DCDL

Just got this in the mail, and thought some of you might be interested:

WHY MEDIA MATTERS: Progressive Voices and the Media

Can progressives find their media voice? Is news coverage skewed to either side? What can consumers of news do to ensure accurate and reliable reporting? These and other questions will be explored on April 5 at The George Washington University by a range of media practitioners and critics. They’ll identify both problems and potential solutions.

WHO:

David Brock, President and CEO, Media Matters for America
Eleanor Clift, Contributing Editor, Newsweek
Al Franken, Host, The Al Franken Show
Danny Goldberg, CEO, Air America Radio
Helen Thomas, Syndicated Columnist, Hearst Newspapers

WHEN:

Wednesday, April 5, 2006, 4 p.m.-5:30 p.m.
Doors open at 3:30 p.m.

WHERE:

The George Washington University
Media and Public Affairs Building, Jack Morton Auditorium
805 21st Street NW
Washington, D.C. (Foggy Bottom-GWU Metro, Blue and Orange lines)

This Saturday, March 25 will be DCDL’s “Dinner & a Movie Night” for the month of March. We are planning to catch the 7:05 showing of “Thank You for Smoking” at the Bethesda Row Theater, 7235 Woodmont Ave, Bethesda, MD, near the Bethesda Metro Stop.

Some of us have already seen “Smoking” (me for instance, and I give it a strong recommend) so we’ll also have an alternative movie from the Bethesda Row schedule.

At 9:00 pm we’ll meet for dinner. Two restaurants so far have been suggested: Delhi Dhaba (Indian) and Cafe Deluxe (American). If you have a preference, just respond in comments, or send mail at dcthu@drinkingliberally.org.

Here’s the menu for Cafe Deluxe (link).

Here are brief Washingtonian reviews for both restaurants (link).

The Washington Post had an important editorial on Monday on the stakes involving this week’s critical votes on lobbying and ethics reform. Without meaningful reform, disastrous pro-corporate legislation like Medicare part D will continue to be passed — and progressive legislation will be ignored. Few people in Washington are as expert on these issues as our speaker, Craig Holman of Congress Watch.

The importance of ethics reform was underscored by Rep. Louise Slaughter and Rules Committee Democrats, who recently documented the impact of all the corruption on working Americans in an important report, “America for Sale.”

Debate begins Wednesday on two relatively feeble “reform” measures that have been combined into one bill, omitting the key element of enforcement through an independent Office of Public Integrity. As Public Citizen points out:

The U.S. Senate’s floor debate on lobbying reform starts on Wednesday, March 8. The bill (S. 2349) that will be on the Senate floor is a composite of two bills approved last week by two Senate committees…. This package is inadequate and would not do enough to curb the excesses of moneyed interests in Congress.

The composite bill is available at:
http://www.cleanupwashington.org/lobbying/page.cfm?pageid=24.

This week’s speaker, Craig Holman, is Public Citizen’s Congress Watch legislative representative and an expert on Congressional ethics. The Senate marked up weak reform legislation last week and will vote on the bill this week, but there’s still a chance to influence our legislators (if you don’t live in the District) to get a stronger bill or learn how you can become a clean government activist. I wrote about it at Huffington Post. This week the Senate will vote on whether to have an independent public integrity office as an amendment to mild lobbying reform legislation. Unfortunately, they’re more interested in the fig-leaf of upgraded disclosure than real reform.

Here’s the latest on what the Senate did last week, from Public Citizen’s Joan Claybrook:

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee significantly improved a lobbying disclosure and reform bill today by adding a requirement that major lobbyists disclose the money they spend on grassroots lobbying. But the committee took a giant step backward — crippling the reform effort — by rejecting an independent Office of Public Integrity.

Overall, this measure is insufficient because it focuses on disclosing corruption, rather than deterring it. That’s like tallying the number of people killed in highway crashes instead of making safer vehicles.

Learn more this week when Craig Holman speaks.

Update from Keith: Holman will be at the Thursday DCDL gathering March 9, starting around 6:30pm in the back room at Timberlake’s, 1726 Connecticut Ave NW (2½ blocks north of the Dupont Circle Metro). Free appetizers and extended happy hour drink specials. Subscribe to the announcement list to hear about future events.

No, Shooting Liberally is not an attempt to follow in the footsteps of our Vice President for Torture — we’re talking about shooting pool. Thursday DCDL’s social director, Saba, has come up with another idea for weekend socializing. We’ll gather this Sunday, March 5, from 5 to 7, at Kokopooli’s, 2305 18th Street NW, in Adams Morgan, for beer and conversation, and to exercise our (mostly nonexistent) billiards skills. If you’re interested, e-mail us at dcthu@drinkingliberally.org so we can have some idea how many people we’ll have.

If you’re reading this and live in the DC area, subscribe to our announcement list so you’ll hear about our events.

Thanks to everyone who came to Thursday Drinking Liberally last night! I believe it was the biggest turnout for a non-speaker night we’ve had since moving to Timberlake’s. Some people were in town for training for online organizers by the New Organizing Institute, and at least one was in DC for a Democrats Abroad meeting. Places represented include Kansas, Texas, California, and Ireland (a guy who’s in the process of starting Dublin Drinking Liberally, which we’ll have to organize a group trip to visit).

The locals attending included people from a new PAC called Blue Catapult that has a launch party in Adams Morgan next Wednesday that sounds like a fun way to support a good cause. And there were various unaffiliated people stopping by to see what Drinking Liberally is all about — I hope they enjoyed it and will come back soon.

If you’re reading this and live in the DC area, subscribe to our announcement list so you’ll hear about our events.

