Feeling better, but not well enough yet to wanna go get trashed at Murphy's pub in Manchester.
After we ate dinner tonight, Wes rounded up about twenty OLFDers here in the Rye house and he's heading them out to hit the streets in Portsmouth until midnight - indeed, we are that hardcore.
But as for me, I'm staying in this New Year's Eve. Typing this on my laptop, and I'm about to hit the sheets two hours before 2008. Oh well. Priorities: after all, it won't be much of a New Year without a Ron Paul presidency. ;)
Early tomorrow, I'm moving out of the Rye house and I'm destined for Miltonburough, where I'll be the assistant house captain along with Panama Harry (he's not quite as crazy as his nickname makes him sound, but he is a character).
Monday, December 31, 2007
Sick Days
So, I've been out of commission for the last couple of days, went and got myself sick. I was playing with Lorena, one of the little girls here in the Rye house, and I should have been more careful in realizing that five year olds + cold sores + grubby little hands = dangerous.
In my case, I've had a sore throat and a hellacious fever for the past two days. I'm finally starting to feel a bit better, but it's probably just going to be phone banking for me today.
Before the fever really set in, however, we were at the Red Arrow Diner in Manchester in time to greet Ron Paul when he arrived around 8 AM. The Red Arrow is "the" traditional stopping point for Presidential candidates before they get to the White House, so of course, Ron had to swing by.
Ron Paul arrived and was happy to see all of us there to support him. He went in the diner and we talked with his son, Rand. Numerous members of the media were there, including a few reporters from The Guardian. One of them stayed with us the night before for a story on the Ron Paul rEVOLution. I actually got interviewed, which may or may not make the final cut whenever they report it.
After Ron left, we were intent to hang around until Bill Clinton showed up - apparently, the Red Arrow double booked and had both coming at the same time (Ron, however, wouldn't cancel).
Bill didn't show, though. Maybe they realized that candidates themselves are expected to stop at the Red Arrow Diner, not their more famous and more charismatic spouses.
We went door-to-door after that, of which I was able to participate for the first eight blocks or so before I had to sit in the car feeling miserable for the remaining eleven hours before we headed back to the house. Still in recovery mode, but I should be good to greet the 300 supporters that are supposed to ship in over the next few days to work with OLFD.
In my case, I've had a sore throat and a hellacious fever for the past two days. I'm finally starting to feel a bit better, but it's probably just going to be phone banking for me today.
Before the fever really set in, however, we were at the Red Arrow Diner in Manchester in time to greet Ron Paul when he arrived around 8 AM. The Red Arrow is "the" traditional stopping point for Presidential candidates before they get to the White House, so of course, Ron had to swing by.
Ron Paul arrived and was happy to see all of us there to support him. He went in the diner and we talked with his son, Rand. Numerous members of the media were there, including a few reporters from The Guardian. One of them stayed with us the night before for a story on the Ron Paul rEVOLution. I actually got interviewed, which may or may not make the final cut whenever they report it.
After Ron left, we were intent to hang around until Bill Clinton showed up - apparently, the Red Arrow double booked and had both coming at the same time (Ron, however, wouldn't cancel).
Bill didn't show, though. Maybe they realized that candidates themselves are expected to stop at the Red Arrow Diner, not their more famous and more charismatic spouses.
We went door-to-door after that, of which I was able to participate for the first eight blocks or so before I had to sit in the car feeling miserable for the remaining eleven hours before we headed back to the house. Still in recovery mode, but I should be good to greet the 300 supporters that are supposed to ship in over the next few days to work with OLFD.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Canvassing
We got started around eight, headed from Rye to Concord. The plan was targeted canvassing, so we hit registered republicans and independents which had indicated they were interested in specific issues: health care, taxes, immigration, etc.
Charlie, Carl and I hit up a neighborhood where we had to hit about seventy houses in six hours – or until we ran out of daylight, whichever came first. Charlie, of course, had to stop the car and turn around to fix a crooked sign halfway there.
As we were stopped to fix it, the guy who owned the property pulled up and told us to remove the sign, since it had apparently been put up without his permission. We apologized and removed it, but he was very interested in hearing about Ron Paul. He took a Constitution and a DVD, and (had we asked him in the first place) I'm sure he'd have been thrilled to have the sign in his yard.
