..The · Humph · Etcetera..

So, who'd a thought that trying to form a non-profit group with the interest of uniting young people in the voting arena would be so difficult, really. A 501 c3 they call it, with my buddy J.W. Attempting to do what many other folks have failed at, which is mobilizing young voters at the polls, and sparking interest and union between people my age.
A professor in my comparative politics class said the following today: "your too well behaved, students at great universities raise hell, like when I was a student."
So, the thought is to affect state elections via club franchises and memberships via the 501 c3. to be cont.

I'd like to talk about a topic regarding national politics and conversation. I don't usually like to delve into these issues as I find that there are plenty of folks running their mouths and my imput is of little meaning. But tonight I think I'll do it just for fun.
Argument A. has NAFTA, cheap/affordable labor, and utter butt-raping dominance of our foreign competators summed up really nicely by the movie Syriana (complicated but good). If you've seen the movie thats good, odds are you haven't though and I'll explain the plot as simply as I can.
A. Chaos, lack of infustructure in the middle east = good/profit for U.S
(middle east is so busy fighting with itself that it cannot invest in infustructure, expanding in an economy past oil, and essentially squandering its resource opportunities)
B. Our interest is not in stabilizing the governments with which we deal, but it is to optimally use the country we are working with. Heres the example:
The United States has 10,000+ troops stationed in Saudi Arabia, a country that stands somewhere left of islamic-militantism and far right of modern day parlements and universal rights and sufferage. We deal with the Saudi government because they have oil which we need, and like Kuwait they're a U.S friendly goverment (key word, government not people).
They don't tax us heavily, they let us stay in the region, they allow for our businesses to come in, and they spend their money keeping a fragile peace with the people they govern. The Saudi's don't represent the desires of the folks in that country, and they don't spend the money from the west on things like infastructure, education, and economic development as they should...thus our business with them makes very good sense. We're gonna have cheap oil, and were gonna support the Saudis.
C.----I'm gonna have to continue this on another night...cherrio

All my stalkers, welcome; let me tell you about my day:

This is the educational part II that I've been delaying. Monday exhausted me. I had been procrastinating on a paper and stayed up until 2 in the morning to finish it on Sunday. I woke up 4 hours later to drive to Kernersville. But, with a large coffee and breakfast I made ok.
At the event there was security like you'd not believe. It was 10:00 and there were 8 police cars present at the entrance that I could see, and tv cameras everywhere. I ended up parking about 3 miles away and took a shuttle bus back to the plant. (the buses were touring coaches, not vans) I made it to the sight ok and all. I got my volunteer badge and all. I started talking with Todd and pretty much just standing at the entrance waiting for something to do while all of the donor volunteers shook the hands of invited guests.
I'll explain donor volunteers. The folks I was with were largely republican donors, volunteers and they had given to several campaigns; thus the willingness of mayors, sheriffs, representatives and so forth to notice some of us there...I tried to compete.
Put an emphasis on try. I'd met Steve Troxler (state auditor) once in may. He came by and I stuck out my hand like a pro. "Mr. Troxler, not sure if you remember me but we met back at delegate meeting in Raleigh a few months back, your daughter went to App." whoops..."oh, nice to meet you David, can't say I remember though." ohh k.
After that I didn't try so much, but I was glad to see Senator Berger (minority leader, state senate) when he passed. I actually knew him because I'd worked as an intern with the deputy leader and was in his office a lot. He seemed surprised to see me, but glad. That made me feel better.
Soon after the procession of the vips I got to go in to the venue. We got primo seats. 5 rows back, next to the mayor of Greensboro, center. The speeches were good, all very competent. It was neat to see just how staged the president's messages are though. I believe hes doing a good job, but with that much security and with news outlets recording sound-bytes its gotta be tough to understand what real life is for most Americans. 800 employees were there, 200 guests. Each one a player with paid for access. The tickets come from Dole, Burr, and Foxx. They hand them out to folks they appreciate (wink wink).
But because of the primo seats (we kind of stole)I was with big wigs. Senator Burr came down to our section after the president's speech to shake hands and I got to talk with him. He also did the interviews and all. Come to think of it, I did too. Fox 8 interviewed me about being a volunteer and I liked it. Thought I was pretty good too. (shamelessly plugged the president as a student supporter protecting S.S, shameless)
In waiting to go too I was with some of those big-wigs (company execs, donors, etc...) one of them says the following: "you speak with Bob? he's touring air force one right now...but in other news we got the 5 million dollar bid for the property" wow, I like being around those guys.
I drove back, made it to math lab, no snow thank goodness, and then volunteered at the holiday fair. After that it was Ginos and football and bed. Woke up Tuesday exhausted, but accomplished.

All my stalkers, welcome; let me tell you about my day.

Part I
I drove down to Kernersville after waking up at 10:30 or so, the sleep was like sex. I needed the rest pretty badly. The last few days I'd been napping real heavy (mouth open, dreams and all), it was time for Dave to get some real rest. So well rested from my large week, which I'll save for another evening, Rocky's car and myself went to Kernersville to attend an hour long meeting for volunteers helping out with the President's visit on Monday. Let me tell you that as experienced as I sometimes feel, and as self-assured as I usually am, I was a little out of my element among White House Staff and others.
1. Todd Poole, (whom I'd gotten to know from volunteering with the Bush campaign last year for re-election) is now an important guy. He's Congresswoman Foxx's district manager (staff, events, etc). I kind of look up to him politically, someone who's footsteps I can kind of follow. He went to App, served as the vice-president here, worked for fmr. rep. Burr (now senator) and now makes rep. Foxx's district tick. He has allowed for me opportunities which have educated me immensely, and have helped me put my ambitions into good order. Anyhow, I didn't know how to react. When I got to the Deere-Hitachi plant I was escorted in by a secret service agent who was getting names and lists from Todd. Found out a few minutes later he was busy putting the President's motorcade together. Ohhh k. Good morning you know.
2. Professionals everywhere, and the plant. The plant, oh the plant. It was the first time I'd ever entered an industrial plant. It was like the movies, watch any movie with a presidential figure, and he makes it to one of these plants. It was an epiphany moment (sudden realization about how things really work), the plant and what was going on there acted as that for me a bit.
3. Good serving people meet the fake/ambitious people:
I hate to say it, because I'm a poly-sci major and I don't consider myself and idealist, but I really don't like the "hey babe" talk. You know what I'm talking about, when your asked how your days going by someone that’s being polite or that’s doing it artificially. I don't like it.
4. I didn't know anybody, and I didn't have an excuse to network. Its usually easy to shake somebody's hand, grab their arm and look'em in the eye if you have a reason to do it. Something to celebrate, something to push, but if your in a room of folks that don't really know you or have a need for you its tough to make quick acquaintances. Most of the volunteers today had been through this process of signing people in helping to fill in courtesy gaps for events like these before; I haven't been. I felt a little naked.