Justice is NOT Blind -- Seeing the Light

According to McClatchy News “Blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng, whose daring escape to the American embassy in Beijing last month sparked a diplomatic crisis, left China for the for the United States Saturday afternoon.”  It appears his family was taken to Bejing Airport and will HOPEFULLY join him.

This is a big diplomatic success for the Obama administration IF Chen and his family arrive safely. It is proof of how capable our president, his team including and most especially Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are on the complexities of diplomatic negotiation. They are BRILLIANT! I am happy for Chen and hope his family reunites with him unharmed. 

 

Kudos to Chen for his incredibly bravery and improbable escape, the story of which is here and linked below. Big kudos go to the administration as well.  Many have forgotten the two women the Obama diplomatic team extricated safely from N. Korea with Pres. Clinton and VP Gore's irreplaceable help.  These are GREAT feats of diplomacy requiring the greatest skill and expertise.  Clearly, the administration knows what it is doing and how to get things done. 

 

On the domestic economic front as well it knows what it needs to do if the disloyal Republican opposition would STEP OUT OF THE WAY.  They, of course, will not step out of the way until they bring the country to its knees and rid themselves of this president even if it means dismembering the nation.

He is our first black American president in our nation's history but, sadly, that history has been steeped in the politics of interposition, nullification and Civil War.  It is a history where some cannot and WILL NOT, even today, remove the albatross of hatred from around our collective necks.  They are blind to the prison they have constructed for the incarcerated whole.  Let this administration do what it needs to recover from the Greatest Recession since the Great Depression so that it can heel its wounds as it has historically has done.  The American electorate needs to turn the House blue again so the president and the Congress can effectively govern.

Big congratulations are in order to Chen Guangcheng, to our diplomatic team and, oh yes, to China for doing a difficult and just thing. Hopefully, Chen Guangchen's family will join him as well.  Justice, at least in part, it seems has seen the light of day one more time!

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/28/world/asia/chen-guangcheng-blind-lawyer-escapes-house-arrest-china.html?src=intrp

 

Do Not Bet on the Bully

Mitt Romney’s apology for his leadership in the bullying episode of his classmate John Lauber at the prestigious Cranbrook School in 1965 Michigan because of Mr. Lauber’s egregious sin of effeminacy is hard to swallow.  It is quite hard to think that Willard Mitt Romney was not bold-face lying when he professed not to remember the incident that five other witnesses had no trouble recalling.  Mr. Lauber later told one of the witnesses how horrible that incident was and that he had never forgotten it.  It is too bad that Mr. Lauber is not alive to corroborate it further.   The Washington Post, however, vetted its sources well enough for me.  I believe Mitt Romney remembered it vividly but lied about it as he so easily lies on other issues.

We know the "Leave it to Beaver" world of Romney’s youth was a myth. The story behind the 1950's and early sixties as I experienced it was one of ebullience ONLY IF one was white, Anglo Saxon, good looking, rich and male. Mitt Romney was surely all of those.  If one was African American, a woman, disabled or a homosexual then we know what the reality of that time was. Suicide was not uncommon.  It was a brutal era for those who did not meet the brutal criteria for acceptance into that special prestigious club of which Romney was a member in good standing.  Certainly there were plenty who did not possess the rigid qualities to gain admittance.

It has taken decades and hundreds of Oprah-like media shows for millions to admit to either their own frailties or their own different-from-the-norm self which was a threat to all those who bullied them but more of a threat to the very person who experienced it and was terrified of that walk home alone at night.

We have come a long way since 1965 but not long enough that the Phoebe Princes and Matthew Shepards either took their own lives or had them taken because of the bullies of our time. It is just another reason among many that the empty suit and unsympathetic self of Mitt Romney should NEVER come near the Oval Office and why I pray every day that he does NOT!

Elizabeth Warren -- A Price Above Rubies

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Elizabeth Warren today when she made an appearance at a small diner in Natick, MA.  She was simply delightful as I knew she would be.  I made sure to shake her hand and tell her I am the one plastered all over the blogs telling people Elizabeth Warren is a price above rubies.

For those who may or may not be familiar with the Old Testament phrase it is used differently in various editions.  The American Standard version translates Proverbs 31 as "A worthy woman who can find? For her price is far above rubies."  I prefer this version of that phrase because I believe it defines the essence of Elizabeth Warren's character.  She is a woman worthy to be called senator and is, indeed, a price above rubies.  I was thrilled to meet the woman whom I hope will defeat the incumbent Scott Brown, less capable by miles than she.

Good luck, Elizabeth, I will say a couple of Baruchas (Hebrew for prayers) for you.  In these threatening times Massachusetts and the nation need a fighter for Main Street, the middle and the working class.  We need vociferous opposition to Wall Street and its volcanic fraud.  She possesses these fighting-back the bullies of Wall Street qualities in triplicate.

Spread the word that Massachusetts and the nation cannot afford the Republicans in office any longer to finish the ruination they began. Make sure if one is a resident of Massachusetts or even if one is not tell your friends to vote for Elizabeth Warren for Senate in November.  I know she will make you glad you did!

The Vote from Sea to Shining Sea

I do not think I can express myself strongly or even clearly enough to tell all of us who will be on the front lines in November how important it will be to get the vote out for the president.  Romney is not John McCain, tired and out of touch. He is, I think, more charismatic than McCain and more able to convert strong decibels into electoral results.   Romney is smart even IF he is a bully and I think he was and is.  A man that is smart but has NO scruples is dangerous.  Etch-A-Sketch was the perfect metaphor for this empty suit Romney who will say anything and do anything to get people of little questioning intellect often racist-in-the-extreme to vote for for him. 

This is the most important election of my life and I have seen a few elections.  It is so on many levels some of which are self-evident. Romney today spoke at Liberty "University" -- an uncredited school of academic nincompoops who would love nothing more than to merge Christian religious belief with the state PRECISELY what our Founders NEVER wanted.  He took that opportunity to gay bash again affirming state's rights to kill a civil right for one minority an action only a bully could take.  Funny in 1994 when he ran for the Senate in Massachusetts against Kennedy some gay rights activists seem to remember pink flyers Romney's campaign passed out in the Boston gay pride parade saying that "he would be a better and a stronger advocate than Ted Kennedy."  A Supreme Court most especially containing even one single more conservative justice like Alito, Roberts or Thomas could kill our weak democracy and its weak economy in an instant.  These are serious times needing a serious commitment to our Democratic ideals and to our democracy which has been eroded in so many states.

