Politics
Yes. I busted my ass for Obama the first time around.
Opened my checkbook, campaigned, knocked on doors. Did everything I could to see that he carried Florida in the Presidential election.
Not easy in a place where Fred Thompson signs were as common as plastic pink flamingos at the time during the primary and right wing nuts carried Soviet flags outside of local Obama campaign headquarters. Where women thought Palin was the essence of true feminism. I had the lone Obama sign on my lawn in a sea of McCain - Palin cardboard.
But I got the last laugh. At least I thought so at the time.
We had elected a Democratic President and controlled the two Houses of Congress. And we carried Florida.
Maybe something would get done.
Maybe universal healthcare. Maybe peace would come. Maybe a society which would leave behind racism. Maybe repeal of the Bush tax giveaways to billionaires. Maybe we would spend money on people rather than aircraft carriers. Maybe we would stop torturing people. Maybe Gitmo would close.
Maybe. Read more
Is Obama's fatal scandal whether the President called Benghazi an "act of terror" or "terrorist act" or are Republicans reaching for any reason to deploy weapons of mass distraction?
Is the new Watergate whether the IRS scrutinized political groups seeking tax breaks, unfairly denying none of them tax-free status? We're irritated & irate -- but not quite IRS-gate.
Or is the biggest scandal of this administration drone attacks or whistle-blower-crackdowns, record deportations or the Keystone Pipeline? Where are those Congressional hearings?
While the right-wing rustles up an Obamagate, the real scandal's that he never got out of the gate on climate change bills or stronger gun laws, reversing the sequester or closing Guantanamo.
The IRS & Benghazi business can't hold a candle to losing its way: the real Obamagate scandal.
Vent, laugh and share, debate if you date and have a drink while you say what you think at your local progressive social club
DRINKING LIBERALLY Find - or start - a chapter near you.
Its Wednesday May 8th! Do you know where your Podcast is? On this day in history back in 1858 John Brown held a secret anti-slavery convention in Canada where he and around 50 like-minded individuals adopted an anti slavery constitution. Brown is one of the most polarizing figures of the chaotic period leading up to the civil war. Hated by supporters of the southern way of exploiting human beings for their own personal gain and glory - I mean advocates of states’ rights; revered by the growing population of civil rights warriors who believed that change would not come without a fight; shunned and shamed by peace loving, meek abolitionists who preferred to sing songs, publish articles, and peacefully assemble to end slavery. Read more
The President got in bed with Republicans to help him pass gun control legislation, but it was no love-match, they screwed him over & the morning after has left us with no new laws.
He continues to court conservatives on immigration reform & budget deals, and he's willing to make big compromises that the morning after look more like mistakes.
Now to do extend a hand to the Christian Right to appeal to those who won't ever be appeased, his administration is opposing access for young women to the morning after pill.
Just because there's no pill to fix the bad political mistakes Obama has made doesn't mean he should deny Americans a legal course out of a bad situation.
Whether a pill or some political will, we could all use a way to make things right -- it's better than mourning after the morning after.
Join a night that you won't regret with conversation, comrades, discussion & drinks at your local progressive social club.
DRINKING LIBERALLY Find - or start - a chapter near you.
This weekend in D.C. – it’s the “un-conference” of the year for #opengov heads & civic engagement developers. That would be Transparency Camp, organized by the Sunlight Foundation. By “un-conference”, it’s a straightforward-yet-refreshing take on usual conference get-togethers – panels are generally organized bottom-up, so actual tech developers can get-together in the same room and look at actual code & actual features & actual data & actual UIs & actual needs & actual opportunities. Well maybe not as much as would be ideal, but it’s still rather refreshing if you’ve spent months looking at a project management system like Pivotal Tracker or whatever & writing grant proposals in Google Docs.
David from OC & PPF will be there to demo our new major project: Read more
Its Sunday April 28th! Do you know where your podcast is? On this day in history back in 1967, Muhammad Ali refused induction into the U.S. military. The self-proclaimed "Greatest Fighter of All Time" cited religious reasons for staging his most important fight; a fight against institutionalized, senseless killing. Take a moment to process these statements - yes, a fighter by profession and religious person (Ali converted to Islam in 1964) refused to go to war! Ali was fined $10,000, sentenced to 5 years in prison, and was stripped of the world title he had won by beating Sonny Liston. He avoided prison while appealing all the way to the highest court, and lost his heavyweight title the first time the same year he won his case in 1971. Muhammad Ali is the only three-time boxing world champion, and is still one of the most intriguing figures in American history. His reason for refusing conscription was because "I ain't got no quarrel with those Vietcong." Amazing that the government of a "Christian nation" would seek to take everything from a person who was acting exactly in the manner that Jesus would have prescribed. Read more
Rush Limbaugh is in deep trouble.
