well, i’ve been busy

My father asked if I’d stopped blogging. No. It’s just that I’ve been so busy this month. We had to go home for my uncle’s funeral, which was a hard trip because I was upset about the reason.

And we’ve had a lot of things to do on the various and sundry websites we are working on, plus the tech support is keeping Stanley busy (he’s off on a tech support call right now—I hate it when he has to work on the weekend).

Call For Change

And we’ve gotten very active in both the MoveOn.org get out the vote campaign, Call for Change, and the Ned Lamont campaign, spending hours doing data entry. MoveOn.org’s Call for Change, according to Eli Pariser, is:

Basically, it allows people to log onto http://www.callforchange.org from their home computers and then phone target voters in the 30+ top House and Senate races around the nation. Our goal is to make 5 million phone calls to inconsistent voters who lean Democratic—we recently passed 1.5 million. Our members chipped in millions to allow MoveOn to buy the most up-to-date lists, acquire consumer data, and use micro-targeting to ensure that every call is maximized. We used the Busby and Lamont campaigns to test our program and make it a good user experience. After Busby, a Yale study compared our phone program to others and found that it boosted turnout the most. Part of the reason we designed the program the way we did was to make it work for parents and others who’ve want to chip in but only have 20 or 30 minutes free to volunteer at the end of a long work day—not just the super-activists. Also, folks in areas without competitive races or who live in rural areas far from campaign offices no longer have to be excluded from GOTV. Seems like a great way to work on GOTV without having to make a serious time commitment. Remember, we’ll only realize our big gains this November if we outwork the other side. They’re not sitting back or holding anything back. Here’s one way you can help our side out-hustle the opposition.

Neither of us can stand making phone calls (and I’m so hard of hearing it would be a waste of time for me), so we volunteered to do the data entry for the phone banking: noting answers to brief polls, correcting phone numbers, making sure that people who want absentee ballots get sent ballots, taking people off the calling list if they ask not to be called. I’m always amazed how much we get done so fast. We enjoy working on both the Call for Change campaign and the Ned Lamont campaign so much that it’s difficult to decide where to put our time in. We’re actually enjoying meeting more people from our community. Keeps us from becoming complete curmudgeons (well, except maybe Stanley—but he’s been one for at least ten years already so ... ) So, Dad, it’s been political activism that’s been keeping me from blogging so much—I am my father’s daughter after all. (Except I don’t think I could ever run for office—I just can’t tolerate fools long enough not to completely lose it.) And I just don’t see how anyone who is against the war in Iraq can conceivably vote for any congressperson, senator, or candidate who is pro-war, whether he or she is a Democrat or a Republican. I know nothing will change unless the Republicans are kicked in the ass and out of Congress and as far as I can see it, a vote for a Republican—including Lieberman—is a vote for the status quo: the escalating death of soldiers and Iraqi men, women, and children; the inability to solve any problems here, including healthcare and education and environmental issues because the money is being sucked into the black hole of the war. Here in my own congressional district, if not for the war I would probably be voting for Chris Shays, a Republican. Until Iraq, I always thought he did a decent job, even if I didn’t always agree with him. And he seemed to be in touch with us, rather than spending all his time isolated within the Beltway. But two years ago, I voted for Diane Farrell, and this year, I will vote for Diane Farrell—because Shays is pro War, pro Bush, and just does not represent me or my district anymore. Diane Farrell seems to have our priorities straight and I think she’ll do a great job for us in DC. Ok, enough ranting. I’ve got some data to enter ... (and Dad, I’ll get the pictures you sent up on Picasa just as soon as I can!)

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