As Rachel Maddow is one the GREATEST news commentators on television today, Frank Rich is one of the GREATEST writers and editorialists of all time. In his editorial "Randslide" (Link below) in the Sunday Times the last sentence is one of brilliance. He says:

"If the Democrats can’t muster their own compelling response to the populist rage out there, “Randslide” may reside in our political vocabulary long after “Arlen Specter” is leaving “Jeopardy” contestants stumped."

I have said it often -- Mr. President and Rahm Emanuel: You CANNOT take your base for granted. You MUST give us something to cheer about. So far, I am less than thrilled. No, it's not in my best interest to sit the 2012 election out but, significantly for me, I just may do so for the first time in my life.

I am sad and disgruntled at the Obama leadership or lack of it. Get your act together, Mr. President, fire those who drag you down, do NOT run to the middle and give your base to the left something to sing about or in fact, like Jimmy Carter before you, you will be a ONE term president indeed!

http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/opinion/23rich.html#preview

George Wallace Lives: Yet again Joe Conason gets it EXACTLY correct in his Salon.com article "The roots of Rand Paul's civil rights resentment." Link: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joe_conason/2010/05/21/racial/index.html

It is oftentimes not the right wing ideological candidate that is the frightening aspect but it is the nature and the essence of those on the right to whom they appeal for votes. I was around during the George Wallace campaign in 1968. It was a frightening spectacle as the man who said segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever thought he had a shot at the presidency. Later he said he regretted his racist politics. But the die was cast and its offspring are seen even to this day most vividly in the tea party movement.

The PHENOMENALLY frightening thing is that the Republican party, a mainstream party, has now adopted this perversion of American politics and appeals to the basest part of the American psyche. Why is this happening?

The easy answer is that electing a black president shocked the extreme right into action. Now it is even more threatening to an aspect of American pre-Civil War history that everyone thought was dead. It's not. It lives.

The Founders brought to this land certain FABULOUS ideals of the Enlightenment. Unfortunately they also brought the vile institution of slavery with them. Like its cousin antisemitism, racism against blacks never truly dies. The embers flicker waiting for the right social circumstances to set them ablaze.

A world-wide recession, staggering unemployment, unbridled national debt, a planet drifting into climatic chaos, a catastrophic polluting of our oceans, the perceived existential threat of radical Islam and oil the prime mover of international politics, the stage is set, the players are organizing and we who elected Barack Obama and Barack Obama himself BETTER take notice. Barack Obama must forcefully emerge as the great leader for whom I THOUGHT I voted. Strong and effective White House leadership is the ONLY way, as I see it, to neutralize this threat.

Yet again, blacks, Jews and humanitarians of all colors and religious or non-religious beliefs MUST walk hand in hand. Each of our interests should be, as it always was, united as one. We cannot rest because those who wish us ill do not sleep. They are a defective part of our nation's DNA. Like a cancer it never dies and without vigilance, unity and effective leadership it will kill.

Rand Paul is an IDIOT. Just VENTING! Why doesn't Rand Paul and his family move down there to Venice Louisiana where the oil has come ashore and take DEEP breaths since he thinks BP is SO great and wants them to be left alone! Better still buy a house and live there. See how long before some kind of cancer develops in his WHOLE family-- JERK! Maybe when it hits home he would change his mind. Sanctimonious jerk.

The Continuing Saga:

The president needs to FIRE Secretary Salazar and make a clean sweep of the Department of the Interior. Secretary of the Interior Salazar’s testimony before Congress, like the Three Musketeers before him -- BP, Trans-Ocean and Halliburton -- was anemic. The administration needs to clean out from top to bottom this corrupt, ineffective but VITAL government regulatory agency. After the Katrina debacle by the Bush administration it SHOULD have been high on the agenda of the Obama administration.

Moreover, the president should state the TRUTH and state it emphatically eviscerating the companies who made the monstrous Gulf leak occur so it does not look like he too is in bed making love to the oil magnate snakes who are NOT his friends. In reality they would rather sink his presidency than support or continue it.

Some of the EXCELLENT things he and Democrats have done can be undone by this worse-than-Katrina catastrophe. A potentially excellent legacy is at stake IF the administration fails to get the upper hand on the spill containment and clean-up immediately. The Republicans could be getting a gift they do not deserve and DeMint’s Waterloo comment will take on new meaning.

The president’s second term, I believe, is at risk because of this devastating event. Moreover, the November elections, if Republicans win significant victories, will tie his hands to do anything else on his agenda if the public perceives that he is at fault for the ugly spill. Mr. President, I HOPE most of the electorate lays the blame at big oil BP, Trans-Ocean, and Halliburton’s feet but the Harry Truman sign still prevails "The Buck Stops Here” and, Mr. President, it stops with you.

Glen Greenwald the reasoned thinker -- most times -- Elena Kagan's Closet

Please see http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/ , an article about closeted people who are seeking powerful public position as relates to Elena Kagan's alleged homosexuality by some.

Glen Greenwald offers sagacious arguments with crystal clear reasoned thought.

Until this very minute I, as a gay rights supporter, always said it's none of anyone's business what a person does in the privacy of his or her bedroom. Those questions are out of order and simply meant for salacious gossip by right wingnut opposition so it can try to destroy a Court nominee. Glen Greenwald thinks otherwise. The key to his thinking is that homosexuality (and heterosexuality) are NOT about sex and that it should be mandatory for a candidate to reveal whether homosexual or heterosexual what their marital/partner status is and who her partner or spouse may be. It gave me pause for thought about the issue.

Glen is absolutely CORRECT we are NOT asking about Elena Kagan's sex life and yes, if one were heterosexual and seeking the same position one quite rightfully would have to allow for public investigative intrusion of not only the applicant's background but also his/her spouse or partner's background as well. Partners and spouses matter hugely when one is seeking an EXTREMELY powerful and socially impacting government position. He reasons that the questions about Elena Kagan's sexuality are NOT salacious peering into the nitty gritty of the type of sex Elena Kagan might have IF she were homosexual. He avers that her sexuality is more much more than meets the prurient eye as it would be if the candidate were heterosexual. No one asked Barak Obama what kind of sex he and Michelle enjoy but rather accept his marital status as just that a status! This is a reasonable argument.

However, the argument against Glen Greenwald's position is this: T'were that we lived in a nation and at a time when OTHERS could not thwart a nomination because of the self revelation of homosexuality. We do not. We live in the time we do. Reality dictates if she self admits her sexual orientation IF she is homosexual she would be sowing the seeds of her defeat. We must play the ball where it lies.

We have, indeed, made progress understanding gender orientation BUT we are not there yet which is why I suspect she will deny it IF in fact it is a fact and why her supporters will deny it too and go to great lengths to say this topic is not appropriate for discussion.

Glen, do you really think IF Elena Kagan is lesbian and she matter-of-factly said so that this would not sink her nomination EVEN in our semi-enlightened age? I suspect it would which is why I defend those who defend her by saying her sexuality is none of anyone's damn business.

The truth is in our age even those of us who advocate for equal rights for homosexuals know that in certain segments of our society the admission of that could sink advancement so we pragmatically do what we must to help our cause even if it means keeping our orientation secret.

One could make the argument that if this is true than one should reject the position. I say no. Do what it takes to get on the court. After that one can do what one wants and impact our culture for the better even more.

Unfortunately, we still live in a culture which many cannot even accept a black president much less an admitted homosexual on the court. Maybe just maybe in 20 years the disclosure will be a non-issue.

A DAMNABLE THING: Take a look at headlines of the oil spill. I direct your attention to: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/. ; Click on the pictures below the headline IF you can stomach them.

The oil spill in Louisiana is a horror as if a nuclear blast hit us. Shame on us, shame on our leaders and SHAME on the part of the American public who would rather go marching off to Starbucks than CARE about what our LOUSY government(s) plural Republican AND Democrat alike are doing and have done while covering up vile behavior with the American flag. Yes, a teaspoon of sugar certainly does make the medicine go down. We reap what we sow. Unfortunately the medicine our stupid leaders have pushed down our throat kills! It will kill us and it will allow through our vulnerability access for others to get us too. Our leaders who accept filthy oil big business and other big business money and then talk platitudes to calm a know nothing public down is a DAMNABLE thing!

We are a DOOMED nation because of the IDIOTS who do not believe science and who put down intellect like the Sarah Palinesque MORONS who would rather believe myth and superstitious tripe than TRUTH. We are also doomed because of HORRIBLE international and national economic policies which thrust a nation into EXPENSIVE wars and things it could NOT afford over decades, corrupted Wall Street so we do NOT have the money now to even fix our roads and because our Congress AND presidency are bought, sold and hog tied to corporate interests which know NO morality. As my mother used to say you've made your bed NOW LIE IN IT!!!

Noam Chomsky and the democratic state: While I disagree with much of Noam Chomsky's criticism of Israel, I thought denying him the opportunity to speak hurt Israel more than it hurt Chomsky. I think it was a bit, well, stupid to deny him free speech rights.

I THOUGHT Israel was a democracy. Now it surely will give Chomsky fodder with which to criticize the Jewish state. I can hear it now: See, I told you Israel was not a democracy.

It's too bad. I hate hearing the criticism of Israel and I do not for the life of me know why someone as smart as Chomsky and many on the political left would go to bat for terrorist states which bear much more similarity to the tyranny Chomsky and others say they hate. Now Israel gives its critics ammunition, as if they needed more, to hurl the slings and arrows of outrageous accusations which make those accusations all the more believable.

