Happy Campers At Democracy For Texas! Great group and a picture.

[madfloridian]

This group so impresses me. Dean met with them for a couple of hours. This is how you grow grassroots support.

http://www.blogforamerica.com/archives/005571.html

When we planned our retreat for DFTers who have taken an active role in getting our organization off the ground over the past months, camping seemed like a really good idea. The weather is generally perfect this time of year, but as the weekend approached, it began to look less and less like that was going to be the case—the forecast was in the '40s, with rain. So Friday afternoon, Marla in Texas offered her home, Teri in Austin and friends made phone calls—and instead of Krause Springs we all "camped" at Marla's house where we could (and did) run inside when the weather turned nasty.

There were 34 of us from around the state—El Paso, San Angelo, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Laredo, Burleson and, of course, Austin. We talked about our victories—Hubert Vo, a Vietnamese immigrant who defeated the 22-year incumbent chairman of the Texas House Appropriations Committee by 32 votes; Lupe Valdez, a former migrant worker who was elected sheriff of Dallas County; and Mark Strama, who unseated a Tom DeLay crony to take another Texas House seat back from the Republicans. We also made plans for the future—undertaking a legislative initiative to deregulate the Democratic Party in Texas, revitalizing Dean Corps to build bridges to minority communities, empowering voters with simplified registration and electoral processes, and identifying the Spanish speakers among us and offering training for those of us aren't.

As if the successful retreat weren't enough, we also found out that we won the vote to host DemocracyFest in Austin from June 17-19 next year. I can't tell you how much energy and excitement there is here about the idea of having all of you visit us. We're planning nationally recognized speakers, grassroots training—and a lot of music.

And to top off the week, we had a 2-hour breakfast meeting with Governor Dean covering a wide range of topics. It was great to share thoughts and talk about the direction DFA will be heading. For the record, the Governor had his first breakfast taco—something we intend to introduce you all to at DemFest. And yes, he will be there. Hooray!

—Fran Vincent
Democracy For Texas

[autorank]

1. Thank you for doing this, especially in TX!!! VA Dem.

[blm]

2. What a great way to keep moving the ball forward.

Good to see.

[Cheswick2.0]

3. DFT has got to be one of the most impressive

out of all the organizations around the country. They have such spirit and organization. If there is any way to swing it, I will be there next summer and I am looking forward to drinking whatever it is in the water that energizes them.

[madfloridian]

4. Aren't they great? I am amazed.

There are others who are getting energized, but DFT takes the cake for activism.

[NoPasaran]

24. It's not the water, Ches

It's Shiner Bock

[NoPasaran]

5. It was a great way to spend the weekend

Also a bit of a reality check to meet with DFTers who aren't from our cozy little peoples' republic. We'll be getting back together at Democracy Fest to review what we've done to accomplish our goals.

Woot!

[madfloridian]

6. Proud of you guys.

:hi:

[Cha]

7. Dean's out there working all over

the Country for us all! I'm so proud to have been a supporter of his.

I'll bet he dug his "first breakfast taco"..I know I did!

Congratulations on those important victories in Texas..Texans!

"We talked about our victories—Hubert Vo, a Vietnamese immigrant who defeated the 22-year incumbent chairman of the Texas House Appropriations Committee by 32 votes; Lupe Valdez, a former migrant worker who was elected sheriff of Dallas County; and Mark Strama, who unseated a Tom DeLay crony to take another Texas House seat back from the Republicans."

[madfloridian]

8. What is a breakfast taco?

Seriously.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

9. Yummy!

Scrambled eggs in a flour tortilla with extras like sausage, bacon, cheese and potatoes.

edit: I almost forgot, and salsa!

[bluedonkey]

10. Taco

with breakfast rolled into.You know,eggs,ham,peppers.
Seriously,best breakfast on the planet.

[Lady Effingbroke]

11. usually, sausage, egg, potatoes and cheese rolled up in a tortilla

with a little salsa or hot sauce.

I'd LOVE to go to Democracy Fest next June! Are there any DUers in Houston willing to give a poor woman a ride to Austin? I'll help pay for gas; my poor old car won't make it to Austin (or across town, for that matter). :-(

[madfloridian]

12. Love your user name. LOL

If I lived in TX I would give you a ride. :hi:

[Lady Effingbroke]

13. Thanks! Sadly, it all too accurately reflects my life at this point.

We Effingbrokes are a large and rapidly growing family, sad to say. I am constantly meeting heretofore-unknown relatives who tell me that they, too, are effing broke. I say, "Welcome to the family!" :silly:

[madfloridian]

14. Sadly, I fear you are right.

Many could be right at home in the Effingbroke family I fear. Sad but true.
:silly:

[evilqueen]

22. hey, I resemble that remark

:silly:

[CitySky]

25. Yup.

My little car is in pretty good shape, and gets great gas mileage. Which means we can probably even make the trip without having to stop and ask for spare change along the way! Whoo-hoo! :) PM me.

