If you have not read the NYT article "The Deafness Before the Storm" today I post it here and paste it below for you to do so. On this anniversary of the worst attack ever perpetrated by a foreign entity on American soil, the depths and the errors that cost such a huge amount of life the NYT has exposed, at least in part, more (as if we did not have enough) evidence of the blatant and sickening negligence of team Bush for that attack.
We all know about the Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB) that said "bin Laden to strike in US" which went unheeded. BUT what that administration did NOT do is release the other memos warning the Bush administration of the imminence of the attack, stating by the CIA the risk in dire and plaintive terms that an impending attack was at hand. It was ignored again and the neo-con CON was erroneously believed that the link between Hussein's Iraq and bin Laden was the real culprit which connection we now know was false. This is a stunning revelation because the costs in life, foreign ire, the fragmentation of a region and future repercussions to us including the tremendous blood and treasure cost of permanent war were and are at risk.
Yes, I believe in looking forward but it surely is important to look back on the seminal event of our time which brought so much death in our century. I believe it is up to us to be always vigilant and the media to critically analyze government policy -- which it failed miserably to do -- so that this never ever happens again!
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Friday, September 07, 2012
Points to Ponder
An opinion by Glenn Greenwald in The Guardian entitled "Democrats parade Osama bin Laden's corpse as their proudest achievement" captivated me. The article is here and below. Greenwald talks about the astounding nationalistic viciousness heard not at the Republican convention once known for its patriotic fervor but at the once war-loathing Democratic Party convention known for its love of peace. He was astounded by the chanting of USA over and over again; by the repetition of its crowd cheering the killing of Bin Laden, the excellence of the Special Forces raid and a commander-in-chief Obama who gave the steel spine order to carry the killing out. The delegates after all were cheering death. Glenn Greenwald, as he always does, gave me pause for thought.
When Jews celebrate the Passover we are told over and over again in the Haggadah (the retelling of the story of the Exodus) that God and the Jewish people took no pleasure at all by the 10th and final of God's terrible plagues -- the slaying of the first born Egyptians -- even when that plague set the children of Israel free. Of course this is simply a story BUT it is one with profound implications for the discussion.
For ten years after the 9/11 attack, the felling of those huge towers in New York City and the slaughter of nearly 3000 innocent human beings, I checked my computer every single morning after the attack with the hope that the perpetrator of that great evil was killed. I searched my computer in vain because it never happened. Until one night around 10:00 p.m.,10 years after the attack, while watching MSNBC, president Obama asked the press to assemble on quick order. No one knew why. Excitement was in the air accompanied by fear. Could it be another terrorist attack or god forbid a nuclear threat? No. It was the answer for which I had been waiting 10 long years. The US, indeed, killed bin Laden the leader who perpetrated the most vicious attack on the American homeland since Pearl Harbor. I was ECSTATIC. I woke everyone up in my house, called every friend and cried with joy.
Then I stopped celebrating. What about that story in the Haggadah that was told by my father leading our sedars so many years ago? What about the 3000 who would never be brought back to life even though Bin Laden was dead? What about the invasion of a country that did nothing to us slaughtering thousands, sending more into exile and worse destabilizing a tinderbox part of the world? What about the loss of our precious civil liberties the bedrock of what truly makes our nation exceptional?
I do not know the answers to those questions but I still, even now, when I ask those questions and despite remembering the teachings of the Passover feel a sense of pride that American strength is like no other. Perhaps revenge is basic to human nature, maybe even hate is part of our viscera; whatever it is I cheered at Bin Laden's death and I am glad this president gave the order to kill him.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/07/democrats-parade-osama-bin-laden-corpse?commentpage=last#end-of-comments
When Jews celebrate the Passover we are told over and over again in the Haggadah (the retelling of the story of the Exodus) that God and the Jewish people took no pleasure at all by the 10th and final of God's terrible plagues -- the slaying of the first born Egyptians -- even when that plague set the children of Israel free. Of course this is simply a story BUT it is one with profound implications for the discussion.
For ten years after the 9/11 attack, the felling of those huge towers in New York City and the slaughter of nearly 3000 innocent human beings, I checked my computer every single morning after the attack with the hope that the perpetrator of that great evil was killed. I searched my computer in vain because it never happened. Until one night around 10:00 p.m.,10 years after the attack, while watching MSNBC, president Obama asked the press to assemble on quick order. No one knew why. Excitement was in the air accompanied by fear. Could it be another terrorist attack or god forbid a nuclear threat? No. It was the answer for which I had been waiting 10 long years. The US, indeed, killed bin Laden the leader who perpetrated the most vicious attack on the American homeland since Pearl Harbor. I was ECSTATIC. I woke everyone up in my house, called every friend and cried with joy.
Then I stopped celebrating. What about that story in the Haggadah that was told by my father leading our sedars so many years ago? What about the 3000 who would never be brought back to life even though Bin Laden was dead? What about the invasion of a country that did nothing to us slaughtering thousands, sending more into exile and worse destabilizing a tinderbox part of the world? What about the loss of our precious civil liberties the bedrock of what truly makes our nation exceptional?
I do not know the answers to those questions but I still, even now, when I ask those questions and despite remembering the teachings of the Passover feel a sense of pride that American strength is like no other. Perhaps revenge is basic to human nature, maybe even hate is part of our viscera; whatever it is I cheered at Bin Laden's death and I am glad this president gave the order to kill him.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/07/democrats-parade-osama-bin-laden-corpse?commentpage=last#end-of-comments
Michael Moore -- Take Him Seriously
Read and heed what Michel Moore has to say. Yes, I said the convention was superlative and it was BUT WE must ENSURE this president is elected and only WE can do that. Check out what he says below. It gives me pause for thought, speculation and fear. I believe we will NOT be saying President Romney in January BUT I am not naive and know the very worst things can happen in nature AND in politics. Do NOT let it and only YOU can prevent it.
Read the article from Michael Moore below and send it on. It just may save a few lives!
"President Romney" – How to Prevent Those Two Words From Ever Being Spoken ...a letter from Michael Moore
Thursday, September 6th, 2012
Friends,
In two months we Americans will go to the polls once again to decide who the president will be for the next four years. We will not be allowed to vote on those who wield the true power in this country. On November 6th we will not vote for the chairman of ExxonMobil or JPMorgan Chase or Citibank or the Premier of China. That day will come, but not this year.
Now, I know there are a goodly number of you out there who believe there's not a snowball's chance in Kenya that Barack Obama will not be re-elected to the White House. And why would you believe otherwise? After the incredible Democratic convention this week, with the best rock-em-sock-em speeches I've heard from a Democrat's mouth since … since, I don't know when. You can't help but not have a contact high after this past week if you are of the sort who believes in economic justice, peace, and a five-dollar latte. Right now, with the buzz on, you are sitting there thinking that your fellow Americans will turn out in massive numbers, either because they want to continue the Obama era or because they're scared shitless of the barbarians at the gate – or both. You're convinced that the Republicans have blown it with all their talk of the lady parts they want to control even though we now know that they have no idea where those parts are, what they are, or how they work.
Yes, it certainly looks like the voters will reject this obscenely wealthy man called Romney — Romney of Michigan/Massachusetts/New Hampshire/Utah/Zurich/Grand Cayman — this man who will not explain exactly how all his wealth was obtained, where he keeps it, or how much taxes he pays on it. He wants to turn the clock back to the '50s – the 1850s – and he refuses to offer any specific plan about what he'll do about anything. He wants to run the country like a corporation but he can't even control one 82-year-old actor on his own convention stage, a Hollywood legend who, in the matter of ten and a half minutes went from Good (walking onto the stage) to Bad (talking to a chair) and then to Ugly (the chair started … swearing?). It was better than the best cat-flushing-the-toilet video on YouTube and it was a gift to all of us who know that Romney is doomed come November.
