Today we highlight a local effort in Alabama. OFA Alabama is pounding the pavement, reaching out to folks in beauty salons and barbershops around the state to GOTV for November 2010 and let communities know what important races are happening. Here’s what OFA-AL State Director Leanne Townsend had to say:

“In pouring rain, we reached out to over 16 places in only a couple of hours!”

Through a targeted campaign, OFA Alabama has identified over 40 beauty salons and barbershops in an effort to capture the enthusiasm of the many first time and disenfranchised voters who came out in droves to support the election of President Barack Obama.

Young and old are committing to Vote 2010-- will you take that pledge?

If you have any questions or need any information, please feel free to contact me at LaVeraD@dnc.org.

In light of Hurricane Gustav and the ongoing situation along the Gulf Coast, the DNC announced that it has canceled the tomorrow morning's news conference at the DNC's More of the Same Media Center in St. Paul. We continue to keep our friends and families in the area in our thoughts and prayers.

Damien

Damien LaVera
Deputy Communications Director
Democratic National Committee
LaVeraD@dnc.org

Welcome to Colorado. Welcome to the West, where we’re building the new Democratic majority. Over four centuries ago, before the Pilgrims and the Puritans, before Jamestown and Plymouth, my ancestors came to this land and founded the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico. They named it Santa Fe, the City of Holy Faith, because they knew that only faith could secure a brighter future for themselves and for their children.

For five generations, my family has farmed the same land in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, 250 miles from here. Together they raised eight children on our farm. We were poor, with no electricity and no telephone, but all eight of us became first generation college graduates. My parents gave us the covenant of America, the covenant that binds us together as one nation: that no matter who you are or where you’re from, anything is possible in America.

Just 500 miles southeast of here, in El Dorado, Kansas, another mother instilled that same dream in her son, Barack Obama. Barack Obama’s grandfather defended that dream as a soldier in General Patton’s army. Barack Obama’s father followed that dream to an America of freedom and opportunity. For Barack Obama, that dream runs deep and strong.

But for the last eight years, under the failed policies of George Bush, the American dream has been slipping away. For too many American families, no matter how hard you work, no matter how hard you try, you just can’t get ahead. The White House has turned its back on you.

The rural America I know has become a forgotten America. We can’t afford more of the same.

We can’t afford four more years of letting the American dream fade. We can’t afford four more years of forgetting the middle class. We can’t afford four more years of George Bush policies with John McCain.

The time has come for a president who has lived the American dream, who is on our side. A president who will cut our dependence on foreign oil and lead us into the new energy frontier.

A president who will make us stronger and safer as Americans. A president who will make health care available to every American. A president who will make sure that no matter who you are, no matter where you’re from, if you work hard, you too can live the American dream.

That is the president that Barack Obama will be. That is why I proudly second the nomination of Barack Obama for President of the United States of America.

Thank you! God bless America!

Representative Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Florida

For more than 15 years, I’ve been proud to serve the people of South Florida, represented here in a fully-seated Florida delegation. Like so many Americans, like all Democrats, including all of us who campaigned for Hillary Clinton, whose campaign I was proud to co-chair, I know what’s at stake in this election. So don’t be fooled by any political ad from John McCain.

No matter where we stood at the beginning of this campaign, Democrats stand together today.

We believe passionately in Barack Obama’s message of changing the direction of our country.

We support enthusiastically his plans to restore the American dream for American families.

And we stand united, proudly, in our determination to elect Barack Obama. And so, I second his nomination as the next President of the United States of America.

I’m a mother of three young children: my 5-year-old daughter Shelby and my 9-year-old twins Rebecca and Jake. Recently, Jake blurted out: “Mom, when George Bush was elected, I was 1 year old.” My children have lived their whole lives under the failed policies of George Bush.

And if John McCain is elected, they’ll live their whole childhood under more of the same.

Instead of John McCain, a candidate who thinks that American families are “better off,” we need a president, Barack Obama, who knows better, who will give a tax cut – $1,000 every year – to middle-class families so you can pay the bills, afford quality health care, buy a home, and save for retirement.

Instead of a candidate who voted against giving women equal pay for equal work and who says Roe v. Wade should be overturned, we need a president, Barack Obama, who will fight to end the gender wage gap and who will protect a woman’s right to choose.

Instead of a candidate who votes against funds for education, against Head Start for children, against Pell Grants for college, we need a president, Barack Obama, who will invest in early childhood education, recruit new teachers, and make college more affordable with tax credits in exchange for community service.

