For those of you who follow baseball, Ozzie Guillen is not shy about expressing his feeling or calling out his players performance and using colorful language to do it. He'll even tell you what he feels about other team's players so I was hopeful that he'd have something to say on SB 1070.

KO tweeted this earlier today:

KeithOlbermann

I am advised by my dear friend @JoeLaPointe of NYT that Mgr Ozzie Guillen of Chi White Sox, just went OFF at Yankee game on new AZ law.

This is great news people. It's awesome how quickly we've been able to get our message across to the grassroots, the MLBPA and now to MLB directly on this xenophobic law that Arizona seems so proud to have sponsored.

Heck, Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.)calls the law Gestapo-like.

"This law of 'frontier justice' – where law enforcement officials are required to stop anyone based on “reasonable suspicion” that they may be in the country illegally – is reminiscent of a time during World War II when the Gestapo in Germany stopped people on the street and asked for their papers without probable cause," said Mack in a statement. "It shouldn’t be against the law to not have proof of citizenship on you."

UPDATE: Here's what Ozzie had to say:

"We're going to keep moving around," said Guillen, who possesses dual citizenship in the United States and his native Venezuela. "We're not leaving because we didn't do wrong here. We just work. We just come here to work. ... We got to support baseball, and that's what it is. I know there are people upset about it. I'm upset about it and wish I could do more about it than what I'm doing."

Guillen admitted "this is a very tough situation for myself because I'm an immigrant. I was an American citizen a couple years ago. One thing about it, people have to be careful what they're doing, the way they talk and say and what they agree." But Guillen pointed to the number of immigrants who help support the country with their work ethic.

"Nobody sees those guys getting up at 4 a.m. to go to work on the farm, picking all kinds of stuff and leaving at 6 o'clock in the afternoon," Guillen said. "Nobody complains about that. Leave those guys alone. Help them. Put a law like a working visa and try to do something different to maintain those guys here. As soon as you do that, there are less immigrants, less illegal people here because they help each other."

"They cannot live without us (immigrants). Put it that way. They're workaholics. And this country can't survive without them."

Guillen added later: "There's a lot of people from this country who are lazy. We're not. Prove me wrong. A lot of people in this country want to be on the computer and send e-mails to people. We do the hard work. We're the ones who go out and work in the sun to make this country better."

It also appears now in NJ.com: White Sox manager disappointed at anti-immigrant Arizona law

For those of you who follow the inside baseball, National Journal has a look at the Republican strategy on healthcare reform: Delay, misinform, obfuscate... You know, the usual:

Grassley, the Finance Committee's ranking member, is the influential wild card among Senate Republicans, and he covets his reputation for independence. McConnell stays in close touch with the folksy Midwesterner, eager to keep him in the GOP fold. Many congressional observers have decided that Grassley is negotiating in good faith with Democrats to see if he can help get a reasonable bill out of Finance, but these sources expect him to reject a conference report later this year if it moves too far left.

In an interview, Grassley contended that Republicans should be delighted that he's on the job. "If they wonder whether or not our being involved [in the Finance talks] is doing any good, wouldn't you rather have a conservative Republican at the table than have nobody at the table?" he asked. "And secondly, hasn't our party, plus the grassroots of America, been pleading for time to study [legislation]? And suppose I was not at the table: There would be debate on the floor of the Senate, not in the Finance Committee."

Grassley said that Republican leaders asked him to block any Democratic moves to ration health services or implement a public option, although he tentatively supports a public cooperative that is not government-run. "So, the two things that Republicans are most concerned about -- the public option and rationing -- ain't going to be in it," he concluded.

Asked about his balancing act with Grassley, McConnell said that his colleague has been "very open" with the caucus. "I think it's been just fine," McConnell said of the Finance discussions. "I do read that some of the Democrats may not be that happy with it. But I don't think I have felt, nor do I think most of my members have felt, that they were trying to hide the ball on us."

