As i myself suffered malnutrition during homelessness and still without any access to special needs foods...
Please note -
Special medical needs foods are always in short supply please help homeless, disabled and elderly persons with diabetes, cancer and allergy and other medical conditions.
Please donate plain canned beans, green and green leafy veggies,
non dairy, sugar, msg, or yeast items.
dried beans peas and lentils are cheap and healthy for those with cooking facilities.
please note singles do not get holiday baskets with turkeys to cook on the holidays.
help disabled singles with other protein sources.
canned sardines, mackerel, and salmon supply many needed vitamins and minerals.
There is near always a good supply of white bread and desserts.
From: "Darcie Olson" <c_olson@onebox.com>
Folks -
Wanted to let you know that my office will be a drop point for the OC
Food Bank for the month of December (starting December 1 - January 4th)
-
They are asking for canned food (any kind) and pet food
I have two barrels and would like to fill them up twice during the month
- Please consider dropping by my location at:
Darcie Olson
State Farm
2000 Harbor Blvd. #106
Costa Mesa, CA 92627
3.
NLC Summer Semester Registration Deadline:May 8
The National Labor College’s 2009 Summer Semester begins Monday, June 8. The last day to register for the semester is May 8. For more information, call the NLC Admissions Office at 301-431-5421 or e-mailjosborn@nlc.edu. Don’t miss this exciting opportunity!
Organizing for America Listening Tour (Meeting)
Organizing for America is dedicated to making real the change we fought for during the election. But to be successful, we need to hear from you -- your effort and commitment are the backbone of this movement and this organization. We'll tell you about some lessons learned during the general election, and ask for your thoughts on how we can organize California going forward.
Your ideas will be used to write a California-specific plan for Organizing for America in 2009 and beyond. Come and make your voice heard!
Time:Sunday, May 17 from 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Host:Mary Jane Stevenson
Location:TBD (Irvine, CA)Irvine, CA 92602
VOTE NO No No on all propositons may 19th.
Please !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://ca.lwv.org/action/prop0905/flyer.pdf
Don't let the state raid the budgets/ cut services for other use!!!
Marion Schmitz sent a message to the members of Organizing for America Orange County.
--------------------
Subject: Town Hall Meeting with President Obama this Wednesday in OC!
Latest info on our wall posts on OFA facebook group:
TOWN HALL MEETING WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA
Wednesday, March 18th
Doors Open at 1:30 PM OC Fair and Event Center
88 Fair Drive
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
TICKET DISTRIBUTION INFORMATION
The event is free and open to the public. Tickets are required and will be available at the following ticket distribution location beginning at 10:00 AM Tuesday, March 17. Tickets will be limited and will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis:
OC Fair and Event Center
(Enter at Gate 1 or Gate 10; Park in Lot A.)
Costa Mesa, CA
For security reasons, do not bring bags and limit personal items. No signs or banners permitted. The OC Fairgrounds will be charging $5/car for on-site parking.
See you there!!
To reply to this message, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?inbox/readmessage.php&t=1105202424124&mid=28966eG33820b8eG40e5883G0
On Wednesday afternoon, the President will travel to southern California and hold a town hall meeting in Santa Ana. He will then travel to Los Angeles, and will spend the night in L.A., holding a couple of events in Los Angeles on Thursday, before returning quite late that evening to Washington.
MORE DETAILS TO YOU AS SOON AS I FIND OUT!
If the McCain campaign suspension wasn't crazy enough--
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-trailletter25-2008sep25,0,3258601.story
'LATE SHOW' FLAP
I am just tired of the McCain’s campaign accusing Obama without substantiating the facts of their ads and campaign of calumny and maliciousness against him. On the other hand, Obama has continued to meticulously and articulately hammers McCain on issues of national concern and all we get from the McCain’s is a dogmatic and archaic mentality of reciprocating by denigrating and fallaciously accusing Obama of distortions.
How does McCain respond to the fact that he had voted and is indeed in support of the privatization of social security? As Obama rightly pointed out in Florida, let to McCain the Millions of dollars accruing as benefit for those who had earned it may as well be down the drain as a sequel to the near collapse of the financial market.