Or is he?
Last week, I said on the HuffPost Live webcast that we had all better start practicing how to say "President Romney" because, living in Michigan, I can tell you that there's trouble here on the two peninsulas and it's not just because Romney is a native son or that we like to watch kids from Cranbrook chase down gay kids and chop their hair off. One recent poll here showed Romney leading Obama by four points! How can that be? Didn't Obama save Detroit?
No, he didn't. He saved General Motors and Chrysler. "Detroit" (and Flint and Pontiac and Saginaw) are not defined by the global corporations who suck our towns dry and then split town to make more money elsewhere (except, of course, they continued to design and built crap cars, so eventually they didn't make the money at all). These cities in Michigan are about the people who live here, and in the process of "saving Detroit," Mr. Obama had to fire thousands of these people, and reduce the benefits and pensions of those who were left. There's a lot of pissed off people in Michigan (and Wisconsin and Ohio), people who weren't saved even though the corporation was. I'm just stating a fact, and those of you who don't live here should know this.
The other problem facing us this election (spoiler alert – angry white guys may want to stop reading right now) … is race. We all fear there's probably a good 40% of the country who simply do not want a black man in the Oval Office. In fact, in 2008, Obama lost the white vote. He lost every white age group except young people (18-29). And yet he still won by 10 million votes! The optimistic secret the Obama people know is that only about 70% of the voters in November will be white. So if he can win just 35-40% of them, and then get a massive majority of people of color, he can win re-election. There is no question in my mind that Obama is more popular than Romney and if everyone could vote from their couch like they do for American Idol, Obama would win hands down. As I have said before, we live in a liberal country. The majority of Americans (who do not call themselves "liberal") now support most of the liberal agenda – they're for gay marriage, they're pro-choice, they're anti-war, they believe there's global warming, and they hate Wall Street for what it has done to them and their neighbors. The Republicans know this: that we, the majority, will have sex when we want and with whom we want, will read and watch whatever we want when we want, will use marijuana if we want and if we don't want to then we certainly don't want our friends who do to be throw into prison. We are sick and tired of being poisoned, by chemicals or propaganda, we think the Palestinians have been given a raw deal and we want our friggin' jobs back! The Christian Right (and their Wall Street funders) know this all too well – America has turned, and there's no going back to not loving someone because of the color of their skin or expecting women to cede control of their bodies to a bunch of Neanderthals. So, what's a Rightie to do now that we've turned the joint into Sodom and G? They have to suppress the vote! They have to stop as many liberals from voting as possible. So they've passed many voter suppression laws to make it hard for the poor, the minorities, the disabled and students to vote. They honestly believe they call pull this off – and they just may. The only "positive" thing about this is that their need to have such laws in order to win the election is an admission on the part of the Republicans that they know the U.S. Is a liberal country and that the only way they can now win now is to cheat. Trust me, if they believed that America was a right-wing country they'd be passing laws making it so easy to vote you could do it in the checkout line at Walmart.
But the voting on November 6th will not take place at Walmart or on any potato's couch. It can only happen by going to a polling place – and, not to state the obvious, the side that gets the most people physically out to the polls that day, wins. We know the Republicans are spending tens of millions of dollars to make sure this very thing happens. They have built a colossal get-out-the-vote machine for election day, and the sheer force of their tsunami of hate stands ready to overwhelm us like nothing we've ever seen before. Those of us in the Midwest got a taste of it in 2008. Traditionally Democratic states – all of which voted for Obama – saw our state legislatures and governor seats hijacked by this well-oiled machine. We didn't know what hit us, but these new Republicans wasted no time in dismantling some of the very basic thing we hold dear. Wisconsin fought back – but even that huge grassroots uprising was not enough to stop the governor bought and paid for by the Koch brothers. It was a wake up call, for sure – but have we really woken up?
It's been a great week in Charlotte, and I'm getting ready now to watch Barack Obama give his speech. It's OK for us to take a couple days to high-five each other, but I cannot stress enough to you that unless you and I are doing something every day for the next 60 days to get people out to vote, then there is a chance we will all be saying "President Romney" come January. Don't think it can't happen. Hate, sad to say, at least in America these days, is a far greater motivator than love and feelin' groovy.
For those of us who believe that the history of the Democrats and the Republicans is to do the bidding of the 1% (Obama's #1 private contributor in '08 were the people at Goldman Sachs), and that while the Dems are a kinder/gentler bunch, they are also just as quick to want to take us to war and sell us out to the corporate interests (and, yes, Obamacare is a $$ gift to the insurance companies; only a single-payer system will stop that), this election is a bit of a bitter pill. We were hugely disappointed when President Obama didn't charge out of the gate after his inauguration and undo the damage that had been done (as FDR did in his first hundred days) – and only when Wall Street stopped writing him the big campaign checks this past year did he get his mojo back and start fighting the fight that needs to be fought. He's a good and decent person (when he's not sending in drones to kill Pakistani civilians or prosecuting government whistleblowers), and his election four years ago was a high point of such emotional intensity I just couldn't get over how hopeful I was that this country had changed and we had found our moral footing. Reality set in a few weeks later when he put Tim Geithner and Larry Summers in charge of economic policy and then he changed his mind about closing Gitmo.
OK, so people like me, just once in our lifetime, would like to get our way all the time! Is that too much to ask? Of course, there is a different question that is in the air now — shall we give the country back to the crowd who gave the country to the 1%? I think not. So let's join in with our liberal majority and be fierce and relentless in these next two months. Let's spend this time educating people what we mean when we say things like "single-payer" and "Blackwater." Politics and the fate of the nation (and the world – sorry, world) are on the front burner and those of us who want to wrestle control of our society out of the hands of the few can take healthy advantage of these coming weeks. Don't sit it out. Don't try to convince anyone Obama has magically transformed us – just tell them four years is simply not enough time to undo all the hurt caused by biggest economic crash since the Great Depression and the biggest military blunder/lie in our history.
I'm going to go with my optimistic side here (sorry, cynics, you know I love you) and imagine a Second Term Obama (and a Democratically-controlled Congress) who will go after all the good that our people deserve and put the power of our democracy back in our hands. There's good reason why the Right is terrified of a Second Term Obama because that is exactly what they think he'll do: the real Obama will appear and take us down the road to social justice and tolerance and a leveling of the economic playing field. For once, I'd like to say I agree with the Right – and I sincerely hope their worst nightmare does come true.
Thursday, September 6th, 2012
Friends,
In two months we Americans will go to the polls once again to decide who the president will be for the next four years. We will not be allowed to vote on those who wield the true power in this country. On November 6th we will not vote for the chairman of ExxonMobil or JPMorgan Chase or Citibank or the Premier of China. That day will come, but not this year.
Now, I know there are a goodly number of you out there who believe there's not a snowball's chance in Kenya that Barack Obama will not be re-elected to the White House. And why would you believe otherwise? After the incredible Democratic convention this week, with the best rock-em-sock-em speeches I've heard from a Democrat's mouth since … since, I don't know when. You can't help but not have a contact high after this past week if you are of the sort who believes in economic justice, peace, and a five-dollar latte. Right now, with the buzz on, you are sitting there thinking that your fellow Americans will turn out in massive numbers, either because they want to continue the Obama era or because they're scared shitless of the barbarians at the gate – or both. You're convinced that the Republicans have blown it with all their talk of the lady parts they want to control even though we now know that they have no idea where those parts are, what they are, or how they work.
