Obama Appreciated for Eloquence of Argument

Obama Appreciated for Eloquence of Argument

David Schraub (Moderate Voice) talks positively about Barack Obama, who has decided to vote against John Roberts.

Quote of the Day: Oliver Willis

Quote of the Day: Oliver Willis

"The left needs to realize that they are no longer fighting George Bush. "

- Oliver Willis, reminding progressive democrats that they aren’t running and advocating against Bush anymore - but against the "perverted movement" that he stands for.

Abandoning the Misplaced/Hiding the Poor

Abandoning the Misplaced/Hiding the Poor

Using an LA Times excerpt, Josh Marshall (with tongue placed firmly in cheek) says that "sometimes it's hard to appreciate the sort of tireless, behind-the-scenes efforts that the White House puts into into screwing the middle class and abandoning those displaced and uprooted by Katrina." It seems that rather than culturally integrating misplaced people, the White House believes in building trailer parks in which the poor can be crammed (and kept from the rest of America). That is morally wrong and socially unjust. What makes it unethical is the fact that the government would be putting these high-risk trailers on land which we know is vulnerable to natural disaster.

John Edwards coined* the moniker "Bushvilles" to represent the idea of concentrated numbers of poor Americans packed and hidden away in stacks of virtual tin cans on federal land in Edwards' speech on Poverty this week at the Center for American Progress. It's morally, ethically, and socially wrong, and I believe that most Americans would acknowledge that it's wrong for a democratic and multicultural society to function well when certain citizens are purposely isolated from others. It perpetuates "identity politics," which the Right will accuse the Left of opportunistically tapping into, when the Right have been the ones initiating the core problem and opening the doors wide open to vaild social injustice complaints.

*Note: NCDem at the One America website has advised me that Sen. Edwards hadn't actually "coined" the term, because it's been used for quite some time now. He simply brought it into the public consciousness.

No Direction Home: Bob Dylan

No Direction Home: Bob Dylan



I am looking forward to Martin Scorcese's "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan," which will appear this week on PBS's "American Masters" series. It's sequel to Bob Dylan's book, "Chronicles: Volume One," which is one of the most interesting memoirs I've read. According to Richard Harrington (WaPo), there will be "rare film and recordings, as well as something even rarer: an extended interview with the famously private artist.." Scorcese did not actually meet Dylan while making the film, but he says that Dylan gave him free rein to shape the story and complete control over the final cut. Dylan admits that back in high school, "two girls in particular brought out the poet" in him. I'd like to shake their hands. When this quiet, intelligent boy from the mundane town of Hibbing, Minnesota found himself, he helped a nation's young generation to find itself.