If there was ANY example that we do not have a LIBERAL MEDIA (Sorry Conservatives, we REALLY DON'T have one), here it is. Jeremy Scahill debates Ed Schultz about what's really goin on in Libya and I have to say, you WILL hear the words "Freedom Fighters" come from Ed Schultz's mouth once you watch this video. Wow, this is a perfect case of "It's OK when our guy does it"

Here is a blog from Black Agenda Report which usually addresses issue concerning the Black Progressive Community. I go there from time to time and they have some pretty interesting stuff to say. Here's a blog that talks about everything that I feel about the Progressive right now and how Wisconsin is a test for how the larger Progressive Movement will move on from here. I encourage you to read it here: http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/f...

The state of the Wisconsin is at the epicenter of a new, grim reality. The right wing is determined to destroy the last remaining vestiges of workers’ rights in this country. Newly elected governor Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled legislature have acted on a threat which their party has made all over the country. They plan to eliminate collective bargaining rights for all public employees, and limit the amount of any pay increases to the consumer price index. Only law enforcement and fire fighters would be exempt from this measure.

This salvo should be met with unrestrained and clear opposition from the Democratic Party nationally and from organized labor. Yet the White House response has been muted and underwhelming and labor is still in the grip of a dysfunctional one-way love affair with Obama and refuses to call the president out for his lackluster non-response.

The pitiful response from the White House and the acquiescence in it by big labor are an indication that this is just the beginning of what appears to be a successful Republican attack. Wisconsin should be a rallying cry for the Democratic Party, an opportunity to remind its voters of the consequences of Republican victory. Instead of leading the push back, the White House has demurred and in fact denied any involvement in the fight with Wisconsin activists at the helm.

After only becoming more involved in looking at politics in late 2006 to now, I've noticed a lot of things about myself, my political leanings and had to look more at the political structure. In the beginning I called myself a moderate because I didn't really want to labeled as an idealogue, but taking time to realize that I was a liberal but was not dogmatic in my beliefs. I also voted for Barack Obama, and in that time become more vocal politics and his policies and now most recently, the larger Progressive Movement. I think with first 2 and a half years of the Obama Administration, and the most recent protests in Wisconsin, soon to be around the country and how the Progressive Movement has responded I think this is a moment that we as a whole should really focus and reflect on.


The Failure Of The Liberal Class
I know some of you may or may not have read Chris Hedges' book "The Death Of The Liberal Class" which he analyzes the Progressive Infrastructure through the Universities, The Press, The Labor Movement, The Civil Rights Movement, The Anti-War Movement, The Democratic Party. His assessment is pretty much that after World War II the Liberal Establismhment disempowered itself by trying by having access to the power elite, A good example of this is the Labor Movement and the Democratic Party. Now the more mainstream unions were able to have a seat at the table in the White House and actually gain victories only because of the more militant Labor Unions put the fear of God into some of the power elite. Hedges talks about how certain examples of these more militant unions being underminded by the more mainstream elements of the Labor Movement in order to gain a measure of power. I'm only using the example of the unions because of what's going today but you can pretty use that for anything in the Progressive Movement wheter it be the Enviromental Movement, Gay Rights Movement etc., and of course it applies today. I'm being reminded by Jane Hamsher's blog post about the "Veal Pen". In one of Chris Hedges' appearances talking about his book he stated something that was very sad but true. He said the the Liberal Class' biggest enemy was not people like Glenn Beck, but Noam Chomsky. Because Chomsky remains critical of the power structure even among the left. We om the left tend to treat the people who we should've most likely stood up for with comtempt. If you don't believe me, look at Ralph Nader. A lot of liberals till this day, especially on this website will fault Ralph Nader for what happened in Florida in the 2000 election, yet they know that the Supreme Court had gift wrapped the election for George Bush, The Governor of Florida was Bush's brother and Katherine Harris was a campaign chair. Yet we treated him with a huge amount of comtempt.



The Absence of Black Political Thought In The Age Of Obama
You can't talk about the Progressive Movement without the contributions of Black People. In the age of Obama, most African Americans don't really have that much of broad discussion about how Obama has reacted to the struggles of black people. Black People have the highest level of unemployment, yet Obama refuses to address these issues. Also, people in my community don't seem to notice that everytime he talks to black audiences it's always about how we're lazy, we need to pull ourselves up by our own bootsraps. A lot of time's he often says disparging things about Black Men and is quick to bring up the stereotype that most black men are often absentee fathers and commiting crimes. Yet he won't bring up how the war on drugs, the Prison Industrial Complex locks black men up at alarming rate compared to their white counterparts. When ask at a press conference by a reporter from BET about how the stimulus package, he basically gave the usual "all rising tides will lift all boats" answer. It's almost as if he's afraid to address even the most minimal of issues of the situation in the black community. One example frp, my own experience is talking about politics with a classmate who's black and like I said, over time I've become more critical of President Obama, we were talking about the Health "Reform" bill and he asked me "Why do you hate President Obama so much?" I was stunned, I mean I really was really taken for a loop for a second. Right now in the Black Community it seems that the only discussion about Obama is largely what Obama is goin to do or who is trying to take down Obama. Without a strong response from the black community, the Progressive Movement will suffer.



