Marijuana Policy Project
Alison Green
resumes@mpp.org

Greetings Alison, November 13, 2008

Please consider this as my cover letter for the position of Arizona Campaign Manager for the Marijuana Policy Project as seen on idealist.org. After reading the goal of the ballot initiative and the job qualifications and responsibilities contained in the job description, I am confident I would be a great asset to the campaign.

Specifically how might I be an asset? Some of my qualifications are as follows: I have successfully orchestrated signature drives; I have recruited supporters and trained them to become advocates; I have successfully lobbied local, state, and federally elected officials and co-chaired press conferences with elected officials; I understand the importance of coalition building through grassroots and grasstops organizing; I understand the absolute necessity of fundraising; and finally I understand the dedication, hard work and long hours it takes to win a campaign. I am a campaign operative for progressive issues and candidates, with more wins under my belt than losses.

As far as the issue goes I would not be telling the truth if I said it was my life long passion to legalize the possession and cultivation of small amounts of marijuana for patients who have a doctor's recommendation. However it is a cause I believe in. Mandatory sentencing for possession of marijuana is causing our prisons to overflow. As my resume supports I worked on a jail bond referendum campaign to build another prison due to overcrowding and the costs associated with overcrowding to taxpayers. I do understand that the Arizona ballot initiative is not about mandatory sentencing though, it is about palliative care. I have a close friend whose brother was diagnosed with brain cancer at the age of 35, and at the end of a long battle that he waged for two years against the cancer, marijuana was his choice of relief, but not legally.

I believe that legalizing the possession and cultivation of small amounts of marijuana on a state by state basis will lead to a different and sharper focus for the U.S. “war on drugs”. The good people in law enforcement will be able to refocus resources on solving true criminal activity and people can be made more comfortable when they are ill.

It is my belief that marijuana, especially marijuana recommended by a doctor is less harmful than any drug being advertised legally on television today that comes with a disclaimer at the end of the commercial which says and I am paraphrasing “side effects may include lymphoma, boils on your face or bleeding out of ones’ eyeballs”. It is time to change the U.S. drug policy on marijuana.

I am ready to fight the good fight and hope that you will consider me for the position of Campaign Manager.

Thank you for this opportunity.

Sincerely,
I drank my own kool aid, fuck me


Happy Thanksgiving and I hope you all have health insurance

Detroit what were you thinking?

Ok. If there is anything I've learned from this process (looking for a job) is that you show up for the interview prepared. How dare the CEO's from the big three show up in DC without so much as a powerpoint let alone a plan for their requested $25B bailout. Can you imagine going to a bank, without any documents or a business plan, and requesting a loan to save your poorly run business- injecting taxpayer money to continue down the same failed path as before- based upon the fact that you took the time out from your busy job to fly in on your corporate jet to be at the meeting? It was the sense of entitlement that really got me. I loved Tom Friedman's response to Brokaw last Sun. on MTP. Brokaw asked if Obama can look Detroit in the eye and say "drop dead?"

MR. TOM FRIEDMAN: "I think he can. He may have to, Tom. You know, Carl Levin, what did he say? He said, "You know, just give us this $25 billion and, and we'll be OK." Tom, if I thought with $25 billion we could save this industry, I'd be for it, OK? But I see no plan right now, no reason to suggest that these people who have driven this industry into a complete ditch have a plan to get it out in the long term and not come back to a six, three months from now, for another $25 billion. Show me that plan.
Remember, what was Detroit's plan two years ago when they, when they confronted this problem? It was to subsidize gasoline at a $1.99 a gallon if you bought a Hummer or Suburban or a big truck--that was their idea of innovation. So, you know, it was like a crack dealer offering subsidized crack rather than, you know, going to a clinic to get--to get off the drug. And, and who is the enabler of that? The enabler of that were the Carl Levins, all the Michigan delegation who didn't go to these people. The outrage of these people, "Now they--we have to save these jobs!" Where was their outrage two years ago, OK, about getting them to be more innovative, to getting them on top of the energy efficiency question? They have been enabling the destruction of this industry. So show me a plan. Show me a plan that says if we give you this $25 billion you're actually going to change. Absent that--remember, Tom, we're going to charge this $25 billion on our kids' Visa cards. This goes on our kids' Visa cards, and we have a moral obligation to make sure this is spent wisely."

Yesterday I found myself in the kitchen early in the morning so I turned on NPR (instead of Today) and it was one "the sky is falling" economic/job related story after another. I was surprised that I wasn't thrown into a full fledged panic attack.

I got a part-time temporary job with UPS.

