Today I spent several hours with fellow Democrats and Obama supporters at the Los Angeles Convention Center registering new citizens to vote.

There were 3 ceremonies today, with 6000 people in each group being sworn in. If you have never attended one of these events in a large city, let me tell you it is one of the most wonderful things you could imagine.

In a place like Los Angeles, with the almost literally incredible diversity of our immigrant population, the ebb and flow of the groups coming in with family members (who had to wait outside unless the person to be sworn in needed help to get about) was a beautiful experience.

There were men and women in the national dress of a number of different countries, including Nigeria and Tahiti.

We spoke with a family of three from Kenya, mom, dad and son. Dad proudly told us they are members of the Luo tribe, just like Barack's father. Of course they registered Democratic.

What can I say tomorrow, in a field of 84 candidates for a handful of slots to be a convention delegate in August from my Congressional District ? What can I say to convince a whole lot of people who don't know me from Adam's house cat to vote for me, rather than, or perhaps in addition to their friends and relations also vying for those precious slots ?

Do I tell them they should vote for me because I'm a certain gender, or age, or ethnicity ? No, that's not going to work. There are plenty of others with more under-represented qualities. Me, my general description, are a dime a dozen. There are so many rules for balancing the delegation it would make your head swim. Or maybe not yours, since you probably know already, but... what it means is, my chances are slim to none in such a huge field.

In their on-going effort to hire the most incompetent and corrupt people in the entire country, BushCo has once again scored.

According to the Los Angeles Times today, yet another White House aide has resigned. This time the aide, Felipe Sixto, is suspected of having "a conflict of interest" with respect to the use of USAID funds while he was with a previous employer, the Washington-based Center for a Free Cuba.

Now this guy lasted a whole TWENTY DAYS (more on the flip)

[This is a reprise of a diary I did last fall about making a difference in the lives of rehabilitated felons.]

There are many thousands of men and women in this country who feel like they don't have a stake in what happens politically because they believe, often erroneously, that they cannot vote. They are "ex-cons" and they are told again and again that they don't count because they made a mistake.

You can make a huge difference in the lives of "ex-cons"--especially if you are an attorney, but even if you are not.

In a number of states, including California, there are charges that can be felonies or misdemeanors, depending on how the prosecutor chooses to file the case. And even then, in some instances, the charge may be reduced by the judge from a felony to a misdemeanor.

But whether it really was a felony, or a misunderstood misdemeanor, there is probably something that can be done.

Follow me for more......

Especially if you are an attorney, but even if you are not.

In a number of states, including California, there are charges that can be felonies or misdemeanors, depending on how the prosecutor chooses to file the case. And even then, in some instances, the charge may be reduced by the judge from a felony to a misdemeanor.

What difference does this make ? A HUGE ONE !

Follow me for the explanation.

Last Friday, Rock Strongo had a diary about Abramoff and the fact that subpoenas have been served on the White House for information relating to Abramoff and his relationship to various parties there.

Thusfar, nobody seems to have brought up the fact that Henry Waxman has sent a Happy Halloween letter to Fred Fielding, noting that no White House assertion of executive privilege having been made, Mr. Waxman expects those documents to show up next Tuesday, November 6.

Follow me over the fold for exerpts from the letter.

Robert Abboud, the village president of Barrington Hills, threw his hat into the ring Monday against 8 term incumbent Republican Don Manzullo, from Egan, instead of throwing things at the tv set anymore.

Abboud is a 50 year old nuclear engineer, Purdue graduate, grandfather and business owner who has been testing the waters for months.

He said "My current congressman is not a leader, if he wanted to lead, he wouldn't be such a consistent follower of failed policy."

"A follower of big business, big money and big shots who think they can decide the direction of the country without listening to us."

Not a lot to say, except this thing seems to be totally out of control now. Started around 1:30pm, didn't seem like a whole lot, but the wind came up. Now we have Santa Ana wind conditions, hot and dry, and more winds generated by the fire.

Helicopter traffic overhead here a whole lot in the Silver Lake/Los Feliz area.

Freeways closed, streets closed, electricity out, evacuations ordered.

It's gonna be a hell of a night here in LA.

