"His Choice"

Awesome.

Flickr Finds

Glorious: Maple Bar Bacon Wrapped Hot Dog

Obama's gmail

Josh's MTV Choose or Lose video!

And here's the link to it at MTV.

Congressional Quarterly upgrades our race

From CQ Race Ratings Changes, Part Two: Democrats Gain Ground

South

• Alabama’s 3rd District (New Rating: Republican Favored. Old Rating: Safe Republican)

The DCCC on Tuesday added Josh Segall, a lawyer who is challenging three-term Republican Rep. Mike Rogers in Alabama’s 3rd District, to the Red to Blue program. After watching Segall’s developing campaign from a distance, Democratic officials were impressed by a fundraising operation that produced $807,000 in receipts through Sept. 30 to $1.3 million for the incumbent.

The 3rd — a conservative-leaning eastern Alabama district that includes part of Montgomery and also takes in smaller cities such as Auburn and Anniston — would have seemed very unlikely not long ago. Rogers won with 59 percent over a little-known and underfunded Democrat in 2006; two years earlier, President Bush received 58 percent of the 3rd District vote.

But Democrats believe they have stronger potential in the district, in large part because a strongly Democratic-voting black constituency makes up nearly a third of the population. And this segment of the district’s electorate is activated as never before by Democrat Barack Obama ’s strong presidential bid that would make him the first African-American to win the White House.

“This year, you’re going to see a different voter universe in District 3, and that means that District 3 could be a sleeper,” said Artur Davis , the three-term representative of Alabama’s 7th District, who is widely regarded as a rising star among black members of Congress. “I believe that race is probably closer today than some people around the country may believe it to be.”

Despite the district’s longstanding Republican leanings, there are other pockets of Democratic support in the 3rd, including around the Auburn University campus.

Segall for Congress update

Busy busy here with only 27 days to go. The ad war continues, we had our first televised debate yesterday, and new polls show us closing on Rogers fast.

Click here for a link to the debate, and see more news, etc. at Segall2008.com.

Here's the latest ad:

A Man Had a Dream...

See also: http://www.bananaderby.com/

Seven Days

So the primary is next Tuesday. This time next week..knock on wood...Darden should be the Democratic nominee and we'll be shifting gears for the general. But first! The contribution deadline is this Thursday at midnight. If you haven't contributed a little already, or if you'd like to do more, please do now! We need it bad right now, with a few big bills left this week for our Get Out The Vote mailing and some other things. Please help Darden, and help me, have a great week and roll to victory Tuesday!

Been busy as ever lately. We have a couple of new videos up on out Media page, and more are on the way. We also are using our Facebook page as a sort of small-time version of MyBarackObama; using it to gain exposure and supporters. Check it out...coming soon is a video about the big rally we had at the beach last Saturday.

And speaking of Democratic nominees and videos, watch this new video of Josh talking about infrastructure and jobs:



Good stuff, eh?! It's going to be an awesome Sept-Oct-November.

July

What a busy July. Started with a visit by Mom and Dad, will end with Obama in a local gym in Friday (although that's really August). Raised a lot of money, spent some too. Mail, calls, events, stragegy, chaos. Candidate forums. iPhone! A nice one-night trip to DC. New Facebook (blech). No more Scrabulous. Ted Stevens indicted. Cookies, dough and otherwise!
June feels like a year ago.
27 days till the primary! Catch up with campaign news!

Josh in The Hill

Deep South Democrat Segall seeks a more traditional path to victory

Heady Days in St. Pete

I would be remiss in not mentioning my own campaign after mentioning Josh's so much. There's a lot going on with the Darden Rice Campaign! That's why y'all don't hear from me much...I'm swamped.

We've been on a roll for the last month or so, picking up good endorsements from state House reps and others, having good fundraisers and other events, and getting out there in front of voters. Just this week, vote-by-mail began and we mailed out 16,000 mail pieces about Darden to land with the ballots from the Secretary of Elections, and we're running phone banks all this week to call several thousand of the best voters in that group to ask for their vote. Hundreds of people have said they send in their ballots and voted for Darden, so that's exciting...we have our first actual votes in the bag!

We've also been getting some good press lately, with the most recent hit a few days ago about the help we're getting from Larry Biddle, the guy who ran Howard Dean's groundbreaking 2004 online fundraising operation. Larry's great and he's helping us in some neat ways that will unfold in the coming weeks (none of which are this).

Also, I've had our Facebook page up for a couple of weeks. Check it out and become a supporter; that's going to be good way to follow us as things progress, and keep an eye on our site our site too for news, events, more videos, etc. Sign up for our weekly campaign updates!

