Volunteer

The transition from ReDefeatBush to Left.org is still underway, so for now we would ask you to use the volunteer form at ReDefeatBush to indicate to us that you want to help.

After a period in which we had more than two dozen people being paid for their work on ReDefeatBush we have once again returned to being an almost entirely volunteer-run operation. We need your help and active engagement very much. Among our most important assets are the time and talents you and others like you have offered to make available to us, so we take the task of channeling and structuring your participation very seriously. We have set up three volunteer groups and ask that you pick one (or at the most two) to be a part of. Tell us which you have chosen in the comment box on the volunteer form. This structure allows us to engage the largest possible group of volunteers -- many of whoom will never meet one another -- in shared tasks that conclude in the accomplishment of our shared objective, as well as isolate the people who are here for the purpose of disrupting our activities. Regrettably, this form of electronic fascism is just a fact of life that we have to contend with.

Please pick one of these working groups to join:

Aid Brigade: This is the finance committee that will help Left.org meet its target of raising $500,000 in 2005. We are building a target list of potential contributors in our top cities and reaching out to ask for their help. If you assist with this you will do Internet-based research on progressive donors in a specific geographic area and be involved with contacting them. In particular we need people to serve as local leaders in our first set of 13 target cities: Washington, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, Denver/Boulder, the San Francisco Bay region, Los Angeles, Portland, Madison and Columbus. If you live elsewhere we are happy to help you develop local chapters where they spontaneously spring up. To join this team you have to be capable of asking people for money.

Action Faction: Our 2005 political action agenda centers upon a lawsuit designed to force the truth about the deliberate partisan misadministration of the election in Ohio out into the open, which we no longer believe can be successfully done from within Ohio itself. To join this team you sould be able and willing to make phone calls, canvas door-to-door, be comfortable with the methodical management of large data sets or be admitted to the bar and engaged in the practice of law.

Reflection Section: People in this volunteer group will work on the Web site and on other writing and research projects. The Left.org site when it is completed will do more than simply host online discussions and publish blogs. It will enable contributors to participate in the planning and execution of real world events and activities, and it will contribute to our success by helping a numb er of good writers become successful publishers under the Left.org banner. The site will also serve as the shared work environment for the writing and editing of The Making of the President 2004: How Bush Stole the Presidency and How We Get it Back. We see this as a citizens' indictment of Bush and the media for theft and deception. To join this team you should be confident of your ability as a writer and researcher and should be able to clearly footnote and document your work.