National Arab Americans for Obama

Obama Arabic Buttons finally have arrived

Majid AL-Bahadli — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 22:16:20 EDT

Obama Arabic button finally have arrived which are sadly unavilable in the main campaign office. If you would like to have some please let me know.email me at baghdadii@comcast.net .We need to let the people know that we exist and stop keeping us in the shade with no voice.

43rd Info - Buttons & T-shirts!!!

Devon Alisa Abdallah — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 23:44:46 EDT

Hello 43rd Obama Supporters! We're continuing our efforts to help Obama secure the nomination and win the general election!

In this email, we will cover the following topics:

1. Delegate Trainings for the April 5th Legislative Caucus 2. Buy a Button -- Help in Pennsylvania! 3. Summer Events -- Help GOTV for Obama
4. 43rd LD Obama Supporters on Facebook 5. T-shirts to Help Fundraising in the 43rd

Delegate Trainings There are two more delegate trainings scheduled for this month. The first is on Saturday, March 15th at 2-3 pm at the University Branch Library. For details and to RSVP go here: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/4rq7s The second training is on Saturday, March 29th at 10:30-11:30 am at the Montlake Library. For details and to RSVP: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/47yt We're holding these trainings to help answer your questions, but we will also send out a FAQ for those who are unable to attend one. It is crucial that both delegates and alternates attend the April 5th caucus.  If enough Obama supporters attend the caucus, we can even potentially gain another delegate, which would make up for a Clinton superdelegate!   If you are a delegate and will NOT be able to attend the caucus, please contact us at 43forObama@gmail.com, so that we can make sure there is an alternate who will take your place. Buy a Button -- Help in Pennsylvania!
The leadership team in the 43rd has a plan: With each $1 donation for a button, we are able to buy kits for 10 more buttons to put into the hands of Obama supporters in Pennsylvania. They currently have even less swag than we did, and they are incredibly grateful for our help.

Please come by to support this effort. We have plenty of Obama designs like the kinds we handed out on caucus day, as well as some new designs. For $1/apiece, you will be directly helping PA, since we will be making buttons for Jen to take when she flies to PA next Sunday, March 16, to help register voters before the March 25 deadline.

You can stop to shop for buttons at these times:
--This Tuesday, March 11 from 6-9 p.m. at the community room in Alley 24.  Alley 24 is at 224 Pontius Ave. N. The community room is in the North Tower on the second floor. To get in, dial M. Aubrey on the call box outside. (For those of you who came to the Precinct Captain meetings, this is the same room where we held those meetings.)
--This Wednesday, March 12 from 6-9 p.m. in the "bubble room" at Vivace Coffee on Broadway and Denny.
--Saturday, March 15 from 2-3 p.m. at the University Branch Library as part of the caucus training we'll be holding there.

If you can't make these times but are interested in donating for more than a few buttons, please let us know and we can work something out. Also, if you're interested in helping to make buttons either Thursday or Friday of this week, or next week, we're looking for help. Please email us at 43forObama@gmail.com if you're interested with the times you would be available. Summer Events -- Help GOTV for Obama
We are planning ahead to the big summer events that are big in our community: Fremont Fair, Pride, Bumbershoot, Walk for Rice, etc. We are looking for volunteers to help with these efforts. After the April 5 caucus, we will have kick-off meetings to begin discussing the best way to register voters and have a strong presence for Obama at these events. Interested? Contact 43forObama@gmail.com and mention which event you'd like to help with. We'll send you a more in-depth volunteer form, as well. 43rd LD Obama Supporters on Facebook We have a group set up on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11149443614 Please join and pass the word on to other supporters who may not be on our list! T-shirts We are currently finalizing t-shirt designs and getting them printed. We will have them for sale soon for $15 each. Keep an eye on the Facebook site for details and to see the designs.   If you would like to pre-order a shirt, please email us at 43forObama@gmail.com.   Thank you for your continuing support! As always, please feel free to contact us with any questions or if you no longer want to receive emails from us. Your 43rd LD Leadership Team, Andy, Chris, Devon, Jen, Michelle, Nick, Rob, and Rose

