It's all about Hillary, not her party
Hillary Clinton is now campaigning in Florida and arguing that the state's delegates should count, along those from the Michigan primary. This would sound fair enough, unless you know that both Michigan and Florida moved their primaries up, except that after the Democrats agreed that the only states to vote before February 5th ("Super Tuesday") would be Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina (picked because they were relatively small states, representing different demographics). The Democratic Party agreed that votes from the two renegade primaries would not count. The major candidates made an explicit agreement not to campaign in either state. Florida law required that all candidates keep their names on, but Obama and Edwards pulled their names from the Michigan ballot.
No war, no warming, round two
Early in the morning of October 22nd last fall several hundred people
quietly arrived on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Many of us were
organized into affinity groups. There was the anti-capitalist bike block.
There were Iraq Veterans Against the War. There was the group of people
dressed in polar bear costumes agitating through a portable sound system.
There were the young people from Students for a Democratic Society in their
yellow Campus Climate Challenge t-shirts. There was the Separate Oil and
State group. And there were Code Pinkers, some wearing giant bobble-heads of
Cheney, Bush and Rice.
We were united behind the short but clear slogan: No War, No Warming!
*End the war for oil in Iraq and all future wars for oil and natural gas.
*End the addiction to oil--and coal and natural gas--that are driving the heating of the earth, the climate disruption which will inevitably lead to more and more wars as our ecosystem and economies are devastated.
We were united behind the short but clear slogan: No War, No Warming!
*End the war for oil in Iraq and all future wars for oil and natural gas.
*End the addiction to oil--and coal and natural gas--that are driving the heating of the earth, the climate disruption which will inevitably lead to more and more wars as our ecosystem and economies are devastated.
The Iowa Caucus is decadent and depraved
Painful observations in the nation’s first state to act; no one has any business caring about this…who let these miserable freaks vote?
The horsemen slumber, the heroes in their graves; there is no music of the harp, no joy in the palace, as there was of yore.
--Beowulf
DES MOINES, IA: Iowans are known for their corn and love of politics. When it is time to elect a new President, they are the first state in the Union to act, with their confusing caucus and absurd over-coverage in the media. I believed the hype; I watched CNN and CSPAN (and CSPAN2, mind you) like an addict for the last couple months, unable to get enough information on this impending campaign season. My first as a professional journalist, and perhaps the most important in the history of America...was I thrilled? You bet your ass. I was going to Iowa, I was to glimpse History. Ah, sweet naivete; had I only known how many hicks, fools, and general miscreants we could fit into the wretched state of Iowa I would have stayed home. I was clueless...under-prepared...my research woefully inadequate, I finalized an expense agreement with my editor.
The horsemen slumber, the heroes in their graves; there is no music of the harp, no joy in the palace, as there was of yore.
--Beowulf
DES MOINES, IA: Iowans are known for their corn and love of politics. When it is time to elect a new President, they are the first state in the Union to act, with their confusing caucus and absurd over-coverage in the media. I believed the hype; I watched CNN and CSPAN (and CSPAN2, mind you) like an addict for the last couple months, unable to get enough information on this impending campaign season. My first as a professional journalist, and perhaps the most important in the history of America...was I thrilled? You bet your ass. I was going to Iowa, I was to glimpse History. Ah, sweet naivete; had I only known how many hicks, fools, and general miscreants we could fit into the wretched state of Iowa I would have stayed home. I was clueless...under-prepared...my research woefully inadequate, I finalized an expense agreement with my editor.
The South Carolina you won't see on CNN - South Carolina primary colors: black and white?
South Carolina 2000: Six hundred police in riot gear facing a few dozen angry-as-hell workers on the docks of Charleston. In the darkness, rocks, clubs and blood fly. The cops beat the crap out of the protesters. Of course, it's the union men who are arrested for conspiracy to riot. And of course, of the five men handcuffed, four are Black. The prosecutor: a White, Bible-thumping Attorney General running for Governor. The result: a state ripped in half - White versus Black.
South Carolina 2008: On Saturday, the Palmetto State may well choose our President, or at least the Democrat's idea of a President. According to CNN and the pundit-ocracy, the only question is, Will the large Black population vote their pride (for Obama) or for "experience" (Hillary)? In other words, the election comes down to a matter of racial vanity.
The story of the dockworkers charged with rioting in 2000 suggest there's an awfully good reason for Black folk to vote for one of their own. This is the chance to even the historic score in this land of lingering Jim Crow where the Confederate Flag flew over the capital while the longshoreman faced Southern justice.
South Carolina 2008: On Saturday, the Palmetto State may well choose our President, or at least the Democrat's idea of a President. According to CNN and the pundit-ocracy, the only question is, Will the large Black population vote their pride (for Obama) or for "experience" (Hillary)? In other words, the election comes down to a matter of racial vanity.
The story of the dockworkers charged with rioting in 2000 suggest there's an awfully good reason for Black folk to vote for one of their own. This is the chance to even the historic score in this land of lingering Jim Crow where the Confederate Flag flew over the capital while the longshoreman faced Southern justice.
The South Carolina you won't see on CNN - South Carolina primary colors: black and white?
South Carolina 2000: Six hundred police in riot gear facing a few dozen angry-as-hell workers on the docks of Charleston. In the darkness, rocks, clubs and blood fly. The cops beat the crap out of the protesters. Of course, it's the union men who are arrested for conspiracy to riot. And of course, of the five men handcuffed, four are Black. The prosecutor: a White, Bible-thumping Attorney General running for Governor. The result: a state ripped in half - White versus Black.
