(full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign and this post is part of a live series from the No on 8 SF offices)

This morning Speaker Nancy Pelosi came by the San Francisco No on Prop 8 offices to surprise several hundred volunteers who were for training.  She stopped at the office after church and her good friend Phyllis Lyon was with her.  The two (and Del) go way back to the days when Pelosi was a young up and coming San Francisco politician and are close to this day.  I am still trying to track down a great picture someone showed me of Pelosi giving Phyllis a big kiss on the cheek.

Pelosi recalled the time she called Del Martin and it took a few minutes for Del to figure out who was calling.  She repeated that it was Nancy a few times, but Del said “I’m sorry, I don’t know who this is.”  Pelosi finally said “Del, it’s the speaker.”, which prompted a big “Oooh, hi Nancy.”

Unfortunately, it was hard to hear the rest of the Speaker’s remarks.  She didn’t have a mic and I was towards the back.  Heather Cronk from NOI is out here volunteering and captured it all on her flip camera.  It is hard to hear and a bit shaky.  Flip it for the video and more pictures.

Volunteers are here for the final training of the evening.  They are signing up for shifts on election day at voting locations all over the Bay Area.  Thousands have come through this office over the weekend.  The same scene is repeating at offices across the state.

Staffers are busy allocating literature for election day, having to re-calibrate their estimates given the flood of volunteers coming into the offices.  The staff is a mix of Californians and out of state veterans of the MA marriage fight and other GLTB battles.  They have been sleeping (a little) on futons and couches and everyone is a little in awe of the scale of this campaign.  For some of the staff this is officially “vacation” time as they have taken a leave from their day jobs to join the campaign trail.

Speaking of staff, the Oakland team organizing the African-American literature drop returned recently, exhausted but with smiles on their faces.  They had a great turnout and covered a ton of turf.

On the more good news front, the campus program continues to expand.  There are GOTV activities on 167 campuses across the state, from small rural community colleges to the big UCs.  That is a lot logistics to sort out to get literature to all of those locations, but that is a great problem to have.

Only 48 hours until the polls close.

Phyllis and Pelosi sitting in the crowd.

Office packed listening to Pelosi

Speaker Pelosi

More photos up on my No on 8 flickr photoset.

(full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign and this post is part of a series live from the No on 8 SF offices)

Yesterday, the No on Prop 8 campaign had Interfaith Call to Action Services all over the state.  Over 2,000 attended one of three masses in LA, San Diego, or San Francisco. Mayor Newsom attended the SF event at Glide Memorial Church. Many parishioners wept as Reverend Dorsey Blake spoke about our country’s painful history of discrimination and connected it to the discrimination on the ballot on Tuesday.

The No on 8 campaign is fighting back today against our opponent’s targeting of African American voters with misinformation about Barack Obama’s position on Prop 8.  Volunteers are passing out a new flyer in heavily African-American precincts and churches.  Flier is below the fold along with more pictures.

LA City Council President Eric Garcetti and actor Martin Sheen were on-hand in LA,and SD Mayor Sanders led a candlelight vigil in the hours after the service in San Diego.

Today, same-sex couples, many of them accompanied by straight friends, neighbors and co-workers will go “Door-to-Door Against Discrimination” in over 20 cities to urge fellow voters to defeat the unfair initiative on Tuesday.

This happening right now in Chula Vista, Fresno, La Verne, Livermore, Marin, Palm Springs, Pasadena, Sacramento, San Bruno, the San Fernando Valley, San Francisco, San Jose, and Tracy.

One couple went door-to-door today and left copies of a personal letter at over 200 homes in their neighborhood. Here’s part of their report: “Actually we got around twenty calls to our home ranging from “Thanks for doing this,” “You really didn’t think we would vote yes, did you?” to “You shouldn’t have used your phone number or address. It was brave of  you.”

Front of flier:

Back of flier:

Pastor at Glide Church:

Inside Glide Church:

Student rally:

(full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign and this is part of a series from inside the No on 8 SF offices)

Every night I get an email which usually contains a little anecdotal story from the campaign trail as well as a report of the day’s activities.  Here are a few from yesterday.  And a few of my favorites over the last few week are on the flip.

If you needed more motivation to pull away from your computer and come by a campaign office here you go.  The No on 8 office locations are all listed here.

At a volunteer training yesterday, a volunteer expressed her outrage that Barack Obama’s position on Prop 8 was misrepresented by the Yes on 8 campaign in a direct mail piece.  She challenged her fellow volunteers to fight back by donating to No on 8. Within a few minutes the volunteers raised $9,000 amongst themselves to defeat Prop 8.

The student body president of Stanford asked campus program

director Lilia what the largest phone bank had been in the state. When he found out that it was 130 people in SF, he decided that it would be Stanford’s mission to put together the biggest phone bank of the campaign.  Today the campus program coordinator:  We just had a rush from two dorms and hit 190! There are more than 100 in the building right now!

