DCDL

The DC chapter of Drinking Liberally hopes you can make it for Dinner & a Movie this Saturday featuring the DC premiere of “Who Killed the Electric Car?”

We’re meeting at 7 at the E Street Cinema, 555 11th Street NW (Metro Center station) for seating at 7:15. Dinner afterwards (9:30) is at the British-style pub Elephant & Castle, 1201 Pennsylvania Ave NW.

For background on the movie, and an interview with the director, Chris Paine, check out this episode of NOW.

For GM’s response to “Who Killed the Electric Car?” see this post on the GM blog.

Heh. Gotta love the 1% culture of life. Here are the rules:

1. If there’s even a fraction of a 1% chance that something will result in Republican voters having a baby, then it must be protected, and all contrary efforts are anathema.

2. Once a fetus hits puberty:

a. If it’s a boy (unless it’s brown, then see 2c, unless already directed here from another rule), give it a gun and point it at brown people. Or give it a keyboard and point it at Democrats or other undesirables. Otherwise, to hell with it; throw it in jail.
b. If it’s a girl (unless it’s brown, then see 2c, unless already directed here from that rule), administer under rule #1. Unless it objects, in which case see 2a.
c. If it’s brown, and it won’t talk like Anne Coulter or worse *cough* better, then see 2a.

Did I miss anything?

Couldn’t resist the opportunity to throw y’all some snark.

See y’all tomorrow at Timberlake’s.

Inspired by BroD’s comment on Brad DeLong’s post on Bush’s latest delusional statement about Iraq being a model democracy — with apologies to Burl Ives, Haywire Mac, hoboes, and anyone else involved with “The Big Rock Candy Mountain”

In the Big Iraq Candy Mountain, it’s a land that’s fair and bright,
No one’s ever heard of IEDs, and the streets are safe at night.
Kidnappers all have rubber knives, and the car bombs don’t go off.
There’s a nice cool breeze, and no disease,
And we finally found those WMDs,
In the Big Iraq Candy Mountain.

Chorus:
Oh, the flowers and sweets from the crowds in the streets
By the Coca-Cola fountain,
The eagles soar, and there’s no civil war,
In the Big Iraq Candy Mountain.

In the Big Iraq Candy Mountain, the terrorists always lose,
And the folks have purple fingers, and they vote for who they choose.
The women wear just what they want, and the men can shave their beards.
The people are free, there’s democracy,
And Sunni, Kurd, and Shi’a are a family
In the Big Iraq Candy Mountain.

In the Big Iraq Candy Mountain, not a single child is hurtin’,
And billions of dollars are all well spent, thanks to friends at Halliburton.
The schools are freshly painted, ’lectricity runs all day.
They get HBO, and there ain’t no snow,
And the people never, ever want our troops to go,
In the Big Iraq Candy Mountain.

On a muggy, occasionally rainy DC night, about 70 people gathered in an upstairs room at Così coffee shop and bar to show their support for Jerry McNerney, the Democrat who’s running against Richard Pombo, the House’s foremost enemy of the environment (I announced the event earlier). Among the crowd were

• members of DC for Democracy and DC Drinking Liberally
• a director of the Sierra Club
• Ian Fried and Campbell Tyler of Blue Catapult, who presented Jerry with a check
• staff from the Humane Society
• the general counsel of a large California tech company, who maxed out on his contribution for Jerry
• students from area universities
• Helen McCloskey, wife of Pete McCloskey, the Republican who challenged Pombo in the primary
• Hill staffers
• Jerry’s son, Michael, a lieutenant in the Air Force
• Jerry’s brother, John, from Connecticut
• political organizer Christine Pelosi
• Christine’s mother, Nancy (whom you may have heard of)
• Rep. George Miller (D-CA-7)
• Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL-9)
• Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA-6)
• other Democratic members of Congress

Jerry was introduced by Congressman George Miller and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (I got a bad photo — should have used a flash). He then spoke about his how he got into alternative energy and eventually ended up running for Congress.

Jerry spoke about having a job interview for an oil company at a site where he could taste the oil in the air. He knew he didn’t want to be contributing to that sort of pollution, and he had to decide whether to take the money or do the right thing (and, as Jerry said, we know what Richard Pombo would do in that situation). So he went into wind energy.

Years later, Jerry said, his son Michael felt called to join the military after 9/11, and then in 2004 Michael noticed there was no Democrat running in the 11th District and suggested that his father do his part for the country by running. Jerry jumped in at the last minute, ran as a write-in in the primary, and got onto the ballot to run against Pombo. Unfortunately he didn’t win that time, but now he’s back with the experience he’s gained from his first campaign, and judging by the polls and the number of supporters, he’s doing a lot better this time.

If you missed the fundraiser and still want to do your part by donating what you can afford, you can give through the ActBlue netroots candidates page.

Update (July 18): It’s possible it was Pete McCloskey’s daughter, not his wife, who was there. Sorry for the inept reporting.

Are you worried about what’s happening to the environment under Republican rule? Then show up at an affordable fundraiser for Jerry McNerney, the Democrat running for Congress in California’s 11th District. Join Jerry, Democratic members of Congress, and DC netroots activists on Wednesday, July 12, 5:30-7:30pm, at Così, 301 Pennsylvania Ave SE (Capitol South Metro). Suggested donation is $25 per person, but please give more if you can afford it. RSVPs to Kenneth Christensen at 202-543-8191 (or ken{at}caiassociates.com) are appreciated.

