September 25, from 6pm-10pm at the Blue Nile (438 E Broadway, Long Beach, 90802)
2006 is an election year. It's an election year in which damn near everything hangs in the balance. We have the war in Iraq, crooked military contractors, record trade deficits and record budget deficits. We have illegal wiretapping of American citizens, legalizing torture and war crimes, the suspension of habeas corpus and the end of trial-by-jury. We have the overt subversion of the US Constitution by the President of the United States, rubber-stamped by the Republican Congress.
If you don't have an opinion this year, you probably never will.
In the Old Country, we have a saying: "When you have a problem, throw a party." Right on. You and your friends are invited to my first political fundraiser. In Long Beach, California.
Blue Nile Cafe & Lounge (myspace)
438 E Broadway
Long Beach, CA 90802
6pm-10pm, Monday September 25 2006
DONATION PAGE
Wine, food, music, art, poetry... This will be a crowd which - by definition - cares about the future and does something about it. In a hip-hop coffee shop in the heart of the Arts District of LBC, this should look a little different than the Chamber of Commerce meetings.
While we're doing our thing in Long Beach, partnered fundraisers will be going down in New York City and other cities across the country. This particular Long Beach "blograiser" is of the `No Refuge for Republicans' variety. We're raising money for both Jim Brandt (CA-46) and Brian Keeler (NY-SD-41). Let me explain why:
I firmly believe in contesting every race, coast to coast, until we drive this mutant Republican philosophy into the ground and mark it with a radioactive tombstone to warn of 1000 generations. This is not your father's Republican Party. Raise the ghost of Eisenhower and we can talk about negotiation. Until then: no safe seats.
Democrat Jim Brandt is running for Congress in California's 46th district, which represents Downtown Long Beach, the East Village, and Belmont Shore. CA-46 is a gerrymandered Republican stronghold. It's so "strong" nobody polls to see how pissed off the Libertarians, independents and old school Republicans are. Jim's not getting any help from the national party and he's in desperate need of cash. We might not win CA-46, but I have a patriotic duty to help buy Brandt the bullets he needs for his electoral insurgency. (If you want to see what an explicative the Republican Incumbent is, try longbeachpolitics.org/dana.)
Democrat Brian Keeler is a progressive `netroots' candidate for State Senate in New York. If Democrats pick up two seats in the New York State Senate (and Brian's is a likely win), the Republicans will be locked out of power: no veto, no majority in either house, completely out of power. The way it should be.
I've been told that Jim Brandt will be in attendance and Brian Keeler will call from NYC. But the real attraction is you and me. If you consider yourself a progressive, a Democrat or an enemy of the forces of evil, I hope you'll join us.