Voting Day Info

So when I intially read the report on Brian White's blog, I figured it was just a hoax or something of the sort. But when I got email's from close friends and affilates I figured I would pass the word along. Here it is;

So when you go out to the polls on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 DO NOT wear any political buttons, hats, T-shirts and anything else promoting any candidate (presidential, local & state) or any political party. This is extremely important because they can and will LEGALLY turn you away from the polls and you WILL NOT be eligible to vote until you have shed the attire or accessories. And of course with all of the excitement surrounding Senator Obama, I can easily see why this can and will be an excuse to turn younger & less experienced voters away. Yes we're all excited, but please dress just as normal as you would on any other day.Do your part and forward this email to as many people as possible so that there's no mix ups because every single vote counts. Spread the word people!

Who's To Blame?

By CHARLES BABBINGTON, Associated Press Writer

Since the nation's birth, Americans have discussed race and avoided it, organized neighborhoods and political movements around it, and used it to divide and hurt people even as relations have improved dramatically since the days of slavery, Reconstruction and legal segregation.

Now, in what could be a historic year for a black presidential candidate, a new Associated Press-Yahoo! News poll, conducted with Stanford University, shows just how wide a gap remains between whites and blacks.

It shows that a substantial portion of white Americans still harbor negative feelings toward blacks. It shows that blacks and whites disagree tremendously on how much racial prejudice exists, whose fault it is and how much influence blacks have in politics.

One result is that Barack Obama's path to the presidency is steeper than it would be if he were white.

Until now, social scientists have not closely examined racial sentiments on a nationwide scale at a moment when race is central to choosing the next president. The poll, which featured a large sample of Americans — more than 2,200 — and sophisticated survey techniques rarely used in media surveys, reflected the complexity, change and occasional contradictions of race relations.
More whites apply positive attributes to blacks than negative ones, and blacks are even more generous in their descriptions of whites. Racial prejudice is lower among college-educated whites living outside the South. And many whites who think most blacks are somewhat lazy, violent or boastful are willing or even eager to vote for Obama over Republican John McCain, who is white.
The poll, however, shows that blacks and whites see racial discrimination in starkly different terms. When asked "how much discrimination against blacks" exists, 10 percent of whites said "a lot" and 45 percent said "some."

Among blacks, 57 percent said "a lot" and all but a fraction of the rest said "some."
Asked how much of America's existing racial tension is created by blacks, more than one-third of white respondents said "most" or "all," and 9 percent said "not much." Only 3 percent of blacks said "most" or "all," while half said "not much at all."

Nearly three-fourths of blacks said white people have too much influence in American politics. Only 12 percent of whites agreed. Almost three times as many blacks as whites said blacks have too little influence.

Far more blacks than whites say government officials "usually pay less attention to a request or complaint from a black person than a white person."

One in five whites have felt admiration for blacks "very" or "extremely" often. Seventy percent of blacks have felt the same about whites.

The poll may surprise those who thought Obama's appeal to young voters proves Americans in their 20s and 30s are clearly less racially biased than their parents. The survey found no meaningful differences among age groups in whites' perceptions of blacks, although older whites appear more likely to discuss their views.

Some findings fall into the glass half-empty or half-full category. One-fourth of white Democrats ascribed at least two negative attributes to blacks. But two-thirds of those Democrats said they will vote for Obama.

That finding alone could nourish a debate about how much harm is done by racial prejudices that seem to have modest influence on how people behave.

Kelly Edmondson, 34, of Cincinnati, is a white Democrat enthusiastic about backing Obama. The country needs a new direction, she said, and "I feel like he can reach a lot of people."

She cares for her two sets of young twins during the day and teaches college at night; most of her students are black. In the survey, Edmondson said positive words such as "hardworking" and "intelligent" describe most blacks "very well." She said a few negative traits, such as "lazy" and "irresponsible," apply "somewhat well" to most blacks.

In a telephone interview, Edmondson said those attributes apply equally to all races. She fretted that some of her fellow Ohioans might be less candid, privately planning to vote for McCain when they publicly say they are "on the fence."

"I worry about that," she said.

Polls consistently show Obama running about even with McCain, or leading by a notably smaller margin than the one Democrats enjoy over Republicans in most generic surveys about which party is best suited to govern.

The AP-Yahoo News poll suggests that racial prejudice could cost Obama up to 6 percentage points this fall. That's a big hurdle in a nation whose last two presidential elections were decided by much smaller margins.

Charles Crozier, 73, of Marietta, Ga., said he is a "quasi-independent" Democrat who is undecided on the presidential contest. He likes McCain on energy issues, including his call for more nuclear energy. But he prefers Obama's stands on economic issues.