Read Obama hammers McCain on Social Security by visiting the link below:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/20/campaign.wrap/
In his zeal to present to the people of this country his maverick nature- which in reality may be synonymous to the stubbornness and pigheadedness that we have often seen in the fading Washington that he has been part of for close to three decades, McCain has as a matter of fact catapulted his mediocrity to such an alarming peak in context of his economic articulations and understanding that I believe the country will not be able to find any logical excuses to return the Republican Party back to office again.
I was happy to hear from my 13 yo, 8th grader that her teacher has two campaign posters in her classroom and is discussing issues that are facing our nation in an open forum.
Planning on taking my daughter with me to an event tomorrow- will get trained on phone banks and mailing postcards.
This is the same group of folks I worked with at a recent farmers market event and looking foward to meeting new local Obama supporters.
learned alot from volunteering at voter registration booth at local farmers market.
Met some very nice neighbors who are all Obama supporters.
Was a bit sad to see how many people did not want to be bothered with voting much less discuss issues. Personally cant seem to get over the fact that people will not exercise the gift of voting.
Hopefull to meet the folks that did stop in and update their address, name changes etc.
Looking forward to next voter registration drive.
The 2008 Beijing Olympics began over the weekend on Friday, 08-08-08. The opening ceremony's artistic portion was breathtaking and unparalleled. Even though my own personal ethnicity is not Chinese, I was proud to be an Asian and more importantly a human-being.
The final moment, when the Olympic torch was lit, displayed that despite one's own nationality, politics, or prestige we are all linked by a common bond and a higher purpose. Even though different nations may have different color skins, languages, and culture, we all possess a common spirit. A caring spirit for fellow brothers and sisters and a dream for a better future for all our children.
16 Jul 2008 11:34 am
Why is there not In the land of Obama only more than A hint of drama?
Barack Obama's presidential campaign is a sight to behold for many reasons, but among the least appreciated is its allergy to the disunity and spatting that generally convulses even the most successful of endeavors.
Obama, who never managed so much as a newsstand, has turned out to be a fairly remarkable leader of a what's becoming a billion dollar enterprise.
Not that there haven't been disputes; not that there haven't been rollicking disagreements about strategy and message and tactics; not that people haven't been fired; not that personalities haven't clashed; some high-ranking Obama advisers really embraced the concept of multiple town hall meetings with John McCain while others were wary; after some half-hearted stabs at negotiation, the idea kicked the bucket. (By the way: kicking the bucket is not a term of endearment for vegans; a dollar to the person who can explain why.)
So what principles are responsible for the discipline, the coherence and relational tightness of the campaign? The question is relevant because they tell us something about how Obama might set up his White House, and the principle of function following form applies.
1. A challenging, clearly-defined mission.
Win the Democratic nomination. Ok, that's obvious. But in November of 2006, Obama had a handful of wealthy Jewish donors from Chicago ready to raise money, a few Democratic strategy types who stood ready to put a campaign together, and not much of anything else. The challenge was immense, and the folks who joined the Obama campaign early on -- this was when Hillary Clinton was the frontrunner -- came aboard because they believed in Obama the challenge, not because they expected glory or material rewards. Salaries weren't competitive with the Clinton campaign's either. Obama attracted a large number of ideological Democrats who either had reason to dislike the Clintonian influence over the party or who believed that Obama stood at the crossroads between history and hope.
2. Clear lines of authority, with budget power appropriately vested in the campaign manager.
David Plouffe was named campaign manager and given the portfolio of essentially building an airplane as it was speeding down the runway. Plouffe's authority did not derive from his personal relationship with Barack Obama; indeed, Plouffe really didn't interact much with Obama before the campaign. Instead, it derived from the decisions he made that Obama later ratified. A corollary: Obama's best friend, Marty Nesbitt, was named campaign treasurer. That meant that Nesbitt, too, had oversight functions about spending and could make sure that Obama's personal values were reflected in the decisions made by the campaign.
David Axelrod would handle strategy, always a kind of messy and intrusive portfolio, but the strategy was pretty clear from the start: this is a change election, and Obama's the change agent.
Robert Gibbs would handle the press; and handle is a good word, because Obama's relationship with the press has been fascinating as it has evolved.
Their subordinates were generally given tasks and clear lines of authority.
