It's On You!

Okay folks, we are in the final stretch.

For those who will be voting on Tuesday, be forewarned that there will be long lines and frustration.

Persevere through all that - think about our forefathers and foremothers having to toil in the fields or walk from their villages to slave ships that pulled them away from their families and land. Think of your own children or whatever the heck inspires you. Just make sure your vote is counted!

Here are a few tips to help you be on your way:

• Take proper identification with you to the voting precinct, a driver's license or state issued ID in most cases. Don't have that? Call your elections office to find out what else will suffice.
• Take a book or a couple of magazines with you too, especially if you live in a swing state. Also bring a snack and some water... I'm not kidding about the long lines.
• And just in case you have problems casting your ballot - poll workers don't always know the rules - I'm providing a list of phone numbers for you to call in case you need help.

1. The Brennan Center for Justice, at the New York University School of Law, has a Web site to let people know their voting rights: www.brennancenter.org/studentvoting.
2. The Tom Joyner Morning Show and the NAACP National Voter Fund have partnered to launch 1-866- MYVOTE1, a voter alert line that allows people to find out where their polling places are located and report problems at the polls.
3. Election Protection, a coalition of legal and civil rights groups, recently announced a national voter protection initiative, including another hotline number (1-866-OUR-VOTE).

NO EXCUSES

Halloween Gone Too Far?

A conservative friend of mine sent me this video.

In his email, my friend complained, "So what do you think your reaction would be -- or others in today's media -- if this were Obama a the end of the rope?" He demanded to know. "As I said, when it comes to vileness and pure nasty behavior, The Dems (Libs) take the cake."

Check out the video and then read what comes after:

While I don't agree with my friend's assessment (there are vile people on both sides of the aisle, we just seem to be hearing more from the right than the left with assassination plots and women who lie about getting attacked by big, black Obama supporters).

I do have to acknowledge, however, that had this been Sen. Barack Obama instead of Sarah Palin, a lot of people would be mad as hell, and rightly so I would imagine.

Is it any less wrong for this guy to hang Republican Vice Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin from a noose than Barack Obama? What makes one funny, but the other a hate crime?

Police interrupt Skin-head plot to assassinate Obama

Forever Vigilant

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal agents have broken up a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 102 black people in a Tennessee murder spree, the ATF said Monday.

In court records unsealed Monday, federal agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target a predominantly African-American high school by two neo-Nazi skinheads. Agents said the skinheads did not identify the school by name.

Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of the Nashville field office for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the two men planned to shoot 88 black people and decapitate another 14. The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community.

The men also sought to go on a national killing spree, with Obama as its final target, Cavanaugh told The Associated Press.

''They said that would be their last, final act -- that they would attempt to kill Sen. Obama,'' Cavanaugh said. ''They didn't believe they would be able to do it, but that they would get killed trying.''

An Obama spokeswoman traveling with the senator in Pennsylvania had no immediate comment.

The men, Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tenn., and Paul Schlesselman 18, of West Helena, Ark., are being held without bond. Agents seized a rifle, a sawed-off shotgun and three pistols from the men when they were arrested. Authorities alleged the two men were preparing to break into a gun shop to steal more.

Attorney Joe Byrd, who has been hired to represent Cowart, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday.

Cowart and Schlesselman are charged with possessing an unregistered firearm, conspiring to steal firearms from a federally licensed gun dealer, and threatening a candidate for president.

The investigation is continuing, and more charges are possible, Cavanaugh said.

Did anyone watch the new DL Hughley Show on CNN?

I have to admit, I didn't watch it. Actually, I never intend to.

DL Hughley just isn't that funny to me. And when he does manage to be funny, the material is often "borrowed" from another comedian who is... funny. I fell out with Hughley a long time ago when he used to do a lot of stand-up. But the final straw came when he agreed with Controversial Radio Host Dom Imus that members of the Rutgers Women's Basketball Team were a bunch of "nappy headed hoes."

I know we're supposed to support our own, but we have to draw the line somewhere. Wrong is wrong.

Finally, I have a problem with CNN, which is supposed to be a Cable News Network (hence its acronym) moving farther away from delivering news and resembling more of an entertainment company.

Time Warner - parent company of CNN - already competes with Comedy Central Network (which broadcasts The Daily Show as well as the Colbert Report). Time Warner owns HBO, so why not air DL after the the Bill Maher Show on Friday nights?

And if Time Warner/CNN really wants to do a better job competing with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, why not choose a comedian who is actually funny?

While I do not plan to support DL Hughley's new show, I would like to know what others think of it, especially in light of the fact that I haven't heard much talk about it other than Scott McClellan's endorsement of Barack Obama during the show's debut on CNN over the weekend.

So what do those who watched think about DL's new show? Is it worth me breaking my personal boycott or what?

Blame The Black Man...Again

UPDATE: It's official. Police are charging Ashley Todd with filing a false police report.
http://kdka.com/local/attack.McCain.Bloomfield.2.847628.html

By now you've heard about 20-year-old Ashley Todd, the young Republican volunteer who claims a black, male Obama supporter mugged her and carved a letter "B" on her face.

