As a Michigan voter, I'm 90% likely to be voting for Obama ... BUT (1) I take offense at the out-of-state vultures sitting around deciding how to take best ADVANTAGE of the January FUBAR ... a FUBAR in large part created by the state parties of four OTHER states (more out-of-staters) protecting a PRIVILEGED status granted for decades to conservative states that DO NOT demographically match the Democratic Party nationally. (2) The citizens of Michigan spent MILLIONS on a primary and the candidat...

In many, many areas of study (e.g. philosophies) there are phrases and labels that themselves do NOT convey understanding but, for those who've invested the effort to gain that understanding, offer a reminder or an anchor for part of the lesson. It is delusional to infer otherwise. Slogans are NEVER a substitute for in-depth study - and are not intended to be.

... and quite another to exploit ignorance, pander to bigotry, and/or promulgate the perpetuation of institutionalized privilege. I hold it as axiomatic that learning and education is a 'public good.' I hold it as axiomatic that any form of bigotry, whether it's based on race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or national origin is toxic both to individuals and to our society. I know that people who personally benefit from any condition have a tendency to perpetuate that condition, good or...

As the payroll wages of the "bottom 90%" continue to lag behind and the CHASM between them and the top 2% gets broader and deeper, the FICA TAXES ON THOSE PAYROLL WAGES also go down. This is the ol' "War On The Middle Class" ... but even that meme is misleading. It's a "war" on the working class - cheap labor - the commoditization of human beings. If we want to kill two vampires with one silver bullet, raise the federal minimum wage to a LIVABLE WAGE! It really shouldn't require a rocket sci...

The 'test' of one's Faith is how it withstands the evil assaults of knowledge - inconvenient facts. Thus we have Creationists and Dittoheads ... people ALREADY immune to knowledge. In Cheney/Bush/Neocon/CLC Amerika, STUPID is a Virtue!! Knowledge is "elitism."

After the total and utter abomination of the Cheney/Bush regime, the Democrats had the greatest 'lock' on the Residential election since 1932 (or maybe 1964). They've had a 15-point generic advantage for more than two years. The ONLY way they could lose is to fuck it up and blow it. The MI/FL FUBAR was one of the biggest "hints" ... an all-out, take-no-prisoners struggle inside the party for control. Between the DLC/BlueDog 'centrists' and the 'leftists' (a once-admired label now used as an e...

The gravediggers have been busy in Boot Hillary. I doff my hat to our intrepid gatekeepers. Good shooting, my friends!!! :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: Click on the granite cookie and contemplate the Klan names chosen. :eyes: :eyes:

(Image) :rofl: Another of their stupordelegates, no doubt.

... speaks VOLUMES to the attitudes within that coterie of 'elitists.' Folks must wake up to the FACT that it's not a matter of voters being ignorant, ill-informed, or even bigoted. It's a matter of whether folks who ask to represent us are inclined to EXPLOIT that ignorance for their personal aggrandizement or work to INFORM and educate us as a matter of basic integrity. Over the decades, we've enacted laws all over this nation that criminalize those who prey upon the elderly, the infirm, th...

I find Tikkun (and the Network of Spiritual Progressives) thoughtful and insightful - well worth contemplating. This is an email I've received and can, therefore, post in its entirety. It's a perspective I find valuable. Note from Rabbi Michael Lerner: I'm sending you Eli Zaretsky's valuable analysis of the current dispute about Wright and some of the deeper issues that are now coming to the surface in the Obama campaign. I think it is an important piece, although in some minor respects...

Having spent nearly six-and-a-half decades on the planet, some things are far too obvious to ignore. One of the most obvious 'games' that's been played out over and over and over again is Bigotry-by-Proxy, the self-righteous, condescending, "pragmatic" exploitation and perpetuation of racism (and misogyny) by folks too cowardly and duplicitous to get their own hands dirty. "The fans will NEVER buy tickets if we have blacks playing major league baseball!" Others older than me will recall this e...

The core sense of (white) "elitism" and entitlement - coupled with her oh-so-generous condescension to her "inferiors" - is becoming clearer and clearer under the bright lights of her campaign. I no longer think for a moment that Hillary's sense of "We" (as in "We the People") is all-inclusive at its root. I once assumed it did, but no longer. I think she regards it as a "favor" ... and that's one of the more noxious remnants of Jim Crow racism. That's the "lesser evil" that was (and is, still...

When I go to a Sunday Brunch, I cannot find it in my psyche to "tolerate" the diversity of foods and beverages. When I go to a restaurant, I have no sense of "tolerance" for the diversity of offerings on the menu. When I enjoy wild flowers, I have no comprehension of "tolerance" for the diversity of blooms. Vive la difference. I wallow in it. I'm like a kid in a toy store. There's almost nothing I love more than the MOST diverse community I can find, and the most diverse gathering of friend...

STEPHANOPOULOS: You have a very cool style when you're doing those town meetings, when you're out on the campaign trail. And I wonder, how much of that is tied to your race? OBAMA: That's interesting. In ClintonCloudCuckooLand, "that's interesting" is what passes for the race-card, I guess. :eyes:

She got a field goal. Her diehard fans cheered ... but the more rational are leaving the stadium. It's just that simple. :shrug: Two minute warning! Obama's got the ball. What do YOU think the line is in Las Vegas at THIS point? Place your bet.

