Tricounty DFA Update: Meeting Report, Vigil Saturday 11am, Gov. Dean, Women's Luncheon, More
Hello Everyone!

In This Update:

1. 5th Anniversary Meetup/Link-Up: photo
2. Vigil Saturday 11am
3. Governor Dean In News
4. Washington County Democratic Women's Luncheon
5. DFA Training In Rochester
6. $100 A Month For Disaster
7. Friday Night Progressive Film Festival


1. 5th Anniversary Meetup/Link-Up: photo

We celebrated our fifth anniversary together as a group last Wednesday. It's been a remarkable five years, with literally several hundred people passing through 58 regular meetings and I don't know how many special meetings, vigils, house parties and many, many other events.

Blog For America featured us last week:

At our meeting there was considerable discussion about the worsening Iraq War and we agreed to send a message to DFA National HQ in Burlington urging them to put the war issue on the front burner by asking Speaker Pelosi to start cutting funding and bring our troops home.

2. Vigil Saturday 11am

Because of the worsening Iraq situation, we also agreed to hold a one hour vigil for peace and to bring our troops home. The time is next Saturday, April 12th, at 11am in downtown Glens Falls by the Civil War monument at the intersection of Bay, Glen and South Streets. Help show people have not forgotten about the Iraq disaster: please come down, bring a sign, if you like, and a friend. Again, that's Saturday, April 12th at 11am.


3. Governor Dean In News

DFA's founder, Governor Dean, has been back in the news this week. There is a truly great article in the Washington Post on what the Governor has accomplished since the beginning of his campaign for the Presidency. No one has done more to turn the Democratic Party and America around and this piece makes that clear:

This article also demonstrates that there are all kinds of victories. There are victories where you win elections and go into office. And then there are victories where you personally do not get to swear any oath of office, but you win because your ideas have won. Dean's ideas about grassroots democracy and reform have swept the Democratic Party-- for instance, there is scarcely any debate any more about the wisdom of the 50 State Strategy. Governor Dean, and those who supported him, have changed America.

The Governor was also on TV this weekend, speaking on This Week and Face The Nation. Dean spoke mainly on the Presidential Primary race. You can view his longer appearance on ABC at:


4. Washington County Democratic Women's Luncheon

An invitation from Sheila Comar, our Washington County Chair (and another former Dean coordinator!):

"YOU ARE INVITED TO The Washington County Democratic Women’s Spring Luncheon
"Tuesday, April 29, 2008, 12 noon - 2 pm

"La Cocina Restaurant
"122 Main Street, Hudson Falls, NY

"$25 in advance; $30 at the door: Gourmet Buffet

"Featured Speaker: June O’Neill, NYS Democratic Committee Chairperson


"For reservations, contact luncheon coordinator: Ellen Faber at 677-8345 or mail checks (made out to WCDC) to Ellen Faber, 100 East Main Street, Cambridge, NY 12816. Pre-registration deadline is Friday April 25th."



5. DFA Training In Rochester

Andrea Digiorgio of DFA Rochester would like to alert everyone potentially interested that the DFA training academy is coming to Rochester on May 3 & 4.

"Anyone who hasn't had a chance to attend before should really be encouraged - loaded with information. .

"Since its founding in 2004, the DFA Training Academy's mission has been to focus, network, and train grassroots activists in the skills and strategies to take back our country. Democracy for America's unofficial motto has always been "You have the power." The DFA Training Academy empowers ordinary Americans to manage successful campaigns and run for office themselves. Every weekend in cities across America, the DFA Training Academy is building a grassroots infrastructure of skilled progressive activists in all 50 states.

"The DFA Training Academy brings hundreds of local activists, campaign staff and candidates together for 2 days of intensive campaign training. Experienced campaign professionals lead sessions in voter contact, fundraising, communications and much more to empower progressive activists with the skills to win in November.

THE WEBSITE TO RSVP AND PAY FOR TRAINING IS:


6. $100 A Month For Disaster

There are two articles this week on the Iraq disaster that bear special attention. First, neutral experts estimate that Obama's claim the war is costing the average American family $100 a month is accurate. (That's on top of war inflated gas prices-- the instability "differential" has been estimated at around $.75 a gallon, that is, gas would be around $2.60, were it not for the war.)

Alternet has a good description of what actually happened in Iraq last week when the Iraqi government lost in Basra:



7. Friday Night Progressive Film Festival

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

Fri Apr 11 7:30 pm Adirondack Progressive Film Forum (National Holocaust Month)
HISTORIC NAZI CONCENTRATION CAMP FILMS (1945) Allied Forces Video 58 min. * Note: THIS FILM CONTAINS GRAPHIC MATERIAL. *
This is a collection of real Nazi concentration camp footage including torture, death, starvation, mass graves and other unconscionable atrocities committed in Nazi camps. Footage from the following concentration camps are included: Penig, Ohrdruf, Breendonck, Hannover, Arnstadt, Mauthausen, Buchenwald and Dachau. This DVD contains two separate films, the first is Nazi Concentration Camp Allied Forces footage commissioned by President Eisenhower and is a collection of Allied Forces video footage as they advanced into Germany with footage from a number of concentration camps. The second is the first newsreel of concentration camp footage that was shown in America on April 26, 1945. This footage is terrible to see and the case could easily be made not to show it but, on some level, it is of paramount importance that we allow ourselves to shocked and outraged by being a secondary witness. We don't much like to take video footage of our own genocidal behavior (Trail of Tears, 200 Years of Slavery). This footage was taken with the intent that future generations would always be able to see what happened during the Holocaust and thereby destroy any chance that something like it may happen again.


Thanks everyone! Hope to see you all Saturday at 11am for our Vigil.

Larry Dudley

Labels: Democracy For America, Democracy For The Greater Glens Falls Area, DFA, Glens Falls, Howard Dean, Iraq War, Rockhill Bakehouse Cafe, vigil

- posted by Larry Dudley @ 11:06 PM