Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Not Here...Not Now...Not Smart - ALEC

A Fairy Tale for Our Time...and City

At Comic-Con, the Mayor's villain companions were fictional. This week, they're real

Once upon a time, there lived (because corporate influence peddlers are people too) a group of mega-corporations called ALEC. ALEC felt that things would go much better if the people's representatives didn't strain their pretty brains and just let ALEC write the laws.

So the corporate prison management companies wrote "model legislation" to grease the wheels for State and local government to privatize prisons (sure it costs a little more, but it's good for corporate profits), and to enhance identification and apprehension - and imprisonment - of undocumented immigrants. Each part of ALEC created model legislation to help their particular interest and as a group, they created legislation to suppress employee pay and rights to organize for benefits because, hey, what corporation doesn't benefit from employees with nowhere else to go to make a living.

But how to put all these wonderful ideas into actual legislation? What to do with a Congress and all those State legislatures and City Councils who think they, not ALEC, should enact legislation? Right on cue, ALEC's fairy godfather appeared and reminded them that all ALEC had to do was click their heels together three times and...hand out some of what ALEC had lots of and legislators wanted, Gifts and Money.

Bribery is such an ugly word, so let's just say what ALEC did was to invite legislators they though amenable, on all-expenses paid junkets to fun places. Food, drink, hotels, temporary companionship, whatever dream a legislator could have could come true. And much like a time-share presentation, all the legislators had to do is meet with the corporate sponsors to hear about the wonders of their model legislation and weigh the various suggested offers of campaign and/or personal support, if only the legislation became the law of their lands.

And, because the people sometimes object to their elected representatives selling out to anti-democratic groups like ALEC, they even came up with model legislation to suppress voting. That way, only the right people get the opportunity to vote for ALEC's paid and processed legislators. Good for ALEC. Good for ALEC's legislators. And, good for everyone - except for the people.

And it was so...

Meanwhile, in the land of San Diego, it came to pass that The Faulconer was READ MORE HERE...

Now is the time to start turning this fairy tale into reality. ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) is coming to town. Our Mayor is planning to address them. ALEC doesn't like having the public know where it is, what it's doing or which politicians are lining up to receive their model legislation/gifts.

On Wednesday, July 22, starting at 3:00 p.m., when the ALEC holds its annual meeting in San Diego at the Manchester Grand Hyatt. Democrats, organized labor, community groups, and other allies will be rallying to make our voices heard.

Funded by shadowy special interests, ALEC works to maximize corporate power and undermine democracy by providing "model legislation" for right-wing legislators. It seeks to block wage increases, disenfranchise voters, privatize schools and prisons, and deregulate firearms, no name just a few examples.

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer is scheduled be speak at the event, sharing the stage with fringe Republicans like Scott Walker and Ted Cruz. Please join us at this massive protest to show that ALEC is not welcome here! Sign up at www.sddemocrats.org/alec.

We'll gather July 22 at the Embarcadero Park North (400 Kettner Blvd.) at 3:00, then head over to the main event at the Manchester Hyatt (1 Market Place) just a few blocks away. A rally will begin at the Hyatt at 4:30 p.m.; you can view a flyer here.

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Celebrate 40 Years of Activism by Joining the Club

Democrats for Equality had a very successful June and we're well on our way to our goal of 400 members to celebrate our 40th Anniversary. Much of the progressive change in San Diego and in our community can be traced directly or indirectly through the work of our members.

We're not finished and we need you to get the job done. If you've let your membership lapse, NOW would be a good time to renew. If you want to be a part of the change, join NOW. Our members make history. Join us.

The Club depends on membership dues to keep the lights on and promote our candidates and issues to the community. A large number of community members depend on our Voters Guide to help them make an intelligent choice when marking their ballots so your membership renewal is critical to ensure those Guides get into those hands. At the risk of sounding like a Public Television pledge drive, if you depend on our endorsements, Voters Guide, newsletters, social media posts and programs, you should be a member!