I haven't posted for awhile due to the fact that I've been focused on submitting writing samples and writing cover letters. I made it to the second round for a campaign manager position in Phoenix, but it was determined that I wasn't a "fit" for the job. Which is a shame because it was for the maryjane policy project. If I don't fit there, do I fit anywhere?

It really sucks that the best thing the lame duck session will produce is an extension for unemployment benefits.

Now this may help me find a job

"Remember what John Maynard Keynes, the British economist, famously said when he was accused of flip-flopping on his views about government intervention in the markets during the Great Depression: “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”"

from the NY Times article today about Paulsen's change of focus for the $700B bailout.

Is this trickle down economics?

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/sorkin-in-priase-of-changing-your-mind/

Teamwork

So I just completed this online "assessment test" of my potential skills or lack thereof with customers. And one thing it made me realize is how ineffective I was at dealing with my former boss. Lessons learned from a fucking corporate test. One of the questions went something like this:

When dealing with a co-worker that is disagreeable you ususally do this:
a) tattle on him to your supervisor
b) tell him that it hurts your feelings that he is such a dick
c) try to find the root of his problems (like what, mommy didn't love me enuf?)
d) ask to not be scheduled with him

Here's what it should of asked:
When dealing with a co-worker that is disagreeable you usually do this:
a) talk shit about him
b) place fake poop on his keyboard with a note attached saying next time you will light it on fire
c) tattle on him to your supervisor
d) let the air out of his tires

I mean fuck me. But there are other prospects.........

You know how sometimes you choose certain things and you're not sure why, it just feels right at the time and later you have this discovery of why? After the corporate cubicle test I was bathing the evil off of me and I thought how appropriate the picture that I chose for this blog profile is.

Strange pic that made my head itch

So I doubt that in preparation for this day none of the four seen in this picture stayed out dancing and drinking until 3am and then woke up on the couch with the back door wide open and the temperature below 30 degrees. No because they take their shit seriously. Well so do I. Party hard and work hard dammit.

I was and am determined that the day not be lost on a throbbing head and gut. So I gathered myself together and got out of the house to do this and that and walked the dog and upon returning to the house I discovered two job opportunities are moving to the next level. I may become a community organizer in Chicago, no shit. Or sit in a cubicle. One leads to the White House. The other to a fatass. I have no designs on either but a paycheck would be nice.

Hangover helper: apple cider.

Am I better off than Sarah Palin?

Yes or no? Please I invite you to comment
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/08/us/politics/08palin.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin just based on the picture alone..........is that the Moose she field dressed draped over the couch? Sometimes I make these leaps of connections in my head and don't bring others along, so this is an addendum to this post. Palin is one of many reasons that ticket failed, and there she is back in her office and the balloons are deflated and I had a moment of wha whaaaaaa for her and thought after a few vodkas that I was better off. That's BULLSHIT cuz she has a job. And even scarier a political future??? You know who I think I'm better off than? Joe Lieberman. Except he still has a job.

I got one of those "Dear unemployed person" letters, "thank you for your interest and sharing your resume with us but we've decided to go with another candidate."

10,000,000 of us. Whats that old saying that Woody allen borrows from Groucho Marx, I never want to be part of a club that would have me as a member.

Hillary Clinton is no Madeline Albright

Today is like Beggars Night of my youth. The moisture in the air is the nice combo of snow and rain that sometimes plows into your face horizontally, from a straightline wind gust of 20mph. Fun. This is it. Sayonara 70's, that's degrees. I am semi-prepared, I unhooked the garden hose, and stored my patio furniture yesterday. But you should've seen my outfit today I chose to walk my dog in, I will describe it for you: my mother's old green raincoat with faded blue whale lining, a hat plus green hood from raincoat, my carhart overalls and redwings. On election day i was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. I googled moon boots yesterday.

On my walk I thought a lot about what to say to potential employers about being fired.

One thought was to be honest and say that it was difficult to work for an aggressive, ego-maniacal micro-manager.

Another thought which was suggested recently to me by a friend is to say "I wasn't a good fit" but I'm not sure that says everything the same way someone looking at me and surmising that I probably don't enjoy doing crunches sums up my muffintop lickitysplit.

So perhaps somewhere between the two approaches lies the answer. Should I inform them that while I was being canned my boss cried? WTF?

10,000,000 people are currently unemployed in the U.S., so great to be part of that club (thanks Hornet) although there is something sort of comforting when that unfathomable number is spoken by the new President Elect at his premiere press conference (which was kind of weird because it wasn't campaigny sounding, it was for reals). Well sort of.

Chuck Hagel for SOS. I'm not a Hill Hater nor a lover, but she ain't no SOS. She lied about being under sniper fire in Bosnia for chrissakes. Richardson? He is so fucking smarmy, but people like him and he brings home those damn hostages and bodies, he's as my friend John Bush said the "Charlie Wilson of Sec. of States." Cause he is such a shucker and a jiver and I guess he gets shit done.

