I did engage the poll workers during the 2005 Cal special election…with “have you heard of the GAO 2004 election fraud report?”

…did anyone catch that clip of ED Hill, perpetuating

two favorite lies of the ill informed….death and taxes?

do these people pick up a book?……it must suck to be so angry :)

“Jesus Christ was a man that traveled through this land;
A carpenter, true and brave;
Said to the rich, “Give your goods to the poor”,
So they laid Jesus Christ in His grave.”

Woody Guthrie

It works for every county and most big cities in California and it ought to work for most of the country. Call and when you reach someone, be friendly, offer to volunteer, be mildly proactive if they don’t have anything for you or they’re not particularly imaginative, and go up the chain if you have problems. Most headquarters are eager for volunteers but they don’t always know what to do with you (psst, they’re usually volunteers just like you).

And if you have ideas, start early, so people have a chance to know who you are. Don’t wait until two days before the election. Now’s as good a time to start as any. County fairs and even flea markets are possible places to set up friendly booths and to find out what people really think in your community (they’ll mostly agree with you but not on everything).

I’m not an expert on any of this but I volunteered in 2004 and learned a few things. I suspect, by the way, that lawyers are needed again but I’m not sure what the groups are that are involved in this. But the time to jump in is now rather than later since lawyers probably need some time to help each other figure out what the latest cockamanie registration and voting rules are in each state and how to deal with them.

My Saint Bernard, Daisy, says it’s pretty entertaining, although the cast isn’t diverse enough for her. No Saints.

people should be worried about diebold.

skippy attended the voting rights townhall meeting in los angeles last night, hearing marcy winograd, actress/activist mimi kennedy (dharma’s mom), and hosted by bradblog’s brad friedman.

one thing brad said about the dem’s refusal to deal with this subject out of fear of making people too depressed to vote is that it’s awfully ironic: let’s not keep people from voting, even if their votes don’t count.

skippy’s reportage of the meeting is here.

Jane, you’re not going around NYC by heading north through Wilkes-Barre, I hope? Just say no! I81 is always a mess, and the flooding may affect the interstate (locals would have a better idea than I do). Better to take 78 into NJ, then 287 up and over the Tappan Zee.

Now, howdya do that?

It got pushed on to the next page, thank goodness.

It was in the links to most emailed stories.

While it is too late for 2006, I think it is absolutely crucial that the national liberal/progressive blogger movement as represented by YearlyKos and the national liberal/progressive activist movement as represented by Take Back America coordinate their efforts to a greater degree than they ever have before.

Take, for example, the idea of Poll Watchers, which features prominently in the thread above. Nobody is as well situated to recruit progressive poll watchers in the thousands as the left blogosphere is. Nobody is as well equipped to organize, place, and train those poll watchers as the activists are. But it takes time, and it takes will. Please, please, please schedule next year’s YearlyKos and next year’s Take Back America in the same city at the same time…overlap them if necessary: M-W for one, W-F for the other. Offer two-fer registration deals, divide up the work, and get the work done. With the blog world providing the heralds and the activist world providing the cavalry, we create a one/two punch combination so much more powerful. Synergy is a mighty force.

Caveat 1. I know that street-level activism and blogger activism are combined in some people already. I’d like to see those people especially combine both their passions rather than have to choose between them.

Caveat 2. Yes, I know I mixed metaphors. I’m on vacation and I give myself that privilege.