I have watched with amazement at the stream of Republican comments citing the alleged national threat of a Speaker Pelosi, since she is a "San Francisco liberal".

The national media must have repeated this line a thousand times in the last 30 days.

What they failed to point out, however, is that in every "values" category - crime, divorce, drug abuse, violence, abortions - the "red" states uniformly perform worse.

For a great recent article, see James' Walcott's Vanity Fair piece:

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2006/11/wolcott200611?currentPage=1

Several recent polls indicate that Charlie Brown is making inroads in his attempt to defeat the creepy John Doolittle in the 4th Congressional District (go to charliebrownfor congress.org), and Jerry McNerney is doing the same against the equally creepy Richard Pombo (go to jerrymcnerney.org)

The Brown and McNerney campaigns need our help to battle large influxes of cash from the national Republican party. We Solano County Dems can do our part by sending donations, writing letters to the editor, calling our friends in those disricts, or volunteering to help with GOTV in those districts.

The Solano County Democratic Party, including the Democratic Central Committee and seven active county Democratic Clubs, invite you to get involved in the fall campaign! There are many important races and issues on the Nov. 7 ballot, and we need your help in setting a new course for California and the nation this fall.

Please take the time to check out this updated website - it has links to all of the important sites you need to educate yourself and become active in this campaign.

THE FIGHT IS ON!

On the national level, we Californians have the opportunity to fight the Bush administration disasters – Iraq, Katrina, corruption, incompetence, failed foreign policy, failed economic policies, failed health care policies, failed energy policy, failed environmental policies – by electing a Democratic majority to Congress. Solano County can do its part by electing Bill Durston in the 3rd Congressional District campaign against Dan Lundgren (visit durstonforcongress,org).

On the state level, we have an opportunity to elect accomplished state leaders who will pursue progressive policies and bring Californians together, contrary to our current governor who wasted many millions on the disastrous special election and who has no interest or ability to protect California from George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and their culture of fear, greed and failed leadership.

IDEAS MATTER!

Contrary to media suggestions, the National and California Democratic Parties have robust and comprehensive platforms with terrific ideas for moving the state and nation forward. Please take the time to review the Democratic platforms at cadem.org (state party) and democrats.org (national party) and compare them to the Republican platform of endless war, endless corruption, endless incompetence, endless debt and endless failure.

Right now, more than at any other time in our lifetimes, there is a major difference in where Democrats and Republicans want to take the nation:

# Wheras Democrats believe in fiscal responsibility, Republicans have brought us the largest fiscal deficits in the history of the known universe;

# Whereas Democrats believe that government can and should effectively serve the needs of the people, Republicans can't do anything right and have screwed up Iraq, the war on terror, Katrina, and everything else they have touched. AMERICANS ARE NOT BETTER OFF THAN THEY WERE SIX YEARS AGO.

# Whereas Democrats believe in a fair and balanced economic system, Republicans believe the system should be rigged to sustain a small minority of unaccomplished wealthy people and crooks (even really wealthy people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet question Republican economic policies and ethics.). Ken Lay, Jack Abramoff and Halliburton have been the poster children of Bush economics - corrupt, foolish, and costing working Americans billions. These guys are real "evildoers". And the Republicans are their enablers and protectors.

# Whereas Democrats - in the tradition of FDR - believe that our foreign policy should be not only strong but enlightened (a beacon of democracy for the world to emulate), Republicans believe in torture, violation of the Geneva Convention, failed military leadership, and ultimately in uninformed arrogance rather than in effective advocacy. THE WORLD IS A MUCH MORE DANGEROUS PLACE THAN IT WAS BEFORE GEORGE W. BUSH BECAME PRESIDENT. We have lost the respect of most of the world, and our families will not be safe until we earn that respect back.

# Whereas Democrats support and embrace peoples of all creeds and values, Republicans continue to sell a phoney and corrupt version of religion and "family values" in which they trumpet war, greed, and divisiveness as their mantra. War, greed, arrogance, and a failure to serve our brothers and sisters in need is not what Jesus or any other serious religious leader supported. And W's version of "family values" simply means his family can make billions while most Americans suffer.

THERE IS PLENTY TO DO!

On the local level, Solano County residents are becoming involved like never before in efforts to take back America. The Democrats have opened two local headquarters, at 720 Taylor St. in Fairfield (phone 399-7267 or 399-9421 and 332 Georgia St. in Vallejo (642-DEMO).

We need your help in registering voters, increasing voter turnout, recruiting precinct captains, distributing literature, writing letters to the editor, and convincing your friends and neighbors that THERE IS A BETTER WAY!.

Dan Healy
Chair, Solano County Democratic Central Committee
September 30, 2006