asking Al Gore to run in 2008!
Checkmating the Repubs with Florida
Posted June 24th, 2008 by BLACK CELL
The stage is set for the unbelievable; very few black Americans believed that The U.S. would have a black president, in their lifetime. I believe that practically every black Floridian will unite & make sure it happens.
All they need is for the NAACP types to make their way through the churches, then start preaching the noble message of why it is important for all of them to register & vote. It is important for me, because I want the image of black America to change from welfare queens, dead beat dads & drug dealers to noble leaders who want the best for all Americans, regardless of race, sex or religion.
We should be preparing to deal with the overflow of minorities voting in black communities. Because, once the noble message is preached, all black Americans & their friends of all races will register to vote.
I have no doubt that not only will black liberals be voting for Barack Obama, but conservatives like, Bo Snerdley, Shelby Steele & even Justice Clearance Thomas will help galvanize Mr. Obama into the White house.
Once Barack Obama becomes the next president of the U.S., no black will want to see him fail. Because, if he fails, it will set us back in the worse way.
I would like to conclude by saying: Barack Obama can divide the repubs Cuban base by vigorously promoting the release of the political prisoners in Cuba.
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Be part of the Draft Gore '08 campaign!
What my students thought of the debate
by teacherken
Wed Oct 08, 2008 at 01:42:12 PM PDT
a debate they were neither required to watch nor for which were they given any extra credit.
That one - almost all who watched noticed in real time. Many were offended. About half of those who watched would not be classified as white, and perhaps that had something to do with it.
They were offended by his remarks that the young black man might not have known about Freddie and Fannie before the crash.
My friends - oh, did they notice that!
I know how - as one student reacted (and Susan G, you would have been proud) "Really? If he knows how how come he has never done anything about it?"
There's more.
*
In one class of about 30 Advanced Placement students, I asked if anyone was, after the debate, supporting McCain. Not a single hand went up. That surprised me, because I know some come from Republican and/or conservative backgrounds. I probed further. There were some who remained open to being persuaded, but had seen nothing in McCain that attracted them. Now in fairness, my students were attracted TO Obama even before the debate. What is interesting is that none of that class was dissuaded from, pushed away from, supporting Obama by anything they saw or heard last night.
I heard comments, not just in AP classes, that McCain did not seem to answer questions. Several students commented on his unwillingness to prioritize when asked to do so by Obama.
In five of six classes at least one student volunteered a comment about how Obama talking about his mother was effective, perhaps by personalizing an issue, or by showing that he had experiences through here of what was happening to them.
Some students thought McCain looked and sounded old.
Others commented on how when McCain would attack Obama, Barack would continue looking at him and just smile, but when Obama critized McCain he would write things down.
Those who watched on CNN commented on how when either candidate attacked the other the lines went down. Also, that in this debate there was greater difference between the male and female lines than they had seen in the VP debate last Thursday. One student remarked about the extended period of time where you could not see the female line because it was all the way up against the top of the box.
I always enjoy seeing and hearing how my students react to such debates, because I have found their rections to be much more in tune with the American electorate than most of what I hear from the mouths of the pundit class.
This diary offers no profound insight. But I think the brief recounting of the reactions of my students may make some people feel even more comfortable about their own perceptions of last night.
I did share the data from the snap polls, and the two additional polls (SUSA, GQR) whose data I saw today. They were most amazed at the data from GQR that after the debate the positive-negative for Obama had gone to 80-14. One student commented that was better than a president was likely to get. Out of the mouths of young people . . .
Peace
Here is a link to my blog called, "The Politico Insider."
URL Changed.
http://thepoliticoinsider.blogspot.com/
Economic Issues vs. Emotional issues
We are now in the fourth quarter of this smash mouth football game; the best defense is an aggressive offense.
If we continue attacking McCain on economic issues it will close the door on McCain's thoughts of winning Pennsylvania & Ohio. Once Obama's team gets in full control of the momentum in those two states he should make his move to motivate college students (pop culture) in Florida. They are registered. All Obama's team has to do is motivate them; the student will vote in large numbers to give Obama the needed advantage in Florida. The goal is to go into Florida & generate the excitement needed inspire the voters who are more likely not to vote to vote.
Here are the Democratic Party players needed to accomplish our first goal.
http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5957572
The Counterattack
Here is the counter "Shame you out of voting for Democrats." the ultimate race bomb, 08 Style. = )
I'm Voting Democrat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPG25Wf0aa4
Minorities? Immigrants? Really??
by CornSyrupAwareness
Sun Oct 05, 2008 at 07:41:27 PM PDT
I got sick to my stomach today when I turned on Fix News and heard them talk about minorities and immigrants as scapegoats for this financial crisis. My dad, who is a Democrat from Missouri, was telling me how people got mortgages that shouldn't have. That's why this is important. If it were just the talking heads and yes-men (or yes-women) I wouldn't bother. But this narrative is really sticking. Honest, good people are believing it. Why? It's an easy answer, and it's being pushed hard. I turned the channel over to MSNBC to see how the "liberal" media was pushing back. There I listened to Ron Christie telling me how minorities and immigrants received loans they shouldn't have. Of course who gave them these loans? Clinton and Carter.
