Saturday, April 25 – The Northern California chapter of American Political Items Collectors will host a political memorabilia show from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St. in Berkeley. Aside from lots of dealers, there’ll be free appraisals, a special display of Obama campaign collectibles and a live mini-auction at noon. Admission is $4, but free for kids or students with valid ID.

Sunday, April 26 – Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, a Palestinian physician whose three daughters and niece were killed January 16 by Israeli shelling in Gaza, will speak about the reasons for his unwavering hope for peace between Israelis and Palestinians at 7 p.m. in Kehilla Community Synagogue, at 1300 Grand Ave. in Piedmont. The longtime peace advocate’s loss gained an international spotlight when he called into an Israeli television show during the attack. The event is co-sponsored by Kehilla, Americans for Peace Now, and the Bay Area chapter of Brit Tzedek v’Shalom. The suggested donation is $10 to $20, but nobody will be turned away for lack of funds.

Thursday, April 30 — American Civil Liberties Union executive director Anthony Romero will speak on “The Urgency of Action in the Age of Obama” at 6 p.m., preceded by a 5:30 p.m. reception, at the Commonwealth Club of California’s office on the second floor of 595 Market St. (at Second) in San Francisco. Romero says that while the first months of Obama’s presidency have been marked by considerable change, if the threats to civil liberties are not addressed, America’s future may be more imperiled than previously believed. Tickets cost $12 for club members, $18 for nonmembers and $7 for students with valid identification, and are available online.

Thursday, May 7 – Former Assembly Speaker and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown will give his annual critique of state and national political trends at 6 p.m., preceded by a 5:30 p.m. reception, in the Commonwealth Club of California’s office on the second floor of 595 Market St. (at Second) in San Francisco. This event is open only to club members at $12 per ticket, each of whom can bring one guest at $18 per ticket; tickets are available online.

First up: Me.

California Republican Party Vice Chairman Tom Del Beccaro was kind enough to invite me to participate in a panel discussion on California politics at 7 p.m. tomorrow night, Wednesday, March 18, along with Chronicle columnist Phil Matier, state GOP communications director Hector Barajas and Steve Frank, publisher of the conservative California Political News and Views site. It’s at the Contra Costa Country Club, 801 Golf Club Road in Pleasant Hill. Tickets are $25 each; email tom@politicalvanguard.com or director@contracostagop.com for reservations.

Lots more happening in coming days, after the jump…
Read the rest of this entry »

After sitting through a daylong presentation put on by coalition of business leaders and government reform groups in Sacramento, it seems increasingly likely that voters will see on the ballot in 2010 two measures that would lead to the California Constitutional Convention since 1879.

What is a Constitutional Convention? It’s a group of people charged with developing recommendations for amendments to the state’s Constitution, all of which must be ratified by the voters. How those members are chosen and the scope of their work is still up in the air.

Californians may not realize it but they frequently amend their Constitution through the initiative process.

As the Bay Area Council and its partners — the Center for Governmental Studies, Common Cause, Courage Campaign and League of Women Voters and others — envision it, this convention would focus primarily on governance reforms designed to help resolve some of the state’s intractable problems.

This is scary stuff to people who fear that well-intentioned reforms could carry unintended consequences and leave the state in shambles.

But most of the crowd gathered in Sacramento today seemed to feel that the state is already in shambles thanks, in large part, to voter-approved initiatives that carved out dollars for everything from education to public safety to roads but left state leaders with decision-making authority only over 7 percent of the budget.

Potential reform topics include … Read the rest of this entry »

Thursday, Feb. 19 – Assemblyman Sandre Swanson, D-Oakland, and Oakland City Council President Jane Brunner will host a “Progressive Economic Roundtable Discussion” from 7 to 9 p.m. tonight in the City Council Chambers at Oakland City Hall, 1 Frank Ogawa Plaza. Among those scheduled to talk about the economic crisis’ effects on Oakland residents as well as local job-creation and economic-growth strategies are Victor Rubin of PolicyLink; Professor Steven Raphael of the University of California, Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy; Shirley Burnell of ACORN; and Alameda County Central Labor Council Executive Secretary-Treasurer Sharon Cornu.

Sunday, Feb. 22 – Fresh from a fracas at his speaking engagement last month at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, education professor ’60s radical Bill Ayers – joined this time by his wife, fellow former radical Bernardine Dohrn – will speak on “Building a Movement for Peace in Our Time” at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 22 in the King Middle School auditorium, 1781 Rose St. in Berkeley. They’re also plugging their new book, “Race Course: Against White Supremacy” and the re-issue of Ayers’ memoir “Fugitive Days: Memoirs of an Anti-War Activist.” The event is a benefit for the Berkeley-based Middle East Children’s Alliance; tickets cost $15 for general admission, $10 for students, and are available online.

Tuesday, Feb. 24 – Conservative activist and author Phyllis Schlafly will speak about “radical feminism’s effect on America” and other issues at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 24 in 110 Barrows Hall at the University of California, Berkeley, sponsored by the Berkeley College Republicans and the Young America’s Foundation. The Berkeley College Republicans’ news release say her visit “is particularly relevant given the scrutiny and support that both Governor Sarah Palin and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton received during last year’s presidential election, the current state of American culture, particularly in regards to women, women’s values, and family values, and the urgent nature of the problems affecting our country today.”

Wednesday, Feb. 25 – David Sanger, the New York Times’ chief Washington correspondent and author of the recent book, “The Inheritance,” will speak on the complex and perhaps unprecedented national security challenges faced by President Barack Obama at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 25, in the Commonwealth Club of California’s offices on the second floor of 595 Market St. in San Francisco. A wine-and-cheese reception begins at 5:30 p.m. Tickets cost $12 for members, $18 for non-members and $7 for students with valid ID, and are available online.

