… and expeditious!

Could've used some Powdermilk Biscuits today before heading over to put in some volunteer time at the Sestak for Congress HQ.

You may remember Powdermilk Biscuits as one of the fictitious sponsors of "A Prairie Home Companion" — they're made from "Whole wheat that gives shy persons the strength to get up and do what needs to be done."

Not that I'm actually a "shy person" exactly, but I was working the phone bank, and there's something about cold-calling people I don't know that makes me feel like a shy person. The very words "phone bank" seem to induce a shortness of breath and tightness in the chest. The actual experience is never as bad as I anticipate, just as none of the actual calls is ever as bad as the idea of them seems to be, yet completing one of those calls — or 20 of those calls — never seems to create a calming sense of "There, that wasn't so bad." That calming realization would, I suppose, be a rational response, but my aversion to phone-banking doesn't seem to be a wholly rational thing. So let's just say that volunteering on a phone bank is not my forte and not something I particularly enjoy.

But the Sestak campaign needs volunteers to work their phone banks and, well, I need them to get what they need because I live in Pennsylvania's 7th District and because the residents of this district — and of the rest of America, and of the rest of the world, actually — really, really need to see Curt Weldon replaced by someone honest and sane. So, you know, choose your pain. I'd rather spend the next six months cold-calling strangers than spend another two years misrepresented in Congress by a delusional, cronyist, dishonest machine politician who thinks the Rev. Sun Myung Moon should be crowned Messiah and Emperor. The thought of this incompetent incumbent works just like Powdermilk Biscuits to give this shy person "the strength to get up and do what needs to be done."

Happily, I learned today of many other volunteer opportunities with Sestak for Congress that seem less panic-inducing. Literature drops? Lots of walking, no phone calls. No problem.

I realized today as well that I've written quite a bit about reasons to vote against Curt Weldon, but not as much about reasons to vote for Joe Sestak. There are many such reasons, and I'll get to them down the line. For now, you can read some of the former Vice Admiral's positions on his campaign site: economic security, education, health care, national defense and other issues. Good stuff.

Oh, and for those of you who don't live down the block from the campaign office, here's another way you can help.