Living Liberally

What's more fun than watching an inspirational speaker deliver soaring oratory as he historically accepts his party's nomination?

Doing so with drink in hand, of course.

So sip if he says "hope" -- really when he says it -- and enjoy the other rules below to share a celebratory toast as you drink liberally tonight.

Take a Sip when
He Says:
- hope
- change
- community organizer
- Bush
- Hillary Clinton
or when:
- he says how much he loves America
- he tells a joke that actually makes you laugh
- he implicitly/explicitly compares himself to MLK
- compliments Michelle for being accomplished

Rocking Liberally Sound of Change

I don't know about you, but in the Living Liberally offices, the main topic of conversation all day has been Obama's running mate. A pattern emerges, gradually developing into a familiar cycle: the office is relatively quiet as we all work diligently on our given projects, until someone has some new rumor they just have to share ("ObamaSebelius.com seems to be owned by the Obama campaign!" "Joe Biden says he's 'not the guy'!"). Ecstatic to have a potential new lead, we pick it apart in a fever pitch of speculation, hope when considering some of the better options and dread when contemplating some of the worst, and then try futilely to settle back into our work...and all becomes quiet again. Until someone has a new rumor to share...

Yep, waiting can drive you crazy, something that Max Bernstein knows all too well - tired of the wait-and-see approach, he created the 100,000 Strong Against Evan Bayh for VP facebook group you might have heard about. However, even this didn't slake our thirst for any and all VP information.

Thankfully, Max gave us even more material.

Yesterday, Mazhira Black -- Young People For Fellow and Living Liberally intern -- posted about starting off your school year on the left foot.

It got us thinking: it's not just the annual tradition of buying new gear, books and attire that deserves a how-to guide with a sustainable slant and lefty lean. There are dozens of events in the calendar year (holidays, Election Day) and in the human life (rites of passage) that would be well marked with a scoop of social consciousness.

So we're kicking off a Liberal Lifecycle Series...and we'd love your help. Whether it's bringing a baby into the world or wishing dearly departed farewell, we hope you'll send us suggestions for those life moments that could use a liberal lilt.

And here's the post that got us thinking this direction...(good luck back in Waco, Mazhira!):

Are you concerned that your free-thinking tyke will forget his liberal roots this fall in the classroom? Why not equip her with all of the essential back to school items that a liberal pupil needs? When you're bombarded with ads telling you what type of parent you are if you don't shop at Walmart to buy your kid the newest Hannah Montana threads or what sugary fruit drink you should pack in their lunch it can be easy to get lost in the crowd.

Bill Scher had a great post up yesterday at Blog for OurFuture about the latest offshore drilling/tire inflating madness.

On Thursday, conservative radio host Sean Hannity claimed Obama said, "All you need to do is inflate your tires. That's all you need to do. If every American would join in this effort, of inflating one's tires, then it's all going to be fine. And we can still import 70% of our oil from Saudi Arabia. Just keep those tires inflated."

Conservatives -- lovers of childish mockery over substantive ideas -- later today are apparently planning to distribute tire gauges at an Obama energy event.

However, as it turns out inflating your tires will actually save you more money in the next year than offshore drilling will save you in the next twenty. How much more? DOUBLE! Bill continues:

Where did he get that crazy idea? From George Bush's Energy Department and Environmental Protection Agency. (hat tip: Get Energy Smart! Now!)

Their joint site fueleconomy.gov is loaded with fuel-saving, money-saving tips. Keep your tires properly inflated, for example, can save you up to 12 cents a gallon.

Compare that immediate savings from that single tip, with what coastal and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling combined would get you two decades from now: 6 cents a gallon.

And that's being generous, because Bush's Energy Department says we can't expect any impact on prices from coastal drilling until the year 2030.

So yes, McCain's energy plan is so ridiculously dumb that you'll save more money on gas by just inflating your tires, than you would from the core of his energy policy! And you won't even save any money more McCain's plan for another 20 years!

Ben Smith also notes that "As Republicans mock Obama for saying you can save gas by inflating your tires, the noted environmental activists at NASCAR back him up." These people know cars. They know how to make them run efficiently and they advocate the same solutions that Obama is proposing.

Add to that all of the other energy proposals Obama has put forward and you've got a pretty clear distinction on the energy issue.

But there is another aspect of this story that has largely been missed. And that is that by asking Americans to inflate their tires, Obama is giving more and more people responsibility for protecting and strengthening our Country and our planet and bringing more people into the political process.

He's asking them to take some personal responsibility, to make a small (but very important) change in their regular lives for the good of them and their fellow man.

