I find myself thankful for many things today – particularly the people I love, the creature comforts and little delights of life, and the fact that I still have a job doing what I enjoy most.

But, seeing as how this is a political blog, I’ll share here a few other things for which I give thanks today.

I’m thankful that a record 130 million Americans voted this month, including a record 24 million or so people ages 18 to 29; I hope this is the start of an historic reversal of apathy, a dawning civic re-engagement at all levels of government.

I’m thankful that we change our government and settle our political differences with ballots and celebrations, not with guns and mourning.

I’m thankful to have lived a life thus far largely free of the shadow of discrimination; I hope everyone will be able to say this someday.

I’m thankful that democracy and technology have conspired to provide many of us with more ways to express our views to more of each other than ever before in human history. I think we can only benefit from the dialogue, so long as we keep open minds.

And I’m thankful that, even as the economy struggles and so many people try to figure out what to do next, we live in a nation so wealthy, so resourceful, so secure that we can discuss numbers like “$7 trillion” as we look for containment and fixes. In too many parts of the world, a crisis far worse than what our nation now experiences still would be the best day people ever had. We live in a land of plenty, and we can and will find our way through tough times.

Happy Thanksgiving, readers.

Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson is coordinating the planning for a big Inauguration Day bash, most likely at the Oracle Arena, so a large East Bay crowd can gather to watch Barack Obama sworn in as the 44th President of the United States.

“We’re almost sure we’re going to have the contract for the arena that day,” Carson told me a few minutes ago, just hours after about 25 representatives from various faith congregations, community groups and local agencies had gathered for their first meeting to plan the event. “Everybody is saying, ‘What can I do to help?’”

They’re also planning a series of other community events in the 10 days leading up to the Jan. 20 inauguration, including an event Sunday, Jan. 11 at Oakland’s new Cathedral of Christ the Light near Lake Merritt, and another on Sunday, Jan. 18 at Beebe Memorial Cathedral on Telegraph Avenue. Other institutions have set tentative dates as well.

“We know that we are in the middle of… very volatile times in the community, and even with a new administration, it’s going to be difficult locally for us for years to come. This gives us an opportunity to find new friends, to recommit to communicating across those lines to see how we can leverage our resources and infrastructure to help people,” Carson said today. “Barack’s campaign on some level was kind of indicating we as a country need to do that.”

Tickets for Oracle Arena event – likely to start pretty darned early on Tuesday, Jan. 20, as the president is traditionally sworn in at noon, meaning 9 a.m. PST – might cost a nominal fee, if only to control their dissemination, Carson said; as many as 17,000 people might fit into the arena for such an event.

That’s all we know for now; I’ll provide more details as they become available.

Carson, like Rep. Barbara Lee and Assemblyman Sandre Swanson, is a protégé and former aide to Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums during Dellums’ Congressional tenure. Swanson and Dellums had endorsed Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary, while Lee and Carson backed Obama; all of them supported Obama in this month’s general election.

Iraq Veterans Against the War intends to “occupy” San Francisco’s bustling Union Square this Friday, staging an “Operation First Casualty” to demonstrate “the brutal and unjust consequences of occupying a foreign country,” according to a press release.

IVAW members will round up “brave civilian volunteers” and arrest them “in the same style used in Iraq,” the release continues; they’ll be transported to Moscone Center — taking simulated deadly fire along the way — for interrogation, and after that they’ll move to United Nations Plaza where Food Not Bombs will be serving lunch to the homeless to highlight the plight of thousands of homeless vets.

“Our aim is to show the American public the truth of the US occupation in Iraq, and the effects on returning soldiers,” IVAW spokesman Eddie Falcon says, as well as to urge the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq; reparations for human and structural damage done to Iraq; a halt to “the corporate pillaging of Iraq;” and full benefits, adequate health care and other support for returning veterans.

The event is co-sponsored by Veterans for Peace, World Can’t Wait, the International Socialist Organization, Food Not Bombs, Courage to Resist and Students Against War – SF State.

Assemblyman Sandre Swanson, D-Alameda, will turn 60 this Friday, and how better to celebrate this momentous birthday than with… a fundraiser.