Yes, it certainly looks like the voters will reject this obscenely wealthy man called Romney — Romney of Michigan/Massachusetts/New Hampshire/Utah/Zurich/Grand Cayman — this man who will not explain exactly how all his wealth was obtained, where he keeps it, or how much taxes he pays on it. He wants to turn the clock back to the '50s – the 1850s – and he refuses to offer any specific plan about what he'll do about anything. He wants to run the country like a corporation but he can't even control one 82-year-old actor on his own convention stage, a Hollywood legend who, in the matter of ten and a half minutes went from Good (walking onto the stage) to Bad (talking to a chair) and then to Ugly (the chair started … swearing?). It was better than the best cat-flushing-the-toilet video on YouTube and it was a gift to all of us who know that Romney is doomed come November.
Or is he?
Last week, I said on the HuffPost Live webcast that we had all better start practicing how to say "President Romney" because, living in Michigan, I can tell you that there's trouble here on the two peninsulas and it's not just because Romney is a native son or that we like to watch kids from Cranbrook chase down gay kids and chop their hair off. One recent poll here showed Romney leading Obama by four points! How can that be? Didn't Obama save Detroit?
No, he didn't. He saved General Motors and Chrysler. "Detroit" (and Flint and Pontiac and Saginaw) are not defined by the global corporations who suck our towns dry and then split town to make more money elsewhere (except, of course, they continued to design and built crap cars, so eventually they didn't make the money at all). These cities in Michigan are about the people who live here, and in the process of "saving Detroit," Mr. Obama had to fire thousands of these people, and reduce the benefits and pensions of those who were left. There's a lot of pissed off people in Michigan (and Wisconsin and Ohio), people who weren't saved even though the corporation was. I'm just stating a fact, and those of you who don't live here should know this.
The other problem facing us this election (spoiler alert – angry white guys may want to stop reading right now) … is race. We all fear there's probably a good 40% of the country who simply do not want a black man in the Oval Office. In fact, in 2008, Obama lost the white vote. He lost every white age group except young people (18-29). And yet he still won by 10 million votes! The optimistic secret the Obama people know is that only about 70% of the voters in November will be white. So if he can win just 35-40% of them, and then get a massive majority of people of color, he can win re-election. There is no question in my mind that Obama is more popular than Romney and if everyone could vote from their couch like they do for American Idol, Obama would win hands down. As I have said before, we live in a liberal country. The majority of Americans (who do not call themselves "liberal") now support most of the liberal agenda – they're for gay marriage, they're pro-choice, they're anti-war, they believe there's global warming, and they hate Wall Street for what it has done to them and their neighbors. The Republicans know this: that we, the majority, will have sex when we want and with whom we want, will read and watch whatever we want when we want, will use marijuana if we want and if we don't want to then we certainly don't want our friends who do to be throw into prison. We are sick and tired of being poisoned, by chemicals or propaganda, we think the Palestinians have been given a raw deal and we want our friggin' jobs back! The Christian Right (and their Wall Street funders) know this all too well – America has turned, and there's no going back to not loving someone because of the color of their skin or expecting women to cede control of their bodies to a bunch of Neanderthals. So, what's a Rightie to do now that we've turned the joint into Sodom and G? They have to suppress the vote! They have to stop as many liberals from voting as possible. So they've passed many voter suppression laws to make it hard for the poor, the minorities, the disabled and students to vote. They honestly believe they call pull this off – and they just may. The only "positive" thing about this is that their need to have such laws in order to win the election is an admission on the part of the Republicans that they know the U.S. Is a liberal country and that the only way they can now win now is to cheat. Trust me, if they believed that America was a right-wing country they'd be passing laws making it so easy to vote you could do it in the checkout line at Walmart.
But the voting on November 6th will not take place at Walmart or on any potato's couch. It can only happen by going to a polling place – and, not to state the obvious, the side that gets the most people physically out to the polls that day, wins. We know the Republicans are spending tens of millions of dollars to make sure this very thing happens. They have built a colossal get-out-the-vote machine for election day, and the sheer force of their tsunami of hate stands ready to overwhelm us like nothing we've ever seen before. Those of us in the Midwest got a taste of it in 2008. Traditionally Democratic states – all of which voted for Obama – saw our state legislatures and governor seats hijacked by this well-oiled machine. We didn't know what hit us, but these new Republicans wasted no time in dismantling some of the very basic thing we hold dear. Wisconsin fought back – but even that huge grassroots uprising was not enough to stop the governor bought and paid for by the Koch brothers. It was a wake up call, for sure – but have we really woken up?
It's been a great week in Charlotte, and I'm getting ready now to watch Barack Obama give his speech. It's OK for us to take a couple days to high-five each other, but I cannot stress enough to you that unless you and I are doing something every day for the next 60 days to get people out to vote, then there is a chance we will all be saying "President Romney" come January. Don't think it can't happen. Hate, sad to say, at least in America these days, is a far greater motivator than love and feelin' groovy.
For those of us who believe that the history of the Democrats and the Republicans is to do the bidding of the 1% (Obama's #1 private contributor in '08 were the people at Goldman Sachs), and that while the Dems are a kinder/gentler bunch, they are also just as quick to want to take us to war and sell us out to the corporate interests (and, yes, Obamacare is a $$ gift to the insurance companies; only a single-payer system will stop that), this election is a bit of a bitter pill. We were hugely disappointed when President Obama didn't charge out of the gate after his inauguration and undo the damage that had been done (as FDR did in his first hundred days) – and only when Wall Street stopped writing him the big campaign checks this past year did he get his mojo back and start fighting the fight that needs to be fought. He's a good and decent person (when he's not sending in drones to kill Pakistani civilians or prosecuting government whistleblowers), and his election four years ago was a high point of such emotional intensity I just couldn't get over how hopeful I was that this country had changed and we had found our moral footing. Reality set in a few weeks later when he put Tim Geithner and Larry Summers in charge of economic policy and then he changed his mind about closing Gitmo.
OK, so people like me, just once in our lifetime, would like to get our way all the time! Is that too much to ask? Of course, there is a different question that is in the air now — shall we give the country back to the crowd who gave the country to the 1%? I think not. So let's join in with our liberal majority and be fierce and relentless in these next two months. Let's spend this time educating people what we mean when we say things like "single-payer" and "Blackwater." Politics and the fate of the nation (and the world – sorry, world) are on the front burner and those of us who want to wrestle control of our society out of the hands of the few can take healthy advantage of these coming weeks. Don't sit it out. Don't try to convince anyone Obama has magically transformed us – just tell them four years is simply not enough time to undo all the hurt caused by biggest economic crash since the Great Depression and the biggest military blunder/lie in our history.
I'm going to go with my optimistic side here (sorry, cynics, you know I love you) and imagine a Second Term Obama (and a Democratically-controlled Congress) who will go after all the good that our people deserve and put the power of our democracy back in our hands. There's good reason why the Right is terrified of a Second Term Obama because that is exactly what they think he'll do: the real Obama will appear and take us down the road to social justice and tolerance and a leveling of the economic playing field. For once, I'd like to say I agree with the Right – and I sincerely hope their worst nightmare does come true.
