Obama Family,
I hope all is well with you. I was asked by the producer of the Emmy Award-winning public affairs show, "IN CONTACT" of WPBA TV-30 to participate in an upcoming segment: New Political Power: In the age of Obama. The program airs at 9am on Sunday mornings on Atlanta's own WPBA TV-30. The half-hour program will take a look at the relevance of such iconic civil rights organizations as the NAACP, the National Urban League and Operation Push as they continue to service marginalized communities in what many are now calling a Post-Civil Rights Era and how to engage our young people are in these activities.I will tape the segment on Monday, May 4th 2009 and will let you know when my program will be televised. About IN CONTACT "IN CONTACT," hosted by veteran journalist and Atlanta Association of Black Journalist member Angela Robinson, delivers lively discussions on a variety of topics that connect and impact the African-American community, including the community's triumphs and challenges. By delivering an African-American perspective and encouraging dialog on timely topics, "IN CONTACT" is unique among Atlanta television programming. REACHBy airing on WPBA Channel 30, "IN CONTACT" has the potential to reach over 1.5 million people in 500,000 homes throughout the Atlanta metropolitan area. The show reaches, on average, 5,000 households each Sunday.Thank you for your support, Preston L. Harden,Georgia's 7th CongressionalDistrict Delegate GO OBAMA!!!!! 2008(404) 376-683You're invited to visit and join our movementwww.prestonlharden.com You're invited to join our group Georgia Young Professionals for Change on My.BarackObama.com:http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/YoungProfessionalsforChange
We are currently organizing to initiate a grassroots organization in Albany to help bring about change. Also, we organizing for the National Day of Service, as President-elect has instructed. National Service Day Project details are forth coming.
After the inauguration, we plan to get in full gear for change in Albany.
POLLS EXTENDED UNTIL 730PM IN TWO PRECINCTS. KEEP CALLING!
As long as you are still in line by 7:30 they must let you vote.
Former GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin will make four campaign stops in Georgia just one day before the state’s voters head to the polls in a runoff election that could determine whether Democrats win unfettered control of Congress.
The campaign of GOP Sen. Saxby Chambliss announced Tuesday morning that Alaska Gov. Palin and Chambliss will hit the campaign trail together on Dec. 1.
“I was thrilled when I got the call that Governor Palin would be able to make the trip to Georgia to campaign with me the day before the runoff election,” Sen. Chambliss stated in a news release. “Julianne and I are honored that she would take the time to travel to Georgia to tell everyone how important this election is, and I know that she will receive an enthusiastic welcome everywhere we go.”
The campaign tells Newsmax that Palin and Chambliss will embark on a clockwise tour through the heart of central Georgia, beginning at 8:30 a.m. in Augusta, with later campaign stops that in Savannah, Perry (near Macon) and concluding with a rally scheduled for 4 p.m. in north Atlanta. Chambliss is hoping a last-minute boost from Palin will build the momentum he needs to win the runoff.
My ELECTION NIGHT STORY!!!!!
I land in Chicago O’Hare, pull out my laptop and link to the Internet for tickets. I searched for 3 hrs without luck. I give up and just go to the site of the event at Grant Park hoping to find someone selling tickets there. I place an ad on Craigslist to share my story of support for Obama hoping someone will see it. Here it is:
______________________________ _____________________________
Obama Volunteer/fellow in 7 states need tickets Came from Cali 2day - $100
Reply to: sale-906105667@craigslist.org [?]
Date: 2008-11-04, 6:56PM CST
Hi
My name is Kadia I just came in from California. My number is 323 855-8207
I have been an active volunteer for the campaign for over a year and have traveled to seven states in the primaries on my own to volunteer and was a fellow in Ga. for Obama.
Just came from Nevada this past week and I really would like to see him give his speech. Please let me know. I am here at the Starbucks on Jackson and Wabash.
Please give me a chance to see Obama. People from all over the country have volunteered but these tix were only offered to people of Illinois. I am here all the way from Cali. Please help me see this event.
Well someone saw it and she called me. Her name is Kate. She is a resident from Chicago but she lived in San Francisco before. Her husband was a McCain supporter but she wanted to attend the event. She called me and offered me the ticket at about 6:30 pm. I started to cry. I couldn't believe she found me. I was floored and I was so grateful to her.
Together we headed to the event and together we shared that moment in history. We hugged each other and cried when Obama captured enough electoral votes. We took pictures and we stayed together until the park was literally empty so that we could take pictures by the stage that Obama stood on while he gave his speech.
