Happy New Year Liberal Drinkers of The Cleve!

Sorry it's been awhile since you've heard from CDL, I missed last week's message due to holiday madness but now that my tour in the War on Xmas is behind me I can look forward to the New Year in libating Liberally upon us.

I've had a few e-mails asking me what's going on for the Inauguration. Not sure what to do. I can't take that day off from work in this economy if I want to remain employed and I doubt many others could either.

So, I'd like some feedback from you. There will be parties all over town among the very liberal/dem groups that evening, I've gotten some e-mails already. Should we crash one of those? Should we have our own that evening? Should we meet Monday night instead to celebrate Bush's last day?

Let me know what you think, shoot me an e-mail to: cleveland@drinkingliberally.org.

Speaking of this economy, some of you may have noticed that I recently changed the information on our site for the meeting day to every other Sunday. Meeting for frosty brews and tasty Irish grub can be an economic burden when done on a weekly basis. So in an effort to exercise fiscal responsibility, from now on the meetings are going to be bi-weekly.

Since there was no meeting last week, our first meeting of 2009 will be this Sunday. While some folks are a bit let down after all of the holiday cheer, I actually love this time of year. The slate is clean and it's a time to plan for the days ahead.

So please join us at the next Cleveland Drinking Liberally Meeting this Sunday January 4th at Sullivan's Irish Pub on Madison Avenue in Lakewood, Ohio after 6pm.

Bring your ideas for what you'd like DL to do this year, what movies you'd like to screen, events you'd like to plan or be involved in and of course to lift our first pint to democracy in 2009. See YOU there!

Liberally yours,

Judy

Hello Liberal Drinkers of The Cleve,

First off, I'd just like to express the fact that Rick Warren is a total bigoted reactionary right wing douchebag wrapped in a cuddly Hawaiian shirt.

http://www.americablog.com/2008/12/hrc-warren-pick-makes-you-question.ht...

And if Obama wants to have this bigoted schmuck of a travesty of a mockery of a travesty of a sham deliver his inaugural invocation then...he definitely deserves evey word of criticism he has received on this issue.

In my opinion he is not allowing the schmuck into a tent but enabling the schmuck's beliefs to become acceptable in society.

Yeah, I've heard the whole "what a brilliant political move by Obama" bullsh*t where this subject is concerned. It will bring in all of those mentally immature evangelical voters that Kerry had a problem with. Yea! The Democrats have finally made peace with the religious bigots! Can't wait to vote with them against my best interests next election cycle!

What about the fact that Mr. Warren publicly equated homosexuality with pedophilia and bestiality? How different is this deceptively packaged snake-oil salesman than James Dobson? According to Rick Warren himself, the only differnce between him and Dobson is "tone". Or spin or marketing...whatever you want to call it.

If Obama asked James Dobson to give his invocation he'd literally have to just ask for his old Senate seat back from Blago. But since he asked someone who preaches the same exact crap in casual dress in a superficial effort to appear inclusive, we're all supposed to nod in enthusiastic support. Sorry O, not gonna do it.

Obama opened the tent to include those who discriminate against gay people. But would he be as willing to open his tent to those who discriminate against people based on ethnicity or gender? I haven't seen that 'big tent' outreach from his camp directed at Phyllis Schafly or David Duke. Nope, just the bible-sanctioned anti-gay outreach.

Rick Warren bothers me to the core because I saw an interview where he admitted that AIDS was not even a 'blip on his radar' until his wife showed him that children died of the disease. In other words, the deaths of hundreds of thousands of gay men, adult human beings with intraveneous drug habits and women whose husbands gave them the disease because they couldn't 'come out' didn't bother his Jaysus-loving soul a bit.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leah-mcelrath-renna/rick-warren-obama-real...

Rick Warren is a total schmuck. And while I understand the political means to this method of including your opponents, sometimes right is just right and wrong is just wrong. Warren is wrong and should not be rewarded for it via The People's Inauguration.

Now, I guarantee some of you DL'ers are going to completely disagree with my weekly rant, but you'll have the chance to convince me otherwise this Sunday at the next Cleveland Drinking Liberally Meeting after 6PM where we lift a pint or two to democracy and equal rights for everyone we know.

See YOU there!

Liberally yours,

Judy

Hello Cleveland DL'ers,

This is going to be a short one, just some chapter biz.

You may wonder why the title of this week's message has no mention of a 'Meeting Reminder. Well, for awhile now I've been thinking going to bi-monthly meetings instead of weekly. It's not that I don't want to meet every week with ya'll. Sunday is my favorite day of the week because I get to hang out with the best Liberals in town.