Democratic Convention Wonderful -- Preliminary Thoughts
The Democratic Convention was absolutely the greatest, most well orchestrated, hopeful and BRILLIANT convention I have ever seen in my life and I have seen a few. I would criticize NOTHING. This is what happens when you have academic and intellectual excellence getting the job done.
The Republican Party seemed like amateurs but most of all, as the FACT CHECKERS proved, and YES THEY MATTER, it was a convention STEEPED in lies and utter disrespect to the office of the presidency by Clint Eastwood's unintelligible, near senile, dastardly inane act. The Republicans know, now that they have gone to the extreme, they are in quicksand sinking fast.
They have absolutely NOTHING. Now there is SO much media and they have been so sensitized to Republican mendacious policy taking us into an Iraq War on lies, killing THOUSANDS. Republicans lie about war, they lie about health care, and they lie about the president ad nauseam.
The Jobs number WENT UP today and unemployment went down. Yes, it's slow but it's is going in the right direction. The president SAID it would be slow. The states which have Republican legislative control have immorally driven public sector jobs down and kept us from an even better jobs report. If the president had someone sane to work with in the House of course it would be even better. But this is GOOD -- not the best -- but VERY good given how difficult the task is and given Republican oppositional strangulation so the president would fail even if that treasonously meant the country could fail too. Furthermore, it shows you the president is right!
I am hoping the Republican Party of know nothings is turning into dust where it belongs. It needs to form something new because the best in their party are bolting and they will be left with the stupids. That party will be DONE. It is an irrelevant Party because it is mean, hateful, mendacious and our country to its core is NOT. That Party will perish and that's a FACT to be fact checked after the Obama second term!
Wishful thinking? Maybe. But I think I am right and I hope to live to see it!
Barack Obama, I believe, has won himself the presidency for the next four years! AND WE MUST ENSURE IT! LET'S ensure too the great Elizabeth Warren is elected to the US Senate as well!!
They have absolutely NOTHING. Now there is SO much media and they have been so sensitized to Republican mendacious policy taking us into an Iraq War on lies, killing THOUSANDS. Republicans lie about war, they lie about health care, and they lie about the president ad nauseam.
The Jobs number WENT UP today and unemployment went down. Yes, it's slow but it's is going in the right direction. The president SAID it would be slow. The states which have Republican legislative control have immorally driven public sector jobs down and kept us from an even better jobs report. If the president had someone sane to work with in the House of course it would be even better. But this is GOOD -- not the best -- but VERY good given how difficult the task is and given Republican oppositional strangulation so the president would fail even if that treasonously meant the country could fail too. Furthermore, it shows you the president is right!
I am hoping the Republican Party of know nothings is turning into dust where it belongs. It needs to form something new because the best in their party are bolting and they will be left with the stupids. That party will be DONE. It is an irrelevant Party because it is mean, hateful, mendacious and our country to its core is NOT. That Party will perish and that's a FACT to be fact checked after the Obama second term!
Wishful thinking? Maybe. But I think I am right and I hope to live to see it!
Barack Obama, I believe, has won himself the presidency for the next four years! AND WE MUST ENSURE IT! LET'S ensure too the great Elizabeth Warren is elected to the US Senate as well!!
ANOTHER WOW!
Another WOW! Barack Obama has won himself the presidency for the next four years!AND WE MUST ENSURE IT!!
Thursday, September 06, 2012
The GOP's Disgusting New Southern Strategy
Excellent article in Reader Supported News. Scroll down.
DO NOT LET REPUBLICANS DO WHAT THIS ARTICLE STATES. WHY IT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER TO REELECT THE PRESIDENT AND ELIZABETH WARREN TO THE US SENATE!
The GOP's Disgusting New Southern Strategy
05 September 12
The GOP's war on voting rights isn't new. It harks back to past efforts to alter the political process.
In states from Florida to Pennsylvania, Republican Party efforts to diminish minority voting strength for this year's presidential election are a sobering reminder that the struggle for full civil rights is not over. But it's not only black voters who should be concerned about Republican voter-suppression tactics. The GOP's war on voting is a serious attack on the fundamental workings of our democracy. It is, at its core, an attempt to negate the important victories of the early 1960s that laid the foundation of our modern representative democracy.
To understand the breadth of the threat represented by voter-ID laws and other new practices designed to suppress votes in Democratic districts, it's important to realize that the effort to dismantle obstacles to voting rights for black voters in the South during the early 1960s did more than just enfranchise African Americans. It exposed the myriad ways in which key aspects of the American electoral system were fundamentally unfair for all voters. In particular, the disproportionate power afforded to underpopulated rural jurisdictions over the more populous cities was corrected by the Supreme Court in a series of cases that dismantled the framework of unequal voting power that had existed in the South since the turn of the 20th century.
The door opened in 1962 when, in Baker v. Carr, the Supreme Court decided that it could rule on cases raising constitutional challenges to state apportionment practices. In that case, the challenge was to Tennessee's failure for more than 60 years to adjust its state legislative districts, despite massive changes in the state's population. A year later, in Gray v. Sanders, the court outlawed Georgia's county-unit voting system, a vote-counting scheme that benefited less populous counties in the state.
In the most important and influential of these decisions, Reynolds v. Sims, the court announced the now internationally recognized bedrock principle of voting equality: one person, one vote. These cases rooted out practices advanced principally in the South that, by weighting votes in favor of rural areas, gave land and cattle greater voting strength than people.
The principles announced in those cases are now such a part of our understanding of fairness in representative democracy that it's hard sometimes to remember that they are only 50 years old. In short, the fight to remove obstacles designed to keep blacks and the undereducated from voting - like the poll tax, theliteracy test and the understanding clause (in which a registrant would be asked to "interpret" a section of the state constitution) - should be understood within the context of the larger effort to bring equity to a voting system that had been fixed in favor of Southern, rural land-owning elites.
By 1966, after the last of these and other barriers had been removed by the Supreme Court and by the passage of the Voting Rights Act, we'd begun the decades-long battle - still under way - to ensure that state and federal officials would enforce the laws that the Supreme Court had upheld. Once these structural barriers to voting were removed, those Southern white Dixiecrats (who formed the base of the modern post-civil rights Republican Party) committed to maintaining their political power and shifted their tactics to adjust to the new normal.
Because black and urban voters now proved a crucial vote in elections throughout the country, the politics of race-based fear increased and spread rapidly to the North. There, entrenched powers also sought to marginalize the potential for new voters to change the political landscape.
Richard Nixon's political "Southern strategy" was nationalized. Candidates who promised "law and order" flourished after the urban riots in Los Angeles' Watts and in Newark, N.J. The idea of candidates who would "return" America to its former glory grew in currency. By the 1980s, Republican political operative Lee Atwater had turned the politics of race and fear into an art form, with Willie Horton launched as the poster child for how to manipulate white swing voters.
Despite the reference to Sarah Palin's vice presidential nomination as a game changer in HBO's titular movie, it was Barack Obama's campaign in 2008 that was the real political transformative moment. Obama's ability to peel off the support of voters in three states of the old Confederacy - Virginia, Florida and North Carolina - shook the very foundations of the Southern strategy and left the Republican Party reeling.
The party's initial instinct was to try to undercut the president's "postracial" appeal, with party leaders asking Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal to provide the response to President Obama's first State of the Union address, and selecting former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele as chair of the Republican National Committee. Both of these decisions soon proved hasty and ill-advised.
Now, it seems, the Republican Party is done with politics. The party has, in effect, abandoned serious engagement with the essence of political activism: trying to persuade voters to support the candidates and viewpoints of one or another political party. Urban voters, blacks, Latinos, young people and now perhaps even a majority of women voters appear beyond the reach or interest of the GOP.
