John McCain continues to pound his chest about what a great commander-in-chief he would make. Like his war loving Siamese twin brothers Bush and Cheney his only tool is the hammer of the military and every problem looks like the nail of a war. Now one of the hawks favorite institutional friends the Rand Corporation (the folks who brought you the brilliant strategy of Vietnam) are saying that the "War on Terror" is a stupid concept because it doesn't work.
For more information:
The General's Dilemma by Steve Coll NewYorker Sept.7th 2008
How Terrorist Groups End Rand Corporation
"America can do better than that... Barack Obama WILL do better than that!"(Crowd at the 2008 DNCC chants "Yes We Can!!!")"Yes, he can! But first! We have to elect him!"-Bill Clinton
"This time (LISTEN) to our HOPES instead of our FEARS!""This time (DECIDE to) stop DOUBTING and start DREAMING!""This time... (COMMIT) ourselves to building the world AS IT SHOULD BE!"
I can't wait to see you all out there on the Campaign Trail!!
-T (:
THIS ARTICLE DESCRIBES HOW ROCKWALL RESIDENTS ARE HANDLING THE FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY
Fellow Rockwall Activists,
DID YOU KNOW THAT IT IS LEGAL TO BE ON PUBLIC PROPERTY AND REGISTER VOTERS AND GIVE OUT INFORMATION ABOUT POLITICS EVEN IN ROCKWALL, TX: the smallest and one of the richest counties in Texas?
And DID YOU KNOW THAT THE RIGHT WING CONTROL MACHINE WILL TRY TO STOP YOU?
AND DID YOU KNOW THAT WE ARE FIGHTING THAT RIGHT WING ANYWAY?
WELL, THE BOTTOM LINE IS: THERE ARE SOME OF US THAT ARE NOT WILLING TO GIVE UP ON DEMOCRACY IN ROCKWALL AND HAVE BEEN ON THE GROUND FOR MONTHS? BELOW IS A SUMMARY OF ONE OF THE STRATEGIES WE HAVE EMPLOYED SO FAR:
1) WE HAVE BEEN GOING TO THE “HARBOR” EVENTS ON Thursday EVENINGS SINCE JUNE TO MAKE OUR PRESENCE KNOWN. AT FIRST, VERY SHY AND SCARED, WE JUST WORE OUR OBAMA “STUFF” AND HAD CONVERSATIONS W/ PEOPLE ATTENDING THE CONCERT(INSERT PHOTOS OF SYNDEY, KRISTI/TERRI, HAROLD AND HAROLD)
2) AND THIS WEEK WE GOT BOLDER: (INSERT PHOTO OF KRISTI AND TABLE)
On Thursday 8/7/08, we set up a table full of democratic brochures, democratic candy, bottled water, Obama stickers, window signs, and Rockwall DEMOCRATIC PARTY volunteer forms. It was a huge success! Many, many Rockwall residents visited our table.
BUT YOU GUESSED IT: AFTER LESS THAN ONE HOUR ON THE GROUND, A MEMBER OF THE LEADER OF THE the Rockwall RIGHT WING (? GESTAPO, PARKS DEPARTMENT, ? WHO KNOWS SINCE SHE REFUSED TO SHOW ID. OTHER THAN HER UPPER CLASS UNIFORM OF KHAKIS AND POLO SHIRT AND HAIR SPRAYED HAIR came and tried to stop us dead in our tracks. SAYING, “ I HAVE COME TO TELL YOU GUYS THAT YOU ARE JUST GOING TO HAVE TO PACK UP YOUR THINGS AND LEAVE, B/C THIS JUST ISN’T ALLOWED HERE.”
TO WHICH WE SAID, “ BUT IT IS LEGAL FOR US TO BE ON PUBLIC PROPERTY AND REGISTER VOTERS AND GIVE OUT INFORMATION ABOUT POLITICS EVEN IN ROCKWALL, TX:” THEN SHE SAID , “WELL YOU CAN REGISTER VOTERS, BUT ‘ALL THIS OTHER STUFF’ HAS TO GO! SHE WAS REFERENCING OUR DEMOCRATIC INFO……
SO, AFTER MORE EXPLANATION OF “It is within OUR rights of freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, and for that matter freedom from political tyranny AND STRESSING THAT WE WOULD RESIST HER EFFORTS to impede OUR freedoms and that IF THAT was the kind of country that she lived in, then she would have to send the policed to remove US.
