Just got back from Canvassing in West Chester, Pa

[JohnKleeb]

It was awesome. Plenty of people eager to support Kerry, shockingly a good amount of undecideds. A memorable experience this was and I think I was the youngest one of everyone.

[speedoo]

1. That's great news.

West Chester ought to be solid coWard territory.

[JohnKleeb]

4. We saw an equal number of Bush and Kerry signs

Nice little town and yeah it is Bush territory.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

2. I'm canvassing in NH tomorrow

I hope we get a lot of eager Kerry supporters.

[Kenergy]

3. Good job JK...thanks for the post!

[Dems Will Win]

5. We're bussing people from NY to PA

[JohnKleeb]

9. sweet

I worked with a New Yorker today.

[PCIntern]

6. It should always be remembered that West Chester

and its environs not all that many years ago had a liberal Congressman whose name I forget, but he was a single man, a minister, who has now gone on to head a prominent religious, anti-war group. I'm gettin' old - I had even contributed money in the early 80's....

Early Partzheimer's disease I remember some things and not others...Yeah that's it! Bob Edgar!!!

Kick save....

There's always potential for anti-* votes, no matter where you are...

[JohnKleeb]

7. Oh I would believe it

I have Pennsylvania history but its West Pennsylvania like Pittsburgh, Johnstown, you know Allegheny and Cambria counties, I dont know that area that well. They seemed like very nice people that said, isn't their rep now, umm Curt Weldon, I read that district went for Gore in 2000 and Weldon though sorta a hawk is relatively moderate for GOP.

[PCIntern]

11. Weldon is a schmuck who has convinced

the workers that he brings jobs to Boeing and is a real patriot.

He's not going anywhere in terms of losing any time soon.

[JohnKleeb]

12. Ive read that

Hope you guys got someone running good against him, we got a shmuck here in Virginia by the name of Frank Wolf, a 0 from the ACLU last time.

[PCIntern]

13. I dont' think we do...

some poor sacrificial lamb.

In the PA 8th, we had the only Repub Social Worker in the entire US as the Representative, but he stepped down so it's an open seat.

Hard to tell what's going to happen, but I'm pessimistic. Not a great area for us up there anymore...

[JohnKleeb]

14. Ahh I know who the 8th had, Jim Greenwood

one of the few liberal republicans on social issues out there. Well good luck, hope we can keep PA blue and maybe Virginia can turn blue too. A republican social worker that is pretty funny but there are republican union members you know, and that really gets me.

[PCIntern]

18. the problem with these social lib Repubs

is that they allow Delay and his brethren to run the House. They should have stood up for what they believed and forced a more reasonable leader to be chosen. But there's no patriotism, only self-interest. Delay threatened them, and they went along.

It will someday be determined that they did the Repub party much more harm than good. Even the Conservatives in Britain are saying this aobut us now - a good article in the WSJ op-ed the other day reminded me of this point...

[JohnKleeb]

21. of course and thats why even the most conservative dem

is practically better than the most liberal republican in the house and senate at least because at least the blue dogs will be supporting Kerry, but more moderate republicans like Davis will still be rabid Bush partisans, and Davis is the one who funds the money to beat our beloved dem reps across the country, something I think the dems who vote for him at home should think about it, hes not mine, Wolf is but Davis used to be.

[bbernardini]

8. Of course, it's Saturday, and college is in session...

It's quite possible they were drunk. :)

Actually, that's great to hear. I went to West Chester U. (in fact I'll be playing in West Chester at the Spence Cafe on Dec. 18). I live in Coatesville now.

[JohnKleeb]

10. haha

Really I knew little about this town, I was first gonna go to Harrisburg then to York, and then they changed it to West Chester. I would have prefered to gone more West Penn because well they're my kinda people, thats where my family lived before they moved south.

[WI_DEM]

15. Undecideds are good

that means we can still reach them and they usually break 2-1 for the challenger.

[JohnKleeb]

16. yeah I gave em fliers

and we got their info down.
Basically four questions was asked,
ya or anyone registered?
if so who ya leaning?
if they say or lean Kerry or are undecided then, well can we help with anything like getting people to the polls?
and then, what are some issues important to you, I would have been good at this, I know most of Kerry's views so I could have do a good compare and contrast.

[Dems Will Win]

17. How bout this flier?

Go to http://somnamblst.tripod.com /

Follow instructions on the site to print the .pdf FILE. The .gif is JUST A SAMPLE.

