Tricounty DFA Update: Candidates, Appeals, More
Hello Everyone;

In This Update For February 15th, 2009:

1. Congressional Race
2. Online Actions: Single Payer Healthcare Petition
3. Populist Rebellion
4. Bernice Mennis Reading
5. Progressive Film Festival


1. Congressional Race

As you all know, with Kirsten Gillibrand now in the Senate, a special election is on tap here in the 20th CD on March 31st, and many of you have been contacting me for information about Scott Murphy.

Dick has been in contact with Scott Murphy. He emailed us on Jan. 27. We haven't heard from him since, but we would expect to hear from him soon. The DFA protocol is for him to meet ASAP with our Steering Committee before a regular meeting, and we want to make sure that happens so that I can report to all of you. Obviously, since Mr. Murphy is so new, both as a candidate and a resident or our area, and few of us know him, we all have a lot of questions!

Murphy has opened a headquarters at 3 Warren Street in downtown Glens Falls. There is also a website now up at http://www.scottmurphy09.com/ although there isn't much on it yet.


2. Online Actions: Single Payer Healthcare Petition

President Obama (it's still a thrill to write that!) won a great victory this week with passage of the Stimulus Bill to restore and rebuild the American economy. In a second, lesser noted victory, Sen. Chris Dodd saved language in the bill to clip the gouging culture of salaries on Wall Street.

The White House and Congress is necessarily moving onto banking next, but it's clear healthcare reform will come up, soon. As we've endorsed before, and with the overwhelming majority of Americans-- 59%-32%, according to a recent poll, a Single Payer Healthcare system should lead the debate, even if we can't get it this year. After all, the less we ask for, the less we'll get when all the wrangling is done.

Rep. John Conyers is leading the fight for Single Payer Health Care for decades H.R. 676, the "Medicare For All" Bill .

Democrats.com has a petition online so we can show our support for Single-Payer:

http://democrats.com/single-payer-petition?cid=ZGVtczIzODE2OGRlbXM=


3. Populist Rebellion

What's starting to help drive this new era of reform is what can only be described as a new populist era of rebellion. It is increasingly clear that this new spirit, which helped elect Obama last year, but also brought down Tom Daschle, is going to define American politics for the next generation.

It is rooted in and driven by the complete discrediting of the economic dogmas of the last thirty years, which last year's economic crisis exposed as a sham as complete as Bernie Madoff's ponzi scheme. This discrediting is not only functional and pragmatic in terms of what works, but deeply moral in nature. Those entrusted with leadership of our leading corporations were exposed as not only incompetent, but corrupt and venal, blowing millions on office decor and junkets, and billions on bonuses for themselves, while laying off tens of thousands of employees and begging for a government handout. The idea capitalism has any moral foundation has been shattered irrevocably.

There is an axiom among military reformers that victory in war goes to those who can go through cycles of observation, decision and action the fastest. History seems to confirm that, and it applies equally well to politics. One of the challenges facing Democrats, liberals and progressives today is whether they can go through this cycle of observation, decision and action fast enough to adjust to this new reality and build enduring change. At the moment President Obama seems to be making the leap.

Here are some great pieces on this remarkable era of change we live in:

Tom Daschle And The Populist Revolt: http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2009/02/tom-daschle-and-populist-revolt.html
Slumdogs Unite! http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/opinion/08rich.html?em
BooHoo in the Boardroom: http://egan.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/boo-hoo-in-the-boardroom/?ref=opinion

Also don't miss Frank Rich today on Obama's victory: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/opinion/15rich.html

4. Bernice Mennis Reading

Our own Bernice Mennis will be reading from her new book Breaking Out of Prison: a guide to consciousness, compassion, and freedom at Red Fox Books, on Ridge Street in downtown Glens Falls, between the roundabout and City Hall, on Monday, Feb. 23, at 6:30. It's about how the power of language and thought can shape our minds and our lives.


5. Progressive Film Festival

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

SAT FEB 21 7:00 pm SATURDAY SCREENING Free
GIRLHOOD (2003) Liz Garbus 82 min RT Rating = 94 %
Tells two coming-of-age stories from the real America: Shanae, ten years old when she was gang-raped by five boys, responded by drinking and drugging, and then graduated to murder, with the stabbing death of a friend, at age 11. Megan, whose mother abandoned her to turn tricks to support her ravaging heroin addiction, ran away from ten different foster homes before being arrested for attacking another foster child with a box cutter. Both girls ended up in the Waxter Juvenile Facility, home to Maryland's most violent juvenile offenders. It is here that their journeys really begin. With unprecedented access to the system and to the complex interior lives of the protagonists, the film follows Shanae and Megan over the next three years as they struggle to come to terms with their crimes, their pasts, and their futures. Both will struggle to come of age in an America in which childhood, as we would all like to imagine it, is in shorter and shorter supply. A story of mothers and daughters, crime and consequences, and ceaseless striving in the face of inconceivable adversity, Girlhood is a testament to the faith and struggles of two girls just trying to grow up.

SAT FEB 28 7:00 pm SATURDAY SCREENING Free
SPEEDO (2004) Jesse Moss 78 min RT Rating = N/A
Exposing all the thrills and spills of the demolition derby, this highly personal documentary from director Jesse Moss focuses on the life of driver Ed "Speedo" Jager. Life as a top derby racer takes its toll on Jager's private life, with every professional peak being leveled out by a very personal trough. Totally addicted to the rush of the track, the latest in a long line of tragedies to befall the superstar is the break-up of his marriage. Moss captures all the gruesome details on camera, as well as Jager's pursuit of a track official who catches his eye. The film is shot over a year in the life of the driver, and captures all the highs and lows he encounters.

Thanks everyone! Hope to have more info for you on Scott Murhpy, soon.

Larry Dudley

Labels: 20th Congressional District, Bernice Mennis, Democracy For New York, Democracy For The Greater Glens Falls Area, DFA, Glens Falls, Rockhill Bakehouse Cafe, Scott Murphy

- posted by Larry Dudley @ 4:37 PM 0 comments