I registered people to vote today as I volunteered at my local Barack Obama for President campaign office.
I ran into some youth-two of them- who said to me, "I'm voting for McCain. He gone win anyway!"
I thought the first youth was joking with me but somehow I don't think she was. I urged her to change her mind and bid everyone inside the Laundromat farewell. Everyone else was voting for Obama anyway and said they'd give some thought to volunteering at their local office on Saturday.
I ran into another who said he was "voting for McCain" for the same reasons. Then he said he was joking.
Not that I think anything in this election cycle is a joking matter, I signed the young man up to vote in Indiana anyway, hoping that he really was joking.
I urged them as well to volunteer at the local Obama for President office.
None of the people in my age range 40s were laughing and joking about registering people to vote or volunteering and seemed to give my urgings to volunteer some serious thought.
There are barriers to volunteering.
First, you have to leave your home, your comfort zone and go talk to people you don't know.
People who overcome this, obviously know helping put Barack in the White House is way more important than our personal comfort--especially when volunteering begins and ends when you say it does--it's volunteer work!
Second, expenditures of personal time is an important decision.
Either there are children to attend to or work considerations that make one say either: yes, I will give up X number of hours on this day of this week or I will not. The easiest way is to donate an hour of your downtime after work.
If you workout for two hours, give one of those hours to Obama. If you go to the local tap for three hours, give one of those happy hours to Barack--then return to your normal schedule.
The benefits of volunteering is that you meet new people who can later become business contacts or friends. Another benefit is that you learn stuff when you talk to people who don't live or work with you.
Once you volunteer, you can talk to your friends about the experience--they may want to volunteer too.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Janet Jackson's Rock Witchu Tour Sells Out in Los Angeles and Las Vegas
LL Cool J receives roaring welcome on his first date of the tour
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Music icon Janet Jackson kicked off her highly anticipated Rock Witchu tour to rave reviews, major media coverage and fan adulation during opening week of the smash tour, selling out Staples Center in Los Angeles and Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas last week. Adding to the excitement in Los Angeles was the addition of hip-hop superstar LL Cool J, who joined the tour at the Staples Center on September 17th and will continue on the Live Nation produced tour from Chicago on September 25th through the final date at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas on October 22nd.
"Janet Jackson still a trend-setter, diva, and marvelous performer -- When she decides it's time for a tour, Ms. Jackson makes sure it's done right. And when she promises fans the show is going to be packed with hits, costumes and dancers, she doesn't disappoint."
What the Reviewers said:
Vancouver Sun
"Some two hours and 35 songs later, Jackson had played all 10 of her No. 1 hits, as well as her other blockbusters ... That's how a true pro gets back to business after a seven-year absence from the road."
Contra Costa Times
"Any show following Janet Jackson into GM Place will find it difficult to match her."
Vancouver Province
"Offering up a lengthy and engrossing song-and-dance spectacle that delivers on every level..."
Variety
"Nine seamlessly executed costume changes are only the beginning. This show is all about dominance, and Jackson held the whip."
Los Angeles Times
Rock Witchu kicked off on September 10th in Vancouver, BC with unparalleled dance routines and stage production featuring more than two hours of music including fan favorites and smash hits "Control," "Rhythm Nation," "Pleasure Principal," "All For You," "Young Love," "Let's Wait A While," "What Have You Done For Me Lately," "Escapade," and more along with new singles "Feedback" and "LUV," spanning three decades of music that have made Janet Jackson one of the most celebrated performers in history.
LL Cool J joins the tour on the heels of 13th album release, Exit 13. More than a hip-hop artist, more than an actor, the author, television producer, two-time Grammy Award winner LL Cool J is an American icon who kicked opened his own doors to music, Hollywood, television, publishing, and along the way created opportunities for countless others. His 20 million album sales worldwide are just the tip of the iceberg for this international megastar, recipient of countless industry awards.
For more information on Janet Jackson and the tour go to www.LiveNation.com, www.JanetFanClub.com or www.janetjackson.com. For additional information on LL Cool J go to www.LLCoolJ.com
ABOUT LIVE NATION:
Live Nation is the future of the music business. With the most live concerts, music venues and festivals in the world and the most comprehensive concert search engine on the web, Live Nation is revolutionizing the music industry: onstage and online. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Live Nation is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, trading under the symbol "LYV." Additional information about the company can be found at www.livenation.com under the "About Us" section.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Poll: Racial views steer some white Dems away from Obama-or as I like to call it, we need two Americas
By RON FOURNIER and TREVOR TOMPSON, Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON (AP) — Deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll that found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks — many calling them "lazy," "violent," responsible for their own troubles.