Final Thoughts
I think that the Progressive Movement has to look at itself from now on and realize that if it's gonna move forward Progressive Movement has to be indpendent of both parties, whether it be Republican or Democratic and the power structure. We are at a very tough time now, even with the First Black President. Right now it seems that the presence of a Black President has effectively neutered the Progressive Movement and because of that, it's emboldened the most right wing elements to things like what they're doing in Wisconsin and across the country with Union Busting. The Progressive has to really look at ourselves in the mirror, and really examine ourselves, because if not, The Progressive Movement will have itself to blame for not standing up when it should have.

This explained everything that I've been thinking of the Democratic Party since their level of selling out to the corporate elite a LONG time ago


This note is not just for you Michael. It is also for the progressive minded pundits that you rub elbows with. It is time to LET GO OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY! I sat last night and watched you and John Nichols with Laura Flanders and Amy Goodman. The election results were streaming in trumpeting a bloodbath for the Democrats. I sat forward in my chair, awaiting the truth of it all: That the Democrats have no one to blame but themselves for what transpired! You seemed at times, Michael, to want to just shout that out. Yet, along with the others ( including Thom Hartmann and his panel earlier) , as a group you all seemed to have hope for these hypocrites and sellouts! Am I being too rash? Sorry, but as a progressive small businessman and activist leader, I reached my breaking point in 2007. The Democrats regained control of the Congress and did ….NOTHING substantial regarding key issues

Michael, I love your films and your chutzpah. You usually speak truth to power. Yet, last night you behaved like the man whose wife keeps going out and cheating on him. Instead of finally putting his foot down and saying ‘ Enough is enough ‘ , he keeps taking her back after she squirts some tears of remorse his way. Been there did that Michael, with a previous love interest and with the Democrats. The more they bull**** us and promised us ‘ hope and change ‘ we would keep voting for them. Each time we showed great disappointment, all they needed to do ( as with this election ) is play the ‘ Lesser of two evils fear card. Yet, as you revealed in your latest film, we are talking about survival here Michael. The survival of our citizens to be able to have employment, shelter and a safety net has already come to an end. Sadly, these Democrats had the power for 3 plus years to make a difference, and did squat!

Do me a favor Michael, and share this with Amy and the others: Stop using the phrases ‘ WARS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN ‘ ! There are no wars going on…. Only occupations. Perhaps if we who disdain what our nation has done to those two countries in our name used the word occupation , more Americans would begin to ‘ get it ‘ . Thus, we have a Democratic party that not only supports these machinations of empire, but continues to vote for the spending that this Military Industrial Complex needs so as to operate with impunity! Mr. Obama may be a nice guy and all that, but…. He is simply a servant of empire the same as Junior Bush, Clinton, Bush Sr., Reagan , Carter, Ford, Nixon , LBJ and even JFK ( until he got ‘ born again humane ‘ and they finished him off ) . His party, with but a handful of exceptions, follows lock step behind the Fat Cats who run our corporations and the Pentagon.


http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2010/1...

