Tricounty DFA Update: Link-Up Meeting Wednesday-- Dave Carter, GOTV and Voting Machine Video and More
Hello Everybody;

This has been an extraordinary few days with the release of Bob Woodward's new expose and the exploding House Page Scandal.

In this update:

1. Wednesday Meeting Reminder: Carter, GOTV Activities
2. Special Video Wednesday-- Bought and Sold: Electronic Voting In New York
3. Merrick Press Conference Friday
4. Governor Dean In NYT
5. Tabling And Canvassing Saturday
6. October 13th-- Last Day To Register To Vote
7. Gillibrand Fact Check
8. Tenet Warned Rice
9. Friday Film Fest


1. Wednesday Meeting Reminder: Carter, GOTV Activities

Greater Glens Falls Democracy For America will be holding its October meeting next Wednesday, October 4th at 7pm at the Rockhill Bakehouse Cafe in downtown Glens Falls.

Hudson Falls Mayor David Carter, who is running against incument Roy McDonald in the 112th Assembly District, will making an appearance to speak, answer questions and seek our support.

Second, We will be discussing what we can do in the next 41 days to help our candidates get elected: Canvassing, building the Neighborhood Network, phone banking, Get Out The Vote and more.

For more info, to RSVP or to get Google map directions go to DFA-Link at: http://www.dfalink.com/group.php?id=113


2. A Great New Video On Preventing Election Fraud On Wednesday

Third, we will be having the Glens Falls area premier of Robert Millman's new video, Bought and Sold: Electronic Voting in New York. Here is the description of this new expose of risky, fraud prone electronic voting machines:

"Do you trust political parties and government to protect your vote???? Do you know about the reliability of the voting machines being marketed in NYS? This 45-minute film produced in 2006 explores how the selection of new voting equipment required under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) has been skewed in favor of DREs (direct recording electronic voting machines), in spite of serious unanswered questions about the danger of vote tampering and verifiable voting."

As I noted before, I get more emails about voting technology and our ballots being secure than any other subject. From what I understand, the video is full of new revelations!

3. Merrick Press Conference Friday

State Senate Candidate Tim Merrick will be holding his final Press Conference unveiling his program and critiquing the record of incumbent Republican State Senator Betty Little on Friday, October 6th at Noon. The location is the new Democratic Headquarters in the Rogers Building on Bay and Maple Streets in downtown Glens Falls, across the street from the Crandall Library.

Tim's bid for the state senate was recently endorsed by Democracy For New York, our "parent" state-wide coalition. Earlier this summer he was also endorsed by our group and North Country DFA, our fellow group in Plattsburg.

We are strongly urging everyone to come to this last conference to show support for Tim and his platform of state government and property tax reform, among other issues. Again, Friday at Noon at Bay and Maple in downtown Glens Falls.

4. Governor Dean In NYT

There was a large and important article about Governor Dean, the Democratic National Committee and the "controversy" over the 50 State Program, which has massive backing from rank and file Democrats and the State Parties. There is still friction being generated by the inside the beltway kleptocrats who want a top-down party they can sell out to corporate interests. The piece, which is really quite favorable but fair to all parties, makes it clear Dean is on the right track: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/magazine/01dean.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

There's also a Kos posting on this article and also the competition over where the next Convention will be, and why that is happening. These are great reads: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/9/28/17232/0507

5. Tabling And Canvassing Saturday

We will again be tabling during the Farmer's Market on South Street in downtown Glens Falls this Saturday, October 7th from at least 9am (and probably 8am) until about 11am. Come out and show support for all our candidates and bring a friend. We also expect to be doing voter registration at the Market, so we do need helpers!

For more info and to RSVP go to: http://www.dfalink.com/event.php?id=11212

Afterwards we've been canvassing door to door in Glens Falls. Like last week, we will be organizing this week's canvass during Saturday's tabling. Come and check before 11am at the Farmer's Market -- We need as many people as we can get! Canvassing is easy-- just talking to neighbors, who after all, are people just like you.

6. October 13th-- Last Day To Register To Vote

The election is getting near, so a reminder is in order-- the LAST DAY to register to Vote is October 13th. If you haven't registered or know someone who has registered, you need to do so soon. To register to vote call the County Board of Elections in the county where you live. They will send you a mail-in form, or you can visit the office to do so in person.

7. Gillibrand Fact Check

Rep. John Sweeney has a new attack ad slashing at Kirsten Gillibrand. Her campaign has sent out the following fact sheet:

"The Facts on Gillibrand's Tenure with HUD:

"Gillibrand worked at HUD between May 2000 and January 2001 as Special Counsel to HUD Secretary, Andrew Cuomo. While at HUD, Kirsten worked on a piece of legislation called America's Private Investment Companies (APIC) developed to help distressed communities. President Clinton said APIC "will help revitalize communities so that they can take advantage of the strength of the economy and help those left behind in our economic boom." (Clinton remarks, 10/20/1999). She also worked on the enforcement of the Davis-Bacon Act. Yet, the Sweeney ad makes at least two patently false accusations about her public service at HUD. If legible, the "facts" the ad cites, would reveal these allegations have nothing to do with Gillibrand. The advertisement states that Gillibrand played a role in the Erie Canal Corridor Initiative; however, this initiative was started in 1997 and transferred to Governor Pataki's control in 2000. Kirsten was not at the agency during the creation of this initiative and she never worked on or managed the project. The advertisement also claims that Gillibrand was responsible for the mismanagement of funds at HUD in 1999. Kirsten was not part of the agency during this time period, nor did she have any ability to control funds within the agency. "

8. Tenet Warned Rice

I am pasting at the bottom a posting Drew send me about CIA Director Tenet, Condoleeza Rice and 9/11. The White House was warned about 9/11and they ignored the warning. Then they lied about it to the 9/11 Investigating Commission. This is more fallout from Bob Woodward's book and it is extraordinary in it's implications. Why, exactly, did they do nothing? There was more today by Dan Froomkin in the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html

The Foley scandal may be getting more headlines right now, and it could tip a congressional seat in Western New York our way (it's possible Democrats could win all four Western NY seats held by Republicans), but in the long run, this is a much bigger story.