A local church had plastered the entire front lawn with ‘Yes on 8’ signs.  A neighbor was so upset that she decided to single-handedly hold a candlelight vigil in front of the church. Within hours, she was joined by others from the neighborhood, including some of the church’s parishioners.  When the Priest came outside upset by the vigil, some of the parishioners engaged with him about why they were opposed to Prop 8.  After some discussion, the Priest agreed to remove all of the signs.

Last night, when our speaker asked who would contribute $50, a 12 year-old girl raised her hand and asked, “Is $48 okay?”  Turns out that was all of her birthday money, which she donated because she wanted her cousin to be able to marry her partner.

Dear Editor,

Please print my editorial.  I am six years old and my moms tell me my voice counts and my opinions matter.  Vote No on Prop. 8, because it means my moms can be married forever.  Please don’t put up any Yes on Prop. 8 signs.  They make me feel bad.  

Love, Abigail.

On the way to work early each morning a volunteer stands on line and orders his large latte at a crowded Peet’s Coffee. When asked for his name for the order he says, “No on Prop 8.”  Minutes later, with latte in hand, the barista shouts out, “No on Prop 8” and the caffeinated crowd lets out a large cheer.

A woman called the office tonight upset about seeing people holding our opposition’s signs in her suburban neighborhood while she and her husband were walking their dog last night.  She asked what time the campaign office opened in the morning.  When I told her 7:30am, she told me that she’d meet me there for coffee and will volunteer all day.

A woman at the Silver Lake headquarters was making a homemade sign to express her support of marriage equality.  She carefully drew a face and took time to slowly draw a big smile. She told me it was important to show just how joyous it is to have the right to marry. Hopefully, with such dedication, we will all be smiling on November 5.

A 30-something gay latino couple in tuxedos came to the headquarters with their grandmother.  Wearing a beautiful corsage pinned onto her dress and beaming with pride, she sat down next to her grandson and soon-to-be grandson in-law and made calls to voters for an hour before heading to church to witness their wedding.

$1.48 for a better future. A nine-year-old girl donated $1.48 to Equality for All outside a grocery store in the San Fernando Valley. She said “My grandfather was gay and I wish he would have been able to get married.”  

Which one is your favorite?  If you didn’t get verklempt reading at least one of these, then there is something wrong with you.

full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign. I went to Qualcomm because that’s where the fight to maintain human rights is being waged.

Let me be clear. I’ve been to a lot of all day music festivals, and generally people skip the first seven hours. So maybe that’s what’s going on here. But after a couple hours at Qualcomm earlier for the massive Yes on 8 rally organized by The Call…nobody’s here. Check out the poor but illustrative video I grabbed with my Flip Video. I was down on the field, just to stage left. Joint was empty. They threw a party and nobody came.

The parking lots were mostly empty. The trolley station that goes essentially right up to the door was almost entirely empty. The concourses and hallways were empty. Most of the seats were empty. A popular shirt as I walked around (but don’t have a picture of right now) was a bright yellow Tshirt reading “You can’t change God’s Law: Yes on Prop 8.” But you know…don’t worry about this being the effective repeal of the separation of church and state. It’s just God’s law. Being written as state law. Right. “It Ain’t Just Genetics” was another personal ‘favorite’ of mine.

Let me also add: Not a single solitary counter-protester. Nobody at all. Everyone’s on the phones making real calls. Completely non-political friends of mine were talking last night in the midst of Halloween parties about their plans to phonebank today. This campaign is doing a tremendous job channeling the energies of supporters to the work that really matters. Really impressive to see.

Update: Photos from earlier today can be seen here

Update: I’m about to crash, but I wanted to confirm: nobody else ever showed up. The No on 8 counter-rally at 9pm in Hillcrest rivaled the Qualcomm turnout- it stretched for blocks and blocks, many people deep. All the more striking because the Qualcomm rally was designed for busloads from around the state and across the country while the No on 8 rally was only motivated locals. Volunteer now. We can do this.

(full-disclosure: I work for the Courage Campagin)

From now until the polls close I will be camped out in SF helping out the No on 8 campaign.  A lot of that work will be helping live blog and push out information and updates as volunteers hit the streets and people head to the polls.  So stay tuned to Calitics for updates.

We are in a battle here.  Polling is tight.  They are lying, blackmailing and doing everything possible to try and eek out a victory.

We need your help.  Do you have a few free hours to help out?  The volunteers here are fired up.  Gavin Newsom got choked up earlier today addressing the 300-400 volunteers packing the office for the first of four trainings this weekend here.  There are similar trainings going on at offices across the state.  

We need you.  

We need you to sign-up to volunteer, wander into a campaign office and say I am here to help.  We cannot let discrimination be written into the California constitution.  We should always have the same fundamental rights and equality for all Californians.

Sign-up here to volunteer and note that Calitics sent you!

More pictures from the SF offices below the fold.