Events

Our January meeting takes place on Saturday, January 19, at 10:00 am at the State Building Auditorium, 6150 Van Nuys Blvd. We have a jam-packed meeting so please be there early so we can start right at 10:00!

Here's what we have planned:

• Presidential Forum
We will have representatives speaking on behalf of Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, and Barack Obama, followed by a moderated Q&A. This will take the majority of the meeting.

We will be accepting questions in advance, and at the meeting. Please email your questions to forum@vgfd.net by Thursday night. After that please bring the questions to the meeting. We'll also have cards at the meeting for you to write your questions.

• Santa Clarita City Council endorsement (election on April 8)
We will consider an endorsement for the April 8 Santa Clarita City Council election. The Democratic candidates are scheduled to attend the meeting and ask for your support.

Why Santa Clarita City Council and what does this have to do with the San Fernando Valley? This is a Red-to-Blue race in our own backyard. The SFV shares an assembly district and a state senate district with Santa Clarita and building a farm team of Democratic office holders will mean we can have strong candidates in the future for those races, leading to an increased Democratic majority in Sacramento. The current Republican Assemblymember from the 38th Assembly District, Cameron Smythe, was a member of the Santa Clarita City Council until he was elected to the Assembly in 2006.

How can we help? The election is on April 8, between the February and June elections. Municipal elections in Santa Clarita are typically low-turnout and the way people win is the old-fashioned way--by having volunteers knock on doors and ask for votes. Santa Clarita is a lot closer than you think and spending an afternoon volunteering will go a long way.

• We will also have resolutions from our Political Action Committee and information on how to become a delegate to the national convention in Denver.

• Last month we started volunteering at the AIDS Project LA food bank. We learned that they receive food from various sources but they don't receive any toiletries for their clients. They are asking for donations of toiletries, specifically deodorant, razors, and toothpaste. We will be collecting these items at the January meeting, so the next time you're at the store pick up one or more of these items and bring it with you to the meeting.

• After the scheduled noon adjournment of our meeting we will order pizza and screen Robert Greenwald's movie Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers. (Please bring a few dollars to contribute towards the pizza.)

Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers is the story of what happens to everyday Americans when corporations go to war. Acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed and Uncovered) takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been changed forever as a result of profiteering in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private corporations making a killing in Iraq and the decision makers who allow them to do so.