No commentary required 8/31/14

Looks like I'm not going to be writing much today, so here are some things you should read:

Pundits and right wingers are positively freaking out about their assumption that President Obama doesn't have a strategy to deal with ISIS. He does. And Secretary of State John Kerry says its something I've been talking about all along...partnership.

In a polarized region and a complicated world, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria presents a unifying threat to a broad array of countries, including the United States. What’s needed to confront its nihilistic vision and genocidal agenda is a global coalition using political, humanitarian, economic, law enforcement and intelligence tools to support military force.

The most comprehensive look at President Obama's foreign policy comes from Michael Cohen: The punditry vs the presidency: How the constant chorus of "do something" Obama foreign policy critics gets it wrong. Nope, I'm not going to provide an excerpt. You'll just have to go read the whole thing!

On the topic of great minds thinking alike, I'll just point out that last week I said this about how technology is affecting our view of the world:

We now see and hear about events both around the world and here at home with an immediacy that is unprecedented. I've often thought that when it feels like the world is going to hell these days, the truth is that its always been that way...we just didn't know it.

Friday night, President Obama said this:

The world’s always been messy ... we’re just noticing now in part because of social media.

So yeah, me and POTUS - we're like this:

;-)

Finally...the most important read of the day. As you may have heard, this week Barack Obama will be the first sitting president to visit Wales. In preparation for that historic event, Chipsticks has given us the "10 things you need to know about Wales." Foreign policy pundits will be lost this week if they don't check that one out.

For some pictorial enlightenment today, its important to remember that First Daughters are allowed to throw some shade at their Dad.

But its always good to follow it up with a little "Just kidding, Dad."

No Commentary Required (not about Cliven Bundy edition) 4/25/14

Here are a few of the things you might have missed during our national Cliven Bundy obsession.

From Mark Kleiman at the appropriately titled Reality-Based Community comes the quote-of-the-day.

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” It’s not by accident that the party of global-warming denial and poll unskewing is also the party of torture.

*****

For a taste of the kind of racism conservatives never acknowledge, here's George Will basically calling President Obama "boy" in a column titled: Barack Obama: The Adolescent President. Nuff said.

*****

I challenge you to not go verklempt over this one.

*****

HBO is premiering a documentary about Ann Richards on Monday. In case you've forgotten some of her more memorable moments, check this clip out.

*****
U.S. solar energy capacity has grown an astounding 418% since 2010 (thanks mostly to President Obama's American Recovery Act). The future is arriving.

Solar array at Davis-Monthan w/shut-down coal power plant backdrop - clear contrast of future vs past @OperationFree pic.twitter.com/VZovA4OWOo
— Courtney Hinkle (@cjhinklc0) April 25, 2014

*****

And speaking of the future, yes, its time we all bowed down to our robotic overlords ;-)

No commentary required 3/16/14

I haven't done one of these in a while, but today I ran across two commentaries that are some of the best I've read in a long time. As someone who enjoys writing, I am humbled and can't help but think: "when I grow up, I want to write just like that." So I'm hoping that you won't miss them:

First of all, there's Timothy Egan with Paul Ryan's Irish Amnesia.

...you can’t help noticing the deep historic irony that finds a Tea Party favorite and descendant of famine Irish using the same language that English Tories used to justify indifference to an epic tragedy...

Ryan boasts of the Gaelic half of his ancestry, on his father’s side. “I come from Irish peasants who came over during the potato famine,” he said last year during a forum on immigration.

BUT with a head still stuffed with college-boy mush from Ayn Rand, he apparently never did any reading about the times that prompted his ancestors to sail away from the suffering sod. Centuries of British rule that attempted to strip the Irish of their language, their religion and their land had produced a wretched peasant class, subsisting on potatoes. When blight wiped out the potatoes, at least a million Irish died — one in eight people.

Next up is Hunter at Daily Kos with The damnation of the happy slave. This is a long one in which he eviscerates James Bownan's critique of the movie Twelve Years a Slave (which, among other things, suggests that the movie is lacking because it doesn't portray "happy slaves"). But Hunter goes beyond that to make a wider point.