I'm changing my vote to John McClane
by USArmyParatrooper
Sun Oct 05, 2008 at 07:28:02 PM PDT
It pains me to make this very difficult decision. But my conscience won't let go any other way.
HERE'S WHY
JohnM
Why Not? John McClane is a Badass. He's an American. He doesn't take shit from terrorists. He smokes. He crawls through air conditioning ducts. He's a lover AND a fighter. So, shouldn't we, The United States of America, have someone like John McClane in office? He would be the perfect leader of the free world. He would bitch-slap everyone that pisses him off. He won't lie to our faces, he'll tell it like it is. He wears his heart upon his sleeve, when he's wearing sleeves. He's not afraid of a little blood. Whether it's his or a shitty terrorist's. He has a squinty seriousness about him. He's got a tattoo, too. Yeah, he's a goddamn American and he's goddamn proud of it. America needs John McClane. So, citizens of the free world... rise up and embrace the future of America. John McClane. He takes shit from no one. Ever.
I have keeping this theory to myself for about two month now.
Michelle Obama is the key to what is needed to inspire black Americans to vote in battle ground States.
I think other races find it difficult to understand what she represents; because, she is outside of what they are use to seeing. But, black people clearly understand her.
Just as Hillary Clinton inspires / motivate all women to be all you can be, Michelle's message will do the same for black people/women.
Barack Obama is like a candle lit in a well lite room, when compared to Michelle. All Black women are the most important people in the black community. They are, in many instances, the most important person in successful black men lives.
This is what I believe. Mechelle Obama has to be the massager, in order to accomplish the goal in this thread, Michelle can go into the churches & motivate the elderly women to give their all.
The elderly women will do what it takes (legally) to help her accomplish her goal.
Why?
My grandmother past away this year. I have no doubt, she would have registered every member of our family to vote. Then, she would have gotten an absentee ballot, gave it to them to fill out & made sure the ballots were mailed.
P.S. We are now playing Smash Mouth Football. Don't be afraid to market her, in your own special way.
Here is a link to my blog called, "The Politico Insider."
URL Changed.
http://thepoliticoinsider.blogspot.com/
Define: The Good Guys Version Of Smash Mouth Football
It is ethical politics played like the old school Oakland Raiders. Art Shell described it like this.
This is in my own words.
The other teams defense knew we were going to sweep left, & they couldn't stop it -- no matter how hard they tried.
NY Giants
The NY Giants met the NE Patriots. It was a foregone conclusion -- the Patriots were undefeated and were going to win the Super Bowl. The Pats had seen and defeated the Giants once. But New England couldn't stop the Giants. Hillary Clinton was like the Patriots to Obama's Giants. Now we need to play it again against McSame.
Billie Jean King was on NPR last week, remembering her famous defeat of Bobby Riggs in 1973. To paraphrase, she said she felt what tremendous pressure inside herself to play "her game." But at the last minute she knew she had to play a different game -- the game the situation and the opponent demanded.
She decided to put it all on the line in the first set, knowing that Riggs would be drained. Her strategy worked and she defeated Riggs handily.
We need to be able to adapt... to stop clinging to a "safe" game and get with the "SMASH MOUTH" game we need to play to win.
90 days left, time to move
90 days left, time to move voters
By Adam C. Smith, Times Political Editor
Published Saturday, August 9, 2008 2:54 PM
LARGO — Unemployed Palm Harbor resident George Riley may be among the most important and overlooked political figures in Florida these days.
"Hi, I'm calling on behalf of the Florida Republican Party and John McCain,'' the 27-year-old said, hunched over a stack of papers one night last week with a cell phone pressed to his cheek. "Currently in the race for president, do you support John McCain, Barack Obama, or are you undecided? John McCain? Okay.''
He filled in a bubble on a pre-printed sheet and prepared to dial again. In the mid-Pinellas office with seven other phone bank volunteers, Riley is volunteering at least 20 hours a week to help McCain mobilize Florida voters.
It's a good thing too, because a lot of Republicans have been getting antsy. Amid the growing visibility of a huge Obama campaign under way in this must-win state for McCain, loyal Republicans have been waiting for signs of life on their side.
"Whatever they're doing on the grass roots campaign clearly is not working,'' said Republican consultant Doug McAlarney of Tallahassee. "It's clear if they want to run a grass roots campaign, they have to do something different."
Bill Bunkley of Tampa brought up the stark difference between this year's effort and the one from 2004 while talking with listeners on his WTBN Christian radio show: "I'm not seeing the chain e-mails, or the kind of activity we saw four years ago from the Bush campaign.''
