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Before Barack Obama accepts the democratic nomination for the presidency of the United States in Denver tonight, we should take the time to reflect on what got him, and us, this far. To that end, here is the text of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have A Dream” speech, delivered on this date, exactly 45 years ago.

45 years ago, a 16-minute speech changed the course of history. So while watching Obama’s historic acceptance speech, give thanks for those 16 minutes offered up by the King.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. [Applause]

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God’s children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four 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.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

Hillary Clinton could not have made a more explicit, impassioned and empowering statement on behalf of the democratic party than the one she made last night in Denver. From her opening statement voicing support of Barack Obama, to her noticeably brief acknowledgment of her husband as a president and not as her husband, to her appeal to voters to act upon their political conscience and not their individual loyalties, Clinton hit it out of the park.

Her supporters, however, are slow to get their gloves in the air.

There are so many components to this Clinton fever that ring honorable and delusional at the same time. For the same reasons that Barack’s nomination is historic and euphoric to many, the same should be reserved for Clinton’s legitimate run for the nomination. Were this another time and following a more competent administration, the respect would be there for her importance to the history of American politics.

But to waver on basic principles in the face of certain global tumult, to adopt a “anybody but Barack” sentiment over an “anybody but the Republicans,” approach has the color of stupid painted broadly about it. It was an aspect Clinton directly spoke to in her address, and effectively captured on the faces of Clinton delegates courtesy of C-SPAN.

Yet today we are bombarded with stories of continuing angst and dislike for Obama, made all the more interesting by the notion that Clinton supporters would rather vote against their ideals than for the remaining candidate that best emobodies them. Even worse, the discussion has not been advanced about the election from its very outset being hers to lose, which she did narrowly, yet effectively.

When given the choice, democrats, informed and uninformed, sided with Barack Obama.

Maybe its the media’s way of making the election sexier than necessary. Perhaps their intuition about Barack Obama’s global charm and the exaggeration of the democratic primary causes this stir in order for extended discussion and closely-knit polls. Unfortunately, too many democrats are willing to feed the monster of controversy and division, at a time where cohesion and unity would be the best medicine.

Hillary Clinton injected that into the party on last night. We can only hope that cells of jealousy and animosity don’t reject the good stuff moving forward.

Representing for Maryland’s little corner of the blogosphere…state comptroller Peter Franchot, ladies and gentlemen! A sampling of the money man’s insight from Denver yesterday afternoon.

For those of you in Denver, I invite you to attend the reception I am hosting tonight for the Maryland delegation at Dixon’s right downtown beginning at 9 pm. Our special guest this evening will be actor Wendell Pierce, who played Detective Bunk Moreland on HBO’s hit series, The Wire.

Wait a minute. Bunk? Bunk Moreland was the best Maryland could come up with? Avon Barksdale would’ve been a much better choice. Or at the very least, Clay Davis.

Still, Franchot in the blogosphere is a good thing. It shows that even in Maryland, the democrats are realizing and utilizing the connecting power of the Internet to pull this joker out in November.

I wouldn’t classify it as the most eloquent speech I’ve ever heard, mostly because she’s most eloquent without prepared commentary. But Michelle Obama’s address at the Democratic National Convention’s opening night set the tone for the world to meet the woman behind the fist pound. A mother, a sister, and potentially, the most influential first lady in the history of American politics.

She hit on all of the critical points that the media has scrambled together in the face of Hurricane Clinton hitting Denver this week; resonance with “blue-collar” voters, dismantling the notion that she is an “angry black woman,” and eliciting excitement about her husband’s platform of self-generated hope.

“All of us” are “driven by a simple belief that the world as it is just won’t do — that we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be,” she said. “That is the thread that connects our hearts. That is the thread that runs through my journey and Barack’s journey and so many other improbable journeys that have brought us here tonight, where the current of history meets this new tide of hope.

“And, you see, that is why I love this country.”

