Highlights:

I called maybe 70-100 people in Illinois, Ohio, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania. I talked with a LOT of answering machines and a good number of people too. I didn’t get a SINGLE McCain supporter!

One of my favorite calls:

Me: Hi is Justin* there?
Him: No he’s not, can I take a message?
Me: (*sort of flustered*… do I leave a message with this person or not? I decided to introduce myself) Okay sure. I’m Emily, and I’m a volunteer for the Barack Obama campaign and I—* (he cuts me off)
Him: Oh! It’s you guys. Yeah nevermind. This is James. Go ahead and say what you were going to say. And good work!

* = name changed

Needless to say, “James” was an Obama supporter. hehe.

Another woman I called also interrupted me after I said “Barack Obama” and seemed really excited to hear from me. Apparently she’d been volunteering and phone banking for Obama for months and was really excited to hear from us. She asked where I was calling from and we had a neat little chat. I don’t even remember what state she was in but that was a good call.

My VERY favorite call was to an older woman (I think the sheet said she was in her 80s. I’m not sure). She answered the phone and when I was done introducing myself, she said she voted early this morning, and that today was also her birthday! She said “And all I want for my birthday is for him to win!”

I wished her a happy birthday, and that I wished the same thing, thanked her, etc, and all the other people around me making calls laughed and a few clapped for me. :) It was great.

I guess a lot of other phone bankers didn’t have quite as uplifting experiences. There are a lot of people out there not voting for Obama, and even a seriously undecided and conflicted man my co-worker spoke to. He was still unsure who to vote for because he had specific questions related to the military (he was about to join). She did the best she could being sympathetic and giving him the hotline number so he could talk to actual real people (rather than a website or something) and hopefully he’ll find the answers he needs.

Anyway, it was a great experience. Very uplifting and inspiring to see crowds of people showing up to sit on their phones for a few hours. Volunteers opened up their homes to host phone bankers and train people. Some restaurants nearby also gave us space to sit. And then of course there were the lines of chairs on the sidewalk!

Not sure how to end this blog entry… Just wanted to share some of that. :)

Did you know that the Federal Govt. spends about $91,687,500.00 (that’s nearly $92 million, for those of us who don’t often see numbers bigger than 4 or 5 digits) a year on the salaries of 551 people?

Did you know that our president makes $400,000 a year? (sources: 1, 2) The average US salary in 2002 was $36,764 (ask.yahoo).

Let’s compare that to the Presidents and Prime Ministers of other nations (in US dollars):

• Mexico: was $245,000 (new President’s salary not announced yet). Mexican minimum wage salary (couldn’t find annual average salaries): about $8/day, or $3,000 a year.
• Canada: PM was $123,500 (USD) in 2004. Avg. Canadian salary: $40,000 (USD) (source).
• I’m trying to get Japan’s numbers too.

Anyway, my numbers are not going to be exact because I’m taking info from places that seem reputable after really quick google searches. I’m not trying to be totally scientifically accurate. I just want to show the trends.

This means that our President officially makes 11 times what the average American makes. The Mexican president made much more: 81 times more than their minimum wage earners during a good year, granted my data is probably pretty off. The Canadian Prime Minister makes only 3 times that of the average Canadian.

The moral of this story? I don’t know. Maybe “I’m glad we’re not Mexico and I wish we were more like Canada” ?

Part II

Did you know that US Govt. salaries increase every year (in 2001, it increased by about $4,000) unless they vote to block it?

I didn’t either (2001 about.com article explaining how it happens).

Now, on the one hand, I understand that US congresspersons must maintain homes in more than one location, and they have all kinds of work-related and personal stresses that come with a job that literally doesn’t end at 5pm each day like our jobs do. However, i can’t help but wonder if it would be cheaper if the government paid for Washington-area homes for our representatives and gave a lower salary.

Lastly, did you know that Hillary Clinton proposed a bill to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to tie the national minimum wage increase to the percentage increase that congress receives every year? It’s called the Standing with Minimum Wage Earners Act of 2006 and I kind of like it. While it doesn’t address the fact that congress makes a ton of money each year, it would guarantee that next time congress fails to stop itself from getting a pay increase this year, we’ll get a minimum wage increase by the same percentage.

The pessimistic side of me wouldn’t be surprised if congress finally starts voting to stop their (and our) wage increase if this bill passes.

Anyway, this is just stuff I ran across and started to investigate for kicks. Really. I enjoy this kind of stuff.

An Associated Press count Wednesday night showed Webb with 1,172,538 votes and Allen with 1,165,302, a difference of 7,236, or less than one-third of 1 percent.

Wow. There are more people enrolled in some high schools than that. My high school was something like 6,000 people when I was enrolled. Nevermind! I just checked. it was more like 2.5k. I was thinking of my graduating class of 600 people.

Anyway, I guess this means is that Allen can request a re-count on the state’s dime since it’s fewer than half a percentage point difference (if these numbers are the final count).

Other news is saying they projected 45% turnout, and some states (like Michigan) are breaking major voter turnout records.

Not to mention the youth voter turnout record, as well as women turnouts increasing since 2000 in general!

Check out Oregon:

Democrat turnout outpaces Republicans’ and we’re likely to set a 16 year record for voter turnout in a non-presidential election (Nov. 7th story). I’m searching to find out what the end numbers were. That story implies that we could have hit 70%? that sounds very very high to me, but maybe it’s right? someone correct me.

I’m pretty happy about pretty much everything there. :) Except, uh… laughably 47 is passing without 46. Considering that 46 ALLOWS laws regulating campaign funds in the first place, you can’t pass a MEASURE THAT WOULD REGULATE FUNDS (measure 47) without it. And thus… right now, measure 47 is passing…but meaningless if 46 fails. (ORmeasures.org).

(12:09:14 AM) Xander: obviously, someone didn’t read the ballot measures.

Understatement FTW!

Edit: Isaac Laquedem and his readers have much more intelligent things to say about this.

Nation:

I’ve had this insane I-cant-turn-off-the-news night. I’m sure I’m not the only one. I’m ending the night with the Daily Show / Cobert Report mash-up. Cobert paraphrase of the day:

Democrats are going to use our tax dollars to buy electric cars for NPR and teach evolution to illegal immigrants!

Go Cobert go! (someone correct me on the exact text of that quote please?)

In my head:

Another thing that’s spiffy is how all of this led to me having really great conversations with people I don’t get to talk to very often. Like Maiki and Xander to name just two. I suppose it’s not BAD that politics brings people into productive, unexpected, heated, and awesome conversations with each other. That’s what it’s supposed to do.

Anyway. It seems that only three of the friends I talked to didn’t vote, so I think that’s a good sign. People my age … CARE! I feel less disenfranchised!