HQ Updates

New Safeguards for Credit Cards

Organizing for America — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 22:35:55 EDT

Earlier today, President Obama met with top executives from some of the biggest credit card companies in the nation as part of comprehensive effort to reform credit card regulations. The plan seeks to curb abuses -- making sure that terms of use are clear, preventing unexpected rate hikes, and safeguarding against unfair practices.

After the meeting, President Obama said:

Credit cards are an important convenience for a lot of people. They are a source of unsecured debt for a lot of individuals and small businesses who are creating jobs; a lot of startups may use credit cards for that purpose. We think that's important, and so we want to preserve the credit card market.

But he was keen to note that new safeguards are necessary for the American consumer:

I think that there has to be strong and reliable protections for consumers -- protections that ban unfair rate increases and forbid abusive fees and penalties. The days of any time, any reason rate hikes and late fee traps have to end.

The President went on to declare that statements must be "written in plain language and be in plain sight" with "transparency and clarity." Consumers must be able to comparison shop between credit card companies, so contract terms and deals must be available online. Moreover, President Obama supported the creation of default "plain vanilla" credit cards so that every user has access to a card he or she is comfortable with. He also called for more accountability, effective oversight and effective enforcement to prevent abuses from credit issuers.

The President's meeting followed the approval yesterday of the Credit Cardholder's Bill of Rights by the House Financial Services Committee. The bill -- which targets arbitrary interest rate increases on existing balances, charging unmerited interest on debt already paid, and unfair late fees -- which likely will reach the House floor next week.

Vote for Change: Miami-Dade New Citizenship Ceremonies

Organizing for America — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:44:10 EDT

As Vote for Change continues, with voter registration drives continuing with urgency ahead of state filing deadlines, one of the best places to hold drives has been at new citizenship ceremonies. Gabrielle, a resident of Miami-Dade, has been driving much of the grassroots effort in her part of Southern Florida.

Gabrielle has hosted 16 voter registration events since June, including 10 at new citizenship ceremonies. Occurring roughly once a week, each event draws about 6000 new citizens over three sessions a day.

We speak to attendees as they line up and wait to go into the ceremony generally speaking about the importance of registering to vote to have a political voice, exercising their rights and protecting their future and democracy in America.

Gabrielle organizes her events well ahead of time, trying to bring the biggest Obama presence possible to the events.

I post on my.barackobama.com, send emails to my volunteer base, make calls to volunteers and Obama group leads, local Democratic organizations to get volunteers for theses events. I encourage them to sign up on MyBO so we are clear on resources available and where there are deficits. Training is done at the site/event as volunteers arrive. We train and register new volunteers for other events - canvassing etc. - during down time or otherwise place them strategically to cover flow of attendees and family to pass out lit and speak about the importance of registering to vote.

Gabrielle has been involved in political campaigns in the past, but has become particularly motivated to help the Obama campaign: just at the new citizenship events, she and the other volunteers have registered more than 3000 new voters.

I have spent most my life in other countries where voter turnout is above 70 percent. The United States has elected leadership based on general election population minority. We need to first get the voters registered, then educate them on the issues. The era of a voting minority acting as the majority voice and influence must end.

Gabrielle is still doing her part, with nine more new citizenship registration efforts planned. She is always looking for more volunteers. If you would like to help with a voter registration drive in your area or find out about your voter registration status, you can find information here.

Grassroots Mobilization: "The right to vote is a right worth exercising"

Organizing for America — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:58:37 EDT

Since Senator Obama announced his candidacy in February of 2007, grassroots efforts have been at the heart of the campaign. By committing to an extensive field campaign based on community outreach, the campaign has relied in particular on local groups to help shoulder the burden of getting Barack Obama elected. Recently, one of the most active of these groups has been based in Tennessee, just outside of Memphis: Southeast Shelby County (SESC) for Obama.

