Campaign fund raising as a challenger is something I would not wish on my worst enemy.  Doing the ask does not bother me.  Pitching to strangers is something I had to do repeatedly in the early years of XMission.  However, I've had a higher hit rates selling chocolate Santas as a teenager than with donors who have traditionally given high amounts to Democrats in other races.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported on a immigrant couple who have tried to follow all the necessary rules to become U.S. citizens.  It is a good example of how broken the legal immigration system is.  This couple has worked hard to become part of their community and have a naturalized son.  I don't think they are asking to be treated specially, simply fairly, and that is not what the existing system is giving them.

My good friend Ellie Pirelli (pictured in this article) from Washington County apparently made quite a splash at the Yearly Kos blogger conference.  I saw Ellie before she left and sent her off with some campaign material and then heard from others about the good work she did there.  Ellie, you are an inspiration to us all.

Steven Peterson of Washington County, Utah is my volunteer of the week.  Steve took my plea to spread the word to heart and got the BBC interested in my campaign.  They did a short interview today and will follow-up with a longer interview on Monday.  This is a great example of what you can do to help get the word out.   I need you to talk to press, big and small about this campaign and get them interested in how I am recrafting American politics.  Read Steven's account of getting the word to the BBC and how you can listen to the program on Monday:

   Obiter Dicta by Steve

Speaking to a group of downwinders at Dixie Regional Medical Center yesterday, Senator Hatch made the comment, "I am up for election and if there is someone who can do better, I'd like to meet the SOB."

While you're receiving the deluge of "end-of-quarter" appeals from the Democratic party and lodged incumbents consider the following.

I spent most of this morning combing microfiche at the Salt Lake City library, more on that later.  Aside from my realization that there is real business opportunity in converting newspaper archives to digital combined with even a rough OCR index, I found my activities of pillaging old newspapers a marked contradiction from today's news.