What's your flava?

Ben & Jerry's created the "Yes Pecan!" ice cream flavor for Obama.

For George W.'s flavor they asked for suggestions from the public.

Here are some of their favorite responses:
- Grape Depression
- The Housing Crunch
- Abu Grape
- Cluster Fudge
- Nut'n Accomplished
- Good Riddance You Lousy Mother******... Swirl
- Iraqi Road
- Chock 'n Awe
- WireTapioca
- Impeach Cobbler
- Guantanmallow
- imPeachmint
- Heck of a Job, Brownie!
- Neocon Politan
- RockyRoad to Fascism
- The Reese's-cession
- Cookie D'oh!
- Nougular Proliferation
- Death by Chocolate... and Torture
- Freedom Vanilla Ice Cream
- Chocolate Chip On My Shoulder
- Credit Crunch
- Mission Pecanplished
- Country Pumpkin
- Chunky Monkey in Chief
- WMDelicious
- Chocolate Chimp
- Bloody Sundae
- Caramel Preemptive Stripe
- I broke the law and am responsible for the deaths of thousands . . . with nuts

My Barack Obama

Seems like everyone wants a piece of our Prez-to-be, if you happened to miss this during the campaign cycle, please do check it out now, super cool site that lets you discuss, dress,watch and connect with other like-minded locals. Of the many posted on the site, this was one of my favorite videos-

Yes Pecan!

I <3 Ben & Jerry's ice cream, not only for their TDF delicious frozen treats but also for the fact that they are so incredibly socially conscious! From their push to use ingredients from small farms to their raising awareness of Global Warming, this time B&J has outdone itself with their Yes PEcan! flavor...mmmmm!

Yes Pecan!

Slacker Tour

My parents have discovered Netflicks and as a result they've gone to town with the liberal-leaning documentaries. The latest we enjoyed (while slurping down some of Mom's amazing Matzo ball soup) was Michael Moore's "Slacker Uprising". I missed this flick the first time round as I was studying abroad in France during the 2004 elections, so I'd been unaware of the call-to-action Moore had pursued. I'll admit that my generation has always been incredibly apathetic, so I thought Uprising's premise was a hoot! Moore toured college campuses across America prior to the 2004 election, promising clean undies and ramen noodles to students previously "too lazy" to vote! While several Republicans tried to claim this was a form of bribery (I mean who wouldn't want clean undies and some delicious Ramen) Moore persevered and motivated students to head to the polls to try to get Bush outta the WH. Unfortunately even promises of fresh tighty-whiteys wasn't enough...

What I also found very interesting was noting the differences in campaign styles from 2004 til today.

Message to Sarah Palin

Not to continue to kick a dead horse, but because of a close personal connection to the makers of this video, I had to make sure it was posted. While I'd love to shout from the mountain tops my thanks, the producers chose to remain anonymous to the public. And after what I saw from anti-Obama folks in Appalachia, I don't blame them. People can get pretty aggressive, especially when confronted with a video that so aggressively denounced the GOP VP pick. Thankfully we can breath a sign of relief that Sarah Palin is once again no where near Washington.

Green Festival DC

So my favorite faux-hippie friend Morgen invited me to work with her at the District's "Green Festival". The Green Fest was a joint venture between Global Exchange and Co-Op America that featured green/sustainable vendors who ran the gamut from eco-conscious products and apparel to green services and publications. Morgen's the marketing director for one of the Green Fest's main sponsors, Plenty Magazine. Plenty is the leading sustainable lifestyle mag, that basically offers tips and ideas on simple ways to make your everyday life greener. (Yes, that was pretty much the pitch I gave to prospective Plenty subscribers too!) I worked along side Morgen and Kate (another friend who likes helping save the planet), chatting with tons of festival attendees from dread-locked college kids to yuppie mothers tightly snuggling their organically-attired children in hemp-woven kid-carriers. We had a pretty kickin', and was even better when we discovered that Plenty's publisher had mistakenly sent us copies of Southern Lady Magazine instead of extra copies of our journal. Just try pawning that off on eco-conscious liberals! (I got laughed at!) Cliff bar was there giving away samples of their yummy peanut better bars, (those def got me through the day), and Kashi was handing out their cereal (a personal fav of mine). Naturally, solar-powered solutions were there in abundance, as well as all kinds of herbal skin care solutions, and organic vegetarian cuisine. (I am not convinced Kate was actually satisfied after her "tempeh Southern BBQ platter". All I was surprised and delighted at the high turn out of "greenies" in DC.

