Organizing for Austin-Central Texas held our healthcare kickoff meeting tonight and it went very well. Our 15 attendees began the planning process for a health care day of service on the weekend of June 27/28. We decided that the main problem here in Texas is that we have the highest number of uninsured children. We decided to use this as an umbrella over all our service projects in Central Texas. This way, we can volunteer at Children's Hospital (rock the babies), do something with free immunizations, do a baby food/forumula/diaper drive, etc. Our group members are setting up an event to create a resource list for uninsured children to distribute at several locations around town. Anyone will be able to print this document and take part where ever they'd like to help. They will be putting information up at barackobama.com if you'd like to help with this event. I encourage all clubs and Austinites to create your own child centered service project for the weekend of June 27/28 to highlight this national day of service. Of course, if you'd rather do something not child-centered, please do! The point is for us to do a healthcare day of service for whatever needs you are moved by.To schedule your service event on mybo, go here:http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/service There is still time to get a group together to plan your own service event, please do this with your friends, neighbors, colleages and family by next Wednesday.To schedule to host your own healthcare kickoff to start planning, go here:http://my.barackobama.com/hcok-mybo Thank you for all you do!--Lainey Melnick
OFA Austin Regional Leader
lainey.melnick@gmail.com
www.LinkToAustin.com
Facebook Group: Organizing for Austin - Central Texas
Twitter: @lmelnick
I am just so excited that Obama has not lowered himself to the slimy standards of the same ole same ole politics of mud-slinging. I just read time magazines' story on how he is staying calm throughout the storm. THAT my friends is a leader. You want someone like that to be in charge. A thinker and a careful progenitor of class in a political system that has gone seriously downhill and has taken the American people for a ride.
I cant wait till these debates! The cards will be on the table and the american people can finally see what he is made of and what mccain is made of.
Let the games begin!
posted at: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/4/11525/73205/547/586256
Last night, Sarah Palin made a convert out of me.
Eight months ago, I was a registered Republican, standing in a cold room in Iowa supporting Ron Paul in the Iowa caucuses. For most of my life, I've been a believer in small government and individual liberties, the ideals that, according to what I learned in high school civics, the Republican Party stood for. I voted Libertarian in 2004, simply because I felt that the Libertarian candidate seemed to best voice those ideals at the time.
As I stood in that cold caucus room, I listened to several people stand up and talk about their candidate. For the most part, instead of giving me compelling reasons to vote for that candidate, each stump speaker (aside from the bubbly young woman who spoke about Ron Paul) spent their time not talking up their own candidate, but hurling shovels of specific insults at the people in the Democratic caucus in an adjacent building. I didn't learn much about Mike Huckabee or Mitt Romney or John McCain, but I did hear a lot of talk about the negative character, poor experience, and profound ignorance of the primary Democratic candidates, Obama, Edwards, and Clinton.
Over the next several months, as the campaign season went along, I started actually opening my ears and listening to talk radio a bit. Previously, I would just listen to music in my truck during my commute, but I started tuning into a pair of local talk radio stations, which aired programs by Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and the like.
And I was deeply disturbed. Instead of hearing compelling arguments for why John McCain was the right man for the job, I would hear three nonstop hours of insults levied toward Barack Obama, much of it not directly aimed towards him, but intended to serve as character assassination by association. Breathless stories about his pastor, Reverend Wright, and a guest pastor at his church, David Pfleiger. Amazing tales about William Ayers.
Very rarely did I hear a word about policy, and when I did, it was usually just deriding a specific plank of Obama's plan.
After a month of listening to a large daily dose of talk radio, I learned virtually nothing about what John McCain actually planned to do for this country.
What I did hear, though, is a lot of supposedly negative things about Barack Obama, most of which seemed nonsensical and completely frivolous compared to the problems of this nation. The worst, for me, was repeated harpings on the idea that Barack Obama was somehow "bad" because he was a community organizer.
I know what community organizers do. I have friends and family who are involved with social work and community organization. They register people to vote. They get people involved with the political process. They know the real, day-to-day problems of the people in their community like the back of their hand. They help people with their life problems, helping elderly folks keep the lights on and helping groups with a significant problem get organized enough to get the attention of an alderman or city hall. The people on the ground, the "community organizers" and very local politicians, do a ton of good work for the people of this country. And through that process, they gain a deep understanding of the real problems and thoughts of everyday people.
That brings us to last night. Until last night, I was slightly leaning towards Obama, but I hadn't firmly decided who I was voting for. I held out hope that during the Convention, I could get a real grasp on where the Republican Party was.