The Democratic Party has already said this sort of thing is unacceptable and will penalize any state that moves their primary ahead of Super Duper Tuesday, 2/5.

Watch for the fur to fly over this one if Gov. Crist signs the bill, which he expected to do.

I am not sure how I feel about this in particular, other than that the whole business of front loading the election to early 2008 seems fraught with peril for the candidates whose official annointing takes place in August-- or September for the Republicans

Sometimes I wonder how Republicans can find their way to the toilet with some of the truly idiotic comments they make, but this evening took the cake.

I'm with friends at a local coffee shop, we're talking, you know how it is. Then I realize that the folks in an adjacent booth are talking politics. They are talking about Thursday night's Democratic candidate debate. One of them starts to talk about how all of the candidates had flown in separate airplanes from Washington DC to South Carolina. The person making this observation proceeds to say that the fact [if it is one] that they didn't all take one plane shows that they are all hypocrites when it come to global warming. The way the speaker said this, it was clear that he didn't believe in the reality of global climate change himself.

There's more......

Earlier this month there was a diary and discussion  of whether we should be concerned about the special election for this seat.

This afternoon I discovered via RedMass the fact that Jim Ogonowski, a Republican, is going to run for Meehan's seat.

This is not just any  Republican, he is a man whose personal story and motivation just might capture the imagination of some voters.

Although it is many months away, it has come to my attention that the Republican National Convention, scheduled for September 2008, is going to be a bit of a rowdy affair.

Or at least that's what the sheriff of Ramsey County, MN, thinks, apparently.

See Minnesota Campaign Report for more on this.

And follow me over the fold....

At the urging of Joshua Micah Marshall of Talking Points Memo, I have been delving into the mysteries of the 2005 revision of the Patriot Act

I don't know if any of you have read it. Since most of the folks who voted for it didn't don't feel too bad if you haven't. It is 86 pages of pretty densely pack prose, after all.

When I first grabbed a copy off the internet I really didn't know what to expect. According to the White House page on the signing of the bill,

The Patriot Act Reauthorization Includes The Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act Of 2005.

This bill introduces commonsense safeguards that will make many ingredients used in methamphetamine manufacturing more difficult to obtain in bulk and easier for law enforcement to track. For example, the bill places limits on large-scale purchases of over-the-counter drugs that are used to manufacture methamphetamines- and requires stores to keep these ingredients behind the counter or in locked display cases. It increases penalties for smuggling and selling methamphetamines

State Senator Don Perata, the Democratic Leader, is asking Californians to support a resolution to have California formally ask for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

The text is over the fold

I turned on C-Span to discover Mueller giving his version of how the FBI is doing everything right now, etc., etc.

Leahy has torn into him re: NSLs and the no-subpoena situation, and the fact that FBI has gone for FISA warrants with nothing but crap in their representations to the FISA court to get the warrants.

Somebody here must be interested in this !

Here come Specter to ask if FBI has enough funding to protect the country from terrorists. Of course Mueller, breathing "thank you !" under his breath, says they don't.

Somebody want to carry on with this ?

The live feed is on C-Span 3 http://c-span.org/...

Specter now asking

John Conyers is holding a hearing this morning about abuse of the National Security Letter powers.

Glenn Fine, Justice Dept. Inspector General, is reporting on their investigation.

I have to go to work, but we should be watching this !

Here's the committee page link http://judiciary.house.gov/

This morning, the not-always-so-helpful NPR came up with a goodie of which we should all be reminded-- Yes, dear, there really is an official CyberCemetery !

It is located at-- (can you stand the irony?)--- the University of North Texas. http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/

It contains the digital records of the 9/11 Commission and all kinds of other goodies involving things that were/are on the public record. This means audio and video stuff, as well as reports.

More over the fold...

The MSNBC link is here http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

The Montana Senate is moving in the right direction. We need to encourage them to continue.

I don't have a lot of deep thoughts on this. As a criminal defense attorney, I long ago made the choice to refuse to participate in the machinery of death. I gave up money and prestige, as well as tons of stress some might say. But it was and is the right decision. It's nice to see a few more folks are coming around to a more civilized point of view, as every now and again another state takes another look at this legalized barbarism.

More on the flip----