DCDL

• AltHippo has a podcast of reflections on Gerald Ford, including snippets of conversation from last night’s DCDL get-together at Timberlake’s. There’s even a bit from some disfluent guy named Keith.
• Ian Ayres at Balkinization brings up the widely ignored point that Ford stated (or at least strongly implied) during his confirmation hearing for the vice-presidency that he wouldn’t pardon Nixon. I’m not sure I buy Ayres’s suggestion for how Ford should have handled the situation, but it’s an interesting post nonetheless.
• Matthew Rothschild at the Progressive refuses to do the sentimental thing and instead shines a harsh light on Ford’s real record.
• Conservative objections to criticizing a president shortly after his death seem to have been swept away after Bob Woodward revealed in Thursday’s Washington Post that Ford didn’t think Bush’s Iraq war was such a hot idea. Self-appointed virtue czar Bill Bennett took the opportunity to call Ford a coward.
• Woodward’s further revelations today only confirm liberals’ concerns about Ford’s pardon of Nixon, as Josh Marshall points out.

I came home from my Christmas trip to Richmond to find four Christmas cards in my mailbox from politicians (okay, only one actually uses the word “Christmas”, but let’s be real). I’m still trying to figure out what signal some of them are trying to send.

The one from Barack Obama is pretty straightforward. Presumably it’s yet another indication that he’s planning to run for president.

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DC for Democracy has its holiday party tomorrow, December 20 (RSVP):

Even though we all got our big gift for the year on Election Day, that’s no reason not to celebrate this holiday season. Join your fellow progressives and toast the new Congress, share cookie recipes, or just chill out with friends. We’ll also be, once again, collecting canned goods and other non-perishable food items to take to the Capital Area Food Bank. For the past two years, members have been incredibly generous and have brought lots of food in to help the homeless — let’s keep that tradition alive in 2006.

Suggested donation $10, or whatever you can give to help support DC for Democracy.

December 20, 2006
From: 07:00 PM until 09:00 PM

Address
Marty’s 527 8th St SE
Contact: dcfordemocracy@gmail.com

Marty’s Restaurant is near the Eastern Market Metro.

The Cleveland Park chapter of Amnesty International USA is having an “America I Believe In” house party Tuesday, December 19, at 7:30 at the Cleveland Park Library, 3310 Connecticut Ave NW (RSVP):

Outlawed: Extraordinary Rendition, Torture and Disappearances in the “War on Terror” tells the stories of Khaled El-Masri and Binyam Mohamed, two men who have survived extraordinary rendition, secret detention, and torture by the U.S. government working with various other governments worldwide. “Outlawed” features relevant commentary from Louise Arbour, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, U.S. President George W. Bush, Michael Scheuer, the chief architect of the rendition program and former head of the Osama Bin Laden unit at the CIA, and Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. Secretary of State.

“Outlawed” a documentary produced by WITNESS and AI USA in association with 12 other groups worldwide, places the post-9/11 phenomenon of renditions and the “war on terror” in a human rights context and calls for action end these human rights abuses.

This Saturday, December 9, Dupont Circle Drinking Liberally will be going to the 7 o’clock showing of Bobby, the new movie about Robert Kennedy, at DC’s last movie palace, the Uptown Theatre, 3424 Connecticut Ave NW (Cleveland Park Metro), which opened in 1933.

Then at 9:30, we’ll head up the street to Washington’s best Chinese restaurant from the time of the movie and see how well it’s surviving the modern era. Yenching Palace (3524 Connecticut Ave NW) was the site of meetings in 1962 between emissaries of JFK and Khrushchev during the Cuban missile crisis and in 1971 between Henry Kissinger and Chinese representatives when Nixon was planning to restore relations with China. Rumor has it that Yenching Palace will be turning into a Walgreen’s before long, so check it out before it’s gone.

If you’re interested in joining us, meet in front of the theater at 6:40, and please e-mail us at dcthu@drinkingliberally.org so we can have some idea how many people will be going to the restaurant.

To keep up to date with DCDL events, subscribe to our e-mail announcement list.

Tomorrow, December 6, DC for Democracy has a speaker from the DNC at their monthly meeting in the back room at Ben’s Chili Bowl (RSVP). Sounds interesting:

Join us for our first MeetUp following the groundbreaking mid-term election results. To help us understand exactly how Democrats were so successful in taking back Congress and building a stronger progressive movement throughout the country, we’ll be joined by Parag Mehta, Director of Training for the Democratic National Committee. Parag was instrumental in helping implement the “50 State Strategy” around the country, and will give us an inside look at what happened and what the plans are to continue to build on the gains made this past year.

We’ll also be announcing plans for our upcoming holiday party, and soliciting volunteers to help design our annual winter strategy retreat. And of course there will be chili.

December 06, 2006
From: 07:00 PM until 08:30 PM

Address
Ben’s Chili Bowl 1213 U Street, N.W.
Contact: dcfordemocracy@gmail.com

DCfD is a good group to get involved with, and they’ll soon be determining their priorities for the new year. Stop by and find out more.