kid oakland

Barack Obama and the 50 State Strategy
by kid oakland
Tue Jan 22, 2008 at 06:42:46 PM PST

It was a blustery and, at times, rainy afternoon here in Berkeley California but that didn't stop Ron, an avuncular and dapper volunteer with an ironing board from working the corner of Ashby and College Avenue.

When I approached Ron he smiled and explained he'd been doing GOTV since he stood up and opposed Ronald Reagan in 1980. Today he was registering voters on the last day to register before the Feb. 5th CA primary. And, as you could tell from the big O attached to his ironing board, Ron was signing up volunteers for Barack Obama.

Ron had a ton of young people registering to vote today and, from what I saw when I put my name on the list, about 50-60 volunteers signed up for Obama. (He'd given out another 100 home made info sheets to others.)

Now, that doesn't tell you anything about who Californians will choose in the polls on February 5th, but that coincidence of young people, new voters, new volunteers and hard core volunteers like Ron tells you a hell of a lot about the campaign of Barack Obama...

* kid oakland's diary :: ::
*

I want to say something simple and clear.

There's one campaign that has been distorting and smearing the record of another's since the results of the Iowa caucuses. There's a reason for that.

When everybody pays attention to the lies and distractions, there's no way Hillary Clinton can't win. Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton know that, and that why they are distorting everything they can about the record, integrity and campaign of Senator Barack Obama.

The reverse, however, is not necessarily true. When people pay attention to the actual message and candidates...well, there's a strong likelihood, but no certainty, that folks will vote for Barack Obama.

That's why Ron's out on the corner of Ashby and College in the rain registering voters and signing up volunteers for Barack Obama.

::

Take the fake, engineered, and hyped brouhaha about the comments of Senator Obama regarding the legacy of Ronnie Reagan. Do you know what Barack Obama said BEFORE he mentioned Ronald Reagan in that interview? Do you know the real context of his remarks?

It's not surprising that you might not. Senator Clinton and President Clinton and a whole bunch of other people simply don't want you to hear them.

Barack Obama was talking about the 50 State Strategy:

I think that we're shifting the political paradigm here. And if I'm the nominee, I think I can bring a lot of folks along on my coattails. You know, there's a reason why in 2006, I made the most appearances for members of Congress. I was the most requested surrogate to come in and campaign for people in districts that were swing districts, Republican districts where they wouldn't have any other Democrat.

That was based on their read of the fact that, you know what, this is somebody who can reach out to independents and Republicans in a way that doesn't offend people...I don't want to present myself as some sort of singular figure. I think part of what's different are the times.

That sounds pretty true to me. Barack Obama did do that. (But hey what do I know, I only spent the entire year of 2006 following local Congressional races and reaching out to local bloggers in all 50 States.)

However, it was what Barack Obama said next about Reagan being a "paradigm shifting" candidate that bothered alot of bloggers. So much so that they said a lot of ludicrous and presposterous things about Senator Obama that would make you think, for example...that there was no truth to his claim that he "made the most appearances of members of Congress" in 2006 on the campaign trail, that would make you doubt that Barack Obama, not Hillary Clinton or John Edwards, was the "most requested surrogate to come in and campaign for people in districts that were swing districts, Republican districts where they wouldn't have any other Democrat."

Certainly, those bloggers have a self evident case against Barack.

I mean, if you were a fan of Ronald Reagan and thought Republicans had all the good ideas for the last 15 years, why would you spend 2006 traveling around the country, of all things, you know, trying to elect Democrats?

::

When it comes to the 50 State Strategy we know where Hillary Clinton stands. Heck, she's got Terry McAuliffe, a guy who is completely and totally opposed to Howard Dean, the 50 State Strategy and the netroots movement, as her campaign chair.

But that's not what I want to focus on. Bill and Hillary keep asking Barack Obama and his supporters to enunciate an answer to this question: but what have you done?