McNerney’s opponent is the Republican incumbent, Rep. Richard Pombo, who we’ve written about several times before, mainly in connection with his proposal to sell off Roosevelt Island. The way he’s used his chairmanship of the House Resources Committee to do the bidding of oil and mining companies has made Pombo the foremost enemy of the environment in the House. He’s also one of the 13 most corrupt members of Congress, according to the nonpartisan Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Here’s Pombo having his head adjusted by the Personal Space Invader-in-Chief (from Pombo’s own photo gallery):

Jerry McNerney, on the other hand, is a windpower engineer who ran against Pombo in 2004. This time around he has great support from the netroots, who have helped him win endorsements (and donations) from Russ Feingold’s Progressive Patriots Fund and Democracy for America, and have put him among the Map Changers finalists for Mark Warner’s Forward Together PAC. There’s an interview with him on the DNC blog.

A poll in May by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research showed McNerney actually winning over Pombo 46 to 42 percent (PDF), so this seat is a real pickup possibility for Democrats — if McNerney can get the money to fight back against Pombo’s polluter-backed and corruption-funded campaign. So come meet Jerry and give generously!

Update (July 14): Followup.

DC Vote, the people trying to bring true democracy to DC residents (that is, voting representation in Congress like that of other American citizens), will be having a Summer Drink, Dish, and Dash Happy Hour Monday, July 10, at Busboys and Poets (Langston Room), 2021 14th St NW, from 5 to 6:45pm. Meet new people and find out how to get involved in the fight for voting rights.

At 6:30 sharp they’ll have a free screening of the short film Un-Natural State:

A talented film production team, the Worthy Foes, chose DC voting rights as the topic of an 8-minute documentary submitted for the International Documentary Challenge. Washingtonians Kirk ‘Mango’ Mangels and Brad Mendelsohn approached DC Vote to assist in creating a documentary that would highlight the absurdity of denying democracy in the nation’s capital. The team was given the genre of ‘nature’ and had five days to complete production on the film.

And since YouTube videos are all the rage on the blogs nowadays, here’s a teaser for the film:

You’d think that someone occupying a prominent position within a political party — say, chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee or president of the United States — wouldn’t have to think very long about whether to support that party’s candidate in an election (barring criminality, terminal kookiness, or something equally disastrous). But within the past week both Senator Chuck Schumer and President George Bush have danced around answering the question of whether they’d support their own parties’ candidates if Joe Lieberman decided to run as an independent in the Connecticut Senate Race.

(more…)

Last night at DC Drinking Liberally Thursday we got Timberlake’s to turn on MSNBC so we could watch the debate in Connecticut between Bush’s best friend among Senate Democrats, Joe Lieberman, and his primary opponent, Ned Lamont. Yes, it cut into our time for socializing, but everyone was eager to see how the challenger stood up to the senator. I was worried about Lamont for the first few minutes, but he quickly got more comfortable and easily held his own even though Lieberman is much more experienced with debating and with being on television. And in this situation, holding his own is a win.

A few more observations:

• It seemed like Lieberman got a lot more rebuttals than Lamont.
• According to Lieberman, Lamont is (1) a wild-eyed leftist who’s also (2) a closet Republican and (3) has donated to Lieberman in the past and thus agrees with him on all issues other than the war.
• A bit of belated advice for Lieberman: If your opponent’s main point is that you’re too Republican, it’s probably not the best idea to repeatedly try a debating trick (“There you go again!”) stolen from Ronald Reagan.

For coverage of the race, I’ve been reading LamontBlog (currently featuring a disturbing shirtless Cheney, but that will pass), ConnecticutBlog, and the community site My Left Nutmeg, as well as the official Lamont campaign blog.

Yesterday was the deadline for candidates to file nominating petitions for DC’s September 12 primary. I was sort of hoping that a few of the long list of Ward 3 council candidates might not make it, and thus simplify my decision, but it looks like they all got theirs in. Of course things could be worse — I could be in Ward 5, where there are 14 candidates.

Everyone has the right to run, but if we’re going to have so many candidates we really need a system that handles it better. Since there’s no runoff, a winner in the primary could end up having the support of only a small fraction of the electorate. Besides, this is a Democratic primary election in a very liberal city, so the candidates don’t disagree on much. I feel much the same annoyance I do at having to choose between dozens of brands and types of toothpaste. No doubt that makes me a foe of both capitalism and democracy.

All of us who have ever missed a deadline should spare a little sympathy for one prospective candidate:

But Ward 6 Democratic hopeful Will Cobb forgot about yesterday’s deadline.

“Holy cow, I got them sitting in my house right now,” he told a reporter after getting a call.

Cobb’s campaign manager, Jessica Strieter, raced down to the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics but arrived at 5:45 p.m., 45 minutes after the deadline.

Cobb said he had collected 560 signatures during an aggressive door-to-door campaign to replace retiring incumbent Sharon Ambrose.

I don’t imagine he’s having a very good day today. Still, keeping track of details is part of the job.

Our friends at DC for Democracy are having a bunch of DC candidates at their monthly meeting on Wednesday, July 5, at 7pm at Ben’s Chili Bowl, 1213 U St NW (U Street Metro):

Join us after your holiday weekend to learn more about the D.C. primary elections coming up in September and to hear about DC for Democracy’s endorsement plans.

Here’s the current list of candidates attending, which I’ll update as I get more information:

• Mayor: Marie Johns (warning: audio)
• Council chair: Kathy Patterson
• Ward 3: Sam Brooks, Robert Gordon, Eric Goulet
• Ward 5: Ron Magnus, Bruce Marshall, Audrey Ray, Harry Thomas Jr, Raenell Zapata (websites don’t seem to be a Ward 5 thing)
• Ward 6: Tommy Wells

Show up, have a bowl of chili, and find out more about who’s running in the September primary.