The following is from Eileen Lewis of Young Democrats of Monterey County:

Greetings! We are the Young Democrats of Monterey County.

Without a doubt, one of our primary goals is to have a strong presence on the Peninsula well before November. We will soon establish ourselves at our colleges and high schools. Our strategy is to organize and have the entire County covered so that no area is left untouched.

We're going to be hitting up the malls, farmers markets, movie theaters, coffee shops, music events and sporting events. Wherever young people congregate, we will be there.

We're also going to be utilizing a lot of New Media such as texting and networking sites, as well as traditional methods of outreach along the lines of voter registration drives, fund raisers, precinct walking and phone banking, amongst other activities that will help us spark interest and get young people to the polls.

Alongside educating young voters about state and national politics, we will also be informing them about issues specific to Monterey County. It will become our duty to educate them on matters important to our age group and explain why their vote matters. Even though our focus is local, our involvement will also go beyond Monterey County. We will be calling swing states and undecided voters. We need to remind our friends and constituents locally and nationally why they should vote Democratic.

This is going to be a learning process, but we are by no means alone in our endeavor to get Democrats elected to office. We have the unwavering support of the local clubs, the Central Committee and the Young Democrats of California.

This is a pivotal time in American politics and we're about to take part in an historical election. By taking action and being involved, we will become agents of change for the betterment of our country. I feel this is going to be a great year for Democrats, but we must not lay complacent. Change begins from the bottom up. And that's where we come in.

If you would like to join our movement, sign-up on our Facebook page or send an email to youngdemsmc@gmail.com.

The California state budget is over a month late - but Democrats, led by our own Assemblymember John Laird, have been trying to craft a solution. Laird and Speaker Karen Bass proposed a fair budget that raises taxes on the wealthy and on corporations in order to limit damaging budget cuts.

But Republicans have not been willing to even consider it. Nor have they come up with any plan of their own - Republicans haven't offered a list of what they would cut, and have not proposed any plan to deal with the deficit.

This led Laird to call out the Republicans on the floor of the Assembly yesterday, saying "the voters have been taken hostage but we can't get a ransom note." It's a brilliant speech. The video is below:

The audio is here and a transcript is here.

You might be surprised to learn that 48 percent of Marina voters are Democrats, and only 26 percent are Republicans. Now, thanks to the work of a group of local activists, Marina now has its own Democratic club, and boy, are they off to a bang: they met, they organized, and they're already making a difference! Check out the story in the Monterey County Weekly:

Marina Democrats are organizing for council, water board seats
By Zachary Stahl

The nascent Marina Democratic Club hopes to seed the City Council and Marina Coast Water District board with progressive-minded party members. The group, which had its first meeting July 2, is busy developing a ticket of registered Marina Democrats for the Nov. 4 election.

Read more at the Weekly's website.

The declaration of independence was signed in 1776. The constitution was signed in 1787. Once free from some 150 years of foreign rule it took less than 11 years for our founding fathers to realize that independence brought with it a whole new set of problems. Thirteen squabbling colonies a vital nation did not make.

The fragile unity of the colonies held together by their mutual hatred and fear of the British before the revolution was rapidly coming apart after their defeat of the common enemy. Something had to be done. What was desperately needed was a new, powerful common purpose - a statement of goals for the nation sufficient in majesty to command the universal loyalty of all the colonies.

In one brilliant sentence they said it all on September 17, 1787.

"We, the people of the United States, in order to:

1) Form a more perfect union
2) Establish justice
3) Insure domestic tranquillity
4) Provide for the common defense
5) Promote the general welfare, and
6) Secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity
do ordain and establish this constitution of the United States of America.

These profound words, the preamble, lay out the very reasons why we have a federal government in the first place. The six objectives clearly delineate both the responsibility and authority of this unifying Federal government over all the separate colonies. No colony can oppose, ignore, disobey or relinquish subservience to these six mandates.

A classic conservative political ploy is to charge that our Federal government is too big, too powerful and too intrusive in our lives. This plays very well politically because the human condition is such that we all need someone to blame for both real and imagined injustices in our lives. Why not blame "the government" - it doesn't fight back.

It is also a very attractive conservative strategy because they never have to do anything about it except complain. They have discovered that if they just rant and rave against the size and cost of the Federal Government they gain significant political points without ever having to come up with any serious and meaningful solutions. They have done this successfully since Ronald Reagan's first presidential campaign.

If you are really interested in seeing how serious they are, consider the following.
Let's look at the size of the executive branch of our government. After ten consecutive years of Republican control in 1990, the executive branch had over 300,000 more civilian employees than when President Carter left office in 1980! How hypocritical!

Not only are the conservatives a bunch of hypocrites they are also dead wrong about our government. There is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that our government is too large, too powerful or too intrusive.

For residents in Big Sur, this is a trying time. Fire fighters are trying their best to save structures and have excelled at saving lives. Nevertheless, nature is calling the shots right now. Big Sur residents are used to helping each other. All the same, they can use extra help sometimes.

Here is the best website for very current info about the fires and their progress:

http://xasauantoday.wordpress.com/ (then click on Fire News)

This is the community's website organizing help and volunteers, matching them with people needing the same:

http://www.surfire2008.org/

How you can help:

It's becoming apparent that one thing we can do from here is to deliver flattened cardboard boxes of sizes suitable for packing household items. Residents are especially looking for used boxes from movers, but also strong, clean, flattened cardboard boxes of any size will be useful. They can be dropped off at Carmel Middle School at the Red Cross Center there and will be delivered south from there.

John Laird has issued a statement on the fires:

"Governor Schwarzenegger’s visit to Big Sur today is a significant indicator of the impact the Basin Complex fire is having on the people of the Central Coast and California. The people and businesses of the Big Sur community have shown courage, resourcefulness and generosity as this difficult fire has unfolded.