(Link) snip..... This campaign is different. It isn't just a campaign with opposing sides, like 2004 and 2000 and 1996. Something profound is happening. It's as if a slow-building fire got lit sometime in the past few years and finally is blazing. But the kindling was glowing as early as April 6, 2006. That day in Charlotte, a gray-haired real estate broker named Harry Taylor, attending a speech by President Bush to an applauding audience, stood and said into a microphone: “In my lifetime I ...

But at the same time, I do think we have a good chance at winning. Facts is, we have been consistently ahead in the polls since May. The electoral map looks good. We have more money, more volunteers and better organization on the ground than our opponents. This all means more than a single bad one day post-convention tracking poll. I think it is crazy high expectations to think that we should be 10 points ahead right now. We are winning, but we need to maintain realistic expectations. The pubs ...

(Link) Urban Farmers’ Crops Go From Vacant Lot to Market IN the shadows of the elevated tracks toward the end of the No. 3 line in East New York, Brooklyn, with an April chill still in the air, Denniston and Marlene Wilks gently pulled clusters of slender green shoots from the earth, revealing a blush of tiny red shallots at the base. “Dennis used to keep them big, and people didn’t buy them,” Mrs. Wilks said. “They love to buy scallions.” Growing up in rural Jamaica, the Wilkses helped th...

or whatever the insult du jour is. There are a myriad of great reasons to support Obama and they have been discussed in depth on this board and in the media. There are also many reasons to support Clinton and I respect people who choose to do that. People who don't understand the arguments of the other side have chosen not to. The people who persist in categorizing the supporters of other candidates in a uniform and negative light are incredibly short sighted. Will I come on board with a group ...

(Image) And one more from the rally in Charlotte. It was jammed to the rafters! (Image) I just wanted to share :)

I took a grassroots activist seminar recently where we talked about the art of persuading a citizen to vote for your candidate. I am notoriously bad at this, so the topic was particularly fascinating to me. Here is a brief overview of what I learned in the seminar. First, ID who you think *might* be persuadable. Some people aren't, they can't be helped and you need to leave them be. It is a waste of energy to try to convince them, and it will likely backfire and cause them to become more entr...

State Sen. Malcolm Graham thought he knew what to expect when he helped open Democrat Barack Obama's Charlotte headquarters Thursday night. "I went there expecting 50, 60, 70 people," he said. Seven hundred showed up. Lines wrapped around the headquarters at 1523 Elizabeth Ave. They were a mixed crowd: white, black, young and old. Few political events of any kind -- let alone a headquarters opening -- draw that many people. "I've never seen a grassroots movement take hold like that," said Gr...

I am buddies with many Hillary supporters. I would never let a primary come between us. As many have observed, there is ugliness on both sides of this debate. I do not like being referred to as an Obamite or cult member or what ever the insult du jour is for Obama supporters. However, I recognize that most Hillary supporters are not engaging in that low level debate, just as I would never use the term Hillbot or whatever. I use ignore and hide thread a lot in this forum. I have my options page...

No more obsessing over polls, listening to the cable news show, getting butterflies every time I hear something negative about the candidate I support. 2004 was too devastating, I can't go through that kind of profound disappointment again. Besides, primaries are just the warm up, I wanted to save my big guns for the GE. But after Obama's speech a few days ago, I am gone, baby, say a prayer for me........ Obama's the one for me.

I love politics and am very active locally, but I choose to work mostly on issues because I don't like politicians or political parties very much. I have always accepted as fact that politicians are a little bit dirty, that they need to do certain things to get elected and that is just the way the game is played. But after Obama's speech yesterday, I am questioning that view. That speech *was* audacious. It was not the scripted, risk adverse, sound-bite fest that I have come to expect and tune ...

(Image) The Charlotte Observer did a story about it just yesterday. On Sept. 4th, 1957, a 15-year-old girl named Dorothy Counts took a walk that changed Charlotte. A crowd taunted her all the way to the doors of Harding High School. But she walked through. And she became one of four black students who integrated the city schools that year. But what about the other people there that day? And How has that day lingered with them over the years? Today we tell a story not just about Dorothy...

This is only a local election year for us, but the grass roots progressive are getting it together. The plan is to dry run new strategies this year, then have them dialed in for the presidential election next year, so when it is all hitting the fan and we have volunteers coming out of the woodwork, we will know how to use them productively. I am organizing non-partisan voter registration drives, but working with a coalition of groups instead of trying to do it all solo like I have in the past. ...

My state, NC, just passed same-day voter registration legislation :applause: It will begin during the next election cycle, 2007. In NC, you will be able to register and vote, but only during the early voting period, not on the actual election day. Not quite the same as other states who do same-day, but still pretty impressive legislation to get passed in a Southern state! I do tons of voter registration and education. I am formulating a plan to test this new tool and I was hoping to get advice...

Camp Wellstone that is :) I will post later about what I learned.

