I have been an active Obama supporter since 11/2007. There were 100,000's of other NYers who did likewise. We labored on in the face of a Dem Party leadership that refused to recognize our existence.
There are so many people in NY who contributed so much to Obama's victory
We won. So my question is why is this organization headed by an aide to a Congress member who campaigned against Obama and continued to advocate for Clinton long after the primaries were over.
It's not that I'm advocating a spoils system or doubting Ms. DeRosa's sincere commitment. I'm just saying it might be better to have one of the many people who committted to Obama's agenda and techniques early on to lead this effort.
(BTW, I hear something similar is going on in South Carolina)
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/obamaforamerica/gGGM4d
PLEASE,
Listen to the video link above and then I'd like to request that those from the executive board of the PCD who can would please come and attend the first OFA Healthcare PUSH Event at Emy J's today from 5 to 8PM: It will not be a waste of time, but rather a brainstorming and sharing session of ideas and knowledge about how to help President Barack Obama's Healthcare Initiative and Plan to pass a comprehensive Healthcare bill to save billions and give the American all the people a chance to have good and dependable and complete coverage on Healthcare. In the end, such a healthcare bill will strengthen our economy and our country for now and decades to come.
My name is Jim Waisbrot and I would like you to read this invitation and info regarding an OFA Health Care meeting, taking place on June 8th at Emy J's from 5 to 8pm in Stevens Point .
James Waisbrot has sent you an invitation to 'Health Care Organizing Kickoff' -- click here to view the invitation and submit your response:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gpcbwh OR EVEN BETTER EMAIL ME FROM YOU"RE EMAIL ADDRESS OUTSIDE OF BARACK OBAMA.COM AND I WILL EMAIL YOU AN INVITE TO BE ADDED TO MY PAGE, JUST EMAIL ME AT waisbrot.jim@gmail.com!
From Jim: Please sign up on the link if you wish to be involved (even if you can not attend Mon. night) or want to be an email member who participates on your own at home with updates from me as well as other OFA staff thru the Barack Obama Website. Jim also welcomes anyone else at the meeting that may want to help in actual organization of group and hopes there will be some of these leaders and organizers in the community who wish to help.
Meet to discuss Obama's Health Care Bill Goals and how we will help to get it passed this year. Plan outreach to encourage people to contact legislators to support and vote for a bill that will: 1 Reduce costs for families, business, and government 2. Provide choice in coverage and providers, and 3 Provide quality affordable Healthcare for all. Now is the time and the status quo is not acceptable. Also to brainstorm on how a food-drive, rally, and a walk, might help with this effort or what other healthcare/sustainability event might be better and what it might be. I will be at Emy J's from 5pm to 8pm for people to come and participate on Monday June 8.
I hope you will consider coming to this event and helping with the calling, canvassing, organizing, planning, emailing, and/or letter writing involved at your own pace in this effort and remind you that participation is a reward as well as the information we learn in these campaigns and the friends we make as a result of doing such work. Some of you may even want to be people who simply help by cooking for volunteers too - believe me you are always appreciated and wanted for this too!
Here is the Example Agenda For the Meeting:
OUR AGENDA TODAY FOR JUNE 8 th , 2009 :
5:00 Arrival and greeting everyone Begin by signing in on form passed out.
5:05 Welcome and Introductions
6:15 Share Personal Stories Also, write out healthcare stories.
6:35 Explanation of Brainstorming Activity
6:45 Brainstorming Take a look at handouts and Flyers from Sustainability Ideas to Health Events and other Community Activities Already Happening Around June 27.
7:30 Formulate a Plan of Action: for Brainstormed Event/Walk and Rally.
This is with a future action to be taken and reported back to our organizing group of volunteers and planed with the help of volunteer leaders, who can sign up tonight and say what how they will help. All members will be kept up-to-date on goals and requested volunteer actions through the barackobnama.com website.
Possible Needed Volunteer co-Coordinators for :
(1.) Managing a Canvas to inform people about the healthcare Plan in Portage and possibly Wood county(s).
(2.) Managing the online and any sitePhone Bank calling: to get people to attend a Walk and a rally or other event brainstormed.
(3.) Planning and organizing the Event or Rally at the end of a Walk where public speakers will/could be present to inform the public about The Healthcare Initiative and the progress made on Capital Hill.
(4.) Organized calling and e-mailing to U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators to let them know we want them tosupport the Healthcare Plan/Bill.
8:00 Reporting to OFA Result to Obama Campaign and Close of Meeting.
MORE: Health Care Local Mobilization: What is it all About?
OFA Organizers had a Conference Call with President Barack Obama.
