Gawker Paints Christine O'Donnell As Horny Virgin Cougar Seeking Sex

According to an anonymous Gawker blog writer, who posts his photos of her, Delaware GOP Senate Candidate Christine O'Donnell's had a one-night-stand three years ago and was a horny virgin seeking sex with a 25-year-old man.

O'Donnell was 35 years old at the time, and had just come off one losing campaign for the Senate.  She and a female friend showed up at the writer's doorstep asking to change into their Halloween outfits. In Gawker, he writes:

We'd met for the first and only time three months earlier when my two roommates and I signed the lease on our apartment: Christine's aunt owned the place we were moving into, and she happened to be up from Delaware visiting at the time. But we'd only spent about five minutes together that day and we hadn't spoken much, and I hadn't thought of her since.
Yet here she was standing outside my door with a friend. And both of them were pretty tipsy.

He continues to explain an encounter that's not unlike any one a healthy young man has had in his life.  Part of it are totally funny and very revealing about Christine. Actually, she reads like a lot of fun, frankly.   And her first male target reads like a jealous guy who wasn't worth her time; yet she went after him.

When she didn't get what she wanted, she dated his roommate.  So, in what seems to be a retaliation for that, he's outing her sex life.

Classless.

Now, the Republican woman presented as fearful of sex, and then a witch, is now dealing with what some claim is a smear campaign on the part of Gawker against her. But sexual harassment? That's what O'Donnell's campaign claims it is. Note, they do not deny the blog post. It's true.

Whatever one says, it's clearly an explosive story, one that emerged just five short days before the November election. Here's the Christine O'Donnell campaign response:

Wilmington, DE – Communications Director Doug Sachtleben stated in response to the universal condoning of the Gawker story:
"This story is just another example of the sexism and slander that female candidates are forced to deal with. From Secretary Clinton, to Governor Palin, to soon-to-be Governor Haley, Christine's political opponents have been willing to engage in appalling and baseless attacks — all with the aim of distracting the press from covering the real issues in this race. Even the National Organization for Women gets it, but Christine's opponent disturbingly does not. As Chris Coons said on September 16th he would not condone personal attacks against Christine. Classless Coons goons have proven yet again to have no sense of common decency or common sense with their desperate attacks to get another rubber stamp for the Obama-Pelosi-Reid agenda. Such attacks are truly shameful, but they will not distract us from making our case to Delaware voters — and keeping the focus on Chris Coons' record of higher taxes, increased spending, and as he has done again here, breaking his promises to the voters."
The National Organization for Women (NOW) on Thursday condemned the tabloid website Gawker for publishing an anonymous account: NOW issued a statement late Thursday stating that "sexist, misogynist attacks against women have no place in the electoral process, regardless of a particular candidate's political ideology."
"NOW repudiates Gawker's decision to run this piece. It operates as public sexual harassment. And like all sexual harassment, it targets not only O'Donnell, but all women contemplating stepping into the public sphere," said NOW president Terry O'Neill.

The problem is, the encounter's not a sexual harassment issue. Sexual harassment is defined as
"intimidation, bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors."

The Gawker article is certainly not appropriate.  But if it was meant to smear Christine O'Donnell and cause her to lose the campaign, it will work.   Say, it paints her as reckless with her public image.  But it also shows her as human.  Frankly, part of me feels sorry for her to have met a guy who did this to her.  It's an obvious violation of a private act, only it's OK because now O'Donnell is a full public figure.  Gawker can do this and get away with it.

But, hey, Christine's not bad looking at all.  Let's see how this plays out.  

More on this, including blog reactions, later.  Here is the full blog post at Gawker.

Oakland Mayor's Race: Don Macleay Interview #2

Followers of this space will remember that this blogger interviewed Oakland Mayor's Race candidate Don Macleay earlier in the campaign, and for about 20 minutes in front of Merritt Station Cafe at 614 Grand Avenue. But Don wanted to talk again, and this space doesn't refuse such requests. The result is the funniest and most fun of all of the interviews I've conducted thus far.

It is so, because the Green Party candidate who calls himself the "People's Mayor," has a good, natural sense of humor that smooths over a wonkish tendency. That quality makes him accessible across race and class lines. Regardless of how the election turns out, Don Macleay has created a good foundation for his political future.

