Volunteer with us on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!

Martin Luther King, Jr. recognized the power of service to strengthen communities and create common purpose. On the day that honors him - Monday, January 19th - Rock the Vote is joining forces with the Presidential Inaugural Committee to hold a national day of service.

Will you join Rock the Vote and volunteer in your community on January 19th?

On Monday, January 19th, wherever you are, will you host or participate in an event in your own community? Thousands of people are going to be cleaning parks, preparing meals, organizing blood drives and much more. Will you be a part of giving back to your community on January 19th?

Sign up here to volunteer.

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Predictify Teams with Rock the Vote to Launch $100,000 Election Showdown

 

Predictify, an online prediction platform that adds an interactive, forward-looking dimension to the news, has partnered with Rock the Vote, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to engaging young people in politics, to launch the $100,000 Election Showdown. The Showdown, a prediction challenge based on a series of questions about the upcoming presidential election, provides a forum for participants to research, discuss and predict the election in key states and win a portion of the $100,000 prize pool.

Predictify kicks off the $100,000 Election Showdown with the hope of encouraging interest and participation in the 2008 election, and as part of the challenge has combined an interactive map with key data from current polls and past election results to create a highly informative and interactive user experience.

"We believe that Predictify is a great way for young people to learn about, and engage in, this exciting presidential race," said Heather Smith, executive director, Rock the Vote. "We've registered over 1.72 million voters this year and counting, and we continue to seek new ways to reach them online and keep them engaged in the buildup to Election Day on November 4th."

The campaign, which will run from October 1 through 11:59PM PT on November 3, 2008, offers participants the opportunity to predict the winner of the presidential election in 14 historically decisive states, plus the overall popular vote for McCain and Obama (15 questions total).  Each of the 15 questions will include background data, links to relevant news and content, and a discussion forum for participants to debate their predictions. During the campaign Predictify will aggregate the predictions into a unique, crowd-sourced perspective on the election outcome. This data, which can be filtered by demographic attributes such as age, gender, and political affiliation, will be made available to interested parties in an interactive chart on the Predictify website.

“The Election Showdown combines all the best parts of Predictify -- information discovery, discussion and debate, and collective wisdom,” said Parker Barrile, co-founder and CEO of Predictify. “We're excited to provide a fun way to engage in this historic election and bring the wisdom of crowds to life as an alternative to conventional polls.”

After the election Predictify will score the participants based on the accuracy of their predictions and reward the most accurate participants with a share of the $100,000 prize pool. As part of the scoring process, participants will receive bonuses based on their level of expertise from past participation and performance on Predictify. Winners will be announced on November 6, 2008.

To make your picks and take a shot at predicting the election results, visit www.predictify.com/electionshowdown. 

Sliming Palin

FactCheck been flooded for the past few days with queries about dubious Internet postings and mass e-mail messages making claims about McCain’s running mate, Gov. Palin. They have found that many are completely false, or misleading.

• Palin did not cut funding for special needs education in Alaska by 62 percent. She didn’t cut it at all. In fact, she tripled per-pupil funding over just three years.
• She did not demand that books be banned from the Wasilla library. Some of the books on a widely circulated list were not even in print at the time. The librarian has said Palin asked a "What if?" question, but the librarian continued in her job through most of Palin's first term.
• She was never a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a group that wants Alaskans to vote on whether they wish to secede from the United States. She’s been registered as a Republican since May 1982.
• Palin never endorsed or supported Pat Buchanan for president. She once wore a Buchanan button as a "courtesy" when he visited Wasilla, but shortly afterward she was appointed to co-chair of the campaign of Steve Forbes in the state.
• Palin has not pushed for teaching creationism in Alaska's schools. She has said that students should be allowed to "debate both sides" of the evolution question, but she also said creationism "doesn't have to be part of the curriculum."

A few of these claims were included in a chain e-mail by a woman named Anne Kilkenny. FactCheck will be looking into other charges in that e-mail for a future story. For more explanation of the bullet points above, please read the Analysis (http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/sliming_palin.html).

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