Baracking the Vote: High Points in PA

by juliacsmith

Since I started volunteering with the Obama campaign in Allegheny County, PA, it’s been tough to sit down and pull my thoughts together to report on what’s happening. From now on, I think I’ll just check in as frequently as possible with brief high points (and maybe low ones, too) to give a little taste of what life and work are like here.

Here goes:

WO-MANning in Missouri

by lawyerlylisa

I just had to devote a short post to Democratic state representative candidate Kristy Manning after I found out about the following mail piece that the Republican Party sent out to voters in her district:

To quote one of my professors: “I believe that the technical term for this is NONSENSE!”

Will images of hippies really fool voters into forgetting about Missouri’s failed Republican policies in Missouri?  The mailing is especially ridiculous when you consider the candidate herself.  I remember working with Kristy Manning while she served as a legislative aide to one of the (too few) stalwart progressive state senators in Missouri.  She is remarkably talented, extremely committed to public service, oh, and    I was so glad when I first found out that she decided to run in St. Charles County.  The area is best described as one of those
“emerging suburbs” – it falls outside the metropolitan area of St. Louis but has a fast-growing population. While it’s perceived to be a strongly Republican area, during the last race in this district, it turned out to be quite close!  So a brave candidate like Kristy who is working extremely hard and has contacted thousands of voters will have a chance to win, especially in a year like this one.

So I’m sending her some blog love (and a small donation!). Because regardless of the outcome in her district on Nov. 4, Kristy Manning makes me proud to be a Democrat in Missouri.

healthCARE

by viva7

between nursing school coursework, practical experience, the election frenzy, and my recent attendance at a statewide health student symposium, here are a few things i’ve been learning and concluding lately:

1. it’s bogus to call medical malpractice lawsuits the major factor in the rising costs of healthcare and health insurance. it is not in a lawyer’s interest to take on a medical malpractice lawsuit unless the payout promises to be really large, which is rare. the rise in insurance rates is mostly due to the poor economy and insurance companies having made bad investments like everyone else.

2. obama’s healthcare plan, which i thought was well explained in the third debate, is really genius in its option to buy into the federal healthcare plan. what this does is open the door to the option of a single payer system. mccain compared this to canada or england as if it were a bad thing. well, those systems have their problems, sure. but obama’s plan will let people decide if they want to move closer to a non-disciminatory single payer system, but in a very democratic, very american way, because we have to actually make the individual financial decision to do so.

Obama Meets Us in St. Louis

by lawyerlylisa

WOW – which is what Barack said too! I was so proud of St. Louis on Saturday, when I was one of 100,000 people gathered at The Arch to hear Barack speak. Of course, it was exciting to see him (and hear more anecdotes about pie!), but it was the power of the crowd that really inspired me. It was a pretty joyful experience.

AND – I got to hang out with the folks from the Obama Mobile! These are some ambitious artists who are driving their prObama VW bus and original t-shirt art to every swing state before the election. They stopped in St. Louis this weekend, which brought my old roommate to town from NYC, and we had a blast! Fun art project for Obama.

Race and the Election: It Has Come to This…

by joannameng

I’ve come across two especially smart (and entertaining) pieces of commentary on race and the election recently. The first is a K Chronicles comic (by Keith Knight):

The second is “An open letter to white voters, or what McCain really thinks of you” by Carmen Van Kerckhove of Racialicious. Here are some excerpts:

Letter to Ellen: Oppose Prop 8!

by juliacsmith

My friend Jen over at Adventures in Cubeland wrote the following letter to Ellen DeGeneres. If her words resonate with you, please visit the Courage Campaign and consider making a donation today. They are spearheading the effort to defeat Prop 8.

Dear Ellen,

We are losing in California. Despite being the capital of Gay USA, despite being a liberal bastion, despite the thousands of gay couples that have already been married, despite California’s historical propensity of saying no to all manner of Propositions, despite all this, California is turning on us. The polls have switched and the pro-Prop 8 campaign has a $10 million dollar advantage, funded by conservative right-wing coffers.

Columbus Day Rant

by lawyerlylisa

If we’re going to talk about U.S. leaders (historical or current) and accuse anyone of being a terrorist, I think this video makes a heckuva lot more sense than anything that the McCain campaign has been getting away with in their recent attacks on Obama. Watch the video for a great history lesson and revision of the 1492 history that you were taught in elementary school.

How to Write to Change the World

by joannameng

A few days ago, I participated in a one-day seminar called How to Write to Change the World put on by Catherine Orenstein of the Op-Ed Project. Orenstein is an experienced writer and op-ed contributor who wants to see more women participating in opinion journalism.

Orenstein told us that in the first few months of 2008, nine out of every ten op-ed pieces submitted to major national newspapers were written by men. Therefore, about the same amount (88 percent) of published op-eds were by men. To get our voices into public debate, women need to write and submit more op-eds!

The first exercise of the day involved recognizing ourselves as experts in some topic—any topic, no matter how small. There were 12 women in the room, and even though most of us were accomplished professors, lawyers, graduate students, nonprofit professionals, entrepreneurs, or activists, we had a lot of trouble asserting our expertise in any area.

Don’t Vote.

by juliacsmith

New York, Oklahoma, North Carolina: Friday is your deadline to register!

When Politics Gets Ugly…

by lawyerlylisa

I turn to pictures of really cute babies with Barack Obama.

If this picture doesn’t give you hope, then I don’t know what will!

Find more at http://yeswecanholdbabies.wordpress.com.