May Monthly Meeting
CPS courtship of Representative Gonzalez dominated Thursday’s meeting (see more under National) but a few other things happened as well. We heard from Will Wooten, the organizer, Repower America has assigned to San Antonio . The organization born from a speech given by Al Gore in July has a goal to repower America with 100% clean electricity in ten years http://www.repoweramerica.org/plan/. One message from attendees was they need to know more about the energy debate. Repower America will have details at the SAAPAC office, Thursday, May 21, 7122 San Pedro, at 6:30 . You can contact Will at willwooten@climateprotect.org.
We also heard the latest from Melanie Aranda, the new head of Texas Young Democrats http://www.texasyds.org. Melanie, an alamObama member and former Obama staffer (who held down a field office in New Mexico), told us about the many activities the group is planning after telling us about her attendance at the White House Cinco de Mayo celebration. She’s provided some great pics we’ll put on the website.
We then broke into our working groups. Education and Training is working on bringing you more opportunities to learn about health care initiatives; Voter Registration is working on a registrar training event; Legislative is working on better ways to keep you up to date on the goings on at local and federal levels; Community Service is moving closer to supporting the San Antonio Food Bank through both a monthly food drive and an alamObama sorting team; and anyone interested in helping man the office is invited to attend orientation at the SAAPAC office Thursday At 4:30. And thanks to Toni, we’ll have a new editor of the Weekly Roundup very soon (next week?)! Rapid Response is going to work on OFA’s request for spare rooms for summer interns coming to San Antonio and possible office space. Next meeting is June 11 at 6:30 , at the SAAPAC office, 7122 San Pedro.
White House
This week, President Obama: discusses breakthroughs on two issues where stakeholders from all sides, who once opposed each other, are coming together for real reform; emphasizes his commitment to signing the Credit Card Bill of Rights into law by Memorial Day; set a target of July 31st for passage of Health Care Reform; and hosts a remarkable health reform meeting, both for the $2 trillion in national savings that was discussed, and for the stakeholders in attendance. Also see the President’s address to Notre Dame, read about the working lunch with Israel’s President Netanyahu, and Vice President Biden’s salute to Tim Russert at the Wake Forest commencement. This and more at www.whitehouse.gov .
Organizing For America
Don’t forget to post your health care story at www.barackobama.com. If you’ve got a spare room for a summer intern or know of possible office space, please contact us at alamobama09@aol.com. Also, we all indicated we want OFA presence here, making a donation at OFA gives them more resources to expend on the effort. A quick reminder of the Health Care Push: let’s do some coalition building; seek out other groups already working the healthcare issue and network. Look for a policy expert conference call for house parties and other meetings soon. June will be the action month. Early June will focus on action meetings. Folks with healthcare stories will be important. Mid-June summer organizers will arrive (13th and 14th). We will need those spare bedrooms they spoke of at the Listening Tour. The last week in June, 27th and 28th there will be a Healthcare Project.
National
San Antonio Congressman Charlie Gonzalez has been thrust in the national spotlight as a possible Energy and Commerce Committee’s swing vote on the American Clean Energy and Security Act. For a dollars and cents view, here’s a report from Bloomberg http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aM_y8zqk2eo4. Stay tuned.
Local
Energy is news in the state legislature as well as a state senator and an environmental agency battle over smelter documents; looks like voter ID legislation is headed for the house floor; and Saturday Seguin’s Rep. Ed Kuempel awoke from a medically induced coma and responded to commands. Read about these stories and more on the state legistature here. http://www.statesman.com/news/content/region/legislature/stories/05/16/0516legebriefs.html
Discuss the Issues
Groups are meeting and talking at SAAPAC, 7122 San Pedro Sunday May 24th. The Discussion Group will be talking about Immigration at 4:30 . This group watches PBS shows and then discusses the problems. At 6:30 , San Community Organizers meet to discuss Energy, Education and Health Care. View more at the SAAPAC calendar
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