South Carolina 2008: On Saturday, the Palmetto State may well choose our President, or at least the Democrat's idea of a President. According to CNN and the pundit-ocracy, the only question is, Will the large Black population vote their pride (for Obama) or for "experience" (Hillary)? In other words, the election comes down to a matter of racial vanity.
The story of the dockworkers charged with rioting in 2000 suggest there's an awfully good reason for Black folk to vote for one of their own. This is the chance to even the historic score in this land of lingering Jim Crow where the Confederate Flag flew over the capital while the longshoreman faced Southern justice.
South Carolina 2008: On Saturday, the Palmetto State may well choose our President, or at least the Democrat's idea of a President. According to CNN and the pundit-ocracy, the only question is, Will the large Black population vote their pride (for Obama) or for "experience" (Hillary)? In other words, the election comes down to a matter of racial vanity.
The story of the dockworkers charged with rioting in 2000 suggest there's an awfully good reason for Black folk to vote for one of their own. This is the chance to even the historic score in this land of lingering Jim Crow where the Confederate Flag flew over the capital while the longshoreman faced Southern justice.
Does Hillary Clinton cross ethical lines?
Politics can be a rough game. Candidates need to hold their competitors accountable, to challenge distortions and lies. And God knows, we need a Democratic nominee who's willing to fight. But Hillary Clinton's campaign has crossed so many ethical lines it risks embittering so many potential supporters as to cost the Democrats the November election. If all the new voters that Obama's bringing in are so angered they decide to stay home, it's going to be extremely difficult for the Democrats to beat a candidate like McCain, particularly if the Republicans have Hillary to mobilize against.
Conspiracy theorist
“We should at least get votes back on paper and get people counting them by hand.”
As innocuous as these words may sound, they make me feel like I’m on I-35 in Minneapolis, headed toward the Mississippi bridge. Ankle-deep in a presidential election year, I find myself without faith in the infrastructure of American civilization.
This is not what I’d like to be writing about. Our nation’s soul is bleeding, its future up for grabs. The candidates jockey for a mandate — our mandate — and they’ll define it as narrowly as possible unless we define it for them. How thoroughly and courageously do we repudiate the Cheney-Bush legacy? How resolutely do we move toward peace and global oneness? That’s what 2008 is all about, right?
As innocuous as these words may sound, they make me feel like I’m on I-35 in Minneapolis, headed toward the Mississippi bridge. Ankle-deep in a presidential election year, I find myself without faith in the infrastructure of American civilization.
This is not what I’d like to be writing about. Our nation’s soul is bleeding, its future up for grabs. The candidates jockey for a mandate — our mandate — and they’ll define it as narrowly as possible unless we define it for them. How thoroughly and courageously do we repudiate the Cheney-Bush legacy? How resolutely do we move toward peace and global oneness? That’s what 2008 is all about, right?
In honor of my mother and the power of love
The last time my mother was in a hospital, an essay by Thich Nhat
Hanh moved in front of my eyes. "Our mother is the teacher who first
teaches us love, the most important subject in life," he wrote.
"Without my mother I could never have known how to love. Thanks to her I
can love my neighbors. Thanks to her I can love all living
beings. Through her I acquired my first notions of understanding and
compassion."
My mother, Miriam A. Solomon, died on January 20, which happened to be the seventh anniversary of the inauguration of a man and a presidential regime that she loathed. Once, several years ago, when I referred to George W. Bush as "an idiot," she made a correction by pointing out he's much worse than that; she used the adjective "evil."
At my parents' apartment, taped on the front door for a long time, a little poster said: "The America I Believe In Doesn't Torture People." The poster was from Amnesty International USA -- an organization that my mom wrote many protest letters to dictators for -- and it summed up her devotion to human decency rather than counterfeit versions of American democracy.
My mother, Miriam A. Solomon, died on January 20, which happened to be the seventh anniversary of the inauguration of a man and a presidential regime that she loathed. Once, several years ago, when I referred to George W. Bush as "an idiot," she made a correction by pointing out he's much worse than that; she used the adjective "evil."
At my parents' apartment, taped on the front door for a long time, a little poster said: "The America I Believe In Doesn't Torture People." The poster was from Amnesty International USA -- an organization that my mom wrote many protest letters to dictators for -- and it summed up her devotion to human decency rather than counterfeit versions of American democracy.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: his day and today
Today is Martin Luther King Day. It almost slipped past me unnoticed. In the car this morning, I caught a bit of one of his speeches. Four minutes, tops. Yet enough to get me thinking. After work, I researched which speech it was that I had gotten a tantalizing taste of. "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" was delivered at New York City's Riverside Church on April 4, 1967. I downloaded the speech and listened to it as I read along. The words flowed off the pages and out of my speakers and pooled around me, vibrant and alive. Has it really been forty years? Some days, it seems that we have made no progress at all.
When King was in his prime, I was a suburban teen, more concerned with matching my knee socks to my sweaters and skirts than I was about civil rights. It simply wasn't a part of my life. And when King was assassinated, exactly one year after giving this speech, he vanished into an overarching sadness that I dimly felt but could not articulate. I'd like to belatedly take a moment to honor a man whose vision still reverberates after all these years, if we will but listen.
When King was in his prime, I was a suburban teen, more concerned with matching my knee socks to my sweaters and skirts than I was about civil rights. It simply wasn't a part of my life. And when King was assassinated, exactly one year after giving this speech, he vanished into an overarching sadness that I dimly felt but could not articulate. I'd like to belatedly take a moment to honor a man whose vision still reverberates after all these years, if we will but listen.