Rooney Rule Opens Door for Great Coaches

Written by James E. Johnson Jr.

As many of you may remember from a previous blog, ‘The Oakland Raiders: Misfits, Rebels and Progressives’, I am a Raider fan. Yesterday’s game was another reminder that my team has fallen on hard times; not only did we not make it to the Super Bowl, we couldn’t even dream of making the playoffs.

What a game it was yesterday, there is nothing like a good Super Bowl to begin the week and end a season. Especially with a Cinderella ending like it was for the Saints. The two best NFL teams this year put on quite a display for football fans and non-fans alike. I would bet that most of the people watching… Read more

Politics

Cross-post: Immigrants and the LGBT Community Should Support Each Other

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Prerna Lal posted this article to Change.org’s immigrant rights blog. Heartening to see that even as immigration reform suffers, there are a few bright spots on the horizon. Kudos to the LGBT and immigrant communities for having the courage to speak up for one another.

In a show of solidarity between the immigrant rights movement and the LGBT community, MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund) President Thomas Saenz, delivered a keynote speech advocating for comprehensive and inclusive immigration reform at the largest conference for LGBT equality, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Creating Change conference in Dallas, Texas.

Politics

Palin’s 100k Speech Fails to Unite Teabaggers

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Question: Was Sarah Palin paid $100,000 to rehash a speech from her 2008 vice-presidential campaign?

Answer: You betcha!

On the final night of the National Tea Party Convention, Sarah Palin wooed the audience with some of her trademark one-liners but failed to give the audience anything of substance to take home. Her speech, which was hurried and directionless, did manage to articulate a conservative message which carried across Tea Party and Republican lines.

Sarah hammered on time-worn issues such as upholding the constitution, fiscal responsibility, and reducing taxes. She stayed away from social issues like immigration and preserving Judeo-Christian culture and values. She did this to the chagrin of the die-hard teabaggers… Read more

Politics

No Doubt About It, Glenn Beck is Racist

Written by Jill Garvey

Remember the time Glenn Beck suggested that President Obama was burning down the country by trying to repair the immigration system? When he pretended to be the President in a skit in which he doused an actor with make-believe gasoline and lit a match? Or the time he called President Obama racist? That was idiotic and insulting. But what he did Thursday was worse. Because this time he didn’t just insult the President, he insulted all of America.

Many of us know already what an obnoxious bigot Beck is, but somehow he has managed to keep his FOX network TV show and nationally syndicated hate radio platform. What he said a few… Read more

Politics

Tea Party Convention Loses Steam

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Day two of the tea party convention can be summed up in two words: confusion and disunity.

The day began at 8:00am when the continental breakfast quickly ran out of coffee – much to the dismay of many sleepy tea partiers. One of the first speakers of the day was the founder of the Memphis Tea Party, Mark Skoda. Skoda’s speech was passionate and rousing, a badly needed pick-me-up after the dreary end to the previous night. Instead of the day continuing on an energizing note, however, it turned to bickering and confusion. The rest of the day was broken into five sets of breakout sessions. The first session I attended was conducted by the… Read more

Politics

Tancredo Kicks Off Tea Party Convention with Racist Comments

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

The much anticipated Tea Party National Convention kicked off yesterday in Nashville, Tennessee. The event is taking place at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel just outside of downtown. Security was tight, with event coordinators not wishing to allow any chance for disruption. The registration for the event took place between 3 and 6pm when attendees received a gift bag stuffed with freebies and information about the events sponsors.

The registration room was an open hallway lined with media on one side and sponsors’ booths on the other. Sponsors included Judicial Watch, Jensen Apparel, Leadership Institute, and Surge USA. At 7:00pm attendees were ushered inside the grand ballroom, which had about 30 small tables for four… Read more

Politics

Anti-Immigrant ‘Progressives’ Embrace Hate

Written by Eric Ward

Back in 1963, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream where . . . “little black boys and black girls” would “be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” I’m fairly sure Dr. King wasn’t envisioning Leah Durant, executive director of Progressives for Immigration Reform (PFIR) joining group shots with prominent leaders tied to the American white nationalist movement.

For nearly a year Leah Durant has been working overtime in an attempt to convince the public that PFIR is a legitimate progressive organization concerned about the issue of immigration. Recently in a discussion on AlterNet Durant argued that the fact that… Read more

Vanity Fair Cover Symptom of Larger Problem

Written by Amy Spicer

The March 2010 issue of Vanity Fair is causing quite a controversy. The cover and its corresponding article features nine starlets dubbed “the fresh faces of 2010”. Not controversial in and of itself unless you notice the lack of diversity on the cover, which it would be hard not to. It snaps the waif Caucasian nicely and the accompanying article has Vanity Fair writer Evgenia Peretz stating what she considers some of the best attributes of those featured: “downy-soft cheeks,” “button nose,” “patrician looks and celebrated pedigree,” “dewy, wide-eyed loveliness,” “Ivory-soap-girl features”. How very Victorian.

Ah Hollywood, it manages to continuously operate under the idyllic, somewhat delusional stance that art imitates life. It also… Read more

International

Haiti Also Needs Psychological First Aid

Written by Chris Bober

The earthquake in Haiti this past month is reportedly the region’s worst in over 200 years. In the immediate aftermath, Haiti’s President René Préval called the devastation “unimaginable” with the quake destroying the country’s infrastructure and claiming hundreds of thousands of lives. An early estimate by the Haitian government puts the death toll at 150,000. Sadly, the number of lives lost may never be known because many Haitians were forced to bury their own family members and some bodies may never be recovered from the rubble.

In disaster relief missions of this magnitude, the first response is to provide immediate relief to the region. This includes medical care, food, water, and shelter. It is important… Read more

Immigration

Monthly Racism Round-up

Written by Jill Garvey

It’s common to encounter subtle bigotry from all types of people in every community in America, even in unexpected places. A sad reality of our progress as a nation is that we are not even close to overcoming racial divisions. But sometimes things are said or events take place that are so outrageously overt, they deserve special condemnation. This is a recent round-up of insidious items that went down just in the first month of 2010.

First up is Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies with this thoughtful quote, “My guess is that Haiti’s so screwed up because it wasn’t colonized long enough.” He goes on to say that French colonizers didn’t do… Read more