Obama table in Madison: September 12 Edition (seventeenth one in 2008)

[zulchzulu]

It was the seventeenth Farmers Market Obama table for this year and was a very rainy day with people under umbrellas from all over the globe walking along and choosing from all kinds of locally grown, baked, crafted and political flavors. The Obama table is one feature to many at what the New York Times mentioned "The Dane County Farmers' Market in Wisconsin is now recognized as the largest in the nation, and is still growing."

The night before the tabling, I made sure the weekly war scorecard was updated and visible.

Here's this week's ever growing sad news:

Weekly War Scorecard

Cost of Iraq Occupation:
(running total):
$553,815,320,335
- $4,681 per household.
- $1,721 per person.
- $341.4 million per day

American Deaths:
4,155

American Wounded:
30,591

Iraqi Body Count:
1,373,955

As of September 13, 2008 at 12:00AM

Sources:
www.iraqbodycount.net
www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths....
www.defenselink.mil
www.antiwar.com/casualties
www.costofwar.com



As mentioned before, the Obama table goes on whether it's nice and sunny or dismally raining. Today, it rained all throughout the time we were out there. I set up a tent that gave ample room to do the table, since no other tables showed up until later in the day; the AARP table showed up for a while.

We had so many people coming up to discuss the race and Sarah Palin's performance with Charles Gibson (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNPGnZurs1k), while others talked about John McCain's performance on The View (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyQpmN-nH64). Some people had seen some of the new Obama ads (http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/gG53SH).



Some people were clearly upset by some of the polls and, believe it or not, Sarah Palin has made a lot of people want to contribute to the campaign and/or do work as volunteers with the campaign. That's the silver lining in Palin's appearance and choice by McCain. Mostly, I reiterated to people that, with 52 days until the election as of today's post, it is a street fight at this point. Why?

I had a sign that was very clear in asking people if they had gotten a McCain mailer that gave information on absentee voting that had Karl Rove's fingerprints all over them. A few people said that they had gotten the mailers and I took down names and asked them to leave the mailers off at the local Obama office. This story needs to get legs more than it does. It is classic voter disenfranchisement and it is a shame that the McCain people have tried to do this. Here's a little on this scandal that hopefully hits the airwaves more:

The state elections agency is investigating complaints about a massive campaign mailing Republican Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign has directed toward Wisconsin Democrats and other voters.

Each mailing includes at least one copy of the state application for an absentee ballot that has the address of a local clerk and a box for postage printed on the other side.

But in some cases, the incorrect clerk's address is printed on the application, leading some Democrats to wonder if the Arizona senator's campaign is deliberately trying to get them to apply for absentee ballots in places where they aren't eligible to vote.

"They're trying to knock me off the rolls," said Democrat Beverly Jambois, of Middleton. "I can't tell you how upsetting it is to me. This is how you win elections? By disenfranchising other voters?"

http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/304740

Like I said... it's now a street fight out here. There is no time to wait around for the story to get reported more. It's time to expose the McCain campaign and stain them with attempting to disenfranchise voters. This is not a Democratic issue... it's not a Republican issue. It is an American issue. Period.



What was fantastic about today was getting at least fifty or more people registered to vote. At a couple different points in the day, the tent was full of people filling out forms...people wanting to make sure they can vote and wanting to make a difference made me tear up a couple times... so many are first time voters. Again, I think Palin's candidacy has empowered people to want to make sure she and McCain don't get elected. This is a story widely unreported by the mainstream media. I've heard stories about how Obama offices have been very busy and even busier after people finally realized what the choice Palin means.



We're bound to have more rainy weather and it certainly is not going to atop us from being out there to sign people up to find out about the campaign, get people registered to vote and make sure to answer any questions on how to get involved and make a difference. It's no time to hesitate.

GOBAMA!

[FrenchieCat]

1. Sarah Palin is Polarizing......

she's pumped up our base as much if not more than she's pumped up theirs. That's what the 1 million for them versus the 10 million for us raised while she was speaking.

[zulchzulu]

7. I bet Palin has gotten even more people strongly for Obama that otherwise weren't "there yet"

Of course, the story is under the mainstream media's radar.

[annabanana]

2. Sounds like a good day in Madison!

Keep up the great work. How is Wisconsin leaning, from your perspective?

[zulchzulu]

4. Wisconsin will go for Obama, but we have our work cut out for us

There was a bounce for McCain recently and it's almost even. McCain and Palin have been here a couple times and I hope to go to one of the events with a BIG Obama presence.

We have a great ground game here and will pull it off...

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. On Wisconsin!

Love Madison--a really neat town. Thanks for sharing the pictures. I look forward to your weekly report.

[bluerum]

5. Thanks zulu. You are the bees knees.

[rzemanfl]

6. Well, I won't have to ask my daughter how the weather is there.

That's familiar territory for me, although I have been living in Florida since 1996.

[zulchzulu]

9. Rainy and fortunately still in the 70's

That's not going to last long. I fully expect the last couple Obama tables here to have snow flurries since Farmers Almanac has predicted we're going to get 144 inches of the stuff this winter...

So how's Florida?

:hi:

[rzemanfl]

10. Warm and partly morans. n/t

[JimGinPA]

8. Hmmm... Is This The Seventeenth Time...

I've K&R'd one of these reports?

Thanks again for what you do.

[zulchzulu]

12. I hope PA efforts are rocking!

Thanks for checking it out... more to come... all the way to the last weekend before the election.

[damndude]

11. kick