Writes: Paul Krugman

…… Drill now! Four legs good, two legs bad! — Know-Nothing Politics. Republicans, once hailed as the “party of ideas,” have become the party of stupid.

What I mean is that know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy.

The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.”

In the case of oil, this takes the form of pretending that more drilling would produce fast relief at the gas pump. In fact, earlier this week Republicans in Congress actually claimed credit for the recent fall in oil prices: “The market is responding to the fact that we are here talking,” said Representative John Shadegg.

Remember how the Iraq war was sold. The stuff about aluminum tubes and mushroom clouds was just window dressing. The main political argument was, “They attacked us, and we’re going to strike back” — and anyone who tried to point out that Saddam and Osama weren’t the same person was an effete snob who hated America, and probably looked French…..[MORE >>]

SPECIAL — LISTEN TO: BIG GAY GOP FEAR FACTOR FEVER

Popularity: 6% [?]

 Columnist - John Sammon
Barack Obama unfortunately has got assassination attempt written all over him. I wish I didn’t have to say this, but my clairvoyant sensors are ringing. Before you laugh, I wrote on my blog Sammonsays that “people would drown en mass” five days before Hurricane Katrina struck (titled Doomsday Five). Katrina was also a Category Five storm.

I also accurately predicted the outcome of the Iraq War six years ago, and the death of the TV Crocodile Hunter before they happened.

I could go on.

Obama has got several things about him to make me issue this warning (a new version of the Ides of March).

First, he’s personable and young. A prime target. Anyone promising change or a new direction runs more risk because they represent a threat to the old established business-as-usual moneyed interests. It also goes without saying that as the first African American president, Obama will become a target to every racist nut case.

America is a violent country. A country of haters. The most violent in the world.

Also, Democrats by their very nature consider themselves to be “populists.” That means they seem to like the so-called “common people,” and actually make physical attempts to go out among them and shake hands, which leaves them more vulnerable to assassination.

Republicans on the other hand tend to be more secretive. They believe in secret government. As a rule, they don’t like wading through crowds, “average” people for whom they often have disdain. Usually, the only time you see George Bush is when he waves walking across the lawn from his helicopter.

But it’s Obama’s perceived challenge to the fat cats that has me really worried, and my clairvoyant harp strings chiming.

The oil companies are strangling the American people, raising gas prices. They always explain that their to-infinity profits are simply a result of rewarding stock holders. But they’re killing the golden goose. Without knowing it.

Rising prices will cause Americans to seek other means of travel and boycott gasoline, which in turn will lessen global warming. Rising fuel prices will also cause other, new entrepreneurs to fill the gap by creating hybrid, electric and more fuel efficient cars.

Here’s a historical example. What happened in Prohibition when Americans were confronted with a situation (law) that to them was unacceptable? They found ways around it. They made their own booze.

Can’t you see the irony? In their greed and stupidity, oil company executives are (unwittingly) killing their own industry and helping the environment.

But back to Obama. Obama will try to rein in big oil. He may also attempt universal health care. This will put him on the hit list of moneyed interests.

For if the truth be known, in some ways, the oil company moguls and those in the insurance and health industry games are not that different from the Mafia and organized crime. They have lucrative windfalls they will fanatically protect. Billions are at stake.

Any political leader who attempts real change to the industrial, military, multi mega world conglomerate that America represents…will be viewed as a grave threat.

I’ll warn you all that Obama is a prime candidate for assassination. And it makes me sick to think about it.

I believe Obama will be the victim of an assassination attempt if he’s elected. That’s sad, because he may be the last, best hope we have to retain any semblance of our own humanity.

© Copyright 2008 by SammonSays.com

Popularity: 42% [?]

You may have heard of Rev. John Hagee, the McCain supporter who said God created Hurricane Katrina to punish New Orleans for its homosexual “sins.” Well now meet Rev. Rod Parsley, the televangelist megachurch pastor from Ohio who hates Islam. According to David Corn of Mother Jones, Parsley has called on Christians to wage war against Islam, which he considers to be a “false religion.” In the past, Parsley has also railed against the separation of church and state, homosexuals, and abortion rights, comparing Planned Parenthood to Nazis….[more]

A look at Jeremiah Wright, Geraldine Ferraro and John Hagee, who have been associated with the campaigns of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain respectively. Only Hagee is still an adivsor.

Video(s) Courtesy: BraveNew Films

Popularity: 28% [?]

By: Prof. Ken Bode

Prof. Ken Bode
Today, 80 percent of Americans think our country is on the wrong track.

With a cratering economy, an endless war in Iraq and an uncomprehending president, that is understandable. Rarely has there been a moment when clarity of choice and opportunity for change has been so clear.

On Tuesday, Indiana voters have a monumental opportunity to help set our country on a new course.

I have cast an early vote for Sen. Barack Obama, and I’ll tell you why.

