Given the current impassioned debate surrounding Syria’s use of chemical weapons, the implications of US military action and President Obama’s handling of the situation, this is a good time to revisit a lesson from World War II. Look at the chart below (click here for a sharper image) that details war deaths. Just to make… [read more]
Sometimes Conspiracy Is The Only Explanation
It is curious that the Republican National Committee decided to hold its own commemoration of the 1963 March On Washington, rather than participate in the national event on the National Mall on the 50th anniversary of the March just two days later. And so it was that on August 26, 2013 Representative James Sensenbrenner (R-WI)… [read more]
Why Would They Say Those Things?
This was before Rush Limbaugh’s cruelty toward Sandra Fluke. It was in the midst of his racism, but, of course, he’s always in the midst of racial slurs that are presented in the form of dog whistles, like his song “Barack the Magic Negro.” These appeal to the embedded fear and hatred within his audience,… [read more]
Why There Is So Much Push-Back
* * * Special Friday Edition * * * Lyndon Johnson had what was termed by the press a “credibility gap”. You have to factor into your understanding of that term that this was two generations ago when the press was loathe to use the word “liar” and there was still some respect for the… [read more]
Predicting The Future
* * * Special Tuesday Edition * * * The word “Anschluss” became well known in 1936 as Hitler’s Germany annexed Austria. Two years later the next newly familiar name was the Sudetenland, the predominantly German speaking part of Czechoslovakia. Hitler’s pact with England’s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain paved the way for the rest of… [read more]
Bull Connor Would Be Proud
Theophilus Eugene “Bull” Connor was a member of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920’s and rose to be the Commissioner of Public Safety for the city of Birmingham, AL. That gave him oversight of the city police and fire departments and the power to enforce segregation, which he did with stunningly brutal efficiency. It… [read more]
Slogans
At the National Speakers Association convention earlier this year, Bruce Terkel delivered a powerful keynote presentation on marketing. During that speech he explained that President Obama’s 2008 slogan “Yes we can” was the second best marketing slogan ever. It is positive, it is inclusive and it is enabling. Sadly, Republicans utilize a different slogan strategy…. [read more]
Voices
Eighty percent of Americans who know of the over-reaching, legislation-from-the-bench Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case – the one that ensured unlimited money influencing our politics – want it reversed. That number varies by just a handful of percentage points, depending on respondents’ political views. This issue is the… [read more]
The RNC Has . . .
Izzy Santa, RNC Hispanic Communications Director as seen on MSNBC Weekends with Alex Witt, July 27, 2013. Here is a shortened and pretty accurate transcription of dialogue: Witt: The president indicated that there are Republicans who agree with him in private. Is that true? Santa: The President’s programs have failed and Democrats are abandoning him…. [read more]
Morale, Knees and Common Elements
I was on a United Airlines flight from Chicago to San Diego and somewhere over the Rockies I just couldn’t sit any longer, so I took a stroll to the galley at the back of the plane. Half-squats, twisting and tugging this way and that restored circulation, and I felt considerably better. This happened about… [read more]
