Occupy My Heart—A Letter to Occupy Boston: Yesterday, arduous as it was for me, we decided to see what Occupy Boston which braves the harsh elements was about. We brought lots of food, even made a ginger bread cake and packed a rather heavy bag (which I did not carry) and commuter railed it into Boston. It was difficult for me but because it was a joint effort many hands made lighter work. We were THRILLED we made the trek. I felt like the cloud of our depression about things political evaporated into the mist. I wrote a letter to Occupy Boston and OWS, of course, and post it now on my blog to convey my sentiments about this, in my opinion, wonderful movement.

To the OWS workers: I cannot convey how much we appreciate what so many all over the country are doing within the Occupy Wall Street movement to change this rancid, corrupt, sickening hand-holding between those who are entrusted by us with great executive and congressional power and those on Wall Street who buy them off at our expense. If Occupy is a success you will have saved the nation from a fascist-like tyranny that is the essence of the American rightwing and save the country also from the oligarchy of the present. We know some Democrats along with most Republicans are involved in this deception. I TRULY believe that you, collectively, are the FDR of our time coming just in the nick of time at this our hour of need. We are forever in your debt.

I also believe, too, that we must utilize the institutions which are in place to create the change our nation desperately needs. As much as we criticize our president, and I have done so on numerous occasions, he is who we have and has done much good. It would be MUCH better for our cause and our country if he served a second term than it would be if a Romney, Gingrich or god forbid a Perry wins first term. There could be two Supreme Court justices who may need replacement during an Obama second term and we know more Wall Street regulation must occur. We know it will NOT occur under a President Romney, Gingrich, Perry or unthinkably Cain.

I am old enough to remember and, indeed, took part in many anti-war demonstrations in the late sixties. The left was fed up with Johnson’s Vietnam and the country’s racial inequality so they took it out on LBJ’s Vice-President and 1968 presidential hopeful, Hubert Humphrey. The left made the Democratic convention in Chicago a shambles and violence was everywhere. It ensured that the better of the two candidates, the Democrat, Humphrey (who would have ended Vietnam,) lost. Instead the country elected Richard Nixon the corrupt. Change was made alright but understatedly NOT the change we desired or needed and many thousands more needlessly died overseas. It is my opinion that we who wish for systemic humanitarian change MUST work pragmatically with whom we now can to ensure NO Republican EVER gets near the oval office.

President Obama has been remiss at times and I have been vociferously critical of him when I needed to be BUT, in truth, many good things have been enacted under his leadership that never would have been enacted if a Republican McCain and the insipid Palin won. Under the President we repealed the noxious DADT, signed the Lily Ledbetter law for women’s rights and the president nominated and achieved the installation of two very good Supreme Court justices one of whom is the first Hispanic woman to sit on the nation's high court. That made history. Under this President we attained more solid legislation including some needed reform in health care and even, some reform on Wall Street (admittedly not yet enough.) A second Obama term I believe will be much more fruitful.

I ask and I hope that the Occupy movements all over the country do NOT take their righteous anger out on this President. He has had to endure the most obstructionist Congress in the nation's history with the exception of, perhaps, the Congress in the pre-Civil War era. The nation after that tumultuous time has not seen the kind of incorrigible division that exists today.

I HOPE progressives show up en masse in 2012 to re-elect the President BUT he must know that he must help create more of the changes he promised. He MUST take Wall Street out of the Oval Office and WE MOST importantly must take Wall Street OUT of the Congress by turning Congress progressive blue. Strict Wall Street regulatory legislation along with a functioning consumer protection bureau and a no nonsense SEC must be installed. He must LEAD to take corporate money, greed and a bought off Congress OUT of the electoral milieu. This cannot be done overnight.

We KNOW what the President should have done BUT that DOES NOT matter now and we know the good that he HAS done which does matter greatly. We must play the ball where it lies and we must NOT be caught sleeping on the sidelines allowing again the election of Know Nothings who created in 2010 a Republican impenetrable brick wall of obstruction and hate.

The 2011 mid-terms showed us that the giant left wing is STILL there and the movement of Occupy Wall Street proves it. We MUST show up to vote, carry the middle class with us in 2012 and NOT hand an election to Republicans who will destroy our country and its once proud American Dream. Yes, I believe there is a huge difference between the two parties. Democrats are not perfect but our two-party system is the system we have. We, I believe, must not give up on those who CAN and install those who WON’T while those who won’t take everything for the top 1% and leave nothing for the masses of us.

Thank you, Occupy Wall Street and Boston, for occupying my heart. Thank you for diminishing my sadness and for instilling hope once again. As George Bush the Incompetent said -- although he certainly did not mean it to refer to a group like Occupy Wall Street – We MUST NOT FALTER and we MUST not fail. I appropriate that quote for those who share OUR vision and hope that OUR vision is clearer and our hearts stronger than those who have no heart and consequently no vision at all.

The Genius of Glenn Greenwald: Last year I had the distinct pleasure of listening to Glenn Greenwald speak at Harvard. It was, of course, an honor to be able to listen to someone so brilliant, so eloquent and so well versed in the concept of civil liberties which are central to our democracy and our way of life.

I enclose the link at the bottom for your listening pleasure and urge you if you have the time to do so. It was a lecture he gave and a question and answer session at Brown University in April, 2011.

