Afro-Netizen

America's first Black president shares his vision of our shared destiny

A not-so-typical election day in Mt. Airy, Philadelphia

In the deepest of blue dots in the state of Pennsylvania (and Philadelphia), there has been record turn-out in terms of how many people have voted before noon.

As of 10:50amET, over 50% of voters in this division (i.e., precinct) have already voted. And in what is already one of the most active polling places in the entire city, I am confident we will surpass the 90% mark by 8pm.

For some odd reason, the local Fox Channel affiliate has been camped out at our polling place in front of the church here since 4:30am. They have not interviewed anyone -- just kinda sitting in their broadcast truck. I spoke to the on-air guy a couple times to brag at how awesome our 3 divisions are that share this polling place, and he just politely nods his head.

Today has been an amazing day so far, which is saying a lot, given that I have worked every election here for the past 2 1/2 years and voted without fail for the 6 1/2 years I've lived in Philadelphia as Chicago expatriate who grew up in the neighborhood where Barack Obama served as state senator.

After the groundswell of early voters, the polling place became a ghost town by 8:30am, and the only folks left were the election officials, the church staff, the Democratic committeepeople, the older Black man who was the token Republican in this Obama-lovin' sea of nervous excitement and the dozen or so Obama volunteers shipped in from Brooklyn and Vermont. In fact, there were more Obama volunteers at our polling place who had nothing to do than there were actual voters once the tide had ebbed from the morning rush.

I pointed out that sending Obama volunteers to my polling place was like sending sand to the beach. My neighborhood is so Obamalicious, there are more White lesbian couples with Black children than registered Republicans. In fact, there were probably more McCain-Palin lawn signs (2) on the church's lawn than actual McCain voters.

But enough about my wonderfully economically, racially and culturally diverse neighborhood.

The simple fact is that this morning I saw faces of new young voters, first-time elderly voters, Blackfolk coming out so overcome with emotion and recognition of today's import that they could not keep from crying; Whitefolk smiling giddily as though they were keeping a secret they were trying so hard to let out.

I saw children of all ages -- some as young as two who could say with pride, "Rockobama!". Busloads full of students headed to school yelling out of their windows, "Obama, Obama!"

A feeling is in the air that was not there in 2004.

And in under two hours, I will be sharing this moment when my wife and I bring our 5- and 2-year old sons to push the big green VOTE button when we cast our ballots for Obama this afternoon.

They know it's election day. But what they will not know for years to come is just how much their lives will change -- all of our lives -- no matter how subtlely --  just by the very fact that Barack Hussein Obama may be our next president no matter how imperfect the candidate or the political system that has thrust him to this auspicious moment in time.

Dawn approaches on Election Day

I always get emotional on election day.

Today will be my sixth presidential election that I will be voting in, and the most important.

This will also be the first presidential election without grandparents or my father.

Today, I will not be voting alone though. I will be bringing my ancestors with me and my two young sons.

In a few moments I will be getting ready to leave my home and walk a half block to my polling place and meeting my fellow Democratic Committeeperson to set up for what will most certainly be a long day.

My job in this capacity is simple: to make sure my division's (what other cities call a precinct) Democratic voters are informed and assisted as needed towards voting as smoothly and quickly as possible.

My 21-year old first cousin, Houston, has been with us since Sunday, up from Virginia. This is his first presidential election and the first time he has volunteered for a political campaign. He has been working and with incredible enthusiasm.

Houston will be shadowing me today between GOTV runs for the Obama campaign here. I will be teaching him about "machine politics" 101 and letting him see first-hand how grassroots party electioneering works in quite possibly the bluest neighborhood in the entire state of Pennsylvania.

Our late grandmother, an ardent community organizer in Baltimore and my most influential mentor, ran for office several times unsuccessfully. She died a year or so after I was elected as a committeeperson.

She would be so heartened to know that her grandchildren were actively involved in such a historic election.

We will not be alone in the voting booth.

In light of the passing of Obama's dear grandmother, no doubt, he knows this, too.

What would a McCain-Palin "Hail Mary" TV ad look like?

Hat tip (H/T) to Marc Maron & Sam Seder of Air America Radio's Maron v. Seder Show for this hilarious and easily believable parody peeking into the skull of the Maverick & Co.

Obama camp fights the prospect of voter complacency with viral humor

Subtle, it's not. That said, this kitchy, unpolished web video is in fact produced by the Obama campaign to remind complacent voters to avoid doing what lurks in the battered, collective psyche of Democrats who are still licking their wounds from Al Gore's (electoral) "loss" in 2000.

So, enjoy this cringe-inducing video and think of it on November 5th with a dismissive smirk or an incredulous gape.

Blackfolk vote early & often (with a graph to prove it!)

Hat tip to the addictive FiveThirtyEight.com for numbers-jockeys, political addicts and graph-whores.

This graph shows how highly correlated early voting rates this year are tied to states with large populations of Blackfolk.

No doubt, the RNC and Fox News will contend that these aren't genuine people, but fictitious voters brought to life by the magic ink of crafty ACORN workers.

