Election '08 // Current TV

George Clinton's State of the Union: Obama, Conspiracies and Funk

Project Noise spent 12 hours at The Cubby Bear to get this–some of it outside in... more

ProjectNoise
added this
3 years ago
|
6 comments

Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers: Agridustrial as all get out

An intense snapshot of a great band with some great quotes from psychobilly frontman... more

ProjectNoise
added this
3 years ago
|
0 comments

Tom Morello on Obama's Election and the Post-Inauguration World

A rousing video of Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello talking about the... more

ProjectNoise
added this
3 years ago
|
1 comment

Campaign '08: What the Candidates are Promising American Families

What The Candidates Are promising American Families.

CutestPrincess
added this
3 years ago
|
0 comments

Asia and Obama

Check it out - a CNN video of Asia's reaction to Obama's election.

nazbags
added this
3 years ago
|
1 comment

Two accused of plotting kill Obama indicted

Paul Schlesselman and Daniel Cowart have been accused of plotting to kill over 100... more

nazbags
added this
3 years ago
|
22 comments

High hopes - and expectations - for Obama abroad

The world wanted Obama, and now they've got him - dozens of world leaders have... more

nazbags
added this
3 years ago
|
0 comments

sexy chocolate obama..?

It's catchy..

keleena
added this
3 years ago
|
0 comments

Work Out Fine - Barack Obama

Great speech by a great man.

quantisation
added this
3 years ago
|
18 comments

Feds must modernize voter registration to end fraud | ajc.com

Blaming ACORN for our voter registration system is a classic failure of missing the forest for the trees. Amidst accusations of ACORN putting our democracy in jeopardy, few are asking why private groups are even in the business of voter registration drives. The answer is that the United States is one of the few democracies where the federal government doesn’t assume responsibility for establishing full and accurate voter rolls —- and it just isn’t working.

Each election cycle, scores of generally well-intentioned organizations and individuals register millions of new people to vote, and inevitably accusations of voter registration fraud —- often mistakenly termed “voter fraud” —- follow. Some canvassers submit fraudulent names for extra pay; this is what ACORN has been accused of. Many citizens submit forms with inaccurate information.

Although highly unlikely to impact the actual casting of votes, voter registration fraud is serious —- it wastes all-too-scarce resources of local election offices, balloons voter rolls with fake names and increases the odds of Election Day confusion. Ending voter registration fraud is a big reason for the government to modernize registration.

These problems are part of a much bigger failure in how we run elections. Nearly a third of eligible voters aren’t registered to vote and our turnout rates are among the lowest in the world. That’s why groups like ACORN have to pour resources into voter registration drives every four years instead of focusing on other means to empower people in their communities.

The problem is our “opt-in,” self-initiated voter registration system. Right now the onus is on citizens to update their information, ensure correct spelling and cancel old registrations when they move. Without a parent who votes or a motivated high school teacher handing out voter registration forms, many young people never register or learn the basics of participation —- as if preparation for citizenship weren’t an obvious goal of an effective public school system.

Low voter registration contributes directly to low voter turnout. Once registered, people are much more likely to vote in big elections. In 2004, the U.S. Census reported participation rates of more than 85 percent of registered voters. Four in five registered voters in the 18 to 24-year-old cohort showed up. But even 100 percent turnout of registered voters would leave us with lower turnout than most other well-established democracies.

At the same time, many people are on the rolls more than once and our rolls are cluttered with people who have died or moved. Alaska notoriously has more registered voters than eligible adults.

Implementing a few common sense reforms would go a long way in solving our voter registration problems and lessen the necessity of groups seeking to register so many new voters every four years.

One example is seeking to register every citizen before they reach voting age by following the lead of Hawaii and Florida in allowing 16-year-olds to register to vote, with their names automatically added to the voter rolls when they reach 18. This change would ideally be twinned with systematic registration of young people in high schools and at driver’s license agencies and “voter’s ed” classes on the mechanics of participation in communities. Other sensible proposals include Election Day registration and moving to making voter registration permanent through automatic updates of registration with changes of address. Blaming ACORN for our voter registration system is a classic failure of missing... more

dankitti
added this
3 years ago
|
0 comments

Vote Early Nevada, with Jt & Jess

I cant vote because I don't live in the usa hahaha but I'm your neighboor... more

naveobeso
added this
3 years ago
|
0 comments

Steal Back Your Vote: Greg Palast

Greg Palast is a driving force behind Steal Back Your Vote, with a free downloadable... more

GRITtv
added this
3 years ago
|
1 comment

The F Word: Who Do You Trust? Who Do You Buy?

What do they say about history repeats? With four weeks left before the General Election of 2008, it’s important to plan forward, but also to look back.

In the last few weeks of the 2004 campaign while the Democratic party was locked in an internal struggle over whether to pitch to right or left, George W. Bush did everything at once. For the affluent (and those aspiring to affluence) there were promises of more deregulation and tax cuts. Voters earning over $100,000 a year turned out in record numbers in response. For single issue theocratic types, there was stir-it-up talk about preserving straight white patriarchal elites. They turned out too.

For everyone else, drowning in a war economy and hurting for lack of a safety net, W offered an appeal to primal instinct. At the level of advertising, tv and talk radio, the presidential race shrank to just one question: Who do you Trust? John Kerry – the flip flopper “girlie” man – or Bush, the-with-me-or-against me wartime president?

In this election like that one, the Right’s ground troops were fed plenty of rhetoric. But Rove didn’t rely on red meat alone. There was also cash. We’ve learned a lot about how GOP political operatives led by Rove politicized every tentacle of the federal government from the Defense Department to Justice. So it should come as no surprise to recall that in the weeks before the '04 election, Bush administration officials dispersed a mountain of government largesse in swing states. In September and October of 2004, the administration announced $10 million for a church based job training scheme in Jacksonville Florida, money for a long-awaited wildlife refuge in Minnesota and a national park in Colorado. $207 million went to clean up drinking water in Columbus Ohio.

Even a government in overdraft had money for pre-election favors in ’04. This year, it seems to me, there’s $850 billion to dole out. We’ve been told the money could start being dispersed at any moment. Call me crazy, but it seems to me, with a bill that’s packed with more than $100 billion in corporate and personal tax breaks, for among others the auto racing body NASCAR, someone better be keeping a tight eye on those dispersements. Pork may be the least of our worries. History suggests we should watch for buying votes.What do they say about history repeats? With four weeks left before the General... more