Today’s video of the day comes from MSNBC, where I squared off with Ben Ferguson about the Hugo Chavez controversy. Ferguson, one the nation’s leading young conservatives, argues that real Americans should boycott Citgo gas in a show of solidarity with Bush. Of course, I disagreed. My only regret is that I didn’t have time to remind Ben and the viewers that Chavez is not a “tyrant and dictator,” but a DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED president.

According to the Washington Post and other news sources, Aaron McGruder’s Boondocks comic strip may have reached the end of its run. Although no official announcement has been made, Universal Press Syndicate is announcing that newspapers should not expect the strip to return in the near future. Apparently, McGruder has been unclear about a return date from his six-month sabbatical.

Following the success of the Boondocks television show, as well as upcoming film projects, it is no surprise that McGruder is unwilling or unable to return to the daily grind of making a top-flight comic strip. Still, this is a major disappointment, as McGruder has emerged as one of the most important and engaging voices of the hip-hop generation.

In many ways, Aaron McGruder is the consumate public intellectual. Through his comic strip, he has been able to articulate the issues, concerns, and beliefs of his generation in a voice that is at once passionate and irreverent, hopeful and cynical. More important, he operated within a public space that was historically reserved for White audiences and authors.

Although his television show is equally (and sometimes more) entertaining, it is clearly not the same show. The characters, topics, and perspectives that emerge from the television series are markedly different than those in the newspaper. While it is still provocative, it seems to have lost some of its critical nuance in an effort to reach a broader audience. There are several possible explanations for this shift, such as profit motives, the limitations of the previous medium, or a radical change in McGruder’s philosphy. In any case, the show, however entertaining, simply doesn’t capture the magic of the strip.

If McGruder decides not to return to the comic world, he will leave a gaping hole in the Black public sphere. Fortunately, his pioneering work has surely influenced a generation of Black geniuses waiting to follow.

Because global oil supplies are never likely to be truly abundant again, it would only take one major storm or one major crisis in the Middle East to push crude prices back up near or over $80 a barrel.

Gas Prices Aren’t Cheap, They’re Volatile
By Michael T. Klare

What the hell is going on here? Just six weeks ago, gasoline prices at the pump were hovering at the $3 per gallon mark; today, they’re inching down toward $2 — and some analysts predict even lower numbers before the November elections. The sharp drop in gas prices has been good news for consumers, who now have more money in their pockets to spend on food and other necessities — and for President Bush, who has witnessed a sudden lift in his approval ratings.

Is this the result of some hidden conspiracy between the White House and Big Oil to help the Republican cause in the elections, as some are already suggesting? How does a possible war with Iran fit into the gas-price equation? And what do falling gasoline prices tell us about “peak-oil” theory, which predicts that we have reached our energy limits on the planet?

Since gasoline prices began their sharp decline in mid-August, many pundits have attempted to account for the drop, but none have offered a completely convincing explanation, lending some plausibility to claims that the Bush administration and its long-term allies in the oil industry are manipulating prices behind the scenes. In my view, however, the most significant factor in the downturn in prices has simply been a sharp easing of the “fear factor” — the worry that crude oil prices would rise to $100 or more a barrel due to spreading war in the Middle East, a Bush administration strike at Iranian nuclear facilities, and possible Katrina-scale hurricanes blowing through the Gulf of Mexico, severely damaging offshore oil rigs.

For the rest of the story, click here.