I'm a liberal, christian, african-american male. One of my goals is to get more african americans involved in politics, policy making, and discussions, think tanks and the like.
With all the talk of our "progress" in al-Anbar Province, there is a underlining story not being told. When the idea of 3 separate states with a small central government was floated, the basic idea was that the Kurds would be in the north, Sunnis in the middle, and Shia in South. This is also part of the problem, since a majority of the oil is in north and south, with only a few reserves in the middle. But if you notice, all the talk has been about the Sunnis fighting al-Qaeda in the Shia south.
As you are all aware, we have had another democratic debate. And while this debate showed what is the typical debate trend -- that being a pile on of the perceived weak candiate -- I notice something.
The charge of "No Foreign Policy Experience" being leveled at Obama.
And while this is a widely used charge, I've notice that it is used, disproportionately, whenever black candidates are running for president. Let's think back to Shirley Chisholm, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Carol Moseley-Braun, Rev. Al Sharpton, and yes, even Alan Keyes. As I always say, perception is everything.
In the african community we are starting to get involved in the investment game, as well as planning for retirement better. The game was often times stack against us. However, I have notice lately, which has now been written about in the TheHill.com, that alot of blacks becoming involved in the investment fund industry are siding with the Republican/Blue Dog Democrat way of thinking about business and picking up the worst habits, namely, make as much money as you can, and simply move it from account to account. No trickle down there.
And Bob Johnson, founder of BET, is exhibiting this "business" ailment.
One of the many things that has come out of the AttorneyGate scandal going on in Washington, has been the disclosure, via emails, that "vote caging" was used in the 2004 presendential election by Republicans. Monica Goodling, an aide to Karl Rove, confirmed that [ Tim Griffin ], also an aide to Karl Rove, was involved in voter suppression tactic known as vote caging.
With the overturning of the lower court's decision that the warrantless wiretapping program was unconstitional, stating that ACLU had no standing to bring the case, we need to pause for a moment and reassess. I had hope the Appeals court would uphold the lower court decision (but that whole habeus corpus thingy works both way).
Unfortunately, we can't rely on the good will of the court, or even it's moral compass. Now of course, spying on Americans without a warrant is morally wrong, and SHOULD be illegal, and imo, that reasoning is supported constitutionally.
With all the news that has come out of AttorneyGate, especially with respect to voting rights ( and attempts to subvert them), and the Texas Redistricting decision by SCOTUS in 2006, I think it is important, now, more than ever to concern ourselves with voter dissatisfaction, which is different from and can be more dangerous than voter intimidation. Half of the battle is voting, the other half is having it count. But if you don't even come to the polls, well you see my point...
So I wanted to try and attack this issue from the voter level. This being my first diary entry and the topic I'm choosing being such a big one, this will be a starter primer. A look into my thinking process as it were. I hope the community here will help me.
