69% of Latinas do not vote. Even though we have the highest pregnancy rates and the fastest growing incidences of AIDS in the United States. 70% African American and Asian American registered voting women also abstain from voting.

Pass on this video clip to every single, Black, Latian, Asian, Native US American woman you know and ask them to pass it on to their family friends.

Faced with the prospect of a McCain presidency that would squash any hope of Universal Health Care and would put on the bench Supreme Court Justices that would bring back reproductive slavery, it is absolutely necessary that each and every minority woman and man go out and vote.

From the EngageHer blog :

A reader emails what is likely to be a packed event.

I noticed a sign in the window at the local Barnes & Noble on Court Street this morning. Markos of Daily Kos is going to be there on Thursday, Sept 4, at 7:00 pm. I thought you might want to check it out. Let me know if you plan to go because I'm definitely going.

Markos, obviously, is the founder of Daily Kos, the world's biggest blogging site, currently on tour to promote his newest book, Taking On The System - Rules for Radical Change in a Digital Age.

The book is getting rave reviews, and there are few places more demanding of systemic change than our very own cherished home state, so consider marking your calendar.

For some time I have said that there is a simple difference between Republicans and Democrats (referring, mind you, to party "leaders" and the political consultants):

Republicans assume voters are stupid; Democrats fear this is true.

There it is. Ten words, evenly divided (talk about fair and balanced). That statement seems to me to inform everything the parties do.

Then along comes Barack Obama. He insists that voters are actually smart. He treats voters as intelligent people, who can understand nuance, who can (and want to) dig below the surface, the buzz words, the same old garbage that campaigns have spewed out for decades.

Take his "flip-flop" on offshore drilling. He never switched positions; he's always been against it, and still is. All he said recently was that if it took allowing a little offshore drilling in order to get the real changes that will actually help make us independent of foreign oil, he'll be willing to compromise.

What's the effect?

Imagine, for a moment, a political system in which one party controls the entire area, where nominees are selected by the party committee, and where the "elections" are "free, fair, and honest" but the outcome is predetermined.

Sounds like the Soviet Union? China? Cuba? Perhaps. But I'm talking about most elections right here in the United States of America. Between legislature-controlled districting, "soft money," politicial patronage, the power of incumbency, and the cozy relationship with various special interests, this is the situation here.

Almost every district in the country is drawn so that one party has absolute control. The system is also set up so that the party committees get to decide, in almost all cases, who the party nominee is. Here in NYC, it is possible for an insurgent to be elected to City Council seats, especially now that term limits make for a lot of open seats. But in general, it is nearly impossible to buck the party and win. The recent example of the special election for the 30th Council seat showed that, as both Charles Ober and Tom Ognibene were soundly defeated by the party machine candidates.

Yesterday I wrote the following about Hillary Rodham Clinton :

Shameless.

Despicable.

Unfit to be President of the United States.

My words hit the front pages of both Daily Kos and The Moderate Voice. By evening Keith Olbermann had the following to say about Hillary Clinton's latest "gaffe" :

The most important part of the transcript is after the jump :

Well this totally sucks. Not only that, but not one of the netroots blogs from New York State --you know, the ones that actually help the party raise money for their candidates-- got into the state pool.

Who gets in? Oh, yeah, right, the blog owned by the pro-Clinton journalist that now rights for Politico.com.

Nice.

UPDATE : Hopefully we will be able to bundle our state bloggers with the culturekitchen.com national bloggers and get credentialed.

I just find this odd, that none of the blogs that have helped the NY Democratic Party raise thousands of dollars for local candidates and worked hard to get out the vote here in the state, not one of them got credentialed in the state pool.

This is very odd indeed.

There is a diary at the top of the recommended list on Daily Kos citing voting problems in NYC with some accusations that Hillary's people are disenfranchising black voters. A genuine red flag was raised when it was noticed that a heavily black election district in Harlem was recorded as having zero votes for Barack Obama. This is clearly unlikely and therefore genuinely raised people's concern. And it brings up several important issues regarding voting machines. But one thing this should NOT cause is accusations of fraud on the part of Clinton's campaign. From first hand experience, I can suggest that the problem was not an intentional undercount of Obama voters, but a maintenance problem with the voting machines used in NYC.

culturekitchen is one of the sponsors of techPresident's online presidential forum, 10questions.com.

The submission period is coming to an end in 5 more days. Thanks to my computer woes, I've been remiss at following up on this fantastic opportunity to ask the hard questions to the candidates; but not any more.

I am calling on all the NYC-based sponsors of 10Questions.com to come spend Sunday afternoon with me at Rapture Cafe in the East Village. I'll be there from 3:00pm to 6:00pm downing coffees and making video clips of everybody who wants to submit a clip to 10questions.

We have the cameras, we have the computers. Rapture Cafe has the coffee, beer and WiFi.

What does that mean? If you don't have a digital camera with video capabilities, a computer with WiFi or both, just bring yourself, even a friend and don't forget your thirst for a latte.

Where?
Rapture Cafe
(http://rapturecafe.com )
200 Avenue A
Between 12th and 13th Streets
NYC

When?
3 to 6pm

Questions?
nyc.blogdiva@gmail.com