Meanwhile, his "reputation for independence" is looking a little compromised. The New York Times:

"Some Republicans have begun to warn that Mr. Grassley should tread carefully on the health care bill if he wants to become the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee."

Politico:

"The three Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee are under pressure from their leadership not to cut a deal too quickly .. and that message has been delivered frequently in recent weeks."

The Hill:

"Senator Chuck Grassley, the senior Republican on the Finance Committee, has assured his GOP colleagues that he will not sell them out and strike a private deal with Democrats on healthcare reform."

[...] On Wednesday morning Senator Grassley said, the group was "on the edge" of agreement. But later in the day he walked those comments back, saying, "I think we’re on the edge of getting something. Now, when I say ‘on the edge,’ that could be within a week. It could be within two weeks, or it might not be until we get back after Labor Day."

Awww. I think it's sweet that they let him think he's independent -- and that Max Baucus is playing along with it.

Joe Sestak made a video to thank the netroots for our support during the Sestak/Specter Straw Poll.

Adam Green:

By creating one place where the public, political insiders, and the media could look to see the grassroots discontent with Specter and the level of support for Joe Sestak, progressives could alter the environment in which potential challengers made their decision about whether to run -- and alter the media dialogue to make the idea of a primary challenge less far-fetched.

Below are over 35 media stories and blog posts about the Straw Poll's launch and the final results -- personally, I'm most thrilled with all the local media coverage...read on

I want to thank all the C&L readers who participated in the Straw Poll. We had an enormous number of our readers weigh in. One of the main reasons for this campaign was to send a signal to the Beltway elite that christening Arlen Specter out of the gate as he actively voted against the party was not OK by us.

Building upon the movement that started on a cold January morning in Illinois almost two years ago, Barack Obama today announced the creation of "Organizing for America," a grassroots organization that will help ordinary citizens get involved in the legislation-making process.

USA Today:

While President-elect Barack Obama continues on his train trip to Washington, his transition team has just released a video in which he announces the creation of "Organizing for America."

"I'm asking people like you who fought for change during the campaign to continue fighting for change in your communities," Obama says.

The goal is to take those who volunteered during the president-elect's campaign and organize them to "work for change" in communities.

Is this guy serious about changing the way this country works, or what? Check out BarackObama.com and get involved. The election of the 44th President of the United States was but only the first step. Now the real work begins.

From the aptly-named blog "We Saw That", an excerpt from David "Diapers and a Call Girl" Vitter's re-election email.

Recently I held a conference call with some of my key supporters and grassroots leaders around the state. During the call we discussed issues currently being addressed in Congress. Also, looking ahead to 2010, I would like to use these calls to reenergize and reorganize the statewide campaign network which worked so hard and was so successful in my 2004 Senatorial election.
[...]
We'll also talk about forming a statewide network for the David Vitter for Senate 2010 campaign. As we get closer to my 2010 campaign for reelection I'll be hosting more conference calls and meetings, attending rallies and festivals, and cheering our teams on at football games around the state.

Ah, life is good. Hopefully, the football games aren't on Tuesdays, Vitter's preferred day to... ahem, "meet up" with call girl Wendy Cortez. I wonder if Vitter will get help in his campaign from fellow family values Republicans Larry Craig and Mark Foley?

(full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign)

Friday was the 30th anniversary of the passage of Prop. 13, the financial strangle-hold on our government that has fueled the budget crises we continually face in California.

Get this: California Republicans are actually upset that the Democrats refused to hear a resolution to "honor" the passage of Prop. 13. In Friday's Sacramento Bee Capitol Alert email, Republican Assemblyman Bob Huff said it was "crystal clear that Democrats in Sacramento do not wish to recognize the benefits and the legacy of [Prop 13]."

I know it is a little hard for Huff and his "Yacht Party" colleagues to understand, but Prop. 13 and its offspring are the primary reasons why we have a structural budget deficit and struggle to balance our budget even in non-recessionary periods.

