I was just looking at the Tweeter messages from Representative Kevin Brady, a Republican from the 8th District of Texas (Houston area) and it appears that Tweets and Truth rarely collide.
On September 14th, this clown tweets: "back in DC for another week of votes and the administration trying to take over another industry - this week it's student loans"
Student Loans - federally-backed student loans?!? Yeah, there's an industry ripe for government takeover.
On Sept 12th (GOP-sponsored Tea Rally) came this little gem: "Interviewed by Austrian, Canada tv stations. Where's U.S. mainstream media? FOX, as always, front and center. No surprise there..."
And this humdinger from the less-government Congressman at his little Tea Rally: "METRO did not prepare for Tea Party March! More stories. People counldn't get on, missed start of march. I will demand answers from Metro."
Enjoy the comic lunacy here: http://twitter.com/repkevinbrady
With the Senators and Congressmen taking requests from friends and family, many of Obama volunteers and supporters may be left in the cold. So, why not take the lemons and make lemonade? One group here is suggesting to host our own parties. I agree and want to take it one step further (thanks Anthony). I hope the Obama team will use their clout to talk to stadium owners to let supporters watch the inauguration throughout the DC area and the country. That way, we can tailgate; have free concerts; and do not have to spend a lot of money for dress-up clothes.
What are your thoughts?
Bush is at it again. This slid under the radar on Friday, October 25th. President Bush has ordering the Attorney General Mukasey to investigate voter fraud in Ohio even after the Supreme Court threw the case out. Bush did this in 2006. Check this out (http://tinyurl.com/6nzpw5) and pass it on. Tell your friends in Ohio (and nationwide) to push hard to vote early before Nov. 4th before the DOJ starts interfering.
Overloaded Schedule? You Still Can Help This Week!
1. Sign up under http://my.barackobama.com to get the latest and click Issues to see where he stands and Download for signs, flyers, etc.
2. Early Vote or Vote Absentee in Person if you can. Take a neighbor or two.
3. Make sure your family members are set to vote with IDs, etc. Go Early if possible.
4. Watch Barack Obama’s presentation on October 28th at 8pm with family or friends, or by yourself (with a glass of wine).
5. Log in to the Neighbor 2 Neighbor on http://my.barackobama.com/n2n download a phone list and a script to help Obama make his closing arguments in battleground states.
What Can You Do on Election Day?
The Obama campaign did the work for us. Consider taking off on Election Day and volunteer. Check out this site. http://my.barackobama.com/takethedayoff.
We must stay Fired Up. Share your plans to help Obama win.
Cheers, Crystal
I sometimes run a running commentary on politics and Life. I can also work with twitter through my cell phone (on the web side) Here is the address: http://twitter.com/crtconsu. Look forward to you joining me. Cheers, Crystal
Laurel Cell Phone Call Center - John McCain’s Anger First Campaign http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/devintucker/gGgHCD This call center made over 10,000 calls working only weekend. Bravo to Mark, Maureen, Devin, and Wendy, et al.
Neighbor to Neighbor: Reach Out and Make a Difference http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stateupdate4/gGgbMr
We Are Fired Up…Ready to Go100,000 in St. Louis, MOhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/18/obama-rally-in-st-louis-d_n_135826.html
75,000 Kansas City, MOhttp://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/18/213024/26/738/634881
10,000 in Fayetteville,NChttp://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=307920
$500 Million in the Obama War Chest (and Still Frugal) http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=a4Pz1EAmXk50
Crystal’s Registration DrivesI worked as a Registered Voter Registration Volunteer in MD. I had the opportunity to personally register over 100 new voters from August 23 to October 4. Thank you, Mom and Dad at their building, Miles Barbershop, Gold’s Gym, and Starbucks. What humbled me most were the people served their time. They stood up a little taller when they learned that they could vote. Awesome.
