More gay marriage poll data

.....................................
Youth Attitudes towards Gay Rights
.....................................

CIRCLE and the Council for Excellence in Government released poll data on youth
attitudes toward gay rights. The survey finds that young Americans support civil
unions, marriage, and protections for gays and lesbians. By six-to-one margins,
American youth support gay rights and protections related to housing, employment,
and hate crimes and those sentiments are held by all ideological, partisan, racial, geographic, and religious groups.

Findings from the survey can be found
Here

Young voters say jobs most important issue

A few weeks ago, NewsWeek ran a poll saying that young voters would be Bush's secret weapon. This week they seem to have flipped completely around. Here's the headline from the press release:

-----

Newsweek GENext Poll: 25 Percent of Young Voters Say Unemployment Most Important Issue Facing Country, Followed by Education (24%) and National Security (21%); Abortion, Gay Marriage, Other Social Issues Less Important
Monday February 23, 3:48 pm ET

Young Voters Choose Kerry Over Bush by 56 to 41 Percent; Bush's Job Approval Rating Among Youth Drops to 46 Percent

Ralph Nader is running again.

Did we mention that already?

Think he'll pull as many youth votes as he did in 2000?

Big question for the election.

That urban outfitters tee

So by now you have surely seen the controversy about the Urban Outfitters T-Shirt that says, VOTING IS FOR OLD PEOPLE.



Urban Outfitters claims it was meant as an ironic gesture....

But we got a lot of phone calls, emails, and buzz about how mad it made young people.

And you know what we think?

This is really emblematic of a cultural shift for today's new generation.

Cynicism about politics---ironic detachment from the big issues in life---that's so GEN X.

And Gen X is so YESTERDAY.

This is the new generation...the 9/11 generation...their take on the world is a bit different.

What do you think?

Please let us know. We're eager to hear from you about this particular question.

Republican youth outreach

The article says, "But this election is different. Not only are there plenty of signs at our intersections, but also signs that the Republican Party is actively pursuing and engaging a group of constituents as never before: young people."

Chicks Rock, Chicks Vote

Have you seen our new website? Check it out.

Prairie View A&M

Okay, so, we kinda forgot to blog this. On Monday, Rap the Vote, a project of Rock the Vote, held a town hall at Prairie View A&M with the Congressional Black Caucus.

A local district attorney there attempted to suppress the student vote at this Black University through intimidation---he threatened them with prosecution for voting if they were not "permanent" residents.

Its total nonsense.

We have a full website with all the info on it. Check it out here.

MTV news story on gay marriage

MTV has released a new poll on gay marriage, of 17-24 year olds. And guess what? Nearly two-thirds of young people oppose a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Read the long MTV article here.

More on this soon.

Sorry for the paucity of postings---its hard to post from the road!

Young people say don't investigate the Janet incident

"According to the poll conducted for the AP by Ipsos-Public Affairs, the FCC ought to spend its time on other things. Nearly 80 percent of respondents said it's a waste of money to investigate."

And young people are even MORE opposed to the investigation.

Here's the article.

Allhiphop.com covers Diddy's speech at the Rock the Vote Awards

Check it out here.

"I hate the I-hate-gen-x site"

A reader sent in the following email. We intended to provoke a reaction---but did that site go too far? Certainly if there is anything anti-gay, you know we're not down with that. We'll check more closely next time.

In the interest of a good argument, here's the reader's comments, which we like.

====

This letter is regarding your link to the I hate gen-x
web site. I understand that you have printed not
responsible for content but ultimately putting the
link on your site makes you responsible. You are
providing this website with free advertisment. I
understand that you put this link here to encourage
young "gen-x" people to vote, out of anger I suppose.
I was angry after reading the content of this site.
It belittled the generation your site is trying to
reach. It not only belittled our actions (or lack
there of) it belittled our entertainment, our art,
what we wear, basically every aspect of our lives.
I AM a voter and have voted ever since I was 18. I am
active in politics, community, and education. I'm
also open minded to other people view points EXCEPT
when their view point is out of hatred and
misunderstanding. This website did nothing but anger
me and ultimately made me angry at your site for
including its link, why would you want to anger your
visitors. Isn't your goal to get people to vote
instead of pissing them off?

Also, I believe your site should be free from
political bias. Included in this I hate gen-x site
was a section on homosexuality, which I feel was
completly offensive, and I"m not even gay. I can't
imagine how someone who was gay would take this.

I think it would be better, as the rest of this site
has done, just to inform on why voting is so important
instead of making people angry.

===

Thanks Heather. :)

Prairie View students file another voting rights lawsuit

The article is here (registration required).

