Tricounty DFA Update: Vigil Reminder, Muller Endorsement, Dean To Stay At DNC!
Hello Everyone;

In this update for June 6th 2008:

1. Vigil Saturday Downtown Glens Falls, 11am
2. Meeting Endorses Bob Muller For Supreme Court
3. Obama Endorsed
4. Clinton To Endorse Obama
5. Obama Asks Dean To Stay At DNC: Victory For $100 Revolution & 50 State Strategy
6. End Of Globalization?


1. Vigil Saturday Downtown Glens Falls, 11am

Tomorrow, Saturday, June 7th we will have another vigil for peace and to bring our troops home at 11am downtown at the corner of Glen, Bay and South Streets, in front of the Civil War monument. Come and bring a friend and a sign, although we have a few signs. The vigil will last one hour, as usual.

2. Meeting Endorses Bob Muller For Supreme Court

At our meeting we listened to a presentation and then had a lengthly Q&A with attorney Bob Muller, Democratic candidate for State Supreme Court, 4th Judicial District. It was an impressive presentation, especially on the importance of these judicial races, which are often overlooked.

Bob noted:
*the need for judges who are politically independent and review cases on their merits,
*are not creatures of political machines
*his 30 years of local experience as an attorney
*his experience as a trial lawyer and former prosecutor

In support, Dick Dudley also spoke at length from his experience in office of how we often do not have politically independent judges, and the dangers that represents.

Bob also noted the 4th District, which sweeps north from southern Washington, Saratoga, Schenectady and Montgomery Counties all the way to Canada, is the biggest in New York State in area and holds about a million people.

He also noted that Supreme Court terms are 14 years long, and that he can and is committed to serving out his full 14 year term: other candidates presently running are much older and probably will not be able to complete their terms.

There are three open seats, with four candidates, but only one Democrat, Bob Muller. If every Democrat in the district (and there are many of them) voted for Muller alone, without diluting their votes by also voting for one of the Republicans, he would probably get the votes needed for election. (This is known as bullet voting.)

At the end the group unanimously endorsed Muller. Seven of the Democratic Committees in the 4th District have endorsed Muller for this office. Democracy For The Greater Glens Falls Area is the first DFA Network group to do so.

Anyone wishing to learn more about Bob Muller and his race can go to his website for more information: http://www.bobmuller2008.com/index.html


3. Obama Endorsed

After Muller's presentation, the group also discussed the completion of the presidential primary season, and then formally endorsed Barack Obama for President, which it had not done before.


4. Clinton To Endorse Obama

News comes tonight that Hillary Clinton will formally concede victory to Barack Obama tomorrow at a rally in Washington, D.C. and endorse him as well. Her speech will be carried live on the web for those wishing to see if, and if it is not on cable or S-Span: website tomorrow


5. Obama Asks Dean To Stay At DNC: Victory For $100 Revolution & 50 State Strategy

There were a pair of news stories out of Washington this week that in long term importance are as important as Obama cinching the nomination.

Dick sent this along from TPM:

Breaking: Howard Dean To Stay As Chair Of The DNC

"Senator Obama appreciates the hard work that Chairman Dean has done to grow our party at the grassroots level and looks forward to working with him as the chairman of the Democratic Party as we go forward."

"Historically, a DNC chair's tenure is uncertain once a nominee is chosen, since said nominee might want to install his own guy there, but as Ben Smith notes, Dean has a power base built up among state party chairs across the country who love his 50-state strategy of investing in them."

"The DNC earlier today confirmed that Obama had installed his man Paul Tewes to serve as his eyes and ears at the organization, a sign that Obama is moving quickly to re-shape the party in his own image. Obama's party, it turns out, will include Dean at the top of the DNC."

Then Governor Dean himself sent this out:

"As we move toward the general election, the Democratic Party has to be the Party of ordinary Americans, not Washington lobbyists and special interests. So, as of this morning, if you're a federal lobbyist, or if you control political action committee donations, we won't be accepting your contribution.

"This is an unprecedented move for a political party to make -- one that has sent shockwaves through Washington and has turned the debate on clean campaigns upside down. We've unilaterally agreed to shut lobbyists out of the process, and are we're relying on people just like you."

http://www.democrats.org/nonlobbyists "


Yes, Obama did win, but Howard Dean won, too: his 50 state strategy and the $100 Revolution he started five years ago are now the established policy of the Democratic Party, and are restoring our democracy. Together they constitute a revolution in political affairs: by getting big money out of politics, and continuing his grassroots efforts, the Great American Restoration Dean talked about four and five years ago will come to pass, transforming and ending a long, benighted period in our country's history.

Certainly, Barack Obama seems well suited to carry on, as his reappointment of Dean to remain DNC chair shows.

What the Dean movement started five years ago has now come to pass. It is a very historic moment, indeed, and one to savor!


6. End Of Globalization?

There's another story that's worth checking out too: it seems high energy prices means the end of the era of Globalization.
http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2008/06/06/reverse_globalization/index.html

The idea of outsouring manufacturing from country to country, was premised on the idea of very cheap energy to move goods around the world. That was another one of the terrible ideas that came out of the 1980s and 1990s, along with the idea it made sense to drive a Hummer to the grocery for a quart of milk or building a 10,000 square foot "McMansion" miles from anywhere.

If it is now going to be too expensive to move things from China, we should see a revival of domestic manufacturing, and the jobs that went with it.

Thanks everyone! See you at the vigil (hopefully).

Larry

Labels: 4th Judicial District, Democracy For America, Democracy For The Greater Glens Falls Area, DFA, Globalization, Iraq War, New York Supreme Court, Robert Muller, Rockhill Bakehouse Cafe, vigil

- posted by Larry Dudley @ 11:14 PM