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As Fourth of July fireworks lit up the Missouri sky and parades marched down streets across the state, Obama supporters were hard at work. Equipped with clipboards and a stack of voter registration forms, they sifted through the crowds, doing their part to ensure that every voice will be heard this November. In Chesterfield, Missouri a crew of ten volunteers gathered at the Chesterfield mall parking lot just before dusk; a prime viewing spot for the town’s annual firework display. After a brief meet up, they set out to find high traffic areas to try and register voters. An Obama Organizing Fellow named Marta, who was leading the effort, choose a particularly novel spot. Instead of roaming around the parking lot, she stood at the top of a tall embankment that overlooked another parking area. As people arrived for the fireworks, they’d climb up the mulch covered hill and be greeted by Marta as soon as they reached level ground. “Hi, are you registered to vote?” she’d say with a smile. Regardless of their response, Marta always warmly waved and replied “Have a happy fourth!” There were similar scenes all across the parking area, with volunteers trying to interact with as many potential voters as possible. As the sun began to set, a few volunteers gathered to review their progress. Suzanna, who had helped out at Vote for Change events in the past, shared her thoughts as she flipped through the six new registrations she had ga...

David in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has been active in voter registration efforts since March. And yesterday he held three events, at the Party on the Parkway, the local July 4th Parade, and the fireworks show. Each of these events is part of the “Welcome America Festival” held in Philadelphia for a week.I chose this week to do voter registration because Welcome America draws huge crowds, especially on the night of the 4th and 5th, when there are fireworks. We had 61 volunteers sign up to help at the events today, although because it started raining around 7pm, only about 12 showed up. Despite the rain, we got a total of 112 registrations for the day. People seemed eager to register, probably because the connection between the holiday and the idea of civic participation and patriotism.I started doing voter registration back in March, for the Pennsylvania primary. I stood on the corner next to the grocery store near my house and registered 394 people over the course of 10 days. When I wasn't doing voter registrations, I was in the Philadelphia headquarters doing data entry and voter protection.After the Primary in Pennsylvania, David traveled to North Carolina to help with the Get Out The Vote efforts. He then got involved with the local volunteers in Philadelphia.I attended the kickoff for Vote for Change and have tried to either organize or attend a voter registration event every week. I really love doing voter registration because I find it satisfying to hav...

The Buzz features content from local blogs around the country. Are you covering the campaign on your blog? Share your URL with us in the comment section, and we'll check out your corner of the blogosphere! John at Into the Fuzz in California shares pictures of homemade Obama signs adorning lawns and cars in his neighborhood. Ever since my post about the Obama car from a few weeks ago, I've been noticing homemade Obama signs everywhere. It's a pretty fascinating phenomenon (to me, at least).... Grassroots stuff is cool. Rashid at As I See It in Plainsfield, New Jersey shares photos and videos from Independence Day in Plainsfield, where he and a group of Obama supporters marched on Barack's behalf in the parade. (Check out one supporter's yard-sign-turned-blouse. Effective messaging...and waterproof! Tres chic.) Cedarbeam compiles a YouTube slideshow of shots taken from an Obama house party island party in Washington State. 22 people attended an Obama house party June 28th on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest that has just 5 year-around residents. At least half a dozen republicans were among the attendees. ... The house party was followed by an Obama beach party in a location of incomparable beauty, underscoring the importance of getting back on track protecting the environment.

Across the country people spent their Fourth of July registering voters at local events. In Ohio, one event caught the attention of the local ABC channel...  Judy Kraus spent July 4th marching down Hamilton Avenue with other Barack Obama supporters in the annual Northside holiday parade. Along the route the Northside woman and other volunteers stopped and approached members of the crowd with clipboards. They were canvassing men and women of voting age, making sure they were registered to cast ballots in the November general election. "We can reach a lot of people this way," Kraus said. "We know a lot of them are disenfranchised, but we know they want to vote so we're going to help them to vote." Similar efforts occurred Friday in Akron, Cleveland, Columbus, Lima and other Ohio cities. More than 2,000 volunteers participated.Sign up to attend a local voter registration event to help those who want to vote. In some states, the 2004 election was won by a small margin of votes. Every vote counts, and this campaign wants to make sure everyone has the opportunity to make their voice heard.

Senator Gravel and writer Joe Lauria will be speaking about their new book, "A Political Odyssey: The Rise of Militarism in the United States and One Man's Fight to Stop It."
The event will be held Monday July 7th @ Busboys & Poets (in The Langston Room).
2021 14th St NW
Washington, DC

Throughout the next six weeks, we will be following Obama Organizing Fellows as they share their stories and their experiences. They’ll talk about the people they meet, the hardships of organizing, what the campaign means to them, and how this summer is potentially changing their lives.Delia is an Organizing Fellow in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She’ll share a re-cap of her week every Saturday.Wednesday, July 2, 2008, will forever remain the best day of my life as a fellow thus far.  I’m a fellow in Colorado Springs and the past two weeks have been amazing.  The relationships I have built and the people I have met have been really wonderful.  Colorado Springs had the honor of hosting Senator Obama Wednesday at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS).  The private gathering had 350 people in attendance from all aspects of community service.  My husband Shawn is active duty in the military and has been deployed twice. He is now stationed in Colorado Springs and he was one of the many military personnel that were in the audience.For the event, each of us had our roles. Keith and I were responsible for making sure people in wheel chairs made it to the proper location. …It was amazing to watch Senator Obama connect with all of us and really make us look at ourselves and not to others to change this world through service.After the event…we put up all the chairs and tore down the stage.  Then we got the best ...