3. The tone from the top.
Much has been written about Plouffe's preternatural unflappability, but his attitude helps confirm a basic principle of psychology: when the boss is freaked, employees get freaked. When the boss is calm, employees tend to remain calm.
But there's Obama's tone, too. Generally happy. "No drama." That's made clear to new employees, who feel the presence of the dictum as they go about their work. Drama disappoints Obama. No one wants to disappoint Obama. So -- if there are conflicts -- staffers are advised to work them out by themselves. A social cuing effect helps to cement the bond here; employees see that everyone else is getting along and feel pressure to get along, too.
4. Protecting Obama's public image at all costs
This one's also obvious, but it has been a priority from day one. The type of people drawn to the campaign are the type of people who would be angry at themselves if they somehow distorted the carefully crafted image that Obama and guru Gibbs et. al. had worked to create.
5. The personality cult
Not meant as an insult or a reference to messianic fervor; I mean more a reflection of Obama's personality. Obama is an occasionally fastidious perfectionist. He expects a high level of professional integrity from his staff; he expects a higher level of execution. When things go wrong, Obama doesn't just leave the aftermath to his subordinates, he actively helps to clean it up.
6. Decisions made quickly and decisively.
Occasionally, Obama temporizes. But just as often, he endorses quick, clear decision-making.
7. The freedom to do things differently.
But Barack Obama has a family member who can ease the pain.
Women often supported Clinton because they thought she would identify with them and their struggles to balance family and employment, pay for health care and find good child care.
In a campaign appearance in Kansas City last week, Michelle Obama did an effective job for her husband in delineating those issues as Barack Obama’s issues.
They definitely are hers. Michelle Obama isn’t running for president, of course, but women now are looking to her to get an inkling of what kind of president her husband would make. Is he, through her, empathetic with their concerns?
We don’t know how involved a first lady she would be in pushing for public policy changes. Her choice to be on the campaign trail is one signal. Another is where she has put her heart and talent in this campaign. By focusing on families and working mothers’ difficulties, she’s deep into key issues for women. The expectation is that she would be outspoken on them as first lady.
In the “roundtable” here last Thursday, Michelle Obama listened to the concerns of area women and offered them her husband’s plans for universal health care, paid family leave time, and help with college costs.
For a brief interview with her after the roundtable, I had a lengthy list of questions. But I promised myself that I would make sure to get in my daughter’s question to Obama. The answer proved to be revealing about this potential first lady’s thoughts on the balancing act many women go through.
What, my 22-year-old wanted to know, is her advice to young women who are leaving college and starting out on their own?
Obama had a ready answer: Don’t try to do everything at once, she advised. Pace your life. And follow your passion.
It’s easier said than done, and Obama seems to know that.
“I want us to talk to young women about balancing it all,” Obama said. “Let them know in advance unless we change some of the policies in this country, it’s impossible to do it all.”
Women today can’t really “have it all” at the same time, she said. It usually will have to come in “stages.”
While acknowledging that health care and other family issues are concerns of men as well, Obama says that women often accept a more exacting schedule trying to fit all the roles of their lives together.
“I still feel the social pressures of making sure that I get a certain set of things done,” she said. “It’s not pressure from my husband.
“It’s an internal pressure that we women put on ourselves.”
Lots of women can identify with that.
Michelle Obama’s life experiences allow her to relate to women’s concerns. A Harvard-educated lawyer who has held prestigious jobs, she is the mother of two daughters who are clearly her No. 1 priority.
While her family now has means, she grew up in a single-bedroom apartment with working-class parents.
And she and her husband were shouldered with education debt early in their marriage and not able to pay off their college loans until after he sold his first book, aides say.
The campaign has presented its own balancing challenges, too.
She sharply cut back her own schedule when her husband began running for president. She joined him at first reluctantly in the campaign and with the caveat that she would be home for their daughters most nights of the week.
As her schedule has intensified in recent weeks, Michelle Obama has stuck to her motherly instincts. Aides say she makes sure she is home to tuck them into bed virtually every night. She will not be away multiple nights.
Women who are pulled in six directions will identify with that predominant instinct in a woman who also has many obligations in her life. Michelle Obama could make a difference in how they vote come November.
