I look up to Colin Powell. He's a fellow black man that happens to be a moderate Republican like me. When there was speculation back in the mid-90s that he might run for president, I was hopeful. Here was a black man who had a real shot at the White House. When he became Secretary of State under Bush, I was excited that we had our first African American Secretary of State, … [Read more...] about Colin, John and Me
Colin Powell’s Revenge
As political observers parse The Endorsement, the unspoken element is the payback of Colin Powell, no matter how much he denies it, for the humiliation he suffered at the hands of Dick Cheney's gang in being forced to act as UN point man in justifying the invasion of Iraq with cooked intelligence. Yes, Powell gives Obama credibility as commander-in-chief and a leader who … [Read more...] about Colin Powell’s Revenge
How About a Web-Based Fact-Check Aggregator?
The Politico's Daniel Libit thinks we have so many different fact-checkers that they might be drowning each other out. They appear to have little effect on keeping the campaigns honest. What we really need now says Libit: ...is a way of kind of consolidating the fact-checking, and this gives an opportunity, maybe even for a website, to do what websites like … [Read more...] about How About a Web-Based Fact-Check Aggregator?
Obama Leaving the Campaign Trail Due to Grandmother’s Health
Just seen on MSNBC via The Rachel Maddow show, Senator Obama is leaving the campaign trail due to his grandmother's failing health: Obama to take break to see sick grandmother He is scheduled to fly to Hawaii Thursday and Friday to visit her From The Associated Press WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama is canceling nearly all his … [Read more...] about Obama Leaving the Campaign Trail Due to Grandmother’s Health
Blankity Blank Blanks (Guest Voice)
So who's to blame for the economic mess that could greatly impact Presidential campaign 2008? The conventional news media wisdom is the bulk of the blame should go to the Republicans. In this Guest Voice post, humorist Tom Purcell says that the "blankity blank blank" Ds have played a role as well. Guest Voice posts do not necessarily represent the view of TMV or its … [Read more...] about Blankity Blank Blanks (Guest Voice)
Barack the Fundraiser
Nate Beeler, The Washington Examiner … [Read more...] about Barack the Fundraiser
Andrew Sullivan: Blogging is to Writing as Jazz is to Music
When it comes to blogging, Andrew Sullivan is an old hand. And an indisputable expert. In the (redesigned) November Atlantic he has written a 5,000 word "dead-tree" essay, Why I Blog. In it, he tells of those early days grappling with what to write for an audience of only a few hundred back in the spring of 2000. He recalls how he was "technologically clueless" and used … [Read more...] about Andrew Sullivan: Blogging is to Writing as Jazz is to Music
Bachmann GOP Challenger Looks Forward to “Referendum”
Aubrey Immelman, the Republican challenger against US Representative Michelle Bachmann says his write-in campaign is about a referendum on the state of the GOP: He says one thing he will NOT do is ask Democrats to vote for him. He says he wants his candidacy to be a Republican referendum on Representative Bachmann and the direction the party has taken this country. I've … [Read more...] about Bachmann GOP Challenger Looks Forward to “Referendum”
What’s Worse … China’s Toxic Milk or Wall Street’s Toxic Debt?: The Global Geographic Times, China
Is there some kind of moral equivalency between Wall Street's 'toxic debt' disaster - which has terminated some of the world's largest investment banks - and China's now notorious scandal involving poisoned milk powder - which has killed an unknown number of innocent toddlers and sickened tens of thousands of others? According to this op-ed from China's government-controlled … [Read more...] about What’s Worse … China’s Toxic Milk or Wall Street’s Toxic Debt?: The Global Geographic Times, China
What Kristol Doesn’t Know About Media Elites
William Kristol in his Monday column in The New York Times says some things about media elites that cannot be left unchallenged. I take it personally, for one thing. I hate it when anyone, William Kristol included, goes off half-cocked about who I am. I am a media elite. After 35 years in the business, I know way too much about media to be anything but an elite. Call me … [Read more...] about What Kristol Doesn’t Know About Media Elites