Some of this information is universal, if in doubt go on this web site and find your state's rules and regulations. If you do not need this information, please forward it to someone who might. This may eliminate some of the rumors floating around or you can verify things for yourself. Just get your friends, family, co-workers out to register and vote your whomever your candidate is. http://www.longdistancevoter.org/ Information from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, INC (LDF) The concern for college students registration, students who consider their Maryland school address to be their "official" or "permanent" home may register to vote in Maryland,even though their Maryland school address may be different from their temporary address. However, verify whether changing their residency will impact their eligibility for financial aid that they may receive from another state or jurisdiction. They can file a absentee ballot and have it sent to the school address. People in jail who are awaiting trail and have not been charged, can't make bail, or serving sentences for non felony misdemeanors are still eligible to vote by absentee ballots also. If convicted of a felony, have completed serving a court ordered sentence of imprisonment, including any terms of parole or probation for conviction, you are eligible. If any one needs more information in this area go to this handy website. Form and laws for all states. http://www.longdistancevoter.org/ If you are a first time voter, talk picture ID or bill with name and address. New rumor just in- 3:10 PM, 09/24/08 - McCain is trying to cancell the debate. And the beat goes on. The situation about the foreclosures if you do not still live in your house and have no fixed address to receive mail, you still have a problem. Your residence is some where you receive mail, and or pay bills.Maryland State Board of Elections Rumor Control
Rumor: If my home is in foreclosure, will I be allowed to vote?
Fact: Maryland’s Constitution (Art. I, § 1) guarantees each citizen who is 18 years old and a resident of the State the right to vote. The fact that your home is in foreclosure has no bearing on your right to vote. It may, however, effect where you vote. If you have left your home and taken up a new residence, you will need to update your voter registration (by October 14, 2008) and vote in the election district and precinct for your new residence.
Rumor: If I wear a campaign button or t-shirt into the polling place, will I be allowed to vote? Fact: A voter may wear campaign paraphernalia (buttons, t-shirts, or stickers) into the polling place while he or she is there to vote (the voter may not linger in the polling place after voting). However, an election judge, challenger and watcher, or other person stationed inside the polling place or within 100 feet of the polling place may not wear or display campaign materials.
Source: http://www.elections.state.md.us/ http://www.elections.state.md.us/documents/Electioneering.pdf Don't get angry about the false rumors! Do something! Volunteer for and Donate to help Barack Obama get Elected.
Call your congressman and senator and tell him or her that you want them to support Obama's plan to help Main Street. If Wall Street wants our help, then they must pay a price. They are working on action this weekend. Call them. Blow up the phone lines.
See Obama's speech on the Financial Crisis http://us.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/19/campaign.wrap/index.html?iref=hpmostpop#cnnSTCVideo.
Make the call today.
Fightin' Mad,Crystal
It's time to request your absentee ballot. With only 7 weekends left, and the need for you to work the polls on Election Day, now is the time to request an absentee ballot. Here is how the process works – You submit an Absentee Ballot Application. About three weeks before Election Day, your Board of Elections will mail you a ballot. You must complete the ballot and return it before the deadline stated on the ballot. How do I get an Absentee Ballot Application? You can download it from this weblink: http://elections.state.md.us/voting/2008_absentee_info.html Fill it out, write in the address for your county's board of elections (available on the form), slap on a stamp and mail it. The deadline to submit an Absentee Ballot Request form is October 28th.
Thanks and see you in Virginia or Pennsylvania.
I got more than a little frustrated with the mainstream media giving the McCain campaign free air time for its commercials, meaning McThug would air the commercial on the web and the media would give free ad time by discussing it. So, I decided to create a few of my own commercials to counter the McCain campaign, but I need your help.
Here are links to the individual commercials. There will be more to come.
Your help to spread the word is vital and its truly appreciated.
CheersCrystal
Poll Madness: McCain Takes Lead Even As Democrats Out-Register Republicans?Seth Colter Walls
This week's mainstream coverage of the presidential horse-race has been dominated by a series of polls showing the McCain-Palin ticket with its first stable lead over Obama and Biden. Gallup's tracking poll, USA Today and CBS News all show the Republicans with some kind of lead over the Democratic ticket. But, interestingly, all three polls were also conducted using a higher sampling of Republican voters than in July, raising a question of methodology.
In a year in which Democrats have a lead of 11 million registered voters over Republicans, and have been adding to that advantage through a robust field operation, are pollsters over-sampling Republicans?
Despite a raft of advantages in the electorate for Democrats, in September's first Gallup tracking poll, an equal number of Republicans and Democrats were surveyed (including "leaners") from Sept. 3-5, compared to a 10-point Democratic identification advantage two weeks ago. That partisan makeup of the polling pool resulted in a 5-point lead for McCain in Sept. 5 tracking poll. Meanwhile, the new CBS poll features a 6-point swing in partisan composition toward Republicans, which plays some role in the poll's two-point lead for McCain. Finally, the latest USA Today poll, which claims a four-point edge for McCain, was arrived at after a 10-point swing in partisan makeup toward GOP respondents.
