We have arrived!
We have arrived!, originally uploaded by paleague.
Hooray, the PA League made it to Powershift in DC! We are about to go to our first training…where is the coffee??? #powershift09
College: Becoming the Impossible Dream?
From Public Agenda: latest Squeeze Play survey finds many people feeling uneasy about a key element of the American dream: getting a college education. Even though a solid majority considers a college degree indispensable, even more say that college is financially out-of-reach for many qualified students. More than half say colleges behave more like businesses than educational institutions. Find out more about the survey, conducted for the National Center on Public Policy and Higher Education.
Join the PA League and the Community Empowerment Association TONIGHT for a screening of the documentary First Person, which takes a look at 6 high-schoolers from Philly as they struggle towards college.
Admission is FREE, events begins at 6pm at the CEA’s Cultural Center in Homewood. All ages. Light refreshments served, too!
The RNC is getting a Hip-Hop makeover
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele
As a follow-up to our recent post about hip-hop’s important role in making politics engaging, yesterday our friend Carolyn pointed out there was an article in The Washington Times that indicates the newly elected Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele realizes that hip-hop is a force to be reckoned with — and a necessary one for the promotion of his party.
“We need messengers to really capture that region - young, Hispanic, black, a cross section … We want to convey that the modern-day GOP looks like the conservative party that stands on principles. But we want to apply them to urban-surburban hip-hop settings.”
“It will be avant garde, technically,” he said. “It will come to table with things that will surprise everyone - off the hook.”
Though the hip-hop genre and culture has certainly grown in popularity to become more widely popular , I am wondering how artists and fans alike will respond to any fabricated attempts to harness their support this way. While one could argue that the popularization of modern hip-hop has led to a level of commercialization that might see itself as “message for hire”, I think that the very reason activism through hip-hop has been a compelling force is because the artists have had the room to talk about what is on their mind — whether it’s glorifying booty and bling or condemning violence and kids dying on the street.
As hip-hop is deliberately co-opted more and more as the best tool to target young and minority voters, will fans see through it all? Will they care?
-Carly
Tags: civic engagment, hip-hop, message, Michael S. Steele, minority, Pennsylvania, political, politics, RNC, vote, voters, YouthEarly Voting in Pennsylvania
So Pennsylvania might finally join the 31 other states in having the option to cast an early ballot for elections.
Early voting legislation recently introduced by Rep. DePasquale in the state House and parallel legislation in the state Senate by Sen. Leach seeks to make counties offer times for people to cast their ballot on at minimum the weekends and possibly some weekdays starting two weeks before an election.
The legislation would allow those whose work schedules or other commitments or constraints to make sure they can get their ballot cast. It would also allow get-out-the-vote efforts more time to mobilize voters, and help reduce long lines and machine errors on election day from keeping voters away.
This legislation is partially necessary because the state constitution does not allow absentee ballots to be used for anything other than the specific reasons listed. (And heck, even Iraq has early voting.)
The PA League of Young Voters is collecting petition signatures to give to the Senate committees indicating the support for this legislation.
Support Early Voting in PA
SIGN THE PETITION ONLINE
Volunteer to help with the petition drive — join our canvassing efforts or request copies of the petition to distribute yourself. Email mac@paleague.com.
Tags: absentee, disenfranchised, early voting, pa league of young voters, Pennsylvania, pittsburgh, voters, VotingFull Disclosure: the Economic Stimulus website
So today the President signed into law the hard-fought Economic Stimulus Package legislation, allowing for $787 BILLION dollars to be poured into projects that are designed to keep or make 3.5 MILLION jobs.
Those are big, fat numbers, and it’s certainly been a hot topic for debate whether it will work to boost or stabilize the economy or not. We here at the PA League, we’re not economic experts, so hell if we know. But what we DO know is that this is certainly the first time we, the people, will be provided with so much accessible, transparent information on where our money is going.
Check out www.recovery.gov, designed to explain the plans for the economic stimulus, give a timeline for how the money is to be allocated and reported on, and eventually report back on “how, when, and where it is spent.” (And if you are either feeling really smart or really masochistic, you can also read the full bill as written.)
Having the background info for how the stimulus plan was put together is useful, but what will be really exciting is the updates on how the plan is actually working out.
And it’s a good-looking site too, with clear infographics (timelines, proportional circles, bar graphs– see below) that make some general comparisons at-a-glance.
If only we could have something as transparent for other federal, state, and local arenas of public spending and campaign contributions, we could pretty much count on a cleaner government and better opportunity for public discourse.
I’ll admit it; I’m impressed. I hope it’s all it could be: a portal for the everyman –not just political in-the-knows — to better understand, participate, and give feedback to their elected government. We’ll see; this might be THE example for government transparency efforts to come.
-Carly
Tags: accountability, economic stimulus, election, government, infographics, pa league of young voters, Pennsylvania, pittsburgh, politics, president barack obama, timeline, transparency, vote, YouthPhantom Ballot Take-Down — Part 2
On Friday the 13th, down at the County Board of Elections, a brave team of ballot-checkers went through over 400 precinct reports from the last election.
In some, there were more ballots cast than there were voters who attended — the PHANTOM BALLOTS.
Help us finish checking the ballots from the other 300 randomly-selected precincts this TUESDAY and be a DIRECT part of protecting our elections and holding our dear sweet govt accountable.
That’s Tuesday, Feb 24th from 1pm - 4:30pm. Email mac@paleague.com and let us know to expect you.
Volunteer opportunity to protect our votes
The Pittsburgh City Paper’s Marty Levine reported this week on our work to catalog and explain Phantom Ballots that have been appearing at some Allegheny County polling locations.
Phantom Ballots occur when more ballots are cast in a precinct than there are voters. We have seen the problem in a number of precincts already, but without checking more results there is no way to know how prevalent the problem is.
That is why we need your help. We will be Downtown at the County Office Building, 542 Forbes Avenue, to investigate this spooky occurrence on the spookiest day of the year, Friday February 13th from noon until three.
Email mac@paleague.com to let us know you are coming. With ten people, we can check half of the votes in Allegheny County and take a big step toward explaining why our votes aren’t being counted properly.
You can see how easy it is to check these ballots in this YouTube Video:
We will see you next Friday!
Tags: phantom ballots, volunteeringHip Hop and Civic Engagement
We at the PA League have always believed that hip hop culture can be an excellent way to introduce people who are not deeply engaged to political thinking. When I was a kid we listened to Public Enemy, in this past year even Young Jeezy, not known for his political outspokenness, brought us a track about politics and hosted an inauguration party.
Starting last year our sister org, the PA League’s Education Fund,has been the fiscal sponsor for the MC competition Rhyme Calisthenics to help advance the connection between rap music and civic engagement, visited hip hop shows all over, including of rapper and activist Immortal Technique, and participated in the Hip Hop Caucus. Nothing we did with hip-hop, however, reached the heights of Pittsburgh’s Mayor after the Super Bowl.
Tags: Civic engagement, civil rights, freestyle, hip-hop, pa league of young voters education fund, Pennsylvania, pittsburgh, politics, Voting, Youth