Canvassing with Lamont campaign

So in the theory of adding a little bit more to the election than some cash and many hours boring anyone who will listen about the importance of the Illinois 6th (go tammy duckworth!), I took the train out to Stamford, and spent a day canvassing/phone banking for the Ned campaign. Those of you who know me best know that it takes a lot to get me outside of city lines...and even more to get me to the Nutmeg State. Here's the story of a rainy day in Connecticut...

I had been in touch with Ned's 4th CD volunteer coordination staff about at least helping out on election day. They responded immediately and enthusiastically, and also suggested I get out and do some canvassing pre-election if i could. I got in touch with the proper people at the Stamford office, drank 6 beers and caught the early train.

Unfortunately, it was raining when I got out there, so we would be phone banking rather than canvassing. Phone banking, for those not familiar, involves getting a list of names that are presumed to be friendly-ish, and calling the people on the list. Contrary to popular belief, the purpose of this is not really to try to persuade - it is really to try to identify a list of people who are going to vote for Ned, and should get a reminder to vote on election day. Cold calling is not a massively fun activity; out of 50 names, 30 don't pick up when they see "Democratic Headquarters" on their caller ID. Of the other 20, 10 refuse to answer. Of those 10, 8 will answer, but are just trying to get to you off the phone as quickly as possible. One of the other 2 will be a "leaning Joe", and that person will have some ridiculous story...such as they oppose bush, oppose the war but would not really consider voting for Ned. But as I was told...if they are gonna vote for Joe, there usually isn't anything you can do about it.

When the rain stopped for a few minutes, we did make an attempt at canvassing (same as phone banking, but knocking on doors)...unfortunately by the time a second downpour began, we only had spoken to 3 people (out of maybe 30 doors), all of whom were strong Joe supporters...one was even intentionally rude to us - i figure that inability to think about the upcoming election with people from the other camp is a hallmark of bush/lieberman supporter.

Morale at the HQ was very high among both the Ned and Diane campaigns (the Dem party shares an office in Stamford). They don't believe the polls (there are many reasons to take them with a grain of salt), and truly feel that their GOTV and ballot placement is worth 3-5 pts. Based on the people i met, these are all true progressives; speaking to them you really would think you are reading dKos. Seeing so many people in there on a Saturday showed me that this election is not over; that Ned still has a real shot going into the last week; that election will truly be decided by the support of the people, rather than the support of the big-money out of state GOP donors!

A little explanation to the template changes

If you noticed the BoC takin a little longer to load today, it's because I added a bit of googlebombing code to the bottom of the page. The idea, as far as i get it, is that it makes it more likely for these links to show up at the top of the google search when you try to find out info on these Repugnantcant's. MyDD's Chris Bowers is running the program; if you want to see the logic/ethics behind it I suggest you read his open letter to the press on his site. If you want to take part, you can find the source code on mydd also.

It will be gone in 12 days. Just like the kleptocrat congress.

100th out of 100

So I was recently asked which current Senator I most wanted to see defeated this year. My questioner, clearly expecting Santorum or Allen and were incredibly surprised when I brought out our old friend, the junior senator from Connecticut. Simply put, no one member of the Senate would do more to slow down the agenda of Progressivism and Change in the 110th congress; no one member would do more to ensure the rubber stamping of the administration.

For evidence of the fact that Joseph Lieberman is not a Democrat, just read the Hartford Courant (or look at the main link summary on the dKos). Despite the fact that Lieberman has stated in a highly equivocal matter that he intends to caucus with the Dems, he claims to have no view on the gubernatorial race on CT and, more importantly, NO OPINION AS TO WHO SHOULD CONTROL THE HOUSE. Simply put, while disagreeing with the party line on occasion is reasonable, no lawmaker should be considered a member of a political party unless he/she believes that their party should control both houses of congress. If you are a lawmaker, and do not believe the Democrats should control the house, you are NOT A DEMOCRAT. Please repeat this to everybody you know, especially registered voters in CT.

