A few days ago, I mentioned here that I was leaning toward supporting Edwards, at least until Gore gets into the race. A few of you agreed with my logic. Well, now it’s time to put your money where your mouth is… Actually, not really your “money” (unless you want to do that)… All that you really need to do is push a button.
I’ve just been informed by fellow Ypsilantian Dan Izzo, the guy behind Ann Arbor’s Improv Inferno, that John Edwards has announced that he’d pay a visit to the town or city that most wanted him. You just log into a site, find the name of your town, and then send him an invitation. Right now, LA is winning with 155 invitations extended. Ypsi has 5. As Dan says, however, it’s not insurmountable. So, if you like Edwards, consider asking him to stop by Ypsi. God knows that we could use a good jolt of energy and enthusiasm.
As for Gore, I don’t think he’ll announce his candidacy at the July 7 Live Earth event, even though it would probably be his best opportunity. I think he cares to much about the subject of global warming to take the spotlight. I do think, however, that if he’s going to make a run, he’ll announce within a few days of the event. So, by July 14, we should know one way or the other.
36 Comments
Seems pretty easy for a bunch of Republicans to game the system and send him somewhere he doesn’t want to go, like a rural Alaskan mining village. Or, Botswana.
On your tip, Cleo Love Paste, I ran through the list to see if I could find any suspicious locales requesting Edward’s presence. I did find one! Quickly climbing the list and just recently overtaking Cleveland for the #22 position is some asinine place calling itself “Second Life.” What the hell is that? It sounds like one of those creepy fundamentalist colleges. They must be stopped!
Being the conspiracy nut I am, it didn’t get past me that the two cities currently with the most invites are Los Angeles and Dallas.
Michigan contenders are currently ranked as follows:
#34. Grand Rapids (29)
#36. Flint (27)
#38. Detroit (26)
#68. Ann Arbor (16)
#82. Ypsilanti (12)
#86. East Lansing (11)
I pledge to spend one dollar at the Corner Brewery this year for every Ypsi vote cast to bring Edwards here.
Thanks for the tip, maybe I’ll get a bunch of local Dems to hammer this poll and get him top beautiful Traverse City!
May the best town win!
Julie
YPSILANTI ROCKETS PAST ANN ARBOR!
…and 24 other hopefuls, and now ranks #58.
Michigan contenders as of 5pm Friday:
#35. Grand Rapids (30)
#37. Flint (27)
#38. Detroit (27)
#58. Ypsilanti (19)
#69. Ann Arbor (16)
#87. East Lansing (11)
Kalamazoo (6) and Traverse City (1) have posted invites but have yet to break the top 100.
As wonderful a guy as he is, his focal point on poverty misses the point. The REALLY poor in this country are the Native Americans we’ve locked up on the rez. Ma and Pa Kettle have indoor plumbing and electricity, at least.
The real domestic issues are the falling fortunes of the middle class, urban neglect, and greenhouse gases. The global list is endlesws … topped by greenhouse gages and the birthing pangs of secular Islam.
Only Gore has experience on the domestic agenda items and has devoted the last 30 years to the risks to global environment.
All of the other candidates on both sides are pandering, as per usual, to individual constituencies on their travels.
Other than Gore on sundry global issues, I like Richardson. Great choice for VP or the State Department.
If Edwards makes it to Michigan … ask him for specifics.
Maybe the poll should weight it by population? The town that has the largest share of it’s population inviting him? Or weight it by which town he can best play up his working class upbringing in?
Ypsilanti has climbed another 2 positions just in the last hour, overtaking Bloomington, Indiana and Wilmington, North Carolina.
So long Hoosiers! Eat Ypsi’s dust, Seahawks!
Ypsi is now ranked #56 with 20 invites registered.
Second life is a virtual online community…(I just know what I google)…
Ypsilanti continues to climb, passing five more competitors in the last half hour.
Birmingham metro, Las Vegas metro, Wichita, Boston metro and Riverside have all been slapped down.
