Ah, the Senate Democrats: The Los Angeles Clippers of Politics

Like many of you, I am (or was) addicted to politics. I watch MSNBC, CNN, PBS, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert and even FoxNews.

But since the Democrats completely caved in on the Public Option, I honestly have lost interest. Seriously. I'm so jaded and disaffected right now that I couldn't really give a damn what these crooked Senators are up to. The same ones that were rallying so hard and crowing so loud on The Rachel Maddow Show and Countdown with Keith Olbermann about how hard they'll fight for the Public Option and how they'll lay down on the tracks for it have lowered their heads and walked away muttering to themselves...you know, despite having a SUPERMAJORITY.

Such weakness. The inability to pass legislation despite having an overwhelming majority. This addiction to compromise even before you get to the bargaining table. The insurance companies rightly declaring victory as they successfully killed health insurance reform.

Someone please teach the Democrats that compromise comes WAY later in the negotiations. How do you lowball YOURSELF??? The Public Option was a compromise to begin with as many Democrats really wanted single payer. And yet, they stil managed to screw that up too.

It's too much. What's on Sportscenter?

Sports reference. I was all jazzed up with Barack declaring this 'a new time' in Washington but someone forgot to tell Harry Reid. In Obama, it's like the Democrats got a star pitcher but their hitters are the same group of bums that could never make the playoffs.

Poverty In America: Real Policy Solutions For Economic Parity

Don't get me wrong. I know how Capitalism works. Everyone can't be rich. Everyone won't be middle class. But I was wondering:

If you were given complete power by the President and Congress to do whatever it took to revitalize impoverished areas of the United States in 10 years. Blank check. What would you do and why do you think it would work?

Here's what I would do:

I would increase funding for 'self-help' programs such as tuition assistance, job training programs and child care stipends for the working poor. I would drastically reduce the number of people on welfare and the amount of time that a family can receive benefits if it's proven that there are employment opportunities in their area. This would increase the number of educated, skilled workers and entrepreneurs in any given community.

I would take the money that we save from handing out welfare and give tax breaks to companies that open up shop in the poorest neighborhoods and hire the locals. As the unemployment rate drops, so would crime and drug use. That's statistically proven.

Now, people are earning their money, establishing their self-respect, taking ownership of their community and small business gets a break as well. I would also give government preference to companies and corporations that bring manufacturing jobs back to American shores and don't outsource. I would make 'Made in the USA' mean something again.

That's my urban renewal plan.

As far as poor folks out in the suburbs and rural settings, I'm not sure if that would necessarily work as you can't exactly open up a Home Depot and three Starbuck's in the middle of a small town of 2,000. I defer to anyone with more knowledge on the inner workings of farm subsidies and rural economics.

And for those who honestly could care less about lowering the number of folks below the poverty line, think of it this way: the more educated, healthy, skilled workers we have in this country, the more able we are to compete in the global market. Eliminating poverty as much as we can would bring us back to a point of self-sufficiency as a nation. It's right on moral, ethical grounds and a smart investment fiscally.

Is the media obsessed with Sarah Palin? YOU BETCHA!!!

I understand why she's all over FoxNews. She's one of the most charismatic, down-to-Earth conservative figures to come along in a very long time. I totally get why surburban soccer mawms all over the country are in love with her. Gotcha.

But I'm really not understanding CNN, MSNBC, Jon Stewart, Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann's OCD fixation with tearing apart every page of her book and every sentence she utters. I hate to admit it but it's almost like they're scared of her and scared of how popular she is among the right wing base...not realizing that by CONSTANTLY demonizing her, they actually make her MORE of a conservative celebrity by proving that the 'liberal media' IS out to get her...because they are.

In all, you'd think that I would have something against Sarah Palin but I honestly don't. She's conservative. I'm not. But her and her family seem like nice people and the constant casting her as a an attractive dummy is only setting her up to exceed low expectations.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just tired of EVERY lead story on MSNBC being some sort of lame Palin Watch. Report real news already. Enough is enough. We get it.

Friday's Quick Thought: People who quote from the bible when debating non-biblical issues

I was having a debate/discussion with someone on Facebook a few days ago about gay marriage and society's embrace of its homosexual population in general when the person broke out and started reciting scripture as though this was some sort of evidence of his point.

Why do that?

Let's say that you're eating a turkey sandwich and I say that you shouldn't do that. When you ask me why and I start quoting from the Bhagavad Gita or the Lotus Sutra, you have every right to wonder what MY religion has to do with YOUR turkey sandwich.

Exactly.

What does YOUR religion have to do with some other person's ability to see their partner in the hospital or have the same tax or healthcare benefits that you and your wife enjoy?

"Marriage" is not a Christian invention and it's not a right exclusive to religious folk. If the captain of a ship or a judge can perform a wedding, it's not a religious ceremony.

Marriage is merely a social contract recognized by the state that some may give religious significance....or they may not.

At the end of the day, I have nothing against people of faith who hold themselves to certain rules and standards but please be careful in projecting your own personal beliefs on the larger section of society that may not believe as you do.

The Sound of One Hand Clapping: How Barack Obama's push for bipartisanship is beginning to tarnish his Presidency

One of the risks of being proficient in something is that there are folks who look to take advantage of your skill for their own personal gain.