The worry by Florida Republicans is justified 90 days out from election day, with the huge Obama operation under way here. It's also probably premature, given signs that the GOP machine is revving up with more canvassing events and phone banks like the one where Riley works.
But with well over 200 full-time staffers in Florida — four times as many as McCain and the Republicans — and some 150,000 Florida volunteers registered online, Obama is building a Democratic campaign machine that could finally challenge the GOP's mastery of ground-game tactics.
"In a volunteer-driven movement like this, our role in a lot of ways is customer service oriented. We have to make this campaign as accessible to regular voters who want to help Barack Obama as we can,'' said Steve Schale, the veteran Florida strategist leading Obama's Florida campaign. "Our challenge really is how to structure the campaign in a way to empower people who want to help Obama but not get in their way."
That means not only paid organizers and offices in nontraditional places like Sebring and Destin, but a vast social networking system and online tools that help supporters organize their own activities and track them at the same time. Volunteers earn points in the Obama system and top earners win perks, like those in Orlando who got to meet the candidate himself earlier this month.
The Illinois senator proved during the primaries that he can attract infrequent voters, and deputy campaign manager Steve Hildebrand ticks off the giant targets of opportunity in America's biggest battleground state: 630,000 eligible Hispanic voters not yet on the rolls, 593,000 African-Americans not registered to vote, 236,000 18- to 24-year-olds.
"We need to expand the electorate because we know the election is going to be so close,'' said Hildebrand, who is overseeing a nationwide field organization concentrated in Florida and 21 other states.
Indeed, Obama so far is out-organizing McCain in Florida and since June has spent more than $5-million on Florida TV spots. McCain has yet to spend a penny on TV, but polls still show a dead heat here.
GOP wrote playbook
In Florida, Republicans have distinct advantages. The GOP has won eight of the past 10 election cycles, and the Florida GOP pretty much wrote the voter mobilization playbook that helped turn Karl Rove into a political superstar.
Democrats touted an unprecedented get-out-the-vote effort in Florida in 2004 and out-registered Republicans by 60,000 voters. In the end, though, Republicans turned out nearly 76 percent of the new voters they registered and Democrats only turned out 66 percent — a net Republican advantage of 138 votes.
It may not seem like much, but Republicans say it shows that while Democrats tout voter registration, the GOP knows how to get people to the polls.
"I will concede that they will probably have more paid staff and offices, but what we ultimately have are people who are battle-tested, have been through this before. Florida in many ways has been the model of how you do a turnout operation that we use nationally,'' said Mike DuHaime, who took over McCain's national field operation in July.
He has instituted accountability measures to keep track of whether state organizers are meeting their targets on everything from phone calls and door-knocks to precinct captains.
"Right at this very moment Florida is exactly where we believe we need to be,'' he said.
Republican activist Marjorie Milford confessed she was worried about how many people might show up to the opening of the new campaign office in St. Petersburg last week, but was thrilled to see a solid crowd of at least 60.
"There were a bunch of them that said, 'We've been waiting. We know the Democrats are doing a lot and we wondered where you were,' " said Milford. "But I think we're getting going at the normal time when we should be going and we're on the right track. We've had very few turn-downs (from prospective volunteers)."
Pinellas is Florida's biggest bellwether county, and GOP chairman Tony DiMatteo noted that where Republicans in 2004 had one paid field operative handling much of Tampa Bay, this year they have one each handling Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco.
DeMatteo said setting a good pace is important to keep fatigue from setting in as the election draws near. He said the McCain campaign is building just as it should.
"Everybody's getting revved up,'' he said. "We can't kill our volunteers now. We have our national convention Sept. 4 and when we get back we'll go full boat."
And the Obama campaign? At least 12 field staffers already are organizing volunteers in Pinellas, 10 are in Hillsborough and several in Pasco, where an Obama field office will open next week in New Port Richey.
Won't miss one voter
Florida is a swing state that reflects the national mood, so if either candidate leads the national polls comfortably in November they'll likely win Florida and the White House. But a superior get-out-the-vote effort can mean an advantage of several percentage points on election day.
In case Democrats are feeling cocky about snatching Florida's 27 electoral votes, it's worth recalling the buzz then about all the independent groups mobilizing infrequent voters to help John Kerry win Florida in 2004. He lost the state by five percentage points.
The Kerry campaign staff at this stage in 2004 numbered in the dozens, but the Democratic group America Coming Together had some 70 paid staffers on the ground, and hundreds of part-time paid canvassers focused on registering and turning out new voters.
There are a host of new factors favoring the Democrats this year compared to 2004, including Obama's financial advantage, the fact the Democratic campaign activities are well-coordinated and that many Democrats are actually excited about their candidate rather than merely opposed to President Bush.
"I only worked on the Kerry campaign three months in 2004, but I can tell you it is night and day compared with the Obama campaign," said Jim Jackson, 64, of St. Petersburg, who was knocking on doors for Obama in Gulfport last week. "I've never seen anything like it before, in campaigns or the private sector. These guys are down to the most minute detail, and they are not going to miss a single prospective voter."