The crossover vote shouldn't be ignored. It's also a state with a long-lasting KKK heritage in various pockets - even though they surely lean "right." At the same time, basketball is a religion. (That's really not much of an overstatement.) Obama will do pretty well in the northwest part of the state (1st CD) and around Indianapolis (7th CD). Hillary will do well in the rest of the state, particularly the 3rd (Mark Souder - R), 4th (Steve Buyer - R), 5th (Dan Burton - R), and maybe the 6th (M...

The 'prize' is the 2nd Congressional District's 9 delegates. There are seven delegates each from the 1st, 7th, 8th, 13th, and 14th Congressional Districts and six from the 6th. Each of the other twelve Congressional Districts get lesser number of delegates down to 3 delegates from the 9th Congressional District. Interestingly, if either candidate gets 1 vote more than 85% in any Congressional District they get ALL those delegates. Fifty-five delegates are awarded statewide which means about...

As I've stated far too many times, I voted for Kucinich (and it didn't "count") and support him. It's because he took policy stances that I agreed with 95-98% of the time. I see only a very slight difference between the policy stances of Obama and Clinton - far, far less in agreement with my values than Kucinich's. I do, however, see a marked difference in the campaigns and ephemerals. I also see a difference in the KEY stances taken in the past, particularly in IWR, Kyl-Lieberman, bankruptcy,...

"I'll be glad to wear TWO flag pins if it provides health care coverage to 47 million Americans. I'll be glad to wear THREE flag pins if it adds ten million Americans to the American labor force. I'll be glad to wear FOUR flag pins if it raises incomes of the bottom 90% of the working class. I'll be happy to wear FIVE flag pins if no more American service personnel are killed in Iraq. But when I see people who're wearing flag pins supporting the invasion and occupation of Iraq, denying affor...

"Melodrama is not merely a type of film or literary genre, but a pervasive cultural mode that structures the presentation of political discourse and national identity in contemporary America." (Elisabeth Anker, "") "The American media's historical obsession with simplified narratives of good and evil and our popular culture's ubiquitous melodramatic heroes, villains and victims are driving ambiguity and complexity from the public sphere. We're beginning to look and act like the characters in th...

When folks get to the point that "winning" is more important than integrity itself, the battlefields become drenched in blood. Until the sheer number corpses shock the vestigial conscience (which is a steadily increasing hurdle), the bloodshed will continue. When Americans became mere "yanks" and "rebs," the bodies of our young littered the fields of America. When the Germans became "Huns," the bodies of our young littered the fields of Europe. When the Japanese became mere "nips" and "japs,"...

... correct. Absolutely 100% of the reaction has been "God, guns, and gays" and "watch out for the uppity black man" and not a single word to address the decimation of the small town working class, the walmartification of their Main Streets, and the economic rape of rural America. The behavior is consistent. No solutions. No recognition of the predation. All hate-mongering. The topic Obama raised was "it's the economy, stupid" and the reaction was "he wants to take away your guns!" Obama sa...

Why? Because the average person benumbed by the dumbing down of the country has an OPINION (the only "right" opinion, of course) on those ... and it's the last firewall surrounding their battered, tired, stressed out hearts. If there's ANYTHING that proves the truth of what Obama said, it's the fact that folks went IMMEDIATELY to CODE RED and formed battle squares. "Who does he think he is to suggest we're not God-loving?" (He didn't.) "Who does he think he is to claim we only like guns becau...

... who's inclined to vote for him again when it actually counts (since I'm in Michigan), I'm also inclined to think it's important for people to support a candidate who best articulates the more fundamental problems in the divisive and hypocritical exploitation of the body politic ... almost independent from whether we have confidence in their ability and willingness to actually follow through on the promise of 'hope' and 'change.' The WORST thing about the ejection of Kucinich from the Primar...

Sadly, it seems that most people (with viscera totally attuned to social wedge issues) are clueless regarding the leveraged buyout of out political system by global corporate powers - people whose sole allegiance is to wealth that subordinates societies to mere colonies. We saw the takeover of the GOP accomplished 28 years ago. Instead of being the Party of small business and small government, they became the Party of BIG business and government as a pipeline into the pocketbooks of the taspay...

... and then proceeds to demostrate that her words ARE at odds with her actions. She aptly models someone who cannot seem to heed Paul Wellstone's advice to "never separate the lives you live from the words you speak."

... could be so obsessively partisan that they'd subordinate themselves to politicians who'd conceivably preempt the very electorate to whom they owed their office and whom they're duty-bound to represent. Such a violation of the principles of a representative democracy, to me, is abhorrent even in contemplation.

Yes, I believe DADT must be jettisoned like the stinky piece of sewage it is. I believe government should get the hell out of the 'marriage' business - the only such arrangment that government should be permitted to legislate is a (monogamous) "civil union" and it should be a guaranteed liberty for all consenting, non-institutionalized (age of consent) adults.

This is someone who throws folks under the bus and then tries to sell their organs! Appalling. The Democratic Party (state and national) fucked up BIG TIME and created a FUBAR for the sake of infighting over control of party machinery. There was NEVER a priority placed on a 'democratic' process - instead, they feuded over PRIVILEGE. The authoritarian apportionment of the privelege of "who goes first?" NEVER adopted a "women and children" priority of most in need. New Hampshire and Iowa are NO...

It seems rather ironic to me that Obama is emphasizing the "feminine" ephemerals - relationships, cooperation, discussion, etc. - while Clinton is emphasizing the "masculine" ephemerals - actions, conflict, fighting, etc. It's probably noteworthy that Obama's major life ('formative') influences were his mother and grandmother - where exploring his patrilineal roots was a process of discovery later in life. It seems that Bill Clinton had a somewhat similar upbringing ... and Hillary is Daddy's ...