Now, they don't want you to actually answer that question. To mention the fact that Senator Barack Obama from day one in the Senate surrounded himself with powerful advisors like economist Karen Kornbluh, his chief policy advisor, or Samantha Power, Anthony Lake and Susan Rice, his foreign policy team. They don't want you to mention how Senator Obama reached across the aisle to work on immigration reform with Senator McCain, or his work with Dick Lugar on terrorist threat reduction, or his work with Tom Coburn to pass the Coburn-Obama transparency act (something every netroots person should know about), or his worldwide trips as a member of Foreign Relations Committee focusing on strategies to stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The Clintons...you know...to fit Barack Obama into their "do-nothing" meme...am I the only one that finds that insulting?...would have you ignore Senator Obama's work with Russ Feingold to pass the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act enacting lobbyist reform in Washington for the first time in a generation. (In fact, the Clintons make fun of this bill on the campaign trail.) They won't mention Senator Obama's work with John McCain on a bill that reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 2/3rds by 2050, or his work with Senator Chuck Schumer on election protection issues in the wake of 2006. Or his veteran-oriented amendment to the SCHIP bill that Bush vetoed last fall.

Now, the Clintons don't mention this, because, you know, Barack Obama basically is an empty suit. He does nothing.

And yes, of course, in the process they are also ignoring Senator Obama's service in the Illinois State Legislature, where, once again, to believe Senator Clinton, Barack Obama never voted for anything. Except, of course, he did. In fact, Senator Obama has held elected office since 1996, the longest of the three remaining major candidates. Hell, he's held elected office since the administration of Bill Clinton!

Per Senator Obama's wiki page:

As a state legislator, Obama gained bipartisan support for legislation reforming ethics and health care laws. He sponsored a law enhancing tax credits for low-income workers, negotiated welfare reform, and promoted increased subsidies for child care. Obama also led the passage of legislation mandating videotaping of homicide interrogations, and a law to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they stopped. During his 2004 general election campaign for U.S. Senate, he won the endorsement of the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police, whose president credited Obama for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death penalty reforms.

Clearly, Obama's a slacker!

Finally, I do think I have to mention this as "doing something" despite this huge taboo about mentioning the reality of some of our history as a nation. Senator Barack Obama is currently the only African-American in the United States Senate. One person out of one hundred elected officials. That counts as doing something, too, in my book.

But that's not the core message I want to convey tonight. Because "Reagan-loving" Senator Obama...so clearly unfit to be our nominee...did something else that the Clintons really don't want you to know about. He did something so outlandish, so atrocious, that the Clintons and their brigades of enablers on the blogs find it anaethema to mention. So they don't.

In 2006, Senator Barack Obama did more than any other candidate running for President to elect Democrats and win back majorities the United States Senate and House of Representatives. In 2006, Senator Barack Obama embodied the 50 State Strategy.

Far from doing "nothing," In 2006, Barack Obama helped us win majorities in both houses of Congress.

::

Don't take my word for it.

Here's Barack Obama in Colorado in October 2006 campaigning for Ed Perlmutter in his campaign to win an open seat in Congress. (Ed won, btw.)

Here's Barack Obama in Cleveland, Ohio in November 2006 campaigning for Senator Sherrod Brown. (Who won, btw, noticing a trend here?)

Here's Barack Obama campaigning in Louisville, Kentucky for Democrat John Yarmuth in his campaign to defeat GOP incumbent Anne Northup in September 2006. (Yarmuth won.)

Here's Barack Obama in Richmond Virginia campaigning for Senator Jim Webb, November 2006:

Here's Paul Hodes, another member of the class of 2006 endorsing Barack Obama in New Hampshire and using that occasion to talk about Democratic Unity:

Here's Patrick Murphy, another class of 2006 member that Barack campaigned for talking about Barack this January in New Hampshire:

And finally, here's Senator Claire McCaskill, Senator Obama's newly minted national co-chair, talking about endorsing Barack Obama, who campaigned for her in Missori in 2006.

And here's a quote you should not miss from that interview:

Q: Senator, you said in your announcement when you decided to endorse Barack Obama that it was actually your daughter that pushed you in that direction, right?

Senator McCaskill: You know I was actually home the night of the Iowa caucus, and I was laying on the couch and I was crying during his entire speech and my 18 year old daughter looked at me and says, "Mom, how can you look yourself in the mirror, you really believe in this guy, and you're in a position that you should be helping, you know, get up and go do it!"

Sheesh, these folks are just real. And, you know, knowing something about the netroots from my work these last years...that's kind of like us. And, yes, Senator Barack Obama worked his ass off to help elect every last one of them and many more candidates in 2006.

