Join Me @ Camp OFA
Posted by Michelle Moquin on April 21st, 2010
Spring is here – the kids are gearing up and looking forward to going to camp this summer – How about joining me at camp? The November elections are going to be here sooner than we think. And there is no doubt in my mind that the Republicans are gearing up for this right now, and assembling and organizing their posse. It’s time we get organized too. And what better way to get motivated than to join Camp OFA – Organizing For America.
I just got this e-mail the other day. If you’re out there wondering what to do next, here’s your answer:
Michelle-
On Sunday, April 25th, we’re holding a 2010 Camp OFA Training in Oakland, and I hope you can join.
As we continue fighting for the President’s agenda and gear up for the elections in the fall, we need to make sure we’re all ready to organize as effectively as possible.
We’re holding Camp OFA training sessions across the country, to make sure that OFA supporters like you have the skills you’ll need to make it happen. You’ll hear from local community organizers, volunteers, and staff on the best ways to organize local events and build neighborhood teams, how to make the case for the President’s agenda for change, and what OFA is planning to do in the months ahead.
If you’ve ever wondered what the most effective ways are to talk to voters, how you can organize events to make the biggest difference in your community, or you just want to learn more about taking on a bigger role in fighting for change — then Camp OFA is for you.
We’ll give you all the skills you’ll need to be a more effective organizer — and then we’ll discuss how we’ll put those skills into action this year: fighting for allies of the President in the midterm elections this fall, enacting real Wall Street reform, pushing forward a clean-energy economy, and much more.
THE DETAILS
Camp OFA National Training Weekend: Community Organizing Neighborhood Team Training (OFA Training)
We invite you to a special OFA National Training in your area for people who are interested in supporting President Obama’s agenda for change in 2010 and beyond. This is a great opportunity to build your organizing skills and learn more about issue advocacy. You will learn the skills you need to organize your community, and you will get to meet and work with other volunteers from your area.
The training is a great chance to learn how to make the biggest impact in your community. During the 2008 election, we learned that when we build a dedicated community of volunteer leaders, we can bring about powerful change.
Topics include:
• OFA’s Mission and it’s accomplishments
• Implementing the 2010 National & State field plan
• Team organizing
• Storytelling as an organizing tool
• Building relationships
• Issue advocacy
• Using social media for organizing
• Phonebanking, canvassing, event planning
This training is part of building our momentum on the ground — strengthening our community in every part of the country by bringing volunteers together, learning and sharing best practices, and refining our plan to win the Congress the President needs to enact our agenda for change.
RSVP now to reserve your spot in an OFA National Training event near you.
Readers: Here is your invitation to do more. Camp OFA just isn’t happening in the Bay Area, so jump onto the website to learn more, and see when and where it is happening in your area. And if you want to join their mailing list, which I suggest you do, click here. By joining you will receive their newsletter informing you of all the different areas of interest that you can participate in to help support Obama and the Democrats in being successful in the coming Elections, from reaching out to supporters, to voter registration and mobilization drive. If you can participate in more than one area- great. If not, pick one that you know you can make a commitment to.
Thank you! If you live in the Bay Area, I’ll see you at Camp. :)
*************
Kimball, Ellen, Vivian: Thanks for your gratitude and for your comments. I was surprised to hear not one, but two of you, say that you are a fan of Mosaic. In order to be a fan I would guess that one has used the service and it has come in handy, perhaps more than once. Perhaps when one has started dating someone, it could be the make or break decision helper that tells one whether to continue from just dating, to something more, or to drop the guy like a hot potato. I like it. I can now see how it can be useful for those in a relationship of marriage but even more so when one is deciding to take it to the next step before making that huge commitment. Thanks for enlightening me.
Hi Ruth: Happy to hear that the girls are, well…being girls, :) Too bad the letter didn’t make it through, but thanks for trying. And how rude of me not to ask how you are doing. I hope that you are enjoying yourself as much as they seem to be. Any new additions to the family?
