Greetings Tarrant Obama Team,
How exciting! Last night Barack Obama paid his first visit to my lifelong home of Fort Worth and received a warm Texas greeting from more than 11,000 cheering supporters. I tell you truthfully that, with the exception of the births of my two wonderful children, I don't recall a more exciting and rewarding experience in my entire life. Thank you so much!
The list of folks who deserve kudos is far too extensive for me to try and cover, but I do want to make a few special mentions.
First, to the more than 250 of you who served as volunteer staff for the event - thank you! We signed up hundreds of new volunteers, Precinct Captains, etc., and distributed thousands of pieces of literature and information that will help us win here in Tarrant and surrounding counties. You will note that the most recent polls show Obama now in a narrow lead but trending strongly, and my analysts tell me that we are doing very well in Tarrant County thanks to all your wonderful efforts.
Secondly, I want to give a special thanks to Terry Ryan, Jimmy DeFoor, Annissa Hubbard and Rebekah Franki, who in a heroic effort managed to create, print, deliver and distribute the 15,000 Texas Two Step push cards in an incredible turn-around time of 36 hours. Wow!
Of course I can't say enough about Hallie Schneir and the incredible team of staffers she has led to such incredible results in just a couple of weeks on the ground. I know that you are all as impressed with these talented, energetic and dedicated young folks as I have been, and I sincerely hope that their introduction to Texas via the greater Fort Worth area is an experience they will always treasure.
There are too many more of you to mention, and we still have a tremendous amount of work to do between now and the close of our precinct conventions Tuesday evening. I am unbelievably sad that I will be out of the country on election night and not be able to be with you at our victory party. Please know that while I will be thousands of miles away, my heart will be with you here in Fort Worth.
In closing, I want you all to recognize that when Barack gave me the unexpected "Shout-Out" last night, it wasn't just for me, but for all of you. And when he shook my hand coming off the stage, looked into my eyes and said, "You've done a great job," that message was for all of you. My role in this has always been small and insignificant. It is you who have done the work that has taken us this far, and it is you who are going to spend the next five days on the phones, walking your neighborhoods, turning out the votes and dominating the precinct conventions to help bring Texas home for Barack.
Now, let's get to it!
Mark Greene/Organizer
Tarrant for Obama
www.tarrantobama.org
Friday, February 29, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
Presidential Hopeful Barack Obama Address Our Issues & Concerns
[Excerpts of Obama’s Response to the NAACP 2008 Presidential Questionnaire]
I will increase federal funding for programs that help working families, including universal health care, dramatically improving education opportunities from birth to college, providing a “Marking Work Pay” tax credit to 150 million working Americans, fully funding the CBDG program and other programs that increase the availability of affordable housing, increasing funding for transitional jobs and career pathway programs... (p. 19)
As someone who was largely raised by my grandparents, I recognize that Social Security is indispensable to workers and senior… I remain committed to making sure Social Security is solvent and viable for the American people, now and in the future… I will be honest with the American people about the long-term solvency of Social Security and the ways we can fix the problem… I believe that the first place to look for ways to strengthen Social Security is the payroll tax system. Currently, the Social Security payroll tax applies to only the first $97,500 a worker makes. I support increasing the maximum amount of earning covered by Social Security and I will work with Congress and the American people to choose a payroll tax reform package that will keep Social Security completely solvent for at least the next half century. (p. 27)
I believe that the travesty of justice we saw in Jena exposed glaring inequities in our justice system that were around long before the schoolyard fight broke out. And as president, I’ll take steps to ensure that our criminal justice system works for everyone… Part of what we saw in Jena was a rush to prosecute and try young men as adults. As president, my Justice Department will work with local law enforcement to strengthen, identify and implement strategies to seek to prevent youth crime before it occurs. I will build on my efforts in the Senate to end racial profiling… improve the quality of our nation’s public defenders by creating loan-forgiveness programs for law students who enter this field… replicate the successful efforts of drug courts… I will ensure that our federal courts and probation offices have adequate resource to deal with this new program. Couple with the elimination of sentencing disparities and mandatory minimum reform, this will help many of our youth avoid a life of crime. (p. 18)
Nearly 2 million children have a parent in a correctional facility. It is simply unacceptable to keep ignoring this crisis in American families and communities. In the U.S. Senate, I cosponsored the Second Chance Act and have worked to provide job training, substance abuse and mental health counseling, and employment opportunities to ex-offenders… I will create a prison-to-work incentive program, modeled on the Welfare-to-Work Partnership, to create ties with employers, third-party agencies that provide training and support services to ex-offenders, and to improve ex-offender employment and job retention rates. I will also reduce bureaucratic barriers at state correctional systems that prevent former inmates from finding and maintaining employment. As a state senator, I fought for and passed legislation to provide ex-offenders with expanded mental health counseling and remove barriers that prevent non-violent offenders from finding and maintaining employment. (p. 13)
