Update

Sorry for the lack of posting.

We just ushered about 50 canvassers out the door. What a great day.

They arrived in torrential rains from DC and were not deterred by rains of biblical proportions this morning. We had a great volunteer who became our canvassing coordinator and ran a great program for the visitors. And they reported that our county seems to be in good shape. Which is great news.

Our volunteers feel like they've had a surge of positive energy, and it's definitely infectious. There's so much negative news lately that it's hard to remember to be upbeat about this election. But when I overhear a volunteer saying that he hasn't been this excited since John F. Kennedy was elected, I can't help but smile and know that we're doing valuable work here.

Tonight, my regional coordinator and I are going to a dinner for the community dems. Should be a lot of hand shaking and smiling. But we'll get through it. Andre Heinz was slated to speak but he couldn't be here due to the flooding, so we've been scrambling to get someone else to fill the slot. Sorta tough with 0 hours of lead time.

But it'll be fine.

The big news is the Edwards block party on Sunday in Phoenixville. Tickets (free) are going like hot cakes and it should be a great crowd with clear skies tomorrow, which is great news after the last few gloomy days.

I'm working on about 5 hours of sleep for about 5 nights in a row, so I'm beginning to get into the tired-operation frame of mind. I'll try to spend some time tonight doing some more blogging, as I miss getting words down. There;s just been so much to do.

Later skaters.

Herbert on the Last Man

Atrios covers it, too. But I wanted to point you to Bob Herbert's column in the NYT today, which everyone should read twice a week.

Some relevant grafs:

"Three more marines were killed yesterday in Iraq. Kidnappings are commonplace. The insurgency is growing and becoming more sophisticated, which means more deadly. Ordinary Iraqis are becoming ever more enraged at the U.S.

[snip]

George W. Bush is now trapped as tightly in Iraq as Johnson was in Vietnam. The war is going badly. The president's own intelligence estimates are pessimistic. There is no plan to actually win the war in Iraq, and no willingness to concede defeat.

I wonder who the last man or woman will be to die for this colossal mistake."

Larry David

Can't wait for the new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm? Check out Larry David in today's NYT. It's gold, Jerry. GOLD!

Kerry Takes a Swing

Sorry for the light posting today. It's been a bit hectic to say the least.

The approach to the weekend is always busy because we do canvassing on saturdays and sundays, and that takes a LOT of organization and preparation to get everything right. We have 9 buses of canvasers coming into our general region this weekend from New York and Massachusetts. That means that lunches have to be made, walk-lists have to be printed, and turf has to be cut. Of course, none of this was done today, because today was spent getting all the stuff done on our other responsibilities so we could handle the weekend crush.

Edwards is coming into the county on Saturday, too. So I was on the phone a lot of the afternoon getting our crowd building efforts underway.

Michael Berg, the speaker I saw last night in Phoenixville, was also in the office today, making polling calls for us for 2 hours. And he'll be back next week to do more.

Susan stopped by my desk after he left and paraphrased an old quote that i apologize for not being able to attribute:

"We have orphans, and we have widows, but there's no word for someone who loses a child, because it's just too awful."

This war in Iraq has put us in the position again to see over a thousand American families bury their children.

Kerry, in a speech to members of the National Guard today, took the president strongly to task for his misguided leadership:

"The president stood right here where I'm standing and didn't acknowledge that more than 1,000 men and women have lost their lives in Iraq," said the decorated Vietnam War veteran. "He didn't tell you that with each passing day, we're seeing more chaos, more violence, indiscriminate killings. He didn't tell you that with each passing week, our enemies are actually getting bolder — that Pentagon officials report that entire regions of Iraq are now in the hands of terrorists and extremists."

I for one am glad to see it and I hope he continues to be tough on this issue. There are over a thousand families like Michael Berg's now, and there shouldn't even be one.

New Link

Just a FYI ... I added TNR's blog "Iraq'd", by Spencer Ackerman, to the links on the right.


night all.

Furious

Only 11 and I'm kicking off? Amazing, but true.

I just got back from an event up in Phoenixville where I saw Michael Berg, the father of Nick Berg, who was murdered in Iraq in May. A former school teacher, he's a small, soft-spoken man who can absolutely command a room. His message was perfectly clear: We need to stop the current administration before more of our sons and daughters are killed for absolutely nothing.

Nick Berg's death was not un-preventable. A contractor in Iraq, he was detained by Iraqi police and then transfered to U.S. Military and FBI custody, though they denied this publicly at the time. He was an American citizen, legally in Iraq, held without rights and without due process for almost two weeks. When he was released, Iraq had changed. While in captivity, the storm of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal splashed across the front pages of newspapers across the world, including those of Iraq. Iraq had changed when Nick Berg was released from captivity, and he sensed the changes. He missed his original flight out of the country because of his incarceration and was unable to escape the country safely before he was captured again five days later. Except that the second time he was captured, it was by Al Qaeda. And he wasn't seen alive again.

