Radical // Current

Saul Alinsky Politics Alive and Well in US Government

To know Alinsky is to know Obama

blogspression1
added this
1 day ago
|
0 comments

Feds Check Out Radical Imam and Va Mosque

A radical American imam on Yemen's most wanted militant list who had contact with two... more

Rickharmon25
added this
6 days ago
|
0 comments

Officials: U.S. Aware of Hasan Efforts to Contact al Qaeda

Eight years of abominable and rampant Islamophobia, plus persuading Americans that the... more

Vierotchka
added this
7 days ago
|
31 comments

The Radical

A naked man dances his ass off to the sounds of infectious electro-pop and delights... more

OnlyOkayLooking
added this
1 month ago
|
3 comments

The The B-Cast: Is Obama’s BFF the Link to Radicals in the White House?

Obamas Friends are Nut's ... "Sometimes you Feel like a Nut Sometimes you... more

Birdmanbob4
added this
1 month ago
|
1 comment

Woman yells ‘Heil Hitler’ to Jewish man, then mocks his medical bills

If I believed in Hell, she'd be first in line... But since I don't, can we just deport... more

tbowman131
added this
3 months ago
|
41 comments

Take Your Boss Hostage!

"When negotiations over the revamping of Caterpillar’s operations in the French city... more

DeliaTheArtist
added this
8 months ago
|
3 comments

Japan: Robot Nation

Japan, the world's second largest economy, is facing a demographic crisis that will... more

Adam_Yamaguchi
added this
11 months ago
|
107 comments

"Are we witnessing the reemergence of the far right as a power in American politics? Has John McCain, inadvertently perhaps, become the midwife of a new movement built around fear, xenophobia, racism and anger?

McCain has clearly become uneasy with some of the forces that have gathered around him. He has begun to insist, against the sometimes loud protests from his crowds, that Barack Obama is, among things, a "decent person."

Yet McCain's own campaign is playing with powerful extremist themes to denigrate Obama. When his running mate, Sarah Palin, first brought up Obama's association with 1960s radical Bill Ayers, who has become a centerpiece of McCain's attacks, she accused Obama of "palling around with terrorists." What other "terrorists" was she thinking about?

Since Obama was a child when Ayers was part of the Weather Underground, and since even Republicans have served on boards with Ayers, this is classic guilt by association.

Ayers has been dragged into this campaign because there is a deep frustration on the right with Obama's enthusiasm for shutting down the culture wars of the 1960s.
ad_icon

Precisely because Obama is not a baby boomer, he carries none of that generation's scars. Most Americans (including most boomers) are weary of living in the past and reprising the 1960s every four years.

Yet culture war politics is relatively mild compared with the far-right appeals that are emerging this year. It is as if McCain's loyalists overshot the '60s and went back to the '50s or even the '30s.

What we are witnessing is the mainstreaming of the far right, a phenomenon that began to take shape with some of the earliest attacks on Bill Clinton in the 1990s.

False claims that Obama is Muslim, that he trained to overthrow the government and that he was educated in Wahhabi schools are a standard part of the political discussion. These fake stories come from voices on the ultra right that have dabbled in other forms of conspiracy, including classic anti-Semitism. McCain and his campaign do not pick up the most extreme charges. They just fan the flames by suggesting that voters don't really know who Obama is, hinting at a sinister back story without filling in the details. That is left to the voters' imaginations.

The tragic irony here is that McCain was the victim of some of the very same extremist forces in the 2000 South Carolina primary.

To bring McCain down, some of George W. Bush's supporters on the far right peddled all manner of falsehoods about McCain, raising despicable charges about his time as a POW and suggesting (again falsely) that he had fathered an illegitimate child of color. In the past, McCain publicly condemned some of the very people who are now going after Obama."

More at link."Are we witnessing the reemergence of the far right as a power in American politics?... more

DeliaTheArtist
added this
1 year ago
|
11 comments

Revealed: Radical cleric Bakri's pole-dancer daughter

As the daughter of firebrand cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed, Yasmin Fostok might be... more

TravG73
added this
1 year ago
|
0 comments

The Five Myths Obama Must Clear Up To Win In '08

Is he a Muslim? Is he a radical liberal? A foreign sympathizer? Why aren't voters... more

caseygane
added this
1 year ago
|
2 comments

Next 9/11 will be in Britain, warn banned Muslim extremists

The next 9/11 will take place in Britain, members of a banned Muslim extremist group... more

GeoffNI
added this
1 year ago
|
2 comments

A radical thought: You can make a difference

In the immortal title of his bestseller, Steal This Book, Abbie Hoffman summed up the radicals of the 1960s. That era was about challenging the established way of doing things. And not always in the most, shall we say, peaceful ways (either on the part of the protestors or the authorities). If I had to sum up the "old radical" approach (still in use today by many people and organizations), it's about shaming, blaming, and attacking.

When I began researching my book, I wondered if there was another way to meet the world's challenges. Was there a "new" radical approach?

And the answer is a resounding "Yes!".

As I interviewed people -- and read accounts of hundreds of others -- I began to observe a common theme. I saw that the men and women I came to call the New Radicals believe in the pull of vision. They recognize the power of dialogue. They see the possibilities inherent in working together toward change. It is a profound shift, and one that is played out over and over again by people of all ages, in each field, every sector, and around the world. (For more on the New Radicals, see archived articles.)

New Radicals are, I realized, positive, constructive, and hopeful.

In fact, I began to think of "positive, constructive, hopeful" as a kind of New Radical credo. Which means that it's not just a phrase, but a tool we can actually use in our daily lives -- a reference point for all of our choices and actions.

Try this experiment. The next time you need to make a decision, when you're in a meeting and it's your turn to speak, or when you're filling up the car with gas or picking up the dry cleaning, run what you're about to say or do through the "positive, constructive, hopeful" filter first. I guarantee that something will shift. And you'll begin to see that we change ourselves and influence others even in the simplest ways. Forget the world stage; right now, in the middle of daily life, you can make a difference.

All of this musing about a New Radical credo made me wonder if there isn't a growing desire for a moral code. Something Bill Gates wrote in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal about his work for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation came to mind, "This would do more than challenge our intellect. This would challenge our humanity."

And then Dr. Robert Coles appeared on my radar for the first time in many years. Remember him? Coles, a child psychiatrist and one of the best-known civil rights activists of the 1960s, has spent a lifetime studying morality: what it is, how it's created, and its place in our lives. (And, yes, he's still going strong!)

Now, Coles is describing morality as a kind of third intelligence. He says we've known about rational or cognitive intelligence for a long time. And that we have learned a lot in the last decade or so about emotional intelligence. But he believes that a third kind of intelligence -- moral -- is just as important, and that people want more of it in their lives.

Coles, I was glad to learn, remains optimistic about our world. What's more, he believes that being hopeful about the future is our moral obligation. And he takes the things that he's seen in his lifetime -- including civil rights -- as evidence that more positive change is possible.

Do you agree with Coles and the New Radicals? Are you confident that we can save the world? And have you had an experience of applying your own version of the New Radicals credo to an everyday moment? Did it work? Or have you ever noticed someone else doing their best to be positive, constructive, and hopeful -- and did it shift something in you?
In the immortal title of his bestseller, Steal This Book, Abbie Hoffman summed up the... more