The reaction of the crowd now assembled was shock and awe: “ Not in our country they seemed to say… In “whose” country I seemed to be asking as I was being asked to leave the “public” park. Let me say that by this time, there were 4-7 people around the table taking Obama window signs, stickers and things. These bystanders were very encouraging and said things like, “I can’t believe they are making you leave.
. ” Yes, my fellow Democrats. And freedom fighters and defenders of the constitution, Not only is this the state of our country, but this is the state our very own Rockwall County!
I call to you all now to fight back! TAKE A STAND , SHOW UP AND BE COUNTED OR AT LEAST SUPPORT THOSE OF US ON THE “FRONT LINE”
3) TAKE PART IN THE NEXT HARBOR EVENT ON Thursday August 14,2008 AND FIND OUT HOW THE STORY ABOVE CONTINUES.
4) CONTRIBUTE TO THE CAUSE SO WE HAVE “STUFF” TO GIVE OUT:.
Donate now so that our very own Rockwall volunteers can have the tools they need to fight THE RIGHT WING propaganda MACHINE.
HERE IS WHAT WE NEED TO BUY W/ YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS: We need money for more buttons, stickers, door hangers, card stock, bottled water for our volunteers, signs, posters, clip boards, copy paper, copies, brochures, and handouts.
Up to now, THE INTREPID WARRIORS DESCRIBED ABOVE HAVE been providing THESE SUPPLIES THEMSELVES, but now we are asking each of you TO STEP UP TO THE PLATE AND HELP US DEFEND DEMOCRACY IN ROCKWALL.
HERE IS HOW YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE: We will also gladly accept donations of your goods or services such as copy services, paper supplies, Obama stickers, buttons, bumper stickers, window signs or hand crafted items. We are also in need of Noriega for US Senate and Malancon for US House of Rep. stickers, buttons, bumper stickers, and window signs.
Please donate online to the Campaign 08 “Turn Rockwall Back to Blue” fund at:
www.rockwalldems.com
There you will find a link to the new act blue website where you can give a monthly or single donation to the Rockwall County Democrats Campaign Fund. Please make a note it is to be used to for the campaign to “Turn Rockwall Back to Blue.”
Thank you so much and no let’s all fight to turn this county Back to Blue!
Please note I will edit this post soon, but I wrote this in haste and I thank you for any and all contributions and comments to it!
Sincerely,
Nancy and Kristi
Rockwall for Obama
Campaign to Turn Rockwall Blue
Its just 12 weeks to the November election - - time to wake up Obama supporters and get active in a local group. I would like to see groups becoming active in all Texas counties, just attend a meeting in Dallas, Collin or Rockwall counties for an example of how to get a group going, build active participation and what to do to help promote the Obama campaign.
In simplest terms your group tasks are: voter registration, campaign visibility and getting out the vote during the "early voting" opportunity and on election day. There are many more tasks that can be undertaken in conjunction with your local Democratic Party organization.
If you can afford to buy Obama yard signs and distrbute them in your neighboorhood, that would be helpful, ditto with all Obama advertising. Be generous, buy what you can afford and then give it away.
The next meeting of the Rockwall County group is on Aug. 12th, see separate meeting announcement. It takes people, lots of people to support a campaign across a county, so please get involved, attend as many meetings as you can and participate in campaign activities.
Best regards,
Thom Bouis
p.s. Rockwall County Democratic Party needs donated office space for a campaign headquarters for immediate occupancy through the November election and would appreciate donation of a permanent office space. if you would like to make a cash or check donation toward the expense of office space, please visit the website wwww.rockwalldems.com.
We are planning an event for the 100 Days Mark (the day that marks having only 100 days left before Election Day!). Day 100 is July 27, 2008... Details will be coming shortly, but it will most likely be a picnic in a Rockwall Park...
Our goal for this event is to raise awareness that there are only 100 days left and to get 100 names of volunteers willing to participate in these final 100 days before Election Day!
