Organizing for America | Blog Qaliqo (P.S.)

Celebrating The Hardest Four Years Of Our Lives

By Qaliqo - Jan 20th, 2009 at 12:44 pm EST

Also listed in: 7 groups

Today the real work begins. President Obama has called on us to rebuild our great nation. Bringing a large, populous, wealthy nation to the next level is our task. We must not be overcome, for the hour is late and time is short. Until campaign season in 2012, we are on a new mission: to achieve our destiny as individuals, as communities, as a nation, and as a world. We are all one people today, but the road ahead will be long and arduous.

Cincinnati Obama 2008 is becoming Cincinnati Supports Our President. I invite mailing list members to create a forum for discussing local solutions to the many problems we face. God bless President Obama, and God bless America!

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Now Get Out There And VOTE!

By Qaliqo - Nov 4th, 2008 at 6:58 am EST

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The longest political campaign ever -- ever! -- is finally at a close. Today we close the gap between Hope and Change when we go to the polls and Vote. This is not only our right, it is our duty to ourselves, our families, our communities, our great nation, and our evolving world. Tomorrow is the dawning of a new era -- and a new age of America. Today we vote, on the first day of the rest of our lives.

God Bless America,

Paul/Qaliqo

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A Farewell To Points -- or -- What Have You Done For Obama Lately?

By Qaliqo - Aug 8th, 2008 at 11:22 am EDT

Also listed in: 10 groups

The points system is dead; long live the activity meter! Without so much as a "thank you" to those who have supported this campaign since before the primary season, the ranking and points system was tossed out this week. The message is that our cumulative efforts up to July 4, 2008 no longer have significance to the campaign or its staff. Only daily, weekly, and monthly analysis will be considered -- never mind that the convention would be nominating Sen. Clinton had we not made such an effort from January and June. Although Sen. Barack Obama is still the greatest leader to come down the American pipe in a generation, and deserves the Presidency of our United States, this is a slight against those that have supported him most.

As for a redress of this grievance, here is my proposal:

-Top 1000 points earners: Free T-Shirt;

-Top 5000 points earners: Free Poster/Yard Sign

-Top 10000 points earners: Free Bumper Sticker/Button

-Everyone should get a "ThankYou" for participating up to this point, and an explanation of the change from a point system to a recent activity system.

Hope. VOTE. Change.

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Pew Research Poll: Obama Lead Outside Margin of Error

By Qaliqo - Jul 12th, 2008 at 12:50 pm EDT

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In case anyone missed it, the latest Pew Research poll has Sen. Barack Obama leading Sen. John McCain nationally, 48% to 40%. The margin of error is +/-3% -- in other words, our candidate is certainly leading by at least 2% of the national vote, representing several million people, more than the margin of victory in recent elections. If we keep up the good work, our candidate is headed for a landslide election in November.

Hope - Vote - Change

p/q

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Five Months Down, Five Months To Go!

By Qaliqo - Jun 3rd, 2008 at 7:17 pm EDT

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Senator Barack Obama will be the nominee, and America will be the greater for it! Today we witness history in the making, as we see the change coming. We have been waiting for a leader of Barack Obama's caliber, a leader who can inpsire a new, unified America that is ready for the challenges of the 21st Century. Today the waiting is over - all we have left is to mobilize the vote five months from today.

Yes, we can! Yes, we did!

Hope. Vote. Change.

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Late Breaking: Edwards to Endorse Barack Obama

By Qaliqo - May 14th, 2008 at 5:30 pm EDT

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This is the best news since North Carolina, and more than offsets the ten delegate margin in West Virginia. Let the people vote until June, let Florida and Michigan be seated, this one is in the bag. Our candidate, Senator Barack Hussein Obama, will be the nominee for President. Now let's get out there and take back our great nation, and become United States in spirit and name!

Hope. Vote. Change.

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Another Strong Performance For Barack Obama

By Qaliqo - Apr 16th, 2008 at 10:36 pm EDT

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Once again, Barack Obama has justified our support with another outstanding performance! Even in the face of tired questions about using the word b----r or having a Pastor who writes his own sermons, Sen. Obama has proven once again that the time for change has finally come. As for the whole Weather Underground thing, it only reaffirms that Barack Obama is not just another politician - he is our platform for change.

Hope. Vote. Change.

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Bitter? Hope vs. Mud

By Qaliqo - Apr 14th, 2008 at 10:31 pm EDT

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After three days of constant slander by cable news, I must speak up for Barack Obama. As a small town resident who takes more solace in spirituality and gun rights more than in our United States government, I take real offense at the media, Sen. Clinton, and Sen. McCain pretending that our bitterness is a figment of elitist imagination. Hope has fought long and hard with bitterness as the one-income, forty-hour household was replaced by the two-income, fifty-hour-plus household. I support Barack Obama for President because I am ready to end my bitter opposition and stand together with all Americans - if our shared values outweigh corporate lobbyists. Otherwise, I stand with God and gun against those who would sink our great nation for their own profit.