So now I'll lay it out for you. Nick Berg was on his second tour of working in Iraq. Previous to Iraq, he has spent the better part of three years working on humanitarian projects in Africa. He was in Iraq to help, and he was an ardent supporter of the war. What changed when he was incarcerated by the U.S. government was that the Iraqi people saw that the United States was not the great liberator that our President claimed we would be. Our government, like that of Saddam Hussein, arrested the innocent, tortured, raped, and in some cases killed them while they were in custody.

Saddam Hussein tortured and killed thousands of innocent citizens in Iraq during his reign. With a nod and a wink, W. has condoned and accepted the torture of tens if not hundreds of Iraqi prisoners, many (if not most of them) innocent. The Abu Ghraib scandal raised the level of outrage of the Iraqi citizens enough to give Al Qaeda a firm foothold in a place where they had never operated before. A place that had been destabilized enough by war that they were free to abduct and murder good men like Nick Berg for no other reason than to feed the lust for revenge stirred in the Iraqis during the Abu Ghraib scandal.

How many more of our sons and daughters need to be beheaded or murdered or shot or maimed or blown up in Iraq before this country wakes up to realize that this war is not about freeing the Iraqis, it's not about spreading democracy, it's not about weapons of mass destruction, it's not about making the U.S. and the world safer, and it's not about the War on Terror. It's about settling old scores in the Bush family and lining the pockets of former executives of Halliburton and all of their corporate cronies. It's about power, money, and control of the most rapidly diminishing valuable resource on Earth.

Bush is in the process of mortgaging our national wealth and domestic well-being to consolidate his and his network's personal wealth and well-being. More importantly, and tragically, he is willing to spend the lives of our youth not for nothing, as I noted above, but only to get what he wants. And he has built a structure around himself that will lie, cheat, smear, kill, cover up, and lie some more to make sure they succeed.

And I'm furious about it. Deep down, so are you.

47 days...

busy busy busy

I've got a rare lull in the action around here, so I thought I'd fire out an update.

It's definitely been a day of some anticipation and some letdowns. But this is the nature of the beast in the campaign season, I think.

Last night at around 10pm we were informed that Madeleine Albright would be available to the first county that wanted her and we jumped. This morning we found out that we had secured her as a speaker. So the team here swung into action, contacted the local West Chester Univ. for a speaking area and started doing general logistical work to make sure the event, tentatively scheduled for friday night, would be effective. I took point position on the event, which is extremely exciting, and had success getting initial logistics in place for it.

Until 2pm, that is, at which point my regional director informed me that they had moved Albright to a college closer to Philly for transportation reasons. The upside, however, is that she also informed me that John Edwards would be making an appearance here in our county on Sunday, so we're off to the races again getting ready for that.

The other big menu item for the day was the scheduled appearance of Brian Williams and the NBC Nightly News team to do a piece on swing state campaigning. Except that we got Ivan'd. We found out about an hour ago that we wouldn't be seeing the much anticipated news crew. Ivan's scheduled landfall in Alabama means that we are not the top story. So that's that. I just hope all those on the Gulf Coast are ok.

I'm going to be out of the office tonight at a rally in Phoenixville where Michael Berg, the father of Nick Berg, will be speaking. They tell me I have to address the crowd, so we'll see if I can throw some remarks together in time.

But first, I've got a supporter coming in who has volunteered to lead neighborhood canvassing this weekend. So we've got to get him up to speed...

48 Days.

More on Iraq

Paul Glastris is guest posting at Washington Monthly and he takes a closer look than I have at the screwups in and leading to Iraq. Have a cup of coffee and take a gander.

Keep Your Eye on the Ball

With all the mud flying through the air this political season, it's sometimes hard to keep focus on what's actually going on and we may lose sight of important issues from time to time due to sheer media fatigue. But the War in Iraq is something that none of us should ever forget is going on.

I understand that it gets tiring to pick up the paper every morning only to see ANOTHER headline reporting casualties (both US and Iraqi) in Baghdad or Fallujah or Najaf, or wherever. But look, these are our young men and women over there, fighting - and dying - for our flag, and for a reason that Colin Powell now admits was based on tenuous assertions.

THIS has to be issue right now. The issue is that we were misled into this war in Iraq, and now our sons and daughters are paying the ultimate price for the deception. It has become a quagmire, and we are now in an unwinnable situation. As a result, the United States has been weakened on a global level just when we need to be at our strongest. N. Korea and Iran are working to develop nuclear weapons, there is genocide in Sudan, and democracy is receding in Russia. And we are not in the position (neither diplomatically nor militarily) to address any of these issues with any level of seriousness.

We need to keep this in the front of our minds, no matter how fatigued we feel. This is what's important.

