Baltimore City Paper

The Turnover

Political Animal It was a few weeks after the presidential election of 1992 when I emerged from the drafty escalators rising up from the Capitol South Metro station at First and C. Across the street was the GOP national headquarters, and right next to it was the Republican-friendly Capitol Hill Club. They probably weren't full of happy people, I guessed.I was heading over to a nearby restaurant to meet up with a friend with whom I had worked on the presidential campaign, and together we were going to mull over ... [MORE]

by Brian Morton | 11/19/2008

Short Holiday

Mr. Wrong Xmas is coming, but don't fall for it, man, it's a Trap. The Economies are in the fucking toilet and there's no credit for houses, and/or there's too many houses, also/and/or there's too many people crapping out on their house payments, and/also/plus the Financial Institutions are all being Institutionalized, meanwhile/also/and/plus the Stock Market is wacky, and meanwhile/also/plus-plus guess what: Xmas is Coming, so that means: Go Forth and Buy.Also, there is a War on.As your Financial Advisor ... [MORE]

by Joe MacLeod | 11/19/2008

Uhuru

Social Studies Now that the election is over, we can get back to some stories that have not gotten the attention they deserved. The one that's been on my mind is the bombastic and explosive casting of Zoe Saldana as Lt. Uhura in the remake of Star Trek. Now, I'm not a huge Star Trek fan, neither a Trekkie nor a Trekker (though I do know the difference between the two), but I enjoyed the series enough over the years and I'm sensitive enough to the cultural role of Uhura that I'm pretty darn interested in how Sa ... [MORE]

by Vincent Williams | 11/12/2008

Left and Center

Political Animal Well, that didn't take long, did it? We probably shouldn't find it surprising that when a candidate assailed by all as "the most liberal member of the Senate" (even though he wasn't--think Bernie Sanders, the socialist of Vermont) names a hard-charging fighter as his chief of staff, the conservatives get up in arms and the concern trolls in the mainstream media scratch their chins and act "troubled."Eight years ago a new president, having won barely a majority of electoral votes and having lost ... [MORE]

by Brian Morton | 11/12/2008

Deep-Fried Thoughts

Mr. Wrong I saw something on teevee the other day that just, like, totally confirmed my belief in America. America, the Land of Opportunity, America, Love it or Leave it, America, My Country 'Tis of Thee, America, the Beautiful. I'm talking about something you can get at Arby's, man. I was staring at my friend Television and I saw this commercial all about Arby's and how they have some new sandwich or wrap or something like that and blah blah blah, new and blah, whatever, "go git you one right now," etc., ... [MORE]

by Joe MacLeod | 11/5/2008

Time Bombs

Political Animal In case anyone forgot, George W. Bush is still president. The two and a half months between the election and the inaugural provide the most unpopular president and vice-president in the last half-century with plenty of opportunities to conduct all sorts of unaccountable mischief, and there is little anyone can do about it. Setting aside for a moment Bush's regular exercises in unconstitutional presidential actions, the machinery of the federal government that can be run by executive orders and r ... [MORE]

by Brian Morton | 11/5/2008

A Better Country

Political Animal Back in 2000, during Ralph Nader's quixotic quest to muddy the waters between the two parties as much as possible, a meme went around claiming that "there's not a dime's worth of difference" between the two major political parties. In hindsight, it's pretty clear how wrong that was, isn't it? If the last eight years have taught us anything, it's that people who don't like government and don't want much government probably shouldn't be trusted to run whatever government we have to have. In 2000, ... [MORE]

by Brian Morton | 10/29/2008

Things Unseen

Social Studies So, not to be self-congratulatory or anything, but all through the initial stages of the collapse of Wall Street a few weeks ago, I knew what was going to happen. I just waited patiently for the blame game to go into to full gear and for fingers to start pointing toward the victims. If there's one thing I've learned from being an American, it's that there's no catastrophe that we, as a nation, can't figure out a way to blame poor and, if possible, poor black people for it. And, sure enough, the ... [MORE]

by Vincent Williams | 10/29/2008

Ground Game

Political Animal The end part of a national political campaign between Republicans and Democrats can often be compared to a football game, with each side hewing to specific strategies and tactics. If voters can be compared to "points," Democrats for years have relied on a high-scoring offense--get as many voters out to the polls as possible. Especially in years with high numbers of voters self-identifying as Democrats, the party believes that when more voters go to the polls, Democrats win. In contrast, low tur ... [MORE]

by Brian Morton | 10/22/2008

Barack Hussein Obama

Mr. Wrong Barack Hussein Obama! Barack Hussein Obama, Barack Hussein Obama. Barack Hussein Obama? Barack Hussein Obama (Barack Hussein Obama) Barack Hussein Obama; Barack Hussein Obama. Barack Hussein Obama-Barack Hussein Obama, Barack Hussein Obama, Barack Hussein Obama Barack Hussein Obama? Barack Hussein Obama Barack Hussein Obama, Barack Hussein Obama Barack Hussein Obama; Barack Hussein Obama, Barack Hussein Obama-Barack Hussein Obama, Barack Hussein Obama-Barack Hussein Obama, Barack Hussein Obama ... [MORE]

by Joe MacLeod | 10/22/2008

Running Scared

Political Animal America is now a nation living on a foundation built of fear. It's as if we're living in an alternate universe where time started traveling backward from the Gilded Age and Pearl Harbor, and now we're skidding toward the stock-market crash of 1929. We are afraid of fear itself. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have thrown us headlong into the past. I recall driving around downtown D.C. the evening of Bush's second inaugural and remarking how it truly looked like something out of Escape From New Y ... [MORE]

by Brian Morton | 10/15/2008

Juiced, Past Tense

Social Studies So, yeah, O.J. Simpson. It looks like his little escapade in Las Vegas, running around like he was Linc from The Mod Squad or something, is going to end up with his ass behind bars for the rest of his life. And, if we're all honest about it, I don't think there's a person in America who wouldn't acknowledge that this verdict probably has more to do with the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman than whether or not he roughed up a bunch of shady memorabilia dealers. Here's the thing, ... [MORE]

by Vincent Williams | 10/15/2008

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