I'll never forget Tyrell Watkins in the 6th grade. He was the slickest kid in the class. Popular. Flashy. Dumb as a rock. But Tyrell had personality, persistence and overwhelming people skills which meant that he never wrote a page of homework in 12 years on the planet. So it was either by pure coincidence or through a shady backroom deal brokered by this pre-teen that he was selected to be my science lab partner for the duration of the semester. Ah...the nerd and the cool kid, forced to work together. One was the Class Science Officer, the other could throw a baseball really hard and bench press twice his weight. It's the stuff of cheesy 80s sitcoms.

That's not quite how it worked.

Our mandatory homework and lab meetings went something like this:

Watkins: Hey, nerd. Do my homework or I'll break your leg.
Me: That's Tyrell with two 'L's, right?

And such was my lot in life for the bulk of the school year. Alone in a room, plagiarising myself and bowing down to a bully even though I had the authority and all the right answers.

As a skinny, bookish kid at P.S. 96 in Spanish Harlem, who knew that I was the physical embodiment of today's Democratic Party.

The role of Tyrell Watkins will be played today by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus who just intimated that while the Democrats control the White House, have a mythical Supermajority in Congress and have infused new life into the Supreme Court, that the prospect for the passage of a public option on healthcare reform is all but dead. What's that you say? Wouldn't it stand to reason that a party who controls most of the upper levels of the federal government should be able to swiftly and easily pass legislation that it wants? Sure. But it's the Multiple Personality Democrats we're talking about here. The ones who march and stomp and protest and get up in arms when out of power only to kowtow, bend, fold and break when they are actually IN power.

President Obama. Please don't follow that legacy and the tendencies of your hand-wringing, second-guessing, ameliorating brethren on the Left. Stand tall. Stand firm. Stand up for the 46 million Americans in this country who are uninsured or underinsured who are one illness away from financial ruin, many of whom actually die from lack of care

An Independence Day thought...a few days later

We truly live in the one of the most amazing countries in the world.

I was messaging with someone just now about my desire to distinguish myself in my writing and become a political author and journalist and how it was difficult because there are literally a million blogs online and acquiring the bonafides to be a respected, called-upon voice takes time, effort and luck and I stopped myself and wrote the line:

'woe is me, right?...as I type this, some kid just died of starvation in Darfur and some woman is getting her skull cracked in an Iranian torture room for speaking out against her own government and here I am crying because I'm not famous yet.'

And I thought just how much we take for granted in this country. Very few Americans are "poor" by world standards. Our impoverished would honestly be lower middle class in most parts of the world.

A kid from Uganda or Cambodia might very well starve to death if he can't find food. A child in the mountains of Chile or the slums of Palestine that cannot afford higher education simply does not get educated. A woman in need of medical services in war-torn Somalia might just be plain out of luck.

Here in this country, if I took any of those people and plopped them on our shores within a week they would be fed daily, housed, clothed, given medical treatment, spending cash and be well on the path to being able to attend university classes for free and attend no-cost job training.

"Poor" kids in this country don't realize that OPPORTUNITY is wealth. It's not abut how much money the government or the church down the street just put in your pocket. It's about whether or not you have the chance to make it on your own. Are the lights green on your avenue or are they all red. In many parts of the world, they are, and will always be, red unless you pay off that crooked sheriff or you perform an 'act' for that local official.

That's what many folks don't get and don't understand. That simply having the option to go to college or find job training or having a country that has an apparatus by which you may enjoy the basic necessities of life is a TREMENDOUS life advantage and one that is to be recognized and seen as the blessing that it is.

I see this as I watch a kid from the South Bronx grow up to take her place as a trailblazer and a legend of tenacity, will, sacrifice and daring. Nothing in Sonia Sotomayor's early story said 'oh...you're destined to be a Supreme Court Justice one day.' She MADE that happen with her natural intelligence, her family's love and standard and a public education system just begging to be used as a stepping stone.

Sorry for the rah rah patriotic moment...and I'm not saying that we don't need to do more work to further perfect our union because we absolutely do...but we also need to stop, sometimes, and realize just how good we have it here. Many of us that were born and raised here that take these things for granted. Of course, this message doesn't apply to first generation immigrants who saw all these things a long time ago and put action behind will and decided to come to the shining land of opportunity known as America.

When The Self-Righteous Are Downright Wrong

In light of the Governor Sanford affair, I'm just wondering how so many people still justify their opposition to same-sex marriage and gay adoption based on this notion that heterosexual marriage is superior to homosexual marriage when, in fact, many of these same public, vocal defenders of traditional marriage are screwing everything that crosses their eyeline. Male, female, boys, girls...whatever. But then they get up on a stage or in front of a microphone and call someone else immoral or say that every gay union is wrong and corrupt.

Maybe we just have to wait until EVERY politicians' extramarital affair is exposed and there won't be anyone left to oppose same-sex marriage.

It's a joke.

Britney Spears can run to Las Vegas with a buddy and get married in an Elvis Presley chapel as a joke and THAT was more legal than two women who have loved one another for 20 years and share their entire lives together.

Sad.