It's amazing how big of an impact little actions like getting your car tuned up, your tires inflated or eating a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich for lunch, can have on the world. These are actions that all Americans, whether you're a millenial, a boomer or even a little kid, can do.

So kudos to Obama for offering a plan that empowers people to take action, and that will hopefully do some good for our economy, our environment, and our pockets. In short, Obama is asking America to live liberally and we like it.

OK - it's time to nudge your friends to vote...it's time to pester them about registering as frequently and lovingly as you bug them about going with you to the movies or to a party. And fortunately, "I Vote, You Vote" agrees it should be just as easy.

A recently-launched project of the American Democracy Institute and the National Campaign for Fair Elections, this site allows you to

• send email and text encouragement to friends;
• invite them to register;
• remind them to vote;
• track whether they've taken action.

That's right: you have your "My Voters" page which tells you which of your friends have followed through (they also tell me that they are savvy enough to prevent one person from receiving redundant invitations from multiple friends...I'm ambivalent on that -- maybe it cuts down annoyance, but hearing from multiple sources is a good way to feel peer pressure).

In another gutsy move, they have a public tracker of recent actions telling you who has been sending requests. Right now, this new system doesn't have a dramatic amount of use, but it will be fun: if it goes viral, that tracker will look more like a ticker.

I say it's gutsy because it's so transparent -- we can see whether people are actually using it or not. But that transparency is good for this kind of work. We should know what tools out there are useful.

There's the CREDO tool to register to vote online (which this system is built upon; there is VotePoke from MoveOn that allows you to check on your friends; and in NY, there's Voter Search, which allows you to check your registration and get info on the next elections. And last cycle, if I recall, Craig's List had a "register to vote" link (though they don't seem to right now).

Which of these work? Which are getting traffic? Which are becoming popular? Is it because they are easy? Fun? Convincing? Partisan or objective? Youth-oriented or general?

It's great to have another tool in the market -- one that's attractive and easy, gives you reason to return again and again, and makes everyone's actions so open.

Now, let's put it to use.

At Netroots Nation, this year's Screening Series just kicked off. Films, shorts, discussions and workshops, the series touches the variety of places where film/video and political activism connect.

The lead-off offering: The Media That Matters Film Festival, an annual collection of shorts on social justice and awareness that are made available online so anyone can stream their own film festival.

The opening film drew applause -- and here's why I'm writing about it here. "Battleground Minnesota" features an 18-year-old Minnesotan who convinces every major state office-holder -- Dem and Republican -- to talk with him about why young people should care about voting.

He then remixes the interviews into a hip-hop music video -- where original rap is interspersed with Mark Dayton wearing "Dem" bling," Norm Coleman unbuttons his shirt to hang out, Tim Pawlenty is turned into a supporting role rapper, and Walter Mondale gets his turn on headphones.

It's hilarious, and inspirational -- it plays with the cultural and generational gaps between past generations and the current one, but also the power of music, technology and mischief to bridge that divide.

Check it out -- (and if you're at Netroots Nation, come by) -- and thank Media That Matters for making its festival free and open to the public.

New York City has outlawed dancing-without-a-license since 1926. Seriously. Bars and restaurants require cabaret licenses -- originally a measure to crack-down on interracial couples -- if people want to shake a leg. And, in some cases, proprietors have been fined for failure to stop dancers.

All that may soon change, as Mayor Bloomberg is said to be planning a repeal of these arcane laws.

As ridiculous as it was that these laws have existed -- putting NYC in the lonely anti-dance camp only otherwise occupied by religious extremists -- it's more ridiculous that it took so long to tackle them. Despite efforts from advocates like Scott Jeffrey of Legalize, there has never been a really strong, public, dynamic, effective movement to make this change...despite being in a strong, dynamic entertainment-fueled city of conscious, creative-class warriors.

by Seth Pearce, Living Liberally

This week Living Liberally launched Praying Liberally, our new network of local liberal meetups of progressives from a wide range of faiths to talk politics, say a collective prayer for "the least of these" in our world, and build community to organize around our common causes.

Since Monday, when Praying Liberally launched over at Street Prophets and got some mention on Daily Kos and Hullabaloo, we've gotten several requests to start new chapters, many from Boomers, some who've said they felt too 'old' for the Drinking Liberally crowd, which is fine. Different Liberallies appeal different people. But we still haven't gotten any requests from millennials.

This leads us to ask: is Praying Liberally just for the Boomers? Will the religious left die out?

It doesn't have to.