You are probably wondering, right now, why I have taken you on this long slog. Why I have spent perhaps more words critiquing the critique than the critique itself contains. Why any of us should give a damn.

Here is the reason. We need to stop being, to be blunt, stupid.

We need to stop praising people for the ability to say stupid things smartly. We need to stop elevating "opinions" that are, in fact, only better-manicured presentations of crass, much sillier suppositions from which all of the non-embarrassing people have moved on...

...finding a story about slavery grating because it did not portray happy slaves is, truly, among the dankest crevices in the cave of stupid discredited arguments. Whether you present it with pomp or merely drool it out the side of your mouth, it is the same supposition.

There is SO much more to both of these articles. So I hope you'll go read them in their entirety.

In the meantime, thanks to a comment by "anonymous" in the previous post, please enjoy this one by the PS22 Chorus. How can you not LOVE this?!!!

No Commentary Required 7/17/13

Some things you should know:

We've all heard that Edward Snowden has set up a "dead man's switch," by which secret documents that he says will damage the U.S. will be released if something bad happens to him. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to identify at least one person who likely has control of that switch...the guy who said this:

Nick Davies, an investigative journalist on The Guardian, describes working with Assange before publishing leaked US intelligence documents, many of which contained information about ordinary citizens who had been of assistance to coalition forces. To publish the documents without blacking out such names, as Davies says he pointed out, could well be the equivalent to signing a series of death warrants.

He alleges in the film that Assange simply replied that: “if an Afghan civilian helps coalition forces, he deserves to die.”

_______________ 

Jorge Ramos - the leading voice in Hispanic media - had a pretty strong warning for Republicans, especially Speaker Boehner.

Univision's Jorge Ramos penned a column in Spanish Tuesday warning House Republicans that if they torpedo immigration reform, they will lose the Hispanic vote and the White House in 2016.

By attacking a group that represents the fasting growing constituency in the United States, Ramos wrote that it often seems the GOP is following a plan devised by its worst enemy.

He then put the blame in House Speaker John Boehner's (R-OH) hands, asking; "Does John Boehner really want to be the new villian of the Hispanic community, replacing the hated Sheriff Joe Arapaio?"

_______________ 

The good news keeps rolling in on the exchanges in Obamacare. This time, from New York.

Individuals buying health insurance on their own will see their premiums tumble next year in New York State as changes under the federal health care law take effect, state officials are to announce on Wednesday.

State insurance regulators say they have approved rates for 2014 that are at least 50 percent lower on average than those currently available in New York. Beginning in October, individuals in New York City who now pay $1,000 a month or more for coverage will be able to shop for health insurance for as little as $308 monthly. With federal subsidies, the cost will be even lower.

_______________ 

And finally, my photo of the day comes from the cover of the Texas Monthly.

No, that's not a mirror image on either side of TX State Senator Wendy Davis. Its twin brothers Julian and Juaquin Castro. Julian is the Mayor of San Antonio (and keynote speaker at the 2012 Democratic Convention) and Juaquin represents the San Antonio area in the U.S. House of Representatives. That's some fusion politics at work in the great state of Texas.

No Commentary Required 11/26/12

Here are some stories that caught my eye:

For a while now I've been saying that the Republican Party will miss the point if they simply blame Romney. Reader JT at TPM takes it from there.

The Republican Party has a problem, but it is not one candidate; it is not packaging or branding; it is not messaging that is sinking the GOP. It is the core beliefs of the vast majority of Republicans.

Their problem is their war on women; war on gays; war on minorities. It is their war on science and math and logic and education and reality. It is listening to nuckle heads like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, Michael Savage, Ann Coulter and Donald Trump. It is allowing entertainers to determine the direction and policy positions of a major political party. It is following the teaching of extremist religions leaders like the US Catholic Bishops.

