In a speech to Justice Department employees yesterday marking Black History Month, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. - the nation’s first black attorney general - commented that the workplace is largely integrated but Americans still self-segregate on the weekends and in their private lives. He also stated that we are "essentially a nation of cowards” with respect to opening discussing the racial issues of our country.
Let's look at a typical Americana's private - which by the way is private and their own damn business but let's forget that for the moment - and see why we "self-segregate" as our new Attorney General indicates we do. First, during our free time many people spend it with their families - wife, children, brothers, sisters, parents, aunts and uncles. For the vast majority of people here that means spending it with people of your own color, ethnic background and religious beliefs. Next when you consider your extended network of friends, these people are most likely folks you have something in common with - where you grew up, what do you for a living, where you go tot church or maybe where you live. All of these things tend to be something related to your own life and therefore these people are mostly like you in many ways. Lastly, where you choose to live, work and play is also a lot about you and not about others. This means where ever you go - for what ever reasons - probably will draw more people like you.
Based on these reasons, wouldn't it be fairer to say Americana's tend to flock together by nature rather than an underlying need to continue the racial issues of past generations? I don't believe comments like those made by our new Attorney General will break down the invisible walls of nature but rather continue to support the idea that many people here continue to hold racism tight and by holding onto that belief only continues it negative impact on our society.
Ok, this will be that last political video for a while but for now enjoy this very important message on the importance of voting from two American icons:
See y'all for the next election on November 4th, 2009!
The US electoral college consists of 538 elected representatives who formally select the President and Vice President based on state by state popular vote. The election method is an example of an indirect election which have been used all over the world in countries with complex regional geography, however the United States in the last one to employ such election methods.
Looking more locally, Massachusetts has been a historically a democratic state. Here are the election results of the past 10 Massachusetts federal elections:
2004: Kerry (D) 2000: Gore (D) 1996: Clinton (D) 1992: Clinton (D) 1988: Michael Dukakis (D) 1984: Ronald Reagan (R) 1980: Ronald Reagan (R) 1976: Jimmy Carter (D) 1972: George McGovern (D) 1968: Hubert Humphrey (D)
Reagan, a republican, won Massachusetts both times he ran but he was one of the most popular president ever winning 44 out of 51 states in 84 and 49 of 51 in 88. McGovern only carried two states in his bid to be president in 72 - Massachusetts and Washington DC. Are we ultra smart or ultra stubborn? Looking back even further, the great state of Massachusetts voted for only one other republican candidate since 1924 and that was Dwight D. Eisenhower in 52 and 56, another wildly popular candidate.
So in the coming election, Obama will win the state of Massachusetts and receive our 12 electoral votes, regardless if I vote for him or McCain [or Baldwin, Barr, McKinney or Nader]. So in that respect my vote doesn't really count. Let's not even think about cities and towns that only count absentee ballots if the difference in the voting results is less than the total number of absentee votes cast.
While the electoral college vote has normally followed the popular vote there have been 3 occasions, 1876, 1888, and 2000, where the candidate who won the nationwide popular vote did not become President. Sure in the late 1800's it made sense to have this kind of electoral system but in the 21st century? With all of our modern technology?
I recommend that not only do we eliminate the electoral college system and simply count all of the votes in a true populous manner but we should also have a results show to announce the winner. Dancing With the Stars and American Idol get great ratings on result night so why shouldn't the Presidential Election? I would plan it for a week after the election, in prime time, so that families can watch our democratic process in action. I would even have the network's bid on it and sell advertising. All that money could go right back into the Federal system to help pay for social security or off set income tax.
Major League Baseball has agreed to push back the start time of a potential World Series Game 6 by eight minutes to allow Democrat Barack Obama to purchase a half-hour of air time on the Fox network. The Obama presidential campaign said back on October 9th that it had bought the 8-8:30 p.m slot on CBS and NBC.
"Fox will accommodate Senator Obama’s desire to communicate with voters in this long-form format," network spokesman Lou D’Ermilio said in a statement. "We are pleased that Major League Baseball has agreed to delay the first pitch of World Series Game 6 for a few minutes in order for Fox to carry his program on October 29. If requested, the network would be willing to make similar time available to Senator McCain’s campaign."
Well it's good to see that MLB and Fox are so accomidating to the political process. I wonder how much money it took to get both groups to agree to the time change? I guess it doesn't matter how late the games run, as long as everyone is making some cash in the process [and eight less minutes of sleep won't hurt all those viewers right?].
On a side note, the World Series has not gone to a sixth game since 2003 so it may be a moot point anyway.
Be the first on your block [or in your office] to have your very own 2008 Election Day mask. Well thanks to the Chicago Tribune's Rick Tuma, you can now have your very own, right from your color printer.
If the election was today, Obama would be your president-elect
Last night we heard some details of the nominees plans, listened to a good deal of finger pointing, had to sift through the rhetoric and watch as McCain and Obama "debated" each other on a number of issues. Four things jumped out at me last night: Obama is a way better public speaker than McCain, the republicans can not shake President Bush's recent poor approval, continuing to say the word change apparently gets people excited even if they have no idea what changes are needed or possible and McCain thinks we are all his friends. Here are five parts of the debate that really highlight either how good Obama was or how bad McCain was - I'm still not sure:
Question: Do you think the economy is going to get worse before it gets better?
