DCDL

DCDL’s journalist in residence, Art Levine, went undercover at a seminar for business owners wanting to learn how to fight union organizing among their employees and wrote an article about the experience for In These Times. See Art’s blog post for more, including his radio interview with Thom Hartmann on Air America Radio yesterday.

We hope you can join us on Thursday September 20, 6:30-9, as we host Eric Shutt, director of First Freedom First, in the back room of Timberlake’s (1726 Connecticut Ave NW, Dupont Circle Metro).

First Freedom First is a partnership of two organizations — The Interfaith Alliance Foundation and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Their mission is to protect our religious liberty and separation of church and state.

Phil Donahue had this to say about First Freedom First: “The Founders were right. Never let the pompously pious politicians pretend they have God (and you don’t). First Freedom volunteers are today’s patriots, the ground troops in the fight against those who would make America a theocratic nation of one religion: Theirs.”

The evening will start off with happy hour from 6:30-7:30 followed by Eric’s talk and Q&A, 7:30-8:15. We’ll be hanging until 9 or so.

More about Eric Shutt:
(more…)

Jim McBride of Arlington Young Democrats sent along this announcement:

AYD’s “Democrats Collide on Capitol Hill” Networking Night & Young Voter PAC’s Celebrity Bartender Fundraiser
(two young dem events on the hill in one night!)

#1 “Democrats Collide on Capitol Hill” Networking Night
6:00-9:30pm Wednesday, September 19th
Capitol Lounge, 229 Pennsylvania Ave, SE, Washington, DC (Capitol South Metro)

Sponsored by the Arlington Young Democrats’ Capitol Area Progressive Ambassadors (CAPA), join young dems (and the young-at-heart) from VA, DC and MD for another happy hour to get local progressives to socialize, network and build relationships for helping us win back Virginia’s General Assembly in 2007 and America’s White House in 2008.

The purpose of CAPA, which launched in July 2007, is to develop new alliances as well as foster stronger relationships among like-minded organizations in the D.C. metro area to unite us together to further a progressive agenda. If you would like us to add your organization as a co-host and CAPA Member, please let us know.

Please invite your friends!

Contact: Sarah Godlewski, 715-379-2511, publicity{at}arlingtonyoungdems.org

RSVP Today!
http://action.yda.org/c/1513/t/200/event/index.jsp?event_KEY=11805

#2 Celebrity Bartender Fundraiser
6:00pm - 8:00pm Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Top of the Hill Bar, 319 Pennsylvania Ave., SE, Washington, DC

Before you hit the networking night, come get a drink from one of our previously endorsed candidates and other Democratic leaders who support the youth vote. Buy your ticket today (young dems $50) at www.youngvoterpac.org.

Confirmed bartenders include:

• Rep. Harry Mitchell, Everyone’s Favorite Teacher
• Rep. George Miller, the College Affordability Crusader
• Scott Kleeb, the Hot Rancher
• Celinda Lake, the Goddess Pollster
• John Aravosis, America’s Blogger
• Anthony Daniels, the Chair of Future Educators

After the fundraiser we will head to the after-party at Capitol Lounge for the “Democrats Collide” event.

RSVP: jane{at}youngvoterpac.org

Update (17 Sep): The headline was wrong. The events are on Wednesday, September 19.

Yesterday the AP cited figures from the Defense Intelligence Agency re: the levels of insurgent attacks in 2007.

Here are the charts (**Note: The DIA bargraphs don’t include specific numbers, so these numbers are approximations**):

From the AP:

Slightly more than 3,300 attacks were recorded in January and 3,143 were reported in July, the DIA said.

From the AP:

There were 946 attacks against Iraqi security forces in January and 850 in July.

From the AP:

According to the DIA chart, there were 897 attacks against Iraqi civilians in January and 808 in July.

The defense intelligence chart makes the point, with figures from Petraeus’ command in Baghdad, the Multinational Force-Iraq. Congressional auditors [(i.e., the GAO)] used the same numbers to conclude that Iraqis are as unsafe now as they were six months ago; the Bush administration and military officials also using those figures say that finding is flawed.

Reality-based conclusion:

Insurgent attacks against Iraqi civilians, their security forces and U.S. troops remain high, according to the document obtained by The Associated Press.

I heard To the Point today and was struck by this bit (my transcription):

ANN STONE (national chair, Republicans for Choice): Bottom line: conservatives desperately, desperately want to make sure that Hillary Clinton is never president. In the end, they’re going to go with whoever can stop Hillary. Right now the polls show Giuliani is the first person. Thompson also has a shot. The others fall way below that.

JIM STERNGOLD (guest host): Let me ask you this. That is an interesting point, which I’ve heard, and you make it quite strongly, but why would the Republicans let their race be shaped by the other party?

STONE: Because Hillary Clinton, unlike a lot of the liberal demagogues, actually believes the stuff that she’s talking about. She’s actually going to push a very aggressive agenda and probably do more to shape this country for the next, you know, couple of decades way to the left. She would put everything behind it. She actually believes what she’s saying.

So Stone’s fears about Hillary Clinton are pretty much the opposite of mine. If I thought Clinton was really the most liberal of the Democratic presidential candidates, that she really believed in a liberal agenda, and that she wanted to aggressively reshape the country, I’d feel a lot better about her being the front runner. Instead I think she’s the worst of both worlds: a candidate who’s really not that liberal (and so won’t bring the change that’s needed if she wins) but is viewed by much of the electorate as being far too liberal (and so will have more trouble winning than she should).