And don't get me started on 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'. President Obama needs to do all he can to get that idiotic rule reversed ASAP.

One unexpected byproduct of the bogus Iranian elections that have American Conservatives very nervous

By showing millions of protestors in the streets of Iran decrying the unfair elections and calling for a more democratic, accountable government, the very mindset that the GOP has tried to foster in this country about Iran is tumbling down.

Remember...the Axis of Evil...these people were supposed to be an entire nation of bloodthirsty savages whose hatred of America and fanatical, rabid, frothy-mouthed desire to drink the blood of our babies was only matched by their desire to fund, endorse and engage in international terrorism.

Not anymore.

What's being broadcast on every news channel are hundreds of thousands of young, intelligent Iranians wearing sneakers, drinking soda and listening to iPods as they OPPOSE their theocratic government in a scene very reminiscent of the 1960s here in America.

Wait a minute. That's not what FoxNews has been telling me all these years. They've been openly selling the idea that the entire region is filled with turban-wearing potential suicide bombers who cheer in the streets when Americans are killed and want to establish a worldwide Caliphate.

But all I've been seeing for the last couple of weeks are a people yearning to breathe free. A young people who are standing up to death threats and threats of intimidation and imprisonment by going out and protesting for a free and fair election.

Had Mr. McCain gotten his way, he would have been 'bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran-ing' THESE people and not some monolithic group of savages or animals who couldn't be reasoned with.

While it is clear that our GOVERNMENTS have problems with one another. Perhaps this Iranian election will inadvertendly open the door to a new perception of Iran by the West. That they are not our natural enemy and that while we need to keep close tabs on the actions of their government, the Iranian PEOPLE are just like us in many ways. They believe in and love their God, they want free and fair elections and they just want to a stable, prosperous society in which to raise their family.

My response to a Conservative chain email I received

Here's the email:

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives,
> socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al:
>
>
> We have stuck together since the late 1950's, but the
> whole of this latest election process has made me realize
> that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for
> many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly,
> this relationship has run its course. Our two ideological
> sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is
> right so let's just end it on friendly terms. We can
> smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go
> our own way.
>
> Here is a model separation agreement:
>
> Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by
> landmass each taking a portion. That will be the difficult
> part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly
> agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our
> respective representatives can effortlessly divide other
> assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate
> tastes.
>
> We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep
> them. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU..
> Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms,
> the cops, the NRA and the military. You can keep Oprah,
> Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell (You are, however,
> responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to
> move all three of them).
>
> We'll keep the capitalism, greedy corporations,
> pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can
> have your beloved homeless, homeboys, hippies and illegal
> aliens. We'll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy
> CEO's and rednecks. We'll keep the Bibles and give
> you NBC and Hollywood .
> You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we'll
> retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten
> us. You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our
> allies or our way of life are under assault, we'll help
> provide them security.
>
> We'll keep our Judeo-Christian values.. You are welcome
> to Islam, Scientology, Humanism and Shirley McClain. You can
> also have the U.N.. but we will no longer be paying the
> bill.
> We'll keep the SUVs, pickup trucks and oversized luxury
> cars. You can take every Subaru station wagon you can find.
> You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any
> practicing doctors. We'll continue to believe healthcare
> is a luxury and not a right. We'll keep The Battle Hymn
> of the Republic and the National Anthem. I'm sure
> you'll be happy to substitute Imagine, I'd Like to
> Teach the World to Sing, Kum Ba Ya or We Are the World.
> We'll practice trickle down economics and you can give
> trickle up poverty your best shot. Since it often so offends
> you, we'll keep our history, our name and our flag.
> Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to
> other like minded liberal and conservative patriots and if
> you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly
> parting, I'll bet you ANWAR which one of us will need
> whose help in 15 years...
>
> Sincerely,
> John J. Wall
> Law Student and an American
> P.S. Also, please take Barbara Streisand & Jane Fonda
> with you

And here's my response:


