Federal Energy Regulatory Commission director Jon Wellinghoff recently stated that the U.S. may not need any new coal or nuclear power plants. Due to our tremendous renewable energy potential, the rising challenge of global warming, and the high cost of new conventional plants, I think he's right. The U.S. can meet future electricity demand by deploying efficiency and renewable energy. . . .

The Black love affair with President Barack Obama is stronger than with any figure in the post-civil rights era. According to a recent New York Times poll, President Obama enjoys a 96 percent approval rating among African Americans. As an African American myself, I too feel pride and joy in seeing one of us succeed and attain so much respect and acclaim in the United States, a country with such a strong and recent history of racist oppression and alienation. . . .

To many Blacks who grew up in the Deep South before the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, last week's election of James Young as the first African American mayor of Philadelphia, Miss. was as monumental as the election of President Barack Obama. The Mississippi soil is soaked in the blood of civil rights activists. Three of the most famous – James Chaney, a 21-year old African American from Meridian, Miss.; Andrew Goodman, 20, a White Jewish student from New York and Michael Schwerner, 24, another White also from New York – were murdered 45 years ago near Philadelphia. Their story inspired the movie, "Mississippi Burning." Their lives were anything but a movie. . . .

Just when federal and state legislators are passing economic stimulus packages to get people working, House Bill 2204 in the Oregon State Legislature would end innovative programs that provide exactly the kind of stimulus that spurs people to continue working. Pieces of legislation are pending at both the state and the federal level for the addition of multiple public projects as part of economic stimulus packages. In contrast to the old "chicken in every pot" approach to poverty . . .

President Barack Obama is a more tolerant human being than I am. He braved critics at Notre Dame and disarmed many with a sanguine, balanced speech that did not sidestep the issue of abortion, but took on aspects of it. He called for mutual respect among folk who don't see things the same way, and asked for middle ground instead of the hard lines that we now find around the choice debate. . . .

The key to our mental health is the way we think. Our thoughts are things that have a life of their own. Our thoughts have their own energy, with the ability to attract or repel similar energy. Our thoughts are valuable tools that determine our emotional health. The Bible put it like this, "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." The way we think determines what our minds are full of: fear or courage, depression or joy, anxiety or serenity. . . .

It is so easy to excel when you are the only player on the field. Such was the case for the US Automobile Industry for decades.  World War II and the Korean War devastated European and Asian automobile capacity. The bombing and aggression left their manufacturing facilities in total disarray.  They were knocked back into the "stone ages." The Big 3 of the United States had virtually little competition during the 1950s through the mid-1970s. We foolishly thought it was our ingenuity and prowess, but the actual playing field wasn't level at all. . . .

As the first news of U.S.-sponsored torture became public years ago my immediate reaction was unquestionable, defined by distress and empathy.  I can't say, however, that my response included surprise. Having worked with for the compensation of human rights advocates in Haiti tortured and abused by the military during the 1994 coup, I understood such repulsive tactics as a regretful reality of conflict and war. . . .

Much has been written, discussed, researched, and analyzed on so-called "Black Spending Power" or "Black Buying Power," as some would call it.  For Black consumers especially, but also for other so-called "minority" groups in this country, the respective aggregate amounts of money earned each year, and then spent, are staggering. In addition, and again especially for Black consumers, our aggregate "buying power" can be described as a perpetual cash register, ringing, buzzing, and chiming 24/7/365. Why do we and others always pontificate about our "buying power" and seldom, if ever, discuss our "selling power"? . . .

"Face the Nation" was probably a favored TV venue on Sunday, May 24, for most watchers of the Sunday talk shows.
That's because former Secretary of State Colin Powell defended his place in the Republican Party from charges by Rush Limbaugh and former Vice President Dick Cheney. On the same show a week earlier, Cheney said that he preferred Limbaugh to Powell, whom he accused of  departing from the Republican Party because he voted for Barack Obama. Limbaugh said that Powell did it only because Obama was Black. . . .