Longtime party activists say they have never seen so many volunteers turning up, even in areas long ignored by Democratic presidential campaigns. Lois Swaboda of the weekly Apalachicola Carrabelle Times last week showed up for an organization meeting where 20 people were expected. In fact, 70 people turned out.
Likewise, field office openings last week drew more than 200 people in Tampa, more than 400 in Orlando and 500 in Jacksonville.
Even Republicans were talking about an enthusiasm gap after John McCain appeared in Panama City with country music star John Rich on Aug. 1, and an estimated 700 people showed up. In 2004, McCain was just a surrogate for President Bush in Sarasota and drew 1,400 people in early August. Then in Panama City, McCain was there to see 23,000 turnout for Bush.
"You really can't compare this to 2004. This is more in line with eight years ago,' said Republican National Committee chairman Mike Duncan, noting that the incumbent president had been building a campaign structure long before the election and that McCain's campaigning is building steadily toward a flood of activity in the final stretch. "All that's coming, and you're going to see the final 60 days as a sprint."
Adam C. Smith can be reached at asmith@sptimes.com or (727)893-8241.
Here is a link to my blog called, "The Politico Insider."
http://thepoliticolinsider.blogspot.com/
HELP!!
Proof of voter fraud in the USA - from the horse's mouth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq9WVuKGwOM
Here is a link to my blog called, "The Politico Insider."
http://thepoliticolinsider.blogspot.com/
We are in a Constitutional Crisis
I believe Democrats can win & bust those who are really trying to turn our/their country into a third world country, by hacking voting machines.
What is the FBI for, if it doesn't preserve our vote COUNT?
I LOVE DEMOCRACY!!
For Obama, Hurdles in
For Obama, Hurdles in Expanding Black Vote
By Alec MacGillis and Jennifer Agiesta
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, July 28, 2008; A01
MACON, Ga. -- Amanda Bass, a volunteer for Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign, had already tried once to get Wilmer Gray to register to vote. But when she glimpsed him in a black T-shirt and White Sox cap again on a recent weekday at the main bus stop here, she was determined to give it another try.
This time, Gray, 21, agreed -- but his bus pulled up before he could fill out the form. Bass jumped onboard and persuaded the driver to wait.
"He was someone I'd worked hard to get," said Bass, 19. "I couldn't let him go, not after seeing how far he'd come."
At the heart of the Obama campaign's strategy is a national effort to increase registration and turnout among the millions of Democratic-inclined Americans who have not been voting, particularly younger people and African Americans. The push began during the primaries but expanded this month to a nationwide registration drive led by 3,000 volunteers dispatched around the country.
Gaining greater African American support could well put Obama over the top in states where Democrats have come close in the past two elections, and could also help him retain the big swing states of Pennsylvania and Michigan.
If 95 percent of black voters support Obama in November, in line with a recent Washington Post-ABC News national poll, he can win Florida if he increases black turnout by 23 percent over 2004, assuming he performs at the same levels that Democratic candidate John F. Kerry did with other voters that year.
Obama can win Nevada if he increases black turnout by 8 percent. Ohio was so close in 2004 that if Obama wins 95 percent of the black vote, more than Kerry did, he will win the state without a single extra voter. But an increase in overall black turnout could help offset a poorer performance among other voters.
The push has also raised Democrats' hopes of reclaiming Southern states with large black populations, such as Georgia and North Carolina, where low turnout among voters of all races has left much more untapped potential than in traditionally competitive states such as Ohio. Obama, who himself led a huge voter-registration drive in Chicago in 1992, has said he could compete in states such as Mississippi by increasing black turnout by 30 percent.
A Post analysis suggests it will take more than that to win across the South. If Obama matches Kerry's performance among white voters and increases Democrats' share of black voters to 95 percent, he will still need to increase black turnout in Georgia by 64 percent and in Mississippi by 51 percent to win. Virginia and North Carolina would be in closer reach, requiring increases of 30 and 36 percent, respectively.
The drive is unprecedented in scale and exemplifies Obama's call for government that works "from the bottom up." But as Bass's efforts in Georgia show, the undertaking is laden with challenges, raising questions about the kind of return the campaign will get on its big investment of manpower.
Black turnout overall does not lag behind the national average by much, and Obama's rise already inspired many blacks to get involved for the first time during the primaries.
That means that in seeking to further drive up black turnout, the campaign is in many places reaching out to a disconnected segment of the population that long ago gave up hope in politics.
For many of these disengaged people, racial solidarity with Obama does not automatically trump apathy or despair. Even if volunteers manage to get them registered, it will require intensive follow-up to make sure they know where to vote, have the necessary identification and then turn out.
So as Bass, a black Amherst College sophomore from the Chicago suburbs, worked in 93-degree heat to canvass the bus stop in Macon -- which sits in front of a defunct railroad station that still has the words "Colored Waiting Room" etched above an archway -- she had to deploy a full range of tools. She linked the election to local issues such as rising bus fares. She chatted up people even after they said no, hoping to establish a connection for later. She deftly turned the flirtations of young men back to the task at hand.
