No spring break plans?

I got this message in my Facebook inbox from Steve Pontoni, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party Youth Caucus:

Messages from both campaigns:

From Hillary Clinton for President

We need you to be a part of Hillary's historic campaign for President. The Ohio Primary is NEXT TUESDAY and Hillary needs our help on the ground across Ohio to help Get Out The Vote (GOTV), this weekend and on primary day, March 4th. Senator Clinton is depending on us to get involved in her grassroots organization in Ohio.

Whether you can talk to voters, knock on doors, drive people to the polls or jump and cheer for Hillary on the streets, we need you in Ohio. No experience is necessary. This is our chance to put a candidate in the White House who has the strength, experience, and compassion to create the change and real solutions we need.

If you’re interested in helping to make history, and electing Hillary to the White House, we’d love to have your help!

Please contact:

Sari Bourne
Ohio Out-Of-State Volunteer Coordinator
Hillary Clinton for President
973.752.8918 cell

sbourne@hillaryclinton.com


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From Barack Obama For President

Youth Caucus Member Kerry Ebersole is in Ohio and looking for help with Obama GOTV work this weekend. If you are able to help, call her at (248) 822-5145 or email her at kerry_ebersole@mac.com.

She is looking for help in these areas:

Cleveland
815 Superior Avenue, Suite 100, 44114
Lauren Kidwell, GOTV Regional Coordinator

Cincinnati
1524 Madison Road, 45206
Tripp Wellde III, GOTV Regional Coordinator

Akron/Canton
680 East Market Street, 44304
Mehdi Alhassani, GOTV Regional Coordinator
Joe Cupka, GOTV Regional Coordinator

Columbus
189 East Rich Street, 43215
Seth London, GOTV Regional Coordinator

"I've been down here in Columbus for a couple of days, and the energy is amazing!! Let me know if you can help!!" - Kerry Ebersole.

How Republicans prove their (lack of) patriotism

Here's a snark piece from Daily Kos:

1. Being accused of sexual misconduct (so long as you are a Republican) and criticizing others of sexual misconduct (so long as you are a Republican and the "others" are Democrats).

2. Avoiding military service.

3. Campaigning for your father when he is running for President. Like Mitt Romney said, his sons are fighting the War in Iraq and fighting terrorists by helping Willard try to become President. What could be more patriotic than that?

4. Blindly supporting a war that has made America weaker and more vulnerable, killed thousands of Americans, destroyed hundreds of thousands of American lives and killed tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis.

5. Attacking the miltary service of Americans if those Americans have the gall to run for political office as a Democrat.

6. Helping rich people get richer.

7. Talking about Jesus but failing to follow his examples.

8. Divorcing your wife and marrying your girlfriend shortly thereafter. Did you hear that Mr. McCain and Mr. Gingrich?

9. Hating brown, black, olive and other "different" people--except for those "different" individuals who actually embrace everything Republican including the self-hatred of "different" people. Did you hear that Michelle Malkin? (Qualifier: the aforementioned exception does not apply to gay people. Gays are simply too different to be included with the other "different" people above. I mean, even the "different" people do not deserve to be lumped in with the gays.)

10. Always trusting government officials in everything they do (so long as those officials are Republicans) and never trusting government officials in anything they do (so long as those officials are Democrats).

Texas students walk 7.3 miles to protest early-voting decision

Now this is what I call a protest:

Early voting starts today in Texas. In Waller County, a primarily rural county about 60 miles outside Houston, the county made the decision to offer only one early voting location: at the County Courthouse in Hempstead, TX, the county seat.

Prairie View A&M students organized to protest the decision, because they felt it hindered their ability to vote. For background, Prairie View A&M is one of Texas' historically Black universities. It has a very different demographic feel than the rest of the county. There has been a long history of dispute over what the students feel is disenfranchisement. There was a lot of outrage in 2006, when students felt they were unfairly denied the right to vote when their registrations somehow did not get processed.

...

1000 students, along with an additional 1000 friends and supporters, are this morning walking the 7.3 miles between Prairie View and Hempstead in order to vote today. According to the piece I saw on the news (there's no video up, so I can't link to it), the students plan to all vote today. There are only 2 machines available at the courthouse for early voting, so they hope to tie them up all day and into the night

Okay, so it's not quite like the Vietnam protests of 40 years ago, but I'm not so sure my 20-year-old body has the stamina for that!

