Liberals in a Smoke Filled Room: The December Meeting

Agenda items for December 9 Meeting of no longer shell shocked Liberals

Present were Terry, Robin, Madalaine and Vincent

Nobody present thought that proposing a third party was something we wanted to undertake. Basically, if we wanted to or not, we don't think that its a struggle we can win.
Terry wants to do research projects, such as checking the veracity of claims of the Bush administration versus actual facts and figures, finding more out about blogs.
Everybody present thought the feed some Moslem children project so as to send the message that we are not all enemies was an intersting idea.
We agreed that we were so far in agreement about what our message was. The concern was how to present it so that people on the Right as well as the Left would be able to just listen and consider.
We all thought the mission statement worked OK with a minor change or two but could not decide on a vision statement.
Robin and Vincent agreed that they'd postpone the Sun Tzu analysis until the vision and mission statements were prepared. We need to know what the goals are.
It was a mostly informal meeting. Terry and Vincent had cigars again. Madalaine made a delicious dinner which was the only thing that brought the political conversationing to a halt all night.

Research/Educate ourselves
Possible topics
Jury nullification

Fairness Doctrine—Brenda
Write in Vote—Vincent
Third Party & reform movements
Fred Tuttle
The day of 9/11
Presidential Election 2000: voter fraud
Erosion of civil rights with emphasis on post 9/11
Media reform & consolidation
Voter reform & infrastructure improvements—Vincent & Robin (openvotingconsortium.org)

Vision Statement and Mission Statement

Vision Statement:

An America where everybody has an education, a voice, means to live, freedom: equal opportunity.
???

Mission Statement:

Educate and involve people of every political persuasion in order to
Reverse erosion of and eventually expand our exercise of our civil liberties.
We will do this through the following means:
Media reform: Education, reverse consolidation, fairness doctrine
Voting reform: Education, election infrastructure, transparent elections, write in vote, jury nullification.
Institution building: helping voters educate and organize themselves.
???

Partisan Issues

Articulate Progressive values—what are progressive values? Should say in our vision statement?
Sustainable Energy Tech
Environmental protection
Universal healthcare
End war in Iraq
Expose shenanigans of both Reps and Dems
???

Propose Third Party--Parliamentary model of multiple parties

Is this a part of our message?

Current Projects

Stephanie overseeing building database for research etc, also making central clearinghouse web site
Vincent creating narrative of what we are doing and publishing through blog.
Vincent & Robin conducting Art of Strategy analysis of our goals (to begin once we are agreed on what these are)

Proposed Projects

Research child aid agencies and find kids in Moslem world who need help send message that not all Americans think they are enemies. For us all to contribute monthly to this project.