I have been a strong advocate of re-entry programs for prisoners… Additionally, many faith-based organizations and nonprofits have successfully worked to provide needed programs to prisoners, and I will work with these groups to reduce our high recidivism rate as president. (p. 17)
I support government efforts to partner with faith-based organizations… important partners in delivering social services, whether it’s helping with prisoner ere-entry programs or providing job training skills. (p. 5)
I support restoration of voting rights for ex-offenders. I am a cosponsor of the Count Ever Vote Act, would sign that legislation into law as president. (p. 7)
I will implement a multi-prong strategy of address homelessness in the United States, building off of my record in the Senate to tackle homelessness with our nation’s veteran population. (p. 30)
I will work to engage more chronically unemployed Americans into the workforce by investing $1 billion over 5 years into transitional jobs and career pathways programs. (p. 30)
I will also expand resources for ex-offender job training and support services, as well as substance abuse programs to help more disengaged Americans rebuild their lives. (p. 30)
I will work to make sure Washington represents the national interest instead of the special interests. We must increase the minimum wage to $9.50 and hour and tie future increases in the minimum wage to inflation… And we need to make the minimum wage a living wage that helps American families not just survive, but succeed. (p. 28)
In the Illinois State Senate, I expanded Illinois version of SCHIP to cover 150,000 children and parents. I have continually opposed President Bush’s efforts to undermine these programs. (p. 28)
As a member of the Illinois state senate, I led efforts to reform a broken death penalty system that sent 13 innocent people to death row… I drafted and passed a law requiring videotaping of interrogations and confessions in capital cases to ensure that prosecutions are fair. As president, I will encourage the states to adopt similar reforms. (p. 16)
I will increase federal funding for programs that help working families, including universal health care, dramatically improving education opportunities from birth to college, providing a “Marking Work Pay” tax credit to 150 million working Americans, fully funding the CBDG program and other programs that increase the availability of affordable housing, increasing funding for transitional jobs and career pathway programs... (p. 19)
As someone who was largely raised by my grandparents, I recognize that Social Security is indispensable to workers and senior… I remain committed to making sure Social Security is solvent and viable for the American people, now and in the future… I will be honest with the American people about the long-term solvency of Social Security and the ways we can fix the problem… I believe that the first place to look for ways to strengthen Social Security is the payroll tax system. Currently, the Social Security payroll tax applies to only the first $97,500 a worker makes. I support increasing the maximum amount of earning covered by Social Security and I will work with Congress and the American people to choose a payroll tax reform package that will keep Social Security completely solvent for at least the next half century. (p. 27)
I believe that the travesty of justice we saw in Jena exposed glaring inequities in our justice system that were around long before the schoolyard fight broke out. And as president, I’ll take steps to ensure that our criminal justice system works for everyone… Part of what we saw in Jena was a rush to prosecute and try young men as adults. As president, my Justice Department will work with local law enforcement to strengthen, identify and implement strategies to seek to prevent youth crime before it occurs. I will build on my efforts in the Senate to end racial profiling… improve the quality of our nation’s public defenders by creating loan-forgiveness programs for law students who enter this field… replicate the successful efforts of drug courts… I will ensure that our federal courts and probation offices have adequate resource to deal with this new program. Couple with the elimination of sentencing disparities and mandatory minimum reform, this will help many of our youth avoid a life of crime. (p. 18)
Nearly 2 million children have a parent in a correctional facility. It is simply unacceptable to keep ignoring this crisis in American families and communities. In the U.S. Senate, I cosponsored the Second Chance Act and have worked to provide job training, substance abuse and mental health counseling, and employment opportunities to ex-offenders… I will create a prison-to-work incentive program, modeled on the Welfare-to-Work Partnership, to create ties with employers, third-party agencies that provide training and support services to ex-offenders, and to improve ex-offender employment and job retention rates. I will also reduce bureaucratic barriers at state correctional systems that prevent former inmates from finding and maintaining employment. As a state senator, I fought for and passed legislation to provide ex-offenders with expanded mental health counseling and remove barriers that prevent non-violent offenders from finding and maintaining employment. (p. 13)
I have been a strong advocate of re-entry programs for prisoners… Additionally, many faith-based organizations and nonprofits have successfully worked to provide needed programs to prisoners, and I will work with these groups to reduce our high recidivism rate as president. (p. 17)