SESC for Obama's latest event focused on the faith community in particular. On August 4th, the group hosted a meeting at the Soul Cafe in Memphis. Inspired by the role of faith in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the event sought to draw on historic convictions and motivations in the service of combating current voter apathy - and in the process support Barack Obama's candidacy.

Dr. Stacey Spencer of New Direction Church was the host pastor of the event. Reflecting Dr. King's words, he said:

In the 1960s our leaders in faith spoke out against voting injustices and indignities. Today, as Barack Obama so eloquently phrased during the commemoration of Bloody Sunday in Selma, the Joshua Generation must build upon the foundation provided by the Moses Generation. Our fight in 2008 is not so much against injustices and indignities as it is against voter apathy. The right to vote is a right worth exercising.

In total, more than 30 spiritual leaders from a cross-section of denominations attended, including those from many of the best-known churches in the midsouth. SESC for Obama sought to help and encourage religious leaders to use the pulpit to promote voter education and registration.

One of the organizers of the event, Tony, described the motivation for this particular setting.

In Shelby County, we have compiled historical voting data and projected goals for each Ward/Precinct. We're asking the faith community to help us reach our goal for registering, educating and mobilizing voters.

Since kicking off the on-the-ground components of their grassroots efforts in May, the fully-independent SESC for Obama has set up a barbershop voter registration program, hosted Platform meetings, trained Team Leaders, Area Coordinators and Neighborhood Leaders throughout Shelby County, and established an Obama telephone hotline. The group has expanded - now with more than sixty members - and they have registered about 250 voters in just over a month.

As the campaign continues, SESC for Obama plans to continue building relationships within their community, specifically collaborating with the faith community, businesses, and local organizations. They recently reached out to regional Latino groups, promoting and helping to organize an event on a Latino radio station, and they will continue these efforts.

If you would like to find a local grassroots group like SESC for Obama in your local area, you can do so here.

Veterans for Obama: "Competent New National Leadership"

Organizing for America — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:02:11 EDT

As a member of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs in the U.S. Senate, and a strong advocate for Veterans when he was in the Illinois State Senate, Senator Obama has secured broad support from Veterans across the country. More than 170 grassroots Veterans groups have been organized in support of Senator Obama's candidacy, including groups representing every state and every branch of the Armed Services.

On August 5th, North Carolina Veterans for Obama worked with the campaign to host two events with Major General Geoffrey Lambert, United States Army (Ret.). The events, located in Fayetteville's VFW Post 6018 and Charlotte's Campaign for Change office, each had about one hundred attendees, most of them veterans who had served on tours ranging from Korea to Iraq.

Lambert is the former Commanding General of the Army Special Forces Command (Airborne) and the Army's school for Green Berets at Fort Bragg. A lifelong Republican, he supports Senator Obama because he thinks Obama is a better leader than McCain, with a better leadership style.

I have been a Republican most of my life, with North Carolina friends on both sides of the aisle. And I did not come to my decision to support Obama lightly. But because we now have an opportunity to move beyond the past and to usher in competent new national leadership, I want to do all I can to help put Senator Obama in the White House.

He says that on a wide variety of issues important to soldiers - including Traumatic Brain Injury research, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, keeping the costs of TRICARE down, enhancing health benefits, and prosthetic research - Senator Obama is the best candidate (see Senator Obama's proposals in support of Veterans here).

The bottom line is leadership. On foreign policy, veterans issues, and security for our nation, Senator Obama displays the judgment and ability to lead that the American people can count on.

If you are a Veteran and would like to join Veterans for Obama, you can do so here.

Generation Obama in New Orleans: "Inspiring and Heartbreaking"

Organizing for America — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 22:06:01 EDT

In 2004, John Kerry’s strongest bloc of voters was 18-29 year olds, who voted in his favor 54 to 45 percent. At the same time, young voters have become more and more engaged in the political process. The youth vote grew significantly in the 2006 midterms, and according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement, it rose to 17 percent turnout in the 2008 primaries, up from 9 percent in 2000.