I wonder why these videos aren't being played on all those blogs echoing the Clintons lies and distortions and talking about how Barack Obama loves Reagan and thinks that the Republicans had the best ideas for the last fifteen years? I mean, am I missing something about the 50 State Strategy? Did we just jettison that out of the netroots platform?

I'd like to know.

Okay, I know, people play political football with campaigns. It's just politics. Shit happens.

But if enough people who know better stay silent about Senator Obama's hard work on the ground in 2006 on the 50 State Strategy...there might not be a 50 State Strategy for very long.

That's something to think about.

::

Now, I'm a sucker for local candidates and campaigns. And, all that being told, I'm also a sucker for volunteers standing at ironing boards...like Ron today.

I first registered to vote here in California standing at just such an ironing board on Sproul Plaza at the University of California. Heck, I spend election day every year doing the exact same thing as Ron, campaigning in front of a card table at the West Oakland BART station.

But what I want to leave you with tonight is a powerful message. Young people, volunteers, new voters, grassroots activists...all of that is not enough. It's a powerful sign that a candidate's campaign is moving people to get off their ass and get something done. (To, as the Clinton's say, do something.)

But that's not enough to spell victory in any given election.

It's not enough, but it sure tells you a hell of a lot about the campaign of Senator Barack Obama.

If you support the 50 State Strategy, if you want to send a message that you understand what it meant to mobilize the vote in 2004 and 2006 and elect Democrats, if you want to work on the legacy of Howard Dean, then it behooves you, if you live in a Tsunami Tuesday state or one that comes afterwards, to think about reviving the spirit of 2004 and 2006 where you live.

I'll being doing exactly the same thing.

If you can't do that, I've heard word that Senator Obama could use your donations or your time if you've got some of either to spare.

I don't know what the California results will be primary night, February 5th. I'm no prognosticator.

I also know some pretty powerful powers-that-be are stacked against the guy I support. But when I saw that ironing board with the big O on it out in the rain today...I knew exactly what I was going to be doing come election day.

Tags: 2008 Elections, 50 State

hope

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: The Great Need of the Hour
Atlanta, GA | January 20, 2008

The Scripture tells us that when Joshua and the Israelites arrived at the gates of Jericho, they could not enter. The walls of the city were too steep for any one person to climb; too strong to be taken down with brute force. And so they sat for days, unable to pass on through.

But God had a plan for his people. He told them to stand together and march together around the city, and on the seventh day he told them that when they heard the sound of the ram's horn, they should speak with one voice. And at the chosen hour, when the horn sounded and a chorus of voices cried out together, the mighty walls of Jericho came tumbling down.

There are many lessons to take from this passage, just as there are many lessons to take from this day, just as there are many memories that fill the space of this church. As I was thinking about which ones we need to remember at this hour, my mind went back to the very beginning of the modern Civil Rights Era.

Because before Memphis and the mountaintop; before the bridge in Selma and the march on Washington; before Birmingham and the beatings; the fire hoses and the loss of those four little girls; before there was King the icon and his magnificent dream, there was King the young preacher and a people who found themselves suffering under the yoke of oppression.

And on the eve of the bus boycotts in Montgomery, at a time when many were still doubtful about the possibilities of change, a time when those in the black community mistrusted themselves, and at times mistrusted each other, King inspired with words not of anger, but of an urgency that still speaks to us today:

"Unity is the great need of the hour" is what King said. Unity is how we shall overcome.

What Dr. King understood is that if just one person chose to walk instead of ride the bus, those walls of oppression would not be moved. But maybe if a few more walked, the foundation might start to shake. If a few more women were willing to do what Rosa Parks had done, maybe the cracks would start to show. If teenagers took freedom rides from North to South, maybe a few bricks would come loose. Maybe if white folks marched because they had come to understand that their freedom too was at stake in the impending battle, the wall would begin to sway. And if enough Americans were awakened to the injustice; if they joined together, North and South, rich and poor, Christian and Jew, then perhaps that wall would come tumbling down, and justice would flow like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Unity is the great need of the hour - the great need of this hour. Not because it sounds pleasant or because it makes us feel good, but because it's the only way we can overcome the essential deficit that exists in this country.

I'm not talking about a budget deficit. I'm not talking about a trade deficit. I'm not talking about a deficit of good ideas or new plans.