Please make sure to look carefully at the poll, my emphasis.
The poll, conducted with Stanford University, suggests that the percentage of voters who may turn away from Obama because of his race could easily be larger than the final difference between the candidates in 2004 — about two and one-half percentage points.
So all of the whites must like all of the blacks in order for Barack to win? That is a crazy thing to say.
Certainly, Republican John McCain has his own obstacles: He's an ally of an unpopular president and would be the nation's oldest first-term president. But Obama faces this: 40 percent of all white Americans hold at least a partly negative view toward blacks, and that includes many Democrats and independents.
More than a third of all white Democrats and independents — voters Obama can't win the White House without — agreed with at least one negative adjective about blacks, (so that means two-thirds believe that he can win without them) according to the survey, and they are significantly less likely to vote for Obama than those who don't have such views.
Such numbers are a harsh dose of reality in a campaign for the history books. Obama, the first black candidate with a serious shot at the presidency, accepted the Democratic nomination on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, a seminal moment for a nation that enshrined slavery in its Constitution.
"There are a lot fewer bigots than there were 50 years ago, but that doesn't mean there's only a few bigots," said Stanford political scientist Paul Sniderman who helped analyze the exhaustive survey.
The pollsters set out to determine why Obama is locked in a close race with McCain even as the political landscape seems to favor Democrats. President Bush's unpopularity, the Iraq war and a national sense of economic hard times cut against GOP candidates, as does that fact that Democratic voters outnumber Republicans.
Please keep in mind the race of the reporter, pollster-whatever--will determine the response received. I know this for a fact.
The findings suggest that Obama's problem is close to home — among his fellow Democrats, particularly non-Hispanic white voters. Just seven in 10 people who call themselves Democrats support Obama, compared to the 85 percent of self-identified Republicans who back McCain.
The survey also focused on the racial attitudes of independent voters because they are likely to decide the election.
Lots of Republicans harbor prejudices, too, but the survey found they weren't voting against Obama because of his race. Most Republicans wouldn't vote for any Democrat for president — white, black or brown.
Not all whites are prejudiced. Indeed, more whites say good things about blacks than say bad things, the poll shows. And many whites who see blacks in a negative light are still willing or even eager to vote for Obama.
On the other side of the racial question, the Illinois Democrat is drawing almost unanimous support from blacks, the poll shows, though that probably wouldn't be enough to counter the negative effect of some whites' views.
Race is not the biggest factor driving Democrats and independents away from Obama. Doubts about his competency loom even larger, the poll indicates. More than a quarter of all Democrats expressed doubt that Obama can bring about the change they want, and they are likely to vote against him because of that.
Three in 10 of those Democrats who don't trust Obama's change-making credentials say they plan to vote for McCain.
Still, the effects of whites' racial views are apparent in the polling.
Statistical models derived from the poll suggest that Obama's support would be as much as 6 percentage points higher if there were no white racial prejudice.
Wow, a perfect world would have prevented the current financial mess we (Americans) are in now, so dang...
But in an election without precedent, it's hard to know if such models take into account all the possible factors at play.
The AP-Yahoo News poll used the unique methodology of Knowledge Networks, a Menlo Park, Calif., firm that interviews people online after randomly selecting and screening them over telephone. Numerous studies have shown that people are more likely to report embarrassing behavior and unpopular opinions when answering questions on a computer rather than talking to a stranger.
Other techniques used in the poll included recording people's responses to black or white faces flashed on a computer screen, asking participants to rate how well certain adjectives apply to blacks, measuring whether people believe blacks' troubles are their own fault, and simply asking people how much they like or dislike blacks.
"We still don't like black people," said John Clouse, 57, reflecting the sentiments of his pals gathered at a coffee shop in Somerset, Ohio.
What a shame.
Given a choice of several positive and negative adjectives that might describe blacks, 20 percent of all whites said the word "violent" strongly applied, so 80 percent wouldn't have said that. Among other words, 22 percent agreed with "boastful", 88 percent didn't agree 29 percent "complaining," 71 percent wouldn't have used that word. 13 percent "lazy" so 87 percent would not agree and 11 percent "irresponsible and 89 percent would not have said that." When asked about positive adjectives, whites were more likely to stay on the fence than give a strongly positive assessment.
Point: There are two sides to every poll, positive and negative.
