Every week or so at the Conejo Valley Democrat we have a new quote of the day related to the political issues that affect the Conejo Valley. These are generally taken from the news, from speeches given at local events, and from first-person interviews. It is my hope that these quotes will help you better understand our political landscape and most of all, encourage you to get involved. Below you will find our quote of the day archive.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
“My thing was to keep the peace. It was never my intent to bring on a huge primary in which Democrat divide themselves….I’ve always been considered a team player….I wish Hannah-Beth only the best in her race.”
–Jim Dantona, quoted by Timm Herdt in “Democrat Dantona Drops Run for Senate,” Ventura County Star, January 8, 2008.
Friday, November 2, 2007
“Climate change will affect the basic elements of life for people around the world – access to water, food production, health, and the environment. Hundreds of millions of people could suffer hunger, water shortages and coastal flooding as the world warms.”
–The Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change, report by Sir Nicholas Stern, Head of the Government Economic Service, Her Majesty’s Treasury, October 30, 2006
Thursday, November 1, 2007
“The scientific evidence is now overwhelming: climate change is a serious global
threat, and it demands an urgent global response.”
–The Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change, report by Sir Nicholas Stern, Head of the Government Economic Service, Her Majesty’s Treasury, October 30, 2006
Monday, October 29, 2007
“The world does not need to choose between averting climate change and promoting growth and development. Changes in energy technologies and in the structure of economies have created opportunities to decouple growth from greenhouse gas emissions. Indeed, ignoring climate change will eventually damage economic growth.”
–The Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change, report by Sir Nicholas Stern, Head of the Government Economic Service, Her Majesty’s Treasury, October 30, 2006
Friday, October 26, 2007
“I’m not focusing on anybody except Tony Strickland and winning this race. In the end, it’s going to be Jim Dantona versus Tony Strickland, and when that’s all over, it’s going to be Jim Dantona, state senator. Tony Strickland will not even be around.”
–Jim Dantona, Democratic candidate for Calfornia State Senate District 19, interview in Simi Valley, California, October 18, 2007.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
“Under Tom McClintock, not one bill passed that was meaningful in this district while he was state senator. And under Tony Strickland, you’re going to see less than you saw under Tom McClintock. And I’m going to defeat Tony Strickland.”
–Jim Dantona, Democratic candidate for Calfornia State Senate District 19, speech in Simi Valley, California, October 18, 2007.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
“We can finally break the hold of the McClintock-Strickland machine that they’ve had for so many years. The difference in this district [California 19th Senate District], which used to be 9% more Reps than Dems, has now turned out to be 3%.”
–Jim Dantona, Democratic candidate for Calfornia State Senate District 19, speech in Simi Valley, California, October 18, 2007.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
“This isn’t about Jim Dantona winning, it’s about all of us…This is not a race about whether I’m liberal or conservative. It’s a person who’s worked in the community, who’s given a lot of himself.”
–Jim Dantona, Democratic candidate for Calfornia State Senate District 19, speech in Simi Valley, California, October 18, 2007.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
“You know [Jim Dantona] he’s a person of his word, you know he’s a person who’s going to take care of you if anything goes wrong, you know he’s a person of vision, he cares about education and housing and better health care and he’s done it day in and day out, and he’s a fighter.”
–Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, speech in Simi Valley, California, October 18, 2007.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
“Well, we’ve got a horse race ! Democrats aren’t afraid of a little competition [for the California District 19 State Senate seat]….I’m looking forward to a spirited competition and wish both candidates well. As an elected member and local leader in the Dem party, I look forward to supporting the winner of the primary in their quest to defeat Strickland.”
–Laura Winchester, response to “Blood in the Water,” by Brian Dennert, Brian Dennert Here (blog), October 16, 2007
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
“The problem is, our voters [Republicans] are staying home and the Democrats are going to the polls.”
–California State Senator Tom McClintock, Speech to the California Republican Party Convention, published Sept. 9, 2007 at www.carepublic.com/
Friday, October 12, 2007
“Because of [layoffs at] Amgen and Countrywide, we’ve significantly downgraded our [economic growth] forecast for Ventura County.”
–Bill Watkins, Executive Director, UC Santa Barbara Economic Forecast Project, as quoted in “Slight Economic Growth Forecast,” by Allison Bruce, Ventura County Star, October 11, 2007
Thursday, October 11, 2007
“As the trend toward absentee voting has steadily increased, it has changed the election scene for candidates, voters and the groups that traditionally endorse candidates. Election Day, to a large degree, is now Election Month.”
–“Editorial: Ready, Set: Time to Vote,” Ventura County Star, October 4, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
“In our year of existence, we have seen an amazing change in youth involvement in this community, across the spectrum of political parties. We have met Greens in their 20s that want to mend ways with the Democrats and work together towards building a progressive message for our community. We have met young Republicans that are not only civilized, but out-right welcoming, and we have sat together and discussed issues as friends. But most of all, we have met Young Democrats who want to be involved, who crave to be active and who have been quietly looking for a place to suit their desire to make social change.”
–Heather Schmidt, Outgoing President, Young Progressive Democrats of Ventura County
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
“Our mission has never been JUST to get Democrats elected, but rather to cultivate progressive leaders in this community that will not only be one-day elected but build a permanent progressive infrastructure in our community that will last.”
–Heather Schmidt, Outgoing President, Young Progressive Democrats of Ventura County
Monday, October 8, 2007
“To emphasize the heroism of Columbus and his successors as navigators and adventurers, and to deemphasize their genocide, is not just a technical necessity but an ideological choice. It serves—unwittingly—to justify what was done.”
–Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, New York: HarperCollins, 2005, p. 9.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
“In the province of Cicao on Haiti, where he [Christopher Columbus] and his men imagined huge gold fields to exist, they ordered all persons fourteen years or older to collect a certain quantity of gold every three months. When they brought it, they were given copper tokens to hang around their necks. Indians found without copper tokens had their hands cut off and bled to death. ”
–Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, New York: HarperCollins, 2005, p. 4.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
“Those who would give up ESSENTIAL LIBERTY to purchase a little TEMPORARY SAFETY, deserve neither LIBERTY nor SAFETY. ”
–Unknown, usually attributed to Benjamin Franklin, An Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania, 1759, as quoted in futureofthebook.com.
Friday, October 5, 2007
“Don’t agonize, organize. ”
–Florence Kennedy, founder of the National Organization for Women
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
“Pelosi also predicted that Governor Schwarzenegger will run against Senator Boxer in 2010. It is not too early to start working with your precinct captain to mobilize for this campaign. Past successes in defeating the popular governor’s initiatives came from grassroots workers who defined and educated voters on the issues involved.”
–Sandy Emberland, from “Pelosi Outlines Boot Camp Strategy for Success,” as posted on http://vc.yourhub.com/ConejoValley/Stories/News/About-Town/Story~370734.aspx
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
“The current situation [immigration] can also be seen as a civil rights problem. The millions of people living here who crossed illegally are for most intents and purposes Americans. They work here. They pay taxes here. Their kids are in school here. They plan to raise their families here. For the most part, they are assimilated into the American system, but are forced to live underground and in the shadows because of their legal status. They are denied ordinary civil rights. ”
–George Lakoff, from “The Framing of Immigration,” as posted on www.myspace.com/economicrefugee, see the original text at www.rockridgeinstitute.org/research/rockridge/immigration
Sunday, September 30, 2007
“We as Democrats need to stop fighting over which candidate we support and start working together to do things like voter registration and voter engagement — until the numbers of registration and voter turn-out of the 24th Congressional district change, the representative won’t change. This is why YPD [Young Progressive Democrats of Ventura County] has done ongoing voter registration and voter engagement, because this is key to winning this [the 2008] election.”
–Heather Schmidt, President, Young Progressive Democrats of Ventura County
Saturday, September 29, 2007
“YPD [Young Progressive Democrats of Ventura County] was formed as a reaction to the latest dangers and harmful impacts of neo-conservatism at large on the local and national arenas. We wanted to do our part to start working on reversing the overall authoritarian conservative tilt that our country and our communities were sliding into. We also wanted to inject new life and energy into the Democratic Party by asserting our progressive values. By the same token, we wanted to serve as the conduit through which new progressive leadership could be fostered.”
–Refugio “Reg” Mata, Community Outreach/Communications Chair, Young Progressive Democrats of Ventura County
Friday, September 28, 2007
“As far as the issue of immigration and harboring people is concerned, our number one priority should be keeping families together and helping people that genuinely want to live and work in the United States do so, and help them do so legally. What is extremely concerning is that not only does the Bush Administration complain that there are too many “illegals” in the United States, they also take measures to make it even more difficult, for instance drastically raising the cost of residency and citizenship in the US as of August 2007.”
–Heather Schmidt, President, Young Progressive Democrats of Ventura County
Thursday, September 27, 2007
“The internet is an incredibly powerful and important tool in the political world today.”
–Former California Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson, e-mail correspondence, September 25, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
“Blind respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”
–Albert Einstein, quoted in Walter Isaacson’s biography, Einstein: His Life and Universe
Monday, September 24, 2007
“President Bush every year in his State of the Union Address…says, ‘We’re going to develop hydrogen.’ Meanwhile, we don’t have to do anything [about global warming]. Well, government can fund the development of new technology, but government too often funds what constituency groups want. So we put a lot of money into ethanol. Ethanol is not giving us an environmental benefit. It’s a windfall for the corn growers of this country. It’s even raising the price of food. It’s causing the overuse of water. It is not our solution, yet we put in millions of taxpayers’ dollars to fund ethanol.”
–Congressman Henry Waxman, speech to the Democratic Club of the Conejo Valley, September 16, 2007
Sunday, September 23, 2007
“And George Tenet told us he called people in the administration directly: ‘Don’t use this information, it’s a hoax.’ What did the president do in the State of the Union Address? He didn’t say, ‘We know that Saddam Hussein is trying to get uranium from Africa,’ he said, ‘We have learned from British intelligence that Saddam Hussein is trying to get uranium for a nuclear bomb.’ Why did he say British intelligence? For the simple reason, he wanted to be technically accurate, but still deceive people with false information. We think they have to be held accountable for that.”
–Congressman Henry Waxman, speech to the Democratic Club of the Conejo Valley, September 16, 2007
Saturday, September 22, 2007
“We will not abandon our principles nor will we turn our backs on Liliana and others like her who have a right to have their individual case reviewed without threat of immediate deportation.”
–Rev. June Goudey, United Church of Christ, Simi Valley, press conference, Ventura County Star, September 21, 2007.
Friday, September 21, 2007
“Now many Republicans have misgivings about this war, but for no other reason they’re frightened, I should say scared to death, to run in the next election as backing President Bush and his war, yet they’re more fearful of the Republicans in the primary beating them, than they are of anything else, so we have very few Republicans willing to stand up and be counted.”
–Congressman Henry Waxman, speech to the Democratic Club of the Conejo Valley,
September 16, 2007
