Georgia?!?

Nate Silver, over at FiveThirtyEight, has a very encouraging post up about the latest voter registration figures out of Georgia. Between November 2004 and October 1 of 2008, the percentage of the active registered voter pool that is African-American jumped from 27.4% to 29%, and is likely to climb up to almost 31%! Silver outlines how this could move Georgia from a safe red state into the toss up category. This is very exciting stuff.

All this leads me to the main point of this post, VOTE on November 4! If you don't vote and your candidates lose, you have absolutely no right to complain. For my readers in Wisconsin, you can register at polls. For the rest of you, just google your home state and voter registration (e.g. Colorado Voter Registration). Do yourself and your country and vote. I won't try and influence your vote but you should really vote for Barack Obama.

Russia v. Georgia, What YOU Need to Know

You probably know by now that Russia has launched an incursion into South Ossetia. South Ossetia is a region in North Central Georgia that borders Russia. South Ossetia is populated by ethnic Russians that have no desire to be part of Georgia. It's EXTREMELY vital that you read some background on this here and here, because the American media is making this seem like it's all Russia's fault. Wrong. While Russia is no innocent pawn in this plight, Georgia is the aggressor and they initiated the fighting. Of course, these facts are too much for John McCain, whom is already attempting to pick a fight with Russia. In no way am I saying that Russia is completely innocent here, if you read the above posts I linked to, you'll find that they've done some inappropriate (to put it mildly) things in South Ossetia as well. However, it's important to note, since it will be absent in American MSM coverage, that the Georgian military has attacked civilian separtist positions in South Ossetia, and Russia's incursion is in response to those attacks. For good, objective coverage of this developing situation, I recommend you consult sources outside of the United States.
BBC News
The Gaurdian