The following is an excerpt from a famous Liberal website:
If you do not have skin cancer, and have ever stood outside without having a peeling sunburn within moments, thank the ozone layer, thank the ban on CFCs, and thank a liberal.
If you have ever breathed clean air or drank clean water, thank a liberal for continuing to champion environmental standards.
If you are glad we don't live in a right-wing dictatorship along the lines of what conservatives overtly and covertly created in Iran, Guatamala, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, the Congo, Chile, Brazil, El Salvador, the Phillipines, Indonesia and many others, thank a liberal.
If you have ever used Medicare, thank a liberal.
If you have not gotten cancer from radiation, thank the Nuclear test ban and thank a liberal.
If you've ever driven on an interstate highway, thank a liberal.
If you grew up in a family of less than 12 kids, like the idea of being able to choose if you have 12 kids or not, if you don't live in an overpopulated third world slum, or just think birth control is a good idea, thank a liberal.
If your family benefited from the GI Bill of Rights, FHA Mortgages, and so forth, thank a liberal.
If you have ever bought anything from Europe, and are glad the Marshall plan kept it from remained a bombed-out shell or falling to communism or neo-fascism, thank a liberal.
If you are glad that the Nazis don't control half the world (conservatives opposed joining World War 2 until it was forced on them) thank a liberal.
If you have ever eaten food (agricultural subsidies), flicked on a light switch (rural electrification) or benefited from the Tennessee Valley Authority, thank a liberal.
If you ever drank a beer or a glass of wine without being thrown in jail, thank a liberal.
If you are not a land-owning white male, but have voted, thank a liberal.
If you have not died from tainted meat, been prescribed something useless or poisonous by a quack doctor, have not given your children cough syrup which turned out to have heroin as its secret ingredient, thank a liberal.
If your workplace is safe and you are paid a living wage, including overtime; if you enjoy a 40-hour week and you are allowed to join a union to protect your rights without being lynched, thank a liberal.
If you've ever seen a national park, and it hadn't been strip mined and clearcut into a desert wasteland, thank a liberal.
If your children go to school instead of working in coal mines, thank a liberal.
If you're a Native American and have not been killed or died in a concentration camp, or if you live near Native Americans and are not at war with them, thank a liberal.
If you oppose political parties starting massive wars to destroy America, just because they lost the election, and killing hundreds of thousands of Americans in process - if you just don't have that much fanatical hatred of Lincoln's policy of to restricting slavery to states where it already existed, thank a liberal.
If you're part-Irish, Catholic, Jewish, or for that matter anything not Anglo-Saxon Protestant, and are allowed to live in America, and are not harassed and attacked for failing to be born Anglo-Saxon Protestant, or if you've ever bought or used anything built by a non-ASP American, thank a liberal.
If you kind of like freedom of speech, and don't want the state government to be able to censor you - (you think the 14th amendment is a good idea) - thank a liberal.
If you have ever bought or sold anything transported by the transcontinental railroad, or eaten food from a farm created by the railroad, thank a liberal.
If you think the US constitution is pretty cool, and have ever traveled too or done business with a country whose democracy was inspired by the American revolution, thank a liberal.
If you have not been drafted and used as cannon-fodder in some war caused by some petty insult between nobles, clan leaders, or other various overfed dictators, or suffered rape or looting in one of those countless wars, thank a liberal.
If you have not been tortured to death in a religious inquisition, thank a liberal.
If you don't have to walk though ankle-deep sewage in the streets (because sewers are big gummint), thank a liberal.
If you have ever done anything that is a religious or superstitious taboo (ie, done anything at all) without being stoned to death or cast out as a heretic, thank a liberal.
If you have never been raped, and then had the rapist escape punishment on the grounds that he marry you, thank a liberal.
In short, if you've ever enjoyed anything of the post-stone-age world, thank a liberal.
...And if not, become a conservative.

Oh...and on the issue of religion in general in the previous email, Jesus Christ was the ULTIMATE Liberal. Check the books of Matthew, John and beyond. He was AGAINST war, he was for healing the sick and feeding the hungry FOR FREE and he was for all men embracing one another as brothers and not stockpiling guns and building fences. Many people in America today are Christians in name alone. They have no idea what Jesus truly stood for and prefer to ascribe Old Testament values to the New Testament visionary. The Prince of PEACE. And that's coming from one of the millions of Christian Liberals in America today.

So, Conservatives. You want a divorce. You're like a spoiled child who's had their way for 8 long years and the second one election doesn't go your way, you want to take your ball and go home. Deal with it. This is America and our strength lies in our diversity and in our peaceful difference of opinion. No one party or ideology should rule for too long and thanks to the beauty of the American political system, that won't happen. It's cyclical. You've had your time. Hell, you've had 20 of the last 28 years and even THAT'S not good enough for you.

All I can say is that the current state of the GOP is your own fault. You're not bad or evil people but whenever you get stuck in your own head and refuse to adapt and update, this will happen and you'll continue to lose elections until you start to embrace what America truly is. A multicultural haven for people around the world...of every sexual orientation, nationality, religion, race and creed. America is not YOUR country. It's EVERYONE'S country and until your party truly reflects that, the Democratic majority will only increase.

But have fun crying, sulking and shaking your fists at the sky. You'll have to do so until Jan. 20, 2017 when President Obama gives his last speech as President of these United States of America.




"My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness." - The Dalai Lama

GOP Response Budget or 'The Dog Ate My Homework'

[url]http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#29904566[/url]

This Rachel Maddow clip is CLASSIC. For those of my friends here who would rather put a cigarette out on their tongue rather than watch 5 seconds of Ms. Maddow's show, let me paraphrase:

- Barack Obama dares...DOUBLE DOG DARES...his critics to stop taking potshots from the sidelines and actually come up with their own budget if they're so smart.
- the GOP takes the bait and Boehner trots out this 19-page 'budget proposal' which is literally not much more than 'Barack Obama Sucks' and 'the only thing we could come up with is to give the wealthiest Americans the largest tax cut in American history...a tax cut that dwarfs Bush's deepest cut by 10% but completely excludes any mention of healthcare, tackling the deficit or...well...anything else other than criticism of the Democrats' proposal'
- In doing so, in playing right into Obama's trap, the heat now comes off of Obama's budget and onto...you guessed it...the GOP budget...the one that doesn't really exist because Boehner said that it won't actually be ready until next week...