Among white Democrats, one third cited a negative adjective (two-thirds positive) and, of those, 58 percent said they planned to back Obama or more than half.
The poll sought to measure latent prejudices among whites by asking about factors contributing to the state of black America. One finding: More than a quarter or less than three quarters of white Democrats agree that "if blacks would only try harder, they could be just as well off as whites."
Mindless chatter or sincerity?
Those who agreed with that statement were much less likely to back Obama than those who didn't.
Among white independents, racial stereotyping is not uncommon. For example, while about 20 percent of independent voters called blacks "intelligent" or "smart," more than one third or less than two-thirds latched on the adjective "complaining" and 24 percent said blacks were "violent."
Nearly four in 10 white independents agreed that blacks would be better off if they "try harder." So six of 10 do not.
The survey broke ground by incorporating images of black and white faces to measure implicit racial attitudes, or prejudices that are so deeply rooted that people may not realize they have them. That test suggested the incidence of racial prejudice is even higher, with more than half of whites revealing more negative feelings toward blacks than whites.
Maybe they had a bad day that day.
Researchers used mathematical modeling to sort out the relative impact of a huge swath of variables that might have an impact on people's votes — including race, ideology, party identification, the hunger for change and the sentiments of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's backers.
Just 59 percent or more than half of her white Democratic supporters said they wanted Obama to be president. Nearly 17 percent of Clinton's white backers plan to vote for McCain. or way less than half
Among white Democrats, Clinton supporters were nearly twice as likely as Obama backers to say at least one negative adjective described blacks well, a finding that suggests many of her supporters in the primaries — particularly whites with high school education or less — were motivated in part by racial attitudes.
Dumb stupid people or highly educated leaders in the free world?
The survey of 2,227 adults was conducted Aug. 27 to Sept. 5. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.
———
Associated Press writers Nancy Benac, Julie Carr Smyth, Philip Elliot, Julie Pace and Sonya Ross contributed to this story.
I WONDER HOW MANY AFRICAN-AMERICANS INTERVIEWED PEOPLE FOR THIS POLL?
WASHINGTON (AP) — Deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll that found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks — many calling them "lazy," "violent," responsible for their own troubles.
Please make sure to look carefully at the poll, my emphasis.
The poll, conducted with Stanford University, suggests that the percentage of voters who may turn away from Obama because of his race could easily be larger than the final difference between the candidates in 2004 — about two and one-half percentage points.
So all of the whites must like all of the blacks in order for Barack to win? That is a crazy thing to say.
Certainly, Republican John McCain has his own obstacles: He's an ally of an unpopular president and would be the nation's oldest first-term president. But Obama faces this: 40 percent of all white Americans hold at least a partly negative view toward blacks, and that includes many Democrats and independents.
More than a third of all white Democrats and independents — voters Obama can't win the White House without — agreed with at least one negative adjective about blacks, (so that means two-thirds believe that he can win without them) according to the survey, and they are significantly less likely to vote for Obama than those who don't have such views.
Such numbers are a harsh dose of reality in a campaign for the history books. Obama, the first black candidate with a serious shot at the presidency, accepted the Democratic nomination on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, a seminal moment for a nation that enshrined slavery in its Constitution.
"There are a lot fewer bigots than there were 50 years ago, but that doesn't mean there's only a few bigots," said Stanford political scientist Paul Sniderman who helped analyze the exhaustive survey.
The pollsters set out to determine why Obama is locked in a close race with McCain even as the political landscape seems to favor Democrats. President Bush's unpopularity, the Iraq war and a national sense of economic hard times cut against GOP candidates, as does that fact that Democratic voters outnumber Republicans.
Please keep in mind the race of the reporter, pollster-whatever--will determine the response received. I know this for a fact.
The findings suggest that Obama's problem is close to home — among his fellow Democrats, particularly non-Hispanic white voters. Just seven in 10 people who call themselves Democrats support Obama, compared to the 85 percent of self-identified Republicans who back McCain.
The survey also focused on the racial attitudes of independent voters because they are likely to decide the election.
Lots of Republicans harbor prejudices, too, but the survey found they weren't voting against Obama because of his race. Most Republicans wouldn't vote for any Democrat for president — white, black or brown.
Not all whites are prejudiced. Indeed, more whites say good things about blacks than say bad things, the poll shows. And many whites who see blacks in a negative light are still willing or even eager to vote for Obama.
On the other side of the racial question, the Illinois Democrat is drawing almost unanimous support from blacks, the poll shows, though that probably wouldn't be enough to counter the negative effect of some whites' views.
