The Nation’s Destruction – the Power of Magical Thinking: All the logic and rational argument promulgated against the Republican leadership about the manufactured crisis of raising the debt ceiling does not matter because the Republican leadership is shaking in its self-created Tea Bag infected boots. The Knownothing Tea Bag so called movement is made up of a minority of Republicans (many racist) in the country that wants the president to fail and wants to take down the nation with him. Many see this as a once-in-a-life-time chance to foment national and world-wide discord (Oslo is, indeed, ominous) as the means by which they will usher in their Christianist -- mainly white power -- state. Rational argument, no matter how well intentioned and infinitely correct, the opposition of madness will never by persuasion back down. It would not matter if Democrats offered 14 trillion in cuts with no revenue, this small group of Republicans representing the religiously intolerant and ignorant will, using Republican leadership as their mouth piece, consistently say no. They have hijacked the rest of the Republican Party who, I believe, would negotiate a compromise at the very least.

The president in his heart, I think, understands that those who will not vote to raise the the debt ceiling (which Reagan raised 17 times), in truth, want really to subvert the president and Democratic senatorial leadership and thereby watch the country implode. Many Tea Baggers hope the resultant chaos of this deadly never-waged-before game of financial chicken will take this country and the world down with it. They have not seen, until now, this ripe moment of intertwined world discord to confront the secular world they have always loathed. Their magical fantasy world will, they think, usher in the second coming of Jesus who will save the believers only and leave the rest of us to take up residence in hell. I suspect the hell to which they wish to relegate us is the here and now on earth.

Ridding or cutting our hard-won-over-decades social safety nets of Soc. Sec., Medicare and Medicaid will kill – yes kill – many. Moreover, ultimately, if it those programs are put in the hands of Wall Street gamblers and their Ponzi schemes it will put the final seal on our nation’s coffin. One can see how well Wall Street worked for us in 2007 and the many booms and busts it provided before that. The preponderance of wealth now sits oligarchically in the hands of a few and those few co-opt the parties with unlimited cash.

The middle and working classes get the boot and are relegated to the lower tiers of our economic order. Those at the top 2% simply do not care. The middle class minions who support Republican leadership do not understand that they will relegate themselves to this hell as well since they are mostly a part of our middle and working classes. Still many rejoice in the discord as the more divided, psychologically furious and sick the nation becomes the better to usher in their Christianist fantasy Jesus land and truly marry church and state exactly what our founders did NOT want.

Most all families and those we love – including Tea Baggers' families – depend upon our country's social safety nets to live. They will, though, succumb with the rest of us who depend upon these programs. In the final analysis we are ALL human. The only ones who will NOT be affected by anything, of course, are the wealthy of Wall Street who have managed to make oodles of bucks through our crisis while the rest of the country stagnates in a quicksand of lost financial worth and economic failure. The wealthy always manage to escape their self-made hells but the rest of us will not have a map or GPS device to escape this route of social discord, fracture and anarchy.

We must harness our own minions, who make up the rational part of our national discourse, to summon our forces against the ignorant and we must not allow this sad misguided minority the prevalence and power of their magical thinking to take our intelligence, our rationality, our president and our country down with it.

My opinion about the debt ceiling made the "Highlighted" section of the NYT blog: There is no question to me that Minority leader McConnell and Speaker Boehner with the Tea Party at their side are playing a game of chicken with the lives of the American people at risk. The president has given them the world -- nearly all of what they wanted -- and antagonized his base at the same time but Republicans will accept nothing. If the president gave no tax increase, decreased the debt by 14 trillion or more Republicans STILL would say no. They will say no to everything. It is crystal clear to those of us who examine issues, motivations and intent that the intent of the Republican party especially of Sen. McConnell is to bring the president down. He has said it. It is clear. When someone says something I believe them.

I am HOPING beyond hope that the American public can see the methods to this insane Republican madness. I think the president is counting on the fact that they will and that the middle rational part of the American public will not let him down. He is counting on them AND people like me who are members of his base. The base has some disgruntled members in it as he has tried to appease Republicans SO much but he is hoping and as is the case for me, we will support him nonetheless.

When the American people want to punish a president they sometimes step on their own feet. They did it electing Nixon for the Vietnam debacle and they SURELY did it electing Bush II for the Clinton sexual improprieties. In both cases it did not bode well for our country. Unseating Obama would not bode well either.

It is easy to criticize but much harder to form policy. I am hoping the American people see how easy it is for Republicans not to care about their lives. The only life they DO care about is their own and those top 2% wealthy who know which side they are on. Republicans are NOT about you, middle America, THAT you can take to the bank.

The following is a list: Here is a list of ALL the Tea Bag House members below. Those of you who generally share my political opinions write them essentially what I have written about the necessity of raising the debt ceiling for monies ALREADY spent so that the United States of America does NOT default on its bills for the first time in its history. This is literally a life and death issue for MOST Americans except, of course, the top 2% many of whom pay no taxes at all.

Feel free to copy, to paraphrase or write something of your own to the ones I have listed below telling them in no uncertain terms do you do NOT want anything based on giving up YOUR Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid -- all safety nets which protect ALL of us. AND most especially you want the DEBT CEILING RAISED.

We are in difficult times now but IF the debt ceiling is not raised you will NOT recognize the America you have known and loved your entire life. If you can write or call them now you may save a life. Your life and your descendants' lives depend upon it. My opinion on the debt ceiling is at the following link: http://natalierosen.blogspot.com/2011/07/hitting-ceiling-i-am-so-angry-i-cannot.html

The following are Tea Party House members who will do anything to take down our president which is really what this debate is about. Simply Google their name and you will get their House link. If you have trouble do it through Googling the United States House of Representatives. You can call or email your own thoughts or cut and paste mine into the representatives' sites. It is not only for me it is for you, your children and those you love too!

P.S. You can send the Republican House leadership a note as well: i.e. Speaker John Boehner (R) Ohio, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R) VA

Tea Bag House:

Sandy Adams (FL-24)
Robert Aderholt (AL-04)
Todd Akin (MO-02)
Rodney Alexander (LA-05)
Michele Bachmann (MN-06)
Roscoe Bartlett (MD-06)
Joe Barton (TX-06)
Rob Bishop (UT-01)
Gus Bilirakis (FL-09)
Paul Broun (GA-10)
Michael Burgess (TX-26)
Dan Burton (IN-05)
John Carter (TX-31)
Bill Cassidy (LA-06)
Howard Coble (NC-06)
Mike Coffman (CO-06)
Ander Crenshaw (FL-04)
John Culberson (TX-07)
Jeff Duncan (SC-03)
Stephen Lee Fincher (TN-08)
John Fleming (LA-04)
Trent Franks (AZ-02)
Phil Gingrey (GA-11)
Louie Gohmert (TX-01)
Vicky Hartzler (MO-04)
Wally Herger (CA-02)
Tim Huelskamp (KS-01)
Lynn Jenkins (KS-02)
Steve King (IA-05)
Doug Lamborn (CO-05)
Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-09)
Kenny Marchant (TX-24)
Tom McClintock (CA-04)
David McKinley (WV-01)
Gary Miller (CA-42)
Mick Mulvaney (SC-05)
Randy Neugebauer (TX-19)
Rich Nugent (FL-05)
Steve Pearce (NM-02)
Mike Pence (IN-06)
Ted Poe (TX-02)
Tom Price (GA-06)
Denny Rehberg (MT-At large)
David Roe (TN-01)
Dennis Ross (FL-12)
Edward Royce (CA-40)
Steve Scalise (LA-01)
Pete Sessions (TX-32)
Adrian Smith (NE-03)
Lamar Smith (TX-21)
Cliff Stearns (FL-06)
Tim Walberg (MI-07)
Joe Walsh (IL-08)
Allen West (FL-22)
Lynn Westmoreland (GA-03)
Joe Wilson (SC-02)

Hitting the Ceiling: I am SO angry I cannot even tune in to political discussion that I ordinarily love to do because Washington spews the same old broken record and my security is at stake. I am angry because I am scared. The only criticism of the president I had tonight was that he gave a forum to the Republican Party to spew its empty rhetoric yet again. Boehner said NOTHING absolutely NOTHING about revenue which SHOULD be the other half of the equation. Moreover, Boehner lied when he said what the House had proposed was bipartisan. It was NOT. Revenue like one's paycheck is derived because government does something for you. As much as the Tea Party mantra say it does not and wants to kill it they are incorrect. It does. It does a lot.

When a plane lands safely thank the FAA. When your food and air are not poisoned thank the EPA. When your Social Security helps you when you are old and your body cannot work any more thank the SSA. When Medicare pays your expensive hospital bill then thank the government for creating it. When one gets laid off a job and collects unemployment insurance thank the government for mandating it. If a medication is created or an epidemic averted than thank the NIH for helping to do that. Thank the government for doing so many enumerable other things that make our life just a little bit easier.

Middle America must realize Republicans are NOT about them. Republicans are about the top 2% of our population which should, as the president says, contribute more to reduce our deficit. The top 2% represented by their Republican henchmen want to have it all. They want bailouts and bonuses without contributing to the government that gave it to them; a government owned by the people. The president is right the debt ceiling MUST be raised. If we must reduce the deficit to raise the ceiling then we must do it with an evenhanded approach which includes revenue -- money taken in.

Again, I say it: America, the Republican Party with their Tea Party hijackers is NOT about you. The Republican Party represents 2% of the population which Republicans entrust with their own jobs. Republicans will accept nothing the president offers because they are using this serious game of chicken to see if they can defeat him but by defeating him they defeat us. As those in Wisconsin saw after they elected a ruinous Republican Governor Walker, his party was NOT about most of them. Now they have the difficult task to undo the evil he and his ilk have done.

