When labor leader A. Philip Randolph, organized a special march in Washington, DC for “Jobs and Freedom” in 1963, I have no doubt Randolph made deliberate choices on the date — August 28– and the venue — the Lincoln Memorial — as organizers did on the program and selection of speakers. On this day in [...]
Van Jones was one of my Community Organizer Hall of Famers. Still is. Van Jones spoke at Netroots Nation Friday morning in Las Vegas. Jones was another Obama administration casualty of “gotcha” right wing media. He resigned from his post as White House Special Adviser for Green Jobs, Enterprise, and Innovation after his signature was [...]
Today, I read a post on TPM suggesting that the Pigford Settlement could’ve been a second target for right-wing blogger Andrew Breitbart and his like in addition to the NAACP (for their criticism of the Tea Party leadership for tolerating racism within their ranks). …Andrew Breitbart’s timing of the release of the grossly distorted video [...]
Just for laughs, I thought I’d try out this on-line writing analysis program created by 27-year-old software developer Dmitry Chestnykh. BTW Chestnykh speaks English as a second language. He is Russian and lives in Montenegro. Seems both Margaret Atwood and I write like Stephen King. Though I haven’t read King because I don’t like being [...]
Yesterday, the NAACP passed a resolution condemning the racist acts of Tea Party protesters. The backlash from the Tea Party has been furious. But we are not an organization that shies away from controversy. The NAACP was founded on hope, not hate — and we will not stand idly by as racists work to divide [...]
I’m always tickled when parents freak out over a child’s decision to pursue acting in college. For the straight and narrow parent, it’s the “throwing good money after bad money” call. Personally, most of the serious actors I’ve known my lifetime were intelligent, insightful, and committed. The challenge was the ability to make a living [...]
There are two things that happen when a show goes off the air. One is you quit and the other is somebody from the network knocks on your door and says, ‘Stop doing this.’ – Carol Burnett, actress, comedian For veteran journalist Helen Thomas, it was both. Yesterday, Thomas, the first woman to be admitted [...]
Transcript available here. This week the President made his third trip to the Louisiana coast in lieu of a trip to Australia and Indonesia, to check on the lack of progress of BP’s next move on capping the oil pipe as well as the lack of confidence in the administration’s ability to bring BP to [...]
This morning, “Good Morning America” brought in Diane Sawyer for an update on the explosion inside the Upper Big Branch mine owned by the Richmond, VA-based Massey Energy company. Twenty five people died in the mine; 4 were missing at the time of this report. Rescue workers were still searching. This is being described as [...]
The final vote on health care reform will take place tonight. All the procedural voting is done and it appears that the House Democrats have their minimum votes to pass the bill with the sounding of the gavel perhaps the same one held by Representative John Dingell (D-MI) when Medicare passed in 1965. This health [...]