I'm talking about a moral deficit. I'm talking about an empathy deficit. I'm taking about an inability to recognize ourselves in one another; to understand that we are our brother's keeper; we are our sister's keeper; that, in the words of Dr. King, we are all tied together in a single garment of destiny.

We have an empathy deficit when we're still sending our children down corridors of shame - schools in the forgotten corners of America where the color of your skin still affects the content of your education.

We have a deficit when CEOs are making more in ten minutes than some workers make in ten months; when families lose their homes so that lenders make a profit; when mothers can't afford a doctor when their children get sick.

We have a deficit in this country when there is Scooter Libby justice for some and Jena justice for others; when our children see nooses hanging from a schoolyard tree today, in the present, in the twenty-first century.

We have a deficit when homeless veterans sleep on the streets of our cities; when innocents are slaughtered in the deserts of Darfur; when young Americans serve tour after tour of duty in a war that should've never been authorized and never been waged.

And we have a deficit when it takes a breach in our levees to reveal a breach in our compassion; when it takes a terrible storm to reveal the hungry that God calls on us to feed; the sick He calls on us to care for; the least of these He commands that we treat as our own.

So we have a deficit to close. We have walls - barriers to justice and equality - that must come down. And to do this, we know that unity is the great need of this hour.

Unfortunately, all too often when we talk about unity in this country, we've come to believe that it can be purchased on the cheap. We've come to believe that racial reconciliation can come easily - that it's just a matter of a few ignorant people trapped in the prejudices of the past, and that if the demagogues and those who exploit our racial divisions will simply go away, then all our problems would be solved.

All too often, we seek to ignore the profound institutional barriers that stand in the way of ensuring opportunity for all children, or decent jobs for all people, or health care for those who are sick. We long for unity, but are unwilling to pay the price.

But of course, true unity cannot be so easily won. It starts with a change in attitudes - a broadening of our minds, and a broadening of our hearts.

It's not easy to stand in somebody else's shoes. It's not easy to see past our differences. We've all encountered this in our own lives. But what makes it even more difficult is that we have a politics in this country that seeks to drive us apart - that puts up walls between us.

We are told that those who differ from us on a few things are different from us on all things; that our problems are the fault of those who don't think like us or look like us or come from where we do. The welfare queen is taking our tax money. The immigrant is taking our jobs. The believer condemns the non-believer as immoral, and the non-believer chides the believer as intolerant.

For most of this country's history, we in the African-American community have been at the receiving end of man's inhumanity to man. And all of us understand intimately the insidious role that race still sometimes plays - on the job, in the schools, in our health care system, and in our criminal justice system.

And yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that none of our hands are entirely clean. If we're honest with ourselves, we'll acknowledge that our own community has not always been true to King's vision of a beloved community.

We have scorned our gay brothers and sisters instead of embracing them. The scourge of anti-Semitism has, at times, revealed itself in our community. For too long, some of us have seen immigrants as competitors for jobs instead of companions in the fight for opportunity.

Every day, our politics fuels and exploits this kind of division across all races and regions; across gender and party. It is played out on television. It is sensationalized by the media. And last week, it even crept into the campaign for President, with charges and counter-charges that served to obscure the issues instead of illuminating the critical choices we face as a nation.

So let us say that on this day of all days, each of us carries with us the task of changing our hearts and minds. The division, the stereotypes, the scape-goating, the ease with which we blame our plight on others - all of this distracts us from the common challenges we face - war and poverty; injustice and inequality. We can no longer afford to build ourselves up by tearing someone else down. We can no longer afford to traffic in lies or fear or hate. It is the poison that we must purge from our politics; the wall that we must tear down before the hour grows too late.

Because if Dr. King could love his jailor; if he could call on the faithful who once sat where you do to forgive those who set dogs and fire hoses upon them, then surely we can look past what divides us in our time, and bind up our wounds, and erase the empathy deficit that exists in our hearts.

But if changing our hearts and minds is the first critical step, we cannot stop there. It is not enough to bemoan the plight of poor children in this country and remain unwilling to push our elected officials to provide the resources to fix our schools. It is not enough to decry the disparities of health care and yet allow the insurance companies and the drug companies to block much-needed reforms. It is not enough for us to abhor the costs of a misguided war, and yet allow ourselves to be driven by a politics of fear that sees the threat of attack as way to scare up votes instead of a call to come together around a common effort.