Race is not the biggest factor driving Democrats and independents away from Obama. Doubts about his competency loom even larger, the poll indicates. More than a quarter of all Democrats expressed doubt that Obama can bring about the change they want, and they are likely to vote against him because of that.
Three in 10 of those Democrats who don't trust Obama's change-making credentials say they plan to vote for McCain.
Still, the effects of whites' racial views are apparent in the polling.
Statistical models derived from the poll suggest that Obama's support would be as much as 6 percentage points higher if there were no white racial prejudice.
Wow, a perfect world would have prevented the current financial mess we (Americans) are in now, so dang...
But in an election without precedent, it's hard to know if such models take into account all the possible factors at play.
The AP-Yahoo News poll used the unique methodology of Knowledge Networks, a Menlo Park, Calif., firm that interviews people online after randomly selecting and screening them over telephone. Numerous studies have shown that people are more likely to report embarrassing behavior and unpopular opinions when answering questions on a computer rather than talking to a stranger.
Other techniques used in the poll included recording people's responses to black or white faces flashed on a computer screen, asking participants to rate how well certain adjectives apply to blacks, measuring whether people believe blacks' troubles are their own fault, and simply asking people how much they like or dislike blacks.
"We still don't like black people," said John Clouse, 57, reflecting the sentiments of his pals gathered at a coffee shop in Somerset, Ohio.
What a shame.
Given a choice of several positive and negative adjectives that might describe blacks, 20 percent of all whites said the word "violent" strongly applied, so 80 percent wouldn't have said that. Among other words, 22 percent agreed with "boastful", 88 percent didn't agree 29 percent "complaining," 71 percent wouldn't have used that word. 13 percent "lazy" so 87 percent would not agree and 11 percent "irresponsible and 89 percent would not have said that." When asked about positive adjectives, whites were more likely to stay on the fence than give a strongly positive assessment.
Point: There are two sides to every poll, positive and negative.
Among white Democrats, one third cited a negative adjective (two-thirds positive) and, of those, 58 percent said they planned to back Obama or more than half.
The poll sought to measure latent prejudices among whites by asking about factors contributing to the state of black America. One finding: More than a quarter or less than three quarters of white Democrats agree that "if blacks would only try harder, they could be just as well off as whites."
Mindless chatter or sincerity?
Those who agreed with that statement were much less likely to back Obama than those who didn't.
Among white independents, racial stereotyping is not uncommon. For example, while about 20 percent of independent voters called blacks "intelligent" or "smart," more than one third or less than two-thirds latched on the adjective "complaining" and 24 percent said blacks were "violent."
Nearly four in 10 white independents agreed that blacks would be better off if they "try harder." So six of 10 do not.
The survey broke ground by incorporating images of black and white faces to measure implicit racial attitudes, or prejudices that are so deeply rooted that people may not realize they have them. That test suggested the incidence of racial prejudice is even higher, with more than half of whites revealing more negative feelings toward blacks than whites.
Maybe they had a bad day that day.
Researchers used mathematical modeling to sort out the relative impact of a huge swath of variables that might have an impact on people's votes — including race, ideology, party identification, the hunger for change and the sentiments of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's backers.
Just 59 percent or more than half of her white Democratic supporters said they wanted Obama to be president. Nearly 17 percent of Clinton's white backers plan to vote for McCain. or way less than half
Among white Democrats, Clinton supporters were nearly twice as likely as Obama backers to say at least one negative adjective described blacks well, a finding that suggests many of her supporters in the primaries — particularly whites with high school education or less — were motivated in part by racial attitudes.
Dumb stupid people or highly educated leaders in the free world?
The survey of 2,227 adults was conducted Aug. 27 to Sept. 5. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.
———
Associated Press writers Nancy Benac, Julie Carr Smyth, Philip Elliot, Julie Pace and Sonya Ross contributed to this story.
I WONDER HOW MANY AFRICAN-AMERICANS INTERVIEWED PEOPLE FOR THIS POLL?
Friday, September 19, 2008
'Tent cities' of homeless on the rise across the US
Homeless encampments dubbed "tent cities" are springing up across the US, partly in response to soaring numbers of home repossessions, the credit crunch and rising unemployment, according to a report.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
McCain Covered Up Information On POWs Left Behind
John McCain, who has risen to political prominence on his image as a Vietnam POW war hero, has, inexplicably, worked very hard to hide from the public stunning information about American prisoners in Vietnam who, unlike him, didn't return home.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
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