Francis, they are alot illuminating points in your article. However, the funniest thing I learned was he went on a “honeymoon”. No offense, but I always just assumed otherwise…

Makes you wonder too regarding his stance on against all gays in the military. The phrase that comes to mind, “doth thy protest too much”.

Francis, they are alot illuminating points in your article. However, the funniest thing I learned was he went on a “honeymoon”. No offense, but I always just assumed otherwise…

Makes you wonder too regarding his stance on against all gays in the military. The phrase that comes to mind, “doth thy protest too much”.

I only shudder to think how such a child would be treated by parents who don't want to be Black in the first place.

don't wish that on the baby. cause Lord knows what would happen if there's only one ' throwback' baby amongst a brood of ' what are yous?'

I only say this because I thought of she same prospect for a certain Hollywood actress and her husband, who both run from their ' side of color' as hard as they can. I was thinking, ' well, you never know with genetics', then realized that the cosmic ' joke''s brunt would be placed upon the child, who is innocent.

so, let him have his light-bright-get-rid-of-that-BLACK baby.

Yeah, Right.

I called bullshyt on that, too. And last night, we got in the grill of homegirl who organized this conference and almost had her in tears, especially holding this conference in a heavily Latino population area and even fewer Latinos were there than African-Americans.

They said they don't like the word “diversity”. When pressed for an answer, they didn't have one, and we called bullshyt on that, too. There were eight Black bloggers in the lobby of the Hilton, having our own confab, and a white guy came over because he wanted to see what we were discussing.

They ALL got more than they bargained for and probably won't try that again. LOL

Sure, you would have spent a few nights in jail–which would have been good fodder for the blog. King spent time in jail and he developed a great essay from the situation.

Indeed, I am from the Pather school of political activism. Would it be too much for these 'lefty' bloggers to invite a former Panther? The best they could do is invite Harold Ford, Jr. Jeez.

The negative reporting surrounding the paper blows my mind. She's somehow supposed to be wrong for saying she felt like an outsider when some 20 plus years later, they're still still trying to make the Obamas seem like outsiders. Oh the fucking irony.

I think he just desires to be white, or as close to it as he can get. I imagine he married white to get the lineage of his descendants closer to white.

You get rid of grudges when apologizies, restitution and repentence are on the table. Harold Ford brought none of that yesterday – he and Markos are pay for play on both sides of the fence, where there is opportunity to advance their own self-serving agendas.

One is a former ReThug and the other aspires to be a ReThug, under the cover of looking like a Democrat. When it comes to the real deal, both are suspect.

So yeah, maybe her Mama expressing concern did cause her to have a change of heart about her illegal drug use, but that most certainly wasn't the only thing to this story.

What is the best strategy for building majority support for a progressive agenda, and for reversing the rightward drift of this country?

One important part of that strategy – and on this I think we agree – is for progressives within the Democratic Party to describe our core values (e.g. racial justice, civil liberties, opportunity for the many, and not just the few) in clear, unambiguous terms.

A second part of that strategy – and again, I think we agree here – is to stake out clear positions on issues that put those values into action (e.g. the need for universal health care), and to stand up for those values when they are under assault (e.g. opposition to the Patriot Act).

But the third part of this part of the equation – and on this we may disagree – must be to gain converts to our positions. My job, as a candidate for the U.S. Senate, isn’t to scold people for their lack of ideological purity. It’s to persuade as many people as I can, across the ideological spectrum, that my vision of the future is compatible with their values, and can make their lives a little bit better. Thus, while I may favor common-sense gun control laws, that doesn’t keep me from reaching out to NRA members who are worried about their lack of health insurance. I favor affirmative action, but I’m still going after the votes of white union members who oppose affirmative action, because I think I can convince them that it’s Bush’s economic agenda, and not affirmative action, that is eroding their job security and stagnating their wages. And while I may object to the misogyny and materialism of much of rap culture, I’m still going to spend the time reaching out to a hip-hop generation in search of a future.

In other words, I believe that politics in any democracy is a game of addition, not subtraction. And I believe deeply enough in the decency of the American people to think that progressives can build a winning majority in this country, so long as we’re not afraid to speak the truth, and so long as we don’t write off big chunks of the electorate just because they don’t agree with us on every issue.

Barack Obama will not be carrying the Democratic Leadership Council’s baggage in his race to become the second Black person to represent Illinois in the U.S. Senate. The state senator and professor of constitutional law has told The Black Commentator that he is acting to have his name stricken from the “New Democrats Directory,” a list of several hundred DLC-affiliated elected officials.

“I am not currently, nor have I ever been, a member of the DLC,” said Obama, in a statement that substantially reflects a telephone conversation with Associate Editor Bruce Dixon, this weekend. “It does appear that, without my knowledge, the DLC…listed me in their ‘New Democrat’ directory,” Obama continued. “Because I agree that such a directory implies membership, I will be calling the DLC to have my name removed, and appreciate your having brought this fact to my attention.”