Americans, be sure to register at www.democratsabroad.org. If you're on Facebook, join our group at www.groups.to/democratsabroadtaiwan.

We had a small but enthusiastic turnout for the second movie night of 2009 on Wednesday night. The burritos and margaritas were some of the best (and strongest for the latter) I have had in Taiwan. Unfortunately, the alcohol did very little numb the sting produced by the punch of Errol Morris’s absolutely stunning documentary of Robert McNamara, The Fog of War. Frightening is just about all I can say. Listening to his account of the Cuban missile crises was really the first time I have realized just how close completely rational people on both sides of the Atlantic came a nuclear exchange, and therefore just how close I came to not being born 14 years later.

We will be planning more movie nights in Taipei, and hopefully in other cities, hopefully one a month. But we need you guys, the DAT members and supporters, to tell us what venues, times and movies you’d like to see with a bunch of like-minded (well at least somewhat like-minded) political film junkies. So drop us a line, really!

One more thing: Josh Davis, DAT treasurer and grad student at National Sun Yat-Sen University, has been getting his hands and feet dirty helping out in the relief efforts in the wake of Typhoon Morakot. I’m sure he’s not the only DAT member out on the front lines, but I thought I’d share a link to his most recent blog post about what their doing down there. http://web.me.com/jddavis79

Movie Night! Aug. 19th: The Fog of War

Americans, be sure to register at www.democratsabroad.org. If you're on Facebook, join our group at www.groups.to/democratsabroadtaiwan.

DAT is back with the second movie night of summer 2009, a documentary: The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003). Be there!

Special Primary Election in California, 10th Congressional District

Americans, be sure to register at www.democratsabroad.org. If you're on Facebook, join our group at www.groups.to/democratsabroadtaiwan.

A recent email from Tammy Turner, DA Taiwan, about how the Federal Voting Assistance Program is adopting more social networking tools in preparatino for the 2010 elections sent me over to their site. Turns out, there's an early primary scheduled for the 10th District of CA that's happening in Sep., 2009! If you think you might be from the 10th District, go to www.fvap.gov to find out how to vote. If you still aren't sure or would like help, contact us at democratsabroadtaiwan@gmail.com.

From fvap.gov:

On Tuesday, September 1, 2009, there will be a special primary election in the 10th Congressional District of California to determine the political parties’ candidates to appear on the ballot for a special general election to be held on Tuesday, November 3, 2009, to fill the seat vacated by Representative Ellen O. Tauscher. If one candidate receives a majority of the votes (50% + 1) in the special primary election, no special general election will be held. To determine if your legal residence is in the 10th Congressional District, click on http://www.fvap.gov/reference/electoff.html and then on "United States House of Representatives." Candidates for this election can be found at http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/Special/cd10/.

DEADLINES:

For September 1, 2009 Primary	Overseas Citizens	Uniformed Service Members
Absentee Voter Registration	August 17, 2009	August 17, 2009
Ballot Request for Registered Voters	August 25, 2009	August 25, 2009
Ballot Return	September 1, 2009	September 1, 2009

For November 3, 2009 General	Overseas Citizens	Uniformed Service Members
Absentee Voter Registration	October 19, 2009	October 19, 2009
Ballot Request for Registered Voters	October 27, 2009	October 27, 2009
Ballot Return	November 3, 2009	November 3, 2009