maybe it was the Steve Earle that came up on my Pandora or maybe it was the story about the three men at Occupy Chicago last weekend being held as terror suspects in what their attorney is calling "sensory deprivation," but thinking about how we treat our prisoners has been on my mind (well, actually all peoples who are least able to defend themselves against oppression and inherent unfairness). And then I came across this piece on The Huffington Post about "101 Death Row Inmates Later Exonerated."
The Earle is worth a listen (he's been a true advocate and activist for a good while, so he walks the walk); be sure to check out the Huffington piece--the numbers there might give death penalty proponents pause.
* * * * *
speaking of the Huffington Post and how we treat Others, Michelangelo Signorile has a good piece on equal rights and why leadership matters:
Obama and Gay Rights: A Lesson for All Progressives and the Obama Campaign
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came across E.J. Dionne Jr. on Twitter (thanks to a heads up from Ezra Klein); here is a piece from earlier today that gets at something that I've been writing about for a while. Of course, Dionne gets there much sooner and succinctly than I do: Conservatives used to care about community. What happened?
It's probably just the other side of the axe--but isn't it the same point about the Republican party leaving behind its values (every man for himself!) as the Democrats falling in line behind this Administration while our government haphazardly kills civilians in foreign sovereign states and will now utilize propaganda against its own citizens (just to name a couple abuses that would drive the Left crazy if it wasn't coming from a Democratic President). Where's the outrage? Where's the Mainstream Media? All bought and sold, complacent and complicit. And now back to our regular programming: American Idol/Swamp People/America's Got a Voice or Something . . . we do ourselves no favor by blindly following "our" party. Make them accountable to you. It's Negotiations 101--don't give anything away b/c then you have no leverage.
Why, yes, David Axelrod, I just might vote for somebody other than your guy. Now that we've seen what happens when the President takes a leadership role in Progressive politics (poll numbers favorable for support of Gay Rights), let's see what happens if this President can actually continue to govern like a Progressive, and not pull a Blanche Lincoln and try to out-conservative the Conservatives. Govern like the Democrat we elected you to be.
The Earle is worth a listen (he's been a true advocate and activist for a good while, so he walks the walk); be sure to check out the Huffington piece--the numbers there might give death penalty proponents pause.
* * * * *
speaking of the Huffington Post and how we treat Others, Michelangelo Signorile has a good piece on equal rights and why leadership matters:
Obama and Gay Rights: A Lesson for All Progressives and the Obama Campaign
* * * * *
came across E.J. Dionne Jr. on Twitter (thanks to a heads up from Ezra Klein); here is a piece from earlier today that gets at something that I've been writing about for a while. Of course, Dionne gets there much sooner and succinctly than I do: Conservatives used to care about community. What happened?
It's probably just the other side of the axe--but isn't it the same point about the Republican party leaving behind its values (every man for himself!) as the Democrats falling in line behind this Administration while our government haphazardly kills civilians in foreign sovereign states and will now utilize propaganda against its own citizens (just to name a couple abuses that would drive the Left crazy if it wasn't coming from a Democratic President). Where's the outrage? Where's the Mainstream Media? All bought and sold, complacent and complicit. And now back to our regular programming: American Idol/Swamp People/America's Got a Voice or Something . . . we do ourselves no favor by blindly following "our" party. Make them accountable to you. It's Negotiations 101--don't give anything away b/c then you have no leverage.
Why, yes, David Axelrod, I just might vote for somebody other than your guy. Now that we've seen what happens when the President takes a leadership role in Progressive politics (poll numbers favorable for support of Gay Rights), let's see what happens if this President can actually continue to govern like a Progressive, and not pull a Blanche Lincoln and try to out-conservative the Conservatives. Govern like the Democrat we elected you to be.
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