Unfortunately, it will be a long-term endeavor to modify Prop. 13, which was passed in 1978 allegedly to protect homeowners from high taxes. A new Field Poll released yesterday shows that 57% of Californians approve of the measure, while just 23% oppose it. Clearly, changing public opinion on Prop 13 is not going to happen overnight. More from the Sacramento Bee's email:

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass told listeners on a recent conference call sponsored by the liberal Courage Campaign that the measure wouldn't be part of the immediate agenda for her new tax commission.

"The reason for that is that it is such a polarizing issue," Bass said.

On our Courage Campaign Conversation with them over a week ago, Speaker Karen Bass and Senator Darrell Steinberg went into much greater detail on Prop. 13 and their long and short-term goals for fixing the budget and our tax structure. The full audio recording is ">available for streaming here.

Speaker Bass and Senator Steinberg know that band-aids will not solve California's budget crisis long-term. But, to eventually achieve long-term structural change, these progressive leaders need support from grassroots and netroots activists to galvanize power from outside of Sacramento.

Fixing Prop. 13 so that it protects homeowners while assuring that business pays its fair share is one of the long-term goals of the Courage Campaign, as part of a larger movement to fix the fundamental reasons why California's government is dysfunctional. It will take a strong, independent movement to change the way people think about our state government.

We can build that people-powered movement from the bottom-up, and eventually repair the damage done by Prop 13 and the right-wing over the coming years. But, to sustain our momentum, we asked Courage Campaign members to make a recurring contribution of $13 a month. If you are interested, you can do so here.

Bluegal wrote up a little bit about The Mother's Day Project last Sunday, but I wanted to learn more. As someone with a background in visual arts and knowing that through art, humanity has confronted some of our most painful facets, long before we've had the distance and ability to discuss it otherwise, I've participated in the power of this kind of communal project before with the AIDS Memorial Quilt. I thought (and hoped) that The Mother's Day Project could similarly engage some C&L readers and asked project founder Threading Water if she would contribute a guest post to C&L to tell us more about her project, and the desire to honor and acknowledge the human cost of the war:

The Mother’s Day Project is not – as the name would suggest – a cross-stitch sampler of aprons and biscuits and babies and other sentimental iconography associated with mothers and motherhood. Truth is, The Mother’s Day Project is only marginally about mothers, despite its nod to the traditions of home-based needle arts.

Volunteers from 37 states, five countries and three continents, are stitching the names of female members of the Coalition Forces who have died in Iraq. Each stitched name is returned to me to be joined into an embroidered fabric collage panel that will become part of a larger memorial. Additionally, each participant is asked to learn something about the woman whose name they receive and to write about their experience as a Project participant.

The purpose of The Mother's Day Project is to draw attention to the human cost of the Iraq War. While the parameters of the Project focus on women who have lost their lives serving as part of the Coalition forces in Iraq, it is not meant to exclude recognition for others who have lost their lives as a result of this war. Male soldiers, Iraqi men, boys, girls, infants and women have died in the thousands. They are all worthy and deserving of our attention. But, how does one grasp these devastating numbers, many of which are the result of underreporting and best guesses?

• 105 women soldiers

• 4,389 military deaths

• 8,257 Iraqi security forces deaths

• 29,978 wounded US soldiers

• 435 contractor deaths

• 42,096 Iraqi civilian deaths

Continue reading »

Download | play Download | play

On his new show, Verdict, Dan Abrams celebrates the court reversal on hearing Don Siegelman's appeal and his subsequent release from prison in Alabama on Friday.

Showing that he is undaunted by his time in prison, Siegelman apparently spoke to Dan Abrams by cell phone on his drive home and fingered Karl Rove as the man behind this political hit job. This appeal should be something to watch to see if Bush's Brain actually gets held accountable.