48 Days to Go

I can't believe it's already the start of Day 3, and I can't believe I've only been here for 3 days.

We only have 48 Days left before the Election, so all of you out there should be trying your best to do something somewhere to help your cause. Unless it's the wrong cause, in which case, stay home.

Today should be a big one, as we are expecting NBC Nightly News to arrive this afternoon to shoot some footage for a story they are doing tonight (at least, I think it's tonight). So tune in to watch and maybe you'll see us making some magic down here.

The core staff plus a couple volunteers were all here last night til about 12, after which we went out to grab a beer before last call at a pub down the street. This is a typical work cycle at this point in the campaign, and I expect to get used to it before too long. At least I better, there's no days off between now and Nov. 2!

So today will be more of the same with more intensity, as we need to find more precinct captains and general canvassing volunteers.

We're scheduled to receive a cable tv hookup tomorrow, so we'll begin to have a tap into the outside news world beyond the internet. But basically we're all just looking forward to getting the Daily Show again on a regular basis.

I'll try to get some pics of the news guys today and post them this evening.

Request

This is where I reach out to all of you, my veritible sea of regular readers, with a request. As I'm working on the campaign, I don't have a ton of time to surf around the web, or even follow current news stories very closely. If you come across something I might be interested in, or even something you think others would be interested in, post it up in the comments section and I'll check it out. Plus we'll all be richer for the info. This can include anything, in any realm... political stuff, sports, local issues to your area, funny stuff. whatever. Give it a shout. I would love for this site to become somewhat of a community for friends to exchange ideas etc. I don't really want it to be a solo show up in here.

So speak up!

The Republican Smear Storytime Machine

Jesse over at Pandagon has an interesting take on the way that the Republicans strike at news/facts that could harm them. Simply put, the repugs don't attack or dispute the facts themselves, but rather build a story around or on top of the facts that blurs and redirects the issue. The point being that the public remembers the story, but not the facts themselves. Anyway, check it out.

Site Changes

Just a quick note that I've done some futzing with the html and added a Links area to the right, below my recent posts. This will continue to grow with links to sites that I find indespensible and enjoyable that I want you to know about and even visit if you feel like it.

Hoeffel on Assault Weapons

Here's a link to an article about the vigil I attended last night. No time to talk about it now, but thought I'd point you all at the press coverage for stuff I'm working on.

Krugman

read.

Darth Vader and Fear

Before I go, I wanted to point you all towards Kevin Drum's site as well. He blogs for the Washington Monthly and was formerly known as Calpundit.

Anyway, I like his take on things, and this is an interesting observation on the way the executive can pull power towards himself if he is allowed to do so by, for instance, a pliable, lap-doggish media and a public that stares and nods with glazed eyes at whatever happens to come from the bully pulpit of the president. It's very simple to get your way in politics today. All it comes down to is one word. Fear.

Workspace

workspace.JPG
Originally uploaded by jaredcraft.

This is the back office workspace for the volunteer organizers, like myself.

Main Office

dark office.JPG
Originally uploaded by jaredcraft.

This is the main office space, looking from the steps leading to the back office in the other photo.

Another Day Breaks

I rolled into the office this morning early to try to get a more substantial post up about my first day. This may be the rhythm I get into as I go along here, as it worked well this morning.

I've been housed with an older retired couple who live in a gated community about 15 minutes from work. It's one of those golf course/villages that have sprung up so commonly on the edges of suburbs everywhere in the last ten years or so. The house is beautiful and I have been allowed the entire use of their refinished basement with my own bedroom, living room area, and private bathroom. Needless to say I was thrilled. And it's dead quiet at night, so I don't think that getting to sleep is going to be much of a problem.

My commute is a breeze, as I seem to be travelling the opposite direction of most of the traffic. The BIGGEST bonus is the Dunkin' Donuts along the way. As my former roommates Jenn and Brian can attest, the lack of d&d in San Francisco has been a sticking point in the way of my full acceptance of that city as a second home. And while it is doubtful that WC will approach anywhere near the general excellence of SF, they still have more d&d. So there's that.

As I mentioned yesterday, the office is in a converted furniture store, so the floorplan is wacky, but expansive. Everything seems to be covered in carpeting. Old, bubbled, gray carpeting.

I've posted a couple photos below. I haven't figured out how to embed photos in the blog entry yet, but I'll get there soon.

Anyway, both photos were taken from the doorway between the public and private areas of the HQ. The first is looking across the darkened main office space towards the street outside. To give you an idea of this town, just think "Anytown USA". It's pretty much made up of tree-lined streets of shops and bars that spill out into shady neighborhoods and a college campus nearby. It's one of those quaint northeastern towns like Hanover or Williamstown, though a lot larger than either of them. The second pic is of the private workspace in the back room. This doesn't do justice to the entirety of the office-space, but the pics give you an idea of where I spend my time.

