(full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign)

People in Rep. David Dreier's district think he is an independent, a moderate. That couldn't be further from the truth. Rep. Dreier has voted with Bush 93.6% of the time.

It's time perception meets reality. The Courage Campaign is launching our first ad in David Dreier's SoCal district, exposing the real Dreier to his constituents. The one who voted for everything from the war in Iraq to Dick Cheney's energy bill. Not to mention, he voted against expanding education benefits for veterans, extending unemployment benefits for those hardest hit by the economy, raising the minimum wage and the recent anti-gas price gouging bill. And that is just the short list.

The long list can be found on our new site that accompanies the ad: BushRubberStamp.com.

If you like the ad above, please consider making a contribution to help us get it up on the air on cable in the district. The Courage Campaign is a people-powered organization and we are depending on you to help us inform David Dreier's constituents.

Guest post by Julia Rosen. Julia is the Online Political Director for the Courage Campaign and an editor at Calitics.

It is not every day that something from a blog post ends up in the CBS Evening News, but then again using children with cancer to try and steal the White House is pretty egregious. A diarist at Daily Kos noticed that the dirty tricksters, who are advancing an initiative that would switch 20 of California's electoral college votes to the Republicans were using children's cancer as a bait-and-switch to get people to sign the initiative and place it on the ballot. The Courage Campaign sent a film crew led by Erik Love to go tape http://www.ballot.org/vertical/Sites/%7B26C6ABED-7A22-4B17-A84A-CB72F7D1... ">Arno's signature gatherers (pdf) and we caught them red-handed.

That video was featured in the weekend edition of the CBS Evening news. Watch the clip. It is a particularly good segment on the initiative. And special thanks to John for grabbing that clip for us.

The Courage Campaign has turned over the full-uncut video and documentation by Courage Campaign members that this is part of a pattern by these dirty tricksters. We have officially request a formal investigation into their apparently illegal signature gathering methods by the Secretary of State. Please help us keep the heat on these dirty tricksters by contributing on our ActBlue page (don't forget to tip!).

Guest Post by Julia Rosen. Julia is the Online Political Director for the Courage Campaign. She is also an editor at Calitics.

Let's start with the good news first, even though there is plenty of bad to come later, given the disgraceful behavior of California Democratic Party staffer Bob Mullholland, caught on video. In just five days, over 33,000 Americans, 90% or more Californians, joined the Courage Campaign call for the California Democratic Party (CDP) to censure Senator Dianne Feinstein for her pivotal votes to approve Judge Michael Mukasey as U.S. Attorney General and Judge Leslie Southwick to the U.S. Court of Appeals. These Americans were joined by the Courage Campaign, MoveOn.org, Progressive Democrats of America, CrooksandLiars.com and over 40 Democratic Clubs and progressive organizations from across California. With a week of non-stop organizing, this movement changed the conversation of the entire meeting of the CDP Executive Board.

Party Chair Art Torres spent about half of his speech on Saturday praising Senator Dianne Feinstein, acknowledging that people within the Democratic Party are upset with a few of her crucial votes. Of course, these weren't just any votes. They were votes contrary to core Democratic (and democratic) values like opposing torture, racism and homophobia. Despite the party chair's call not to censure Sen. Feinstein, the censure resolution was endorsed by the Women's Caucus, the Progressive Caucus and the Irish-American Caucus at the E-Board meeting. Unfortunately, it was never formally taken up or addressed by either the Resolutions Committee or the main body of the Executive Board. Members of the Resolutions Committee objected to hearing it, which meant it could not be brought to the Executive Board -- which was within their prerogative, given that it was a late resolution.

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