i couldn't agree more

I am in Luzerne County.
"How do you flip 140,000 votes? You start by cutting in places like Lackawanna and Luzerne counties," said the McCain campaign source, referring to Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, the traditionally conservative Democratic population hubs of northeastern Pennsylvania.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14830.html

ps mara arrived yesterday!!!

acorn and anti-abortion

jeremy and i went canvassing on monday. we split up and i went ahead of him on w diamond ave to use our time most efficiently. i was crossing the street, this guy yells at me from his car window as he's stopped at the light this is our exchange. "hey, it's too late to register to vote."
"i know" (the deadline to register and vote in this november's election has passed, true, even though technically it's never too late to register.)
"unless of course you work for acorn. do you work for acorn?"
"no, i do not."
"well, you look like you could work for acorn."
and he drove off.
what is that even supposed to mean??
this is what i looked like:


so yesterday this ad appeared in the local paper:

as you can see there was an anti-abortion rally outside our office at 3:45 pm. as today's newspaper article reported: "inside the obama headquarters, campaign workers went about their business, paying little attention to the rally outside." what the paper didn't say was that we BROKE OUR DAILY PHONE CALL RECORD! additionally, the paper said that a few motorists called out objections to the rally signs with one man shouting, "eff the babies". i think our country should really pride itself on such robust and thoughtful discourse.

ps did you guys see the maccain rally in new hampshire today? when talking about somebody in congress, he actually said, "you ol' skinflint!" what? who is he appealing to? i want to make a button that says "skinflints for obama".

lerato

wow. it's so hard to keep up these days! let me just say that i've canvassed twice more since my last posting.
once here:


as you can see there were deer and homemade obama signs in this weird planned, gated community we went to. it was really scenic walking around but kind of creepy from a planner's perspective. i can't really turn the planner off, you know.

yesterday, jeremy and i went canvassing. he forgot to bring his jacket and it got really cold. luckily, anne marie had brought by extra things for canvassers to wear it case they were ill-prepared for the cold. even though the sweater, jacket and vest were a little small given jeremy's height, i thought he looked marvelous:


and then the most exciting thing of all. lerato walked in to our office. she lives in jersey and came in with the group of new yorkers who canvassed with us yesterday. now, i knew that lerato was a south african name and it turns out she is from south africa. we talked about cape town and sun city and decided that we were going to be bff's. she was supposed to go to harrisburg and help them until thursday, but i totally poached her and now she is staying with jeremy and me at franck and helen's place. we opened the office this morning and i put on a little mandoza to start the morning off right:

YEBO!!


additionally, lerato means love. it also happens to be the name of a song by boom shaka that i was my total jam when i was in botswana. i'll play it for you sometime. this whole experience has been totally spooky if you ask me.

well, they don't want to vote for a colored guy

so wednesday heather and i went canvassing in nanticoke, (i think that's how you spell it) about an hour outside of hazleton proper. i felt like i was trekking out to an aldea to visit the with the campesinos. unpaved roads, strange address designations, and a LOT of chuchos. anyway, we got a lot of registered democrats who said that if they voted at all it would probably be for obama. i'll tell you about the two of the most remarkable interactions. the first was a hrc guy (this is hillary country out here) who was like (and i'm paraphrasing here) "well i'm not prejudiced or anything, but you know he's black and he's got the muslim thing . . .)" honestly, even though i've talked to quite a few of these ignoramus, it's still dumbfounding when it happens. another house that we stopped at had an obama yard sign out front. we were telling the owner that he needs to get his neighbors out and voting since so many of the registered democrats we visited said they weren't voting or were hesitant about voting for obama. paraphrase: "well, they won't say it but they don't want to vote for a colored guy." remember this is a supporter who put a yard sign in his lawn. what do you do?

the trees are so pretty right now!


