Here are a few things to keep in mind to make sure you successfully cast your vote, and to help others do the same.

Be Prepared, and Conquer the Lines.

We can’t let long lines stop anyone from voting. There are several ways you can reduce lines and make sure they don’t prevent you or anyone else from voting:

Vote early if you can.
You can find early voting times and locations at govote.org.

Double-check your polling location before you go to vote.
You can look it up at govote.org.

Have a Plan & Have Fun.
Have a plan in case there are lines. Bring some food, drinks, friends, books, games, a chair — anything that will prevent you and other voters from walking away. Have fun while you wait and encourage your friends and neighbors to stay in line so their vote is counted.
Don’t give up–don’t walk away without voting.

Two numbers you should have in your phone.

Put these numbers in your phone so you’re prepared to report problems and help other voters find their polling place:

866-OUR-VOTE
It’s a hotline that’s been set up to collect information about problems on election day–lawyers and election protection advocates are ready to respond. It’s the best way to make sure someone addresses any problems you see.

The number for your local election board
Have it in case you need to tell someone where they can vote. Enter your zip code at govote.org, then look for “Contact [your county] election officials” on the right.

Beware of lies, misinformation and dirty tricks; spread the truth.

Republican operatives are spreading plain lies to frighten new voters. In Philadelphia, anonymous flyers in Black neighborhoods have falsely claimed that voters with unpaid traffic tickets or outstanding warrants will be arrested at the polls. If you hear a scary rumor, it’s probably a lie. Call your local election officials to check it out–and make sure your friends and neighbors know the truth.

Leave the Obama gear at home.

In some places, you won’t be allowed into the polling place if you’re wearing clothes and pins that support a given candidate. This isn’t true everywhere, but it’s best to play it safe. You can contact your local board of elections to find out if it’s a problem in your area. If it is, bring some extra plain T-shirts or sweaters to loan neighbors who show up unaware of the rule.

Read the ballot carefully, and ask questions!

Some ballots can be confusing even for smart and informed voters. Read instructions on the ballot carefully, and if you’re not sure you understand something, ask a poll worker to explain. Remember what happened in 2000 in Florida–a confusing ballot caused thousands of people to mistakenly vote for the wrong Presidential candidate. Don’t let that happen to you!

ColorOfChange.org

Highlights:

Tavis: When you think of Dr. King now and having lost him 40 years ago - let me ask it a different way. How often do you think of him in your work now, 35 years later, and what do you think?

Edelman:  …He would be very pleased to see that we’ve got a possibility of a Black president of the United States and all the Black middle class folk and all the folk who are sitting up in Fortune 500s and in the cabinet. But he would not be pleased to see all the poor children and the big bottom that has grown in America, and the fact that we’ve got the largest gap between rich and poor we’ve ever had since we began to keep this data.

And he warned us about buying into the valleys of a burning house. And he would not be pleased that a lot of folk who are presiding over the policies that are hurting Black and poor people and that are militaristic are Black folk and we threw out our spiritual baby in the bathwater of American materialism…

Tavis:  …what do you make of these prima fascia comparisons between Obama and King and the t-shirts and the hats and all that? What do you make of that in this moment?

Edelman: Well, I think we’re all standing on Dr. King’s shoulders, okay? And I think that I try to take these as an affirmation that there was a great prophet that came and set the stage for all of us, that some parts of his dreams are being fulfilled. And I think that he would be very proud of Barack Obama.

Now the issue is, how do we build the citizens, though? Because a President Obama or a President McCain - none of these are going to be able to do what we need to have done in our country in resetting our moral compass and in resetting our priorities without a citizen’s movement and without accountability, so that our job is not only get out and vote and make sure that we get the best person who we could get out of our choices today, but then we’ve got to make sure that we put forth Dr. King’s dream, which is ending poverty in America..

See entire interview here.

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.

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The federal appeals court in Atlanta on Friday halted Troy Anthony Davis’ execution, the third time his life has been spared shortly before he was to be put to death.

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Resist AFRICOM Rally and PROTEST
at the International Peace Operations Association (IPOA) Conference
October 27, 2008 4:30-8:00pm Rally will begin at 4:30 at Taft Memorial Park (C St. NW and Louisiana NW) We will then march to protest outside the Liason Hotel on Capitol Hill
415 New Jersey Ave NW, Washington, DC 20001

Any attendees, please holla back and give us a report!!

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A 25-year fight to bring Jon Burge and police who systematically tortured black men to justice makes a critical breakthrough.

At the head of Chicago’s police torture ring was Jon Burge, a decorated Vietnam veteran who once made his name for himself as a young cop on the beat on the South Side of Chicago. As Police Commander, first at Area Three on Chicago’s North side and then at Area Two on the South, Burge is said to have instituted some of the same techniques he saw deployed in Vietnam, to brutal effect.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Blacks are already surging to the polls in parts of the South, according to initial figures from states that encourage early voting — a striking though still preliminary sign of how strongly they will turn out nationwide for Barack Obama in his campaign to become the first African-American president.

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Partisan considerations still appear to be contributing to the Department of Justice’s actions when it comes to enforcing the nation’s voting rights laws. With Election Day less than two weeks away, proponents of more tightly regulating the voting process — this time led by congressional Republicans — have gotten their desired response from the

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Former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., for president on Sunday, criticizing his own Republican Party for what he called its narrow focus on irrelevant personal attacks over a serious approach to challenges he called unprecedented.

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DETROIT – Four Tops frontman Levi Stubbs, whose dynamic and emotive voice drove such Motown classics as “Reach Out (I’ll Be There)” and “Baby I Need Your Loving,” died Friday at 72.

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The Republicans tried to make fun of Barack Obama as a community organizer at their national convention in Minnesota, which I guess just goes to show how little Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have to fear from right-wing “humor.”

Now they’ve gone further: Now they’re attacking ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), one of the strongest, hardest-working, most dedicated community organizations in both Chicago and in 40 states across the U.S.

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An impassioned speech on racial politics from last week’s New Yorker festival.

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The hotel that once was the pride of the Black community and resting spot for jazz greats is now in decay as it houses low-income tenants. Its future is riddled with uncertainty.

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The U.S. Supreme Court rejected more than 2,000 pending appeals Monday, including a request to grant a new trial for former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer 27 years ago.

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