The Mayor Of 40th Street

Already, Don Macleay is arguably the Mayor of 40th Street, where he lives on 40th and Opal. He's right next to what he calls the "new Temescal Neighborhood." Don owns what could be called a compound on that corner, marked with his lawn sign and another in support of Measure BB. Don's tan building houses his East Bay Computer Services, his apartment, and several other tenant businesses. He moved there in 2008, and has what he calls a "Walk, Bike, neighborhood lifestyle."

Across 40th Street from Don Macleay's home is what he laughingly refers to as his entertainment: a green building housing a laundry business, where "you can buy crack on certain days...This candidate does not live on Skyline Drive." That's a friendly shot at Oakland Mayor's Race competitor Greg Harland, who does live on Skyline Drive.

Unlike the other mayoral candidates, Macleay does not have an office with an adress; he has a "virtual office" with cell phones being the communications and information exchange system. "We have our network in the cloud, Don says. "We work with smartphones. We keep both the company and the campaign on these smartphones."

Darth Vader On The Campaign?

In his first room, Macleay has an interesting collection of "stuff," like a UCLA cup (which should be a Cal cup) and including a Darth Vader helmet because his son's into Star Wars. But that doesn't mean Don thinks there's a Darth Vader in the Oakland Mayor's Race: "I think..A lot of people want to paint Don Perata as Darth Vader and I think he's the standard American politician."

The campaign has "just been great" for Don. He's having a lot of fun going from forum to forum (there were 30 of them) and spreading his message of reform. Don says Oakland Government is not "representative enough." He thinks the Oakland City Council is not accessible to the grassroots Oakland activists and wants to change that.

The Pension Reform Issue

Don says the way to reduce the Oakland Pension Deficit is to cash it out on a sliding scale. "It's the members money. What we have set aside belongs to them, first and foremost." What Don wants to do is to give the pension system members all of their money up front, and then start a new system of pay-as-you-go. He says Oakland's government and unions don't like the idea, but it's one he's ready to go forward with should he become Mayor of Oakland.

The People's Mayor

Our talk continued with a tour of his compound and home. It's a machinist's dream, with all kinds of drills and equipment appropriate for everything from bike repair to metal sculpture. He does all of the unlicensed work on his place himself. Don's also ran a number of businesses and says that his experience "puts me in touch with about 60 percent of the economy."

The Parking Issue And The Greens

This blogger originally met Don when we worked on what was to be an initiative to change Oakland's predatory parking laws and system. One that Oakland PUEBLO said was a violation of an Oaklander's civil rights. He reports that "got him into a lot of trouble with the Greens." But Don says he was able to convince many Green Party activists that the City of Oakland's measures didn't provide a public transit alternative, just worked to feed the city's coffers at the expense of the poor.

"We do not have the transit infrastructure we should," he says, and wants a moratorium on new roads; something he will push for even if he's not Mayor of Oakland.

Don's Mayor's Office and Morale

Unlike many of the candidates, Macleay says he will have the same size of Mayor's Office as present. Rearding organizational structure, Don says he's like to keep Mayor Dellums fundraising system and staff. Overall he sees no need to expand the office, and wants to leave the matter of policy advise to the Oakland City Council.

On Oakland city employee morale, which has been poor for years, Don says he will work to make it easier for Oakland employees to talk freely about what they don't like around them. He also wants to help Oakland employees succeed at their jobs.

Don Macleay Has Matured

In closing, Don Macleay has come a long way as a mayoral candidate. At first, I didn't think he was really serious about winning this thing. But over the past few months, he changed. Don became much more engaged, present, and active as a campaigner. He's honed and refined his message and deliberately positioned himself as more a "man of the people." Macleay's an excellent listener and perhaps has the smallest ego of any of the choices for Mayor. It will be interesting to see how he performs on election day in Oakland.

2010 World Series Fight in McDonald's After Giants vs Rangers Game One

The 2010 World Series Giants vs Rangers Game One was marred by a giant fight in the McDonald's located on Brannan near 3rd Street and just one block from AT&T Park. This is the fight the SFPD Officer mentioned as being "70 persons" when we talked on the AT&T Park Muni platform last night.



According to the decription on YouTube channel gtothebomb's video page, this is what happened:

This was taken at the McDonald's right next to AT&T park. Some chick was arguing about their order, the chick with the yellow thong tells her, she shouldn't talk like that in front of her daughter. Chick says she's not my daughter and throws soda at the yellow thong chick. then all hell breaks loose.

