One result of these conversations was a determination to expand and enhance our communications activities.

A part of this new communications initiative is to change the focus of the club’s web site, www.ldclub.org, so it now features regular posts about local, state, and national politics written by me and other club members. You, along with all of our members, can submit story ideas or comment about what is posted there. We hope you will visit often! We want our web site to include more than just notices about our meetings!

The web site also includes a calendar of events featuring not just what our club has planned, but also other events in our region of interest our members and other Democrats. We also have included information on the club’s endorsed issues and candidates to help you as you prepare to research the candidates and issues before casting your November 2 election ballot.

The club’s Board also discussed ways to get our messages out in the letters to the editor sections of our local newspapers and web sites. If you are interested in helping to counter the right-wing focus of our local letters to the editor sections, please let me know at our September 16 meeting or send me an email at president (at) ldclub (dot) org.

We will also be expanding our Facebook page and looking at other ways to use social media to reach out to younger voters—an underrepresented demographic within our club’s membership.

I hope you will visit our web site and share your ideas about the improvements we have made. I hope you will find it a useful information hub worthy of repeated return visits and of sharing with your friends and networks.

Rachel Maddow obliges. And it is the thanks Bush and his crew deserve. Although I suspect it is not what the Republicans have in mind. As Maddow says:

Credit for all the rest of it, for the made-up reasons for going in, for going in in the first place, for letting Afghanistan spill out of control in favor of this war, for the constant revisions for the justifications for war to obfuscate the craven petty radicalism that really started—Republicans, you guys can go right ahead and take that credit. Go right ahead. Credit where credit is due.

It’s another must-watch segment from the MSNBC host.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

“There’s going to be a government shutdown, just like in ’95 and ’96 but we’re going to win it this time and I’ll be fightin’ on your side,” Morris said at the Americans for Prosperity Foundation Conference on Friday in Washington.

That’s comforting news. And another example of what is at stake during the November mid-term elections.

Yes, this is one of the things to which we can look forward should the Republicans capture control of the House of Representatives and Issa becomes chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

And a handful of aggressive would-be committee chairmen — led by Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Lamar Smith (R-Texas) — are quietly gearing up for a possible season of subpoenas not seen since the Clinton wars of the late 1990s.

Those of us who live in California know that Issa means business. After all, the recall of Governor Gray Davis was not viable until Issa decided to fund the signature gathering process. Issa hoped to run for Governor himself until a certain Republican actor decided to get into the race.

(Alas, Issa been curiously silent about recalls now even though Governor Schwarzenegger has polls equal to, or worse, than Davis had. I guess recall concerns only count if a Democrat is in office.)

If Democrats sit out the mid-terms out of frustration, the result could be allowing Rep. Darrell Issa, who abused the California recall process, to have the chance to abuse the Congressional subpoena power.

This is one of the things at stake this mid-term election.

Have no fear! To help all of us, Bill in Portland Maine recently authored this incredibly useful post. In it, he compiled a great set of links to facts we can use to debunk myths about some of today’s hottest political issues. (Literally, as the climate crisis is one of the subjects.)

> Tea Party’ers are not more likely to have racist tendencies than other conservatives.
(Except they are.)

> Democrats are scheming to hit 94 percent of small business owners with tax increases.
(Except they aren’t.)

> Bloody violence is out of control along the Mexican border, and illegal immigrants are streaming into America at record levels.
(Except it’s not and they’re not.)

> Obamacare will send Medicare spiraling out of control.
(Except it won’t.)

> Marriage is a religious union that’s all about procreation.
(Except it isn’t.)

> Voters say cutting the deficit is more important than creating jobs.
(Except they don’t.)

> Social Security is going broke, it adds to the deficit, and we have to raise the retirement age because people are living longer.
(Except it’s not, it doesn’t and we don’t.)

> The earth is getting cooler.
(Except it’s really really not.)

> Facts and logic matter to Republicans.
(Except I just snorted milk out my nose.)

You may want to keep this list close at hand.

This month’s meeting will feature Lamorinda Democratic Club-endorsed District Attorney candidate Dan O’Malley, who will discuss his run-off for this vital county-wide office. Following O’Malley’s presentation about his campaign, we will host a forum with candidates from our local City Council and School Board races.

Please join us at the Orinda Community Church as we kick off the general election campaign season!

Just in case you forgot: By nearly any conceivable measure, the George W. Bush administration (2000-08) economic performance was the worst of any President since Hoover.

That requires repeating: the 2000s were the worst economic decade since Herbert Hoover. Seems like an important fact to remember.

Oh, and no, Barack Obama was actually not president for most of that decade.

And, yes, the irresponsible Bush tax cuts and unnecessary Bush run-up in the national debt did not make the economy work. Instead, they represented part of an epic series of policy mistakes that should discredit everyone who dared to support them.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Now I hope the Obama White House will do more to tell the story of all it has done in the face of unprecedented Republican obstruction.

It may not be a perfect story from a liberal or progressive perspective. But given the unprecedented need to get 60 votes in the Senate to do anything: it is a pretty good story that deserves to be told.

Lisa Vorderbrueggen

Contra Costa Times Political Editor Lisa Vorderbrueggen will analyze and recap the June California primary election as the Lamorinda Democratic Club’s featured speaker at our June 10, 2010 meeting.
The club will meet at the Orinda Community Church, 10 Irwin Way. The social hour begins at 6:30 p.m., with the club’s business meeting to follow at 7:15 p.m, and the speaker program to begin at 8 p.m.

Vorderbrueggen will offer her expert perspective on the June primary elections. As the political editor of the Contra Costa Times, she is one of the few people who can offer informed and comprehensive analysis of the election results from the statewide primaries down to the important county elections that will be decided just two days before her June 10 appearance at our club meeting.

Vorderbrueggen is the political editor and columnist for the Contra Costa Times and the Bay Area News Group since late 2004. She is a contributor to the popular “Political Blotter”? blog (www.ibabuzz.com/politics) which is a major source of breaking political news items in our area. Prior to her political assignment, she covered regional growth and transportation issues for the Contra Costa Times.

She joined Knight Ridder in 1996 after working as the Carson City, Nev., bureau chief for the Reno Gazette Journal and as a Washington, D.C., correspondent for the Las Vegas Review Journal. She also worked as reporter, editor, and columnist for the Nevada Appeal, a Carson City, Nev., daily. Vorderbrueggen’s work has been recognized by the California Newspaper Publishers Association, Nevada Press Association and the East Bay Press Club. She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1989 at the University of Nevada, Reno.

DAN O’MALLEY

BOB BROOKS

ROSS BUTLER

BRIAN KALINOWSKI

KAREN THIBODEAU

Not able to attend:
Gus Kramer
Joseph Ovick