Wow... Long Time

It's been a long time since I last posted to this blog.  That means that this blog is dead.  I'm done blogging, for now.  Thanks for reading.

We Havn't Won. Yet.

TOP 5 REASONS OBAMA SUPPORTERS SHOULDN'T REST EASY

1. The polls may be wrong. This is an unprecedented election. No one knows how racism may affect what voters tell pollsters—or what they do in the voting booth. And the polls are narrowing anyway. In the last few days, John McCain has gained ground in most national polls, as his campaign has gone even more negative.

2. Dirty tricks. Republicans are already illegally purging voters from the rolls in some states. They're whipping up hysteria over ACORN to justify more challenges to new voters. Misleading flyers about the voting process have started appearing in black neighborhoods. And of course, many counties still use unsecure voting machines.

3. October surprise. In politics, 15 days is a long time. The next McCain smear could dominate the news for a week. There could be a crisis with Iran, or Bin Laden could release another tape, or worse.

4. Those who forget history... In 2000, Al Gore won the popular vote after trailing by seven points in the final days of the race. In 1980, Reagan was eight points down in the polls in late October and came back to win. Races can shift—fast!

5. Landslide. Even with Barack Obama in the White House, passing universal health care and a new clean-energy policy is going to be hard. Insurance, drug and oil companies will fight us every step of the way. We need the kind of landslide that will give Barack a huge mandate.

If you agree that we shouldn't rest easy, please sign up to volunteer at your local Obama office by clicking here:

http://pol.moveon.org/obama/office.html?source=blog&id=14534-7834543-PWWseDx&t=1

MoveOn.org sent this.  I think it's totally correct. 

Political News for 2008-09-11

Well, not much news.  Sarah Palin was never a member of the Alaska Independent Party.

I quote:

"She was never a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a group that wants Alaskans to vote on whether they wish to secede from the United States. She’s been registered as a Republican since May 1982."
~FactCheck


However:


"The party's chair originally told reporters that Palin had been a member, but the official later retracted that statement. Chairwoman Lynette Clark told the New York Times that false information had been given to her by another member of the party after she first told the Times and others that Palin joined the AIP in 1994. Clark issued an apology on the AIP Web site.

The director of Alaska’s Division of Elections, Gail Fenumiai, confirms that Palin registered to vote in the state for the first time in May 1982 as a Republican and hasn’t changed her party affiliation since. She also told FactCheck.org that Palin’s husband, Todd, was registered with AIP from October 1995 to July 2000, and again from September 2000 until July 2002. (He has since been registered as undeclared.) However, the AIP says Todd Palin "never participated in any party activities aside from attending a convention in Wasilla at one time."

There is still some dispute as to whether Sarah Palin also attended the AIP’s 1994 convention, held in Wasilla. Clark and another AIP official told ABC News’ Jake Tapper that both Palins were there. Palin was elected mayor of Wasilla two years later. The McCain campaign says Sarah Palin went to the 2000 AIP convention, also held in Wasilla, “as a courtesy since she was mayor.” As governor, Palin sent a video message to the 2008 convention, which is available on YouTube, and the AIP says she attended in 2006 when she was campaigning."


Therefore, it was indeed a "WikiFact" (an unconfirmed wikipedia item) ((CC) Noah Coolidge).
I want to draw attention to today.  It's the 7th anniversary of 9/11.
One more thing from FactCheck:


http://www.factcheck.org/just-the-facts/the_partys_over.html

LTC #3: Public Dialogue and Debates Focus: VP/Election News

We're in the heart of this election.  What do you think?  Did you watch the Democratic convention?  Will you watch the Republican one?

What do you think of Biden?  Palin?  "Childgate"/"Troopergate"?

I'll give my opinions, but I need yours, too!

I have a few references that I like that I think you will too.  They're both pollsters, but get different results.  Check them out:

http://fivethirtyeight.com/ - Made by a Baseball statistician.  Read the methodology.

http://electoral-vote.com/ - Just a collection of polls.  Very interesting (and good) analysis.