Write your senator and representative and say to them you want a balanced approach to addressing the deficit by cutting spending and taking in extra revenue from those who can most afford it. Raising the debt ceiling is mandatory so this nation does NOT default on its past debts for the first time in its history. Raise the debt ceiling so you do not have to hit the ceiling when your nation defaults on the debts it already has incurred thereby tanking its own economy and even the economies of the world along with it! This is serious stuff. Treat it with the seriousness it deserves.

Making Rational the Irrational – the Norwegian Massacre: The carnage of the innocents lies screaming to me in the night. I ask why. Why does such bestial cruelty lie within man and yet man possess the ability to do the greatest good. It is man’s eternal conundrum. Why can one man commit the slaughter of innocents and other men risk their lives to help people dying of thirst? We have both of those qualities within us. We have the capacity for great thought, for questioning, for knowledge; the ability to acquire truth through science and yet crackpot thoughts of cranks drive the politics of our time and really any time of historical scope. Man must claw his way through eons of fantasy and mythology to see truth.

A scientific truth was found today that sees Neanderthal DNA in one to two percent of our species. Genetics tells us that all of mankind originated in Africa. We can see evolution in the different species at work all around us. Evolution is indisputable and science blows continual holes in social Darwinist thought – the idea that a single race of men is innately superior to others. Right wing fanatical belief is, I believe, one of the most dangerous political ideologies because it has as its fundamental thought the denial of these truths and gives men a permission slip to commit horrific violence to another and deny personhood to that other – whoever that other may be.

The ancient Biblical Genesis tells us Cain slew his brother Able it is true but another Biblical man said “What you do unto the least of these my brethren you do unto me.” The Norwegian took over 90 innocent lives of those who were barely past childhood. Those lives were NOT his to take for a right wing extremist philosophy all science says is false. The man who took those lives calls himself Christian? I doubt that very much and so would, I suspect, Jesus himself.

Spread the Word--Malicious Mendacity: Spread the word through every hamlet and village said best by Longfellow in the last stanza of his famous poem “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.”

The Republican mendacity, deceit and yes treason of our time must be fiercely fought as our Founders fought tyranny so long ago. A world in Republican Land would be a fascist oligarchic tyranny indeed and in their eyes the people be damned as they block time and again a presidential compromise made in good faith. Raising the debt ceiling means this country will rise or fall unless it is raised and Republicans know that, block the president's compromise at every turn and do not care.

I quote Longfellow’s last stanza:

“So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,—
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.”

This time let the defiance of Republican treason and tyranny be fought by we the people. Always fight, never surrender, never give in and to quote another patriot Patrick Henry: “If this be treason make the most of it.” Let us not waste this moment which reflects the perfidy of this malicious mendacious Republican American minority. This time let the defiance of Republican tyranny be we the people!

Pray away the gay -- NOT: Please think about signing the petition below. Bachmann and her husband are ruinous of lives, they are hateful, hurtful and UTTERLY unprofessional most especially their views and her husband's "treatment" of homosexuals through his "clinic."

Her husband is dealing with people's psyches some of whom are fragile. To THINK much less convey a treatment as moronic as that which says praying away the gay works is insanity in and of itself. The word expert is not in the Tea Baggie repertoire as intellectuality and rationalism are shunned. Praying away the gay is no more efficacious than is creation non-science or the denial of evolution which is scientific FACT or that climate change is a hoax. These people will be responsible for the destruction not only of individuals and our country but of the planet as well.

Her husband should have his license taken away and be investigated for FRAUD. He is accepting, of all things to Tea Baggies, Medicaid funds-- i.e. government payments for services that are junk to say the least. Your tax dollar at work -- NOT!

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/bachmann_clinic/?rc=fb_share2

The Bottom Line Is You: The headline of the link below is “Wells Fargo Illegally Pushed Borrowers Into Subprime Mortgages, Falsified Loan Documents, Fed Says.” Wells Fargo was fined millions BUT it made BILLIONS. How will a few million in fines hurt them? The truth is NOT MUCH. What I DO hope is that it hurts its reputation and that people BOYCOTT firms that have been guilty of the GREATEST swindle and fraud since the Great Depression­. In truth this economic Ponzi scheme was, I believe, systemically worse. While the Great Depression was a horrifically difficult time in world history no one can dispute, not that many invested in the stock market and there was not a mortgage facet that kicked it off.

If the government will not adequately protect us we must protect ourselves and in libertaria­n fashion BOYCOTT those banks and other companies that do not have safeguards in place and for God's sake WATCH THE LOANS YOU TAKE OUT. MAKE SURE YOU CAN AFFORD THEM. Beat these beasts at their own game and let them know their vicious behavior has consequenc­e!! WATCH what or from whom you buy and READ EVERYTHING including all the fine print and most of all TRUST NO ONE. Assume these too-big-to-fail gargantuan dinosaurs will care NOTHING for you but WILL CARE for themselves­. They will eat you for lunch IF you let them. DON'T!

The Huge Grant story linked below means that in addition to banking and other fraudulent investment schemes send a message to ALL media that stealing your privacy or lying is NOT acceptable either. Boycott those entities which engage in illegal and fraudulent informational activities.

Like a doctor who treats infectious disease -- ACT AS IF the person has it and proceed to rectify the malady. IF people offer you the world that seems too good to be true it often IS. QUESTION EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE WHO TAKES YOUR MONEY WHETHER IT'S A NEWSPAPER, A RETAIL BUSINESS, A MORTGAGE LENDER OR AN INVESTMENT FIRM. Assume they are not telling you the truth and investigate it.

Libertarians hate government regulation so test their philosophy. Be responsible for your own security and information. BOYCOTT those who do not ethically comply! Sign on the bottom line. Remember, the bottom line is, in fact, YOU!


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/20/wells-fargo-subprime-fraud_n_905198.html?show_comment_id=98309593#comment_98309593,sb=18931,b=facebook

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43821759/ns/today-entertainment/t/hugh-grant-wins-court-ruling-uk-phone-hacking-scandal/?fb_ref=story_header&fb_source=profile_oneline

The Gang of Six, Seven or whatever -- debt ceiling compromise coming out of their gangland corners -- I HOPE!: The president was vague but talked about at first the gang of six and then the gang of 7 as he added one in hopes the debt ceiling will be raised. He said he is hoping that a deal is in the works. It would be as he said "strengthening entitlements" and some as he put it revenue.

So to me IF and I say IF the strengthening of Medicare and Social Security are based on income and need. i.e. those who pay into it and make more pay more, and those that get Medicare if they make more they will pay higher co-pays and higher fees to have Medicare I can live with that. If you make more you pay a LITTLE not a lot but a little more. Sounds good to me.

Other "revenue" I don't know -- maybe close a few loopholes. It's all very nebulous now. It's raising taxes by going around the mulberry bush maybe but keeping the entitlements for those who need it for example not paying the same as someone who can afford to pay more.

Ed Schultz who is absolutely death on compromising with Republicans I think is not correct. My feeling is if we the middle class do not take a hit and those who make much more than the middle class have to pay more we MUST make a compromise and raising the debt ceiling depends upon it. I think the rich will feel this very little. Okay great who cares? As long as the middle class and the poor do not feel it I say yes to compromise.

If the president can get a negotiated settlement with the worst of the worst most uncompromising and mean Republicans to ever grace the halls of congress since before the Civil War period than who can fault him? He may have saved the country and the world from implosion yet again but worse. Our actual national security is at risk. I say you can't fault him BUT I reserve the right to change my mind when the plan comes out IF it ever does.

WRITE, EMAIL or SMOKE SIGNAL YOUR REPS AND SENATORS IMMEDIATELY -- see link below.


Hands Off Social Security! http://action.ourfuture.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=127
Social Security is once again under attack. The White House debt commission co-chairs want to cut benefits and raise the retirement age.

DUH no kidding. Listen to George Carlin the late great comic below who nailed it right on the money.

(some of the language in the Utube
is rough, if your sensibilities would be bothered then don't click on it -- BUT it is so prescient and he said it years before this economic
insanity debt ceiling)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v​=acLW1vFO-2Q

Big and Small -- More Murdoch Empire Falling: The Murdoch News of the World, Wall Street Journal et al media times 1000 has to be the most unbelievable scandal eclipsing Watergate by MILES and MILES and MILES. In both cases, though, even though I bath in the joy of seeing right wingnuts brought down, it is still in a human fashion sad. These people like Rebeckah Books the editor of News of the World at 46 years old -- 46 years old -- at the TOP of her professional career being arrested and ruining the life of a probably bright person is astounding and yes unlike she I can evoke a certain appreciation for the sadness of tragedy.

What was/were she/they thinking? The first second -- no millisecond -- she became aware of people in Murdoch's empire HACKING .. HACKING into private phone conversions of the mighty and the small what would ANY moral person do? They would say FORGETABOUTIT I'm outta here. Who could EVER on God's earth think they could get away with this MASSIVE scale of actually STEALING -- stealing lives from people, stealing their personal phone conversations and private lives. It is at the very least SICKENING. Do I see an empire falling? It surely seems that way as it is stretching endlessly from scandal sheets like News of the World, to Parliament, to Scotland Yard, to Hugh Grant to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's newborn son's cystic fibrosis diagnosis and it is crossing the pond to US newspapers like the (formerly respected) Wall Street Journal. Its editor Les Hinton resigned his post. Perhaps it will even stretch to Fox News. I would not be surprised.

