It is becoming more apparent with each passing day that the American lifestyle as it currently exist is unsustainable. For more than three decades we have accepted the false narrative that we can live beyond our means and there will be no cost for the extravagance. Not only has our government accepted and promoted this falsehood, but we as a nation have accepted it as well. It has become so engrained into our national psyche that anyone who dares to point out its inherent flaws is immediately ridiculed by politicians, the media, and their fellow citizens. You see rather than looking at the real culprits of our failed domestic and foreign policies we want to create these "bogeymen" who want to destroy our sacred way of life. The truth is that it is always easier to blame others for our shortsightedness and faults.

Crossposted at MLW

    I am so sick and tired of the Republican attack dogs and their presidential candidate "whining" about the lack of news coverage their candidate is getting. Despite the fact of its inherent untruth; no one has been allowed to make more gaffes than Senator McCain and his supporters. The once media darling is now complaining that he can't get any coverage. Well, let's examine what Mr. McCain has been doing the last week while Senator Obama was touring the world. Mr. McCain and his surrogates used every opportunity they could find to attack and try to discredit Senator Obama. Whatever happen to the pledge to campaign on the issues and take the high road, no swift-boating for McCain. That lasted maybe a week.

Crossposted at MLW

    There has been a lot of talk recently about the "energy crisis". I wonder if this is the same energy crisis we heard about in the 70's? If it is then that means for over 30 years instead of solving our domestic energy needs, we have ignored them and allowed them to grow. In 1970 we were importing about 24% of the oil we used and the embargo back then threw our economy into a tail-spin, imagine what would happen today when we import about 70%. Rather than using the past 30 plus years to develop new or existing technologies to reduce or break our dependence on oil, we have elected to do something worse than nothing. Instead of our vehicles getting smaller and more fuel efficient during this time they have actually gotten larger.

    As the date for selecting a running mate for the presumptive nominees approaches there have been many names thrown into contention for both candidates. While there have been many qualified names offered up for the Democrats and many people have their own personal favorites, I am no exception. According to conventional political wisdom the main purpose of the vice-presidential nominee is to bring unity to the party if there has been a fractious primary, or to bring geographical strength to an area where a candidate may be weak, or for gender, generational or ideological concerns. I believe that one of the top and best choices for Senator Obama's selection as a running mate would be Governor Kathleen Sibelius of Kansas.

     There is a saying in the black community that blacks cannot improve as a people because like crabs in a barrel whenever one tries to climb out of the barrel the other ones will pull him back down. The reaction of some of the so-called black leaders to the success of Senator Barack Obama seems to bear out this analogy. It seems like the closer he gets to making history the more the "haters" try to sabotage him. The sad part about this whole episode is that the same leaders who are critical of the Senator today, should he get elected will be at the White House the day after the inauguration looking for handouts.

     Someone once described courage as not never being afraid, but going on in spite of the fear. As a nation and as elected officials we seem to be running dangerously low on courage. Oh  we have the tough talk down, we have the posturing, but do we really have true courage? Since 9/11 when at least 2,985 people died from the terrorists attacks I think that what has been lost in all the hype is some perspective. While this was surely a tragedy, the population of the United States in the year 2001 was somewhere around 290 million people. Based on those numbers the terrorist attacks killed less than .02% of the population, yet since the attack we have responded by invading sovereign nations, torturing our fellow human beings, and gutting our Constitutional protections.

     There is a story taking place in America that is being buried by the media, the armed forces, and the politicians. This story is so frightening that no one wants to address it or even talk about it. This story has the potential to bring more violence to the streets of America than any terrorist attack. The frightening tale that is being ignored is the fact that we have ticking time bombs within our midst. They do not belong to al Qaeda or any other shady terrorist cell, they will not be profiled because they don't have Mid-Eastern ancestry, nor are they Muslim extremists. These ticking time bombs are our own sons, daughters, fathers, and brothers. They are the returning soldiers from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

     For the past two weeks there has been a word that keeps cropping up in the talks of the Republican attack dogs and in the right leaning media types discussions of Senator Obama. I find it striking that so many of them have coincidently begun using the same word in the criticisms of the Senator. The reason that I think it is important to point out this coincidence is because they are actually code-speak for white males. The word that keeps cropping up is Machiavellian. I first heard it on CNN Newsroom last week when the anchor person was discussing Senator Obama's speech at a church on Father's Day and his call for black fathers to step up and become more involved in raising their children.