As a result, the Republican Party is now a minority party that still demands majority power. And perhaps this is why the party appears determined to shrink the majority, borrowing from pre-civil rights-era Southern states that used voting and election laws to manipulate the voting strength of the electorate.
This is the context in which we should understand Republican election officials' decision in Cincinnati last month to limit early voting in urban voting enclaves, while they guaranteed weekend voting and more flexible early voting hours in rural and suburban counties. Ending weekday early voting at 5 p.m. and canceling weekend early voting in Ohio's most populous cities would ensure that working voters in these jurisdictions became second-class citizens to their counterparts who live outside the metro areas. A recentfederal court decision requiring uniform early voting hours for all voters in the state may have reversed this plan.
This is why the Republican war on voting should not be viewed solely through the lens of race. Instead it should be seen as part of a larger attack on political participation, with deep historical roots that hark back to the darkest days of American democracy. Combined with the effects of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, Republican voter-suppression efforts are a sobering reminder that we are only half a century removed from the time when, in many states, voting strength was based on race, wealth and place. These new voter-suppression tactics bring us perilously close to reliving those days.
This is what voter fraud really looks like, and all Americans, not just African Americans, stand to lose.
Mitt and Mormonism: Does It Matter? by Stephen Lendman
Stepehen Lendman is my very left of center cousin and Progressive Radio personality. I do not agree with all his views BUT on THIS he was right on the money so to speak and exactly correct. It's long but worth it:
Mitt and Mormonism: Does It Matter?
by Stephen Lendman
Romney is America's first non-Christian presidential nominee. He's a Mormon (aka Latter Day Saints Church member - LDS). Does it matter? More on that below.
Before he entered politics, he spent years as a Massachusetts Mormon leader. He began in the mid-1970s. From 1986 - 1994, he was president of the Boston Stake. It's similar to a Catholic diocese. Before that he was a Belmont and Cambridge bishop. His duties involved organizational work and counseling.
Later he taught Sunday school and oversaw church programs for teenagers. He overstepped by lecturing women on their sex lives and roles as homemakers. A 1994 Boston Phoenix cited an anonymous woman. As bishop, Romney discouraged her from having an abortion vital for health reasons.
The same article mentioned an area professor. She urged him to address domestic abuse. He refused and wouldn't do it. He's an elitist. He surrounds himself in church, business, and political life with powerful white men.
He's insensitive about ordinary popular needs. He doesn't convince people he cares. He calls homosexuality "perverse and reprehensible." His dark side is largely hidden.
He believes in traditional gender roles. Male dominance is fundamental. Women should be child bearers and homemakers.
As Massachusetts governor, his style was imperial. He's aloof and patrician. He frowns on single parenthood. He follows hidebound Mormon rules. Obey or face excommunication. He ordered one single mother to give up her son or religion.
At times, he feigns understanding. He doesn't fake it well. Most often he's distant and indifferent. He's hardline about parishioners doing what they're told. His arrogance toward one church member made her feel like he "kicked (her) in the stomach."
Another parishioner called him racist and anti-Semitic. He's part entrepreneur, predator, church leader, politician, and now presidential aspirant. He combines the worst of each one.
Last May, Jodi Kantor headlined a largely flattering New York Times article "Romney's Faith, Silent but Deep," saying:
With presidential aspirations, he "speaks so sparingly about his faith….that its influence on him can be difficult to detect."
Friends "describe a man whose faith is his design for living." It's not his only influence, but "its impact cannot be fully untangled from that of his family, which is also steeped in Mormonism."
As a young entrepreneur, he was very "deseret." It's a Book of Mormon term. It means "industrious as a honeybee." He went all out recruiting colleagues and clients with Mormon like missionary zeal.
He's hardline on rules. They mirror his Mormon ones. As Massachusetts bishop and president he excommunicated adulterers. He discouraged mothers from working instead of being good wives and homemakers.
In private, he's "demonstrative about his faith." In church, he "belt(s) out hymns." He fasts on designated days. Wherever he is, most often he finds a congregation "to slip into on Sundays."
According to Mormon founder Joseph Smith and his successor Brigham Young, practitioners of other religions are wrongheaded, abominable, blind, damned, ignorant pagan heathens hatched in hell.
Romney buys this stuff. He follows church dogma and rules. Responding to critics about his religion, he once said:
"They would prefer it if I would simply distance myself from my religion, say that it is more a tradition than my personal conviction, or disavow one or another of its precepts."
"That I will not do. I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it. My faith is the faith of my fathers. I will be true to them and to my beliefs."
Mormon temples are only for strict adherents and its leaders. Secrecy surrounding them is extraordinary. Before church members can enter a temple, they're interviewed to determine worthiness.
They're asked if they support, affiliate with, or agree with any group or individual whose teachings or practices differ from church dogma? Romney gained entry. Blockage denies it to heaven. Repentance can change things.
Church ordinances include the Law of Consecration. It requires members to pledge all their time, money, and abilities to establish the Mormon kingdom of heaven on earth. Absolute obedience to the church president is also demanded.
If Romney buys this stuff and abides by it, as president he'll be beholden to a higher power than his own office and must obey what he's told to do.
Political con men like having things both ways. Promise voters what they want to hear. Govern according to political priorities. Practice your religion as you choose out of public view.
Perhaps if elected, they'll be three Romney presidents. He's a chameleon, an opportunistic con man. He'll combine campaigner, office holder, religious extremist. He'll one up the worst of Obama enough to give his supporters pause or should if they take the time to find out.
His December 2007 GHW Bush presidential library speech was planned to allay fears about his Mormonism. He failed. He only mentioned it once. He said nothing about its beliefs or practices.
In September 1960, Kennedy removed the Catholic Question by boldly defending secularism. Romney preached the importance of "faith perspectives" in political life.
He claimed he and fellow Mormons are of like mind with evangelical Protestants and fundamentalist Catholics. He feels the same way now.
Perhaps he was wise not to defend what’s indefensible. It's less extreme now than originally but bad enough. The same goes for all religious extremism. It's one thing to be an adherent. It's quite another to govern by its dictates.
When asked "(w)ill all be damned but Mormons," founder Joseph Smith said:
"Yes, and a great portion of them unless they repent and work righteousness."
The Book of Mormon describes two churches: the church of the Lamb of God and the church of the devil. The latter is the great church. The other is "the mother of abomination….the whore of all the earth."
In the Journal of Discourses, Brigham Young said:
"Should you ask why we differ from other Christians, as they are called, it is simply because they are not Christians as the New Testament defines Christianity."
"The Christian world, so-called, are heathens as to the knowledge of the salvation of God."
"With a regard to true theology, a more ignorant people never lived than the present so-called Christian world."
"….the professing Christian world are like a ship upon a boisterous ocean without rudder, compass, or pilot, and are tossed hither and thither by every wind of doctrine."
"….the time came when Paganism was engrafted into Christianity, and at last Christianity was converted into Paganism rather than converting the Pagans."
John Taylor succeeded Young. In the Journal of Discourses, he said:
"We talk about Christianity, but it is a perfect pack of nonsense ...the devil could not invent a better engine to spread his work than the Christianity of the nineteenth century."
"What! Are Christians ignorant? Yes, as ignorant of the things of God as the brute beast."
"What does the Christian world know about God? Nothing ...Why so far as the things of God are concerned, they are the veriest of fools; they know neither God nor the things of God."