This week’s speaker, Craig Holman, is Public Citizen’s Congress Watch legislative representative and an expert on Congressional ethics. Senate committees are starting to mark up weak reform legislation last week and vote on the bill this week, but there’s still a chance to influence our legislators (if you don’t live in the District) to get a stronger bill or learn how you can become a clean government activist. I wrote about it at Huffington Post. This week the Senate will vote on whether to have an independent public integrity office. Unfortunately, they’re more interested in the fig-leaf of upgraded disclosure than real reform. Here’s the latest on what the Senate did last week week, from Public Citizen’s Joan Claybrook:

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee significantly improved a lobbying disclosure and reform bill today by adding a requirement that major lobbyists disclose the money they spend on grassroots lobbying. But the committee took a giant step backward — crippling the reform effort — by rejecting an independent Office of Public Integrity.

Overall, this measure is insufficient because it focuses on disclosing corruption, rather than deterring it. That’s like tallying the number of people killed in highway crashes instead of making safer vehicles.

The independent Office of Public Integrity is so crucial because it would conduct investigations and make recommendations to the Senate and House ethics committees free of political pressures. It would also regulate compliance with the Lobbying Disclosure Act, which has been subject to little oversight. The ethics committees operate in complete secrecy, so the public has no knowledge of what they do. No decisions were announced by the House or Senate ethics committees in 2005. The executive branch does not self-regulate; rather, it has both independent inspector generals in each agency and an Office of Public Integrity, located in the Justice Department and covering all federal employees. An independent office for Congress must be created.

Learn more next week when Craig Holman speaks.

Author Julian Houston, whose debut coming-of-age civil-rights-era novel, New Boy , got a rave in the New York Times, has a reading slated for D.C’s Politics and Prose on Monday, Feb. 20, at 4:30 p.m. ( The store’s located at 5015 Connecticut Ave. ) It’s a way to learn first-hand about the civil rights struggles in the South from someone who was there — and who also tells the story of the first black student at an elite Northeastern prep school.

Remember something called integration and voting rights? At a time when the Bush Administration has abandoned any interest in promoting social justice, it’s worth understanding what the fires of civil-rights activism were like.

First of all, I wanted to thank Chris Carney and David Willet of the Sierra Club for speaking last night. It’s always a good sign when folks want to hang out and chat long after the talk is over. I know I was there way past my bedtime.

We’re still waiting for final confirmation for our March speaker, and will post as soon as we know.

Now, some exciting news for April. I just got off the phone with Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies. I heard her on DemocracyNow discussing her new book: Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the UN Defy U.S. Power, and managed to get in touch.

Here’s a short description of her book:

When millions around the world marched to protest the Iraq war and the U.S. drive towards empire, the New York Times dubbed global public opinion “the second super-power.” What empowered those protests was their alliance — if only for a brief moment — with governments unexpectedly willing to stand up to U.S. pressure, and with the United Nations itself, when it followed its Charter’s command to stop “the scourge of war.” Bennis tracks the rise of U.S. unilateralism and the doctrine of preemptive war, looking particularly at Iraq and Israel/Palestine, and examines both the potential and the challenges ahead in reclaiming the UN as part of the global peace movement.

I look forward to her appearance at DCDL on April 16.

Chris Carney is the Washington regional organizer for the Sierra Club’s Building Environmental Community (BEC) Program. Building Environmental Community is a decade-long effort to create a deeper community engagement in environmental issues, using traditional grassroots organizing methods by Sierra Club activists and organizers. The goal of this program is to influence the environmental policies of decision makers by creating a robust environmental community and strong public demand for environmental progress. No stranger to the marriage of drinking and activism, Sierra Club hosts monthly happy hours and recently launched its Sierra Club and Beer Night, inviting green-minded folk to come together for free beer and to become part of Sierra Club’s mission to explore, enjoy and protect the planet.

Wait a minute. Did someone say “free beer”?

Update: I put this out in the newsletter, but neglected to mention here, David Willett, National Press Secretary for the Sierra Club will be speaking about the lay of the land for national environmental issues in 2006.

Here’s your weekly helping of local events, also listed in the event calendar (linked from the sidebar). If you know of an event that should be included, let me know at keith@dcdl.org, or post a comment.

Wednesday, February 8

• Drinking Liberally at Mark and Orlando’s, with guest speaker Zack Exley. Exley coordinated online efforts for the British Labour Party’s recent reelection campaign, was director of online organizing and communications at Kerry-Edwards 2004, and before that served as organizing director at MoveOn.org and played a key role in early Dean Internet operations.
• Morning Rally on the Mall with Max Cleland and dozens of Democratic veterans running for Congress, and an evening VetPAC fundraiser. Among the veterans is Chris Carney of PA-10, not to be confused with the Chris Carney from the Sierra Club who’s speaking at Thursday DCDL next week.

Thursday, February 9

• Drinking Liberally at Timberlake’s. Come to our Thursday get-together to meet people, discuss the week’s news, and find out what’s going on locally.

Friday, February 10

• DC Olympic Committee’s Opening Ceremony Party at Adams Mill Bar. I wrote about DCOC a couple of weeks back when they launched, and now it’s time to celebrate. And according to their announcement, “For added fun, we’ll raise a pint where we should be marching, alphabetically, just after Denmark. (Fun fact: Djibouti would come in after us.)”

Saturday, February 11

• DCDL Dinner and a Movie at Gallery Place: Syriana followed by Burma Restaurant.

These announcements are not endorsements of the organizations or candidates mentioned — except that we’re very much in favor of Drinking Liberally.