Michelle Bachmann Gets Republican Challenger
After Michelle Bachmann's spectacular flameout of an interview on Friday on MSNBC, her Democratic challenger in Minnesota's Sixth District, Elwyn Tinklenberg, received a big boost in donations to his campaign. Now it looks like Bachmann's GOP challenger in the September primary, Aubrey Immelman, is getting back into the race as a write-in candidate: … [Read more...] about Michelle Bachmann Gets Republican Challenger
Out of the Mouths of Boobs
Two practitioners of get-paid-to-be-stupid-in-public punditry give us gems today, Pat Buchanan with his pronouncement that Colin Powell is backing Barack Obama because he's black and William Kristol scolding Peggy Noonan for saying that Sarah Palin is symptomatic of "a new vulgarization in American politics.” Buchanan can't help belaboring the obnoxious obvious, but Kristol … [Read more...] about Out of the Mouths of Boobs
Civil Rights Roundup: 10/20/08
Your daily dose of civil rights and related news The US Supreme Court will resolve a circuit split on identity theft by illegal immigrants. The question is whether aggravated identity theft requires knowledge by the user that the documents he obtains are those of a real person, as opposed to fabrications. Immigrants with family members on both sides of the US/Mexico … [Read more...] about Civil Rights Roundup: 10/20/08
Quote Of The Day: What Independent Voters REALLY Want
Centrist author John Avlon, who worked for then-President Bill Clinton and then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, writing in The Wall Street Journal, takes a look at what independent voters as a group tend to want. And once again Avlon, who wrote the best political book ever on American centrist voters, Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics, shines a … [Read more...] about Quote Of The Day: What Independent Voters REALLY Want
ABC News/Washington Post Poll: Palin Vice President Pick And Ayers Hurt McCain
A new ABC News/Washington Post poll suggests Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain's decisions to pick Gov. Sarah Palin and listen to his party's most conservative partisans and press the Ayers-Obama-weak-on-terrorism issue has cost the GOPer needed support. It also suggests again that McCain would have been better off protecting his 2000 "brand" as a kind of … [Read more...] about ABC News/Washington Post Poll: Palin Vice President Pick And Ayers Hurt McCain
Crossing the Line for Votes?
A strange tale from the New York Post today, which mostly caught my attention because I have some familiarity with a similar situation from earlier this year. It involves allegations of some people moving from politically demographic "safe states" into swing states in order to be able to cast votes in a tight election. GOTHAM-TO-OHIO VOTE SCAM EYED Four well-heeled New … [Read more...] about Crossing the Line for Votes?
Prove the Racism!
For those in the blogosphere, Pundit-Ville, and regular Joe and Jane Land who still believe and keep spreading that black folks in America are "racist" for overwhelmingly supporting Senator Barack Obama in Election '08, I have two words for you: PROVE IT! You prove that black people's supposed racism is harming a white, wealthy, respected, former Navy pilot, a Senator by … [Read more...] about Prove the Racism!
Two Cartoonists View Powell Obama Endorsement
Christo Komarnitski, Bulgaria Gary McCoy, Cagle Cartoons … [Read more...] about Two Cartoonists View Powell Obama Endorsement
The Excrescence Of Right-Wing GOP Hate
The racist and xenophobic bile that has flowed from the right-wing Republican base and spokesmouths like Rush Limbaugh has been unprecedented in this campaign season, and it was easy to predict that the moment Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama that he was no longer a war hero and brilliant diplomat but just another uppity Negro. If the hate-mongering of these people was not … [Read more...] about The Excrescence Of Right-Wing GOP Hate
Switching Cities with Obama
Over the just-past weekend, Sen. Obama made a campaign stop in my hometown of St. Louis, attracting his largest U.S. rally crowd to date. My wife and I missed the hooplah. While Obama was in St. Louis, we were in his adopted hometown of Chicago, visiting our son. We arrived Friday, the day the news broke that the Republican-leaning Chicago Tribune had endorsed Obama for … [Read more...] about Switching Cities with Obama