From under what rock did these so called "conservative" hacking Neanderthals and their financiers crawl? Maybe Murdoch, Murdoch's son, people like Rebeckah Brooks and Les Hinton will understand what it feels like to be unemployed and the prospect of getting another job after overseeing criminal behavior does not bode well. Watch as the rats desert a sinking ship. I cannot say that I am not glad because I am. I hope the charges stick. Then again the rich get off and maybe they will hack into yet more conversations to make sure they don't end up in jail. How many judges' phones can they hack, find something personal and then blackmail or buy them off?

Keep a close watch on your phone everyone. In an anything goes culture everyone is at risk!

"Contagion": A Communicable Disease for Everyone: Matt Damon's new film "Contagion" coming in September (by the name you can imagine what this film is about) is one I will see and you MAY want to see as well. I attach a link to the trailer below.

I wrote the following comment of the trailer on Facebook:

OH MY GOODNESS. There is no question (if I am alive) I will see this film. It appears on first glance to be one of Damon's great films and with Steven Soderbergh directing I am not surprised. It is a perfect film for our times. The one worry I have: with all the fear directed at humanity day after day after day by the media and the events it covers do I really want to see a fictionalized film of that which hits the reptilian fear synapse of our brain in triplicate?

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3924270105/

Midnight in Paris: Woody Allen yet again serves up a thought provoking, entertaining and brilliant film. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Have you ever wondered if it would have been better to have been born in a previous era? Woody Allen helps us answer that question by having us time travel a bit through the experiences of a young writer attempting to publish his first work which has as its setting a memorabilia shop filled with things of bygone eras which interest him. In this era, however, he travels with his shallow fiancé and her conservative condescending parents to Paris where the hero is smitten with its beauty and culture. What his fiancé does not know is that at the stroke of midnight our protagonist is transported to another era -- the Roaring Twenties – complete with Cole Porter music, Ernest Hemingway literature, Picasso art and Gertrude Stein as critic of the book he has just written.

This is a wonderful film especially if one has a general familiarity of the art, literature and music of that era as well as a general understanding of cultural settings in times other than our own. The film is brilliant and clever as only Woody Allen can be. The protagonist could certainly have been Woody Allen himself as he has played similar roles in many of his earlier works and if it were in a different era perhaps 20 years ago then Woody would have played the lead role instead of Owen Wilson whom I think was excellent.

Allen's talent will endure long after all who have enjoyed the genre of his films have left the scene. He brings a flavor to his films that is unique to him and yet carries with it something that touches all of us by trying to understand the human condition, its philosophical dilemmas, its heartaches, its romantic love, its fears, its joys, its failures and its triumphs.

Which era would you want to return? I always say the late 60's but "Midnight in Paris" warns us each era has its problems and its vicissitudes as mankind tries to improve upon his historical condition from generation to generation. It, therefore, gives us pause for thought maybe the era in which we do live is the best era of all. It is surely the only one we know.

Done: Tea Baggie Republicans do not care if the country tanks and it looks thankfully that the president won't budge. I hope he doesn't he has offered these swine the world. So what is the end game? Answer: Unknowable. Be prepared for another Great Recession or EVEN Great Depression. If Social Security Checks do not go out or if Medicare does not pay be prepared to have your loved ones die. Really, I'm not kidding, it's that serious. Not to mention the ever present stock market vigil as yet again your investments WILL plunge. Got any gold on hand?

I am through listening to the debt ceiling talks I can't stand it any more. No Rachel, no Olbermann, no Larry O'Donnell, no Ed Schultz, No News at least not tonight.

I will watch old movies, buy some verboten chocolate cookies, drown my tears in chocolate and at some point see Woody Allen's new film Midnight in Paris. Got fabulous reviews unlike our government!

As I see it: Larry O'Donnell cinched it for me. No matter what the criticism I may have this president is unmatched in his intellect and I think in his heart of hearts wants to do that which we elected him to do but this insanity that happened in the 2010 election midterms with the Tea Party extremists put a big fly in the ointment.

So we have to play the ball where it lies. I thought this strategic move by the president on the debt ceiling seemed very savvy and could only come from one who knows politicking inside and out and who knows what he is doing. I will place the Larry O'Donnell link below explaining how good the president's judgment on this was.

The bottom line is a Republican is unacceptable in the presidency and, as importantly, I do believe Democrats can win back the House. If that happened we would, I think, see some very good policy in the second term as a result. The president has been stonewalled at every turn. Moreover, Democrats CAN win elections as we are seeing in these small elections in NY and in CA and elsewhere. Even the State Sup Ct. Republican Judge Prossser in Wisconsin was nearly eclipsed by the Democrat and indeed she should probably have won if not for internal machinations of Republicans. It should have been a piece of cake for Prosser but it was NOT!

Wisconsin and other states that took a Republican hit with unions like Ohio and Michigan and Scott who is hated in Florida along with Maine governor Paul LePage (one of the worst extremist Republicans in Maine history) may NOT win re-election and we COULD do it with all the exposure of dirty Republican politics of which there is an abundance.

So I am linking to sites where you can listen to Larry O'Donnell's interpretation of what transpired yesterday vis a vie the debt ceiling and McConnell's offer
and a link to a donation site for the president.

Let's turn the Republican extremist and racist ideologues around and take back the House and, importantly, of course, re-elect President Obama. He needs your help. Let's repeat the glory of 2008. Our lives depend on it!

http://thelastword.msnbc.msn.com/

http://www.barackobama.com/get-involved

My Facbook comments summary--excuse the poorly written prose it is off the top of my head written fast to get it out. THREE good things-NOW 2012 DEMOCRATS TAKE BACK the HOUSE so the president can get more passed without having to wade through sludge.

Hahn defeats Tea Baggie in CA: The idiot Tea Baggies have shown to this country what they are about. The populist movement was taken over by BIG money and could care less about the people. They simply did not get it. Now they do as the Wisconsin governor Walker showed everyone so nicely and as Scott is doing in Florida. True colors show so when Dems make an effort they can topple these bas&*%^%ds with ease. CONGRATS to Janice Hahn in CA...bring on 2012. The Republicans have blown their own foot off. Extremism of any stripe does NOT work in this country the Republicans are seeing the beginning of a death knell because their platform is HATEFUL and regressive. This has happened spasmodically all over the country but says a LOT!!!

In Wisconsin all six fake Democrats lost to Democrats supported by the party in primaries Tuesday that are the first in a series of recall elections targeting nine Wisconsin state Republican senators along with their hateful governor tried to destroy the unions in Wisconsin -- BAD move.

ON WISCONSIN. The Tea Baggies have shown their colors. Democrats are winning and some Republican special election seats all over the country. The Republican Party's days are numbered. They ruined it themselves by buying into the extremist Tea Baggie wing which is funded by BIG corporate money that hijacked a populist movement. It appealed to the most hateful part of this country.

After 2008 they were saying Republicans need to reformulate the substance of their party. They regrouped STUPIDLY and filled themselves with OLD, WHITE often racist morons who could not articulate an intelligent thought if you paid them. This is what they are getting. The Walkers and the Scotts and others like them throughout the country you cannot steal, buy or lie your way to success. EVENTUALLY they are found out for the poison policy they are about.

GO DEMOCRATS never give up, never give in and VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE. Do the necessary things and overcome roadblocks that Republicans have set up like the poll tax of old. Let them know that won't matter because you will overcome it and VOTE!

Between what happened yesterday with special election in CA, Wisconsin AND McConnell's offer on the debt ceiling (after we examine it) this is VERY good -- I feel like life is coming back into my body. KEEP IT UP!

Republicans are sowing the seeds of their own demise. Keep ruining yourself Republicans I LOVE it!

The Recipe: Republican Mitch McConnell proposes giving the president power over debt ceiling. I never trust Republicans. If they offer a solution there must be a trap. Could this be unconstitutional and get Obama impeached?

Impeachment notwithstanding, I don't care who does it just raise the darn ceiling so we can have a country again and so the suicide rate does not go up. America, get Republicans OUT of the House so the president can do what will get us out of the ditch. Republicans keep us there by not doing what is needed and that is increasing revenue which is at an all time low seen only in the 1950's. We need both prescient spending cuts AND increase in revenues with an emphasis on the latter.

We need government to work FOR us not against us. Mr. President, after God willing, your re-election please ask Dr. Krugman what he is doing the next four years and then put Elizabeth Warren in the most advantageous position possible. See if Brooksley Born would want a job and make your economic advisers the kind that will make you one of the greatest US presidents in history along side Lincoln and FDR. You are stymied by bad advisers and Republicans who jack boot you into submission and stagnation. Given favorable conditions I believe the president could give us an injection of incredible pride!!

DO IT. Put the House back into Democratic hands, re-elect the president in 2012 and change his economic advisers. A recipe for success!

Do the Right Thing: I watched the entire presidential news conference. There was NOTHING with which anyone of good and fair conscience could disagree. This big deal between Republicans and Democrats that the president wants sinks or swims on Republican heads. It is simple. Tax increases for revenue or income coming in to the federal government will be SLIGHTLY increased and will (not until 2013) come FROM those who CAN afford it. It will NOT come from the majority of Americans. There is NOTHING unfair about it. IF big corporate anything – big finance, big pharma, big oil would not be agreeable to that then they DESERVE to have the country go down the drain. Make no mistake IF the debt ceiling is not raised our experiment in democracy WILL fail and those who will make it fail, Republicans, are anything but patriotic.