Obama: No, I am confident about the American economy. But we are going to have to have some leadership from Washington that not only sets out much better regulations for the financial system. The problem is we still have a archaic, 20th-century regulatory system for 21st-century financial markets. We're going to have to coordinate with other countries to make sure that whatever actions we take work.
McCain: I think it depends on what we do. I think if we act effectively, if we stabilize the housing market -- which I believe we can, if we go out and buy up these bad loans, so that people can have a new mortgage at the new value of their home -- I think if we get rid of the cronyism and special interest influence in Washington so we can act more effectively.
Bottom Line: Obama has a definitive answer to the question while McCain uses the MBA mentality, it depends.
Question: The three -- health care, energy, and entitlement reform: Social Security and Medicare. In what order would you put them in terms of priorities?
McCain: I think you can work on all three at once, Tom. I think it's very important that reform our entitlement programs. My friends, we are not going to be able to provide the same benefit for present-day workers that we are going -- that present-day retirees have today.
Obama: We're going to have to prioritize, just like a family has to prioritize. Now, I've listed the things that I think have to be at the top of the list. Energy we have to deal with today, because you're paying $3.80 here in Nashville for gasoline, and it could go up.
Bottom Line: At least we know which Obama thinks is the most critical thing to do first.
Question: Would you give Congress a date certain to reform Social Security and Medicare within two years after you take office? Because in a bipartisan way, everyone agrees, that's a big ticking time bomb that will eat us up maybe even more than the mortgage crisis.
Obama: Well, Tom, we're going to have to take on entitlements and I think we've got to do it quickly. We're going to have a lot of work to do, so I can't guarantee that we're going to do it in the next two years, but I'd like to do in the my first term as president. But I think it's important to understand, we're not going to solve Social Security and Medicare unless we understand the rest of our tax policies. And you know, Sen. McCain, I think the "Straight Talk Express" lost a wheel on that one.
McCain: Social Security is not that tough. We know what the problems are, my friends, and we know what the fixes are. We've got to sit down together across the table. It's been done before. I saw it done with our -- our wonderful Ronald Reagan, a conservative from California, and the liberal Democrat Tip O'Neill from Massachusetts. That's what we need more of, and that's what I've done in Washington.
Bottom Line: Social Security is an easy fix, then why isn't it fixed yet? Bipartisan is not the only thing needed to deal with this issue.
Question: Do you think that Russia under Vladimir Putin is an evil empire?
Obama: I think they've engaged in an evil behavior and I think that it is important that we understand they're not the old Soviet Union but they still have nationalist impulses that I think are very dangerous.
McCain: Maybe. Depends on how we respond to Russia and it depends on a lot of things. If I say yes, then that means that we're reigniting the old Cold War. If I say no, it ignores their behavior.
Bottom Line: Maybe? I don't think that is an answer our president can give the public if asked such a direct question.
Question: What don't you know and how will you learn it?
Obama: My wife, Michelle, is there and she could give you a much longer list than I do. And most of the time, I learn it by asking her. But, look, the nature of the challenges that we're going to face are immense and one of the things that we know about the presidency is that it's never the challenges that you expect. It's the challenges that you don't that end up consuming most of your time. But here's what I do know...
McCain: And I think what I don't know is what all of us don't know, and that's what's going to happen both here at home and abroad. The challenges that we face are unprecedented. Americans are hurting tonight in a way they have not in our generation. There are challenges around the world that are new and different and there will be different -- we will be talking about countries sometime in the future that we hardly know where they are on the map, some Americans. So what I don't know is what the unexpected will be.
Bottom Line: Sure the future is unknown, that's a given, but at least Obama made his answer more human and humorous using his wife as the set-up.
Here's what I don't know, how could McCain - who is undoubtedly a war hero and a long time US congressman, be so unprepared, so stiff and appear so lifeless during his favored town hall format? Based on last night, I would say congratulations Mr. Obama, you sir will be our next president.
[Unless McCain and Palin do something drastic in the next 28 days that is.]
If you start a new browser and enter in voteforthemilf.com you will end up on John McCain's presidential website and even more specific, redirected for a welcome video from Sarah Palin. Note this will only work once because of a cookie written by VFTM. Check out the web in action:
In a releated story, sarahpalin.com is for sale. Wonder if sarahpalinisamilfsoyoushouldvoteforher.com has been taken yet???
