January 2008 Archives

Who would you want on celebrity American Gladiators?

So now that the campaign is over, I'm going on my first real vacation since the summer of 2005, where I abused the now-bankrupt (but totally awesome) Independence Air free flights on Tues/Wed/Sat (gee you wonder...), and drove around rural Maine. While my car (and me) are the West, I figure I should go exploring before the next job. Also, it is every American's obligation to go coast to coast in my opinion. So, here is my "route" home.

General game plan:

1/10: Wheels up from NM to Vegas with the 815 crew
1/10-1/13: Vegas.
1/13-1/14: LA
1/14-1/15: San Diego (Dad is running a food show. Yum.)
1/15-1/18: LA, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, depending on where I can crash
1/18-1/19: Sleeping over at San Francisco
1/19-1/20: Travel to Salt Lake City
1/20-1/21: Travel to Boulder, CO/Denver
1/21-1/22: Travel to either Great Bend KS (aka, damn smack in the middle of nowhere) or eastern Nebraska
1/22-1/23: Crash in IA (sleep. not like into tree).  Not sure where.
1/23: Stop in Chicago.  Depending on what folks are up to, either crash in Chicago or Pittsburgh.
1/24: Stop in Pittsburgh for the grandparents and my cousins.  Arrive in Atlantic City that night.

Of course, there could be snow storms, parties, job stuff, or other things that'll move this all around, but thats what its looking like.  If you are on the route, let me know.

I'll try posting updates from the road.  (Thank you iMT!)

Wish me luck.

As you probably heard by now, Governor Richardson is dropping out of the race.

I started asking around about his campaign in December 2006, and started working as the Web Production Manager on March 21st, 2007 - a few hours after I got my wisdom teeth removed. Always the right way to start a job.

I moved from DC, where I lived since August 2003 to Santa Fe, NM in early May, and today, I head out of New Mexico. So I go from major mid-atlantic metropolis of 2+ million people to a "metro" of 60,000 without a major college in the Southwest so I can work on the campaign.

I am proud to have worked for such a fine patriot and decent person. While we did not have the glitz and glamor of the other candidates, we did have a strong, lengthy, and varied record of accomplishment, domestically and internationally. I like folks who get shit done, and of all the candidates, Governor Richardson got the most shit done.

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to win (although we did last longer than two Senate committee chairs), but the American political process is bigger than any individual's set of values, and this time, it did not align with mine.

Next time, America. Next time.

I promised myself when I chose politics to always go where my heart is, which more times than not, isn't the easiest path. This experience wasn't easy, but I'm glad that I kept to my promise.

Now I go back to DC and get back to the life I've had on pause for eight months. Time to press play.

You listen.

College Democrats in the nation's first two contests can tell you that the excitement was real and that voter turnout on college campuses reflected that energy. According to CIRCLE (Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement), 19% of New Hampshire voters were young people - up 42% from 2004. That's 84,000 votes - a majority of them for Democrats.
In Iowa, young voters were 22% of all caucus goers, up from 17% in 2004 and matching the number of seniors who participated. And their support for Democrats was overwhelming: of the young people who caucused in Iowa, 80% of them supported Democrats.

Anyone who has been working on youth organizing knew this already. We've consistently seen youth turnout for Democrats increase in the past two elections, but the results in Iowa and New Hampshire show that we are well on our way to unprecedented numbers in 2008.

As phrased by Nelson.