I support government efforts to partner with faith-based organizations… important partners in delivering social services, whether it’s helping with prisoner ere-entry programs or providing job training skills. (p. 5)
I support restoration of voting rights for ex-offenders. I am a cosponsor of the Count Ever Vote Act, would sign that legislation into law as president. (p. 7)
I will implement a multi-prong strategy of address homelessness in the United States, building off of my record in the Senate to tackle homelessness with our nation’s veteran population. (p. 30)
I will work to engage more chronically unemployed Americans into the workforce by investing $1 billion over 5 years into transitional jobs and career pathways programs. (p. 30)
I will also expand resources for ex-offender job training and support services, as well as substance abuse programs to help more disengaged Americans rebuild their lives. (p. 30)
I will work to make sure Washington represents the national interest instead of the special interests. We must increase the minimum wage to $9.50 and hour and tie future increases in the minimum wage to inflation… And we need to make the minimum wage a living wage that helps American families not just survive, but succeed. (p. 28)
In the Illinois State Senate, I expanded Illinois version of SCHIP to cover 150,000 children and parents. I have continually opposed President Bush’s efforts to undermine these programs. (p. 28)
As a member of the Illinois state senate, I led efforts to reform a broken death penalty system that sent 13 innocent people to death row… I drafted and passed a law requiring videotaping of interrogations and confessions in capital cases to ensure that prosecutions are fair. As president, I will encourage the states to adopt similar reforms. (p. 16)
Friday, February 8, 2008
My Dear Family & Friends:
The Obama-Clinton presidential contest is coming to Texas. The primary is March 4. What an exciting time for those of us who thought we would never see the day when a man of color could possibly win the White House.
To young people, age 30 and below, it is no big deal. They grew up an integrated generation and have little post-effects of racism. They grew up together without being aroused to hatred by the color of a person’s skin. But the older generation is not dead yet.
I was born on August 3, 1946, not a very special day in history, as a Negro male child. My birth certificate identified my race as Negro, and Malcolm X told us what the word “negro” meant.
Contemporaries:
George W. Bush — Date of Birth: 6 July 1946
Eddie G. Griffin – Date of Birth: 3 August 1946 (Negro)
Bill Clinton — Date of Birth: 19 August 1946
Hillary Rodham Clinton — Date of Birth: 26 October 1947
I know these guys. They are my contemporaries. Not that I know them personally. I remember their kind, during my time. As long as language doesn’t change, we are all speaking of things, mutual to our understanding, from a long continuous dialogue from the past. I am one of the Black Panther Party, the third political, in lieu of the southern Dixiecrat.
Sure, I would have loved to have been the first black President of the United States. But the times were not right. But I remember my early aspiration.
“When I grow up, I was to be the first Negro President of the United States,” I told my eighth grade classmates. Then I was immediately ashamed of having the “big head”, wanting to be more than it was possible for me to be. I was innocent in the knowledge of racism. I was a dreamer, like Joseph.
First Touch of Mutual Love
Some of us overcame hatred to come together and embrace each other in love. Electing an African-American President of the United States, would be a star in the crown of America. It will have meant that WE HAVE OVERCOME (RACISM).
Nobody ever asked us why we Negroes sang that song: We Shall Overcome. There was always a hidden meaning about what we were overcoming. Electing Barack Obama will have demonstrated that we have overcome the ideology that those of white color should always rule over those of black color, and to discriminate against providing avenues of opportunities for a people’s self-improvement and self-determination.
A Time of Freedom and Refreshment
Freedom is at hand, against the tyrannies of those who rule by “Divide and Conquer”. O How long have we been divided and entrenched in our prejudices and hatred? But the heart hardened will not cede power. Clearly, the fight is not about race, but about supremacy of white-skinned people who feel its their right to rule the world. Upon this ideology is built the premise of hatred between races and nations.
WE SHALL OVERCOME only when a child of the descendant of Africa has an equal chance at the presidency as a German-Irish child. Though we were ashamed of being Negroes, there is nothing to be ashamed of being an African-American. In fact, I am more proud to be an American because an African-American has the greatest opportunity in the world: To become the President of the United States.
YES WE CAN
To young people, age 30 and below, it is no big deal. They grew up an integrated generation and have little post-effects of racism. They grew up together without being aroused to hatred by the color of a person’s skin. But the older generation is not dead yet.
I was born on August 3, 1946, not a very special day in history, as a Negro male child. My birth certificate identified my race as Negro, and Malcolm X told us what the word “negro” meant.
Contemporaries:
George W. Bush — Date of Birth: 6 July 1946
Eddie G. Griffin – Date of Birth: 3 August 1946 (Negro)
Bill Clinton — Date of Birth: 19 August 1946
Hillary Rodham Clinton — Date of Birth: 26 October 1947
I know these guys. They are my contemporaries. Not that I know them personally. I remember their kind, during my time. As long as language doesn’t change, we are all speaking of things, mutual to our understanding, from a long continuous dialogue from the past. I am one of the Black Panther Party, the third political, in lieu of the southern Dixiecrat.