Last night, Sarah Palin gave a speech that was in theory meant to get people like me excited about the Republican ticket. This was one that should have gotten me back on board and excited about the McCain/Palin platform.
Instead, it sickened me in a very deep and personal way.
I could go through some of the quotes that made my stomach turn, but many others have already done a great analysis of the speech.
All I heard was a long stream of extremely bitter attacks against Barack Obama, none of which go even the slightest step towards solving the problems of this country. When I tuned in, Rudy Giuliani was firing off some attacks, but I expected that - every convention has some room for criticism of the opposition.
But Palin's speech was obviously meant to be the centerpiece, the real statement about the direction of the Republican party.
And I heard absolutely nothing about their plans for the future.
All I heard was a long, long stream of pointless attacks against Barack Obama, the Democratic Party in general, and the media.
No solutions. No real content. No anything.
There was one line at the end that really twisted things for me.
"Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America ... he's worried that someone won't read them their rights?"
Every single human being has the right to a fair trial and to be treated humanely by their captors. John McCain, of all people, should understand this. He was a prisoner of war.
On the one fundamental issue that his entire campaign is centered around - the character-building experience of his POW stint - he gets it wrong.
America cannot be a shining beacon of light in the world when we condone policies of treating our enemies with the same standards as the Viet Cong treated their enemies.
Every criminal, no matter how heinous their crimes, deserves humane treatment and a fair and expedient trial. Period. That is a fundamental human right.
When you're giving the central speech of your party's convention, to make a joke out of it makes a joke out of me. Not just as a (former) Republican, but as an American.
This morning, I donated $250 to Barack Obama's campaign. Tomorrow, I'm stopping by the voter registration office to change my party affiliation to Democrat. Saturday, I hope to plant an Obama-Biden sign in my front yard.
This lack of respect for your political opponents, this denial of basic human rights to those who oppose us, this complete emptiness of policy - it ends. Right here, right now.
alamObama Meeting Thurs Aug 14
Special Guest Speakers: For a pre-Convention Kick-Off, we will be joined at our monthly meeting byState Sen Letitia Van de Putte, co-chairwoman for the Democratic National Convention; State Rep Trey Martinez-Fischer and Carla Vela, BexarCounty DemocraticChair REMINDER: The meeting this month will be held in the SEIU office at 1017 N. Main 78212 (6:30 pm) MAP
It is ludicrous to suggest that Barack, in addressing the racist overtones emanating from the McCain campaign, is himself being racist.
Racism is defined in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “…racial prejudice or discrimination”. As outlined in Wikipedia, racism is the belief that
“…race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race”.
It’s extremely hard for me to understand how the McCain Campaign could have the cojones to say that Barack is being racist in defending himself against this barrage of negative attacks. His goal is simply to deemphasize race. Barack’s intended audience is undecided white voters who may be leery of Obama because of all of the references (some blatant, as on Fox News; others more veiled) to Barack’s “differences” with them. Millions of White Americans across this nation have had very little exposure to people different than themselves and this understandably puts Barack at a disadvantage.
There’s no suggestion from Obama that he believes Blacks are superior to Whites (which would warrant the charge “racism” as defined above). Quite to the contrary, he is making a case to millions of Americans who don’t have regular interactions with people of color that his “differences” neither diminish his value as a human being nor his potential to be our Nations leader. That would be defined as fighting against racism.
Once again, Barack is correct and McCain is way WAY off track…
To sign up for the alamObama newsletter please email jenromo@msn.com
The Volunteer Party was a Huge Success!! The evening was lovely, the venue hospitable, the food plentiful, and the music absolutely delightful...And, MOST IMPORTANTLY, volunteers came from all areas of our community and were United for Change. A big Thank You to everyone who worked to make this great night a reality!Pictures from the evening can be viewed here:
alamObama Volunteer Party Pictures
July 10th 6:30pm Monthly Meeting:
alamObama is finalizing details for a new (well air conditioned) meeting location.
FIRED UP AND READY TO GO!!!Sincerely your alamObama Co-Chairs,
Jen Romo (jen@alamobama08.com)
Judy Hall (judy@alamobama08.com)
Fred Tawil (fred@alamobama08.com)
I think it is gracious and admirable that Senator Obama has expressed aloud and posted here his thanks to Senator Clinton for her political career and for her powerful campaign.
And it is even more generous that he offered each of us an official way to send Senator Clinton our thanks. Of course this shows our magnanimity, but it also shows how much support Obama has to take the high road in all contests and all compromises.
His is not the low road, and neither can ours be.
