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April Meeting - new date !

Regular Monthly Meeting of Polk County Democrats

Tuesday, April 7

 

6:30 pm: Refreshments and conversation

7:00 pm:  Dr. Mike Grady of the Archimedes Movement will make a presentation on how to achieve health care.

Dr. Brady is a family care physician in Silverton with 31 years experience . He has a website at https://www.wecandobetter.org/blog/1544 (where i found this information), and there is more about the Archimedes Movement at several sites including http://www.wecandobetter.org/blog

8:00 pm:  Business meeting

The business meeting begins at 8:00 p.m.  We will be holding the postponed Election of Chair at this meeting, so it is crucial that all voting PCPs attend this meeting!!!  Previous Chair Alan Holland has graciously been serving as Acting Chair, but has requested that the election now be held, in accordance with the ByLaws.  If someone else is willing to serve as Chair, Alan has said he is happy to turn the reins over to them.  Anyone interested in serving as Chair, please come to the meeting and volunteer, or ask someone to nominate you, or accept the nomination if nominated.  :) We have an excellent Executive Committee ready to help you.  :)

9:00 pm: Adjourn. 

 

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Our Deadline Poet:

The Republican litany is becoming inaner,
They preen on C-Span and put on a show:
Fresh ideas from Rep. John Boehner
Which can be summed up in a word, “No!”

Colin Powell believed in the Pottery Barn rule,
After eight years at the wheel, they broke it.
Now, with the economy gasping for breath,
All they want is to continue to choke it.

“Let’s fan the flames of anti-tax hate;
Using every tired cliche’ we know.
No one will notice we don’t have our facts straight
And have no clue how to make things go.”

For eight years they had a grand old party
For themselves and the wealthiest two percent.
Spending like sailors, deregulating heartily
Reaching Norquist’s goal: to “break government.”

Suddenly they realize we might need it.
But fear is so easy to summon on request.
So they mindlessly continue to feed it
But the public knows we need more than a “no”fest.

Next election to be in 2010
Will they have any ideas by then?

-- Rob Breyer  

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Everything below here is repeated from earlier newsletters.

New material will be posted as it is received.

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After considerable discussion and research it has been decided that the Polk County Democratic Central Committee shall change its monthly meeting dates to fall on the FIRST TUESDAY of each month. The main advantage to this change is that it avoids the 2nd Thursday conflict w/ the Progressive film series in Salem that many Dems have either attended or expressed a desire to attend on that evening. It was not easy to find other dates that had both the Salem Electric site and the Monmouth Christ's Church site available... In the future we may be interested in finding a single site, centrally located in Polk County, as some Dems don't seem to travel well to the alternate site farther from their home. It is almost like having 2 separate groups that only come every other month to the CC.
Also, on Tuesday next CC, we will try to facilitate carpooling to so more can make it economically to all meetings.
Please print the agenda and bring it Tuesday to the CC meeting at Salem Electric and print the meeting schedule and post it where you will be reminded to avoid scheduling other things on the first Tuesdays.
Thanks to you if you were among the 34 Polk Dem volunteers who picked up 47 bags of litter along Hwy 22 near Rickreall and the Wildlife Viewpoint on Saturday before the Inauguration. The press covered the event favorably, we had some fun and good food afterwards, thanks to Sue Olmstead and husband. Your Exec. did a lot to make this happen, especially Beth Fleisher and Fred Brown.
We have a great need for some folks to continue some of the involvement that was so exciting during the election season. We will have lists of sign-up opportunities for you to choose how/when/what/ how much you can help make Polk County better through Democratic action.
Best Regards, hope to see you on Tuesday Feb. 3, 6:30, at Salem Electric.

Alan Holland, Chair, Polk County Democratic Central Committee

Polk County Democratic Central Committee
Sponsored/Upcoming Events for 2009
More info at: www.polkdems.org
Send events to: calendar@polkdems.org

February:
3 –   PCD _CC, West Salem
24 -    EC: Dallas, 6 pm AH

March:
3-   PCD-CC, Monmouth
TBA-   PCD-Road Clean Up, Rickreall, 9 am
31–   EC : W. Salem, 6 pm FB

April:
7-   PCD-CC, W. Salem(PCP Training)
28-    EC- Dallas, 6 pm AH

May:
5-    PCD-CC, Monmouth
26- EC – W. Salem, 6 pm FB
June:
2-    PCD-CC, West Salem
30-    EC, Dallas, 6 pm AH
TBA – PCD Road Clean-Up, Rickreall

July:
2-5 – Western Days w/ Parade
7- PCD-CC – Monmouth
11 – Riverview Music Fest at Holland’s
15-Pentacle Theater PCD Benefit Show
–Dallas Summerfest
28- EC, Dallas, 6 pm FB