Israel did itself NO favor by denying Chomsky the opportunity to air his views. What happened to "I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it." It seems Israel now gives credence to those who criticize it when by allowing Chomsky the opportunity to speak would have sounded a clarion call for democracy by the ordinarily free democratic state of Israel it says it is.

A Letter to Rachel Maddow, Keith Olberman, Chris Matthews and Ed Schultz:

Rachel, Keith, Chris and Ed: You all did an excellent job last night. I watched the primary election returns as long as I was able. This a.m. I got the news that especially Blanche Lincoln, the bone in the progressive Democrats' throat and one who is tied hook, line and sinker to corporate interests is on the ropes but she is not down YET. WE MUST get Bill Halter elected in Arkansas through national contributions. I am sending a contribution to Halter's cause and asking all my friends to send their friends this link to do so as well.

http://billhalter.com/

We did NOT fare badly AT ALL last evening. The win of Joe Sestak in PA is THRILLING as are other special election wins. If you remember the NY 23rd and Scozzafava the Republican handing the election to Owens the Democrat in a very Republican district shows Republicans are split. Democrats have the power. Brown here in Mass. was a mistake as Dems ran an AWFUL campaign.

What this ALSO means, too, I think, is that the president -- a disappointment to progressives on TOO many issues -- MUST take note of his base. WE ARE IMPORTANT as the public is sickened at the Wall Street mess and HIS Treasury's ties to Goldman Sachs. We are sicked, too, by ignoring proper procedure with respect to drill baby drill for OIL off our pristine coasts. The president struck out with the oil leak BIG time as Interior Secretary Salazar and that WHOLE Department remained the same as it was after Bush -- do nothings and in bed LITERALLY with big oil. Obama dropped the ball when ESPECIALLY after Katrina HE BLEW IT by not doing a complete makeover of that important department and THIS is the result -- an oil leak SO bad that it just may come to a beach up our coast soon. It is nothing less than catastrophic.

I do NOT want a Republican in anything most ESPECIALLY the presidency. Our president is our only game in town but HE must know his success is tied to the progressive movement and he should be who HE SAID he was. BP, Trans Ocean, Halliburton and the rest looked ANEMIC during their ridiculous spectacle testifying about the leak before Congress last week. Oil company damages should NOT be capped by Republicans or conservative Democrats. The corporatists need to know their corrupt monstrous actions have consequences.

Hammer away at the aforementioned points and lets make SURE we do not lose the momentum. I am happy this a.m. BUT I am
vigilant and will always verify that the ones whom we elect as Democrats, in fact, do the PEOPLE'S business and NOT the business of the corporate banks, insurance, pharma and ESPECIALLY big oil. We need alternative sources of CLEAN energy RAMPED up and dirty energy corporate structure of oil exposed for the charlatans and snake oil salesmen they are. Truly they peddle death.

Our country, our very lives and our form of government is at stake.

Press hard for Halter (Sestak too in PA) and ALL progressives to make sure the Blanche Lincolns get what they so APTLY deserve -- DEFEAT in November and in Arkansas a WIN for Halter, in PA a win for Sestak and a win for other progressives around the nation against Republicans.

Conservadems MUST KNOW that they have to be what Democrats SHOULD be, a speaker for the people who built this country with their hands in war, in peace, in the unions, in small business, in large businesses located HERE in this country and NOT in tax shelters off our coast. Wall Street's promises are ILLUSION as all gambling is! Yes, I want our country back -- the humane, progressive, smart, diverse one of 300,000,000 people. With that many we ought to get leaders of intelligent excellence!

BILL HALTER for Senate: It looks right now like Blanche Lincoln will be forced into a run off against the progressive candidate Bill Halter in Arkansas. Per Arkansas election law, Lincoln needs to meet a 50 percent-plus-one-vote threshold Tuesday to avoid a run-off on June 8. Halter is EXCELLENT and deserves national support so he can kick Lincoln out and get that seat for progressives. It is ALL of our concern who consider ourselves progressive and who want to make sure the president is HELD to his promises. He cannot do so if he is fought at every turn by conservadems and Republicans. That health care insanity did NOT have to happen if we had the right Dems in power. We had initially a sixty vote majority. There should have been NO question and there would not have had it not been for some DINO's (Democrats in name only). We would have gotten a public option easily! Obama MUST do what he promised and I think he will IF there is a mandate.

Therefore we MUST support campaigns like Bill Halter.

So far this is a good day for Dems. Murtha's seat was retained and BEST OF ALL Specter is TROUGH in PA senate and hopefully Sestak will take the Senate seat in the fall. Sestak is brilliant and would be terrific and maybe even has an bigger future.

I will contribute more to Bill Halter's campaign tomorrow when the runoff is official. It's late now and I must call it a day but I am pulling for Bill Halter BIG TIME!!!!

I think progressives WILL come to him -- hopefully in large numbers and send a TRUE progressive to Washington. We must show that we are NOT kidding that Obama's base people like I mean business. We are NOT to be taken for granted. It will
take grass roots work but I think we can pull this one off. Blanche Lincoln was a DISGRACE to the Democratic party. She was bought, sold and owned by big insurance, big pharma and probably big oil.

Progressives are young (even though I am not so young) but I believe we are the wave of the future and that progressives will cast a HUGE shadow on right wing extremist teabaggers. This is what I hope. Please help if you can IF Halter is forced into a run off against Lincoln. I attach his campaign web page below. Think about a contribution no matter how much if the runoff proceeds! Please feel free to forward this to all of your friends.

http://billhalter.com/contact

Letter to the White House: I can forgive.

Tip of the hat to the administration when it's due! Glad Jonathan Katz was fired!!! I feel MUCH better and will post it to my blog. This is why I gave to your campaign and why I loved you.

Feeling a bit better now let's get the leak under control.

A Letter to Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann: Rachel, Keith: get a load of this article if you haven't already on Huffington. How many times can this president put a stake in our hearts? First the oil leak which is bad enough and which he was AWOL on as he took 1/2 of the Bush administration's incompetent employees into his administration and now this virulent homosexual hater Jonathan Katz is on his science team to deal with the leak. It makes one sick to one's stomach.

Not only is Obama NOT what I thought he would be he is almost NOTHING I thought he would be. I am going from love to loath inside of one year. I should have KNOWN from the start when he had Rick Warren at his inaugural this guy was pulling the wool over somebody's eyes. This is as if he had on his team someone who was racist against blacks and used pseudo science to prove blacks were inferior. This guy Jonathan Katz is AWFUL simply awful. Surely you can have this exposed on your show tonight. I am stricken with grief that this president has failed in so many ways ESPECIALLY now with the leak. NO ONE but NO ONE can talk about Bush's Katrina now. Obama's oil leak is INFINITELY worse. I LOVED Obama and wrote endlessly that I did.

My element of trust has been broken and it has been for awhile but now it REALLY is. He is NOT what I bargained for and to whom I thought I gave my hard earned money. I am sad. VERY sad. Here is the link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/17/jonathan-katz-member-of-s_n_579206.html

I hate to say this but Pat Buchanan is an anti-Semite (See Newsweek's Gabe Pressman article "Pat Buchanan's On the Rampage Against Jews -- Again" http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37196037.) I am letting various media know that if they have him on I will NOT watch. One evening on Rachel Maddow's show Buchanan was particularly vitriolic against whom I cannot remember. I suspect it was either blacks or Jews naturally -- who else? Rachel Maddow, it seemed, got rather steamed at him and showed me again how wonderful she truly is. She used to say he was her friend but I doubted he was. Kudos to her for not having him on, that I have seen, since then but then again to Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann, too, I give kudos every time I watch which is every night. I do not know what I would do without them.

I am not anti-free speech as Pat Buchanan, of course, may say anything he wants but I do NOT have to listen to him and I won't. To think a couple of years ago I emailed him directly applauding him for being so smart is astounding to me now. I said I wished he were in the left corner instead of the right. I never heard anything in response but maybe my surname being quite Jewish was responsible for his not addressing my email or maybe he is just too damn busy to make time for us peons. We are ONLY the ones who keep his bank account humming. Why should he bother with us?

I will not listen to anti-Semitic comments from anyone. Jewish history has been too damaged and the six million are never out of my mind for even a day. He besmirches their memory to me when he waxes anti Semitic, denies the Holocaust or thinks it was trivial to US interests. Never again is not just a slogan to me. It means something -- not now, not tomorrow, not ever again will THIS Jew listen to those who wish that Hitler succeeded and think, too, that the US interests would have been better served during that fateful time had it been Germany's ally instead of its enemy. If Buchanan were a Jew he would be singing a different song. The fact that he cannot place his own feet in someone else's shoes shows me how sour, off key and despicable his song truly is.

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DESPICABLE: I am so upset over the oil spill I cannot even look at it or write much about it today. I am stilled into a neurotic mute over this obscenity. I continue to believe our president, given that this drill was SO huge, had an obligation to insist appropriate permits were delivered and significant oversight by the Department of the Interior and MMS (Minerals Management Service) was given. The spill is SO immense the buck has to stop somewhere and it stops, as Harry Truman said, at the president's desk.

The president is right the spectacle of the big three JERKS -- BP, Trans-Ocean, and Halliburton, responsible for the spill was UNACCEPTABLE but I maintain that even more than that his lack of supervision of this unique drill was unacceptable as well. Everyone must take their lumps for this one INCLUDING and maybe most especially the president because of the the drill's immense and unique never-been-done-before aspect.

I urge you to write to the White House to tell him of your dismay and to vote a resounding NO to off shore oil filthy drilling. Yes, I still support him. He is the only game in town and Republicans are more poisonous than even the spill but I don't have to like what I see to know his lack of attention to this matter is WORSE than Waterloo. It is despicable!