Bob Woodward

Carl Bernstein

UPDATE 11/20/08: The Santa Rosa Press Democrat published a very nice story today about Woodward and Bernstein’s visit to see Mark Felt that includes a photo. Click here for the story.

UPDATE 11/21/08: Click here for my story today with more details of the visit and the observations of Alicia Shepard, author of “In the Shadow of Watergate.”

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Watergate reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein visited their famous source — known for 33 years only as “Deep Throat” — in Santa Rosa a few days ago.

William Mark Felt Sr., a former deputy FBI director, is in his 90s now and showed signs of dementia during the visit but had moments of extreme clarity, Bernstein told a Walnut Creek audience Monday night.

The men spoke in a rare joint appearance Monday night at the Lesher Speaker Series in wide ranging discussion on everything from Watergate to media bias to the state of the newspaper industry to the Barack Obama presidency.

Woodward said meeting with Felt was like a family reunion.

But Bernstein had never met Felt before. It was like “coming full circle,” Bernstein said. He also said Deep Throat never really provided new information but confirmed details they received from multiple sources. He would often tell them whether they were on the right or wrong track.

The public learned of Deep Throat’s identity in a 2005 Vanity Fair magazine article.

In an interview with the Contra Costa Times prior to their Monday performance, Woodward and Bernstein described the release of Felt’s name as an anxious time.

They resisted talking about Felt.

They had, after all, protected their source’s name for more than three decades and vowed to keep the secret until Felt’s death or they were sufficiently assured of his desire to come forward.

“It was a very emotional day,” Woodward said.

I was thrilled — and nervous — to serve as the moderator for the Woodward-Bernstein appearance and it was an extraordinary experience. I also had the opportunity to listen to interviews the two men gave prior to their performance and watched them visit with East Bay high school journalism students. I’ve posted below a few short video clips of the interview and the student reception.

I try to keep up. Really, I do.

But I couldn’t quite fathom a press release I received with details about how I could use Twitter to hack into the upcoming presidential and vice presidential candidate debates.

In my mind, hacking equals the Big House.

But Current TV and Twitter have teamed up to allow folks to “tweet” real time — it’s all legal — during the debates with the comments appearing onscreen during a live webstream feed.

If you routinely yell at the television, this is for you. Be heard by someone other than your bored cat. See what others are saying about the debates literally as they unfold. The first debate is Friday night.

Click here for a demonstration on how “Hack the Debates” works and full instructions on how to participate either via your computer at Current.com its cable station, Current TV. (You’ll have to check and see if your cable or satellite television channel line-up includes the station.)

Per Wikipedia, Current TV is an independent media company founded by former Vice President Al Gore.

Read more for the full press release. Read the rest of this entry »

Two events are coming up that may interest readers, particularly our Jewish readers.

San Francisco Jewish Community Relations Council Presidential Forum

7 p.m., Oct. 6

Congregation Emanu-El, San Francisco

Featuring panelists:
Jeff Bleich: Democratic Representative and Past President, State Bar of California

Dan Schnur: Republican Representative and Director, Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC

Moderator: Michael Krasny, KQED Radio Host

For more information, email jtrubowitch@jcrc.org

East Bay Jewish Community Relations Council Presidential Forum

Oct. 12, 6:30 p.m.

Contra Costa JCC, Walnut Creek

Featuring panelists:

Larry Magid: Democratic Party, Obama Delegate

Larry Greenfield: California Director, Republican Jewish Coalition

Moderator: Dan Cohen, President of Full Court Press Communications

For more information, email myrna@jfed.org

Former California Gov. Gray Davis

Wow, how times flies after a recall.

Former Gov. Gray Davis has invited his former staffers and campaign workers to the10th Anniversary Davis Reunion.

Davis, California’s 37th governor, was elected Nov. 3, 1998, by nearly 20 percentage points to became the first Democratic elected governor in 16 years. But in 2003, Davis became the state’s first recalled governor in the wake of the electric utility deregulation meltdown and under the powerful campaign of actor-turned-politician Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The reunion is free at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Sacramento from 6-10 p.m. although reservations are required and sponsorships desired.

Read more for the full press release from Acosta-Salazar: Read the rest of this entry »

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom — and likely 2010 gubernatorial candidate — will be the keynote speaker at Saturday night’s 38th Annual Alameda County Democratic Unity dinner.

If you’re a Democrat and you have a spare $75, you can attend. Read more for the press release and ticket details. Read the rest of this entry »

I know, I know, it’s short notice but if you have a free evening tonight, come to the Commonwealth Club’s lecture series tonight at the Bentley School in Lafayette titled “The Psychology of Political Communication:Are We Buying What Spindoctors are selling?”

Panelists include SF State professor of political and legal communication Joe Tuman, California Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres, California Republican Party Vice Chairman Tom Del Beccaro and Kiron Skinner, a Hoover Institution research fellow and Stanford professor of history and political science.

I am the moderator.

Registration begins at 6 p.m., followed by the speakers at 6:30 p.m. at the Bently School, 1000 Upper Happy Valley Road in Lafayette. The cost is $15 for members, $30 for nonmembers and $7 for students.

Tuman and Skinner will also be selling and signing their books. Tuman authored “Political Communication in American Campaigns,” while Skinner is the co-author of “Strategy of Campaigning: Lessons from Ronald Reagan and Boris Yeltsin.”