The participation of 18-29 year olds may be more important this year than at any time before. According to E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post:

Young Americans show all the signs of being interested enough and upset enough to flock to the polls this year. If they do, they could be the most politically consequential generation since the cohort of the Great Depression and World War II. Think of these newcomers as the Engaged Generation.

This grassroots campaign has been fueled in part by Generation Obama, a national organization dedicated solely to helping organize young people to contribute to Obama's candidacy. More than 25 regional Generation Obama chapters are now up and running, in addition to the national chapter, and groups are tackling everything from fundraising and organization building, to canvassing and community service.

One such Generation Obama event occurred on July 18th, focused on community service. Fifteen Generation Obama leaders, traveling from as far as Seattle, Philadelphia, and Orlando, went to New Orleans for three-days of community service and organizing training.

Lynn, a Miami resident, hosted the event.

We structured the weekend to split our time between community service and workshops on event planning, fundraising, and chapter building. We worked with the Episcopalian Diocese of Louisiana's Disaster Relief team on a house whose owners couldn't afford to rebuild. The house had been in this particular family for years and they were thrilled that it was finally being worked on.

Lynn feels extremely gratified by the response to her event, and now has even more admiration for the fulltime workers in New Orleans.

We were really glad to be able to help, even for a day, but the volunteers who were there for weeks or months were truly amazing -- none of them had any construction experience but had become pros in the short time that they'd been working on the house. It was an amazing experience that was simultaneously inspiring and heartbreaking.

Lynn says she was motivated to organize the event because she felt that often her generation and associated groups have a significant emphasis on fundraising. She felt that, while fundraising is critical to a campaign's success, it "can sometimes take us to far away from the reason that we support Barack Obama's candidacy -- I wanted us all to remember that we can make a difference in other people's lives if we have the will to help."

You can join a Generation Obama chapter near where you live, or start one yourself, here.

Vote for Change: "Voter reg, and a movie"

Organizing for America — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:30:05 EDT

"The Dark Knight", one of the most highly anticipated movies of the summer, premiered at 12:01am on Friday the 18th. Across the country, Obama for America staff, Organizing Fellows, and volunteers helped register voters at theatres throughout the weekend, including Baco Raton, FL and Wilkes-Barre, PA.

For Giacomo, a 24-year-old Organizing Fellow in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, registering younger voters had proved difficult in his region. The "Dark Knight" premiere provided a creative opportunity to reach his targeted demographic on their own turf.

Giacomo started preparing for the weekend two weeks in advance, first by calling the local theatre.

I explained that our registration efforts were non-partisan, that our volunteers were courteous and friendly, and that on a personal level we were all looking forward to seeing The Dark Knight as soon as we finished!

After being referred up the chain all the way through Tennessee to the main Colorado office, and then eventually back to the local manager, Giacomo was finally set to go. Along with two other Organizing Fellows and an intern, the foursome tackled the late-night rush for two hours, before finally sitting down to catch the 12:51am showing themselves.

On Friday, Giacomo was joined by three additional volunteers, and they returned to the theater again on Saturday.

"Voter reg, and a movie!" was how I billed it on my.barackobama.com, and that's exactly what it turned out to be: the kind of thing anybody would want to do on their weekend.

By the end of Saturday, Giacomo and his three colleagues had registered 72 voters. Counting another Organizing Fellow who was independently registering voters the first night, they left the theatre with 83 new registrations.

Giacomo explained:

Senator Obama inspired us to be out there registering voters those evenings, and you know what? We met hundreds of theatergoers just as excited about his candidacy as they were to see "The Dark Knight", maybe even more excited. So many individuals that evening, most of them our age or younger, spoke with us, laughed with us, wished us well, shook our hands, and thanked us for everything we were doing for the campaign and country. Truth is, I can't thank them enough for wanting to be a part of this process by taking the time to listen to us, to register, and eventually to vote. It was Senator Obama who inspired them to register that night, and for so many of us to be there when it happened at theaters all over the country.

The Vote for Change national voter registration drive will be continuing all summer long. You can find events in your area, or sign up to create your own.