DCDL

Robert Greenwald’s new film Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price is premiering this week at house parties and other events across the country:

WAL-MART: THE HIGH COST OF LOW PRICE is a feature length documentary that uncovers a retail giant’s assault on families and American values.

The film dives into the deeply personal stories and everyday lives of families and communities struggling to fight a goliath. A working mother is forced to turn to public assistance to provide healthcare for her two small children. A Missouri family loses its business after Wal-Mart is given over $2 million to open its doors down the road. A mayor struggles to equip his first responders after Wal-Mart pulls out and relocates just outside the city limits. A community in California unites, takes on the giant, and wins!

Producer/Director Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films take you on an extraordinary journey that will change the way you think, feel — and shop.

Wednesday-night DCDL has a showing tomorrow, but it’s already full (though you may be able to squeeze in if there are no-shows). Fortunately there are plenty of other showings to sign up for, every day of the week. There are even some tonight — like the one at the Women’s National Democratic Club — that combine the movie premiere with the Democrats’ national organizing kickoff. Sounds like a great way to maximize your progressive event attendance.

Recently, I was reflecting on our connections to other progressive groups and events in the area. As we start to get organized for the 2006 midterms these connections are going to play a critical role in taking our country back. So, we’ll certainly have speakers on critical issues of the day come by on Thursdays. Meanwhile, some other events you may want to check out:

Sierra Club
Second Monday Happy Hour Mon., Nov. 14, 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm The Reef, 2446 18th St., NW
Potluck Thanksgiving Dinner Sat., Nov. 19, 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm. Popular Spring Animal Sanctuary, 15200 Mt. Nebo Rd., Poolesville, MD

DC for Democracy
VA Election Happy Hour celebration, Wednesday, November 16.

Women’s Caucus for Art - DC Chapter
Art from the Heart Community Party, Saturday, November 12, 2005, 7:00–9:30 pm. River Road Unitarian Church 6301 River Road, Bethesda, Maryland 20817 Admission: $5.00

DNC
National Organizing Kickoff House Party Night. Tuesday, Nov 15. Times and locations all around DC.

Steve Clemons suggests a citizen’s arrest, or at least a protest, when Ahmed Chalabi shows up to speak at the American Enterprise Institute this afternoon.

Chalabi played the United States government for fools in getting us involved in Iraq and making sure everything worked out to the advantage of his friends in Iran, and after going through a series of ups and downs with the Bush administration (including an arrest warrant against him) now hopes to become prime minister of Iraq.

If you want to be part of the welcoming party, show up outside AEI, 1150 17th Street NW (17th and M, near the Farragut North and Farragut West Metro stations) by 2pm today.

Update (12:30 am): I stopped by this afternoon. Photos after the jump.

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Monday night Bush went to Richmond to embrace Jerry Kilgore and ask Virginians to support the Republican candidate for governor. Tuesday night we found out what Virginians’ answer was: a slap in the face for Bush. Virginians overwhelming feel the country is on the wrong track, and they elected Democrat Tim Kaine by a decisive 52 to 46 percent. The result was also a rejection of Kilgore’s relentless negative ads and dirty tricks, which were managed by former Rove colleague Scott Howell.

Republicans also lost seats in the Virginia House of Delegates (though they maintain a large majority). Among the five candidates endorsed by DC for Democracy, four won, including two — David Poisson and David Marsden — who gained seats that had been Republican.

There were other Democratic victories yesterday as well (along with some defeats), as Kos summarizes.

So come out this week and celebrate with Drinking Liberally. We’re also celebrating the first anniversary of the founding of the first DC chapter. Join the fun either tonight at Mark and Orlando’s for the DCDL birthday party or at the traditional place and time tomorrow at Timberlake’s — or perhaps yesterday’s news rates a two-night celebration. (See the upper left corner for addresses and times, and for links to sign up for the announcement lists.)

The Virginia election is today. If you live in Virginia, don’t forget to vote, and make sure all your progressive and moderate friends and family vote as well. The outcome will turn on which side does a better job of activating its supporters. Which direction for the future will Virginians support?

