My birthday is April 22nd.
Bless me blessed Earthday by getting 275,000 of your closest friends to Pennsylvania on, before, or slightly after 4/17/2008 to do what needs to be done..
I have been with Barack since he announced. I worked for Barack in Iowa, when they said we were naiive. I worked for Barack in Minnesota, when they said we were out-gunned. I worked in North Dakota, when they said we was just plain silly.
I will stand "until the last Dog dies".
I will not bow -- until I'm broken.
Let us pour our hearts into these last three contests. If you cannot make it to Ohio and you can not make it to Tejas. Then please, please join me somewhere in Pennsylvania.
Join Me!
http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/4rsw7
Thank You ,
Your Friend (hell or high water),
Mark.
I was watching Bill Moyer's show today and was mesmerized by Samuel Rodriguez' take on the Obama campaign's great oppotunity with Evangelical Latinos. This may a key to taking the race for the nomination.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/02082008/watch2.html
Whether or not you are religiously minded, this is a must see interview.
Check this out,.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY
The "Yes We Can" song.
Absolutely Beautiful. Truly Moving.
Great analysis of the upcoming race.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1007/6183.html
Here are the promised pics of Dan in Chicago with Barack and the group of four (Aaron, Jeanna, Mark and Dan) in Sioux City for the Walk for Change event.
Link
Hello all. Please feel free to comment on any or all of this. Your input is important.
Last Thursday a small group of dedicated Obama supporters gathered in the basement of the Moorhead Public Library to discuss the future of the Obama for President Campaign in the greater Red River Valley. I will make a post of some of these points on the FargObama group on barackobama.com so that everyone can comment on whether or not they think we are on the right path:
1) Introductions: Present for the meeting were five highly dedicated fans of Barack. Robert drove down from Grand Forks (on the night of the Sioux’s appearance in the national championship, no less) and is a student from UND. Lee Ann is a dedicated Republican-turned-Obama supporter (which, in this purple side of the state, is a good, good sign) who believes that Obama has the charisma and vision to be a great president. Mark expressed his belief that the people-powered momentum of the Obama campaign is the thing that will carry us to the White House. Dan is a long-time Democrat whose insight and knowledge of both national and North Dakota politics was extremely illuminating and of great practical value for the long road ahead. Mark Olaf was some schlep who decided to throw a meetup in order to get things moving. Along with the folks that showed up at the Peace Rally and the HAC event, this brings our physical membership of the Fargo/Moorhead group to about ten. Small, I know, but we all promised to bring two friends to the next meeting.
2) The first question was how to organize. Mark suggested not having a “leader” and instead organizing using a looser than normal approach which would give members the opportunity to take one “portfolio” for the group. Portfolios would divvied up among needed tasks and individual strengths (netroots, grassroots, special events, etc.). This will allow for more fluidity of membership and less pressure being put on one person so early in the campaign. We will round-out (or flush-out) this idea at the May meeting.
3) We also discussed the invaluability of the barackobama.com website and how to use it to organize this group. This would include networking with other social networking sites, maintaining an up-to-date website and encouraging more people to join the FargObama group.
4) We also discussed the importance of being the advanced-advance people for the campaign. North Dakota will most likely be early in the cycle and might (might?) (might!) have some official presence from the campaign before February 5.
5) We also discussed the importance of keeping things fun and encouraged everyone to attend the Bowl-O-Bama on April 29th at the Bowler in Fargo (hint, hint). Robert was pumped and promised to bring a few folks down from Grand Forks.
6) We also discussed the question of how are we going to involve folks from across the vastness of North Dakota and Western Minnesota (conference calls, e-mail, blogs)??? How are we going to keep the groups from smaller communities active, engaged and going?
7) Other ideas were discussed, including topics such as the amazing greatness of Sen. Obama to the need of a formal book club to possible road trips to northern Iowa. We also had a good discussion about how to engage the local universities and form strong relationships with other left-leaning groups from around the area. Other than that, we spend a good bit of time simply getting to know each other and sharing our visions of a better America under the soon-top-be Democratic nominee for the President of the United States, Barack Obama.
8) Next scheduled meeting was scheduled for the first Thursday in May (5/3/07). I will take a vote on the blog to see whether we should meet at the library or, as discussed at the meeting, moving to Babb’s coffee shop in Fargo. The library offers a free space with privacy, but Babb’s (on top of great coffee) will allow us to be more public and might seem less like a “meeting” than a “meetup”.
Respectfully submitted,
Mark Olaf Altenburg.
1st "official" meetup of Fargo-Moorhead Obama supporters. Please attend if possible. The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 5 at 7:00 p.m. We are looking into a space at the Moorhead Library.
If you are unable to attend, but would still like updates, please go to the FargObama group on barackobama.com. We will post minutes and future events on that page.
For our out-of-town friends, is there anyway we can coordinate thoughts, ideas, etc. (I'm talking to you Bismarck, Grand Forks, Bemidji, etc.)?
St. Cloud had 23 supporters at their first meeting. Can we do better?
Last weekend H. made the following statement: "I know what Gingrich tells people privately, I know what DeLay tells people privately, I know what Karl Rove tells people privately," she said. "I'm the one person they are most afraid of. Bill and I have beaten them before, and we will again." (From cbsnews.com)
Do we want a campaign built on fear and loathing? Barack gives us the opportunity to rise above the scandals and small-mindedness of the past. We need to support a candidate who brings out our better angels, instead of continuing the poisonous rhetoric of the past two decades.
In response to her thoughts, though, I think that a H. presidency would make the Republicans happy. They know that having her in office would create froth amongst the talking heads and we could look forward to four more years of whitewater/lewinsky. Nothing would get done and America would loose another four (or eight) years shamefully gawking on the shoreline while the middle class struggles to keep their heads above water. Sad. Very sad.
We need a candidacy built on hope, not fear. We have a one-in-a-generation chance to make this a better world, a chance to make future generations proud.
