Off my usual beaten track, but this is fascinating:

Putumayo Presents: African Blues-Playing For Change featuring Tinariwen “Groove in G” from Putumayo World Music on Vimeo.

It’s such a huge contrast between the perception given here of musicians from around the world cooperating and playing together and the perception given in an article in The Atlantic Monthly by Ta-Nehisi Coates, “Fear of a Black President”, which emphasizes the visceral fear among some whites, most often conservatives, of black men in power like our Commander in Chief. Much as they love and promote their myth of American Equality, Freedom and Democracy, it is stunning how little Republicans practice it. The underlying racism has been apparent since the first Tea Party rallies after Obama won the Presidential election. Remember these?

And they say they aren’t racist?!!!!!

Even the bit in Romney’s Convention speech where he says:

I wish President Obama had succeeded because I want America to succeed. But his promises gave way to disappointment and division. This isn’t something we have to accept. Now is the moment when we CAN do something. With your help we will do something.

seems patronizing and insulting to me, especially since it’s a lie. Romney doesn’t wish any such thing, nor does his party. They’ve spent all their efforts over the last 3 and a half years trying to engineer Obama’s failure as a President.

In an interview with the National Journal’s Major Garrett, McConnell candidly acknowledged that he feels his “single most important” job is to defeat President Obama in 2012:

MCCONNELL: We need to be honest with the public. This election is about them, not us. And we need to treat this election as the first step in retaking the government. We need to say to everyone on Election Day, “Those of you who helped make this a good day, you need to go out and help us finish the job.”

NATIONAL JOURNAL: What’s the job?

MCCONNELL: The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.

Quoted from ThinkProgress Oct 25, 2010.

Unreasoning fear took over the Republicans in Congress to the point of nearly halting government operations and causing the downgrading of the US credit rating by Moody’s. What Congress needs is a few more musicians to show them what tolerance and working together can do.