John Kerry event in Austin Saturday April 16

[NoPasaran]

Remember John Kerry? Tall feller, ran for president?

Word is he will be in Austin for a free town hall meeting next Saturday, April 16. Tentative time is 10:30 AM.

More details as they become available. Check http://www.austin4kerry.org/ for updates.

Come out and remind everyone that Austin is Blue!

[GOPisEvil]

1. Oh, so NOW he visits.

:P

I might have to check that out.

[sonias]

2. That was so last election

The new and improved strategy is the 50 state strategy. Hey it may be late in coming but we need to show that we can do our part too.

Sonia

[CoolOnion]

4. Just what I was thinking!

[NoPasaran]

3. Now with details!

This Saturday, April 16th, John Kerry will be speaking with students from the University of Texas Democrats at the Recreational Sports Gym on 21st Street. All are welcome but space is limited. The town hall meeting will begin at 10:30 a.m. and end at 11:30a.m. Senator Kerry will speak on his children’s insurance proposal the Kids Come First Act. Contact one of the University Democrats officers at www.udems.org to get ticket information.

http://www.burntorangereport.com/archives/003672.html

[sonias]

5. Thanks for the link NoPasaran

Let's make it even easier. Here's the sign up folks. Now go get your tickets.
http://www.johnkerry.com/events/041605_austin_form.php

Sonia

[Fleshdancer]

6. I'm very excited about this subject

I got the email this morning and am waiting on a call from my mom to see if she wants me to reserve a ticket for her too. This is the first I've heard about a Kids Come First Act...Goddess knows this country needs it. It didn't occur to me before, but approaching universal health care in steps is probably the best way to eventually achieve health care for everyone. Count me in.

[blm]

34. That's the shame of the media. It was part of his campaign but the media

would never discuss it even though he talked about it at every campaign rally and town hall meeting.

They were too busy giving credence to the SwiftLiars and hey, those gays wanna threaten your marriage.

[muse]

7. I'm going!

Can't wait!!!!!!!!

[NoPasaran]

8. You don't have to wear orange, but come early!

If I told you how many people have already signed up for this you would plotz.

[sonias]

9. Good sign that there's so much interest

How early? You think 9:30 (one hour early) is good enough, or do you think people will actually camp out?

Sonia

[NoPasaran]

10. I think the latest is that the doors open at 9

I would be there.

[Tree Hugger]

11. Looking forward to it.

Although I don't have any children, so I guess it's not terribly relevant. But I would like to brag to my sister that I got to see Senator Kerry.

Will this be a "town-hall" meeting where we can ask questions?

[sonias]

12. Supposedly so Tree Hugger

But with 1,500 people our chances of getting to a microphone may be slim.

Sonia

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

13. Is anyone planning on going from DFW?

I have signed up for two tickets (I can donate one; if no one needs it, I will take my husband with me) and would like to see if we can car pool or something...

[NoPasaran]

14. Here's the scoop on the location

This is being held at the UT Rec Center, which is at 20th and San Jacinto (one block north of MLK). Parking at UT can be difficult. There is a UT parking garage at MLK and Brazos... also there should be plenty of parking in the state lots south of MLK.

The doors are supposed to open at 9:30. Let's show Senator Kerry what he missed by not coming to Texas last year!

[PDittie]

15. Byron at Burnt Orange Report alrady has a post

with pictures of Barbara Radnofsky, Mark Strama, and Chris Bell:

http://www.burntorangereport.com/archives/003700.html

Looking forward to hearing about the event from y'all. And we'll let you know how the DeLay protest at the NRA convention in Houston goes this evening.

It's a good day for democracy.

:yourock: :woohoo: :applause: :patriot:

[muse]

16. I was there!!!

Kerry was terrific! There was a big crowd. 800 or so? The whole event was about an hour and a half. Lloyd Doggest, a member of the U.S. House of Representative spoke and then it was pretty much all Kerry after that. He talked about Kids First, his plan for kids who don't have health care insurance. He took a lot of questions from the audience, including one oddball question from a lady who doesn't think we should provide health care to illegal aliens. The audience hissed, but Kerry handled it beautifully.

I took a ton of pictures, but I don't have the cable with me to connect my camera to my laptop! I'll post some pictures when I get home tomorrow.