So why didn't they just hold the press conference NEXT WEEK when they had an actual budget to propose? It's the same reason Michael Steele is RNC Chairman...it's the same reason Sarah Palin was selected as VP candidate. The Republican Party has become the party of 'Instant and Predictable Reactionism' in the face of their reputation for staid, patient, well-thought out responses to things.

They've become a party of panickers. A party of 'quick...do something...I don't know what...just do SOMETHING' showmen who don't really HAVE a solution for the budget crisis but feel the need to grandstand and put themselves, once again, in a position to look unprepared, grumpy and obstructionist.

Congratulations.

Bobby Jindal...I'm sorry...the tribe has spoken...

Bobby Jindal got voted off the 2012 GOP Survivor with the QUICKNESS today...

Man...

I feel for the guy. Having to follow the most popular man on the planet who just received 60 standing ovations and was mobbed for autographs by MEMBERS OF CONGRESS like it was a Jonas Brothers concert was like watching a movie in iMax and then watching this skinny kid in his living room with a bad tie and a speech impediment was like watching the same movie only on a shytty bootleg DVD with a baby crying in the background and someone walking in front of the camera.

It was like watching Michael Jordan drop 50 points at Madison Square Garden and then watching Urkel attempt the same moves on a backyard hoop with a Nerf ball.

Barack Obama Has An AMAZING First Week As President

Closing Guantanamo Bay, denouncing and outlawing torture, the Stimulus Package, personally addressing the Arab world, revamping fuel efficiency standards via the Energy Independence and Security Act, promoting stem cell research and now the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act...

This time during Bush's Presidency he was literally planning his first vacation. Barack Obama has rolled into Washington D.C. like a cleansing storm and he's hard at work to reverse the lunacy of the last 8 years.

God bless him.

"Change has come to America"

It's been a CRAZY 48 to 72 hours.

WE DID IT!!!

Change has come to America and while I'm not deluded into thinking that Barack or any one President or any one person can solve all of our problems, I know that we are off on the right direction again. I know that my President is a man of honor, intelligence, respect given and great respect received around the world. I have NEVER seen the election of an American president this acclaimed and celebrated around the planet. People and nations that were fearful of us before, angry with us before and felt that America's greatest days were behind her will be lining up to work wit this man and that is good for us.

Wow...we can want our children to be like the President, the ULTIMATE positive role model...not just for African-American children but for all children. Just like Dr. King. He wasn't an African-American hero, he was an American hero who just happened to be black and I know tha Obama has yet to earn 'hero' status but something in me tells me that he will.

His presidency will be rough, he'll make mistakes along the way but I believe him when he says that he won't lie to us and that he'll make his decisions the same way he ran his campaign. With discipline, with thought of the future and with the welfare of the American people in mind always.

On a personal note, aside from intermittent crying for the last 36 hours, the second they flashed the words 'BARACK OBAMA HAS BEEN ELECTED 44TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES', I've been so proud, so hopeful, so overjoyed and so reflective. In Astoria, we poured out into the streets cheering and dancing then we heard one of the most inspirational speeches in American history from our new President and I have never heard anything like it.

Then Michelle and I drove to Harlem and I was born and raised there and even I have never seen a scene like it: a brass marching band down 125th street, fireworks, people of ALL CREEDS, COLORS AND WALKS OF LIFE hugging, cheering, dancing, celebrating. I held back the tears as I drove and honked my horn and thought to myself that this scene...is LITERALLY...Martin Luther King's dream come true.

We are one...finally, we are one.

I then proceeded to drive to my grandmother's house (she is 77 and she was still up at 1am) and I double parked the car and RAN upstairs with my huge Obama poster, lawn sign and book to give it to her because if there's anyone who appreciates this moment in history, it's her.

I knocked on her door, she opened it and we were both crying...I've never seen my grandmother cry. She's a strong woman who has had to be strong all these years to endure what she has. We hugged and talked and I presented her with the things and she immediately said that she'd need a frame so that she could put Barack's picture 'right next to Martin's...where it belongs'.

Tuesday night was such a special night and we all made it happen. I think that's the most special part of all this. It was a victory for ALL Americans and even people in other countries are ecstatic.

History.

The Fierce Urgency of Now

A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the Presidency.

Both parties have LOCKED DOWN states that they're not losing i.e. New York for Obama and Texas for McCain.

When these states are factored out:

Obama:
Vermont - 3
Connecticut - 7
Delaware - 3
Illinois - 21
Maine - 4
Maryland - 10
Massachusetts - 12
New Jersey - 15
District of Columbia - 3
Michigan - 17
Minnesota - 10
New York - 31
Rhode Island - 4
Wisconsin - 10
Iowa - 7
California - 55
Hawaii - 4
Oregon - 7
Washington - 11

That adds up to 234 electoral votes.

McCain:
Georgia - 15
Kentucky - 8
South Carolina - 8
West Virginia - 5
Alabama - 9
Mississippi - 6
Oklahoma - 7
Tennessee - 11
Arkansas - 6
Arizona - 10
Kansas - 6
Louisiana - 9
Nebraska - 5
South Dakota - 3
Texas - 34
Wyoming - 3
Montana - 3
Utah - 5
Idaho - 4
North Dakota - 3
Alaska - 3

That adds up to 163 electoral votes

Okay...that's where we stand. Some would argue about Iowa and Minnesota on Barack's side but Iowa has gone blue in four of the last five elections and Minnesota hasn't gone red since 1972. Couple that with Obama's large and growing leads in both states and I'd call them solid.