To marry or not that is the state's rights question:

Jeff Jacoby is, as most of you probably know, an arch conservative editorialist for the Globe. Mostly we disagree on just about everything. Occasionally, especially on immigration issues, we agree. He is curiously humane, at least to me, on that issue. I email him when we agree and I email him when I adamantly disagree. Today was a disagreement day as he wrote an anti gay marriage editorial entitled “Who decides what ‘marriage’ means.” (Op Ed May 12, 2009 Boston Globe) I enclose the link of that article below. He maintains a states rights approach to that issue. I fundamentally disagree and wrote to him the following:

No sooner could I not believe there were actually humanitarian issues on which I agreed with you, you sanctimoniously and smugly write about an issue that is sure to incur my wrath: gay marriage. You write about it as if it were simply a martial arts class subject to state consideration. You say a state can choose to classify it any way they want but other states do not have to. So now you equate HUMAN rights with martial arts classification rights.

I am going to OPPOSE vociferously what even some black people, often indoctrinated by the church, say and that is that homosexuals cannot be equated with them. I beg to differ. Homosexuals CAN be equated with them and to the discrimination blacks have felt for centuries. I have had profound experience to know that when a child expresses the fact that he or she KNEW her or his affectional preference at age THREE there is something more to homosexuality than a mere adult choice. As gays have said so often who would CHOOSE it knowing in many cases society will either condemn it, reluctantly acknowledge it or EVEN KILL you because of it. I do not postulate it is a choice I ADAMANTLY KNOW IT IS NOT. It is an ascribed status probably made so by genetic determination. It cannot and SHOULD not be changed.

No one would EVER in our culture prohibit nor would a state be allowed to reject a marriage of two people one male and one female with Downs Syndrome. It is perfectly legal for the state to marry both or for one who has Downs to marry another who does NOT even THOUGH it may be genetically ill advised and disadvantageous to society to allow it. Yet their relationship is deemed worthy of marriage. So is, I might add, an elderly couple who, clearly, will NEVER procreate.

I maintain because homosexuality PROBABLY has a genetic determination -- and EVEN if it did NOT -- it is NOT the state's obligation to define what marriage is or isn't with respect to the sexuality of two people who love each other and deny to them the relationship solidification that marriage can bestow. We are NOT talking about commerce, we are talking about HUMAN BEINGS who usually from day one know EXACTLY to whom they are attracted. What business is it of yours OR the state to tell an adult anyone whom they can love and with whom to spend a life? Answer: IT'S NONE of your business and it's NONE of the state's business either. Neither you nor the amorphous blob of the state has to suffer the consequences of a lonely life.

I have to laugh at so called "conservative" state's rights enthusiasts. They are ALL for states rights EXCEPT when they are not when it comes to the rights THEY like which they want federalized such as business rights, religious rights, anti-gay marriage rights or property rights. Then its perfectly right to them for the federal government to step in to tell everyone else which rights they will protect. It becomes perfectly fine for the court to use federal law to protect rights of those who make money, own a corporation or property but not right of the federal government to tell a state you are abridging the rights that civil law should bestow to all by singling out one group the discrimination against whom is sanctioned by the state.

Finally, after nearly 300 years this country decided that the answer to discrimination against blacks in the voting booth was illegal and for a president to decide it was immoral to ask a black man to risk his life and sometimes die for his country in a segregated armed services. The full integration within our culture INCLUDING laws against black and white marriage was NOT I repeat NOT something that could be up for a vote. If in 1957 or 1962 one put integration or black and white marriage up for a public vote it would have been voted down easily. The court, however, said otherwise and should have. Why? Because society advances, grows and understands more about tolerance and, in the instant case, human sexuality. These are human beings and they have the right to control their personal existence and happiness free of governmental prohibition. The tea baggers should know this as they want government out of everything but, of course, not for gays.

Rights cannot and should not be denied because gay people serve in the military, because gay people pay plenty of taxes, and because we KNOW many have died for our country and conclude that DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) is an unjust law. More than that, however, is that the state -- ALL states -- have no right to discriminate against homosexuals because it is UNFAIR and INHUMANE for one group to commit this injustice against another and for the state to sanction it!

Your wrong on this issue, Jeff. It may not happen in my lifetime that the FULL FAITH AND CREDIT CLAUSE (Article IV Section 1 of the US Constitution) will apply to gay marriage in every state but someday it may and should. I would LOVE to live to see the slings and arrows you on the rancid right hurl and which hurt, be taken away so that you cannot HURT anyone else any more!

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/05/12/who_decides_what_marriage_means/

Ignorance is NOT bliss

I ask no I PLEAD with you to read the following from Greenpeace AND Newsweek about the spill of the decade. The worst thing our country faces is not its DISASTROUS oil and other bad policies but its our IGNORANCE about them that WILL kill. I don't care WHAT you do but DO SOMETHING! Cntribute to the effort to stem this catastrophe, email, call, or smoke signal your state and especially FEDERAL Congress and our president who made the worst decision of his presidency to give a thumbs up to coastal drilling. Still we do NOT want Republicans as they are worse IF that is possible. It is. Dems can be bad but trust me Republicans are worse they are totally in bed with corporations and are proud of it. They are its true base. DO NOT BE IGNORANT of what these filthy corrupt corporations ESPECIALLY oil corporations like BP are doing to you, the ones you love and to your children and your children's children's environment. We can either live on this planet or we won't. GET INVOLVED and do NOT stay silent!!! Please read the paragraphs below it should take all of five minutes to do so. Then email anyone or everyone you know to get this message out or forward this email as you please. Google Greenpeace or the Sierra Club to find out the TRUE course of these horrific events. IGNORANCE is NOT bliss it is death. If you care about our natural environment which sustains you AND sustains your descendants you MUST care about this.

"Yesterday, Friday May 7, we met a few media crews in Biloxi Mississippi. We got on a boat with one of the crews and headed out into the waters of the Gulf. Rumor has it, and there are lots of rumors, this disaster of a spill is moving but the million dollar question is where is it moving and where/when will it hit the coast. They may be closing another area to fishing to the West of the mouth of the Mississippi so the oil must be going there? Pods of journalists are spread out along the shores looking for the picture they want. One journalist commented the lack of visible oil is good for the environment not good for pictures.

We did see oil (likely mixed with dispersant) quite a ways out from the port. According to maps we were at the edge of the "Zone of Uncertainty" to whether or not the oil would be going there. The lack of pictures of oil slicks coming ashore is missing the point and the spin from BP is good. "Dispersant," besides being toxic in and of it self and more so when it combines with the oil, is giving folks the impression the oil is dispersing and everything will be OK. They're not seeing the oil so maybe there's not a problem. [There IS a problem]! Problem is we've got estimates of over 200,000 gallons of oil per day sitting in the Gulf, dispersed or not. The oil is toxic, everyone agrees with that. The dispersant is toxic everyone agrees with that. Whether in long (un)impressive streaks across the surface or sinking to the bottom it's all toxic. And just because much of it is currently escaping the human eye does not mean it isn't there. One way or another the fish will eat it and the birds will eat them likely killing both.

Clean up measures continue. We're yet to see how this huge structure might work that BP is lowering over one of the two remaining spills still spewing oil into the Gulf. Everyone hopes it will work and that BP can do whatever it takes to stop the oil. Still the fact remains that even though we can't see all of what's happening out there, it is still happening out there. Rick Steiner has said many times over our time here that in the best case scenario with even the best efforts likely 90% of the oil still escapes, and he notes that 21 years after the Exxon Valdez Alaskans are still recovering from that spill.

Greenpeace is going to see what we can do to find out what BP doesn't seem to want us to know about the rest of the oil. Again we hope the measures BP takes to stop the spewing oil works. But the disaster has already taken place. The oil is already in the gulf. Economic and environmental damage has been done. Lives have been lost. The so called "Zone of Uncertainty" certainly can't escape the reality of the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Newsweek further reports as INCREDULOUS as it might be: "Just as Louisiana politicians are about to get an up-close-and-personal look at the BP oil spill (it is approaching the shores an hour's drive from Baton Rouge, the state capital), they are considering a bill to "kneecap" all university environmental-law clinics in the state, which have led the way in challenging the historically cozy relationship between state politicians and the petrochemical industry."

High Hopes: The NYT editorial by David Brooks "What it Takes" is SO interesting. (See link below). I found myself shaking my head "yes" as I read it. I am a product of the late 1960's and attended Boston University, the so called "Berkeley of the East," at that time. I keep wondering where all those activists are now. Where are the students and professors I knew then who imbued me with a sense of purpose and hope? It is as if they vanished into thin air. Future generations since that time have never been, it seemed to me, as committed to principle or as vociferous about it. They seemed to simply go along to get along.

Where is that generation that was supposedly going to change the world for the better, of course? I do not see the fervently principled youth today that I saw as a student during those turbulent times. Those years were my BEST years. They were the years I loved the most as I look back on my life. I wish hopelessly for a return. Why? Because we had values that meant something and we were NOT afraid to say or, yes, even to scream what they were.

Elena Kagan seems like she went along to get along BUT my visceral feeling is thus: I think Elena Kagan's values are much like the vocal students of my era although she KNEW that politics is a minefield. If she wanted to shoot for the top one utterance of one's point of view could mean certain defeat.