Glenn's writings appear regularly at Salon.com and many of his talks, debates and discourse can be found on Utube. I found the Utube below to be particularly interesting and informative as to the nature and concept of civil liberties. We throw around that word very often and take pride in our nation which was founded on civil libertarian principles enumerated within our Constitution which bestows certain rights the people enjoy and certain prosecutorial prohibitions beyond which the government cannot go.

Glenn is a master of civil liberties and according to Salon is a former Constitutional and civil rights litigator and is the author of New York Times Bestselling books on the Bush and Obama administration’s executive power and foreign policy abuses. If you Google Amazon books and put his name in the search you can see the gems he has written and read samples of them.

I offer the link below as an introduction to one of the premier intellects, historians and civil liberties attorneys of our time. If you listen I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Kirz_vGQeI&NR=1

The Gaffe Heard Round the World: Last evening’s Republican debate was the most hilarious “debate” I have ever heard or seen. Larry O’Donnell, the brilliant MSNBC political pundit, called Rick Perry’s gaffe one of the worst gaffes in the history of presidential debates. As I see it, it goes down with Nixon's sweaty lip except better.

This week has been a GIFT to Democrats. Between the Republican gaffe-filled so called “debates” and the 2011 Republican failures in the midterms, I HOPE once the Christmas party is over, the president can take advantage of the anemic Republican field and keep the momentum up.

If the Republican Party itself were not so mean and hypocritical rotten with the exception of perhaps John Huntsman and, yes, I suppose the flip-flopper-in-chief, Romney, I would not get joy in Perry’s mistake because, truthfully, it was uncomfortable to view. It could not happen, however, to a more cerebrally pathetic and unqualified candidate than Rick Perry.

Herman Cain could not have provided better ammunition to help prove the veracity of the sexual harassment accusers in this circus of sexual harassment by calling the former Speaker Nancy Pelosi “princess Pelosi.” That condescending insult to the preeminently qualified woman Speaker Pelosi put the icing on his exploding cake. I do hope more accusers come forward to buttress Ms. Bialek’s accusation but if they do not it does not matter. Cain is through.

Add to the insanity is Newt Gingrich’s horrible record with women having had numerous extra-marital affairs. Gingrich is a man who served his former wife divorce papers when she was hospitalized undergoing cancer treatment. Trying to squirm around the problems presented by Cain in this field of supposedly "family values" candidates is an unmitigated disaster. Jay Leno could not have written a more comedic script BUT admittedly what Gingrich did is not funny. It is tragic in this tragi-comedy of Shakespearean proportions!

There is a pathetic quality to the 2012 Republican slate. Add to that the disastrous showing of the Republicans in the midterm ballot initiatives and loss in state legislatures it proves the strength and organizational skills of Democrats with the help of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The Republican Party has NOTHING and the one candidate they do have, Romney, must fit the round peg of his true beliefs (assuming anyone knows what they truly are) into the square hole prison the Know Nothing extremist Republican base has made.

I link the video of the Perry gaffe below so one can see the pathetic quality of the 2012 Republican slate. Add to that the disastrous showing of the Republicans in the midterm ballot initiatives and loss in state legislatures it proves the strength and organizational skills of Democrats with the help of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

FINALLY a smile was brought to my face. I HOPE we will be able to kiss the Tea Bag Party with is cruelty and often racist mantra good bye and none too soon, indeed. Enjoy! :-)

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

The Three Shames: There are no words to describe the sickness of what took place at Penn State. The stupidity and the insanity of men who are responsible for the protection of students entrusted to their care witness or are told of this most egregious behavior of child rape and come to the conclusion that the institution with all its money, power and prestige is more important to save than saving the vulnerable minors they have a moral obligation to protect. This is an abomination.

The Catholic Church, too, when the hierarchy KNEW that young boys were being sexually molested by priests decided in their infinite wisdom to IGNORE the very children of their flock and came to the conclusion that the institution was more important to save than those innocents who depend upon that institution for their spiritual life. Instead of reporting the perpetrators to police they decided to protect their most egregious behavior by moving the perpetrator priests around to protect the wealth, power and prestige of the religious institution they served. It was and still is an abomination.

Herman Cain when faced with FOUR female accusers telling similar stories about his alleged assaults says that because he did not harass thousands those four allegations of the woman should be disregarded. He is an abomination.

The institutions and people MUST be taken to the watershed of public punishment and we as a country and as a people need to decide who we TRULY are. It is a disgrace for the entire world to see this nation based on such lofty ideals fall from that grace in so many ways too innumerable to count.

Our Founders who gave us a gift lie in their graves but we the living must live with who we have become. It is a sad day for our country which is SUPPOSED to be the shining city on the hill, an example of ethics and good government. Who are we?

Shame on you the lofty Joe Paterno for looking the other way when you KNEW children were raped and did nothing. Shame on the leadership of the Catholic Church for moving pedophile priests from district to district and state to state so they could perpetrate their sickness on so many other children and reward Cardinals that allowed that behavior to continue by giving them cushy jobs in Rome. Shame on YOU Herman Cain for NOT addressing the seriousness of the charges levied against you. Instead you had the unmitigated gall to disrespect the former speaker Nancy Pelosi and call her princess Pelosi. You sealed your fate with that comment. You, sir, cannot even walk in her shadow.

Shame on ALL of you who give institutions a pass before the very people, including so many children, you are entrusted to protect. You all truly are an abomination!