Want to hear it? Check out youtube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPWtZLR3OBo
His goals for the plan are to:
• Reduce costs for families, business, and government (Government needs it to cut health care costs)
• Provide choice in coverage and providers
• Provide quality affordable care for all in 2009 (Businesses need it to survive)
President Obama says that if we don't get Healthcare Legislation this year we won't get it.
Our GOAL is to Promote that Healthcare Reform is NEEDED. And that it CAN HAPPEN.
WE MUST Pressure your Congressional and Senate Representatives to support government initiatives and policy bills on Healthcare Reform.
ALL people want action, not delaying actions ON THIS ISSUE.
ALL people want to the government to reign in health care costs.
ALL people SHOULD TRUST their neighbors and co-workers more than the “talking heads on TV.”
The goal OF THE OFA CAMPAIGN HEALTHCARE is also to reasonably present the case for need and ability to succeed on HEALTHCARE REFORM,
And to inform people in every United States community about this issue and collect their own stories.
And to get the people in every U.S Community to mobilize for an Event and Rally plus the possible National Healthcare Service Event to show Congressional leaders we are all serious about the IMPORTANCE OF HEALTHCARE REFORM and are holding them accountable for any failure they may have to come up with a solution for Healthcare Reform and that we will exercise our right to show our displeasure at the polls as each congressional leader comes up for re-election if they do ignore the importance of HEALTHCARE REFORM NOW.
A letter/email campaign and phone calls to Congressional leaders, and to the United States Representative Congressional House Members and Senate Members wil also be sponsored by the OFA!
Mitch Stewart is the Dir of OFA
• 46 M are uninsured
• Premiums are increasing 4 times faster than wages
• Special interests are blocking Healthcare Reform for profit.
What can YOU DO?
To Do:
(1.) If you have any questions about the meeting between you can contact the volunteer host Jim Waisbrot at 715-544-0583 or email him at waisbrot.jim@gmail.com . We would like to request that you go the www.barackobama.com website , specifically http://www.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gpcbwh .
Please just check the Yes, I would like to volunteer checkbox, fill out all information requested and then comment if you like to send a question, idea, comment, suggestion, or even a healthcare news/video link to the event host, Jim Waisbrot.
Jim also blogs for Obama OFA campaign and his posts will keep you more informed about what is happening.
That way, if you wish, you can be involved in the future or an email member who participates on your own at home through the website and receive updates from the Stevens Point Event Organizer, Jim Waisbrot, as well as other OFA staff.
(2.) Attend/ June 6-9 kickoff – watch message from president, talk about 3 goals, strategize for local support, plan Service Event for June 27 th , Plan outreach to continuously promote plan. Join together as volunteers and co-coordinator to get the job done.
Natalie Foster – PR person
On line tools include host/organizer :
• Event tool – for June 6 th and other events, has guide for hosts (MINE IS JUNE 9 TH ).
• Call tools – to call supporters near you, ready for a June 27 th event
• Call tools to call voters near your – walk lists, call lists, like election
• HC Action Center – online network to help you write letters to editors, call congressmen, etc.
David Plouffe – Election Coordinator
What we won was the Opportunity to Make Change. Now is the time to take advantage of that opportunity. Plan to live part of your life helping the president. Put a lot of pressure on followers. Ask a lot of them. Need passionate people, intelligent informed people. This is our moment. Demand health care reform. This is our moment. There is HUGE interest in this. Get a LOT of troops behind you, at all levels and kinds of support.
Hope you will choose to participate.
James T. Waisbrot
-Past member of Anthea Watson's Obama Campaign in Stevens Point
-Blue Team Leader Sam Cornale's Obama Campaign in Stevens Point
-Executive member at large Portage County Democrats ( Stevens Point )
-MREA, member
-ICE (Inter-Faith for the Earth), member
-Progressive Action Network of Central Wisconsin , email member mostly at this time
-FarmShed, email member
-Fair Wisconsin, volunteer and member.
-Human Rights Campaign, member.
P.S. Here are a couple of sheets you can fill out and think about before the meeting:
BRAINSTORMING ANSWER SHEET
Where do you see the need for Health care reform in your City?
Are there any particular Healthcare concerns that affect your community?
Has anyone ever volunteered at a community Health center in your community? What was it like? Could we set a service project there?
Are there any healthcare related organizations in your community that utilize volunteers.? How can we work with these organizations?
How does our project relate to getting Healthcare Reform Passed?
WHAT IS THE FAVORITE EVENT chosen by our group of volunteers today?
President-elect Obama has made his first of what I hope will be very few blunders. In selecting Rick Warren to be on stage in an official capacity (or at all) for his inauguration, he has insulted the GLBT community AND their allies. Warren played a part in the recent anti-gay proposition that passed in California and has spoken out against the civil right of marriage for our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters.