The ease and confidence with which she delivered her address will go a long way in convincing undecided and perhaps unwilling voters that she and her husband are a certain conduit for change in the face of uncertain times. Not because they have all of the answers, but because they are willing to talk to folks.

She showed herself to be a patriot, but not of the cookie cutter, “God Bless America” variety. She showed working class roots without insulting the intelligence of those who know that she is no longer on their block. But most importantly, she showed her blackness without a hint of arrogance or purposeful intimidation.

Now that’s quite a hello.

So apparently, the “victim” in the Duke Lacrosse scandal is planning to write a book. What in the hell for, no one will ever know for sure, but you would think that one failed attempt at playing on public empathy would’ve have taught Crystal Mangum a lesson.

This girl single-handedly set black folks back for the entire winter of 2006. Everything that we could have lamented about rich, privileged white southern collegians went out of the window, and we had to begrudgingly face the fact that while they may like black strippers, they aren’t about the business of raping them.

While it may be sick to think and sicker to say, it might have been better for the country were it actually true. It might have lent itself to a more honest discussion about the witches brew of race and class in America. It might have forced white folks to honestly hear the complaints of black folks, not out of necessity, but out of guilty conscience. It might have forced black folks to take a more substantive approach to voicing our concerns, instead of responding with generational rage and emotion.

It might have forced everybody to really sit down and hammer out definitions on what “guilty,” “not guilty,” “rich” and “poor” mean in this country.

Well, it probably wouldn’t have caused all of that, but it would’ve meant a lot more than the “I told you so” and “well, what about the times when ya’ll did do it?” platforms that resulted.

The problem with this book, which her managers fail to realize, is that she has no credibility from either demographic who would imagine reading it. No one views her as a victim, no one views her as a fallen and risen hero. She’s just a liar and stripper. That’s all we know about her, and really, that’s all we care to know about her.

Perhaps in the near future, our bleeding hearts could stand to discuss what led a mother of three and college student to a life of stripping, prostitution and causing national uproar. But that’s a discussion for another racial crisis, not for a book club.

The New York Times has done an incredible job on the racial ramifications of Barack Obama’s run for the presidency of these United States. Their latest offering outlines the possible signals of the end of the civil rights movement as a result of Obama’s, and other black politicians’ political ascendancy and merit.

“I worry that there is a segment of the population that might be harder to reach, average citizens who will say: ‘Come on. We might have a black president, so we must be over it,’ ” said Mr. Harrison, 59, a sociologist at Howard University and a consultant for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies here.

“That is the danger, that we declare victory,” said Mr. Harrison, who fears that poor blacks will increasingly be blamed for their troubles. “Historic as this moment is, it does not signify a major victory in the ongoing, daily battle.”

A more than valid point. America has never been worried about the well-spoken, well-intentioned negro. This country has always been and always will be afraid of the uneducated and exploited African-American, who doesn’t know much, but does know they can’t lose what the country never afforded them the opportunity to have.

And to that end, there will be endless consternation on both sides about what are fair and equitable resources in education, how much social programming means in urban and rural settings, and how the media can balance dueling perspectives on belief systems and their impact on national legislation.

Just because the country is willing to elect a black man as its leader doesn’t mean that the country has a crush on people of color. It means one of two things; that Bush was genuinely that bad of a president and people want to make up for the mistake in a big way, or that the country is more respectful of intelligent leadership, no matter the color of the person dispensing it.

By and large, many white folks are likely to assume the all bad things in society are most likely to be committed a minority, and most likely a black person. To that end, they are going to put laws, rules and safeguards in place to ensure that it doesn’t happen. Black folks, and soon enough Hispanics, are likely to continue disliking this form of preemptive action, and will continue rallying against it in the name of freedom.

And that’s not a black or white thing, it’s an American thing.

So don’t worry. Civil Rights will be here to stay with Obama and beyond Obama. Because the truth is that we’ll never be fully civil to each other, and we’ll always have the right to be that way.