That being said, in small town Ohio we live with a lot of xenophobes, racists, and zealots. All three groups lack the self-awareness to connect their views to a declining quality of life for the less educated. Despite persistent anti-intellectual myths to the contrary, many two year colleges are accessible to anyone capable of a GED. Native-born Americans should never compete for jobs done in China or by undocumented immigrants; we have resources to improve the lives of our less fortunate, despite the Clinton-Bush policy disaster that is now coming to roost.

Barack Obama tried to squeeze two paragraphs of thought into a long sentence, and did an imperfect job of it. Who is offended? Who thinks Barack Obama needs to apologize? Who really believes that Sen. Obama is an elitist for one poor choice of words? Only the xenophobes, the racists, and the zealots, none of whom would have voted for Barack Obama because he was racially mixed, his father was a non-European immigrant, and his mother was an atheist.

Hope. Vote. Change.

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Our Fragile Economy Needs Real Leadership

By Qaliqo - Apr 11th, 2008 at 4:19 pm EDT

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The United States economy is in real trouble. Chances are that our bill has come due - as individuals, as a nation, and as a species. We are on the cusp of global scarcity; the wealth of the United States can preserve us for some time, but the immediate crises must be weathered in time for us to change our society to a model that is sustainable. Barack Obama may be the only person who has the charisma, the global popularity, and the will for change necessary to bring us through a catastrophe like our present situation. The status quo will continue with a pattern of too little, too late until our children are left with nothing.

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Questions About Points, Ranking, and Games

By Qaliqo - Apr 1st, 2008 at 4:38 pm EDT

Also listed in: Cincinnati Supports Our President! | Independents for Obama

[This is an open letter written for lack of a private channel to such parties as may have authority over such matters. Anyone who does not care to think about the "why" and "how" of points should disregard this post. -Paul/qaliqo]

Registered users at BarackObama.com are assigned a rank derived from total points earned using the site's criteria. This makes the entire site a game - at least on one level. This is not how we feel about Barack Obama, his campaign for the presidency, or our duties as voters in a representative democracy. If we had been motivated by the "game" of leading registered users in points, very few of us would have bothered to register in the first place. That being said, I present a few questions about how points are assigned (or not):

What was the motivation for changing a daily login from five points to one point?

Follow-Up: The previously mentioned change removes most of the "incentive" to check for new content every day - why is that good for Barack Obama?

Events and blogs give the user points, so why are no points given for group admins?

Follow-Up: Admins who do not require approval can find their lists bombarded with dubious content; aren't moderated groups more focused on electing Barack Obama?

Why reward countless non-events at places like "your television"?

What about a blog that amounts to a free text ad for a media outlet that has reported on Barack Obama?

[list truncated]

Just a few thoughts. In the spirit of full disclosure, one of my reasons for posting this was to receive points. Campaign news is at a trickle, and I haven't earned my blog points for a few days.

+15pts Posted Blog "Questions About Points, Ranking, and Games"

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The Long Wait For Pennsylvania

By Qaliqo - Mar 29th, 2008 at 6:22 pm EDT

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The long wait for the Pennsylvania primary is well underway, and ennui has beset the politicos on cable news. Lacking any new results, the slow trickle of announcements in support of Barack Obama is becoming water torture for the Clinton campaign. The talk is turning to the gap in delegates: if Michigan and Florida are not seated, Barack Obama is almost certain to win the nomination; if both are seated without a clean vote, there may be proverbial blood in the streets. If Howard Dean has any real power, this will end before Denver... if.

As supporters of Sen. Obama, we must keep up the pressure, especially on Presidnt Jimmy Carter, Vice-President Al Gore, and Sen. John Edwards, the three uber-super delegates - all of whom are still undecided! Second, we need to find some new friends in Pennsylvania; a win here will abruptly end the race, whether Barack Obama still has an opponent or not. We should applaud Sen. Obama's campaign for continuing to "swing through" with a message geared to the general election rather than the liberal party base. Our United States needs Barack Obama's style of leadership, left, right, and center!

Hope. Vote. Change.

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The Whole World Is Watching!

By Qaliqo - Mar 27th, 2008 at 12:08 pm EDT

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The recently negative tone of the campaign between Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton may have soured many voters, but it has not changed the basic facts. Barack Obama maintains a sizeable lead in the delegate count; the Clintons seem intent on losing him the general election before conceding defeat, if even that is possible. The whole world is watching the United States in 2008, to see if we will move forward with them to a sustainable future where equality and liberty are valued as highly as profit and security. Only Barack Obama has the mettle to lead our United States into a new era, to break from the corruption and scandal of the past. We must recognize the great irony that the Clintons, both proudly of the generation that pushed for civil rights and against war, are now the entrenched elite challenging the patriotism of a man for sharing those values. We the people must stand against this injustice.

