(Cross-posted at Turn Maine Blue)

All of us who work in organizing know how precious our grassroots volunteers are. Often we get discouraged by events on the national level, or just plain exhausted from the level of campaign activity this year. But all it takes to bring us back up again is hearing a good vol making a connection with a voter on the phone, or laughing as a canvass team reports in on their adventures (this Saturday's story to top was the guy in just pajama bottoms...well, it could have been worse).

In the interest of celebrating our volunteers- and encouraging others to step up- I came up with a concept for a logo especially for this campaign season. This project called for some custom artwork, and fortunately I knew just the designer to tap for it: Sam Reynolds, Maine Democratic Party Youth Intern (Special Ops/Graphics Division). Sam is 16, and conveniently he is also my son. I think he is quite talented, but I may be biased, so I'll let his work speak for itself. The design and more below the fold...

What's the best way to spend a weekend in August if you're a progressive Democrat in Maine? How about a camp-out by the ocean with like-minded souls? Party into the night with some of the folks who've helped turn a red county blue, while setting a model for grassroots-based campaign strategy in Maine. Meet Philinmaine, of the DKos "Nuts and Bolts" series, just back from his presentation on Rural Grassroots at YearlyKos. Meet Heather, our campaign coordinator extraordinaire. Meet Dexter, our GOTV Guru (and the genius behind our kakistocracy bumper sticker), and many of the rest of our notorious crew!

Oh, and if you stick around till Saturday afternoon, you can also meet Ned Lamont, and our terrific Maine Congressmen, Tom Allen and Mike Michaud!

What if you knew about a special item, an item with particular significance, perhaps even a political item. What if this item were signed by John Murtha? Jimmy Carter? Soon-to-be-Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi? Patrick Leahy? Barbara Boxer? Louise Slaughter? Got your interest yet? What if we're not done? Howard Dean, Robert Byrd, my Congressman Mike Michaud (a great guy), and many more names....

All these people signed a special quilt-- a signature quilt. What if you could buy a chance to "sleep under greatness" -- would it be worth a buck?  Maybe five or ten?

Follow along for pictures (And we'll get to Bill in Portland Maine shortly!)...

Maine Public Broadcasting has reported several times today that Snowe and Collins "broke ranks" to vote against the Pryor nomination. This struck me as interesting, since they voted for Brown and Owen. These nominees were all horrible; was Pryor that much worse?

This roused my curiosity, so I took a look at the roll calls for these first three post- Filibuster Compromise votes and checked to see how all of the compromise signatories voted. Results are below the fold, with votes that broke with party lines in bold:

If you have a fax machine, you've probably experienced junk faxes. Although fax spammers have flouted the law for years, unsolicited faxes are illegal, which has kept the volume down to the nuisance level for most people.

Congress is about to enact legislation that will change that. This morning I received an email from Steve Kirsch, who has been running a mostly one-man crusade against the junk faxers for some time. Mr. Kirsch testified yesterday against this bill, but as only 2 senators were present, it's a good bet your senator has not even heard about it.

If you don't want to see the volume increase dramatically, please read the following and then take action today.