Best moment of the day was stopping at a house that had a Hillary sign on the lawn and an Obama bumper sticker on the car. Obama support is “paper thin,” as Ball puts it, so we realized we'd have a chance to convert them if we stopped to drop off some material.
They were, in fact, very interested, and were interested in Ron Paul's views on whether he considered water-boarding to be torture or not. I told her that the first steps that occur when a free society devolves into authoritarianism always involve justifying torture to minorities in a society (“enemy combatants,” in this case), a practice which is eventually justified for use on the rest of its citizens. She was very interested, as did the other fellow out there, and we left—stupidly forgetting to ask if we could remove the Hillary sign from the lawn.
We'll get better. Practice, practice, practice.
Dec 27
Not a lot of time to update this one, so I'm already behind.
Yesterday we hit an intersection for two hours in Derry, NH, where Ron Paul's support is almost zero - so far. No one has hit Derry before, so we're really breaking the ice in the area, but it should come along pretty fast.
Canvassed the area as well, had mixed results. Pretty good response among undecided voters, from what I saw, though there were very few straight out endorsements. This is New Hampshire, where most people are unwilling to give their endorsement and highly value their privacy.
We did phone banking in the evening. We were in a cramped little room in the back of a movie theater with no windows, so it was kinda miserable. Hopefully we don't phone bank at that location again.
Went home to Rye, exhausted, ate dinner and planned for today. Today we're heading north.
End of transcript.
Yesterday we hit an intersection for two hours in Derry, NH, where Ron Paul's support is almost zero - so far. No one has hit Derry before, so we're really breaking the ice in the area, but it should come along pretty fast.
Canvassed the area as well, had mixed results. Pretty good response among undecided voters, from what I saw, though there were very few straight out endorsements. This is New Hampshire, where most people are unwilling to give their endorsement and highly value their privacy.
We did phone banking in the evening. We were in a cramped little room in the back of a movie theater with no windows, so it was kinda miserable. Hopefully we don't phone bank at that location again.
Went home to Rye, exhausted, ate dinner and planned for today. Today we're heading north.
End of transcript.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Day-After-Christmas Returns
Woke up today, 5:50 AM. This is what 6:11 AM looks like on the Atlantic coast.
Our goal for the day was to hit the lines for returns at Best Buy, but apparently the rush for post-Christmas returns isn't as big as the Black Friday Christmas sales. Daniel, Aaron and I headed for the intersection near the mall and set up camp for the day. We took over the snow mounds at all four corners (public property) and got started on the real project for the day: sign waving and soliciting for honks.
Not a whole lot of success early on - people tend to keep their eyes on the road when there's but a pithy three supporters spread across the intersection, but around 11 AM the reinforcements arrived: about twenty-five of us strewn across the intersection waving signs.
By the end of the day, maybe ten thousand cars passed through the intersection. People were very excited to honk at Vijay's "I'M FREEZING FOR YOUR FREEDOM!" sign, and almost everyone was supportive. The secret is getting out that Ron has far greater support than the polls would have you believe. We gave out more than 300 Ron Paul lawn signs in about eleven hours or so, spoke with 100-200 interested but undecided voters while they waited at stoplights, and gave out a few hundred slim jims. Overall, a very successful mission.
Some other interesting news: also joining in the fun by around mid afternoon, were the McCain supporters. All six of them. To their credit, they were pretty excited to try and crash the Revolution, hoping, I suppose, to prove the strength of their candidate in the streets.
What did we do? We converted them.
Well, we tried, at least. I certainly wouldn't call them particularly knowledgeable about their candidate's positions, but they were willing to engage in conversation and argument, which is commendable. By the end they were really quiet, probably because they didn't have much ammunition with which to argue McCain's stance on the Iraq War, immigration, campaign finance reform, etc. They were also getting very discouraged out there, because McCain did show some support, but nothing like the excitement or numbers that we were drawing. They trudged off a couple of hours after they showed up - we were there another four.
Hopefully they show up again, and hopefully they'll be waving Paul signs.
Our goal for the day was to hit the lines for returns at Best Buy, but apparently the rush for post-Christmas returns isn't as big as the Black Friday Christmas sales. Daniel, Aaron and I headed for the intersection near the mall and set up camp for the day. We took over the snow mounds at all four corners (public property) and got started on the real project for the day: sign waving and soliciting for honks.
