Tricounty DFA Update: Rescheduling "Uncounted" & more
Hello Everyone!

In this update:

1. Uncounted Film Rescheduled For Next Meeting
2. Obama Now Eleven Straight
3. Clinton Campaign In Disarray?
4. A New Must Read: Age Of American Unreason
5. Friday Night Progressive Film Fest


1. Uncounted Film Rescheduled For Next Meeting

As you all know, we were forced to cancel the special showing of the new film Uncounted last week due to the unexpectedly bad weather. Our apologies and regrets to all!

Since we aren't far from our next meeting on March 5th, and since Uncounted is only 80 minutes long, the best option seems to be to show it then. Again, I am sorry for any inconvenience. There'll be more info on the showing in my next update.

Uncounted is about election fraud, so we will also have an update on what is going on with NY's selection of new voting machines.


2. Obama Now Eleven Straight

News came today that Sen. Obama won the Democrats Abroad caucuses. Seven million American citizens live overseas, and this is the first time they have had a chance to participate in picking the Democratic Party's candidate-- another reform of the Howard Dean at the DNC era-- in effect, a 50 State Plus One strategy. The party held caucuses in major cities around the world.

Obama has now won 11 straight primaries and caucuses, leads in states won, congressional districts won, delegates won and leads the popular vote by over a million.

If you haven't received the recent message from DFA Chair Jim Dean, DFA has a petition urging the Superdelegates to stick with the winner picked by the voters, I would urge you to do so now! Whoever wins, the Democratic Party needs to live up to its name, and not choose a candidate in the proverbial smoke filled room: http://www.democracyforamerica.com/votersdecide


3. Clinton Campaign In Disarray?

It's never pretty when campaigns lose, because they often start to come unhinged under the tremendous stress. Drew sends this piece from the Huffington Post along tonight, and it is quite a picture of the unraveling of the Clinton campaign in Texas.

It's also yet another vindication, in effect, of the kind of long term grassroots strategy Governor Dean has been pushing for a long time: organization takes years to build, it cannot be called up quickly. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/clintons-texas-ground-ga_b_87723.html

Another way of looking at this is that in the future successful candidates and campaigns will grow organically from the bottom up, and will be part of the people supporting them. It is clear from this year's experience that there is no future for the Clintonite/ DLC/ Corporate Democrat top down model, with its emphasis on raising truckloads of cash, mass media, message manipulation and candidates who often have no clue to the lives of their constituents, but instead really represent their funders.


4. A New Must Read: Age Of American Unreason

Last Autumn I recommended a new book by Naomi Klein-- Shock Doctrine, which received enormous attention because of its explication of how the right wing has used crises to force their agenda.

There's what I think is likely to be an equally important new book out this week: Susan Jacobi's Age Of American Unreason.

Jacobi, who also wrote the book Freethinkers four years ago, describes how knowledge and experience increasingly matter less and less in America, as a virulent new form of anti-intellectualism infiltrates our politics.

The neocons and the Bushies once made fun of their opponents by styling them as the "reality based community." Bush openly touts his ignorance. Anti-intellectualism, and devaluing knowledge and experience, was an important step, for just one example, on the road to Iraq. Historians and regional experts who understood Iraq knew the war was just crazy, but they were derided and discredited-- that had to happen, in a way, for the war to happen.

But sincerity, as Jacobi shows, is no substitute for wisdom. Here are some links to read about Age Of American Unreason.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/books/14dumb.html?adxnnl=1&ref=books&adxnnlx=1203346804-imeF3J83On9a6Q9BRrcreQ&pagewanted=all
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/15/AR2008021502901_pf.html
http://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/02/15/susan_jacoby/print.html


5. Friday Night Progressive Film Fest

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

Fri Feb 22 7:30 pm Adirondack Progressive Film Forum
DELIVER US FROM EVIL (2006) Amy Berg 103 min. RT = 100 %
A superb documentary and a searing look at an institution protecting its leaders at the expense of its followers. A profoundly disturbing chronicle of a wolf in sheep's clothing, the film builds a clear-eyed case against pedophile priest Oliver O'Grady, and the Catholic bureaucracy that protected him. The recollections of O’Grady's victims are nothing short of shocking and heartbreaking. Director Amy Berg helms this shocking documentary, which looks at the activities of this priest identified by the Catholic church as a pedophile but allowed to continue to work with and molest children throughout the 1970s. Berg draws on interview footage of O'Grady and his victims to tell the unsettling tale.

And on the 29th:

Fri Feb 29 7:30 pm Adirondack Progressive Film Forum
9/11 PRESS FOR TRUTH (2006) The Disinformation Company 85 min. No RT Rating
Although independent investigations began within weeks of both pearl harbor and the Kennedy assassination, the same was not ture of the attacks of Spetember 11th. Most are unaware that formation of the 9/11 Commission was strognly opposed by many in Washington, including the Bush administration. It was only due to pressure fromt eh 9/11 families, led by a particlaur twelve calling themsevles the Family Steering Committee, that, fourteen months after the attacks, the fist hearings finally began. In "9/11 Press For Truth", five of the most prominet members fo the FSC tell their story for the first time on film, providing the most powerful argumnet yet for why 9/11 still needs investigation. Adapting Paul Thompson's definitive Complete 9/11 Timeline, the filmmakers stitch together rare, overlooked news clips, buried stories, and government press conferences, revealing a pattern of official lies, deception and spin.

Thanks Everyone! See you all soon,

Larry

Labels: Age Of American Unreason, Democracy For America, Democracy For The Greater Glens Falls Area, DFA, Howard Dean, Iraq War, Obama, Susan jacobi, Uncounted Film

- posted by Larry Dudley @ 12:19 AM