9. Friday Film Fest

The Rockhill Bakehouse Progressive Film Fest continues this Friday at 8pm with:

Oct 6 LAAL SALAAM (Red Salute) (2001) Docudrama (based on true incidents)
Hindi (EST) Director - Gaganvihari Borate 130 min.
Peasant and indigenous peoples’ rebellion have a history of several centuries in South Asia. The 20th and 21st centuries are also witness to insurgencies challenging the rule of landlords as well as the State. Across the central part of India from Maharashtra in the West to Bengal/Orissa in the East a significant struggle, little reported outside India in the mainstream media has been evolving over the past 3 decades. This docudrama, based on actual events, is a theatrical account of the lives of 6 characters that are engaged in an effort to mobilize the population
towards an alternative just society. The film sensitively portrays the hopes, contradictions, betrayals and emotional attachments of the people.

And on October 13th and 20th comes the DFA-National endorsed Iraq For Sale.

Oct 13 IRAQ FOR SALE (2006) Robert Greenwald 75 min.
Acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed, and Uncovered) takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been changed forever as a result of profiteering in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private corporations making a killing in Iraq and the decision makers who allow them to do so.

RSVP at: http://www.dfalink.com/event.php?id=12132 to show your support.

Thanks Everyone! See you all Wednesday and don't miss the article below.

Larry Dudley

*****************

9/11 Commission not told of key meeting between Tenet and Rice pre-9/11, Tenet warned Rice we were about to be hit, Rice ignored him
by John in DC - 9/30/2006 12:55:00 PM


I noticed this buried in the Washington Post story last night about Woodward's book, and Editor & Publisher picked up on it too. Here is Editor & Publisher's excerpt of it. This is a big deal. It's the most important piece of evidence, other than the PDB, showing that the Bush White House ignored the signs that 9/11 was coming. How the hell did the 9/11 Commission miss this? This is long, read it:
Tenet called Condoleezza Rice, then national security adviser. "For months," Woodward writes, "Tenet had been pressing Rice to set a clear counterterrorism policy... that would give the CIA stronger authority to conduct covert action against bin Laden.... Tenet and Black hoped to convey the depth of their anxiety and get Rice to kick-start the government into immediate action.

"Tenet had been losing sleep over the recent intelligence. There was no conclusive, smoking-gun intelligence, but there was such a huge volume of data that an intelligence officer's instinct strongly suggested that something was coming....

"But Tenet had been having difficulty getting traction on an immediate bin Laden action plan, in part because Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld had questioned all the intelligence, asking: Could it all be a grand deception? "

Woodward describes the meeting, and the two officials' plea that the U.S. "needed to take action that moment -- covert, military, whatever -- to thwart bin Laden."

The result? "Tenet and Black felt they were not getting though to Rice. She was polite, but they felt the brush-off. President Bush had said he didn't want to swat at flies."

"Tenet left the meeting feeling frustrated. Though Rice had given them a fair hearing, no immediate action meant great risk. Black felt the decision to just keep planning was a sustained policy failure. Rice and the Bush team had been in hibernation too long....

"Afterward, Tenet looked back on the meeting with Rice as a lost opportunity to prevent or disrupt the attacks. Rice could have gotten through to Bush on the threat, Tenet thought, but she just didn't get it in time. He felt that he had done his job and been very direct about the threat, but that Rice had not moved quickly. He felt she was not organized and did not push people, as he tried to do at the CIA.

"Black later said, 'The only thing we didn't do was pull the trigger to the gun we were holding to her head.'"

At the close of this excerpt, a Post editor's note states:

"How much effort the Bush administration made in going after Osama bin Laden before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, became an issue last week after former president Bill Clinton accused President Bush's 'eocons' and other Republicans of ignoring bin Laden until the attacks. Rice responded in an interview that 'what we did in the eight months was at least as aggressive as what the Clinton administration did in the preceding years.'"
Then we learn the following:
"The July 10 meeting of Rice, Tenet and Black went unmentioned in various investigations into the Sept. 11 attacks, and Woodward wrote that Black 'felt there were things the commissions wanted to know about and things they didn't want to know about.'

"Jamie S. Gorelick, a member of the Sept. 11 commission, said she checked with commission staff members who told her investigators were never told about a July 10 meeting. 'We didn't know about the meeting itself,' she said. 'I can assure you it would have been in our report if we had known to ask about it.'

"White House and State Department officials yesterday confirmed that the July 10 meeting took place, although they took issue with Woodward's portrayal of its results."
Nice. Well, as I recall, DoD and FAA also apparently lied to the 9/11 Commission and that's a crime. So who at the White House "forgot" to mention this key meeting to the commission, and was that a crime as well?
- posted by Larry Dudley @ 11:43 PM