The Agape Children's Choir want their voices heard!

The election, this November 4th, will probably be the most watched in the world and the one most Americans will have voted on in the history of our nation.  Even young children have taken an interest in the politics of our country.

My daughter, who’s in third grade, has asked me who I’m going to vote for in this presidential race. She’s often spoken with distaste about our current president. I don’t know if it’s from my influence or from either of her grandmothers but she’s savvy enough to know George W. has ruined America.

Her friend, asked me the same question as well. However, as I know her parents to be staunch Republicans, her mother has a picture of George W. up in her home office,  I turned it around and asked her, who her parents were voting for instead. As we were in a bookstore at the time and a book on Obama was in front of us, I wasn’t surprised when she pointed at it and said, “Well, not him!”. Being a Democrat, I just smiled and walked away. No use debating with an 8 year-old, with possible repercussions from her parents.

However, 8 year-olds do want to be heard, even if they are influenced by their parents. Therefore, The Agape International Children’s Choir and Little Engine Productions have created a video called Change My World, with a non-partisan view, at encouraging voters to take an interest in our children’s future and taking their voices to the polls.

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Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama was Baracking the vote in full force last night, as he hosted a fund raising event at the Regent Beverly Wilshire with a live performance by Barbra Streisand. Boy, did he manage to raise funds. Tickets to the reception and dinner at the Greystone Mansion cost $28,500 apiece, with about 300 people in attendance, reports the Los Angeles Times. Gaining entry to the hotel event, which took place after dinner, cost $2,500, with about 800 people in the audience. You do the math. Ok, I’ll do it for you: that’s an estimated $9 million.

As Obama spoke to the crowd, filled with the likes of Jodie Foster, Will Ferrell and Leonardo DiCaprio, he gave attention to the concerns people might have about the election.

“I know that a lot of you, just in conversations while we were in the photo lines, had all sorts of suggestions,” he said.

But the crisis on Wall Street “has suddenly focused people’s attention, and it’s reminded people of what’s at stake. It’s reminded people that this is not a game. This is not a reality show, no offense to any of you,” Obama said as the crowd erupted in laughter. “This is not a sitcom.”

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Or are they not powerful enough? One Tuesday September 9th, Zócalo will be holding an event moderated by Joe Mathews, Irvine Senior Fellow, New America FoundationPoliticians and reformers to discuss this issue. Often people complain about the power of teachers’ unions to dominate elections — from local school boards to the governor’s race — and frustrate their plans to improve education. Yet teachers still don’t have the power to receive pay commensurate with their education, the institutional support and instructional resources they need, or even — at least in Los Angeles — accurate paychecks.

Now a rising generation of teachers’ union leaders in the state say the labor organizations must add to their power and reach by tackling broader social and governmental problems that hurt schools.  Zócalo has assembled a distinguished panel to examine the promise and limits of the power of the teachers’ unions.

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No matter who becomes the 44th president of this country, I really hope they’re a fan of gardening, especially edible gardening. Eat the View, a campaign to plant healthy, edible landscapes in high-impact and visible places hopes this also.

Eat the View is urging the next president of the United States to plant an organic food garden on the White House lawn. Sure, you say, this is a fun idea at best, but how can the food be used? Eat the View recommends part of the produce go to the White House kitchen and the rest to local food pantries. There’s even a petition you can sign on their website that urges the White House to set a positive example for the country and the world.

You might think this idea is far fetched, however, no traditions are being broken here. The White House has had fruit and vegetable gardens before. In fact, you’ll be surprised to find out that upon occupying the White House, one of John Adams first additions was a vegetable garden. Andrew Jackson was into gardening as well. He created the White house orangery, a greenhouse where tropical fruit tress and flowers grew. Eleanor Roosevelt even planted a victory garden on the White House lawn in 1943, an event that lead to millions of Americans to do the same in their own white houses.

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Rock the Vote is headed to the Democratic and Republican National Conventions and they’re kicking off their convention activities with Ballot Bash– a star-studded event showcasing the power of the youth vote in the 2008 presidential election– and following with two weeks of events and concerts. And they want you to be a part of it by voting for who you want to see play with DJ Skee, Jakob Dylan, Nick Cannon, N*E*R*D and Fall Out Boy at their Rock the Vote concert this year.

More than 3,000 musical artists have been competing for a chance to perform at one of their events.

Help us pick our winning artist.

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I’m going to tell you all a little secret. A secret in which certain people are having trouble believing. Birth control is not crack. Drug dealers are not offering, weed, coke, or the pill. People do not become addicted to birth control. People are not selling their first born to get it. On the other hand, men and woman of all ages, married or not, are having sex without protection.