I encourage any and all of you who agree with me to speak out about this and let's get Barack on the decent and moral side of this issue. I know that I will be condemning this move in my church and local newspaper.
Columnist Charles Blow wrote his reaction: People Wept
Then I wrote mine in part to his column, in part to the history being made around us!
We can still believe in miracles. We can still believe in hope. We can still believe that humanity can call forth our better nature, that we can become those people that the Scriptures of all our traditions say that we can, say that we must become.
If one generation not so long ago has been called “the greatest,” and indeed their stand for liberty merits such designation, here today we have a new contender for the title. Today we’ve earned the right to compete for the title. How we grow, how we honor the trust, how we change, will prove in the future whether or not we can claim it.
As much as President-elect Obama is the result of hope, of dreams, of miracles, he is there for at least as much, if not more so the result of hard work, of dedication, of the commitments of time, money, energy by many Americans who together took the spirit of “we shall overcome” and rendered the verdict, “Yes, we can.”
Savor this moment. Note it well as what hopefully will be a watershed in our national discourse and for the benefit of the world. And when the body is tired from crying, when the body is exhausted from hollering and shouting praise of gratitude for what seemed so long to be impossible, pause in the silence. That place of dreams where all things have form that can be given life on this physical plane.
Then roll up the sleeves, we all have a lot of work to do! But let us do so looking at each other equally in the eye, looking to make real all the promise that this moment carries with it. The dawn of the new day is here. Smile.
OK, we worked hard, rode the rollar coaster of this election through to success for Barack and ourselves. Now what? Here's what I'm doing. I'm reaching out to McCain supporters with the hand of friendship. Today I am taking a pink rose from the mixed boquet I bought myself yesterday after voting and giving it to the mother with the McCain/Palin bumper sticker whose son is in the same pre-k class as my son (who hugged both Barack and Joe in the 48 hours before polls opened! Kid gets at least one benefit from having a disabled mother - close-up seats at political rallies by sitting on my lap while I'm in a wheelchair and praying that none of us have to go to the bathroom before the rally ends and the crowd thins out). Open the walls of this tent and invite the rest of the country into to help with this work, by extending some personal kindness to someone you were trying hard not to sneer at for their lawn signs the last month or so. Live the kind of world you want to reside in.
(please feel free to forward this on - this out-reach message is "open source")
DragonMama in Cleveland, mama of the kid with the monkey backpack (which is a harness/leash) and his little brother D.
Hi! We made history. When Barack Obama was elected President today it was because of a trillion small acts from millions of Americans ovet the past 2 years that has brought us to this moment. Every little thing we do has an impact be it big or small. Every little thing can matter a great deal. A little push is all it takes to set off a chain of dominos.
Each of you has contributed to this moment in history. We've each given what we could. Please take a moment to reflect and write down some of the things you did that mattered most to you, or write down everything you did. It doesn't matter. Then, pass this on to everyone you know who contributed time, energy, and/or money to this effort so they can be included.
Please cc meltzer7@charter.net . We'd like to see how the list grows.
Jess in MA: Phonebanking, postcard writing/organizing, event hosting, and lots of other stuff. Jonathan Meltzer (Berlin MA) Standing in the rain with 700 other volunteers listening to Barack speak before heading out to door knock on the first day of canvassing in NH April 2007.... Convincing a woman in Nashua at 5:30 PM primary day who was not going to vote to go to the polls and vote for Barack.... organizing a massive student outreach in MA, VT, NH, NY and RI to get college students from NH to register and vote absentee in NH....
Emma RUddock (mass HQ) - pulling an all nighter at the Mass Headquarters with some amazing people and entering data, my amazing college dems leaders who's enthusiasm is so incredible and inspiring, realizing after the NH primaries that this was not going to be easy but that we were going to do it anyway, succeeding in convincing my parents to let me take the year off from college to work fulltime on the campaign, meeting some of the most incredible people that I have ever gotten to know, voting in my first presidential election
YES WE DID !!!!
I wasn't doing anything with it, so I made it into a support site for Obama!
http://www.wooism.org/
I had three friends over for an evening of phone-banking. I asked everyone to bring a cell-phone and a laptop. We used this website's calling feature. Between the four of us we made 276 phone calls for Obama!
For every 10 calls we got a shot of tequilla. And afterwards we sat in the hot-tub. It was a fun night, and we all feel really good about what we did for Obama!
I just saw the clip of Michael Goldfarb's demoguogic claim that Obama hangs out w/ antisemities, a vicious last gasp of the immoral campaign of a man I once respected and admired. Here in NY the alliance between people of color, women, and others seeking justice & equity is old and, except for the ocassional demagogue on both sides, deep.