That’s the change America deserves, the change Barack Obama will deliver, not just for the privileged few, but for all Americans, men and women, our sons and daughters. It’s been said that “children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.” I cannot imagine a more inspiring message than the one my son will someday send to his children: “I was 9 years old when Barack Obama was elected President of the United States of America.”

Representative Artur Davis, Alabama

I’m honored to second the nomination of the man whose victory tonight takes us closer to becoming what we know America can be: a place where who you are, what you have and where you come from pose no permanent barriers; where our destiny is what our God and our dreams determine it to be.

In a cavernous auditorium in Birmingham, Alabama, this past January, I heard Barack Obama tell my state that our generation can find its way again. I heard him tell my state on a Sunday afternoon that if you really want to see a politics of faith and morality, you’ll find it in a politics with an abiding conviction for the fate of the least and the lost among us.

I heard him remind my red state that there is no such thing as a Democratic way or Republican way to build strong families; that work and personal responsibility are Democratic standards, too; that to sustain our veterans and protect our soldiers is neither a liberal value nor a conservative value, but an American value. Because the men and women who wear the American uniform and fight under the American flag belong not to some of us, but to all of us.

And I saw a band of people, 20,000 strong, who don’t live together, don’t send their children to school together, who have no history of voting together, linked in a common cause together, ready to take action together.

And ladies and gentlemen, this is our cause: a president and a country who will lead and inspire the free world; who will stand for the rule of law; who will remember that torture is the way of the people who hate us and not our way. Our cause is a president and a country who will affirm that terrorism can never win, unless it warps us and makes us forget who we are and what we are.

Ladies and gentlemen, 20 years ago, I watched the Democratic Convention on a little TV in a tiny motel room in Montgomery, Alabama. My mother and grandmother and I were forced to live in that room for three weeks because our home had been foreclosed. The fact that I could go from a foreclosure and watching the convention in a tiny motel room to standing before you and the nation 20 years later nominating the next President of the United States tells you very little about me, but tells us everything that is right about our country.

My fellow Democrats, my fellow Americans, I have never seen a moment like this. I have never seen a sense of urgency like this. In my 40 years, I have never seen my country as energized as this. As our next president has said, from the places where people hurt to the places where people dream, “our time is now.”

How fitting that I speak to you on Women’s Equality Day, when we celebrate ratification of the amendment that gave women the right to vote. Even as we celebrate, let’s also remind ourselves: the fight for equality is not over. I know that from personal experience. I was a trailblazer when I went to work as a female supervisor at a Goodyear tire plant in Gadsden, Alabama.

My job demanded a lot, and I gave it 100 percent. I kept up with every one of my male co-workers. But toward the end of my 19 years at Goodyear, I began to suspect that I wasn’t getting paid as much as men doing the same job. An anonymous note in my mailbox confirmed that I was right. Despite praising me for my work, Goodyear gave me smaller raises than my male co-managers, over and over.

Those differences affected my family’s quality of life then, and they affect my retirement now. When I discovered the injustice, I thought about moving on. But in the end, I couldn’t ignore the discrimination. So I went to court. A jury agreed with me. They found that my employer had violated the law and awarded me what I was owed.

I hoped the verdict would make my company feel the sting, learn a lesson and never again treat women unfairly. But they appealed, all the way to the Supreme Court, and in a 5-to-4 decision our highest court sided with big business. They said I should have filed my complaint within six months of Goodyear’s first decision to pay me less, even though I didn’t know that’s what they were doing.

In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote that the ruling made no sense in the real world. She was right. The House of Representatives passed a bill that would make sure what was done to me couldn’t happen again. But when it got to the Senate, enough Republicans opposed it to prevent a vote.

We can’t afford more of the same votes that deny women their equal rights. Barack Obama is on our side. He is fighting to fix this terrible ruling, and as president, he has promised to appoint justices who will enforce laws that protect everyday people like me. But this isn’t a Democratic or a Republican issue. It’s a fairness issue. And fortunately, there are some Republicans—and a lot of Democrats—who are on our side.

My case is over. I will never receive the pay I deserve. But there will be a far richer reward if we secure fair pay. For our children and grandchildren, so that no one will ever again experience the discrimination that I did. Equal pay for equal work is a fundamental American principle. We need leaders in this country who will fight for it. With all of us working together, we can have the change we need and the opportunity we all deserve.

Thank you.

