Comedy and Politics
From 1981 to 1989, I made my living mostly as a comedy writer and performer. I wrote, performed and produced material for morning radio shows in Washington DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, and...
View ArticlePolitics/Music Discussion Thread
As nearly flawless as I think the Obama campaign has been in message, mechanics, and media manipulation, I’m not impressed by their choice of music. The most prominent song in the Obama rallies has...
View ArticleDrop the Impulse to Go Negative
I’m one of the Obama admirers that believes going ultra negative, as good as that would feel after the ongoing negative Clinton attacks, would be a big mistake. Going negative after he has premised...
View ArticlePolitics Ain’t Beanbag
I have a lot in common with Barack Obama. I was born about 10 months after Obama. Like Obama, I was a child raised by a single mother after being abandoned by a foreign father. Like Obama, my mother...
View ArticleCoattails are Important
Whether or not you believe that Hillary Clinton’s health care plan is better than Barack Obama’s, whatever your opinions are about whose economic plans are superior, and whether or not you think a...
View ArticleWhat Would Have Eliminated Obama From the Race?
If Barack Obama had lost 11 contests in a row, he’d be done already. If Barack Obama had run out of money in mid-February, loaned his campaign $5 million, and refused to release his tax returns, he’d...
View ArticleFirst Lady of Danger: A Novel
It was a gloomy Thursday morning in Washington, and I was exhausted. The sun was beginning to rise over the Capitol, and I was just getting into bed in the White House after returning from a daring...
View ArticleThe National Electability of a Black Candidate
It’s hard to pinpoint the time of death of the idea that a Black candidate couldn’t win the race for the Presidency of the United States in 2008. Was it when Barack Obama gave his victory speech after...
View ArticleThe Airing of the Grievances
It seems like every two generations or so, the pressure points in American society bust open chaotically to reveal the corroded infrastructure of the foundations upon which we’ve built our society....
View ArticleThis Damn Thing is Going to Happen
Hop into a time machine and dial it back ten months ago. Everyone thought Barack Obama was in intriguing candidate with no chance against the "experience" and "gravitas" of candidates like Hillary...
View ArticleAmerica and the Default Option
Throughout American history, suggestions that we adjust "the default option" on our politics to better suit our needs has been discouraged. The Founding Fathers had to employ every bit of their...
View ArticleJohn McCain is Very Old
When John McCain was born, people went to vaudeville shows.When John McCain was born, the Hindenburg was flying commercially.John McCain was about to turn 29 when the Voting Rights Act was signed.When...
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Exclusive Interview with Sen. John McCain [transcript]
The following is the transcript of an exclusive interview with presumptive Republican Presidential nominee John McCain, recorded this afternoon.Reporter: Thanks for agreeing to this exclusive...
View ArticleStereotypes, Assumptions and Archetypes on Race
I’m 46 years old, and if you had told me two years ago that Barack Obama would be the Democratic nominee for President in 2008 and leading in the polls by five to nine percentage points, I would have...
View ArticleEvery State is a Battleground
Do you live in California? Texas? New York? Illinois? Mississippi? Alaska? Think the 2008 election is a done deal for you, and you’re wondering about what your neighbors or Missouri will do?...
View ArticleGAO Says Most Corporations Pay No Taxes
A Government Accountability Office study due to be released today says that two thirds of US corporations and about 68% of foreign corporations doing business in the United States completely avoided...
View ArticleLet’s get disciplined, please
They’re two of the oldest jokes in the American political lexicon. Will Rogers said, "I don’t belong to an organized political party-- I’m a Democrat." Arizona Democrat Mo Udall is credited with...
View ArticleHeard any good jokes lately?
Back in the 80s and 90s I was a comedy writer for morning radio shows. I worked in Washington DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, and other cities doing a lot of political comedy. I worked with Howard Stern in...
View ArticleChange, Chicago Style
I moved to Chicago from Los Angeles for a job 23 years ago. I was skeptical about moving to a frigid, rust belt city with a waning economy, raucous politics, declining population, and a complicated...
View ArticleRepublicans I Respect
I like to think of myself as having the capacity to appreciate and respect people that I disagree with politically. John McCain used to be one of those people. Every once in a while he would throw a...
View ArticleJohn McCain: Ill-advised, Stupid, or Insane? w/ Poll
This morning John McCain appeared on National Public Radio, and five minutes into an interview he uttered this jaw-dropper:Senator Obama has no experience whatsoever. NPR story and audioListen to the...
View ArticleBelievers Can Believe Again
I think I keep writing essentially the same diary over and over again. It’s not that I’m trying to make a point that can’t be accepted—it’s more like I’m trying to comprehend for myself (and anyone...
View ArticleSign me up for a 12-Step Program
I created an account on DailyKos just before the 2004 election, but didn’t post much. I’m user # 27,556. After the election, I was so disheartened that I didn’t log in for months. I drifted away to...
View ArticleThere is no such thing as a low information voter
Let’s face it, and lets quit lying to ourselves and others in a charade that tries to make us feel better. There is no such thing as a "low information voter." If people have the capacity to access...
View ArticleI'm Feeling Very Old
I’m 46—just a few years above the median age on DailyKos—but I’m feeling mighty old these days.When Bill Clinton became the first Democrat elected President in 16 years in 1992, I was 30 years old. I...