I am hoping ALL of us will stand with the president, who has taken great risks in his presidency for us even if some of us may have a policy disagreement or two with him.  It does NOT matter now.  It will take us being united from Maine to Hawaii from sea to shining sea to work tirelessly and feverishly for the democratic and Democratic country we know it has the potential to be.

Obama, the banks, the 2 BILLION JP Morgan BUCK loss and the imminent 2nd collapse

This Huffington Post Peter Goodman article entitled "Jamie Dimon Derivatives Fiasco Highlights Obama Failure" explains it all here

The Goodman article is a bulls eye and what I said in so many of my opinions earlier.  BUT and it is a BIG BUT Romney would be worse times 1000 and the Supreme. Ct. would be rightwingnut to the enth degree.  The Citizens United flood gates would stay wide open and then some.  The  Republicans have bought power in every nook and cranny of this nation.  They have bought your government and taken over everything -- state, local and of course federal big time with their BIG bucks.  They are ruling in monarchy style in Michigan with Republican managers disposing of Democratic towns replacing them with a Republican manager(s) by a Republican governor, state legislatures and even the courts.  They are doing this all over the country and not just in Michigan.  Corrupt Republican Walker of Wisconsin said exactly that.  He wants to "divide and conquer" and he has by getting rid of middle class government and union jobs -- its on tape listen to it here.  Democracy is gone bought out by billionaires with whom the little guy could not compete.

This wonderfully written article by Goodman is linked above and below.  It is well worth reading and right on point.  I have NO mind for math and that is an understatement.  But, not to pat myself on the back which I think I will, I believe I was 100% right about the economy and what the president did wrong. HOWEVER and it is a big HOWEVER, I still value the good things the president HAS done and they are many.  If he does not get re-elected the bad will be played out in stereo by the uber corporatist bully Romney.  If Romney is elected you can thank the fact that this country is so racist salivating to ditch the black guy for the white and will elect a man, white Romney, who is NOT about most of you, certainly not about me and step on their own toes to do it.  All of it is being played out right now with the 2 billion buck loss by JP Morgan Chase and CEO Jamie Dimon, a man that has NO soul and does not want one.  This article by Goodman says it all in Matt Taibbi fashion. 

George Carlin said it all too as I have posted in earlier opinions.  His political comedy is stinging truth in "The American Dream."  It's salty language so beware if that offends you but it is the most prescient piece this genius Carlin ever said and he said it in 2009. He is gone now but his words live on. It is amazing and it is posted again here to refresh your memory!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-s-goodman/jamie-dimon-derivatives-f_b_1509631.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q

Scott Walker overheard

This is what Scott Walker of Wisconsin is about advocating for Republicans to take YOUR job.  It is not ONLY Wisconsin.  It is all over the US and could come to your own state IF we are not vigilant.  And it applies to seniors, the disabled and those who depend on state services to help us live life.  If you see someone take the Ride -- that is state help, if you go to college through Mass. Rehab that is state help, if you cannot eat or cannot afford medical care the state will help you.  Walker's road map is to take that ALL away, pocket the money and the 1% live like kings and other Republicans emulate him. 


Scroll down and see how you can help!  If you can please donate to Barrett who is running in the recall of Scott Walker.  I know it's not your state but truly we are all in this together.  Let's act like the family we should be and do NOT let this barbarian run rough shod over middle and working class rights those rights someday may truly be your own!

Click here to see the taped private conversation or below.

https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/tom-barrett-honest-government?refcode=0511tbe2

The Cerebral Advantage

Man has a cerebral advantage from all other species. It is obviously what keeps us at the top of the food and evolutionary chain. The polar bear can survive in weather that would kill us in one minute. All the other species can do things that would kill a man instantly. BUT man has this brain; this incredible brain that thinks the most complex thoughts, creates the most complex engineering feats, sews the most beautiful clothes and makes coats to keep him warm. That IS our advantage. The OTHER advantage is that man also has and needs the help of the group to survive. If I have a medical issue I NEED someone else to help -- a doctor who has tremendous expertise I do not have.

One of, in my opinion, the most IMPORTANT characteristics of the human species (some have it more than others) is our ability for empathy; our ability to walk in the other guy's shoes, to cry, to help others EVEN WHEN we put our own life at risk. Few other species do this OR if they do it is the exception.

Therefore, it saves the group when we take care of each other; when we empathize and when we avoid the utter devastation of war. If we think three days of interrupted electricity is not acceptable then what would we god forbid do if electricity were the exception and not the rule. We live in a delicate balance where war truthfully helps no one. War kills and if we are not careful it will kill man and his complex society once and for all leaving the earth to regroup, heal itself and start over!

This IS Mitt Romney--spread the word

The following story linked below in the Washington Post about Romney's younger years is TROUBLING to say the least.  He was in modern parlance a BULLY!

Mitt Romney’s prep school classmates recall pranks, but also troubling incidents link here

yet another reason to vote for the president.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mitt-romneys-prep-school-classmates-recall-pranks-but-also-troubling-incidents/2012/05/10/gIQA3WOKFU_story.html

Because its the RIGHT thing to do!

As I sit here typing I heard the skewed media focus on those who may not vote now for the president because of the gay marriage support.  They are not concentrating on those in his base and others who may have not voted before because of one thing or another but are now motivated TO vote for him now.  At least I HOPE it has. A civil right should NOT be put to a vote.  How many would have voted against black people or even interracial marriage in 1964 if their civil rights were put up to a vote?


If any of you, any one of you had any reservations whatsoever you need to bag them, say a profound thank you to the president who is now risking his presidency for those of us to whom marriage issue means a lot.  That is HEROIC!  In view of that I don't care how you do it but you MUST MUST help get out the vote for the president. 


You must convince all those who had any doubt that this president is for us.  He has, in my opinion, done the best he could in other areas as well.  The gay marriage issue elevates him to incredible heights and WE MUST support him.  Moreover, the 99% should not have any doubts whatsoever that Romney would be deadly for them and for the country as well.  Gay issue aside it is economic stability which is the driver of elections and on that issue Obama too has had to work with poisonous opposition.  It is amazing the economy has done as well as it has given the wreckage the Republicans left him with.


