Sharp As A Tack
Can I say, I miss the old-school, fat, medallion-wearing Al Sharpton. If I could find that picture of him in the jogging suit, walking the streets of Harlem, I would have posted it. Straight-up, Ghetto Warrior. I love it.

But, beyond the pompadour, the gut, and the rhetoric, I must admit that I didn't know a whole lot about the details of Al Sharpton's life. But I must admit, Sharpton has been on G.W. Bush's case since Inauguration Day 2001, where he hosted a kind of shadow inauguration in D.C. to condemn the Supreme Court Decision on the 2000 Presidential Election.

Demagogue? Perhaps.

But the brother does say alot that needs to be said, particularly on issues of power, race, & class in America.

Will he be President? Not a chance in Hell.

SHOULD he be President? Not as long as he isn't putting together a serious platform or strategy on how he'll govern. But, to paraphrase what Public Enemy said about Farrakhan, I think we ought to listen to he has to say. Some of it really is gospel.

Kleptocracy
from Dictionary.com:
klep·toc·ra·cy ( P ) Pronunciation Key (klp-tkr-s)
n. pl. klep·toc·ra·cies
A government characterized by rampant greed and corruption.


[Greek kleptein, to steal + -cracy.]

klepto·crat (-t-krt) n.
klepto·cratic adj.

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

While I definitely dig where this article by Jim Hightower in The Nation is coming from, I have one point of contention with him.

In my mind, the idea of America has always been greater and loftier than Americans themselves. Consider the Founding Fathers: the ideals put forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were not really indicative of their lives, given that the vast majority of them where extremely wealthy landowners (or, in some cases, slave-holders). I suppose the trajectory of the American dream is some great asymptotic curve, always reaching for perfection, but never quite reaching it.