Planned Parenthood Lobbying Day (& trip info from Houston)

[merci_me]

I got this e-mail today, about a Planned Parenthood lobbying day in Austin. Below is the info on the bus trip from Houston. I have the Houston phone number and e-mail. If you want that info, you can e-mail me or get it off their web site.

On edit: If you go to their Houston web site they are offering possible options to the Fannin Street location. They are these:
Which Location is Closest to You?
FM 1960 (I-45N)
Bryan
Dickinson
Fannin (Midtown)
Greenspoint
Huntsville
Lufkin
Rosenberg
Southwest
Stafford

Mary

JUMP ON THE LOBBY DAY BUS!

Join Us!

We're Lobbying the

Texas Legislature on

Tuesday, March 1, 2005!


This is your chance to meet your legislators, and to let them know how important family planning services are for Texas women and their families.

We will be meeting with other advocates from across the state!

Training will be provided on the bus.

The trip is on us.....lunch is on your tab.

Morning refreshments begin at 7:00 a.m.

The buses will leave Planned Parenthood's Fannin Health Center
3601 Fannin in Houston
at 7:30 a.m. promptly.....don't be late!

We will return around 8:00 p.m.

For more information, visit us online at www.pphouston.org

[crispini]

1. I'm going!

I'll be with the North Texas crowd. Anyone who wants info on the busses leaving from Ft. Worth or Dallas can email [email protected]

Are you going? We should figure out how to hook up!

[merci_me]

2. I'm certainly thinking about it...........

If so, I'd love to meet up there.

I have two business meetings scheduled on Mar 1, but I'm going to see if I can move them. One is a company I'm about ready to blow-off anyway. The other is a lunch meeting, that I can probably get my husband to go to in my place, if I can reschedule it.

Mary

[WestHoustonDem]

3. I may go

Mary - let me know when you know for sure. Right now I have nothing scheduled that day. Lyn

[merci_me]

4. I just pm'd you

I went ahead and signed up, since the seats may fill fast. If I can't reschedule the business meetings tomorrow or Friday, I'll just have Jim call them the day before the trip and tell them I'm down with the flu and offer to fill in or whatever.

Mary

[WestHoustonDem]

5. Got it - thanks!

I signed up too

[PDittie]

6. Mrs Dittie and I are on the bus!

We got lobbyist-trained this past Saturday morning; I blogged about the experience. There's between 130 and 140 of us from Houston at last count (three buses).

This is my first crack at lobbying. Reallly looking forward to it.

[sonias]

7. We'll see all of your down here in Austin on the 1st

I've done lobby days with enviromental groups and ACLU before, but this will be my first Planned Parenthood day. This is extremely important.

It really is a lot of fun to meet the different legislators and their staffs. Hopefully we'll get some good responses from them.

Sonia

[crispini]

8. I'm looking forward to this.

We should have a DU meetup for lunch. Anyone interested?

[WestHoustonDem]

9. That'll be great! Where should we meet?

[crispini]

10. Maybe the Austinites could give us some clues.

Those of us bussing down will be carless, FWIW.....

[GOPisEvil]

12. Texas Chili Parlor or Scholz's

http://www.cactushill.com/TCP/home.htm

http://www.pubcrawler.com/Template/dsp_restaurant_zoom.cfm/flat/ID=327884

Both within walking distance of the Capitol.

[PDittie]

11. At the Lobby training they told us

we should go to lunch as a team -- that is, with our team members with whom we will be calling on representatives that day. They basically want to keep us herded together, which is understandable.

Having said that, our teams could go to the same restaurant. I'm sure they's plenny a places within walking distance, but I am also told the Capitol cafeteria is bustling, noisy, and great for "sight'ems" (spotting the powerful people).

[crispini]

13. See, that's interesting that they've already trained ya'll.

They told us they'd do the training on the way down. Of course, maybe we have a longer bus ride?

[WestHoustonDem]

14. I was wondering about that too, I was told training would take

place on the bus ride.

[PDittie]

15. It will

There was also about three hours worth this past Saturday with Sue Schecter (who knows how reps think) and others. Since Houston has three buses going...

We'll be doing some role-play for those speaking and such on the way over...

[WestHoustonDem]

16. They had a lot of trouble getting emails out

So if you signed up and haven't heard from them. Call Cindy at [phone] or [phone]. She was very helpful and will confirm your pickup location, etc.

[crispini]

17. I got all my info from the Dallas crowd.

I have to BE THERE tomorrow at 6 - FUCKING - THIRTY! :(

And I do not own one damn bit of pink. Oh well, they'll just have to take me, grumpy and un-pink-colored, as I am. :D

[sonias]

18. crispini just get yourself a pink scarf

I got a pink plastic bracelet from Walgreen's for supporting breast cancer research. That'll work too.

Here's the instructions we got locally.
What to wear? We suggest neat and professional. You want to look as though you dressed for a cause that is important to you, but you don't want to be so formal that you don't feel like yourself. Wear comfortable shoes. You will do a lot of walking.

The color for the day is hot pink. Of course this is optional, but the more participants who wear something hot pink, even if it is just a scarf or a pin, the more visible we will be.

----------------------

See you at the Burma Shave rally!

Sonia

[crispini]

20. I actually own an entire pink suit.

But I'm not wearing a SUIT all day long.

I'll see, if I have time to go shopping today I'll get a pink scarf....

