Earlier today, California’s Supreme Court ruled to uphold Proposition 8. Known as “Prop 8″ for short, this initiative eliminates the right of same sex couples to marry.

I got word of a protest happening just a few blocks from my place after work – so I went home, recharged, grabbed the gear and ran over to check it out. I uploaded photos and live-blogged via my Twitter feed – and finally, took some of the best clips for this video below. Be kind, this is a rough cut – but I wanted to get it up anyhow. Check it out.

Earlier that day just a few blocks down – at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the White House had this to say about California’s decision. Don’t blink or you’ll be sure to miss it.

Finally, don’t miss what celebrities had to say on Twitter – thanks to E!’s new celeb twitter feed.

As CBS’s 60 Minutes called it on Sunday, May 11th, drones are America’s new “air force.”

Funny they said that. A few weeks ago I had a conversation with Helen Thomas where she talked about the military’s use of drones. I was probing her on the defense budget – asking her how I can learn to study it well enough to know when something doesn’t add up. She told me she wasn’t an expert on budgets, but that she does know a little something about the sophistication of the weapons we are using.

After I came home to upload and watch the video, I got a little nervous. Was this kind of stuff classified? I had never heard any of it before. So I called her to make sure.

“No,” she told me, “this is all open information.”

Once again, the student had been schooled. How I love when that happens.

This video contains several references to Web sites and resources that I used to do research. All of the links can be found below. This video is available on YouTube, Yahoo! Video, Meta Cafe and Daily Motion. So get into it and pass it on.

Drones: America’s New Air Force, CBS News 60 Minutes, and CNET, May 10, 2009

Air Force to Build Up Its Drone Supply, Washington Post, March 19, 2005

Lobbying Spending Database, OpenSecrets.org

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.

I first met Adam Kokesh in July 2008. I was working on a piece about dissenting Iraq veterans  - and he quickly became a central part of my weekly visits to the Iraq Veterans Against the War group house. While there were many guys in the house, his intellectual edge and candid demeanor stood out on camera. As I went, once a week for a month, I interviewed him more.

After that MTV piece aired our paths kept crossing. We were both at the Republican National Convention, where he delivered a speech for the Campaign for Liberty. Later that week, he was all over CSPAN, MSNBC and CNN, as the spectator who interrupted Senator John McCain’s (R-AZ) speech with a sign that read: “McCain Votes Against Vets” and “Your Can’t Win an Occupation.”

Today Kokesh is back in his hometown of Santa Fe, New Mexico. On May 3^rd, 2009, the 27-year-old Marine announced he would explore a run in New Mexico’s 3^rd Congressional District. If he decides to do it, he will face freshman U.S. Representative Ben Ray Luján.

Here is an exclusive Q&A with the possible youth candidate – his thoughts on running, party politics and the use of new media tools in the halls of Congress.

EricaAmerica: On May 1^st, you created an exploratory committee to run in New Mexico’s 3^rd Congressional District. What brought you to this point and this decision? Obviously, your time in Iraq served as a major influence.

Adam Kokesh: The formation of the exploratory committee is just the formalization of a process that has really been going on for years. Since I was first politically active, people have been encouraging me to run for office, especially for Congress. This might just be the time and the place for me. When I got back from Iraq I realized that the issues we debate are more than just academic or intellectual issues, but when we are talking about government, the use of force, and war, the issues are in one way or another a matter of life and death. That’s what motivated me to get involved in the first place.

[Fallujah, Feb-Sep '04]

Read the rest of this entry…

The need for Watchdogs in Washington is more important than ever.

I recently had a conversation with a progressive news organization. They intrigued me by explaining how they are expanding their political coverage online. But employees, for the time, are to be based in New York City. Don’t get me wrong, I am currently wearing a tee with those exact letters strewn across it. But leave Washington at this moment in history? It would feel so wrong.

It is a natural concern for all of us, as newspapers collapse and resources constrict, that American journalism is about to suffer. In an article in The New Republic called “Goodbye to the Age of Newspapers (Hello to an Era or Corruption),” Paul Starr wrote:  

“One danger of reduced news coverage is to the integrity of government…” He went on, “…corruption is more likely to flourish when those in power have less reason to fear exposure.”

Does anyone else think it is ironic, and completely illogical – that at a moment when the news media is finding it financially impossible to do their job, the government has more power and influence than ever before? Read the rest of this entry…