Michigan cities in the top 100 as of 6:30, Friday:
#35. Grand Rapids (30)
#37. Detroit (28)
#38. Flint (27)
#51. Ypsilanti (21)
#69. Ann Arbor (16)
#87. East Lansing (11)
Dear god people, if MM has any hope of breaking past number 10 on Michigan’s most influential political blogs, this is the moment.
I’ve been told 200,000 people read this blog, daily. Any of you who don’t vote to bring J.E. to Ypsi, whatever your location, should be banned from Mark’s peculiar perspective for life … no, eternity. That’s right, no more blogging from hell.
I for one, have voted 19 times. (Thank you yahoo free email.)
Well said, OEC! C’mon people! Sure, we may not be able to get Ypsilanti up into the top 30. But, how could we live with ourselves if we allow the likes of Flint and Grand Rapids outdo us?
Things were looking good on Friday. We were on track to becoming the top contender from Michigan. But then suddenly we stalled out at 24 invites. 24! Damn it, I must have more power! I mean, uh, MM must have more.
Keep in mind, Edwards is coming to Michigan sometime anyway. If Ypsilanti manages to place itself as the community with the most invites from this state, it is possible his campaign would see it as a reason to visit us here when they do come through Michigan.
It’s like that old saying…’You don’t have to be faster than the bear. You just need to be faster than your slowest friend.’ We don’t need to compete with the really big boys like LA or Dallas (or Cocoa FL). We just need to crush our in-state rivals! Crush them! Kill! Kill! Kill!
We’re in striking range people. We can’t stop now!
Here are the Michigan cities in the top 100 as of 9am, Sunday:
#36. Detroit (31)
#37. Grand Rapids (31)
#38. Flint (28)
#44. Ypsilanti (24)
#68. Ann Arbor (17)
#87. East Lansing (11)
Well, one proud Ypsilantian heeded the call and single-handedly put us in position #42.
#35. Grand Rapids (32)
#37. Detroit (31)
#38. Flint (29)
#42. Ypsilanti (25)
#68. Ann Arbor (17)
#87. East Lansing (11)
Casey Kasem just called. He’s real impressed.
#35. Grand Rapids (32)
#37. Detroit (31)
#38. Flint (29)
#39. Ypsilanti (27)
#60. Ann Arbor (19)
#87. East Lansing (11)
What’s with all this whining that only big cities can compete? Eureka, California is currently #2 in the country. Cocoa, Florida is #3.
Apparently, the word’s gotten out around Ann Arbor, and they have now surged past every other Michigan city to the #19 spot.
Ypsilanti overtook Flint, but was passed by Orlando and Minneapolis. You’re competing with the big boy’s people. Look alive!
#19. Ann Arbor (59)
#37. Detroit (33)
#38. Grand Rapids (33)
#40. Ypsilanti (30)
#41. Flint (29)
#89. East Lansing (11)
I think OEC’s suggestion that people may vote multiple times using multiple free yahoo email acounts was right on. I honestly can’t imagine Eureka, California really has 146 people who each registered an invite. Some wiseguy in Ann Arbor must be doing it too, because he’s got them up to #15 now.
When does it end? If we’ve still got a few days, maybe we could coordinate an email campaign, asking our fellow Ypsilantians to join in.
I live closer to Detroit, but I did my part and voted for Ypsi.
As far as I can see, their is no definite close to the voting. It now looks to me like it’s really just a competition to see who can set up the most phony e-mail addresses and vote.
Ends 7/18 at 12 noon PST. We’ve got time.
On top of an e-mail campaign, my suggestion is a “Bring John Edwards to Ypsi” station at the Shadow Art Fair, where users can logon and vote.
It could be as simple as a laptop in that giant phone booth lookin’ thing they got.
OEC, where on the eventful.com site did you find that closing time/date? I hope it wasn’t too obvious.
It was totally hidden on the top right hand side of the first page, under:
Details, details…
1. Demand John Edwards in your city
The U.S. city with the most Demands gets a visit from John Edwards. One Demand per person per city. Ends 7/18 at 12 noon PST.
