Tricounty DFA Update: Gibson Watch News Alert & Next Week
Hello Everyone!
This is a special update:
There is a major new story on Gibson Watch (
http://www.chrisgibsonwatch.com ) on Gibson's so-called energy advisory panel, and who Gibson has chosen to lead it: Bill Teator. That name may be familiar. Teator is the lobbyist who organized former Congressman John Sweeney's "Lake Placid Challenge" lobbyist trips that Kirsten Gillibrand first ripped into when she was first running way back in 2006. Teator has a long record of working for Jerry Solomon and John Sweeney, as well as the nuclear power industry and the lobbying group Solomon formed after retiring from Congress, and much more. Find out who Gibson is associating with by reading the full story at
http://www.chrisgibsonwatch.com
Also, a week from today, Wednesday April 6th, will be our eighth anniversary meeting!
Yes, it seems hard to believe, but it was eight years ago next week in the space that is now the Rockhill Bakehouse Cafe that we came together for our very first Dean For American Meetup. Needless to say, an awful lot has happened in eight years: the incredible surge of the Governor's campaign, the heartbreak-- for this country -- of the eventual suspension of his campaign, his creation of Democracy For America, our first effort in 2004 to go after John Sweeney, hosting Kirsten Gillibrand's very first pubic political appearance at our 2nd Anniversary Meetup, DFA's highly successful effort to save Social Security in 2005, clean ups, vigils, weekly demonstrations, working for Obama, and finally the effort we made for Scott Murphy last year.
It has been a wild ride, and I humbled and honored to have been along with all of you.
We have a lot going on with Gibson Watch, now, so it will be a special meeting next Wednesday at 7pm at the Rockhill Bakehouse Cafe in downtown Glens Falls. There will be more news this weekend.
Thanks so much and see you all there!
Larry
Labels: 20th Congressional District, Chris Gibson Watch, Democracy For America, Democracy For Saratoga Springs, Democracy For The Greater Glens Falls Area, DFA, Rockhill Bakehouse Cafe
Tricounty DFA Update: Gibson Watch Now Online, How To Make a Difference & Why
Hello Everyone!
In This Update For March 14, 2011:
2. How You Can Help Make A Difference
3. What Do We Aim To Achieve?
4. Why This Is So Important: The National Perspective
5. Why This Is So Important: The Grassroots Perspective
First, I want to salute everyone who helped make this possible. Our group will be celebrating our 8th Anniversary at our next meeting in April, and although we have sponsored trainings and helped get candidates elected, this is one of the biggest things we have done on our own since we got started.
A few details: http://
www.chrisgibsonwatch.com looks like a blog but it is actually a fully integrated web system. Posts to Gibson Watch are automatically "echoed" to a Gibson Watch Twitter account and the GIbson Watch Facebook page. This means that anyone who wants to be automatically notified when there is a new post or other information on Gibson Watch can subscribe to twitter on their computer or cell. Or, they can join the Gibson Watch Facebook page and get updates on their page, too. This is important because many people in the media and politics now rely on Twitter for fast updates.
If you want to get updates on Twitter, you will need a twitter account. You can subscribe by going to the GIbson Watch Twitter page at:
http://twitter.com/gibsonwatch and open an account.
2. How You Can Help Make A Difference
It's like the Uncle Sam recruiting poster: Gibson Watch Needs You!
We have created a great tool, but to be successful Gibson Watch is going to require a team of people who keep track of what our right wing Representative is up to, figure out what it means and post it.
If you want to help, email me back and I will send you an invitation link. I will also send you an user's manual with suggestions and some guidelines.
We need volunteers who will identify or develop areas in which they have expertise, whether it be educational issues, environment, economics, national security or others, and follow Gibson’s positions accordingly, and provide alternatives.
We need to especially focus on how Gibson’s positions are out of the mainstream of the district and upstate New York in general, and damage the local economy, jobs and environment.
You don't have to be in DFA. The Gibson Watch team is open to all liberals, moderates and progressives across the 20th CD and the upstate New York region who support responsible positions that build the district and the nation, support peace, economic and social justice, human rights and human dignity, and America’s progressive tradition of a government, as Lincoln put, “of, by and for the people,” not the powerful, the connected, or privileged and wealthy elites.
If you want to help, even if you can only do something occasionally, email me back and I send you an invitation and that user's guide.
3. What Do We Aim To Achieve?
Congressional representatives, particularly from upstate New York, routinely go to Washington and then consistently vote against the interests and beliefs of their constituents— and get away with it— due to the geographically dispersed nature of a district as large as the 20th.
Misrepresentations often go uncorrected. One current example is Rep. Gibson’s recent statement he is an original co-sponsor of a provision passed in the House of Representatives to repeal a requirement in the Healthcare Reform Bill that small businesses file 1099 forms with the IRS for every purchase of goods and services over $600. In fact, this problem was first identified by Rep. Scott Murphy last year.
Harry Truman once said "I never gave anybody hell! I just told the truth and they thought it was hell."
The very worst thing we can do the Republicans is tell the truth. Like mold, they can't stand the light of day.
4. Why This Is So Important: The National Perspective
There are two sides to the "Big Picture" of why we have to do this.
1. In 2012 we absolutely have to take back the House of Representatives before the Republicans destroy our country. For instance, last night, came news that Gibson voted to kill mortgage relief for the unemployed and a program to help people refinance homes that are worth less than their mortgages. Another example in the news: Chris GIbson is gung-ho on nuclear power and recently sent staffers to Easton to encourage the Town Board to volunteer their town as the site for a new nuclear power plant. (great timing...)
2. There will be no leadership from the White House. No doubt you have also noticed that Pres. Obama has been AWOL on the crisis on WIsconsin. By abandoning the unions to whom he pledged his support and loyalty before the election, he has effectively left the Democratic Party. I don't know what he is, but he is not even a Blue Dog anymore. If you doubt that, here is another shocker -- last week Obama signed a Republican bill that completely eliminated funding for Reading Is Fundamental, one of the best things anyone ever thought of to help kids read. So much for "winning the future." Obama signed for illiteracy and ignorance instead. Read at
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/reading-is-fundamental-funding-eliminated_b24798?c=rss
3. We have to get Nancy Pelosi back as Speak of the House so that the Democratic Party and our nation has some leadership that works someone other than the big financial interests.
5. Why This Is So Important: The Grassroots Perspective
The 20th CD has been slowly trending Democratic for a long time and we need to keep that trend going.
But here's the big thing right now: people are deeply upset and frustrated and there is a temptation to do things that at the least waste energy and tire people out to no purpose, and at worse make us look foolish and impotent. We need to give everyone something constructive to do. We can't just preach to the choir, we have to reach out -- that's how we make change.
Thanks everyone! Looking forward to hearing from you!
Larry
Labels: 20th Congressional District, Chris Gibson Watch, Democracy For America, Democracy For The Greater Glens Falls Area, DFA, Glens Falls, Rep. Chris Gibson
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