PLEASE GET THE VOTE OUT FOR THE PRESIDENT.  LOOK TO WHAT HE HAS DONE WHICH IS LEGION FOR THE PEOPLE AND KNOW YOU ARE DOING A GREAT THING FOR OUR COUNTRY.  HE WILL IF ELECTED AGAIN AND IF THE CONGRESS TURNS BLUE GO DOWN AMONG THE GREATS.  I AM CONVINCED OF THAT.  PLEASE, OF COURSE, VOTE FOR HIM AND CONVINCE AS MANY OTHERS AS YOU CAN TO VOTE FOR HIM TOO!

Gayly Forward -- THE BASE IS BACK!

THANK YOU, Mr. President. From the moment he ran through tremendous opposition and controversy to now directly after one of the most hate-infused constitutional changes in the North Carolina vote sowing discrimination into their state constitution, I say Mr. President thank you so very much. I ask the gay community and ALL those who are friends, parents and co-workers of LGBT persons to come out en masse and support the president in November.

He has shown time and again whether it's in the area of foreign policy or now supporting a huge number in his constituency and base the steel that Joe Biden said the president has in his spine. Thank you again, Mr. President, you are saving lives. I think the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice today and, in pertinent part to your election as the first black president, there are many who are even prouder to be Americans today.

Not voting is NOT an option

Yesterday's election results tell a bone chilling story. If gay groups, unions, students, young people, Democrats, Independents for rational thought and god knows how many other groups for progressive change, do NOT come out STRONGLY in any way possible whether it's marches, joining the 99% group,  contributions, in the media or any other format one can think of to organize, then we deserve the fate we will get. We will get a nation that is in character as it was in 1898 except the technological control these rancid reactionary fascist-like groups will have will be stunning.

Power harnessed by the Tea Bag and other Republicans could cost the president his office and it ultimately could cost lives.  Make no mistake about if you belong to any of the above mentioned groups the life risked whether its through no health care, no job, no home, no education and little representation in both state and federal congresses and a Republican presidency, the life cost may be yours!

We cannot, We MUST NOT retreat but we must -- to use a Palin phrase (sorry) -- RELOAD!

Please consider--PLEASE read

I know times are hard, they are hard for so many including yours truly.  STILL the election in Wisconsin to recall its Republican Governor Scott Walker is vitally important to us all.  He has ruined Wisconsin by driving up unemployment to Tower of Babel heights. Walker and so many other Republican politicos in our nation have fired thousands of firemen, police, teachers and other public employees so necessary for a functioning nation and he will do more destructive things if he is not defeated.  Many other Republican governors have ruined their states too taking tyrannical control of towns especially towns that vote Democratic.  These Republicans are an assault on our democratic way of life.


Millions of signatures were collected from all strata of Wisconsin voters to call Walker back.  The recall vote will be taken June 5 so there is little time to spare.  If you are politically savvy at all you know this has HUGE ramifications for those of us who call ourselves progressive, Democratic, Independent and many others who know the Republican Party is toxic for our nation.  It will send shock waves across the nation if Walker is defeated.

We ALL have a vested interest in seeing Walker recalled.  I ask IF YOU CAN PLEASE make a contribution through the sites below as I have felt compelled to do.  It does not have to be much at all.  It can be as little or as much as you can afford.


If Walker is recalled by electing the Democratic candidate Barrett it will send a chilling message to Republicans that reverberates for ALL of us.  Republicans are doing things not seen since post Reconstruction.  They are using all means illegal and legal to cut the vote of the poor the disabled, the sick, and the elderly through voter suppression techniques and voter ID laws.  The money Walker has raised from outside groups is STAGGERING.  We can beat them at their ugly game because we have the REAL force -- PEOPLE POWER. 


Please consider no matter how small (or large) making a donation to this worthy cause! Recall Walker NOW, ask me how by scrolling below or merely Google Tom Barrett Wisconsin Recall.


Best,
Nat

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Tate, Recall Walker HQ
To: Natalie Rosen
Sent: Wed, May 9, 2012 12:16 am
Subject: FWD: 28 days to defeat Walker

Natalie --

I wanted to pass along this message from our next governor, Tom Barrett.

After months of historic division, job loss, criminal corruption and partisan power grabs at the hands of Scott Walker, Tom Barrett will offer Wisconsin a new start at healing our great state and beginning the long job of repairing the devastation wrought by 17 months of irresponsible rule.

Please help Tom bring a new start to Wisconsin by making a $12 donation right now so we can defeat Scott Walker on June 5.

In solidarity,

Mike Tate, Chair

Democratic Party of Wisconsin

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Tom Barrett

Date: Tue, May 8, 2012 at 10:15 PM

Subject: 28 days to defeat Walker

To: Mike Tate

Mike --

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Tonight, I am humbled by and grateful for the support of Wisconsinites across our great state.

Since we began our campaign, I've traveled all across Wisconsin -- never once leaving our state -- to listen to the people.

What I've heard from Wisconsinites is that they want an end to the political turmoil caused by Scott Walker, and they want their needs placed first.

With you standing with me, that's what I plan to do. In the next 28 days, I'll work overtime fighting for the interests of Wisconsinites, but to do so, I need your urgent help right now to kick-start our neighbor-to-neighbor program.

Can I count on you to make a $12 donation right now so we can defeat Scott Walker on June 5?

Defeating Scott Walker and his entrenched, out-of-state special interest allies will not be an easy task. Right now our campaign is up 47% to 46% in the polls, but we know that Walker and the Koch brothers are ready to unload everything in their right-wing arsenal in a desperate attempt to bring us down.

Scott Walker's failed agenda has led to unprecedented political turmoil and a sputtering Wisconsin economy that leads the entire nation in job loss.

But while we've been campaigning across Wisconsin, Walker has been flying all over the country raising a record $25 million from right-wing billionaires and lobbyists who want their interests placed ahead of working people in our state.

Big money isn't going to win this fight. You are.

