I posted on the People For the American Way blog about the an awesome project happening at Change.org. Change.org is running a great contest to get ideas for real change and innovation from the public and presenting some of the best ones to the Obama transition team. As we've seen, the Obama transition team is very open to citizen input and as its eye turned toward innovative approaches to current and future challenges. It's encouraging. Here's a great way for YOU to participate.

Click to read more.

Some polling places ran out of ballots. Others had armed police officers present, a violation of state election rules. Some voters endured hours of waiting, in some places as long as eleven hours, and malfunctioning ballot machines, a few which stubbornly voted for the candidate that the voter did not choose. Pollsworkers ran out of ballots or people who weren't registered by a pollworker voted by sneaking into the voting booth through a side door.

Check this out.  The Dayton Daily News reported last week that because Joe "The Plumber" Wurzellbacher's last name is spelled with an "o" not a "u" on the registration rolls, he could have been knocked off the rolls under a policy advocated by the Ohio Republican Party in a suit it had filed in federal court against the Ohio Secretary of State.  The GOP was trying to get the Secretary of State to send to county board of elections "mismatches" - including ones like these -- where the name on the registration is different from the name on DMV or Social Security records.

According to a NY Times investigation, voter rolls have been trimmed in six states-- Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina--as a result of state governments botching compliance with 2002 election leigslation meant to overhaul and streamline the voter registration process.

One of the most surreal experiences of my life was living in Sydney last fall (their spring) when the Prime Minister, the universally despised Gorden Brown, of eleven years was finally voted out of office.

So, I wouldn't normally use the Young People For blog to self-promote, but it's for a good cause: I have a little article in this month's CosmoGIRL! about why Cosmogirls should go blue and become Democrats.

peace without sickness, failure without denial, and democracy without restriction

Hope and change have gained a great footing in not only the 2008 Presidential elections in the US, but also in the communities of Northern Uganda. Peace talk negotiations and a cease-fire in fighting have allowed children to return home, families to rebuild, and communities to begin creating lives without fear from conflict. The conflict in Northern Uganda is often tagged as a "civil war," but largely centers on a rebel group called the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). (Read more here) Thousands displaced, abducted, lost - hundreds killed. The peace talks have been going well and two weeks ago (April 10th) Joseph Kony, leader of the LRA, was supposed to come out of hiding to sign the peace agreement. He did not show up and his spokesperson claimed he had been sick. Sick or afraid? Kony and his top officials are now on the top of the International Criminal Court's arrest list. It seems he may have been sick with fear of being held accountable for his long-running violent resistance.

The 411
The Black Vote
By Mumia Abu-Jamal--SeeingBlack.com Columnist
Feb 28, 2008, 15:24

Here's something you don't see every day: hundreds of students shutting down a highway and marching seven miles to protest how difficult their local elected officials made it for them to vote.

The 2008 election is a hot topic and I really want to know what we, as progressive leaders, are thinking.  What candidate do you support and why?  Please dont write a dissertation,  Just state who you support and give a brief reason why.  What issues are important to us?  Respond!

 I'll start.