This is a poll designed for those of us who are here legally, but who cannot influence the outcome of this election which will affect us so profoundly. Tell us here at Newest Industry what scares you the most.
Loading ...Tags: aliens, biden, cruise, flee, immigrants, leave, mccain, obama, palin, president, presidential, run, travolta, Us election
It should come as no surprise that I am a fan of “graphic novels”, known as “comic books” when I was coming of age. One of my favourites is the Dark Knight | Dark Knight Returns series.
In the Dark Knight Returns, the US is run by a cabal with a holographic presidential avatar as their figurehead. In this world, the “Freedom FROM Information Act … makes anything worth knowing secret”.
That quote has stuck with me for most of the last week. The American population is supposed to hang its head and march quietly in line with everyone else, never looking to the side because they might accidentally see their freedoms dying in the ditches.
The United States is Rome, and the babarians (no, not the elephant king, barbarians you fool!) are on the far banks of the Rubicon, with their feet in the water.
Technorati Tags: USA, Bush, Rubicon, autocracy
Tags: bank, book, EAD, HTTP, IE, information, IP, it, Om, One, pr, president, presidential, run, Technorati, United States
Oh, lookee here. GW Shrub appears to be backtracking. Now Karl has to be convicted before he gets fired.
Mr. President, if he’s convicted, you are most likely going to be down in Crawford, TX having an extended vacation. And the Acting President will most likely be Mr. Hastert. [Presidential Order of Succession]
Hey, I hear San Diego is looking for a new mayor! [here]
Technorati: Karl Rove, KarlRove, Valerie Plame, ValeriePlame, Dick Cheney, White House, CIA
Tags: app, HTTP, IE, IP, it, Om, pr, president, presidential, Technorati, tracking
Rick Segal and I have different, if not complementary perspectives on the United States. He is a US citizen living in Canada; I am a Canadian living in the US. I have met Rick in person, and he is an intelligent and insightful person to speak with.
Last night, he posted his reaction to the US Senate’s lack of unanimous support for the apology for lynching. [here]
This story hits home for me as well. I have chosen to live in this country. I know that as a guest, I should be quiet and not rock the boat. But when a situation such as this arises, along with the increasing levels of spitfire rhetoric and poisonous debate, I have to step back and ask: why?
For the most part, my life in the US has been one of comfort and ease. However, when I moved to the US in 1999, I was surprised at just how different two countries could be who looked so much alike.
Last year’s presidential campaign, the second one I have been through while here, further highlighted that the voices of moderation and rational thought are lost in the need to polarize and inflame.
But, as Rick says, at 32,000 feet, all of that is gone. There aren’t countries; or red states and blue states. Just the ever morphing tapestry of the world we live on. The hand of man can be seen from this height. Nature is still in control, shaping how man shapes the land.
We will come and go. We all die. But our legacy will be remembered, and, increasingly, recorded for all posterity.
Be true to yourself. Remember, the way history judges you is beyond your control.
David Janes is maintaining a list of the non-sponsoring Senators.
Tags: API, blog, Canada, control, hits, HTML, HTTP, IE, IM, it, LAN, live, maintain, Om, One, pr, president, presidential, United States
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."
- Benjamin Franklin
I.
The 2004 presidential election was lost not by John Kerry over the last several months but by the Democratic Party over the last several decades. Democrats have lost control of all three branches of government for the foreseeable future. We are now a minority party.
II.
When the Senate Democratic leader is defeated while spending $16 million attempting to get the majority of 500,000 votes, the problem is not a lack of funding or effort.
III.
The failure of the Democratic Party to connect with Americas desire for fulfillment is political death.
IV.
Democrats are now history’s spectators, Republicans its actors.
V.
The obsession with denouncing the radical conservative project as a "lie" has become a useful substitute for vision.
VI.
Renovating Democratic politics is not a question of moving to the right or talking more about religion. It is about creating a framework that once again communicates to the core needs of the American people.
VII.
America is not now, and never was, simply "the economy, stupid." What the American people want is a deeper sense of personal meaning, a national mission, and passion in times of fear.
VIII.
Returning the Democratic Party to majority status will require a political realignment no less sweeping than that which was accomplished by conservatives over the last 40 years.
IX.
Only the breath of a serious and new moral-intellectual vision will be sufficient to resuscitate the Democratic Party.
X.
Democratic candidates will continue to lose as long as they treat Americans as rational actors who vote their "self-interest" after weighing competing offers for health care, jobs, and security.
XI.
Conservatives have spent the last 40 years getting clear about the values they represent. They have even developed a "family values" brand to represent a framework that coheres traditional prejudices around prayer in school, gun rights, restricting abortion, and restricting gay rights.
XII.
By contrast, liberal or ‘progressive’ groups and Democrats have spent the same period of time defining themselves against conservative values, even ‘morality’ in general.
XIII.
If resources continue to flow to the same leaders who have failed to construct a new vision and have thus left the Democratic Party in ruins then we can expect more of the same. And worse.
XIV.
Those who resist the process to create a new vision will be left behind.
XV.
Candidates who intend to win should no longer hire consultants who repeatedly lose. Those who counsel caution when dealing with the indifferent, the disaffected, and the undecided do not understand American history. Consultants who advise their clients against offering a clear and compelling vision in fear that it will be attacked should find themselves without a home in the Democratic Party. The sooner they retire, the better.
XVI.
Unconnected at a values level, the Democratic Party’s laundry list of policy proposals is a confusing and alienating hodgepodge of special interests bound together by a vague sense that ‘we’re all on the same side.’ Such a conflation demands no critical self-examination of the interest groups whose turf, and very identities, are treated as inviolable by Party chieftains.
XVII.
The progressive vision must be a direct challenge to fundamentalism in all of its forms: political, religious and economic. It must match fundamentalism’s power without replicating its authoritarianism. It must appeal to the values of liberty, equality, community, justice, unconditional love, shared prosperity, and ecological restoration, among many others.
XVIII.
Democrats serious about returning to majority status must:
XIX.
In despair and defeat lie the seeds of triumph and victory. In that loss lies the opportunity to define a new progressive politics for the new century.
Tags: Americas, app, brand, client, community, consultant, control, critical, current, Democrats, EAD, economy, government, HTML, HTTP, IE, IM, it, Om, One, personal, politics, pr, president, presidential