Not Neutral on Net Neutrality: The corporate behemoths are ready to strike again. This time they want to control the flow of information on the Net. Do not let them. Net neutrality is vital to keep our Internet alive and FREE. They will if they get the Congressional votes be voting on whether to be able to charge a fee for certain things on the Internet. The
Internet is NOT theirs to bargain away. It is First Amendment BLACKMAIL. Hit the submit button below and then pass it on.

It is IMPERATIVE unless you want to receive slowed down Internet service If you do not pay. The nerve of them is beyond belief. Yet AGAIN the oligarchy wants to choke yet another forum off from our purview. DO NOT LET them...Tell your congressman to SUPPORT net neutrality.

Here is a link explaining the issue in neutral terms. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_neutrality_in_the_United_States

Then read the Credit Union email below explaining our side of the issue. Sign it and send and then forward to any you deem would support net neutrality or others who need convincing.

-----Original Message-----
From: Consumers Union

Sent: Wed, Nov 9, 2011 10:47 am
Subject: Net Neutrality

Consumers Union, Policy & Action from Consumer Reports
Dear Natalie,
Are you thinking about giving someone a nifty tablet computer for Christmas so they can watch movies anywhere? The streaming internet is an amazing experience.
But it could become a lot more expensive if the Senate pushes through a bill to end net neutrality. This bill will soon to come to a vote--as early as tomorrow.
Tell your Senator to support net neutrality and vote NO on the Congressional Review bill this week!

Net neutrality? What does that have to do with watching movies? Everything. Right now, anyone can deliver content to you because the internet itself does not impose any restrictions on your access.

So companies have to compete for your business based on the quality of their content, the ease of delivery, the service they provide. That's how it should be.
But passage of this bill will give the big cable and phone companies a different kind of internet, one where they can charge you more for access to a competitor's content.

Today's internet is a driver of real competition -- people invent better products and services, and you decide whether the price is right.
Help us keep it that way! Tell your Senator to vote NO!
Do you have friends who also want to preserve net neutrality? Please forward this message to them. We only have a couple of days to generate a huge wave of consumer opposition before this vote!

Sincerely,
Bob Williams
HearUsNow.org
A project of Consumers Union
1101 17th Street NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20036

THE BELL WEATHER: Stream of Conscious written last evening before the final tally: The REJECTION of the rancid Governor Kacich's Ohio union stripping bill is won the day. Same day voting in Maine the Republican rancid Gov. LePage tried to negate is being reinstated. Other wins for Dems are happening EVEN in Mississippi. This may be a GOOD indication of how strong we TRULY are. Occupy Wall Street has given us our enthusiasm back.

This is shaping up to be a GOOD night to be a bell weather for 2012...WE MUST get out the message and turn the Congress progressive BLUE again so that the president can do what he has promised. I am CONVINCED that we would be out of the economic soup IF Republicans gave him a chance. They did NOT they are intractable and HOPEFULLY god I HOPE they have sowed the seeds of their own destruction.

Get that message out that the ill economy is NOT the President's fault. The economic fraud was conceived under Republicans and happened under Bush. Our president has TRIED his damnedest to get us out of the ditch but Republicans are intractable and venomous. They MUST be defeated next November and he elected. This is NOT going to be a cake walk for Republicans; FAR from it.

Get the word out that the economic doldrums it is NOT the president's fault but it is the Republicans fault for saying NO to everything despite the good it could do for the country. The tax cuts for the TOP 1% must be rescinded, troops for a war machine must come home, programs for the poor, the elderly the disabled must be kept in place and most importantly JOBS which the president wants for infrastructure WILL happen IF we get the Republican evil OUT of Congress--OUT of the House and keep the Senate blue!

You do NOT want a conservative Supreme Court for decades...that is the damage that these weasels do. Spread the word and most of all help do what you can to UNSEAT the rightwing lunatic extremist agenda for you, for your children and once and for all for everyone.

The Waxed Lid: One of the women Cain allegedly harassed called him a "monster." I believe her. Keep going, Mr. Cain, PAHLEESE, we Democrats love it as it puts the spotlight on these cerebral nincompoops and truthfully makes the ENTIRE Republican field look disastrous. It does them no favors and anything that does them no favors does Democrats big favors. Add to that some stupendous wins for Dems on ballot issues (see link below) and some singular elections as well, this is the happiest I have been since 2008. I hope that happiness does not fade.

Cain is THROUGH and some GREAT victories yesterday for Dems came true BUT the fight goes on. The Koch Brothers of right wing billionaire fame put MILLIONS into defeating us but it did NOT work. We through unions and other strong left of center groups with money can play that big money Citizens United game too and hopefully will. Kacich, Walker, LePage and Republican malevolents like them have energized the once defunct union movement which I HOPE is revived and stays honest.

Giving what you can to organizations like Occupy Wall Street, AFL-CIO, and others groups dedicated to making sure these virulent, mean and intrinsically sick Republican right wing extremists do not take the oval office. Moreover, turn the House blue again and stop sending our country into an oligarchic tyranny dedicated to the interests of corporate behemoths against we the people -- the 99%. We need to unseat the nasty Tea Bag and other Republican elements that are radical and subversive to our country at best. One can find groups on the web, Facebook or Twitter to help our cause.

Moreover, today I hope the other four women will come out against Cain and put the sealed wax lid on this rancid pickle jar!