--
Interested in volunteering for Obama in the 43rd?
Let us know! 43forObama@gmail.com
Andy, Chris, Devon, Jen, Michelle, Nick, Rob, and Rose

Visit the barackobama.com page for the 43rd:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/43rdLDforObama

Visit the Facebook page for the 43rd:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11149443614

Arab Americans & The Election

Rev Renee Levant, Ph.D — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:51:55 EST

HANANIA: Arab Americans face dilemmas in presidential election, For Immediate Release, 02-10-08

Arab Americans should expand focus in presidential elections
By Ray Hanania – Once again, Arab American voters are in an election dilemma, stuck between a rock and a hard place as they contemplate whom to support in the presidential elections. Should they follow the lead of other American voters and support the candidates most likely to win the presidential nominations, Democrats Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, or Republicans Mike Huckabee or John McCain? Or, should they follow their conscience, confused by candidates’ doubletalk on the Middle East, and vote for candidates who reflect their views but can’t win? In reality, it doesn’t matter. The Arab American vote is not a vote that will change national elections. But it can be a vote that changes Arab American politics and community dynamics.I am not saying Arab Americans shouldn’t vote or express their views. I am saying Arab Americans should use this presidential election as an opportunity to strengthen their own community voice.Why worry about the issues now being debated angrily in our community? Is Obama is or isn’t sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. Will Clinton really order the immediate removal of troops from Iraq, ending the American occupation there? Will McCain launch new wars against Syria and Iran?

When it comes to the Middle East, American politicians are slaves to powers that supercede principle or justice. Every presidential candidate will support Israel and pander to its needs.

They will say things to win pro-Israel votes, for example, that anger Arab Americans.

But that is a part of an election system in which Arab Americans continue to have weak voices, who remain unengaged as a community in the election industry, and who continue to be shut out of their local communities, denied jobs, appointments and even shunned at elections.

Candidates must cater to the demands of the voting constituencies who have mastered the election system.

Presidential candidates all support Israel, but not because the Israeli lobby, the powerful AIPAC, tells them how to vote. They do so because every candidate seeks to preserve support among their voting constituencies and they do not see an alternative in an equally powerful Arab American voter constituency.

The Arab American vote, despite tremendous work by the Arab American Institute (AAI) and the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), continues to remain relatively insignificant.

If candidates do not perceive that the American voters want Israel to end its occupation, the candidates will not force Israel to withdraw.

If candidates see that American voters don’t recognize that the violence in the Middle East is really the result of extremists on both sides, rather than the result of Arab or Muslim terrorist groups, then the candidates will only speak to the violence against Israel.

For Arab Americans, the choice is not about which candidate will support Palestine, for example, but rather will they step back from the emotional precipice of these single issues, and instead focus on the bigger picture in which they need to make their voices more resonant?

To make a difference, Arab Americans must empower themselves.

Rejecting a candidate on the basis of one issue is parochial, naïve and self-defeating.

Arab Americans, we are Americans, too. The Middle East is important to us but it is not the only issue. Like all Americans, we have concerns about growing unemployment, the nation’s failed and lobbyist controlled healthcare system, and the poor performance of our educational system.

We may find the positions of some candidates on the Middle East pushing us to anger, but the truth is we cannot throw the baby out with the bath water. We cannot allow emotion and anger to prevent us from engaging the election process with reason.

We should not support a presidential candidate who fails to recognize that healthcare in this country is abysmal and needs to be changed. Nearly 50 million Americans are uninsured and that includes many Arab Americans.

We should not support a candidate who fails to recognize that Americans are being driven into a debtors prison by a credit card industry that has Mafia-like powers to increase interest rates to outrageous levels as high as 30 percent on a whim.

Our educational system is failing to prepare our children to deal with today’s competitive world.