The fight was mostly female, and mosly white, Hispanic, and a few African American women. It's not clear why the black women got involved in the fight, but one of them seemed to jump into it, then was helped by her friends as they hit another woman to the ground, then they backed off.

Then a blonde haired woman threw what seemed to be a chair at the woman in yellow. Then, some rather heavy-set Latino man got involved and punched someone else. Then next to him, two other women started fighting.

At that point, you can hear sirens go off as the SFPD comes to the scene. That seems to explain why the camera person is leaving the scene, along with a large number of people who presumably didn't want to be arrested.

It's a pretty safe bet to say that none of the people in the video had tickets to the 2010 World Series. It's also a good reason why this blogger doesn't walk into McDonald's much, if at all, down there.

While that was happening, I was at the Paragon Bar and Grill, just one long block, and a demographic world away.

MC Hammer vs Jay-Z?? An Open Letter to Hammer as He Sets Oct 31st Deadline

A lot of buzz around this ‘beef’ between Jay-Z andMC Hammer. For those who don’t know Jay-Z took shots at Hammer last month about his past financial woes. He did a song where he spit a verse about Hammer losing 30 million. This is while Jay-Z is reported to have brought an island or something like that. Hammer wasn’t feeling the slight and made his disapproval known via twitter with a promise to release a video reposnse on October 31st.

A few things to consider..on one hand Hip Hop has always had the ‘battle’ element. Taking shots or responding to disses have long been a tried and true method of getting on. 5o Cent blew up doing this. KRS made his name early on coming after folks. Hammer himself came up taking shots at all sorts of folks explaining that Hip Hop was like sport. It’s team vs team and when you stepped into the arena it was on you to bring the ruckus so to speak. I recall when he challenged Michael Jackson to a dance off. It was all about the battling on stage, on vinyl and everywhere else to establish your position. So back in the days when folks like Run DMC, 3rd Base, Ice Cube or LL took shots, Hammer got at them both on and off record. Very few emcees especially those who were popular would get a dis off and he not address them.

Jay-Z on the other hand has been interesting with his disses. He’s long known that responding to slights gave folks a chance to come up. He talked about this when he had his famous battle with Nas back in ’01. Folks forget that a lot of times he ‘brushed the disses off his shoulder’ and ignored them not allowing himself to be a free meal ticket. He did that with Jayo Felony and even Game. So why he took shots at Hammer is curious to me.

On another level when cats become elder statesmen in the rap game it just doesn’t seem right to have any sort of battle. It should be about building. It would’ve been dope if Jay-Z helped Hammer get that 30 million back and they embarked on a lucrative long sustaining project together.. It would’ve been good if Hammer shines it off and stepped to Jay privately, But respect is respect, and Hammer is not letting up as we can see in this recent video called Better Run Run.So we’ll see what happens on the 31st.

In the meantime, folks have been speaking out trying to stop this from moving forward. Below is a letter from a local Oakland based author Harry Williams.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOlY-eg2NY4

An Open Letter To MC Hammer

Author Rev Harry Williams

Dear Brother Hammer:

The black nation is in a state of chaos. According to the Sentencing Project, oneout of every three black men can expect to see the inside of a prison cell ifcurrent trends continue. The CDC tells us that black men are ten times morelikely to contract HIV/AIDS than white men. Black women are twenty times morelikely to contract AIDS than white women. The leading cause of death for blackmen between the ages of 15 and 34 is homicide. In the computer age, theManhattan Institute tells us that only 48% of all black males in America will earn ahigh school diploma. We are in trouble; real trouble.

There are no shortage of professional race leaders to address these issues. Letme tell you where they fall short. They lack a voice that young people will listento. No young brother sitting in front of a television rolling a blunt is going tosay, “Gee, let me turn on the radio and see what Reverend So and So is talkingabout today.” No, they are going to turn on their favorite mc.

Hip hop artists have a unique power to speak into the lives of young people. Thenext Martin Luther King and the next Malcolm X are not going to show up withBrooks Brothers suits and wing tip shoes. The untapped power in ourcommunities belongs to hip hop artists. That is why it is so disheartening to seepowerful African Americans divert their tremendous potential to save lives to thepettiness of tearing down other blacks.
Brother Hammer, recently you became the victim of such an attack. Sir, youhave nothing to prove to anyone. Don’t allow yourself to be dragged down into apit. There are some people who will say mean things just to extract a negativereaction out of you. When they succeed in making you frown, their day is made.Turn your back to them.