14 months after his attacks on Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke, pressure on Limbaugh's advertisers by groups like the Flush Rush Facebook community and #stoprush Twitter has cost the right wing radio host more than 2,600 sponsors.
Rush Limbaugh's long career in radio has been defined by mean-spirited attacks on women, ethnic minorities, homosexuals, and the poor.
For many years that approach was his bread and butter--so much so that Clear Channel-owned Premiere Radio Networks gave him a lucrative 8 year, $400 million contract in 2008.
But this is no longer the United States that Limbaugh started his career in back in 1967. Each year our nation grows more diverse and tolerant. Notions of women or ethnic minorities as inferior to white males, of the poor as victims of their own laziness, and of homosexuals as sick people who don't deserve the right to marry are on their way out. Read more
We demand answers to Monday's horror, but aside from consoling the injured & showing support to the city of Boston, there isn't a quick way to assign blame, exact revenge or salve our grief.
We seek just action in response to Newtown but foolish Senate "traditions" halt progress, allowing the conservative mindset of a minority to prevent a majority from passing gun laws.
For many immigrants, it's been a long road, sometimes painful, frightening, exhausting, yet it seems that there may be a finish line if we all have the stamina to continue.
A Marathon is a democratic event: the terrain is equal, it's free to watch, the public is there every step of the way. And it's long. Painful. Yet achievable.
In American democracy, right now we're running a marathon, not a sprint. Let's hope we have the training, focus, courage, will-power & endurance of those Marathon runners we all admire.
Our hearts are in Boston, Newton & with all our fellow Americans. Come share your thoughts with friends as we share a drink & share the night at your local progressive social club.
DRINKING LIBERALLY Find - or start - a chapter near you.
More Social. More Security. We can reform immigration in a way that builds community with people & families who are contributing to America -- or we can keep criminalizing our neighbors.
We can pass sensible gun regulations to create a sense of trust, safety & relief -- or we can succumb to the paranoia calling for more guns, danger and distrust.
Our budget can strengthen our country, invest in infrastructure, provide a safety net -- or can cut successful social programs that support the most vulnerable among us.
So why is Obama out to cut Social Security, when on issue after issue, we need policies that are More Social for More Security?
You can be secure in the social scene where you share views, and sip some booze at your local progressive social club.
DRINKING LIBERALLY Find - or start - a chapter near you.
As the GOP tries to connect to Latino voters, they first apologize for a Congress member's slur -- which he says he didn't realize was a slur.
While Congress considers steps on gun violence, conservatives oppose action, deny the facts & cling to the myth that more guns make us safer.
And though some on the Right have come out for marriage equality, others still claim that same-sex couples are a threat to marriage.
It can be hard to tell whether right-wingers are truly ignorant of the world around them...or whether they just prefer to ignore it.
If only we could ignore them a little more...
Here's a fact you can't ignore: good company & good conversation at your local progressive social club.
DRINKING LIBERALLY Find - or start - a chapter near you.
Labor Day Demonstration against child labor - 1909
So if "class warfare" actually breaks out (we’re not talking about beheading rich folks .... yet!) with what "class" do you identify?
Are you "middle class, upper middle-class, lower class?" These are categories we love to use and always see in the corporate media.
These categories are based on how much you make and how much you consume. They assume you work. You have a job. If if are "lower" or "middle" class you cannot stay home and live on accumulated wealth or on income generated by others working for you. Yet rarely are such folks characterized as "workers".
The broad categories of class are better defined by your relationship to the process of the production of wealth.
You are either a worker, selling your labor because you have no other adequate source of income or you are an owner, a capitalist whose income is generated by others - i.e workers in your factory/corporation or your investments, or your accumulated wealth. Read more
Remember the Tom Cruise movie "Minority Report" released in 2002? Sure it seemed liked science fiction at the time.
Washington D. C. is virtually crime free in the year 2054 due to the effectiveness of the "Pre-Crime Unit". This unit arrests and jails individuals before they even commit the crime thus sparing society from the scourge of lawlessness.
How is it determined who will commit a crime in the future? A crime that hasn’t happened yet?
Why the "pre-cogs"- pre-cognitives provide the names of future criminals. The pre-cogs are three gifted humans who can see the future, give the information to the Pre-Crime Unit so that hero Tom can go out and sweep these pre-criminals off the street..
Being a pre-criminal can make jury trials and those pesky constitutional issues a major annoyance. After all, no crime has a yet been committed so the system can’t exactly charge the perp with any wrong-doing. There may be some circumstantial evidence of a pre-crime but maybe not. Read more