What a lovely couple!

A problem most campaigns wouldn't mind having

Home page of BarackObama.com, 12:30 AM, February 13, 2008:



"Thanks to your overwhelming support, our servers are a bit overwhelmed right now."

Yes, it was another sweep for Barack, this time in DC, Maryland, and Virginia. McCain also won all three. Later on (probably after work Wednesday afternoon) I'll update this post with the latest delegate totals.

Weekend primary wrap-up

It looks like Barack's gonna end up 4 for 4 in this weekend's contests (Maine results here).

So the momentum is on Obama's side... but the delegate race is still very close.

The current count, shown on the right, includes pledged delegates to the Democratic National Convention. When you factor the unpledged delegates, Barack Obama leads 1134-1131. Considering that Edwards has not released the 26 delegates he got before he dropped out - that is, they're still committed to vote for him - the candidates can claim a total of 2,291 delegates.

That gives Obama 49.5% of the delegate vote, Hillary 49.4%, and Edwards 1.1%. And in order to win the nomination, a candidate must have 50% +1.

Incidentally, Hillary has replaced her campaign manager.

Now, as for the Republicans: Runaway for McCain, right? Eh, maybe not. Because while McCain still leads the delegate count by a wide margin, Huckabee went 2 for 3 in Saturday's primaries. I have a feeling that with Romney out, conservative voters who think McCain's too liberal will unite behind Huckabee. (And surely some of them voted absentee for Romney before he dropped out.)

Still, the smart money is on McCain, and as long as many independent voters feel that he will be the presumptive nominee for the Republicans, they will opt to vote in the more competitive Democratic primary, benefiting Obama.

Unless Romney flip-flops and gets back in the race soon - which I'm not sure I'd be all that surprised to see.

Oh, and by the way: Yesterday was the day Michigan Democrats were originally scheduled to hold their caucus. Ironic, isn't it? The majority of the MDP leadership wanted to hold it on January 15 because they figured it would give us more influence. Alas, Michigan would've been the most populous state to have held a contest this weekend if they'd stuck with February 9, meaning we would've had a great deal of influence and attention - and the certainty of knowing our delegates would be seated in Denver.

Romney drops out; McCain is our bitch

From Yahoo! News:

Mitt Romney suspended his faltering presidential campaign on Thursday, effectively sealing the Republican presidential nomination for John McCain. "I must now stand aside, for our party and our country," Romney told conservatives.

This is kinda good, kinda bad. Bad because McCain is seen as a maverick (he isn't), bipartisan (he isn't) and polls well against Barack Hussein and Hillary Rodham. Good because it gives a target to start taking shots at from now until November, and also because his maverick image is a lot easier to break than Romney's conservative image would be ("bomb bomb bomb Iran"? Easy as pie).

Even though we college Democrats at CMU have failed to pinpoint a specific candidate we'd like to endorse, we at least now have a common enemy. Let's take this dude down!

Why I am running for MFCD President

On Facebook: Scott Urbanowski for MFCD President

I am pleased to inform you that I am running for President of the Michigan Federation of College Democrats.

Among other things, a group like MFCD ought to serve as a medium for collaboration amongst chapters and as a forum for ideas from College Democrats across the state.

MFCD must also support College Democrats chapters across the state in their efforts to engage students on their campuses, as well as provide information on internships, events, and other opportunities for interested students.

Unfortunately, MFCD has simply not been effective in recent years. I have heard people say that communication amongst MFCD officers, much less between the MFCD board and chapters, has been mediocre at best. Because of this, MFCD is in a rut; it is not helping chapters or connecting College Democrats with opportunities to get involved.

We cannot accept this status quo, especially with a critical election coming this November.

MFCD desperately needs leadership dedicated to not only solving its problems, but making sure College Democrats across the state are armed with the tools to do the hard work that needs to be done if our classmates, roommates, and friends are to support Democratic candidates and policies.

Which is why I am running for President of MFCD. We cannot simply wait for the right leadership to come along and do what needs to be done to make MFCD effective. We need to act now if we want MFCD to become a functioning organization that will help to shape the future of our communities, state, and country.

I am ready to take MFCD in a new direction. I am ready for MFCD to have an impact on our Party and our campuses. Join me, and let’s make MFCD effective.

