Tricounty DFA Update: Protest Sweeney, Gore, Fundraisers, Vigils, Films and more
Hello Everyone:

In this update:

1. DFA Petition
2. Sweeney Protest For Saturday
3. Vigil To Bring Our Troops Home
4. Film At Rockhill Cafe
5 Gillibrand Fundraiser
6. Gore On SNL And More On Gore
7. Clinton, Rupert Murdoch & Paul Begala

1. DFA Petition

We've probably all heard about the NSA collecting all the phone numbers we call. How is this information being used? Is there a potential for it being used as a political "enemies list?" Given this White House crowd, what do you think? DFA's Tom Hughes has asked us to sign a petition to Congress. Please do so if have haven't already.
http://tools.democracyforamerica.com/petition/nsa/

2. Sweeney Protest For Saturday

Senator John McCain will be the guest of honor for a fundraising luncheon for John Sweeney at the Saratoga Springs Civil Center this Saturday, May 20.

Joe Seeman is organizing a protest outside the civic center. This looks to be an excellent chance to raise awareness, in the right way, about what John Sweeney is really like. Joe sends this along:

"Let's Protest Sweeney and the corrupt Republican agenda of Rove, Delay, Cheney, Bush & Abramoff. Unlike Sweeney, who led a violent gang of thugs in Miami in 2000 with the order to shut down the vote recounting, we will be nonviolent."

"Feel free to bring your own signs about corruption and any aspect of the Republican agenda. Bring mops & brooms to hold with the signs, to symbolize a call for cleaning up corruption, & clean elections campaign finance reform. We'll have plenty of extra signs, mops & brooms."

"There may be creative street theater activities, such as Billionaires for Bush (or Swillionaires for Sweeney), or holding an 'auction' selling favors to cronies."

Time: 11:3-am --into afternoon. The organizers are urging everyone to dress up, not down, with jackets and ties for men, to confound the the Republicans and project a sense of how mainstream the opposition to Sweeney is.

3. Vigil To Bring Our Troops Home

There will be another vigil to bring our troops home and for peace this Saturday at 11am at the Five Corners in downtown Glens Falls. Can you spare just one hour a week for peace? Come and bring a friend. For more info or to RSVP go to: http://www.dfalink.com/event.php?id=8460

4. Film At Rockhill Cafe

The Frirday Progressive Film Fest is on again at the Rockhill Bakehouse Cafe in downtown Glens Falls. This Friday at 7pm the Cafe is showing: The Weather Underground is a feature-length documentary that explores the rise and fall of this radical movement, as former members speak candidly about the idealistic passion that drove them to "bring the war home" and the trajectory that placed them on the FBI's most wanted list. (www.weatherunderground.com)
Running time: Running time: 92 Minutes

5 Gillibrand Fundraiser

There will be a fundraiser for Kirsten Gillibrand this weekend in Albany.
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Rep. Rahm Emanuel will be appearing at a reception for Democratic Congressional Candidate Kirsten Gillibrand on Sunday, May 21 from 5:30-7:00pm at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, on the corner of State and Lodge Streets in downtown Albany, New York

Suggested contributions (not required, evidentally) $100 (Sponsor) $250 (Patron) $1000 (Benefactor)

6. Gore On SNL And More On Gore

Those lucky enough to have tuned in saw President-Elected Al Gore On Saturday Night Live, and it was a bitter sweet but hilarious moment. If you missed it, you missed a lot! See it at: http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2727144?pg=latest&htv=12

Gore spoke in Boston last week-- this transcript is equally great. Gore has a new movie coming out on the Global Warming crisis, but there is a Democracy Crisis as well, he says:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/5/15/81019/6023

7. Clinton, Rupert Murdoch & Paul Begala

People were shocked last week to learn that FoxNews mogul Rupert Murdoch will be doing a fundraisers for Senator Hillary Clinton. As author Robert Kuttner notes, "Politics may make strange bedfellows, but for sheer cynicism and mutual expediency it's hard to beat this alliance. " For more on this:
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0514-30.htm

Of course, former Clinton campaign staffer Paul Begala also seems to have totally lost his bearings with a recent, vicious attack on Governor Dean and the 50-state strategy. He clearly thinks he and the Ragin' Cajun put Bill Clinton in the White House when it was really Ross Perot... This is what gets a lot of Democrats with experience over the years about the Clintons: Bill Clinton never won a majority of the popular vote.

Zack Exley reprinted Begala's slur along with a body check on how elections will be won in the future, not by top-down media campaigns run by a self-dealing kleptocracy of consultants, but by empowering the grassroots, building the party from the bottom up.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zack-exley/shame-on-you-paul-begala_b_21116.html

Drew sends this other shocker along: a software "bakdoor" has been found in Diebold touchscreen voting machines. Which raises the question again, who's really been winning our elections?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/125700&printer=1;_ylt=A9G_RwfZO2pExDgB1g4RSLMF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

Thanks everyone!

Larry
- posted by Larry Dudley @ 9:56 AM