to watch snl's take on the bradley effect go to minute 17 of the weekend update last nite.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/39652/saturday-night-live-weekend-update-thursday-1016

i know everyone is talking about the bradley effect, but i think in this part of the country there will a reverse bradley effect. for example, when heather went canvassing in shickshiny the other day, an old man came to the door that she knocked. she asked him, as we ask everyone, if he would be supporting obama in the election. he looked around, leaned in close and said "you're the first person i've told this to, but yes, i'm voting for him." he went on to say that she'd interrupted his dinner but he was happy about it because he got to tell her that he was voting for obama. and apparently, when dave and heather tried to offer people obama paraphernalia so they could demonstrate their support, no one wanted to put up signs or anything. i'm just sayin'.

a couple days ago we did "visibility" on a street corner near the office.

it was pretty fun. we got a lot of positive honks and negative thumbs down
the high school girls had fun too


also, bart made this rad led pin.


and jeremy put this broccoli bouquet in a vase. (and that's jeanie, a super vol. she decorated the office halloweenie. i'll take a picture of that soon.)

kids for obama

one of my favorite times of the day is in the morning when a group of kids around five years old walk past the office in a line (presumably on their way to school or preschool) and they say in unison in a sing-songy way "oh-bah-muh, oh-bah-muh". it's the cutest thing and it makes my day start off on the right foot.

this little girl is the daughter of one of our volunteers. her dad makes calls for us while she's at dance class. most all of the other girls in her dance class wear mccain stickers, but she is a big obama supporter. she made this button with a bunny on it that says "hop for obama." i want her to make me one.



and this little boy is totally ON THE BUS! like any good democrat he is all about public transportation. he rides the bus and has all the bus schedules memorized. and this neat bus lunch pail. maybe he'll grow up to be a transportation planner . . .

i think that everyone who's running is a bunch of retards

that's my favorite phone banking quote of the day. so far.

also srta. america ferrera se cancelo on us and didn't come. es tipico.

ps hill and bill and joe should be taking the stage any moment now in scranton; too bad i couldn't be there. i'm too busy winning the election for barack.

i'd rather be nuked than be broke

today, after the stock market plummeted s'more, when discussing the lesser of two evils between nuclear holocaust and financial ruin, the consensus by our office volunteers was: nuclear holocaust.

luckily i am thrifty. i bought this great skirt suit that i'd been eying at the salvation army across the street on wednesday. and guess what. it was half off!! $1.50 for this beautiful two-piece. I can't wait to wear it out. or during an important presentation.




last nite we were at the office until about 2:30 am i think although i don't even remember now. heather and dave ordered a meat salad to sustain themselves:

it looked like a pretty good salad except for all of the meat.

bruce sustained me.

this shirt was from the rally/concert last weekend in philly. a couple of our superstar vols got to get the vip up close tickets. they said it was awesome. someone brought dave back this t-shirt. it's my inspiration every time i go in his office.

we were at the office so late last nite because we were cutting turf for the canvassers this weekend.




amy, one of the amazing staffers who floats around, was totally mvp when she fixed our printer and helped organize the walk packets into the wee hours.

we have a lot of great events coming up this weekend. hill and bill and joe biden are having a rally in scranton this sunday, oct 12 a the riverfront sports complex located at 5 west olive plaza. doors are at 1:15 and the event is free and open to the public. no tickets are required. i know all of this because i repeated it on the telephone dozens of times will calling obama/biden supporters today and yesterday. the other HUGE even is that america ferrera, aka ugly betty, is coming to our office on sunday to show her support for the obama/biden ticket!!



we just found out today, so we printed a bunch of fliers and dave, heather, jeremy, and i headed out to "da club" to pass them out tonite when we left the office around midnite. i was SO EMBARRASSED to be wearing carharts and a pearl button down to this place but asi es. so we ordered some yuenglings and started inviting people to the event. then then jeremy and i got up and danced some bachata. we must have been in a sight: me in my carharts, and him in his salvation army knit sweater (he didn't want to take it off because he thought the tie-dyed shirt underneath would have been a move in the wrong direction) and both of us with our obama/biden buttons on. what is going on? regardless, it was the most fun i've had since i got here and i think jeremy and i will go back (properly attired, claro.)

oh, i forgot to introduce you to the rats, riso and carmela:

i fed them treats the other day.

and here's my room:


as you can see, i don't have much time to keep it tidy.
g'nite.