Back in the 60's when I was young this alliance was expressed in the disproportionate number of young Jews sho were freedom riders. One of them was a young man from Queens, Andrew Goodman. His murder is recounted in "Miss. Burning." There is a belltower on the Queens College campus that bears his name.
And I know that if Obama wins (don't beshri it) on November 5 my heart will lead me to that belltower to tell him that we have overcome and that his death was not in vain.
I've heard this election process (and volunteering in it) compared to labor and delivery before. It's an apt description. I am so tired. I can't imagine what it's like for Barack and Michelle and their families.
I've been doing the best I can as a town coordinator but I also have two young children to care for and a husband who is also devoting a ton of time to the campaign spearheading the NH Student Voter Project. I don't want to feel like there was more I should have done so I keep pressing on and doing little bits as I can throughout the day. I hope it all adds up and combined with what others are doing each day we're able to effect the change we're looking to see in our government and our role in it.
But I am tired and ready to vote. We're all trying to push through and birth this change. There is no choice but to see this through or fail and failure isn't an option. I cannot see how our middle-class family can survive four more years. I can't see how our nation can survive four more years. I cannot fathom how we could not seize this moment in time, in history and elect Barack Obama President. He is the right man for this time. We need to see this through.
It's being reported that Gov. Palin has received approximately $150,000 worth of high-end clothes and accessories paid for by campaign contributions. This is more than 3x the median household income and OUTRAGEOUS! There is a new petition to ask her to sell the clothes on eBay and give the proceeds to charity, preferably one that serves teen moms or special needs kids.
Sign the petition here:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/palin-clothes
Another Obamican!!
Yes We Can!!!!
Frank Rich wrote a good piece condemming the racist undercurrent in the Republican campaign. Opinion Link
The title of the article will only fan the flames on google searches. My reposnse that somehow or other failed to pass muster:
The Republicans stoke the fires of fears, real or imagined, as fear is one of the best motivators, especially when it looks like your campaign is going down, and in a big way. Fear of loss of jobs, of homes, of life savings, decimated in a week, of internal social stability, let alone the position of America on the world stage are all things people can see, all things very real. The irony that many people haven't seen is how can the Party in power that got us into this mess can possibly get us out? Not that the Democrats aren't without complicity in Congress. The approval of that presumed august body is as much in the tank as the President's, a dubious honor all around! Yet how many incumbents will be going back to Washington on 5 November for yet another term?
To this immediate misbehavior of the candidates playing the race card, "enough!" Too much already. Yet if you recall the conventions, the Republican was far more composed of gentrified, near geriatric white people, people for whom McCain's statement, "Obama will raise YOUR taxes" was probably very much the truth. And people for whom racial prejudice, whilst never so much outspoken as it might have been once upon a time, is probably a resident in some quarters.
Republican (as in a republic, not the party) democracy is one of the most fragile of political institutions, as it demands the most responsibility of its citizens, from whom power is derived. It is far too easy to appeal to the base instincts of people, stoke the fires of their fears to surrender their liberty for the promise of the strong State which will defend them from enemies, real and imagined, internal and external. We are always "that close" from turning political rallies that should inspire and bring out the best in us to devolving into the sort that become a "Triumph of the Will." We know the end of the road where that path leads, the world's been there before.
The only way we're going to exorcise this demon of racism from the body politic is to have a zero tolerance policy. Someone makes a racist remark, the politician should call them out, not give tacit approval, and security should remove the offender from the event. People should withhold donations anytime one of these instances slips through. The campaigns will feel it in the pocketbook pretty quickly. And nothing will insure corrective behavior more than that!
We owe ourselves a better future.
I have been on an e-mail list with some Republican friends from work. One is prone to putting out all the conservative talking points (ake, lies) without backing it up with any supporting facts. In order to try to stem the flow of lies he sends out, I pledged that for each lie he sends out I will donate $5 to the Obama campaign.
I challenge anyone reading to join me and donate anytime your conservative friends start spouting their lies.
Roger Cohen in the NY Times has a good take on the largely forgotten writings of Rudyard Kipling Kiplin’ vs. Palin
My response:
With cutsey wink, bright smile, glistening eyes, Ms. Palin hopes she can disguise: That when she speaks to the issues, her mouth runs loose, But, you betcha, she can dress a moose! This is a campaign unusually serious, Over Sarah the Republicans are giddy, almost delerious! That the nation can be hoodwinked once more, To renounce civil liberties, still engage in endless war! Who's counting the cost, what does it matter? As editorials moan of Governor Palin's blather? But there may be hope, even this day, When Sarah championed equal rights for those Gay! So beware the serpent, in this beautious form hidin' At the polls, elect Obama and Biden! Then we may heed the warnings of which Kipling spoke, Lest we watch the whole world go up in smoke!
