Interesting articles

Thanks to one of my loyal readers for passing on this interesting article on Politico.com http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0308/9259.html on fundraising problems in the Clinton campaign. Here's the person that's going to help the working class, but won't pay her vendors on time so it looks like she has more money...

And from another loyal reader, the following story on Obama's bowling skills (among other things):
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/03/30/obama-with-bowls-with-casey-in-pennsylvania/

Is my phone bugged?

As the Eliot Spitzer story broke a few weeks ago, my friend K. and I were talking about our current favorite topic, the democratic primary. We both confessed that we thought HRC should exit the primary to become the governor of New York.

Tonight on Countdown, the commentators were discussing the possibility of HRC exiting the primary campaign to become ... guess what ... the governor of NY! And they speculated that the story may have been planted by an Obama supporter.

After hearing that, I could only come to one conclusion - either my phone or K's phone is bugged!

Bake Sale for Obama?

I know several people who support Barack Obama, voted for him in the primary, donated to his campaign, but have yet to volunteer their time. Some people are turned off by the thought of phone banking. I admit that I was too, until I started doing it. It was much better than I thought it would be. There's still phone banking to be done, but there are a lot of other activities, even in states where the primary has already occurred.

Sacramento for Obama had a meeting last week. With over 120 people (my estimate) crammed into the new office space, committees formed. I'm not sure I can remember them all, but here are some of them:
- special events - help plan and participate in events to recruit other Obama supporters, new voters, volunteers, etc.
- volunteer - contact people who've agreed to volunteer and let them know about volunteer opportunities
- database management - like it sounds
- communications - included the speakers bureau
- media - help write letters to the editor to keep positive messages about Barack out there
- tabling - go table at weekly events and get the word out about Barack
- canvassing - help get new voters registered, find volunteers, identify Barack supporters so we're ready for November
They're also looking for people to volunteer to staff the Sacramento headquarters, so the office can be open more hours.
And there's still phonebanking on the weekends. If you speak Spanish and are willing to phonebank, you're a premium volunteer. :-)

So if you've put off volunteering because you don't want to phonebank, there are plenty of other options.

While I know I can always do more, I decided several months ago that I didn't want to feel at the end of this campaign that I should have done more to make sure Barack got elected.

If you want to volunteer, go to Barackobama.com and click on volunteer. That will get you hooked up with the local office, whereever you are.

California has a caucus!

As I've been calling voters in states that have a caucus, I must confess to a bit of "caucus envy." It sounds like a fun way to express one's presidential candidate preference. Well, it turns out that California has a caucus.

District-Level Delegate Elections - Sunday, April 13 at 3:00 pm
A Caucus is a meeting held in each of California's 53 congressional districts [by the Clinton and Obama campaigns] at which Democrats express their Presidential candidate preference and vote for Delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Caucuses are open to all Democratic voters who are registered to vote in the appropriate CD. One can register to vote at the Caucus.

I recommend that you go to www.bararckobama.com/ - go to the events and put in your zipcode.

It's important to make sure that the individuals who are elected as Obama pledged delegates are actually Obama supporters, since the delegates can vote however they want when they get to the convention. Kim Mack, Nathan Osburn, and Serena Kirk have all been very active in the Sacramento Obama campaign. They also support Cirian Villavicencio as the alternate delegate.

Meet you at the caucus!

Today's speech & scary McCain misspeak

Hi all,

Probably not a surprise that my top recommendation is that you watch Barack Obama's speech today: http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stateupdates/gGBbTW
It's about 30 minutes, but it's well worth watching.

And just to give you another candidate to look at occasionally, watch this clip of John McCain from my good friend, Keith Olbermann's show: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/ (it's the third part of the clip). This is the man the Republican party wants to handle foreign policy...

Am I a hippie?

As a new blogger, I was happy to see a couple of comments. Of course, this means that someone is reading my blog. One person accused me of being a "liberal hippie." While clearly I'm liberal, I wouldn't call myself a hippie. But then I thought, what really classifies someone as a hippie?

Dictionary.com says a hippie is:
"a person, esp. of the late 1960s, who rejected established institutions and values and sought spontaneity, direct personal relations expressing love, and expanded consciousness, often expressed externally in the wearing of casual, folksy clothing and of beads, headbands, used garments, etc."

Well, I don't really reject established institutions. I'm more of a planner, although I'm not against spontaneity. I do enjoy loving relationships (but don't most people). I'm pretty sure that expanded consciousness refers to drug use - not my thing. I don't think my clothing style would be classified as "hippie-like."

Here's another one (also from dictionary.com):
"a usually young person who does not wish to live by the normal rules of society and who shows his rejection of these rules by his unusual clothes, habits etc."

I'm not much of a rule breaker and I don't think my clothes or habits are that unusual. I do have a garden in my backyard, but I don't think that's all that hippie-like.

So, "Rush and Coulter," I think you missed the mark on the hippie comment (along with most of your other remarks). But thanks for reading my blog.

Stolen Yard Sign, CA polling data

In California, while either democratic candidate would trounce McCain, Barack currently holds a bigger lead in the polling. That latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the nation’s most populous state shows Barack Obama leading John McCain 53% to 38%. Hillary Clinton leads McCain 46% to 39%.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/california/california_2008_presidential_election

This morning we received a call from a friend, neighbor (2 streets over) and fellow Obama supporter. We'd given them an Obama yard sign a couple of weeks ago. As of this morning, their sign was missing. And when we checked our yard, our sign is gone too. Of course, this leads to the question, who stole our signs? Clinton supporter? Bored teenagers? Someone who wants to sell Obama signs? What do you think?

Keith Olbermann, I think I'm in love

Okay, in terms of the men I love, I don't love Keith Olbermann as much as my fabulous husband, the men in my family (even the very conservative ones), or Barack. But after seeing his special comment to Hillary Clinton tonight, he has officially become my favorite news commentator:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23601329#23601329

And thanks to my friend, Mac, for passing on this posting from Roland Martin on why Florida and Michigan shouldn't get to vote again in the democratic primary:
http://www.rolandsmartin.com/blog/?p=139#more-139

My first blog

Okay, I have become so frustrated with the democratic primary and how it's currently being handled by a large segment of our media, that I just started my own blog.

First, Hillary lost in Texas!
http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2008/03/11/its-official-clinton-lost-texas/

And take a look at the delegate math:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/119010

Hillary pretends to be in the lead, but it still doesn't make it so. Just like my pretending that the George Bush presidency never happened doesn't make it so either (if only it were that easy).

As Barack said in his email to me tonight, after his victory in Mississippi:

"But just turn on the news and you'll see that Senator Clinton continues to run an expensive, negative campaign against us. Each day her campaign launches a new set of desperate attacks.

They're not just attacking me; they're attacking you.

Over the weekend, an aide to Senator Clinton attempted to diminish the overwhelming number of contests we've won by referring to places we've prevailed as 'boutique' states and our supporters as the 'latte-sipping crowd."

Yep, she's attacking me. And I'm pissed! So I sent more money to the Obama campaign. And if you're pissed too, go ahead and donate: www.barackobama.com.