God gave you a gift that caused hip hop to explode on the face of the earth. Ifthere had been no MC Hammer, a lot of rappers would still be serving crack infront of the projects or slinging burgers, if they could get a job at all. You createdan industry. How many people can lay down tonight and before they close theireyes say to themselves, “I changed the world.”

I know that you are from Oakland. Homeboys in the place they call “da Town”are suffering from the reverberating shocks of the Great Recession. Gangwarfare and gun violence are out of control. People are hungry and desperate.They need voices of hope. For so many years, you have owned such a voice.Come back to these streets. Leave the hatred to the haters. Perhaps God’s
greater purpose for your life is that you speak hope in the valleys of the shadowof death and despair. Come home. You name is still quadruple platinum in thesestreets.

My prayers are with you.

Sincerely,

Reverend Harry Louis Williams, II – East Oakland, CA (www.revharrywilliams.com)

World Series 2010: San Francisco Celebrates Giants Game 1 and 2 Wins

Wow. The San Francisco Giants have won the World Series Game 1 and World Series Game 2. The combined score of 20 runs to just 7 for the Texas Rangers would be a blow-out if it were a football score. And while the scene at AT&T Park is electric inside, it was nuclear outside of it, especially on the first day.  Here's the video:



Over at Zennie62.com, this blogger reported:

According to San Francisco Police Officer Greg Shur, the crowd, with the exception of just two arrests, was well-behaved. It was a vastly different and more controlled, yet electric feeling for World Series Game One than for the NLCS or the NLDS before that. The 21st Amendment was packed and orderly, and funny.

There was some guy behind me who yelled like a weird animal. A high pitched KIYYEEEEEEEEE sound. Then there was the man with the "Beat Texas" sign. And there was a lot of beer. It's great to see the businesses around the ballpark pick up so much business from the World Series.

Well, that was true, except that by World Series Game 2, things did get a little ugly. A SFPD Officer keeping an eye on the celebration from his perch on the Muni AT&T Park platform said, in response to the comment that there were just two arrests, laughed sarcastically and said "There were a lot more than that. There was a 70-person fight at the McDonald's (on Brannan, just a block from the ball park), someone lost $4,000 on a set of phony tickets, and Texas Rangers fan got pummeled inside their (pointing at the stadium)."

People Coming Just To Hang Out

There must have been 20,000 people hanging out outside AT&T Park without tickets on the first day, and a good 10,000 the second day.  There was one couple who flew in from Indiana, and two party girls watching the game from a line next to Momo's.  One of them said her favorite celebrity was Brett Favre and also said she would take a text from the Vikings Quarterback - and she said this on video to come on Friday!  

There were a lot of happy people, but it's sad to learn that the environment overall isn't as safe as it was reported to be on the magical World Series Game first day.

World Series Game 2: Giants Beat Rangers Again; Matt Cain, Edgar Renteria, Cody Ross Star

World Series Game 2 from AT&T Park in San Francisco is history as the SF Giants beat the Texas Rangers again with the improbable score of 9 to 0. It was tight for most of the contest until the 8th inning when the Giants exploded, causing the Rangers to leak runs like a cracked dam. The Rangers gave up a whopping seven runs in that one inning.

Overall, the game was won by Giants Pitcher Matt Cain, Shortstop Edgar Renteria, and outfielder Cody Ross, who's stop of a 6th inning base hit that could have caused extra runs made the difference.

But Matt Cain gets the win as he pitched seven and two-third scoreless innings and 21 in the post season according to The MLB Network. Cain can also tip his hat to Giants Shortstop Edgar Renteria.

Renteria's live bat produced the game's first run, as he hit a solo home-run in the fifth inning to push the SF Giants ahead 1 to zero at the time. Then, Renteria drove in another run in the dramatic eight inning. After Edgar's heroics, Ross' play in the sixth inning saved the game.

Texas Rangers movie-in-the-making Outfielder Josh Hamilton hit the ball into the right field in the sixth inning. Cody Ross had a bead on the ball, started to dive for it, realized he was too late, so stopped the balls advance past him with his body.