Stateline columnist Louis Jacobsen writes:

Some Democrats hold out hope that Obama could actually win one of the six Southern states that he won so convincingly during the primary season — Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina — all of which have voted strongly Republican in recent presidential elections .

But while it’s an outside possibility in North Carolina, most analysts believe Obama’s likelihood of picking off any of the other five Southern states is a long shot.

More plausible, though, is a November scenario in which the voters Obama draws to the polls also pull the lever for Democrats up and down the ticket — in statewide posts, congressional seats, state legislative seats and even county positions.

Democrats in the region have been salivating over this possibility for months. Consider Waring Howe, a Democratic National Committeeman from South Carolina and, until recently, chairman of the Charleston County Democratic Party. When Howe first realized that Obama might become the party’s nominee, “I used that as a candidate recruiting tool. But I actually didn’t have to use it much, because a lot of the prospective candidates already felt that way anyway.”

Our friends at the country club around the corner point to a stop McCain made in Wilcox County, Alabama as evidence that Compassionate Conservatism 2.0 isn't just a gimmick. (Beta tests show it, apparently, has a few bugs.)

So let's take a look at Wilcox County, population 13,183, according to census data from 2000.

Wilcox County rests inside Alabama's 7th Congressional District, currently represented by Democratic Rep. Artur Davis who was elected to his first term in 2002 with 92 percent of the vote against a Libertarian candidate. Rep. Davis won re-election in 2004 with 75 percent of the vote and twice as many votes as the Republican challenger. He ran unopposed in 2006. Republicans are so scarce in the area that they didn't even field a candidate.

Earlier this week, Alabama Democratic Party Chair Joe Turnham spelled out how John McCain's swing through the state's "blackbelt" is just more empty Republican rhetoric.

"These Republicans purport to be the champions of the poor in Alabama's Blackbelt but are the very ones who are denying our people with public policy that they deserve. Just recently Sen. McCain voted against the renewal of health care for children in the Blackbelt by his opposition to SCHIPs reauthorization, and Gov. Riley opposes removing the state sales tax on food in the Alabama Legislature at this very moment." said Joe Turnham, Chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party.

"In the wake of the public disaster of the Bush presidency, 'More of the same McCain' comes here to speak about empowerment to the very people he and the Republicans have continued to wreak havoc upon since 2003. I think Alabamians have heard enough empty rhetoric and would rather not see what would be a virtual third Bush term," exclaimed Turnham.

"Sen. McCain should temper his visit with some reality and honesty about the plight of Alabama's and America's working poor. The George Bush budget deficit, trade deficit, endless war in Iraq and failure to address economic freefall in America should be confronted and repudiated by McCain and Riley in this visit if they want to win the hearts of voters in our state." Turnham stated.

Under the Bush economy that John McCain promises to extend for another four years, Alabama has lost more than 100,000 jobs with 40,000 of them in the manufacturing sector since 2001. Gas prices are up 166 percent in Alabama over the last six years. The New York Times reported that the McCain campaign has "no estimate of how many of America's 47 million uninsured would likely gain coverage under its plan."

Just over a week ago, John McCain had the temerity to say that the economic fears of many Americans are, basically, all in their heads.

But nevermind that. John McCain and the RNC want credit just for showing up.

State parties will publish their delegate selection rules and clearly explain how to participate in the summer of 2007.

Alabama Democratic Party
501 Adams Avenue
Montgomery, AL 36104
800-995-3386 (toll free)
334-262-2221 (local)
334-262-6474 (fax)

District-Level Delegates: 34
At-Large Delegates: 11
Pledged Party Leader & Elected Official (PLEO) Delegates: 7
Unpledged Delegates: 8
TOTAL Number of Delegates: 60

Alternates: 9

System type: State-run primary

State convention page: Not available at this time.
State plan: Working plan available (PDF)
State filing form: Available. Begins at page 58.

** This information is prepared by the DNC's Office of Party Affairs and Delegate Selection and may be subject to change. For more information, please call 202-863-8000.

Potential presidential candidate Fred Thompson drew some of the state's top Republicans to his first Alabama fundraiser, including the state chairman of John McCain's campaign.

State Attorney General Troy King, McCain's state chairman, attended the private fundraising reception Monday evening at the Mountain Brook home of construction company executive Jim Cooper.

Who: DNC Chairman Howard Dean

What: DNC Grassroots Fundraising Rally

When: Thursday, May 24, 2007 at 7:30AM (Cameras set by 7:00AM)

Where: Sheraton Birmingham, East Ballroom A, 2101 Richard Arrington, Jr. Blvd, N
Birmingham, AL

* For press credentials please contact Aaron Resnick at 202-863-8148 or resnicka@dnc.org.