Ahoo: I clicked over to that article and all I could think of was this is so absurd; it must be a joke, a SNL skit – But unfortunately it is not.
Jackie: This is the second time someone has brought up this topic. Here’s a video from Fox News that I wanted to share that supports your write, which by the way I agree with. Sen. Pearce states that skin color is not enough, to pull someone over and request their ‘papers’ (as if someone carries their ‘papers’ around with them), but you know that is exactly their sole reason.
Tina: Thanks for the article – a great heads up should any of my readers be subjected to the ‘sales pitch’.
Eric: I just have to respond to your comment to ZL. I think you’re just a little pissy because your wife is not a puppet to you anymore, and you no longer control her. And the fact that I and others here have encouraged her to think for herself. So, it doesn’t surprise me from your comments, that you would be the type of man to call me a man hater because I continually bring up the truth. The truth is: Women endure daily the atrocities from the hands of men controlling them, and you don’t like that you are now losing that control.
ZL: I got your VM. No worries chickie poo.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my ‘loyal’(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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April 21st, 2010 at 10:06 am
How to Shop for an Annuity
Michael E. Kitces, CFP, CLU, ChFC
Pinnacle Advisory Group, Inc.
nnuities are not one size fits all, and figuring out which is best for your own needs can be tricky. These tips can help you choose wisely…
Find the best payout. Fixed and variable annuities are sold through insurance agents, banks and major investment firms. But the contracts themselves are actually issued by life insurance carriers, such as Metropolitan Life and Prudential.
Since each insurer uses proprietary formulas to determine the payouts you get, and since annuity prices aren’t negotiable, it pays to comparison shop. For example, an immediate annuity with a survivor benefit purchased today for a man age 70 could pay from $516 up to $769 per month based on a lump sum of $100,000.
Helpful resources: ImmediateAnnuities.com compares prices from 20 leading insurers… AnnuityFYI.com represents various insurers and offers educational resources to learn about and compare annuities.
Investigate the financial strength of the insurance company that guarantees your annuity. The current financial crisis and the collapse of some insurers has heightened fears about whether the insurance companies we hand our money to will be around in later years to make payments.
Best: Check the health of the annuity issuer with three major independent rating agencies — A.M. Best (www.ambest.com), Moody’s (www.moodys.com) and Standard & Poor’s (www.standardandpoors.com).
Each rating firm has its own grading scale and research methods. Limit your options to insurers that receive either an A+ from A.M. Best or AA or better from Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s.
Bottom Line/Wealth interviewed Michael E. Kitces, CFP, CLU, ChFC, director of research for Pinnacle Advisory Group, Inc., a private wealth management firm in Columbia, Maryland, that oversees $600 million of client assets, http://www.pinnacleadvisory.com. He is coauthor of The Annuity Advisor (National Underwriter
April 21st, 2010 at 1:12 pm
Hi Mischa, thanks re: vmail.
Eric, I’ll take your compliment but I think your wife (and everyone else) might be mistaken if they believe my message re: women is any different than Mischa’s. Quick story, a pal said what is your bitch re: women, look at you you tall skinny white overpriveleged biagge strutting around in a beemer, you’ve got life by the balls so what’s up? My response: I’m not skinny. (LOL for a few…) and my bitch is exactly that, yes from all outside eyes of women around the world and you, I have the freedom to strut this tall ass right out of here instead of talking to you and jump in my car drive real far and no one, no one, would question my freedom to do so…that’s what I’m talking about, when women around the world don’t need anyone’s ‘permission’ to do just that and a lot of other things like be safe in their own homes, or vote and yes, do all the things that men do and that yes, I do also, then…I will stop talking about it, I then cited many of the atrocities that transpire in other countries and said if it happens to these women, then all women are either feeling it or denying it, it’s like masturbators – you do or you’re a liar : ) so M & I – our thoughts on the subject are very close…
I express my approach differently bc – ok and now I will take some serious shit and I’m ok with that – (disclaimer: males who are inherently evil and religiously evil about abusing women are not included in what I’m about to say) – I do think that men are in decay, in every way, they don’t know how to behave like real men anymore and there’s few to turn to for lessons/role-modeling, women are so fed up with attempting to bring forth the underlying good man that they now just bag on men regularly also.