With this goal in mind, if you are new, please join us and get your name added to our list... if you are a "regular" bring a new person to the picnic and get them added to our list!
Please, everyone, get out there this week and get awareness up that time is running out and Rockwall Democrats need to come together and get FIRED UP AND READY TO GO!!
Another great meeting at the Country Cafe in Rockwall, TX with a dynamic and growing group of mostly newly active individuals. To recap significant group events, we now have a co-administrator of this website so that it can be kept updated more timely and we have co-chairs and a liasion with the Democratic Party. Seeing the enthusiasm is really wonderful, with 54 members signed up on this site and many others participating, I expect this group will be able to field quite a team for community contact.
Our next meeting will be at the home of Nancy Sanchez, it is an all day open house event, nevertheless, I expect to be there for several hours starting at 2pm, and that will serve as our next group meeting date.
The owner of the Country Cafe tells me he intends to close for most of July to take a vacation and conduct some remodeling to install a pizza oven, so, if your home is large enough to host the group, pleae do volunteer, otherwise we are looking for a new meeting location for most of July.
I would like to see the group start conducting a mass voter registration drive in July and start planning Obama Campaign visibility events. We need your ideas, your energy and your resources and most of all we need you in person to participate in as many meetings as possible and to serve in any co-team capacity that you can. By having multiples of leadership, the group is not hindered by the absence of one leader at any given time.
Attorney John Albritton has offered limited use of a room in his office to store signs and literature for the group. The room is NOT suitable for any significant people activity as it would be disruptive to his law office. John also owns a property in Royse City affronting IH-30 for which he and I have had multiple discussions about letting the Obama campaign use the space until November. I'm confident that some arrangement will be worked out in the coming weeks as time is of the essence. If you know of any alternative FREE Obama Rockwall County HQ opportunities, please bring them to my attention so that discussions with the property owner can be initiated.
For those whom did not attend the meeting, the national campaign has requested my resume. Texas is going to be one of the battleground states in the fall election, so expect to see a huge expansion in national campaign staff coming into Texas.
Meanwhile, don't forget to order generously any Obama advertising or merchandise that you can afford to either display yourself or share with others or the public. Again, I strongly encourage the use of vehicle magnetic signs and Obama shirts, they are a wonderfully effective form of campaign advertising.
972-768-6160
We had a great initial organizing meeting at the Country Cafe, so wonderful seeing many newly involved political activists from the Rockwall County Convention turning out again to support our candidate Barack Obama for President.
We've made some plans to continue meeting, grow or group and to take several prelimary steps to improve the group's visibility. So much to do, and only 20 weeks left to do it all in, we need your help. In fact, we need a small army of volunteers, there are about 50,000 registered voters in Rockwall County and we need to knock on their doors at least twice in the remaining weeks. So, if you have a lose weight goal, maybe we can help with some teamwork walking, talking and knocking on doors.
While we cannot create a PAC, we can spend our own money as we please, all that you want to spend, so don't hesitate to buy large quantites of signs, stickers, buttons and magnetic signs too and distribute them freely. There is no restriction on your doing so. Anything to increase the campaign visibility in Rockwall County is fair game as long as its legal. So, bring us your ideas, lets workd together and while we are at it maybe make a few new friends.
I look forward to seeing everyong next week, Country Cafe, 3045 N. Goliad, Rockwall, TX.
OK, Precinct #83 – Wylie residents.
I propose a question… out of 22 Delegates/Alternates from our group - only one senior is without internet access - leaving everyone else to be able to play a part in BARACK OABAMA’S website… so WHY do I have only one of you (Ed) listed as being on our group??? BARACK OABAMA NEEDS our support in more ways than one! By joining HIS website, it shows your support as well as places you in contact with the correct people with correct answers! So, that being said… why aren’t MORE of our group (as well as Wylie residents) signing up???
It is extremely easy to do… all you have to do is add your email & zip code, answer a few questions and you’re in! Would you consider doing this one small thing for BARACK? I am listing the URL website info and HOPE everyone will proceed to UNITE YOUR VOICE WITH EVERYONE ELSES! Just Copy Past the link (located below) in your URL, hit “enter” on your keyboard and you will arrive at the “OBAMA HUB”.