Yes We Can: Voices of a Grassroots Movement CD went on sale on Friday exclusively through Obama's campaign website. The CD contains many perviously released songs but does contain a fwe new tracks, most notibly John Legend's Pride In The Name Of Love and Malik Yusef's Promised Land [which features Adam Levine and Kanye "Bush Doesn't Care About Black People" West]. Here is the complete track listing:
1. Eternity - Lionel Richie 2. Signed Sealed Delivered - Stevie Wonder 3. Waiting On The World To Change - John Mayer 4. American Prayer - Dave Stewart 5. Battle Cry - Shontelle 6. Make It Better - Los Lonely Boys 7. Pride In The Name Of Love - John Legend 8. I Have A Dream - BeBe Winans 9. Am I All Alone - Suai 10. One Is The Magic # - Jill Scott 11. Love & Hope - Ozomatli 12. Looking East - Jackson Browne 13. Out of Our heads - Sheryl Crow 14. Promised Land - Malik Yusef with Kanye West and Adam Levine 15. Hold On - Yolanda Adams 16. America The Beautiful - Keb' Mo' 17. America - Ken Stacey 18. Wide River - Buddy Miller
Meanwhile the McCain camp said it had no plans to release a CD of its own however spokesman Tucker Bounds commented "It's ironic that on a day when the economy is in turmoil, Barack Obama fails to release an economic plan, but instead chooses a celebrity rock album." While I like the idea of leveraging the internet and all of it's wonder for this year's presidential race I have to agree that in the past week and into next week everyone is now wondering what our next president has planned to help solidify our currently very volitale markets. Hopefully in the next few weeks and during the debates, the canidates can focus on what they plan to do instead of what the other has or has not done.
Hundreds of Worcester residents turned out yesterday to vote in the primary election and they did so at their local grocery store. The city is the first in the state to put polling places in supermarkets, and the move drew not only rave reviews from shoppers and voters in Worcester but attention from other cities and towns. The goal, David J. Rushford, the Worcester city clerk said, was to increase voter turnout and boost business at the stores, while at the same time eliminating the use of schools as polling places.
Price Chopper on the north side of the city, a Shaw's Supermarket on the southwest side, and a Stop & Shop and a Big Y World Class Market in the southeast each were used as poll centers and it looks like it was a great success. I hope to see more cities and towns adopt the use of businesses like this in the future because they will be easier to use, less riddled with school children and could help boost local economies.
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Senator John McCain's senior domestic policy adviser, said Tuesday that the BlackBerry mobile e-mail device was a "miracle that John McCain helped create." Of course McCain couldn't have invented the BlackBerry until Gore invented the internet [or internets as President Bush would say].
Holtz-Eakin was discussing the nation's economic woes with reporters, said that McCain -- who has struggled to stress his economic credentials -- did have experience dealing with the economy, pointing to his time on the Senate Commerce Committee. Pressed to provide an example of what McCain had accomplished on that committee, Holtz-Eakin said the senator did not have jurisdiction over financial markets, then he held up his Blackberry, telling reporters: "He did this." "Telecommunications of the United States, the premiere innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce Committee. So you're looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create," Holtz-Eakin said. "And that's what he did. He both regulated and deregulated the industry." While Holtz-Eakin was just making a point, I'm not sure his words will help McCain's campaign.
Sure the camera was off but shouldn't comments like this, which you did not expect to hit the net, be kept to yourself and only shared in real privacy?
I find it odd that if Reverend Jackson has this much anger toward Barrack, why he wouldn't just say it out loud [perhaps choosing different language of course]? I mean, when has Jesse ever held back his personal views on anything?
In a related story, we should all learn Spanish.
While I don't disagree with some of Barack's comments, why Spanish? He mentioned in his "argument" for bi-linguality, that Europeans travel to the US and can speak English, French and German. Since they don't feel the need to learn Spanish, why should we? I say we have a new movement for bi-lingual signs and documents here in the US but the language of choice will be chosen by random for the benefit of our guests from other countries. O tal vez todos podemos atenernos sólo a Inglés.
Even though he said running for the Senate was not on his 2008 agenda, could you imagine what an interesting race it would be between Curt Schilling and John Kerry? I can't imagine any of those members of Sox Nation voting against the guy who gave us all he had [and one now famous bloody sox, I mean sock] and brought a world series championship back to Boston after an 86 year drought and one wicked long curse. WRKO-AM was the first to discuss the idea of Schilling going political and it was further fueled by an article in today's Boston Herald. Both have polls asking the people if he is someone you would vote for. Right now he has a 96% to 4% margin over Kerry in the WRKO poll while the Herald pool shows him as nearly 30 points ahead of other possible candidates for the job. And what does the man himself say about this grassroots support he is getting:
“I couldn’t rule it out because it’s not something I ever thought about in a serious capacity.”
“I envision that I will probably be pretty busy in 2008, But I’m flattered as hell to even make this phone call.”
“While I am a registered voter, I have too many problems with the political scene, and I don’t think I’d fit into it”
His first task would be to “fire everybody and anybody who had anything to do with the Big Dig."
While I'm no political analyst, I would say those are the comments from a man who understands how to speak to the public and could very well have his eyes on Washington DC someday. Maybe just not in 2008. In the meantime, Big Schill will be quite busy over the next year working on his second World Series ring with the Red Sox, running his charitable foundation for ALS research - Curt's Pitch for ALS - and heading up his new video game business, Green Monster Games. Good luck with all 3 Curt!