Not a whole lot of success early on - people tend to keep their eyes on the road when there's but a pithy three supporters spread across the intersection, but around 11 AM the reinforcements arrived: about twenty-five of us strewn across the intersection waving signs.
By the end of the day, maybe ten thousand cars passed through the intersection. People were very excited to honk at Vijay's "I'M FREEZING FOR YOUR FREEDOM!" sign, and almost everyone was supportive. The secret is getting out that Ron has far greater support than the polls would have you believe. We gave out more than 300 Ron Paul lawn signs in about eleven hours or so, spoke with 100-200 interested but undecided voters while they waited at stoplights, and gave out a few hundred slim jims. Overall, a very successful mission.
Some other interesting news: also joining in the fun by around mid afternoon, were the McCain supporters. All six of them. To their credit, they were pretty excited to try and crash the Revolution, hoping, I suppose, to prove the strength of their candidate in the streets.
What did we do? We converted them.
Well, we tried, at least. I certainly wouldn't call them particularly knowledgeable about their candidate's positions, but they were willing to engage in conversation and argument, which is commendable. By the end they were really quiet, probably because they didn't have much ammunition with which to argue McCain's stance on the Iraq War, immigration, campaign finance reform, etc. They were also getting very discouraged out there, because McCain did show some support, but nothing like the excitement or numbers that we were drawing. They trudged off a couple of hours after they showed up - we were there another four.
Hopefully they show up again, and hopefully they'll be waving Paul signs.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Monday, December 24, 2007
The Belly of the Beast
The regulatory in-case-of-an-emergency safety sheet that Southwest Airlines goes over at the beginning of each flight is a lot of fun.
Here we have a favorite of mine: the idea that if a plane crashes, you'll be sliding blissfully from the wing of the airplane into the awaiting arms of a fatherly figure. This World of Fun/Oceans of Fun fantasy is much more pleasant than the more likely scenario that, should these people somehow survive an emergency water landing, the plane would be both sinking and on fire. Apparently this was a “we didn't put enough fuel in the plane!” scenario, because any jet fuel left would float on the surface of the water and simulate The Inferno.
Yeah, that's it, dad: shove the boy's head into his knees, there's a good safety position. Put your head down, keep your head up, brace yourself awkwardly against the chair in front of you, or you can always put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye. Just make sure to keep your seatbelt buckled below twenty thousand feet.
I suppose the reason this sort of thing is advocated is because any one of these random positions is equally likely to save your life in the event of an emergency. I wonder if it's kindness that the airline doesn't mention those odds all equally round down to zero.
Southwest Airlines: free roasted peanuts, and won't remind you that in the event of an emergency, you're fucked.
Ding.
That aside, I'm pretty excited to be heading to New Hampshire. I admit I may have been grinning uncontrollably the whole time I was boarding the plane—in fact until we hit about fifteen thousand feet, and then I probably only stopped to pop my ears. That enthusiasm may curb a bit once we hit Chicago, and face the increasingly likely scenario of a six-hour delay due to Midwest storms, but for now, I'm pumped.
Rally Round-Up
Haven't had time to update here because of preparations for New Hampshire, so here's a quick recap of last Sunday's events.
December 16 brought in $6.06 million to the Ron Paul campaign, making it the single largest one-day political fund raiser ever. In Santa Monica, California, and in Austin, Texas, thousands marched on the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party in support of Ron Paul. You probably didn't hear about these events—perhaps there were more newsworthy goings-on that day. We Paul supporters, however, find encouragement through being utterly convinced that it's the corporate-controlled media—the “man,” if you will—that's trying to keep a lid on the movement.
Here in Lincoln, the rally went well. After some initial confusion about whether to set up on the north steps of the Capitol versus the west steps—and much carrying of tables back and forth between the two locations, one camp was adamantly in favor of visibility from K St., the other the visualesque setting of a rally at the feet of Abe Lincoln (or as I put it disparagingly at the time: “We can't stand under Lincoln! That's not the sort of teabag we had in mind!”)