If you cannot give WRITE! Literally YOUR life and everyone else's IS at stake!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Lowering Cain: Today, if you have not already heard ad nauseam a woman present herself to the media making very credible statements about the sexual harassment she says she suffered literally at the hands of Mr. Cain, the Republican now top tier candidate for the presidency of the United States, I offer my thoughts about it.

This is SO disgusting on so many levels it is hard to count the ways. I am not a prude but I did squirm when she very believably described what Mr. Cain allegedly did sexually to her. I do not know how she had the courage to stand in front of a microphone and tell the immediate world the smarmy details which I would have a difficult time uttering to a trusted friend but she did. I believe her as I did the anonymous three others who have not yet come forward two of whom settled civil cases against Cain. I am even more astounded at the many men who think it just fine to say and do anything sexual that would satisfy their immediate desire. Are there not any inhibitions left? Do a woman’s feelings about something so personal not count? Might a man if he were so inclined ASK permission of a woman before doing something so sexually intimate?

What that woman before cameras said to the world says something about our country as to the drought and the paucity of candidates for the presidency ESPECIALLY on the Republican side of the isle. It is astounding. Is this is all that party has to offer to put up for the highest, most powerful, most prestigious office in the land? This is who could have his finger on a button that could end the human race as we know it? Herman Cain is a man whom one would want to show to the world who did NOT even know China has possessed nuclear weaponry for a very long time? It is astounding on those counts.

I am an equal opportunity employer though. When I woke up one morning and heard the first story of the day about the Monica Lewinsky blue dress proof positive implicating Clinton in a sex scandal in the White House I thought I would THROW UP. I voted for him TWICE! What have we become? What passes for credible candidates, what passes for journalism, what has happened that things once considered vulgarities are now spoken with ease? Is it ALWAYS about the money, the film rights, or the books that someone will write?

I am SICKENED at the level of discourse in this country. Something is very wrong; very most TERRIBLY wrong and instead of raising Herman Cain to the presidency he should be lowered from attaining it post haste!

Walking Away: Boston Globe columnist Joan Wickersham's editorial (War Stories in Real Time) was never more on point then when I viewed "Sixty Minutes" last evening. I attach the link below if you did not happen to catch the segment. It was entitled "Operation Proper Exit" and speaks to her editorial loud and clear as to the divide between those who stay at home during war and those who fight the fight in its theater. The "Sixty Minutes" segment was such a moving and disturbing piece that someone who watched it with me had to walk out of the room before it ended.

I never walk away from seeing the reality of war and its atrocities both physical and emotional whether it is the crucible of D-Day, the ovens of Auschwitz, the obscenity of Hiroshima or the hell of Iraq. If I did not dare to see the unseeable I could not have formulated a left-of-center political philosophy and belief that war -- nearly all war -- in modernity is man's insanity at its worst to be avoided at all costs. We refuse to watch at our peril only to be immersed in the cesspools of that insanity again and again and again.

Here is the link if you did not view "Sixty Minutes" yesterday and you think you should.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7387332n&tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel

As many of you may know my partner’s mother suffers from Alzheimer’s. Although it is tragic to all, including the families of those afflicted with this insufferable disease, I believe it is particularly tragic where her mother is concerned because she was the most intellectually astute and artistically creative person I knew. She composed her own puppet theater for children, she knew the arts, and she was a thinker of many things true to her Unitarian Universalist tradition.

I was shown a poem written thirty years ago by her the thoughts of which not only reflect the essence of who she was before this onslaught of tragedy but also is a poem to which most – even the Doubting Thomases among us – can relate, have contemplated and at one time or another shared . It is entitled:

Prayer

We seek Thee, Lord.

Through the darkness of doubt and confusion,
We reach out to Thee,
Longing to know that Thou art surely there.

We seek help in times of trouble,
Strength in our weakness
And a deeper sense of purpose for our lives.

O Mysterious Power at the heart and center
of this universe,
All around us and within,
Yet silent, invisible, inscrutable,
Teach us how to know Thee.

In the silence, speak to us through the voice
of the human spirit,
In our alone-ness, touch us through the communion
of shared lives,
In Our despair, bring hope with the promise
of new tomorrows,
In our doubt, reassure with the law and order of this, Thy world.

So may we feel anew the wonderful miracle
of life
Which recompenses struggle and makes all
successes joyful.
So may we glimpse through the darkness the
light of Thy true presence
And grow, day by day, in our knowledge of Thee.

We seek Thee, Lord,
And, in seeking, find.

To that I say Amen!

The demise of an interesting and humorous man--thoughts on Andy Rooney: Andy Rooney of 60 Minutes fame died at the age of 92. I loved that man. I love 60 Minutes but truthfully I often watched just to get to the end where Andy Rooney topped it off like desert. He was 92 and it seems on the face of it he had a wonderful life and worked nearly until he died. Emily Rooney I believe his daughter is on WGBH Boston. What more could a man ask for and yet darned if I am irritated that he died. He was 92 why am I irritated? I don't know. I felt the same way when Jack LaLane the physical fitness exercise guru died at 96. His ideas were famous LONG before it was known he was correct on most everything he said in the 1950's when people smoked like the proverbial chimney.

His death was proof positive that no matter what anyone does we all will die. But I knew that OF COURSE. Still maybe there is that secret part of me that hopes it is not so especially if we do the right things, not smoke and eat vegetarian (which I nearly do) one can achieve the fountain of youth. Alas, we cannot. Say it ain't so.