The Scripture tells us that we are judged not just by word, but by deed. And if we are to truly bring about the unity that is so crucial in this time, we must find it within ourselves to act on what we know; to understand that living up to this country's ideals and its possibilities will require great effort and resources; sacrifice and stamina.

And that is what is at stake in the great political debate we are having today. The changes that are needed are not just a matter of tinkering at the edges, and they will not come if politicians simply tell us what we want to hear. All of us will be called upon to make some sacrifice. None of us will be exempt from responsibility. We will have to fight to fix our schools, but we will also have to challenge ourselves to be better parents. We will have to confront the biases in our criminal justice system, but we will also have to acknowledge the deep-seated violence that still resides in our own communities and marshal the will to break its grip.

That is how we will bring about the change we seek. That is how Dr. King led this country through the wilderness. He did it with words - words that he spoke not just to the children of slaves, but the children of slave owners. Words that inspired not just black but also white; not just the Christian but the Jew; not just the Southerner but also the Northerner.

He led with words, but he also led with deeds. He also led by example. He led by marching and going to jail and suffering threats and being away from his family. He led by taking a stand against a war, knowing full well that it would diminish his popularity. He led by challenging our economic structures, understanding that it would cause discomfort. Dr. King understood that unity cannot be won on the cheap; that we would have to earn it through great effort and determination.

That is the unity - the hard-earned unity - that we need right now. It is that effort, and that determination, that can transform blind optimism into hope - the hope to imagine, and work for, and fight for what seemed impossible before.

The stories that give me such hope don't happen in the spotlight. They don't happen on the presidential stage. They happen in the quiet corners of our lives. They happen in the moments we least expect. Let me give you an example of one of those stories.

There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organizes for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She's been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and the other day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.

And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.

She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.

So Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he's there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, "I am here because of Ashley."

By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.

But it is where we begin. It is why the walls in that room began to crack and shake.

And if they can shake in that room, they can shake in Atlanta.

And if they can shake in Atlanta, they can shake in Georgia.

And if they can shake in Georgia, they can shake all across America. And if enough of our voices join together; we can bring those walls tumbling down. The walls of Jericho can finally come tumbling down. That is our hope - but only if we pray together, and work together, and march together.

Brothers and sisters, we cannot walk alone.

In the struggle for peace and justice, we cannot walk alone.

In the struggle for opportunity and equality, we cannot walk alone

In the struggle to heal this nation and repair this world, we cannot walk alone.

So I ask you to walk with me, and march with me, and join your voice with mine, and together we will sing the song that tears down the walls that divide us, and lift up an America that is truly indivisible, with liberty, and justice, for all. May God bless the memory of the great pastor of this church, and may God bless the United States of America.

Christmas 2007

this christmas blog is a long time coming and here is some picture of ciuapilli's great 6 year old birthday party at the albany village. We had a great thanksgiving at my grandmother's up by Chico and when we left pilli cried asking me not to leave and that's how I felt too. but were planning on the same for christmas but with some added snow up in the mountains as long as we don't get lost like that family in paradise. I sad not to have been able to go to Oscar's first lead in the play of miracle on 34th street. hopefully my interview for a job went well and I get a job soon. pero if not going to still be studying for the LSAT and we'll see where that takes us. well like little timmy said before, god bless every single one of us.

Overnight musings

I'm frustrated with life... not that things are well they just could be better. I'm in month 3 of my job search and although I have a part time overnight job, my struggles with full time employment have soured my mood as Christmas roles around. This is the first Christmas that ciuapilli is going to remember and truly enjoy but were tight on money so we're going to make a strong effort to make it as fun as possible. Halloween was great and our neiboors are being great. I can't wait for thanksgiving and to hang out with my family. I'm sad to not be able to attend my cousin's ocsars theatical debut but I do hope there are other opportunities. Oh and I have decided to apply to law school this coming spring so I will be starting to study hard. Well goodnight.

Avenal progress

If I ever had the funding and the commitment from people like the Santino's did to the newspaper I would like to keep it going even underground just for the community, plus a local location where all the Progress's could be digitized into PDF so future people could read them or use them for research. The voice of this great little city has been quieted for now.



