Democracy Has Prevailed.

October 21, 2006

WHAT TO DO THIS WEEKEND...and beyond

Lots of canvassing/phonebanking going on today, tomorrow...and beyond!

SATURDAY

1. Richard Meritzer (of DfP, Gertrude Stein Club, etc.) will lead a canvass of the 10th ward. Meet at 225 Ross St., 10 AM Sat.

2. League of Young Voters
GOTV Door-Knocking, Saturday, October 21th 10 AM- 1 PM.
Meet at the Kiva Han at the Corner of Craig and Forbes, Oakland

3. Sierra Club
Canvass: SATURDAY, October 21, 10:00-1:00 Allison Park
Meet at the Panera's, 4960 Rt. 8 in Allison Park, or meet at the Sierra Club office, 3109 Forbes Ave. in Oakland at 9:30 to carpool.

4. America Votes
Saturday election action day / canvass
(meet at 9 AM, Saturday, 401 N. Highland Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15206)

5. Matt Smith Campaign
Canvass: Saturday (October 21)
Meet at 271 Colonial Drive in Mt. Lebanon at 10:30am. RSVP Michelle at elle.watts@gmail.com or call 412.561.3490
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SUNDAY

1. Sierra Club
SUNDAY, October 22, 10:00-1:00 South Hills
Canvass: Meet at the Bethel Park Community Center, 5151 Park Ave. at 10:00, or meet at the Sierra Club office, 3109 Forbes Ave. in Oakland at 9:30 to carpool.

Sign up, more info & full walk schedule: Randy.francisco@sierraclub.org or 412-802-6161

2. Matt Smith Campaign
Canvass: Sunday at 11:30
Meet at the tennis courts in Scott Park. RSVP to Michelle at elle.watts@gmail.com or call 412.561.3490.

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NEXT WEEK

1. Sierra Club
Monday and Tuesday Nights
Make phone calls to infrequent voters, eat free pizza, and make a difference. Training, script, and information provided. Enjoy a beeror glass of wine on us at our Tuesday Election Action Night. Sign upor more info: rebecca.glenn@sierraclub.org or call 412-802-6161

2. America Votes
Election Action Nights (phone banks) Oct. 22, 23, 24 (with Sierra Club), 25, and 26 (one at Clean Water Action, 100 5th Avenue, #1108 Pittsburgh, PA 15222, one at Sierra Club) and ongoing.

See https://www.thedatabank.com/dpg/253/mtglist.asp?newloc=1&formid=meet&loccity=Pittsburgh

Call in advance (412.661.0847) for possible daytime canvass / phone bank hours

3. Matt Smith Campaign
Phonebanking: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6-8pm at Campaign headquarters.
Contact Michelle for details at 412.561.3490. http://www.mattsmith2006.com/index.html

4. Rendell for Governor Campaign
Phonebanking: Monday through Thursday 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Rendell for Governor, 225 Ross St.Pittsburgh, PA 15219, (412) 201-9024

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ANYTIME

MoveOn.org Call for Change

MoveOn is making it possible for you to help and never leave your home.

Phone volunteers are the backbone of Call for Change. As a phone volunteer, you'll start right away phoning progressive voters in targeted congressional districts. They'll tell you who to call and what to say. Your calling can be from home (whenever it fits your schedule) and at neighborhood calling parties. You commit to calling:


  • one hour a week between now and November (talking to ~10 voters/wk.)
  • one hour a day for the last four days before the election, and
  • two hours on Election Day, November 7th.

  • SIGN UP HERE

    12 comments:

    Anonymous said...

    Maria,

    I don't think you don't want to associate your name as a phone volunteer with MoveOn.org, given its track record of welcoming vicious anti-Semitic, racist, and anti-Catholic hate speech on its Action Forum. (This happened with the full knowledge and approval of the people who were moderating the forum and censoring, for example, criticism of the hate speech.)

    As an example, prominent African-Americans were called "house slaves" and the phrase "The Catholics are raping your children" was used in another posting, with which most of the Action Forum participants voted agreement. Any organization that would sanction and tolerate this behavior while exercising editorial control over its Action Forum is very bad news.

    Needless to say, I am sure MoveOn "forgot" to tell you about this when it asked for your support.

    I'd recommend that you and others contact your local Democratic headquarters instead, and see what you can do to help there. MoveOn.org has NOTHING to do with anything that most Democrats would acknowledge as their party or their beliefs.

    Anonymous said...

    Don't forget about Jason Altmire! He's in a dead heat with Missy Hart and could use everyone's help. His campaign is running canvasses throughout the 4th district, including multiple canvasses in Allegheny County. Campaign HQ can be reached at 724-274-1776.

    Anonymous said...