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as I did with the one in 04. I will not. I can't hurt the way that I did last time and remain politically active and aware. I was scanning CNN or MSN, can't remember which, and my heart did that little trip as I read a headline that cast doubts on the dem's chances to regain the house this year. And I closed the site. Last time I spent hours each night obsessing about the latest poll, trying to read between the lines, and hours and hours obsessing with other like minded souls about it here. Whe...

I am planning a 1st time precinct get together. My precinct is basically unorganized. I am precinct captain, and I did a little canvassing on my own last year, but this is my first effort at recruiting additional volunteers. I have a list of register dems who voted in the last local election. I asked for primary records, but somehow those were unavailable, so last year's low turnout election is the best I have to go on as far as who in my precinct is a committed dem. My first question, what typ...

Good weather, too. Overcast and cool for this time of year. We went to a number of apartment complexes in the city. We didn't use a walk list. It was a non-partisan walk, and anyway, the area is so overwhelmingly Democratic, there is no need. Our group of volunteers was very diverse; some from a local immigration action group, a group of Christians interested in local poverty issues, and a few from my pro-democracy group. We met people from all over the world. Hmong, Colombian, Sudanese, Haitia...

I have become extremely interested in the subject after spending way too may hours with a clipboard in the Kmart parking lot on hot summer days trying to get people registered to vote, only to find out later that hardly any of the newly registered made it to the polls. With Election Day Registration, I can do my registration drives and GOTV at the same time. Much more efficient, plus the people who historically don't turn out at the polls, young people, people who move around a lot, the homeles...

I don't even worry about the effect of my actions. I try to be smart, and put my effort where it matters, but in the end, it is the doing that is important. Someday, when my kids ask me, "Mommy, what did you and Daddy do during that horrible time in the early 2000's?" I want to be able to say that I did something, said something and that they can be proud of what our family stood for. Either that or the bad men will come get me and they will kinda forget who I was, but I try not to think about...

while I was at a rally to raise the minimum wage. I am sure I sounded like a complete ass. :blush: I always get interviewed at these things if I bring my kids. I guess they are photogenic. Oh well, if I sucked completely, maybe they will leave me out of the broadcast, or just show pictures of the adorable children.

night after night in the run up to the Iraq war. Not commercial airplanes, which I rarely noticed, but transport sounding planes with propellers. I remember looking up, with tears running down my face, knowing what they were, praying that it would be ok. I dunno, maybe I was mistaken about those planes, but it seemed pretty clear to me at the time that they were military and that I was observing a historic moment from my cozy backyard. I got my husband once and we both stood out there looking a...

I have been attempting to organize my precinct for about a year. In my state, it is fairly easy. If your precinct is unorganized, you get a form, get the signatures of five registered democrats in your precinct and turn it in. I did that and voila, I am precinct chair. I have been attending some of the local Democratic organizational meetings, and honestly, it is very confusing for me. First off, I have zero tolerance for bureaucracy, so attending meetings that have a lot of procedural content ...

Thank you for helping to teach me how to be the best person I can be. How standing for something is, in the end, all you really have and all you will be remembered for. How a small, seemingly insignificant act of courage of can save the world.

I am ready to do some canvassing! The weather has turned nice, too. :woohoo: My precinct was previously unorganized, so this is a first for the neighborhood. I figure this year, it will be great to get out, meet some of my fellow dems and encourage them to vote. But my real interest is recruiting volunteers for '06, baybeeeee!

I lost mine 20 years ago and never had it replaced. The hardest single thing I have trouble with making people here on DU understand about this issue is that not everyone has ID. Most of us here are middle class, we own computers, pay a monthly internet service charge. We have bank accounts, credit cards and on and on. It would be impossible to live our lives without an ID. But this is not the reality for many Americans. They are not bad. They are not criminal. They are citizens and entitled to...

Wise words. Let's see if the country is up to the challenge of differentiating between the two.

This was in this weekends "Ethicist" column. At the Y.M.C.A. where I exercise, the Christian Emphasis Committee displays copies of the magazine Focus on the Family (from the ''conservative politico'' James Dobson's organization) on its bulletin board. I find it offensive -- it's clearly political -- and have twice asked the committee to remove it. It has refused. I have since started removing these magazines myself and disposing of them in the trash. Is this O.K.? Anonymous, Charlotte, N.C. (...

He is now officially a Democrat. :bounce: He grew up in the repub party, but stopped voting repub years before I met him. He has become more liberal since we have been together. But much of his hate for Bush and the current repubs comes from the fact that he really is conservative. He thinks we should live within our means as a country, that government has no place in people's bedrooms and that separation of church and state is an excellent thing. Anyway, I organized my precinct over the wee...

I have been doing lots of voter registration this past summer. Mostly tabling at local grocery stores, but I also registered a few smaller groups. One of the groups I registered consisted of several young women at a local residential program. I have been calling for the past few weeks, trying to set up a time to take them to early voting. So last night at 8pm, someone finally gets back to me, says, well they want to vote tomorrow. And, of course, I am completely slammed. So my husband has to tak...