The executive decision was made for K St., since the whole point was visibility and exposing as many Nebraskans as possible to Ron Paul's popularity in the few hours before the news broke that the largest one-day fund raiser in world history had taken place for a man most Nebraskans had yet to hear about.
The turnout was not too bad considering the unpopular prospect of standing around in the twenty-two degree December chill. As a result, we only had a couple of newbies show up, but we did get lots curious looks from K Street an lots of favorable honks. (I assume that explains the honks, anyway; we didn't see any fingers thrust our direction).
It turned out to be a fun event. Spencer, Andrew and myself all gave a speech, followed by a man from Omaha named Jorge Besada (not the baseball player) who read excerpts from his book regarding (I think) history from a Hayekian perspective. Very interesting, I recommend checking it out once it's published. A number of supporters drove down from Omaha, actually, thanks to our advertising the Tuesday before when Ron Paul was in Council Bluffs. I ultimately took a head count of 42 people—43 if you count the cameraman from 10/11 News. I caught the five o'clock broadcast when I got home, and saw we got a thirty second spot before commercial break.
Corporate-controlled media!
Actually, I was pleased about it, because a win's a win, in my book.
Here are some photos.
Now, I gotta pack for New England.
December 16 brought in $6.06 million to the Ron Paul campaign, making it the single largest one-day political fund raiser ever. In Santa Monica, California, and in Austin, Texas, thousands marched on the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party in support of Ron Paul. You probably didn't hear about these events—perhaps there were more newsworthy goings-on that day. We Paul supporters, however, find encouragement through being utterly convinced that it's the corporate-controlled media—the “man,” if you will—that's trying to keep a lid on the movement.
Here in Lincoln, the rally went well. After some initial confusion about whether to set up on the north steps of the Capitol versus the west steps—and much carrying of tables back and forth between the two locations, one camp was adamantly in favor of visibility from K St., the other the visualesque setting of a rally at the feet of Abe Lincoln (or as I put it disparagingly at the time: “We can't stand under Lincoln! That's not the sort of teabag we had in mind!”)
The executive decision was made for K St., since the whole point was visibility and exposing as many Nebraskans as possible to Ron Paul's popularity in the few hours before the news broke that the largest one-day fund raiser in world history had taken place for a man most Nebraskans had yet to hear about.
The turnout was not too bad considering the unpopular prospect of standing around in the twenty-two degree December chill. As a result, we only had a couple of newbies show up, but we did get lots curious looks from K Street an lots of favorable honks. (I assume that explains the honks, anyway; we didn't see any fingers thrust our direction).
It turned out to be a fun event. Spencer, Andrew and myself all gave a speech, followed by a man from Omaha named Jorge Besada (not the baseball player) who read excerpts from his book regarding (I think) history from a Hayekian perspective. Very interesting, I recommend checking it out once it's published. A number of supporters drove down from Omaha, actually, thanks to our advertising the Tuesday before when Ron Paul was in Council Bluffs. I ultimately took a head count of 42 people—43 if you count the cameraman from 10/11 News. I caught the five o'clock broadcast when I got home, and saw we got a thirty second spot before commercial break.
Corporate-controlled media!
Actually, I was pleased about it, because a win's a win, in my book.
Here are some photos.
Now, I gotta pack for New England.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Preparations for a Tea Party
Reflecting on the fact that I've never marked the 16th of December before with anything but a passing notice, this year is particularly significant. The 234th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party will not be idly dismissed this season with merely a passing notice. The Ron Paul Revolution has brought meaning back to a day which has lost its historical significance, in a slightly-less-corny fashion than Bill Pullman brought back the meaning of Independence Day in 1996. Fortunately we're not being attacked by aliens in this case (at least, one might point out, not the kind from outer space).
After $4.3 million was raised for the Ron Paul campaign in a single day on November 5, 2007, the date chosen for the next money bomb was December 16th, by almost unanimous approval. And now, thousands of online and print advertisements across the U.S. and around the world later, we are twelve hours away from the anticipated event, which hopes to bring in $10 million for Ron Paul's campaign, and untold millions in free advertising because of the event itself, which hopes to blow away every other political fund raiser in history, including the $6.2 million Hillary Clinton raised on June 30th, 2007 (a figure which, very much like Hillary Clinton's popularity, is a media creation, since that figure was a tally of a number of days worth of contributions all reported on the same day).