But most of all, it is the GOP’s utter lack of respect for anyone who is not like them; supporting an idiot obscure congressman who shouts “You lie” at the President of the United States during the State of the Union Address. Not repudiating truly crazy people who cling to the thumbless notion that Barack Obama was born in Kenya. It is supporting an insane governor who waves her finger publicly in the face of the President because he rejects her lunatic positions. When the GOP allows or supports these actions, they are condoning disrespect for the majority of Americans who are not aging white men...

That is why the GOP is failing. Not because Romney ran an unsuccessful campaign.

*****

I'm beginning to think that in writing Barack Obama: The Story, perhaps David Maraniss actually began to understand the man that is our President. Take a look at how he answered this question in an interview with Franklin Foer:

FOER: But sometimes he seems sullen about having to go through a lot of the daily mechanics of politics, as if there’s something about Washington that’s eating at him.

MARANISS: I think it’s that he has to find his own way to feeling authentic. It’s very important to him to have that sense of authenticity. He’ll never have the need for people that someone like Clinton did, but that was a narcissistic need. Clinton would call up a friend to watch him do a crossword puzzle. And Barack Obama is a very different personality in that sense. He’s never going to schmooze with Congress as much as people want him to. That’s not him. But when he gets to a certain comfort level, and he feels good about the politics that he’s in at a particular point, then yes, he can enjoy himself. And I certainly noticed it in the last week of the campaign.

You want to see someone who is enjoying himself? Just remember this one.

*****

I'm loving the fact that Senator Patty Murray is becoming the person to watch on the so-called "fiscal cliff" negotiations.

With a low-key style that contrasts with some of the Senate’s camera hogs, Murray may be the most powerful senator a whole lot of people have never heard of outside of the two Washingtons where she lives and works.

As chair of her party’s Senate campaign arm, the architect of surprising Democratic gains and the incoming chair of the powerful Senate Budget Committee, Murray now occupies a place of special influence in the Senate...

In a Congress of hot tempers and sharp tongues, Murray doesn’t favor over-the-top rhetoric. Once dismissed by a Washington state representative as just a “mom in tennis shoes,” she’s turned the moniker into a campaign symbol of determined strength.

Murray, colleagues agree, doesn’t issue idle threats.

“Everyone takes Senator Murray seriously because she does not bluster,” Reid said. “She simply says what she means and stands by it.”

*****

It looks like House Republicans are set to vote on an "Immigrants We Like" Reform Bill this week.

House Republicans still smarting from their poor showing among Hispanics in the presidential election are planning a vote next week on immigration legislation that would both expand visas for foreign science and technology students and make it easier for those with green cards to bring their immediate families to the U.S... 

The House proposal would allow family members to come to the U.S. one year after they apply for their green cards, but they wouldn't be able to work until they actually got the card.

*****

 A reminder...you can find "Everything you need to know about Obamacare" in the tab titled simply Obamacare at the top of this page. Spread the word.

*****

Finally, can I just say how much I love Morgan Freeman? I watched a lovely movie he starred in over the weekend titled The Magic Of Belle Isle (hint: when a movie features Morgan Freeman and is directed by Rob Reiner...you KNOW its going to be good). And now this:

No Commentary Required 11/19/12

Here are some of the stories that caught my eye today:

We've been hearing a lot about the fact that many Republican governors are not going to implement the health care exchanges included in Obamacare. Of course, what that means is that the federal government will do it for them.

If you're interested in seeing a breakdown of what states have decided on this one, Kaiser has a map along with all kinds of interesting information on the state of Obamacare implementation. Click on your state to see what's up.

*****

Yesterday I wrote about the role that geography plays in the polarization of our politics. Here's an interesting article about how that looks in Wyoming - the state where Romney got his second largest lead (after Utah).

...if diversity is the future of American politics, conservatives in places like Wyoming, the least populous state, where 86 percent of residents are white, fear they may be sliding into the past.

Republican explanations for Mitt Romney’s loss — that Democrats turned out the urban vote, that the United States is no longer its “traditional” self, or that Mr. Obama had showered “gifts” on women, minorities and young voters — resonated in some conservative political circles here in the state capital.

