I’m busy. We don’t want somebody sitting back saying you’re not holding the mop the right way. Why don’t you grab a mop? Why don’t you help clean up? “You’re not mopping fast enough.” “That’s a socialist mop.” Grab a mop! Let’s get to work.  ~~President Barak Obama The American people by a popular majority of more than eight million votes selected as their President a candidate who had been attacked by his Republican foe as... (more...)

I read the latest update on the HCR talks. Based on the president’s latest push and congressional responses, I’m now in the cautiously optimistic category that HCR will pass but that’s not the only news that caught my eye. It seems that Dem leadership is trying to put a major part of Student Loan reform in the reconciliation package as well. Click here to read the whole update on HCR talks. Pelosi and other House Democrats want to include Obama’s proposed overhaul of the... (more...)

My first goal in this series is to define the Christian Right and provide some of their history.  The Christian Right has been insinuating themselves into public discourse since the late 70’s.  By the end of the 80’s it was generally assumed that the Christian Right consisted entirely of evangelical Protestants, however, many members of the Christian Right were not evangelical Protestants and many evangelical Protestants were not members of the Christian Right. The Christian Right... (more...)

Real Time with Bill Maher hit the boards running for its eighth season a couple of weeks ago, and I held out great hopes for my favourite fundit program, after a decidedly iffy season last year which ended in confusion. However, I’m hoping I didn’t speak too soon, as it stalled in what it sought to deliver in the third episode of the season, which aired Friday evening. A commentator on Bill’s MySpace page deemed the episode ‘caustic’, another friend of mine thought it... (more...)

OK I refuse to watch Beck but from what I heard about Massa’s interview with him it was just strange in some ways. I know very little about Massa and he’s innocent until anything is proven but wow one of his answers sounded just like the excuses men who harass women in the work place make all the time. Click here to read whole article. In a one-hour interview with Beck that had much of the journalism world gawking and twittering in amazement, Massa offered a series of bizarre, even inexplicable... (more...)

I will never quite understand the emotional reaction toward wolves. There are people in the West who hate wolves. And I do mean hate. Pathological hate. It simply defies logic and reason. There are people in the Rockies who believe — with all of their heart and soul — that wolves are quite literally evil. Wolves are a huge controversy in the Rocky Mountains. Honestly, if you don’t live here, you have no idea how vitriolic it really is. It is something that runs deep in the Mountain... (more...)

I was originally going to write this series of articles in tandem with a partner however I have decided to  move ahead on my own.  I hope I am up to the challenge.   What I will attempt to do is provide some history to understand the Religious Rights beliefs and behavior, but will concentrate more on current activities of the people and organizations of the Religious Right so that you will be able to identify them and their players.  I have found this to be extremely beneficial when watching... (more...)

Holi (pronounced ho-lee), also known as Phagwa, is marked at the transition from the Hindu months Phalguna to Chaitra. The Hindu calendar being lunisolar, this date changes every year. In 2010 it fell on March 1st. Besides India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, it is observed by the South Asian diaspora in all its regional varieties throughout Europe, America, Canada, Australia, in New Zealand, South Africa, and of course, Suriname, Trinidad, Mauritius and Fiji which are notable countries where South Asians... (more...)

So it’s come to this on the eve of a possible passage of healthcare reform, arguably the most important and far-reaching legislation to be passed by Congress since Civil Rights and Medicare came into being in the mid-1960s. The passage of the Senate Bill in the House hangs by the thread of Denis Kucinich’s vote, whilst celebrity blogger, Jane Hamsher, weighs in with a clarion call for the resignation of Lynne Woolsey, co-chair of the Progressive Caucus in the House and one of the most... (more...)