The Gorey Details

2000 was the year Al Gore didn’t become President.  The historical record of his “not becoming President” is pretty clear and I will never be happy about a fraudulent re-count in Florida or Supreme Court interference driven by partisan manipulation, but I was able to reconcile the “defeat” because that was Al Gore’s election to…

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My Apologies

I have an apology to make to my Republican/conservative friends, and, no, this is not a facetious apology. I often state that my politics are to the left of moderate and that I approach opposing views with an open mind, but, sometimes I’ll express a very negative attitude toward many of the things they believe.…

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Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

I saw a Mitt Romney commercial where Obama is castigated for being a liar.  The spot includes Hillary Clinton saying, “Shame on you Barack Obama!” Bear in mind, this quote is from the contentious 2008 primaries and I simply can’t imagine what will be culled from the Republican debates as the other candidates called Mitt Romney…

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Malcolm in the Middle

I grew up in the middle of America, in the middle of the middle class and was weaned on the middle of political ideology.  I was given a perspective that lends itself to making reasonable observations and, perhaps, less myopic than a scientific approach might require. I relate to Malcolm Gladwell, the journalist who wrote the books, The Tipping…

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Fairy Dust

I’ve been watching politics for several decades and there are trends that I have noticed that stay pretty consistent. When George Bush Sr. was campaigning against Michael Dukakis I heard my father coin the term “Political Fairy Dust.” It was his dismissal of a strategy that he noticed every election cycle; Republicans always promise “lower…

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The Mosque of Zero

This weekend I was in a conversation with a politically conservative friend and we discussed the former controversy surrounding the Islamic Cultural Center built in the area of Ground Zero. Even though the controversy more or less subsided after it opened last September to very little protest and many conservatives have submitted that it was…

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Tea For Too (sic)

I keep thinking that I should be able to put the Tea Party to bed.  For some reason, I get it in my head, from time to time, that the fever pitch of tea bagging is over and that history has already recorded it as a temporary, reactionary, populist wannabe movement from a frightened fringe. …

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