Greg is part of the Obama campaign staff in Colorado. Yesterday, he attended a Denver event hosted by supporters... Across the state, Obama volunteers and fellows took every opportunity they could to reach out to voters and register new ones. Here in Denver there were numerous events celebrating the birth of our nation, and the campaign had a presence at many of them – spreading a message of patriotism by getting people actively involved in the democratic process.An “Old-Fashioned July 4th Celebration” at Four Mile Historic Park was filled reenactments of important moments in the country’s history and talented actors portraying notable American figures.Another Illinois politician and former president, Abraham Lincoln spent a little time talking to us.We asked him how he felt about another Illinoisan running for our nation’s highest office. The former told us that no matter what state a candidate came from they should be a person of character – he chose not to endorse at this time.It’s not too late to get involved this 4th of July weekend, find an event near you.There are more pictures on our Flickr account.  If you have any great campaign related pictures from today, e-mail them to co@barackobama.com!

(YouTube speech here)
When in the course of human events, unattended grievances make it necessary for citizens to reexamine the structure of their government and bring about change.
We were once a great nation, created by immigrants from foreign lands who populated a bountiful continent.
We now witness our nation’s prestige and our domestic liberties considerably diminished.
read more

Barack, Michelle, Malia and Sasha has a family picnic in Butte, Montana this afternoon. Before sitting down to eat hot dogs, Barack said... What makes this country great is not the size of our military, not the size of the economy, not the big buildings we have. What makes this country great is its people.Here is the video and some pictures from the event...

Barack spent time in Fargo, North Dakota yesterday. Becky is on the ground in the (normally) reliably red state of North Dakota, as the campaign continues to put staff in all 50 states. At the Veterans event, Becky was there to interview Obama supporters.Mark, who lives in Devil's lake, 165 miles away, started his journey [Wednesday] night and arrived at the shuttle site at 7:30 [Thursday] morning, hoping to be first in line for this rare opportunity.It's not very often people [politicians] come to North Dakota, so you've got to take advantage of that. It's so different seeing it live. On TV you can see the enthusiasm, but here you get to feel it.Mark usually votes Independent, but, like so many other people, is hungry for change. When asked why he supports Senator Obama, Mark replied...I hate to be redundant, but it's the change. We need change. McCain is more of the same.Kevin, a member of the IAM union, was originally a Clinton supporter, but says he's now behind Obama 110%. His children are all enthusiastic supporters as well. Nine-year-old Hunter wrote a four page report on Barack for school.Anne and Mary attended the event together. Although Mary originally was a Clinton fan, she expressed her full support and confidence in Senator Obama...He's brilliant, he reminds me of JFK, his wife is wonderful, and he really cares. It's exciting that he's here in North Dakota, that says something right there.Anne has always been an Obama supporter and says, “he knows the c...

Earlier today, Barack, Michelle, Malia and Sasha attended an Independence Day Parade in Butte, Montana. During the parade, Barack shook hands with supporters, kissed babies, signed autographs and posed for pictures.  Here are pictures and video from the event…

This weekend marks a time of celebration for our nation - the 232nd year of our independence - and Americans everywhere are sacrificing part of their holiday to help elect Barack Obama as our 44th President.Vivian in Florida woke up early to march in a 4th of July parade with over 150 other supporters. They're going to be handing out posters and red, white, and blue colored goodies along the route. She's joined, across thousands of miles, by David in Hawaii who's expecting over 100 marchers supporting Barack in the Kailua parade and will be passing out snacks after the parade. Benny in Arizona is planning a potluck-style barbecue.Think of it as one big family reunion for Tucson. It's time we put action to our words and really make an effort to come togehter for a common cause on our nations birthday!That's what today's events are really about: many voices forming one nation, rising up from the grassroots and working together to change the course of history. Vote for Change events around the country are part of that story, too.  Bao from Virginia is organizing a voter registration drive at a local festival, where they'll help shape the upcoming election by making sure that more Americans participate in the political process established by the Founding Fathers and exercise the inalienable rights that Thomas Jefferson declared so many years ago.There are over 1,000 events organized through My.BarackObama.com today, almost 800 of them part of the Vote for Change National ...

Barack certainly has an inspirational American story of uplift. But he is not alone. Libby from Connecticut shared her story and why she is supporting Barack.About three years ago I had just finished college and taken a job. This was a last-minute decision - I'd been applying for grad schools and had been accepted, but my father was dying. On top of the psychological turmoil that one might expect with losing a parent, there were financial implications we didn't see coming. I could not in good conscience choose school and incur debt while my parents' financial security was being buried in the piling medical bills. You might suspect that we were uninsured or under insured, but it was quite the opposite. My dad was a civil servant for more than 20 years, and had great benefits. Even though my mom was also employed with good health insurance, he continued paying his own premiums for the most expensive and comprehensive plan, because he didn't want to worry about medical bills in his retirement. Despite the foresight and best efforts, Dad fell through the cracks of a crappy system.Suddenly, collection notices showed up at my parents' home-- the same parents who faithfully paid bills on time and didn't even own credit cards when I was growing up. The week after we buried my dad, it broke my heart to find collection notices that he'd hidden away, I guess in embarrassment. In his right mind, he would never have done that, but sick people can't be expected to act and think...