Rejected PolitiCorps '07 slogans

Here at the Bus Project, we do NOT fuck around with slogans. What you're about to read is a sample of the rejected slogans for next summer's PolitiCorps program. PolitiCorps is one of the flagship programs of the Bus Project. It is a summer fellowship and a political leadership school where college students and recent graduates split their time between classes and political organizing. The fellows work campaign-style hours and for many, it's a first-time plunge into the real and often grueling work that comes with an election season. Without further ado, we present you with the list of rejects...

• PolitiCorps 2007: The dumb and boring need not apply
• PolitiCorps 2007: A coalition of the young and willing
• PolitiCorps 2007: A coalition of the young and marginally attractive
• PolitiCorps 2007: Highly-paid summer vacation
• PolitiCorps 2007: Highly-paid winter vacation (psst, it's actually in the summer)
• PolitiCorps 2007: Aborting political apathy
• PolitiCorps 2007: Burning the flag of apathy
• PolitiCorps 2007: Lighting a fire under the ass of democracy
• PolitiCorps 2007: Not just a school of fish navigating the waters of democracy
• PolitiCorps 2007: Enforcing democracy with an iron fist
  
• PolitiCorps 2007: Not like stuff you don't like
• PolitiCorps 2007: Driving leaders through the amber fields of public service
• PolitiCorps 2007: Probing for leaders
• PolitiCorps 2007: Choose your own adventure
• PolitiCorps 2007: An army of several
• PolitiCorps 2007: Drawing a line in the sand against Apathy Hussein
• PolitiCorps 2007: The Bus is coming, but not in a dirty way.
• PolitiCorps 2007: Training the Padawan for the Jedi of tomorrow (Low-Midichlorians need not apply). Awesome.
• PolitiCorps 2007: Riding the steed of democracy bareback with the chaps of the public interest (not in a dirty way).

Vote for your favorite, or suggest your own. Thwack!

Slithering through the grassroots

Here at the Bus Project, we do NOT fuck around with movie themes, especially following our tragic "Titanic"-themed trip, when two-thirds of the volunteers froze to death. That's why we chose "Snakes on a Bus" for our trip to Washington County this weekend, where we will talk with voters about renewable energy and progressive legislative candidate David Edwards.

"Snakes on a bus," you might know, has taken on its own colloquial meaning in contemporary popular culture. To thwart this amazing Bus Trip, our opponents seem bent on erasing every mention of that phrase from the interweb, and they would have succeeded, but before they got to Wiktionary, we managed to take a screenshot of the entry, and you can find it here. Snakes on a bus, friend!

What do snakes have to do with renewable energy, you might ask? OMG LOOK OVER THERE!!!!

Anyway, as we were in the middle of saying, the Bus believes that clean energy is a key component to healthy communities and a robust economy. And it's all possible through the legislature: we can help make Oregon a model for the country by electing progressive candidates who are willing to fight for the public interest, such as David Edwards. Join us for this trip, Saturday the 23rd, or the snakes will sneak up on you, and they will brutally attack you, and you immediately will feel the poison course through your veins. Rendered immobile, you are helpless to stop the beasts as they devour you completely. What a way to go. Don't let it happen to you.

Michael Crichton couldn't even write a runaway bestseller about this

Here at the Oregon Bus Project, we do NOT fuck around with chain letters, period. That's why we decided to send this to you: because everything in it is totally true, guaranteed. Seriously.

"I'm a Harvard Law graduate, and I can say with 100% certainty that this e-mail is not a hoax. Anybody who tells you it's a hoax is trying to trick you out of the sweet financial independence you deserve." - A Harvard Law graduate

"I used to be unemployed, unpopular, and a sex offender. Now I own controlling shares of one of the world's largest media conglomerates, and I owe it all to forwarding this e-mail to my 6 friends." - Rupert Murdoch

"I used to have it all. Friends, riches, a killer 8-track... I laughed and I laughed when I got this email... Now I'm serving 10-15 for embezzlement. I guess the Bus Project sure got the last laugh, on me." -Tom Hojem

If you don't send this e-mail to 10 people within the next 10 minutes, you will become afflicted with amnesia, bird flu, West Nile virus, the SARS, and amnesia. My aunt's friend thought he was too smart for an e-mail chain letter, and then BAM! Gonorrhea.

For every person you send this e-mail to, Bill Gates will pay you 470,000 Japanese Yen. For every person they forward it to, that rebel billionaire guy I saw on Fox in 2004 will pay you 4.7 million Canadian Acorns. This is not a trick. You're a few minutes away from total financial independence... or, the clap. The choice is yours.

Now that you know what's on the line, let me lay down for you what this is all about. For Saturday, August 12, we're organizing an event so huge, so colossal, and so awesome that even Michael Crichton couldn't write a runaway bestseller about it. We're meeting up in Eugene to volunteer for two fantastic legislative candidates, Vicki Walker and Chris Edwards.

Right about now, you must be thinking "Okay, but what's in it for me?" And now you're thinking, "That's amazing! How did he know what I was thinking?" Fair enough. I mean, your freedom is probably just going to defend itself, right? Don't be so naïve, Hansel and/or Gretel. Come on. Bread crumbs? Please.

Senator Walker is highly targeted by the northwest utilities that used to grossly overcharge consumers by exploiting a tax loophole, and Vicki closed that loophole. We all know that the legislators who stand up to special interests usually suffer for it. If we want to keep these kinds of leaders in Salem, we have to be willing to stand up and volunteer for them.

This is an extraordinarily tight district that could easily tip the balance of power in the Oregon State senate as well as yank the House from the deathgrip of the bad guys. Our precinct analysis tells us that a huge volunteer effort could be THE deciding factor in the outcome of this election. Direct conversation is the best way to engage voters, and statistically has the greatest impact on elections. Plus, you'll have fun. Expect frisbee, slip'n'slide, drinking, BBQ, and catch-the-greased-up-pig.

We need to make noise for progressive candidates with our proverbial pots and pans and many other clever alliterative phrases that we have in our quiver. Sign up now!

Go down to August 12 and fill in the appropriate fields, and then click "Submit" at the bottom of the page. Or, call the Bus Project at 503.233.3018 during normal business hours.

If you can't make it to this trip, we have a few other really important trips coming up, on August 26 and September 9 (sign up on the same page!). Feel free to save democracy on your own schedule.