Why Are You Here...

...when you could be reading these posts from a few of my Texas blog buddies.

I get a little too busy every now and again and miss some out on the great stuff these guys write. Here are a few examples.

Big Tex has a fascinating post up concerning this years Presidential election. Or is it a Minstrel Show?

Nobody has actually donned blackface yet, although SNL has come close with white Fred Armisen handling the Obama impersonations for the show. But it seems obvious to me that there is an obvious and ongoing attempt being made to frame Obama as an "uppity n*gg*r," and I wonder how far we are from crossing that threshold where all of the code words and insinuations are dropped, and naked, unadulterated, 200-proof racism is allowed to infest our political discourse. Perhaps it sounds a bit absurd to some to think that we might get to that point, but look at all of the other previously unthinkable thresholds that have been crossed during the Bush era.

Read the rest, it's worth it.

Shawn comments on Barack Obama's Father's Day speech over at the Dallas South Blog.

One of the gross misunderstandings during the whole “black church/black pastor ” flap was that black folks don’t preach or teach responsibility. The senator’s stance on the role of black father’s is not foreign to black pulpits. Family values are taught right along side equal justice.

Indeed. Even after 400 years of existence in this land, it seems that America still has a lot to learn about it's Black folks. Thank goodness for the Obama campaign.

Speaking on the recent "Islam flap" in Friendswood, TX (details here), Neil at Texas Liberal wrote:

I’ve no way of knowing for sure, but I bet the great majority of students in Freindswood were not offended to learn about Islam.

Sometimes it seems that a job of parents is to make sure their kids acquire the same fears and prejudices they were left with by their parents.

In any case, some of the good people in Friendswood did speak up. And I believe many young people in this country grasp that a new day of greater acceptance of others is ahead.

Well, we can hope can't we?

Jobsanger has Guantanamo Bay and Bush's legacy on his mind. Bush seems to think that history will vindicate him in the long-run. I think just the opposite will happen. I think as more and more of the truth comes out, future generations will revile him and wonder how our generation could have allowed him to do such terrible things. In fact, I wonder that myself. This generation tried to impeach one president for getting a "blow-job" in the White House, but let another get away with starting an unnecessary war that killed thousand of innocents and tortured and imprisoned many others. I was going to ask where are our values, but I think a better question may be -- do we have any values other than fear and greed?

No doubt. I've ofter wondered the same thing myself.

Menopausal Mick and Llamacorey are leaving the great state of Texas for the Missouri Ozarks, and plan to stop blogging politically and focus of environmental issues. Their farewell post in part reads:

You people do important work. I hope now that the nomination process is finished that some of you will begin to focus on things that will make everything else trivial if not addressed. Democracy has to be reclaimed in order to have the tools needed to facilitate a real change. There is absolutely NOTHING to stop another stolen election. Voting machines will be used this November. The same machines that have been proven by Princeton and other universities to be entirely hackable and untrustworthy will be used to decide the presidential race. In addition to the voting machines, unless free and open media is reclaimed, there is very little hope of any real reform happening. MSM is corporate owned and sells a product that has little resemblance to news coverage of any value.

How does Democracy fail? Make the people afraid. Control the news. Make a free election into a sham. Done.

I hear you guys. But remember all things, including environmental issues are political, especially these days. You'll be missed around here.

Thanks everybody for all of your great writing which allowed me to create this post.