Cuts will be made to programs about which we as Democrats grit our teeth but will have to bear. To extend the debt ceiling it requires, as the president said, for the country to feel more comfortable that our debt is being ameliorated. Extending the debt ceiling is a no brainer. It will be on Republican heads if this simple-to-understand issue which deals with debts ALREADY incurred is not done. The full faith and credit of our country is at stake and if not done the economic survival of the US and the world WILL sputter. This has implications not only economically but defensively as well since there may be soon a 7th war in the Middle East. If we are plunged into economic chaos the rich may do fine but everyone else will not. Our very lives could be at stake.

Even IF the American public – god forbid – in 2012 elects Romney what is Romney going to do? HE will extend the debt ceiling assuming the House remains in Republican hands but by that time it will be too late. NO jobs will be created because those who have all the money will abscond with it and jobs will NOT be created here.

You will NOT want to see an America that refuses to raise taxes on the wealthy but will only cut programs for the middle class and you will not want to see an America which relies ONLY on business to create jobs. It won't. They will take jobs overseas because after all the free market will be SO free the American people be damned. If it is profits or people in Republican land profits win out exclusively. Republicans do NOT care about most of you.

The president said NOTHING with which anyone of sane mind could disagree. It's only Republicans who are mean, intractable, uncompromising and, in fact, truly unpatriotic. You want to put YOUR future in their hands? I don't think you do.

America, be smart and demand your representatives NOT be an impediment to the security of the country and to our president who, I believe despite my criticism, in good faith wants to do the right thing. The debt ceiling MUST be raised.

The Road to Perpetual War: A stream of conscious:

So let's see the below link is on MSNBC and is new Sec. of Defense Panetta threatening unilateral (another Bush invention) action against Iran: WAR NO. 7?? And just when does anyone think the US will pull out of the illegal Iraq War? As they say in the trade next Tishabov: Translation -- NEVER! We are in permanent never ending war for the foreseeable future and most likely for the rest of my own life! But hey people are protesting the Caylee Anthony trial.

As bad as what happened to that little girl was does anyone protest the hundreds of thousands killed by American forces all over the Middle East, families torn, uprooted by an unnecessary destabilizing Iraq and refugees by the millions. Where is the protest? What about bombing Libya? Another ruse. You know when people will finally figure things out? When they begin drafting your sons and daughters. Now with a volunteer army one can say they opted in but a draft would change the whole picture. If that happens welcome to Vietnam II. Stay tuned for the Great Recession II and permanent war coming to a theater near you! I can hardly wait.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43708897/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

The Limits of War -- Food for Thought: I am reading "Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War" by Andrew Bachevich who according to Wiki is a professor of international relations at Boston University and a retired career officer in the United States Army. He is a former director of Boston University's Center for International Relations (from 1998 to 2005), and author of several books, including American Empire: The Realities and Consequences of US Diplomacy (2002), The New American Militarism: How Americans are Seduced by War (2005) and The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism (2008). He has been "a persistent, vocal critic of the US occupation of Iraq, calling the conflict a catastrophic failure." In March 2007, he described George W. Bush's endorsement of such "preventive wars" as "immoral, illicit, and imprudent." His son, also an Army officer, died fighting in the Iraq War in May 2007. In summer, 2010, he accused President Barack Obama of "want[ing] us to forget about the lessons of Iraq.":

I thought the following quotes from a blog on a Glen Greenwald article "The Great Generational Threat http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/07/09/terrorism/index.html were food for thought:

"James Forrestal, the first person to serve as secretary of defense, coined a term to describe this permanent crisis. He called it semiwar. Conceived by Forrestal at the beginning of the Cold War, and reflecting his own anticommunist obsessions, semiwar defines a condition in which great dangers always threaten the United States and will continue doing so into the indefinite future. When not actively engaged in hostilities, the nation faces the prospect of hostilities beginning at any moment, with little or no warning. In the setting of national priorities, readiness to act becomes a supreme value.

Semiwarriors created the Washington Rules. Semiwarriors uphold them. Semiwarriors benefit from their persistence.

The scathing complaint of foreign policy critic Roger Morris, registered some thirty years ago, remains apt today. Average Americans, he wrote then, their attention absorbed by the problems of daily life at home, 'give the rest of planet only a distracted, fleeting glance.' Easily persuaded that the United States is called upon to lead, they leave it to others to work out the details. As a result, ordinary citizens remain 'heedless of the people and closed politics,' cloaked in secrecy, that formulate policies advertised as essential to the nation's safety and well-being. From time to time, 'dour, mostly anonymous men' emerge from behind closed doors to 'announce discreetly some fresh disaster.' Although inquiries and investigations inevitably ensue, the net effect is not to fix responsibility but to disperse it. Then the game continues, the terms of reference all but unaffected, the cast of characters largely unchanged, with Republican and Democratic insiders simply exchanging portfolios at periodic intervals."

-Andrew J. Bacevich, Washington Rules

Professorial Prescience: These are two short lectures I found on UTUBE which was given by my new-found guru, Dr. Simon Schama. I always have to find one as for me Howard Zinn's loss needs repair. I heard Professor Schama discuss the US Constitutional construct. It was riveting. Professor Simon Schama is a Professor of history and art history at Columbia University. His resume is longer than this page so I place the link below to a few words he gave about Barack Obama. This was delivered in 2009 at the Carnegie Council. It is called "Obama's Realism." We now have a bit of hindsight with which to judge his words. I think his words were as on target then as they are now.

Underneath that on Utube you will see another one of Dr. Schama's lectures given in 2009 entitled: "Us in Afghanistan and Iraq." The latter was particularly interesting I thought as he gave his rationales for why the Afghanistan war in his view is justified as opposed to the War in Iraq. I find him presciently correct.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSj-MOissYc&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6LdFsylArk&feature=relmfu

No News of the World: Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch and his evil media tabloid style empire have tasted the fruits of their own Machiavellian machinations. Murdoch's closing of News of the World because of its wholesale phone hacking of innocents is I suspect but a ripple in an ocean of deceit, lies and immoral behavior in the world of scandal tabloid news. It seems to me someone famous who some think divine said "What profit a man if he gain the whole world but lose his soul?" What more precise question to address to Mr. Murdoch, et al.

I suspect News of the World is only the tip of the iceberg of this scandal driven, gluttonous, money making swill, written on the backs often of the innocent and gleaned because of the thirst for uncontroll­ed capitaliza­tion of human suffering. I can say, Mr. Murdoch, this is small justice but justice nonetheles­s to one of the most megalomaniacal , avaricious­, power hungry excuses for humanity ever to grace this planet.

I suspect this is merely a scab on a festering infected sore of sensationalist tabloid anything-goes media gone WILD! May those who pumped life into this scandal NEVER rest in peace!”

Social Insecurity: he summer 2010 when the town meetings because of health care got ugly. People yelling don't take my health care away -- they meant Medicare the president did not step up to the plate and tell them the realities of the health care he was pushing. He did not push back forcefully against the Tea baggies who were fuming from the bailout. The tea baggies are SO dumb many did not realize why bailouts were necessary. He needed to scream why bailouts were necessary if they were not bailed out the big corps would fall like dominoes!!

Nov. 2012 -- he is handed a "shellacki­ng" over bailouts and perceived spending on health care. it is what the Republican­s who lost so much power in 2008 were salivating over. Now they had furious groups against bailouts and ready to hook on to no taxes. sounds good but no new spending no new jobs. By the time the Republican­s had taken over the House it was too late. Now the president must work with the hand he was dealt. If he stands and fights he will be defeated by a solidity Republican House.The time that he needed to fight was the summer of 2012. The economic catastroph­e was NOT the fault of him nor really of many Dems it was 30 years of a deregulate­d Wall Street gone mad with greed. It was his fault in the summer of 2010 but it is not his fault now.”

Why support Israel: Joyce Kaufman is a talk show host and is on Utube. I agree with her generally about Israel EXCEPT for her final reason about god. Everyone thinks god is on their side and I would not base my support of Israel on a document written 5000 ago by men. The rest of her diatribe has substantive worth.

As I investigate more because I knew not much about her she appears to be a right wing nationalist ideologue much like Palin. I am not sure about that but it may be so. I do not know why I cannot voice my general support and love for Israel while not going for the rest of her anti-immigrant rants. I think I can and do.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmV1ffKP0ms&feature=share

I would like to write a book: "How to Feel Happiness in an Out of Control World": Feel free to take that title and write that book because I have NO idea what to put in it!

PLEASE READ and THINK: I cannot believe I am sending a link below to a Fox News story but if they have posted it you can imagine the threat. I am NOT surprised I have said this from
Day 1 of the Fukishima explosion and tsunami. Nuclear power is UNSAFE at any speed. It is subject to the whims of nature and the gross mistakes of man.

Global climate change is a FACT, it is occurring because of man and is a FACT, catastrophic weather events we have been seeing both in winter
AND summer related to fossil fuels ruining the climate is a FACT and nuclear power is NOT the answer. Rational thought rules. THINK and do not rely on
fairy stories and religious irrational myths that will DOOM all of us. Science tells us what we need to know and FACTS cannot be disputed.

For your Fourth of July reading which I hope prods you to THINK well what our Founders gave us and how toxic religion mixed with government policy is. Ultimately, it will kill us all.

Christ was right when he is alleged to have said: "Render to Cesar what is Cesar's and to God what is God's." THINK ON THAT and
do not give up man's gift -- the ability to rationally THINK!

