Let's Fix What's Broken-HAVA 2.0

Several broken pieces added unnecessary drama to Election 2012.

One major cog in the wheel was our election system in some key states. Florida must take pride in embarrassing the country with it's election rules that had voters waiting three, five, even eight hours to vote. Long lines, insufficient voting supplies, untrained and partisan staff-all played a role in the shameful voting issues thanks to Florida Republican Governor Rick Scott. Ohio's Secretary of State Jon Huestad laid a trail while trying to suppress the vote in his state that warrants criminal prosecution.  His fight to minimize early voting opportunities for the people in his state made the headlines in national news. he even took his fight to the Supreme Court, but those efforts failed.

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My Take on Obama's Victory in Election 2012

Nobody's talking about Obama's victory in the 2012 Election. Rather, bewildered Republicans and pundits are focused on "why Romney lost". All the media analysts, political commentators and cable news contributors have theories on the election results, but if you want a novice blogger's ideas on Election 2012, take a walk with me. My cause-effect reasons are simple: people and process. Each side made assumptions and predictions about voters and laid out a strategy to win their votes.

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On The Record: Meet Joy-Ann Reid

Joy-Ann (“Joy”) Reid is the managing editor of TheGrio.com and an on-air contributor on MSNBC. She is also a political columnist for the Miami Herald and editor of the political blog The Reid Report. Joy has worked in television and radio news since 1998, including for WTVJ and Fox station WSVN. In addition to the Herald, her columns have appeared on Salon.com, TheGrio, CommonDreams.org, in the South Florida Sun Sentinel, and the South Florida Times. From 2006-2007 she produced and co-hosted “Wake Up South Florida,” the morning show for Radio One’s then-Miami affiliate WTPS, alongside 30-year radio veteran James T.

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The Choice for Our Kids: Early Childhood Education

America may be one of the richest countries in the world, but it ranks #28 out of 38 countries in the percent of 4 year olds enrolled in pre-primary education programs like Head Start. The United States ranked behind countries like France, Spain and Mexico according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Head Start began in 1965 as an early childhood education program under President Johnson’s War on Poverty. Currently, there are 900,000 children enrolled in Head Start of which 35% are African American. The program cost $7.2 billion, less than a new air craft carrier costing $9 billion.

Does early childhood development matter? You bet it does. Children who are exposed to more language and more caring interaction with adults have an advantage over their peers that grow up in a stressful environment. This inequality leads to the “achievement gap” that educators say is evident as early as nine months of age and continues to inhibit student progress through elementary school and beyond.

Mitt Romney posts a 35 page document on his education plan, but it has no mention of Head Start, early childhood education or Pre-K programs.  The Ryan Budget outlines federal spending reductions, but gives no details as to where these cuts will be made.  The National Education Association (NEA) reports in a N Y Times article that early childhood programs would be cut by $590,000,000, eliminating 80,000 slots for kids and cutting 30,000 jobs for teachers, aides, and administrators. Republicans have used Head Start programs as an example of wasteful spending on unproven programs that need to be reined in.

President Obama expanded Head Start in 2009 under the Stimulus Program injection and additional $2.1 billion for Head Start and opening 61,000 new slots for kids. No additional specifics have been offered, but the Obama Administration has opposed Republican cuts to educational programs.

The 2012 Election is a matter of choice on so many issues, but don’t let early childhood education get missed in foreign policy, women’s issues and other high visibility targets. Our kids deserve more; our kids deserve better.

Vote and let your voice be heard.

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Florida's Return to Black Codes

Governor Rick Scott has been successful in returning Florida's voting laws to the post-slavery days of the Black Codes.

Scott and his Cabinet passed an archaic rule requiring nonviolent felons to wait five years after completing their sentences before applying to have their voting rights restored. This means citizens won't be able to participate in the most basic tenet of our democracy, despite having paid their debt to society.

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Will Romney Win the White Working Class Vote?

What's up with the white working class vote? It was for him, his wife, and his family that New Deal Democrats taxed the rich, invented Social Security and supported militant labor unions. Now, seeing the Democrats as pro black and poor, white non-college educated voters are a mainstay for the Republican coalition.

Many people don’t understand how the white working class can support a Republican party which clearly favors the rich and would continue to vote against their own interest. But, that depends on how you define their interest. Anti-abortion and anti-gay religious beliefs coupled with NRA gun-toting sentiments may well see this group waiting for economic interest to “trickle down” to them while “getting their country back” with a white guy in the White House.

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The Elephant in the Room: Mitt Romney's Religion

The Mormon Temple
Salt Lake City, Utah, ca. 1880-1900

Two widely accepted facts about Mitt Romney is that he is a family man and an avid supporter of the LDS church. While the GOP says it has decided not to include Rev. Jeremiah Wright in the Election 2012 dialogue, another point of apparent agreement is a hands-off policy on discussing Romney's Mormonism. We may not be talking about it, but Romney's religion is an elephant in the room.

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Minorities and the GOP: Time to "Pivot"

The Republican Primary and Presidential Debates highlight the GOP point of view as it concerns America's domestic policy on social welfare and the 2012 Election..

Historically, Republican attacks on "the welfare state" after the civil rights protests of the 60s and 70s were propagated by their leadership from Barry Goldwater to Richard Nixon to Ronald Regan. The white majority's perception of expanding social welfare programs is mirrored in today's undercurrent of racist dialogue led by Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul.

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