To win on June 5, we will need everyone who participated in this improbable, people-powered movement to band together and work double time talking to their friends, family and neighbors about the choice in this historic election.

With your contribution of $12 right now, you'll help us defeat Scott Walker and his corporate cash with an unparalleled neighbor-to-neighbor program of people talking to people in their front lawns, in their kitchens, and in their living rooms about the future of our state.

It's time to put Wisconsin first so we can focus on jobs, on education, and on restoring our tradition of open, honest government.

In the last 15 months, you've proved that winning this fight for working people is possible, and I can't wait to see what you'll do in the next 28 days to lead us to victory.

Thank you,

Tom Barrett

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Authorized and Paid for by The Democratic Party of Wisconsin. Michael J. Tate, Chair We don't want to send you email that you don't want: unsubscribe from this list.

Bomber in Plot on U.S. Airliner Is Said to Be a Double Agent

My Comment in relation to  NYT article and post are here

If this proves to be true, the ever so capable president Obama adds another feather to his cap. I cannot think of one other president Democrat or certainly Republican who has been so foreign policy effective and right on the mark. From taking out of the Somali pirates, retrieval of two innocent women from N. Korea, to the killing of Alawaki, and the mother of all terrorists bin Laden I trust the president with my life and can EASILY vote for him another term. This is how foreign policy is conducted when you have BRILLIANCE at the helm.

On the economy too CLEARLY it is improving naturally not fast enough for the McDonald's generation American public. IF we had not had such a cruel, mean, and often racist Republican controlled House our economy would be in even better recovery. If not for one of the worst conservative five on the Supreme Court to possibly strike down the president's necessary and crown achievement health care the president's election would be assured. Defeat of any these things, however, will not matter because defeat will be hung around conservatives' necks.

My Point: The president is a STAR and the Republican party of old white men and some white women cannot admit this is so. But it does not matter what they admit. The US knows when it has elected a sterling example of leadership.

Good luck, Mr. President, this white woman's Jewish heart and my prayers are with you. My bet is on YOU to prevail!

Foreign Affair -- Mitt Romney's Waterloo

I send the following quote from Huffington Post to our friends and allies who desperately want the re-election of the president.  This is, I believe, one of Romney’s most damning indictments and in my mind HIS Waterloo. HP said as follows:

 At a town hall-style meeting Monday in Cleveland, the GOP presidential candidate got this pointed question about his investments: In this age of tough foreign competition, could Romney explain the "over $1.5 million in foreign tax credits" he received since 2000?

"I'm not familiar with that," Romney told the man who asked. The crowd booed. "I didn't think I paid any foreign income taxes, but I'll be happy to take a look at it."

In fact, Romney and his wife, Ann, paid more than $1.2 million in foreign taxes on so-called passive investments from 2000 through 2010, and paid about $800,000 in taxes on general income to unspecified countries. That's according to the couple's own tax returns.

Their foreign tax bills entitled them to more than $1.5 million in tax credits in the United States since 2000, thanks to Internal Revenue Service rules that prevent businesses and investors from being doubly taxed on money they earn abroad.

This tax avoidance scheme is yet another in the hundred perhaps thousands of ways corporations and the mega rich, with their sophisticated tax attorneys, snake around paying their fair share to our government and then tax the middle class here to pay for their avoidance over there.  This issue, I believe, should be the most important attack against this valueless empty suit, Romney and his Republican Party.  The flip-flopper-in-chief times 10, is worse than any other candidate by far through his own economic slither to avoid paying taxes in our country. 

Receiving a tax credit in our country and paying taxes to foreign countries is without a doubt revolting.   If these know nothing Republicans want to talk about treason insulting the president (including Romney’s assent to it by his silence) then they should look to Romney, a presidential candidate, giving money to foreign countries but depriving the US, the country he SAYS he loves, of its rightful share.  It is an abomination!  He did not have to set up his investments that way.  It would not have made him significantly poorer but would have helped OUR country in its effort to emerge from the GREATEST RECESSION/DEPRESSION EVER, CREATED BY MOSTLY REPUBLICANS.   The fact that he CAN do this and Romney, et al would never change it, is testament as to just how skewed the tax system is to the ultra rich.   Republicans have a vested interest to keep it that way while we the 99% go without jobs, without health care and some day, if the Ryan bill Romney loves so much becomes the law of the land, with deep cuts to social safety net programs like Medicare, Medicaid and even ultimately Social Security.

The Democratic Party and many others who want the president re-elected should get the message out, take advantage of savvy liaisons they may have with the press and crush Romney’s candidacy for the presidency in pertinent part because of the taxes he paid or more precisely DID NOT pay to our country!

For Better or Worse--Football's Concussive Reality

I am one of the growing number of female football fans. Why do I love it? I love it because I see men doing things my body never could do even when I was 20! I love the bodily contortions, I love the long forward pass, I love the surprise break-aways; moves one did not expect and cannot believe.

Man has always loved sport (Romans throwing others to the lions comes to mind) and most especially we love a bruising sport like football where one sits in the safety of the room, behind the TV or in a seat at the stadium while others take the bashing and we safely watch it.

Someone -- maybe some lefty of the 60's -- said "The personal is political" so excuse me if I wax so. We are a country made up of policy which ROUTINELY goes to war -- read Rachel Maddow's book "Drift" and you will get MY drift. We have gone to war in ALL venues nearly at ALL times in our history. Man has always gone to war, I know, but it is different now. Not only can we watch from our living room but the perpetrators of war can conduct it with drones in depersonalized safety close to home 6000 miles away from the front. We love war most especially when we are so removed from it. 

War is on the evening news or even on a TV set-up at work shown as entertainment for those who do not have to physically suffer its consequences. War is nasty and brutal. We sit in the comfort of our living room while newscasters describe the shock, awe and mayhem of battle. It looks like the 4th of July BUT it's not. The camera rarely goes behind the scenes to show just who the bombs hit, the family's limbs exploding or its many dead. Rarely are we shown wars' aftermath or if we are we often do not look. It is the way of war doncha know. War is hell; as if we could not have figured that out.

Football IS a type of war. We watch, cheer and feel good in the safety of our home, seats in a barroom or at the game. We gorge on food and drink and merriment while our fellow man has his body crushed, his brain compressed, his bones ruined and sometimes the grim reaper pays a visit. It is the way of the world. War and often sport, especially football, are brutal. 

