Pardon My Politics

Up until the late 1960's it was hard to find a black American who was not a Republican. One of the very reasons for this was the country was still well aware that the Republican Party, from its inception, has advocated for civil rights. One would be hard pressed to find a historian that is not privy to the fact President Abraham Lincoln so unashamedly condemned slavery. It is true, the Civil War was fought for reasons other than slavery, but that issue, above all, was the centerpiece in what became the darkest period of American history. Now, we flash forward 144 years later and stop in awe to realize we could be electing the first black president in our nation's history. Unfortunately, most Americans see this as an advantage to the Democrats.

George W. Bush acknowledged that he knew his top national security advisers discussed and approved specific details of the CIA’s use of torture. “I’m aware that our national security team met on this issue and I approved,” he said. He also defended the use of waterboarding - simulated drowning where ...

Since 9/11, the Bush administration and their legal sycophants in the Justice Department and right-wing think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute and the Federalist Society, have claimed that the criminal regime in Washington has the legal right to employ any tactic to pursue its sordid agenda.

Five former secretaries of state met in Athens, Ga. recently to formulate bipartisan foreign policy suggestions for the next president. All five former secretaries (Powell, Kissinger, Albright, Baker and Christopher) agreed on two important recommendations: The U.S. should open a dialogue with Iran, and the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay should be closed. The first recommendation is a no-brainer, but it will have to wait for a new president because the only kind of diplomacy the Bush Administration understands is gunboat diplomacy. The second recommendation (closing the prison camp at Gitmo), should begin immediately. Guantanamo prison, and what has transpired there during George Bush’s war of terror, is an embarrassment to America.