Thursday, November 4th, 11am (final thoughts)

ok, in all seriousness, I really think this debacle will only serve to energize and mobilize me and the rest of the (well-informed people) left in this country. It is cliché but true to say that this is just the beginning and this has just served to illustrate how effed up and wrong so much is in our world and our nation.

And as a sidenote, just wanted to include the photo from this article in the Washington Post. I rode the train along this very same line at this very station yesterday morning on my way home. So at least I can be happy I made it home uneventfully and in one piece. scary.

AMERICA, FUCK YEAH! YOU!!

I'm sure our new president would agree with me when I say you can't save those who don't want to be saved. So I'm thinking here, here, here or here (see map). Any thoughts? suggestions?

Wednesday, November 3rd, 2:17pm

Tuesday, November 2nd, 6:00am

3 reasons why Kerry will win:

1. The whole Washington Redskins thing
2. The fact that I don't think I've been awake this early since a Democrat was president.
3. I'm wearing my USA socks:

GO KERRY!

Tuesday, November 2nd, 1:45am

I am currently committing canvasser suicide... going to bed at 2am, waking up at 5. Tomorrow should be interesting... hectic. I'll get as many photos of the pandamonium as possible.

By the way, in reading this over, I'm just completely floored by that bit about Tony. seriously. I could very well be the first blogger to win a Pullitzer with shit like that. I kill myself.

And finally, photo of the day:

A big thanks to the residents at 2217 85th Terrace in Pompano Beach. While you were away today, in addition to dropping that lovely and informative Kerry flyer on your door knob I took a quick dip in your pool. WHAT! Thats right I said it. I even used the slide. Who needs voter scandal when you've got antics like this.

jesus, this forum is really boring (if you can even call my mom and dad looking at pictures of my blisters a "forum"). I better document some serious voter fraud tomorrow or I'm taking this all down.

Monday, Novermber 1st, 8:31pm

This is Tony.

Here is a little allegorical story about Tony. Tony was the guy who brought food to our van yesterday for lunch. He's from Brooklyn but has lived in Florida for 4 years and got involved with GotV stuff through his union. We started asking him about baseball, and specifically how he felt about the Red Sox victory. To my surprise, in his thick Brooklyn accent, Tony proceeded to explain how he thought it was kinda cool that Boston won because it was about time, and it put the Yankees in check a little bit. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that I think this is a little bit analgous to the state of the union. Was Tony some indecisve flip-flopper because he saw some good in the victory? I dont really think so... I would say that Mr T here was able to process multiplicities and understand a situation on multiple levels and through multiple nuanced perspectives. I think it'd be cool if our nation had a president able to ascend to such intellectual heights.

This is my group of van-mates. We've been driving and walking around together for the last 4 days. Look how cute and sexy and spunky we are. Admit it: you like us. you love us. You sit in your cold state and long to be us; fighting for freedom in Florida. Its almost like its 1969 all over again.

Sunday, October 31st, 8:00pm

Hey all you suckers who donated money to EMILY's List: I bet you didnt know $20 of your contribution was gonna go to me buying drinks in Ft Lauderdale tonight. That's right, the people who run this are busing us all out to some "hot spot" in Ft Lauderdale with 20 big ones to burn. Maybe I'll buy a martini for some lucky lefty... oh wait, I'm not in New York anymore... I'll buy 2!

Knocked on about a hundred more doors today. Got rained on for about 2 hours. Persuaded a few apathetic Kerry supporters to get to the poles (I think)... everyone here is very optimistic. (bet you couldnt have guessed.)

More later...

Sunday, October 31st, 8:45am

So I've been extremely impressed with the amount of organization provided by EMILY's List. Yesterday we were broken out into about 100 vans, each with 6 people. Each person was given a map with a list of names and addreses of likely Kerry (and Betty Castor) supporters. Here is mine:

Each person's map had about 100 names on them and it took our van about 5 hours to get through all our lists. So 600 people x 100 doors = about 60,000 people per day. Times the 4 days we'll be here, so about 240,000 doors knocked on by our group. Remember, this is just one of the seven districts in Broward and Palm Beach counties being targetted by this program, so it seems we could really have a tangible effect on this election.

My own informal poll: (extremely unscientific, but then again, the mainstream polls don't seem to be doing so well either) in the neighborhood I walked through, a little over half the homes were on my list as "likely Kerry/Castor supporters", of these, about 10% told me they were actually planning on voting for Bush when I knocked on their door. So I guess my assesment is about the same as the professional pollsters: who knows, nearly dead even, too close to call.

Further evidence of the organization of the operation. We were all given these little hospital-style name tags to keep track of our van/hotel/flight arrangements:

At first it felt like we were just cattle in the herd, then it kinda felt like we were being admitted to a psych ward for being so crazy as to voluntarily wake up at 7am for 4 days in a row and go door-to-door. In either case, I thought it was majorly going to cramp my style in my efforts to pick up on some LACs (see 2nd objective up top) until I realized: everyone will have one! WHAT a perfect conversation starter. In all seriousness, these are totally gonna surpass those lame little Lance Armstrong things this season as the hot new well-meaning-accessory. I'm gonna sell mine on eBay.

Alright, I'm gonna go indulge in the continental breakfast now and prepare for another 7 hours in the sun.

Sunday, October 31st, 7:30am

Here is a link to a lovely shot of the gigantic blister (not for the faint of heart) I got as a result of the fact that half the roads in our neighborhood yesterday weren't paved and looked like this:

So the neighborhood we walked around yesterday wasn't the greatest. Alot of houses still boarded up from the recent hurricanes. Alot of people with more than one rusty car sitting on the lawn. A solid dose of blaring heavy metal. And I saw one arrest (some dude with no shirt on in handcuffs while his neighbor told the cops he had just stolen $10,000 worth of some construction equipment or something). [unfunny epithet removed. -Ed.]

Saturday, October 30th, 11:33pm

First, some numbers that I've gleened from interogating the various organizers I've managed to come in contact with. (I've realized that these kinds of grassroots organizations work kind of like terrorist cells: each member only ever really comes in contact with the person right above them and any provided info is on a strictly NTK basis. I had supposed that this was for the purposes of maintaining a more agile operation, but a fellow volunteer today opined that it might be to prevent other organizations from learning about our plans and developing a response.) 600 of us came down on 3 chartered Southwest flights from DC. EMILY's List and ACT have divided Palm Beach and Broward counties into 7 districts, and our 600 people are working one area. Another 600 local volunteers are working another district, and another district is beign worked by 300 volunteers who have paid their own way to Florida. Apparently EMILY's List has spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.4 million for this whole operation with the goal of knocking on about 500,000 doors... apparently this is based on some research that shows repeated face-to-face contact to be the best way to ensure people get to the polls.

Friday, October 29th, 10:45am

As the departure time approaches my cynicism creeps in and I'm starting to wonder if this is worth all my time and energy etc. I plan to read this excellent article (and Kerry endorsement*) from the New Yorker over and over repeatedly if my morale starts to wane. Also this one from the NYTimes magazine (requires purchase).

oh but most importantly, this: weather.yahoo.com

(* their first ever endorsement for a presidential election in their 80 year history.)

the accidental activist