I am not exactly sure how after thousands of years of evolution we can change man's hard wired drive but we ought to try. We watch war and sport on the HDTV screen while we swig the next beer or swallow the next piece of pizza. It's in our DNA and it's the way we have been for millennia for better and, I believe, mostly for worse!

Smelling the thrill of victory--a stream of consciousness

If you heard the  president as I did today in Ohio, he was MAGNIFICENT.  He spoke to a HUGE crowd.  He was the Barack Obama I knew and loved.  I STILL know and love him.  The second term will be even better than the first IF the rotten red congressional House turns blue.  We MUST help throw the Republican wingnuts OUT.  Get the president some support.  I am feeling better every day, more positive by the moment.  Romney no matter how much money it will not matter.  He is an empty suit and throwing overboard this guy Grennell was his first BIG error.  It shows you how horrendous Romney is.  He threw a long time loyal Republican supposedly expert (well I challenge that but just saying) in foreign policy overboard Grennell who was gay because some two bit racist bigot religious fanatics scared the *&^% out of him shows you what this guy is and what the party has become.  It is OVER for Republicans.  This is their last gasp. The complexion of the country is changing and they will all too soon be irrelevant.  Cannot happen fast enough for me.

Romney has got to be the worst of the worst Republican candidates EVER. I never thought I would say that after the McCain debacle of 2008 but the Republicans outdid themselves this time with the bottom of the barrel candidate. He is just AWFUL. He could have God as his running mate and it would not help. WOW Romney is so out of touch, he is so UNPRINCIPLED, and it is almost painful to watch him squirm in his own skin.  He is just a shill for the out on a limb extremists who have taken over the soon to be dead Republican Party. What will be left of it?  NOTHING I HOPE!  They will NEVER EVER be able to win national elections with an extremist not only base but entirety...EVER. Throwing overboard Grennell was just a metaphor for how much of an empty suit Romney is. There is NO comparison between Obama and him. Obama is SO SO SO far superior it's not even funny. How does a party do that to itself? It's committing suicide right before our eyes and Rubio or ANYONE will NOT help!

We must be buoyed up by the HUGE crowd today in Ohio. Polls I am reading are looking so far good for all the swing states except Florida which is neck and neck.  I have a feeling it will turn to us...I hope.  BUT in NO WAY be smug just be ENTHUSIASTIC again.  Our lives and your children's lives are at stake. 

Obama 2012 -- work for his re-election

p.s.  Pray and help Scott Walker's DEMISE in Wisconsin.  I feel he is going down.  One by one we take the nation back.  Brick by brick we build a new nation from the bottom up!

Forward
Natalie

Religious orthodoxy the Hemlock of our time--Hassids throw off your chains!

A HIGH FIVE to this brave woman.  Kudos times many.  This is a wonderful and in my opinion a GREAT story. As I have said many times I am adamantly opposed to all religion which requires one to lock up one's brain and throw away the key. 

http://www.aol.com/video/youve-got-deborah-feldman/517355132/?ncid=wsc-video-cards-image

Homosexual Hate -- The Republican Party and the true new Nazis

I dislike throwing the word Nazi around like a game of Wonder Ball.  If every political group and person to whom one objects is labeled Nazi then no one truly is.  Yet there are unique times where the comparison is apt. 

Last evening MSNBC'S Larry O'Donnell carried a segment about the despicable anti-homosexual hate-filled violence infused “sermon” preached last Sunday by a North Carolina Baptist pastor.  It stunned me into catatonic incredulity so much so that I had to decompress from the poison circulating my system.  I post the segment here and below for your review. If you view it please view both "Pastor" Sean Harris's sermon and Larry O'Donnel's well crafted response. 

Harris's loathsome violent-to-children-who-appear-to-be-gay rant spewed his venom to a sparse congregation in North Carolina.  It included such sweet suggestions as breaking a child's "limp" wrist if that “limp” wrist belonged to a male.  Nonetheless, many cheered and clapped. I do not know from under what rock these intellectually mind-frozen inhumane malcontents emerge but this is why the plethora of allies in and of the LBGT community are so important. 


Time and again I give kudos to Rachel Maddow for her work, her honesty about her own life and her representation of it which does more, in my opinion, than all the gay rights marches of yesteryear one could attend.  I believe all those who publicly stand up to defend the innocent other save lives.  Everything, though, is important to fight this systemic true evil that courses through the life blood of our nation.  The Republican Party has morphed into something unrecognizable to those who were the true respectable Republican intellects of their time.  The Republican Party, now the party of hate, is infused with right wing extremists no Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Nelson Rockefeller, Gerald Ford and even the Republican idol Ronald Reagan could understand.

The firing of homosexual Richard Grennell, Romney's adviser on foreign policy, shouts loud and clear where the Republican Party has taken itself and how its soon-to-be-leader and Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, once a supporter of gay rights, now melts into a pile of putty in the face of opposition from the party's most extreme base.  He acquiesced to the utterly hateful Bryan J. Fisher the Director of Issues Analysis and to Tony Perkins president of the malodorous anti-gay American Family Association.  Romney hurts a man who was loyal to the Republican Party for years.  This is the stuff of which the noxious chameleon Willard Mitt Romney is made.  I hope this gives Grennell pause to realize the morphed Republican Party to which he has associated himself is the pure and unadulterated party of hate which will make no room for him or other so-called Log Cabin Republicans who are gay.

There is sad simile to the German Nazi Party's rise to power, which would ultimately murder millions in modern time.  The German party of 20th century history would plunge the world into one of its greatest war killing machines human kind has ever known.  Many Jews during the anti-Semitic Nazi Party's assent were told to get out of Germany because the words and essence of the Nazi party's leadership put the handwriting on the wall for them to read.  But many did not read them and most did not leave.  Many thought it only a phase.  It will end, some thought.  It was only a transitory minority element within the party that will fade with time.  But it never did fade with time until it was too late and the other everywhere was ground into dust by an element in a movement many thought was merely going through harmless growing pains.