Other Mormon leaders expressed similar comments about Christianity and Mormon exceptionalism. Be wary when religious leaders demean other faiths for not being true believers.
Mormonism's dark side masquerades as wholesome, special, and benevolent. It's pernicious and malevolent and about non-believers. Adherents feel a Mormon is destined to become president and lead America. They stop short of explaining harmful policies he'll endorse.
The 19th century book titled "The Mysteries of Mormonism" is harsh. It condemns a religion it calls "the twin relic of barbarism." It was written by an unnamed "Apostle's wife."
New York-based Police Gazette Publisher Richard K. Fox published it. Books then cost around 25 cents. Times changed. So has Mormonism, but very much not in all ways mattering most. It's still hidebound, reactionary, intolerant and dangerous.
"The Mormon missionary goes abroad in the highways and byways of the earth, preaching his creed of the bagnio to the ignorant and depraved and gathering them into the fold."
"Mormonism was a swindle from the very start….Joseph Smith (was) the worst of a bad breed."
He established a church based on alleged divine revelations given him by God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and other angelic/divine visionaries. Flaws and contradictions define it. Adherents claim challenging them is heresy.
"The 'Book of Mormon' consists of sixteen books, professing to be written by as many different prophets. In it over three hundred passages of the Christian Bible are found, stolen without credit."
"Polygamy has no foundation either in the principle of faith promulgated by Joseph Smith and the founders of the Mormon gospel."
Brigham Young initiated the practice. He produced a document. He claimed it was a revelation given Smith. It allegedly commanded him to enter into polygamy. No such revelation existed.
After Young died, church governance changed. America grew up and expanded. Mormons no longer lived "entrenched beyond the reach of the government whose laws they violate…."
US President James Garfield campaigned against "Mormon infamy." So did his successor Chester Arthur. He called Mormonism "an evil calling out loudly for reform."
"(T)he black outrage of Mormonism cannot continue unmolested many years longer. The people are awakening and crying out for justice against it…."
"When it is hurled to ruin there will fall the most monstrous structure of fraud and infamy cemented by the blood of sacrifice ever reared in the history of the world and a creed of lust that transforms a vast stretch of our continent into a community of prostitution, and physical and mental debasement will become the by-word for iniquity it is still a triumphant monument to."
Mormonism today officially rejects polygamy. Thousands, however, still practice it.
Former Mormon practitioner Chris Tolworthy left the LDS church. He expressed anger and frustration. He moved on and explained. In 2006, he published "Ten Reasons to Protect Your Children From Mormonism."
He began saying it's "better than many alternatives." It's better than raising children "in an even worse cult….But Mormonism is not the best." It's "dangerous."
He belonged to the LDS church for 34 years. For the sake of his children he left. Why he waited so long he didn't say. His reasons include:
(1) Mormonism "destroys your integrity." It's based on "lies" and "sin."
(2) "It makes you covenant to do evil. Some Mormon teachings and practices are evil." They destroy integrity, put church before family, divide communities, preach racism and homophobia, lie, and endorse other harmful practices.
The church keeps its dark side well hidden. Methods it calls righteous are unethical. It also teaches honesty and other good things. Its virtuous side doesn't compensate for its harm.
(3) "It might kill your children. Utah is the Prozac capital of the world." It also the leading state for suicides among adolescents and young men aged 15 - 24. Many high school girls feel sad and lonely.
Teenagers are taught to feel different from other people. They're made to feel guilty about normal sexual feelings.
(4) "It limits their emotional development." The church teaches that "obedience is the first law of heaven." Children get very early indoctrination. Faith is force-fed.
(5) It's "divisive" because "it has so many core beliefs that can be proved false."
"The church puts itself before the family." Individuality and free choice get shut out.
(6) "The church teaches prejudice." It's racist, homophobic, and hardline. Church scripture says "black skin is a curse for wickedness."
It's on the wrong side of other social issues. Polygamy was finally abandoned but not entirely.
Millions of dollars are spent attacking gays.
(7) "It takes good ideas and makes them worse." Its Proclamation on the Family excludes singles and gay couples. Same sex marriage is called evil.
(8) "It is unethical." The Book of Mormon says Nephi kills Laban, steals his property, and is praised." Using gospel is a bad way to teach ethics. The "God said so" approach creates more problems than equitable resolutions. Parents are perfectly capable of raising children sans gospel.
The church wants your time and money "under false pretenses." Donating either or both should be personal choices, not mandates. It says "either you do it our way or the wrong way."
It wants control over "every aspect of your life." It's "totalitarian."
The church steals childhoods. Kids are forced to sit hours in church learning and worrying about sin. They don't have fun like others their age in non-Mormon households.
(9) "Poor decision making." Feelings and dogma guide them more than facts.
(10) "Empty promises." The church takes your time and money. In return, it doesn't make people better. So-called Mormonism benefits "are empty."
The church claims its way is righteous and good. Compared to dysfunctional lifestyles, it's true. Compared with better ones, it falls short. "If you want better for your children, you can protect (them) from the dangers of Mormonism." Exercise free choice and do it.
Modern Mormonism differs greatly from its original form. Critics, however, call it a longstanding elaborate fraud. Its scripture contains numerous contradictions and errors. Founder Joseph Smith was a convicted con man.
He was more huckster than prophet. A purposeful deceiver in his day was called a "juggler." In 1849, New York Herald founder/publisher/editor perhaps first used the term confidence man. Smith lived from 1805 - 1844.
Herman Melville titled his 1857 novel "The Confidence Man: His Masquerade." Some believe Smith was his archetype. "The Con Man is Devil and God," said Melville.
He preaches aphorisms like "Charity thinketh no evil." "Charity believeth all things," and "Charity never faith." Melville believed scamming represented everything wrong with America in the pre-Civil War decade.
Many of his confidence man's entreaties make perfectly good sermons. Smith filled the bill. His mixed messages reflected good and evil. Critics called him an impostor, a fake, a con man.
Conning the faithful to believe continues. Modern day leaders do it their way. They also created a vast business empire. In July 2012, Business Week headlined "How the Mormons Make Money," saying:
Last March, a $2 billion Salt Lake City megamall was completed. It's adjacent to the church's neo-Gothic temple and president Thomas Monson's offices. Adherents call him a living prophet.
The project features a retractable glass roof, 5,000 underground parking spots, and nearly 100 stores and restaurants. Luxury ones like Tiffany's are included.
At its grand opening, Utah dignitaries accompanied Monson. He cheered "one, two, three," cut the ceremonial ribbon, and said "let's go shopping!"
"Watching a religious leader celebrate a mall may seem surreal, but (this one) reflects the spirit of enterprise that animates modern-day Mormonism."
"The mall is part of a sprawling church-owned corporate empire that" church leaders say spreads its message, increases economic self-reliance, and builds "the Kingdom of God on earth."
Keith McMullin heads the church holding company. Deseret Management Corporation (DMC) is an umbrella organization for many non-profit church businesses.
"We look to not only the spiritual," he says, "but also the temporal, and we believe that a person who is impoverished temporally cannot blossom spiritually."
Mormonism combines religious fervor with money-making. Non-profit status enhances bottom line priorities. Church holdings are vast. Little is known about them. Financial transparency is absent. Even members required to contribute generously aren't privy to what goes on.
According to historian D. Michael Quinn:
"The Mormon Church is very different than any other church….Traditional Christianity and Judaism make a clear distinction between what is spiritual and what is temporal, while Mormon theology specifically denies that there is such a distinction."