These issues are as important as our views on the Middle East. We are not a one-issue constituency, but when we define ourselves based only on one issue, we can be easily marginalized and ignored by the candidates.

The goal of a candidate is to win office, and they will do that based not on the back of principle and morality but rather by balancing constituency interests.

If the American electorate doesn’t see Israeli policy as an issue, then the candidates will not make it an issue. That means Arab Americans need to work harder to make it an issue not simply for the candidates but for the American public.

However, when the election is over, a president has the power to do almost anything. Voters must look beyond the headlines of the issues.

As best we can, we must look into the heart of the candidates, and select the candidate who embraces the principles we believe must apply to the Middle East. Which candidate is the most compassionate and reasoned when it comes to justice, fairness, principle and morality?

And then, we must step from outside the corner Arab Americans often find themselves painted, and instead vote on the basis of being “Americans.”

We must select a candidate that has the best chance of winning in the larger American election system.

We must weigh their words on the Middle East against the reality of their character.

All of the candidates most likely to win will pander to the power politics of lobbies, money and political organizations.

Until Arab Americans can establish a lobby so powerful we can impact American foreign policy, then we should focus on empowering ourselves. We must organize. We must strengthen our community press, shutting the door to the Middle East media which, for the most part, takes Arab Americans concerns for granted.

We have to show other Americans that we are American and that our concerns go far beyond single-issue controversies.

When the election is over, we must participate in selecting the one candidate most likely to find their courage and do the right thing once they are in office.

(Ray Hanania is an award winning columnist and author. Copyright Arab American Writers Group Syndicate, www.ArabWritersGroup.com.)

My Candidate for 2008

Jim Zogby — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:57:17 EST

Dear Friend,

I am supporting Barack Obama, and I want you to join me in this important campaign. I believe that an Obama victory will change our country, help us restore our nation's values, and reclaim our image around the world.

I know that there are some who will disagree with me: Democrats who have endorsed others or who worry that Barack cannot win, and Republicans who may differ on some issues. I respect your choices, and your views, but I urge you to hear me out.

Barack Obama understands and respects our community and our concerns. Remember how you felt in 2004 when he electrified the nation with his speech at the Democratic National Convention? I know that many of you felt as elated as I did when he spoke so powerfully, and so sensitively, in support of the rights of Arab Americans.

And listen to this video message delivered by Barack Obama to our Arab American Institute National Leadership Conference (or read the transcript).

With Barack Obama as President, we'll get a responsible end to the war in Iraq; we'll get a Mideast foreign policy based on partnerships – not unilateralism and gunboat diplomacy; and we'll get a Middle East peace process that gets the job done. At home, our civil liberties will be protected and respected, and an Obama Presidency will work end partisan divide and build the consensus necessary to tackle the most difficult issues facing our nation.

As impressed as I am with the man, I am equally impressed with his extraordinary campaign that has been as effective as any "ground game" I've ever seen. In addition, I've had the pleasure of knowing and working with many of his foreign policy advisors (many of whom are the best and the brightest from the Clinton and Carter eras).

I was pleased that the campaign asked me to serve on their National Advisory Outreach Team, organizing an Arab American effort. I urge you to sign up now, and contribute what you can.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/maingroup/ArabAmericans4BarackObama

Thanks.

Jim

Jim Zogby

Welcome

Sam — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 19:50:27 EST

Welcome to Arab Americans for Barack Obama. As we enter these last few weeks before the primaries start, please encourage your friends and family to get involved.

This group is for Arab Americans from across the country who support the presidential candidacy of Senator Barack Obama. Our goal is to mobilize the Arab American community in favor of Sen. Obama’s candidacy and engage our community in this unprecedented campaign.

To contribute to the Obama campaign, please visit:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/maingroup/ArabAmericans4BarackObama

If you are on Facebook, join and invite friends to join our group, Arab Americans for Barack Hussein Obama:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2243397094

Thank you for joining the group. Let's roll up our sleeves and get Sen. Obama elected!