All About Apathy

The Dallas Democracy for America Meetup is starting an interesting project: "All About Voter Apathy." Why don't more people go vote? This promises to be a very interesting discussion... If you're in the area, why not join us?


RSVP and info: http://dfa.meetup.com/143/events/4687779/

In June, we continue our series on winning elections. What we have learned thus far from the campaign managers’ forum and Q&A with consultant Jeff Dalton will be used to build better campaigns and recruit quality candidates.

This time around, we will be looking at a hard fact of life in American elections. June's meetup is all about apathy.

Voter apathy, particularly amongst our supporters, has allowed the radical right wing to take over a party and take over the nation. They control the Presidency and the Congress. Now, they are after the Judiciary.

The last election was the most important in our lifetimes and we barely lost it. This makes the next election, the most important yet. We must understand voter apathy and how to attack it. Former city council candidate and psychologist, Candy Marcum, will be speaking to us about voter apathy, her campaign, and the state of local politics in Dallas.

We will then be working in small groups to begin to tackle this hard issue. We all have ideas, opinions and stories about voter apathy. Now is a vital opportunity to speak up and contribute.

Is some one near and dear to you an apathetic voter? Bring them along. We will be nice, I promise. :)

Finally, if you have some snacks to spare, bring 'em to share with like-minded people who are determined to take our country back and make a difference.

RSVP: http://dfa.meetup.com/143/events/4687779/

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Please support the Employee Pension Preservation Act of 2005

Please consider signing this petition, which was forwarded to me by my father who is retired from the airlines. This act (Senate Bill 861) is supported by Northwest, Delta, Delta Retirees, and the pilot's union (ALPA). It will allow the airlines to stretch out the payments they make to their pension plan over a 25 period rather than a 5 year period. This will allow the airline to continue funding its pension plan rather than doing what United did, declare bankruptcy and toss their program over to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Fund (which, if companies keep doing this, will go belly-up any day now). If you would like some more details, here are some links. First, here is Delta's press release on the subject:

Delta Retirees Support Employee Pension Preservation Act of 2005

http://news.delta.com/print_doc.cfm?article_id=9717

To read the text of the bill you can go to Thomas:

http://thomas.loc.gov /and search on S.861 (can't direct link to text at Thomas site for some reason.)

Here is a PDF "fact sheet summary" by the author of the bill (Johnny Isakson R-GA)http://isakson.senate.gov/press/2005/042005airlinepensionfactsheet.pdf

Anyway, ya'll, I know the bill is sponsored by a Republican but from what I can determine it's a good bill and the retirees and the pilot's union all support it so I am asking ya'll to support it as well. Honestly my worst nightmare is that my father's airline will do what United did and then I'm gonna wind up with my parents moving in to my spare room. (!)

So, if you support the bill, PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION!http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/Pension_Act /

Thank you so much! Please forward to your email lists, also, if you agree.

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News reporters: The new signs of the Zodiac?

Ok, now this is pretty funny. A couple of folks on the internet have decided to update the Zodiac. According to them, "the new signs of the Zodiac are all news reporters. This is due to a breakthrough in philosophical thought: TV personalities represent every human personality trait so far developed." According to them, I'm:

Libra
An air sign, Libra is one of the most talkative. Exceptionally assertive and creative, they tend to generate an unusual number of work-related plans and projects. They aggressively go after what they want, which is usually answers. Of course, Barbara Walters has been an investigative journalist for how long now?

BARBARA WALTERS' SUPERPOWERS
Poison-tipped brooches : Power-up weapon. You are immune to the poison if you accidently stick yourself.
Hypnosis : Big fluffy hair gives off hypnotic aura.
Telekinetic scarf control
When in danger, four harpies are summoned automatically and come to her aid (Joy, Star, Meredith, and the other one)

Anyway. Funny stuff, go have a look.

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First Training is DONE - Whew!

Well, what I have been working on recently (and a big cause of not updating the blog so much) has finally come to pass: our DFA group presented the first "volume" of our precinct training to the DCDP Precinct Coordinators last night, and it was an outstanding success. Honestly, it is such a pleasure to work with the people on the training committee, especially Kim and Doug who were key in getting this one off the ground. But the entire group always has such wonderful, intelligent feedback and have been simply outstanding to work with. I feel really lucky to be around such a professional, businesslike group of activists.

The training attempted to emphasize "soft skills" for activists. So we discussed networking within the precinct, such as getting out and meeting people through the HOA or other organizations. We did a lot of small group activities, such as a brainstorming session about what drives volunteer activists away, and how to remedy that. We discussed all of the different types of "jobs" there are in a precinct, and there were lively discussions about which types of volunteers would fit best with certain types of jobs, including an exercise about how to work with some more "problematic" types.

I also heard from an SDEC member who attended that we have managed to produce stuff that does not duplicate the existing training that the TDP is working, so that was VERY good news. As we developed the class with an eye on the existing TDP and DCDP manuals, I'm not surprised, because we made an effort to cover things that everyone seems to expect activists to "just know" but that nobody really sits down and goes over in details.

Anyhoo, everyone who attended was very impressed, and, YAY, there were no major flaws found in the presentation! Now we just need to gear up to ensure that we have enough trainers available to handle it for the rest of the county -- and start working on the NEXT one, hee!

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Virtual March to Stop Global Warming

Up to now I've restricted this blog to mostly local and state politics and my own ideas on activism, but I want to share this with you: the virtual march to stop global warming. I am concerned about our future on this planet and the future of all of the other species that share this planet with us. Plus, it looks kind of fun. Wesley Clark sent it to me, and now I'm going to send it on to as many people as I can think of. So, first, sign up for the virtual march here:

http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/campaigns/sgw/register/ 5d2fef9bb298a50bd665186ffe831240/

And at that link you can see how the network grows as I've sent it on and then you send it on, and so on, and so on, and so on. Cool, eh?

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So how about those local elections?

This just in, by guest blogger Bernie, on behalf of our local Dallas DFA Meetup. We just got done with some interesting municipal elections here in and want to get a dialog going with everyone!


So, another election has come and gone and we want to hear from you. Now is the chance for everyone to start a dialog on the candidates, local issues, media coverage, etc. Are you an experienced campaigner, activist or amateur strategist? Post your feedback and ideas on how to improve a candidate or campaign. Your feedback will be compiled by Dallas DFA and used to improve how candidates are recruited and how campaigns are run in the future.

Here are some ideas to get you thinking:

Did a candidate's message turn you on to them or off of them and why?
My candidate was great, but got no help from activists, where were ya'll?
Why did the Blackwood amendment go down in flames?
How well did the media do?
How did you pick your candidate?
Was it me or did all the candidates sound the same?
Did anyone read all that direct mail or push cards?
Grassroots campaigning doesn't work and here's why...
Did your candidate end up being a wacko like mine?
Was your candidate's yard sign pretty - mine wasn't....
Voter turnout in Dallas was low because...
I volunteered, we worked hard, but we still lost ... here's why
Here are my ideas for a better candidate and campaign:

When you post to the blog, post either as "Other" - using your name only or as “Anonymous”

Don't be shy....tell us everything!

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