Ah, my 2008 Harvard Planner arrived today. It is my preferred desk agenda, and this fresh paginated slab of goal-setting and time-tracking features always gets my juices flowing for the year ahead.
Also, the 2008 calendar is up in the office at work, letting me start to pencil in what days off and vacation time I want for the coming year.
And damn, it looks like a momentous year ahead. Will you join me below as I pencil in items large and small, and perhaps share your own expectations for 2008?
First of all, lets set aside July 16th-20th for Netroots Nation in Austen! My registration and hotel reservation are both in, and this time I'm going to arrive on Wednesday, so I don't miss out on helping with last-minute preparations, early caucuses and meetings, and general socializing. See you all there, I hope.
I'm also tentatively penciled in the Left Forum in New York City March 14-16. I've gone to this, or to the Socialists Scholars Conference from which it was spun off, numerous times since the early 1990s, and always gotten pretty juiced by the energy. Perhaps I'll go this year. Of course, if any other Kossacks are planning to attend, that would make it even more desirable...and if any NYC Kossacks can offer a crash pad for the weekend, even better!
The primary election here in Pennsylvania is April 22nd. I rather expect the presidential candidate will be clear by then, but there are some local elections I'm interested in. At the top of the list is to help Anne Dicker oust Vince Fumo from the state senate. Given that Fumo has a 139 count federal indictment for fraud, tax evasion and obstruction of justice coming to trial next year, you'd think this might be easy.
But this is Philadelphia. Fumo has served a long time, and has brought a lot of money to local organizations and to the city, and a lot of constituent services to a lot of ordinary people. It probably will take a huge effort to convince people to forgo that gravy train, even if Fumo appears to have been very generous to himself in siphoning off a lot of the dough. Anne Dicker needs to convince everyone that she has what it takes to continue bringing funds back to Philadelphia, but do it in an ethical way. This is the race I'm most enthusiastic about. Anne Dicker is a strong candidate who has come up through grassroots organizing and community activism.
I'm also looking at the primary challenges being waged against state representative Babette Josephs by two hopefuls: Larry Farnese and Peggy Banaszek. Although Babette Josephs generally progressive, she's been in a long time and has disappointed recently. The committees she's chosen to serve on in the state house aren't especially germane to the needs of Philadelphia, and she has made votes that have been detrimental to city control over its zoning laws, and to the state Open Records law.
I would support a progressive, grassroots candidate against her, and these two both seem to offer promise. Farnese, in fact, nearly ousted Josephs in the last election. Still, I haven't completely decided yet.
In any case, I can't take the day of the primary election off, because I need to schedule my vacation time to begin later that same week for our projected trip to Istanbul, Turkey (penciling that into the calendar for April 24-May 6). But what I can do is ask for an opening shift that day, which will free me from 3pm on for any get out the vote work, and for awaiting the verdict after the polls close.
As for the November election, I'm not sure what I'm taking off yet. Definitely taking off election day! I expect I'll at least ask for Saturday November 1st through Tuesday November 4th off, so I can devote that weekend to get out the vote here in Philadelphia, in some of the surrounding congressional re-elections (for instance, Joe Sestack and Patrick Murphy), do some virtual phone-banking to wherever needed in the country.
And while I'm at it, let me write down that I'm scheduled to write the diary for the Wednesday night Feminisms series here on DKos on January 16th (subject to be determined.)
Ah, nothing like a fresh calendar for a new year. I'm psyched! How about you?