An interesting "WikiFact" ((C) Noah Coolidge 2008) that I just found on Wikipedia:  Sarah Palin was, durring the 1990's, a member of a secessionist party.  The party, the Alaskan Independence Party, hopes to withdraw Alaska from statehood.

After further research, I found that similar efforts are underway in New Hampshire, Vermont, New England, California, South Carolina, Texas, and Hawaii.  Several towns and counties also have similar questions.  Apparently, nullification is still an issue!  I wonder where Obama is on this...  (Hawaii is where he was born.)  Mostly, libertarians and conservatives want independence.

Convention News and Other Updates

Sorry for the long wait:

I've been working on my web site, http://noahcoolidge.com/

GGP malls is sponcering a campagin to get teens involved in politics. Click the title to go to the "UR VOTE COUNTS" web site. There's prizes and information for you if you are interested in that. They asked me to tell you about this a while back and I just found the email. Hopefully you can still participate.

This blog will be moving to the noahcoolidge.com blog at some point, but for now it will remain here.

I hope you will watch the Conventions, especialy yours. But it's a very good debating skill to "know your enemy." So watch both, and take the talking points to friends of the other persuation.

On a personal note, I'm starting high school. If you are at this age, wearing a pin or sticker for your candidate is a good idea. You can get Obama ones FREE or CHEAP from MoveOn.org.

The election is getting closer. Personaly, I think Obama will still have the edge.

The "Watch on YouTube" List:
Ted Kennedy
Michell Obama
Hillary Clinton
Steven Speilburg Video (in tribute)
John Kerry
Joe Biden (in a few minutes)
Barrack Obama (tomorrow)

More coming soon. The list will be updated.

Free Obama Button (If that's who you support)

MoveOn.org is offering free Obama buttons.  Click the link above to get yours.

Liberal Teen Chats Episode 1: Obama VP: 2008-07-08

I'm launching LTC today. This will start as blog and become podcast later. Today's topic is Obama's VP.

Here's the notes for the podcast, to be recorded soon. Comment to be heard!

What makes a good VP:
The 3 E's:
• Experience: Should have some sort of political or foreign policy experience.
• Engagement: Should bring in a new constituency.
• Electoral Gain: Should improve odds in at least one state, preferably a whole region.

What makes a bad VP:
No substantial gain in polls or fundrasing, or loss in either category. Alienating a region is NOT the VP's job.

How important is the VP?
Relatively, but not as much as it is made out to be by the media and Internet, looking for good stories.

Election Analyisis

I want to just tell you something that I learned that interested me. I averaged the polls for the remaining states, and here are the results:
Clinton: 44.8%
Obama: 45.2%

Notes: I did not count polls before April 1, 2008 or Pennsylvania, which was projected for Clinton while I was doing this analysis.

These numbers are a little bit misleading, because a.) several states (2) were not included because they did not have polls that were recent enough; and b.) some states are several months away. Also, PR is not included, and it may have a major influence.

I may update these numbers as more polls come and more primaries come.

A note on Pennsylvania:
A majority is techinacaly a win, but it does not mean the most delegates.

Soon, I will do a electoral vote analysis of who won more electoral votes.

Wind

This is an essay I wrote last year.  My writing has improved since then, but it's still important.

Massachusetts has an annual 25 billion kilowatts of energy production by wind.   Increasing wind power would be beneficial to the economy and to the environment.  We can do this by approving the Cape Wind project.  Wind Power is very good.  We should use it whenever and wherever possible.

Wind power is unique.  We know this because it is one of the only forms of power that doesn’t require water or steam.  It works with wind turning a windmill, which cranks a generator.  This makes electricity.  It is basically the opposite of a fan.  A fan uses electricity to make wind, and a windmill uses wind to make electricity.  It is a very quick way to make electricity.  

