I’m probably leaning on the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., far too often these skitzy days, but the man still brings us hope.  When he so confidently intoned, “The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice,” he surely must have had August/2010 in mind.

Sunday, August 1.  The Washington Post ignores the serial ethical transgressions of DC Mayor-for-Hype Adrian Fenty, endorses him for re-election, and assures us that City Council Chair Vince Gray will be elected in November to replace him.  Goodbye insouciant adolescence, hello mature moxie. (More)

Comments (2) | Digg It

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once joshed on the square, “I want to be the white man’s brother, not his brother-in-law.”  I share the gist of those feelings when it comes to District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty, but what I’d really, really, really like to be is his fraternity brother.

When I read yesterday in an NBC Washington story that the District of Columbia had agreed to settle out with Omar Karim for $550,000, I thought, “Holy moly, not only is this dude not going to jail for opening a brand-new bag of buddy corruption, he’s getting paid for doing nothing.” (More)

Comments (2) | Digg It

When Rachel Maddow asked Kentucky GOP U.S. Senate nominee Rand Paul whether lunch counters should be allowed to discriminate and asked for a yes-or-no answer, Paul refused and launched into wandering allusions about freedom of speech and gun owners rights versus rights of private business.  Earlier in the interview he’d made it clear he thought “blurring the difference” between private and public businesses was dangerous, and that had he been in the Senate in 1964, he would have “led the debate” to modify the section of the Civil Rights Act pertaining to restaurants.  Maddow revealed him as an artless equivocator, but she could have nailed him for the bogus ideologue he is by confronting him with one undeniable truth: there simply are no “private businesses,” food serving establishments or otherwise, in our society. (More)

Comments (2) | Digg It

In the days leading up to “Super Senate Tuesday” national political reporters and pundits were but all but wetting their thongs, boxers and briefs waiting for a voter backlash against incumbents, or an oracular sign that the teabaggers are taking over the Republican Party.  They got neither.  T-man Rand Paul won the Kentucky Republican Primary because his opponent had all the charisma of a 240-pound cow-chip.  And Democratic incumbent Senators Arlen Spector and Blanche Lincoln lost and are losing their primaries in Pennsylvania and Arkansas because voters  perceived them as political lizards, and not the cute little green kind  that sells auto insurance on TV.   (More)

Comments (1) | Digg It

The news this week that Andy Stern is resigning  as president of the Service Employees International Union came as a shock to some, but not to those who’ve known him for any amount of time.  For me, his departure at the youngish age (at least for a labor leader) of 59 is far from surprising: a man who’d been unable to measure up to many of the high standards he’d set for himself was living up to at least one of them, namely that union leaders shouldn’t hang onto their positions of power and influence until they are so old their “vision” can’t tell the difference between a picket line and a pimped-out contract. (More)

Comments (4) | Digg It

Last Saturday night when the Senate Dems hustled up the 60 votes needed to prevent a filibuster on health care reform, my hope-a-meter shot up like the stock market, then dropped soberly back down the next morning. What with the Republicans reeling from disclosures about abortion coverage in the RNC’s health insurance plan, the drug companies getting caught with their hands in the price-hike jar, and Sarah Palin on tour, it should have been a primo week for the good guys. But while the GOPs have been firing repeated volleys into their fat and clumsy feet, our long-awaited, progressive Democratic Administration has been implanting multiple stab wounds in its own back (and yes, it takes a team of contortionists to get the job done right). (More)

Comments (0) | Digg It

Shame on CNN. I was outraged at Michael Gerson’s snarky comment during CNN’s live coverage of the memorial service at Fort Hood. The former Bush speechwriter and columnist opined that while Presidents Clinton and Bush “always wore their hearts on their sleeves” at times like these, President Obama is more “cerebral and reserved” and needs to “show some heart this afternoon.”  CNN should have immediately dropped him from the commentary for being a disrespectful schmuck. Or maybe they should trade him to Fox News for a couple of future draft choices.  P.S. Obama delivered an incredibly dignified homily at the service, a speech much more fitting and thoughtful than any ever written by Gerson or delivered by his old boss.

Comments (0) | Digg It

A recent report by Citizens for Tax Justice says the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy will cost us over $2 trillion over the period 2001-2010, with half of the benefits going to the richest 5 percent of taxpayers.  I’m no math genius, but even I can figure their half comes to about $1 trillion dollars.  Holy cow — that’s almost exactly the ten-year cost of the health care plan just passed by the House of Representatives!  I’ve got an idea: let’s get our money back by sticking the rich with the total tab for health care reform, while we restore some much-needed progressivity to the federal income tax, and give our economy a huge boost in the process. (More)

Comments (7) | Digg It