I am hoping Barack Obama, too, is cut from that same cloth. In the end when it is Obama's SECOND term should he get it and when Elena Kagan IS confirmed should she be, that both will show us the reflection of my generation's values which they have osmotically ingested. I suspect it is only when they both have nothing to lose that they will show their true colors to be that of the gallant liberals I think lie dormant within them. I may be hoping against hope but it is the ONLY hope I have.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/opinion/11brooks.html?hp

It's Kagan: Obama will nominate Solicitor General Elena Kagan, former Harvard Law president to the Sup Ct. I'm happy. For once. She has no paper trail, has written little but balked at ROTC on the Harvard Campus because of the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. Clearly she opposes that. Okay, so basically from what I have read she is conservative with respect to strong executive power but perhaps liberal on other issues, hard to tell. I remember once thinking my idol FDR was an example of a strong executive. It was once a rather liberal position. Since Bush and 9/11 it has not been.

Not sure if I'm against that except of course if we get another God forbid like George Bush or any other Republican for that matter. That's the problem.

Three women on the court as long as Ginsburg stays physically okay. She has had her problems that is for sure. This is why the presidency matters.

I'm still grumbling about the spill as my heart still breaks for our environment and the lost jobs of people there not to mention poor Louisiana.

But Would I rather have McCain and the idiot Palin? ABSOLUTELY NOT!

They are floating around another idea to cap it....I fall asleep praying. What me? Yep there are NO atheists in oil spills of this magnitude!

Obama's Fatal Flaw: Prediction: Barack Obama will be a one term president. As I have said before, the oil leak is a metaphor for Obama's Waterloo. It is simply outrageous. Why he gave thumbs up to off shore drilling to make Republicans love him and kiss him I will never know. This will have huge rippling effects and this president has SERIOUS flaws. He is NOT what I thought we were getting. I was willing to overlook all the other sorely inadequate policy such as his civil libertarian erosion and the people he chose for his administration to craft that policy but this spill breaks my camel’s back.

This oil spill is a metaphor for the president’s utterly incomprehensible leadership. His policies have been fraught with error and this spill shows it. He NEVER should have given a thumb up to off shore drilling ESPECIALLY at 3000 feet something that had not ever been done before. Before the drilling took place, if it took place, it SHOULD have been inspected by neutral parties including government who had NO monetary stake in the action. The rig itself SHOULD NOT have gone to a no-bid contractual entity and if it failed other fail safe options under government supervision should have been in place. BP had a bad record and it should have been exposed.

If Bush was an uncompromising idiot Obama, with his superior intellect, is EXTRAORDINARILY too deliberative and INFINITELY too compromising. This was not Harvard Law Review and he is blowing his chance AND FAST to enact lasting social change. At this moment in history his idea of bipartisanship would be LAUGHABLE if it were not so consequentially horrific. His idol should not have been Lincoln it SHOULD have been Franklin and even Theodore Roosevelt. FDR faced a Republican party that loathed him during the greatest economic catastrophe man had ever seen. He didn’t care. In fact, he welcomed the opposition and Obama should have done the same especially with a huge majority he enjoyed in Congress. Teddy Roosevelt, the Republican trust buster, with anti-trust legislation, broke up monopolies which had a stranglehold on the essence of capitalism and on the people that economic forum is supposed to serve.

Bob Bennett, decades long moderate Republican senator from Utah, is the canary in the coal mine. Utah just nixed him for a tea bag candidate. The moderate Republican is extinct. The American public soon will get what it deserves -- Republican control of Congress which will be Obama's real Waterloo. Will they be different? Oh sure. Just what the doctor ordered like the cancer they are. It will be more of the same but worse. Obama will be stymied at every attempt to substantive enactment of anything.

Corporate stranglehold on government is the problem. Oligarchy is the problem and our debt and deficit are the problems. Republican control of everything again ESPECIALLY by tea bag Republicans ultimately will mean that government will do nothing and allow the always responsible (I wax sarcastic) private sector to rule the day. There will be few government safety nets for the many problems our nation faces that ONLY government can provide.

Obama ruined health care by reneging on the public option. He gave a gift to the insurance cartels. Lyndon Johnson would, by any arm twisting necessary, have gotten it done, moreover, it should have been done AFTER our economic house was in order. In large part I hold Barack Obama accountable for Brown's win in Mass. He came in too little too late just like he did nothing when the tea baggers exploded over health care last summer. Where was his leadership then? He gave it to Congress who could not go up against the know nothings with guns. Our president then was not to be seen.

The FIRST duty of his presidency should have been to stop the economic bleeding on Wall Street AND Main Street, hire Krugmanesque or Elizabeth Warrenesque people in Treasury NOT Geithner, Summers and his cronies Rubin the Goldman Sachs rapists including Ben Bernanke Chairman of the Fed. The president can only be as excellent as the excellent people who surround him. Obama chose Bush light. He is NOT who I thought he was.

I am HUGELY disappointed in much of Barack Obama’s leadership. The HUGE cuts should be in defense spending as even Obama’s Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (a former Bush appointee) has said. We should be paring down much of our empire to direct our economy where it needs to go to meet the social needs of our people and not our belligerent needs. President Eisenhower's statement on the dangers of the military industrial complex was exactly correct. I am dismayed and discouraged that our president did not know this too. He seemed to know it all in the Senate but not as the Commander in Chief.

The call should go out to everyone in the US or ANYWHERE for MIT-like geniuses to try to get this horrendous oil gusher ruining our coast, our economy and our nation, under control. This is BIG TIME SERIOUS for ALL of us. It is NOT just Louisiana's problem. If you think it is think again. Just wait until the oil starts crawling slowly up the east coast. This is a Shakespearean tragedy of epic proportions and our president has a fatal flaw! He does not act. As Shakespeare so eloquently said “The play’s the thing!” Hamlet anyone?

Notes on a Journal: Last Friday was Bill Moyers's last show on PBS "The Journal." I have been an avid viewer taping that show every week. The understatement of the century for me is to say it was a great show. It was that and more. I learned so much playing cerebral ping pong, chewing on so much, and voraciously digesting all that it had to offer. Bill Moyers is one of the greats in television news commentary and journalism. If you have any money lying around doing nothing may I suggest a contribution to PBS? I sent the following thank you note to him, PBS and "The Journal" staff:

Since it is your last show I wanted to send you a quick thank you note describing my not so quick love affair with PBS, Bill Moyers and "The Journal." I have loved you nearly all of my life.

When PBS first came to Boston I must have been all of ten years old. It did not compare then to watching the Lone Ranger, Leave it to Beaver or Father Knows Best. As I grew older, though, until this very day at 61 not only have I continued to love PBS and watch it, it is the one of the few channels that I give my life's precious time TO watch nearly every day.

When my mother passed away I thought I would never be able to take a breath without her. That is how I am feeling now. Bill, you are an irreplaceable man. I will miss you more than my feeble words can convey. I thank you and your staff SO much for the humanity, compassion, insight and to your many guests, too, who reached out to me every week and from whom I learned so much.

You are a priceless gem and I am thrilled to have lived in the ascribed era I had no part in choosing. I thank you, too, for nurturing my knowledge, understanding, and interest in the people and events of this earth we all occupy for much too short a time.

Thank you again!!

Breach of Tort: This is NOT the change I bought into. Each day I grow angrier and angrier at the president for making this DISASTROUS decision to oil drill off the Gulf Coast or any coast. The lapses we expected under the Bush administration and which were routine are the VERY opposite Obama said his policies would be. He said in HIS administration there would be NO negligent implementation of policy by those whom he would put in charge of government institutions whose job it is to enforce regulation to protect the nation against disaster. The disaster that has happened in the Gulf is beyond adequate expression. I am enraged and this story, if true, (link below) makes me weep all the more as the BP rig used in the Gulf drill seemingly was given a regulatory pass.

Some say I should just shut up as what do I want a Republican? NO of course NOT BUT I do NOT want Republican light either. I wanted and THOUGHT I was getting a progressive Democrat. For this and other policies I simply let slide, the president is in breach of tort. Unless he can reverse the severe damage to our waters, ecosystem and the many human livelihoods soon lost by this disgusting spill, he is in DEEP trouble in 2012. People like I am are his base and we want a new product. The president is in breach of tort. In many ways he is NOT the product we thought we were getting!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36956650/ns/us_news-washington_post/

Oil and water do not mix, neither does coal and neither does nuclear power: Please try to support Greenpeace, any other environmental group or any group involved in this horrific oil spill clean up. See link and email below.

It's possible I don't know if it's probable but I have read it is POSSIBLE the leak could be so huge it goes around the Florida coast and eventually up the eastern seaboard. I am hoping that is media hype because in that case WE would be directly affected as if we are not already. It all depends on just how much oil is at the bottom of that 3 miles down ocean floor and so far the weather
has made it impossible to see. It is now LIKE an upside down faucet GUSHING this disgusting crud.

There is NO such thing as, safe oil drilling, clean coal or CERTAINLY safe nuclear power. Nuclear power has nuclear waste. Now I ask you in a country of 300 MILLION people how much nuclear waste will there be the substance of which we CANNOT
get rid of? It is unfathomable. If you think this oil gusher is a disaster our minds cannot conceptualize a nuclear waste spill and the corporate "experts" will say oh don't worry we have the technology. YEAH RIGHT where have we heard that lame story before?

In Massachusetts, because of a water main rupture, people are going insane for water because 30 communities need to simply BOIL their water before drinking it. They are plundering the supermarkets getting all that oh so safe plastic bottled water with, of course, no toxins emanating from that plastic bottle. NOT MUCH! So how many of those people who killed themselves to get the plastic water will recycle their bottle? One can only IMAGINE the insanity that would take place with a nuclear power disaster. WAKE UP AMERICA we live in an oligarchy which is a fancy word for the union of HUGE corporations with government. Add papers please as in the lovely Arizona anti-immigrant law and the word becomes fascism.

