I received this voicemail last night from American Family Voices highlighting Brian “Wrong Way” Bilbray's finacial relationship with Big Oil and his recent vote against a bill which would repeal the tax break Congress gave them and would fund renewable energy programs. 

For those of you not familiar with AFV, it is run by Mike Lux who is one of the founders of OpenLeft.com among other things. 

I can't tell you how happy I am to see both the Democratic establishment and progressive groups focusing on the 50th.  Now we need to get the grassroots and the netroots coordinated to make sure we get everyone out to vote.  Early involvement and upfront money can really make a difference and help bring the race more national attention.  Sign up as a volunteer to help or donate to Nick Leibham's campaign. 

I'll do some informal surveying of friends and family who live in the 50th to see if they also received the call but one can only hope everyone had a chance to hear more about “our” guy in congress.   

I am glad we are already getting calls this far out from election day.  I am guessing there will be a lot more coming from both sides.

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(I was there as well, representing the West LA Drinking Liberally. We’re going to have our Calitics Q3 Quarterly in association with DL on September 26. I was going to write this up but Jesse does an excellent job here. I did post my thoughts on the Harkin Steak Fry at my personal site here. – promoted by David Dayen)

Drinking Liberally’s 3rd Annual National Convention was held in Des Moines Iowa over the weekend.  It was a fabulous weekend for many reasons, but I’d have to say that the Des Moines chapter was the highlight of the trip.  The city leaders and their members are not only great people but they are amazing liberals who absolutely get it.  Future DL national conferences have a lot to live up to due to their effort and hospitality.  In addition to the productive meeting environment the DL National Organizers created and the great guest speakers they lined up for us, we attended the Tom Harkin’s Annual Steak Fry fundraiser.  Most of the Democratic Presidential candidates were there to meet, mingle and speak to Iowans (and some of us out-of-towners too). 

Please flip

More than anything, the national conferences are in place to get the people who run Drinking Liberally, the city leaders, together once a year.  The national leaders intentionally have a light touch on the direction of the organization.  The cities leaders are the ones really driving where Drinking Liberally ultimately goes.  The first portion of the weekend summarized where we came from, where we are today, where we want to go next and how we plan on getting there.  The “getting there” section was supplemented by guest speakers from the Center for Independent Media, Young People For and Open Left.  The panel was asked to focus on where Drinking Liberally fits into the progressive and liberal community and the value we bring.  Tom Harkin’s online communications point person (and DL member) also spoke to the group on how to engage elected officials and candidates in coming to a Drinking Liberally event.  The Harkin Steak Fry was a perfect end to the weekend.  Most of the candidates in attendance were accessible for a handshake at the very least and in some cases a casual conversation about the Drinking Liberally button they were just handed.

For those of you not familiar with Drinking Liberally you’ve obviously been working way too hard promoting the progressive/liberal agenda and haven’t enjoyed the benefits you are entitled to as a member of the community.  Flip liberally to hear more about Drinking Liberally and its parent organization Living Liberally, how to get involved or starting your own chapter.

Drinking Liberally is a national organization with more than 200 chapters where progressives and liberals come together to regularly “water the grassroots” in cities across the country.  It’s a place where progressives and liberals come to recharge our batteries, let our hair down, not work, recruit or be recruited, and generally feel at ease with others who have similar values, goals ambitions.

Drinking Liberally is the oldest and most well known group of larger umbrella organization, Living Liberally which also includes Laughing Liberally, Eating Liberally, Reading Liberally, and Screening Liberally.

Thriving communities require culture to sustain and nourish the members of the community, and Living Liberally has become a major part of the culture of the progressive and liberal community.  Living Liberally is also evolving into the face-to-face social networking component of the liberal and progressive community.  While Facebook, MySpace and Google groups are great for finding people with common interests, Living Liberally provides the in person contact and networking where real relationships are formed and can be capitalized upon. 

It all starts with an individual making the decision that their city or town needs a place where progressives and liberals can meet, can find others who share similar interests, can get a better feel for what is being done in the community or want to have a place where people can learn and engage in discussions focusing on progressive and liberal politics.  The city leader chooses a location, day, time and frequency of the “meeting.”  The meetings won’t start with an official call to order or include a meeting agenda with recorded minutes.  A social gathering is probably better a definition of the events. 

But don’t let the informality fool you.  Drinking Liberally chapters all over the country have been known to attract elected officials and candidates from all offices of city/county/state/federal government, great guests, best selling authors and prominent members of the online community.  New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson came to our National Conference party in Des Moines just this weekend.

On Wednesday, September 19th members Drinking Liberally San Diego will be attending the Calitics Quarterly Fundraiser in San Diego at the Firehouse American Eatery.  You can contact Lucas O’Connor ([email protected]) for more information.  *As an organization, Drinking Liberally does not support or endorse political parties, candidates, or issues. 