As I watched the "Rally To Restore Sanity And/or Fear" I was struck by how many young people were at the rally, I mean, this seemed like the closest thing us in the Millenial Generation have as our Woodstock. I wish I would have gotten a chance to go but of course it's goin down to the wire in classes so I have to focus on my grades right now. I was also struck by how in the rally, there were parts in the rally from the video montages that made me a little bit uneasy about this issue of "False Equivalency" in the media.
In both video montages they showed clips of how the media ratchets up fear and how they play a role in polarizing the country. In those videos Ed Schultz and Keith Olbermann were part of the montage and it showed parts where they may have been making over-the-top comments, and yes Alan Grayson was there too to show that "Well, they're are extremists on both sides so they're both guilty". You know what I'm talking about. This is a common disease that is almost like a cancer in our media. What's more disheartening is that you see Jon Stewart use tat same tactic applied in the media in order to seem objective. Here is the problem with that... BOTH SIDES ARE NOT THE SAME!!! On the very far right you have a bunch of people (The Republicans in the House and Senate) who would rather let the country fail in order to look good for votes, an entire media outlet (Fox News) masquerading itself as a news organization but is really a conservative media outlet that promotes lies, falsehoods and deliberatley creates division in this country by looking at anything that is Left/Democratic leaning as evil (See ACORN, Tides Foundation and Van Jones). and on The Left you have usually people from the Center-Left or what is people as The Center in this country. I mean sure, you can argue the style is over the top on both sides but to equate both left and right with guilt doesn't help civil discourse in this country, it actually hurts. In Jon Stewart's announcement, he criticized both the left and the right for being too over the top with the rhetoric. In the video he showed how people on the right were over top by calling Obama a Socialist/Communist or a secret Muslim, but on the left he showed that People on the left were over the top by showing a Code Pink rally where they called George Bush a war criminal (which he is) and Alan Grayson's "Don't Get Sick, Die Quickly" speech on the House Floor.
The prblem with doing that is that for one, their is evidence the to show that the Bush Administration did commit war crimes and if you look and Alan Grayson's speech in context he was actually MAKING FUN of the hysteria on the right during health care. Another thing that I saw in the montage that I didn't expect to see was Frank Schaeffer. Frank Schaeffer is interesting because him and his father were founders of the modern day religious right, now he's actually trying rewrite the wrongs about the religious right that he and his father helped create. GleNn Greenwald wrote a great piece about this issue on Salon.com when he made the announcement for the rally. My issue isn't necessarily with Stewart, but more with the issue of "False Equivalency", which is actually a tactic that they have used for years when challenged about extremism coming from the far right, and news reporters usually fall for this trick in order to not seem biased. Stewart doing the same thing is actually potentially dangerous because it conflates passion with extremism, which are not the same.
When people on The Left had criticized George Bush for going into war in Iraq, and commiting war crimes, that was actually a legitimate because there was evidence that the administration did. The media should not equate with "Obama is a racist who hates white people", or the non-existent "Death Panels" in the Health Care bill, or if you were against the war you were unpatriotic in 2003. When Stewart actually tries to equate both sides with equal blame for these type of issues, it actaully validates the people on the right who want to avoid any responsibility for the way public discourse is in this country. This is something that we Liberals, Democrats, or yes, Moderates have to call out when we see it being played by anybody in the media, because we have to separate passion, with extremism

What do you guys think?

You know, after seeing Eric Massa this week being reduced to a caricature I thought to myself "Damn, this is sad to wattch, but I can't turn away". I thought it was really interesting though that he was one of the few Liberals in the house that were strong advocates of Single Payer that stated that they were gonna vote "no" on the health "reform" bill. I mean don't get me wrong, it's been very hard to watch Eric Massa embarrass himself on TV so much that even Glenn Beck looks perplexed in that interview. But then for the next couple of days I saw people like Ed Schultz begging liberals to support the bill and the Democrats to "pass the damn bill", and Markos Moulitsas threating a primary challenge to Dennis Kucinich (even the deadline for filing primaries has already passed). Then I saw this link on Facebook about MoveOn.org stating that they will hold demonstrations in front of Dennis Kucinich's office in Lakewood, Ohio.
http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/20...

This really reminds me of the story that Jane Hamsher was talking about with "Liberal" groups based in Washington: http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/09/0... / I'm guessing these groups that really want a seat at the table in the White House are hard at work now. When I saw this I thought to myself, this could be the "Fingerpoke Of Doom" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fingerpoke_of... ) for a lot of the Liberal blogosphere. Because most of the readers are young and a lot of people who pride themselves as Progressives are seeing this group basically sell themselves out to have a seat the table in Washington. Really Sad. What do you guys think?

Hey everbody this is Scottie Allen. If You haven't heard yet then Legendary MC Guru of the group Gang Starr is in a coma after suffering from a heart attack: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1632854/2... He is supposed to undergo surgery today. As a Hip Hop head and a fan of Gang Starr I hope is able to pull through this and not leave us wit these wack ass ringtone rappers. He always had some real shit to talk about in his music so I was just wonderin to everbody, what's your favorite Gang Starr album, song, momemt, verse, or even a line from Guru.

My Favorite Album



My Favorite Song: Above The Clouds feat. Inspectah Deck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IoPeNC4k_0

My Favorite Gang Starr Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9lNbNGbo24

My Favorite Guru Line (Moment Of Truth)

Yo I got one lyric pointed at your head for start
Another one, is pointed at your weak ass heart
Now if I pull the trigger, on these fully loaded lines
You're gonna wish I woulda pulled a black nine, I mack dimes



GET WELL SOON GURU! DON'T LEAVE US ALL ALONE WIT THESE CANDY ASS RINGTONE RAPPERS!

This guy goes to work on these TV's at a Wal Mart in Georgia. Now for the men on this blog, haven't you had this thought in your head before? It's just a question, I advise you not to do it but it's just fun to watch in this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z0akmwz8oc...

I must say has really brouht the worst in people who actually THINK they're conservatives when should realize that true conservatives would've been against the Iraq War, the bailouts, torture, and Bush's lack of leadership on Hurricane Katrina. They've really said some usual shit like "#YouMightBeALiberal when the opinion of Hollywood stars help you formulate your ideals", or "If you're against killing terrorist but support abortion". So I was wondering if everbody wanted to go on Twitter and REALLY let them know what it really means to be a Liberal.

By the way, if you're their, you can follow me here: www.twitter.com/614boombap