C&L Contributer Heather has put a longer version of Abrams' segment on Siegelman, with Rep. Artur Davis and journalist Scott Horton of Harper's up on YouTube.

Legal Schnauzer (h/t Scarce) brings up a point that should convince you of the power of the larger blogging community and grassroots efforts to effect change:

Siegelman's release is a testament to the power of alternative media. Without the work of blogger/journalists like Scott Horton of Harper's, Glynn Wilson of Locust Fork News, and Larisa Alexandrovna of at-Largely/Raw Story/Huffington Post/Hustler, Siegelman would have little hope of being released any time soon. Without the work of Pam Miles and her e-mail listees, Siegelman would have remained in prison for the foreseeable future. It's impossible to overstate the impact of CBS and its 60 Minutes story on the Siegelman case. But that "old media" story would not have happened without the work of folks working in the "new media."

As much as they try to put on a happy face, their interest in having an active roll in politics is limited to attacking brown people. Case in point. The NRCC started a YouTube contest five weeks ago:

(T)he NRCC launched a project to get supporters to create their own campaign videos attacking Democrats. If successful, this project would defy a pattern where Republican grassroots activists never take action into their own hands.

The NRCC also said:

After the judging panel views the videos, the top five videos will be hosted on NRCC.org and voted on by the general public.

They only got "FIVE" submissions...Chris Bowers votes for...

This video was produced by Witness in partnership with a Burmese justice group, The Peace Foundation: Burma Issues. It is one small but rare view inside Burma - shot by Burmese residents who are on the run from the military dictatorship. Witness is a remarkable organization which provides cameras and equipment to grassroots activists around the world so they can document their own experiences and struggles and speak to us in their own words or as they write:

"WITNESS uses video and online technologies to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations. We empower people to transform personal stories of abuse into powerful tools for justice, promoting public engagement and policy change."

And the story inside Burma as the monks try to lead a movement for change is one we cannot close our eyes to. One of Ko Htike's readers posted this horrific account today at his blog, Prosaic Collection:

We just got phone call with our sister living in Yangon about a few hours ago.

We saw on BBC world, saying that 200 monks were arrested. The true picture is far worse!!!!!!!!!

For one instance, the monastery at an obscure neighborhood of Yangon, called Ngwe Kyar Yan (on Wei-za-yan-tar Road, Yangon) had been raided early this morning.

A troop of lone-tein (riot police comprised of paid thugs) protected by the military trucks, raided the monastery with 200 studying monks. They systematically ordered all the monks to line up and banged and crushed each one's head against the brick wall of the monastery. One by one, the peaceful, non resisting monks, fell to the ground, screaming in pain. Then, they tore off the red robes and threw them all in the military trucks (like rice bags) and took the bodies away.

The head monk of the monastery, was tied up in the middle of the monastery, tortured , bludgeoned, and later died the same day, today. Tens of thousands of people gathered outside the monastery, warded off by troops with bayoneted rifles, unable to help their helpless monks being slaughtered inside the monastery. Their every try to forge ahead was met with the bayonets.

When all is done, only 10 out of 200 remained alive, hiding in the monastery. Blood stained everywhere on the walls and floors of the monastery.

Please tell your audience of the full extent of the fate of the monks please please !!!!!!!!!!!!

'Arrested' is not enough expression. They have been bludgeoned to death !!!!!!

Even with this brutal treatment, the people of Burma are trying to keep fighting for their rights and Ko reported two attempted demonstrations in Yangon (Rangoon) today as well as word that 500 additional monks are being held at a detention center. The monks refuse to accept food from their military jailors. Please sign the global petition at Avaaz.org and support the efforts listed at the Burma Campaign Facebook group such as today's email campaign calling on companies to end their investments in Burma.

Tomorrow, Congress will consider a bipartisan resolution, HR200 supporting Human Rights in Burma - make sure your representative knows that you want their Yea vote: 1-800-828-0498.