So that's where it sits...234 to 163

Leaving 11 swing states:

Ohio - 20
Virginia - 13
Indiana - 11
Florida - 27
North Carolina - 15
Missouri - 11
New Hampshire - 4
Pennsylvania - 21
Colorado - 9
New Mexico - 5
Nevada - 5

A total of 141 electoral votes up for grabs.

Obama only needs 36 of those 141 electoral votes (25%) to be elected President. McCain has to grab 75% of the contested swing states despite being down in the polls in almost all of those states.

And I'm thinking we should know relatively early into the evening what the outcome is likely to be. Eight of these swing states close their polls at or before 8pm:

7:00pm
Virginia - 13
Indiana - 11

7:30pm
Ohio - 20
North Carolina - 15

8:00pm
Florida - 27
Pennsylvania - 21
Missouri - 11
New Hampshire - 4

9:00pm
Colorado - 9

10:00pm
Nevada - 5

Now, I'm not saying this to be cocky or to say that we've got it made and we can sit back. Quite the contrary, the McCain campaign has known this for some time. Which is why we're seeing this desperate, hyperaggressive push to impugn Barack's character. Because they know they can't win by discussing the issues.

We can laugh at the foibles of Sarah Palin and her 'Pretty Woman' shopping sprees and McCain and those corny air quotes and contorted facial expressions but the reality is that they will be working HARD to try and steal as many states...and votes (wink)...as they can and we Obama supporters please need to keep emailing our friends and wearing our gear and if you can volunteer at all this weekend, it will really make the difference. You can go to barackobama.com to find phone banks and other organizing efforts right in your neighborhood. Let's fight the slanderous robocalls with live voices speaking the truth.

This is it, people...the home stretch. We stand on the precipice of the most historic election in our lifetime and perhaps in American history. The stakes have never been higher.

The choice to elect a lapdog of the current administration who has professed a DESIRE for war, continued tax cuts for the super-rich and a blatant disregard and mocking of issues like education, women's health and the environment. An erratic self-styled deregulator who had one message about the strength of the economy when he boarded a plane and had a completely different message when that plane landed.

And the choice to elect an intelligent, principled leader who knows, firsthand, the struggles of the middle class and has tangible plans to address them. A man who sees other people in other lands not as enemies but as allies first and will restore America's good standing in the world and a candidate for President who has earned the respect, the endorsement and the backing of countless elder statesman, military experts and financial authorities. A rare public servant who wins the respect not only of the Warren Buffetts and the Colin Powells but the bus drivers and the teachers and homemakers of this great land.

In less than a week, we can make history but we have to work at it. We can do this. We will do this. But we all need to lend a hand. We're almost at the finish line, guys. Change is almost upon us.

Let's get 'em...

The Seven Words That Killed John McCain's Presidential Campaign

..."The fundamentals of our economy are strong"

Howard Dean had 'YYYYEEEEEEEEEHHHAAAAAAAAAAA'

John Kerry had 'I voted for it before I voted against it'

Ronald Reagan killed Carter with "...there you go again."

Now John McCain just had his tombstone moment. He made the unfortunate mistake of walking lockstep with the President and the administration on this one just DAYS before the Economic Tsunami hit and he was forced, along with the bumbling President, to retract those statements and ring the alarm bells. It's the equivalent of a carnie assuring nervous parents that 'this ride is absolutely safe' just minutes before their children are crushed under thousands of pounds of smoking, twisted steel.

Those seven words painted John McCain not as a maverick and a shaker-upper but as a mouthpiece for Nero's administration while Rome was ablaze.

In his heart, I honestly believe that John McCain is a good man and that he was a reformer at heart. But in selling his soul to the very people who sank his campaign in 2000, he's been looking less like the driver of the Straight Talk Express and more like just another neocon card in Bush's deck. That's honestly the last thing I expected of him.

It sucks that he had to do that in order to gain support from his own party. They couldn't take him as he was because the GOP, at its core, is not about expressing your ideas...it's about kissing the ring and falling in line with the party's ideals or else you don't get a shot at the title.

Something tells me after this is all over and John's back in Arizona, he'll actually cry in a room alone knowing that his blind lust for a job made him do things that 5 years of physical torture in a dark pit couldn't do...break his spirit and make him compromise his core beliefs.

As far as his decision to postpone his campaign and the first Presidential debate, he apparently won't even need an airplane to fly back to Washington to singlehandedly save the U.S. economy. I mean, without him, we're all doomed, right??? Sure, he's admitted that he doesn't know much about the economy but a little thing like that won't stop him.

What's he going to do? Serve coffee and donuts to the actual Economists who will be solving this crisis?

Maybe the truth lies somewhere in the middle

We get so caught up this time of year in partisan politics (myself definitely included). We're pulling for our team. Red vs. Blue. Sox vs. Yanks. Bloods vs. Crips. It's tribalism in its purest form that transcends the concepts of unity, truth and fairness in its most extreme cases. But there's a political reality that we hate to face.

