Quick Hits and Deep Thoughts: Don't Panic Edition
Kari Chisholm
- Portlander Terry Bean has launched a national website - LGBT for Obama. (Hat tip to Just Out.)
- The campaign to rename Portland's 42nd Avenue after sci-fi humorist Douglas Adams continues. If you're a supporter, join the campaign at Rename42nd.org. If you have no freakin' clue why they want to rename 42nd, then read this BlueOregon post from last November. But fair warning: the whole thing is a spoiler for the five-part trilogy.
- The most frustrating thing about going canvassing is that so many people just aren't home when you knock on their door. But what if there was a national holiday where you could pretty much count on everyone being home - and perfectly happy to open their door when you knock?
Oh yeah, that's Halloween. And best of all? It comes just five days before Election Day.
Count on the innovative folks at the Bus Project to turn that simple idea into a national GOTV project.
While ghouls and goblins roam the streets, volunteers in 21 cities and 12 states will distribute voter guides and vote reminders in what will be the nation’s largest non-partisan get-out-the-vote canvass.
Trick-or-Vote is going nationwide this year with the help of youth advocacy partners like 18 in ’08, Rock the Vote, United States Student Association, League of Young Voters, Forward Montana, New Mexico Youth Organized, New Era Colorado, Washington Bus, Change the Game and Generation Vote. “What’s the one day of the year we culturally are ready for a knock on the door?” asks Trick-or-Vote National Coordinator, Alex Aronson. “Halloween conveniently falls a few days before the election every year. You may be too old to trick-or-treat, but you’re never too old to trick-or-vote.”
- Last week, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley campaigned together against Gordon Smith and Big Oil. Here's the video.
- Yes, it's true. The heart of banker/doctor/lawyer country, Lake Oswego, is now Democratic.
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Aug 13, '08
I never understood why Just Out seemed to be so Pro-Hillary. They had a cut out of her at Pride. The worst thing that they could say about Obama to me was that he said "Ah..." too much. If this is what LGBT journalism amounts to in Portland, I will not be reading Just Out anymore.
How ignorant and blind people were that they did not hear that Hillary supported DOMA and Obama did not. It made me ashamed of my own culture.
2:36 p.m.
Aug 13, '08
The most frustrating thing about going canvassing is that so many people just aren't home when you knock on their door. But what if there was a national holiday where you could pretty much count on everyone being home - and perfectly happy to open their door when you knock?
Oh yeah, that's Halloween. And best of all? It comes just five days before Election Day.
Kari, Kari! I know you are a new Dad, but take a word of advice from an old Dad--the idea that a) people are home on Halloween and b) answer the door if you knock is very suburban of you.
Yes, in the Halloween hotspots, this is what goes on. But if there is not a pumpkin out front or the porch light is not on (at least half the houses in my very Halloween hotspot neighborhood), the reality is quite the opposite.
Aug 13, '08
Would some public official please call bullshit on Wyden, Merkeley and Obama for demanding cheap oil from the oil companies one moment and expressing a committment to reducing greenhouse gases the next.
High priced oil is not the fault of oil companies, it is the fault of consumers worldwide. The solution to high prices and global warming is the same: USE LESS GAS.
Shameful.
7:05 p.m.
Aug 13, '08
Yes, in the Halloween hotspots, this is what goes on. But if there is not a pumpkin out front or the porch light is not on (at least half the houses in my very Halloween hotspot neighborhood), the reality is quite the opposite.
Even just under half the houses is a good deal - much of the time when we canvass, we rarely get anywhere near that.
My old hometown, which was a small rural town in Texas, would also be good for Trick or Vote. People there are a lot more likely to be home for trick or treaters than they are in the more suburban/urban areas I've lived in.
I know from talking to people who have done Trick or Vote that they get some of the best at-home numbers. Their numbers were certainly higher than any canvass I've ever done.
7:15 p.m.
Aug 13, '08
High priced oil is not the fault of oil companies, it is the fault of consumers worldwide. The solution to high prices and global warming is the same: USE LESS GAS.