End of an era comes with this issue

By Progress Staff
The staff at the Progress has been looking toward this issue with bittersweet thoughts - we are sad knowing the community will now be forced to get their news in other ways, but happy that now we won't be facing that deadline every Monday.

Over the past 25 years, we - Joe and Arlene Santino - have worked sometimes overtime to get the news to you our faithful readers.

Our work with local newspapers began with submitting news items for the church page and then evolved to that of a stringer doing little league and then meetings as a stringer for the Record.

We sat at a computer much of the day on May 3, 1983 at the Coalinga Record only to lose all our work when the brick wall fell in as the 6.7 magnitude earthquake hit, just as we were leaving town.

Over the years, we have covered meetings in both Avenal and Coalinga - city council, school boards, planning commission and even recreation. Arlene did the meetings and Joe covered sports.

Many photos have also been taken of students receiving honors, scholarships, on the field and in the gymnasium.

There were wins and losses and championship games, we were there to cheer them on and cry with them.

Many graduations - pre-school, middle school, high and adult school. We were there for each of you.

We tried to bring you the good news and temper the bad news.

There was the curb and gutter project, that tried many a person's soul, as it seemed to never end, and work to get the landfill permitted to allow for the city to make money and residents a less costly means of refuse pickup, we were there with you.

The fun times - Old Timer's Day, what has become Avenal's annual celebration, and now the great Independence Day celebrations.

Avenal is young as a city, but mature as a community. It continues to change day by day. With those daily changes, support for the newspaper waned leaving the owners little choice but to discontinue printing.

Many are angry, sad and disappointed. This will all get easier as time goes by.

As time goes by newspapers, sadly, are becoming a thing of the past. It isn't a good thing, because as the newsprint goes, so will our freedom of speech go.

We will be here as residents, but no longer writing the history of Avenal as a newspaper. We will join you in other endeavors free of that weekly deadline.

Good-bye for now.

(Sept. 26, 2007)

Sad note for small towns

For as long as I can remember my home town has had a paper. it will stop publishing next week and I'm very sad at the news.

Progress to cease publication Sept. 26

By Progress Staff
Lee Central California Newspapers announced last week that two of its weeklies, the Avenal Progress and the Twin City Times, will cease publication at the end of this month. The last issue will be printed Sept. 26.

"Both of these publications have a long history in their city, and with the people they serve. However that number has dwindled to the point where it no longer makes sense to publish," said Randy Rickman, publisher of LCCN and the group's daily newspaper, The Sentinel.

Lee Central California Newspapers will continue to publish The Sentinel, as well as its remaining weeklies, the Selma Enterprise, Kingsburg Recorder, Coalinga Record and Lemoore Advance.

Subscribers to the Avenal Progress will be offered alternate subscriptions to the Coalinga Record or a refund. They will continue to receive weekly advertisements and information through the Central Valley Guide.

The move comes as LCCN pursues other long-term opportunities, said Rickman.

"This move will position us better to take advantage of the tremendous growth in online and niche publications," he said.

Lee Enterprises, with headquarters in Davenport, Iowa, is a premier publisher of local news, information and advertising in primarily midsize markets, with 51 daily newspapers and a joint interest in five others, rapidly growing online sites and more than 300 weekly newspapers and specialty publications in 23 states.

With the acquisition of Pulitzer Inc. in June 2005, Lee became the fourth largest newspaper company in the country in terms of dailies owned, and grew from 12th to seventh largest in terms of total daily circulation.

(Sept. 19, 2007)

Clean house

one of the procratiantion things I've started doing is actually a good hobby I usually for get to do. I just finished cleaning the house and am about to go pick up pilli from school I hope her PE went well. Will post new pictures from the Reunion later tonight.