However good wind is, some still say that it is not perfect.  People say that it’s big and ugly.  They also say that it only works in windy places, although most of the United States has enough.   Some even fear that it may harm birds.  However, many species of birds will die if climate change is large, and a few individual deaths are a lot better than the extinction of a species.  Some complain that it has a lower capacity than coal.  This is true, but wind has no pollution, and coal has lots of it.  These arguments against wind power are overwhelmed by the arguments for it.

Some are of the persuasion that that wind power is the best thing for us.  They say that there should be more of it.  There is no repeated investment after you buy the turbines, because, after all, wind is free!  Wind also has no possible end, and is there for wind power is a renewable sorce of energy.  Wind is five percent more efficient than coal.  Wind power also has no polution what so ever, meaning that wind power dosn't have any emitions of Carbon Dioxide.

We have a large demand for power.   In this day, place, and age, we need lots of electricity.  We need more renewabule energy to fight global warming.  We need more wind farms to be a succsesful and prosperus civilization, to prevent and fight climate change, and to take advantage of a worderful, free power source called wind power.  

Music and the Campaign

Again we have more editorial content, but I promise you it's good.

First Up, More videos:

You don't know your way around the Net if you havn't seen this yet.

And a Satire:

Now that I've lost my last bit of credibility, McCain looks like he's got the nomination tied up, but I'm still wondering about Mike Huckabee.  Looks far off, but he is winning some big winner take all states.

On the Democratic side, we are in a historical duel between Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton.  Sometimes I wonder how history will remember us.  In the Epilogue of my History textbook, there's about five paragraphs about the 2000 election.  Plus a whole section on 9/11.  The book was published in 2003.  Can't wait to read about 2008 in 11th grade!

Iowa and What It Means

Well, we're kicking off coverage of the 2008 elections.  Today we have videos:

Our endorsement, Barrack Obama, won in Iowa, as did Mike Huckabee, who is not our favorite, but will do.  As of this time, he didn't have any items on YouTube to post.

I think YouTube is doing us a huge favor, giving us these vids.   Thanks to the candidates for participating in YouChoose 2008.

By the way, we have an Obama group, @:  http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/PoliticsforTeenssupportsBarackObama

Dick Chaney

That video is from MoveOn.org, a group that has been very active about leaving Iraq, ect.
I think that it is yet another embarassing moment for Dick Chaney.

His impeachment bill in OpenCongress.org is constantly the most viewed page.
(H.Res. 333)

Some Cross-Promotion:
The new freeware blog is up. Last one!

Dick Cheney

OpenMass.org/OpenCongress.org : Great Resourses.

They take info from blogs and the mainstream media and show the text of bills; you have the ability to subscribe to RSS feeds for your Senators.


As OpenCongress.org says:

OpenCongress brings together official government data with news and blog coverage to give you the real story behind each bill.

This lets citizens lean about issues important to them. This is key to the democratic process.

Still in beta! Check them out.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Massachusets Anti-Gay Marridge Ammendment is 45-151.

On 06/14/07, the Massachusetts Legislature voted to not allow a ballot question to come on the 2008 ballot. The proposal is dead.


Editorial:


In the editor's opinion, this is a good thing. Gays and lesbians have as much right to marry as anyone dose.


Powered by ScribeFire.

Scratch Project Thingy

LGBT Familys

It is Gay Pride weekend in Boston.  That is when all the LGBT people have a big parade and rally.  I'm not going this year, but I have been many times in the past.  This is because I have lesbian moms...

I have been wondering for a while how many of my friends know that I have LGBT parents.  I expect most people have, but have forgotten.  COLAGE (Children Of Lesbians And Gays  Everywhere) is having a LGBT blogging day.  I have decided to participate to tell my friends.

That's right.  I made this blog post to tell my friends, and you know who you are, that I have gay parents.

I hope that you will continue to be my friend.

