Anderson@Large

Dog Days of Summer

Election Day is 61 days away.

The latest Gallup poll weekly tracking poll found that Republicans hold a 10-percentage-point lead among registered voters in 2010 congressional voting preferences.

Gallup’s bottom line:

The last Gallup weekly generic ballot average before Labor Day underscores the fast-evolving conventional wisdom that the GOP is poised to make significant gains in this fall’s midterm congressional elections. Gallup’s generic ballot has historically proven an excellent predictor of the national vote for Congress, and the national vote in turn is an excellent predictor of House seats won and lost. Republicans’ presumed turnout advantage, combined with their current 10-point registered-voter lead, suggests the potential for a major “wave” election in which the Republicans gain a large number of seats from the Democrats and in the process take back control of the House.

If Republicans do indeed ride a wave that wipes out the Democratic majority in the House, they reportedly plan a wave of congressional investigations. If the subpoenas start to fly next year, Obama administration officials will be singing: You ain’t nothing but a hound dog snooping around my email and ICE memo.

August 28

On Aug. 28, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shared his dream in which his “four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

On Aug. 28, 2008, Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.

In his acceptance speech, Obama made an oblique reference to “a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dream.”

This August 28, two counter rival rallies were held in the nation’s capitol, one mostly white, the other mostly black. The organizers of both said they were there to “reclaim the dream.”

Fox News commentator Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial was streamed live on C-SPAN and Facebook.

According to McClatchy Newspapers, “hundreds of thousands of people streamed onto the National Mall.”

Proclaiming “this country has wandered in darkness,” Beck exhorted the crowd to “turn back to God”:

Something beyond imagination is happening. Something beyond man is happening. America today begins to turn back to God. For too long, this country has have wandered in darkness and we have wandered in darkness in periods from the beginning.

On the other side of town at Dunbar High School, thousands of black folks and, in the phrasing of SEIU’s Jaime Contreras, some “happy white people” gathered for the “Reclaim the Dream” rally, which was streamed live on MSNBC.com.

The rally and march were spearheaded by Rev. Al Sharpton and the National Action Network.

In his keynote remarks, Sharpton said:

This is not about a one-day thing. We need to show up…They’re betting on us not to show up. We know how to sucker punch you. We’re coming out in ’10 because we’ve just begun to fight. We’re not going to let you turn back the clock.

Sharpton continued:

We are the children of the dreamers…They may have the mall, but we have the message. They may have the platform, but we have the dream. The dream was not about state’s rights…Just because you got the spot doesn’t mean you are standing up to the dream…We can dream from jail cells! We can dream from hospital beds! We can dream anywhere we are. We don't need to stand on the spot!

If the “children of the dreamers” don’t show up on Election Day, next August 28, they will wake up to a “hijacking” partly of their own making.

As Sharpton rightly observes, “We can’t expect others to stand up for us if we don’t stand up for ourselves.”

Oh, Freedom

Gone Fishing

I am, er, going fishing for a few days.

Between the Ground Zero mosque madness, the return of Shirley Sherrod and the dueling reclaim the dream rallies, I need a break.

I love Pablo Picasso’s “Night Fishing at Antibes.”

But don’t ask me about my fishing trip.

Fishing Trip by Koko Taylor

I’ll be back next week.

Hurricane Katrina: Five Years Later

Sunday will mark the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

President Barack Obama will commemorate the occasion with a speech at Xavier University of Louisiana.

Filmmaker Spike Lee has been telling the story of Katrina survivors since the levees broke.

Five years later, the folks who were hardest hit by Katrina are still struggling to return home.

Their story is told in Lee’s new documentary, “If God is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise,” which premiered last night on HBO.

Part II airs tonight at 9:00 p.m. ET.

Where Does Ground Zero End?

The debate over the Ground Zero mosque is playing out in Lower Manhattan.

Blogger Tim Sumner asks: Where does ground zero end?

Sumner writes:

The dust clouds from the collapsing South and North Towers rapidly rolled out in all directions. Papers from the World Trade Center landed in Brooklyn and many homes and businesses there also had to be decontaminated. Human remains were found as far away as the East River. The streets were inch-deep with debris the length of Wall Street, which terminates at South Street near the historic Sea Port.

The Burlington Coat Factory is less than 400 feet from World Trade Center Tower 7 which also collapsed. Those who say a mosque there would not be at Ground Zero are just plain wrong.

For some, a small section of the Brooklyn Promenade, which is across the East River from the World Trade Center site, is hallowed ground.

Since 2002, this picture of the Twin Towers has hung on a fence on the famed walkway. It is protected from theft and vandalism because “hallowed ground” is a New York state of mind.

In  the immediate aftermath of 9/11, we were all New Yorkers.

No Cordoba Mega-Mosque at Ground Zero

The Coalition to Honor Ground Zero will hold a protest demonstration this Sunday to tell President Barack Obama, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Hamas and Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf: No Cordoba mega-mosque at Ground Zero:

Join construction workers, firefighters, veterans, 9/11 families and first responders, civil and human rights leaders, women’s rights advocates, and residents of the Ground Zero neighborhood will unite for a major protest at the Ground Zero mosque site.

Protesters will demand that the State Department answer: Why are you sending Imam Rauf as an envoy across the globe on the taxpayers’ dime?

WHO:    Coalition to Honor Ground Zero, 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America, ACT! For America, Alliance for Interfaith Resistance, Congress of Racial Equality and Human Rights Coalition Against Radical Islam. A complete list of organizations and leaders is available here.

WHAT:    Protest to stop the Ground Zero Mosque

WHEN:   Sunday, August 22 at 11:00 a.m.

WHERE:  Park Place and West Broadway

View Larger Map

WHY:  To push back against those attempting to impose harsh Shariah Islam, stealth jihad or terror on our nation. We will not be moved!

To add your name to the Coalition, send an email to <stop911mosque at gmail.com>.