View ArticleConservatism Never Fails
In late 2005, just a few months after the horror of Katrina and the GOP’s absurd contortions to try and place the blame elsewhere, some of America’s most astute political analysts finally began to sort...
View ArticleI Consider Myself Lucky: An Unemployment Story
One Friday morning when I went into work in August 2002, a rarely used office near the entrance of my company’s suite had the light on and the door open. That was unusual. As I got a little closer, I...
View ArticleThe Right Person at the Right Time
I woke up this morning to NPR laying out all the pitfalls and parochial political interests that were awaiting Barack Obama in his dealings with the international community on his first foreign trip,...
View ArticleThey Took Their Swing, Now It’s Our Turn at Bat
The Republican media machine-- supported by the full weight of Fox News, Talk Radio, conservative bloggers, and word of mouth of the 28%ers—tried to take their best swing against Obama, Progressives...
View ArticleDamn You, Obama!
"Damn you, Barack Obama! You’re not Clark Kent with a tan! You’re not gay! You’re not Bernie Sanders!! You’re not an idealist with 10 or 12 rigid, unyielding progressive positions that you’re...
View ArticleThe Can-Opener Gourmet
A few years ago I thought about writing a cook book based on my travels and living with a chef from a major Chicago restaurant. The idea never came to fruition in print. During a prolonged period of...
View ArticlePreying on Tycoon Fantasies
Whenever someone asks me, usually with a voice filled with frustration, "Why do so many lower-middle class whites vote against their own economic self interests by supporting Republicans?" I have...
View ArticleMidwest High-Speed Rail
The following diary includes sections that were submitted as a Letter to the Editor to the Bloomington-Normal PantagraphIt’s long past time for the citizens, press, politicians, and business leaders of...
View Article"Tweeners Like Me
I was only about seven years old, but I remember as clear as day a miniscule moment from a weekend that I spent with my step-father some time around 1969. Me and my half-bother (my step-father’s son)...
View ArticleDéjà vu all over again
You know the vague, haunting feeling that you’ve been through something before? The nagging sense that everything going on around you is a re-play of some hazy memory, experience, or...
View ArticleAmerica the Ungovernable
Of the top three dozen or so industrialized nations of the world, the United States stands alone in its refusal to provide health care to its citizens through some sort of government intervention. We...
View ArticleNew Health Care Poll: We're Losing!
The absolutely non-partisan polling firm of Anecdotal & Hearsay, Inc.* have released a revealing new poll that sheds light on Americans’ feelings about the health care debate. This poll was...
View ArticleAn Obamabot View on Next Week
I am an Obamabot. I sip Kool Aid all day, listening to recordings of his best speeches, mouthing the words. I recommend all the diaries that show glitzy pictures of his unbelievably cute family. I...
View ArticleDaily Dish Gives The Perfect Analysis
A Daily Dish reader wrote, and Andrew Sullivan printed one of the most perfect summations of the 2009 Republican Party that I've read anywhere. I don't know who the reader is (Sullivan doesn't credit...
View ArticleI Have to Admit, It’s Getting Better
When considering the goofy, hysterical, comical, ironic, and totally bat shit crazy signs at the anti-Obama demonstrations, there’s one attack in particular that makes me giggle uncontrollably. It’s...
View ArticleThe Party That Dare Not Speak Its Name
As expected for more than a week now, former Illinois GOP Chairman Andy McKenna announced today that he’s running for Governor of Illinois. Take a look at the e-mail that was sent out just hours ago:
View ArticleSuggested Names for GOP Anti-Health Care Organizations
Instead of trying to fool low-information voters with wholesome names for their astroturf anti-health care organizations, wouldn't it be refreshing if Republicans used names that actually described...
View ArticleThe Soul-Crushing Banality of Corporate Franchise America
I had to get a haircut this weekend, but I slept late on Saturday and missed the opportunity to go to my regular barbershop—an old school, no-nonsense barbershop in the basement of an early 20th...
View ArticleWhich decade had the best music? W/ Poll
This spring-- in a comment on the Reagan legacy--- I wrote that although the 1980s were miserable politically, the music during those years was pretty good. I couldn’t believe the ire, derision and...
View ArticleThe GOP's Discredited Meta-Theory of Democratic Motivations
Years ago, Republicans would at least acknowledge that liberals cared about America--- they would merely suggest we were just going about it in the wrong way. Yet somewhere in the late 80s, the GOP...
View ArticlePut Your Money Where Your Mouth Is This Holiday
Last Christmas season, in the wake of the Presidential election and the collapse of the consumer credit-fueled economy, most people I know were stunned and exhausted. The bad news about the economy...
View ArticleThere Ought to be Harsh Consequences for Being So Totally WRONG
If the past decade has taught us anything, it’s that Republicans and their media Wurlitzer are able to say and do the most outrageous things imaginable, be proved absolutely wrong by any reasonable...
View ArticleAmtrak Station Breaks Ground in Normal, IL
This morning I attended the groundbreaking of the new $49 million Normal, Illinois Multimodal Transportation Center. The facility has been on the drawing board for nearly a decade, but thanks to a...
View ArticleBarack Obama: Evil Incarnate?
Of the couple dozen diaries I’ve written at Daily Kos, I’ve never even sniffed the rec list. So I thought I’d do a sure-fire rec list diary shamelessly pandering to the hundreds of folks here that...
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