It proves that they are not very good at what they do, that the inflated salaries and huge sense of entitlement are a symtom of their greed and ego. Just as I suspected.

We beat them on all business metrics. We were more efficient with how we managed our money, both with staff pay and media buys. Our tech team was the best the world has ever seen while theirs totally, I mean TOTALLY failed the big test. Our staff management and ground game was so fierce, even though they knew it was coming, they didn't know what hit them.

And the "lazy" Democrats. OMG! I have been volunteering 2-4 hours a week since mid-summer and I was one of the less motivated volunteers on my neighborhood team. There were these two retired women who appeared to volunteer full time. The paid organizer worked every second he was awake, near as I could figure. Some kind of lazy, right?

They are so full of shit. Their business model sucked. They are sooooo overpaid and over rated. I can't stop gloating

We don't need to cheat. Anyone who does serious turnout work for progressive causes knows that there is an almost unlimited number of dem leaning voters available if we can just convince them to vote. GOTV is hard, tedious work, but far easier and safer than committing fraud. So why would we cheat if we can win legit with less effort? We wouldn't. Serious minds on the other side know this too. They know we are not cheating, that our voters are legal. But they need to suppress them because they do NOT have an unlimited pool of conservative, white voters to mine. Their voter universe is finite and they are demographically running into a brick wall. But they are convincing their followers that it is ok to harass fellow citizens at the polls because of some paranoid, racist fantasy that people of color are always lazy and dishonest or for other unspecified reasons don't deserve to vote. The organizers are hoping that this will suppress our turnout just enough to squeak out a win. What total bullshit. I pray there is legal action taken across the board once this is all over.

Can you IMAGINE the rage if teams of black citizens were going into white precincts challenging large numbers of voters? Heads would be exploding everywhere.

http://www.nc-democracy.org/2012/09/10/lod-your-absentee-trustee/

North Carolina election officials don’t like the method Americans for Prosperity is using to solicit voters to request absentee ballots. The group has sent hundreds of thousands of mailers to registered voters with instructions for requesting a ballot by mail, but the request form is pre-addressed to AFP’s office in Raleigh rather than to the voter’s election board. “I would discourage anything like that,” said Charlie Collicutt, deputy director of the Guilford County Board of Elections. “When you trust an outside group to handle your request, you’re putting your faith in them that they’re going to get it there and get it there correctly. If there are mistakes, if a request isn’t filled out correctly, if the group waits too long to submit the requests, it could be too late to get out another one,” Collicutt said. AFP is a hard-line conservative group backed heavily by founder David Koch and board member Art Pope. It is spending millions on ads attacking Barack Obama across the country. Dallas Woodhouse, head of the AFP operation in North Carolina, says the group has the ballot requests come to its office because it’s too expensive to print the address of each voter’s county board of elections on the return form (which other organizations do) and because it wants to track the follow up (which can be done through the data file on the State Board of Elections’ website). The process AFP uses is not illegal, but it continues to worry thoughtful observers. The worries are intensified because AFP used a similar mailing campaign last year in Wisconsin that gave voters the wrong deadline date for the returning the absentee ballot request.

http://www.nc-democracy.org/2012/09/10/lod-your-absentee-trustee/

This worries me way more than in-person voter ID fraud.

The attacks on contraception and the Girls Scouts particularly. My child bearing days are pretty much over and I never was and will never be a Girls Scout. But I have an 11 year old daughter. She has been a Girl Scout for the past couple of years. I missed the day where they promoted abortion and handed out Planned Parenthood propaganda. But I will tell you what they really do that upsets the conservative, patriarchal right wing. They teach young girls to be competent, independent and successful women who care about those less fortunate than themselves. And we couldn't have that could we?

Over and over I have been impressed with the quality of the Girl Scout program. The popular cookie sales program has been a great tool for my daughter to learn basic business skills; marketing, supply and demand, simple accounting, goal setting and working with a team. They have long term philanthropic projects that they plan and execute. They collected supplies for abandoned animals last year. This year they prepared and served a meal for a group of homeless men. The big curriculum focus this year (she is with a slightly older troop) has been identifying and addressing bullying. In short, she is learning to be a competent, professional woman who is not going to be bullied, nor is she going to be a bully, who cares about the less fortunate.

Contraception is a huge societal good anyway you slice it. Statistically, almost all women use it at some point in their lives. It helps keep families out of poverty. It reduces the need for abortions. We have the medical knowledge to do this safely, effectively and a reasonable cost. It is all win. But they want to limit access to contraception and expose a whole new generation to the stress and potential poverty that accompanies unplanned births. They want my beautiful, bright daughter, the one who writes exquisitely sensitive poetry and and taught herself to read at three, to be a mindless baby machine. I want her to be a parent someday if that is what she wants. But who does it benefit if she is held hostage to her reproductive system? It reduces her ability to get educated and earn a living. It increases the burden she might place on society. And although it looks like a great way to control women, it will burden her eventual partner who will also have to figure out how to raise and pay for the unplanned children. Why, why why do they want this? It makes no sense to me.

I have always considered myself a feminist, but for whatever reason, I have been more likely to fight for campaign finance reform. But now it is personal. They are threatening my daughter at a time when she is becoming most vulnerable. I vow to fight.

Behold Ziggy.



He is a nine month old Border collie I adopted from Petfinder. He was either lost or abandoned by his first owner and was apparently in rough shape when he was picked up by animal control. It was his good fortune that big hearted rescuer pulled him from the pound, and then, lucky me, I adopted him.

What a sweet, smart boy he is! Gets along with the kids and the other dog great. He is a bit of a handful, highly intelligent and energetic, but I knew that when I chose him. He is turning out to be quite the looker too, now that he has gained some weight and his coat is improving. He is doing well in obedience class and is 98% house trained. A bit anxious in the car, but I hope he gets over it as he learns that car rides mean fun walks and obedience class, not the vet or the pound. I wish I had other pictures to post, but he never sits still long enough for me to get one!