The Republic of T.

*Sigh*

Stuff like this gives me a headache Excedrin can’t begin to cure.

Oh no you didn’t, Chris. You didn’t forget he was black. Not for a second.

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What sad news.

Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and whose books, such as “A People’s History of the United States,” inspired young and old to rethink the way textbooks present the American experience, died today in Santa Monica, Calif, where he was traveling. He was 87.

His daughter, Myla Kabat-Zinn of Lexington, said he suffered a heart attack.

“He’s made an amazing contribution to American intellectual and moral culture,” Noam Chomsky, the left-wing activist and MIT professor, said tonight. “He’s changed the conscience of America in a highly constructive way. I really can’t think of anyone I can compare him to in this respect.”

Chomsky added that Dr. Zinn’s writings “simply changed perspective and understanding for a whole generation. He opened up approaches to history that were novel and highly significant. Both by his actions, and his writings for 50 years, he played a powerful role in helping and in many ways inspiring the Civil rights movement and the anti-war movement.”

For Dr. Zinn, activism was a natural extension of the revisionist brand of history he taught. “A People’s History of the United States” (1980), his best-known book, had for its heroes not the Founding Fathers — many of them slaveholders and deeply attached to the status quo, as Dr. Zinn was quick to point out — but rather the farmers of Shays’ Rebellion and union organizers of the 1930s.

But, at the same time, what a legacy.

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for January 23rd through January 27th:

• Editorial: Opposite of Bold –
• Futile Concessions –
• Damage Control for Democrats –
• ACORN Smear Journalist Arrested for Alleged Attempt to Bug Sen. Mary Landrieu’s Office –
• America’s Curse On Haiti –
• Why Progressives Shouldn’t Fall For the Deficit Reduction Trap –
• Reframing Public Ignorance –
• What The "I'm Mad-As-Hell" Party Could Do –
• Op-Ed Columnist: Do the Right Thing –
• Corporations Take the Court –

Tea bags are meant to be tossed out. They are useful, at most, once or twice in their lifetimes. Beyond that, they lose flavor and strength, eventually becoming weak as water itself. If kept around beyond their usefulness, they become unpleasant and even unhealthy, as they start to smell and begin to mold. Or they dry up and eventually crumble. Either way, they become useless.

What’s true of tea bags is also true of teabaggers. However, tea bags are tossed out when they outlive their usefulness. The same can be true of teabaggers, but only if Democrats have the political will to make it so.

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for January 21st through January 22nd:

• Who’s Activist Now? The Roberts Court –
• Jim Wallis: Campaign Finance Outrage: Democracy for the Highest Bidder –
• Michael B. Laskoff: Five Popular Delusions Castrating America –
• Op-Ed Columnist: Do the Right Thing –
• A Supreme Victory for Special Interests –
• Robert Weissman: Shed a Tear for Democracy: Citizens United v. FEC –
• Democracy, it was fun while it lasted. –
• Why Can’t John Edwards Just Go Away? –
• The Haiti Haters –
• Michael Kieschnick: The Worst Court Decision Since Bush vs. Gore –

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for January 21st through January 22nd:

• Who’s Activist Now? The Roberts Court –
• Jim Wallis: Campaign Finance Outrage: Democracy for the Highest Bidder –
• Michael B. Laskoff: Five Popular Delusions Castrating America –
• Op-Ed Columnist: Do the Right Thing –
• A Supreme Victory for Special Interests –
• Robert Weissman: Shed a Tear for Democracy: Citizens United v. FEC –
• Democracy, it was fun while it lasted. –
• Why Can’t John Edwards Just Go Away? –
• The Haiti Haters –
• Michael Kieschnick: The Worst Court Decision Since Bush vs. Gore –

The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife,—this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face.

W.E.B. DuBois — “The Souls of Black Folks”

The outcome of the Massachusetts special election makes one thing clear: It is time for President Obama to embrace his inner angry black man.

These words will no doubt as offensive to some as were Harry Reid’s words about then candidate Obama. They are also just as true concerning President Obama as Reid’s were of candidate Obama. They must be heeded if the president hopes to accomplish his agenda.

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…It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.

– W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folks

The quote above, from W.E.B. DuBois’ The Souls of Black Folks, came to mind in the wake of the by now over-reported remarks Senate majority leader Harry Reid made about then Senator Obama.