Thank yous

Just wanted to thank the people that commented on my blog, it always surprises me that there's people that do read my blog. Thanks. But in keeping up with the blogging I'd like to quickly explain why there was nothing on Saturday or Sunday. My wife and I had guests over, which now officially breaks the record number of guests that we had when we lived in Phoenix by a long shot and we've only lived here in Berkeley for a month, how sad that fact is. We had a great time with your friend Amy and some other fellow Alumni at Part 4 of our 18 part House Warming lecture series this one taking place on el dia del Grito. Alvaro didn't make it but we still had a blast and now that Pilli is sleeping on a regular schedule because she has morning kindergarten we get some nights of her in bed. Fun times plus her Tio Gabby made a guest appearance from Phoenix and although brief it was wonderful to be able to share our new home. On Sunday we went to church after nursing a semi cruda and were welcomed to our new church by the 25 year anniversary of the padre whom proceeded to use the homily as his recounting of his experiences which is not typical but nice to know a bit about our new spiritual guide. I got a good feeling about the church although wasn't able to get completely into it because Ciuapilli is at that age where she gets bored easily but understands things more complexly, thus I was trying to explain to her parts of the mass to which she responded with gusto that she wanted to be a part of it all, especially receiving communion. The waiting till her first communion did not sit well with her but she understood. Then a small festival at our new village complex with a pony ride and petting zoo. The location of the family housing is great and we are blessed with very kind and ambiable neighbors one of which brought us Zuchini bread. All in all another great weekend, now to the job hunt.

Another Anniversary remembered

6 years ago I became very depressed. A depression that I still struggle to break out of on most days. Six years ago so many tremendous things happened around the same time. So much so that I buckled and most of my former character collapsed. The prospect of being pregnant for our senior year was not a completely welcome one but one that we geared up to handle together as a very green but hopeful couple. Doubts were all around us but so was the hope and the help, from our friends from our professors and school, so much so that we dubbed it our Yale family that helped with classes, laundry, and childcare. But juxtaposition to the help and the inevitable fear of becoming a family and parents came events completely out of our hands. August ended with a cousin in an accident going home and another in jail. September 11th happened while I sat on the cusp of our Senior year in Accounting class, that evening I think my personal dam began to overflow. How could we bring a child into this madness into the foolish world that resulted from the attacks. The prospects of graduating and getting decent jobs evaporated that morning the economy would be stuck for while and still our baby grew. When she was born the hope returned but only for a while again as classes began again the dark vibration of postpartum gripped my wife but the chuckles of the baby would shake those away. Suddenly my cousin in the accident died on the road to recovery. In a whirl we were back in California for the funeral of my cousin introducing my family to our new daughter at the bleakest of times. My hopes and dreams were shattered by so many unfixable things that fear invaded my heart and planted the seeds of doubt so deep that nothing has been able to kill the roots of it. The move to Arizona only helped to feed this illness and breed the accompanying depression that coupled with a depressed spouse made for an unhappy home. That's not to say we both didn't try but the joys of Arizona came in spurts and aside from our daughter they mostly came from outside sources but within me the apathy to live fogged my joy. 3 years later SoCal came in a whirl as I knew once a sink cut a gash on my head that I need to change although the follow through of that change was not there the job in California was the impetus of that change. While enjoying my new line of poorly paying work, my spouse's will also broke and the calamity of being in Arizona crashed upon the family. My obsession for the next calamity since 9/11 was linked to my being hooked to the depressing news cycle that was like m&m or soda, tasty but not filling, I've indulged myself in useless toys and artifacts. Then the final year in Arizona made the hope of California like a fleeting moment that was wrapped up in the crash of our marriage in late September. This crash has made me scared of change any even the kind that I know is necessary to move forward, the finding a job and getting back into school so I can become a Lawyer that at times is all I want and in a flash I let go of those ganas as if it were a fish following the current. Why now that we are in California and my spouse is out of her depression can I not move forward with conviction? Why do I still feel the fear of six years ago and the hopelessness of the following spring a spring that never came for me. That void I think will exist in me for ever but I wonder if the wound of it will heal. I wish I were the blaming type but I'm an internalizer and a lingerer that has not let go of the past or the wrong decisions that I have made. Once upon a time and in flashes I'm confident to the point of being arrogant but that was a part of me that helped me get through Yale and High School. The highs and lows of my life have been extreme and usually very closely aligned to one another. Near fatal illness/ wining the lottery, birth of my child/ death of a family member. I don't hold anger but the saddness of those incomplete times in my life, the joy of being a college freshman was not to be mine, the joys of being a senior were not either, and sharing the beauty of my daughter with the hope of recovery with my cousins in LA and in jail were not to be mine either. Those moments came and went and slowly but firmly have broken my spirit. Now being back were I once was well is a strange feeling. Not the this is not the same feeling of my surroundings I expected most of that and enjoy exploring the changes, no the change is in me. Dean Loge once told me or emailed me the story of returning to the same camp ground in Vermont year after year and that each time it was not exactly the same and he wondered if it was the site or himself having changed through out the year. In this vain I write this to expose the unhealthy ruts I have fallen into to see that I'm back but not well as I once was or hope to be. Hope is returning though with the adventures of my daughter in kindergarten and with a neighborhood of good people and children, she seems at peace and in place here. My family is enjoying being in closer proximity with us here in California and the joy of life has returned to my spouse, now the project and focus is on myself, which after so many years of neglecting myself its a small paradox in exactly how to do it. The list of things to do are compiled and yet still I procrastinate, why? I don't know... the fear of getting to a good place and having something terrible shatter it to bits? Probably, I don't want to lose anymore happiness but the happiness is not as bright or vivid (without Tide) as it should be so I must fight to move it forward. That is one of the big reasons for my 5 year delay in writing my essay something like most that I should have done years ago. At cultural connections I was famous for reading Dr. Seuss - Oh the places you will go. That book inspires me now to move forward because as god's creatures we must.

