California’s Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom is hosting a conference with drone companies and the politicians who want to give them tax breaks.
Civilian Applications of UAVs – A California Perspective, a Policy Symposium will be held March 26-28 at Hyatt Westlake Plaza in Thousand Oaks.
Assemblymen Jeff Gorell (R-Camarillo) and Steven Bradford (D-Gardena), the politicians who wrote a bill to give tax exemptions to drone makers, will be there. They have both received campaign contributions from major drone manufacturers.
US Government drone spending since FY2009 was $10.8B, with $5.7B spent in California. Why do the companies making billions from our tax dollars need tax breaks??
What’s more, Newsom has publicly announced his support for the hard-working Hyatt housekeepers, who have called for a GLOBAL BOYCOTT of Hyatt Hotels. So why would he host a conference for the multi-millionaires of the drone industry at a Hyatt Hotel?
#aiaaCAUAV to let the drone industry and their politician pals know what you think!
ACAD 
We may be partly responsible for Gavin Newsom not hosting the drone conference.
We gave a heads-up to our friends at UNITE HERE! and Hyatt Hurts that Newsom was about to break the global boycott of Hyatt Hotels.
Now Newsom and Bradford (D), one of the politicians who wrote a bill to give drone makers tax exemptions, are not attending the conference.
Cheers & solidarity!
Thank you for your article. I am the unknown, unfunded and pretty much, unwanted, Democratic candidate who ran against Jeff Gorell in 2012.
I ran because I was “concerned” that my own Democratic Party refused to do one thing to try and stop GOP Gorell in his bid for this seat.
Despite the fact that I had NO MONEY…not one sign, flyer, campaign staff…nothing….I got 47.1% of the vote.
I first learned of Newsom’s affiliation with Newsom back in July 2012 when he appeared with Gorell at a “conference” of his newly formed “GOLD TEAM” which he STILL promotes as “co-founded” by Gavin Newsom.
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I found it odd that my opponent Gorell called me a week before this event….and didn’t mention one word about how he was going to appear with Newsom of MY party at Amgen located in Newbury Park just 5 minutes from my home.
At that time Gorell said NOTHING about “drones”. The “drone” component of his (False) Gold was not made public until AFTER the election.
However I DID manage to get it into an interview with the LA Daily News back in October 2012.
http://www.dailynews.com/elections/ci_21832761/jeff-gorell-eileen-macenery-offer-dueling-visions
Gorell is quoted as saying:
Gorell noted that he worked with Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom to create the “Gold Team,” a coalition of public- and private-sector partners working to attract new business to California. He’s especially interested in luring manufacturers of drones, the unmanned aerial vehicles used for military, law enforcement, firefighting and surveillance operations.
In Newsom’s defense, I will say that I have NEVER seen any quotes or acknowledgment of his association with Gorell since back in July….when Gorell was NOT revealing the fact that his entire focus was on “drones”.
And, I suspect that after a number of his fellow Democrats contacted him expressing their “concerns” that Newsom was already looking for a way “out” of his association with Gorell.
However, Gorell to this day persists in pointing out the Newsom affiliation over a year ago.
Again, I can’t speak for Newsom but I suspect he was more than happy to drop out of the conference because of the union boycott conflict. You will also note that Christina Garcia, another Freshman Assemblymember also did NOT attend. However, I believe that she dropped out long before the actual March event because she realized what Gorell was up to.
Although I have not officially announced my intention to run again in 2014, I AM being very proactive in exposing Gorell and his true agenda….recently he was in Washington DC working as an unofficial LOBBYIST for the military defense industry and I am told he was one of the key players in influencing the so-called “reformers” of the Immigration Bill to put in over $30 BILLION in “border security” which includes…surprise, surprise….billions for DRONES!!!
This week, on Wednesday, July 10, I will be making my first public statements regarding drones and Jeff Gorell since the November election. The Democratic Club of the Conejo Valley of which I am the Vice-President is hosting a conference on DRONES….and I will be talking about this issue and Gorell’s lobbying efforts, especially in sabotaging the Immigration Bill. (Go to the Democratic Club of Conejo Valley site for more information)
I have not yet had a discussion with either Stephen Bradford or Gavin Newsom regarding their future intentions to either associate or disassociate with Gorell on the troubling aspects of the Drone Issue. However, this “troubling” situation is definitely on my radar.
It is no secret that Gorell’s attempts to persuade local and state members of the Dem Party heirarchy that he is a “moderate” and will work with them on many issues, has been highly successful. Increasingly, there are efforts to “silence” me and to “dissuade” me from pursuing a 2014 run against Gorell by member of my own Democratic Party and even the DCCV membership.
Gorell’s statement in October 2012 that “…..”We’re trying to get a hold of that (drone) industry and return California to its glory days of aerospace,” said Gorell, who will turn 42 on Election Day.is not only unrealistic, it is, in my opinion, just the next version of lies of the military industrial congressional complex which was framed in the last decade as the search for WMD’s in Iraq.
Please contact me for future updates at EileenMacEnery@gmail.com I anticipate that, after Wednesday’s forum, there will be a growth in interest and efforts in Ventura County to expose Gorell’s TRUE agenda and to confront Gavin Newsom and other Democrats about their unfortunate “affiliation” with this representative of the military defense industry who has used his political office to promote the militarization of America.
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