review the resources outlined

Written by: John McBride on Mar 15, 2007 8:28 PM EDT

Please write up the new resources and explain how they work. 

For example, I do not see the press release resources nor how we go about getting a quote from Jim.  

Forwarded Message on participation in testing of voting machines

Written by: John McBride on Oct 18, 2006 1:35 PM EDT

Linked to groups: Democracy for New York

Public Participation Encouraged

The New York State Board of Elections has announced dates for "usability" testing. This testing will establish the number of voters that can be served in an election by each voting systems submitted for NYS certification. This is a vitally important test, as it will determine how many new voting machines will be required to replace each lever machine, and therefore determine the number of voting machines that must be purchased by New York counties.

The timing studies are being conducted by the American Institutes for Research, (AIR) a not-for-profit research organization. Members of the public who choose to participate will be timed as they vote a simulated ballot on each of the systems being tested. Each participant will be asked to complete a pre-test and post-test questionnaire. Participants will be paid $30 for their contribution to this important test. You should plan on being available for several hours on the day of the tests.

In order for the results to be accurate, it is important that as wide a cross-section of the voting public as possible take part as "test" voters. Participation is open to all members of the public, and pre-registration is not required. We encourage everyone to get out and help the State Board of Elections by taking part in these extremely important tests.

The studies will conducted in three locations in New York State on different dates. While it is not required to pre-register, it is highly recommend that you contact the local Boards at the numbers below to let them know that you intend to participate. The locations and dates are below. Please make every effort to participate in these tests.

-Bo Lipari

Usability Test Locations, Dates and Times


Rochester
Friday, October 20, 2006
Location - Center for Disability Rights
497 State Street
Rochester, NY 14608
Time: 9am to 6pm

Saturday, October 21, 2006
Location - The Marketplace Mall in Henrietta
1 Miracle Mile Drive
Rochester, NY 14623
Time: 8am - 8pm
Testing at the mall will be conducted in the court area in front of Macys. Please use the North mall entrance.

Let the Monroe County Board of Elections know you are planning to attend. Call them at 585-753-1550.

New York City
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Friday, October 27, 2006
Location - Brooklyn (Kings County) Board of Elections
345 Adams Street, 4th Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Time: 8am to 7pm

Let the NYC Board of Elections know you are planning to attend. Call Valerie Vasquez Rivera at the New York City Board, at 212-487-5404.

Capitol Region - Albany/Schenectady/Rensselaer Counties
Thursday, November 2, 2006
Friday, November 3, 2006
Location - Not yet determined
Time - Not yet determined


If you are interested in participating in the Capitol region tests, please call the New York State Board of Elections for updated information about the locations and times at 518-473-5086.

IRAQ FOR SALE screenings on October 11 and October 21!

Written by: John McBride on Oct 7, 2006 12:09 PM EDT

Linked to groups: Democracy for the Hudson-Mohawk Region

Dear Member,

I just found this YOUTUBE promo of the film we are screening on October 11 and again on October 21.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VjbPz8j...

Please take a look and share this with your family and friends. I am quite sure we will have a full house for both screenings. This film is really not to be missed. I already watched it. As the video linked above says, watching this film will make you furious.

Meanwhile, please RSVP to one event or the other. We may have space issues....

For the film screening on Wednesday, October 11, 2006 at 7:00 PM, you can RSVP at:

www.dfalink.com/event.php?id=136...

What: DFHMR monthly meeting and film screening
When: Wednesday, October 11, 2006, 7:00 PM
Where: 1199 SEIU
155 Washington Avenue
Albany NY 12210

For the film screening on Saturday October 21 at 7:00 PM, you can RSVP at:

www.dfalink.com/event.php?id=119...

Venue Name: Bricklayers Hall
Address: 302 Centre Drive
City: Albany
State: NY
Zip Code: 12203

So pass this around to everyone you know and be sure to share the YOUTUBE video.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VjbPz8j...

Iraq for Sale and DFHMR monthly meeting

Written by: John McBride on Sep 30, 2006 10:48 AM EDT

Linked to groups: Democracy for the Hudson-Mohawk Region

Dear Member,

Please attend DFHMR monthly meeting and film screening on Wednesday, October 11, 2006 at 7:00 PM. You can RSVP at:

www.dfalink.com/event.php?id=136...

What: DFHMR monthly meeting and film screening
When: Wednesday, October 11, 2006, 7:00 PM
Where: 1199 SEIU
155 Washington Avenue
Albany NY 12210

We'll be screening Iraq for Sale at the next DFHMR monthly meeting. This is a not to miss film. I hope you can make it next Wednesday. The meeting portion will be short. But there will be plenty of opportunity for you to get work for the push to the election.