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/06/29/radiation-in-our-food/

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE NUCLEAR MADNESS AND OTHER THINGS: This blog is off the top of my head. There is no time to waste writing a pristine constructed opinion so I am writing what I thought as I awoke and read the news. Two stories at first light -- the Minnesota government shut down AND Los Alamos.

There is so much sickening news I don't know where to begin. This country is waging SIX yes, count them SIX wars -- Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya under the direction of a Nobel Peace laureate!! All I have to do is get up and check the news in the a.m. and I begin to shake. Huffington Post has a huge headline -- "Minnesota shut down." I'm not a naive person but I saw that headline after just waking up and even though I have woken up to worse headlines certainly but with EVERYTHING else I am not kidding I am sitting here shaking.

It's not just Minnesota its the whole country and even the world -- Greece comes to mind. Their people riot but their legislators do not care. They cut their jobs anyway. This has all been perpetrated by bankster Wall Street greed that's where the thread to all this horrible news began. Do you think Blankfein of Goldman Sachs and his cronies are worried about losing their HOMES (plural)? HELL NO but little teachers in 50 states are shaking in their boots. People with no homes, no jobs, no food, living in cars, shelters or motels is no longer the exception. George Carlin had it so right it is amazing. The oligarchy is coming for all you have because they do NOT care about you.

Of course there is always the nuclear madness of Los Alamos, Fukishima, and two nuclear powered big time floods in Nebraska. Our nation is sinking fast I do believe that and I lay it at Wall Street's feet and a government whose people were railroaded by them because our oligarchic government whores and its corporatist johns are in bed with each other.(pardon the rough expression.)

I feel so powerless because the people of this nation are SO unintelligent if they can elect Republicans and some Dems too who put us into this mess. I do believe that for the most part Dems would NOT slash the little guys' jobs or humanitarian programs that feed the poor but go after the millionaires and billionaires who SHOULD contribute more to our nation's fiscal sanity. They would also have started to deal with climate change ridding ourselves of the corporate albatross -- OIL and infusing our economy with new clean energy life. This is a startling time. It is the worst I have ever known. But Americans will do what Americans always do care about comparatively waste-of-time stories about Whitey Bulger, Strauss-Kahn, Casey Anthony's trial for murder and Nancy Grace's histrionics when the nation of 350,000, 000 and the world of six billion people are drowning. It's all about priorities and our nation, for the most part, simply does not get it.

I enclose my relative's blog about our nuclear madness. In addition, I link Huffington's blog about Minnesota for your reading pleasure.

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011/07/lies-damn-lies-and-safe-nuclear-power.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

The Case for Northern Secession: I just read a headline on MSNBC which said: “With a price tag of at least $1.5 billion, the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge is 2.5 miles longer than Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain Causeway.” The article is about a huge bridge China recently constructed and made my cerebral wheels turn. My sin is envy. Some say China will be on the downturn. Well, I do not see that yet. I see wherever I go, whatever I buy a made in China tag. Few things are made in America now.

Can I get citizenship in rising China or maybe a China that already HAS already risen? I jest, of course, but I pause for thought. That industrious and population gargantuan country is where the US used to be at the turn of the 20th century through 2000 when the activist SCOTUS installed George W. Incompetent Bush in a stolen presidency. The US used to be the one unveiling progress and creating immense hope. I vaguely remember they used to call it the “American Dream.” Those days are gone as EVERYTHING is made somewhere else BUT in America. Nothing is left of the promise. 50% of America duped wants to vote for Republicans whose 1% mega rich supporters will take it all and leave most of us with really, well, nothing – no jobs, no homes, no money, no Social Security, no Medicare – nothing, zip, nada.

I wonder if there will be a mass exodus some day out of this country. If one rides down a major road in my town it is dotted with “Going Out of Business” and foreclosure signs on homes. Much business is gone EVEN movie theaters do not get the attention they once did. With the exception of car and body smashing stupidity films there is often nothing in the movies to see anyway and who needs a rotten box of butter drenched artery clogging popcorn for ten bucks. This is what sells in America – stupidity. What is good here any more?

We are a completely divided nation as we were in 1860, the age of Lincoln. In fact, this era reminds me of that time. Sometimes I really do wish they had allowed the red southern states to secede. Think of all the lives NOT waging the Civil War would have saved: 620,000! Maybe the Lincoln election was our biggest mistake because it forced states with an entirely regressive and reactionary philosophy to stay in a nation that was about creating its egalitarian promise and progressive change. Lincoln the last great hope for Reconstruction was, of course, assassinated by the southern “Cause” zealot John Wikes Booth.

In truth, though, in the election of 1860 Lincoln did not win by much as the election was split and the south ran the Democrat Breckenridge. Look him up he was why the Democratic Party in the 1860 election could not win. Not only did he believe in slavery, he believed in the expansion of it into the then western territories. Every candidate in that election INCLUDING Lincoln did not think the black man their equal. The difference was that Lincoln disliked slavery, did not want it to spread westward and thought a man should get paid for the labor he performed.

If it were not for most especially the southern red states our President Obama could get anything his philosophy would dictate passed. Why can he not? -- Because racism is still the cancer that rules, invades and is killing the body. That racist thought and the desire to Christianize this country tying church to state is now the underpinning of the Republican Party.

The Republican Party, some say, is the party of Lincoln? I say not any more! The Republican Party today morphed into the party of Breckenridge then. Lincoln took only 43% of the popular vote because the country was so split. We are STILL split except the parties have reversed roles. The Democratic Party became the party of FDR and systemic institutional change. The Republican Party stood for the Hoovarian status quo. In the election of 1968 the morphing of parties took shape and the so called “moral majority” – the party of endemic racism, opposition to FDR’s New Deal and LBJ's Civil Rights Act of 1965 – was born. It is now the reason the Congress can get nothing done.

I believe, racism, the cancer within that body never dies. It is the fuel that fires Republicans now and why they are so rabid to defeat Obama. One simply need look at the complexion of that party in events of its candidates. It is nearly all white. Its platform is the mixing of religion and state as well as the dismantling of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Except for some technological advancement between 1860 and 2011 the psychological essence flowing through the veins of this country is now, as I see it, eerily the same!

Bachmann the beautiful? -- A reading recommendation: A relative told me about Matt Taibbi's article appearing in Rolling Stone entitled: "Michele Bachmann's Holy War: The Tea Party contender may seem like a goofball, but be warned: Her presidential campaign is no laughing matter." I paste the link below. Olbermann had him on his show talking about Bachmann. Warning the article could make you laugh until your stomach hurts OR in the alternative when it hurts you may want to throw up at the prospect of this absolutely nutty wingnut getting within an inch of the oval office.

As I said to my cousin: If she is elected then I will leave the country forthwith and go to Iceland. But you say Iceland is broke. That may be so but at least their population is not 1/2 batsh*% crazy! Bring tissues. When you stop laughing after you read the article you may want to cry. Enjoy!

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/michele-bachmanns-holy-war-20110622?link=mostpopular2&page=1

Another recommendation: "Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free" by Charles P. Pierce

The Book of Love -- the NY gay marriage vote: On Yom Kippur -- the Jewish day of Atonement and the holiest day of the year -- we ask God to forgive our sins, wipe our slate clean, begin anew so that we may be inscribed in the Book of Life. I do not do organized religion any more but on that day inscribed in my DNA I take a moment to reflect on who I am, what I need to improve upon, who I want to be and hope that some higher power somewhere recognizes my yearning to be a better person the next year than I may have been the year before.

Keith Olbermann, my political guru, gave a special comment on the successful NY gay marriage vote and talked about the "Book of Love." I know now what I will concentrate and reflect upon this coming Yom Kippur. I will ask to be inscribed in the Book of Love. This liberal commentator formerly on MSNBC but now on the new cable Current TV -- FIOS Channel 192, says eloquently all that needs to be said about this fundamental right -- the right to love. It is the essence of our humanity.

I link it below if you want to hear his beautiful words and ending poem. I believe it is well worth listening. You can find it, too, on Huffington Post. He says it better than I ever could and I thank him for his wise commentary. If you have FIOS cable, Comcast or Dish TV you can find the Current TV station number he is on every night at 8:00 p.m. by simply Googling "Current TV." He is, I believe, a national treasure and urge you to support this new program on Current by listening to or taping it!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/24/keith-olbermanns-gay-marr_n_883796.html

A Constitutional Mandate -- A Declaration of War: It is UTTERLY preposterous that the last war to be constitutionally declared was World War II. Are you kidding me? How many wars since then has the United States been involved? Answer: PLENTY. Saying the NATO bombing of Libya led by the United States is not war is like saying hamburger is not chopped sirloin. I beg to differ. It is!

I have one more reason other than it is explicitly stated within the Constitution that the president MUST ask the Congress and ONLY the Congress to wage war. Our Founders, I believe, put this requirement in for a reason. How many kings took their subjects to war on a whim, killed thousands and spent the public treasury to do so. Answer: MANY. It is the height of injustice to those who risk death fighting their country’s wars to so easily send them into the battle even if the battle is in the air.

To ask a person to actually give his only life up for a cause cannot and SHOULD not be done on the whim of one man. Those who are asked to fight it, through their representatives, should be the ones to decide their ultimate sacrifice.

How many of those excursions like Grenada (remember that one) during Reagan to the most egregious usurpation of power Vietnam and Iraq would have been fought IF a president when he dropped a bomb which kills human beings, asked the Congress for permission to do so through a declaration of war? I submit far fewer than we have entered since WWII.

Dropping bombs EVEN ONE BOMB means the taking of life and OFTEN innocent life in the form of so called collateral damage. Would YOU want your husband, your wife, your children who do not know foreign policy from a daisy be the ones to die for reasons they do not understand?

