Make-Believe Maverick
I love the Rolling Stone for their refreshing political coverage. Too bad Hunter S. Thompson isn't covering the fear and loathing on the campaign trail of 2008. In the current Rolling Stone, Tim Dickinson reveals "A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty."
Sarah Palin Disney Trailer
An Alaskan hockey mom becomes Vice President in the wackiest family comedy of the year! Sound familiar?
Dress Code at the Polls!
Although I haven't spent much time planning my outfits when I've voted in the past, I never thought that I could be turned away for wearing an Obama t-shirt. Fortunately I'll be voting absentee for this election and can wear whatever I like!
The trusty rumor squashing website, www.snopes.com, confirmed this one:
YOU CANNOT GO TO THE POLLS WEARING ANY OBAMA SHIRTS
Please pass it on
The text below is very important information that we all need to share.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE ADVISE EVERYONE YOU KNOW THAT THEY ABSOLUTELY CAN NOT GO TO THE POLLS WEARING ANY OBAMA SHIRTS, PINS OR HATS, IT IS AGAINST THE LAW AND WILL BE GROUNDS TO HAVE THE POLLING OFFICIALS TO TURN YOU AWAY.
THAT IS CONSIDERED CAMPAIGNING AND NO ONE CAN CAMPAIGN WITHIN X AMOUNT OF FEET TO THE POLLS. THEY ARE BANKING ON US BEING EXCITED AND NOT BEING AWARE OF THIS LONG STANDING LAW THAT YOU CAN BET WILL BE ENFORCED THISYEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THEY ARE BANKING THAT IF ARE TURNED AWAY YOU WILL NOT GO HOME AND CHANGE YOUR CLOTHES.. PLEASE JUST DON'T WEAR OBAMA GEAR OF ANY SORTS TO THE POLLS!! PLEASE SHARE THIS INFORMATION, OH AND FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO WERE ALREADY AWARE THIS WAS NOT MEANT TO INSULT YOUR INTELLIGENCE.
Please pass it on
The text below is very important information that we all need to share.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE ADVISE EVERYONE YOU KNOW THAT THEY ABSOLUTELY CAN NOT GO TO THE POLLS WEARING ANY OBAMA SHIRTS, PINS OR HATS, IT IS AGAINST THE LAW AND WILL BE GROUNDS TO HAVE THE POLLING OFFICIALS TO TURN YOU AWAY.
THAT IS CONSIDERED CAMPAIGNING AND NO ONE CAN CAMPAIGN WITHIN X AMOUNT OF FEET TO THE POLLS. THEY ARE BANKING ON US BEING EXCITED AND NOT BEING AWARE OF THIS LONG STANDING LAW THAT YOU CAN BET WILL BE ENFORCED THISYEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THEY ARE BANKING THAT IF ARE TURNED AWAY YOU WILL NOT GO HOME AND CHANGE YOUR CLOTHES.. PLEASE JUST DON'T WEAR OBAMA GEAR OF ANY SORTS TO THE POLLS!! PLEASE SHARE THIS INFORMATION, OH AND FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO WERE ALREADY AWARE THIS WAS NOT MEANT TO INSULT YOUR INTELLIGENCE.
"Palin Problem" in the National Review
Here's a note from my friend Mark on the recent Sarah Palin in the National Review. He comments~
==
When conservatives like Kathleen Parker and George Will are calling for Palin to, for the good of the country, step down, I can't see that it makes sense not to listen.
What I think is unfortunate is that it's not her fault and shouldn't be held responsible; she's just nowhere near "there" yet and you can't place the blame on her.
It would be like blaming a young child for running out into traffic when it is the reckless parent that should be faulted.
==
==
When conservatives like Kathleen Parker and George Will are calling for Palin to, for the good of the country, step down, I can't see that it makes sense not to listen.
What I think is unfortunate is that it's not her fault and shouldn't be held responsible; she's just nowhere near "there" yet and you can't place the blame on her.
It would be like blaming a young child for running out into traffic when it is the reckless parent that should be faulted.
==
Read the Article! Kathleen Parker writes, "If at one time women were considered heretical for swimming upstream against feminist orthodoxy, they now face condemnation for swimming downstream — away from Sarah Palin."
If there was a Sarah Palin Garbage Pail Kid
I know this is in bad taste, but its a great piece of art!
Another note from our man in Ohio, Matthew Lappe
Monday, October 6, 2008
Hey all,
So it's Sunday afternoon. John and I head back to Brooklyn shortly. Matt is staying through Tuesday (or maybe longer, Matt?).
Today, he's headed out with the van to shuttle people coming out of Sunday church services to the early voting center. There are just two days left before the last moment to register voters, so the push is on.