Dear folks: How about we initiate registration of new citizens on their oath-taking days? I am sure we will have such a good harvest of new registrants? All we need to do is print this registration card for them.
http://www.registrationbyworkingassets.com/register/?ms=sidebar&api_key=gQKGZ9xr0iTIct4XGnRHB1ALGT4
Most oath - taking days of new citizens are held in the urban cities' convention centers to accomodate new citizens in the thousands.
Ray Bawarchi
21 April 2008 - Issue : 778
Barack Obama is a singular figure in American politics. Since George Washington, every single one of the forty-three (43) presidents of the United States has been a white male. Only three African -Americans have ever even been elected a governor of one of the fifty (50) states. Only one Native American has ever been a US Senator. Hardly what one would expect in the alleged "melting pot." For the last eight elections a Bush or a Clinton has been on the presidential ballot. Hardly what one expects in a democracy.
That Obama should emerge now may be simply an accident of history or it may be symbolic of something far more. After 9/11, America had its best opportunity to lead the world. The outpouring of sympathy provided the chance for the US to wipe the slate clean, so to speak, with the rest of the world for our bullying, imperialistic foreign policy over the past 50 years. A foreign policy that spoke publicly of freedom while propping up dictators and ignoring the suppression of rights in oppressive countries with "friendly" governments.
The scale of 9/11 provided an opportunity to start fresh, to recognise that our actions were at least partially to blame for what happened. Instead, Bush heard the jangling of his spurs and engaged in cowboy diplomacy, he attacked. But it wasn't just the militaristic nature of the response. It was the attitude that because the US had been wronged any response was justified. The rendition of prisoners to foreign governments was justified as was the debacle at Abu Ghraib. Guantanamo was opened specifically to circumvent the US legal system.
Within the US things also drastically changed. A chilling effect occurred as people suspected and talked about now confirmed domestic spying. Widespread wiretapping, data mining and the monitoring of anti-war groups have all been verified. Antiimmigrant sentiment grew as fear was manipulated in the national mindset through Homeland Security alerts. The loss of constitutional rights seemed in danger of being accepted as irreversible.
In 2004, the politics of fear was elevated to an art form. Fear of terrorists, fear of immigrants, fear of homosexuals, and fear of anything that could divide the populace became the electoral mantra. Those who questioned the assumptions of this approach were accused of hating the country. Those who spoke out against our actions were accused of aiding the enemy. Meanwhile those within the government constructed rationales for torture and alienated most of our allies.
The idea that the world was filled with dangerous foes intent on harming us became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Attacking Iraq and using words such as "crusade" Bush inflamed former moderates against the nation. The US continued its sabre-rattling against Iran and North Korea even after becoming overextended on two war fronts, becoming nothing but a giant bully forcing its will on the rest of the world. Bush is the living embodiment of this attitude. A proudly ignorant rube who fiercely rejects any point of view but his own, his idea of diplomacy is to threaten other nations. Even allies are given ultimatums.
The "Coalition of the Willing" is really the coalition of the threatened. It is a change from this worldview that I believe the rest of the world sees in Barack Obama, a man so different from Bush he might well be the anti-Bush. He is an intelligent, erudite individual who was the editor of the Harvard Law Review. When he could have had practically any job in law, and the accompanying salary, he returned to Chicago to work as a community organiser.
Growing up bi-racial in mostly white Kansas, later living in Hawaii and Indonesia, Obama has lived a life that gives him insight into the world at large. He has a half-sister who is Indonesian and a niece who is Chinese-Canadian. He even has a paternal uncle who is involved in Kenyan politics. In a time when the world is filled with tension between the Western and Islamic worlds one would think that such experience would be an immediate asset. Instead, some in the US accuse him of attending a Madrassa and being a Muslim.
Again, the politics of fear rears its head. To the world, the election of Obama would signal an outward and visible shift from the insular and at times proudly ignorant foreign policy of the Bush Administration. For the world the noteworthy factor of the Obama election would be an American leader who understands that there is a reality that exists beyond the myth of the American mindset.