Latasha Edwards, 20, a college student in lime flip-flops, flatly said that her vote would not make a difference. "There are a million other people on Earth," she said.
But Bass won her over by stressing an inequity in Macon that she said Obama will address: the gap in quality between public schools and the private schools where many white families send their children.
Lorrie Miller, 25, a mother of four who works in the mailroom of the local newspaper, was mostly uninformed about voting, saying she had last voted in the seventh grade, confusing a mock election held in school with the real thing.
Several others averted Bass's gaze, gave her a cold stare when she approached or signaled with a curt "I can't vote" that they are felons, who under Georgia law are not allowed to cast ballots. Bass reminded them that they can register after they finish probation.
She asked Dontrell Rozier, 20, who signed up the week before, how his efforts to register his friends were going. Not well. "Most of my people believe their votes don't count," he said, citing the 2000 election recount in Florida.
Bass's last sign-up of the afternoon was Anthony Harris, 40, a beer deliveryman who said he has never voted because "I'm a religious type. My god can make a positive change for mankind, but I've never seen a politician make a positive change. There's still starvation; there's still war." It took five minutes before he relented.
In three hours, Bass collected 20 registrations -- a good haul. After a month, she and two other volunteers have collected more than 700.
In the area around Macon, an estimated 40,000 African Americans are eligible to vote but are not on the rolls, out of about 600,000 black people in the state who are eligible but unregistered. The campaign's goal is to sign up at least 4,000 in Macon.
With months to go before the Oct. 6 registration deadline, there was an increase of 367 black registered voters in Macon's congressional district in June, compared with 24 white voters. Statewide, the rate of registered African American voters is 28.1 percent, up from 27.2 percent in January.
Bass is aware of the hurdles ahead in turning the registrations into votes, though the campaign has signed up 300 Macon volunteers to assist with that. "It's a monumental challenge," she said. "You see how mentally shackled and jaded people are, because they've seen politicians let them down in the past."
Many political scientists contend that, with exceptions in Virginia and Florida, the Democrats' deficit in the South is too big for Obama to overcome even with a huge increase in black turnout, unless he can also improve on the performance of past Democrats among white Southerners. While Obama is likely to do well among younger whites, they say, the prospect of a surge in black turnout may stoke higher turnout among whites for Sen. John McCain, his Republican rival.
Thomas F. Schaller, a political scientist at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, said that it makes sense for Obama to invest some of his considerable resources in the South to force McCain to defend it, but that he sees little hope of victories there. "There's going to be a record number of African Americans turning out," he said. "But the question is whether it will make any difference in these states where Republicans have been winning by double-digit margins."
Steve Hildebrand, Obama's deputy campaign manager, rejects this analysis, saying the political climate is so changed since 2004 that past results are not relevant. At the least, Obama's voter drive will help Democratic candidates down the ballot, now and in the future. And Hildebrand dismissed the prospect of a white counterreaction to an increase in black voters.
But Rep. Jim Marshall, a conservative Democrat whose district includes Macon, appears less confident. He has declined to endorse Obama, and his chief of staff, John Kirincich, was skittish about discussing the benefits that the candidate's push to turn out more black voters would hold for Marshall, who barely won reelection in 2006 and faces another challenge.
Marshall "is not really interested in commenting on the presidential race. It's not his ballgame," Kirincich said. Pressed, he said: "We will accept more people voting for him from [wherever] they come."
Whatever the broader ramifications, they seem distant on the ground. In Columbus, 90 miles west of Macon, several volunteers were recently canvassing a housing project that looks across the Chattahoochee River at Alabama.
Nikasha Wells, 28, a Florida lawyer who took a leave to volunteer, was glad to meet Linda Cross, who was not only registered but also willing to make calls for Obama. Cross, 49, a Wal-Mart employee, said she always votes because of her family's ties to the civil rights movement -- marchers had camped on their land near Selma, Ala.
But next door, Renea Thomas, 27, a janitor and mother of four, was puzzled when Wells asked her to register to vote. "To who?" she said. She has never voted. "I just never thought about it," she said.
Here is a link to my blog called, "The Politico Insider."
http://thepoliticolinsider.blogspot.com/
THEY ARE TAKING YOURS RIGHT IN YOUR FACE
THIS IS OBAMA'S CHANCE TO FIRE UP YOUR BASE ALL THE WAY TO NOVEMBER. GO TO THE STATES THAT ARE TRYING TO UNDERMINE YOUR CAMPAIGN & TALK ABOUT INFORM THE VOTERS.
THAT WILL PLANT A SEED OF VIGILANCE WE NEED TO WIN. ASK PEOPLE TO GUARD THEIR VOTES.
Obama Doesn't Sweat. He should.
by Greg Palast
In swing-state Colorado, the Republican Secretary of State conducted the biggest purge of voters in history, dumping a fifth of all registrations. Guess their color.