“It spooks me,” said James Yates, 46, a self-made businessman who owns 15 restaurants and employs about 1,000 people. “The young vote and certainly the minority vote went toward the perspective of ‘What can I get?’ Where the government runs everything, it’s completely not sustainable. They don’t see that.”

But...

A 2011 study by the Pew States Project found that Wyoming received more federal funds per resident than any other state, largely because of royalties from mining and drilling. That $3,757 per person went to health care, transportation, education and other government programs.

*****

Today President Obama delivered a speech at the University of Yangon, Myanmar. If you'd like more information on the significance of that location, 3ChicsPolitico is on it.

*****

Its been interesting watching the Republicans try to grapple with how to make themselves politically relevant after their resounding defeat a couple of weeks ago. Reading Matt Lewis' call for "compassionate conservatism" gives you some idea of just what an uphill task that's going to be. And no Matt...just putting "compassionate" in front of failed policies is not going to cut it.

*****

I don't know about you, but I find myself avoiding reading about the current escalation of the conflict between Israel and Gaza. Its almost impossible to find people who approach that discussion without a political and/or ideological perspective. I often find myself not knowing what to think and just wanting the facts - or at least a discussion between the various ideologies.

This weekend the best I found on that came from Up with Chris Hayes. I highly recommend watching the 4 segments on his video link that were devoted to the topic.

*****

Finally, those who know me in real life are aware of the fact that the article of clothing I dislike the most is close-toed shoes. I mourn the day every fall when its time to put away the sandals and pull out the socks and shoes. So perhaps you'll understand what it is I love about this picture :-)

No Commentary Required 10/9/12

Polls, polls, and more polls. If you're freaking out about them, here's some interesting news from the latest ABC/WaPo edition.

Night-to-night data indicate a sizable boost for Romney, and drop for Obama, on Thursday night, a day after their first debate, which Romney widely is seen as having won. But both of those trends subsequently subsided in this poll, conducted Thursday through Sunday.

The net effect is slight at best. Romney is now seen favorably by 47 percent of registered voters overall, unfavorably by 51 percent; Obama’s rating is better, 55-44 percent.

*****

Joshua Holland has a little fun with the freak-out (hint: when you're freaking out, it helps to laugh).

As a good liberal, my first instinct upon learning that Mitt Romney is ahead by 4 points in the latest Pew poll was, obviously, to wring my hands.

Then I realized that a 4-point margin in November probably means the Republicans taking the Senate and extending their majority in the House. I don't want to live in Mitt Romney's neo-feudal society, so I got out an exacta-knife and went to slit my wrists.

But then -- just in the knick of time! -- I saw that Romney's post-debate bounce appeared to be receding in the Gallup poll, which once again has Obama up by 5. And just like that, the clouds parted, birds began to sing and I felt like a kid who just found an adorable little puppy under the family Christmas tree.

The moral of the story: It's important to invest a great deal of weight in each new poll because that's what makes elections fun! And it's an especially valuable exercise when the data is very noisy -- like in the days following a big debate.

That's also why focusing on the polling averages -- which are less responsive to short-term shifts driven by the news cycle -- is so boring. You could go an entire election season without a single freakout, and, really, what's the point of that?

*****

The Obama campaign captured one of the more craven aspects of Romney's foreign policy speech yesterday.

*****

During elections, we hear things about Joe Sixpack and Soccer Moms and Nascar voters. Perhaps we should have a new category for Pre-existing Condition voters (between 20-50% the electorate).

Jill Thacker was dying for a cup of coffee when she recently ran into a 7-Eleven convenience store. To her pleasant surprise, the coffee was free -- as long as she would commit to drinking it in either a red Mitt Romney cup or a blue Barack Obama cup.

"Which are you going to choose, Mom?" her son asked.

Which, indeed. A gun-owning, big-government-hating Republican, Thacker's every instinct told her to buy a Romney cup. But Thacker, 56, and her daughter have asthma -- a pre-existing condition -- and with Obama as president they'll be guaranteed the ability to buy insurance.