Now, remember what i said about your subconscious always listening the other day, well…I rarely watch tv and I did the other day (but it’s been my bitch for awhile) and the way men are portrayed by the media is a crying friggin shame. Kids roll their eyes at their dads as if – like how clueless is he, hahaha – and women just shake their heads at the things men do, etc…pay attention, it’s very subliminal, it feeds man hating and aren’t-men-just-too-goofy instead of trying to help the poor fuckers become the kind of man you’d look up to and respect and vice versa (very important vice versa there).
I watched a diaper comercial that had that dad looking like an ass, he looked emasculated instead of what he could’ve looked like – a real man doing his part in child rearing, showing his sweetness and vulnerability but no, oh and before you get railing just remember that what you think he is, he is and will act like, same goes for you, I hold myself to that standard but I’m not sure many women do, and so it goes, the questions and answers on many subject fronts could go on and on – but I did read a comment here that got me thinking about this q (for example) if your man stinks in bed – why is he inept, did you discuss what you do want or say let’s buy some toys or any number of things you could’ve done to take control? And if you rail tyhat he’s a premature EJ well, if you knew that, why did you marry him? hee hee – Or do you just lay there and think ah, it’ll be over in 5 anyway, bc if that’s your approach, why should he change (he doesn’t know anything is wrong) and why (a better q) would you be willing to pass on the pleasure that its yours for the snagging?
I could go on and on about treating each other as humans as oppossed to pussy and dick to be bargained over that often gets into the foray here but I won’t. I think we should all stop selling it short, it being ourselves. Why can’t a man love a woman and vice versa and not have to be trading for sex/dollars/other manipulations, I just don’t get that…
On another related topic, I was researching media and women (models of the past and now, they seem incredibly under- nourished to me) and decided to look up males also…hmm, interesting, just as Barbie was an impossible model for girls/women – so is GI Joe for boys/men, back in the day, his bod was based on a 36″ waist, 12.5″ bicep, then in the 60′s they added a six pack (no genitals though?) and a 32″ waist, 16.5″ bicep, now the bad boy has a 29″ waist, 54″ chest, 19.5″ biceps, yeow, not possible even if you add steroids, enough to make feel inadequate yet men? …and back in the day male models were seen in undies 3% of the time, that’s up to 70% so men have a just as visual audience going on as women do and the ‘body’ anxiety to go with it or so it seems, ever heard of dysmorphia?
Yeah…so eric, I do present both sides bc I kind of feel a certain empathy for males, I think they are secretly waiting for women to fill them in, and done with a compassionate approach on our part (for the good ones, the diamonds in the rough if you will) I actually hold out major hope that some of you will realize that you are missing a lot on life by choosing hyper-malesness instead of the real man route, but who asked me right? : )
Caio for now, Luv, Zen Lill
April 21st, 2010 at 4:49 pm
What’s happening…no opposition or no one can get in? : ) I was waiting for a barrage of disapproval and bc I am Italiano I was anxiously awaiting a good back and forth across the table (sans all the meatballs) hee hee…
I guess I should add (just to provoke) that we as women need to ‘woman up’ and you men, well, ya need to ‘man up’ and that just may take some redefining and certainly some refining ; ) I’m on everyone’s side to do this the same way Mischa is on everyone’s side to sign up for camp!
- ZL
PS – Howie/Al, seriously, be po’d about the blog or whatever is fine but please, a health update?
April 22nd, 2010 at 9:17 am
Hi Zen Lill:
I have survived the most painful experience in my life. However, after all the trouble, I found out that I am Cancer-free.
Now it is time to heal.
Take Care and thank you for the good vibes.
HOWIE