Would I truly want to live forever? No, at least not with the physical ravages of age and the poverty that age can create BUT those who contribute so much to humanity become almost a part of our family. Yes, like all of us they do not live forever but I suppose I think they SHOULD!

RIP Mr. Rooney. You were an ever -so-interesting and enjoyable man!

War Stories in Real Time: I loved Joan Wickersham's editorial "War Stories in Real Time" which appeared today in the Boston Globe (link below). It was creative, well written and spoke to the gut wrenching reality about war. No matter what technological advancement the culture enjoys connecting both the warrior at the front and the family at home, there still is a wall of separateness between loved ones who are immersed in the reality of brutal conflict and those who experience the quietude of day-to-day life at home.

Letters read during Ken Burns's PBS exquisite historical narration of "The Civil War" speak to the distance that separates loved ones in war not only in miles but in emotions. It is a heart wrenching reality whether it is in 1860, in the letters to war widows of 1917 World War I, World War II newsreels or 2011 computer technology connecting soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan to home through Skype.

The sentence at the end of the editorial that sums up Ms. Wickersham's wonderful piece is perhaps the one I love the most. She says: "Technology may appear to erase distance, but the experience of war still creates distances that can never be erased." This poignant sentence surely is true for the Iraq War when our people at home were told by an opaque administration not to change their lives at home while soldiers had their lives irreparably changed forever over there.

I long for the day when the brutality of war is rejected as a dispute resolution tool. I long for the day when as the late 1960s' war protest song said: WAR, what is it good for? Absolutely nothin!

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2011/11/03/war-stories-real-time/ZkLxWkByFa3zkpfsAwyGuK/story.html

The Beast of Child Brutality--The sin of the father: I will have some comments soon on the unconscionable belt-strap whipping and beating a young girl with cerebral palsy no less, suffered at the hands of her Texas judge brutal father. I saw the video [will post the 7 minutes of it below] and subsequently after viewing it became nauseated by his sin. The "storm" in the northeast knocked our power out for days and discombobulated our life. It has taken a long time to get back to normal but once I do I will write about this.

For any of you who have children or have them through an extended family who love them dearly and would not even THINK of disciplining a child in that violent way even if the child did NOT have cerebral palsy, for those of you who may have experienced such violence and unconscionable parental rage against your own being, and for those of you with no children who would have given up everything to have one, my opinion will be written with you in mind.

Hug the children in your life, love them and support the good in them. They will soon enough grow up to see what Thomas Hobbs the 16th/17th century philosopher saw that life is "nasty, brutish and short." Certainly even today, with the advancement of civilization, life is still similar and too short for despicable behavior like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLvQyAwl8do

The Personal is Political: I am a Boston Red Sox fan to the end. I needed to clarify that lest anyone think anything else not that anyone would care. Having said that I will give you the rationale as to why I am even bothering to watch the Series this year in view of my beloved Red Sox -- well what shall I call it? -- EVAPORATION. It almost sent me to the psych ward! I jest and digress.

I am watching the series now because it is actually fun not to have too big a dog in the fight. It is simply enjoyable to concentrate on the fine points. Having said that there is a method to my madness for the team for whom I actually am rooting this time and that would be St. Louis!

I have three reasons why I am rooting for them. First, Texas means George Bush and I will not go into my angry, negative and Vesuvian eruptive thoughts I have about him. Second, Make that a ditto for Rick Perry except double the intensity. Third, the news opinionator Keith Olbermann picked St. Louis. If he says it I believe it. Since I love, adore, hang on every word he utters, think he is the best thing since the invention of the wheel and sliced bread I am HOPING he is correct.

Funny, the personal is political. I judge everyone and everything as to how much it leans politically left of center (not entirely but a lot). I cannot help it. I am a child of the late 1960's and marched to many a protest beat. I LOVED that era as it shaped all that I am. I even had to counteract my rock ribbed Republican father. However, even HE if he saw the rancid Republican field would vote Democratic and root for St. Louis too.

Nader is Correct!: I am no fan of Ralph Nader because I believe he ensured a Bush 2000 win even though the Shrub did NOT really win. Republicans of course steal things...if it's money or power they will steal it. They steal power to get YOUR money.

Digressing again. Read Raph Nader's message below for this year 2011 and if you think as I you will see he is right on point!

The question confronting the Occupy Wall Street encampments and their offshoots

in scores of cities and towns around the country is quo vadis? Where is it
going?

This decentralized, leaderless civic initiative has attracted the persistent

attention of the mass media in the past five weeks. Television cameras from all

over the world are parked down at Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, two blocks

from Wall Street.



But the mass media is a hungry beast. It needs to be fed regularly. Apart from

the daily pressures of making sure the encampments are clean, that food and

shelter are available, that relations with the police are quiet, that

provocateurs are identified; the campers must anticipate possible police

crackdowns, such as that which has just occurred in Oakland, and find ways to

rebound.



There are enough national polls showing broader support for the Occupy people

than for the Tea Party people. Additional communities are installing their own

Occupy sites right down to small towns like Niles, Michigan (pop. 12,000) and

Bethel, Alaska where Diane McEachern is occupying the tundra. But, there is

trouble ahead.



First, police departments in other cities will be observing the nature and

reaction of mass arrests in places like Denver, Chicago and Atlanta. The

plutocrats’ first response is always to push police power against the people.

