Quote of the Day

"The Republican Party is a dead rotting carcass with a few decrepit old leaders stumbling around like zombies in a horror version of 'Weekend With Bernie,' handcuffed to a corpse."

- Larry Hunter, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Policy Innovation, Chief Economist for the Free Enterprise Fund, hardcore supply-sider... HA!!!!

Zakaria on the war in Iraq

I just had to post an excerpt from Zakaria's Newsweek piece on what he thinks Obama needs to say about Iraq. Need anybody say more:

The war has resulted in over 4,000 U.S. combat deaths, four times as many grievously wounded, and tens of thousands of Iraqi deaths. Over 2 million Iraqis have fled the country and 2 million more have been displaced within the country. The price tag in dollars has also been staggering. In the last five years, the United States has spent close to $1 trillion on the invasion and occupation of Iraq. That is enough money to rebuild every school, bridge and road in America, create universal health care and fund several Manhattan Projects in alternative energy. Whatever benefits the invasion of Iraq might produce, it cannot justify these expenditures in lives and treasure.

Obama, pop culture, and the 1st amendment

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/395394.aspx

Mr. Obama speaks out against "filth" on the airwaves. I find it interesting to see somebody on the left come out repeatedly and unabashedly with strong religious beliefs. Many liberals criticize him for it, but they should remember that there is a difference between a public figure expressing an opinion and a policymaker trying to infringe upon our first amendment rights. Mr. Obama is clearly well aware of this difference and perhaps as importantly, of the fact that for decades the GOP has seemingly held a monopoly on "family values". I am not a Christian and I may or may not agree with Barack Obama's definition of filth, but I applaud him for promoting his ideals and reclaiming morality from the thugs on the right who have long exploited the concept for political gain.

Oil Drilling on the Outer Contintental Shelf and in ANWR

I sometimes take my son Dylan down to the beach. Pretty soon, he will be old enough to swim in the ocean. I do not look forward to the day when I will have to tell him that he cannot swim in that water because it is too polluted. When he points at the dolphins and asks me why they can swim in the water, I'll have to tell him that those dolphins are getting sick and dying because our politicians did not do enough to protect our environment.

If the folks at the American Petroleum Institute are not overly optimistic when they say that if we begin drilling in our coastal waters and in ANWR, in five years we will be pumping an additional 1 or even 2 million barrels a day, and if we were to wrongly assume that we would keep it all for our own consumption, that would still leave our country's daily oil habit 90 to 95 percent unsatisfied. Do you honestly believe the temporary and negligible gains from such a venture would be worth the price our children and grandchildren will pay? According to some estimates, federal subsidies to the oil industry total $15 to $35 billion annually. Over the next 5 years, that is up to $175 billion. That would be a good start toward funding the research and development of new technology that would forever eliminate our need for oil. You may scoff at the idea, but before the Apollo space program, many people scoffed at the idea of a man walking on the moon.

When I hear people advocating for oil exploration in ANWR and our coastal waters, I can't help but think that they imagine the human race will not survive long enough to regret those decisions.

Free For All! - A Must-See Election Film

I have had the privilege of working on an important documentary about our electoral process. The title of the film is "Free For All!". In it, we learn the ways in which our election system has been and continues to be vulnerable to fraud and deeply unfair tactics. It is absolutely imperative that the public awareness is raised on this issue so that we can fight to make sure that our voices are truly heard this November.

In a country that has been dominated for decades by an extreme-right agenda that creates severe social inequality and economic growth that benefits only the wealthiest 1% of Americans, we must look at the tools being used by the GOP to create popular support for their policies: the exploitation of racial and religious divisions, and the disenfranchisement of lower-income and minority voters.

Free For All! examines the intricacies of disenfranchisement, covering topics such as unnecessary and harmful voter ID requirements, voter caging, suspect electronic voting machines, misinformation and straight-up bamboozlement, and many more. Told from the perspective of a regular guy hoping to preserve our democracy and filled with deeply troubling information about the dangers we face if we are not vigilant, this film is simultaneously enjoyable, informative, unsettling, and provocative. Please allow yourself to be inspired to take action. Watch this film, and make sure all your friends do, too.

Free For All!, written, produced, and directed by John Wellington Ennis (and music composed by me), will be released on July 4. Watch the trailer here.