At the time, Texas Rangers Michael Young was at 2nd base, headed to third, but then say Cody's play on the ball, and remained at second. Had the ball gone beyond Ross, Young would have taken 3rd, and may have even scored. And the next pitch was wild, so if Young was at third, he would have scored. Instead of a 2 - 1 Texas lead, the score remained 1-0 Giants at the time.

Game Three In Texas Is  Pivotal

Now, the scene shits to World Series Game 3 in Arlington, Texas, and the Rangers are placed in a must-win position.  If they drop the first World Series game in DFW Metroplex history to the Giants, San Francisco could win it all in Texas and even sweep the Rangers.  The Giants are just two wins from World Series victory.

Charlie Chaplin Time Travel Outdoes World Series Game 2 Online

The World Series Game 2 is history and the San Francisco Giants clobbered the Texas Rangers 9 to 0, getting two games up in the best-of-seven series for the baseball championship. But would you believe that online, the MLB Championship is being out-searched by Charlie Chaplin and the matter of time travel?

Yes.

Take a look at this video called Charlie Chaplin Time Travel:



It claims to show, enhanced, the image of a woman walking and using a cell phone in 1928. The movie was taken at the premiere of Charlie Chaplin’s movie The Circus in 1928. It's in front of Graumann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Is it a hoax?

There are many people trying to figure out the video and others saying it's proof that time travel is possible and there are time travelers.  Others say she's not really there and it's a hoax, pointing to her shadow detail in the film.

But this blogger has another take: maybe the woman was talking to herself. In other words, perhaps she's not all there and that's something she does - talking into inanimate objects as if she was talking to someone else.

If so, at least she was ahead of her time, in a way.

World Series 2010: San Francisco Celebrates Giants Game One Win

The World Series 2010 is underway and and last night started off with a bang for the San Francisco Giants. The underdog SF Giants beat the favored Texas Rangers 11 to 7, and the San Francisco fans at the many bars and restaurants around AT&T Park went nuts.

This blogger skipped buying a ticket for the fun of going around from bar to bar and making the video blog above. The trip started at Momo's, then went to Tres Agave, then past Ironside, and finally wound up at a lively 21st Amendment.

According to San Francisco Police Officer Greg Shur, the crowd, with the exception of just two arrests, was well-behaved. It was a vastly different and more controlled, yet electric feeling for World Series Game One than for the NLCS or the NLDS before that. The 21st Amendment was packed and orderly, and funny.

There was some guy behind me who yelled like a weird animal. A high pitched KIYYEEEEEEEEE sound. Then there was the man with the "Beat Texas" sign. And there was a lot of beer. It's great to see the businesses around the ballpark pick up so much business from the World Series.

And that was just for game one!

President Obama Stops By The Daily Show

President Barack Obama stopped by The Daily Show to have an interview with Jon Stewart. This is worthy of recognition, because it is not likely for a president to go on The Daily Show while in office. No other president while in office has been on the show.

This was the first time that the entire show only had one guest, but Obama is definitely worthy of having his own special show. It is really something that he was willing to go on that show while in office, because it isn't something that people would expect. The Daily Show and Colbert Report are becoming more and more accepted as credible places to take in the news - and some people only get their news from watching those satirical shows.

Obama told Stewart, "Jon, I love your show, but this is something where I have a profound disagreement with you...this notion that health care was timid."

Stewart made some suggestions that in regards to health reform Obama's legislative was timid at time.

Stewart calls Obama his most interesting guest ever. It was great that the entire half hour was dedicated to the single interview with President Obama - and that does show that The Daily Show really is more than just a show to make fun of politics and other news outlets.

The video has not yet been posted online, but hopefully there will be a re-run for those who missed it on Comedy Central, Wednesday, October 27, 2010 at 11 pm et.

Nissan Recalls 2.1 Million Vehicles

Nissan Motor Company has announced a recall that affects vehicles produced from August 2003-July 2006.  Included are popular models such as the March, Mycra and Cube, but over a dozen other models are on the list of recalled vehicles.

Image via Wikipedia

This is Nissan's third largest recall, and is close in numbers to one of the devastating recalls Toyota had earlier this year.  However, unlike Toyota's brake issues; which raised a fair amount of safety fears, the problem Nissan is having has not caused any accidents and is far less dangerous.

The defect that was discovered has to do with a part called the relay, which is a part of the ignition-system. This can sometimes cause a stall in the engine, and in the most extreme cases, the car will not start.