Megamalls and multi-billion dollar enterprise profiteering is doing God's work. Quinn adds:
"In the Mormon's (leadership) worldview, it's as spiritual to give alms to the poor….as it is to make" millions of dollars.
Around six million Americans practice Mormonism. Globally it's around 14 million. Their influence outnumbers their numbers.
The church's business empire and wealth are vast. DMC alone has six subsidiaries. Its estimated annual revenue is around $1.2 billion. It runs a newspaper, 11 radio stations, a TV station, a publishing and distribution company, a digital media operation, a hospitality business, and insurance with assets worth $4.4 billion.
AgReserves is another for-profit Mormon umbrella enterprise. Together with other church-run agricultural affiliates, it owns about one million US acres. They're used for farming, hunting, preserves, orchards and ranches.
They include the $1 billion, 290,000 acre Florida based Deseret Ranches. It has 44,000 cows, 1,300 bulls, citrus, sod, and timber. Foreign based affiliates operate in Britain, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil.
The church also runs several for-profit real estate enterprises. They develop, own, and manage malls, parking lots, office parks, residential buildings, and other businesses.
Hawaii Reserves owns or manages over 7,000 Oahu acres with commercial and residential buildings, parks, water and sewage infrastructure, as well as two cemeteries.
Oahu's Polynesian Cultural Center is a 43 acre tropical theme park. It hosts luaus, canoe rides, and tours through simulated Polynesian villages.
Utah Property Management Associates is another operation. Its new megamall is part of a $5 billion downtown Salt Lake City makeover.
According to Utah Governor's Office of Economic Development official Spencer Eccles:
Church officials run "their businesses like businesses, no bones about it."
Given their vast enterprises and business expertise, Sociology Professor Ryan Cragun said it makes more sense to call them "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Holdings, Inc."
Like other churches, many of its operations and donations are tax exempt. They're also secretive. Religious operations aren't obligated to explain much publicly. In the early 1960s, the LDS church stopped reporting finances entirely.
In 1997, a Time magazine investigation estimated its total worth at $30 billion. It said about $5 billion flows into church coffers annually through tithes. It also owned around $6 billion in stocks and bonds.
A more recent Reuters/Professor Cragun investigation estimated a $40 billion net worth, including up to $8 billion annually in tithing.
Church finances are so compartmentalized that no single person, not even the president, has access to them all. They're vast, growing, profitable, and perhaps greater than estimated totals.
Modern Mormonism isn't just a religion. It's a money making machine.
A Convention of Excellence. Quick Thoughts too on the Religious Plank
GREAT, FABULOUS, convention the most wonderful I have ever in decades seen and I watched it all. ALL the speakers were terrific but special kudos to the First Lady and of course to President William Jefferson Clinton the Magnificant.
At first I was upset that they put the plank for religion and for Jerusalem as Israel's capital in the platform NOT because I don't support Israel because I do emphatically but because I wanted religion OUT of the state and Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is a VERY incendiary issue. If our goal is peace we MUST appreciate and understand every side. Still the president rules and he does things that he KNOWS will be good for the Party and his re-election. The Repubicans would have made hay out of this. It takes the wind out of their sails as if their sailboat has not crashed on the rocks anyway.
I changed my mind. Glad they put it in. We need to win, the country needs us and the world wants us.
Kudos too to the MSNBC team -- they are the best of the absolute best INCLUDING even the conservative analysis of Steve Schmidt. Twer conservatives like he remenicinet of a time I could talk to a Republican. It is hard to do that now.
I was MESMERIZED by the convention. Thank you Democratic Party for NOT letting us down.
Work for and Re-elect the president and of course the great Elizabeth Warren for US Senate!
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Wednesday, September 05, 2012
Charlotte -- No Comparison
For once -- a rare occurrence -- I am almost at a loss for words. I have seen many conventions; I have been supportive of progressive politics and the Democratic Party for a long time. Never, NEVER, never in my life have I ever been so proud to be a Democrat but even better I have never been so proud to be an American. I am always proud to be an American BUT this time it was special. I cried throughout many of the speeches but I especially cried at the video of Teddy Kennedy (oh yes, the right wingers will wax negative I'm sure. Who cares?) It was the most gorgeously produced and riveting political event I have ever witnessed. It had the most fabulous speakers and the most beautiful visuals I have ever seen.
As if it is not enough praise, Michele Obama was beyond good she was, as a web page put it, DAZZLING. From her speech to her dress she was everything gorgeous. She could not have delivered a better speech. I was awe struck!
AND I do not mind saying, while ALL and I do mean ALL, of the other speakers were perfect, we have a governor Deval Patrick who can deliver one fantastically charismatic speech. All the speakers were excellently articulate but this man has 2016 for president written on him as far as this Democrat is concerned. Governor, Sir, YOU WERE MAGNIFICENT!! And could someone with a last name Castro -- JULIAN Castro San Antonio, Texas mayor -- be on a presidential ticket? This Stanford/Harvard educated brilliant man was awe inspiring. His story is the American story and our American Dream story.
Thanks to all who made this one Democrat for once smile continuously for hours. I loved it all. Whatever happens it will remain a historically epic event. Are Democrats and what we stand for better than Republicans? -- YOU BETCHA -- NO comparison, none at all!
Why there is NO question in my mind Barack Obama WILL be re-elected president BUT we must put him there first. WORK and IMPORTANTLY VOTE for his re-election! AND of course work hard and VOTE for the election of the imminently qualified Elizabeth Warren to the US Senate. Watch her introduce President Clinton tonight!
As if it is not enough praise, Michele Obama was beyond good she was, as a web page put it, DAZZLING. From her speech to her dress she was everything gorgeous. She could not have delivered a better speech. I was awe struck!
AND I do not mind saying, while ALL and I do mean ALL, of the other speakers were perfect, we have a governor Deval Patrick who can deliver one fantastically charismatic speech. All the speakers were excellently articulate but this man has 2016 for president written on him as far as this Democrat is concerned. Governor, Sir, YOU WERE MAGNIFICENT!! And could someone with a last name Castro -- JULIAN Castro San Antonio, Texas mayor -- be on a presidential ticket? This Stanford/Harvard educated brilliant man was awe inspiring. His story is the American story and our American Dream story.
Thanks to all who made this one Democrat for once smile continuously for hours. I loved it all. Whatever happens it will remain a historically epic event. Are Democrats and what we stand for better than Republicans? -- YOU BETCHA -- NO comparison, none at all!
Why there is NO question in my mind Barack Obama WILL be re-elected president BUT we must put him there first. WORK and IMPORTANTLY VOTE for his re-election! AND of course work hard and VOTE for the election of the imminently qualified Elizabeth Warren to the US Senate. Watch her introduce President Clinton tonight!
Tuesday, September 04, 2012
First impression (so far) of the DNC 2012 Charlotte --VERY short!
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) :)
Friday, August 31, 2012
Made MY Day--Clint Eastwood's "speech"!
If you did not see Clint Eastwood's introduction of Romney to speak last night at the Republican convention watch it here or on YouTube below. It WILL be the talk of the airwaves because it was rambling, nearly senile, profane and rude to the office of the presidency. It was a despicable use of language INTRODUCING Romney to the public in prime time yet. So they do not like the president BUT for Eastwood to use the simulated "F" word bomb in his "act" talking to an empty chair is emblematic of the low, vulgar nature of discourse in our political scene. Many so called "conservatives" in the hall clapped naturally but many did not. I think they knew Democrats would use this to blast Romney. It is why my writing is often sharp because I believe now fire must be fought with fire. It is the only modality of conversation conservatives seem to understand. They are imprecise, impolitic and impolite to say the least .
