Stumbled across this video while kicking around the Web this morning. Comes by way of American Humanity, a blog devoted to exposing anti-immigrant sentiment (and a good read, by the way - nicely done!)

So check this video out, called “Stinky Mexican immigrants are taking over America!”

Give me a title like that and I’m set to blast this thing as another immature, anti-immigrant, fascistic (let’s be honest) rant against poor people. Lo and behold, it’s an entertaining and thoughtful presentation that exposes many of the anti-immigration myths floating out there amid the mainstream conventional wisdom.

Imagine that! A young-ish American expressing their own reasonable anti-establishment thoughts and doing so with intelligence and wit. Was it really only a few years ago the whole country rushed to war behind a cowboy president, cheering a “dead or alive” foreign policy? Now here we are a few years later and a more and more we’re seeing people thinking for themselves again, questioning the status quo.

What is this, the 1960’s? Well, no. The 60’s didn’t have social media to spread the word from the bottom up. This is pretty cool. It’s not perfect, I guess. But I’ll take this kind of change.

You hear a lot about how “this generation” is soaked in commercial entertainment and chasing after one self-gratification to another (well, actually you might hear a lot about that on this blog). But then again, here’s this wonderful netroots movement of people who both deeply care and are deeply engaged. It’s a good sign of the times. What can one say except “bring ‘em on”.

If you’re a regular reader of ChangeAny1Thing you’ll have noticed a distinct lack of activity around here. The cause: I’ve left my job of seven years for greener pastures. And by “green” I don’t mean - alas - that I’ll be working on sustainability projects in DC. Instead I may be able to pay a few more bills without having a heart attack when I open my checkbook. But it leaves much less time for kicking around blogs and posting to my heart’s content all day.

This site is not going away; there’s still - more than ever - a need for transformative social progress; even though Obama appears to have defeated the forces of evil we are a long, long way from the progressive changes we really need.

So watch this space. It’s going to be a long summer of presidential politics, and it’ll get ugly. Meantime, there’s talk of gas hitting $7.5o a gallon. A frightening thought that would reach deep into the economy, all the way to the upper middle class which has been able to weather all of the economic changes of the last 25 years, and which has functioned as a reactionary bulwark against real change.

There’s good and bad in the oil prices, I guess. The bad is the devastating impact on so many American families, including mine. The good is the anger level that would rise with prices (and more responsible use of energy), raising a collective willingness for serious, elemental change. And maybe - just maybe - the generation that gave us the last great social movement of the 60s would wake up from their generational sleep and help bring the next one.

I really wanted to leave the Hillary campaign alone for a few days but the way the media is clamoring about her “comeback” - along with the real possibility of new primaries in Florida and Michigan - there’s a chance she could pull this off. The national polls are tightening too, if you pay attention to those kinds of things (today they’re tightening back towards Obama, but remain in a “statistical dead heat”). Her “kitchen sink” barrage of dishonesty is starting to stick, apparently. And she’s acting like a front runner when in reality she’s losing, mathematically anyway.

The whole thing is Bush-league and the Imperial Presidency all over again. Much as I prefer a Democrat in 2008, I can’t honestly imagine ever being able to pull the trigger for her.

As I’ve written here before, she supported the War, the Patriot Act, co-sponsored a flag-burning amendment and she’s out-Bushed Bush on Iran. It’s one thing to “lean across the aisle” and work with republicans to get decent things done. It’s another thing to out-flank them from the right.

But mostly I can’t look past her truly distasteful campaigning. There was the “Red Phone” ad (see below), which some are calling her “turning point”; and then came that despicable attempt to link Obama to Islam last week (”Obama is not a Muslim, as far as I know”). The implications of this kind of race-baiting are too extensive to cover in a short blog post, but they’re right out of the Lee “Willie Horton” Atwater game, if you’re old enough to remember that ad from ‘88. How can I - or anyone with a social conscience - support a candidate who pulls this kind of crap?

Getting a corporate-backed Democrat into office just so we don’t have another Republican ain’t worth it. Are we voting for a party or are we voting for progressive change?

This “Red Phone” ad really put me over the edge - take a look for yourself and tell me you don’t get the same revulsion I did. I’m through with candidates who use fear and trembling to fleece us of common sense. Do people really fall for this anymore?

I’ve got kids and the fears I have about the world they face are real and deeply felt. I don’t need a politician to manipulate these concerns of mine for a cheap vote. Right now there’s no chance in Hell I’d vote for her.

Changeany1thing brings your Lefty Links of the day.

• The Ointment reminds us that Hillary Clinton is losing, after all. “The big headline for me: Journalists are not too good at math.”
• Big industries try to block limits on pollution - Surprise surprise. Corporate power working against your interests. Again.
• Carnival of Green Gardening brings you healthy growing from Wiggly Wigglers (shameless plug - Changeany1thing’s there too. Thanks Karen!)
• Did Hillary also reassure Canada about NAFTA? Can you spell “hypocrite”?
  …someone from (Hillary) Clinton’s campaign is telling the embassy to take (her anti-NAFTA talk) with a grain of salt.”
• Buckley’s Big Mistake - Brilliant exposé on the hidden agenda of the modern conservative movement - it’s a must read:
“Buckley was instrumental in shifting the American Christian right from William Bryan’s old fashioned anti-capitalism to its modern enthusiasm for mass consumerisms.”

Many of these come by way of the ever-resourceful LeftWord. But be warned: If you visit, you may never leave….