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for January 19th through January 20th:

• Robert L. Borosage: Democrats: The Massachusetts Lesson: Do the Right Thing –
• It’s Not Mere Cynicism or Demoralization – More Likely, It’s Humiliation and Alienation –
• Michael Tomasky: Brown wins, now what? –
• What I’d Like to Hear a Congressional Democrat Say. –
• Why Coakley Losing Won’t Matter That Much –
• *Eating At Each Other*<br><br>by digby<br><br>You've probably heard that –
• Why Obama should play to populism –

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for January 18th through January 19th:

• Obama's First Year, By The Numbers –
• Who Really Won in 2008? –
• Bill Moyers & Thomas Frank: How America's Demented Politics Let the GOP Off the Hook for Their Giant Mess –
• Avatar Half-Tells a Story We Would All Prefer to Forget –
• Dr. King’s Work Is Yet Undone –

I spent yesterday at home with the boys. (We all had the day off, but the hubby had to work.) It was a busy day, but I took the time to snap this picture of Parker reading to Dylan, partly because it was just such a cute picture, and partly because it made me hopeful that I’m succeeding at something I wanted to accomplish as a parent.

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Eugene Robinson thinks maybe Michael Steele is crazy like a fox. I think he’s just plain crazy (and only slightly crazier than the GOP for hiring him in the first place), for a number of reasons, the latest of which is a real humdinger.

And, no, I’m not talking about his apparent his temporal difficulties, or his inability to tell the difference between Trent Lott and HHarry Reid (something I’ll get to in another post). Provided with an opportunity to perhaps win a modicum of credibility for himself and his party by taking on blatantly racist comments from Rush Limbaugh and downright bizarre comments from Pat Robertson in the wake of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Steele spoke up in defense of … big banks?

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• It there no end to to racist stupidity of Rush Limbaugh?http://j.mp/6i8kDV #

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for January 11th through January 14th:

• Meet Harold Ford, Jr.: Ann Coulter’s Favorite Democrat. –
• Why Can’t We Get Anyone to Ask a Wall St. CEO the Hard Questions? –
• Harry Reid Sees Black People –
• You win by building coalitions, not by building parties –
• Trent Lott Revisited –
• Robert Creamer: Tax Bank Bonuses and Capital Gains of Wealthy to Pay for Jobs Program –

• Take Action @change: Tell D.C., San Francisco and New York: Condoms Aren’t a Crime! http://bit.ly/79WyrL #

“Haven’t we already given money to rich people … Shouldn’t we be giving money to the middle?”

– President George W. Bush in November 2002, acknowledging to advisors that he knew his tax cuts were giveaways to the super-wealthy. (Source.)

If you were among the wealthiest 1-2% of Americans, it was the best of times. For the rest of us, it was “The Uh-Ohs,” a decade of conservative failure and its aftermath. From the government surplus in 2000 and the ill-advised and poorly planned wars that helped transform it into a deficit, to the stagnant economy and growing economic inequality we face today — none of it just happened and none of had to happen.

It was all consciously chosen — a direct consequence of conservative politics and policymaking — and about 99% of us are worse for it.

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Apparently all you need to do to be arrested for prostitution in D.C. is carry three or more condoms. Seriously.

Think you might get lucky tonight? Well, if you’re in D.C., don’t bring more than two condoms in your purse, or you could be arrested as a prostitute.

In D.C., police can declare “Prostitution Free Zones” where officers can pick up (I mean, arrest) anyone suspected of sex work. And they’ve been accused of using carrying three or more condoms as proof of intent to sell sex — rather than intent to spend the weekend getting jiggy with a guy.

This is the stupidest thing I’ve heard so far this year.

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for January 4th through January 11th:

• Bob Franken: Remnants of Old Racism –
• On Harry Reid –
• If 9/11 Was “Inherited” By Bush, Was the Christmas Bomber Inherited By Obama? –
• White Power USA: The Rise of Right-Wing Militias in America –
• Without stimulus, Dems are screwed –
• Wall Street Will Be Back for More –
• Uganda’s homosexuality law has roots in American Christian fundamentalism –
• Democrats Should Tax The Hell Out Of the Upcoming Wall Street Bonuses –
• Evangelical Bigots Visited Uganda Last Month to Warn of "Gay Agenda" –
• Op-Ed Columnist: That 1937 Feeling –