That photo of the folks around the campfire is just about the most inspiring thing I've seen in a while. God bless Governor Dean, and let's regrow this party from the grass roots up -- I'm in!

-Sky, Houston

[sonias]

15. When you come to DemocracyFest '05 we will feed you a taco

and you will love them madfloridian.

:hi:

Sonia

[madfloridian]

20. That sounds great! A link to Democracy Fest.

http://www.democracyfortexas.org/Demfest/program.html

I would be willing to contribute a ticket price for someone. We are just too far away, but could do that.

[sonias]

16. I have a bit more to add to Fran's post

I didn't go to the retreat because I'm a cold weather wuss, and knew it was going to be cold. I seriously thought they were going to rough it out at Krause springs.

Anyway this past weekend at another meeting of the Progressive Populist Caucus of the Texas Democratic Party, we endorsed Howard Dean for DNC chair should he decide to seek the position. The vote was unanimous. Fran told our group that after talking with Howard that she wanted to dispel the opposition propaganda being disseminated. Howard Dean can still run for President in '08 even if he takes the DNC chair. He had not yet decided he was going to seek the post. Fran encouraged all of us to let Howard know how we feel.

We want Howard! We want Howard! We want Howard!


Sonia

[madfloridian]

17. Good...he can have the chair and still run. Good news.

Isn't it amazing how it spreads? Capn Sunshine just posted on another thread that Howard had filed the papers for it.

[sonias]

21. We can help in that effort too

Tell Your DNC Members to Draft Howard
Write your Democratic National Committee members and ask them to support Governor Howard Dean for Democratic Party Chairman.
http://drafthoward.com/index.php?id=19

Pick your state and start writing your letters. If we get the votes lined up for him I know that he'll take the challenge on. Howard Dean is just that kind of man. No one tells him what to do. He believes we can take our country back, in fact we have already started. I want him to help us finish the job.

:dem:
We want Howard! We want Howard! We want Howard!

Sonia

[WolverineDG]

18. glad to see my friends from laredo made it

i see 'em in the pic too. :)

dg

[natureman]

19. I'm Jealous

I live in Goliad County Texas and would have loved to have driven a couple of hours to this event. I am proud that my district in Texas elected a Democratic state representative Yvonne Toureilles and re-elected our Democratic U.S. Representative Ruben Hinojosa.
What is meant by de-regulating the party?
We need to do something different here in Texas.

[sonias]

23. Welcome to DU natureman!

Another Texan here saying :hi:

Ruben Hinojosa, US District 15. Congratulations to you and your voters for both victories. natureman if you want to get on the DFT - Democracy for Texas mailing list here's the web site for that
http://www.democracyfortexas.org/

This web site is good for the whole state. If you organize meetups or local events in Goliad County, you can announce them here. And of course you get notified of all these events that happen here in Austin.

And don't forget to put Democracy Fest '05 on your calendar right now.
Democracy Fest on June 17-19 here in Austin.

Look forward to chatting with you some more here on this board and maybe in real life in June.

:dem:
We have the power!

Sonia

[NoPasaran]

26. Deregulating the party

Currently, the Democratic and Republican parties are both established by statute in Texas, so many of the party rules are set by the state. For example, isn't 7:15 PM on primary day really a lousy time to have a precinct caucus? Does it really make sense to have the county party chairs elected on the ballot in an open primary? Does our primary date itself really make sense? Regardless of how you might answer these questions, changing any of them would literally require an act of the Legislature. We came to a consensus that we would like to see the party able to make its own rules.

[madfloridian]

27. I am going to take a look at the Florida party statutes.

You have me thinking now. One of the DEC local leaders came by today to give her proxy for the Dec. 2 meeting and election.....I was so stunned at how she sounds.

She is such a nice lady, very good person. But she had a different perspective on everything ......every issue. The spin put on things is not reality. This DEC looks at the world through the eyes of what the Republican Party in Florida wants.

I feel so disturbed now. It is so hard to listen and believe that Florida will ever change.

It is the "we must run a Southern Christian governor next time" syndrome.

[Blue_Tires]

28. ttt