A Little Insurgent Dem History, and a Precaution
Let us review the most recent occasion an insurgent won the Democratic nomination against bitter and organized establishment opposition. It was 1972 and George McGovern, caretaker of the Kennedy...
View ArticleTo Senator Obama, from a Non-Dirty F*ing Hippie
I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America... I think they felt like with all the excesses of the 1960s and 1970s and government had grown and grown, but there wasn’t much sense of...
View ArticleParis Peace Talks, 2008
There's widespread agreement that the landscape of the 2008 election could lead to a political realignment of historic proportions. But how and why would that occur? How do historical parallels from...
View ArticleWhat this country needs is a Populist!
Someone who can call out to the throngs of disaffected and disenfranchised people; Democrat or Republican, black, white, brown, red, yellow, rich or poor, young or old. Those who are completely and...
View ArticleRush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Terrorist!
Rush Limbaugh is truly a pathetic disgusting excuse for a human being! Was he actually even born in America? I've had it with that pompous, fear-mongering egomaniac! By now many of you know that he...
View ArticleUn-convention-al 40 years ago: The Battle of Chicago
My new neighbor Judy Gumbo Albert was an original Yippie, directly involved in the anti-war protests around the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Her former husband, Stew Albert (1939-2006), was an...
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If Palin is not Dan Quayle...
perhaps this is a better comparison: Forty years ago, a retread presidential candidate took the reins of the Republican Party in his second race for the office. Looking for exciting young leaders in a...
View ArticleRaids on (suspected) protesters: This is not America
They will get away with it. Glenn Greenwald has a couple of important reports up on Salon about massive police raids on -- well, not just protesters, but people only suspected of merely planning...
View ArticleEarly Evening April 4: A shot rings out in the Memphis Sky
One of our jobs as old fogies is to pass down our experiences to new generations in the hope that our life stories will help them create their own. I don't know if this 1968-to-present day slice out of...
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Ralph Plaisted died this week
Most of you never heard of Ralph Plaisted. A few from Minnesota may recall the name. But back in 1968 -- that amazing, horrible, wonderful year -- Ralph Plaisted did something nobody had ever done...
View ArticleIn The Tipping Point: Be The Message
In May, 2006, thereisnospoon posted a definitional diary on the Overton window. The point of the Overton Window methodology is to move public opinion along a continuum of statements which cannot all...
View ArticleTwo generations later...
I a 58-year-old American, and have voted in every national, state and local election I could in my lifetime (I even voted for JFK, though it was in a grade school election that didn't count). In my...
View Article"Too Young Not to Understand..." (from RFK '68 to Obama '08)
I have to admit, i was one of those who literally laughed when after his spectacular 2004 convention speech people started saying Barack Obama might one day be president. Yeah, right. Just like Harold...
View ArticleGrant Park revisited: My old home town is in the center again!
In his column in today's Washington Post entitled Return to Grant Park Harold Meyerson takes note of the place of Grant Park in Chicago as the place where it will happen on Tuesday. Not like 40 years...
View ArticleI've come full circle
Today, my voting life came full circle. As I did in my first election, in 1968, I voted for an African-American for President. In 1968, I knew Dick Gregory stood no chance of winning, but he stood for...
View ArticleA Dixie Liberal, part 3
Part 3 of "How to make a Dixie Liberal" 1968 Andy Leaves Mayberry as Sam moves in. It is absurd to equate the end of "The Andy Griffith Show" with ANY of the real News from that insane year, but I...
View ArticleReading Nightprowlkitty’s Diary
I wanted to pay a visit to Nightprowlkitty. I miss her feedback. Many times I have said that on average 50% of what you know is due to what you have read and the other 50% results from what you have...
View ArticleI am a grumpy straightold white guy
And in the interests of full disclosure I've become more grumpy now that I am recently and officially over the half century mark. At least it's better than the alternative of sleeping through my...
View ArticleBless Robert F. Kennedy and the Kennedy Family - June 5, 1968
I was almost 12 years old that day. Like his brother before him, Robert F. Kennedy was to be the savior of a generation. It was not to be. I still get a lump in my throat when I think of that year. I...
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