Tavis Smiley On Poverty In America

The great commentator Tavis Smiley comments on American poverty.

The Week In Blogs, January 2012

From Business Insider, Reddit co-Founder Alexis Ohanian talks about the potential devastation SOPA will inflict on the technology and internet industry. For those of you unaware, SOPA is bill in the House of Representatives pushed by the major media companies that will potentially make linking to copyrighted material illegal.

Rob Boston at AlterNet has a great article on five of America’s founding fathers whose skepticism about religion and Christianity would make them unelectable today. Who knew that George Washington and John Adams were so against the use of religion in public and political spheres?

Quick hits: At Daily Kos, Kaili Joy Gray writes about her ridiculous experience with Bank of America that continues over 2 years after her husband passed away. Rude Pundit takes on 10 years of Gitmo, Balloon Juice has it’s own 10 year anniversary, and Politics USA talks about how the GOP has put the Bible ahead of country and constitution. And of course, stick to your New Years resolutions and lose weight naturally with BuiltLean!

I’m Giving The Joy To You

Wash The Love Away by UNKLE off of Where Did The Night Fall: Another Night Out.

Obama’s Challenge For 2012: Can A ‘Messiah’ Win Twice?

The Article: Obama: Can A Messiah Win Twice? by E.J. Dionne Jr. in The Washington Post.

The Text: Four years ago this week, a young and inspirational senator who promised to turn history’s page swept the Iowa caucuses and began his irresistible rise to the White House.

Barack Obama was unlike any candidate the country had seen before. More than a mere politician, he became a cultural icon, “the biggest celebrity in the world,” as a John McCain ad accurately, if mischievously, described him. He was the object of near adoration among the young, launching what often felt like a religious revival. Artists poured out musical compositions devoted to his victory in a rich variety of forms, from reggae and hip-hop to the Celtic folk song. (My personal favorite: “There’s no one as Irish as Barack O’Bama.”) Electoral contests rarely hold out the possibility of making all things new, but Obama’s supporters in large numbers fervently believed that 2008 was exactly such a campaign.

As the attention of the politically minded has focused on the rather more down-to-earth contests in Iowa and New Hampshire that will help determine which Republican will face Obama in November, let us ponder what the coming year will bring for someone who must now seek reelection as a mere mortal.

Obama’s largest problem is not the daunting list of difficulties that have left the country understandably dispirited: the continuing sluggishness of the economy, the broken political culture of Washington, the anxiety over America’s future power and prosperity.

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War On Iran: Replacing ‘Clunker’ Wars With A New Model

Apt analogy of the Iran situation.