first you primary then you what?

If you managed to make early voting yesterday (like I did right before the polls closed) it probably entailed some form of line standing and waiting. This little man started checking our ID's and talking about the CAUCUS. He walked away and literally every person he talked to looked around at each other like, "say WHAT?" Then one chick finally said, "You go, it's after the primary, but I don't know what you do there." Come on Texas, we're better than this! At dance practice no one there knew what I was talking about either. So I said I'd look it up. I'll do my best, holla at me if you know something I don't you politically active ones (Enchanshizzy).
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First of all, primaries really count. Y'all wanna stomp around talking about "your vote doesn't count," well here's your chance. If you've been registered at least a month, you're able to vote in the TX primary in your precinct on March 4th. If your supporting McCain you can probably sit at home (although I full support people Rocking the Vote whenever possible) because his bid is pretty much a done deal. But if you're looking at a Democratic candidate, your vote can make help make a statement. Both candidates are counting on Texas and Ohio to "prove" their viability as a presidential candidate. Polls from 02/28 show Clinton and Obama statistically tied - so get out there.

Texas Democrats specifically have a notoriously complicated system called the "Texas Two-Step" with a primary AND a caucus when most states have either one or the other. The Houston Chronicle has a good article about the logistics but basically you vote in the primary (if you haven't done so earlier) during the day (7AM - 7PM, google your voting location) and then show up for the Democratic Caucus that night (starting about 7:15 PM). You HAVE to vote in the primary to vote in the caucus.

At the caucus you walk in, sign up for your candidate of choice (not a secret ballot), and then stick around to help select the delegates or move around if you have other things to do. The number of people who show up at the caucus and sign in for their candidate determines how many delegates each candidate is assigned for that precinct. And delegates is what really counts. The twist is that there are 35 superdelegates in Texas who are able to vote however they wish.

So, in theory, a candidate could win in the primary with the popular vote and lose in the caucus with delegates. Hmm... haven't we see this movie before? The Chronicle article has a quote about how problematic it is that people don't understand the process and yet our state counts for so much

Point of the story: First you primary, then you caucus.

Obama-crazy!

will.i.am and co turned out another video in support of Obama. How's that for timing? Meanwhile Hillary is playing on fears which isn't nearly as cool. It's just as powerful as "Yes We Can" but at a certain point it's almost cult-like. Yeah, I said it. "He's almost like a revival for some people's souls?!" Whoah there. What is it about this guy that makes people turn out in such a fierce fashion? The Clinton camp is probably asking the same thing. It's chilling to watch though and certainly makes me feel inspired. Mission accomplished? I hope our generation can stay this galvanized - no matter what happens - we're going to need that energy to get out of the mess we're in. I also hope that when I'm older my guns will be as big as Regina King's. Wow is that woman in shape. Kerry Washington meanwhile is still apparently trying to figure out what a president does in general. She kinda missed the insightful mark. :/




Gnarls Barkley is back doing the whole retro thing that's hot right now. I fully support this!

GBR
Uploaded by minimp3center

Also, this preview for "The Love Guru" popped up because of Justin Timberlake at the end but I'm interested to see how this Austin Powers 4 cover plays out in reviews...I laughed at their handshake, can't even lie.





Finally, check out this "Oddly Enough" story that my gmail showed me. Wow:

Pregnant woman uses train toilet, baby slips out

you know my purpose isn't purpose

Good morning! So I was trying to think of a purpose, a mantra, a goal, etc. for this spot and came up short. It can't just be music links because that's done to an exhausting extent already and I'd just be ripping links anyway. Plus, the RIAA is not playing. Or I could make it just celebrity gossip in the way of Concreteloop or Crunk and Disorderly -- but be serious, I don't have that kind of time or humor on my hands. Maybe strange news? Been done. It's gotta be me without being anybody else but while still being a little bit of everybody else. Hopefully my friends will drop by and be clued in to whats going on in the world around them and if I make a few more people aware of something relevant then my job is done. I can already see this is going to be a distraction but what the hey I'm off of Facebook until Easter.



Speaking of free time this was posted to Kanye's blog this morning. Impressive.



Moving on the morning paper brought good news for Kenya. For those not aware there has been crazy turmoil over there and it sounded like they were going towards this completely divided nation based on heritage. I read horrific accounts of people being run out of their towns (where they'd been born and raised) and across the country because of their ethnic background. Even crazier they were run out by friends and neighbors who'd they been playing futbol with just the week before! It'd be like my girls coming to kill me if I didn't go back to Louisiana despite never living there just because that's where my family landed first. There was this mass movement across all of Kenya with reports of people strapping their mattresses on top of their cars and grabbing what they could and going back to "their" land. Of course this all stemmed from corrupt elections and it seems that now the 2 opposing leaders are working out some deal to share power. I really respect what they're trying to do despite the fact that the whole "go hold hands in the corner" approach never really works. But you have to commend them on at least really trying for a solution. Kenya has a contemporary reputation as being relatively less screwed as a third world country and there were fears that this was going to set them back as much as 50 years. Which is major no matter where you are in the world.

Right now everyone is gearing up for the Texas primary in these parts. I was supposed to early vote today but it's scholarship application season so who knows if I'll get around to it. I still have all day Saturday :). I go back and forth with my choice anyway. It's hard to decide because as we've seen in the (recent) past, you never know how much someone can screw up the the nation until they get in. A lot of people have been blasting Hillary though. Early polls in Texas show that if she's going to win it wouldn't be by a margin even close to what she needs. I think it's interesting that public opinion either embraces Hillary or HATES her whereas with Obama they either WORSHIP him or kinda like him. That uniting factor will really matter in November. I'd kind of like Hillary to stay in the game regardless just to keep Obama on his toes and make the game a little bit more interesting. But the other side of that is that if she drops Edwards-style it'll help unite the party to make it (even more) unstoppable when it's time for the big election.

I got to get back to scholarships (shout out to No. 1 for all the help) so we'll wrap it up with "Dancing in the Rain" by Blu & Exile (get familiar!) which just dropped.



Blu - Dancing in the Rain
by itsshake



And as a bonus, Estelle's "American Boy" featuring 'Ye which isn't in rotation yet but SHOULD be soon!

blurred lines

The whole blogging thing seems silly to me. You'd think it wouldn't matter what a single person thought but en masse it's apparently this amazing, powerful, grass-roots-of-the-21st-century movement. So I'll give it a shot, I got a knack for finding things that others would normally miss out on. It's the information age and right now some of the most salient information is coming from the ground up. For instance, Talkingpointsmemo.com just got the George Polk Award and it's the only Internet-only news operation to win the thing which is apparently a big deal. (Get familiar)

My point being that if I'm subscribing to dozens of blogs via Google Reader I might as well throw some of my thoughts out there in cyberspace and see what bites. I'm by no means trying to be the next Amanda Diva in the way of internet personality but hey let's just rock and roll together and see what happens.

Erykah touched on this blurring of the lines (albeit not between news and consumers) on Def Poetry. We'll jump off with that and I'll post more as the spirit moves me.