For some INSANE reason Republican’s have been fighting to heighten the rules of birth control saying that birth control allows teens to have sex, it increases the chances of STD’s, and allows for people to be more promiscuous.

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In March 2008, LA Mag started a competition to find the Greatest thing in LA. The started out with 64 competitors, which included In-N-Out, Topanga Canyon, taco trucks, Disney Hall, Apple Pan, the 99 cent stores, and much more. Through a rigourous voting process the top four included Ameoba Music, Capital Records (why do I feel like someone was paid off to get this one so high?), Pink’s, and the weather.

It came down to Ameoba vs. and the weather. Well the results are in and what is the best thing in LA? Apparently the people have decided that Ameoba Records is the best thing. Even when it’s cloudy Ameoba still shines. I have a little problem with this because I don’t want Ameoba to think that they can open up millions of shops all over the country! So I have an idea. No one tell ANYONE outside of LA about Ameoba OK? Hopefully it’ll just stay our little secret.

Photo by hermermferm

After two eventful terms, it seems Gavin Newsom has grown too big for the city of San Francisco.

The city’s Democratic mayor announced on Tuesday that he will be exploring his potential candidacy for governor of California, according to the Los Angeles Times, in what will be the state’s first open-seat gubernatorial election since Gray Davis took office in 1998. Mayor Newsom could perhaps be the most well-known choice to succeed Governor Schwarzenegger, who has fulfilled his term limit; Newsom grabbed nationwide headlines when he demanded that the city grant marriage licenses indiscriminately to any couple that requested one, in early 2004. This controversial move sparked a lengthy legal battle that was ended temporarily in May when the California Supreme Court granted the right to marry to any couple, including same-sex couples.

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Ready or not, a change is going to come. The gaps that have previously separated the semi have’s from the ultimate have-not’s are closing, and Americans are being bonded by a sense of urgency to see immediate change. Our beloved country is drowning her members unable to swim in deep waters. Meanwhile the rest of us are barely treading water, and becoming increasingly tired doing so. The mantra of change Barack Obama is running his campaign on isn’t popular because it’s catchy or clever; we’ve clung to the slogan because we’ve been quietly mumbling it to ourselves at home, to our friends and family, for the past seven and a half years.

For much longer than reasonable, we’ve been pushed against a wall where the option to be all you can be is diminishing. [Sidebar: Just after I typed the last word of that sentence a commercial for the US Army came on. It's almost as if I wrote it into fruition. I'm not a superstitious gal, but to be sure... A check with the exact amount of money I'll need to pay off my bills and my graduate school tuition will be in my mailbox tomorrow.] Self-actualization is beginning to seem elusive, like a fantasy Maslow concocted to get one over on future psychology students.

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There is a drug in America that is legal, one that can both jack up your persuasive spirits and protect you against any doubts.

Laguna Beach, CA — I admit my thinking becomes intense at times. It’s not my fault. The coffee they serve here at Laguna Beach works wonders. Just the right formula transforms a regular, stable guy like me into a psychic mess.

I come here to write my next novel. The cafe’s patrons are an eclectic community. Surfers hardly dressed, listening to iPod songs. Bikers stop here on their hog rides from beach to beach. College co-eds hang out here, wearing their pants below the top of their beautifully tanned bottoms clad in colorful thongs. Even the eternal mermaids come to sip the Nicaraguan Nectar, singing each to each.

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Sunday was more like Memorial Day. Father’s Day calls my father to mind, but WWII was one of the most defining events in his life.

Just a farm boy from Nebraska, hardly 18-years-old, he served in the Army’s 89th Division and shipped out for the third wave of landings onto the shores of Normandy.

He saw a lot of action. Carrying a high quality German camera, he took a lot of pictures of the war. None of them pretty.

When he returned home, he had a lot of shrapnel embedded in his flesh. Many years later, when he’d started a family, contributing to the baby boom, he had to go to the VA hospital several times to take some of those pieces of metal out from under his skin as they began to resurface.

[ Read The Full Story -> ]

Sunday was more like Memorial Day. Father’s Day calls my father to mind, but WWII was one of the most defining events in his life.

Just a farm boy from Nebraska, hardly 18-years-old, he served in the Army’s 89th Division and shipped out for the third wave of landings onto the shores of Normandy.

He saw a lot of action. Carrying a high quality German camera, he took a lot of pictures of the war. None of them pretty.

When he returned home, he had a lot of shrapnel embedded in his flesh. Many years later, when he’d started a family, contributing to the baby boom, he had to go to the VA hospital several times to take some of those pieces of metal out from under his skin as they began to resurface.

[ Read The Full Story -> ]