A declaration of war should be mandated and the War Powers Act should be amended to state that. It should ALWAYS be necessary and the consequence of abridgment should be severe!

Missed Targets: Some of Jeff Jacoby’s views profoundly missed his own targets in his June 17, 2011 opinion "Outrage that misses the target." (Link below) He addresses three issues.

In the case of Delta charging soldiers for extra baggage upon returning from the outposts of the wars in the Middle East: I agree as he says soldiers are often reimbursed for travel expenses but would they be in this case? Who knows? The rules of the marketplace, however, which Jeff Jacoby loves to laud, prevailed. Delta reversed its policy. Kudos to Delta for overturning this PR faux pas.

Mr. Jacoby is quite right, too, there is a profound difference between how returning soldiers from the Vietnam War were treated compared to those who return today from the Middle East. Returning vets from Vietnam were often treated less than celebratory. Those returning from America’s contemporary wars in the Middle East sit stratospherically high on the shoulders of the American public. I believe there are reasons why there is a difference in public sentiment between the two theaters of war.

During the Vietnam War men were drafted -- often protected only if they were college deferred, homosexual or medically unable. Men had to serve if they were drafted unless of course like Dick Cheney they could simply avoid the draft by being a perpetual student. That means there were those who, after intellectually understanding the Vietnam War, opposed it but if drafted had to serve, face arrest or conscience-driven exile to Canada. The colleges and universities erupted because there were men there who, once graduated, faced the odious possibility of dying in a war they loathed, in a cause they did not accept, and in a war they felt was unjust.

The soldiers of our contemporary Middle East conflicts choose to be there. It is voluntary. In addition, this nation was directly attacked on 9/11. It matters that 3000 lives were lost on that fateful day and three huge major edifices defining this country were reduced to rubble. It was a direct and undeniable attack on this country the enormity of which sometimes even seems to eclipse Pearl Harbor in historical magnitude. Vietnam had neither of those components. It was a war, the conscription in which, many reviled and those who were not endemically fighters feared. Indeed, Vietnam never attacked us. It was seen by many as an unnecessary enterprise between global power brokers jockeying for supremacy. Most of the soldiers returning from the Iraq War or the war in Afghanistan wanted to be there, knew what that would entail and believe in their mission.

The next issue of Jacoby’s target misplacement (although he certainly understands the positive sentiment of Rev. Unni) is committed by those who rail against church policy of rejection of gay Catholics' prayer with Rev. Unni of St. Cecilia’s Church in the Back Bay because of church catechism i.e. its doctrine. This is laughable if it were not so sad. I am told Jesus was about inclusion and not exclusion. If that were not reason enough to accept these good gay Catholics in prayer then perhaps the fact that the Catholic Church is most definitely NOT the inerrant institution it claims it is. If one only could, in reality, raise Galileo from the dead to find out how utterly wrong the Catholic Church has been in its doctrinal history and how preposterously slow it is to rectify those wrongs. Not only has Church doctrine been ignorantly wrong it has, I aver, been responsible for the death of many as it denies science, the truth of biology and the laws of physics because those things inconveniently do not conform to Catholic doctrinal tenets and myth.

Moreover, for the Church to deny those who want to have a connection to Christ the ability to do so because of their sexual preference would be laughable still if not for the obvious Church hypocrisy in doing so. This sanctimonious allegedly moral institution turned its eyes to GROSS pedophilia of its priests because it wanted to salvage the entrails of itself. This strains the boundaries of credulity and rationality. It is fine for the institution to look the other way and allow its priests to illegally molest its young BUT those who happen to be good homosexual Catholics cannot pray in its church. If that is not the definition of hypocrisy then hypocrisy has no definition. Perhaps, the Church should target its own flawed doctrine and leave all gay Catholics, who want to pray to their God, alone!

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/06/17/outrage_that_misses_the_target/

I was HIGHLIGHTED i.e. singled out on the New York Times blog as an especially thoughtful post on the Weiner story. I said:

I supported his staying until recently. More and more lewd adolescent-like photos kept issues from taking front and center in importance.

I am VERY sad. There are so few out there who advocate for the middle class and the little guy, so few whose humanitarian philosophical and political outlook helps rather than hurts as those do in the Republican party whose only job is to keep the rich gulping taxpayer dollars, keep the war machine going and keep Wall Street from paying a steep steep price for all the malevolence, sadness and yes even death they have perpetrated as people lose their jobs, their health insurance, their health, their homes and are even prone to suicide.

Anthony Weiner's exit is just another nail in the people's coffin as those on the other side DUPE so many into thinking they are about them. It is a SAD day, a VERY SAD day for me!

I leave with two sentences more: I am not a Christian but I love much of what Christianity says as it is in its essence, I believe, kind: It says he who has not sinned cast the first stone and it says he who smites you on one cheek give to him the other also.

I HOPE Rep. Weiner knows there are MANY who would stand with him through this unsavory matter no matter what because he stood with all of us when it counted and tried to save lives! You have one friend, Anthony Weiner, in ME!

KUDOS to the BOSTON BRUINS!! They rioted in Vancouver. Boston it was celebratory but calm.

The rioting is disturbing as it is in Greece and if they do not extend the debt ceiling rioting catches on as things will be SO bad so the economists are saying the collapse of the US and world economies is possible. The anger is absorbed when people have no jobs. I think part of that anger in Vancouver is about bad times in general except their unemployment rate is only 7.8. Our worst states economy is chilling. Success for the president a year from Nov. means JOBS and nothing else!

ALABAMA 9.3
35 ARIZONA 9.3
35 NEW JERSEY 9.3
38 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 9.6
38 IDAHO 9.6
38 OREGON 9.6
38 TENNESSEE 9.6
42 NORTH CAROLINA 9.7
43 SOUTH CAROLINA 9.8
44 GEORGIA 9.9
45 KENTUCKY 10.0
46 MICHIGAN 10.2
47 MISSISSIPPI 10.4
48 FLORIDA 10.8
49 RHODE ISLAND 10.9
50 CALIFORNIA 11.9
51 NEVADA 12.5

One for us -- the Return of Keith Olbermann: Keith cannot come back FAST enough for me. He has been absent at the time we need him the most. I HOPE Current TV will catch on and FAST. I know some who do not have the station. Thankfully, I do. Lives depended on progressives like he. I cannot think of a worse time for him to have left MSNBC but so be it. We must play the ball where it lies. Look at what the uber wealthy have done to this nation. We, the middle and the working class are in DEEP trouble as they take JUST AS GEORGE CARLIN SAID THEY WOULD, it all -- everything. They are in a club he said and we are not in it. He was prophetic. This country is failing, the pulse is slowing and death for those who are not rich is staring us in the face.

Where will the elderly, the sick, the disabled go who depend on humane programs like Medicaid and Medicare for their lives? Step up to the plate Keith, do not disappoint us and hit a home run NOT for the gipper but FOR us!

Pakistan’s Perfidy: Did you catch the latest news flash? Pakistan arrested five Pakistanis who helped the CIA in the location, apprehension and killing of bin Laden, the civilized world’s most wanted religious fanatical murderer. So much for our "ally," Pakistan, in the fight against Al Qaeda! Think of the BILLIONS upon BILLIONS we have given Pakistan in this so called war on Al Qaeda that could have been better spent educating our poorly educated populous and repairing our dilapidated infrastructure. The TRILLIONS spent in never-ending, money sucking, embarrassing, life-ending wars could have been spent at home and kept us the envy of the world instead of the diplomatic and foreign policy joke so many think we are. Where would our deficit be if the US after WWII decided to weave prudent diplomatic and strategic power not with war but with words?

Our recent foreign policy escapades have been a colossal waste of blood and money filling the coffers of death attempting to build civilized democratic societies out of countries which do not want our brand of civilization; countries who thrive on unyielding, unbending and extreme religious fanaticism and want to remain in a medieval cesspool where a few have wealth and the masses barely have water; where one’s cow is treated better than one’s wife. Our misguided leaders thought we hubristically could change an entire region to fit our brand of life which, of course, we can measure by our unemployment figures, works so well. The Middle East is a DESTABILIZED MESS and we helped bring this dance card of death to them sharing in its fruits of destruction.

After 9/11 the ignorant Bush should have directed our FULL force to getting bin Laden, wiping out Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and ended it there. Our enemies would know if they strike us we WILL retaliate and NOT trump up phony wars that put BILLIONS into the pockets of the crony corporations of war which do war well but do nothing else. Innocent lives are at stake – both ours and theirs.

We have had sickening, ineffective, and bad -- VERY bad -- leadership who do not know their posterior from their elbow. World War II is OVER. It is a different world and we CANNOT save it. We can maybe ONLY save ourselves. Good luck even doing that. We, the middle class, are in financial HELL while our military dances around the earth spending TRILLIONS in taxpayer money trying to save everyone else. How about saving us for a change?

One wonders what our diplomatic geniuses will do to try to save these informants from Pakistani perdition. Why did we not protect those who delivered to us the Holy Grail? Is it any wonder that few trust this country not to abandon those who help us leaving them to twist in the breeze if they are caught, captured or worse?
An ultimatum needs to be given to our “friends” the Pakistanis. Either they release those who helped us kill a vicious murderer or NO MORE MONEY!! Let’s turn our attention to a better MUCH better friend, India. Pakistan plays both ends and in the middle. This is UNACCEPTABLE! We cannot put BILLIONS in the hands of countries who turn around and use those billions against us.