The recidivist violations of the ruling class are rarely pursued, yet the

rumbles of the lower class are often stifled. With the onset of colder weather

and looming police pressure, the protestors need new venues for their

demonstrations



Activists need to vary their tactics. I suggest citizens surround the local

offices of their Senators and Representatives. The number of Americans fed up

with a gridlocked Congress, beset by craven or cowardly, both marinated in

corporate campaign cash, can motivate an endless pool of activists who want

their voices to be heard.



We know that the Occupy people want to keep their opposition on a general level

of informed outrage and not get to the specific policy level. Fine. The 535

people in Congress, who put their shoes on every day like we do, are quite

susceptible to a fast rising rumble from the people. They don’t need specifics.

They know all about the savagely avaricious corporate paymasters and their

swarming lobbyists on Capitol Hill wanting ever more varieties of goodies and

less corporate law enforcement. What they need to know is that you’ve got their

number and that people are fed up and on the move.



More members of Congress than one might expect, with their finger to the wind,

start readjusting their antennas when they sense voter agitation. It is just

that for years, there has been nary a breeze from that crucial source, while the

corporatists have had their party year after year with their governmental

toadies on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.



Make no mistake; support for the power shift espoused by the 99 percent movement

is now only a breeze but a windstorm is coming. The protesters are feeling their

way – demonstrating before big banks and closing out their accounts in favor of

smaller community banks. Protests in front of the Manhattan mansions of the

superrich from the big media and the big hedge funds also make sense.



Each new protest gives the protesters new insights. The protestors are learning

how to challenge controlling processes. They are assembling and using their

little libraries on site. They are learning the techniques of open, non-violent

civil disobedience and building personal stamina. They are learning not to be

provoked and thereby win the moral authority struggle which encourages more and

more people to join their ranks.



In the Arab Spring of Cairo, Egypt earlier this year, it was said that a million

people in Tahrir Square lost their fear of the dictatorship. It can be said that

in this “American Autumn,” some 150,000 people have discovered their power and

rejected apathy. They have come far in so little time because the soil for their

pushback is so fertile, nourished by the revulsion of millions of their

countrypersons moving toward standing up and showing up themselves.



This vanguard of larger protests to come is building on the personal stories of

desperate but failed attempts to find work; stories of heart-breaking inability

to pay for healthcare for themselves or their families’; stories of being

defrauded of their pensions, their tax dollars, their savings and their rights.

They demand accountability for the culprits who lied, stole and got away with it

destroying the economy. And they want Congress to never bailout the Wall Street

crooks, swindlers and speculators with taxpayer dollars.



Shining the light of the 99 percenters on the operations base of the corporate

supremacists and their Congressional minions in one location after another both

empowers and further informs those Americans who are seeing that showing up is

half of democracy.





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The Disease, the Antibiotic, and the Cure—Occupy Wall Street’s Manifesto as I see it: Occupy Wall Street wants to know WHEN WILL the unconscionable dupes of the Tea Bag movement understand that the Republican Party is NOT about them? The Republican Party is about the top 1%. Most of us do not fall into that category. When will they realize that it was the massive DEREGULATION and insertions of too-big-to-count tax loopholes for the corporations (not the regulation of Wall Street) over decades that led to the too-big-to fail banks poisoning the body politic? When will the ignorant understand that it was the overturning of the Depression era Glass Steagall legislation and the insertion of the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, also known as the Financial Services “Modernization” Act of 1999 (look them up if you do not know what they are) merging the investment banks and savings banks that is an integral part of our too-big-to fail problem?

FINALLY, the occupation of Wall Street movements all around the nation and the world have begun and will NOT stop.

Basic things are needed: The true, real and not planted part of the Tea Bag movement must know that the Koch Brothers, Karl Rove, Dick Army, entities such as "Freedom" Works and those like them, decades before, created this mess. Today they want to sustain this system which works ONLY for the extraordinarily rich. We, the middle and working classes, must join forces to get those Republicans and Conservadems alike, who are perpetuating the problem, OUT. They will NOT solve our financial quagmire but will ADD to it as their kind has created it over time.

We must work within the existing structure of our political system. It is a GOOD system but it has been hijacked by big money, big banks and big corporate behemoths helped by a quid pro quo Congress who conspired to take the people's money. They dismembered we the people who bailed them out, they ate their bonuses for lunch while the rest of us now cannot walk and are starved.

We must use our existing structure within the functioning parts of the Democratic Party and MAKE THE CHANGE THAT WAS PROMISED. Nothing else will work and time is of the proverbial essence. This HUMONGOUS problem was honed over decades and therefore it can be rectified only by the institutions we have in place. Replace the Know Nothings with those who DO know something.

In the biological sciences one trusts what works. The antibiotic developed to cure certain infections works but believing in the power of magic does not. Trust EXPERTS such as Paul Krugman, Robert Reich and people of their ilk who understand well the disease and know the cure. They should become part of the non-violent Occupy Wall Street leadership. Read Matt Taibii's "Griftopia." Read Elizabeth Warren and other intellects who understand the plethora of problems and know what to do. Within the existing structure of a Democratic Party we must elect politicos who AGREE with them. We must show our president, who I believe is with us but has had intractable Republican opposition, that catering to Wall Street CANNOT and MUST NOT STAND!

