POLITICS OF THE ABSURD

I’m truly baffled by anyone who can support this president. I’m not talking about the Republican party itself — although I don’t agree with most of their platform, I don’t think all Republicans are evil — but specifically this President. Sure, he can make fun of his verbal gaffes all he likes in a self-deprecating portion of his convention speech, but really, aren’t they more serious than something to simply toss-off. What if one of his small gaffes comes up while he’s speaking off-the-cuff without the words in front of him to another world leader? What if somehow he actually manages to improve Israeli-Palestinian relations and has a little slip while negotiating a treaty — one that utterly offends one side or the other? You don’t think it can happen? The smallest things seem to throw such long, drawn-out negotiations down the tubes.

Today Dubya was at it again. I heard this on Howard Stern this morning; I was reminded of it while reading Daily Kos: “Too many OB-GYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women all across this country.” Of course, he was giving a speech about cracking down on frivolous lawsuits; instead he seemed to comment on how tragic it is that gynecologists aren’t aloud to molest more patients. Nice.

Meanwhile, VP Cheney is throwing forward another scare tactic coming right out to say that if Kerry is elected in November, the US will suffer another devastating terrorist attack, and therefore implying that if Bush is reelected, we won’t. Here’s what he said: “It’s absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we’ll get hit again and we’ll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States.” (Via Talking Points Memo)

I have a very basic premise when it comes to my own voting: regardless of party, do I think an incumbent is doing a good job? Bush has been awful, and not just on Iraq. Everything he promised during his convention speech was basically a repeat of everything he planned to do four years ago, and not one thing has been completed. Those initiatives that have been undertaken have either failed or been underfinanced. We are a divided nation as evidenced by the thousands inside Madison Square Garden who utterly disagree with the thousands who were outside. Saying that we’re “one America” is just closing eyes to those millions who disagree. But sadly, we’re in a country where all politicians seem to try to win and represent 51% of the vote rather than actually talk to and lead all the people.

It’s time for all of us to do what we can to help. In New York or California, some of us feel a bit hopeless because we can’t donate thousands of dollars and to an extent our vote doesn’t count since our states will likely go to Kerry easily. The absurdity of the electoral college system and its winner-takes-all attitude will not be changed this cycle, or anytime in the near future probably. I give major props to my cousin David who just days after proposing to his now fiancee, picked-up stakes from his Northern California roots to move to Arizona to work for the Kerry campaign, on site, in a swing state. He’ll be there until November 2.

Today a friend forwarded me an email about a way for those of us not in swing states to devote our time and energy to helping those on location in the tougher areas by doing some data entry. The people organizing it is calling it “Insourcing,” rather than the outsourcing of jobs we’ve heard so much about recently in the news. If you want to involve or think you can help, just reply to the email address included in the text of the email, which you can find after the jump.

—–Original Message—–
From: Russell Miller
Sent: Friday, September 03, 2004 12:30 PM
Subject: Help win Ohio without travel or checkwriting

Hi,

First–my apologies if you’ve received more than one copy of this note.
As you’ll see, I’m going for wide circulation:

You’re getting this because you’re sitting there not knowing what on
earth you’ll do if you wake up the day after Election Day and hear that
John Kerry is not going to be moving to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. (If
you’re looking forward to the news that the current occupant will have
his lease renewed, feel free to trash this e-mail.)

Maybe you’re also getting bulk mail from moveon.com and johnkerry.com
and ACT and the DNC, and you’ve sent off checks, and you¹re wearing
buttons and you live in a Kerry state anyhow, and you’re tired of
feeling like an ATM for every Democratic group in the land so what can
you do that will matter (besides vote, of course, to make sure it¹s a
Kerry state)?

Here’s what: Right now, in Ohio and other swing states, there are people
working the streets, knocking on doors, mobilizing progressive voters to
get out and turn themselves into the margin of victory on Election Day.
(No, you don’t have to go join them.) They are collecting names and
addresses and phone numbers and e-addresses. They will stay in touch
with these voters until the polls close, to make sure votes get cast.
They are amazing people working 24/7 living on stale donuts and bottled
water.

I just spent a weekend with a bunch of them in Columbus, Ohio. An
organization called Vote Mob is there, working to motivate voters 18-35
years old, who fall through the cracks of most political organizing.
Vote Mob folks have talked face to face with tens of thousands of
potential Kerry voters in Ohio, a state that Al Gore lost by a hair, a
state that George Bush absolutely must win to be re-elected. Vote Mob
is determined to keep that from happening.

Like I said, they’ve got thousands and thousands of names — on sheets
of paper. They need one thing. And we can provide it. We can provide
it without going to the cash machine, and we can provide without going
to Ohio.

They need data entry.

So here’s the plan. We all know how to use computers. We can enter the
data for them online. And we can have some fun doing it. Pizza,,
sushi, blintzes, cold noodles with sesame sauce, and the enter key.

We’ll either find a partner organization with a bunch of computers and
use their space one evening<or we'll set up a big wireless room where we
can all bring our laptops, log on, and fill Vote Mob¹s database for
them. We’ll bring friends and kids and make an evening of it. An hour
or two at a time, we¹ll do the back-office work that wins elections.

When corporations do this, they call it outsourcing. They send jobs to
little islands and big subcontinents where English-speaking people work
dirt cheap.

We can do it right here in the U.S.A., for free, as patriots,
progressives, and small-d democrats. We can insource, Or, call it
“distributed computing.”

This is a pre-invitation. There are a number of details to work out.
But we’d like to get going in New York City as soon as possible, because
the sooner Vote Mob has access to the names on all those sheets of
paper, the better.

If you think you’d like to join in, please answer the following
questions and send them to the e-address I’ve set up to get this
started:

insourcingdc@excite.com

In the subject line, please type “questions” followed by the
abbreviation for the state where you live (e.g. questionsNY questionsCA
questionCT etc.)

1. What’s your name?

2. Where do you live? (We¹re going to start in New York City, but if
this works, perhaps we can expand the model to other locations).

3. Do you have access to a laptop with wireless capability?

4. Do you have Microsoft Excel on your laptop? (we probably won¹t need
it, but just in case)

5. When would be good days/times for you to come to an Insourcing event
and help out?

6. Do you have kids (too young to enter data) whom you’d need/want to
bring? If so, how old are they? (We hope to have childcare.)

7. Are you interested in helping to coordinate/administer this project?

7a. Can you help find a big room with lots of computers in it that we
can use (evenings/weelemds)?

7b. Can you help us set up a wireless space?

7c. Can you help with event planning details?

7d. Can you help with child care?

8. How (from whom) did you hear about InsourcingDC?

One more thing: Please forward a copy of this letter to all your
patriotic, progressive, democratic e-mail pals and lists and address
books.

And please write to me at insourcingdc@excite.com if you have any
questions or comments.

Thanks for taking the time to read this,

Russell Miller (and whichever of your friends forwarded this note to
you!)

—— End of Forwarded Message