Thacker stood in the 7-Eleven and stared at the red and blue cups, stymied by the choice they represented...

She thought about her insurance, which covers her only if "I get hit by a bus." It's the only insurance she can afford given her preexisting condition.

She thought about how she's still paying off a $22,000 emergency room bill from last year.

She thought about her 25-year-old daughter, who's on her father's insurance only because of Obamacare.

But she also thought about how, in many fundamental ways, she just doesn't like Obama.

Then she reached for the blue cup with Obama's name on it.

"I really do feel conflicted," she said. "But for me, it's all about health care. It's my number one thing."

*****

And finally, one more picture from President Obama paying homage to Cesar Chavez yesterday. In the comments to my post about this last night, Bill brought up something important to notice. Yesterday was Columbus Day. Chavez was Indigenous. Ponder the significance of that one for a moment.

No commentary required 6/29/12

Now that I've at least partially recovered from my obsession about the SCOTUS health care ruling, here are a couple of other stories that caught my eye.

I don't know why Peggy Noonan bugs me so much. Write it off to my own particular brand of neurosis. But I do love me a good Noonan smack-down. And Paul Waldman delivers.

When he began his still-brilliant show a few years ago, Stephen Colbert said, "Anyone can read the news to you. I promise to feel the news at you." And there's nobody who feels the news quite like Peggy Noonan, America's most unintentionally hilarious columnist. Pretty much every time she writes a column or goes on television, Noonan can be counted on to tell us about a feeling out there in the land. It's seldom a powerful feeling; instead, it's more often a stirring, an inchoate emotion still in the process of crystallizing. It might be a yearning, or an unease, or a doubt or a fear, but it lingers just out of our perception until Peggy Noonan comes along and perceives it for us.

Bingo!!!

On a couple of occasions, I have quoted this article by James Fallows about the basis of our democracy being not just rules - but norms. His fellow-writer at The Atlantic -  Ta-Nehisi Coates - has also written a response here and here. A short summary would not do Mr. Coates' thoughts justice. But to give you an idea of what he's exploring, here's a quote from the first link.

...I wonder at the strength and nature of our democratic norms. Was there ever a time where our representatives seriously placed loyalty to democracy over partisan interests? And granting that there was, what was that compromise, that sacrifice, premised on? What undergirded our democratic virtue? Was it the promise that, in a country explicitly understood as constructed for the white man, the majority could never sink as low as the cursed minority? If we grant that the past few decades have been a particularly trying time for our democracy, is it mere coincidence that this happens just as African-American power begins to morph into reality?

The Supreme Court ruling was not the only good news for President Obama this week. Although you wouldn't know if from the media, his polling numbers have seen significant improvement this week. Even Gallup's daily tracking poll today is at Obama 48 Romney 43 (Obama +5). And Nate Silver's model projects Obama's chance of winning at 67.8% - the highest its been so far. At this point on the electoral map, Silver has 303 electoral votes at 60% or better for Obama. And Florida, which had been trending towards Romney, is now a 50/50 tie.

If I was to have written a separate article on this story, I would have simply titled it "Duh."

The Justice Department declared Friday that Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to withhold information about a bungled gun-tracking operation from Congress does not constitute a crime and he won’t be prosecuted for contempt of Congress...

In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, the department said that it will not bring the congressional contempt citation against Holder to a federal grand jury and that it will take no other action to prosecute the attorney general.

So Rep. Issa and his friends had their little day in the sun (overshadowed, or course, by the SCOTUS ruling) and now the grown-ups are saying "enough!" Good for them.

Finally here are my two photos of the week...because I'm a sucka for adorable kids and dogs.

No commentary required 4/1/12

This is what happens when I run into so many good stories on the tubes that I want to talk about but don't have the time to address each one individually. I'll just point the way and hope you enjoy.

First of all, perhaps you've noticed that the Republicans are having a bit of trouble getting a message together when all of their ideas utterly failed during the Bush/Cheney years and now all they've got to run on is Obama Derangement Syndrome (ODS). Watch one of their "preeminent thinkers," Bill Kristol, demonstrate.