Here's what I said in my Obama site thanks to Senator Clinton:
A short while ago, a wise fellow named Peter waltzed onto the site to inform Obama supporters of our mental deficiency because Barack has posted issues specific to different groups on this web site. Peter, in a post titled “why classify” said,
“Under the "People" heading of this very website there are headings where you can choose a classification of American (note there's no Caucasian-American). Why do we have to classify ourselves? This country is supposed to be a melting pot, not a tossed salad - no I'm not going to explain it, look it up if you don't know. If BHO is supposed to be the big uniter, then why separate us and then not include every separate group? If all the intellectuals are supposed to be flocking to BHO, then where is the intelligence? Use it people”.
It’s an amazing bit of wisdom Peter brings to our wonderful forum. He clearly isn’t interested in hearing about Native American issues, reservations, failure of US policies and the breaking of treaties with Native peoples. And he didn’t stop by to hear Barack’s position on policy in his native Korean, Chinese, or Arabic. Peter wasn’t here to delve into Senator Obama’s plans for the inner cities, gang violence, drug abuse, urban blight. No, Peter was just stopping by to tell us that the only issues that should matter to us are the issues that that matter to him. Got it – addressing issues specific to different groups of Americans is un-American.
Based on this assessment, I would venture a wild guess that Peter is a young to middle-aged white male, middle class, probably grew up in a red state, and quite likely has little to no secondary education.
Sorry to break you the bad news, Peter, but America is a microcosm. We are rich because of our diversity, not despite it. America and Americans should be proud of this diversity and embrace it, it is the best thing in the world we have going for us!
Being a proud American does not require you to give up your own culture and heritage, but being a true American does require you to open your mind and accept people that are different than you.
Novel idea Peter, why don't you think about it…
This is an excerpt from a letter I sent to Molly today. I believe it warrants its own entry on my blog.
I was on the fence for a long time (I'm referring to early January and before) and I just couldn't see enough substantial differences between Clinton and Obama to make a decision. Because of this, I was initially leaning toward Hillary because I was familiar with her and I had felt strong connections with the Clintons during the 1990s. I believe I was like many that have now become entrenched and form her base.
When Hillary started pushing to count Florida and Michigan, I realized that she had ulterior motives and was seeking to promote her own personal agenda. It was pointed out early on that all candidates had agreed to abide by the DNC rules not to count these states if indeed they elected to hold their primaries out of sequence. As she began to later argue to count the votes she lost me for good. I can easily look the other way when politicians "play politics" by promoting ideas to try to get votes -- as long as the ideas are either 'good ideas' or 'neutral ideas'. I believe that her desire to count the votes of Florida and Michigan as they turned out was an act of political opportunism that shows a great deal about her character. If she would have held out in the beginning for Florida and Michigan to be counted (before she knew she could pick up high percentages of the vote) I would have sided with her. I do not support her efforts in this regard at all right now.
I do feel bad for the states - it’s horrible to be left out of this process! I think this is something the DNC is going to have to take very seriously in the future, and there should be an acceptable permanent plan set up for just such situations. The bottom line is that we don't know how these states would have voted. I believe that had Barack been on the ballot in both states and campaigned there, he could probably have won them both. Look at the numbers in Pennsylvania (early polls had a +25% lead for Hillary) and Indiana (from double digits for Clinton down to 3%). No one can predict exactly what would have happened in these early states and so doing anything besides a 50/50 split is unfair.
I commend Barack for once again considering the possibility of being magnanimous and giving her extra points here - I very much like this side of his character. However, I feel that there is an important principle at stake related to fairness and equity. If Hillary wants them to be counted for the sake of the voters in the two states, then she shouldn't care how the delegates are split (the point being not to give one or the other candidate an advantage). A 50/50 split makes no inferences as to how the vote would have went down had it been carried out within the rules and conducted in a fair manner.
Anthing else is just playing politics...
The national media market has become confused with the difference between NEWS and GOSSIP. I believe the rise to prominence of the trash magazines like the National Enquirer and blatantly partisan networks like Fox have largely derailed their ability to discern what is and what is not news (if in fact they ever really had that ability).
Barack Obama is out there day in and day out giving substantive talks on the policies and direction he would like to see the country move under his administration. He is the unquestionable leader on substance and yet most of what he says goes unreported in the news. I spent four hours last night flipping back and forth between CNN and MSNBC and found Rev. Wright to be the story about 85% of the time. Substance and issues should be the subject of at least more than 50% of politically oriented news shows.
I would certainly like to see the media learn how to put events in perspective. Journalists shouldn’t allow the “most sensational” story to dominate every news show. I realize Rev. Wright tried to make himself news again by his media blitz, but it did not warrant the degree of coverage it has received.