Still wanting to be part of the team

I keep having dreams about my old boss and workplace. It is kind of a drag as i truly am trying to move on, but there is just something about getting canned. It's like unrequited love or the concession stand that has run out of peanuts and beer by the time your turn comes to order and everyone you are with at the game got the goods except you. God it is like being 5 years old again. You think you want something, you want it badly enough to perhaps throw a fit, but in the end it just doesn't matter. I guess I keep ruminating on this because i don't have the job and someone I know took over my job and I liked her as a work friend but she always would say stuff like we'd be great friends even if we weren't co-workers. Which I always thought was BS but now that she has my job I've become hyper-aware she hasn't contacted me. That makes me feel like an asshole, because why do i give a fuck? Once I included her in a gathering at my house for some political thing and she stayed later than anyone else talking about how hard it was for her and her husband to have a baby. I mean she went into great detail, for like an hour I actually switched back to wine from the chamomile tea i was drinking just to buffer the conversation a bit. If there is one thing I know it is know your audience. I am single and i have a magnet on my fridge that says I can't believe i forgot to have children!

So my dream last night which prompted this post involved a spa/abortion clinic and when i walked in my buddy Bob Hall was playing a song from Man Man "Werewolf in your heart" on a lime green drum kit. There was a formal meeting of sorts of which i was asked to leave and so then I entered the spa/abortion clinic area and saw some friends/acquaintances and that was the last thing that really made any sense.

It is a strange sensation to want to be a part of something that you know in your gut you are better off not being a part of.

Oh and I wrote a kickass cover letter that took like 2 hours. Fuck.

quitting smoking

Well to say the least I am so very pleased to be a citizen of the U.S., and an Iowan for that matter. A state that is something like 98% caucasian chose a black man as their democratic nominee on a cold winter night and started the whole ball rolling. As a matter of fact in the midst of all the excitement of learning Obama won the Iowa caucuses I was racing downtown with my precinct captain and friend to see Obama give his thank you speech and I got a speeding ticket. The officer approached my door and I was so jazzed, I was talking a mile a minute and explained that I was so happy about the way the caucuses turned out that I didn't realize I was speeding. He said "who's your candidate?" I said "who's yours?" We both laughed and then i batted my eyes, yet he still wrote me a ticket. Probably a Huckabee fan.

I am wondering today if the McCain supporters felt/feel as badly as I did four years ago when Kerry lost? And my feeling is that it stings less for them, than it did for me four years ago. Am I just so euphoric and proud that I am oblivious to any disappointment that the McCain supporters may in fact be dealing with? Or does Obama transcend that type of partisanship. I've been reading and listening to the world congratulate the U.S. for electing Obama as #44. For as long as I've known this song existed I thought the Republicans owned it but it is going through my head and I picture Michelle Obama singing Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" or as it is known in most circles "Proud to be an American" if you must watch the link, note all the black people in the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RssIN3ustUw

I checked out a book from the library yesterday about how to write a winning cover letter. Kill me now.

Gotsta git him in the white house

Bringing in Iowa's vote harvest
Kerry, Bush supporters make all-out effort

By Tom Curry
National affairs writer
MSNBC
updated 2:46 p.m. CT, Fri., Oct. 29, 2004

So four years ago I was featured canvassing in this article which isn't a great article by any means except that it says that I graduated from Drake which made my mom proud even if it wasn't true. But that launched my short career into politics and I've never canvassed for free, ever, and some might say I made a pretty decent living at it, canvassing er rather running canvasses that is until I got canned. Which is the impetus for this blahg, but I will explore causation of cannededness amongst other things under future posts titled "what I've done for weed, and how I got fired".

But back to canvassing. I will be volunteering all day tomorrow, canvassing. And then I plan on concocting a champagne punch. Now if for some reason tomorrow doesn't go as I and most of my friends hope, well then it might be the karmic wheel biting me in the ass for raking my neighbor's leaves back into their yard today. Or not.

Just got word that Obama's grandma died. Does that mean nobody from his family besides Michelle and the girls and an estranged aunt and brother know that he will be our next President?

E Day predictions

Ok so here goes:
Obama gets 367 electoral votes check out this link as it is interactive and you can make your own predictions: http://www.270towin.com/ but these are mine.

I hope Mitch McConnell in KY gets his walking papers as does Liddy Dole in NC.

Grandma's legs

Sitting at my desk in my office watching the latest 30 Rock episode when I leaned back into my chair and stretched out my arms and legs and looked down and thought i saw my grandma's legs. But they were my legs. I'm going for a walk.