The Left and the Right NEED one another.

Trust me when I say that the kid in the Che Guevara t-shirt with the eyebrow ring does NOT want to live in a 100% Leftist country with the central government controlling how many children he can have as in China or whether or not he may own a television set or a cell phone as in Cuba. You don't want to go full on Socialist with 60% tax rates and overt economic redistribution so you definitely don't want to go full-on North Korea style Communism.

At the same, Ma and Pa O'Shansky out in the suburbs of Indiana...you REALLY don't want a completely Conserative, completely deregulated, socially intrusive system of government where there IS no central government to speak of. It's the Wild West. Tax money doesn't go to protect the common peace so you'd better save up for a better and bigger gun than the local roving band of thieves and rapists. Also, you'd really hope that nothing catches fire because there's no organized fire department and the roads, bridges and tunnels you take for granted everyday...forget it. All financed and maintained through the tax money that you railed against. You'll have to home school your children as there is no longer such a thing a public school and literally take your chances when you put your money in a bank as there are no government protection ensuring your money. If you lose your job, there's no unemployment insurance. When you grow old, you'd better hope that you'd played the stock market correctly or its Cat Food Fridays for you as Social Security is a chapter in a history book.

The truth of the matter is that both of the dominant political philosophies NEED one another because there is one concept that ACTUALLY keeps America strong and secure. It's not Liberalism. It's not Conservatism. It's EQUILIBRIUM. Balance. A mixture of the two.

It's knowing that someone out there is ensuring that the water that comes out of your tap is clean and safe without paying a 70% tax rate. It's knowing that every element of that cheeseburger you're biting into was inspected by a human being at some point in its development. It's having banks and mutual funds and money markets but having them regulated so that robber barons and crooks can't just steal your money...and if they do, there's a government agency that exists to go after them.

It's the constant tug-of-war between Democrats and Republicans that keeps this nation strong, sharp and responsive and responsible to the people of this nation.

So Democrats, while we don't like Karl Rove or Dick Cheney...they are not Satan (I'm pretty sure, at least)

Republicans, the word Liberal is not a dirty word and we don't spend all our time smoking weed, having unprotected gay sex and figuring out ways to spend your money. We totally use condoms.

I kid. I kid.

Either way, this is my call for people, during the 24-hour news spin cycle that FoxNews, CNN and MSNBC has us in, to reisist the temptation to hate and mistrust thy neighbor. Republicans can be funny and Democrats love their children.

We all want a safe, prosperous nation with a stable, growing economy and a completely fair and just social and judicial system. We just have different ideas of how to get there.

What part of 'small town values' was Sarah Palin's $2,500 RNC jacket part of?

I don't know many small town hockey moms who own $2,500 Valentino jackets?

Wake up, people. Anyone running for President or Vice President is NOT LIKE YOU...

They are, by nature, elite. Being elite isn't a bad thing. It's a good thing. But what is bad is playing the 'baby-holding, straight-talking, PTA-directing, hockey-momming' role when you're SWIMMING in cash and not feeling any of the effects of the downturning economy.

It's like that slumlord who parks his Mercedes 10 blocks from his tenement and changes out of his suit into overalls so that he can play the role of 'long-suffering small-business owner who's just like his tenants' to keep them from beating him to death for the lack of heat and hot water in December.

McCain's New Campaign Slogan: "Yeah......What HE Said"

Funny...who was that war hero who was openly mocking the message of hope and change just a couple of months ago???

Why that would be John S. McCain.

In the biggest speech of his life, guess who switched from a platform of 'experience' to one of change and hope for the future???

Why that would be John S. McCain.

I was honestly expecting him to say "Yes, we CAN bring about change that we can believe in, my friends..."

Dancing John McCain is deseprate...he brings on an exciting neophyte to boost ratings...he's switching his message left and right...he's pimping his service record...even longtime Republican Congressmen are saying that they've never heard John go into such explicit detail about his years in captivity.

John "Whatever Works" McCain has jumped the shark and is gassing up the motorcycle for another run.

The Biggest Crab In The Barrel?

Like many other African-Americans of my age group (34) and older, I am, in large measure a product of the African-American church. A multifaceted and multipurpose institution that, since the times of slavery, has served a myriad functions. Community center, spiritual base, social networking hub and nexus of political organization. It was the rock-solid foundation of the black church that first gave voice to brave visionaries such as Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington, Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and many others. We, as an African-American people, have always been able to rely on the guidance, the stability and the leadership of the church in times of peril and in times of joy. It served as our collective backbone as the physical shackles of slavery fell, emboldened us to stand up for our rights as the social and bureaucratic bonds of Jim Crow were broken and as a new generation began to take their place, slowly but surely, in the halls of academia, business, entertainment and public life in this country.

With that said, there is another side of many black churches and their teachings that doesn't get publicized to outsiders. You won't find these sermons on days when the Clintons or any other non-minority guests are sitting up on the stage.