YES WE CAN!

"I'm so happy that I can't stop crying!" We got the news via text that Ohio had gone blue en route to a watch party with fellow campaigners in Zanesville, OH! It wasn't too long after that Obama clinched it!



Thank you to all who texted, posted, emailed and called; November 4th was such an amazing evening! I don't think I realized the gravity of Obama's election until now. After 8 long years, once again, I am finally proud to be an American!

Yes We Can!

Words clearly cannot even describe how incredible the campaign experience has been, take a peek at my picts from the week in Appalachia to see just how amazing it all was...Team Hope & Change! YES WE CAN!

GAME DAY!

Ok just to fill you in from the past 2 days:





1. I woke up Sunday morning shocked and delighted at the sprawling view from Sherri's home. (Sherri, head of the Harrison County Dems hosted all of us out-of-town volunteers at her place about 15 minutes out of town.) We pulled ourselves out of bed, and I threw on (the same) clothes as the day before and we hit the road, heading to Vickie's Place, the only other non-hospital-cafeteria option for breakfast.














It wasn't all that surprising that when we walked into Vickie's,


all heads swiveled (some in disgust) to check out team Obama cruising into their local establishment. Luckily, Jared was already on a first-name basis with the cute-for-a-small-town-I'm 22-with 2-kids waitress, so he knew we weren't likely to run into any trouble during breakfast. And, we were able to score omelette's, toast, bacon and potatoes for $4. No lie, including coffee. Amazing, coming from uber-yuppie Northern California, I didn't think these places existed. oh, and it was decent food too!




Post breakfast it was time to roll out campaign strategy for the day. We were still to knock doors and discuss policy and politics with local residents to try and gage support for Obama. While my first day canvassing was spent solo, Sunday, I was assigned a partner..."Crow". Crow is a 68 year old retired minor, former Vietnam Vet and fervent Obama supporter. Having grown up and spent his whole life (minus his stint in the jungle) in Cadiz township, Crow was personally affronted by the recklessness of the Bush administration. Interestingly enough, Crow was disgusted by their complete disregard for the Geneva Convention, having spent time in 'Nam he felt personally disrespected by the administration's endorsement of torture. Before we set off, Jared simply told me Crow had been a big supporter and canvasser for them, and that he and I would be covering some of the more remote parts of Harrison County.



So it goes, I grabbed my bag of Obama lit and Crow and I set-off in his pick-up.



We careened across town, stopping according to our lists; at each house Crow knew either the current inhabitants, their parents, the former owners and/or their mother/brother/grandfather. Needless to say, had I tried to go out on my own, I would not have been nearly as well received, Crow's presence pretty much legitimized mine. He would launch into his shtick asking people if they were happy with what had happened to America these past 8 years and more often than not, people would listen to his arguments for Obama. (And the few people who didn't listen made it clear immediately that we were not welcome.) We went door-to-door and even headed down to the County Home, where a 96-year-old resident informed us she had in fact already voted...for Ronald Regan. Oops!







Crow and I had gone to two houses when he asked if I minded if he had a lil' drink, I said of course I didn't mind and with that he immediately cracked a camo-covered (the entire can is camouflage) Busch beer and took the entire thing down in less than 20 seconds. No joke. As the day wore on (I was now driving his truck), Crow's stories got a little wilder. A particular favorite was when he pointed out a house in downtown Jewett and informed me that when he was 17 he and his girlfriend used to have "get crazy" outside on "that porch right there. Dang it!" But he was far and away the best dang Obama man we had in Cadiz!