Sure, I would have loved to have been the first black President of the United States. But the times were not right. But I remember my early aspiration.
“When I grow up, I was to be the first Negro President of the United States,” I told my eighth grade classmates. Then I was immediately ashamed of having the “big head”, wanting to be more than it was possible for me to be. I was innocent in the knowledge of racism. I was a dreamer, like Joseph.
First Touch of Mutual Love
Some of us overcame hatred to come together and embrace each other in love. Electing an African-American President of the United States, would be a star in the crown of America. It will have meant that WE HAVE OVERCOME (RACISM).
Nobody ever asked us why we Negroes sang that song: We Shall Overcome. There was always a hidden meaning about what we were overcoming. Electing Barack Obama will have demonstrated that we have overcome the ideology that those of white color should always rule over those of black color, and to discriminate against providing avenues of opportunities for a people’s self-improvement and self-determination.
A Time of Freedom and Refreshment
Freedom is at hand, against the tyrannies of those who rule by “Divide and Conquer”. O How long have we been divided and entrenched in our prejudices and hatred? But the heart hardened will not cede power. Clearly, the fight is not about race, but about supremacy of white-skinned people who feel its their right to rule the world. Upon this ideology is built the premise of hatred between races and nations.
WE SHALL OVERCOME only when a child of the descendant of Africa has an equal chance at the presidency as a German-Irish child. Though we were ashamed of being Negroes, there is nothing to be ashamed of being an African-American. In fact, I am more proud to be an American because an African-American has the greatest opportunity in the world: To become the President of the United States.
YES WE CAN
Thursday, February 7, 2008
An Endorsement from Eddie Griffin
Chris Turner
For State Representative
P.O. Box 171138
Arlington, TX 76003
817-561-4900
Re: An Endorsement from Eddie Griffin
Dear Chris Turner:
It has been a pleasure meeting you on the campaign trail on a number of occasions. The more we talk, the more I am convinced that you are the man to best represent Arlington as State Representative.
On yesterday, I had the honor of speaking with students at UTA. I would have hoped to sing your praise, but I had to ask permission to wear my Obama button. I never can tell the political mood of a college campus.
However, I did find a few who were eager to be politically active. Therefore, I will include some student leaders on this email list, as a means of introducing your candidacy.
QUESTION about your Opponent incumbent Representative Bill Zedler.
Mr. Zedler describe himself as a conservative defender of limited government, limited taxation, and free enterprise.
Now I don’t know what all that means. But his biography says that he is 28-years old and is Vice Chairman of the Public Education Committee.
Tell me that I’m dreaming. How has Public Education improved since Mr. Zedler sat in that seat in the state legislature?
His bio also says that he served on the Select Interim Committee for Child Welfare and Foster Care. Look at the Child Welfare and Foster Care system in the state of Texas. We have children in the custody of the Child Protective Services sleeping in chairs, because there are no provisions for them.
Is this what “conservative defender of limited government” means? Tie the hands of the government, so it cannot help the poor.
From your Supporter,
Eddie Griffin
http://eddiegriffinbasg.blogspot.com/2008/02/yes-we-can.html
For State Representative
P.O. Box 171138
Arlington, TX 76003
817-561-4900
Re: An Endorsement from Eddie Griffin
Dear Chris Turner:
It has been a pleasure meeting you on the campaign trail on a number of occasions. The more we talk, the more I am convinced that you are the man to best represent Arlington as State Representative.
On yesterday, I had the honor of speaking with students at UTA. I would have hoped to sing your praise, but I had to ask permission to wear my Obama button. I never can tell the political mood of a college campus.
However, I did find a few who were eager to be politically active. Therefore, I will include some student leaders on this email list, as a means of introducing your candidacy.
QUESTION about your Opponent incumbent Representative Bill Zedler.
Mr. Zedler describe himself as a conservative defender of limited government, limited taxation, and free enterprise.
Now I don’t know what all that means. But his biography says that he is 28-years old and is Vice Chairman of the Public Education Committee.
Tell me that I’m dreaming. How has Public Education improved since Mr. Zedler sat in that seat in the state legislature?
His bio also says that he served on the Select Interim Committee for Child Welfare and Foster Care. Look at the Child Welfare and Foster Care system in the state of Texas. We have children in the custody of the Child Protective Services sleeping in chairs, because there are no provisions for them.
Is this what “conservative defender of limited government” means? Tie the hands of the government, so it cannot help the poor.
From your Supporter,
Eddie Griffin
http://eddiegriffinbasg.blogspot.com/2008/02/yes-we-can.html
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