You know you are reaching your audience when the performer at the event you are registering voters at starts signing a freestyle made up song called “I’m on the Bus!” This is exactly what happened when the voter registration crew worked the Willy Porter concert at the WOW hall earlier this month. Hearing in impromptu folk ballad about political change all revolving around getting on the Bus was quite a moment and the crowd was loving it. If we only could have convinced Willy to put on his bus button, it would have been perfect.

I’ve been spending some time trying to help out the voter registration efforts. The benefits are plenty; getting to see a show for free and getting to talk with young or new voters.

One of the most striking themes was at the Heiroglyphics/Blue Scholars concert where we ran into SO many 17 year old voters who were not going to be old enough to vote this time, but you could tell they were very engaged with what is going on.

As we get closer to the voter registration deadline, the crowds are getting more enthusiastic about the upcoming vote. Last night at the Hot Buttered Rum String Band show, instead of politely saying “yes” when asked if they are registered, they give a high five or say “you better believe it!”. The countdown nears so get involved if you haven’t yet. Thanks to our tireless voter registration team Alison and Kristina for all of their hard work!

If you don’t remember that song from the Karate Kid, you were born in the wrong decade!

Why not take some time to go fill out the
BEST OF EUGENE ballot for the Eugene Weekly?

I’m not here to tell you what to vote for, but if you wanted some recommendations…

BEST ACTIVIST GROUP: The Bus Project!
BEST LOCAL POLITICIAN: Kitty Piercy
BEST BLOG: LANEBUS.ORG

If not for yourself, do it for Mr. Miyagi.

I have heard legitimate rumors that CNN will be renaming itself to the Reality News Network, or RNN. Realizing the popularity of reality TV, CNN has finally jumped on the bandwagon and is changing their image. Conveniently, they have been working on changing the substance of their news to a full-time reality news network since the early 90’s. The OJ Simpson chase and trial, the Martha Stewart Who-Knitted-That-Sweater controversy, and one of today’s headline’s “Is that a Bigfoot carcass in the freezer?” that has a link to a t-shirt purchase — all those stories show that no changes will be necessary to the actual content of their news. There will be a few additions such as the Russian/Georgia Family Swap where they take families from both countries, swap them, and then document every minute like it were a finger in Wendy’s food. They will also be changing the name of their newly popular iReport to uReport to accurately reflect the work of journalism being too difficult to trust with simple journalists. With a camera and a natural disaster, ANYONE can be a journalist!

Their headline today of “Ticker: Obama plan called ‘economic disaster’” turns out that someone out there called Obama’s plan and economic disaster — specifically a McCain commercial. They do not provide fair and balanced news though, which would mean having a story about the Obama commercial in which “Obama plan called ‘absolute genius’”. Or a story from an economist. I have contacted CNN about adding a reality show about economists…but have yet to hear back.

…the Casual Destruction of a Small Democratic State by a Despotic Major World Power

Taking a brief recess from the ballot measures, I thought I’d throw some rocks out there in the idyllic summer pond of our thoughts. Unless you’ve been living under said rock, you know that the Russian military cruised into the Caucasus nation of Georgia last week and polished off the US-supplied Georgian military like a postprandial shot of vodka. Most Americans gave it the same attention they gave the Olympic archery competition. It’s tempting to listen to the isolationists lulling us to sleep with the “it’s a centuries-old conflict between parties you should care nothing about” routine, just as they did for Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo and Darfur. In fact, the invasion has a lot to do with geography, history, and the role of the US in the modern world.

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Usually we don’t talk about National politics on the Lane Bus Blog, but when a candidate with these credentials enters the ring, you have to stand up and take notice.

No, he isn’t hiding in a maze of people in a colorful landscape. He isn’t somewhere in the world with Matt Lauer…He isn’t dancing around the world like Matt…or maybe he is. 

The place I would have expected to find him is in the PolitickerOR.com list of 50 most influentional people on Oregon Politics. 

Check the post HERE and find the link to the list at the bottom.

OR Download the list HERE

Who else got left out? (besides me, the famous Lane Bus Project Blogger…I came in at 50,005…not bad.)

Who doesn’t deserve to be on there?

COMMENT BELOW!

The Bus Project of course doesn’t stick it’s nose into National politics (OK, maybe once in a while on our free time.)

It was a nice surprise to see some Politicorps fellows pictured in a NY Times article on Sunday about far-left liberals positions on the Obama nomination.

Speaking of bus buttons, it was great to see lots of enthusiastic volunteers braving the dust and heat at the Oregon Country fair this year. Led by our own Lynn Moracco and Alison Friedman, the crew registered over 1000 new voters!

Do you find yourself coming to LaneBus.org and saying, “They never update this!” I do it all the time.

Well, whenever this happens to you and you want to whet your political whistle, try some of our new news feeds!

Down the sidebar to the right, you will find current articles from Blog Net News

We even have our own channel set up!

Now if you want to step outside the state and see what is going on, you can click on the BUZZ link at the top right of the menu and see some feeds from news sources around the globe.

These would be my 2nd and 3rd choices for you to do. My first choice would be to write your own article and submit it for consideration!!

At the National Conference for Media Reform 2008, Fox’s Bill O’Reilly producer, Porter Barry ambushes PBS Bill Moyers to pepper him with questions regarding his political affiliations and his “refusal” to appear on O’Reily’s show. Moyers disputes Fox’s “facts.” Mr. Barry went in to get an inflammatory piece for Bill, but ended up getting absolutely served!

“Do you call what you just did journalism?”

A clip of Hightower’s appearance. Pretty darn cool.

………..
Jim Hightower shares the stories of people who he says have bucked the system and are finding their own way toward a better life. He claims that corporate interests have seized American politics and government and that more people need to rebel against this trend. Mr. Hightower spoke about his book at Politics and Prose in Washington, DC.