Report on Last Week's Meetup at Goose Island

Josh Lange, Meetup Chair at ChicagolandForKerry, has this to say about last week's Meetup at Goose Island:

The Goose Island Brew Pub Meetup had a record turnout of over 100 people and raised over six hundred dollars last night. Brendan Goff hosted the packed room, along with representatives from the Obama and Cegelis camps. To ensure a better host-to-attendee ratio for June, we are asking anyone who would consider hosting a Meetup in their neighborhood to email Meetup Chairman Josh Lange (bottlroktt@yahoo.com) with your name, phone number, and neighborhood. Let's get out the Meetup in June and keep the momentum going!

Images from the Meetups at Goose Island and Ann Sather are available through the Photo Section of the ChicagolandForKerry.com web site.

Kerry Meetup Open Forum

Did you go to a Kerry Meetup in the Chicagoland area on Thursday (5/27/04)? Were you a Host or Attendee? Is this the first time you went to a Kerry Meetup? Have you been to one before? Which location did you go to? What kind of people were there? What did you think? Is there something they should have covered a bit more? Was it worthwhile? Will you come again?

Got an experience or observation to share? Please leave a comment here.

Great MeetUp at Ann Sathers Tonight

Just a note of thanks to everyone who came to the Kerry Meetup at Ann Sathers tonight. 40-50 eagar and energetic people showed up on this fine Spring evening.

Victor Barry and I discussed various ways to get involved in the local campaign effort. Dave Perry was there to discuss voter registration. We later fielded questions and heard suggestions from several participants. The spirit was great! Discussion ranged from reaching out to independents (both left and right) to posing important questions of policy to the Kerry Campaign.

Bogus Vote Alert

The Republicans are pulling out all the stops to discredit John Kerry. Since they control Congress they can call votes at any hour of the day or night. It seems the latest tactic is to wait till Kerry is out of Washington and then engineer some pop vote that they hope will embarrass him.

The latest is a Senate vote on an amendment to extend Unemployment Benefits by 13 weeks. This vote had been held up for months by the Republicans. With Kerry safely out of town, they suddenly scheduled a vote.

Anyone familiar with the Republican opposition to extending unemployment Benefits -- time and time again -- can only laugh at this little bit of theater.

For more on the Bogus Vote, read Sheryl McCarthy's "GOP Stacks the Vote to Make Kerry a Loser".

Obama Meet Up Tomorrow (5/19/04)

The MeetUp in support of Barack Obama will be taking place tomorrow Wednesday, 5/19/04 at 7pm at Goose Island, 1800 N. Clybourn Ave, Chicago, IL.

This is a wonderful opportunity first for Kerry Supporters to reach out to a fellow Democrat; and second, to invite Obama Supporters to our own Kerry MeetUp which will be taking place next Thursday (5/27/04).