Some polling experts say the changing state of party affiliation in the field is slow to be reflected in polls themselves. Democratic pollster Anna Greenberg told the Huffington Post that "when it comes to registration and turnout, the polls often do a very bad job of taking those [factors] into account," because newly registered voters aren't in the voter files used by firms that survey public opinion. "You could make the argument they are under-representing new registrants," she said, which would mean that the Democrats new edge would not be taken into account.
Monday's USA Today poll had a 48-47 split between Democrats and Republicans surveyed. That represents a nearly 10 point shift in party identification toward Republicans since USA Today's July polling. When asked for comment, USA Today polling editor Jim Norman wrote that "it's possible" that their latest sample includes too many Republicans. Though he added, "it's also possible that we have too many Democrats," because "there's always the chance of an over- or under-representation" in polls.
Still, Norman admitted that the GOP identification in the latest survey has spiked. "The party ID in our most recent poll does show a shift away from what Gallup has been getting in earlier polls, going all the way back to 2005," Norman said. "But previous conventions -- the Republican one in 1988, the Democratic one in 1992, the Democratic one in 2000 -- have also shown shifts in party ID toward the party that had the convention, and those shifts seemed to last, to greater or lesser degrees, though the election. Further, I've been told by Gallup that their tracking poll has shown a similar shift in party ID since the Republican convention. ... I guarantee you we will be watching closely in all of our polls between now and election day to see whether there are further shifts in party ID in either direction."
And it's true. Gallup's own GOP identification (including leaners) has swung six points in the last month, from 42 percent of voters to 48, according to tables provided to the Huffington Post. Meanwhile, solid and leaning Democrats have fallen from 52 to 48 percent of those polled. For political scientists who believe that partisanship is largely stable over time -- and who take note of the advantage in voter registration being experienced by Democrats during the same period -- the newly GOP-heavy poll samples can raise eyebrows.
Emory University political scientist Alan Abramowitz is highly skeptical of the new Gallup, USA Today and CBS polls. About the latter, which showed a statistically insignificant two point lead for McCain, Abramowitz said: "One reason for the dramatic difference between the two recent CBS polls is that the two samples differed fairly dramatically in terms of partisan composition. The first sample was 35.2% Democratic, 26.2 percent Republicans, and 38.6 percent independent. The second sample was 34.9% Democratic, 31.1% Republican, and 34.0% independent. That's a change from a 9 point Democratic advantage to a 3.8 point Democratic advantage. That alone would probably explain about half of the difference in candidate preferences between the two [CBS] polls."
If these polls are improperly reflecting the partisan makeup of the electorate at large, it certainly would go part of the way toward explaining anything beyond the quick "dead cat bounce" after the Republican convention. And if the convergence of polls around a small McCain lead has anything to do with sampling error, it would render any claims about a new equilibrium in the race somewhat moot.
One day before USA Today announced its new poll numbers, it also ran an Associated Press story with the headline "Democrats Post Big Gains In Voter Registration." In that article, the AP noted that, during the primary season, "more than 2 million Democrats [were added] to voter rolls in the 28 states that register voters according to party affiliation. The Republicans have lost nearly 344,000 thousand voters in the same states."
The article proceeded to lay out a variety of statistics that favor Democrats:
Nationwide, there are about 42 million registered Democrats and about 31 million Republicans, according to statistics compiled by The Associated Press.
The Democrats have posted big gains in many competitive states, including Nevada, New Hampshire, Iowa, Colorado and Florida. They have also been targeting historically Republican southern states.
Since 2006, the Democrats have added 167,000 voters in North Carolina, while the Republicans have added 36,000.
Still, that doesn't discount the fact that Republicans have definitely made some gains. As Greenberg notes, "Sarah Palin came out and gave a really good speech. She certainly exceeded the low expectations. And then more people watched McCain's speech than Obama. And now it appears there was a bigger bump for McCain than there was for Obama. ... But there always been more room to grow his vote." Greenberg says the prior lack of enthusiasm among Republicans could have resulted in an inflated rate of survey respondents identifying as independents. "The CBS panels show most of the movement came to McCain from undecided voters, people who were probably holding back from McCain," Greenberg said.
Despite that, Abramowitz simply doesn't think the overall spike in Republican sampling among all three polling firms is an accurate reflection of the electorate. "It's just not likely," he says. Given how important polls can be in the coverage of the race, even a slight assist to McCain during a period in which he is exciting the Republican base could help him solidify a new narrative in the race, regardless of the partisan facts on the ground.
