The latest batch is here:
Posted July 23, 2010 | 01:22 PM (EST)What the President Didn't Seem to Learn From the Shirley Sherrod Incident
The "teachable moment" cliché may be overused, as Jason Linkins observed the other day, but what the White House really needed this week was a learnable moment. The Administration and other leading Democrats had an opportunity this week to understand the nature of the opposition they face. The President's...
Scammed: What Shirley Sherrod and Social Security Have in Common
317 Comments | Posted July 21, 2010 | 10:56 PM (EST)
This week's big story is that a faker scammed the media, trashing an innocent USDA employee's career in order to push a false right-wing narrative. But another scam's underway too, and it's targeting Social Security and other entitlement programs. As Republicans (and at least one Democrat) pushed budget-busting...
Wall Street "Justice": AIG Evidence Raises the Question, "Where Are the Indictments?"
97 Comments | Posted July 19, 2010 | 06:13 PM (EST)
A disturbing pattern seems to be forming in Washington: Evidence of financial wrongdoing leads to settlements with large banking institutions, but with no apparent move to indict the individuals responsible. AIG agreed to the largest settlements in history, yet despite seemingly compelling evidence the Justice Department decided not to prosecute...
Drill, Gamble, Loot, Starve: The Chamber of Commerce, the GOP, and the Politics of Plunder
420 Comments | Posted July 15, 2010 | 09:24 AM (EST)
The United States Chamber of Commerce has released an "open letter" to the President, Congress, and the American people which contains its blueprint for our political future. It lays out the current Republican playbook in stark terms, and it reads like the battle plan for those alien spaceships...
Millions of Jobless, Billions for Bankers: The Fed Must Act Now
17 Comments | Posted July 13, 2010 | 01:13 PM (EST)
In a nation wracked with unemployment and recession, Wall Street firms are still paying billions of dollars in bonuses - and they're hiring, too. The Federal Reserve recently affirmed its right to regulate executive pay, but has yet to take action on it. It should. These two facts...
The “R” Word
The November mid-terms are quickly taking on a significance usually reserved for a Presidential election. Should Conservatives win back the House of Representatives; the President’s agenda for the next two years will be on hold. In fact, the President could find himself in the position of having to veto Republican attacks on his landmark legislation just to stay even.
This is an undeserved reversal of fortune for a President who’s actually making good on his campaign promises. Independents who plan to vote Republican and Liberals who plan to stay home may want to take a minute to review all that has happened since the election.
Tea Party attacks on the President, launched only six months after the inauguration, unleashed a torrent of hate. Members rushed to rallies bristling with anti-Obama signs; many of which mocked the President’s African American heritage. Their early success quickly turned into a feeding frenzy, with Conservatives vying to see who could come up with the most ridiculous charge against the President. Examples: The President tried to indoctrinate school children with Obamaism under the guise of a televised address encouraging them to stay in school; Obama is hiding the fact that he was born in Kenya and is not really an American citizen; he plotted to create death panels to do away with the elderly and hid this away in his health care reform bill; he pretends to be a Christian but is actually a Moslem.
Fueled by hatred for the man more than his policies, Tea Party activists gladly embraced these trumped-up charges. And understandably so, they were just what the doctor ordered. Convenient and politically correct, they provided the perfect surrogate for their rage at the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. There is no evidence that the “N” word was in play; but there is also no doubt that racism, the “R”, word explains the success of their strategy.
Politically necessary compromises not withstanding, the President is steadily moving this country toward a future cast in terms of modern realities and the intrinsic value of social justice. A massive win by Conservatives in November will mark the end of such progress and a return to regressive policies intended only to maintain the status quo for the privileged few and those too timid to seek a better life.
Jack Blackshear
Posted by: Jack Blackshear | July 25, 2010 at 04:58 PM