I thought the conservatives were opposed to the profanity and loose language the late Sixties ushered in. Guess not when it is an African American president they are addressing! Eastwood was rambling, his facts were wrong, he appeared disjointed and disheveled. I bet it did not make Romney's day but he surely made mine!
It is why we MUST re-elect the president and the great Elizabeth Warren to the US Senate.
P.S. Brown's interview with a reporter on the convention floor was humorous if not ridiculous! Sure he just happened by Tampa on his way to his reserve unit? He must think we are as low information as he!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoqKdWY692k&feature=g-sptl&cid=inp-hs-pol
I thought the conservatives were opposed to the profanity and loose language the late Sixties ushered in. Guess not when it is an African American president they are addressing! Eastwood was rambling, his facts were wrong, he appeared disjointed and disheveled. I bet it did not make Romney's day but he surely made mine!
It is why we MUST re-elect the president and the great Elizabeth Warren to the US Senate.
P.S. Brown's interview with a reporter on the convention floor was humorous if not ridiculous! Sure he just happened by Tampa on his way to his reserve unit? He must think we are as low information as he!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoqKdWY692k&feature=g-sptl&cid=inp-hs-pol
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Until There Is Nothing Left
Weather disaster after disaster year in and year out occurs. How long will it take the destroyers of science most especially of the Republican religiously fanatic Party to get it? One cannot deny science no matter how much one wants. The right wing party of extremists has no truth, has no science, deny man made global climate change and deny evolution, the bedrock of scientific advancement but rather accept their myths that a sky god will save us and take us to sky heaven. All we must do is pray.
Truth stares them in the face but it matters not. They will believe the untruths that make them feel safe even though they are far from safe. Those of us who love academic thought, reason and who see man's superiority over our less intelligent animal cousins as the SOLE reason for our survival, cringe at Republican politics. We have learned through the laws of physics, chemistry, biology and nature in general what is truth. Without science we, all of us who are among species homo sapiens die and our so called "lower" animal cousins survive on their own -- without us -- because they can.
This is why I am so desperate to reject what the Party of Extremism, the Republican Party, is. Our species's survival depends upon reasoned science. IF we do not save our planet through the discovery of clean energy and the eschewing of filthy oil and fossil fuels then hurricanes will continue to blow, droughts will happen, ice caps will melt until finally there is nothing left!
Truth stares them in the face but it matters not. They will believe the untruths that make them feel safe even though they are far from safe. Those of us who love academic thought, reason and who see man's superiority over our less intelligent animal cousins as the SOLE reason for our survival, cringe at Republican politics. We have learned through the laws of physics, chemistry, biology and nature in general what is truth. Without science we, all of us who are among species homo sapiens die and our so called "lower" animal cousins survive on their own -- without us -- because they can.
This is why I am so desperate to reject what the Party of Extremism, the Republican Party, is. Our species's survival depends upon reasoned science. IF we do not save our planet through the discovery of clean energy and the eschewing of filthy oil and fossil fuels then hurricanes will continue to blow, droughts will happen, ice caps will melt until finally there is nothing left!
Too Late -- Points Far North
All Republican have is lies; lies lies and more lies, half truths and distortion is all they can use to advance a product they cannot sell unless they lie. I do NOT worry that the president would win. I am absolutely 100% sure he could BUT what I do worry about is that the treasonous opposition has fixed the vote not ONLY at the polls but more importantly with their illegal activities under the Voting Rights Act. When dim witted less than intelligent humans voted so many Republicans into majority in STATE legislatures they made sure to pass laws that would tamper down the Democratic vote with African Americans, the disabled, the poor, etc. and ESPECIALLY in so called swing states . These are the very people that NEED to vote.
The other piece of the worry pie, of course, is the utterly OBSCENE money and corrupt acts cloaked in now legal secrecy coming from anywhere, even foreign countries, it takes to run for ANY high office most ESPECIALLY the presidency. SCOTUSES Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy, Alito and Roberts with the Citizens decision KNEW what they were doing by gutting all the regulatory watch dogs of money tied to the vote. Who does it favor? One does not need to be a genius to know who.
Republicans can do anything they want to steal the vote from passing voter ID laws to closing the polls before everyone has voted or restricting days voters especially Democrats DO vote. Republicans have a BIG HOOT at what they have done to commit illegal acts under the 1965 Voting Rights Act. They will yell states' rights and what court controlled by extremist right wing elements is going to stop them?
Welcome, America, to the oligarchy (government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich) YOU have put into power. Enjoy because it may be the last act you ever do. Democracy? What Democracy? And We have the GALL to say we are spreading "democracy" to people to whom we want to feed our propaganda? Obscene is too weak a word but the real blame is to the American people who put them there in the first place. Now unless Democrats around the nation register people en mass and/or the president pulls his election through his cogent speech out of a hat I fear it may be too late! Point me to points far north?
The other piece of the worry pie, of course, is the utterly OBSCENE money and corrupt acts cloaked in now legal secrecy coming from anywhere, even foreign countries, it takes to run for ANY high office most ESPECIALLY the presidency. SCOTUSES Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy, Alito and Roberts with the Citizens decision KNEW what they were doing by gutting all the regulatory watch dogs of money tied to the vote. Who does it favor? One does not need to be a genius to know who.
Republicans can do anything they want to steal the vote from passing voter ID laws to closing the polls before everyone has voted or restricting days voters especially Democrats DO vote. Republicans have a BIG HOOT at what they have done to commit illegal acts under the 1965 Voting Rights Act. They will yell states' rights and what court controlled by extremist right wing elements is going to stop them?
Welcome, America, to the oligarchy (government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich) YOU have put into power. Enjoy because it may be the last act you ever do. Democracy? What Democracy? And We have the GALL to say we are spreading "democracy" to people to whom we want to feed our propaganda? Obscene is too weak a word but the real blame is to the American people who put them there in the first place. Now unless Democrats around the nation register people en mass and/or the president pulls his election through his cogent speech out of a hat I fear it may be too late! Point me to points far north?
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Romney and Bain: The True Story -- PLEASE READ
Matt Taibbi more than any other chronicler of the etiology of the Wall Street madness, the 2007 Great Recession that is responsible for the economic sewer we have been since then, knows EXACTLY who Mitt Romney is.
I am on bended knee pleading with you to read this, yes, somewhat lengthy, explanation of who this country COULD, if unknowing enough, jet propel the charlatan, blanched even cruel Romney into the oval office, a place of which he SHOULD not come within 10 feet.
I place it here or below for your review. If YOU want to know what the man Mitt Romney is all about, the man who will make the determination of your future, your children's future, your grandchildren's future and the future of generations not yet born, you WILL, without fail, read this albeit slowly, perhaps, as I did to understand and then pass it on!
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/13180-focus-romney-and-bain-the-true-story
I am on bended knee pleading with you to read this, yes, somewhat lengthy, explanation of who this country COULD, if unknowing enough, jet propel the charlatan, blanched even cruel Romney into the oval office, a place of which he SHOULD not come within 10 feet.
I place it here or below for your review. If YOU want to know what the man Mitt Romney is all about, the man who will make the determination of your future, your children's future, your grandchildren's future and the future of generations not yet born, you WILL, without fail, read this albeit slowly, perhaps, as I did to understand and then pass it on!
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/13180-focus-romney-and-bain-the-true-story
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