I loved every minute of it!

[sonias]

17. muse, the crowd was much more like 3,000-5,000

They had planned for 1,500 but got requests for 5,000. I don't know how they ended up handling the requests. I think they let everyone in who wanted to come in.

Kerry made some good statements about acting more like a caring society and not just invoking God's name without any values to support it. If you really love our kids, then get behind insuring each and every one of them.

Sonia

[muse]

18. cool! I am poor at judging the size of crowds

Kerry was terrific. I loved his use of "delay" over and over again. He made funny remarks throughout. The crowd loved him. Several people who asked questions were school principals and they said some heartfelt things about kids without health care. There was also an interesting question from an Iraqi American.

They didn't take tickets at the door, although we were supposed to have them. It makes sense what you are saying that they let everyone in who was there.

[muse]

23. here is a pic!

[muse]

24. talking with an Iraqi American

[muse]

25. one more pic

[Javaman]

43. I don't know about you, but that's my President!

It breaks my heart knowing moron* stole it away from him.

[Tree Hugger]

19. After the event...

Senator Kerry came backstage and took photos with the UDems and with the Austin 4 Kerry group. I even got a pat on the back from him while I was running around with a microphone, trying to let people ask questions.

AND, the first thing he said when he got back to his private room? "Wow, I guess there is hope for Texas!"

By all accounts, we impressed the Senator, as well as his political director. I hope someone tells the DNC to spend some money down here during the next election.

[crispini]

20. "hope for Texas"

:banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead:

Uh, DUUUUUHHHH! What have we been TELLING YA'LL?!!!!!!

oh, and :hi: welcome to DU, Tree Hugger!

[katinmn]

21. Yay! I'm glad he came and found such a good reception!

If the Dem party leaders had spent more time in Texas in 2004, who knows what would have happened. Anyhow, Texas has their attention now and there's no turning back!

Native sons or not, Texans are tired of DeLay and others like * who claim to be representing Texans.

I think the Right Wingers are gonna get the boot in '06. I hope DeLay gets booted even sooner.

[sonias]

26. They have to see it first hand don't they?

I know Howard Dean will be spending money in Texas. It's a good investment and he knows it.

Sonia

[DesEtoiles]

22. Kerry the Courageous

After what he's been through...many people would have just given up. Said "To hell with this country." I know I felt that way last November.

But look at him go. It takes incredible strength of spirit for him to keep going, keep fighting those bastards, keep trying to make difference for people.

Bravo, Senator.

[sonias]

27. More Kerry pics

Kerry gets a big applause

Kerry, and my House Rep. Elliott Naishtat in the foreground seated.

Kerry surrenders. :)

My Congressman in exile Lloyd Doggett, his lovely wife Libby and their kids. They have a new granddaughter now too.

Sonia

[muse]

28. So cool!

You were on the other side of the audience from me. We have pics from all angles!!

[crispini]

32. Awwww.

I miss Kerry. :(

[NoPasaran]

29. So the story I was told today

Is that the expectation was that there would be about 500 people there. Kerry had no ideea how big the crowd was until moments before he came through the curtain when his people told him "Senator, there are twenty-five hundred people here." He was excited at the size of the crowd and later in the car leaving the event kept talking about the size of the crowd.

[muse]

30. Awww, I love that!

He did seem to love being with us. He was a very happy, loose guy. So funny and smart.

[Tree Hugger]

31. His political director told us

that they just wanted a town hall event with 200 or 300 people. Then someone at Austin 4 Kerry clued them in that the Senator was actually pretty popular down here!

Even the morning of the event, the Kerry guys kept talking about putting bleachers away, and taking chairs down, so that the gym wouldn't look empty. And we just kept telling them to be patient, they would come!

I got there at 7:30 am, and there was already a line at the door!

Did anyone else see the KXAN story that night about this? It was the 3rd story, and it lasted about 30 seconds. And the gist of it was this - John Kerry came to Austin to talk about healthcare, but ended up just Republican-bashing the whole time. Then they showed a clip of him talking about the partisanship and division in the House and Senate.

I guess they missed the part where the Senator kept asking for Healthcare questions, huh? That silly liberal media....

[muse]

33. Kerry commented during the event that there were

3x as many people as they had expected. I'm glad Texas turned out for him! There was certainly some left over campaign energy/Kerry love going on.

