Lisa Madigan Wants You!

Photo courtesy of www.lisamadigan.org

It was great to see the Lisa Madigan campaign for Attorney General at our Mikva Kick-Off event this past weekend. This is a young and fun campaign that is always excited to get students involved in campaigning and action civics. They would love to put some students to work on the phones or canvassing. Stop by the office at 500 N. Dearborn Suite 510 or contact their volunteer coordinator, kellan@lisamadigan.org or 312-670-0606.  I have not gotten a chance to visit their campaign office yet so I have no fun personal photos, but hopefully the one above will give you the idea that it's a friendly happy place (I know this to be true).

Truthish or Falsey

www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room

NBC Chicago Ward Room blog has a  new series "Truthish or Falsey in which we judge politicians tenuous grasp of hard facts and tendency to cast unfounded aspersions".  Ted McClelland examines campaign claims and judges them as "truthish","kinda truthish", or "way falsey". The best part is the accompanying cartoon profile which renders a politician's nose in proportion to the "truthishness" of the claim. This series is an excellent resource for students  to accompany our Action Guide "Your Message Matters".
 
Via http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Truthish-or-Falsey-Giannoulias-new-Obama-ad-102446694.html

Project Vote Smart

This website is so much fun! Using great graphics Project Vote Smart has created a 2010-2011 voting guide. Based on your address, VS displays your candidates and tells you how each one feels about several issues. Not only does it use great graphics to display where each candidate 'stands' (literally), it also allows you to input how you feel about the issue and gives you a best match candidate. This is such an important way to learn about candidates. Often times we endorse a candidate because of a particular party affiliation without knowing exactly where they stand on the issues. Candidates do not always line up along  party lines on all issues. So navigate to this site and have fun while you learn (caution, there is a barking dog in the background noise so do not visit the site while in a quiet place i.e., a classroom).

DIY Local Voter's Guides - www.theballot.org

Guide-Havin' States, Guide Needin' States. www.theballot.org

This week WBEZ's Eight-Forty-Eight played an interview with Billy Wimsatt an author, youth activist, and former graffitti artist. The guy has tons of energy and while he is a tad partisan, the bigger message is youth activisim. Listen to the interview here . He has many big ideas; how vital youth involvement in politics is, how his generation (he is 37) needs to lead, how local communities can make a difference. Right now he is leading a nation-wide movement to have local communities make their own voter guides.  Check out the website www.theballot.org to see how you, yes YOU, can make a guide.  He is currently on a book tour promoting his book "Please Don't Bomb the Suburbs" (we like the title of this book more than his first one, "Bomb the Suburbs"). The book outlines his vision for a new youth movement and continued political involvement. You can order it through Amazon or BN or give an independent bookstore a chance.  Now go make a voter's guide!

Green Party LeAlan Jones for Senate

LeAlan Jones answered 5 questions  for the Huffington Post this summer. The Green Party in both the Senate and Governors race are getting a lot of attention. Voters are looking for other candidates besides the standard Democratic and Republican brand. Some are protest voters, angry at other parties, but many are voters who are researching and deciding that the Green Party would represent them best.  In such a close race, Republicans and Democrats worry that enough votes diverted to the Green Party could make a big difference. Research all the Green Party candidates in our upcoming elections at www.ilgp.org .



via Huffington Post

Visetop

Last week my old laptop had a hardware malfunction. Seems 2 of those teeny tiny metric screws in the ULHS of the plastic frame had been loose and finally gave way. I took it into the really nice guys at my local Ace Hardware and asked them to help me find replacement screws. Turns out it's an impossible repair for the non-expert since the anchors(?) where the screws fit have been stripped bare of threads...therefore my new screws will not hold. So instead of sending this fine old friend to the repair shop I scrounged around the garage for a solution. Here it is, vise grips.  I carried my visetop around like this all last week and while a tad bit heavier, I think it's a fine affordable solution. I know it has nothing to do with politics, but then I wouldn't be blogging without the story or the vise grips.

Today - Rudy Giuliani in Town

For those students who love to rub elbows with the big names in the political world...you need to catch up with former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani today. He was downstate this morning, raising cash for Bill Brady but this afternoon he is headed up to the Union League Club in Chicago from 4:00- 5:30 to help Robert Dold out.  I know we have some student Dold volunteers out there...how about a last minute field trip?