I'm working with the UNL Student MeetUp group to host a Rally at the State Capitol on December 16, which will coincide with both the official grassroots money bomb and a number of events around the nation and around the world, including (but not limited to):
For our part, we've made sure that Lincoln, NE is joining the Revolution as well. When Ron Paul came to Council Bluffs on December 11th, we were able to get the Iowa chair of the Ron Paul campaign to plug our event in front of more than 600 excited Paul supporters:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=LS8nlTiHAZc
I'm hoping for a good turnout. We're also hoping the steps of the State Capitol are already scooped, but we'll have snow shovels handy just in case.
After $4.3 million was raised for the Ron Paul campaign in a single day on November 5, 2007, the date chosen for the next money bomb was December 16th, by almost unanimous approval. And now, thousands of online and print advertisements across the U.S. and around the world later, we are twelve hours away from the anticipated event, which hopes to bring in $10 million for Ron Paul's campaign, and untold millions in free advertising because of the event itself, which hopes to blow away every other political fund raiser in history, including the $6.2 million Hillary Clinton raised on June 30th, 2007 (a figure which, very much like Hillary Clinton's popularity, is a media creation, since that figure was a tally of a number of days worth of contributions all reported on the same day).
I'm working with the UNL Student MeetUp group to host a Rally at the State Capitol on December 16, which will coincide with both the official grassroots money bomb and a number of events around the nation and around the world, including (but not limited to):
For our part, we've made sure that Lincoln, NE is joining the Revolution as well. When Ron Paul came to Council Bluffs on December 11th, we were able to get the Iowa chair of the Ron Paul campaign to plug our event in front of more than 600 excited Paul supporters:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=LS8nlTiHAZc
I'm hoping for a good turnout. We're also hoping the steps of the State Capitol are already scooped, but we'll have snow shovels handy just in case.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Assessing the Situation
I'd figure I'd take advantage of the situation I'm going to be putting myself in by reporting the next few weeks of my life, right here. Normally this would mean the recollection of the hopes, fears and dreams that accompany the forty hours a week at my dead-end job, my conviction towards sleeping eight hours a night and generally wasting the few hours I have in between screwing around on the internet - not the stuff of Melvillian proportions.
For the next few weeks, however, I have a different strategy in place; specifically, I intend to be devote a large chunk of my waking hours trying to get Ron Paul elected President of the United States - that is, a much larger chunk than I'm devoting right now.
In thirteen days, I board an aeroplane bound for Manchester, New Hampshire, where I'll spend the following three weeks trudging ten hours a day through the New Hampshire countryside trying to convince lots of people that I don't know to vote in their state's primaries for a congressman they've possibly never heard of. Hopefully my at-the-door schpeil comes across more persuasively.
Blog, short for web log, is a portmanteau, according to Wiki, which is a word formed by the combination of two words or sounds. I realize the notion of a blog - the very word, in fact - drips with ridiculous conceit, but I intend to make up for it by loading it with news and information that a) someone besides myself will find relevant, and b) won't be reported anywhere else. I do solemnly swear to report as completely and as honestly as I can manage while I'm working closely with Operation Live Free or Die, and I promise not to turn this into my own personal whine-and-bitch fest when I'm finished. Cross my heart.
For the next few weeks, however, I have a different strategy in place; specifically, I intend to be devote a large chunk of my waking hours trying to get Ron Paul elected President of the United States - that is, a much larger chunk than I'm devoting right now.
In thirteen days, I board an aeroplane bound for Manchester, New Hampshire, where I'll spend the following three weeks trudging ten hours a day through the New Hampshire countryside trying to convince lots of people that I don't know to vote in their state's primaries for a congressman they've possibly never heard of. Hopefully my at-the-door schpeil comes across more persuasively.
Blog, short for web log, is a portmanteau, according to Wiki, which is a word formed by the combination of two words or sounds. I realize the notion of a blog - the very word, in fact - drips with ridiculous conceit, but I intend to make up for it by loading it with news and information that a) someone besides myself will find relevant, and b) won't be reported anywhere else. I do solemnly swear to report as completely and as honestly as I can manage while I'm working closely with Operation Live Free or Die, and I promise not to turn this into my own personal whine-and-bitch fest when I'm finished. Cross my heart.
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