Please RSVP at the link above.

If you can't make it on Wednesday night, there are other screenings in the area. DFHMR is sponsoring another screening on October 21 at the Bricklayer's Union hall.

For other regional screeings see: www.iraqforsale.org

John

Some thoughts

Written by: John McBride on Sep 19, 2006 4:50 PM EDT

Linked to groups: Democracy Roots Planning Project

For the period between the election and the end of the year, it seems to me that it will depend to some extent on whether we win the house and/or the senate. But that may be just a difference in the strategy we use.

Here in NY, the leading Gov candidate is running with the tag line- Day 1 Everything Changes. Groups are lining up and gearing up to have some influence on just what those changes would be and how they might be implemented. At the federal level, the story would be pretty much the same thing.

We can get out on a single issue or perhaps a couple of them and try to push them up to the top of the agenda for Congress on day 1. I would like to call on Congress to rapidly convene hearings to develop a plan for Iraq. (In case you have not seen Harper's this month, Sen. George McGovern and his co-author have laid out a detailed plan to get out.) But there could be other issues as well that we could push.

As for the big issue which Andrew mentioned in the last call, i.e. what do we do about the '08 presidential campaigns? Here is an idea: Lets invite the leading progressive candidates, perhaps even the not so progressive ones, to Linkup meetings. More likely, it might be good to invite them to statewide DFA conventions. For us, I am thinking that we might have our DFNY convention sometime in February or March. We could make it a two day event and have two candidates come to speak and meet with leaders for an hour or so.

It seems to me that we can accomplish a few things doing this. One is that we might more quickly see if there is any consensus within DFA for just one or two candidates. If we as leaders push our people to choose early, then we have less of a problem for defection of our core people to the various campaigns. The other big advantage is that it reinforces our strength and our importance to the candidates.

If we got NY, NJ, CA, FL, TX, IL, MD, DC and more to do this, we could have a significant early impact within the grassroots community.

LTE Initiative and Workgroup

Written by: John McBride on Sep 18, 2006 9:11 AM EDT

Linked to groups: Democracy for the Hudson-Mohawk Region

Member,

[Ed Smith proposes a way to get out LTEs in a systematic way. Everyone can help in one way or another. Please contact Ed to join in this initiative. Address is below]


As you know, letters to the editor are the most straightforward way to reach mainstream voters we are looking to inform and persuade. Although many of us do this already, we can make a bigger impact by organizing our approaches more systematically.

This is a new way to get involved with your DFA. We're starting a Letters to the Editor group, which we can call our Committee of Correspondence. Your involvement and participation are welcome and desired.

Being involved for our Committee is simply done in two ways:

Fast fact response letters. This is where each of us monitor assigned newspapers and watch for any letters or columns that need important reaction.

Proactive letters that promote DFA ideas. These are letters of support for specific candidates or issues where timely statements are needed.

Sound interesting? To get organized, we need to get your agreement to participate. A large network of letter writers are important to maintain for two reasons. First, most newspaper editorial pages will publish a letter from one person only at regular intervals. That means you or I can submit a letter as often as once a week, but likely only one or two will get published per month. Having a pool of volunteers on-hand allows an important letter to get published regardless of the author.

The second is that most regular readers will readily recognize the same regular contributor; this can lead to readers dismissing the message because it keeps coming from one person. However, letters that come from new and unrecognized writers have more impact, and reinforce the impression that the message in the letter is widely shared.

We can also expand our efforts to key Capital Region blogs as well.

Interested? To participate, just forward the following information:

- Name, phone, e-mail address, and town/city you live in
- Names of newspapers you subscribe and read
- Names and URLs of Capital Region blogs you are registered in, and that you regularly read and participate
- Optional: if you have subscription access to newspaper sites or research services for fact checking and fact generation

Once I collect this information, I'll make up a simple matrix of people to contact whenever we need to quickly respond to an issue or send letters out. Feel free to reach me for other ideas and strategies.


Ed Smyth
ed@rlw.com
283-1260

Attend Iraq for Sale on October 21!

Written by: John McBride on Aug 30, 2006 2:53 PM EDT

Linked to groups: Democracy for the Hudson-Mohawk Region

Dear Member,

Please attend Iraq for Sale on Saturday, October 21, 2006 at 7:00 PM. You can RSVP at:

www.dfalink.com/event.php?id=119...

What: Iraq for Sale
When: Saturday, October 21, 2006, 7:00 PM
Where: Bricklayers Hall
302 Centre Drive
Albany NY 12203

[There will be other showings, TBD.]