Sen. Clinton has stated that she will not exit the race until the last delegate's vote is cast. A new generation must stand up and be counted; if Barack Obama must persevere until the convention in Denver, let us all come to Denver and support him! Forty years ago, the Clintons' generation flooded the streets of Chicago to say that enough was enough. Today, it is time for the children of those protesters to stand in Denver to demand change.

Will politicians bring us change?
No, they won't.
Can we bring change to politicians?
Yes, we can!

Hope. Vote. Change.

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PA-IN-KY-WV: Four Border States Where Ohioans Still Count

By Qaliqo - Mar 24th, 2008 at 3:25 pm EDT

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We Barack Obama people in Ohio need to regroup after our defeat by the Clintons' political machine, four weeks ago tomorrow. Ohioans still have a major role to play, as four of the five states on our border will vote in April and May. Sen. Obama needs our continued support; our time as volunteers, our donations, and most of all our influence! Surely every one of Barack Obama's many loyal, Ohioan supporters knows at least one person who lives in one of these border states. Each of us should take the time to contact this neighbor to let him or her know just how important the 2008 election is, and why we all believe that Barack Obama should lead our United States for the next four (or eight) years.

Hope. Vote. Change.

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Bill Richardson's Gravitas Would Aid Barack Obama

By Qaliqo - Mar 23rd, 2008 at 10:07 am EDT

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We were all delighted when Gov. Richardson announced his endorsement of Barack Obama; personally, I would love nothing more than to see Bill Richardson as Sen. Obama's Vice-President next January - it is my dream ticket for restoring the future of the United States. Bill Richardson was hampered in the primaries by his lack of the unflappable charisma possessed by Sen. Obama; most Americans never got to hear his policies because polls suggested he had a limited draw compared to Senators Clinton, Edwards, and Obama. Gov. Richardson - who has won elections as both a Republican and a Democrat - would lend both gravitas and executive experience that Barack Obama needs to win a "mandate" against John McCain and the Yoke of Iraq mentality. As a true independent, I find myself closer to Gov. Richardson than Sen. Obama on a plurality of issues.*

That is my case. I wrote this in the first person as it reflects my position as an American voter rather than my objective assessment of a political gambit. On that note, let me reflect that this decision should not be made before Barack Obama secures the endorsement of John Edwards, if at all possible; selecting the actual running mate could alienate Sen. Obama from the potential running mates that did not make the final cut.

*I chose plurality over majority here as there are several issues on which I am convinced both candidates are deeply mistaken.

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New Bin Laden Tape Proves Iraq a Waste of Money

By Qaliqo - Mar 20th, 2008 at 3:08 pm EDT

Also listed in: Cincinnati Supports Our President! | Yes Barack | No Iraq

A new tape has surfaced from the elusive Osama bin Laden; is he still out to get the Americans? Hardly. Is al Qaeda going to rise up in Iraq? If so, it wasn't worth mentioning. Instead, the aging would-be caliph threatened the European Union - as a whole, mind you - for a single Danish newspaper's offense of reprinting a single cartoon depicting the Prophet. Without Paris and Brittney strutting around 80% naked on the satellite, these Sunni adherents of the John Birch Society have donned their tin-foil turbans and are back to the real threat to the birth of a global Islamic state - the political cartoonist!

Al Qaeda foot soldiers are the Middle East's equivalent of the American with the Confederate flag flying high, a King James bible in the glove box, and a hundred boxes of ammo in the garage, listening to tapes from the con artists who prey on the weak-minded with hate speech. I'm more worried about our own bumpkins than I am about the ones in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and I sure can't see why we should waste half a trillion dollars and four thousand American lives to battle foreign terrorists in Iraq until that country is a total wasteland.

Let us all pray that Sen. Barack Obama first wins the nomination, then earns the Presidency, and finally that he brings the troops that aren't directly pursuing Osama bin Laden home with due haste before they get stuck in a thousand year old conflict between Sunni and Shiite.

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Some Republicans Unsatisfied by Sen. Obama's Speech, Ergo Racist

By Qaliqo - Mar 19th, 2008 at 2:36 pm EDT

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Yesterday, Barack Obama gave the most eloquent, thoughtful speech of my lifetime on the subjects of race, faith, and the future of the United States. Even many conservative ideologues confessed, having heard Sen. Obama's insightful and moving rhetoric, that it fully answered the spurious charges levelled against him as his former Pastor's proxy. Still, today a handful of ultra-conservatives - most of whom have histories of thinly veiled racial intolerance - continue to harass Sen. Obama in a vain attempt to stir up animosity between the many diverse groups that consitute the American public. This will not do.