As much as the themes of promise and hope and optimism for the future are preached in many circles of African-American spiritual life, so, too, are the motifs of victimhood and remembering the pain and scorn and 'the white man's out to getcha'. It is infused, sometimes subtly and sometimes overtly, right along with the lessons learned of Paul on the road to Damascus and the Sermon on the Mount. It is burned into the mind of many small black children that he is not American but he is African-American and he will encounter a wall of hatred, a nation ready to scorn and mock and step on him if he is too successful or too unapologetic. It preaches that there are two Americas and two sets of rules that he, unfortunately, is on the wrong side of. Even if that child's path is unimpeded, that paranoia that this programming and those lessons manifested still exist. Every time a scowl is thrown our way or a taxicab fails to see our hail, we wonder...'was that it?...was that the vile racist scourge preparing to eat me up?'...or was it just a person having a bad day or a daydreaming taxi driver who missed the opportunity for a fare.

Here in 2008, many black preachers like Jeremiah Wright take their sermons almost directly from the pages of sermon books from the 1960s without regard or care that we are in a new time. Without pause to think that maybe, just maybe, we have finally overcome. Maybe we finally did reach that Promised Land that Martin talked about just days before his death. Maybe the social medicine that America was forced to take some 40 years ago has cured the patient. Maybe we are in a post-racial time after all.

The problem is this. Old school pastors like Wright, like the Reverend Al Sharpton and many others cannot fathom this. They cannot understand that while individual instances of racism or classism or sexism will always exist, the institutionalized barriers to the success of African-Americans throughout the country have been smashed to bits. There will always be individual instances of redlining or racial violence or intolerance but to hold every white American accountable for the actions of a shrinking few only keeps the wounds open. Only keeps those forces that Barack mentioned yesterday, those who use hate as their sword and intolerance and bigotry as their shield, emboldened and justified in their sick way of thinking.

You'll hear differently in younger African-American churches. Congregations with members who only know a world with a free Nelson Mandela, where the best golfer in the world has brown skin and the prospect of becoming a success is not a pipe dream as it was for their parents. A world where college is a reality and making it out of the hood does not have to include a basketball, a microphone or a gun. It's a beautiful world where any man or woman can take hold of their own destiny and make it closer to their American Dream. We are there.

For whatever reason, Rev. Jeremiah Wright is insisting on making himself a central character in the sideshow that has become the quest for the Democratic Nomination for President. For some reason, he's chosen this crucial time to be as vocal, as incendiary and as divisive as he can be.

Rev. Wright is a very intelligent man and he knows that such a distraction, such polarizing speech as he's been engaging in, will do nothing but harm to Barack Obama's chances not just for the nomination but against John McCain in the general election. I pray that this is not the ULTIMATE instance of 'crabs in a barrel'. That Wright is not somehow fueled with some sort of personal vendetta against Barack and has thus taken up a cause to ruin his chances at the office. That would be, without a doubt, the highest form of treason against black America. To cause the downfall of the first African-American Presidential hopeful, 40 years after the death of Martin Luther King, to quench the flames of your own ego.

End of the day, Obama is handling all this the right way and he's still on track to win the nomination and the Presidency but this act by this one preacher, hopefully, will get many in the African-American community taking longer, harder looks at what we're being taught and led to believe about our own potential and our place in this country. And, honestly, what some in the pulpit are prepared to do to make sure that we don't achieve TOO much as to invalidate their politics of division, their sermons of victimhood and their profitable agenda of displaced blame.

The Dream Lives On

I hear alot of people trying to disparage Sen. Obama by saying 'oh...he's just trying to sound like Martin Luther King'. If only Barack were so lucky. If only ALL OF US were so lucky to be as eloquent, as principled, as passionate and as sacrificing as Dr. King.

Forty years ago, a great man died for what was right. He was an idealist. He was an optimist. He was a dreamer. A man who loved this nation so much that he couldn't go on seeing it harm itself with a spirit of hypocrisy and hatred. He detested the backward, self-destructive nature of racism while loving the racist who spat in his face.

Forty years ago, the Dreamer died. But the dream lives on.

Martin lived for hope. He died for change. He opposed a corrupt and unjust war and paid the ultimate price for daring to speak up and change this land for the better.

Today, Barack Obama speaks of that same hope. Today, Senator Obama challenges us to remember that same spirit of change. He, too, opposed a rushed and questionable war. Today and tomorrow, he dares to speak of the power within all of us to stand up and change our nation for the better. To not stand idly by with our arms folded in cynicism. But to reach out to one another, embracing our fellow American in brotherhood and love and with a spirit of cooperative hope.

There is a reason that Barack Obama's message touches the heart and stirs the mind. It's because we have heard it before. We heard it in Selma and Montgomery from Dr. King. We heard it in Johannesburg from Nelson Mandela. We heard it in India from Mahatma Gandhi.

It's a universal song so sweet to the heart and so common to the human experience that it's lyrics will always energize people who hunger for freedom and equality. It will always quench the thirst of those seeking a better life free from hatred, bigotry and corruption.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the death of the Dreamer but his Dream is about to come true. A man shall rise among us in the greatest nation on Earth with a message of peace and love and equality and hope. His skin color won't matter. His lineage won't matter. Only his ideas will matter. Only his heart and his mind and his ability to unite us will matter.

"Free at last" said the dreamer.

Free at last. Thank God almighty...we are free at last.