This past Saturday, a few dozen Sierra club members, local citizens, and environmentalists gathered on scenic Theodore Roosevelt Island, located on the Potomac between Foggy Bottom and and Arlington, VA. One person was conspicuously absent, however, Rep Richard Pombo (R-CA). Saturday’s rally may not have been held in Pombo’s “honor” so much as to point out the danger that Pombo’s actions hold towards the environment. From drilling in the Arctic reserve, to oil rigs on the coast of Virginia, to gutting the Endangered Species Act, Pombo seems to relish his role as the Anti-Environmental Prince of Darkness.

I asked one of the speakers, what in his opinion motivated Pombo. What could move him to draft a bill to sell off national park land, including the very park where we met? The speaker nodded his head, understanding how puzzling Pombo’s behavior was. “Power,” he said. “Money and power.”

“You don’t think it’s personal?” I probed.
“Pombo has been well trained to make it look like that.” While the speaker didn’t mention a certain exterminator from Texas, one whose antics leave one puzzling over how much is personal, how much is ham-handed acting, Tom Delay came unbidden to mind.
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Keith and I were at the rally earlier today protesting Representative Pombo, and the larger theme about the aggressive Republican stance towards the environment. More coming about this, but I wanted to get this photo up.

And, as I say, more on what Pombo is hatching soon.

When last we heard from early-bird Ward 3 council candidate Jonathan Rees, he was spamming Craigslist and papering my neighborhood with campaign posters. He’s still up to those things (see some of the Craigslist posts and fallout), and his campaign site (available at both www.rees-for-citycouncil.com and the oddly generic www.dc2006.net) still reminds me of the Time Cube site, but things have gotten weirder recently.

Now that current Ward 3 councilmember Kathy Patterson is planning to run for council chair, Sam Brooks has entered the Ward 3 race. Recently someone has been posting white-supremacist and anti-gay messages on Craigslist and other forums under Brooks’s name, as reported in the Post and the Blade. Rees denies any connection to the messages.

But some newer anti-Brooks messages have Rees’s fingerprints all over them.

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Like many Republican candidates recently, Jerry Kilgore has been keeping Bush at arm’s length as the president’s approval ratings plummet. But desperate times call for desperate measures:

The White House is expected to announce this morning that President Bush will hold a last-minute, election-eve rally for Virginia gubernatorial candidate Jerry W. Kilgore in Richmond, sources in Virginia said.

Apparently the idea is to energize the hard core of Republicans who still worship Dubya, but it’s a risky strategy when, as of last month, Virginians aren’t fans of Bush’s performance: 56 percent disapprove, and only 41 percent approve, of the job he’s doing as president. I guess Kilgore is hoping that the 56 percent won’t be paying attention when he’s holding his rally with the Failure in Chief.

If Bush stands beside Kilgore on Monday and then the voters of Virginia reject him on Tuesday, that will be a remarkable slap in the president’s face from a red state. If you want to help that happen, there are plenty of opportunities between now and Tuesday to volunteer in Virginia.

…like someone holding their phone bill and discovering that the huge total reflects some unknown person’s voracious phone-sex habit. Until they’ve been on hold for three hours waiting to talk to a human being, that is. The story, or ones like it, has been around for some time, but the Motley Fool tells us that being a customer isn’t what it used to be. While it’s a phenomenon most of us are familiar with, very rarely does anyone look at the history of consumer relations in order to find an explanation. With the post-war economic boom of the 1950’s (domestically driven by the families enthusiastically participating in the Baby Boom), “the customer is always right” was the watchword for service. Now, you don’t hear it anymore. Why not? I have a few ideas:

1. Because it’s expensive. The no-questions return policy (for example) costs a great deal more than just the lost sale. More to the point, a bad marketing decision can mean tremendous losses.
2. Because it’s messy. Customers want to be special cases when things go wrong for them. Special cases take time and money, and time is money.
3. Because it’s much, much easier to identify them as consumers, and assume that consuming is something they must do.
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