My Day with Crow felt like a whirl on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, so the next day I was paired with a mellower canvasser, one of Jared's Dartmouth buddies, Mark, who was as unfamiliar with the landscape as I. we cruised out to these towns listening to some solid jams and in disbelief at the total devastation of some of these little towns. I think the highlight of that day was helping this tiny, blue-haired old lady with her groceries and having her inform me that she was proud of us kids for coming all the way out to see her, and that she was voting for Obama; she liked his big ears. Amazing!


Ok so to get up-to-speed, and I really do wish I had more time to "real-time" blog today, but the team's been up and out canvassing since early this morning. Today's strategy is to simply get out and ask people whether or not they've voted today. Those people we're contacting were previously identified by our system as people who are most likely voting for Obama, so our job will be to make sure those people actually get to the polls.


Over and out until later....

Later it is...polls are closing down, we just drove an 87 year old woman to the polls to get her vote! There's no where public (ie a bar) in Cadiz where we'll be able to comfortably watch the elections so all of us are piling into cars and driving to a watch party in Zanesville to meet up with fellow Obama folk - that's all for now- my heart's in my throat. All we can do is wait for Hope and Change!

Cadiz, Ohio

So I literally boarded a plane at the crack of Dawn Saturday morning knowing only that my buddy Jared was (hopefully) meeting me at the Pittsburgh airport, that I was told to bring comfortable shoes and that I would have a bed to sleep in.
That being said, I arrived bright, early and only mildly suffering from last night's festivities, ( a special thank you to our new friends out in Arlington for their amazing Halloween festivities last night).
I was promptly picked up by our other fearless leader, Carter, a former Navy Seal turned Obama Campaign worker, and we headed directly out to the Cadiz, Ohio campaign headquarters.
The Obama headquarters, run by my buddy Jared and Carter, are located smack in the middle of this one-horse town. Cadiz has clearly suffered throughout the past (I'd love just say 8 years) but I think it goes way beyond that. The local industry is mining, and factory closures, lay-offs and housing foreclosures have plagued Harrison County for years.
Before round one of canvassing, we needed to get lunch, so, we headed to the best lunch-restaurant in town: the local hospital cafeteria. I am not kidding. Despite the nice looking, chunky steak and potato stew, I opted for a crispy, buttery grilled cheese (straight up American on Wonder)!

After our refueling stop, I was given a list addresses in the nearby area to canvass. I was instructed to knock on doors and politely inquire whether or not the inhabitant was leaning towards voting for our candidate. It was then my duty to answer questions. No, Senator Obama is NOT a Muslim, Socialist, terrorist. I quelled fears. He will NOT take away your semi-automatic weapons. Note: I was not allowed to ask why they had semi-automatic assault weapons, and/or congratulate said person on their incredibly intelligent and fantastic choice for POTUS! yay!

Around 4 that afternoon, Jared took Sandy (a fellow Bay Area native) and I to the "Pig Roast" hosted by the Harrison County Democrats and attended by Congressman Zack Space, Senator Sherrod Brown, Governor Ted Strickland and former Senator and Astronaut, John Glenn. The men all gave fiery speeches, rallying support for Senator Obama. Gov. Strickland's hand shake left a lasting impression, he really has mastered the grasp-your hand-grip-your-shoulder-make-you-feel-important move. I frankly was most impressed with former Senator John Glenn who at 87 came out cracking jokes, telling stories and generally inspiring all in attendance with anecdotes from his time in the Senate and as an astronaut. The politicos were on a tight schedule, so after a quick round of photo's they all popped right back into their campaign trail RVs and hit the road. Leaving me to try to hit-up those still awe-struck by the speeches to come volunteer at the office the next day.





The final highlight of day one came over late-night left-over pulled pork (from the Democratic pig-roast) sandwiches, potato salad and green bean casserole, when all of us jumped on a conference call with nearly 20,000 other Obama volunteers to listen to a few words of encouragement from the man himself! Yes, I personally took a call from Senator Obama! Bliss!!