Scroll down and see what Greenpeace has to offer and I urge you to support it and support our country by doing it!


http://fieldnotes.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/05/01/2291388.aspx

UNFORGIVABLE: I, as an Obama supporter and life long Democratic, am horrified to say, THIS HUMONGOUS oil gush is Obama's REAL Waterloo! (See link below) I must call it as I see it. Our president has disappointed me on a number of fronts. I was willing to overlook most of them. I overlooked even ones that overturned the bedrock of my own philosophy when Obama maintained Bush's lack of due process in continuing the Patriot Act and warrant-less wiretaps, even when he obliterated the public option on health care, even when he failed to directly respond to racist teabag shouting matches last summer, even when he put the Wall Street foxes in charge of the sick chickens, even when Attorney General Holder is instructed to continue to go after reporter James Risen when Obama promised to endorse the journalist shield, even when he said there is no difference between Wall Street and Main Street BUT THIS oil disaster I cannot forgive.

Placating Republicans by turning over on drill baby drill is UNFORGIVABLE. This spill may make Bush's Katrina debacle look like child's play. SOMEONE did not pay attention to the minutia of safety factors concerning this UNIQUE 3000 foot under-the-ocean drill. No one in the administration screamed at Obama the error of his ways so he could consider both sides of the off shore 3000 foot never done before deep drilling issue and all of its attendant risk?

Not only is this Obama's Waterloo it may be ours as well. Between Wall Street and Obama's unceasing placation of a toxic Republican agenda, the reversal of solid Democrat policy surrounding off shore drilling just may be the camel back-breaking straw I cannot endure. He is losing my support. The question is not only whom did we elect but who else could progressive Democrats in 2012 elect instead? Unless this spill can be contained, the damage stopped and the fault determined then I say to Rahm Emanuel who said the president's base does not matter, I AM the base and I MATTER!

What has he done to our country in his feeble attempt to play a mating dance with Republicans? Since we are on the dance card what will this do to all of us? Maybe the president should consider dancing with the ones who brought him to the dance in the first place!

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fix-20100501,0,323202,full.story

Five Words for Drill Baby Drill Gulf Coast Oil Spill

MONUMENTAL DISASTER OF HISTORIC PROPORTIONS!

Give to the animal clean up rescue as well as human business devastation any way you can. Just be careful if you choose to give whatever you give to is absolutely legitimate.

Two I would check out are The Sierra Club and Greenpeace. I am sure the major news networks will have a list of what you can do or where you can give IF it is as bad as so many think it will be.

I am hoping against hope that the winds will die down and that some brilliant minds somewhere will figure out a way to cap these leaks. One wonders why this was not thought about in the first place.

Time will tell who is responsible for this nightmare and like the Wall Street gluttons they will reap what they have sown!

The Arizona Colossus of Madness: The Arizona law is the closest I have ever known in this country of a fascistically tyrannical state and a national mindset in blind rebuke of the civil libertarian Bill of precious Rights our Founders so presciently bestowed upon us. Our Founders three centuries ago KNEW the threat behind the power of the state. This law reflects the mean, rancid, nasty, cruel, inhumane, disgusting, nature of a particular segment of the American psyche. We should be hiding in shame because, we know what fascism REALLY is and we have OUR dead in their graves in France on the shores of Normandy to prove it. What did we fight for? The US stopped the cancer of Nazism death in its tracks in Europe only to see our own country fall short of its own free thinking promise.

Arizonans have BETRAYED the very nature of HOPE that is the essence of this country's DNA -- the possibility of a better life for everyone no matter who wants it and wants to work for it ..... WHAT HAVE WE BECOME? Like the Dorian Gray picture, PART of us has morphed into an UGLY, SICK, corrupted face. I do not recognize the nation I knew. In five thousand years THIS was the ONLY place a Jew could feel safe and now MILLIONS of decent, hard working Hispanics will go back to the poverty from whence they came reminiscent of the 1939 ship the St. Louis portrayed in the film "The Damned" when its cargo, a boat load of Jews, was rejected from American shores only to return to the ovens of Auschwitz. So many Hispanics, struggling people wanting only work will return to the heat of the desert to the poverty they knew and the possible early death that may await. So many are good people, hard working people, loving people, some even married to US citizens but leaving them nonetheless because that rancid bill does NOT discriminate -- it attacks ALL of them if they happen to be brown. This is tragic!

I shake my head in disbelief from the anti-human Arizona law, to the bloaviating imbeciles carrying pictures of a half African American president pictured as a Hitler. How stupid, how illogical, how insane and how insulting they are. What has happened to my country, indeed? This is a sad time, and more sad times lie ahead as an immigration law of ONE STATE may spread like a virus to another tying this nation's hands and fitting our heads with the tyranny of a crown of thorns.

I remind you of the poet Emma Lazarus who wrote in 1883 her famous poem about Lady Liberty and our land engraved on a bronze plaque and mounted inside our Statue of Liberty:

"The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles.
From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
""Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!"" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

YES, I want my country back, THAT country, the country of promise, the country of humane thought that for a time lit the world.

To Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate THAT is the Question: PBS’s Frontline showed a segment on childhood vaccinations. As many know whether to vaccinate a child for the various so called childhood diseases is a controversial subject today. One woman interviewed in the Frontline documentary said that we had not had a case of wild polio in this country for decades and that wild polio is all but eliminated from the planet so she saw no need to vaccinate for that here. I differ with her STRONGLY. Polio is NOT eliminated from the planet. She is making, in my opinion, a HUGE error because we are a globalized society. There IS wild polio still remaining in some third world countries. In addition, there are global areas which are at war, areas of turmoil and areas which present different religious obstacles preventing (hard to believe as it may be), immunizations. All it takes is one unvaccinated person entering this country harboring the virus and settling in an area where there are numbers of children and even adults who are not vaccinated against this dreaded disease for that child to create an epidemic which will spread to the unvaccinated. This is unacceptable, it is immoral and, in my opinion, it is wrong.

I speak unfortunately not as a scientist or physician but from personal experience. I contracted polio in 1954 at five years old, six months before a vaccine was available. If the vaccination had been available then and I had not been vaccinated, I would have later thought it criminal not to have been vaccinated against it.

There are, of course, other aspects of this complex problem. Perhaps SOME of the diseases within vaccinations could be eliminated or injections spread out more evenly or the other substances within the vaccine itself could be examined BUT, in my opinion, it is UNCONSCIONABLE with respect to polio in particular for anyone to say that because wild polio has not been seen in this country that this disease is eradicated. Polio is NEVER ERADICATED UNLESS children are immunized with the polio vaccines to prevent it. It CAN return at any time and WILL if children are not immunized against it.

I can testify to the fact that polio is a life long horrendous, deformative and expensive disease. I was considered "lucky" at that time as it completely paralyzed only my right leg. My left leg was functional but is still somewhat compromised. Polio for me meant constant hospital returns, three painful surgeries to ameliorate its after effects and it meant paying for expensive equipment to this day.

After mid life when bones become weaker it meant THREE successive FEMUR fractures of my polio leg. That leg is extraordinarily fragile. It has meant additional hospitalizations as an adult taking one year per each fracture to heal because that leg does not heal quickly. The risk to that bone is significant as now, falling is a regular occurrence. Aging makes life even more difficult for a post polio survivor. Fracturing that bone a fourth time could be life altering or even life threatening!

Polio is a life long, utterly deforming, and an EXPENSIVE disease. It has caused UNTOLD hardship, psychological damage and as an adult it has cost me my stamina that others of my age still possess. Polio has had HUGE complications in my life and it is, in my opinion, UNFORGIVABLE for a child not to be immunized, at the very least, for that. Life is a risk. The risk of acquiring polio is much too great and the benefits of vaccination to prevent polio are much too good, not to vaccinate. To vaccinate or not to vaccinate that is the question. The answer for me is abundantly clear. For THAT disease, it is an absolute and unequivocal YES!

The Sickest Slick: I am in another hurry this a.m. so this is off the top of my just awakened brain. I am SICK SICK at heart about the drilling oil spill off our coast as I have iterated before. I feel like I want to cry. If I were a believing person with SO much disaster I have never seen SO much disaster in the world from economic to climate, earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, climate change, tsunami's, mine disasters and so much more I can't keep track of all of it and now THIS disaster I might think Revelation is at hand. Don't worry I'm not a believing person in THAT anyway but it is HORRIFIC. I just KNOW they won't contain this spill for weeks if not months and I just know it is oozing more probably much more as the Coast Guard says today AND worse they have to burn it sending HUGE toxic plumes of ugly disgusting poisonous smoke into our air. A reporter said the wonderful smell of salt water is obliterated there and replaced by the cancerous smell of oil. I won't even mention the eleven humans dead and many injured from this rig explosion.

Do I want to say Palin with her drill baby drill is the idiot of idiots? YES but why why does this brilliant president in whom I had SO much faith WHY would he EVER on planet earth EVER decide to lift the coastal drilling ban when EVERY good mind who KNOWS about drilling oil knows it's risky, dangerous and whatever we get WON'T be enough. It just delays what we REALLY need to concentrate on and that is clean energy. WHY DID HE DO THIS? I simply do NOT get him. I love him but he is still the enigma to me he was when he began his run. Something is undecipherable about this president and I just don't know what it is. BUT who would care about that if his policy decisions were what I thought in the beginning they would be and if they did not impact us so hugely! This oil spill I will say it again is just an AWFUL AWFUL thing. Drill baby drill around our coast should be HALTED IMMEDIATELY and Sarah Palin should put a sock in her moronic mouth!