If I continue to write here it will be a sign I'm moving forward if not then the fear will still be gripping my soul, but I promise to fight it.

6 year Anniversary

In the Bay

Very happy to be back in California, now i just need a job.

Chicano Minute

Monday Videos

new videos for you to watch and comment on.




Pilli blogging will comence once again this week. 2 more till we move.

new videos watch them...

Cumbia Lunera by el Gran Silencio perfomed by fans


this cumbia video is great! check out the spinning dip at right before the half way mark i think that couple is the best.


Avril's Girlfriend song is catchy

Dissapointment

I wish these observations weren't true but Villaraigosa just became the next Henry Cisneros. Damn you gore jr.... I'm still pushing for Obama but we'll see what happens.


Managing Disappointments

by Steve Soto

I’ll cut to the chase and say it, even though most of you will disagree: Al Gore’s chances for a successful entry into the presidential race ended the moment his troubled son was pulled over and busted once again. You can disagree all you want, but the truth is that the media has a new club to use against Gore. His son was busted in a Prius going over a hundred miles an hour (wow, who knew?), possessing marijuana and prescription drugs that weren’t his.

We can bleat all we want about how this is a family matter and is irrelevant to whether or not Gore is the best candidate in 2008, but anyone who really believes that is doing their best to ignore the reality that the GOP, the Mighty Wurlitzer, and their ilk have fresh meat to beat us over the head with. The right-wing talking points write themselves: “they must be bad parents”; “he can’t even guide his son let alone guide a country”, yada-yada-yada.

It’s over folks. Gore needed a reentry without distractions and without providing his political opponents in the media any ammunition. That isn’t possible now, and the Gores need to focus on family matters at this time.

And while we are on the topic of disappointments, Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is a slug who can’t seem to keep his zipper up. Take a hike mayor and forget about running for governor of California. You will never get my vote. And please don’t insult my intelligence with that “it’s a personal matter” bullshit. It’s not personal but rather a reflection of character and judgment, or lack of the same. There are plenty of politicians who manage to stay faithful to their spouses, who deal with the same temptations and challenges without wrecking a marriage, a family, or an administration of supporters. Just as Clinton showed a character flaw and poor judgment, Villaraigosa has done the same. It’s ludicrous for Democrats to blast Rudy Giuliani for treating his wives as toilet paper but to then give Villaraigosa a pass for infidelity.

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Steve Soto

Grand Canyon Visit

I'm DONE!!

I'm ready to dance and come on out. Senior ESSAY Done!!

Mo'Money Mo Problems steals the song so well

My new favorite song

East Coast Classic

Lety Graduating

Graduation Pictures

Pictures from Wellesley and Boston.

The future

We are moving to Berkeley so and I'm overwhelmed by a season of graduations, Gabriel's, Ciuapilli's and Biggest and Bestest Graduation at Wellesley. For my sister Leticia whom I am so proud of, more pictures will be coming on the blog. I have decided I truly want to go to law school hopefully in the next 3 years. Getting a master would be good but it needs to be in the bay. I don't know what will happen but I'm exicted that what will happen will be good. Plus were going to the reunion in New Haven. I need to finish before then and I will but I just wanted to write about the excitement and other things are shaping up for the future.