These cars were built in the U.S., Great Britain, Japan, Spain, Taiwan and China.

Image via Wikipedia

World Locations of Nissan Factories

Nissan's announcement was made only days after other recall lists were released by Toyota and Honda.  They have yet to release a complete list of affected vehicles.

Notre Dame Student Dies After Tower Falls

Photo taken from his Facebook

College News has reported Declan Sullivan, student at  the University of Notre Dame, died when a tower he was standing on collapsed from strong wind.

CNN writes that the 20-year-old junior from Long Grove, Illinois was filming football practice on Wednesday, October 27, 2010 when the hydraulic scissor lift he was standing on fell over.

College president, Reverend John Jenkins, tells CNN that there will be a Mass today, Thursday, October 28, 2010 in memory of Sullivan which he plans to preside over. It will begin at 10 p.m.

The Associated Press has posted a video on YouTube which includes more information. The winds are said to have been blowing at over 50 mph.

President Obama w/ Jon Stewart: He needs to do that More often..

Last night President Obama appeared for a full half hour on the Daily Showwhere he verbally jousted with host Jon Stewart and pretty much defended the record of his administration. For many who watched the show, Obama directly engaging a significant part of his base had been a long time coming. There were remnants of the hopeful feelings that so many experienced in 2008 during his historic campaign and for many that was a good thing.

It was good to hear President Obama being cheered and not jeered. It was good to see him have a conversation with a host like Stewart who resonates with a lot of the voting public who for the most part feel they been left out of the conversation. Stewart articulated a number of concerns that his audience had ranging from the issues of healthcare to how and why Obama and his administration went from ‘Hope and Change‘ to ‘Please Baby Gimme One More Chance‘ and he did it in away that was both funny but right on point. You can peep the Jon Stewart episode HERE:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/wed-october-27-2010-barack-obama

Pres Obama directly engaging many within his young,left leaning base via Jon Stewart needs to happen more often

With that being said, its hard to gauge if that will translate to votes in the 11th hour. Not sure if it’s too little too late. What needs to be underscored is the array of issues Obama’s appearance on the Daily Show brings up that go beyond the 2010 midterm elections. For starters, the hoopla around Obama coming on the Daily Show because it was the ‘first time in history‘ is not something to hang your hat on and beat your chest. It suggests that there’s been a serious neglect of the political relationship and continued courtship that was needed for the millions of young and first time voters who enthusiastically voted for him in ’08. Since he’s been president, we’ve seen Obama on all the morning network news show several times. We’ve seen him on shows like 60 Minutes. We’ve seen him go before the GOP House issues conference. We’ve even seen him on Fox News‘ Bret Baier where in many people’s minds he was disrespected both as a man and as president. This had not gone unnoticed by those who supported him. It made the man who came across as a smart, decisive hero to many, seem weak. Jon Stewart said it best, Obama has been ‘timid’.

President Obama more than most politicians clearly understands the importance of effective communicating. During his campaign he was everywhere. He was on the Steve Harvey radio show every week. He was on the Tom Joyner show. He sat down with MTV. He sat down with Jon Stewart. More importantly he was showing up on college campuses and large numbers of people on the campuses worked on his campaign. After the ’08 election all that seemed to disappear. Obama was a strong presence in those enclaves and quite frankly he needed to be. We needed to hear or see him those arenas articulating his position on policies, laying down challenges and marching orders and sharing his frustrations. We needed to hear him defending his policies and defending himself. We needed him to remind folks that they too needed to help with the heavy lifting and lay out some practical ways in which this could happen.

Have the millions of young voters who rode for Obama in 08 been effectively engaged? Many Democrats have been dismissive to the point of arrogance in how they should best be reached. The Obama voter in '08 is not necessarily a staunch Democratic voter in 2010

Now over the past year when I’ve had this conversation with people who are in Democratic circles it became clear there’s a huge disconnect. There’s a disconnect in many of them understanding that there were a lot of Barack Obama fans/voters who weren’t necessarily down for their local congressman, senator, mayor or whoever else was running even if they have a letter ‘D’ after their name. That’s been a hard pill for many to swallow and one that’s often met with defensive posturing that means absolutely nothing when we’ve had important races for mayoral and senate races all round the country with super low turnouts. from New York to Atlanta to Houston we’ve seen 20-26% come out and the wholesale absences of the throngs of new and first time voters who came out riding for Obama in 08. Where did they disappear to? Why did they not come out?

