Tag Archives: political rhetoric

MLK 2011: This Land Is Your Land

I can’t get enough of Sharon Jones singing “This Land Is Your Land.” It resonated with my mood last week following the shootings in Tucson. When I first posted these clips, I sent them out to “self-righteous Don’t-Tread-on-Me types” who probably failed to grasp the message. So I am re-dedicating them to the spirit of today’s MLK observances. As Woody Guthrie wrote in the song, and as Martin Luther King, Jr. taught us through the example of his life’s struggle, there can be no liberty for one until there is liberty for all. Continue reading






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Gabrielle Giffords reads First Amendment

On the second day of the 112th Congress (January 6, 2023), Congresswoman Giffords read aloud on the House floor the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.






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All Together Now: “Spill, Baby, Spill!”

This happens whenever I doze while listening to Morning Edition. I had this crazy dream. All those patriotic delegates at the Republican National Convention - the smiling mob who roared at Sarah Palin’s self-congratulation about pit bulls and lipstick – every one of them flew to Louisiana on their own dime. BP and the Chamber of Commerce didn’t pay a penny. And they were mucking around in the swamps with baggies and soda straws, prepared to siphon oil off sick birds. And Rudy Giuliani was cheering them on: “Spill, baby, spill.”






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President Barack Obama 2009 Inauguration

C-Span: President Barack Obama 2009 Inauguration and Address See full text. See Andy Carvin’s video for a crowd’s eye perspective. See other #inaug09 content on this blog. See #inaug09 on Twitter.






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Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address: Part 1 | Part 2 On March 4, 1933, FDR delivered one of the most quoted affirmations in the history of American political rhetoric: This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the … Continue reading






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