    Bill (is this the same "Bill Levinson" that posts at freerepublic.com or just someone posing as Bill Levinson?),

    Before you write, you might want to do a little more research. Eric Alterman, writing in The Nation (http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061030/alterman ) about the anti-Semitic postings at Moveon.org, found:
    =====
    When I took the apparently unthinkable journalistic step of contacting the organization itself to discover what it knew about the incident, I learned that the postings were deleted immediately after MoveOn was informed of them. Many of the organization's key staff members, including its executive director, Eli Pariser, and communications director, Jennifer Lindenauer, are proud Jews and take no less offense at such things than, say, neocon pundits. Even the censorious Foxman, who ran to the media to complain without first talking to anyone at MoveOn about the postings, admitted that the organization had acted appropriately and that the incident was now "resolved satisfactorily."
    =====
    A little homework before commenting is always a good thing.

    Anonymous said...

    "Make phone calls to infrequent voters, eat free pizza, and make a difference. Training, script, and information provided."

    Man, would I love to see what is on that script. I can only imagine.

    Anonymous said...

    "Bill (is this the same "Bill Levinson" that posts at freerepublic.com or just someone posing as Bill Levinson?)"

    Yes.

    "Before you write, you might want to do a little more research. Eric Alterman, writing in The Nation."

    I did, and I wrote an answer to it. Eric and the Nation were used, abused, and spun royally by MoveOn.org.

    http://www.israpundit.com/2006/?p=2969 ("MoveOn.org Spins the Nation")

    As a brief summary
    (1) MoveOn's exercise of editorial control over the forum made it responsible for the content.
    (2) The other Action Forum participants voted overwhelming approval of the hate speech.

    Anonymous said...

    Sorry, I didn't mean to give a smart answer to "is this the same "Bill Levinson" that posts at freerepublic.com or just someone posing as Bill Levinson?"

    Yes, I am the Bill Levinson who posted the links at Free Republic and played a major role in exposing MoveOn.org's hate speech, the way I exposed the Million Mom March's apparent misuse of 501(c)(3) tax exempt money in 2000.

    Philip Shropshire said...

    So, even though MoveOn is run by Jewish people, they hate Jews? Wha? Actually, even if you allow racist or anti semitic speech on your web board, which you probably should if you believe in freedom of speech even if its not nice, that would have nothing to do with the work of the organization....

    Maria said...

    The only comments that I immediately delete are ones where someone swears at another person who's commenting.

    From what I've seen at freerepublic, anything that varies from the Kool-Aid gets you banned.

    Anonymous said...

    Eh, Move On has been bashed by Republicans for being left-wing, by self-described progressives for supporting Casey, by right-wing talk radio for not pre-censoring ads that compared Bush to the Nazis, and by Mr. Levinson for sticking to their anti-censorship guns when questionable postings go up on their forum. This suggests that they are doing something supremely right: they assume that their most of their readers can recognize hate speech for what it is, and understand that hate speech is damning to the speaker.

    MoveOn has a tiny center and perhaps a million volunteer arms, some few of them unreasonable, insane, or "plants." Expecting them to exert centralized control, or even wanting them to try to do so, suggests that Mr. Levinson is missing the point of how webroots and webgroups function.

    Every group contains one or more misinformed or vindictive individuals. The only guaranteed way to avoid association with such folks is to stay in your room, disconnect the phone and TV and radio and internet. If you want to improve a group...a situation...or an entire country, you do so by interacting and engaging. That is the most basic premise of DFA, of MoveOn, of every political party worth its salt, and of anyone who's managed to change the face of society.

    Anonymous said...

    Eh, Move On has been bashed by Republicans for being left-wing, by self-described progressives for supporting Casey, by right-wing talk radio for not pre-censoring ads that compared Bush to the Nazis, and by Mr. Levinson for sticking to their anti-censorship guns when questionable postings go up on their forum. This suggests that they are doing something supremely right: they assume that their most of their readers can recognize hate speech for what it is, and understand that hate speech is damning to the speaker.

    MoveOn has a tiny center and perhaps a million volunteer arms, some few of them unreasonable, insane, or "plants." Expecting them to exert centralized control, or even wanting them to try to do so, suggests that Mr. Levinson is missing the point of how webroots and webgroups function.

    Every group contains one or more misinformed or vindictive individuals. The only guaranteed way to avoid association with such folks is to stay in your room, disconnect the phone and TV and radio and internet. If you want to improve a group...a situation...or an entire country, you do so by interacting and engaging. That is the most basic premise of DFA, of MoveOn, of every political party worth its salt, and of anyone who's managed to change the face of society.

    Maria said...

    Well said, Anonymous -- even if it was said twice. ;-)

    Anonymous said...

    Re: "for sticking to their anti-censorship guns when questionable postings go up on their forum. This suggests that they are doing something supremely right: they assume that their most of their readers can recognize hate speech for what it is, and understand that hate speech is damning to the speaker."

    Except MoveOn.org censored pro-Israel postings and criticism of MoveOn.org. Exercise of editorial control means they own the hate speech they didn't censor.