Journalists should pride themselves on their work and should try to help keep some perspective on the bigger picture. America deserves a chance to vote on a presidential candidate based on policy. Most people will never get a feeling for the candidate’s stance on the issues within today’s media circus frenzy. This type of coverage favors the Republican tactics of fear mongering and misinformation and has the tendency to turn the tide for candidates who are short on substance.
At my office, I have a photograph hanging above my desk of my mother hugging Hillary Clinton at a book signing in Louisville Kentucky in 1996. The photo ran on the front cover of the Louisville Courier-Journal the day following the event and Mom was the talk of our small Southern Indiana community for days after that.
My mother, who passed away this January, had long dreamed of seeing Hillary Clinton become president. I’m not exactly sure why, but we all had really liked Hillary and wanted to see her succeed. I believe that Mom, like many of us in our community, internalized the daily attacks on Bill Clinton’s presidency and considered them affronts to us all.
Early in this primary campaign, my mother was a strong Hillary supporter. She continued to maintain a strong allegiance to the Clinton family that related directly back to the attacks by right-wing conservatives on her own dreams for this country’s future in the 1990s. I tell this story because I know that Governor Bill Richardson was not the ultimate target of the colorful “Judas” comment by James Carville.
The slam was actually aimed at the loyal followers similar to my mother who have long felt an unexplainable loyalty and connection to the Clintons but are now teetering toward Barack Obama.
Carville's attack on Richardson is nothing more than a calculated ploy to slow the Clinton base from jumping ship. It is just one more part of a cold, deliberate strategy to manipulate the Democratic electorate and hopefully buy Hillary more time.
I want to voice my extreme disappointment over the recent behavior of the Clintons. I remember being so angry when the right persecuted the Clintons during Bill’s Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky debacles. Now it’s clear that they’re willing to do anything to win office.
I would have respected Hillary and Bill so much more if they would have stood up and said “NO!” to the recent unfair attack on Barrack’s faith and patriotism. Wow, wouldn’t that have been a breath of fresh air? And I really would have expected it since THEY of all people should know how it feels to be unfairly attacked and a smear campaign carried out against you.
But sadly, that was not the case.
There was Bill on Friday saying that he would like to see a general election match up between "…two people who loved this country" without "all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics." We had a chance for that debate in the primaries and Barack upheld his end of the bargain – Hillary did not..
Wow! How I wish I could go back in time in order to take back my support of him in his time of need! There are two important things that are bound to come from this.
First, Hillary has personally blown it for me…and I’m really sad about that. They (the Clintons) should never have launched the “Kitchen Sink” campaign, but they absolutely should have come to Obama’s aid on this unfair smear campaign launched from the conservative right in this Country.
More importantly, however, is the fact that the Clintons have caused irreparable damage to the Democratic Party. For those who think everything is fine and that the debate is good for America – it is not.
Many of us feel betrayed and will not soon forget what has happened during this campaign.
I'm utterly amazed at how the far-right hacks have developed and nurtured this anti-Obama media blitz and in turn how the mainstream media has picked it up and ran with it. Why isn’t the news story every evening something more like this: MEDIA BIAS DERAILING THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN: FOX NEWS SAYS IT’S TIME FOR OBAMA TO GO!You know, I new the right-winged attacks were coming, but it still blows me away that none of this has anything to do with Barack's messages or positions. They manage to pull this off every single time and the Democratic party just stands there with its finger in its nose, watching. I was thinking, wow, they really don't have anything to work with against this guy. HA! Was I ever wrong! I should have remembered the ‘Willie Horton’ and ‘Swift Boat’ campaigns.
You know, they have never needed anything real or tangible to hold against a candidate -- their dirty little job is handled by laying out a veil of fear and then beating the drum until it becomes fact. If Hillary thinks she is gaining something from all of this she had better think again. The political machine of the right has PLENTY of ammunition with which to bust her chops! We should think collectively about not only boycotting Fox but also the products that are advertised on Fox and the Ditto Head channels. I'd put a list together, but then I'd have to tune in...
Today, I have witnessed what I believe to be the finest and most important speech ever given in my lifetime.
The United States is witnessing the emergence of a true world-class leader. Anyone who still questions Barack Obama's ability to lead our country as President either didn't hear today's speech or are spiritually and intellectually dead.
