YALLA VOTE ‘08 Our Voice. Our Future.

The Arab American Institute publishes a Congressional Scorecard every year. If you’re curious to know how your representatives are doing on the issues that matter the most to us, check out the 2007 Congressional Scorecard.

Here’s the intro to the Scorecard:

The Arab American Institute has compiled this Scorecard for the 110th Congress to inform our community of their members’ voting records….  Though not comprehensive, and though no member of Congress can be judged fairly by any single action, this guide provides a general profile of Congressional behavior that we hope will help Arab Americans better understand actions taken on these key issues.

While it’s vital that you cast your vote on Election Day, it’s just as important that you stay involved throughout the year, by taking action when an issue before Congress or your local legislature affects you.

President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas spoke last night at the Arab American Institute’s tenth annual Kahlil Gibran ‘Spirit of Humanity’ Awards in Washington, D.C. To see him there and hear him speak was a great honor.

C-SPAN captured the entire segment–you may view the video here.

We’re here at the JW Marriot, enjoying a wonderful lunch and getting ready to talk about the Yalla Vote ‘08 campaign. We hope to have a lively discussion on how to launch this initiative into the November elections and make our voice heard loud and clear.

Stay tuned… if you were not able to join us at last night’s gala and today’s discussions, we’ll post summaries and action items here and on our website at www.aaiusa.org.

CNN has created a Democratic delegate calculator. It’s interesting to play around with the sliders to see just what it would take for either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama to win the nomination.

Who do you think is going to be our Democratic candidate in this year’s presidential race? Why?

A quick spin around the blogosphere this morning brought an article in New America Media to our attention.Reporters Mohamad Ozeir and Michelle Salamey noticed a disturbing trend at January’s Michigan primary, and wrote the article, Lackluster Arab American Turnout in Michigan:

Though it is tempting to explain the low turn out in Michigan’s primary based on snow and falling temperatures, the weather was not a factor. Many Michigan voters who should have ventured out to cast their ballots didn’t show up. It was true for the general population, but even more evident among Arab American youth, many of whom felt their vote wouldn’t matter.

The problem is… each vote DOES matter. If we don’t participate in the elections, we don’t have a voice on the Hill and in our own backyards to represent the issues closest to our hearts and minds. If we don’t follow the candidates, know how they vote on our issues, and support those who support us, we will be mute and powerless.

Encourage your friends and family to get involved this November. One vote can make the difference… 100,000 can change everything. What would 1,000,000 Arab American voters do?

Michigan field office intern Sarah Jaward did a wonderful job summarizing the Wellstone training sessions that took place the first weekend of April. Below are some excerpts from her report:

AAI Voter Engagement Training

On Friday April 4th through Saturday the 5th the Arab American Institute-Midwest office hosted its first ever Voter Engagement Training, featuring the Wellstone Action Fund. The aim of this initiative was to provide political training and leadership development with the expectation that the skills attainted by the attendees would be implemented back to their communities, helping to mobilize social change within the United States for the Arab American population as a whole.

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Our April Campus Visibility Month push is drawing to a close, but we hope you will begin to plan another tabling event at your college or university for the fall. This is a great opportunity for Student Endorsing Organizations to show Arab American political pride on campus.

Here are just a few things that you can do to get started to make a difference this election year:

• Tabling to distribute Yalla Vote stickers, posters, buttons,and T-shirts and getting signatures for the national petition

• Getting your friends and students to sign the National Petition

• Talking to other students about the “Our Voice , Our Future Yalla Vote 2008 Campaign”

• Registering your fellow students to Vote

• Wearing a Yalla Vote T-Shirt around campus

AAI would be happy to help any of you arrange any of these events on campus. Please let us know if there is anything that we can do.

Send us your address and we’ll send you Yalla Vote Goodies! Email Brandon Hess at bhess@aaiusa.org

Share your pictures of your Yalla Vote ‘08 Campus Visibility Month events–leave us a comment or email your photos to our Webmaster (web@aaiusa.org)… and don’t forget to visit and join our AAI Facebook Group page!

“Yalla Vote ‘08 Campus Visibility Month” is a project of the Arab American Institute’s Our Voice Our Future Yalla Vote ‘ 08 Campaign

The Pennsylvania primary is just around the corner — here are some of the campaign events in your area…

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There is only one week left to apply for a paid Field Organizing internship position!

The AAI is looking for a few good full and part-time students, graduate students and recent college graduates. We are looking for individuals who can hit the ground running! Applicants should be highly motivated, flexible and excited about working for the Arab American campaign, “Our Voice, Our Future: Yalla Vote 2008”. Interns must be available to work at least ten weeks for 40 hours per week during summer months, and 20 hours per week from Labor Day through the general elections in November.

The Arab American Institute’s Yalla Vote ‘08 campaign is an effort to bring the issues that matter most
to our community–civil liberties, immigrant rights, Middle East peace and cultural tolerance–to the
forefront of debate for the 2008 election season. Help us make our voices heard this November!

For full details, please visit the AAI’s Student Resource Center and apply today!

We all know that the 2008 election will be one of the most significant of our generation. As November draws closer, we at the Arab American Institute (AAI) are focusing on core issues of importance to our community. We, as Americans and as young adults, hope that our participation will keep critical issues–Middle East peace, civil liberties and immigration–at the forefront of this election.

AAI launched a new campaign, “Our Voice. Our Future. Yalla Vote ‘08″, and we are inviting Arab student organizations around the nation to become campaign endorsers. Yalla Vote ‘08 promotes inclusion in the democratic process, encourages bi-partisan voter mobilization, and gives voice to Arab American issues in our National Petition.

If your organization chooses to endorse the Yalla Vote campaign, it will be invited to nominate representatives to several permanent policy councils and will join a long list of influential endorsing organizations, including the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the National Network of Arab American Professionals (NAAP), and the University of Michigan Arab Student Union. Your endorsement of the Yalla Vote Campaign will also bring all of AAI’s resources and experience to you.

AAI serves as a resource to political and government leaders as well as the media, and we hope our campaign will have nation-wide influence this November.

For more information, please contact Maram Abdelhamid, National Field and Political Coordinator, at mabdelhamid@aaiusa.org or call (202) 429-9210.