My mother used to say whichever way you make your bed that is how you will lie in it. Good advice. The Defense Department, State Department and the Commander-in-Chief should take it!

Tony Terrific: If one watched the Tony's, the Broaway equivalent of the Oscars, I think you would agree the Tony's were FANTASTIC. Neal Patrick Harris the host, is genius. I often loathe awards shows but this was different. It was much less pretentious and much more artistically creative. I loved every second of it and taped it to watch a second and maybe a third time. It did more to advance the case for theater than any other format as it was so well done indeed! Congrats to ALL who won and ALL who didn't. These are special talented people and all are national treasures!

For years I have been advocating to bring theater to the masses as it is often so cost and access prohibitive to many. I want Broadway to come to HBO and HDTV where one could see these fabulous plays and pay maybe 25 bucks on your cable bill instead of 200 bucks to see a show and one could see it in the comfort of the living room. It helps the elderly, the disabled, and the poor to whom theater is often out of reach.

We saw something similar for opera. We went to a movie theater and saw a production of Verdi's Il Travatore. It was wonderful. We felt as if we were there in the actual theater audience at the Met in NYC. They even filmed back stage during intermission, interviewed the stars and gave one an insight into the architectural mechanics of a performance. It was excellent. That's what I want for theater.

HBO could negotiate with Broadway or with the various plays for the theater rights to show it. I know Broadway theater companies might be afraid it would cut into their business but I think big money could be made and still attract those who are in the NYC area or live in states near NY where people have easier access to the theater itself and love the experience of being there.

Perhaps the revenue plays collect from HBO would allow them to reduce the price of an in theater NYC ticket and attract even more to the actual performances. It simply is prohibitive for those who cannot either afford theater tickets, do not want to pay a stratospheric price or who cannot ambulate to get to there.

A Clarification of the Two State Solution: It is no mystery to those who know me that I support a two-state solution to the Palestinian/Israeli situation. This is not I must emphasize a reversal of my support for the Jewish people and the Jewish state. When I witnessed Arabs running up the hillside of the Golan and Israeli soldiers shooting them (they have a right to protect the security of the state) it made me reactive and nervous. I began to think we need to do something quickly or they will be climbing in hordes from every side right into the Israeli state since they dwarf Jews numerically. I feared the IDF would not be able to stop thousands of Arabs and Palestinians possibly without guns doing something for the cameras by, perhaps, using passive non-violent Gandhiesque resistance. It would not sit well in American or European living rooms to watch on TV the IDF gun down unarmed people even though Israelis have a right to defend the Jewish state. I am, I think, quite rationally concerned.

Moreover, I recently heard that some, perhaps even many, Jews inside of Israel are seeking citizenship from other nations such as Austria or the US because they fear the impending elimination of the Israeli state and the predictable violence that would ensue. I was emotionally driven by this prospect to research that assertion from whom I consider reliable sources. My sources said that was absolute propaganda and while a few might do that it is microscopic in relation to those Jews who are citizens of Israel and would never leave. The man suggesting this alleged fact, Franklin Lamb, is a strong supporter of Hezbollah in Lebanon who is committed to the annihilation of the Jewish state. I am going to glean additional responses to his assertion to verify its veracity. Researching it, however, brought one truth to light and that is the ancient anti-Semitism we thought was at an end because of the Holocaust is, indeed, alive and well especially during economic downturns. The vitriolic hatred of the Jew is mind numbing. If you do not believe me, then Google it.

I am frightened by both what happened to the Jewish people in 1930's Europe and I am desperately afraid of it ever happening again. Up until now there was little reason to fear it but we remained, of course, always vigilant. There is little doubt in my mind that it is not possible that the majority of Jewish citizens of Israel would abandon the Jewish state without taking down the entire region with them. If Jews have learned nothing else from our history we have learned that it is not possible to negotiate from a position of weakness. Israel is, we all know, armed to the teeth and before the Jewish people could not have that state they would make damn well sure no one else would have it either.

There is no question in my mind, too, that Israel is the freest of all states in the Middle East. The Jewish people are smart and know that the State of Israel must possess overwhelming military strength and, in fact, not hesitate to use it IF the Jewish state faces an existential threat. It is unacceptable to the Jewish people for anyone to overthrow it.

Having said that I want a two state solution and believe it must be carved out quickly. We must though stand strong, we must stand united and we must question why our fellow Jews at times betray their own people given the Jewish history they know. I often use the metaphor of homosexuals because I believe the humanity of a nation state toward them says something about the nature and essence of a culture. There is nowhere in the Middle East and all of Islam where one, if he or she is homosexual, could live openly except in Israel. That is telling as is the abduction of the gay woman in Iran. If she is alive it will be miraculous but Ahmadinejad says there are, of course, NO homosexuals in Iran. Believe that and he'll tell you another such as the Holocaust never happened.

The state of Israel must be recognized, it must be secure and it must be unharmed if there can ever be the possibility of a two state solution. It is a two state solution I want as President Obama enunciated at AIPAC. It MUST be done, I believe now, with all deliberate speed while never sacrificing the security of the Jewish state. I will NEVER abandon my people or the Jewish state and although I am too young to remember the events of our ugliest Shoah period in Nazi occupied Europe, I think about the six million living in Europe’s death camps when the weather is blistering hot, when the weather is freezing cold, and every rain-soaked and clear day in between. I think about them every day of my life. I never forget them and I always remember -- Never Again!

Sex in the City: I do not care what Anthony Weiner did. I admit it. I am a died in the wool Democrat and admittedly have different standards for them because their principles in general, though sometimes not so far different from Republicans, ARE really phenomenally different in many other ways. The diversity of the Democratic Party unlike the Republican Party cannot be denied. Yes, I want Democrats to win and because Democrats do not use moral nauseating self righteous blather as part of their platform the hypocrite standards ARE different.

I think Senator Ensign of Nevada and Senator Vitter of Louisiana's indiscretions were FAR worse and even possibly illegal. Yet Republican Eric Cantor did NOT ask THEM to resign and the voters did not care that David Vitter probably frequented a known high class prostitute since his name was on her list. I wonder why Cantor did not care about them. Things ARE political.

Who cares about the words Weiner wrote -- NOT I. BUT I DO care about foreign policy, I loved bin Laden killed, I do care about KEEPING Medicare/Social Security, and I DO care about Republicans who have NOTHING to offer on economic policy except more of the corporate oligarchical same and WORSE want ultimately an eradication of entitlements. Republicans got us into the mess in the first place. When in office Republicans sink the ship.

Our ship IS sinking from their policies and FASTER than the president can wield his own power because of Republican obstructionism so you will have to excuse me if the exchanges between Weiner and his online lovelies matter NOT to me. Let his wife care about that and let Weiner do what he does SO well and that is advocate and vote for the middle class and the little guy whom Republican policy and the holier than thou crowd does not know exist.

He who has not sinned cast the first one. I say learn a lesson, Rep. Weiner, go and sin no more but keep advocating for us!

Handwriting on the Wall with a Caveat: I have been a vociferous opponent of the anti-Israel local blogger Doris Cadigan's opinions (See June 5, 2011 Metro West Daily News, Cadigan letter "End Palestinian Conflict") about Israel throughout the years. I STILL cringe at her virulent anti-Israeli statements but I have changed slightly my opinion as realities on the ground change. Of this I can be sure: I WANT THE JEWISH STATE TO SURVIVE. It is because of this I support EXACTLY what the president said at AIPAC. It is why many at AIPAC agreed with him. NOW IS THE TIME to perfect a peace with not simply empty words. I say that NOT as a supporter of Palestinians. I say that as a supporter of the State of Israel. Our president knows the odds the Jewish state is up against. They are and will be formidable unless an all out hot war is waged with the US as Israel's ally. Given the weariness of this country to the commitment of American force to this regional conflict if not ultimately the world war it could engender, it would be not only impossible to wage but if waged repulsive in the extreme. The body count would be exponentially horrific. Because of this a return to the 67 borders WITH MUTUALLY AGREED UPON LAND SWAPS is a must.

The Arab Spring began in Tunisia by a simple vendor who was mad as hell, couldn't take his government's corruption anymore and set himself on fire. He thereby set the region on fire with him. The US initiation of the Iraq War based on a lie began, too, the destabilization of that already volatile part of the world. It handed Iran the hegemony it savors to this day. All of this has negatively affected the west and it has negatively affected Israel as well.

Do I want a Jewish state to survive? YES and that is why I come out in support of what the president said at AIPAC. He KNOWS the stakes and those who do not see it are ostriches with their heads in the sand. Either one wants the Jewish state to survive or one THINKS with the superior weapons of war one can fight the many other forces from all sides wanting Israel's destruction. This is stupidity in the extreme.

Palestinians and their other supporters have numbers and time on their side and we, the Jewish people, do not as we will be abandoned one by one by many who gave Israel initial support including possibly soon even the UN. An IMPORTANT caveat too must be made. Everything is predicated, OF COURSE, on the stipulation that the Arabs/Palestinians MUST, without question, accept the legitimacy of the Israeli state and BOTH MUST cease violence against the other.

Jews need to count on Jews for survival BUT they MUST do the right thing as well. I cannot count tit for tat all the death wielding maneuvers of each side. BOTH are guilty of gruesome and heinous acts. My most ardent perception, given the changing Middle East is that NOW is the time for true peace to begin in earnest and not with empty words. The MSNBC headline below lends credence to my view.

"Israeli forces open fire as protesters storm Golan border." I rest my case!

