TAX ME!

Please watch this one.



Then lets make it go viral...Facebook, Tweet, and/or email it. And ask your friends to do the same. There are links below to make that easy.

Not Afraid

If you've never seen the Staten Island PS22 Chorus, then I dare you to go watch some of their other stuff on youtube and think you can come away without being inspired by their totally unselfconscious enthusiasm. These kids rock!!!!!!

Two Americas

Although John Edwards has been disgraced by his own unethical and potentially illegal activities, he got one thing absolutely right...there are, in fact, two Americas. There's no other way to explain this story.

Maybe you caught the news story over the weekend. An overgrown brat from suburban Barrington Hills, Ryan LeVin, 36, who had run over and killed two men while drag racing his Porsche in South Florida, was sentenced by Judge McCarthy to a mere two years of house arrest — in one of his wealthy parents’ luxury oceanfront condos — after agreeing to write big checks to the victims’ widows.

LeVin could have been sentenced to up to 45 years in prison for killing the two British businessmen and fleeing the police, and in fact nobody in Broward County can recall another time when a person found guilty of such a crime did not serve time in prison.

But LeVin was grounded.

Oh, and in case you had any doubts, LeVin, in addition to coming from a wealthy Chicago family that can afford to outfit him in $120,000 Porsches and a luxury oceanfront condo in which to serve his "sentence," is clearly "melanin-challenged."



Truth is, today I'm directing my anger at LeVin when in reality its about all of those other young, poor, non-melanin-challenged men (and women) who are languishing in prison for crimes much less serious than the one committed by this guy.

Our justice system, rather than being balanced, seems to swing from one extreme to the other depending on things that indicate its certainly not blind.

Of Children

Thanks in part to that gorgeous painting below, today I'm thinking about the children.

Gov. Scott Walker: Children are to be neither seen nor heard

From the Milwakee Journal Sentinel:

Artist David Lenz has seen his work displayed prominently in the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery and the Milwaukee Art Museum.

But Lenz couldn't make the cut with Gov. Scott Walker and the Executive Residence.

Earlier this year, the governor and first lady Tonette Walker took down Lenz's painting "Wishes in the Wind," a realistic portrait of three children - one black, one Hispanic and one white - playing with bubble wands on a Milwaukee street.

Commissioned by the foundation that runs the governor's Maple Bluff residence, the painting was completed and placed prominently above the fireplace mantel in the drawing room in November.

The governor and first lady have replaced it with a century-old painting of Old Abe, a Civil War-era bald eagle from Wisconsin...

In 2005, the state Executive Residence Foundation began commissioning paintings by Wisconsin artists on subjects intended to remind state leaders of the people they represent. Milwaukee-area businessman Richard Pieper and his wife, Suzanne, fund the project...

In an interview, Lenz said he carefully selected the three children portrayed in "Wishes in the Wind." The African-American girl, featured in a Journal Sentinel column on homelessness, spent three months at the Milwaukee Rescue Mission with her mother. The Hispanic girl is a member of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee. And the boy's father and brother were killed by a drunken driver in 2009.

"The homeless, central city children and victims of drunk drivers normally do not have a voice in politics," Lenz explained in an email. "This painting was an opportunity for future governors to look these three children in the eye, and I hope, contemplate how their public policies might affect them and other children like them."

He added: "I guess that was a conversation Governor Walker did not want to have."...

The Governor's office issued a press release trying to make the excuse that more people will see the painting at its new location in the Milwaukee Public Library. But at least one member of the Milwaukee library board isn't buying that.

The library board will display the painting at its central building downtown. But in truth, Kovac said, the people of Milwaukee don't need a Lenz painting to be reminded of the importance of Milwaukee children. He said the work would have served a greater purpose in Madison.

Why Rush Limbaugh's candidate fails

I don't always agree with Peter Beinart on policy issues, but I do think he is one of the best at reading the politics of our times. In his most recent column, he explains why a lousy economy won't sink Obama. In it is a great section that is not enough to describe a winning election - at least for me. But it is important as a buffer when we start to feel discouraged about the crazy goings on amongst the Republican nominees.

In a party as ideologically charged as today’s GOP, it’s enormously difficult to win over base voters — and bring them to the polls in November — while also appearing ideologically mainstream. Obama will exploit that. The happier Rush Limbaugh is with the Republican nominee, the easier it will be for Obama to galvanize Democrats to go to the polls.

I would also say that the happier Rush Limbaugh is with the Republican nominee, the more unhappy centrist Republicans and independents will be with him/her. And yeah, Obama will exploit that. But if, my some miracle, the GOP base gets sane and nominates a more electable candidate, you're certain to see more conciliatory rhetoric as ruthless strategy from President Obama.

So...

And the winner is...

Last Friday I wrote about the upcoming Presidential election in Peru. Today it appears that Ollanta Humala has won.

Ollanta Humala appeared on course to narrowly win Peru's presidential election after moderating his firebrand leftwing image and promising to rule from the centre.

Unofficial results on Monday gave the former army officer 51.3% of the vote against 48.7% for Keiko Fujimori, the rightwing daughter of a disgraced former president, after a bruising campaign that polarised the country.

Humala's supporters celebrated on Sunday night hours after polls closed, and Fujimori said she would concede – and not demand a recount – if official results confirmed the exit polls and unofficial tallies...

Humala won overwhelming support from impoverished indigenous voters in Andean highlands who feel left out by Peru's mining-driven economic boom. He promised to share wealth more equally without frightening investors...

Mario Vargas Llosa, the Nobel laureate, called it a choice between cancer and Aids but backed Humala to "save democracy" on the grounds that Fujimori would bring back the worst aspects of the rule of her father, Alberto, who is in jail for corruption and human rights abuses during his presidency in the 1990s.

"What's important is that we have been freed from the return to power of a dictatorship that was terribly corrupt and bloody," he told CPN radio. "We should congratulate ourselves and celebrate."