In swing-state Florida, the state is refusing to accept about 85,000 new registrations from voter drives – overwhelming Black voters.
In swing state New Mexico, HALF of the Democrats of Mora, a dirt poor and overwhelmingly Hispanic county, found their registrations disappeared this year, courtesy of a Republican voting contractor.
In swing states Ohio and Nevada, new federal law is knocking out tens of thousands of voters who lost their homes to foreclosure.
My investigations partner spoke directly to Barack Obama about it. (When your partner is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., candidates take your phone call.) The cool, cool Senator Obama told Kennedy he was “concerned” about the integrity of the vote in the Southwest in particular.
He’s concerned. I’m sweating.
It’s time SOMEBODY raised the alarm about these missing voters; not to save Obama’s candidacy – journalists should stay the heck away from partisan endorsements - but raise the alarm to save our sick democracy.
And that somebody is YOU. Joining with US, the Palast investigative team. Here’s how:
We have been offered an astonishing opportunity to place the Kennedy-Palast investigative findings on a national, prime-time, major-network television broadcast. Plus, separately, we have an extraordinary offer to create a series of reports for national network radio.
But guess what? The networks will NOT PAY for our public service reports. We have to raise the start-up funds in the next two weeks to film it, record it and get it on the airwaves.
WE need YOU to fund the reports, DISSEMINATE the findings as we post the print, audio and video on the web– and ACT on it.
So, for only the second time this year, I am asking each one of you to make a tax deductible donation to the non-profit, non-partisan Palast Investigative Fund of $500, $150 or $100.
Progressives have complained for years of no opportunity to get the hard, cold sweaty truth on the air. Well, put your money where your heart and soul is.
Donate at least $500, I’ll send you every book I’ve written and every film, signed.
Send $150 and I’ll send you as a gift, a copy of John Ennis' film Free For All, the brilliant and funny film about the Theft of Ohio. AND I'll send you, signed, a copy of my book, Armed Madhouse, plus a copy of the BBC/Democracy Now film investigations, The Election Files and a copy of the spoken word CD Live from the Armed Madhouse all signed.
Donate $100, and I’ll send you 3 copies, one signed to you, of “The Elections Files, “ the best of our BBC/Democracy Now films – including special never-broadcast interviews with Kennedy and fired prosecutor David Iglesias.
I know you’re ponying up for your favorite candidates. But what’s the point of winning folks' votes IF NO ONE COUNTS THEM?
Please make your donation – today. No corporation, no big foundation, is going to take on this emergency in our democracy. The election’s about to be stolen – for a third time. SO WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
Donate today (for $1,000 minimum, we’ll list you as a Producer of our next DVD, in gratitude). Why? Because the only way to get the vote-chewing cockroaches out of the voting machinery is to turn on the lights – tell the truth on them. On prime time.
After our team busted the story of Katherine Harris’ attack on innocent Black voters as “felons,” the NAACP sued and won back their rights. The truth CAN make the difference. Yes, we can. Indeed, we HAVE.
Think all votes should be counted in America? Then YOU stand up and be counted. Don’t expect networks or commercial sponsors to pay for your democracy. Feed the truth, donate $100 right now and pass on a copy of the Elections Files to your dippy cousin who thinks Kerry lost fair and square.
Donations from our prior and only request already paid for some of our filming in the Southwest. Don’t let this story be swept under the border.
If you want more information, go to GregPalast.com, or write me directly at GregPalast.com – and hit the button, “contact Greg.”
Pass this on!
Here is a link to my blog called, "The Politico Insider."
http://thepoliticolinsider.blogspot.com/
Looking for the KO punch
Florida is going to break hard to the Democratic Party & give Barack Obama the electoral votes needed to win the 08 election. Their is a chance that we will see a rise in number of Latinos , who are Democrats, winning local State & Federal offices too.
If Democrats add another 50 to 90 thousand registered voters to their goals in the minority communities, I know they will show up in radically large numbers for the Democratic Parties candidates.
You want to avoid a situation were it is becoming popular to vote this year, & large numbers of voters can't vote because they did not register before the deadline, that is if there is a registration deadline in Florida.
Minorities have not been reliable for Dems in the past. They didn't know much about the candidates & they didn't believe in any of them either. They see them as politicians, who are looking out for none but themselves. But, this is a different election cycle.
There are an extremely large number of Black Americans who just want to see a black President. It is a silent dream that go along with the Martin Luther King, I had a dream speech. For some, seeing a black president is something they thought would never happen in their life. The subject of, would America ever have a black president, has always been popular. What make you think that those who didn't usually vote when they see the golden opportunity wont.
Those kind of voter are influential too.
They are going to be the people who will only be voting because the emotions / excitement is in the air... they are just taking a joy ride on a wave many call "a fad."
If Democrats in Florida fail to go all out by registering voters in black / minority communities, they will miss the chance of maximizing their potentials.