The excuses given are often drawn from the proverbial political consultant handbook which reads; We always have low turnout during elections where the president isn’t on the ticket. That excuse is usually accompanied by the often arrogantly stated ; “Well these young voters are lazy. They need to read the NY Times and Newsweek or watch CNN like I do if they wish to stay informed” Wrong answer folks. The response should’ve been: Lets figure out ways to better reach folks consistently through the mediums they enjoy.

In 2010 where folks tend to attach themselves to small or niche ‘information’ and ‘entertainment’ watering holes, to be dismissive of that fact and basically tell folks to ‘buck up’ as Vice President Joe Biden did the other day is why Dems are in trouble all over the country. It seems like some in leadership have forgotten that people are who they are and anyone who feels that a particular segment of the population can bring votes to the table needs to get up and meet them where they’re at. If they’re at NASCAR, church, concert or plopped on their couch watching the Daily Show, then innovative compelling ways need to be used to reach that audience. Every other business does that so why not the Democrats?

President Obama‘s appearance with Jon Stewart was a reminder that in 2010 it’s not enough to simply show up at the 11th hour trolling for votes. It’s about having an ongoing dialogue and relationship one that’s in place before, during and after an election cycle. This is branding 101. It’s pretty basic and like it or not we now live in a society where enhancing your presence in the minds of consumers and in this case voters is paramount. As Jay-Z famously said ‘I’m a business man, I’m a BUSINESS, man. So in short, yes, I can read about politics in the NY Times orWashington Post ? Sure I can ‘go on line and read about issues of the day at any number of sites. All the information we want is at the tip of our fingertips. However, for those who are truly in touch with their audiences the information is too much. It can be overwhelming and so direct engagement is even more important. If it was that simple and practical as surfing the web and coming away feeling empowered and connected then the topic of political engagement wouldn’t be topic. If it was that practical President Obama would not have found it necessary to go on the Jon Stewart Daily Show.

Sports writer Dave Zirin has long managed to keep folks politically engaged by connecting the dots to issues on the sports arena

Again the bottom line is everything is political including how we choose to engage folks especially on the electoral. Some like their news, views and politics in the backdrop of other things, in this case of Stewart, comedy and entertainment. Others like it served with sports as the backdrop… ala Dave Zirin and his Edge of Sports column or any number of sports stations that also carry shows like Rush Limbaugh or Bill O’Reilly.. Still others like it in gender based chat fests like the View. Lets hope folks step up their interaction game beyond the 2010 midterm elections.

Lastly, for those on the receiving end of information, its important to note that the end game for many in power is to keep you dis-empowered, uninformed, distracted and politically in the dark. This is done to keep folks from being wise to their games, susceptible to lies, doublespeak and blatant falsehoods. In other words politics is often slimy and many who do dirt don’t want an informed public to hold them accountable. The fact that corporate interests have such a strong hold in the political arena should be wake up call to all of us as we see the ways in which things play out.

It’s no accident that your local urban radio station which was calling its ‘The Obama’ station in ’08 hasn’t created a forum or show or even had a single discussion on important issues impacting your day to day lives. It’s no accident that some outlets decided to to have last minute voter registration drives only after money was spent on ads, not because they saw it as a service to the community. It’s no accident that we are hearing more about the shenanigans of actor Charlie Sheen in 5-10 minute chunks on the evening news and not who is running for mayor, city council or District Attorney in your own backyard. Commercial media is part of the corporate wave infusing itself with politics and as a result they as business have it in their interests to keep sizeable populations dumb downed so they be that pimped and exploited.

It’s also no accident that many politicians will avoid hard hitting investigative news shows like a Democracy Now orRachel Maddow for fear of being jammed up and made to address questions they’ve skirted..So yes, on many levels its up to each of us to keep ourselves informed and at the same time we will have to push and insist that folks who want your support come to where your at and not just during election time.

something to ponder

-Davey D-

PS on a side note.. if you wish to find out about all the key elections in your state, city and neighborhood, here’s the link to an incredible voting guide. It breaks down all the races and includes all the candidates, not just Republicans and Democrats. They have the folks who are running under the Green Party, Peace and Freedom and many others. This is a great resource.. hope you find it useful http://www.votesmart.org/voteeasy/