With interest in religion and spirituality rising on college campuses, and the fact that the millennial generation is one of the most liberal ever, the community potential is there.

Plus, The fact is there are many progressive religious youth orgs, such as Mitzvah Corps, that get young people engaged in social justice and other progressive causes.

But unlike conservative religious youth groups, progressive ones don't usually self-identify in ways that would explicitly denote them as progressive organizations. Also, these groups haven't formed solid coalitions with the progressive movement, and in that they fail to act as a legitimate gateway for youth into the progressive movement. Introducing youth involved with religious programs into the greater movement was one of the Religious Right's key skills as they grew their power in the last decades of the 20th century.

The progressive movement needs to build connections with these progressive religious youth groups through more liberal faith communities such as the United Church of Christ, Unitarian Universalist and Episcopalian churches, and the Reform and Reconstructionist Jewish movements. As well as the younger, more liberal generation of church-goers at traditionally conservative churches.

This relationship between "Church" and Progressive Movement could provide us with great new leaders, who like Barack Obama, would come to the progressive movement through their faith community. It could also infuse these religious organizations with new energy, connecting young people to faith in new ways and expanding the opportunities offered to them by their religious community as they see their church, synagogue, mosque or temple becoming more connected with their everyday lives.

But for now, while we try to convince the progressive movement to get involved with this kind of outreach, are there any millennials out there who want to start a Praying Liberally chapter?

Last year, on the eve of the 4th of July holiday, George Bush pardoned Scooter Libby. I remember being infuriated by it, finding some solace in Keith Olberman's special comment calling upon Bush and Cheney to resign, and I remember thinking, "Surely there is some precedent in American history that has offered wisdom for exactly this type of scenario."

Then I remembered to read The Declaration of Independence.

What did this document say to indict the monarch named George?

"He has obstructed the Administration of Justice"...

"He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance"...

"He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power"...

As Thomas Jefferson penned, "for depriving us in many cases,
of the benefit of Trial by Jury," the ruler had earned himself a Revolution...and Jefferson reminded me that the Declaration of Independence is absolutely an annual must-read.

I've always thought there should be some other celebration associated with the 4th, beyond barbecues, beaches and fireworks (all of which I love).

Our friends at the Bus Project, as was blogged about on this site, figured out the progressive festivities for Halloween. So who has figured out the new way to mark Independence Day?

Until we sort it out, I'll just settle for attending Drinking Liberally tonight...and reading this document out loud -- to anyone who will listen -- tomorrow.

It's great seeing groups like Music for Democracy picking up the mantle of the work that Music for America and Concerts for Kerry did last cycle. Culture attracts -- often more than straight-up politics -- so we have to learn how to use culture to serve as a vehicle for progressive community.

In that spirit, we've been doing more reviews and cultural commentary at Living Liberally. Music for Democracy may dig the bands that are Rocking Liberally as posted by Seth Pearce. And we're seeing more happening on the big screen too -- two reviews posted in the past two days will give you hints for your 4th of July cinema-going.

The first is Gonzo, a documentary on Hunter S. Thompson that will be released in select theaters starting tomorrow. As Brooke Olaussen reports at Screening Liberally:

Everything you could want in a documentary film is in this one. By bringing you the mood and life-force of Gonzo, the film enchants, both visually and philosophically. The multiplicity of voices/interviews, footage, photographs, and songs transports you into the scene, as if like Alice you stepped through the looking glass. The soundtrack, Johnny Depp’s narration of Thompson’s writing,and interviews with friends and family guide you through Thompson’s wonderland.

The second sure success this weekend is more mainstream fare: Wall-E about a lovable scamp of a robot who has an environmental message tucked into his gizmo-goofball gaffes. As Mazhira Black writes:

For those of you who think that WALL-E is a kid's film you may find yourself eating your words. It is great to see Disney using it's power for good rather than evil. Some of you may remember some of the social faux pas in the Disney closet: the racist movie we don't talk about, Song of the South, the subtle anti-Arab lyrics in the song "Arabian Nights" of Aladdin, and of course the good old belief that a woman should lie down and wait for her prince to come and rescue her from her dragon guarded castle in order to achieve happiness.

The jury is still out on whether Disney has gotten the PC bug or the Disney-Pixar marriage has given the Disney folk a younger more open outlook on the world. One thing is for sure, if their movies keep moving in a WALL-E direction then I will have no qualms with raising kids in the arms of the mouse.

Let us know what you're watching, reading and listening to -- if you like it, chances are somebody else will too. And if you share tastes, you may share politics as well.