Archive for Race
It was never about health care
Posted by: | CommentsSeptember 11 let the air out of many Americans’ sense of invulnerability. Fear filled the vacuum left behind and intensified the darkness already there. Fear of change. Fear of the unknown. Fear of the Other.
At dinner last night we talked about what was really behind the right’s histrionic response to enactment of health insurance reform — reform based in too large a part on Republican ideas. By the time the Sunday New York Times was online, Frank Rich had transcribed the essentially the same conversation under the title we might have given it, The Rage Is Not About Health Care:
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I’ve Been To The Mountaintop
Posted by: | CommentsToday, as we take time to reflect upon the civil rights struggle and the philosophy of nonviolence, let’s remember that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. bore the hatred and misgivings of millions of people who said that America was not ready. Remembering that it took decades and centuries of struggle to set the stage for a man as brave and charismatic as Dr. King, we can take heart that as long as we continue to sail our national ship towards the shores of equality, we will arrive. We may lose leaders along the way, but the cause cannot be lost. Humanity’s drive towards freedom and equality will surely overcome the small minds that would stack one person on top of another and call some people unworthy of basic human rights.
Thank you, Dr. King. You showed us a way forward that embodied courage, nonviolence, and inevitable victory.
The Elephant’s Graveyard
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve gotten a lot of guff for my post last week handicapping the Republican congressional primary field here in the 11th…not for what I predicted so much as the fact that the prediction appeared here in this pinko e-rag and under my own shiny new byline. You see, for today’s Republicans, this is a betrayal of the first order: “Thou shalt not lie with liberals as with conservatives: it is an abomination!”
Of course, there are so many orders of betrayal among local Republicans these days it’s kind of hard to keep track anymore.
Having worked for Republican candidates all my life and professionally for the last three years here in Asheville — heck, above my screen hangs a picture of me and President Reagan at a White House Christmas Party and another of me and President George H.W. Bush at a private BBQ on the south lawn of the White House; I could go on, but you get the idea — I can honestly say that I can’t see this happening again anytime soon. The Republican Party I knew for so many years has gone off the rails — effectively destroyed here locally from within — by sanctimonious bigots, religious zealots, misanthropic doctrinaire Randians, and most importantly by piss-poor, unelectable candidates.
NC Racial Justice Act Passes
Posted by: | CommentsVia email press release from NC Coalition for a Moratorium:
Raleigh, NC — The NC Senate just passed the NC Racial Justice Act by a vote of 25 – 18 . The Senate voted to concur on the Bill (S461) passed last month in the House without the amendment that would have restarted executions immediately.
Governor Perdue is likely to sign the NC Racial Justice Act into law.
“§ 15A‑2010. North Carolina Racial Justice Act.
No person shall be subject to or given a sentence of death or shall be executed pursuant to any judgment that was sought or obtained on the basis of race.”
This is an important step forward for North Carolina, and we all ought to celebrate another step towards equality under the law.
Monday Reading
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White rooftops: “Making roofs white “changes the reflectivity . . . of the Earth, so the sunlight comes in, it’s reflected back into space,” Chu said. “This is something very simple that we can do immediately,” he said later.”
AC-T Editorial says of state budget cuts in education: “We’d be cutting our own throats.”
Friday is Juneteenth:Â “Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.
From its’ Galveston, Texas origin in 1865, the observance of June 19th as the African American Emancipation Day has spread across the United States and beyond.”
Tim Johnson dodged the slings and arrows of a criminal past and a dodgy diploma to be elected NC GOP Vice Chair. Tim Peck says that the Buncombe Vice Chair will vie for the top spot in the county party. And to thicken the plot, there’s an online schism between the Carolina Stompers and Thunder Pig over ‘attacks’ on NC GOP 1th Precinct Chair, Stephen Duncan.
Freedom To Marry: “The Obama Administration stumbled badly in defending the federal anti-marriage law, so-called “DOMA,” despite his repeated campaign promises to end this federal discrimination against married gay couples and their loved ones.”
Juan Cole: “I am aware of the difficulties of catching history on the run. Some explanation may emerge for Ahmadinejad’s upset that does not involve fraud… But just as a first reaction, this post-election situation looks to me like a crime scene. And here is how I would reconstruct the crime.”
Follow Iran election situation on Twitter here
What are you reading?
Friday Open Thread: Weekending
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{I suppose you loyal readers have been sufficiently solicited regarding your Democratic Party precinct meetings tomorrow morning at 10am, so I won’t again be urging you to show up and turn this Party into the infrastructure we need to keep fielding better Democrats.
Rootshock is taking place all weekend. For all of you who have been concerned over the I-26 Connector’s impact on our community, this weekend of lectures and activities will help everyone understand how “urban renewal” has injured African-American neighborhoods again and again. Please carve out time to attend one of the many events.
Tomorrow from 3-6pm there’s a party at the Burton St. Community Center. No political agenda, just raising community with food, entertainment, and a whole lot of good people. Find out more here.
Sunday from 2-5 there’s an opportunity to become involved in something that’s going to get a lot of virtual ink at this site after March 14. If you want to know more, please shoot me an email using the ScruHoo contact form.
Aside from those things, I’ll be playing some disc golf, having dinner with friends, writing a big blog post for a big blog, and taking care of responsibilities around the house.
What do you have going on?
Coming to a mailbox near you?
Posted by: | CommentsVia the Washington Independent, a letter that was delivered to residents of the Clarendon neighborhood of Arlington, VA – you’d better make sure you have a bucket handy before clicking the image to enlarge it.
Bravo, GOP, bravo. Someone earned their laminated, autographed 8×10 of Sarah Palin for creating this particularly masterful wedge. And I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if something like this ends up in my mailbox in the next 24 days…
Happy Birthday, Katrina!
Posted by: | CommentsThree years ago this morning, Tropical Storm Katrina was upgraded to hurricane status two hours before making landfall in the southern tip of Florida and gained strength as it moved across the Gulf of Mexico toward Louisiana…
