Good evening, Denver! Thank you for the honor of speaking before you tonight at the Democratic National Convention here in this beautiful city.

The political world is engaging in its first round of shiny and ultimately semi-pointless theater at the Democratic National Convention, which started Monday and lasts until Wednesday. Held at the Pepsi Center in Denver, the convention ends with Sen. Barack Obama accepting the nomination at Mile High Stadium at Invesco Field. The Republicans follow with their convention six days later where it will be fascinating to see if any Republican Congress members attend and what type of nonsensical oddities will come out of Vice President Dick Cheney.

Senioritis: a word that is on the lips and the minds of many seniors as graduation dawns on the quickening horizon. It’s a word that’s never been used in the political context, as far as I know.

I’m not normally a fan of bringing sex into the discussion about politics.

As of March 24, we have surpassed 4,000 dead male and female U.S. soldiers in the sands of Iraq.

After stumping for Sen. Hillary Clinton in Austin, Tex. on Mar. 2, legendary feminist Gloria Steinem made an intriguing statement to the New York Observer.

For all of the good that’s happened in Iraq recently (legislation was passed two weeks ago by the Iraqi parliament, setting up a national budget and dates for provincial elections), the future of our involvement in Iraq is still as unclear as before.

As I tried to find subjects to write about this week, I found myself struggling to find a competent subject – but not because there’s a lack of things to talk about. All you have to do is open up the front page of the newspaper to find something good, whether it’s the State of the Union a few weeks ago or a Democratic primary analysis.

I’m drawing a blank because in some weird way that’s where we are as a nation: blank.

The 2008 presidential campaign started as optimistic as one could get. Candidate Barack Obama became the first black man to win the Iowa caucus. The world rejoiced in the hope and optimism that’s been Obama’s campaign bedrocks. It was a good three, four days for the country.

Then came New Hampshire and the picture of what politics have become in the United States came into full high-definition clarity: talking on TV about the issues, any issues, has been unofficially banned.

If you listen carefully, you can hear the bellowing roar of laughter from our allies toward our president as we count 374 more days till he bids a fond farewell to the Oval Office and to the joy of the people (depending on who’s elected after him, anyway). Good times to dream on, good times.Why do we have to wait until then? Why, after the National Intelligence Estimate reported that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program, do we have to groan through sound bytes of the president saying that Iran may restart it again? Why can’t we do what many people nationwide have been thinking for years now? Why don’t we impeach George W. Bush?

Nov. 4, 2008 – As the 2008 presidential election nears its homestretch, it’d be helpful to see how one of the most invigorating presidential elections in recent memory came to be. How did Republican Ron Paul and Democrat Dennis Kucinich, both of whom only a year ago were no more than punch lines to the mainstream media, become the nominees of each of their respective parties? To see how we got here, let’s go back in time to January 2008 in Iowa.

If you’re having trouble deciding between overthrowing its sociopathic dictator (who holds little power in his country compared to the more powerful Mullahs) or to combat the threat of Iran having a nuclear weapon (the completion of which is up for debate between United States intelligence and the United Nations), you have just stepped into a little déjà vu, ladies and gentlemen.

Is the notion of hypocrisy still evident even without the glowing glare of TV cameras and the hot air of TV pundits? An odd question to open a column with, I know. But it’s one that I bring up because of two lawyers who on paper have a lot of similarities, yet aren’t mentioned [...]

Although religion plays a part in most of our lives, and even to an extent in the lives of those who believe in atheism, who rebel against the conventions and beliefs established in organized religion, we still basically expect that our presidents and politicians in Congress will not throw their beliefs at us. Over the past couple of decades though, we’ve seen this definite line in the sand begin to blur.

As I look on at the growing tragedy that has engulfed the tiny town of Jena, Louis., this line from rapper Kanye West is the one that rings most true in my head: “Racism still alive, they just be concealin’ it.”