update on politics stuff

i went to the broome county young democrats fundraiser and had to pay $15 to get in, as expected. i got 2 obama stickers and a magnet of a donkey wearing boxing gloves for free. my dad has turned the stickers into buttons you can pin on your shirt using the button-making machine he got back when i was a kid. now my dad and i will both wear obama buttons everywhere. the donkey magnet looks really dumb and it is on the refrigerator, although its original purpose is to go on the back of a car (although it really makes democrats look like asses, quite literally). there was plenty of food that was free for me to eat after paying to get in, but all the beverages cost even more money, except water, so i just had food and water. the food was pretty much just tiny hors d’œuvres (i needed wikipedia to look up how to spell that) and some tiny desserts, and the plates were also tiny, but i managed to eat quite a lot of food. i ate the stuff with meat in it, but no cheese; also, i avoided chocolate because it has caffeine, and i avoid both alcohol and caffeine. there were a bunch of young democrats i knew there, and a lot of people i hadn’t met before. the main speaker was state assemblywoman donna lupardo, who talked about the republican demonization of community organizers and how most of us were, in a way, community organizers. another important speaker was matthew silverstein, president of the new york state young democrats, who talked about the importance of our chapter in helping spread the organization upstate. lastly, there was lieutenant christopher marion from the national guard, who recently spent 6 months serving in afghanistan as the commander of 17 men, and who has been in the broome county young democrats since we first began. his day job is as a legislative assistant to a democratic county legislator, when he is not sent on missions by the national guard. he talked about his experiences in afghanistan, a country he has traveled to every corner of, about how each city in afghanistan is different and unique, how the enemy in that country makes much more effective use of propaganda than the american troops there, and how the taliban targets its attacks on forces from the afghan government or our coalition allies rather than united states troops, because they are weaker targets and any attack on u.s. troops is met with an overwhelming response. he is going to be sent back to afghanistan soon. the broome county young democrats elected new leadership earlier in the week before the fundraiser, to the 4 top posts of president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer. i talked to a number of people at the event, even the dj, the magic man, who i know from his radio show on whrw 90.5 binghamton.

i have not been able to attend regular meetings of this group for some time due to the fact that their meetings all happen when i am at work at my job (meetings used to be on weekends). i did meet the local coordinator for the barack obama campaign in binghamton, and gave him my name, contact info, and schedule. the obama campaign in binghamton here operates every day except for sunday and he said he would probably have me help out on saturdays, although he could also use some help on weekdays (which are when i work, but i also have some free time on those days). many of our local efforts are focused in pennsylvania since they are a few miles away and a swing state; for instance, the city of scranton, home of joe biden and one of the places hillary clinton was raised, is just a bit south of here on interstate 81. however, the obama campaign is not taking new york for granted, and is campaigning for him in new york as well, albeit nowhere near as aggressively as in a swing state. in new york state, i think we rely on volunteers almost entirely, although i think i did hear that barack obama has paid staff in all 50 states and the district of columbia. anyway, here in a part of upstate far from albany, we are all volunteers. and i say “we” even though i have not started volunteering yet in this election. the first election i volunteered for democrats was in 1998 when i was just 16, and i have volunteered for democrats several elections since then, but only about half the time. i have not been really actively involved in any of this since around the time i got my current job. so i have some catching up to do, but i am sure many things still work the same way, such as how to call people on the telephone to do surveys or how to go around large neighborhoods distributing campaign literature to every house. obviously now this “internet” thing is playing a much bigger role than the first election it was used in, back in 1996, but it seems the internet is a much bigger part of politics than even as recent as 2004, since now we have way more blogs, much more stuff on campaign websites, all these social networking sites and video-posting sites, and basically a lot more popular websites that have a role in the elections than before. i have been blogging for years. i had a different blog before this one, but did not like that blog-hosting site due to a major lack of features and because they temporarily deleted my blog at one point for no good reason, so i moved to blogger and found it to be much nicer and way more customizable. it seems now my previous blog-hosting site actually costs money to use, so it is certainly very good that i switched. anyway, i am already doing my bit on the internet, so now it is time to go back out into the real world and do some campaigning there. the local democratic party headquarters is open on sundays, i think, since it is a totally separate organization from the local obama campaign. so i think there are opportunities for me to volunteer any day of the week. i think starting this saturday would be nice, since weekdays are kind of a mess for me. i have some serious problems with my sleep schedule that i need to fix so i am up during the daytime. anyway, besides the local democratic party and the obama campaign, i could volunteer to help re-elect my democratic congressman, michael arcuri, who won an open seat in 2006 in what had previously been a republican district. i could also volunteer for the other local congressman whose district used to include my family’s house before redistricting: democratic congressman maurice hinchey. maurice hinchey is one of the most liberal/progressive members of congress, probably within the top 10 if you look at his voting record, and ever since the redistricting that followed the 2000 census, he has been in a safe democratic district, plus he has been in congress a long time and has plenty of experience there and knows how to get re-elected. michael arcuri, on the other hand, is still a bit new to washington, d.c., and is quite centrist, since his district (which includes me) is thought to be a bit conservative. as a democrat who is rather new to congress, and in a swing district that used to be solidly republican, michael arcuri is far more vulnerable than maurice hinchey. however, i think both of them will get re-elected pretty easily, given the completely lackluster performance of the republicans this year in fundraising and campaigning for the house and senate. the republicans seem to have everything focused on electing john mccain president, and seem to be neglecting the house and senate elections. back before redistricting from the 2000 census, maurice hinchey’s district was split almost 50/50, and included my family’s house; in those days, he always won elections by incredibly narrow margins, but ever since he got his better new district that does not include my home anymore, he has won by huge landslides every 2 years. that is why i am worried for michael arcuri: he is stuck with a slightly conservative district but he is a democrat. but he is from utica, not binghamton, so i don’t even know if he has an office anywhere near here. here is his campaign website, which shows his congressional district, quite a large one for a state that has so many. his opponent is from utica, just like him and the guy who ran against him 2 years ago. actually the opponent looks like he might be quite formidable and maybe even win. scary! i don’t want another republican representing me in congress. even sherwood boehlert, my previous republican congressman who retired to pave the way for michael arcuri’s victory, and was perhaps the most moderate republican in the house at that time, disagreed with me on most issues and still voted the republican party line most of the time. and with republicans as the minority party, having a republican congressman would mean people in my district would have less of a voice in washington, d.c. of course the importance of my local house race pales in comparison to the importance of having barack obama defeat john mccain. i will be wearing my obama button everywhere i go, and i will start volunteering for the campaign as soon as possible, i hope. i don’t always end up doing what i plan on doing... but this time i will really make the effort.