Yes, Swanson’s holding a black-tie cash bash Saturday night at Scott’s Seafood Restaurant in Oakland’s Jack London Square; it’s $100 a head, or from $1,000 to $3,900 for various levels of table sponsorship. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, for whom Swanson used to be chief of staff; Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles; and Assemblywoman and state Senator-elect Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, will be there.

The invitation bills the event — “Bring your dancing shoes!” — as a birthday and re-election victory celebration. Now, there’s certainly nothing wrong with celebrating re-election, but keep in mind that Swanson won this month with almost 88 percent of the vote to Republican Jim Faison’s 12 percent — little wonder, considering his 16th Assembly District is registered about 65 percent Democrat to about 8 percent Republican. Neither did much strenuous campaigning, yet Swanson appears to have raised at least about $421,000 and spent at least about $395,000 in the 2007-08 election cycle.

The biggest single chunk of that spending went to… raising more money! His campaign spent $145,280.80 on fundraising events. Another $62,075 went to campaign consultants (the biggest chunk of which, $37,000, went to Carol Jones, who is both his district director and his campaign events director/staff contact.)

His campaign finance records also indicate where he likes to eat: 21 “meetings and appearances” tabs totalling $931.55 at the Angel Fish sushi restaurant near Swanson’s home on Alameda’s Bay Farm Island; 20 totalling $1,319.13 at P.F. Chang’s; 17 totalling $783.12 at Nellie’s Soul Food; 8 totalling $729.20 at Scott’s; eight totalling $525.45 at the Fat Lady near Oakland’s Jack London Square; six totalling $367.13 at McCormick and Schmick; 14 totalling $258.98 at the Buckhorn Restaurant; six totalling $852.17 at Kincaid’s in Jack London Square; one for $352.66 at Joe’s Seafood and Stone Crabs; five totalling $301.38 at Zocalo in Sacramento; six totalling $286.45 at Aioli Restaurant (not sure where this is); two totalling $275.61 at Oakland’s Le Cheval; eight totalling $273 at the Harbor View Restaurant, also on Bay Farm Island; three totalling $273 at Yoshi’s near Jack London Square; one at Sushi Roku for $130.60; one at Morton’s steakhouse for $180.26; and one at San Francisco’s Waterfront Restaurant for $116.57. If you’re counting, that’s 128 tabs totalling $7,956.26. Yum!

But he also gave $30,415 to the California Democratic Party, and $26,150 to other local Democratic campaigns and committees. And as we all know, throwing money to the party is an important way in which lawmakers build their clout.

So if you’re going to Swanson’s birthday/re-election bash Saturday, feel certain your money is helping not only Swanson but lots of other Democrats. And campaign fundraisers and consultants. And restaurants.

The latest attempt to boycott a company associated with Proposition 8 targets a self-storage chain with several Bay Area locations.

Californians Against Hate founder Fred Karger said he’s running an online campaign to boycott San Diego-based A-1 Self Storage because of owner Terry Caster’s financial support of the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. A-1 has 30 locations throughout California, including Oakland, Concord, Belmont and four in San Jose.

From Karger’s Huffington Post column yesterday:

Why would someone contribute $693,000 to take away the rights of an entire minority group in California? Terry Caster and his family did just that. Caster, his 8 children and many of their spouses gave a total of $293,000 to help qualify Proposition 8 for the ballot earlier this year. Then when the plea went out for more money from the Yes on 8 campaign in late October, Caster opened up his checkbook and gave an additional $400,000 to take away same-sex marriage in
California. That’s $693,000 to Yes on 8! Terry Caster was the 2nd largest contributor in California to the Yes on 8 campaign.

Caster told the San Diego Union-Tribune in May that marriage equality threatens society. “Without solid marriage, you are going to have a sick society,” he said.

This is the third boycott launched by Karger’s group against Proposition 8 contributors. One of the earlier efforts targeted Doug Manchester, owner of San Diego’s Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel and Grand del Mar Resort as well as another resort in Idaho; that boycott is still ongoing. Another boycott targeted Bakersfield-based Bolthouse Farms after former CEO William Bolthouse Jr. gave $100,000 to the Yes on 8 campaign; Karger dropped that one in October after Bolthouse’s current CEO launched a comprehensive diversity program and agreed to contribute to several LGBT groups.