To repeat, the worst possible situation in the senate would be to take 6 seats but lose LIE-berman's (we call this the 50+1 scenario). This would then in effect leave Little Joe the ability to determine control of the chamber, a position that he would translate into chairmanship (GOP or Dem) of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee...the exact committee that would likely have primary responsibility in subpoenaing Joe's best friends, members of the Chimp Administration. This can not be allowed to happen. This prima donna can not be given veto-power over great democratic senators like Webb, Tester and Brown. This election can not be lost because one man can not accept that his time in the spotlight has come to an end.

Best NY Mag Ever?

So I go to the mailbox (bottom row second from the right for #40A) and as occurs once weekly, a brand new issue of New York Magazine was waiting for me. Stepping into the elevator, I take a look at the cover, as per usual, and decide, this may be the greatest New York Magazine ever.

For those of from outside the 212, this is not The New Yorker magazine. Breakin it down for you SAT style...New Yorker is to the upper east side as New York is to Flatiron District (ok...soho). New Yorker is to Seinfeld as New York is to Weeds, if the Greatest Show on TV were set in the city at least. Or if you want to get personal, New Yorker is to Danny Craig as New York is to Chris Johnson, just without the facial hair. But i digress...

To start with on the cover I see a full-color 8 inch photo of "Stephen Colbert" (ie in character) promising an interview with Stephen Colbert (ie the parson). The other cover articles, in no order...

• Jukebox:Dylan, Beck, Killers, Ludacris
  
• Sofia Coppola
  
• Beer for Grownups
  
• Rove's Last Stand
  
• 2 more cautiously optimistic 2006 Election (sponsored by Diebold) articles

This much me in one place...i basically had to read the whole thing straight through. Gotta hand it to my Aunt Selma for initially settin me up w/ the subscription a few years ago. And of course the 2 best parts of the magazine aren't even on the cover: crossword and real estate listings. New York crossword puzzles are just right for me...just hard enough so I can't ever quite finish. The perfect parable to end a magazine issue so clearly written with just me in mind...

at least until i buy the 4BR on pg 103

Update: So it turns out Danny Craig now has facial hair too. That kinda kills my running metaphor that you may have just read. Now, part of me wants to go back and edit the work I did on this...but I'm not the type to revise history. I mean, denying that I implied Danny did not have facial hair would be akin to saying that Iraq is not currently in a state of Civil War.

Right Wing Conspiracy or Just a Coincidence?

I wanted to post on the US Gulag Creation Act of 2006, but I held off despite the fact that the truly despicable thing got almost no press.

I wanted to post on Foley, but that's gotten a lot of press and I definitely can't add much.

But this one affected me personally so I wanted to put it up.

For those of you in the vast majority who don't quite get what I do for a living, let me simplify it by saying that it leaves a little bit of time during the day for a bit of internet surfing. JPM company policy is something like "reasonable personal use" which I take to mean checking baseball scores, paying bills and reading DailyKos and some other political stuff. Today, I try to log onto dKos...and I get denied by the "secure computing" daemon. I figure it is either a) some kind of error or b) JPM being super worry-ish about what their employees are looking at.

Get home to get my fill of the Daily, and i find this little guy in the recco diaries. For those of you who read my site but are too lazy to try out the links (yes i know that's redundant) basically dKos got added to Secure Computing's site (which would filter down to my getting shut out at work) as containing Profanity and "Mature". I can only assume "Mature" means that its posters generally don't engage in infantile activities like calling their political opponents unpatriotic or hitting on 16-year-old male employees (ok i had to get 1 in).

Funny thing is...comparable sites on the conservative side...and when i say comparable i mean wonderful publications like RedState, LGF and RUSH LIBAUGH's homepage are NOT listed by Secure Computing. Now, admittedly dKos has probably been a touch R-rated over the last 3 days, but then again so have all the majors. I don't know how sites get listed on Secure Computing, but I suggest you go to this link for Secure Computing and fill out the form to state in no uncertain terms that dKos is invaluable part of the global media...and the ability of them to get their information out at places of employment is critical for freedom of speech.