Hi, I'm Mitch Clogg. Thanks for dropping by. Come with me. Venga conmigo. Everybody. Because if you don't, your congressman will be Mike Thompson forever and ever.

He's "safe." He has a zillion dollars, name recognition, mucho funding from his grateful sponsors and the gratitude of Republicans and conservative Democrats alike for his help in finding agreement among all the members of congress that result in MORE MONEY FOR THEM AND THEIR CONSERVATIVE CAUSES. Is that a bad thing? Politics is all about money, right?

Battery Point Lighthouse, one of eight beacons on California's wild North Coast in the First District, the longest stretch of undeveloped coastline in the lower 48 states High Spring in Crescent City

         Let me tell you a little story.

    Last summer, just before congress took its summer vacation, they did a thing that shocked us even though we were already deeply disappointed with how the Democratic Party was not doing all the things they said they would do under Nancy Pelosi, with their amazing new majority, in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Just before they went off to their posh vacation hideaways, they passed a law to extend and increase President Bush's illegal and unconstitutional domestic spying--on you and me, tapping our phones and peering into our computers and reading our mail.

   Then they all beat it out of town. See ya after Labor Day, suckers.

   Who made that happen? The Democratic Party, my once-beloved party, has discredited itself for years, now, but this was too much even for the sold-out politicians. After all, Jack Abramoff was tucked away in jail. Who had the power to pull that off?

Check it out: IT WAS MR. GREENJEANS, OUR GALLANT FIRST-DISTRICT CONGRESSMAN, REPRESENTATIVE MIKE THOMPSON.

    Mike is a guiding light, the treasurer of the Blue Dog Coalition in congress. The Blue Dogs are 47 men and women who are way more conservative than real Democrats, but they come from places where most voters are Democrats, just like this district, this gorgeous slice of Northern California, so they are hypocrite Democrats so they can be in congress. If they were Republicans, they couldn't get elected, so they are Blue Dog Democrats, and Mike joined with them the moment he set foot in Washington, and he's had a free ride ever since.

     The Republicans wanted to give the president, our fabulous Mr. Bush, this gift of renewed funding and wider permission for illegal surveillance, but they didn't have the votes. No problem. Mike rounded up the Blue Dogs, got 35 of these "Democrats" to vote for spying on the home folks, and the deed was done.

     But there's a kicker to this story. Mike represents a district--you and me--which is VERY liberal and pretty doggone alert. To keep his job, he almost always votes in ways that we demand, while he takes care of his sly business in low-profile ways. After he had all his coalition members lined up, enough votes to guarantee continued unlawful domestic surveillance, HE RIGHTEOUSLY AND PROUDLY VOTED AGAINST IT!

    That's our congressman, folks, and he's in that chair for the long haul, unless you COME WITH ME, because this sad and shaky republic is still a democracy, and the money and favors he's squirreled away won't help him if his district THROWS HIM OUT.

    Notice I said "his district." You spell that "US." By myself, I'm nothing. If you COME WITH ME, vote for me, yell for me, tell people about me, work for me, take part with me, stand with me, I CAN DO ANYTHING! And what I want to do is make the California First Congressional District first in every way you can possibly imagine, including high-speed, broadband, 21st-Century communication between you--every single person in this District--and me--your representative in Congress!