I immediately smelled another Susan Smith when I first heard about this story. Now police are starting to doubt it too. What gets me though is that even Michelle Malkin - conservative pundit/columnist/blogger/best-bud-of-Bill O'Reilly - says this woman's story doesn't pass the smell test.

On her blog, Malkin basically calls the woman a liar. This, from the same Michelle Malkin who lied before the Vice Presidential debate when she accused moderator Gwen Ifill of writing a book about Barack Obama?

For Malkin, calling a fellow Republican a liar had to be a difficult thing to do.

Get this though: What's even more striking is that Ashley Todd calls herself a liar on her very own Myspace page.

It is too sad to ponder, but if you want to read more about Ashley, go to Malkin's link above. You can also read http://www.wpxi.com/news/17789715/detail.html and the Drudge Report, which first cast this "incident" as a reverse hate crime and partisan attack (thumbs-down award goes to Drudge).

Do American elections seem to be bringing out the worst in people, or is it just me who thinks this way?

I think we need to be real honest with one another. There are those in America who do not want a black man - even a half-black one - inside the Oval Office. Eventhough it was black men who built the thing.

These people will go to extraordinary lengths to make sure Sen. Barack Obama doesn't make it past his inaugeration, and they are becoming increasingly desperate the closer we get to Election Day.

What is also clear to me is that we need to be ever vigilant in making sure all hell doesn't break loose in this country. No matter who wins the election.

No More Welfare for Sarah Palin

I love it when I hear conservatives bemoan public welfare.

The conversation usually starts off a little something like this. "Why should my money go to take care of people too lazy to get a damn job. That's not my responsibility. They've been on the welfare rolls too long, I shouldn't have to pay for their lifestyle."

Well, yesterday we learned that as Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin not only took state money that paid her to spend more than 300 nights at her own home instead of the already-paid for Governor's Mansion, she also spent another $43,490 of Alaskan taxpayer dollars on travel for her children and husband.

Then this morning I awoke to learn that in the last two months the Republican National Committee has paid $150,000 for Palin's clothing and make-up. That's $150,000 in a publicly financed campaign. (Remember McCain is taking public tax dollars to wage his campaign, while Sen. Barack Obama chose to raise his funds from private donors.)

One Hundred and fifty thousand dollars in just TWO months. Interestingly enough, The Huffington Post said that same amount would have provided health insurance for 15 people.

I digress.

One would think the RNC would want to spend that money on competing with Sen. Barack Obama in swing states where the McCain-Palin ticket is now shaky, places like Florida maybe. But hey, it's their cash and the RNC can spend it whatever way they want.

Instead of dropping $75,000 in one shopping spree at Neiman Marcus for clothes and accessories, Palin could have gotten hooked up at Macy's for far less? RNC spokespeople said Palin will donate the clothes after the election. Uh-huh, sure.

That said, it is far more concerning to me that Palin sees fit to take money from taxpayers pockets and use it to to cover travel costs for her husband and children.

Alaskans picked up the tab for Palin's children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business, according to an investigation by the Associated Press.

The charges included costs for hotel and commercial flights for three daughters to join Palin to watch their father in a snowmobile race, and a trip to New York, where the governor attended a five-hour conference and stayed with 17-year-old Bristol for five days and four nights in a luxury hotel.

In all, the Associated Press found that Palin has charged the state $21,012 for her three daughters’ 64 one-way and 12 round-trip commercial flights since she took office in December 2006. In some other cases, she has charged the state for hotel rooms for the girls.

I'm not griping about Palin wanting to spend time with her family, but the public shouldn't have to pay for it.

As average parents we wouldn't be able to get away with this. In fact, if we wanted our children and/or spouse with us on a business trip, we'd have to pay for it ourselves, and we would still get the raised-eyebrow look from colleagues.

This amounts to nothing more than public welfare for Sarah Palin. And it is the stuff that voters need to know in order to make intelligent and informed decisions on Election Day.

I don't know about you, but it's obvious to me that Gov. Palin has champagne tastes and caviar dreams at the expense of other people who can barely afford to buy a jug of milk and put gas in the tank.

I hope Palin doesn't think she can waltz into the White House with us giving her a credit card with an unlimited balance. America is in the midst of a recession, we can't afford welfare for Sarah Palin.

What's Wrong With Being 'An Arab'?

Answer: Absolutely Nothing.

I thought most of you would be able to appreciate this. It is the beautiful photograph that Colin Powell referred to yesterday when talking about the mother of a Muslim American soldier killed while fighting in Iraq. Photo credit goes to the New Yorker.

Here's Powell's quote:

"Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is no. That's not America. Is there something wrong with a seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing he or she could be president? Yet I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion that he is a Muslim and might have an association with terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

I feel particularly strong about this because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay, was of a mother at Arlington Cemetery and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone, and it gave his awards - Purple Heart, Bronze Star - showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death, he was 20 years old. And then at the very top of the head stone, it didn't have a Christian cross. It didn't have a Star of David. It has a crescent and star of the Islamic faith.

And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan. And he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was fourteen years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he could serve his country and he gave his life."

"Is there something wrong with being Muslim in America? No, that's not America," he said. "Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourselves in this way."