But for Americans this signals something even more significant than it does for the rest of the world. To those of us who have sat in embarrassment before the world and boiled in anger at our government as our nation has become an international pariah, the election of Barack Obama would signal that there is hope that we may once again live up to our professed ideals. In an effort to be safe we have surrendered that which is the best of our country and given in to our worst selves.
America stands at a crossroads. It can choose to continue down the path it is currently on and become a third-rate, has been on the scrap heap of history. Alternatively, it can change course and try to refind that place that made it great in the world. Obama is symbolic of this change. More than anything else his election represents the clearest break with the politics of the past.
The politics that led to deals with dictators and a foreign policy centred on military might are on the ballot as well. Obama signals a demand from the American people for a different approach. What his election says to the world is important. To Americans, what the election of Obama would say to us ABOUT us is even more important. He signals that the US can strive for greatness in a way not related to military conquest.
PRINCETON, NJ -- Barack Obama leads Hillary Clinton in national Democratic preferences for the nomination, 50% to 42%, in Gallup Poll Daily tracking from April 20-22.
This marks the third straight day Obama has had a significant lead over Clinton, although he held a slightly higher 10 percentage point advantage in Tuesday's report.
The latest three-day rolling average includes interviewing on Tuesday night, partially conducted as the returns of the Pennsylvania Democratic primary were coming in. However, the impact of Clinton's 10-point win in that election on national Democratic preferences is not yet evident in the data.
With Obama currently leading Clinton nationally by eight points, it appears Pennsylvania is not a Democratic bellwether state. However, if the Clinton campaign is successful in using her solid Pennsylvania victory to argue she is the more electable candidate of the two in the fall, then she could start to close the gap with Obama in Gallup Poll Daily tracking over the next few days. (To view the complete trend since Jan. 3, 2008, click here.)
The general election remains on the sidelines as the Democratic nomination continues to sort itself out. Perhaps because of the lack of activity surrounding that campaign, the preferences of registered voters for the two hypothetical contests have been extraordinarily stable since Gallup began tracking them in early March. Both races are neck and neck, with Republican John McCain currently one point ahead of Obama, 46% to 45%, and one point ahead of Clinton, 47% to 46%. -- Lydia Saad
Register to get Gallup Poll Daily tracking reports delivered to you as soon as they are published!
Survey Methods
For the Gallup Poll Daily tracking survey, Gallup is interviewing no fewer than 1,000 U.S. adults nationwide each day during 2008.
The Democratic nomination results are based on combined data from April 18-22, 2008. For results based on this sample of 4,395 Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters, the maximum margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points.
The general election results are based on combined data from April 20-22, 2008. For results based on this sample of 1,242 registered voters, the maximum margin of sampling error is ±2 percentage points.
In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
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I understand the quandary and dilemma of Senator Barack Obama, should he continue on his declared path of honorable campaigning, based on his values of inclusion, equity for working class, middle class, the poor and building a grassroots movement of active, participatory citizens? Or should he take on the path of the conventional campaign of sewer style politics: throwing garbage on the other candidate, throwing labels to demonize the other, crafting ads to misrepresent the other candidate, and just throwing in the politics of fear to attract the voters to this candidate? While it seems easy for me to say that the higher path is the honorable path to take on and continue to travel on, I can see why the politics of fear and sewer campaign tactics might gain momentum from within his campaign structure and management if there is a preoccupation to win at all costs and a large ambition to gain the upper hand.
But to continue to conduct the sewer-rich, negative spinning of a campaign is to dishonor the will of the earlier primary voters who voted for a new direction in American electoral politics and I pray that Senator Barack Obama adhere to his higher moral pathway of running his campaign till November 2008. In the end, the end will never justify the means, but rather the means to get there is the measure of what and how his governance will be: honorable, positive and in alignment with the American people's sense of decency and generosity of spirit.
Please take the ALOHA pathway of campaigning!! Please continue the pathway you established very early on this campaign which attracted the once-apathetic young voters and other non-participating voters to be reengaged again in democracy!! They are the ones who count, not the media pundits, not the established Democratic and Republicans party leaders who may have louder voices in controlling the machinery of opinion makers, but never before have the invisible, small voices been heard louder than in the Obama campaign. That alone should guide Senator Barack Obama's campaign for he made our American democracy more real and genuine with the larger, invisible working majority more visible!
