Saturday, April 26, 2008

Action Point with Cynthia Black 04-27-2008: The Reference Shelf

Today's article and item links:
  • POLITICS: NATIONAL: CAMPAIGN 2008: Pennsylvania & the Persistence of the Race Chasm: by David Sirota;
    A few weeks ago, I published an article in In These Times showing how Hillary Clinton has been winning states almost exclusively in the Race Chasm - states whose populations are more than 6 percent but less than 17 percent black. The results of the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania - a state whose demographics fall squarely in the Race Chasm - continue the trend.
  • FRAMING: ROCKRIDGE INSTITUTE: To Catch a Wolf: How to Stop Conservative Frames in Their Tracks:
    We applaud Senator Obama. Every progressive should refuse to answer such "when-did-you-stop-beating-your-wife" questions. Obama's words: "This is the kind of question that is designed precisely to divide us" could be a polite but effective mantra.
    AND: Why Voters Aren't Motivated by a Laundry List of Positions on Issues:
    There are two kinds of policy: cognitive and material. Material policies are familiar: they outline what is to be done in the world. For example, the details of a health care plan, or a plan for getting out of Iraq. Material policies each have a cognitive dimension, often unconscious and implicit. This includes the ideas, frames, values, and modes of thought that inform the political understanding of the material policy. AND just as a reminder of what you already know
    AND: The Radical Right's Weakness:
    Progressives commonly wring their hands in despair when conservatives use Orwellian language. They shouldn't. The use of Orwellian language signals to us where conservatives are weak. Forget that their deceptiveness is immoral. The point is that they are weak and are revealing their weakness. If they had public support, they could freely call their initiative the Dirty Skies Act.
  • ELECTION SECURITY: Clinton's Blind Eye to Voters:
    So, Hillary claims a victory in Pennsylvania. Who could have predicted that? Maybe Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
    AND: FEC Stalemate Leaves McCain Hanging:
    With November's elections a little more than six months away, a Senate stalemate over nominations has left the FEC powerless to act on anything from John McCain's bid for $84 million in public financing to a stay-at-home dad's request to pay himself a small salary from whatever campaign contributions he can raise as an independent candidate for Congress.
  • CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM: Alliance Defense Fund: The threat of Christian Nationalism is not waning. On schools and campuses nationwide the radical right agenda to indoctrinate young minds with moral irrationalism in the name of Christianity spreads at an alarming rate. If we are to establish the tolerant values of liberalism as the guiding principles clearly intended by the founders of this nation, it is imperative to shine a brilliant and unflinching light on those who threaten it most. Of the institutions aligned against freethought today I am most concerned about ADF and its mindless commitment to obliterating among others, the ACLU.
    AND: REIGNDOWN USA:
    Honestly, I can't begin to find one section of this website to accurately represent what is being marketed. Flip through it's many pages and just in keep mind only two of those associated with this “cause”: Trent Franks and Strang. And did I mention, the pro-zionist promotion of McCain backer John “The Catholic Church is the Great Whore” Hagee?!
  • MUST READ: The Importance of Black Voters, and the Stupidity of Ignoring Them: From David Sirota;
    First and foremost is the idea that black voters are, indeed, treated as less important than white voters. I would even take it a step further: black voters are not only considered unimportant, but are considered only as black voters and nothing else - a very subtly derogatory and dehumanizing characterization in that it implies African Americans are just one dimensional simpletons, rather than multi-dimensional humans.

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