This place is starting to bustle, so I'm going to post and run. I'm sure I'll be back on with another update as the day rolls along.

Controlled Chaos

I have a few minutes before I leave for a vigil against the expiration of the Assault Weapons Ban, which happened today, so I thought I'd give a sense of what this place is like.

Our Chester County HQ is located in an old furniture store space, which means we have about a million electrical outlets, some beat up furniture, old high traffic carpet, and a pretty expansive floor plan, so we have plenty of room to spread out.

I'm one of 2 new volunteer organizers who started today. B, my new counterpart, is a vet of Operation Enduring Freedom. He joins myself, C, and M as the 4 volunteer organziers for our county, and they seem pretty happy to have us here.

We hit the ground running today, and after doing some organization and ramping up at HQ, B and I headed up to Norristown to help out at an ABC news tv spot featuring volunteers for the KE04 and Joe Hoeffel Campaigns. We also made calls to volunteers to mobilize our base in the area to get out to the Assault Weapons Ban vigil tonight, where Gov. Rendell and Congressman Hoeffel will be appearing.

The HQ can fairly be described as orderly chaos. We have a bunch of great volunteers (one of whom is putting me with a place to stay while I'm here) who rotate in and out throughout the course of the day. So a large part of the VOs' job is to keep them on task and focused, and to help them be productive in their activities. They really are incredible people and their energy level keeps the office buzzing.

I'm running out the door, but will post more tonight.

Rolling Along

Just a quick update. We have wireless at the Headquarters, so it looks like I should be able to post fairly regularly, since I'll be basically living at this place.

I'm off to another HQ office in Norristown to help with an ABC tv shoot this afternoon. I'll have a larger post up tonight with more details about this place... and hopefully pics in the next few days.

Morning

I'm thinking I may not get another chance to post very soon, so I thought I'd leave you all with some links to other blogs and sites where you can waste your time while you're anxiously waiting for me to come back...[ahem]

Anyway, here it goes:

Eschaton
DailyKos
Pandagon
Josh Marshall
Dirt Dogs (i just had to sneak that one in there.)


Ok, I'm off to get going.

Be back as soon as I can.

Day 0

I'm sitting in a room at the Holiday Inn at the edge of West Chester, PA. I drove down from NYC this evening, where I spent a great weekend with a couple old friends from school.

I don't know what to expect tomorrow as I enter my first day on the campaign, but I'm looking forward to getting my feet under me and finally getting on with the work I have ahead of me.

A little background and housekeeping on stuff in general:

The Where: West Chester (map) is located almost due west of Philadelphia. From what I can tell from my evening cruise around the area, it seems to be a nice little borrough, full of Irish Pubs and shop-lined streets. I'll try to put a pic up in the next day or so to give you an idea of what I mean. I believe West Chester University is nearby, as well, so there should be some energy around town.

I'll be living with a host family of KE04 supporters who I have yet to meet. Tomorrow morning, I'll be heading to the local campaign headquarters to get situated and receive my marching orders, so I'll have more on that tomorrow.

The Why: I'm a politics junky, and working on a campaign of this scale and intensity is an opportunity I could not pass up. I can't envision a point in my future when I will have the flexibility to quit a good job and move to a swing state to work in a presidential campaign. I'm convinced that it will be an experience I can't afford to miss.

The How: TONS of help. This is where I thank my parents who agreed to help support me not only with encouragement, but also fiscally, so I can have the amazing luxury of being able to campaign as a volunteer organizer. And they thought they were finally rid of me... ha! I have to thank Frankki for supporting me with a couple crucial contacts and more than a couple swift kicks in the butt along the way. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her. I also want to thank all my friends and former colleagues for the words of support and encouragement. It made it a lot easier to quit a decent job to work for free!

Ok, enough with the thanks and glad handing.

I hope you all enjoy the blog and stop by often... again, let me know what you think and say hello. I want your feedback!

First Post/Introduction

Hey Everyone,

This is my first official post on my new blog, and I have to say I'm excited to be getting it up and running. I'll be spending the next 8 weeks or so here in and around West Chester, Pennsylvania working as a volunteer organizer for the Kerry/Edwards '04 campaign.

My intention is for this to be a diary of my adventures and misadventures along the way to November 2. I don't know how frequent my access to the blog will be, but I hope to be updating at least once a day or so. Thanks to Sue Bevins, I have a great new digital camera, so I'll be trying to post pics etc of my environment and events around me.

Sometimes I'll post accounts of my day, others I'll try to post relevant news to the campaign, and I'll likely also be posting about other topics etc that interest me and that I think might interest you, as well.

Also, there should be comment sections at the end of every post, so please feel free to stop by to say hello.

I hope this is a successful 8 weeks or so and we can put some votes on the board for Kerry along the way.