The Covenant: This made the NYT blog. It was in response to a NYT article "Efforts to Ban Circumcision Gain Traction in California": If this isn't the most utterly INSANE law I do not know what is. How long has this rite been practiced? If one is a Jew it has been done for over 5000 years. Is this the state's business? I think NOT. This is between the parents and a physician much like abortion should be. Male circumcision has absolutely NOTHING to do with female genital mutilation which is done to prevent a female from experiencing her sexuality. Jewish male circumcision, a centuries old practice, has, of course, religious symbolic significance of the Abrahamic covenant the Jewish people established with God. Criticize that if you like. Nonetheless, if one is a Jew it is an unquestioned practice and the essence of being a Jewish male. It is unthinkable to me EVEN if one is not religious which I am not to eschew it.

Truthfully, I believe there is more to this attempt at its eradication than thinking it is purely a correct medical decision to remain "intact." Yet again the essence of being a Jew is assaulted. One of the most important rites of the Jewish people is under attack. People who attack circumcision and want an actual LAW against it are not being honest as to what is hiding behind their passion. I firmly believe in this case -- not all but for many -- it is an end run around a basic anti-Semitic fever that lies dormant at times but resurrects itself under certain circumstances.

Sure, why not go after the Jew in this manner. That way we can appear that we think it is a medically unnecessary procedure but in truth the hostility of a particularly Jewish rite is at the movement's core.

It is understandable if one does not want to circumcise a male child but it is anything but understandable if one wants the STATE to intervene to prevent it.

I have never met a Jewish man who said that his circumcised genital area presented a problem. The usual arguments for it are well known such as cleanliness and the lessening of some types of STD's and HIV transmission. There is also the claim that women engaging in sex with circumcised men cut their risk of uterine and vaginal cancer. It stands to reason that cleanliness would contribute to the lessening of infection. These rationales can be debated but what CANNOT be debated is the state having the unmitigated gall to interfere in this long held Jewish tradition. I am not a religious Jew at all and yet if I had a male child that child WOULD be circumcised. They would have to cart me off to jail to prevent it.

There is more to this than meets the eye. Yet again the Jew, just when we think we are safe, someone is always there to kick us in the posterior and blame us for everything from hurting babies through circumcision to creating the Wall Street madness.

When will this cancer, this infection, this vile pathology of Jew hating ever die? Even IF there were not one Jew to hate left in the world someone would find a way to keep the hatred alive. Now it's circumcision, PLEASE give us a break. Do what you want with your child but leave mine to me!

Palin the Putz: If you do nothing else you MUST MUST MUST click on or paste the link below into your browser. This is Sarah the Moron Palin potentially running for president of the most powerful nation on earth when she was in Boston yesterday at the Old North Church explaining history and just what that Paul Revere was doing on April 18, 1775. I have NO doubt it would be big news to Paul Revere!! Treason anyone?

It's not she that upsets me it's that ANYONE on planet earth much less THIS country is following her like a dog in heat

This is the funniest one yet and even funnier than Katie Couric's profoundly tough question of what books do you read. I guess Ms. Palin does not read many. Actually, in fairness to her she seems stoned!8-) funny funny funny!!


http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/06/sarah-palin-claims-paul-revere-warned-the-british-that-they-werent-gonna-be-takin-away-our-arms.html

The Death of Jack Kavorkian: I agree with much of what Jack Kevorkian advocated. I do not know about every single assisted suicide over which he presided but I do know there is something askew in a culture that says euthanizing our beloved pets is a humane act to alleviate their suffering but allowing human beings to suffer interminable pain or if not pain than drugged out in a morphine haze when life is at its inevitable end.

I have always believed that this country's treatment of death is the same as always loving stories with happy endings. For Americans, I believe death is NOT an option and when it occurs, as it will for ALL of us, western religions concoct fantasies of an after life or being in a better place after the loved one has died. Well if it's so much better there I wondered why we do not all end our suffering and go right to it. Of course the rational moral of the story is life is here and now. It is what one makes of it. There is nothing else unless one chooses to live in Fantasyland.

I believe in the relieving of human suffering, I believe that the DNA of life has an end which the drug machine in this country has extended sometimes merely for profit. I believe we should emphasize life's finiteness when we choose policies that simply are inhumane to other powerless groups. There are NO do overs and in the final analysis I believe the true humanitarian was Dr. Jack Kavorkian. He saw unmentionable suffering and chose to end it.

Jack, you have changed the culture for the better even though you had to suffer the travesties of irrational belief systems of others while trying to doing it.

A Letter to Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner: Full Faith and Credit of a Too Big to Fail Nation: Mr. Speaker: I do not know how you can square Republican Party tactics and you as the nation's Speaker with what should be the moral, humane and sound economic policy of the nation. I know you know, and greater economic minds than I have said, not raising the debt ceiling will prove catastrophic to our nation and the world. I think you understand this but the freshmen Republican congressmen, I believe, do not have a clue as to the utter economic insanity that is taking place in Congress. You are bartering away our lives.

Moreover, holding hostage a vote to raise the debt ceiling to the evisceration of Medicare, a program that has saved lives irrespective of party, is despicable in the extreme. Do you truly NOT care who lives and who dies as long as Wall Street moguls and their lobbyists fill politicos’ cash coffers with campaign contributions? Other things can be done to deal with our deficit and debt besides ruining health care and retirement programs which have saved so many. These call for increasing slightly the taxes of those who truly can afford it and ceasing policies of never-ending wars which increase the deficit into the stratosphere of far flung galaxies.

I do not know or understand how a man who calls himself a Christian, a faith based on human kindness and dignity, can fall prey to those forces in Washington who are more interested in stuffing their pocketbooks than helping the elderly, the disabled and poor obtain health care through programs already in place which have worked for over 40 years.

If you and other Republicans do what I think you want to do and make it impossible for the middle class, blue collar and poor to survive then our nation, a beacon of hope to the world, will surely fail. It is on our middle class backs that this nation was built and it is on our middle class backs that the nation could fall as Wall Street and the dastardly deeds of its lending and too-big-to-fail investment banks, hedge funds, sub-prime lending institutions, rating agencies and other market forces are the very reason the economy has been in such a precarious position since 2007. No one who committed these unethical and, in many cases, illegal activities has been brought to justice. Another economic free fall is just waiting for the winds of entitlement evisceration to tip it over the edge.

The rich will NEVER fail, they will NEVER suffer from lack of health insurance, and they will NEVER lose their home nor not have a place to sleep or not have food on the table. If the top 2% are handed tax breaks those breaks will NEVER trickle down their wealth to us. It has been shown time and time again what happens when government is in the pockets of Wall Street and there is no regulation of greed -- the country collapses as it did during the Great Depression and as it almost did in the Great Recession of 2007. Now Republicans want to risk the full faith and credit of a too big to fail nation by not extending the debt ceiling or agreeing to extend it only if it can be accompanied by a reduction in Medicare and other social safety net programs. This is a cruel bargain to say the least.

I URGE you to examine your conscience and if you never stood for the little guy before stand for us now. Medicare, Social Security and other so called entitlements cannot be left at the doorstep of Wall Street, who, like a gambling casino whisks our money away in a con game before we really know it is gone and we are left with nothing! I urge you to use your leadership to ask your party NOT to do such unconscionable things to the people who can least afford it.

Uncivil War: I link below an article on MSNBC entitled: "NATO apologizes for Afghan Civilian Deaths."

The perpetual waging of unpopular war abroad, which expends rivers of blood, saps our pocketbook and balloons our debt, must be brought to a swift end. The three wars, two of which are ten years in length, viciously shed precious blood, are wildly expensive, decimate the psyches of those who fight them and worse fuel the fires of Al Qaeda by the inevitable collateral killing of civilians -- including women/children.

Our military is sorely overextended. It is a fact of life our adversaries sometimes do not condemn more vociferously their own people who often do unspeakable things to each other. We must live with that inconsistency. Many hate more specifically the foreigner on their soil. When will Americans learn they are NOT killing us for our freedom? They are killing us because they do NOT want American boots on their ground.

All the effort our military expends on humanitarian work is wonderful BUT it is lost to Al Qaeda when events such as the recent civilian killings in Afghanistan happen as reported below. Bin Laden, the overlord of inhumanity, was finally killed and I proudly say at the direction of a Democrat! His end should mark a new beginning in American foreign policy that went haywire after World War II. The department which is responsible for the defense of the country is called the Department of Defense and NOT the Department of Offense for a reason.

If the draft were reinstated one would see how fast American troops would be pulled as few would want their son or daughter to either perpetrate or experience the carnage and danger the ugly, mendacious and immoral so called Bush Doctrine of preemptive war brings. We would also see how much reining in our foreign escapades would lower the debt and restore civility to uncivil policy. Our war policy garners only more killing, death/dismemberment and psychological illness of our soldiers, animosity abroad and debt at home. It is time to end these insufferable, uncivil, and never ending wars.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43209372/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

This is WHY a Republican can NEVER NEVER NEVER be elected president....George Carlin was SO correct it is chilling. He said "They are coming for it ALL, they want it ALL, and they'll get it ... " The link below about Pawlenty shows Carlin was SO correct!!!

Cut the military war machine, cut the subsidies to major corporations, do NOT balance the budget on the backs of the middle class little guy by taking away Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid!

How many of you, your parents and your loved ones would be dead or severely disabled if they could not afford health insurance and if Medicare were not there? Think about it and tell EVERYONE you know NOT to vote Republican and step on their own foot. Republicans are NOT about most of you!


http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2011/05/tim-pawlenty-says-he-would-back-paul-ryans-medicare-plan.html