Sorry to push all this on y'all; I'm just excited to share what I've been doing down here. One last thing: a lot of you out there have said you will contribute. Now's a good time! We have our first reporting deadline at midnight Friday....that's about 45 hours from now...and we want to have a great showing for this first and biggest report. The primary is just over a month away now, and we still have a ton to do. Please go to our contribute page and chip in to help the campaign, help Darden, help me!

Okay, thanks. Coming soon: a report on how I am now complete.

Josh in DailyKos

Good post on Josh in DailyKos tonight! "Well good thing the Josh Segall campaign is as sharp as any campaign I've seen."

Josh's First Video - Alabama Roots

Josh has a great video up on his site and YouTube channel! Check it out! (And see of you recognize the still shots by a certain photographer). See his news too; his is one of the DCCC's Emerging Races.

Explorer as Heat Lamp

I just like to state how effective a car in the sun is as a keep-food-warm device.
This morning, like most, I made two to-go mugs of coffee. Brought one into the office with me, left the other in the car. I just got it out....it's about as hot as when I made the coffee this morning!

Same goes for food. I make some microwave Boca food item in the morning, leave it in it's wrapper in the car, and when I get it in the afternoon......hot and (nearly) fresh!

Brilliant!

An amusing passage from A.O. Scott's review of The Love Guru:

No, “The Love Guru” is downright antifunny, an experience that makes you wonder if you will ever laugh again.

And this is, come to think of it, something of an achievement. What is the opposite of a belly laugh? An interesting question, in a way, and to hear lines like “I think I just made a happy wee-wee” or “I’m making diarrhea noises in my cup” or to watch apprentice gurus attack one another with urine-soaked mops is to grasp the answer. Please don’t misunderstand: I’m not opposed to infantile, regressive, scatological humor. Indeed, I consider myself something of a connoisseur. Or maybe a glutton. So it’s not that I object to the idea of, say, witnessing elephants copulate on the ice in the middle of a Stanley Cup hockey match, or seeing a dwarf sent flying over the same ice by the shock of defibrillator paddles. But it will never be enough simply to do such things. They must be done well.

Funny Chris Hayes Post...

What Kind of Guy?

Eric Moseley operates a charming inn here...

Although he spells his name differently now...

Recent Photos

Busy busy on the campaign trail. Got some St. Pete photos up on Flickr now. Not a lot from work because I'm careful about that, but there are some nice mild scenes from life here.

Cat on a Leash

in Gulfport, Florida.

Onlookers are stunned as area man wrangles his leashed cat


"Let him through!....He's a sorcerer!!!"


A moment of calm belies the wizardry at play

Progress

As usual, the West is the Best: California Supreme Court Overturns Gay Marriage Ban

And check out Josh in The Politico! He also is continually improving his site; check it out if you haven't been in awhile (and see new photos by me).

And as to my whereabouts...probably common knowledge by now but since I haven't updated the blog on awhile: Cali was huge but it will be there in the fall; I decided to take a campaign manager job in Florida for this election cycle. Darden Rice for Pinellas County Commission! (full site up in a few days) I have a great candidate, in a really complex swing district, and I get to spend 6 months living in St. Petersburg, about 80 yards from Tampa Bay! It will be a lot of hard, fun, interesting work, and I'll learn a lot too. All of this is happening already, in fact, from the first second I arrived here a couple of weeks ago.

Speaking of which...gotta get back to work. Our campaign kick-off party is tomorrow evening. Hope to see you there! Bring a check!

Update from Santa Monica

It's been a great, interesting, and informative trip to California. Some news from the past few weeks:

Josh had a great fundraising quarter - thanks to all of you who contributed - and has a redesigned website up. He's also gotten some good coverage in various blogs lately.

Looks like the Bush Administration is up to its usual tricks...using seemingly independent "military analysts" to spread propaganda about the war for the past 6 years so. Really, why aren't disgraced or censured or arrested by now?? Maybe next year...

As for what's happening here, it's been glorious to be back in the West, back visiting one of my best past lives. I've seen a bunch of friends, had great food and great coffee, had great moments on the beach or in the hills. I've also met interesting new people and contacts and have had some good meetings & job leads. California is, as always, the land of opportunity. I'm close to taking the next step on a new job/new location; news on that later.

One specific tale from recent days: last Saturday I joined Katie and some friends to compete in the 2008 Grilled Cheese Invitational. Bread. Butter. Cheese. Victory! It was a raucous night of hot cheesy goodness up in Griffith Park. See photos on my Flickr page.

Gotta run now. I'll leave you now with a couple more photos...

Esha's dog Mabel with me at Venice Beach.

Me & Esh on Santa Monica Beach.


Eli & Cheryl with Baby the stunt-parrot.

Home.