Super Tuesday tonight!

Over 20 states (23, I believe) will be voting today to determine who will be the Democratic nominee for president. Michigan should have been included in these states, but alas, we are not -- no further comment on that topic. :)

This is how I see Super Tuesday:
If Clinton beats Obama by 100 delegates, but especially 150, Obama is toast.
If Obama ties Clinton or trails her by less than, I'd say, 75 delegates, Obama is our nominee -- the post-Super Tuesday schedule is extremely favorable to him.

Remember that none of the Democratic Super Tuesday states are winner-take-all. Both candidates will get some delegates, no matter what. This does indeed make me a hypocrite.

Let's also remember, in terms of pushing progressive policy, it's really the Congress that counts. So even if your candidate doesn't win tonight, know that the real battle is in the nitty-gritty of the Congressional races.
For more, frequent OpenLeft.

Don't believe the pundits when they say whoever wins California wins Super Tuesday -- that's a ridiculous assertion. If Obama wins California, I will shit a brick and bring it to the next general meeting. I call California for Clinton.

I will update this post regularly as results start to come out (which will start at 7:00 EST, the west coast polls close at 10:00 EST). Whoever you like for president, cheer them on!

Barack Hussein Obama grabs:
Georgia
Illinois
Delaware
Alabama
Kansas
Idaho (currently at 81%, whoa)
Connecticut
Minnesota
North Dakota
Utah
Alaska
Colorado
Missouri

Hillary Rodham Clinton wins:
New York
Arkansas
Tennessee
Oklahoma
Massachusetts (ouch to Obama)
New Jersey
California
American Samoa (wtf?)
New Mexico (despite the delegates probably being split 13-13)

Number 100!

After a little over a year in existence, Blue Chips has finally reached its 100-post milestone! To celebrate, here are a few news items of interest.

We won the College Democrats vs. Republicans Blood Challenge! 55 people supported the Democrats, while 50 supported the Republicans. Of course, the real winners are those whose lives are saved by these donations. Thanks to all who donated and volunteered!

Why go to Lansing to meet state lawmakers when you can meet some here? The Michigan Legislative Black Caucus will be coming to Park Library from 4:30-6 this coming Wednesday.

The goal of the session is to create strategies for ensuring a welcoming atmosphere for people from all ethnic backgrounds and nationalities. CMU's Office for Institutional Diversity, the President's Office, and Government Relations and Public Affairs are sponsoring the event, which is free and open to the public.

On a related note, check out this schedule of events celebrating Black History Month.

And finally, what can CMU do to help the environment? An expert on sustainability came to CMU; here's CM-Life's wrapup of it. I strongly recommend the website referenced in the article, myfootprint.org.

The State of the State

Governor Granholm delivered her sixth State of the State Address on Tuesday. Among the topics she covered were:

Jobs and renewable energy:

To understand the connection between renewable energy and jobs, just look at Sweden - a country with striking resemblances to our state: the same size population, similar geography with two-thirds of their land covered by forests, a strong automotive sector. Sweden set high goals for their use of renewable energy. The result? They created over 2,000 businesses and 400,000 jobs in their renewable energy sector. 400,000 jobs!

Higher education:

As much as we want our students to succeed in our K-12 schools, we also want them to succeed in college. Unfortunately, far too many of our students enter college but don't graduate. The higher education budget I propose will take aim at that problem by rewarding colleges and universities when their students complete degrees. We'll also reward them when they create opportunity for low-income students, and when they find ways to turn research ideas into businesses. We will invest more in higher education and we will expect more in return.

Public safety:

In my budget, by adding 100 new state troopers, we'll be able to expand our partnerships with local law enforcement in high crime areas. Since MSP's partnership with Flint law enforcement began, homicides have dropped a whopping 46 percent in that community. Tonight, I am offering to expand this same partnership to our highest crime areas.

Healthcare:

But there is more to do. Today, every insured family pays more when uninsured families are forced to get basic health care in an expensive emergency room. When everyone has access to affordable healthcare, healthcare will become more affordable for everyone. We have asked for federal support for our Michigan First Health Care Plan to expand coverage to the uninsured in Michigan and haven't gotten it. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that as the administration in Washington prepares to leave office, they are unwilling to support states, including Michigan, in providing care for those who need it.

Here is the video from WKAR (you'll need RealPlayer).