Chris
Event: Rockwall County Democratic Party - Countywide Convention
Where: Rockwall High School Cafeteria, Yellow Jacket Lane, rockwall, TX
When: starts 10am, ends when its over, which could be quite late in the afternoon, evening or into the night.
What to bring: Yourself, a notepad, a pen, and any resolutions that you may wish to propose. If you bring resolutions, they need to be in a specific format, see the Texas DEmocratic Party website for details.
Before you come to the convention: Obtain a copy of the meeting notes of your Precinct Convention held on March 4th from your Preceinct Chair or Precinct Secretary. Review the notes carefully, make sure they are correct and complete. If anything is missing or incorrect, insist that it be corrected. If necessary, request an emergency meeting of your Precinct before March 29th to fix anything amiss.
Anytime you want to meet several thousand people, just be a volunter at one of Barack's appearances and try your best to manage the end of the line. There are of course many other volunteer duties, inside and out. Nevertheless, I'm not one to stand in one spot for long, so working the end of the line was a good fit for my comfort. I'm sure I walked quite a few miles during the entire 7 hours I was on site.
Seeing the response to Barack is almost like seeing a rock star visit, the intensity of the people to follow his every move and word is amazing.
Senator Obama brought forth an issue late in his speech that I know first-hand needs to be addressed, that is, competence in government. I'm hopeful that he totally restores the federal merit system of hiring, which is not the case today. During my own 31 year career, I personally witnessed the gradual decline of the federal merit hiring system, to the point that in my opinion the only merit hiring remaining is at the extreme lowest grades of clerks and typists. Above that level and one rapidly gets into vacancy announcements that are tailored for a specific applicant before the job is ever announced to the public. In other words, by finagling the rules, the merit system has been converted into a "good ole boy" type network of political, religious and social network placement. Cudo's to Barack if he can right-side the federal merit system.
Many of my friends and the news media have periodically suggested that Barack is at personal risk as a Presidential candidate from various elements of our citizenry who either associate him falsely with Islam or who cannot accept the idea of a black or half/black man becoming our President. I can assure all those whom have such concerns, I have seen for myself that Barack is well protected by multiple layers of protection, starting with pubic, volunteer and staff eyes, local Police, federal Police and a very large Secret Service contingent whom are highly competent. With the context of terrorism ever in the background, I have noted people in large groups constantly sizing up those around them and paying more attention to what is going on both nearby and as far as they can see. The patient attentativeness of the thousands of people standing in line, waiting to see Barack impressed upon me that clearly the public shares a broad personal safety and security concern for attending large events.
In talking with many hundreds of individuals, it quickly became apparent to me that half of the attendees have never visited their precinct polling place as they always early vote at a different location. I spent considerable time explaining how to identify one's correct precinct number and how to look up the precinct address on the Dallas County website. Hopefully the folks handling the precinct conventions are well prepared for hundreds and maybe thousands more people than they have ever seen before.
While having lunch with my family at a crowded restaurant in Rockwall, my wife and I noticed an extraordinary thing. Everyone in the restaurant seemed to be talking about the senator. People were all just having private conversations and we could hear "Obama" bounce around the restaurant in much the same way that one might hear a smattering of coughs make the rounds in a crowded theatre. Now, I cannot say that everyone was a supporter of the senators, or if the comments were positive or negative, but the amount of buzz and interest in the process that he has generated is undeniable.
Our appreciation to the owner and staff of the Country Cafe in Rockwall, TX for providing the venue for a successful organizing evening and dinner. Thirty people attended, of which nearly all are anticipated to become active in the campaign and quickly attend follow-on training set for Feb. 19th, 7pm at Grandy's in Rockwall, TX.
A total of 400 flyers were handed out and 20 campaign contribution forms. A total of 3 volunteers worked the booth at various times through the day. The predominant comment by an 80% margin was to effect of "don't know who to vote for." Second most predominant comment by 10% was "not voting for Hillary," and 3rd most predominant comment by 5% was "I only vote Republican."
In summary, generally very positive views of Barack Obama for President. Most notably, the children of the Republicans were clearly Obama supporters even if their parents claimed not to be.