An excerpt:

Prairie View students file another voting rights suit

02/17/2004

By JUAN A. LOZANO  / Associated Press

Prairie View A&M University students embroiled in a voting rights fight in Waller County filed another lawsuit Tuesday in what they are calling efforts to preserve their ability to vote in local elections.

The second lawsuit, filed in federal court in Houston, is in response to a decision by county officials to reduce the number of days and hours for early voting at a satellite location: a community center on the Prairie View campus.

Jonah Goldman, an attorney with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said students would like early voting at the center to take place from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. over two days. But Waller County officials have approved only one day, Feb. 25 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Tuesday's lawsuit comes nearly two weeks after Prairie View students filed one against Waller County District Attorney Oliver Kitzman, who last year said they weren't automatically eligible to vote in county elections because of state-mandated residency standards.

That lawsuit, also filed in Houston, came on the heels of an opinion by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who said Prairie View students may vote in their university town if they simply designate Waller County as their residence.

Goldman said any voting change in Texas is covered under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act and must be approved by the U.S. Department of Justice in order to show that it does not worsen the position of minority voters.

"During other times they precleared other plans that had different amounts of early voting," he said. "This change has not been precleared."

According to students' attorneys, the last change approved by federal authorities was for an election in March 2002, when two days of early voting were allotted for the campus center.

But Waller County Elections Administrator Lela Loewe, one of the lawsuit's defendants, said she submitted paperwork to the Justice Department on Friday and again on Tuesday regarding the recent change. The change was approved by Waller County Commissioners Court last week.

Loewe said the change is an increase in the number of days allotted for early voting at the campus center because the location was not used in 2003 for early voting for the state constitutional amendments election.

The change in use of the campus center from two days in 2002 to zero days in 2003 was approved by the Justice Department, she said.

Officials with the Justice Department did not immediately return a telephone call from The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Do you hate Gen-X?

Here at Rock the Vote, we're focused largely on the generation after so-called "Gen-X", what some call the Millennials.

Got an email from somebody who "hates" Gen-X enough to have designed a web campaign about it.... its provocative, to say the least. Maybe a bit wacky, but hey.

Check it out.

No responsibility here for the content there.

Looking for stories about student voter intimidation/discouragement

We're looking for stories---we need your help!

The attempt to scare students from voting in Prairie View is not an isolated case. We hear frequently about how students are discouraged from voting by local officials. Sometimes it is the renegade actions of a particular candidate who knows that students will vote against her, so she institutes a disinformation campaign to convince students that they can't vote from campus.

Sometimes, as in the case of Prairie View, a district attorney will threaten to prosecute students who vote in a particular area if they are not residents, even though the law clearly says otherwise.

The fact is that if you declare a residence and you can prove it (i.e., an electric bill or an ID), then you are indeed a resident for the purpose of voting. You can't be prosecuted for anything.

SEND US YOUR STORIES. We need to accumulate them for our campaign to highlight student voter rights. Send them to the blog team.

Anything you know or have heard about.

Thanks!

Bush leaning towards endorsing constitutional ban on gay marriage

Can you imagine a constitutional amendment, alongside freedom of speech, separation of church and state, equal protection, etc, that said that "marriage is defined as a union between a man and a woman"?

This would defile the constitution and cheapen the rights that it guarantees for everyone.

WASHINGTON - The White House refused to commit President Bush on Wednesday to supporting a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages, although conservative groups say they already have received high-level assurances that he will take that step.

Hip-hop's history at the Grammy's

It has come a long way.

Important column about Prairie View

Read this article to get the full scoop on what is going down in Prairie View.

Yesterday, the election commission denied the students' request to restore their campus polling place.

Prairie View, Texas

We're going to be following this story over the course of the year. In Prairie View, Texas, a district attorney has attempted to intimidate students at Prairie View A&M University, telling them that they cannot necessarily vote where they attend school.

See, if the students vote, they can run the county. Its a largely white county. Prairie View is an HBCU---a black college.

So the students are suing, the are protesting, they are rocking the vote.

Check out a recent article here.

More coverage of Rock the Vote Awards

This one is from MTV's website... LINK

Pictures from the Rock the Vote Awards

We'll have our own up on our website soon, but you can check out these just for some flavor... (LINK)

The Rock the Vote Awards

Okay. Sorry for the long absence. I was off in Los Angeles helping produce the 11th Annual Rock the Vote Awards event. The Rock the Vote team brought to life something extraordinary, once again, this year---a fabulous event that mixed good music and good politics.

Check out the coverage from Rolling Stone...