Californians Against Hate already began a “Call Terry Caster” campaign back in August, asking people to call Caster’s personal office and A-1’s headquarters; that’s now being replaced with the boycott, Karger said. He’s also asking people to leave comments on A-1’s Yelp pages.

Now, I blogged earlier this week about how boycotts are a time-honored, fair-game means of political expression, and one that conservative groups have used in the past against businesses supporting gay rights. I’d neglected then to note that Proposition 8’s proponents just last month sent a letter to almost three dozen businesses which had contributed to the campaign against the initiative, essentially demanding that they give equal money to Yes on 8 or risk conservative blowback.

Many thought that skated pretty close to extortion, so let’s not hear any whining about boycotts, OK?

Minister Marvin Webb of Richmond’s Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church and the Rev. Lucy Kolin of Oakland’s Resurrection Lutheran Church took center stage Tuesday at a PICO National Network-organized prayer rally outside the U.S. Treasury in Washington, D.C.. About 40 clergy members and 100 congregants asked God to help keep Americans from losing their homes, and prayed that Congress and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson would provide help to all those facing foreclosure.

Paulson wasn’t there, however; he was at the Capitol, briefing Congress on how he doesn’t think it prudent to use some of the $700 billion lawmakers made available to him to deal with toxic mortgage assets, as he’d originally said he intended to do.

Oakland-based Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana advocacy group, sued the California Department of Motor Vehicles today on behalf of Rose Johnson, 53, of Atwater. The Merced County Superior Court lawsuit claims that despite Johnson’s clean driving record — not having caused an accident in 37 years of driving — the DMV refused to renew her license in July after finding she’s a medical-marijuana user and deeming that she had an “addiction to, or habitual use of, [a] drug” that renders her unable to safely operate a car.

“The only evidence introduced by the DMV to support this conclusion is the fact of Johnson’s medical marijuana use pursuant to state law,” the lawsuit says. “The DMV abused its discretion by suspending Johnson’s license on this basis.”

ASA Chief Counsel Joe Elford issued a statement this afternoon saying when California voters passed Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, “they never intended to authorize the DMV to strip medical marijuana patients of their drivers’ licenses. The DMV should not be in the business of revoking the licenses of drivers like Ms. Johnson simply because she is a medical marijuana patient.”

And ASA says this isn’t an isolated case: DMV has suspended or revoking licenses of medical-marijuana patients in other counties including Alameda, Butte, Contra Costa, Glenn, Merced, Placer, Sacramento, and Sonoma.

Johnson’s case seems particularly ironic because Merced County, where she lives, last year instructed its sheriff’s deputies to respect state law and not cite medical marijuana patients or seize their medicine. Yet Johnson, never accused of driving while under the influence of marijuana or anything else, was denied her license renewal by a state agency for an activity allowed by state law.

And as I write this item, having just finished an article on the state Supreme Court’s impending review of Proposition 8, I’m wonder how much longer we’ll have to keep litigating and re-litigating the effects of a medical-marijuana initiative approved by voters 12 years ago. It seems California just can’t find a way to stop stepping on its own toes.

Lee and Woolsey push public investments: Representatives Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, who are finishing up their stint as co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, were at the Library of Congress today for a conference sponsored by the Campaign for America’s Future on New Deal-style public investments — from rebuilding our crumbling national infrastructure to pursuing alternative energy sources to lifelong education — that could bring long-term economic growth. In other Barbara Lee news, the Congressional Black Caucus will announce its new officers tomorrow, and we’re all but certain Lee will be the incoming chairwoman… stay tuned…

Tauscher remains regional whip: Democratic House members re-elected Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, as regional whip for Northern California, meaning she’ll remain the primary liaison between the House Democratic Leadership and her fellow members in the region. “On November 4th the American people sent a clear message for Congress to come together and solve problems,” she said. “I am eager to work with Speaker Pelosi and the new Obama administration to rebuild our economy, make healthcare more affordable, and move the United States to energy independence through innovation.” Her purview will include California’s Congressional Districts 1 through 22, as well as districts in Hawaii, Alaska, Guam, and American Samoa.