So, hey, what are WE doing? We DU'ers need to be able to recognize each other somehow. Uhhhh..... I ... ummm... I'm all out of ideas.

[WestHoustonDem]

19. This is the first I heard we were supposed to wear pink

I had planned something totally different. I'll have to think about that.

[rrocketto]

21. Generation Democrat

The organization I am apart of, Generation Democrat, is going to be making similar lobbying trips. Currently there is a bill that is about to be filed regarding election day voter registration that was actually drafted by students. If anybody would like to help that would be awesome. E-mail me at [email protected]

[crispini]

22. It was GREAT!

So much fun. So glad I went.

[sonias]

23. It was awesome

That was a largest lobby group I've even been part of. We supposedly had 700 members. Oh what a beautiful sea of pink. I'd say we painted the capitol building pink.

Lots of people took pictures so we should be seeing them pretty soon. We took one huge crowd shot at the convention center with Sarah Weddington, and they had to use a cherry picker to raise the photographer high enough to get the shot.

Sonia

[WestHoustonDem]

24. It was a great day! I'm so glad I went.

It was great to meet you Sonia! Sorry I didn't get to meet Crispini - but I'm sure we'll run into eachother eventually!

[sonias]

25. Hi WestHoustonDem!

Nice meeting you too. Glad you all made it home safely. I am so proud of what we did. We had a nice rally at the capital steps at 5:00 too. I didn't have my camera but I know there were lots of pictures taken.

Sonia

[PDittie]

27. Thanks so much to sonias and merci me

sonia, your directions and the map of the Capitol offices were invaluable. It was great to see again.

Mary, thanks again for the crack(ers). Couldn't have made it without them Thanks for thinking of me with the cookbooks and all, too.

Lyn, every time there's a cause, you're always there. I like that about you.

And maybe soon we'll get to meet the Great Crispini!

[PDittie]

26. 700 lobbyists; 300 from Houston

We swamped the Capitol. Pink everywhere.

Martha Wong had her brains bashed in, and responded by lashing out at a group of MIDDLE SCHOOL aged girls who went to her office (when she no-showed the 60 women and men in the conference room where she had agreed to meet them) about being cornered on this issue, that PP misrepresented her record, and more. It was a long tirade of extraordinarily unprofessional conduct.

Despite that episode, it was an incredible, empowering day.

My two representatives, Sen. Rodney Ellis and Rep. Al Edwards, are sympathetic to the cause. Though we got to see neither man, their staff was courteous and supportive.

My most memorable moment was when Sarah Weddington recalled the comments of one Barry Goldwater -- a staunch advocate of Planned Parenthood -- who told her years ago when they met:

"The true conservative view is that it is none of the government's business."

Pre-fucking-cisely.

[sonias]

28. Picture and a story at The Daily Texan

http://www.dailytexanonline.com/news/2005/03/02/TopStories/Students.Learn.How.To.Lobby.Government-882224.shtml
Students learn how to lobby government
Nearly 800 people attended the Planned Parenthood Lobby Day 2005 on Tuesday to learn how to lobby the government by talking directly to legislators.
----------------

The picture is from our rally at 5:00p.m.

Loved all of those UT students. You go women!!

Sonia

[crispini]

29. Here's my blog of the day.

It was way fun!

http://practicalactivist.blogspot.com/2005/03/planned-parenthood-of-texas-lobby-day.html

[sonias]

31. Nice blog crispini!

Glad you got to visit with Senator Carona. That's a very important bill he filed. Very good summary of the bills on your blog site. Here's what I told one person who asked me about the Medicaid waiver and spending any money this session, I told them Alabama and Mississippi have this waiver and I know Texas can do better than that. I told them we're working hard to restore CHIP and we should do the same for Medicaid. It's just the fiscally conservative thing to do.

I was lucky in that even though my Senator is a repuke, he's the only pro-choice republican Senator- Jeff Wentworth. Wentworth was actually on the board of Planned Parenthood in San Antonio for 3 years, so he's very well informed.

Sonia

[crispini]

32. Wentworth's your guy?

Cool, we were marvelling over his voting record on the bus the way down. Everyone thought that R next to his name was a typo until we were informed otherwise. :7

Oh, you wanna here a funny story I didn't put in the blog? On the way back I was chatting with the group who went to see Goolsby, who nearly lost to Harriet Miller up in the 102nd here. Despite is 0% TARAL voting record, he met with their group personally, expressed a lot of sympathy for their causes, and complained about how hard it is to be a moderate Republican in the TX Lege. Hahahahaha! Gee, competitive districts are great aren't they?

[sonias]

33. Competitive districts are great

I do wish we had more of them. I really, really wanted to go to the Todd Baxter meeting. He's not my rep and I was scheduled to see mine who's 100% pro-choice. Baxter is the guy we almost kicked out this last election. The bastard won by 142 votes. Anyway choice was a campaign issue, and this maggot said in his ads he was not anti-choice, but of course it's a big whopping lie. His days in the Lege are numbered. We are forcing his retirement next election.

What we absolutely need to to on this session is collect votes on these bills. I know they won't be recorded votes but when they happen we have got to physically be there to see how these pukes are voting and make them stand by their record of voting against women's health issues.

Sonia

[sonias]

30. More pics at Planned Parenthood

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/pp2/tcr/files/tcr/getinvolved/takeaction/lobbyday.xml

Awesome.

Sonia