Senator Al Franken has won my heart. In his first piece of proposed legislation, he demonstrates the true meaning of honoring our injured veterans by seeking to start a three-year pilot program bringing together these veterans and service dogs.
Al Franken during his USO Tour in December 2003.
What’s interesting when talking to Democrats is that you find out how out of touch much of the blogsphere is from the reality of the Democratic Party.
Many Democrats I know support torture, or are against gay marriage, think we should bomb Iran, that universal health care is bad, that labor unions are bad, etc.
As much as the blogs attack the Blue Dogs, the one thing we keep forgetting is that the Blue Dogs are a major part of the party’s voting base…the Democratic party is far more conservative than the Republicans are liberal.
I had the misfortune today of catching an interview with Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) on the Neal Boortz radio show. In a display of knuckle-dragging impolitic diatribe Sen Inhofe accused President Obama of intentionally setting out to destroy America and eagerly agreed with the host that Obama lacks the courage to authorize a rescue of pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, currently being held captive in Afghanistan.
Once again I find myself appalled at what is passing for political discourse from Republican politicians. Not: “I disagree with the policies of the President”, but rather: [sic]”I think the President is doing all he can to destroy the country.”
All right warriors we’ve got two weeks to get a healthcare reform bill including a robust public option passed. The enemy, Republicans and Blue Dogs, is marshalling its forces at this very moment to try to defeat us.
We can all spare some time to make a few phone calls to our Senators and Congresspeople, write them a snail mail letter or a fax, send a letter to our local newspaper.
YES, WE CAN.
We are the people who only last year mobilized and sent a little known junior Senator from Illinois to the White House to become the first African American President. If we could do that, we can do this too.
YES, WE CAN.
This is our window of opportunity to get something done that is long overdue. Our President needs our help. Please, get involved.
That’s all I have to say.
The phrase “knowledge is power” is a cliché in our culture. Yet as often as we hear it from others or speak it ourselves, how often have we contemplated the process of acquiring knowledge? Is there a blueprint for obtaining knowledge and wisdom? Are we encouraging children to be intellectually curious or merely teaching them that every question has an instant and obvious answer?
In her book, The Death of Why?: The Decline of Questioning and the Future of Democracy (Berrett-Kohler Publishers), New York City policy expert Andrea Batista Schlesinger writes that,
Jim Robinson isn’t what you’d call the brightest bulb in the box. In addition to his tacit support of the Wing Nut Brigade’s most virulent and least intellectual elements–including the pleasant gentleman who shot a guard at the Holocaust Museum and his support of the Truthers and Tea Party nonsense–he’s decided now that more direct action is necessary.
Tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of the landing on the Moon in 1969. Neil Armstrong (“One small step for a man… one giant leap for mankind”) ad Buzz Aldrin planted the flag and put out a plaque marking the landing which, in under a decade, had been the result of spending $183 Billion Bucks and upping the confrontation with the Russians, who had achieved the original advance in space by putting up Sputnik and sending two different cosmonauts on full orbits around the Earth.
While reading a pundit round-up this morning, I happened to stray from a Eugene Robinson link to Kathleen Parker’s take on the questioning of Sonia Sotomayor: The GOP’s Sotomayor Sinkhole.
I don’t usually read her. I’ve been glued to discussion of Sotomayor, and following closely the racism in the questioning by Republicans, and probable impact of their biases on Latinos nationwide, but her piece this morning caused me to reflect on how certain Republican and Independent women may have viewed the proceedings from the perspective of gender.
(cross posted at kickin it with cg)
Last year I explored the International Olympic Committee’s exclusion of women’s ski jumping for the Winter Games in Vancouver in 2010. Not that there is anything new about sexism in the Olympics, but this case, and its recent conclusion demonstrates it in a way that is quite outrageous.