Our team, the Vote from Home folks, have a headquarters—base camp—in a residential neighborhood in the Southeast part of the city. About fifteen people have been staying in this tiny house. And since they landed more than a month ago, they've developed a well oiled machine that. We told you in our first update that the group was hoping to get 10,000 people registered, and encourage as many of them as possible to request an absentee ballot.
We gathered together in the compound on Thursday night to watch the Palin-Biden debate on their big flatscreen TV they've rented, and Marc, one of the masterminds behind the organization, said he had an announcement to make. He read out loud from an e-mail he had sent to a few friends earlier this year: "If we get 10 people to register 10 people a day for 10 weeks, we could register 10,000 people in Ohio." He read his friend's response: "That's a perfect number, considering McCain said we could be in Iraq for another 10,000."
The idea is to try to register as many people as possible before Monday, which is the last day to register in Ohio. As we've been registering people, we've also been entering their names and contact information into a self-designed massive database. Then, between now and Election Day, the group plans to follow up with each and one of the people on the lists to make sure that they got their absentee ballot (if they asked for one), or that they've made it down to early vote, or that they head out on Election Day. In other words, every single person who we register, we hope, will also be voting.
I'll share just a couple of the sweetest moments for us: Yesterday, John and I were tasked with heading out to track down problem cases – missing registrations, no social security numbers, no date of birth, that kind of thing. Our first stop was at Grant Hospital downtown—the maternity ward. When we got to Room 543 we knocked and a quiet voice invited us in. A young woman was sitting up in bed, beaming. Between her outstretched legs was her 12-hour old baby, Julian, bundled in blankets. As she signed her registration form, we chatted with her friend, cooed over her Buddha-esque baby, and thanked her for calling us. She would be out of the hospital tomorrow at the earliest and she told us that if we hadn't shown up, she would not have been able to vote.
After the hospital visit, we headed out to an address on Kelton Street. From the partially filled out registration, we noticed that the woman we were looking for was born in 1932. In a neighborhood east of downtown, we pulled up in front of a modest house. Through her screen door, I (Anna) could see Virginia sitting on her couch. She was surrounded by stacks of opened mail, magazines, a can of soda. Her walker was at her feet. She called for me to come in. Visibly shaking, Virginia started apologizing for her condition –Parkinson's, they think, she said. She gestured for me to sit down beside her, and together we finished filling out her registration and absentee ballot. When it was time to sign, I held the clipboard, and slowly – letter-by-letter – she shakily signed: Virginia Alston. (Note to Ross: Please check in on her and see if she needs help with that absentee ballot!)
Another one of my favorite moments was when Matt and I went to one of the halfway houses, this one for women coming out of jail. When we got to Alvis House, the manager said there was only one woman who wanted to get taken down to the early voting and registration center. So Matt and I piled back into our 9-seater van with a forty-something woman from the shelter named Candace—or Candy as she said we should call her. On our way to the voting center she shared with us why she was voting for Barack Obama and we talked about the economy as we drove by some of the boarded up houses on Bryden Road. We waited with the van, while she went inside to register and vote. When we got back to Alvis House, we were saying our goodbyes and I admit, I was still feeling like maybe we hadn't really done much, just clocking one vote. That's when she said: "I just want to thank you two. You just helped a first-time voter."
I suppose in an abstract way I've always understood that the voting laws are designed to make it hardest for poor people to vote, but I only really fully understand it now through this experience. Since voting registration is tied to addresses, who are the people who have to re-register every election? They're the folks who get evicted, those who get foreclosed on. They're the women who have to head to battered women's shelters, or the young people who bounce for home to home. They're the men and women convicted of big crimes (and little ones) who find themselves in and out of jail. These are the people who have to re-register every year, not the families with 30 year mortgages who live in one home their whole lives. And these are many of the people that our group helped to register and transport to the early voting center in Columbus.
Love,
Matt, Anna, and John
Our Friends on the Ground in Ohio
Here is s short write-up from some friends who are on the ground in Ohio - the Lappe family. Hopefully this will trigger some positive thoughts!
*****
Today was the second day of Ohio's "golden week," when people can register and vote at the same moment.
It's inspiring to be a part of this huge network of volunteers – more than 100 across the entire state – who are helping get people to the early voting centers. On a conference call with organizers tonight, we heard that 800 people voted yesterday in Columbus and about 300 of them were from our group's organizing. It feels good to be making a difference, and we're sure the numbers will only go up.