Sound appealing?  Visit www.drinkingliberally.org and look for a chapter near you.  Don’t see a chapter in your area?  Start one, it’s easy.  Running a DL chapter doesn’t take much time and is very rewarding knowing you are building the infrastructure of the progressive and liberal communities.

Feel free to email me with any question or comments.

Jesse Rubin
Drinking Liberally San Diego City Leader and National Field Organizer
[email protected]

(I pressed Jesse into service last night to pinch-hit for me at the event. Can you believe there’s a three-way primary in the 50th? – promoted by Lucas O’Connor)

Last night the Black Mountain Democratic Club hosted a meet and greet for Michael Wray, Nick Leibham, and John Lee Evans, the three candidates running for congress in California’s 50th district.

In addition to the normal club business and the special guests, John Lee Evans announced Bilbray Watch, a watch dog group monitoring all things Bilbray and gave the club an overview on how to write a letter to the local papers and have it published.

Close to 30 people turned out to hear from the three candidates.  While most of the attendees were Black Mountain Club members there were quite a few non club members present just to see and hear the special guests.  People seemed very excited to get their first glimpse and hear what hot button issues the potential new congressman from the 50th would be discussing.

Keep scrolling for more info specific to what each candidate said during their 10 minutes in the spotlight.

Before the meeting, I was standing alone and Nick Leibham came over to introduce himself to me and immediately asked me if I was a democrat and wanted to know if I was with Bilbray’s team.  I am not too sure what gave him that impression but I was not happy with the assumption… 

Nick Leibham spoke right after the meeting was called to order and left immediately after the conclusion of his allotted time due to personal reasons.  He started off with a brief bio and his personal history where he outlined his roots and DC political pedigree and finished up with where he stands on his main issues; Iraq and publicly financed elections.  He worked for a number of years for a congressman in Washington but didn’t mention the congressman by name.  Leibham also worked for the DNC as a coordinator of the 13 most western states but didn’t go into detail about the specific job functions he was responsible for. 

Leibham stated clearly Iraq is the biggest issue needing to be addressed.  He gave us a 50,000 foot overview of his three pronged approach:

1) Provide safe passage for people wishing to connect with family and friends who live in different parts of the country.
2) Redeploy troops around the middle east
3) Create a “diplomatic surge” by engaging Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, and even Iran.  The diplomatic surge would be used to help stabilize and monitor issues in Iraq.

The second issue Leibham addressed was the need for campaign finance reform.  He prefaced the topic by saying he was going to talk about an issue that won’t get talked about much and isn’t on anybody’s top 10 list.  He explained how this is a house of cards issue with money being the one critical component that would topple the problems associated within our political system.  He committed to sign on to and support any bill that would move the system towards reforming the financial process within the political world.

While he didn’t take many questions he was asked was how he planned on financing his own campaign.  He said that he will be asking for money from family and friends.

Of the three, I think Leibham is the only one to have officially filed the paper work with the FEC.

After some meeting business and discussion topics, John Lee Evans spoke about his watch dog group “Bilbray Watch”.  He spoke in-depth about on how to write effective letters to the local newspapers and online publications.  Evans did a good job of outlining what the publications look for and what won’t be published and encouraged all of us to write and submit responses to articles covering issues and people in the 50th.  Outside of signing up for an email updates on Bilbray votes and writing letters, I didn’t hear too much more on what Bilbray Watch would be doing. 

Immediately following his discussions on “Bilbray Watch” we had a chance to hear more about Mr. Evans as a candidate.  He clearly stated his main objective was to remove Bilbray from office but didn’t offer any specifics on why he needed to go or how it was going to happen.  Evans briefly highlighted his time with the Peace Corps, the volunteer work he did with Dean, being a part of the Busby campaign and his professional career as a psychologist. After going through his personal story and some background on his politics, he outlined his major issues:

The 4 I’s

Iraq- Acknowledge we should have never gone to war in Iraq.
Immigration- Even though Bilbray is the immigration guy, no real ideas have been presented since he took office
Insurance- All Americans should have a similar healthcare plan equivalent to what members of congress currently have
Inappropriate intrusion into privacy- Need to restore the right to privacy 

Michael Wray did the best of the three candidates to verbalize why he is running.  He went through his history of being an activist and searching for that perfect candidate to support and finally came to the conclusion that maybe he is the candidate he is looking for.  It was time to step up and be the candidate he has been looking to work for and endorse. 

In a very clear concise message he said he was a progressive Democrat who is against the war, is for publicly financed elections and believes all Americans are entitled to healthcare but would be happy to start off addressing the children who do not have insurance.

He wrapped up by saying he was not interested in stating what he is opposed to but would rather lead by coming up with new ideas and putting those ideas into action. 

While the format wasn’t ideal because of candidates’ special circumstances, I think the club did a great job of providing the candidates with an audience and a forum to be heard.  I am looking forward to having another chance to hear the candidates speak more in-depth on not only their ideas but also how they will accomplish their goals should they make it to Washington.