This I disagree on - using less gas will help reduce global warming. But I don't think it will do much to affect prices. The fact that the oil companies have been having record profits in these years where gas costs so much - even with reduced use of gas - just shows that prices have nothing to do with consumer use.
Gas prices are high because the oil companies are more about their profit than anything else - and they realize that for most people, reducing gas by much more than a pittance is very difficult. They may not be able to afford a newer vehicle, they don't live in an area with public transportation, etc. The small town I used to live in had no public transportation whatsoever - and the closest bus was all the way up in Clear Lake, which was about a 40 minute drive from our house (or more during rush hour). With few shoulders on the road - most immediately sloped into a ditch - your only option was to walk or ride on the road. And the road was only wide enough for a vehicle going each way. That meant riding a bike or walking was asking to be a hood ornament for some big pickup truck.
Many people take for granted living in an area where driving is a choice as opposed to a necessity. But not everyone has that option. And not everyone is going to move to large metro areas in order to have that option.
Aug 13, '08
Okay, I like the idea of renaming 42nd Ave., but wouldn't it make more sense to call it something like "Answer Ave."?
Aug 13, '08
When Merkley and Wyden are our Senators, how will our dynamic duo compete with other states for dynamism and telegenic-ness? Whatever your answer, maybe that's cool (or maybe not sure).
Aug 13, '08
Jenni,
Every company is more about profit than anything else, or it fails. Their profits are record, but so are the profits of many companies. The question is whether their profits are particularly high in relation to their revenues. I don't know the answer to that, but it seems like this is a shell game.
While it's true that a small decrease in US consumption of gas won't lower global prices, my point is a) each family that uses less spends less, which is as I state above, one "solution to high prices," and b) a major change in behavior would, in fact, lower global prices. And it would certainly cut into the profits of oil companies, for those who use that to measure fairness and burden-sharing.
As for the notion that changing behavior is difficult, I got news: the overwhelming majority of Americans do NOT live in small towns, they live in transit-accessible places and refuse to use it. We can work toward a solution for small towns as well, but we can't avoid the obvious solution that would work for a huge number of people, and reduce pressure on supply to the rural areas.
Aug 13, '08
Also, it is a verifiable fact that yes, just about everyone will move to large metro areas (or small towns will see major dense infill around new job centers - less likely since cost of construction will also rise proportionately in those places) if/when gas gets to $8-10 a gallon. Food will be ridiculously expensive and commuting 20-30 miles in a Single-Passenger-Vehicle will be financially impossible for all but the richest.
8:44 p.m.
Aug 13, '08
Wyden with a hat on? OMG, he looks terrible.
Ron, your not a hat type person. No offense.
Disclaimer: I've voted for Wyden since he ran for Senate the first time and everytime after that (regardless of the hat joke).
11:20 p.m.
Aug 13, '08
the idea that a) people are home on Halloween and b) answer the door if you knock is very suburban of you.
Good thing that's where the swing districts are. :)
11:55 p.m.
Aug 13, '08
Kari:
Very good point!
Aug 14, '08
Calling big oil to account for their behavior sure would be more convincing if Steve Novick were doing it. These two have as much passion about the subject as a hunk of rim-rock...
Aug 14, '08
Oh yeah one other thing Jeff;
Stop calling me a "consumer," I'm doing my best to consume as little as possible thereby realizing my nature as an I-N-D-I-V-D-U-A-L...
Aug 14, '08
I know this may seem a little confining, but could we have a 5 year moratorium on renaming streets?
I love Douglas Adams. Cesar Chavez ranks with MLK and other great leaders. But, enough is enough. Wasn't the Chavez mess enough?
It is, whether we like it or not, a zero sum game. No one really wins because the bitterness and anger generated by these movements far outweighs the honor they are trying to do.
Name a sandwich. Put up a statue. Name a park. Just leave street names alone.
<h2>Rick York</h2>