Tricounty DFA Update: America Held Hostage, Vigil, Obama Phone Banking
Hello Everyone;

In This special election update for October 2, 2008:

1. Obama Phone Banking Sunday 2pm
2. Vigil Saturday, 11am
3. America Held Hostage
4. Saturday Night Progressive Film Festival


1. Obama Phone Banking Sunday 2pm

At our meeting yesterday we agreed to hold a series of phone banking events for Obama-Biden. The first will be this Sunday, October 5th from 2pm to 4pm at the Rockhill Bakehouse Cafe in downtown Glens Falls. You will need to bring a cellphone to participate in this event! ( Most cell phones have unlimited weekend minutes.)

It is very important you let me know you are coming so that I can get enough names and numbers. Please RSVP to this message by Sunday morning if you plan to come.

Because of the economic crisis, the election has opened up and become more fluid, with more states in play. We will be calling actual voters in these swing states to tell the why we support Barack Obama. We will not be calling members of our own organization, or other progressive organizations. These are voter lists generated by the campaign itself.

Because Sara Palin did not implode in tonight's debate with Joe Biden, we need to keep working!

There will be instructions, and encouragement. If you've never done this before, it's much easier in a group.

Many thanks to Matt for allowing us to call from the Cafe! (What would local progressives do without it?)


2. Vigil Saturday, 11am

We will be holding our usual vigil for peace and to bring our troops home Saturday OCtover 4th at 11am until Noon at the corners of Bay, Glen and South Streets in downtown Glens Falls, in front of the Civil War monument. Please come and bring a friend and a sign.


3. America Held Hostage

As I was preparing this update earlier tonight I was watching Rep. Kucinich, Sherman and Kaptor on C-SPAN give a series of addresses worthy of the great Congressional leaders of the past. Several key points were made:

1. There is now a liquidity crises because banks are afraid to loan to one another. The reason is that they don't know which other banks are solvent, and are afraid of losing their money if another one fails. There is a simple solution: the FDIC insures bank deposits. It can insure not some share of deposits, as is presently the case, but all deposits in all commercial banks. If the FDIC did that, no bank could possibly lose money by loaning money to another because they would be fully insured. The banks actually have plenty of cash on hand, but are holding back, not unwisely. But if all deposits were insured, they would have nothing to fear by loaning money to one another- they could not lose their money. The crisis would end almost instantly as money began to flow. This would require no tax funds, the insurance is paid by bank fees. This has been done abroad before, and it works.

2. Half the $700 billion bailout would go to foreign investors who simply made bad investments. Specifically mentioned were the Saudi royal family and China, still theoretically a communist country. Put short, their bad decisions are not the taxpayer's problem.

3. Last weekend congressional leaders were told the stock market would drop 2- 3,000 points in a single day if that did not pass the original bill. That did not happen.

4. The crisis in mainly based on fear and psychology, not actual material conditions. In fostering panic, the administration is actually making a crisis or at least making it very much worse.

Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com had a superb post on this earlier today-- especially that there are major bankers who say the bailout is unneeded, and he also exposes Treasury Secretary Paulson's motives: allowing the destruction of Lehman Bros. which competed with his firm, Goldman Sachs, or saving AIG, in which Goldman had major investments. http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/10/01/pearlstein/index.html

If you haven't contacted your member of Congress yet, there still may be time. The Capitol switchboard is (202)224-3121


4. Saturday Night Progressive Film Festival

SAT OCT 4 7:00 pm SATURDAY SCREENINGS Free.
AMARGOSA (2006) Todd Robinson 90 min. RT Rating = N/A
Death Valley Junction is only 10 people away from being completely deserted, but that doesn't stop Marta Becket from dancing at the Amargosa Opera House. This documentary traces the 76-year-old artist's creative journey, from dancing in New York City to her residence in the desert town. She spent seven years filling the formerly deserted theater with paintings of audience members. But as news of her performances spreads, the theater fills with real people. AMARGOSA is an award-winning film about the impact of creativity on the life of an artist.


And Roger sends this video along to get you started. It's entitled Don't Vote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UaRXvRwhOk

Thanks everyone!

Larry

Labels: Democracy For America, Democracy For The Greater Glens Falls Area, DFA, Glens Falls, Obama, Obama Phonebanking, Rockhill Bakehouse Cafe, vigil

- posted by Larry Dudley @ 12:32 AM