The rise of the Nazi Party began with a simple speech, a book, a movie, a burning, a purge but it ended with the slaughter, the purging and the burning of millions.  It is why I make the comparison between its rise and the rise of our own disloyal opposition.  In truth, this Republican Party of hate includes in its ranks the most extreme right wing virulence that party has ever known which is too close for comfort to the appellation of Nazi for me.

http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/lawrence-odonnell-takes-on-pastor-who-advocated-gay-child-beating/politics/2012/05/03/38955

A PATHETIC PRESS: FAILURE TO COVER ELIZABETH WARREN

Elizabeth Warren was in Marlboro, Massachusetts last Sunday.  Did you see it reported by television, cable and local news organizations?  If you answered no I will say I did not see her either.  The media coverage of Elizabeth Warren is a DISGRACE.

This is the biggest and I aver one of the most important senate races in the country.  If Elizabeth wins it will be HUGE and right now the polls show a close race.  Hopefully once Massachusetts gets to see and hear her they will fall in love with her candidacy as I did.  My hope is that she will win and have as positive impact on the state as Teddy Kennedy did for decades but she cannot do it if she does not get press coverage while her opponent simply has to drive up in his truck and brown jacket and a camera is in his face!  It is simply unfair.

The press does a disservice to the State of Massachusetts and a disservice to the nation with its pathetic lack of coverage of this price-above-rubies candidate, Elizabeth Warren.  We live in crucial electoral times calling for crucial votes for the 99%.  Elizabeth will be on our side as her opponent will be for the top 1% richest.

A large segment of the press has been accused of being in the pockets of big corporate everything skewing the election red and buying up power with Karl Rove's deep pocket bucks making our nation into the oligarchy that many say it is.  When the press does NOT cover someone like Elizabeth Warren then I can surely see what they mean!

A Dignified Death

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The link here is to the Boston Sunday Globe article "Dying Wishes" which is about a little discussed topic of death with dignity.  In addition to explaining what Death with Dignity means it offers the reader the ability to vote yea or nay to this procedure if it were put to a vote. Very few want to discuss this but I believe in speaking truth and looking reality in the face.

I vote a resounding yes to death with dignity or assisted suicide for TERMINALLY ILL patients.  Both from tortured personal experience and the experience of many friends and relatives it is UNBELIEVABLE how horrendous it is for the patient to endure debilitating and freedom depriving terminal illness and how easy it is for others to deny themselves that freedom of choice.  Moreover, by doing so they deny it to everyone else as well.  It is an understatement to say a terminal illness is a horror of the greatest magnitude to endure and that it should be up to the person suffering it to make the ultimate decision for him or herself either by a health care proxy or, if possible, by oneself to either endure the suffering or end it.  One's body is one's own.  The suffering major religions require a human being to endure is  unconscionable.  I would even aver that religion is in the business of suffering and it is in its own vested and monetary interest to encourage one to endure unspeakable pain because then one goes to it for relief. I do not believe anyone can make that life or death decision for me but me.

I never want to give my hard earned bucks to a disgusting nursing home. The nursing home business is a multi-million buck scam as is the cancer pharmaceuticals business.  The drug companies do not want cures for cancer by funding stem cell research, DNA research or environmental contributors to the cancer albatross around everyone's neck to once and for all end that multifaceted malodorous malady.  Slashing, burning or poisoning is the still, after decades, the treatment de jour for cancer.  The so called "war on cancer" is over thirty years old and there is, as in other wars our nation fights, no end in site. The so called "walk for the cure" of Komens does not want a cure they want people to give money to Komens for Komens.  It's a big business and it translates in to BILLIONS for the cancer industry while it sucks dry those who are unlucky enough to get the disease or have a close family member that does. Even if they can buy some time if treatment is available they are often not rich enough to treat it effectively and insurance companies, naturally, will not pay for much of it and most especially will not pay for experimental treatment.

If our culture euthanizes beloved pets because it is the humane thing to do is it no less so for a human being?  I will vote yes for a death with dignity bill if it appears on the Massachusetts ballot in November!  You can accept this difficult decision or reject it as you choose but leave that choice up to me.

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/articles/2012/04/29/death_with_dignity_act/

My Namesake on Meet the Press

My namesake Hillary Rosen and Rachel Maddow were on Meet the Press this morning.  Both are blessings to progressives everywhere.  Rachel in particular was her usual perfect defending our cause against two Republican heavy weights, Vice Chair of the House Republican Conference Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), and Republican strategist Alex Castellanos.  

Rachel was wonderful, passionate and absolutely 100% correct.  I thought she and Hillary Rosen knocked it out of the park and the Republicans on their behinds.  I was particularly thrilled Rosen had the opportunity to better explain her views which were originally, I believe, misinterpreted.  She was NOT against Ann Romney or stay-at-home mothers.  Who could be?  BUT those in the 1% cannot in ANY way be compared to those in the 99%. How middle class mothers and poor mothers juggle a job and children is infinitely different.  Ann Romney probably has NO idea what a head of lettuce or even a gallon of gasoline costs.  Why should she?  She doesn't HAVE to.  Her husband’s Republican policy reflects just that point when he wants to take away the earned income tax credit but cut taxes for the top 1%.  Fairness is not in the Republican vocabulary.

Rachel is right when she said state legislatures that turned Republican in the 2010 election catastrophe show EXACTLY what happens when Republicans rule -- high unemployment, the emasculation of unions, no health care and no jobs.  Who are Republicans kidding?

Republicans indicting Democrats as the dividers is a joke.  Republicans are the ones who will NOT compromise, Republicans are the ones who are virulently anti choice, anti birth control and thereby anti women.   Republicans are the ones to introduce religious beliefs which should be separate and apart from the big government Republicans CLAIM they loathe so much. I don't say it, Rachel doesn't say it, Hillary doesn't say it but the CONSTITUTION says it and Republicans are blind to that too.

Rarely does Rachel Maddow say anything in error and if does she apologizes and corrects it immediately.  That is infinitely more than Republicans do unless their arm is twisted into an unnatural position!

My channel in the evening is stuck on MSNBC!

If you are interested in Meet the Press and did not see it Sunday, April 29 I link it below.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/

Frontline "Money, Power and Wall Street (Part One)."