August:
4 – PCD-CC, West Salem
7-10 – Polk County Fair, Rickreall
22-Sept 1 – Oregon State Fair
25- EC: Dallas, 6 pm AH
September:
1 – PCD-CC. Monmouth
TBA – PCD Road Clean up, Rickreall
29 – EC : W. Salem, 6 pm FB
October:
6 – PCD-CC, W. Salem
27 - EC: Dallas, 6 pm AH
November:
3 – PCD-CC, Monmouth
____ PCD Donation Mailing sent out
–    ELECTION DAY
24 – EC : W. Salem, 6 pm FB
December:
1 – PCD-CC, West Salem
23- TBA- PCD-Road Clean Up, Rickreall, 9 am
16- EC: Dallas, 6 pm AH
January 4: CC    W. Salem

Other possibilities TBA (planners needed)
*Chemeketa Viticultural Center Dinner & auction
*Airlie Winery
*Buena Vista House Dinner
*Independence Hop & Heritage Fest
* Buffet Dinner Fundraiser/Silent Auction
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Polk County Democrats’ standing committees:
If you are interested in learning about any of these committees or volunteering to help, please contact:
>Process & Rules: Timothe Seelbach, timseelbach@msn.com 503-581-2869
>Volunteer Recruitment & Support: Chair open, Beth Fleisher EC liaison 503-409-0441
>Fundraising: Chair position open, Fred Brown EC Liaison, 503-510-4579
>Candidate Development & Support - open
>Platform (i.e. legislative action): open, Alan Holland EC Liaison
>Events: (& meeting programs) open, Lani Kirby EC Liaison    503-831-1669   
>Communications: Chair position open, Beth Fleisher EC liaison, 503-409-0441
>Central Committee Chair: Alan Holland:   503-371-3920 or 503-551-0580 cell
Vice Chair Lani Kirby    503-831-1669        vicechair@polkdems.org

Fred also indicated he would help out at treasurer until someone else was identified as willing to do the job... there is Another Opportunity for political activity to support good democratic government.
Congratulations to Lani, Beth, Fred. I hope you will welcome them, and support them with your active involvement at both the monthly meetings of Polk Dems and ongoing committee work, but also through becoming a PCP. Thank you. See you Jan. 8.

--
Alan Holland, Chair, Polk County Democratic Central Committee
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

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(Our Deadline Poet Nails it Again)

We stagger and reel....

-- Rob Breyer

We stagger and reel, it's a disaster,
The economy is trapped in free fall,
Spiraling downward, faster and faster:
Obama and team must answer the call.

They find themselves facing a "perfect storm"
Which, frankly, we did not anticipate
And we worry that any solutions
Will turn out to be too little too late.

We try not to give in to doubt and the fear it is sowing:
To show that we have lost neither our will nor our heart

But, truth is, we can take some comfort in knowing,
At least, at last, we elected a man who is smart. 

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Editorial Comment: My Favorite Blogs

Editorial comments.  I have tried to avoid making them all year, but news is lax, and I feel there should be something.
Since I have not put new news in the online newsletter, here is a list of my favorite online news sites and why.

http://www.electoral-vote.org   
The founder, Andrew Tanenbaum, is a professor of computer science in Amsterdam. I heard somewhere that he founded it as an experiment in developing a site that would have high traffic.  It has very high traffic.
This is the one I look at first in the morning.  It is primarily statistical, and during the election was the best/quickest source for the latest numbers of the polls in each state for all the federal offices.  But it also has brief essays by the founder, which are new each day, succinct, and often interesting.  It is there fresh when I get up in the morning, and does not change during the day.  - (however, now that the busy Election season is over, it sometimes does not change for several days)

http://fivethirtyeight.com
538 is the number of votes in the electoral college.  The founder, Nate Silver, got into political number analysis as a sideline of his first love, baseball statistic analysis.  His number-crunching on the polls, and the reliability of the polls, was unmatched.
Also in the last year there's been a real growth of his interest in the subject matter.  For example, during the presidential campaign Nate or his associate Sean Quinn visited numerous Republican or Democratic campaign offices in over 30 states, photographing, interviewing and describing as they travelled.  The difference in enthusiasm in the two campaigns was remarkable, and described in detail.  On this morning, Nov 30, Sean is in Georgia and contributes a long article, with photos, about the thousands of volunteers working to increase turnout for the Senate runoff Dec 2.  The state-wide numbers look like the Democrat Martin is running behind.
Many other articles, often but not always stemming from some numerical comparison, have appeared this year, and I think it's fair to say there is real growth in Nate's reportage as well as his statistics.
Incidentally, this site is never new in the morning; new articles start appearing here after noon.