We must call out those who wish to hide their racism behind a mask, especially when the racists offer no criticism of the religious zealots who have long supported not only John McCain, but indeed the whole conservative movement. Barack Obama has distanced himself from the inflammatory comments (comments themselves take out of context), and those who persist in shoving their elitist indignance need to do likewise if they are to be seriously taken as commentators and not hate-mongers.

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New Michigan Primary Would Benefit Barack Obama

By Qaliqo - Mar 18th, 2008 at 1:57 pm EDT

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Barack Obama has never campaigned in Michigan, so the delegate count is skewed in favor of his opponent. For some reason, Sen. Clinton is content with a new vote on June 3. This would give Barack Obama - who is better funded - over two months in which to make gains; it is hard to imagine that he would do any worse, and he could win Michigan, which could seal the deal on the nomination.

It would be really disappointing if Barack Obama conceded so many delegates by allowing the proposed June 3 Michigan Primary to die. We should all support the right of Michiganders to have a real vote, with the real attention from both candidates that would result. Michigan has not benefited from the Clinton-Bush economic strategy, and its voters should receive the national media attention given to states like Ohio and Pennsylvania. Isn't that why the Primary was moved up in the first place?

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Barack Obama Should Attack Clinton-Bush Economic Policy

By Qaliqo - Mar 17th, 2008 at 11:12 am EDT

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In our domestic economy, the sky is falling. Sixteen years of K Street corruption and lax oversight have allowed the financial sector to threaten not only the United States economy, but global growth. The weakening dollar is putting wage earners in and pensioners alike in a tough spot, and we have been encouraged into debt individually and as a nation. Things have not looked this grim since the Great Depression.

Barack Obama has an opportunity to capitalize on this unfortunate predicament. Like FDR seventy years before, a charismatic, intelligent speaker like Sen. Obama can offer us a vision of hope and change, of a political landscape in which our collective wealth is constantly under threat from a financial oligarchy that only looks three months down the road. Our public companies, especially banks, brokers, and insurers, need to always think first of our collective future, then of short-term returns to the investor class.

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The Politics of Hope vs. Fear and a Flag

By Qaliqo - Mar 15th, 2008 at 2:32 pm EDT

Also listed in: 9 groups

It begins. The media has turned its ratings-oriented eye on the Barack Obama campaign; the current target is his Pastor, who said things that made right-wing zealots angry. To me, it is shameful that Sen. Obama would have to denounce what were, in context, honest spiritual appraisals of our country. This is why we have a First Amendment, so that we can keep our religion (e.g. the sermons of Sen. Obama's Pastor) set apart from our politics (e.g. Sen. Obama's role in our nation's future). Anyone who says they have never disagreed with a view expounded in a sermon has not been to church very often. Some right-wing nutters are using fear and the American flag to attack a candidate they know can defeat them in November.

To my mind, this is a non-issue. The huge air time was probably to avoid asking the candidates about the free-falling economy, Chinese repression in Tibet*, a dozen hot spots from Latin America to Pakistan, or anything else cogent to who should lead our United States from 2009 to 2012. Newsertainment stations like Fox and CNN just rake the latest muck and slap it on satellite, giving us a knee-jerk reaction to anecdotes while the underlying truth is left hidden in a cloud of dollar bills.

*If anyone is confused, China is our real enemy at the moment, not Islamic zealotry. Free trade has bought us little more than twenty years of proxy wars before we actually have to face a real challenge. Like the oil-fed al-Qaeda types, our old buddies the Russians are totally dependent on fossil fuel income, and will be marginalized as energy shifts to renewable sources.

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DJs: Movement 2008 + Michigan Primary June 3 = Obama After Party!

By Qaliqo - Mar 14th, 2008 at 5:11 pm EDT

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Michigan seems ready to set a new primary date of June 3. As a closet techno artist and Barack Obama supporter, I am pleased to announce fund-raising after parties for Movement 2008, May 24-26. I haven't done event promotion in ten years, but I remember how to do it, so let's get together and make something happen!

Titled "A Movement For Change", all proceeds (less space rental, sound, and staff) will go to Barack Obama's campaign. This event will be as large and loud as donations will allow, one or more rooms, one or more nights, somewhere in Detroit. Those interested in volunteering time, equipment, skill, space, or capital should reply ASAP. Stay tuned to my blog for more info.

I think this can be a big event for Barack Obama, Michigan, and the people of the United States. My optimism is reflected in my new fundraising goal, but I believe that we can do even more than raise money; I believe that we can deliver Michigan to Barack Obama and put him in the White House in November!

Hope. Vote. Change.

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