Barack Obama WHAT are you doing, who are you? Where is the progressive senator I knew and loved? I'm am sick at heart, saddened and disappointed beyond belief. Our beautiful coast and all the animals, birds etc. are at grave risk. The poor innocent beautiful things. Please anyone out there if you are working on this and can save those gorgeous animals do and save us while you are at it. IF this slick hits the shores of LA, FLA, and Mississippi or WORSE they won't know what hit them and neither will we!

Goldman's Gold: I see the Goldman Sachs' actions as both a CRIMINAL matter AND a civil matter. The SEC, of course, filed only a civil complaint so far. In a civil case we are simply talking about monitory remuneration. A criminal case is really a much more serious matter requiring a proof from the state of, in this case, the breaking of federal laws against most especially fraud by the defendants. I believe what has been perpetrated upon an unsuspecting and largely innocent public is SO serious that not only should Goldman pay monitory damages to their clients commensurate with the perpetration of this fraud but I also believe a criminal case should be brought as well. Goldman’s actions were so heinous and seemingly so illegal that the “I know it when I see it” Supreme Court measure for pornography SHOULD apply to this as well. Someone(s) should pay for these malevolent and destructive acts not only in money but in jail time as well.

We are, I think, talking about billions of investments, securities, derivatives and other very complex investment instruments which were packaged, cut up into pieces unknown to mortgage holders as well as securities purchasers alike and sold by Goldman and others as sterling products. Customers were in essence duped into thinking this investment was a good thing to purchase when, in fact, these securities were toxic garbage and, I believe, Goldman itself KNEW they were garbage and sold them to their unsuspecting clients. Compensation for those fraudulent investments is more than warranted due to the massive quantity sold and the dire effect it had on the country and, indeed, the world.

If Goldman’s acts are not criminal then I do not know what criminal is. In the instant matter a crime of HUMONGOUS proportions was committed against innocent people who lost their hard earned 401Ks, pension funds and other heretofore thought stable investments. I dare say lives were lost often by suicide as jobs and even health insurance were causalities of Wall Street hubris.

I watched four hours of the Goldman Sachs Senate hearing. Goldman testifiers looked SO bad yesterday bobbing and weaving as if they were children being asked if lying about a school yard prank was the wrong thing to do but not really figuring out how to make sure their answer was the right one so they would not be punished. Instead they were asked the serious seemingly simple question should the customer have faith in the investing institution or any institution to which the customer gives its money. Is it a bad thing if an investment firm represents one thing to its customers but in reality knows what they are selling is junk but sell it as if it were gold? Moreover, the firm KNOWING it was selling junk and that the instrument would fail bet against its own sale by taking out insurance (credit default swaps) on those very instruments. The house would win even if they lost. Those sanctimonious immoral jerks before the Senate could NOT give a decisive answer to those simple childlike questions. Goldman was not MERELY a "principle" just acting as a conduit for savvy investors. Goldman sold these junk securities to anyone whether they were savvy or not. That is NOT the point. Goldman’s conduct was shameful, it was immoral and, I believe, it was illegal.

Compounding the matter was the rating companies like Standard & Poors which were hired by the investment firm itself to rate the securities and were paid by the very firm that was selling the securities. That would be as if I hired an evaluator of my home and gave them instructions to rate it high and sold it off to a buyer who took their word for it. Do I see a conflict of interest here? Emphatically, YES!

Goldman actions are an abridgment in tort law and it should be one in criminal law too. It is my opinion that the customer of an investment firm relies on that firm in good faith for advice because one often does not have the expertise to do so oneself. If one buys a product one should have the reasonable certainty and expectation that the product is what the seller SAYS it is. In this case Triple A rated investments which were in reality junk. That is basic in tort law. Goldman did not sell the security thinking it was a good product. They sold it thinking it was a terrible product and in fact a “sh*&^%” product (as a Goldman employee said in his email) and shorted it i.e. bet against it unknown to the ones to whom they sold the rotten product in the first place.

It is NOT the bet here that is the issue. Everyone knows that if you go to a horse track and you bet you COULD lose but not everyone knows IF a horse is lame or doped. If one knew that one would clearly not bet on that horse and, in fact, doping is illegal and if the track bet AGAINST a doped horse well need I say what would happen if found out? If that doesn't move you maybe the Black Sox scandal rings a bell? Betting is bad enough but when you bet against your own team failing when you KNOW they are going to throw a game? Need I say more?

Credit default swaps or insurance taken out on bad securities sold to customers by Goldman as good securities should be both civilly negligent and criminally prosecutable. Their actions and actions by many others caused innocent people HUGE harm, probably forever, and still is affecting the country and even the world adversely.

ALL of those who knew about these fraudulent monstrosities should be indicted, tried, convicted, fined in civil law and tried criminally as well. If there is not good case law AGAINST what these unconscionable excuses for human beings have done then there ought to be BUT I suspect there is. I am hoping the best legal minds that the government can employ FIND it and find it FAST as CLEARLY Goldman’s product was NOT as good as gold!

CAN I JUST SCREAM? CAN I JUST SCREAM AS I SEE EXACTLY WHAT I KNEW WOULD HAPPEN WHEN THE PRESIDENT OPENED UP OUR COASTS TO DRILL BABY DRILL FOR OIL? I'd like to hear Sarah the Idiot Palin scream that now. Proof positive as the wet lands of Louisiana, Mississippi and even Florida are, as I write this, at risk as if they were not already by slimy, putrid, rancid oil. This is the cradle of a civilized environment which will take generations to revitalize IF ever as oil will most likely hit the shore at 42,000 gallons of the crud a DAY!

Honest to God if I believed in a God I surely would not blame Him for spewing out revenge for some of our country's (and other's) most disgusting policies which hurt humanity and are perpetrated over and over and over again here and around the world. Stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again thinking you will get different results. You won't. What will it take? What? Does anyone care about our gorgeous UNIQUE planet? Does anyone care about their children? Does anyone care about their grandchildren and if you don't have any of those as I do not just care about the sweet animals that are at risk including the perpetrator of the madness -- us.

I am sickened by the oil spill but the trees, flowers and birds of that beautiful wilderness will be sickened much more than even I or you could imagine.

I STILL Don't Know Jack: UNBELIEVABLE performances by Al Pacino, Susan Sarandon, Brenda Vacarro, and John Goodman in "You Don't Know Jack" an HBO film about Dr. Death i.e. Jack Kavorkian and the incendiary issue of human euthanasia. They all were simply fabulous in their respective roles.

Pacino, though, takes the proverbial cake. This has Golden Globe written all over it and he should get an Academy Award for best actor too. I have never seen Pacino in a better role to the point where I stopped thinking it was Pacino and began to think of him as the actual Dr. Jack Kevorkian. He was BRILLIANT!!

This film was absolutely riveting. I am still left, however, with the feeling that I do NOT know Jack Kavorkian not really. I am suspect OFTEN of seemingly altruistic human behavior. I love it but at the same time I know people do things often for their own reasons. So be it. Could I do what Kavorkian did? Not on your life pardon the pun. Do I think in some instances euthanasia is absolutely in order YES I EMPHATICALLY DO! I believe it is the person's right to extricate him or herself out of suffering and misery any way he/she can. It's up to, in my opinion, the individual and if he wants to be Kavorkianed I understand. I am NO fan of pain and suffering either.

Still, if I had the proper doctor credentials I could NEVER do that to anyone. I can't even court the prospect we may have to euthanize our 19 year old cat. It makes me cringe, cry and want to walk away. Despite the seeming humanity of it I STILL could not do it. The question is WHY Dr. Kavorkian can and did. Damned if I know. The film, while great, left, for me, that question unresolved. If you are interested in viewing it see HBO for details.

Toxic Shock -- Moving Towards Solutions: Today, the news from Louisiana is that the drilling for oil explosion idiocy has turned toxic. Hopeful, with the Obama victory in 2008, my hope has turned to disappointment, despair and sadness as the policies he touted in his campaign become weakened almost beyond recognition. My one time hope, Barack Obama and a total Democratic control of Congress, turned his one time opposition to drill baby drill into now near Sarah Palin policy. I am sickened. I predicted the leaks would happen when he lifted the drilling coastal ban. I knew it ultimately would be leaking into the ocean which it now is doing. Soon we will see gorgeous seagulls and all they represent covered in oil muck and sludge struggling to survive but dying a sad death along with the ecological system they represent unless humans can save them first. Our beautiful earth is being squandered for political expediency, money and power.

I just began viewing the tape of the "Garbage Warrior" on the Sundance Channel. See the link for it below. I urge you to see it. What a marvel it is. I was always supportive of most of the environmental movement's goals beginning in the late sixties but must admit, ashamedly, that the environmental movement did not catch fire in my psyche until the realities of global warming, which most quality environmentalists have been predicting for decades, are quickly taking place. I did not listen much three decades ago but I am SURELY listening now.

Michael Reynolds's architectural commitment to our beautiful earth shows it CAN be done if the right people do it. I thank him for his efforts and hope he makes a HUGE impact on environmental movement policy. Instead of seeing this film on Sundance I wish it were shown on the major networks for EVERYONE who does not have the luxury of cable to view. What he has done NEEDS to be seen.

