.org.  Acquiescence in the Rule of Five’s dictum repudiates constitutional government as Republicans such as Trust-busting Theodore Roosevelt realized a century ago.   It is time for another popular assault on the tyranny of “trusts” controlling elected officials with the backing of Supreme Court justices who have lost their democratic compass.
Allen Dirrim

Susan Jordan is running for the office Pedro Nava will vacate in 2010 and launched her campaign for the Democratic nomination in the 35th Assembly District a year ago. Jordan is director of the nonprofit environmental advocacy group, the California Coastal Protection Network, and was formerly associated with the organization Vote the Coast. She has been active in environmental issues for years, and was a leading opponent of the BHP Billiton LNG proposal off the Ventura County coast.
After earning her Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Susan worked as a community health educator as the Director of Community Relations for the Women’s Medical Center in Washington, D.C. She served as the Chair of the Barrier Methods Committee and spearheaded a seven-year campaign to gain Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for a barrier method of birth control still in use today. Susan’s interest and commitment to public policy analysis and reform grew during the 14 years she spent as Senior Partner in the research arm of a large national strategic business development and consulting firm. She left her business career to devote herself to environmental protection issues and served as Chair and Member of the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission from 2002-2005. She is an award-winning environmental leader, business woman and health advocate with 15 years of experience working to protect California’s coastline as an economic, environmental and recreational resource. Susan brings a lifetime of experience meeting payroll, managing a business, and raising a child  (she is the wife of Assemblyman Pedro Nava ) while dedicating her life to the betterment of her community.

Das Williams has served 4 years as legislative aide, 5 years teaching, 6 years on the Santa Barbara City Council, and working in over 26 elections for progressive candidates and causes. He grew up locally, attended local schools in Ventura and Santa Barbara and attended Santa Barbara City College before transferring to U.C. Berkeley, where he earned his degree in Political Science. He holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Science & Management from UC Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science, with a focus in water pollution, planning processes, and land-use law.
In addition to his service on the Santa Barbara City Council, Das has been active as a community organizer for CAUSE, a Ventura based non-profit, presently heading the group’s efforts to stop a proposed Wal-Mart development in Ventura. Currently he teaches at Antioch University in Santa Barbara, serves as a Trustee of Peabody Charter School and on the national board of the National Organization for Women (NOW).
On the Santa Barbara City Council, he spearheaded the successful effort to pass some of the toughest energy efficiency standards in the state that require that 30% of Santa Barbara’s energy comes from renewable sources by 2011. He has been a leader in the effort to stop off-shore oil drilling, protecting the coast and local water supplies by working to restore local creeks and wetlands, and fighting to preserve open space. He led the push to expand the city’s public transit system – reducing traffic and pollution. While the state’s school system has come under increasing stress, Das helped craft a plan to avoid layoffs at local schools and expand critical after-school programs. Recently, he helped balance the city budget without cutting vital city services.

Debate moderator:   Edward Castillo

At the November 16, 2009, Executive Board Meeting, Mario Quintana, age 29, was invited to join the board as member-at-large. At the subsequent Executive Board meeting, December 14th, he was appointed the GOOD Club’s new Communications chair. “2010 is upon us and we must do all that we can to make a positive impact here in the city of Oxnard,” says Quintana.  “I am very excited and inspired to be a part of this organization.”
Mario’s commitment to his hometown was born of the challenges that he faced growing up in the projects of La Colonia. He recalls, how life in the projects was difficult and dangerous. The presence of gangs posed a threat to youngsters like Mario.  He saw their influence win over countless lives once filled with potential and possibility. With his mother’s encouragement, Mario focused his free time and energy on sports.  As a young boy, he played little league baseball, flag football, and basketball.  He concentrated on baseball in high school and college.  Today his passion is coaching little league baseball and flag football.  “I love to volunteer in my old neighborhood of Colonia,” he said.
Mario credits his mother for the positive choices he made. “I made it out of that neighborhood because of the values that my mother instilled in me,” he reflects.  Gloria Rivas Quintana, Mario’s mother, suffered kidney failure when Mario was just a toddler.  She spent the next twenty-five years going through endless hospital visits and medical procedures until—sadly— she passed away two years ago.
Mario graduated from Oxnard High School in 1998.  He went on to earn an A.A. degree in criminal justice from Ventura College and a B.A. degree in political science from CSU Northridge and is employed by AT&T.
The GOOD Club welcomes this dynamic young leader to our ranks.
Dori Maria Jones

Disappointment in progressive quarters spreads as Obama’s proposals wend through the Washington policy and legislative mill, especially the dysfunctional Senate whose rule by minority veto too closely resembles the California legislature. Obama is certainly subject to criticism for not using public pressure more aggressively in matters such  as health care and financial regulatory reform, but  attacks on him  that arm  the Party of No to regain control of Congress in 2010 are  self-defeating.
Some of the disappointment stems from inappropriate comparison between Obama and FDR, both of whom faced eerily similar legacies from their predecessors.  But their timing was different.  FDR’s inauguration followed the collapse of the economy and the banks.  He could safely pillory “malefactors of great wealth” to mobilize  public pressure.  A frightened electorate gave him reliable majorities in both houses of Congress.  Obama came on the scene just as Wall Street collapsed.  His own campaign ranks included many Wall Streeters who, fearing that the GOP had become a sinking ship, moved money and people to Obama and conservative Democrats running in swing districts.  Obama drew unprecedented individual contributions via the internet, but Goldman Sachs was his biggest single contributor. Wall Street  cooperation in using New Deal tools such as the stimulus, FDIC, unemployment insurance, and Social Security drew oxygen away from  implementing more aggressive relief measures reminiscent of the 1930s.  Deepening distress will likely put them on the urgent action agenda again.
Like other new presidents, Obama inherited the ongoing machinery of state and swore to uphold the constitution. As he reiterated repeatedly, turning the ship of state is not like navigating a rowboat or a yacht.  It will take time, more time than many supporters may be prone to give him.  He clearly understands the necessity of mobilizing grassroots support. That was what Organizing for America was all about.  But could he win in an open confrontation with his former colleagues in the Senate and continue to get the concurrence of 60 of them in a long series of pressing matters? For better or for worse, Obama rejected that gamble, for flat out confrontation certainly risks repetition of the rout the Senate handed another Nobel Laureate in 1919 and 1920, Woodrow Wilson.  Events on the ground may yet force an all out confrontation before the election of 2010.
Then, and above all then, mobilization of mass public support will be required to produce  many of Obama’s promised changes. He has compiled significant numbers of progressive changes by executive action, but  this sphere of action is limited. If impatience prevails and progressives desert the hopes of 2008, we had better conjure up  what life will be like, what the Supreme Court would look like, in 2013.  In the meantime, pour all the heat you can muster on Congress and the president to wring everything possible out of Congress.  Just crying sour grapes is full of peril.
Al Dirrim.