Here is a link to my blog called, "The Politico Insider."
http://thepoliticolinsider.blogspot.com/
Advancement
It may not be easy, but it's worth it
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/20080320/cartoon20080320.gif
Just a thought
Once they run out of talking points, they are going to attempt to steal the election & the FBI will watch it all go down.
Election 2008: Florida Presidential Election
Florida: Obama Ahead by One
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
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Barack Obama has caught up to John McCain in Florida. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state finds Obama with a statistically insignificant one-point advantage over his rival, 46% to 45%. When “leaners” are included, the Democrat leads 49% to 47%.
Over the past six months, McCain has maintained leads ranging from seven to sixteen percentage points. Last month, McCain led 48% to 41% in the Sunshine State.
A big push for Obama this month in Florida comes from unaffiliated voters. Last month, he had just a three-point lead in this demographic. This month, he leads by twenty-three.
Obama leads 50% to 43% among women in Florida, while McCain leads 47% to 41% among men. The Democrat has double-digit leads among voters under 40 years of age, while McCain has a big lead among senior citizens.
This month, Obama is viewed favorably by 51% of Florida voters, up from 44% last month. He is viewed unfavorably by 47%, down from 53% last month. McCain’s numbers are 60% favorable, up from 57% last month, and 39% unfavorable, up from 38% last month.
Nearly half of voters in Florida (49%) say economic issues are the most important in the upcoming election. Of those voters, 63% choose Obama while just 27% choose McCain. In a very distant second, 19% of voters choose National Security issues as the most important in the Presidential election. Among those voters, McCain has a 79% to 18% advantage.
Though Florida has cast its twenty-seven Electoral College votes for Republican candidates in eight out of the last ten elections, it is often referred to as a swing state due to recent close--and controversial--election outcomes. In 2004, George W. Bush defeated John Kerry 52% to 47%. In 2000, it took over a month to decide the state’s winner after controversy over erroneous ballot techniques. According to the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll, Obama is currently polling about five percentage points better than Kerry’s 2004 results. It is interesting to note that his Florida numbers are better than Kerry’s by a similar margin.
Rasmussen Markets data shows that McCain is currently given a 60.0 % chance of winning Florida in November. At the time this poll was released, Florida was rated as “Leans Republican” in the Rasmussen Reports Balance of Power Calculator. NOTE: Factors other than the latest Rasmussen Reports poll impact the Balance of Power ratings. The current status is indicated on the table in the upper righthand corner of this article.
Florida is included in a list of several locations being considered for drilling in offshore oil wells. Among voters in the state 57% are in favor of offshore drilling, while 32% do not think it should be allowed. Those numbers remain relatively unchanged over the past month. Over half of voters in Florida (51%) think it is more important to reduce gas prices than protecting the environment. Thirty-six percent (36%) take the opposite view.
Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Florida voters think the United States is winning the War on Terror. That number is even more optimistic than the national percentage. Just 17% of Floridians think the terrorists are winning. Generally, across the nation, confidence in the War on Terror is at its highest level since the fall of 2004.
Still, 48% of voters agree with Obama that Iraq is not the “central front” of the war, while 42% think Afghanistan is. Forty-three percent (43%) think Afganistan is a bigger threat than Iraq to the United States.
The majority of Florida voters (55%) think most reporters are trying to help Obama win the election. That is a bit higher than the national average. Just 7% think the media tries to help McCain, while 24% think reporters offer unbiased coverage of the election. In terms of the ailing economy, most voters in Florida (57%) think the media makes the situation seem worse than it really is. Just 15% say reporters portray the situation as better than it really is, while 23% say they present an accurate picture. Despite current difficulties, 42% of voters think the United States still has one of the best economies in the world, while 49% disagree.
Florida Governor Charlie Crist (R) earns good or excellent ratings from 49% of voters. Just 15% of voters say he is doing a poor job as governor. Crist has been mentioned often as a possible Vice Presidential candidate to McCain. Nationally, however, just 7% of voters think Crist would be the best choice for the Republican nominee.
President Bush earns good or excellent ratings from 35% of voters in Florida, while 48% say he is doing a poor job. Nationally, his approval ratings remain at record lows.
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Here is a link to my blog called, "The Politico Insider."
http://thepoliticolinsider.blogspot.com/
Speaking of Florida
Apparently, the laws of Florida concerning the ability of people to vote who in the past were convicted of felonies has been changed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/06/us/06florida.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
In a Break From the Past, Florida Will Let Felons Vote
MIAMI, April 5 — Gov. Charlie Crist persuaded Florida’s clemency board Thursday to let most felons easily regain their voting rights after prison, saying it was time to leave the “offensive minority” of states that uniformly deny ex-offenders such rights.
The change is a major step for Florida, which bans more people from the polls than any other state, but it did not go as far as Mr. Crist had hoped. Two of his fellow Republicans on the clemency board rejected his original plan to grant speedy restoration to everyone except murderers and sex criminals.