4/9/07: Giuliani campaign policy director Bill Simon writes to the National Review Online, claiming Giuliani has been consistent in his position on public funding: "Rudy Giuliani has repeatedly said that he will not seek to change current law as described in the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding of abortions except in cases involving rape or incest, or where the life of the mother is at stake. [National Review Online, 4/9/07]

12:45 PM, 4/5/07: The National Journal's "Hotline On Call" reports a brand new e-mail from the Giuliani campaign claiming that "Rudy would not seek to change current federal law which provides federal funding for abortion only in cases of life of the mother, rape and incest." [Hotline On Call, 4/5/07]

11:30 AM , 4/5/07: In South Carolina, Giuliani Said He Favors Public Funding Of Abortions. The Associated Press reports that at an event this morning, "Giuliani today defended his record of personally opposing abortions but still favoring the use of public money for the procedures." [AP/Fox21, 4/5/07]

Later On 4/4/07: Campaign Said Giuliani Does Not Support Changing Current Law Restricting Federal Funding. "Clarifying" his earlier comments on CNN, "the campaign noted later in the day that the former mayor would not seek to make any changes to current law, which restricts federal funding to cases of rape, incest and the life of the mother." [CNN Political Ticker, 4/5/07]

Earlier On 4/4/07: But Earlier That Day Giuliani Told CNN He Supports Public Funding Of Abortions. "Probably": When Giuliani appeared on CNN and was asked directly by CNN's Dana Bash if he supported the use of public funding for abortions, Giuliani said "Yes." He said he would "probably" keep that position as president. [CNN Political Ticker; 4/4/07]

March 2007: Giuliani Assured Conservatives He Opposed Public Funding of Abortions. In March 2007, Giuliani's campaign told the Christian Broadcasting Network and the National Review Online that he supported the Hyde Amendment, which since 1976 has banned federal funding for abortion. Christian Broadcast News reported that Giuliani's campaign says he will "not seek to make any changes to the Hyde Amendment which restricts federal funding of abortion". Bill Simon, a domestic policy advisor to Giuliani told National Review Online, "I have an assurance that he is in favor of the Hyde amendment" [National Review, 3/1/07; Brody File, CBN News, 3/28/07]

1989: Under Political Pressure, Eventually Giuliani Supported Taxpayer Funded Abortion. Mayoral candidate Giuliani promised to fund abortions in November of 1989. A video clip shows Giuliani addressing a women's group: "There must be public funding for abortion for poor women. We can not deny any women the right to make her own decision about abortion because she lacks resources..(applause)..I have also stated that I disagree with President Bush's veto last week of public funding for abortion." [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWIrlKujUKk, accessed 3/12/07]

1989: But That Came After He Told Conservatives Just The Opposite Earlier That Year: Giuliani told New York's Conservative Party - a pro-life group whose endorsement he wanted - in mid-1989 that he "did not favor government funding." [Newsday, 11/3/89]

President Bush:

• Bush In Arizona Campaigning Hard To “Pre-Sell” A Political Victory at 12pm ET. Bush talked to an invitation only audience of about 400 people at the Pueblo El Mirage RV and Golf Resort. The Arizona Republic said Bush came to campaign hard for his new Medicare plan. “The main focus of Bush's visit was to elaborate on the new Medicare drug benefit…Having high numbers of enrollees also will be a political victory for the president, since he pushed the Medicare reform measure through Congress in 2003. Members of the Bush administration have been on the road, going across the country to talk up the program…. ‘I think Bush would like it (the Medicare drug benefit) to play a role in the elections next year -- he's been touting it as one of the big accomplishments of his first term,’ David Mark, of Campaigns & Elections Magazine, said Monday.… Bush said Monday that he was in El Mirage ‘pre-selling’ the importance of enrolling for the benefit.” [Arizona Republic, 8/30/05]
• Bush Stopped To Celebrate McCain’s Birthday At Luke Air Force Base. “Greeting Bush was Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)… The president paused on the tarmac to help celebrate McCain's 69th birthday, but on a blazing Arizona day, the cake melted before he could taste it.” [Washington Post, 8/30/05]
• “Upbeat” Bush Continues Campaigning, Speaking Straight From White House Talking Points In Rancho Cucamonga, CA at 5:45pm ET. “An upbeat and slightly sunburned President George W. Bush chatted with the nation's Medicare chief and several locals in a casual, town hall-type setting Monday, encouraging seniors to find out more about their new prescription drug benefits. Repeatedly telling an audience of 200 invited guests at the James L. Brulte Senior Center that the new program was "a good deal,' the president also assured seniors that he sympathized with their apprehension.… Bush, who spoke for just under a half-hour, pulled talking points directly from a White House fact sheet that states Medicare has not kept up with advances in medicine…. Bush's appearance was part of a $300 million campaign to promote awareness of the program and boost interest in it.” [Whittier Daily News, 8/30/05]