But....with the economy the way it is, the weekly food and drink sessions really add up. It's time to tighten our belts and drink a few less frosty brews. So this coming weekend there will not be a meeting. The next meeting will be December 21st aka the Winter Solstice.

Even though we're going bi-monthly for the time being, I promise we'll have some fun things planned for after the new year...especially on 1.20.2009. See YOU next Sunday!

Liberally yours,

Judy

Hey there Liberal Drinkers of The Cleve!

I trust you all have finally come down off of your tryptophan buzzes from your brined,stuffed,roasted, and or deep fried gobblers and are ready to face the holiday season that started roughly two weeks before Halloween.

Ah, the holidays. A time to enjoy family and wait out in the cold for hours in the middle of the night for a Big Box Big Brother to open it's doors and dangle a few really cheap products in front of your desperate face.

I'm sure you have all heard about the 34 year old Walmart worker, Jdmiytai Damour, who lost his life in Long Island because Walmart was too cheap to pay for security and crowd control. You put 5 plasma TV's on sale for $300.00 for two hours at the crack of dawn during a recession and are surprised 2000 cranky people show up at your door?

That's the problem with the whole Black Friday corporate marketing strategy. It incites this desperate violent reaction from consumers, it's like yelling 'Fire' in a crowded theatre.

These days people are stretching their very thin dollar to give their kids a Christmas; so when you put some piece of crap their kid wants on sale in 'limited quantities' from 5am to 7am..yeah lots of them are going to show up and wait for hours in the middle of the night forgoing warmth and emptying their bladders for a small chance to buy something they can afford for the apples of their eye.

It's just plain sick how these large retailers eff with us. Nobody had trampling a man to death in mind when they stood in line to buy a gift for their loved one. But I guess that's what they call the High Cost of Low Prices.

But you know, if more of us decided to buy locally made and/or vended items at small shops in our neighborhoods maybe we could show Big Box Big Brother that they do not own our souls. Plus we support our local economy instead of that of Bentonville Arkansas...which happens to be in a stupid headed red state anyway.

Cleveland is chock full of cool shops and events to find locally made and marketed goodies for under the tree, next to the menorrah or within reasonable distance of the Festivus Pole.

This weekend there is a great event at the Artcraft Building, an open studio artists sale with art, jewelry, and sundries on sale. Beautiful stuff made by Clevelanders for Clevelanders. And next weekend is the annual Bizarre Bazarr at 1300 W.78th Street. Same deal.

Here's a link to some fun alternative events that do not involve standing in a proverbial bread line in front of a Big Box Big Brother:

http://www.cleveland.com/style/index.ssf/2008/11/artful_giving.html

We have the Gordon Square District with Room Service, Kitsch City and Duo Home, the Waterloo Distric with Shoparooni and Music Saves, Planet Green in Rocky River etc...etc. So let's tell the Walmart heirs and heiresses to shove their sweatshop products where the sun don't shine this year and buy Cleveland.

And when you're done with your local shop-a-thon this weekend; you can support your local Liberal drinkers and the local Irish pub that loves them by joining us this Sunday at Sullivan's Irish Pub on Madison Avenue in Lakewood Ohio for some homey Irish grub, frosty golden brews and lively political discussion after 6pm.

Hopefully they'll have the yummy locally brewed Great Lakes Brewing Company Christmas Ale on tap! Join us in saving Cleveland's economy by drinking both liberally and locally with like-minded friends this Sunday. See YOU there!

Liberally yours,

Judy

Just a quick shout out to the chapter wishing you all a day of family, good friends and better food. Even in these times of economic and social strife we can find some things to be thankful for.

Personally I am thankful for all of the great folks I've met and gotten to know over the last four years through Cleveland Drinking Liberally. I am also thankful for our friends in promoting democracy Veterans For Peace, Lakewood Democrats and America Votes. Their hard work in educating us on Veterans'issues and Peace, campaigning for change and getting the vote out has made all of our lives that much better.

We can all be thankful for the end of the Bush Administration and the hope the Obama administration promises. But I found one thing in these inter-web-tubes this week I think you'll all agree we can be thankful for:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/25/ann-coulters-jaw-wired-sh_n_146...

The only thing I am not thankful for, is that this situation is only temporary.

Anywho, have a great Thanksgiving kids. No meeting this Sunday as it's a holiday weekend. Now go get your gobble on.

Liberally yours,

Judy