If you have not seen it I enclose here the link to the PBS Frontline program aired yesterday, April 25, 2012 entitled "Money, Power and Wall Street (Part One)."  It is wonderful.  In case our economic near collapse in 2007 is not inscribed permanently in your synaptic cerebral connections and you have forgotten many of the reasons for it, or if the subject is downright mind numbing, shattering, and boring I link the segment to it below as well.   Frontline reduces the explanation of highly complex economic realities to a very understandable narrative.  It is, as usual, entertaining as well.

If you have time to view it I highly suggest you do lest we all forget why our country is so far into the economic hole that we are and who the real sowers of this utter catastrophe and near world economic collapse were.  The fault lay NOT with President Obama but those who obstruct policies he would enact which offer the faster cure for this lethal malady.  You will be able to see how far he has had to crawl into the mostly Republican (but not all) sewer to rescue and resuscitate this nation and how difficult a process it is. 

Put the blame where it should be NOT on the 99% but on the 1% wealthiest of this nation.  Do NOT elect Willard Mitt Romney yet another member in good standing of the 1% who did not give a damn about you, about me, and about the nation they claim to love so much!

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/view/

You Have Got to Be Kidding Me!

The editorial by Jeff Jacoby in the Sunday April 22, 2012 Boston Sunday Globe entitled “Obama a unifying force? Hardly” raised my ire.  I wrote a response to it.  “Conservative” that Jeff Jacoby allegedly is indicting the president for being the reason for the nation’s division and that he unlike his charismatic speeches in Grant Park or during the 2004 Democratic convention proved him to be the opposite –  a divider of the nation he promised to unite.  He even compared him to Richard Nixon who vowed he would "bring us together" and did anything but.  You may see why I saw three shades of deep red!  I stated the following to him.  His article that demanded a response is here if you care and can stand to read it and linked below as well.

You know, Jeff, I haven't read your editorials in quite some time because frankly I thought you were not worth enough to raise my blood pressure to Plutonian heights.  So why did I read your utterly heart attack inducing article, "Obama a unifying force? Hardly"?  I have no idea.  I know I came to the end wanting to scream YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!   

What planet to you live on, Jeff?   You are proclaiming to your readers it's Obama fault for not uniting us?  After ALL the compromising that man has tried to do you have the unmitigated gall to say that?  After the pretzel the president has turned himself into to TRY to negotiate with and placate Republicans who ultimately would give him NOTHING you can utter such a lie?  After Republicans insulted him on numerous occasions and even courted world economic collapse rather than raise a debt ceiling something universally done by all former presidents you can say such things?

The president WANTED to live out what he said in his Grant Park Speech and the myriad of speeches he has given advocating unification of the body politic but sickening Republican Tea Bag politics racist, uncompromising and extreme would not give this black man an inch.  God forbid what he wanted to do would work and show them up for the charlatans most in the Republican Party are.

This well meaning man will reign supreme over the race baiters, the Wall Street banksters and those who would not give him credit for even killing bin Laden.  You say things are that are not, you say things are black when they are white, you dismember history’s truth, and have no memory of what actually in reality occurred.

The fault for the irretrievably divided broken down Washington politics dear Brutus is NOT in the president but in the Republican Party for which you seem to advocate.  McConnell admitted the Republican Party's ONLY goal was to tear Obama down.  The president could ask for the cherry blossoms to bloom longer and your Republican Party would say some non sequitur like see I told you he was a Muslim, see I told you he was not born here, see I told you he is a socialist, a Nazi, a Communist. The political spectrum ignorance of people in the Republican Party is astounding.

The president can merely say he could have a son who looked like Trayvon and oh my god how racist that is they proclaim. Or gee maybe the Cambridge police reacted too hastily when they handcuffed Professor Gates at his own home.  Guess what?  THEY DID act too hastily but President Obama being the conciliator he is scheduled a beer summit to reach out to both sides for which he was naturally criticized for that as well.  The man cannot even cross a street without receiving criticism from the racist right who cannot STAND a black man and his black family inhabiting the heretofore oh so historically consistent very White House.

The reason Richard Nixon could not bring us together was he was corrupt, did NOT bring Vietnam to an end but rather invaded Cambodia AND he WAS a CROOK.   You and your party are excrementally putrefied because of the cockeyed way you view your country, utterly distort history, lie, and, in fact, most especially because of Republican’s racist core.

It is people like you who will be held accountable if the life of this president is threatened. He has received more threats than any president in US history and it’s NOT from Democrats.  Imagine if Rev. Wright said the same things as the sick malcontent Ted Nugent the hard rock know nothing Romney supporter.  It is he and so called “conservatives” like you who are the DESPICABLE dividers.  It is most certainly NOT the president.  Hopefully, in November we will see that you have reaped the discord and division you and your fellow Republicans have sown.  The defeat of your lies and your historical inaccuracies cannot come quickly enough for me.

http://bostonglobe.com/opinion/2012/04/21/obama-unifying-force-hardly-obama-unifying-force-hardly/tkxrTNhW1bJocwIBqlX8YP/story.html

Another Letter to the Hispanic Community

Mitt Romney knows and was caught off guard saying that if he does not capture the Hispanic vote they will lose and he is correct they will.  We MUST emphasize to the Hispanic community that those Republicans saying they are for them are certainly not. This is the same man who said on tape Arizona's "Paper's Please" anti civil liberties anti immigrant policy in Arizona is a model for the nation and is what he would do if elected president.  He is NOT kidding.  Now he's trying to figure out a way to persuade Hispanics that he was merely referring to computer job look up (e-verify) of citizenship.  DO NOT be duped as I feel certain you will not be. 

Romney, as he is SO adept at doing, will flip flop and turn himself into a salamander to make his ideology of the day (because it changes EVERY day) into that which he thinks will get him elected.  Once in office he will NEVER be the immigrant's friend, will NEVER support the Hispanic community but will do the opposite. 

The president in a second term and IF the obstructionist Congress is thrown out, I am confident WILL try to enact infinitely more immigrant friendly policies, will craft sensible immigration law and NOT leave Hispanics out of the American Dream.  He cannot, however, do this alone.  He needs our help and he needs our vote. 

Republicans, if they gain power, will capture and/or even kill undocumented workers en masse.   As I said in an earlier email the Republican Party advocates for border vigilantism.  Moreover, they gerrymander districts as well as enact voter ID suppression laws to diminish the impact of the minority vote because they KNOW that vote is usually cast for Democrats.