[madamheidi84]

35. Kerry was great!!

I was there with two other people from UTA, because we were in town for the Texas Young Democrats Convention. I got to shake hands with him, and we had a very brief verbal exchange. My friend Jeremy practically stalked him the entire speech, camped out in the isle right behind Kerry's stool. ha. here is one pic that I've downloaded...

<img src="">

[cestpaspossible]

36. wow

[sharonking21]

37. I was there

and this was a great example of all kinds of Dems working together for a successful event. Kerry did a really good job of answering questions posed by the audience, which was large and receptive (and unlike the local rag would have you think, most of the questions did address his proposed legislation).

I waited for the mob to disperse enough after the forum for him to make his way to the exit, where I was lying in wait. I got him to autograph a copy of his bill summary.

Here is a link to the story run by the Austin American Statesman. Good pictures and title, but bad story.

AUSTIN
Ex-candidate stumping for kids' health care
U.S. Sen. John Kerry plugs plan for uninsured children

http://www.statesman.com/metrostate/content/metro/stories/04/17kerry.html

Here is my letter to the Statesman about that story. I'm sure it is, uh, too acerbic to be published, but my outrage meter at MSM and especially our local paper is verging on "tilt" and I find it more and more difficult to "gloss over" their many sins in order to get published.

Re: Ex-candidate stumping for kids' health care

I would like to see the Austin American Statesman do a more responsible job of reporting on Democratic politics in our area.

I was at the John Kerry town hall forum on Saturday, and if there were only 500 people there I will personally eat all four pages of my autographed bill summary of Kerry’s Senate Bill 114, “Kids First Act of 2005.” My lowest estimate would be 1500 and highest 3000. Seriously, did Ms. Coppola even attend or stay for the whole event?

I ask because the article seems so incomplete, incorrect and biased. It’s not just the low-ball estimate of attendance. You fail to cover the meat of his proposal. You fail to include all the cogent questions asked by local people about his bill. You lard the article with negatives such as “Vanquished presidential candidate…..”, “his own failed bid….,” “Some attendees were skeptical….,” “ Some democrats simply seemed star-stuck…”.

Give me a break!

You fail to mention that Texas is number one in the nation as to the percentage of our population with no health insurance. You also fail to mention that this candidate, the Democratic standard bearer, carried Travis County handily in 2004. You even failed to mention ahead of time that Kerry was coming to Austin for this event.

I know your paper came out for Bush yet again in 2004. But there are a lot of Democrats here and we would like to have you show the respect to our candidates and issues that is due -- not to mention little things like fairness and equity in journalistic practice. You trivialized this appearance with a story that tries by every means possible to reduce the event to something less than it really was. The tone of the article is more like the reporting a small-town paper would do on a local society bash.

Sharon King

Luckily many others who were there have also written letters to the editor.

(I have some other photos on my hard drive but do not know how to get them up here).

[muse]

38. photo instructions

I uploaded mine to photobucket.com, a free online picture hosting site. Then, you simply copy the URL of each pick right here in the message line. Hit preview below and you will see that instead of the URL, you will see your picture! When you post your message, the photos will be there for everyone to see.

[sharonking21]

39. Aha! Thanks.

These two were given to me by Rebecca Lavender:





This second one includes me in the navy blue shirt with a Kerry button in the middle with several good Democrats from my precinct also in the photo.

This one was given to me by Jeanine Marshall:



Both Rebecca and Jeannine were members of Northwest Austin for Kerry with me and we did many a blockwalk together. I also roped Rebecca into becoming a precinct chair with me.

[sonias]

41. That's a wonderful picture of Kerry

What a smile. And the man on the left side of your bottom photo is Texas Representative Jim Dunham. (Light blue shirt and jacket). He's a great Democrat too.

Great job on the letter too. Let us know if it gets published. Some of us dropped our subscriptions to the local rag when the lemmings endorsed the bush king.

Thank you for fighting with us. Nice to meet you sharonking21. :hi:

Sonia

[sharonking21]

42. I did too

re: dropping it but I do look online occasionally. :blush:

[GetTheRightVote]

40. thank you for photos and info on Kerry, like to stay up on our Pres.

:kick: