Joe Vogel is the author of three books, including Free Speech 101 (winner of a 2007 Independent Publisher Book Award) and The Obama Movement . He has been featured in numerous newspaper, radio, and TV interviews, including Democracy Now!, RadioWest, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and the award-winning documentary This Divided State. In 2009, City Weekly named him an "Alternative Pioneer." He currently resides in Upstate New York where he is working on his Ph.D. at the University of Rochester. Visit his website at www.josephvogel.net.

Blog Entries by Joe Vogel

Review: Adam Lambert's 'For Your Entertainment' An Instant Classic

25 Comments | Posted November 21, 2009 | 05:44 AM (EST)


2009-11-21-adamlambertfye.jpg
Adam Lambert "For Your Entertainment" (19/RCA)

Ten or twenty years from now, when people are reflecting on the defining albums of the current pop-synth-glam revival, For Your Entertainment will undoubtedly be at the top of many lists. From its packaging to...

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An Open Letter to Adam Lambert From the Gay Thought Police

97 Comments | Posted November 18, 2009 | 04:18 AM (EST)


Dear Adam,

After reading Aaron Hicklin's open letter, I felt compelled to summarize and add a few more of my own suggestions on how you might further prove your "gayness" to the "gay community" (the gay community, of course, being defined as a monolithic entity of one heart and...

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Michael Jackson, Man in the Music, Part 4 (Tabloid Junkie)

4 Comments | Posted July 2, 2009 | 06:19 AM (EST)


This is Part 4 of a series exploring Michael Jackson the artist through his albums and songs. The following excerpt is taken from Chapter 5 of Man in the Music: An Album by Album Guide to Michael Jackson

If Dangerous is Michael Jackson's most creative album, HIStory is his...

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Michael Jackson: Man in the Music, Part 3 (Three Hidden Gems)

4 Comments | Posted June 30, 2009 | 06:33 AM (EST)


[This is Part 3 of a series exploring Michael Jackson the artist through his albums and songs. The following excerpts are taken from Man in the Music: An Album by Album Guide to Michael Jackson]

I Can't Help It -- (from Off the Wall)
The emotional ending to "She's...

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Michael Jackson: Man in the Music, Part 2 (Morphine)

6 Comments | Posted June 27, 2009 | 03:44 AM (EST)


[This is Part 2 of a series exploring Michael Jackson the artist through his albums and songs. The following excerpt is taken from Chapter 5 of Man in the Music: An Album by Album Guide to Michael Jackson]

People often struggle with allowing artists to grow and evolve. For Bob...

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Michael Jackson: Man in the Music, Part 1

5 Comments | Posted June 26, 2009 | 04:46 AM (EST)


That's what makes greatness. You have to have that tragedy, that pain to pull from. That's what makes a clown great. You can see he's hurting behind the masquerade. He's something else externally. -Michael Jackson

"I know the creator will go. But his work survives. That is why to escape...

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A Mormon's Lament: Church Is On the Wrong Side of History Again With Proposition 8

Posted October 27, 2008 | 04:53 AM (EST)


In late 2002, as President George W. Bush began building his case for preemptive war in Iraq, a remarkable thing happened. In contrast to the general timidity of American churches in response to the conflict in Vietnam, leaders of faith were speaking out. Observed the Reverend Jim Wallis at...

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Palin Perpetuates Politics of the Past

Posted September 4, 2008 | 12:38 PM (EST)


Hyperbole continues to soar in the aftermath of Sarah Palin's bold and spirited, but sadly divisive, sarcastic, Rove-recycled speech at Wednesday's Republican National Convention. The darling of Rush Limbaugh and Pat Buchannan is now being proclaimed a "star," a "game-changer," the answer to a dying party.

Yet putting political views...

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I Finally Got It

Posted June 7, 2008 | 07:07 PM (EST)


For more than a year, for myself and thousands of other Barack Obama supporters, Hillary Clinton has been the epitome of the status quo in politics. Brilliant, sure. Capable, absolutely. But a politician whose vote for the war in Iraq seemed to perfectly encapsulate her reputation as calculating, triangulating and...