Crozier, who is white, said race is not a factor in his thinking. He said he's not sure "how much of an issue it is for (other) people" in his community. It frustrates him to hear people incorrectly state that Obama (who is Christian) is a Muslim because they read it on the Internet.
"I'm old enough to know a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth," Crozier said. "You can't change their minds."

Racial progress in America is undeniable on many fronts. But millions of white and black Americans still barely interact at all, bringing the very term "race relations" into question.
"There's still a lot of estrangement out there" between the races, said David Bositis, who writes about racial matters at the Washington-based Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

"There's still an enormous amount of segregation."

Even with sophisticated polls, it's hard to measure the progress, or lack of progress, in race relations.

"The prior forms of racism, with hindsight, were relatively easy to deal with," said Kenneth O'Reilly, who has written books on racial politics and now teaches history at Milwaukee Area Technical College. He cited slavery, lynchings and legal and de facto segregation.

Now, he said, racial prejudices and grievances are more subtle. "If you ask 100 people what is the main color line problem today," he said, "you get 100 answers."

The AP-Yahoo News poll of 2,227 adults was conducted Aug. 27-Sept. 5, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points. It was designed to plumb people's racial attitudes, and particularly how those attitudes affect voting.

The survey used the unique methodology of Knowledge Networks, of Menlo Park, Calif., including questions about how well words like "friendly" or "violent" describe blacks; having respondents type sensitive answers into computers, which tends to make them more honest; and using brief flashes of faces of people of different races to detect that people may not be aware they have.

Stanford University political scientist Paul Sniderman said that in today's society, racial prejudice "is a deep challenge, and it's one that Americans in general, and for that matter, political scientists, just haven't been ready to acknowledge fully."

For minority candidates such as Obama, he said, "there's a penalty for prejudice, and it's not trivial." If the presidential contest remains close, he said, racial prejudice "might be enough to tip the election."

New and Improved

A Solobeatz Production is growing and becoming even better than ever. Because of the new look and switch we are making to expand, the Webcast will be on hold for a week or so. The newsletter, however, will be on time.

Our Webcast has been spotted by Vallejo Community Access Television (http://www.vcat.tv/) and will be offering equipment to perfect our show with professional equipment. In any event, our production will be on hold till all is set in stone.

Thanks for your continued support and love.
Jonny B. Mitchell.

ASP Webcast 12

Teardrop

Love is a verb
Love is a doing word
Feathers on my breath
Gentle impulsion
Shakes me makes me lighter
Fearless on my breath

Teardrop on the fire
Fearless on my breath

In the night of matter
Black flowers blossom
Fearless on my breath
Black flowers blossom
Fearless on my breath

Teardrop on the fire
Fearless on my breath

Water is my eye
Most faithful my love
Fearless on my breath
Teardrop on the fire of a confession
Fearless on my breath
Most faithful my love
Fearless on my breath

Teardrop on the fire
Fearless on my breath

Love, Lust & Lies, Baby

Dear Hearts, we run into yet another crisis with our lovely's out there.

How do you react when your man tells you that he wants to be a stripper or maybe even a porn star? Is this any different if he told you that he wanted to practice Voodoo, or if he wanted to go and buy a casino in the middle of Alaska with all the money you saved over the years? What is the appropriate response to this issue?

I feel that if my man was to tell me that he wanted to be a stripper on top of his 9-5 job, we would have a problem. When would we have time for each other? If he wanted to do just stripping, I would have to feel some type of way about that. Now, I don't look down on strippers, escorts or "massage therapist", because I've done a share of things in my life, and because of THAT is where my fear arises. Since I know the game and what happens in it, I wouldn't be able to sit comfortably around our house knowing what my man is doing. (And please stop focusing on my past life and attend to the issue at hand, thank you.)

Now, this porn star thing? Not even up for discussion. Whether its legal or not, whether it's contracted or not, having sexual intercourse OUTSIDE of the relationship is cheating (please see blog entitled "Trust or No Trust"). Even worse, its premeditated cheating...with benefits. If I wanted the world to see my man fuck (or get fucked) by other men and/or women, I would actually DATE a porn star. So my stance here is, if he can't respect that decision then he is NOT the one you need to be spending time with.

What do you think?

Sad Day For Negatives

So, it seems that a lot of people who wanted New Orleans to go under were sadly let down the other day when they saw that Hurricane Gustav totally side-swiped the fabulous city of New Orleans. I suppose what goes around comes around?



I would be worried about the next 3 hurricanes growing; Hanna, Ike and Josephine, if I was one of the people who hoped harm and danger on Louisiana. But that's just me.