Kate is White and I am Black. We shared an historical turning point in America together and our presence there in Grant Park, under enormous odds, was very symbolic of what this nation now represents. I will never forget Kate and I am sure she will always remember me.
It was a wonderful night filled with peace and love. It was truly memorable.
Kadijah Moss
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1103/p09s02-coop.html
Charlotte, N.C. - There has been a lot of speculation that Barack Obama might win the election due to his better "ground game" and superior campaign organization.
I had the chance to view that organization up close this month when I canvassed for him. I'm not sure I learned much about his chances, but I learned a lot about myself and about this election.
Let me make it clear: I'm pretty conservative. I grew up in the suburbs. I voted for George H.W. Bush twice, and his son once. I was disappointed when Bill Clinton won, and disappointed he couldn't run again.
I encouraged my son to join the military. I was proud of him in Afghanistan, and happy when he came home, and angry when he was recalled because of the invasion of Iraq. I'm white, 55, I live in the South and I'm definitely going to get a bigger tax bill if Obama wins.
I am the dreaded swing voter.
So you can imagine my surprise when my wife suggested we spend a Saturday morning canvassing for Obama. I have never canvassed for any candidate. But I did, of course, what most middle-aged married men do: what I was told.
At the Obama headquarters, we stood in a group to receive our instructions. I wasn't the oldest, but close, and the youngest was maybe in high school. I watched a campaign organizer match up a young black man who looked to be college age with a white guy about my age to canvas together. It should not have been a big thing, but the beauty of the image did not escape me.
Instead of walking the tree-lined streets near our home, my wife and I were instructed to canvass a housing project. A middle-aged white couple with clipboards could not look more out of place in this predominantly black neighborhood.
We knocked on doors and voices from behind carefully locked doors shouted, "Who is it?"
"We're from the Obama campaign," we'd answer. And just like that doors opened and folks with wide smiles came out on the porch to talk.
Grandmothers kept one hand on their grandchildren and made sure they had all the information they needed for their son or daughter to vote for the first time.
Young people came to the door rubbing sleep from their eyes to find out where they could vote early, to make sure their vote got counted.
We knocked on every door we could find and checked off every name on our list. We did our job, but Obama may not have been the one who got the most out of the day's work.
I learned in just those three hours that this election is not about what we think of as the "big things."
It's not about taxes. I'm pretty sure mine are going to go up no matter who is elected.
It's not about foreign policy. I think we'll figure out a way to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan no matter which party controls the White House, mostly because the people who live there don't want us there anymore.
I don't see either of the candidates as having all the answers.
I've learned that this election is about the heart of America. It's about the young people who are losing hope and the old people who have been forgotten. It's about those who have worked all their lives and never fully realized the promise of America, but see that promise for their grandchildren in Barack Obama. The poor see a chance, when they often have few. I saw hope in the eyes and faces in those doorways.
My wife and I went out last weekend to knock on more doors. But this time, not because it was her idea. I don't know what it's going to do for the Obama campaign, but it's doing a lot for me.
Thanks to everyone who helped make this day a reality!
POWERFUL ATLANTA MUSIC INDUSTRY SUPPORTS
BARACK OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT
Join us for a "once in a lifetime" party to support Barack Obama and encourage others to vote. Lets make history together.
Please forward to family and friends. Savoy Lounge has open it's doors to celebrate 2 important events:
Barack Obama Party on Saturday night November 1st @ 9:00 pm
and a live election result Viewing Party on
Tuesday November 4th @ 8:00 pm.
Lets laugh, cry, and make history!!
Lets Complete Dr. Martin Luther King's Dream"Where people are judged by the content of there character and not the color of their skin.
"PLEASE FORWARD, VERY IMPORTANT TO SHOW UNITY ON THESE LAST DAYS BEFORE VOTING
Directions From Downtown Atlanta:
Travel 75/85 south, take exit 243, Merge 166 West, travel 5 miles. Exit Campbelton Rd, merge right. Savoy is 2997 Campbelton Rd on the right.
Great advice from Eugene Jarecki of the Huffington Post on how to get more involved...
I recommend everyone take a few moments and choose to make a difference in your own sphere of influence.
Regardless of your party affiliation, I am asking everyone to stop a moment and think about the things you love that make this country great. I bet after you think a while, it all boils down to being able to live your live making your own choices and live what we think of as a normal life free of fear for making those choices: whether to be religious and how, having any kind of conversation with anyone, whether or not to own a gun, what kind of job you want, where you want to live, the kind of job or career you have, etc.