In the Democratic primary, the choice is between experience and judgment. For all the experience she extols, Hillary Clinton still carries the albatross of her opportunistic vote favoring the Iraq war. She explains lamely that she didn’t realize President Bush would take her blank check and cash it. Obama rightly opposed the war from the start.

Both candidates say they would get out of Iraq, but Obama would approach the necessary regional security arrangements in the Middle East by opening a dialogue with states like Syria and Iran, abandoning the stubborn silence of the Bush policies. Clinton approaches the problem with threats to obliterate Iran with “massive retaliation.” Her rhetoric is drawn from the Cold War past, revealing the “bring-them-on” mentality of Bush.

Overall, Obama represents the best chance we have to address the greatest threat facing America, the stateless terrorism of the Islamic world. As The Atlantic magazine’s Andrew Sullivan said, if you seek the simplest and most effective weapon against the demonization of America that fuels Islamist ideology, Obama’s face gets close. It proves them wrong about America in ways no words can. Obama’s mere presence in the Oval Office would help defuse anti-American passions around the world.

The electorate also is hungry for change in the way our government does business at home. Clinton has more experience in Washington, but that has not helped her to understand its problems. She solicits money from special interests and picked a major lobbyist to run her campaign. Judging by their different policies, Obama’s shorter time in Washington is more an asset than a handicap.

The most important reason that Indiana voters should support Obama on Tuesday is that he represents America’s greatest opportunity to pivot away from the past. While Clinton talks about change, Obama embodies it. He radiates a sense of possibility and has a proven ability to engage and inspire young people to public service like no candidate since John F. Kennedy. He has produced a nationwide surge of new voters, in itself an expression of the nation’s hunger for change. For the past 20 years, two families, the Bushes and Clintons, have run the country, longer than the newest voters — and many serving in Iraq — have been alive. Obama would change that.

Too late for many, Obama finally and firmly denounced the pronouncements of his preacher. Rev. Jeremiah Wright now takes his place in the pantheon of pastors who bring strange ideas from the pulpit to politics.

Bush supporter Rev. Jerry Falwell claimed the 9/11 attacks occurred because American secularism had forfeited God’s protection.

Rudy Giuliani backer Pat Robertson claimed that accepting homosexuality could result in earthquakes, tornados and a possible meteor. And John McCain’s supporter, televangelist John Hagee, said Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment for a New Orleans gay rights parade. Politicians cannot be held responsible for the crazy rantings of preachers.

Voters also must remember that the Clintons represent a partnership of endless uncertainty. Bill Clinton squandered the last two years of his presidency by recklessly dallying with Monica Lewinsky, producing impeachment, and jeopardizing the election of Al Gore. Had that not happened, America would not be in Iraq today. In our choice on Tuesday, Hillary and Bill Clinton clearly represent the past, a page turned backward, and Barack Obama represents the future.

While endorsing Obama, a former Clinton administration official put it this way: “I don’t think I’m ready for the circus to come back to town.”

About The Author: Ken A. Bode is the Pulliam Professor of Journalism at DePauw University and a Hudson adjunct fellow. His academic career includes being the John S. and James L. Knight Professor of Journalism as well as the Dean of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University from 1998 to 2002; a John L. Hughes University Professor and Director of the Center for Contemporary Media at DePauw University from 1989 1997; and an assistant professor of political science at Michigan State University from 1965 to 1969 and at SUNY Binghamton from 1969 to 1970. Bode received his B.A. (cum laude) from the University of South Dakota in 1961 and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina.

Popularity: 30% [?]

April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Death and How It Changed America

Editorial Reviews

Book Description: On April 4, 1968, at 6:01 PM, while he was standing on a balcony at a Memphis hotel, Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and fatally wounded. Only hours earlier King–the prophet for racial and economic justice in America–ended his final speech with the words, “I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight, that we as a people will get to the Promised Land.”

Acclaimed public intellectual and best-selling author Michael Eric Dyson uses the fortieth anniversary of King’s assassination as the occasion for a provocative and fresh examination of how King fought, and faced, his own death, and we should use his death and legacy. Dyson also uses this landmark anniversary as the starting point for a comprehensive reevaluation of the fate of Black America over the four decades that followed King’s death. Dyson ambitiously investigates the ways in which African-Americans have in fact made it to the Promised Land of which King spoke, while shining a bright light on the ways in which the nation has faltered in the quest for racial justice. He also probes the virtues and flaws of charismatic black leadership that has followed in King’s wake, from Jesse Jackson to Barack Obama.

Always engaging and inspiring, April 4, 1968 celebrates the prophetic leadership of Dr. King, and challenges America to renew its commitment to his deeply moral vision.

About the Author:Michael Eric Dyson, named by Ebony as one of the hundred most influential black Americans, is the author of sixteen books, including Holler if You Hear Me, Is Bill Cosby Right? and I May Not Get There With You: The True Martin Luther King Jr. He is currently University Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Other Books By Michael Eric Dyson

Popularity: 32% [?]