It is a wonderful film. Maybe even our president will view it!

http://www.garbagewarrior.com/index.php

Collective Madness: A few thoughts in the a.m. to be refined later due to time constraints. I have to get my basic thoughts out because of the deep horror of what transpired in Arizona by an Arizona legislature enacting and a moronic governor signing a putrid, inhumane, anti-immigrant law. What a ROTTEN UNCONSTITUTIONAL, anti-democratic, anti-due process, racist anti-immigrant law it is. Police now can pull you over even if you LOOK like an illegal immigrant --usually Hispanic-- brilliantly determined by the "right" kind of hair, dress, or shoes and ask you for your papers! What papers? Your birth certificate or the paper you wrote in 5th grade? This will cost the state of Arizona big time money (I FERVENTLY hope) by those boycotting the state (please do if you are thinking of going -- DON'T and urge others not to as well). Not only that it will cost the police in BIG TIME lawsuits. Even most of them hate this law.

I am going to write something and incorporate a world (including nature) gone wild, no parameters, no boundaries whether it's sex, language vulgarity, political extremism, tell all movie stars, anti immigrant fever, pedophilia, religious fanaticism, global warming caused by man or Wall Street. It's all similar. There are FEW restraints on human behavior. It is cerebral, physical and even natural anarchy brought on by man's greed, gluttonous and pathologically uncontrolled behavior. This is humanity run amok. We have, as a species gone, I believe, collectively MAD and deserve, in my opinion, whatever nature dishes out. More to follow when I have time. I'm sure you can hardly wait.

The Murderous McVeigh: Rachel Maddow began last evening a series about the home grown right wing terrorist Timothy McVeigh, the murderer of 168 people in the Oklahoma City Bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, as a remembrance of the 15 year anniversary of the sad occurrence. I paste its link below. If you have time, it is, I believe quite interesting but more than that I believe it is imperative, especially in our time, to understand as best one can, what jet propels a sociopath into action. It is important because we MUST know -- left and right alike -- that our words matter and that the advocacy of violence to achieve ends has no romance behind it. Violent acts whether perpetrated by the government or individuals in opposition TO government have ugly consequences for REAL human beings. The price is paid in the blood of innocents who cruelly have their childhood and their lives stolen from them by one hideous act. Lives are lost and bodies twisted forever which go unseen on national news or forgotten the next week, the next month, the next year, the next decade unto eternity. I offer, too, yet again another piece I wrote on April 7 entitled "Tree of Blood." which deals with the subject of the nature of the violent overthrow of government.

http://natalierosen.blogspot.com/2010/04/tree-of-blood-one-of-front-pages-on.html

I believe MSNBC's reenactment of the Timothy McVeigh's homegrown terrorist crime complete with hours of authentic audio tapes made by McVeigh himself answers directly to an often dormant seed within the American psyche in which violent people use to their advantage some seemingly lofty other goal as an excuse to do that which they enjoy doing and that is killing. Why they do this is the eternal question. If you are interested the interviewer of McVeigh, Lou Michael, has written a book entitled "American Terrorist." The link for the interview, crime reenactment and the audio tapes is:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#36650511

Quotable quotes: I was researching some quotes I love. Unfortunately, I know them when I hear them but to bring them up to memory sometimes is difficult. Still I thought I would place some I do remember on my blog simply because I love them.

One was given by Robert Kennedy told to a group of African Americans he met on his campaign trail for president in 1968 several months before his own death. He had just found out about the assassination of Martin Luther King and did not know how to break the horrific news to them. He tried to calm the crowd by trying to relay that he knew how they felt since he had a brother who was killed too. He knew that kind of grief. He quoted from one of the many classics he had read trying to understand his brother's death. He quoted from Aeschylus's play Agamemnon and said:

"In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”

The other I love was his quoting from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet at the Democratic National Convention, August 27, 1964 in remembering his brother Jack. He said:

"Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun."


I believe those quotes are simply gorgeous. Shakespeare, especially, one can say certainly had a way with words. Ah to be young again when memorizing things comes much more easily. So now I still try but my goodness there is just too much to know and not enough time in which to know it which is why I love Robert Frost's quote from the last stanza of his poem Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening:

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Frontline: Behind the Lines of the Taliban -- The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan: Despite the seemingly disgusting nature of this particular Frontline I think it captures just what we are dealing with in Afghanistan and god knows how many other places on earth as the utlra religious yet again show us the HEIGHTS and DEPTHS their behavior can reach AND sink.

No one BUT NO ONE can crow about their own religion or culture being immune as we see so evident in so many religious orthodoxies in our midst. We need only pay witness to Pope Benedict's utterly pathetic and anemic effort to deal with the MOST egregious behavioral sex abuse, usually of young boys, in the Church. We see it too in orthodoxies OF ALL SORTS including, I am disgusted and ashamed to say, a few I have only read about in the New York Times concerning the ultra orthodox Jewish sects in New York where again sex abuse often of young boys goes UNREPORTED only to be "dealt with" in secret by ONLY men, of course, from the particular sect involved. The foxes indeed guard the coop. It's NOT the children the religious elders care about. It is the shame heaped upon the institution itself which is their main concern. They do not realize that when these acts finally see light, as they now often do, the religious institution itself is the entity that is besmirched the most by its Herculean efforts to hide the abominable behavior.

Exposure of these INEXCUSABLE acts on ALL fronts is the ONLY thing that turns night into day as it sheds light on the crimes as the only disinfectant for their viral contaminant. When you ask for whom the bell tolls it most certainly tolls for ALL of us as when one becomes a victim, I believe, we all do. I suggest you either watch or tape Frontline as it has been taking us "Behind the Lines of the Taliban." Scroll down to see the link and previews of its content.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/dancingboys/?utm_campaign=Various&utm_medium=Bulletin&utm_source=Main

Before I post below I want to add that I LOVE Rachel Maddow. I think she is the next Edward R. Murrow but even MORE brilliant. She is a scholar and it shows. Having said that for the first time I took issue with one small particular segment at the end which she sometimes does. It does not have the gravity of nuclear war but still I decided to write her the following:

Cocktail Anyone? There probably is NO ONE in television cable or otherwise who could make mixing a drink an interesting story. Rachel did. I am about as interested in drinking as I am in someone washing port-o-potties but at the end of the interview watching the two young woman from the Angostura Bitters Co. explain the alarming shortage of bottles making Angostura bitters impossible to get I thought why am I interested in this story? Who cares? It really shows the saturated-with-talent of Rachel Maddow who could make an utterly irrelevant story interesting.

Still, my first criticism of her: I am not wild about the real cocktail moments i.e. the ones that concentrate on REALLY mixing a drink. Why make drinking seem so, well, sheik and fun. It would almost be like your having someone on roll a very expensive tobacco or cigar from Cuba and making it look just dandy. Sure, most people (I think but what do I know about the subject) drink prudently but drinking really is responsible for a LOT of ruined lives not to mention death on the highways. Why give it a forum which makes it look oh so inviting? I admit, if the liquor industry depended on me for their profits they would go bankrupt. I really think though, Rachel, you can do without that particular segment.

How about doing or repeating a "Cocktail Moment" segment with a really comedic segment by someone like the one John Stewart did of a complete satire on Glen Beck. It was the greatest comedy segment I have ever seen since the 1950's. It stands with the greats like Sid Caesar's "This is Your Life Uncle Guppe," or Carol Burnett's Gone with the Wind parody her plantation staircase descent dressed in a curtain which was HILARIOUS!

Something, anything would be, in my opinion, better than mixing a drink on TV where millions could be at that moment convinced drinking is oh so kool, go out and buy the ingredients, get drunk, get behind a wheel and kill themselves or somebody else. Whiskey or tobacco is not advertised on TV for a reason.

Just my opinion but we STILL will ALWAYS watch and love Rachel although if Angostura Bitters went out of business tomorrow it would be a who cares moment for me!!!

NB: My post from yesterday "Silent No More" about objectionable comments made by a Bishop in the Vatican was itself commented on by a historian, Gabriel Wilensky. His comment is excellent as he does so from a historian's viewpoint. Scroll down and click on the comments section of that blog if you are interested.

He has also written a book entitled "Six Million Crucifixions: How Christian Teachings about Jews Paved the Way to the Holocaust" His web site is: http://www.sixmillioncrucifixions.com/Home.html

Silent No More -- My Letter to the Vatican:

Bishop Emeritus Babini, was quoted as saying: "They [the Jews] do not want the church, they are its natural enemies." He goes on to say "Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God killers." The writer in the British newspaper The Guardian quoted Giacomo Babini, the emeritus bishop of Grosseto, as saying he believed a "Zionist attack" was behind the criticism [of church pedophilia], considering how "powerful and refined" the criticism is."

This is UNACCEPTABLE from anyone let alone a higher-up of the Church itself even IF he is a retired one. He denies that he made the statement OF COURSE, but Babini as stated in The Guardian, "has previously been quoted on the Pontifex website accusing Jews of exploiting the Holocaust, as well as criticizing homosexuality." This statement DEMANDS an apology from the Pope, himself, anything less is inadequate and will be received with insult and anger by the Jewish people and many others in the world who value intellect and reason as man's greatest tool against stupidity and its bestial cousin cruelty.

This is yet another delightful peek into the joys of two thousand years of anti-semitism still safely tucked away in the Vatican residing with this Pope Benedict aka German Cardinal Ratizinger and his merry man Giacomo Babini, the emeritus bishop of Grosseto. Not only does the good Bishop blame church pedophilia scandal on the Jews but he blames homosexuality for church pedophilia as well. Yes, moronic insanity is alive and well everywhere ESPECIALLY in the Vatican.