I was wondering if the Obama website would, on its national map, change Texas to brighter blue, showing a win for the state, if Obama won the most delegates (but, as we know, alas, lost the popular vote). And indeed I see today that Texas is glowing, showing a win for the big state. Of course, it looks impressive on the map, but knowing that so many of us know about the discrepancies between winning the primary (first step) and winning the caucuses (second step), the campaign should probably explain and qualify the "win".
It's especially important for the Obama campaign to take the road to openness and "tranparency" wherever possible. Making things too simple is often an obfuscation of the truth. Clinton is currently trying to cut things down to a size lower common denominator voters can latch on to, and Obama has got to do some of that, too, of course, as the common denominators are what win elections in any democracy. But please, no cut corners, no short cuts that cause any message, any victory to veer from the truth.
Some slurs are creeping into the campaigns. We can do this with firm resolve and more sharpl defined differences, but we don't need slurs. Obama doesn't need the waters muddied up for him. And he knows, let's hope, that NOW IS THE TIME to, as Walter Mondale put it to Gary Hart way back in 1984, show us the beef. It is now fair to ask, "Barack, where's the beef?" You've got the bones. Show us the meat.
Happy (and uplifting) campaign trails to all. Even in the long slog via Wyoming and Mississippi to Pennsylvania, a time the media will be digging for crumbs and dirt, let's do ourselves proud.
Ouch, losing the popular vote stings. And it seems many are being reminded that hope is not the same as either optimism or outreach. I'm not much for optimism (or "empty optimism" or what Obama calls both "wishful thinking" and "false hope"), but I'm big on outreach, which, I suppose, is the kind of activist optimism that Obama says he means by "hope". (In his stump speech, he says, hope is not pie in the sky, "wishful thinking" but rather hope = work, i.e. hope = outreach). Indeed, in his speech in Austin February22nd, Obama specifically disparaged "wishful thinking" and "false hope."
So let's go for the pro-active kind of hope Obama promotes.
Obama knew Texas would be an uphill battle all the way. And let's remember, he was coming from 20 points back. To bring it to only 3 back is pretty good work for a state much less prone to his message than more progressive states such as California, Massachusetts and Minnesota. I have learned again, the hard way, that it takes a lot of footwork and phone calls to win precincts for a newcomer to the political scene. I don't think many of the pre-primary numbers gave Obama much of a chance of winning Texas (and certainly never Ohio). These are traditional states not prone to insurgent candidates, and so we would expect only or mostly urban successes for Obama. And yet we got four counties in the Hill Country to go for him over Clinton. The numbers-on-the-ground view: The numbers matter most. We got the county for Obama, and the core Kerrville caucuses went for Obama as well. (As for the caucus results, it is only a conspiracy if some of the delegates who attend the county convention work to undermine the nominee they were sent to represent.) We just didn't have enough organization here or volunteers to be precinct captains to cover the county. (I'd be curious to know if your precinct, for example, had a captain for Obama.) Of course, the bigger picture is how Texas fits in nationally. For example, it is 49th out of 50 in per-capita voting by women. By most accounts, Texas is among the top five most politically regressive, corporation-friendly and innovation wary states. So we would not expect to see progressive agendas or candidates prevail here, certainly not suddenly. We are the opposite of Vermont and a far cry from Oregon or even Colorado, a genuine swing state. So this is culturally, Huckabee and McCain country. That's clear every day. So on the CNN map, as of late last night, Kerr County showed up a deeper shade of blue, one of only 25 deeper blue counties in a state of 254 counties, quite an accomplishment, I'd say. Even with smatterings of conspiratorial cross-over voting, we took these rural counties for Obama. And as we know, many Hill Country residents who voted yesterday in the Republican primary will cross over to vote for the Democratic nominee for president in the fall. I certainly talked to some of those folks myself. With this result, our part of the Hill Country really stands out as just about the only rural counties in Texas that went for Obama. I would say this suggests the Hill Country has benefited, however incrementally, from attracting enlightened and more progressive exurbanites, such as ourselves. We are far from the majority, but we vote in higher numbers per capita than the less progressive. Most of the progressive voters in Kerr County have strong ties to Austin and other more progressive urban areas even farther afield. Also, our relative lack of Latino voters sets us apart from all the counties to the south and west, and we have learned again, how rabidly anti-black Latinos tend to be (rumor or legend, only resident and voter studies will tell), and so we here in the Hill Country got off easy on that front. Statewide, the Latino vote adds to Texas' stodgy character, especially with the weakening of labor unions and the state's traditionally weak regard for unions. But then, for today and for this primary effort, I'd also like to think that our regional work here (along with help from the Austin office) had something to do with this accomplishment, turning Kerr County a little bit deeper shade of blue.