If your membership has lapsed or if you know your membership is soon to expire, please re-up now. You might also consider upgrading your membership to a higher level.

Dems for Equality would like to welcome Holly Amaya, Amy Blum, Angelo Catalano, Sarah Czarnecki, Timothy Caudill, Beth Cordasco, Lisa Costello, Laura DiGiacomo, Barbara Fink, Aaron Friberg, Jennifer Geran, Shawna Held, Angela Lopez, Robert McKay, Michael Sandaluk, Johanna Schiavoni, Betsy Smith, Jim Toothaker, Jennifer Vigil and Jason Weisz as new members of the Club.

We'd also like to welcome back Councilmember David Alvarez, Phillip Diamond, Drew Ector, Rebekah Hook, Evan Parent, Kevin Tilden and Tres Watson for another year as members of Democrats for Equality.

NOTE: We had a huge number of new and renewal members in advance of the June 30th endorsement meeting. If you don't see your name above, it will be there within the next few weeks as we get caught up.

You can find out more about the Club's membership levels and benefits online HERE. You can also join/renew with a credit card there. If you would prefer to use a check, send the check, made out to Democrats for Equality to:

San Diego Democrats for Equality

PO Box 33050

San Diego CA 92163

Note that in order to comply with Federal and State election laws, please include your full address where you are registered to vote and your job title/employer with your check. Telephone number and email address would be nice too!

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Like Us, Really Like Us

San Diego Democrats for Equality's Facebook page has been number 1 among County Democratic Clubs for a while now. Even so, we've got quite a few new members so we're putting this out again. Please Like Us! Facebook includes the number of likes on a page as part of their complex algorithm to decide if our posts should be widely distributed or not. If you like us now, more people will see our Voter's Guide in their timeline next year. Twitter has different rules, but the effect is the same. The more people who follow us on Twitter means more people seeing our Tweets.

If you are on Facebook or Twitter and you haven't already liked/followed us, please do it now.

https://www.facebook.com/dems4equality

@SDDems4Equality

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Pride Was Incredible

Speaker Toni Atkins - Club Founder Bob Lynn - Councilmember Todd Gloria

We got our Pride on and celebrated our 40th in the best way possible - with a party. Great Maple treated us well will wonderful food, the drinks were great and the company greater. Councilmembers Myrtle Cole and Todd Gloria joined us, as did SDUSD Board Member Kevin Beiser and endorsed candidates for the 3rd and 9th City Council District, Chris Ward and Georgette Gomez. Other officeholders, candidates and Club members and friends filled out the room for a great reception to kick-off Pride. Highlight of the event was Speaker Atkins presenting San Diego Democratic Club founder Bob Lynn with the Club's award. Citation on the Award:

San Diego Democrats for Equality salutes Our Founder

Robert Lynn

Everything we've become, everything we've accomplished

Is because of you

This year's Pride parade went off without a hitch. Even the almighty showed Pat

Robertson was full of it when the heavens opened up and drenched Southern California with much needed rain - no doubt to show approval for marriage equality.

Because we were limited to 138 marchers, we estimate the number of marchers in our unit at 138. We had local and some not so local officeholders marching with us including Members of Congress Scott Peters and Mark Takano (D-Riverside), Chula Vista Mayor Mary Salas, San Diego Council Members David Alvarez and Myrtle Cole, SDUSD Board Member Kevin Beiser as well as Club founder Bob Lynn and endorsed candidate for 9th Council District Georgette Gomez.

Representatives from the County Party, County Democratic Club members and supporters of many candidates filled out the huge contingent and helped to show the Democratic Party has been, is and will be a supporter of the LGBT community. And, knowing that a warm, dry recovery was to follow, a good time was had by all.

And we had special treats for the Pride Festival too. In addition to Club, Party and Candidate information, between raindrops, we registered voters and showed video greetings from some of our favorite office holders and a short history of the Club's accomplishments.