There needs to be the following: a return to Glass Steagall, the SEC needs to monitor the banks to within an inch of their life, prosecution for those economic crimes against the republic, hopefully convictions and finally jail for those banksters and others behemoths who committed crimes against not only us but global humanity as well. Congressional legislation accompanied by presidential signature is the only thing that can cure our disease.

Moreover, and importantly, the corruption of money MUST be driven OUT of the political sector. The president needs one more Supreme Court justice to overturn the sickening malady of the Citizen's United decision handed down by the five conservatives on the Roberts Supreme Court. That decision introduced BUCKETS of corporate money into the political system lethally infecting all who drink the poison.

ALL these things and more -- as stated by the Krugmanesq experts -- must be done with all deliberate speed if our body politic is to survive!

A Letter to Glenn Greewnald – a writer of profound excellence: The progressive scholar and civil libertarian lawyer, Glenn Greenwald, writes a daily column for Salon.com unless his demanding schedule dictates otherwise. Glenn wrote an October 22, 2011 article for Salon entitled “A Remaining Realm of American Excellence.” I think I have never read a more precise, insightful and well-written article explaining the present-day character of this nation. He has an ability to convey, in the written word, that which few possess and his critical analysis of contemporary events is, in my opinion, unparalleled. I post the following link to the article and urge you to read it if you are the least bit interested in the direction of our nation and the fate of the generations which will come after us. If you cannot click on the link simply Google Salon and click on Greenwald. It appears at: http://www.salon.com/2011/10/22/a_remaining_realm_of_american_excellence/singleton/

I also wrote a letter to him conveying my complimentary thoughts:

Glenn, if there is a more significant and well written article than "A Remaining Realm of American Excellence" I have for quite some time not read it. This was a brilliant piece and an exemplar of quality political insight. I, too, have some thoughts explaining American belligerence about which you write so eloquently.

I think in part our national character has been carved into the sinew of the American DNA for nearly four centuries. Our wild-west mentality of the American 19th century with the violence of our westward expansion is not far from its door. It crushed an indigenous Indian population and removed anyone else who got in its way.

A rationale for our collective violent reaction now is, as I see it, an emptiness of the American character obsessed with the latest reality or dumbed down morning television, radio and no news news shows. Many times in the discussion of things political especially of economics, the source of our torturous predicament, our national eyes glaze over and turn the channel to the next mindless American Idol show or to an unfair and completely biased news channel. Few understand much if anything historical let alone the etiology of our recent economic plunge, what is responsible for that plunge and how the catastrophes of war fit into the explanation of its landscape. I would be willing to bet most do not know that the economic collapse occurred in 2007 on George Bush's watch. Bush who? I think most think President Obama to be the single creator of our economic meltdown when, in fact, it took decades to create by philosophical charlatans who wanted everything for just a few while leaving little for the many while the many slept.

Moreover, and more pertinent to your article, the US has not been in the right where its foreign violent entanglements are concerned since WWII. WWII was such a magnanimous victory, so pure in its accomplishment and America so beloved for fighting a foe who knew no negotiation and who, if not destroyed, would have certainly destroyed whatever vestiges of humanity that existed in that time. America, yes, along with some allies literally saved the world. That is a hard act to follow but we certainly try.

The intoxication of the WWII victory led this nation to make permanent its ebullience by conducting never-ending permanent war. It is the only product this nation sells. Korea, Vietnam, certainly Iraq, and even most probably Afghanistan have been abysmal failures incurring much death to so many innocents and our own while it infuriated an explosive regional Middle East tinderbox. I believe somewhere in the American psyche there is guilt for a stain on the American conscience which, like Lady Macbeth’s damn spot, cannot be washed out. It has become now our fatal flaw. Add to this the utter humiliation of 9/11, the viewing of the falling Twin Towers, huge edifices of American money and power, and the loss of 3000 innocent lives America again feels like it has been kicked in her collective teeth while still looking for the moral victory and accolades of WWII that elude us. It tries to find that adulation for the post World War II incompetence of American foreign policy and it will now do so by any means necessary collateral damage be damned.

We have gone from a colossal winner to a huge loser on the international and national stage. The only act to follow in this our American tragedy is the successful killing for sport of dreamed-up adversarial replacements for Adolph Hitler. The nation as of late does not conquer the cancer of war but spreads its violence with its American footprint. Its footprint is, of course, nearly everywhere. It is sad commentary for the evil of empire building. I have never in my 6 decades of life seen the country with the most rapaciously rancid ethos that not only allows but, indeed, loves to get its insatiable pound of flesh in the Coliseum of endless war.

I spend my life wondering how we got this way. I am getting tired and truly want to hand the baton of regeneration over to you, our next progressive generation. Voices like yours are the only ones that give me hope. You are, truly, as one man said of you when I heard you speak at Harvard, a national treasure!

Over There? President Obama announced today the extrication of all forces from Iraq by December. The one position I regret that I took after 9/11 and after observing the American political scene for decades is naively and with astounding stupidity I believed George Bush and his Iraq WMD phony claim convincing most (including me) that Sadam Hussein was an imminent threat. Some may even say today Sadam Hussein who? Tom Ricks, according to Foreign Policy Magazine is a Senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a bipartisan think tank, contributing editor to Foreign Policy Magazine, special military correspondent to the Washington Post and author quite correctly named his book about Iraq during the height of its fury "Fiasco." We can see now how apropos that title was. We can observe how destructive, how murderous, how deceitful, sending troops to wage a war based on lies against a country which did NOTHING to us was.

