Next Drinking Liberally Meeting February 26th

Important: Next Meeting Date Monday, February 26th;
No meeting Monday February 19th.

Hello Drinking Liberally Members!

New Meeting Dates:
This email brings exciting news! Drinking Liberally new regular meeting dates are the 2nd and 4th Mondays. The start time and location remains the same: 7 pm at the Tumwater Valley Bar and Grill. Formerly meeting on the 1st and 3rd Mondays, these dates will allow progressive Driinking Liberally to more easily participate in other progressive social events held in the Olympia area during the 1st and 3rd weeks of each month.
Green Spirits, a progressive group of folks who have an interest in the environment, meets on the 1st Wednesday of each month at a rotating schedule. Progressive Spirits, a group sponsored by the Thurston County Progressive Network, meets on the 3rd Tuesday of each month. This meets you can drink--and socialize--with progressives every week of the month in Olympia!

For more information, visit the Pro-Net Website at http://www.tcpronet.org/, which features a great community calendar,

Next Meeting Information:
We will be continuing our discussion on framing issues to better communicate progressive ideals. Please come with an idea on how you might frame the issue of health care affordability and access and around another topic of importance to you.

Links to Information on framing issues can be found here: http://olydrinkingliberally.blogspot.com/2007/02/fwd-drinking-liberally-monday-february.html

Also Drinking Liberally member Sam recommends checking out the following article at the Frameshop by Jeffery Feldman. The Frameshop can be found on the web at: http://jeffrey-feldman.typepad.com/frameshop/2007/02/frameshop_its_y.html

Mark your calendars! This will be your only reminder for the February 26th meeting as Bruce will be on vacation and away from computers (that's a REAL vacation)!

Keep that positive progressive energy going!

Bruce and Barry

Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance

Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance:

"Seattle, WA – The Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance (WA-DOMA) announced on Thursday that their proposed initiative to make procreation a requirement for legal marriage has been accepted by the Secretary of State and assigned the serial number 957. The initiative has been in the planning stages since the Washington Supreme Court ruled last July that the state’s Defense of Marriage Act was constitutional.

“For many years, social conservatives have claimed that marriage exists solely for the purpose of procreation,” said WA-DOMA organizer Gregory Gadow in a printed statement. “The Washington Supreme Court echoed that claim in their lead ruling on Andersen v. King County. The time has come for these conservatives to be dosed with their own medicine. If same-sex couples should be barred from marriage because they can not have children together, it follows that all couples who can not or will not have children together should equally be barred from marriage. And this is what the Defense of Marriage Initiative will do.”"

It's this kind of insane/inane initiative-mongering that makes the need of initiative reform that much more necessary. I strongly believe that signatures for initiatives should be gathered by non-paid gatherers. The minimum wage initiative used only non-paid gatherers (I volunteered to stand out at Percivile Landing and gather signatures) who believe so strongly in their cause that they donate time to their cause.

Queen George and the Invisible Dick | CorrenteWire

Queen George and the Invisible Dick | CorrenteWire:

"Like CD, I have run across an item which says what I’ve been trying to get across (and failing) every time the “We Can’t Impeach Bush Until We Get Rid of Cheney First” argument comes up to conveniently deflate the obvious fact that they both have to go.

Josh Marshall’s weekend guy David Kurtz slams the whole package together in this terrific piece. This started when the TPM crew set out to find out a seemingly basic, easy question: how many people work for the Office of the Vice President (OVP)? Turns out you are not allowed to know this. (Emphasis added). Never mind who they are, what they do, or who comes to visit them during working, taxpayer-funded hours, you aren’t allowed to know how many of them exist, again paid for with your tax dollars. How can this be, you ask?"

The evidence is mounting that the Office of the Vice-President is engaging in questionable power mongering that should belong in the Office of the President. The question is, "why is this being allowed by President Bush?"

Drinking Liberally Monday, February 5th

Hi all!

This is your friendly reminder that Drinking Liberally Olympia's next get together is Monday, Feb. 5th, 7 pm, at the Tumwater Valley Bar and Grill.

In addition to our normal roundtable of current events, this week our discussion will revolve around how us left-leaners can more effectively frame messages that will have more acceptance from those that in the past have not associated themselves with left-leaning principles.

DL Olympia member Liz provided the following information if you want to read up on the subject prior to Monday night--though don't feel like you have to!! :)
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One of the topics on the agenda for DL's first meeting in February is how liberals can more effectively frame our perspectives. George Lakoff, who is a professor of linguistics at UC Berkeley, has written extensively on this topic. Below are links to his website. You'll find some of his articles on the first web link. Click on the second and you can download his book, Thinking Points, Communicating Our American Values and Vision.

http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/people/lakoff
http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/thinkingpoints

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Hope you can join us Monday night for what I am sure will prove to be a very fun and informative Drinking Liberally get-together!

Bruce and Barry