To blog readers:  I hope that you will continue to read this blog, and join me in endorsing Barrack Obama.

Videovets.org: Veterans Speak

I heard a simmilar thing on NPR.

Town Hall Meeting on Iraq

That's right, canidates on Iraq.
SIne Up Here:
http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/index.html?action_id=80&id=10158-4697167-thvRTv&t=3

Let's get some disscotion in the group. I'm the only member.
Join now.

Here's the MoveOn Headline:

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich, and Joe Biden will answer questions from MoveOn.org's 3.2 million members in the first of three unprecedented virtual town hall meetings. The topic: Iraq.

Darfur Genoside is a Real Problem

This is an essay I wrote for english class, and I wanted you to read it. It has been slightly modifiyed. I want you to read it because it is important to our campain. There will be more essays like this.


If there were genocide in which 400,000 people have been killed, would you want to send in peacekeepers? If there were 2 million refugees and displaced persons, would you want their villages rebuilt? What if this was in a region that is already unstable? Well, I don’t have the “what-ifs.” Such a place and situation exists. In the province of Darfur, Sudan, genocide is in progress. The world said, “never again,” after the Holocaust, Rwandan genocide, and every genocide, but we are seeing genocide of similar magnitude. At the present time, people are losing homes and being killed, and we are not doing anything about it. Currently, many Americans don't completely understand the conflict in Darfur.
While the conflict is far away, it is important to help and understand what is going on. It is, however, very hard to understand. The conflict in Darfur was started between rebel fighters who want independence because they feel that the government of Sudan isn’t giving them enough economic support. The government dispatched a group called the Janjaweed, a group of Arabic speaking African tribes, and they are fighting the rebels in the villages. “Janjaweed” means “devils on horseback.” One rebel group is the Sudanese Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/SLM). Another is the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). They fight for and are largely backed by Darfuri civilians, who are black Africans. The troops are teachers, cooks, woodworkers and tribal members who have taken up arms in defense of their villages. These villagers fight because they want to, not because they were drafted. The SLA is fighting the Arab government-backed group the Janjaweed. The national army fights along side of the Janjaweed. Together they kill, rape, and terrorize villagers. Some villagers run from their homes, to refugee and displaced-person camps.
At the refugee camps, refugees are living in conditions that are atrocious. There are 2 million people in refugee camps (in neighboring countries) and displaced persons camps (in Sudan). Some refer to both as refugee camps, even though there is a difference. In the camps, conditions are dire. People live on very slim rations, and there is very little clean water. The people in the camps have many bad diseases and malnutrition. More people die in the camps than are killed by the Janjaweed. There are people starving in refugee camps, but what are we, the international community, doing? You may be wondering how you can help. And there is much anyone can do.
This country, the US, is deferring on the problems in Darfur. These problems are urgent, and cannot wait. There are many things we can do to help stop the genocide, and get active. One thing we can do is sign petitions to get the US and the UN to "act". To "act," we must send in peacekeepers from the AU, the UN, the US, and the EU. (The AU (African Union) already is on the ground.) We can also write letters to our president and representatives to join an international effort. One thing that they can do is to send a peacekeeping force from the UN. They could help to repair a deal, similar to the one of May 2006, which was broken when deadlines weren’t met. In addition, they should send in diplomats. You can help at http://savedarfur.org/, and click on the “sign the petition” button.
"There was a life, there was a tragedy." The daughter of a survivor said this quote about the Holocaust. It ends with "there was life again,” and there will be, but we must understand and act before it is to late to change course. To make the second part happen again, we must act now. We must make sure all our friends and family understand this extremely tragic event. We must remember to tell our friends to help. We must help in the Central African Republic and Chad to prevent the conflict from spreading. If we get people to understand and act, we will stop genocide. Small action can make a difference. If you feel strongly about this, call congress, and be sure to mention your support of H.R. 180 and S. 831. Remember, inaction is supporting the genocide. We cannot be silent.