The Gulf Coast

• Katrina Moves On Shore As Category 4 Hurricane. At 6am, the National Hurricane Center warned that “extremely dangerous category four hurricane Katrina preparing to move onshore newar southern Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana…Hurricane-force wind gusts occurring over most of southeastern Louisiana…and as far east as the Chandeleur Islands.” [Hurricane Center]
• At Least 55 Reported Deaths By Hurricane Katrina Throughout Gulf Coast. “Hurricane Katrina barreled into the Gulf Coast on Monday morning, its fierce winds cutting a 125-mile swath of destruction stretching from coastal Alabama across Mississippi to the French Quarter and the Superdome. At least 55 people were killed. The storm's leading edge, wielding winds up to 145 mph across the Gulf of Mexico, made landfall as a fearsome Category 4 hurricane at 7:10 a.m. Eastern time near the Louisiana bayou town of Buras, about 63 miles southeast of New Orleans. Katrina then wheeled into western Mississippi, bringing a 20-foot storm surge along the coast near Biloxi. It headed north later Monday to inundate most of the Mississippi Delta, spun off dozens of tornadoes through the South and promised drenching rains later in the week as far north as the Ohio Valley.” [Washington Post, 8/30/05]
• The flooding begins - literally. Pictures start to come in from residents and reporters as the Gulf Coast is washed away.

For a full comparison, check out the research document, Timeline of a Catastrophe.

Circuit Judge Robert Vance Jr.'s decision stems from a 2005 lawsuit arguing that the state constitution is clear that people convicted of certain felonies including DUI and drug possession - unlike murder, rape or robbery - do not lose their voting rights and do not need to apply for an eligibility certificate from the board.

"Only the Legislature has the constitutional power to decide which crimes involve moral turpitude so as to justify the removal of a fundamental civil right for which so many have fought and died," Vance's ruling said.

Strong-Arming the Vote
Editorial
The New York Times
August 3, 2006

"President Bush's Justice Department has been criticized for letting partisanship guide its work on voting and elections. And party politics certainly appears to have been a driving force in a legal maneuver it just pulled off in Alabama, where it persuaded a federal judge to take important election powers away from the Democratic secretary of state and give them to a Republican governor. The Justice Department says it is trying to enforce the election law, but that is unconvincing. There are plenty of ways to enforce the law without creating the impression that it is tilting the electoral landscape in favor of Republicans...

"Sadly, a federal judge agreed yesterday to do just that, in a one-sided proceeding that felt a lot like a kangaroo court... The Justice Department's request to shift Ms. Worley's powers to Governor Riley is extraordinary. Normally, the government would seek an order telling a state official what to do, or it would ask to have a nonpartisan person appointed as a special master. And the Justice Department's aggressive stance stands in stark contrast to the forgiving approach it has taken to Republican secretaries of state. After Katherine Harris removed eligible voters from the rolls in Florida in 2000, and Kenneth Blackwell tried to block eligible people from registering in Ohio in 2004, the Justice Department made no effort to limit their powers. Controlling the voting rolls can yield important advantages, as Ms. Harris proved in 2000. The Justice Department's actions in Alabama appear to be less about enforcing the law than about wresting control of the voter rolls from the opposition party, and making a Democratic secretary of state who is up for re-election in a few months look bad...

"It would not be the first time the Bush Justice Department seemed to play party politics with elections. Political appointees approved the pro-Republican Congressional redistricting plan in Texas and a voter ID law in Georgia, despite objections from staff lawyers that the plans violated the Voting Rights Act. The Justice Department has enormous power over state elections. It is important that this power be used in a way that appears - and is - nonpartisan. Undercutting a Democratic secretary of state, and taking the extraordinary step of handing her powers to a Republican governor, meets neither test. The Justice Department is giving the impression that it is less concerned that elections be lawful and fair than that they come out a particular way."

To read the entire New York Times editorial, please click here.