Can Barack Obama succeed in laying Richard Nixon's ghost to rest? As Obama pledges bipartisanship and reaches across the aisle to John McCain, many of us can't help but hope that we've seen the end of the politics of denigration.
Sex education in the early primary years sets a foundation for later, more in-depth education.
There is a simple fact that has eluded Democrats in every presidential campaign they have lost in the last 40 years: you have to focus first and foremost not on a litany of "issues" but on four stories.
The critical point is that it is easier to scare undecideds than uplift and inspire these same voters. The psychobiological study of fear demonstrates this.
The McCain campaign is simply trying to plant the old racist seed of a black man hitting on young white women. Not directly, but subliminally and disgracefully.
A friend of mine once joked that in order to pull off a successful booty call, there are two things you absolutely can't do. I bring this up because apparently no one ever told John McCain these essential rules.
According to one of the actual police reports documenting the charade's unraveling, Ashley Todd says she can't remember whether she mutilated her own face, or had someone else do it.
Note: Cross-posted at www.immigration08.com. Seriously, it's about time the candidates started talking about immigration again. But now, can we talk...
During the '84 NC Senate race, one of Helms' top aides responsible for implementing a gay-bashing strategy was McCain advisor Charlie Black.
On October 30, 1974, Muhammad Ali, the deposed Heavyweight champion, attempted to regain his crown from the then-reigning champion, George Foreman, in...
It's over. The American people have spoken. If this election was a basketball game, it would be time to clear the benches and let the subs play out the clock.
Is there is an antidote to what has come and what lies ahead in the racial minefield of the 2008 election? I believe there is, but it runs against the instincts of most Democratic consultants.
It is not enough to report what a candidate says. When he lies, distorts, or smears, he should be held accountable in print or on the air.
When McCain refuses to look at Barack Obama and refuses to use his name, he is employing modified versions of a military technique -- a strategy of dehumanization.
While consumer advertising has moved on, political advertising is caught in a curious time warp -- combining modern technology with the unfettered, unregulated ability to say down is up and the opponent hates puppies.
The new McCain campaign tactic unfolded in the aftermath of The New Yorker cover and taps into the notion that black people can ascend to popular status only as entertainers.
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If we as a people ignore and refuse our most basic duty to expect, demand, and also practice accountability (and responsibility)--in ALL aspects--then we as a people have given over our rights to those who will continue to manipulate and control them for their interests, and NEVER for ours.
This blog should certainly be at the top of the list of them all on this website, and stay there until it has gotten enough attention and has been posted elsewhere, just like the Paulsen speech this morning should be the top headline story on this site - now he wants to quadruple the taxpayer's 'loan', and invest the money. If, as Paulsen said, waiting for a couple of weeks for the Senate to make this decision worsened the situation and created the need to quadruple the amount, how is investing the money instead of using it for what was originally planned, going to stem that downward spiral? Certainly if the money actually exists, it was already earning dividends... already effectively 'invested'.
I watch a few news shows... why is it that this is the only spot I have noticed this bit:
"And just yesterday when Obama met with Bush, the most disliked president in history magnanimously said he'd 'consider' a bailout to the American auto industry if the Democrats in Congress will pas[s] another disastrous 'free trade' pact, this time with Columbia."
The only 'trickle down' effect is going to be the effect of our ignorance.
Our ability to be transcendent and transformative of the stagnation of our inclination to underachieve is shocking and mind boggling. Mr. Obama has tapped into the right spirit -- that is inspiration. However, if he does not know how to channel it or if the people are unwilling to respond...to change, and only were interested in the outcome of a beauty contest, his inspiring campaign will mean absolutely nothing. We are the solution but mass wake up is in order. The upper levels of ingenious thinking inspired by necessity and pure love of existence (not greed, vanity, and self-interest) are called for -- these are compelling times. Not because I am in the moment and able to experience them as all others are, but because it seems that the effect of decisions made now have mass implications of progress or great despair. The margins are small for error and therefore Mr. Obama had better be different from error-prone approaches of past corruption, cronyism, stupidity stemming from shortsightedness and narrow-mindedness, and self-defeating hubris run amok. The same onus is upon each individual citizen and we all feel it. We all know that these times are demanding the best in us. For some this will manifest in a huge struggle (certain aspects of the GOP) because they are rarely if ever in touch with any internal aspect of existence that is not self-interested and self-delusional. The whole superiority (elitist) script emanates from this type of thinking.
I agree with the sentiments completely, but would have preferred a little less vindictiveness. Althought it seems deserved, name calling gives the impression that those so referred to are stupid and not worthy of consideration. This detracts from what should be reasoned, logical discourse. The right-wingers who have left the mess for the rest of us to clean up are smart. They stay awake and alert while much of the general population and its elected representatives snooze. We can infer from experience that the right-wingers have had their ear to the ground constantly, were not surprised by the election results, and had laid careful plans. Even as the Huffpost, Daily Kos, and others exult in the great Obama Victory, billions of dollars are going out the door to the likes of AIG. (Oh, yes, we do hear that "legislators are outraged," at some expenditures, like AIG's outings, but by then the money is gone, gone, gone.) Plans are afoot right now to "rescue" General Motors and the left wing seems eeriely silent, as it did while a majority of Democrats voted to bail out some banks! These tactics have resulted in many of these right wingers becoming as rich as Croesus. They don't have to care what political steps will follow in the near future. Does anybody believe they won't use some of that wealth to promote their strategies in the future? A battle may have been won, but the war continues unabated.
...and this is why we continue to lose and yet we think that we have time to waste. Stuck on stupid, wallowing in the mire of our inability to escape our feeble nature and find a new way, a new course; innovation stimulated by a need to change...a realization of just how wrong we have been. Yes I can recite a long list of accomplishments but I was told to rest on your laurels is a sure sign of decline and becom