After all, ACORN is single-handedly destroying democracy as we know it, right?

On a serious note, during a conference call yesterday with new NAACP president, Ben Jealous, and representatives of different branches in swing states, Afro-Netizen and fellow Black bloggers listened to on-the-ground reports of robust voter turn-out in North Carolina and Ohio, both of which permit early voting.

 

So, who's the elitist?

Source: Unknown

(Hat tip to Oliver Willis)

NAACP's new president wastes no time reaching out to the Black netroots

On only his second day on the job as the NAACP's new president, 35-year old Benjamin Todd Jealous convened a conference call where members of the Black press and some Black bloggers were given the opportunity to ask him questions about the NAACP's response to Hurricane Ike as well as its new online voter registration drive called Upload to Uplift.

Veteran journalists and neophyte bloggers were afforded the same access and respect -- a perhaps prescient dynamic of which other venerable Black institutions should take notice.

Mr. Jealous, a Generation X'er and himself a fifth-generous NAACP member, follows the brief tenure of Corporate America refugee Bruce Gordon whose outgoing memo to the NAACP's bloated board of directors was leaked first to Afro-Netizen earlier this year.

It is true that over the years, Afro-Netizen has been critical of the NAACP and its waning primacy in the lives of African Americans on a national level. However, as the proud grandson of a former national board member for 12 years (Dr. Maurice F. Rabb, Sr.), I am neither prepared to -- nor want to -- eulogize this historic civil rights organization. I recognize, however, that when some people read "historic" they think "relic". This is as much a problem of perception that Mr. Jealous will have to strategically address as it is an organizational one that is not likely to change overnight -- or in an election cycle.

After all, change is on the lips of many Americans these days. But as an organizational productivity consultant (my day job) as well as from my perspective as a former, long-serving board member of a 115-year old family business, I know quite well that indeed most people fear change -- and organizations tend to loathe it. It goes without saying that old, traditional and highly hierarchical organizations loathe change that much more -- even when they know it's inevitable.

That said, I am confident that Mr. Jealous' vision and activist credentials will help put the NAACP on a path towards fully leveraging 21st Century assets and tactics while honoring the long, proud traditions that represent the best of what our community has accomplished when we have kept our eyes on the prize and marched steadfastly towards social justice.

Dear Corporate Media: Do your job!

Wonder why in "the world's oldest democracy", Americans receive such awful "news" coverage?

Could it be due to the fact that corporate media in this country represents the vast majority of what Americans consume via TV, radio, publishing and newspapers -- and that corporate media are owned by a half dozen conglomerates?

And because of this corporate strangle-hold on public airwaves, the electorate and society-at-large are woefully uninformed and misinformed.

Democracy does not meaning the freedom to choose which TV channel to watch -- particularly if most of them are owned by the same corporations. Democracy is not solely about "freedom to . . .", nor is it about freedom of consumption. Democracy must also incorporate certain "freedoms from". Freedom from media hegemony, for instance, directly relates to the quality and practicality of our First Amendment rights. The former prevents the latter.

How can Americans truly have freedom of expression in this all-consuming media age when there is less and less local ownership of our TV and radio stations and newspapers and the population of the owners of these outlets in no way resembles demography of the United States?

Simply put, there can be no true democracy without media justice.

So, as we build a media justice movement that can impact Congress and the administration of whoever wins office on November 4, click here to check out the good work of our friends at Brave New Films (since we're not going to see good, consistent reporting on this by the mainstream news media any time soon).

Is NBC News' Washington Bureau chief the answer to the network's Olbermann "problem"?

Fact #1: MSNBC's rise in ratings is overwhelmingly due to the meteoric success of Keith Olbermann deftly skewering right-wingers, their surrogates and minions.

Fact #2: NBC (and pseudo-objective/quasi-crypto-conservative Tom Brokaw, in particular) aren't in love with the tone and authencity of the Olbermann/Chris Matthews duo as election news co-anchors and have "reassigned them" to other duties.

Fact #3: NBC loves money more than it loves shutting out token on-air liberal or progressive personalities (as evinced by a simultaneous pay bump for Olbermann).

Fact #4: It appears NBC News is using the successor to the late Tim Russert, NBC News Washington Bureau Chief Mark Whitaker, to hedge against the prospect of Fact #3 becoming untrue if Olbermann (and now -- gratefully -- Rachel Maddow) fans somehow die off or turn into raving Bill O'Reilly fans in the foreseeable future.

Fact #5: The now ubiquitous Mark Whitaker actually said this -- in public, no less! . . .

I have always been under the impression that the three major networks along with the big cable "news" channels have some bearing on what drives (their own) news cycles.

But what do I know? I suppose I'm like Gov. Palin in that I'm not part of the "media elite" -- not having ever been on any of the Sunday morning political TV shows.

I guess if we want to know whose in charge of the news cycle these days, we really should ask John McCain since he's been on "Meet the Press" almost as much as the late Tim Russert.