Tricounty DFA Update: Jim Dean Fundraiser For Keehn!
Hello Everyone;

In this update:

1. DFA Chair Jim Dean In Saratoga Springs For Fundraiser For Keehn
2. Michael Moore's Sicko at Amies
3. YouTube Revolution
4. Ballston Dems Picnic
5. Friday Night Film Fest


1. DFA Chair Jim Dean In Saratoga Springs For Fundraiser For Keehn

There is major news out from the Mayor's race in Saratoga Springs!

Democracy For American Chair Jim Dean is going to be doing a major fundraiser for the reelection of Val Keehn as Mayor of Saratoga Springs. Keehn was formally endorsed by Democracy For Saratoga Springs earlier this year.

This news comes on top of the recent endorsement of Keehn by the Working Families Party.

The Jim Dean event will be on Tuesday, August 14th from 5:30-7:30pm at the Inn At Saratoga, which is located on South Broadway. Since becoming DFA chair, Jim Dean has become one of the most popular progressive speakers, often appearing on Air America radio.

This event is open to the public and everyone in DFA and all interested Democrats, liberals and progressives are invited to this event. Suggested contribution for entrance will be $50.

This event will be one of the highlights of this year's political season. Dean will discuss the current state of politics and answer questions from attendees.

A resident of Fairfield Connecticut, Jim Dean has raised money, given speeches, and organized for DFA in his home state of Connecticut. He was a fund raiser for his brother's previous political campaigns, and worked full-time on Howard Dean's first race, in 1986 for Lieutenant Governor of Vermont. Prior to his recent career in political activism, Dean worked in marketing, business development, and sales at the Yankelovich Partners and Greenfield Online.

There is a strong possibility of other major guest speakers, and we will let you all know when details become available.

So, mark it on your calenday: Jim Dean, August 14th (it's dark day at the track!) 5:30pm to 7: 30.

2. Michael Moore's Sicko at Amies

Michael Moore's lastest movie, SIcko, has arrived at Amies Dinner And A Movie in downtown Glens Falls. Hurry to see it while you can.

Many of us have been fans of Moore's previous work, like Bowling For Columbine, or Fahrenheit 9/11. I saw Sicko with Dick and Pat and it blows the others away. It is not a screed, and not even about healthcare, per se, but, rather, uses the healthcare crisis as a means to examine what has gone wrong with America. As Sicko spells out towards the end, if you want to keep people down, to keep them oppressed, you want to keep them fearful and hopeless, so that they dare not rise up in rebellion. Sicko, in that sense, answers the question so often asked: why isn't there a revolution in America, given how things have gone so wrong? Fear and hopelessness. It is moving, powerful and profound, something every American with a conscience should see at least once.

The question of what constitutes revolutionary activity in the modern age is particularly underscored by the appearance of the daughter of one of the greatest Latin Americans of the 20th century, the legendary Che Guevara. Aleida Guevara is a physician in Cuba, where Moore took rescue workers who were victims of toxic pollution on 9/11 for successful treatment.

On the subject of healtcare, Moveon has an online petition on child healthcare: "We need to fix our broken health care system and ensure quality, affordable health care for every man, woman, and child in America. Let's start with our children. There are 9 million uninsured children in America."
http://pol.moveon.org/kidshealth/?r_by=10849-643825-lOopRR&rc=comment_paste

3. YouTube Revolution

There's a general consensus on the YouTube/CNN debate of Democratic Presidential candidates this week. Instead of a panel of the usual beltway gasbags asking the usual banal boilerplate questions, average Americans posed their own questions via YouTube. It was a brilliant success. The questions were insightful, penetrating, well informed, wide ranging and often very funny.

YouTube has also been shaking things up here locally, and it is really something to watch. Saratoga Springs DFA member Roger Wyatt has been attending City Council meetings and putting extracts on YouTube, garnering thousands of viewers. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mctygue&search=

Wyatt has now put up videos of Valerie Keehn on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhkSwyFtQf0

It used to be only the biggest cities had their own TV stations. Now, with YouTube, every community, literally, every community, can have its own TV station. The revolutionary potential of this is all too obvious.


4. Ballston Dems Picnic

You are cordially invited to the Third Annual Ballston Democratic Chicken-BBQ on Saturday, July 28th from 1-4pm. The location is the Lakeside Farm Cider Mill on Round Lake Road in the town of Ballston Lake. Tickets are $35, Sponsors $50. There is a children's menu for $10. Make checks payable to the Ballston Democratic Committee. Funds raised will support local candidates. For more information or to RSVP please contact Pat Southworth by July 18th at 518-281-4718 or go to http://www.ballstondems.org

5. Friday Night Film Fest


The Rockhill Bakehouse Cafe's Friday Night Progressive Film Festival continues at 7:30 with:


July 20 BALSEROS (2003) Josep M. Domenech 120 min.
This epic documentary examines the lives of seven Cubans who came to live in the United States after being rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard as they attempted to paddle across the ocean from Havana to Miami on ramshackle homemade rafts. Over 50,000 Cubans attempted this feat, trying to immigrate to the United States in 1994 seeking a better life outside of Fidel Castro's communist regime. However, when it became apparent that the boats were causing more drownings and deaths than successful passages, the U.S. intervened. Those who were caught leaving Havana on homemade boats were picked up and transplanted to a refugee camp at Guantanamo Bay where they served a nine-month probation. They were allowed to sen

- FUTURE FILMS -

July 27 HIGH SCHOOL BOOT CAMP (2000) Chuck Braverman 90 min.
Director Chuck Braverman certainly got his hands dirty with this attempt to document the activities at a High School Boot Camp. Choosing the Eagle Academy in Belle Grade, Florida as his muse, Braverman follows a group of youths as they attempt to rescue their troubled lives from toppling further into a crime-strewn abyss. But to survive the rigors of the boot camp these kids will discover they have to leave their ego's at the door--a task some of them find hard to accomplish. As the tough regime kicks into action, it becomes clear exactly how harsh the training is, with Marine-style maneuvers introduced in an attempt to instill some discipline in the youthfu

Thanks Everyone!

Larry Dudley
- posted by Larry Dudley @ 8:42 AM