While Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin, along with Rudy Giuliani, openly mocked and derided the job of community organizing at the RNC convention, another 100 people got engaged through UA house meetings during those three days -- and the pace hasn't let up yet. In fact the frequency and level of interest keeps going up.

A packed house: over 50 people came to this house meeting hosted by an Obama supporter and UAPA member. It's easy and fun to host or attend a house meeting.

House meetings are a powerful way to get others engaged in the campaign process. We need you! If you'd like to host or attend a house meeting, or just learn more about what it takes to host a house meeting (it's simple!), sign up here.

Both Giuliani and Palin specifically mocked Barack's experience as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago more than two decades ago, where he worked with people who had lost jobs and had been left behind when the local steel plants closed.

Let's clarify something for them right now.

Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies.

As one UAPA member wrote: "After watching Sarah Palin last night, I'm completely dedicated to putting on my walking shoes and working for the Obama/Biden ticket."

Anti-Obama hate graffiti spray-painted on the side of an Arlington home displaying a 'UA for Obama' yard sign.

It looks like desperate people are resorting to...well desperate tactics. While this is a disturbing, not to mention criminal act, it is also an act of cowardice. This is the beginning of a tough road ahead. We can't afford to be complacent.

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
----Thomas Jefferson

Ohio Women voted 54% for Al Gore in 2000 but only 50% for John Kerry in 2004. That was the difference in the election.

WOMEN WIN ELECTIONS!

The Ohio Democratic Party is undertaking a targeted postcard initiative to reach at least 118,000 persuadable women voters who are soft-Republican and Independent voters likely to have children. It's up to us to talk to these women about why we are voting for Barack Obama and Joe Biden and the rest of the Democratic ticket this year.

Women are ready for a conversation about the issues that affect their everyday lives, and they need to know the truth about McCain and Palin and their failed, out-of-touch policies and ideas!

If you'd like to host a postcard party or simply participate, e-mail liz@ohiodems.org as soon as possible. All you have to do is provide a location and friends who don't get writers cramp. Liz will supply the postcards, the addresses, talking points and other tools to pull off a successful party.

It's simple!

Your response to our sign initiative has been outstanding! Over the last several days we distributed hundreds more signs online and at the Labor Day Arts Festival.

Be a part of the movement here in UA. Planting a sign really makes a difference in ways you may not know. Your public show of support impacts people in your neighborhood who trust and value your opinion.

Signs are also a great way to fight back against the smears against Barack Obama that will only get worse. Signs are beginning to disappear, so be sure to let us know if you need a replacement at info@uaprogressiveaction.com. The police suggest putting your name and address on the sign (inside or out) so that it can be returned to you if found.

Our goal is to continue distributing even more signs. We need you to sign up to turn UA blue by planting a sign in your yard. Already have your sign? Encourage your Obama supporting friend or neighbor, who may not know of our sign initiative, to sign up.

Sign up here to have a sign personally planted in your yard. We will include an envelope with your sign in hopes that you will mail us a contribution to help defray our costs.

We thank you in advance!

Abraham Lincoln famously said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." That is what John McCain is hoping when he urges Hillary Clinton supporters to switch to the GOP. We cannot let him succeed.

The primaries were exhausting and sometimes acrimonious and divisive. We know and understand the utter disappointment of Hillary Clinton's supporters; many of our group are among that number. But we must look to the future and November.

If you live in neighboring communities (or anywhere in Ohio, for that matter) we have yard signs that you'll love!

Announcing our Ohio for Obama signs! These weatherproof signs will take you through the election and beyond. Display your pride with your new Ohio for Obama sign, and announce to the world that you support Barack Obama and his platform of change we all can believe in!

These durable signs are a steal at only $7 each. If you live in the metro Columbus area, we encourage you to send us an e-mail ohiosigns@uaprogressiveaction.com and someone will be in touch to make arrangements about getting you your sign. However, if you live out of Columbus we can send you only the plastic sleeve -- we cannot mail the wire frame since it can't be folded. All you have to do is find or make a wire frame (a standard size that measures 26 inches wide by no less than 18 inches high) and you can easily slide the plastic sleeve over it.

Pick-Up in Person

You can pick up your Ohio for Obama sign from one of our Obama Gear volunteers. Just send us an e-mail at ohiosigns@uaprogressiveaction.com and one of our volunteers will contact you to make arrangements for you to pick-up your sign. Please note that we accept only cash or checks.

Additionally, Ohio for Obama signs will be available at the Obama Acceptence Speech Party (sponsored by the Worthington Area Democratic Club) this Thursday, August 28, at the Hilton Hotel ballroom, just south of I-270 on High Street in Worthington. Signs will also be available at our booth nearby the UA Labor Day Arts Festival. Check back with the website in a few days to get more details about our location!

Through the Mail

You can order and pay for your Ohio for Obama signs (remember, only the sleeve can be mailed) through snail mail for your ease and convenience. Simply send us a check for the number of signs ordered (@ $7 each), and your sign will be sent to you within seven days of your order; postage is included in the $7 price per sign.

Make checks payable to UAPA, and send with your full name, address and phone number to:

UAPA

P.O. Box 21224

Upper Arlington, OH 43221

Be the first in your community to display your Ohio for Obama sign!

Barack Obama: "Ordinary citizens can have an enormous influence in what happens in Washington. The problem is citizens are just not organized right now, and so those who are organized, the corporations, the special interests and the big lobbies, have a disproportionate influence. Part of what this campaign is about is to tilt the scales more in favor of ordinary people." Watch the video.

House Meeting

On-the-ground, good-old-fashioned grassroots field organizing and social networking is the game plan for winning in 2008. Yup, it's that simple.

It's not going to be the usual candidate campaign tactics in which hordes of political types swoop in and knock on thousands of doors without regard to communities, churches, neighborhoods, cultures and existing networks.

This community organizing and house meeting video describes the house meeting concept. It's not too much different than the UAPA house parties you may already be familiar with, but a big difference is emphasis on grassroots social networking compared to other campaigns. Read 'Obama's paid staff dwarfing McCain's'.

Can you host or attend a house meeting? Sign up here.

Not sure what hosting a meeting entails? It's really easy. Check out our House Meeting Frequently Asked Question list.

Sign up to host or attend a house meeting and we'll contact you with details on how to organize your network to help Obama!

Andrew Sullivan nails it:

"What the Obama campaign has lost sight of, I think, and what it needs to regain control of, is the essential message of his candidacy. After the last eight years, we simply cannot risk a continuation of the same reckless, belligerent, argument-losing, ideological and deceptive foreign policy of the current crew.

The damage that neoconservatism has done to America, to the Middle East, to democratic norms, to Israel's security, to civilized values and fiscal sanity is immense and deep. From his knee-jerk COld War posture over Georgia to his Rovian campaign tactics, McCain is simply too close to this disastrous record to contemplate. McCain's trigger-happy temperament, shallow understanding of the complexities and passion for military force as the answer to everything is the bigger risk. He is a recipe for more, wider and far more destructive warfare:"