Getting Real With a Community Organizer

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Tyrone D. Washington/LA Mayor\'s Office

General Jeff with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (Tyrone D. Washington/LA Mayor's Office)

On a corner deep in the heart of Skid Row during a hot, sunny afternoon, there are a couple dozen people milling around the entrance to the Midnight Mission, one of the homeless shelters and recovery facilities in the neighborhood. One man is selling cigarettes. Another man, in a dingy white Panama hat and white loafers sits in a lawn chair, listening to his boom box. Just down the street sits the Central Division Police Station. It looks like a fortress.

Beyond law enforcement, this is not a neighborhood that gets a lot of attention. The man I am meeting, who asked to be identified as General Jeff, is a community organizer, a job that was recently vilified and mocked by Gov. Sarah Palin and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani last week at the Republican National Convention.

Jeff is a c.o. for what is perhaps the least organized community in the country. And it’s quite large. According to the 2000 Census, there are approximately 17,000 residents in Central City East. (For the record, that is approximately three times as big as Wasilla when Palin was elected). There are 3.7 million people in the City of Los Angeles—and only one mayor.

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Amuse Bouche: A Parody in Which Everyone Gets the Treatment

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Via Jibjab.com

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

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The Story Behind the Obama Assassination Story

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

On the Sunday before the Democratic Convention, four men were arrested in Denver and held on suspicion of attempting to formulate a plot to assassinate Sen. Barack Obama on national television. The story practically slipped by the American media. Although brief accounts dotted blogs at a few outlets like the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and the Huffington Post, the story was generally buried.

Across the Atlantic, however, British news outlets made a different judgment call. Most of the mainstream daily newspapers chose to headline with the Obama “plot.” The Guardian, The Times and The Independent all pegged the story for a front-page feature, focusing on the prevalence of racism in America as a breeding ground for “rednecks with rifles.” British TV stations covered the story, too. National newscasts teased the story throughout the day, including the BBC, and the public were a-buzz with talk of the “Obama assassination plot.”

So, what happened here? Was it underplayed by America, or over-played everywhere else?

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Mid-day Details: Daily News Roundup

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

When you’re a dictator, you’d better show up for public events … North Korean leader Kim Jong-il did not attend a celebration of the country’s 60th birthday, and a western intelligence official said the Dear Leader may have suffered a stroke weeks ago. Kim’s last public appearance was on Aug. 14. The United States and South Korea have been unable to independently verify Kim’s current health status. The New York Times is reporting North Korea doesn’t appear to have any succession plan in place.

And speaking of world domination and tight-lipped dictatorships … Apple released a new version of iTunes and showed off the look of its new Nano at its annual September music preview event today. ITunes 8 gives recommendations for similar songs when users click a new “genius” button, and the Nano has a more vertical design and built-in accelerometer that displays pictures and video horizontally when tilted.

The polls are in … And Sarah Palin is looking like a better and better choice for vice president. In a new ABC News/Washington Post poll white women have swung dramatically for the McCain ticket, going from 50-42 percent in favor of Obama before the conventions to 53-41 percent in favor of McCain after both VP picks.

When the numbers are this big, they all blur together … The Congressional Budget Office estimates the U.S. deficit will grow by $246 billion this year, and reach $407 billion. The large jump is partly due to a a decline in corporate tax receipts. The $407 billion estimate was reached before the government’s temporary takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, so the deficit is expected to rise.

No soup for you! And no government too! Thailand’s Constitutional Court forced Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej out of office today because he had violated conflict-of-interest rules by being paid to appear on various cooking shows. Because Samak’s party will remain in power it will likely nominate him again, as early as Friday, to retake his post as prime minister.

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Trust: Reaching The 100 Million Missing Voters

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

The Youth Vote, the Hip Hop Vote, and Reclaiming Politics
Book Excerpts You Can Use, Post, Print and Remix

We’re on fire. Covering election 2008 gives those of us at Pop + Politics a chance to reach people in new ways with the news we need right now.

Since we launched PopandPolitics.com in 1995 (and yes, that is about a billion years go in internet time), the game has changed. There are literally millions of blogs now. And information wants to be free. We blogs cross-link to each other and quote each other. How about sharing even more information?

Well, we’re ready. As a special project of our Election 2008 coverage, Pop and Politics is offering an entire book download free of charge. It’s called “Trust: Reaching the 100 Million Missing Voters,” and it was written in 2004 by Pop and Politics founder Farai Chideya. The information is, if anything, more timely today, as we see the fruition of movements to get more young voters, non-voters, and first-time voters into the political mix.

What does “Trust” cover? Well, do you want to know how the two-party system evolved? Why independent parties are at a disadvantage in that system? Why millions of people don’t vote? How hip hop politics evolved? How young Americans can revolutionize the system? It’s all in there.

AND IT’S YOURS.

This book is yours now. As long as you are a non-profit or a non-commercial blog, you can print any part (or all of) “Trust,” or: distribute it, post it on your site, excerpt it, or put parts of into other works like voter-registration packets. If you’re a commercial publisher or blog, you can do the same thing… but you have send us an email and ask permission first.

How can we give the book away for free online? The publishers, Soft Skull Press, gave us permission to release the book under a Creative Commons License. Creative Commons is an amazing project that allows books, art, and information to be free, with the permission of the people who created it.

That’s it. THIS IS YOURS.

We are posting the six main chapters of “Trust” over the course of the Democratic and Republican Conventions, and the material will remain online for your use indefinitely.

Re-Mix, Re-Use, Re-Define the Game.

CHAPTER ONE:
RIGHT-CLICK HERE to download the PDF
or
CLICK HERE to view jpegs

CHAPTER TWO:
RIGHT-CLICK HERE to download the PDF
or
CLICK HERE to view jpegs

CHAPTER THREE:
RIGHT-CLICK HERE to download the PDF
or
CLICK HERE to view jpegs

CHAPTER FOUR:
RIGHT-CLICK HERE to download the PDF

CHAPTER FIVE:
RIGHT-CLICK HERE to download the PDF

CHAPTER SIX:
RIGHT-CLICK HERE to download the PDF

Creative Commons License
“Trust: Reaching the 100 Million Missing Voters” by Farai Chideya is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License

And while you’re doing it: information wants to be free, but running this site is NOT.

CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT POP + POLITICS NOW

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