Florida has as many as 950,000 disenfranchised ex-offenders — far more than any other state — about 21 percent of them black. Other states have repealed or scaled back similar bans in recent years, but roughly five million felons remain barred from the polls nationwide.
The ban, added to Florida’s Constitution in 1868, has been the subject of especially bitter debate since the 2000 presidential election. Some legal voters were removed from the state’s rolls that year after being misidentified as felons, adding to the drama of a recount that gave George W. Bush a razor-thin margin of victory over Al Gore.
Only two other states, Kentucky and Virginia, constitutionally require all felons to forfeit their voting rights. A federal lawsuit seeking to overturn Florida’s ban made its way to the United States Supreme Court in 2005, but the court declined to hear the case.
Until now in Florida, most felons who finished prison and probation time had to submit to a lengthy review and waiting period, and sometimes an investigation and hearing, if they wanted to regain the right to vote.
Under the new rules, the roughly 80 percent of ex-offenders whose crimes were not considered violent will win automatic rights restoration after the state makes sure they have paid any restitution to victims and have no pending criminal charges.
Convicted murderers, sexual predators and “violent career criminals” will still need an investigation of their case and a hearing before the clemency board. Most will probably not regain the right to vote, serve on a jury or get jobs that require state licenses, like as a barber or nurse.
“This is Holy Week, a week that is all about forgiveness,” Mr. Crist said before the vote at a special meeting of the clemency board in Tallahassee. “Restoring civil rights is the right thing to do.”
Of the four clemency board members, only Attorney General Bill McCollum opposed the change, saying the board should carefully investigate and deliberate before restoring any convicted criminal’s rights. Agriculture Secretary Charles Bronson, a Republican, and Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, a Democrat, voted for the rule change.
Mr. Crist, who sat on the clemency board as the attorney general under Gov. Jeb Bush, said he had only recently come to believe that most felons deserved swift restoration of their rights.
“It’s something I’ve been thinking about for quite some time,” he said, “but it came to fruition last year. You’d always like more, but this is historic, what happened today in Florida.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida has fought the voting ban for years, and Howard Simon, its executive director, said Thursday that the changes appeared significant.
“This seriously addresses, finally, some of the wounds from the Civil War era,” Mr. Simon said.
But Mr. Simon said he worried that nonviolent ex-offenders who have been out on the streets for years might slip through the cracks and not have their rights automatically restored. A spokeswoman for Mr. Crist said such people — who number in the tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands — would have to take the initiative.
The state will encourage them to make themselves known by running advertisements and other forms of outreach. But Mr. Simon said the burden should be on the state, not the ex-offender.
“This is progress,” he said, “but for people who are already out, it is not as truly automatic as it could be.”
It Won't be long before we take Flarida
I am hearing that Barack Obama is down 2 points in Florida.
Here is a link to my blog called, "The Politico Insider."
http://thepoliticolinsider.blogspot.com/
Glad to see you made it back from vacation
Now that Hillary and you are back from vacation, time to face reality. Hillary will not be Obama's VP and let's get that straight. Obama is currently trying to influence people to contribute to her $20 million primary debt and I think that was a mistake but it's Obama's call.
I don't see McCain even having a chance with Obama as the latest poll shows Obama with a double-digit lead over McCain. I think what we should now start planning for is who is going to get to go to Obama's inauguration.
So how does that go now, Michelle will be First Lady and Barack will be Commander-in-Chief, that sure does have a natural flair to it.
LOL!!
Great post :-)
Here is a link to my blog called, "The Politico Insider."
http://thepoliticolinsider.blogspot.com/
Turnout
Black Cell said: "We should be preparing to deal with the overflow of minorities voting in black communities."
Unfortunately the way GOP-controlled election commissions deal with that is to supply fewer machines to the black precincts, and more to the conservative white precincts. We need to be on the lookout for those games.
Because it's a better idea
That's a very good idea regarding Cuban-Americans in Florida. If ever there was an example of how an out-dated policy is dysfunctional and not bearing fruit it is the embargo on Cuba. The Soviet Union is a subject for history books. We do billions of dollars of business with communist China and have normal relations with Vietnam now too. Fidel Castro has retired and will turn 88 years old this year.
And yet, the US government still tells us we can't travel to Cuba, sell them corn or rice or soybeans, or even sell them parts to fix their old Ford and Chevy trucks. That make no sense; no sense at all. It's not hard to predict, it's just a matter of time before President Obama implements a sensible policy.
Play Ball!
Good Morning
The Cuban Americans communities still seem to be stuck on hurting Cuban citizens with an embargo that doesn't seem to be hurting the Castro Family.
Here is a link to my blog called, "The Politico Insider."
http://thepoliticolinsider.blogspot.com/
Sanctions
Always hurt the citizens much more than the regime. We need to rethink how we attempt to "punish" regimes with which we disagree. Just look at Mugabe. Another reason we need change in November.