Therefore, I ask you, no I plead with you, NOT to fall for the Republican Trojan Horse.  Mitt Romney and Republicans are NOT for the elderly, not for the disabled, NOT for the poor, NOT for health care and NOT for you. Do NOT be FOOLED--No se deje enganar. The Republican Party is NOT about you.  They merely want you to THINK they are.  

Flip Flopper in Chief

Click here to see how much Willard Mitt Romney has flipped his positions.  He has COMPLETELY changed his views on every single issue of import in the modern era.  Click where it says "here" on link to see his positions in 1994 when he was running against Ted Kennedy and now when he needs the wingnut religious fanatics and the Tea Party to win the Republican nomination this chameleon morphs into something unrecognizable. Or you can click on the link below.

AMAZING!

http://www.republicansforobama.org/node/10060

Meet the Chicken Hawks

VERY interesting link.  You would be AMAZED (or maybe you wouldn't) how many of those Republicans who sound the drum beat of war, love war, support war AS LONG AS THEY do not serve.  Click here (or on the link below) if you want to see who has served and who has not.  I think I am correct when I say more -- many more -- Republicans hid from the draft, got deferments or did not serve while they did and still do their damnedest to make sure other less powerful people's children fight and die on the battlefield.  It is scandalous to say the least.

Oh yes, where was our CLASSLESS candidate Romney during the Vietnam War?  Mitt Romney Spent the Vietnam War in a French Palace!  Click here (or on the link below) for that web site.


http://liberalslikechrist.org/about/chickenhawks.html

http://www.nationalmemo.com/strange-true-mitt-romney-spent-vietnam-war-french-palace/

Contemplating the Alternative

Make NO mistake about it electing racist Know Nothing religious extremist irrational science deniers will mean a country will be reduced to near third world status where the rights of women, minorities, the disabled and the poor are reactionarily eviscerated.  It will mean the steady decline and obliteration of the environment.  It will mean a right wing extremist Supreme Court the likes of which our country has not seen since the 1857 Justice Taney Dred Scott Supreme Court decision ruling the black man was property and not a person.  This time the court will overturn a woman’s right to choose.  It will keep corporations as people and will ensure the oligarchy that exists today will remain in place for God knows how many generations.  It will mean the 99% will not overcome the economic forces of the richest 1% evil that smother them by keeping a larger and larger piece of the economic pie through nefarious, illegal and immoral means while the majority eat cake, develop diseases we cannot afford with no health care to treat them and no one TO care.  Only death will await.

This is the most important election I have ever witnessed in my decades of witnessing many.  Defeat of the president is NOT an option.  The Republican opposition MUST be defeated by all means necessary for you, for me, for your children and for their children!  There is, indeed, too much at stake to even contemplate the alternative.

Dastardly Speech: The violent, ugly, and filthy comments of the disgusting hard rocker right wing extremist, Ted Nugent, were WORSE than anything that was said by Rev. Wright in his sermon for which the right wing screamed critical of then candidate Obama. Wright's speech was mild in comparison to the THREATENING vitriolic speech of Nugent, a man Mr. Romney gleefully accepted as a supporter and, indeed, went to him for support.

At least the president, good human being that he is, addressed Wright's unacceptable comments, gave a speech about it and eschewed the vitriol of it.  Mitt Romney sends a message of so called "civility" through an emissary.  He did not even have the COURAGE not to mention courtesy to disavow what that violent, profane and repellent Nugent had to say.

I am happy that the Secret Service is investigating Nugent.  They should but that a presidential contender with gravitas and class merely had an aid craft a mild note is UNFORGIVABLE and insulting to the country itself including the presidency that represents it.   One should think twice before supporting this candidate-for-president, Mitt Romney.  He is an unprincipled man based on how Mitt Romney handled this potentially criminal threat directed at the president of the United States by someone Romney not only accepted but his sons waxed effusive in accepting the scurrilous Nugent endorsement.

Romney is an EMBARRASSMENT to this country he says he loves.  He would not know a principled thought if it stood directly in front of him.  He says ONLY that which is politically expedient and changes his views more often than a chameleon sheds its skin.  SHAME ON HIM for not personally and strongly rejecting Nugent's dastardly threatening comments.  It shows one who the significantly better candidate is; one who hides under the table in the face of a challenging event or one who addresses it head on like the intellectually and principally superior person President Obama is.

Mitt Romney, if anything God forbid happens to our president YOU and your Republican Party of mean, racist intrinsic evil WILL be held accountable at least by the God you profess to believe in so much!

The UNRELATABLE ANN ROMNEY

A stream of conscious: The Hillary Rosen controversy was the NO controversy controversy. Why didn't Hillary Rosen speak UP for herself?   Ann Romney knows about sacrifice like Lloyd Blankfein's wife knows about sacrifice -- NOT. Ann Romney did not have to sleep in motel rooms because her house was foreclosed on by a bankster. Ann Romeny could pick and choose ANYTHING she wanted. She was not a single mother she was the MULTI hundreds of million dollar wife of a 1% er. She knows NOTHING about sacrifice. She could have had 20 children and she could not be compared to an economically disadvantaged woman with two.

The economically disadvantaged jobless woman and family have issues with the rearing of children Ann Romney could NOT even think about. Moreover, Ann Romney did not HAVE to work. Economically disadvantaged women even WITH a husband need TWO ... let me say that again for these RepublicRAT know nothings ... TWO jobs to put food on the table.

When did Ann unrelatable Romney ever fear she could not feed her family? When you are a haus frau married to a 1% er you economically worry about NOTHING.

Lower socio economic women have to worry about EVERYTHING related to survival: Food, clothing, shelter and MOST importantly HEALTH CARE. I bet Ann Romeny, who is said to have MS, did not worry ONE second as to how she could medically afford treatment.

Hillary Rosen, STAND UP FOR YOURSELF AND DO NOT GIVE IN TO THESE REPUBLICAN HYPOCRITES and Mr. President, I love you BUT why grovel at Republican's feet. They simply kick you in the face anyway. APPEAL TO THE HILLARY ROSEN'S and people like me YOUR BASE who have your back and ARE at your feet!