Latest here:

http://holdfastblog.com/2008/02/11/dodd-and-fisa-filibuster/

It looks like the Senate bill will contain Telecom immunity, unlike the House bill. Let’s contact Matheson’s office and tell him not to support telecom immunity when the bill goes to conference.

Both Mcain and Obama have music videos made from their words, and one of them made me laugh:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/11/mccainobama-parody-like_n_86017.html

Heather and I went to the Progressive Activist Conference at the University of Utah Saturday. We only caught a couple panels, but they were informative even if we could hardly stay awake. The presenters are doing great work for their respective causes, but they could probably benefit from sharpening their presentation skills. One powerpoint had a lot of good information on it, but it was just so much to take in I probably couldn’t repeat even one of the statistics.

Some argue that we progressives shouldn’t even focus on the numbers, but focus more on telling the stories of these numbers - see Drew Weston’s “The Political Brain” (also see theRadioWest interview with the author). Myself, I like a good story AND statistics, and while at the conference I picked up a flyer that tells stories and also shows some numbers. The flyer was put out by American Friends Service Committee.

AFSC has calculated that the per day cost of the Iraq war for the first 4 years has been $720 million. So they’ve figured out how far that $720 million would go for various things:

• Health Insurance for an adult costs $4,403 per year. $720 Million could cover 163,525 people.
• The average cost of a new elementary school is $8,497,627. $720 Million could pay for 84 brand new schools.
• It costs $624 to give a child free school lunches for a year. $720 Million could buy lunch for 1,153,846 kids.
• An affordable housing unit costs around $111,061. $720 Million could buy 6,482 homes.
• A year of Head Start costs $7550. $720 Million could open 95,364 new slots.
• The average cost of renewable electricity for a home is $565/year. $720 Million could pay for 1,274,336 homes to have it.
• An average school teacher’s salary is $57,000. $720 Million could put 12, 478 new teachers in the classroom.
• The average cost of a four-year state university is $20,628. $720 Million could put 34,904 students through college.
• Health insurance for a child costs $1,700 per year. $720 Million could cover 423,529 kids.

Drinking Liberally SLC 2008 Winter Mixer

Originally uploaded by pr0le.

Pictures are up!

We were so busy drinking we didn’t get a lot of pictures, but we got a few. You can view the all here: Drinking Liberally SLC Flickr pool