Ahhh, yes. How could I have possibly found it there? I’m not getting enough sleep. I’m up all night listeing to Art Bell.
Art Bell!?! He still going? Eee gads!
Robert listens to a station that only very special Art Bell fans can hear.
And I really like the idea of a Shadow Art Fair table dedicated to the task of getting Edwards to visit. We’ve got a table set aside to literature and such – if you think you can line up volunteers to work it, let me know, and I’ll see what the other four organizers think. Assuming they’re OK with it, I don’t see a problem. The wireless should work fine… One problem might be, however, several people using the same machine. The program may look at IP addresses and disregard duplicates.
I’ve been messing around with it. It looks like it’ll take the same IP address (if you block cookies) but has somekind of time limit between requests.
By the way, Columbus, Kentucky (population 229) has recently skyrocketed to the lead with 313 votes, thanks to this blog.
I’ll keep looking to see if there’s an SAF work-around.
I had the chip the government planted in my head customized. It now plays MP3s and picks up all sorts of radio signals.
As far as the whole Edwards demands on eventful.com go, Ypsi ha now moved past all the other Michigan entries except Ann Arbor, which is now all the way up to #7.
#7. Ann Arbor (110)
#37. Ypsilanti (35)
#38. Detroit (33)
#39. Grand Rapids (33)
#41. Flint (29)
#90. East Lansing (11)
At the very least, the presence of the Edwards invite table at the Shadow Art Fair will serve as great cover for the massive vote fixing operation Ol’E Cross and I will be engineering behind the scenes. People will ask, “How did 2 million people register invites from Ypsilanti” and we’ll be able to answer, “Shadow Art Fair” without looking nervous and suspicious.
Columbus, Kentucky, has moved way out in front, with Eureka, California, in a distant second place. Ann Arbor has managed to get up to the third place. We have until July 18th to do something about all this nonsense.
#1. Columbus KY (1,250)
#2. Eureka CA (581)
#3. Ann Arbor (324)
–
#37. Ypsilanti (35)
#38. Detroit (33)
#39. Grand Rapids (33)
–
#42. Flint (29)
–
#93. East Lansing (11)
And Edwards had better do something about his campaign, as well. He’ll be preaching his poverty in America shtick to the choir in Columbus, KY … oh, yawn.
Meantime: health care, global warming, jobs, and sustainable living will be on the entree side of the menu for the REAL candidates.
Someone neeeeeds to explain to Edwards that burning coal or liquify it makes no difference. Even if we sequester the CO2 in the ground, “coal is nice, but clean air must suffice.”
egpenet – All of “health care, global warming, jobs, and sustainable living” fit perfectly well within Edwards’ poverty in America schtick.
It’s just a matter of how well he can pitch them…
It would be clever if he could quadrangulate those four issues into his “poverty” crusade … let’s see … in one sentence … “We need to sustain the health of the global poor with warmth and care.” Sure, OK, I see. It CAN be done! Wow! Ain’t politics great.
In terms of the baseball analogy … it’s a sinker.
The reality is that he’ll probalby visit all the top 25 places over the course of the next year. I don’t know that he’ll necessarily hit Ypsilanti, but he’ll surely be back in Ann Arbor… I’m not suggest that we don’t continue to push for our neighbors to invite him, I’m just sayin’.
I was just hoping that if we kept talking about it, one of these crazy hacker types, who are obviously the reason Columbus and Eureka are leading the race, might notice and take up our cause. We need whatever type of trouble-maker it is that does that stuff. I think someone needs an automatic yahoo account generator which can register an invite with the website with a new account every 10 minutes or so. (As usual, I’m only partly kidding) I hate cheaters…let’s join them. We should start a collection and put a bounty out to hackers – $1 per invite with an upper limit set. That’s the table that should be at SAF.
By the way, Columbus, Kentucky just added 45 invites since my last post here. Eureka, Calfornia added 65! Ann Arbor added 1.
Just for the record, Columbus, Kentucky came out on top. Ann Arbor finished 4th, and Ypsi stayed in 37th.