McNerney solicits holiday cards for troops: Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, is running his second annual “Holiday Cards for Our Troops” program, in which he’ll collect holiday cards for soldiers recovering from battle and stationed away from their families this holiday season, and then hand-deliver the cards to soldiers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.; sailors and marines at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.; and National Guard and Reserve soldiers at Parks Reserve Forces Training Area in Dublin. “Thoughtful words of encouragement and support from the great people of the 11th District can make a huge difference in boosting the morale of our brave troops who have so honorably served their country,” he said. Constituents should make or buy a holiday card, write a message of thanks inside to a service member, and then deliver the card in an unaddressed, unsealed envelope by Dec. 10 to one of McNerney’s district offices — at 5776 Stoneridge Mall Road, Suite 175 in Pleasanton or 2222 Grand Canal Blvd., Suite 7 in Stockton. He passed along more than 700 cards last year, and hopes to top that number this year. And if you have thoughts to share with McNerney on this or any other topic, go talk to him at his next “Congress at Your Corner” constituent meet-and-greet, noon to 1 p.m. this Saturday, Nov. 22, at the Safeway supermarket at 11050 Bollinger Canyon Road in San Ramon.

A public memorial service for former gubernatorial, presidential and vice-presidential candidate Peter Miguel Camejo is scheduled for 2 p.m. this Sunday, Nov. 23, in the University of California, Berkeley’s International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave.

Camejo, who died in September after a long bout with lymphoma, was Ralph Nader’s running mate in 2004 and was a Green gubernatorial candidate in 2002, the 2003 recall election and 2006; earlier, he had run for president in 1976 on the Socialist Workers Party ticket, and earlier yet had been prominent in 1960s anti-war efforts at Cal. Born in New York City, he spent much of his early childhood in his parents’ native Venezuela; he later would compete as a yachtsman for Venezuela at the 1960 Rome Olympics.

Camejo was the co-founder and former CEO of the Oakland-based Progressive Asset Management, a financial investment firm that encourages socially responsible projects; he later founded another such firm, The Camejo Group, also in Oakland.

As I said in September, I had the pleasure of talking with Camejo many times and found him to be a passionate and compassionate advocate of social justice for the poor, the disenfranchised, the uninsured, the immigrants and anyone else he thought was getting a raw deal; a policy wonk who could provide reams of facts off the top of his head to support his arguments; and a genuinely good, nice guy. I hope a tremendous number of people will turn out Sunday to pay tribute, and to demonstrate to his family what a debt of gratitude California owes him.

I’ve had a slew of e-mails and phone calls in the past few days complaining that I, or my paper, or the mass media overall have failed to adequately report the “terror campaign” against supporters of Proposition 8.

I’ve seen plenty of media stories about protests both peaceful and illegal, and based on the information I’ve got, I can say that most have been peaceful. There are some thugs out there who are using the high emotion and constitutional battle over same-sex marriage to excuse criminal behavior, and that’s unequivocally wrong, but the vast majority of people who’ve taken to the streets and the Internet since Nov. 4’s vote have done so legally and peacefully.

The Yes on 8 camp put out a release Friday complaining of “outrageous activities” such as:

As to the latter two: Anyone committing acts of vandalism, violence or terrorism should be hunted down and prosecuted to the full extent of the law, no question.

As to the former two: Tough cookies.

The Mormon Church and all those who supported Prop. 8 expressed their convictions and participated part in the political process, true enough, but that doesn’t mean others can’t hold them accountable. They chose to involve themselves in a question of other people’s civil rights. Standing by their convictions means accepting the consequences; in this case, the consequence is that those who disagree may choose not to associate with them, and to encourage others to do the same. They can’t jump into the public discourse and then claim some special protection from criticism.

It takes a lot of nerve for opponents of same-sex marriage to whine about boycotts and blacklisting, after all the boycotts and blacklists endured over the years by gays and lesbians and those who’ve stood up for their rights. Given how gays and lesbians long have been ostracized simply for who they are, it’s amazing to see those same ostracizers complain now about being ostracized themselves for their beliefs.