A conventional, cautious, backward-looking GOP effort against President Obama is as likely to produce a close reelection for the president as a close defeat...

What’s the alternative? A forward-looking campaign, more like Reagan’s in 1980 and Clinton’s in 1992. Reagan and Clinton didn’t simply depend on unhappiness with the incumbent. They elaborated a different, and they claimed better, path ahead for the country.

Go that? A "forward-looking campaign elaborating a better path ahead for the country"...yeah, that's the ticket.

What would that look like Mr. Kristol?

Can the Republican nominee do this in 2012? Can he explain how an Obama second term would be even more dangerous and damaging than the Obama first term has been? Can he explain that we’re heading off a cliff of debt and deficit if Obama’s fiscal policies are allowed to continue? Can his campaign make vivid the harm Obama’s tax hikes and regulations will do to the economy, and Obama-care to our health care system and our country? Can he explain what a second term of Obama judicial appointments will do to our courts? Can he explain the damage an Obama second term will do to self-government, and limited government, and constitutional government in America? Can he conduct a campaign that describes how much more dangerous the world might look in 2016 if we continue Obama’s foreign and defense policies? Can the Republican campaign present a choice of paths for the future, à la Paul Ryan’s budget and his explanation of it, rather than simply complain about the recent past and the difficult present?

No commentary required ;-)

Next up is perhaps one of the best things I've read in a long time. You know someone has nailed it when they hit two birds with one stone...describing Mitt Romney to a tee AND making you laugh while they do so. That's just what David Javerbaum did today with A Quantum Theory of Mitt Romney. Here are a couple of the basic concepts:

Complementarity. In much the same way that light is both a particle and a wave, Mitt Romney is both a moderate and a conservative, depending on the situation (Fig. 1). It is not that he is one or the other; it is not that he is one and then the other. He is both at the same time.

Probability. Mitt Romney’s political viewpoints can be expressed only in terms of likelihood, not certainty. While some views are obviously far less likely than others, no view can be thought of as absolutely impossible. Thus, for instance, there is at any given moment a nonzero chance that Mitt Romney supports child slavery.

And my favorite:

Entanglement. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a proton, neutron or Mormon: the act of observing cannot be separated from the outcome of the observation. By asking Mitt Romney how he feels about an issue, you unavoidably affect how he feels about it. More precisely, Mitt Romney will feel every possible way about an issue until the moment he is asked about it, at which point the many feelings decohere into the single answer most likely to please the asker.

Javerbaum even has figures to demonstrate.

Fig. 1: The famous "Schrödinger's candidate" scenario. For as long as Mitt Romney remains in this box, he is both a moderate and a conservative.

Fig. 2: A Feynman diagram of an encounter between a Romney and an anti-Romney. The resulting collision annihilates both, leaving behind a single electron and a $20 bill.

Honestly, go read the whole thing. I promise you that you'll be enlightened while you get a few belly laughs. Not a bad way to spend a couple of minutes, is it?

On a more serious note, Gary Younge writes about an interview he had recently with John Carlos.

John Carlos (on right), Tommie Smith (centre) and Peter Norman (left), 1968 Olympics.

I also suggest that you read this whole article. Mr. Carlos' words about what he did 44 years ago are as important for all of us today as they were to him back then.

"In life, there's the beginning and the end," he says. "The beginning don't matter. The end don't matter. All that matters is what you do in between – whether you're prepared to do what it takes to make change. There has to be physical and material sacrifice. When all the dust settles and we're getting ready to play down for the ninth inning, the greatest reward is to know that you did your job when you were here on the planet."

Thanks for doing your job, John.

And finally - on a lighter note - has anyone else noticed that our FLOTUS is HOT?



Of course, the guy she's married to isn't too hard on the eyes either.

No commentary required 1/31/12

I was really busy today and didn't have much time to write anything. So to catch up - here's some things I found interesting.

If you haven't already read BooMan's article titled Sitting it Out Isn't an Option, go do so NOW.