The group we're with, VoteTodayOhio, has hooked up with Vote from Home Ohio, who has been doing voter registration in the state since Aug 1. They've registered almost 10,000 new voters! This week, like all of us, the effort is centered on getting people to the polls. They've been super smart and creative and focused on helping those who are normally disenfranchised get to the early polling centers. So we're providing shuttles from the homeless shelters, soup kitchens, housing authority, halfway houses.
Yesterday, we worked with Vote from Home and mainly shuttled people from the homeless centers in town. It's intense to see the incredible poverty, urban decay, and signs of unemployment here. The economic downturn is not hidden at all.
Today, we were sent out to a thrift store and a barber training school. Within minutes, Matt had befriended the crew of guys hanging out in front of the school. Within an hour we had registered more than 20 people and provided nearly all of them with absentee ballots. After such success, we plan on going back as well as visiting the other big barber shops in town.
As we circulated throughout the barber school, the barbers kept trying to get Matt to sit down for a haircut. Everyone agreed he was looking a little shaggy, so he paid the $6 for a trim from Tone—one of the most enthusiastic Obama supporters. As Matt got his cut, a half dozen other guys hung out and chatted. We talked about SF and New York, politics, life in Columbus, sports and favorite drinks. We all shared great laughs, and at one point, Matt had to enlist Tone to oppose a proposal to shave VOTE into the back of his head.
And then there's Mandeep! Matt's old roommate from Stanford lives here in Columbus, doing a postdoc in Cosmology, and has invited us to stay as his house, along with his 4-to-6 roommates (depending on how you count them). He is a classic nutty professor. Mandeep spends most of his waking hours researching dark matter, dark energy, and, as he says, the birth of the universe, but often forgets to untuck his pants from his socks after biking to work. He has been a wonderful host, loaning us his Prius and keeping us updated on all the political polls and news.
Polls seem to be tilting for Obama and being here makes us feel even more positive. If we're doing this kind of thing – taking time out to organize in a battleground state for the first time in our lives – there must be many more of us out there. Go Obama!
Thanks again for your support. This wouldn't have been possible without all of you guys.
Love to you all!
Anna and Matt
PS Here's the website for our group http://votetodayohio.blogspot.com/
*****
Today was the second day of Ohio's "golden week," when people can register and vote at the same moment.
It's inspiring to be a part of this huge network of volunteers – more than 100 across the entire state – who are helping get people to the early voting centers. On a conference call with organizers tonight, we heard that 800 people voted yesterday in Columbus and about 300 of them were from our group's organizing. It feels good to be making a difference, and we're sure the numbers will only go up.
The group we're with, VoteTodayOhio, has hooked up with Vote from Home Ohio, who has been doing voter registration in the state since Aug 1. They've registered almost 10,000 new voters! This week, like all of us, the effort is centered on getting people to the polls. They've been super smart and creative and focused on helping those who are normally disenfranchised get to the early polling centers. So we're providing shuttles from the homeless shelters, soup kitchens, housing authority, halfway houses.
Yesterday, we worked with Vote from Home and mainly shuttled people from the homeless centers in town. It's intense to see the incredible poverty, urban decay, and signs of unemployment here. The economic downturn is not hidden at all.
Today, we were sent out to a thrift store and a barber training school. Within minutes, Matt had befriended the crew of guys hanging out in front of the school. Within an hour we had registered more than 20 people and provided nearly all of them with absentee ballots. After such success, we plan on going back as well as visiting the other big barber shops in town.
As we circulated throughout the barber school, the barbers kept trying to get Matt to sit down for a haircut. Everyone agreed he was looking a little shaggy, so he paid the $6 for a trim from Tone—one of the most enthusiastic Obama supporters. As Matt got his cut, a half dozen other guys hung out and chatted. We talked about SF and New York, politics, life in Columbus, sports and favorite drinks. We all shared great laughs, and at one point, Matt had to enlist Tone to oppose a proposal to shave VOTE into the back of his head.
And then there's Mandeep! Matt's old roommate from Stanford lives here in Columbus, doing a postdoc in Cosmology, and has invited us to stay as his house, along with his 4-to-6 roommates (depending on how you count them). He is a classic nutty professor. Mandeep spends most of his waking hours researching dark matter, dark energy, and, as he says, the birth of the universe, but often forgets to untuck his pants from his socks after biking to work. He has been a wonderful host, loaning us his Prius and keeping us updated on all the political polls and news.
Polls seem to be tilting for Obama and being here makes us feel even more positive. If we're doing this kind of thing – taking time out to organize in a battleground state for the first time in our lives – there must be many more of us out there. Go Obama!
Thanks again for your support. This wouldn't have been possible without all of you guys.
Love to you all!
Anna and Matt
PS Here's the website for our group http://votetodayohio.blogspot.com/
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