Let freedom ring again thoughout our great United States! For the last several years, we have been ruled by an administration that has instilled fear in us in order to rule us, an administration that has degraded the liberties guaranteed in our Constitution. Living in fear is not a free life and is instead a weakening of our great democratic republic. I ask you to contact your representatives and add your voice to mine. Say to them we want freedom, not fear, and demand they act to protect our freedoms. I share the below with you not to inspire fear, but instead to inspire patriotism.
I have recently heard some very disturbing news. On October 1st, what is sometimes called the Bush Brigade (brigade = 3000 - 4000 soldiers) was deployed somewhere inside the United States. this brigade reports directly to the president. In any other administration, I would give this action the benefit of the doubt. But our current president has shown that he has repeatedly been willing to lie to us and take illegal actions. Below is an excerpt from Naomi Wolfe's article on Huffington Post yesterday:
"First, the founding generation set a bright line to keep military from policing our streets in 1807 because they knew from their own experience how easily military forces -- King George's -- could subdue civilian society. The First Brigade is Bush's force: they are not answerable to Congress or to the Governors of states: they are answerable to the Commander in Chief. In an Alternet posting, I interviewed Air Force Colonel (retired) David Antoon who noted that the troops must obey the president, even if he asks them to arrest Congress or fire on civilians or attack media outlets. If they do not obey orders, he notes, they face five years in prison.
We should not have to remind ourselves that these scenarios are unlikely to understand that this power is dangerous. Antoon himself calls the deployment 'ominous.' Troops on our streets makes us something less than a democracy: one definition of a police state is when a leader sends his own military units into civilian streets. Meanwhile the civilian policing of citizens is becoming more brutal. Hundreds of preemptive arrests took place in St Paul, dozens of journalists were arrested."
It is supposed to be illegal for these troops to enforce civil laws, but the president put a signing statement on the law that basically says he's going to ignore that portion of the law (found what I think is a conspiracy site after following a few links in the articles above, but the text quoted is directly from law documents). I'm not saying he has already used these troops, but the potential is there based on his disregard for personal liberties thus far:
"The use of U.S. troops in law enforcment duties is a complete violation of the Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act, which substantially limit the powers of the federal government to use the military for law enforcement unless under precise and extreme circumstances.
Section 1385 of the Posse Comitatus Act states, “Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”
Under the John Warner Defense Authorization Act, signed by President Bush on October 17, 2006, the law was changed to state, “The President may employ the armed forces to restore public order in any State of the United States the President determines hinders the execution of laws or deprives people of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and secured by law or opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.”
However, these changes were repealed in their entirety by HR 4986: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, reverting back to the original state of the Insurrection Act of 1807. Despite this repeal, President Bush attached a signing statement saying that he did not feel bound by the repeal.
The original text of the Insurrection Act severely limits the power of the President to deploy troops within the United States.
For troops to be deployed, a condition has to exist that, '(1) So hinders the execution of the laws of that State, and of the United States within the State, that any part or class of its people is deprived of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and secured by law, and the constituted authorities of that State are unable, fail, or refuse to protect that right, privilege, or immunity, or to give that protection; or (2) opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws. In any situation covered by clause (1), the State shall be considered to have denied the equal protection of the laws secured by the Constitution.'”
Again, I share this information not to cause panic or fear. I have faith in our people and our democracy, and we can choose to make a difference. Please support our lawful government, and contact your representatives.
Georgia County Registrars and Boards of Elections
Contrafalsy: a false controversy created to distract people from the more important issues at hand.
With the smears being laid thicker than usual by the McCain/Palin campaign in recent days, I had to coin a new term for them. And it's something that sadly, the McCain campaign might even proud of... Their VP candidate has become an expert at contrafalsy in record time.
Saw a lovely comment on MSNBC's First Read today that I just had to share:
Tackman San Diego, CA (Sent Tuesday, October 07, 2008 9:50 AM)
I had a wonderful experience today that illustrates what an amazing and effective network Barack has built nationwide.
I got a phone call from a woman in Georgia, asking if I could help her son vote.
Her son is crew on a cruise ship that docks in my town, San Pedro, CA., every week but his absentee ballot from Georgia is at his house there. She couldnt find an address to reach out to him and the company that runs the cruise line was not helpful either.
What did she do? She got on the Obama website and did a zipcode search for an event in San Pedro. She found the phone banks I am running and also my phone number. She called my up and bingo--another vote for Barack, and a new friendship for me. He docks this weekend and like my wife, he is a theater performer, doing Second City shows on the cruise ship.
Fired UP. Ready To GO!!!!!!!