In May, the Seattle Post Intelligencer published an article about a document they received through the Freedom of Information Act. It was revealed that the SSS is currently “designing procedures” for the implementation of a “Skills Draft” after holding a top-level meeting on it with Deputy Undersecretaries at the Defense Department. This draft would change the very mission of the Selective Service and require “virtually every young American”, male and female ages 18-34, to register for the Skills Draft and list all the occupations they are proficient in to fill labor shortages throughout nearly the entire government.

Here, for the first time, is the FOI document itself:

http://blatanttruth.org/selective_service091304.pdf

This document is real, having been acknowledged by the DoD and the SSS when they said no action is being taken on it at the present time, as reported:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/171522_draft01.html

Although Congress would have to approve new legislation to create a Skills Draft or reinstate the combat draft, Family Circle reported in its July 13 issue that Karl Rove has polled GOP members of Congress in September 2002 to see if they would support the President if he requests reinstatement. The Republicans said they would vote for the draft.

In addition, the SSS itself has said that it is “designing procedures” (Seattle PI, May 1, 2004) to implement the skills draft, meaning designing the compliance cards and the data fields needed to keep track of “virtually every young American” and their skills. Acting Director of the SSS Brodsky has also said the Skills Draft is the “top priority” of the Selective Service for 2004. The Issue Paper options include:

- Allow a non-combat draft for shortages in critical skills, without calling a combat draft.

- Fill labor shortages of all kinds throughout not only DoD but the Dept. of Homeland Security and other agencies, especially high-paying professionals like computer networking specialist or linguist.

- Create a single-point, all-inclusive database, in which every young person would be forced to send in a “self-declaration” of all of their critical skills, chosen from a long list of occupations like the Armed Forces Specialty Code. The usual penalties of imprisonment and/or a $250,000 fine would apply to all non-registrants.

In the secret planning meeting document, the next steps strongly recommended by SSS Acting Director Brodsky were:

1. “Promptly” redefine the SSS Mission to draft men and women up to age 34 for skills, and deliver them within 90 days or sooner to the Department of Defense. Program a massive database to be ready to enter millions of names of those registering their critical skills.

2. Expand mission to deliver personnel in skills draft to the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies, including FEMA, NSC, Border Patrol, INS, Customs, Corporation for National Service, Public Health Service and other agencies.

3. Form interagency task force to provide Administration with recommendation on this skills draft for the entire government.

4. Obtain White House Statement of Administration Policy on the future of the SSS.

5. Be prepared to market the skills draft, raising the non-combat age to 34 and the drafting of women to the Armed Services and Appropriations Committee.

In contrast to this planning and preparation to create a targeted draft, Kerry plans to spend an additional $7 billion to strengthen the Volunteer Army in what is essentially a “No-Draft Plan”. Moreover, Kerry is strongly opposed to the neo-con plan revealed in Wes Clark’s book Winning Modern Wars, in which Clark was told by a senior Pentagon official that invasions of Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Sudan and Somalia were planned and still to come over the next three years.

DON'T FORGET TO USE THE .PDF NOT THE .GIF FILE.

BUSH '04 = DRAFT '05

KERRY '04 = PNAC OUT THE DOOR!

[JohnKleeb]

20. ooh how I'd like to have that

nah I had a Kerry-Edwards one.

[Rhiannon12866]

25. I was going to ask what exactly you did

but you already answered my question. Great job, John! The youngest, or not, they were really lucky to have you!
:yourock:

On edit: Here's a thread I started in Editorials. I posted this great article that pretty much sums up all Bush* has done wrong, when he had the chance to do so much that would have been good for the country, and he blew it. It has been pretty well-received and more than one person has said that they can use this information to persuade others to vote for Kerry and dump Bush*. I also have a question. How can there still be "undecideds?":crazy:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x73932

[Demi_Babe]

19. way to go

[Indiana_Dem]

22. I started canvassing for the first time in my precinct.

It is a targeted preceinct because there has been about 70-75% voter turnout and it has a large percentage of swing voters and is majority Dem. Here's what I accomplished today:

13 strong Dems
3 strong Republicans
13 Swing/Undecideds

13 not home but left material and my card and a letter introducing myself with contact info.

Registered 6: 3 new occupants (2 Dem, 1 Repub), 2 college students, 1 new Dem

3 absentee applications

Did I do Good!?!?!?

[DarthDem]

23. Absolutely

Great job! And thanks to the thread originator for the post about West Chester. It is the Chester County seat and Repuke territory to some extent, but West Chester is a college town with tons of young people.

[JohnKleeb]

24. So thats why I saw so many college kids at HQ

Lot of young people doing it, but we were in a family neighborhood, I knew little about this town while doing it, I know a little about Harrisburg and York but nothing about West Chester, as I said, I know the western part of the state best.