Whining Conservative Hypocrites By A. Peter Bailey Conservatives and their neocon cohorts in the journalistic and academic worlds get a real kick out of ridiculing those Black folks as whiners who insist that this is not a postracial society, that White supremacy, if not racism, is still persuasive throughout the land. Does this mean that we have hopelessly thrown up our hands as some black folks charge No, it means that we acknowledge racial reality, not racial illusions. As for the conservatives who call us whiners, they are premier worldclass whining hypocrites who, in oped after oped, in book after book, on television and radio program after television and radio program, most often in the same media that they are criticizing, whine loudly about liberal bias in the mainstream media. This has been going on for nearly 50 years. One would think that a group of propagandists who are backed by numerous right-wing foundations, think tanks, universities, corporations, organizations and individuals with many billions of dollars on hand, would have, by now, launched their own nation-wide media empire. Read More...

Joe the Plumber on the Analysts Couch By Sid Davis The John McCain campaign machine, running on fumes in the last frantic days before the election, still wont abandon the desperate JoethePlumber narrative it rolled out in an attempt to create a game changing moment in the third presidential debate. Even with poor Joe now exposed to the nation as nonlicensed, a nontaxpayer, and even a nonJoehis real name is Samuel Wurzelbacherthe Republicans have decided to defend their poor, beleaguered symbol until the bitter end. Of late, they have said that it doesnt matter what isnt true about Joe, but what isthat hes an everyday American trying to get ahead, a saltoftheEarth type, into whose steely blues we can all gaze and see tiny, saintly reflections of ourselves. Such a claim invites a psychological analysisfor if he truly is Everyman, then we need to examine the person who Republicans say is strolling every street in every town of these vast United States. So lets put Joe on the analysts couch and take an unflinching gander at himand in so doing see what the Republicans think of the rest of us. Read More...

Channeling My Inner Michelle Obama By Tamara Gregory As the most important day in our nations future draws ever closer, I cant help but to wonder how we got here. How is it we are just a few days away from electing the most qualified, inspiring, intelligent candidate to be the most powerful man on the planet and that man just so happens to be black Yes, we all know there could be no Barack Obama without the sacrifices and courage of Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Medger Evers, Malcolm X, the list goes on and on. But the truth is, the person who deserves the most credit, is Michelle Obama. I say this not a some zealous feminist determined to steal the spotlight from all that Barack, a wise, steady hard working, thought provoking man has rightfully earned, but only to suggest that had he been married to another woman, say me for instance, Im not so sure wed be standing this close to the promise land. Watching Michelle Obama navigate the treacherous and cutthroat waters of American politics, I am convinced that she is the most courageous and heroic of us all. Read More...

Celebrity Politics Warm Media Chunky Gumbo, for a rainy day... By Ali S. Flux It has become increasingly clear to me that the world we inhabit grows ever more technologically dependent. One can recognize how the process of choosing government officials has been adjusted over time, and has succumbed to its fate of being swallowed whole by varied modes of media communication. Newspapers, radio programs, podcasts, television advertisements, and the occasional streaming broadband Oprah episode have become intrinsically melded into the very essence filling this bowl of soupy morsels of digestible informationotherwise known as the presidential campaign. Marshall McLuhan, one of my favorite postmodern authors, described the fate of our technoculture with the statement the medium is the message. Now, for years I have pondered this notion, and the truth that hides shrouded in its cryptic paradox. What exactly is said message that reaches our eyes and ears through some medium While I have yet to totally grasp McLuhans point, I believe his argument hinged upon the idea that transmitted information is only a fraction of what is communicated, and that the means by which the information is communicated, through some involuntary process, takes on an existence of its own. Hold that thought... Read More...

African American and The Electoral College By C.B. Forde African Americans were virtually disenfranchised until the passing of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Since the 1968 election the Republicans have held the Presidency for 24 out of the 36 years, 66 of the time. African Americans vote as a collective unit, and have become the backbone of the Democratic party. The Democratic party has become dependent upon the 91 of the African American vote that it annually receives. If African Americans, can continually increase their levels of participation in and sophistication of the American electoral process the potential is unlimited. However the American electoral process is quite convoluted, and as we have seen in the 2000 Florida Election scandal, contains many holes through which the process can be manipulated. Ronald Regan actually won the 2000 Presidential election when he stacked the U.S. Supreme court with conservative Justices in the 1980s. Read More...