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Hillary Clinton's Disgraceful Exit*

Posted June 4, 2008 | 04:00 AM (EST)


"Denver! Denver! Denver!" chanted Senator Hillary Clinton's supporters in the middle of her "concession speech" in New York last night. Forget numbers! Forget reality! Forget the Democratic Party and unity! On to the Convention!

Presumably with some new criteria (states starting with the letters A-K, perhaps, or seniors who watch...

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Fox News Analyst Says Obama Should be Assassinated -- Take Action!

Posted May 26, 2008 | 02:04 AM (EST)


In a Sunday interview on Fox News, after deliberately referring to presidential candidate Barack Obama as "Osama," contributor Liz Trotta joked that both Osama Bin Laden and Barack Obama should be "knocked off" "if we could."

While...

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Huge Endorsement for Obama

25 Comments | Posted March 21, 2008 | 07:59 AM (EST)


Sure, it would have been nice to have before Texas. But in many ways, there couldn't have been a better time for Governor Bill Richardson to endorse Barack Obama.

Here's Richardson's official statement of support:

During the last year, I have shared with you my vision and hopes for this...
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Letter to America

11 Comments | Posted March 21, 2008 | 07:32 AM (EST)


Dear America,

Every day I watch the "news" on TV. Everything's breaking, spinning, screaming. The talkers talk and talk in endless circles, in calloused clichés, in hollow, manufactured, regurgitated rhetoric. But they don't talk for me or you.

They reduce race to entertainment, war to sport, politics to reality...

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1,627 is the Magic Number

Posted March 10, 2008 | 07:13 AM (EST)


Write it down. Post it on your desk or nightstand or computer. Spread the word.

While 2,025 is the number we more commonly hear from the media, here's something you should know: when a candidate hits 1,627 they have officially won the majority of pledged (i.e. democratically earned) delegates.

And...

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With Michigan and Florida, Obama Will Win Nomination by May 20th

Posted March 6, 2008 | 05:39 AM (EST)


For the past several days, the Clinton campaign has been clamoring for a re-vote in the delegate-rich states of Florida and Michigan. The poor judgment of the leadership in these states to move their primaries before February 5th and be stripped of their delegates, the argument goes, should not...

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The Obama Movement

Posted March 4, 2008 | 05:39 AM (EST)


A new generation is coming of age on America's political stage...

Iowa Voters Ages 18-29
Youth Vote Triples
59% for Barack Obama

South Carolina Voters Ages 18-29
Youth Vote Triples
67% for Barack Obama

...
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Why Barack Obama Has Already Won (and Hillary Has Become a Republican)

Posted February 29, 2008 | 05:02 PM (EST)


In spite of the Clinton campaign's latest outlandish claim that Barack Obama must win all four contests this Tuesday or he's in trouble, those of us still residing in a place called reality understand the actual picture is much different.

According to most major news networks, Barack Obama now...

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Attention Young Supporters of Barack Obama

Posted February 26, 2008 | 01:18 AM (EST)


I will be publishing the second edition of The Obama Movement- Why Barack Obama Speaks to America's Youth this May and I want to hear your individual story!

The question is simple: Why are you supporting Barack Obama for president?

If you are between the ages of 12-35,...

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The Clinton Meltdown

Posted February 24, 2008 | 07:12 PM (EST)


After Hillary's gracious, if somewhat contrived, final statement at the CNN debate in Austin, Texas, I finally felt Democrats were ready to reconcile after a long, hard-fought election. Hillary would get her final shot in Ohio and Texas, and then, if it didn't work out, we could all move on...

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Obama Shows Respect to Mormon President

Posted January 30, 2008 | 01:29 AM (EST)


There are reasons why Barack Obama has won such broad support from people of all different backgrounds, ages, regions, races, religions, and cultures.

One of those reasons is that he is a decent human being.

That decency was on display today as Senator Obama respectfully acknowledged the passing of...

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