Reminder: Attend DFHMR Monthly Meeting on August 9!

Written by: John McBride on Aug 8, 2006 1:54 PM EDT

Linked to groups: Democracy for the Hudson-Mohawk Region

Dear Member,

Please attend the DFHMR Monthly Meeting on Wednesday, August 9, 2006 at 7:00 PM. You can RSVP at:

www.dfalink.com/event.php?id=104...

This month we will have a DVD showing of the DFA Night School on canvassing or phone banking, which ever people would prefer.

We will also open up the floor for a discussion of what we might do as a group regarding the continuing conflicts in the Middle East.

What: DFHMR Monthly Meeting
When: Wednesday, August 9, 2006, 7:00 PM
Where: SEIU 1199
155 Washington Ave
Albany NY 12201

A project you can sink your teeth into

Written by: John McBride on Jun 13, 2006 11:46 PM EDT

Linked to groups: Democracy for the Hudson-Mohawk Region

Member

The DFHMR Steering Committee has committed to holding a forum on the Iraq War sometime in August. We're hoping to make this a major event for this summer.

I'm building a working committee to pull this off. If you feel like you would like to contribute, we could really use the help. There will be a need for a few people to put in a lot of work, but there will be other jobs that will be less taxing.

The principal impetus for doing the forum is that we have learned from DFA polling that Democrats greatly improve their chances of winning this November if we speak openly and intelligently about the war and national security. The forum will show that Democrats have better ideas. We know that "stay the course" is not a plan, at best it is just incompetent more likely it is corrupt. So we and a hundred other DFA groups across the country will be holding forums to talk about the reality of the war and how do we end it.

We'll have to work on getting a venue, we need to decide what kind of forum we want and who will be our speakers. There will be a need to promote the event and figure out how the discussion continues after the event is over. Likely, we will need to raise some money.

The first planning meeting will be in my office, Monday June 19th at 6:00 pm. Space is limited so please RSVP.
www.dfalink.com/event.php?id=935...

What: Iraq War Forum Planning
When: Monday, June 19, 2006, 6:00 PM
Where: Sullivan, McBride, Hess & Youngblood
4 Executive Park Drive, 2nd Fl
Albany NY 12203

If you want to work on this committee but can't make the meeting please email me. Let me know how you would like to help.

John McBride

Blog for America post

Written by: John McBride on May 8, 2006 6:56 PM EDT

Linked to groups: Democracy for the Hudson-Mohawk Region

This seems particularly good to me.

A DFA Statement of Purpose
Eric Davis is an organizer of Democracy for Illinois and the Oak Park DFA-Link group. He passed along this post from the Democracy For Illinois blog.

Ben Iglar-Mobley, a DFA regular in Oak Park (as well as a vigorous campaigner for both Howard Dean and Christine Cegelis), brought some exceptional wisdom to our May meeting. While gearing up, strategizing, training, etc., for the fall campaigns, Ben reminded us that we need to be clear about what we stand for. We need a clear answer to the Why question. Beyond specific issues and policy ideas, Ben brought this statement (below) of what he feels we are about. IMHO, his eloquence is extraordinary. His words were immediately embraced by our group and are offered here for your consideration and inspiration.

We are Democracy For America.
We are for democracy for America, and for all.

Democracy means fair and honest elections. It means transparent voting mechanisms with verifiable paper trails. It means everyone has the right to vote--regardless of race, income, or previous criminal record--and everyone has equal access to the means of voting.

Democracy means our government is responsible to the people. It means our elected officials act in accordance with the wishes of the citizenry--not corporations nor lobbyists nor campaign donors.

Democracy means we have the freedom to express ideas. It means people are not arrested for speaking out, nor fired from their jobs, nor accused of treason. It means our sources of information are not bought out and owned by wealthy business interests, but reflect an honest and unbiased representation of the full spectrum of opinion.

Democracy means economic justice. Louis Brandeis said, "We can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." Democracy requires that the powerful few be prevented from dominating and controlling the course of government, by making sure that wealth and power are not hoarded by a few.

Democracy means open government. For democracy to function, the citizenry must be fully informed of how their government is operating. Decisions cannot be made out of view of the public, and elected officials must be held accountable for their actions.

Democracy means all individuals have an equal standing. For a society to truly call itself democratic, it cannot dole out privilege to a few and deny it to others, no matter how marginal any group might be in size. A democracy does not sacrifice even a minority of one to satisfy the intolerance of others. Democracy means equal rights and equal justice under the law for all--straight or gay; male or female; rich or poor; Christian, Muslim, Jew, or secularist; white, black, brown, yellow, or red.

--Eric Davis