http://www.dailykos.com
I usually get to kos sometime during the day.  The creation of Kos, (Markos Moulitsas Zúñiga), a 30-year old ex-soldier, ex-Republican, who lives with his wife and two children in Berkeley, has become the gorilla on the block: the big site.  It is generally well written, by dozens of columnists, and tends to the liberal left (after a short flirtation with the left, which produced a drop in advertising - see the Wikipedia article).  It is a monster site, including among other things brief precis of the comments of dozens of other sites or editorials.   I never read all of it; there is simply too much.  But I usually skim down through the day's file and pick out an article, a paragraph, or two or three.

http://www.crooksandliars.com
Crooksandliars is more of an evening blog.  John Amato and his crew of about eight columnists work with video/editorial: almost every article is built around a video excerpt which you can view on site.  Some are very interesting; there were good samples during the election of various senatorial campaign ad spots, for example. And some are more purely entertaining: Amato has worked in the music industry for years.  There is usually at least one straight music video which has been selected for someone's notion of interest, and here was the first time I saw Stepan Grappelli and Django Reinhart playing together - 60 years ago.  And got introduced to Stephen Colbert's bizarre and terrific comedic interviews.

http://www.blueoregon.com
And the fifth of my five main sites has to do entirely with Oregon Democratic/progressive politics.  Kari Chisholm does a good job of hosting and writing, with a few friends, and doesn't fail to comment on queries in the comments columns after the articles, if he can help.  I don't read it every day, but maybe once week.  I also get a weekly notice in the email that lists the subject articles for the last week, so sometimes an article title catches my eye and I look it up.

Two late adds:

http://www.salem-news.com  See new article above.

http://www.firedoglake.com   Not a regular for me, but interesting.  

That's about it for me.  Any other comments?  Or news?  What did I miss!?

Most welcome!

send to truprice@wvi.com

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Voter Registration report.

These were the statistics Apr. 29:

	Dems	Repubs	(diff.)	LBT	NA	PAC	IND	Others
Dec. 31	12988	16306	3318	249	8105	134	204	109
Apr 29	14348	16400	2052	243	8038	126	356	101
Oct 2	15331	16416	1015
Oct 13	21398	22974	1586		@15500
NET CHANGE:	+8410	+6668	-1732		@7500

We have cut the registration difference, Dem/Rep, by nearly half.  Our hope for the elections is to get a good majority of the @15500 non-aligned ("NA") voters. We'll see.

The voting totals from the May 20 primary were very favorable.
(totals up from the Polk County official Precincts Primary Report,
at http://www.co.polk.or.us/tempimages/EL30.HTM)

REGISTERED VOTERS - TOTAL ..... 39525
BALLOTS CAST - TOTAL ..... 23662
BALLOTS CAST - DEMOCRAT ..... 11227
BALLOTS CAST - REPUBLICAN ..... 9743
BALLOTS CAST - NONPARTISAN ..... 2692

Perhaps the favorable margin was due to the more competitive primary races on the Democratic side... and consider this: of the 11227 Democrats who cast ballots, 3855 did not vote for a State Representative.

There are 3 things we can do right now:

1) Educate voters, especially new Democratic voters, about the importance of being informed on LOCAL elections and voting down the ballot.
2) Canvass for the candidates, both national and local, here in Polk County

3) Find PCP's for Independence and Dallas - and be Active as a PCP

Pick one of these, and do it now! 

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Monmouth Peace Vigils - which were every Wednesday 5-6 pm

The drive-by demonstrations on the street in front of Monmouth City Park were held every Wednesday from April 2007 to November 2008.  It's very dark now at 5.

March 19: About half the folks who turned up for the vigil marking the 5th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

Running Box Score:
Wed Jul 16 - 141 positive cars, 2 negatives
Wed Jul 23 - 148 positive cars, 1 negative
Wed Jul 30 - 121 positive cars (@ 200 people) Zero negatives
Wed Aug 6 - 161 positive cars, (@250 people), Zero negatives
Wed Aug 27 - 156 1/2* positive cars, 3 1/2* negative
* An unusual car count - a driver honked, smiled, and waved broadly - while his passenger made a thumbs-down gesture.

Wed Sept 3 - 135 positive cars, 7 negative - This is the most negative results we ever got. Because of the GOP convention & the Queen of Pork bounce?

Wed Sep 10 - 205 positive cars, (@ 300 people), Zero negatives - Is that bounce over already? - definitely over half of all the cars that passed, and there were quite a few nice smiles we didn't count.

Wed Oct 1 - terrific! 235 positive responses (that's cars, nearly 400 people), 2 negative - over half of all the cars that passed waved or honked, and that includes the many people on cell phones and the just plain confused.

& a big thank you to Rick's Place, across the street, for the gifts of ice water for all the vigilers.

(Note: Our Rep. Darlene Hooley seemed to think that the feelings for impeachment and withdrawal from Iraq were some kind of elitism, despite repeated appeals from PolkDem leadership and unified meetings with PolkDem and all other county chairs from her district. But these numbers are from the grassroots.)

 

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Even Older News & Repeats (some slightly amended)