Oh yeah: CNN Reports Romney to Suspend campaign

Progressive political activists will be gathering at the University of Utah this coming Friday evening February 8 and Saturday February 9 to participate in “The Progressive Agenda for 2008″ conference which features three issues: U.S. Out of Iraq, changing environmental policies to effectively deal with global warming, and getting a national single-payer health care system. Education on each of these three issues will be organized around screening a high-quality film, guest speakers and a panel on local activism in the auditorium of Orson Spencer Hall, just south of the Union Building at the U [see ].
Ending the Iraq war and occupation is the topic for Friday evening with 7pm screening of “Meeting Resistance” and Q&A with filmmakers Molly Bingham and Steve Connors [see , ]. A brief panel on “Americans in Iraq” at 6:30 will precede the film. Panelists are Iraq war veterans Chris Conway and Jeff Key, and Will Van Wagenen who was in Iraq as a peace activist with Christian Peacemaker Teams.
The Al Gore Oscar-winning film “An Inconvenient Truth” screens bright and early at 9am on Saturday morning. Many of us who have seen this film will arrive about 10:30a.m. to hear UK environmental activist Larry Lohmann’s talk on “How to Fight Global Warming: Carbon Trading or Carbon Reduction?”
Hans Ehrbar will moderate the 12noon panel on “Environmental Activism in Utah” with Kathy van Dame of the Wasatch Clean Air Coalition, Craig Forster from the Utah Office of Sustainability, Michael Mielke of Post Carbon Salt Lake; Vanessa Pierce of HEAL Utah and Tim Wagner of the Utah Sierra Club; Larry Lohmann will be the first discussant.
Michael Moore’s enlightening film “Sicko” on the need for a public national health care system will screen at 2pm. Following “Sicko,” Colorado resident Donna Smith who is featured in the film and has been advocating and explaining “single-payer” on the national Sicko tour organized by Healthcare-NOW, California Nurses Association and Physicians for a National Health Care Program will speak.
At 5pm Utah Jobs with Justice Director Linda Parsons will introduce healthcare reform activists Kyle Wulle of the Steelworkers Union, Tammy Diaz of Jobs with Justice, and attorney Clark Newhall, M.D. for a panel presentation on “Private-profit health insurance is the problem, not the solution.”
There will be a variety of workshops and presentations in the Union Building during the day on Saturday starting with one on Immigrants and the Utah Legislature put on by Utahns for the American Dream and the Brown Berets at 10:00a.m. in Union 161. The Mormon Peace Project will present in Union 161 at 2pm followed by The Mormon Worker at 3pm.
Utahns for a Just Peace in the Holy Land has organized a 12noon panel in the Union Theatre with Bothaina Natour, a Palestinian Israeli citizen from Nazareth who is currently a PhD student in geography at the University of Utah, Andy Johnston, a Mennonite Pastor who spent the summer of 2007 with a Christian Peacemaker Team in Hebron, Occupied Palestine, and William VanWagenen, a BYU and Harvard Divinity School graduate who studied at Birzeit University in Occupied Palestine before joining a Christian Peacemaker Team in Iraq where he was kidnapped and later released. The award winning documentary film “Occupation 101″ will be screened at 1pm.
The Utah Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons presents at 3pm in the Union Theatre, Vegan Outreach’s forum on “Industrial Farming, Global Warming and the Environment” is at 1pm in Union 323 and Jean Arnold will give her presentation on “Peak Oil” in Union 323 at 4pm. The Workers International League discusses “Prospects for the Venezuelan Revolution” at 3pm in Union 324 and Pakistani graduate students at the U will analyze “Pakistan in Crisis” at 5pm in Union 161.
The Utah edition of the Eyes Wide Open exhibit [see >] will be in the Union Den all day Saturday. The Campus Committee for Peace and Justice has organized a forum on “The Antiwar Movement” for 11am in Union 324 and U.S. Labor Against the War members Julie Holzer of the Steelworkers Union and Warren Brodhead of the AFT will discuss “Workers, War and the Economy” at 1pm in Union 324.
We the People for Peace and Justice, Utah Jobs with Justice and the Wasatch Coalition for Peace and Justice initially came together to create this ‘Winter Conference’ to invite activists to participate in deciding our next major political action, particularly in regard to a spring mobilization. We are thinking of an April demonstration calling for “U.S. Out of Iraq, No More War for Oil; Money for Healthcare, not Warfare; For Environmentally Sustainable Energy Policies.” These ideas and yours are open for discussion at the 7pm plenary session in the OSH auditorium.

A very special film Directed and Produced locally by BYU graduates, > RESERVED TO FIGHT tells the compelling true story of four Utah > reservists, friends of the filmmakers, who returned home from Iraq > only to find a soldier’s war does not end when the shooting > stops. Soldiers face PTSD, a public that doesn’t understand them, > and politicians eager to gain from their sacrifice. RESERVED TO > FIGHT explores the traumatic experiences veterans face. > > While the country debates the politics of conflict, RESERVED TO > FIGHT gives voice to those who serve. > > WHAT: Cast and Crew Screening of RESERVED TO FIGHT > > WHO: Special Guests: BYU Graduates - Director, Chantelle > Squires and Producers, Manju Varghese and Coby Broyles; members of > the Reservist Fox Company Marines; and Shad Meshad, the Director of > the National Veterans Foundation, will take questions > following the screening. > > WHEN: 7pm, Tuesday, February 5, 2008 > > WHERE: The Post Theatre, 110 S. Fort Douglas Blvd, University of > Utah Campus > > Free and open to the public. > > More information is available at www.slcfilmcenter.org > > Hope you can make it - >
Lets pack the Ft. Douglas theater Tuesday night for Reserved to Fight. Go to www.reservedtofight.com and watch the trailer. Thank you, Carla