The US, under the dreadful leadership of George W. Bush, paid for this mistake in much lost blood and treasure conveniently ignored by Republicans today when assessing their perceived horror of the deficit. Clearly, George W. Bush was woefully unprepared for the presidency. At his order the US nearly singlehandedly destabilized an entire region, handed Iran the keys to the kingdom of power and broke a nation. Now we allegedly are leaving Iraq and see how difficult it is to do that. Colin Powell, Secretary of State under Bush, was quite correct when he said “if you break it you own it.” We shattered it without knowing what to do to fix it.

When American troops leave Iraq -- as the president today says they will by December -- and it does not explode into civil war it will be miraculous. How Iraq maintains a continuity of power with so many factions at each other’s throats I do not know. Can it meet the needs of its people or will it fracture into a million pieces destabilizing the region further with a nuclear Pakistan? I will breathe a sigh of relief if Iraq works with a semblance of normalcy and non violence. Until then, I need a tranquilizer to calm my fear! Never again will I believe a leader simply because he says it is so. As Ronald Reagan, a man I seldom quote, said: "Trust but verify." Next time I surely will and so should everyone else.

Money can’t buy you love so the Beatles song said--the flaw of Steve Jobs: I am reading various pieces about Steve Jobs. A tell-all book about him, being released soon, makes visible his warts and all. Understatedly, his ego was IMMENSE. He was a self absorbed, often angry, caustic man many times cruel to those with whom he worked and certainly to those he competed against. Yes, genius can make that of men but that is no excuse to me. I can appreciate what is created by great minds but if one does not have compassion -- even to one’s competitor­s -- then to me the genius means nothing. I am SURELY glad I never worked for him nor competed AGAINST him. He was an explosion waiting to happen perhaps a creative psychopath. Umpteen BILLION was not enough money for him. He had to devote much of his energy fighting Google because Jobs alleged it copied his product. When someone copies me I consider that flattery but Jobs considered it war. If he had to he was going to devote his entire company fighting Google perhaps even decimating the jobs of his own employees (and Google's) to do so. He sounds like a brutish man.

As Tevya would say IF I were a rich man I would … give all my family five million, all my friends five million and then distribute the rest to humans crying out for help, for food, for shelter for a JOB both here and around the globe as Bill and Melinda Gates are doing. Jobs cannot walk in Gates's shadow. Steve Jobs turned from humane liberal to stone cold conservative wanting to give corporations a break with the elimination of regulations; he wanted to gut unions, teachers, and other public servants’ positions who make EVERYONE’S life livable even his own short one.

He could have given to the little kids who pan for gold in Africa; kids who die doing it because the work is so brutal. They wade into a mud containing immense amount of mercury and ultimately get poisoned by it. He could have set up humane conditions so people can work like human beings for which unions advocate instead of humanity working like barbaric animals. I care nothing about all his creative gadgets when the ethics of his leadership and the policy for which he ultimately advocated hurts people but helps people like he create billions more to buy not jobs but yachts. He neglected his own children because his massive ego was more concerned about a NON human company to make what more billions?

Steve (I know you cannot hear me) but you should have given most all your money away before your death to those who are so desperate. NO ONE needs billions of bucks to live the good life. I would create MORE jobs and do for our county what the president cannot because of an obstructio­nist Congress. I think the LSD the formerly liberal Steve Jobs claimed helped create his insight destroyed the compassion center of his brain! John Kennedy said: “We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.” Steve Jobs was, indeed, mortal. Alas, death, the great equalizer of man, got him too. It knows no money, no social class, no massive egos but comes to all of us in the end even to Steve Jobs. Too bad he was not known as simply a nice man but money cannot buy quality of character.

Instead of advocating for the non-human corporation turning himself into an uncompassionate conservative he should have dedicated his life to installing a Congress which really DOES care about humanity instead of being bought for the all mighty buck. He rudely kept the president waiting days for a meeting insisting the president call HIM disrespecting the high office of the presidency and our country.

How come this genius did not realize that DECADES of Republican rule favoring the deregulated banks conservatives love so much decimated this economy? How come he did not realize what corporations and Wall Street did to hijack the pensions of its workers? How come Steve Jobs did not know what the financial, real estate sector and rating companies did to ruin our middle class, the poor and the American Dream? Who cares about Steve Jobs’s genius? In my opinion, he was a lousy human being.

A Taboo Mix -- Religion and State: If there is a better editoralist than James Carroll I have not read one yet. Carroll is brilliant and his editorial this week in the Boston Globe: "Monotheism doesn't mean 'we're No. 1" (link below) is exactly correct. More, I believe, have been killed over the centuries (including the 2000 year etiology of the Holocaust) in the name of relgion than have been saved by it and the killing continues unabated.

I truly believe that organized religion is the source of divisive evil on earth from Jerusalem, to Europe, even, dare I say, to the stage of the Republican debate. The assault of its Republican verbal inanity does damage to one's ears.

The pièce de résistance last evening was Herman Cain's postulation that Jesus was killed by liberals. That in and of itself reflects the bone chilling absurdity of tying religion to the state. Many of our Founders knew that truth.

God help us, as nothing else, it seems, can!

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2011/10/17/monotheism_doesnt_mean_were_no_1/