For the last 48 hours or so, it was all about Joe Biden as the pick for Barack Obama. But now that Obama has gone down south and gotten himself some peanuts, the Internet is on fire about Chet Edwards.

Chet Edwards?

You sure that’s not John Edwa…Yeah, you’re sure.

And if you want to kow why Edwards is so hot, all you need to know is two words. Bible belt. Edwards is a democrat out of Texas, whose credentials seem to have checked out well with party officials. As a Congressman, you can check out his voting record here. He’s pretty close to middle of the road, which is not unlike our dear Senator from Illinois.

Plus, a selection of Chet Edwards is a move towards these white American, blue collar workers conservative media keeps putting out there like they are the new African-American vote.

If this is a direction he’s leaning in, it would be surprising, but not bad.

Here’s a lesson to all of the children out there. Just because rappers say that it’s cool to hit someone with a liquor bottle, and some rappers actually do it in real life, doesn’t mean that it works out in the end for everyone.

Da Brat, real name Shawntae Harris, got three years for going upside the head of a waitress at an Atlanta nightclub last Halloween. Upon release, she’ll have 200 community service hours, seven years probation, and likely, a record deal and reality show.

I used to be so in love with Da Brat in high school, despite the fact that rumors have always pegged her as a lover of the ladies. I always thought she was a good rapper, and as we got older, I figured she would transition into some acting or entrepreneurial pursuits.

Instead, a talent is wasted, like so much liquor on the floor of a Buckhead nightclub.

It’s hard to listen to Democracy Now! and not become a depressed, cynical conspiracist against the American government. But it appears cyncism and consipracist ideology might have a reasonable place in the discussion of America’s current war, as a new book recently profiled on the radio show might have the proof of American corruption and its resulting consequences.

Ron Suskind’s “The Way of the World” outlines alleged instructions from vice-president Dick Cheney to forge a letter linking the Iraqi government to al-Qaida. The supposed author of this letter, former head of Iraqi intelligence Tahir Jalil Habbush, is also alleged to have received $5 million dollars from the U.S. government to keep quiet about the letter that launched the world’s most ambiguous war.

To be clear, this book isn’t a collection of personal theoretical frame work as inspired and influenced by American media. The information contained in the work was collected through in depth, verifiable interviews with intelligence officials from the United States and Great Britain, officials with first hand knowledge of the deceptive measures taken to sway the United States’ fears and spur us to action.

Since the early days of the global war on terror, it’s certain that plenty of information has come out with the ability to indict the Bush Administration on a number of war crimes, false statements, and murder. The question is and always has been, what are we going to do about it?

The way of the today’s world is to do absolutely nothing.

First off, Usain Bolt is fast. Damn, that dude is fast. I know the result of his race, and I still want to watch and rewind it when it comes on this evening.

With that being said, it’s time for all of us to reevaluate what we know to be fast. And I’m not just talking about speedy or quick, but things for which we might have to totally readjust perceptions.

Here’s five ways to begin the deprogramming.

5. Fast women - There used to be a time where we could look at somebody like Karrine Steffans or Gabrielle Union and give them the label of fast. Thanks to Bolt, ain’t enough rappers or ballplayers in the world to hold that distinction anymore.

4. Fast money - Crystal meth has the dope game drying up. File sharing has the rap game drying up, and Barack Obama has the political hustle going Mojave. Aside from bootlegging DVDs, side hustles are no match for Bolt’s speed.

3. Fast Internet  - Since Comcast got busted for blocking people’s Internet access, you have to wonder if the Slowsky’s commercial was a subliminal message to the masses.

2. Fast food - Heart attacks, diabetes and strokes have a lot of people obstaining abstaining from the fast food poison. Those, and Dr. Ian Smith.

1. Fast reading - In the time it took you to read this and click on a few of the links, the next Usain Bolt growing up in some hood just ran to the coner store, drank a Mountain Dew and ate a pickle, and ran back home.