I mean, even if the president wasn't the best, most effective, least ethically challenged president we've had in over half a century, he'd still be the only thing standing between us and an administration that would make Bush and Cheney look moderate. Did they not do enough damage in eight years to convince you that there's a difference between the two parties? Really? You need more proof?

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is rolling!

In the first six months of its existence, the CFPB fielded 13,210 complaints from consumers via its phone line and online submission forms, as well as referrals from other regulators, the report said. Of those complaints, 9,307 were tied to credit cards, with another 2,326 pertaining to mortgages...

So far, a little over half of the complaints received have been settled between the company and the consumer "with relief." Another 30.6 percent have been settled without a mutually agreed upon remedy, while companies are still reviewing another 11.9 percent.

And health care reform isn't doing so bad either.

Yet surprising even to many advocates of health care reform, evidence is emerging that the ACA is already improving life for millions of average Americans. It is promoting long-overdue fundamental changes in our dysfunctional medical system. Moreover, because those reforms are starting to directly address heightened economic insecurities of average families - the personal financial conditions that will largely determine this year’s election outcomes - President Obama would be wise to more forcefully and more specifically explain how his health care bill is already helping millions of vulnerable families and the country as a whole.

The authors then go on to identify 5 ways ACA is already having an impact.

Chauncey DeVega also has a list...of the 10 most racist moments of the GOP primary (so far). Here's his introduction:

One cannot forget that the contemporary Republican Party was born with the Southern Strategy, winning over the former Jim Crow South to its side of the political aisle, and as a backlash against the civil rights movement. This is a formula for a politics of white grievance mongering and white victimology; a dreamworld where white conservatives are oppressed, their rights infringed upon by a tyrannical federal government and elite liberal media that are beholden to the interests of the “undeserving poor,” racial minorities, gays, and immigrants.

In keeping with this script in order to win over Red State America, the 2012 Republican presidential candidates have certainly not disappointed. Both overt racism and dog whistles are delectable temptations that the Republican presidential nominees cannot resist. With the election of the country’s first African-American president, and a United States that is less white and more diverse, the GOP is in peril. In uncertain times, you go with what you know. For the Republican Party, this means “dirty boxing,” digging deep into the old bucket of white racism, and using the politics of fear, hostility and anxiety to win over white voters by demagoguing Obama.

Perhaps that explains why this is a pretty good representation of the relationship between African Americans and the Republican Party.



Finally, just to ramp up the "awwww" factor - lets close with this.

No commentary required

From conservative writer John Kass:

President Barack Obama will win re-election in 2012.

The reason he'll win?

He knows who he is. And the Republican politicians don't know who they are. They've forgotten what they're about, or perhaps like some isolated tribe, they've lost the language necessary to explain it to themselves.

Their voters know this and don't really believe them anymore.

And that's why Obama will win.

Check out my friend Denise Oliver Velez's article today titled Pro-LGBT Latina ambassador Mari Carmen Aponte gets "DeMinted" for doing her job.

And two things to watch for tomorrow:

First of all, Attorney General Eric Holder will step into the heart of the fire.

Attorney General Eric Holder plans to deliver a speech on voting rights on Monday at a Martin Luther King holiday rally in South Carolina, a state where just weeks ago his Justice Department blocked a new voter identification law.

Secondly, this hits news stands tomorrow.



Here's a tease from Politico about the cover story.

[I]t remains simply a fact that Obama has delivered in a way that the unhinged right and purist left have yet to understand or absorb. Their short-term outbursts have missed Obama’s long game … [T]he president begins by extending a hand to his opponents; when they respond by raising a fist, he demonstrates that they are the source of the problem; then, finally, he moves to his preferred position of moderate liberalism and fights for it without being effectively tarred as an ideologue or a divider. This kind of strategy takes time. And it means there are long stretches when Obama seems incapable of defending himself, or willing to let others to define him, or simply weak. I remember those stretches during the campaign against Hillary Clinton. I also remember whose strategy won out in the end.