There is NOTHING I repeat NOTHING that enrages me like the age old canard of deicide i.e. the Christian accusation of the alleged killing of the Christian God i.e. Jesus by Jews. I, as a Jew, am ALWAYS vigilant because this moronic TRIPE is STILL with us and comes out of the mouth of a Bishop. I thought the Pope and the Vatican are fully aware and can control the most dastardly millennial infused lie many in its ranks still perpetrate on the Jewish people. The Vatican still, despite Vatican II, plagues the Jew and the words uttered by this Bishop are the example of its cancer on humanity. It is why we as Jews and ALL men of conscience WILL NEVER forget and WILL NEVER surrender, to that toxic brew. This indelible stain on the Church is still there and, if we allow, it will fester and grow as it did for two thousand years culminating in the wholesale murder of the six million. I submit some in the Vatican Church and perhaps even the Pope himself with his Hitler Youth past ingrained within him will not rest until every Jewish belief is nullified. This truth is why the Jew CANNOT and WILL NOT let it go and is silent no more. I expect a complete apology from the Pope for his wayward Bishop anything else is simply NOT enough!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/11/catholic-bishop-blames-jews

Lest I Not Be Clear: When I wrote my last small post late last evening, I was tired, and my body is invaded by a relentless rhino virus. Lest I not be clear, if you do click on the link below you will see the direct quote that began the spark that drew the my volcanic eruption. Bishop Emeritus Babini, was quoted as saying: "They do not want the church, they are its natural enemies. Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God killers." The writer in the Guardian (a British newspaper) quoted Giacomo Babini, the emeritus bishop of Grosseto, as saying he believed a "Zionist attack" was behind the criticism [of church pedophilia], considering how "powerful and refined" the criticism is."

This is UNACCEPTABLE from anyone let alone a higher-up of the Vatican even IF he is retired. He denies that he made the statement OF COURSE, but Babini as stated in The Guardian, "has previously been quoted on the Pontifex website accusing Jews of exploiting the Holocaust, as well as criticizing homosexuality." I rest my case for now but I will have a more cogent response I hope later! This statement DEMANDS an apology from the Pope, himself, anything less is inadequate and will be received with insult and anger of the Jewish people and many others in the world who value intellect and reason as man's greatest tool against stupidity.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/11/catholic-bishop-blames-jews

Prelude to a blog: Well, it's too late now to write on the link below. Just cut and paste into your browser for yet another delightful peek into the joys of two thousand years of anti-semitism still safely tucked away in the Vatican residing with this pope Benedict aka German Cardinal Ratizinger and his merry man Giacomo Babini, the emeritus bishop of Grosseto. Not only does the good Bishop blame church pedophilia on the Jews but he blames homosexuality for church pedophilia. Yep, moronic insanity is alive and well everywhere ESPECIALLY in the Vatican.

There is NOTHING I repeat NOTHING that gets my ire like the age old canard of deicide i.e. the Christian accusation of the alleged killing of god i.e. Jesus by Jews. Sure, that's old hat. Went out with the ovens of Auschwitz. MY posterior it did. This is EXACTLY what I mean when I say as a Jew I am ALWAYS vigilant because this moronic TRIPE is STILL with us, it still plagues the Jew and it is a cancer on humanity. It is why we must NEVER forget, we must NEVER surrender, we must ALWAYS know that it is there and if we allow it to it will fester and grow as it did for two thousand years culminating in the wholesale murder and slaughter of the six million. I urge you to either click onto this link or paste it into your browser as testament to this truth as to why the Jew canNOT and WILL not let it go and be silent! Silent no more. Good title for my next blog.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/11/catholic-bishop-blames-jews

Statistical Folly--A Fair Deal in the Balance Jeff Jacoby's statistical reductionism in his Sunday, April 10, 2010 Boston Globe article "Support for Israel runs on party lines" which states, simplistically, Republicans/Israel YES, Democrats/Israel YES but less so is absolutely INANE. What do these statistics mean? In reality nothing. I submit President Obama may be perceived as somewhat less hostile to Arab/Palestinian interests and slightly more equitable. How can this perception hurt when the perception of unequivocal Israeli support no matter the behavior nurtured by team Bush brought constant discord?

Our president FINALLY is smart and is TRYING to present a more equitable stance which not only serves Arab/Palestinian interests, but, in my opinion, serves the Interests of the Jewish state as well. There can be no peace, it seems to me, if the peace broker is seen by the Arab and Palestinian side as solidly in the Israeli camp. What fairness is there in that? The constructing of the settlements during Vice President Biden's visit to Israel was, in my view, insulting to Vice President Biden and the Obama administration which wanted a temporary halt to settlement construction while in the middle of delicate peace negotiations because the construction of settlements is contentious. Settlement construction done with a wink and a nod by Prime Minister Netanyahu threatened the peace process itself but, obviously, he did not care or it would not have commenced.

Either one wants peace or one doesn't. The road to peace MUST be paved by at least the PERCEPTION of an equitable mediator. If one were to litigate a mediation in our courts and the mediator said okay I'll mediate but you must know I have unwavering support for party A but I'll try to be fair to party B, that would be ridiculous.

The President has stated unequivocally his support for the Jewish state many times. I, as a Jew, believe he meant it. We who love Israel and want peace have waited for it for over sixty years. Peace, in my opinion, can happen ONLY when both sides think the mediator will be fair so a fair deal can be honed. I believe our president is trying his best to craft a perception that says just that!

A Letter to Virginia Governor McDonnell:

Governor McDonnell: Your elevation of the confederacy to remembrance status by proclamation is DISGUSTING. It would be like an elected official in Germany remembering Nazi dead. Yes, I think that is an APT simile because the southern states wanted to allow the perpetuation of a heinous racist system, and it was a revolt to do just that under the guise of a so called states rights philosophy. Let's call it by its REAL name. It REALLY WAS a treasonous attempt to wage war against the union which WAS the United States of America. I do not care how you dress this proclamation up. Yes, the so called confederacy was a radical attempt at OVERTHROW of the United States of America and the attempt was instituted through rebellion and war. That most of the southern traitors were not thrown into jail is a testament to the BRILLIANCE of Abraham Lincoln. He really DID want to unite the nation unlike you who want to divide it yet again. As Barack Obama said, paraphrasing, we are ONE nation not a nation of red states and blue states, not black and not white … . We are ONE America the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Moreover, that you did not mention slavery as the premier cause of the Civil War was NOT an omission it was purposeful. You KNEW once you did this accursed thing there would be voices angrily opposing it BUT that is just what you wanted. You KNEW some in your state and others in the nation would cheer yet again over two hundred years later a damnable thing which, with great regret, occurred in our country.

Damn you and those like you who want a remembrance of the confederacy to help destroy or split this nation yet again. You are still, two hundred years later, fighting the Civil War. Yes, the war was about many things but SLAVERY and its extension into the western states and territories was the largest issue. Slavery was a mean, cruel, nasty SHAME and slaughter of men perpetrated on a nation whose early revolutionary documents set aside tyranny and proposed freedom. The fact that slavery existed then is our albatross and hypocrisy which malfeasance has taken hundreds of years to undo. This patriot does not see the confederacy as a "cause." This patriot sees the confederacy for what it was – a treasonous war waged to undo by force the United States of America and in doing so perpetuate a horrific institution which caused black human beings to be treated and owned as property. It was this nation's most contentious issue and it has caused much pain and much death.

Governor McDonnell, SHAME on you! Your nostalgia for some romantic notion and remembrance of the confederacy brings SHAME yet again on this nation. The south LOST the war. Get used to it! The confederacy is NOTHING to cheer about or want to remember and if you were born black you would surely know that!

Tree of Blood: One of the front pages on Huffington Post was about the rebellion and possibly toppling of the government in Kyrgyzstan. It is an ugly bloody picture but it is what toppling a government looks like. Just in case any right wingnuts or ANY wingnuts think it is so romantic to overthrow a government it emphatically is NOT. Invariably a government it replaces is WORSE than the one toppled. It is NEVER clean and simple. It is brutal and harsh. Our country is a country of 300 MILLION. It is amazing that it runs as well as it does despite the nasty epithets thrown by the right AND the left against many people who possess power.

Much as there are those in our country who say otherwise, our government really DOES have an avenue to change and it has many times for over three centuries. Our Civil War cost us over 600,000 lives. That is A LOT of lives for the US population then with the crude armaments it possessed in comparison to what we now have. Rebellion is NOT pretty and it is NOT romantic. Rebellion hurts and kills only to find the government it replaces is just the same or worse as the one before. Witness the falling of the Vietnam Diem regime which was replaced by Nguyen Van Thieu and Nguyen Cao Ky who were despots. When they were overthrown upon US exit from Vietnam they were replaced by Communist Ho Chi Min and his Viet Cong. If one wants to see REAL tyranny look to that or to the Cambodian Pol Pot who rivaled some of the worst despots who ever lived. There are, of course, many other examples.

Our government is not perfect but we have one where, at the very least, our grievances can be addressed. It was not easy to get here and we have changed for the good at times despite or maybe because of the diversity of our numbers. Think about it when you think that picking up a gun and using it to maim or kill your fellow American whether on the political left or the right is a dandy thing to do. Making the policy of a government which would control a country of over 300 million people is hard to do. Policy is made through the torturous art of compromise which does not make for viewable media highlights.

When we do not like the policy we should CHANGE it, peacefully, through the avenues we already possess. We should not threaten to pick up a gun to water the so called “tree of liberty” since the water that tree is asking for is our fellow citizens’ blood and, ultimately, will not give us liberty but WILL surely give us death.