November 8, 2007 – Palm Springs Village Fest Voter Registration and Candidate Information Tabling at Palm Canyon & Arenas, Palm Springs, CA, Thursday nights from 6:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. (Adult beverages enjoyed thereafter at the local pubs).
Cool desert nights and progressive, Support-the-Troops/Stop-the-Insanity Democrats. Milling crowds of locals, visitors, and prospective voters. Village Fest was knee-deep in conferees from the United States Conference on AIDS 2007 (USCA) as well as attendees at Leather Pride Weekend. I was approached assertively by two military people who angrily questioned my ‘Support the Troops/End the War’ position. The male trooper expressed his concerns about stopping terrorism in Iraq and early withdrawal of troops meaning making insignificant the loss of thousands of U.S. military lives in Iraq. I tried to educate both about the nature of the Occupation of Iraq and its present Civil War. In addition, I was able to point out that the assault on Iraq was initially about avenging Sadaam Hussein’s alleged assassination plot agains George H.W. Bush and about securing a vast oil supply in the Middle East. Also, the pointless loss of U.S. soldier’s lives lies at the feet of the warmongers in the Bush Administration (e.g., Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Gates, Pace, etc.). We need to communicate with our troops and educate them that they are pawns in the service of a vengeful, cruel, incompetent despot. And I do not mean S. Hussein.
The Democratic clubs were well represented as usual with Desert Stonewall Democrats staffing one table thanks to George Zander, President of the Club and Bob Silverman, Treasurer. The Democrats of the Desert staffed another table thanks to Eleanor Jackson, and the Palm Springs Democrats staffed another table as well.
Progressive Democrats were rejoicing in the resounding victories in Tuesday’s elections across the Coachella Valley. More specifically, we discussed the win of Steve Pougnet for Mayor of Palm Springs, Rick Hutcheson for Palm Springs City Council, Karl Baker for Desert Hot Springs City Council, Craig Ewing for Desert Water Agency, and No on C. Democrats were also excited about the prospect of John Williams winning the second Palm Springs City Council seat following the counting of the additional Vote By Mail ballots and a possible recount of the overall votes.
Vic Gainer, of the recently defunct Vic Gainer for Palm Springs City Council campaign slunked past the tabling without a word, probably embarrassed that we had discovered that he registered as a member of the American Independent Party after none of the Democratic Clubs endorsed his candidacy.
More exciting details below the flip…
Paul Clay, declared Candidate for the CA-45 Congressional District, raised awareness about his candidacy. Amalia Deaztlan, Campaign Director for Manuel Perez, Vice-President of the Coachella Valley Unified School District and Candidate for the CA 80th Assembly District also spent time with the Democratics discussing the recent election victories and Perez’ prospects in the 80th.
Tracy Turner, Vets for Peace, helped stoke the fires of intelligent discussion and activism. He discussed their plans to march in the Palm Springs Veteran’s Day Parade, Sunday, November 11, 2007. More on anti-occupation efforts as information becomes available.
We had representation at the tables from the Sen. John Edwards campaign, i.e., yours truly, Captain of the Palm Springs for Edwards One Corps Chapter. I distributed position papers from the John Edwards for President campaign, provided campaign buttons and bumper stickers, signed up volunteers for the John Edwards for President Campaign, and solicited voters to register to vote. We discussed Edward’s surprisingly strong standing in the Iowa caucus polls and his strength in the recent candidate debates.
Wayne and the boyz staffed the Sen. Hillary Clinton table. Dave and his wife and Dave Huntzinger spearheaded the Sen. Barack Obama table. The Obama people were active in collecting information from potential volunteers. Bob Morris of the Draft Al Gore campaign circulated petitions to get Nobel Prize Winner Gore on the 2008 California Democratic Primary ballot.
We also registered 8 voters last night, including two changes of party affiliation from the Dark Side. Moderate and progressive Republicans have long had enough of the incompetence, ineptitude, and callous disregard for the truth of the Bush Administration. Now they are voting with their feet by moving quickly to the Democratic Party!
Zander and his friends, Tim, Renee, and Caesar, Silverman, Morris, Turner (Vets for Peace), Clay and yours truly attended the Unofficial Drinking Liberally (UODL) after-party at Bongo Johnny’s! Then, Zander, Tim, Renee, Caesar, Turner, and yours truly slipped over to Hunter’s Video Bar to trip the progressive light fantastic, celebrating yet another day in turning the Coachella Valley blue!