Where's Samir?

How did I end up here, exactly? :)

Coming to you live from Becker, MN....

Calling all progressives...

I just arrived in Minneapolis, where I will be working solidly until the polls close on November 7 to elect Patty Wetterling and Amy Klobuchar to the U.S. House and Senate. I am fortunate enough to have a job that actually paid for me to work on this crucial election. And I've done this before -- it's not very complicated, it's just many hours of hard, pound-the-pavement work.

Here's the thing. We have 9 days until voting day. And, if you've been paying attention to the political news of the last few weeks, you know that overall Democrats have been significantly favored to Republicans at the national level, and that we saw a slight dip in favor of the Republicans last week -- particularly as President Bush signaled a *change* to the course in Iraq:
-- and, for the fun of it

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXYiaDSo6C0
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXYiaDSo6C0

And what about Missouri? Pundits are calling the Talent / McCaskill campaigns too close to call (check out Congressional Quarterly Weekly's breakdown of the tight races, MO is at the top).

Historically, Republicans have relied on their massively sophisticated get-out-the-vote machine to essentially render any tight/close public opinion polls useless -- it doesn't matter what the public thinks if only one side comes out to vote! Unfortunately, America Votes' progressive voter GOTV machine ( http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14894961 & http://www.americavotes.org/DefaultPage.aspx?catID=11397 ) is in trial phase and isn't set up in Missouri this year (not surprising - just 6 months ago most political pundits were writing Missouri off to Talent... we've come a long way!).

So what should we Missourians do? Now doesn't appear to be a time of need in terms of financial assistance (I'm personally a bit appalled at how much money has been spent on this Senate race -- http://www.tray.com/cgi-win/x_statedis.exe?DoFn=&rb=2006&State=MO ).

Progressive Missourians need to volunteer for at least one day of the 8 that we have left. If you can, take a day off work. Your volunteer time is absolutely essential.

Campaigning doesn't require you to be able to speak eloquently or comprehensively about a candidate, but it does require you to get out and do one simple task repeatedly for several hours (you'll either be calling Democratic voters (phone banking) or going door-to-door (canvassing) with a written script to remind people to vote or, if you're so inclined, you can drive elderly or lower-income people to the polls in your area or another area).

You may be thinking that none of this sounds very fun. It's actually more fun the more you do it (and stop worrying about how well you're doing), but this isn't about having fun. How many of you know people who don't vote? There is never really a good excuse not to vote, but particularly with the minimum wage and stem cell initiatives up on the ballot we have a lot at stake (if you want me to talk about those, give me a call).

http://www.claireonline.com/volunteer/ - click here to sign up to volunteer. You may, at some point, find yourself communicating with a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House -- these are the coordinated campaigns that House/Senate members often run for efficiency and maximizing coverage in a district.

If you've never done this before, now is the time to do it. Make sure you vote on November 7, and make sure you can say that you did your part in 2006.

You Will Live In Such A World...

Finally found Baldwin's quote from 2000:

"If you dream of a world in which you can put your partner's picture on your desk, then put his picture on your desk and you will live in such a world. If you dream of a world in which you can walk down the street and hold your partner's hand, then hold her hand and you will live in such a world. If you dream of a world in which there are more openly gay elected officials, then run for office and you will live in such a world. And if you dream of a world in which you can take your partner to the office party, even if your office is the U.S. House of Representatives, then take her to the party. I do, and now I live in such a world. Remember, there are two things that keep us oppressed: them and us. We are half of the equation. There will not be a magic day when we wake up and it's now ok to express ourselves publicly. We must make that day ourselves, by speaking out publicly first in small numbers, then in greater numbers, until it's simply the way things are and no one thinks twice. Never doubt that we will create this world, because, my friends, we are fortunate to live in a democracy, and in a democracy, we decide what is possible."

- U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin D-Wis. - Millennium March on Washington

AP: Air America Radio Files Chapter 11

Air America is in Chapter 11? I thought it was doing well, but don't listen to it (I don't own a radio, and I only do podcasts these days...).

It's not that I enjoy all of what Air America offers, but I feel like it's good to have opposing views on the air...

• AP: Air America Radio Files Chapter 11 (13 Oct. 2006, Washington Post)

Washington DC fights the Wisconsin Marriage Ban

Join us at Halo at 6 PM on October 17 for a student/young professional friendly fundraiser for Fair Wisconsin.

www.fairwisconsin.com/dc

For those of you that don't know, I worked for Action Wisconsin during the 2004 election cycle, the precursor to the Fair Wisconsin campaign against this amendment. We have been preparing for this vote for *two years* and have the best chance at beating one of these amendments at the ballot box!

Check out this Fair Wisconsin ad....



And a few more...

Security Screening for All

I found this article on Wired.com a fascinating overview about the process of security screening and the implications/ramifications of some of the ideas for improvement being discussed. Basically, I didn't see the big picture, and I think this gives it.

Check it out.

• Why Everyone Must Be Screened (5 Oct. 2006, Wired.com)