Huffington Post had a blog entitled "Share Your Story" which asked people to write about how they discuss politics so, naturally, I obliged. It may be posted or not.

I am 61 years old. I became political when I attended the so called "Berkley of the East," Boston University in the late 60's. It was a turbulent era and I loved it. I listened and hung on every radical word of the most leftist professors, had all night bull sessions with fellow classmates and talked politics non-stop. I thought we were ushering in a new era with peace, love and flowers in the air always; when there would be no more war and wealth would be more evenly distributed. I truly thought men would always have long hair and most would walk around the world bare foot. The change I thought would be permanent. It wasn't but I never, since that transforming time, stopped thinking or talking about politics as I tried to figure out who was right, who was wrong and what the difference between left and right was anyway. I am still thinking about it. I loved that time and consider it the best time of my life by far.

I changed, of course, grew older, grayer, and suffered losses of parents, family and close friends. I never did become the radical I thought I always would be as moderation overcame my youth with age.

Because of that time though, I became freer, more in tune with my environment, am more health conscious and environmental friendly. I also managed to find a person who unconditionally loves me. Through it all I toughed life out despite its disappointments and because of the disability of polio, an anachronism now, that took its toll as I aged. I worked hard in the legal field until I could not work any longer as my will said yes but my body negated it. I worked not because I loved it because but because I had to. So when I retired I began to do what I always wanted to do and that is write political and social opinion. That is what I do 24/7 or just about.

I still discuss it with those who will suffer through it and I write opinion and blog continuously. The professors at BU like the deceased Howard Zinn gave me the desire to experience another day because of the window onto the political and historical world that they opened. The computer gave me the vehicle to write about it.

I cannot believe there will come a time when I do not exist and will never know how much of it turns out. I cannot believe that my era someday will be the ancient history that the Romans and Greeks were to me. It is hard to conceptualize one's end and because I never had children the only legacy, if I want to call it that, will be the things I write if someday, perhaps, some historian studying this era comes across in some dusty corner the many opinions I have written. Well, I can hope anyway. Otherwise, for me, what is life all about?

My Depth of Despair and My Heights of Anger -- I am emotionally spent. After the health care debacle and the Coakley election, all the hard work so many of us put in week after week, day after day, hour after hour, creating emails, letters, articles to papers, telephone calls, conversations and anything else one could do only to see our causes fail. I am SO dismayed and so sad about our president's lack of effective leadership and how to USE the power of the presidency and shape Congress I am thinking about stepping on my own toes and backing away from the political fray. The president INEFFECTIVELY in an attempt to return the balance of power to a Congress which does not know what to do with it handed power over to them with little direction. Congress has conflicting interests beholden to big pharma, big insurance or their own states, gets little done on the big issues of our time: bank regulation, jobs, and health care. Both parties, as Bill Moyers said, are equal opportunity employers of big corporate lobbyists and money. The lobbyists are gracious and will give to any party. It is beyond insane that in the middle of a near Depression and when health care and jobs for Main Street are in the mix to help get us out of this quagmire, to decide one is going to return power to an entity, Congress, that is spinning around blindfolded not knowing what to do next even begging for White House leadership.

This is NOT Harvard Law Review and it's not 1789 with a country of only thirteen colonies. It is 2010 with country population of over 300,000,000 on the heals of a near Depression with lives and generations hanging in the balance. If health care and a solid jobs bill die, my heart is dead for this president. I will not invest the time, money and emotional effort to support him. I have to see a change in him returning to what I thought he was in the first place especially on the big ticket items. I feel like a jilted lover. I am upset, furious, demoralized and just plain sad how a Democratic Party could squander the total control it had of Congress AND the presidency with a mandate from the people for change. This WAS my dream come true. The dream is turning into a nightmare because, I believe, the president has NOT led effectively. He speaks loftily with or without a teleprompter but he does NOT lead. He apparently does not know how or is relying on poor advice from his minions which turn its back on the desperate needs of the people. Maybe, too, big pharma and big insurance are simply even bigger than he.

Whatever the reason, he is the leader of our party. Yes, he has done some things that are laudable BUT on the big things he has fallen woefully short. How the Democratic Party did not see the handwriting on the wall with the Coakley election until it was MUCH too late, I will never know. The National Democratic Party and the president as its leader FAILED to keep Ted Kennedy's seat. I STILL cannot believe it. Teddy Kennedy would not believe it either that a party and a president could fail SO dismally when power was at their feet -- and still is -- waiting for them to grab it. It is a damnable thing to those of us who care about human rights and humanitarian principles. I thought Barack Obama was on our side. Often, I do not, so far, see that he is.

I just read on Huffington that Obama admitted health care may not pass. I am FURIOUS. I am FURIOUS because I invested so much time in this guy and I was WRONG about him. You know. I LOATH him now because his modus operandi is USELESS for the 21st century. This is not 1789. I am glad he is for the separation of powers OH SURE I AM NOT. That moronic over thought idiocy will mean people will die with no health care and I lay it at HIS feet. And the Republicans a huge MINORITY gloat with a HUGE DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY which we will NEVER have again. He did NOT and does not know how to work congress...he is INEXPERIENCED and does not know how to do it. What a shame. Yes, other peripheral things he got but it is NOT enough. On the BIG things he is a FAILURE and he was MUCH too late to rescue Coakley or better still have gotten a better candidate. Brown changed everything and Teddy is rolling around in his grave. What a TRAVESTY for Democrats. For the first time in my life of voting 40 years I will vote 2012 out of spite Republican even IF I have to step on my own toes to do it. Unless the Dems put up another candidate for 2012...I consider him a NON entity. ALL those hours and hours I spent either working for him or writing or sending emails by the hundreds.. He is ALL flowery talk and lousy leadership. My thoughts are stream of conscious. Speaker Pelosi is the ONLY one who knows how to use power and do it effectively. This criticism is NOT about her. It is about the president and other toxic members of the Congress.

NO one knows how much I hate Republicans BUT I am going to step on my own toes and work AGAINST Obama. I LOVED this guy and I am disappointed beyond repair unless something passes on health care. HE IS IMPOTENT...his method of using power is IDIOTIC This is NOT Harvard Law Review AND this is NOT 1789....THIS IS A COUNTRY THAT NEEDS GUIDANCE it needs a STRONG executive. I wasn't so much against Bush's ideas of a strong executive as I was against HIS POLICIES but Obama's policies I am for. HE WILL NOT NOT NOT get my vote in 2012. I will work against him that is how angry I am. I am a Democrat's Democrat but with all the hype and positive talking heads leading us into NOTHING I am FURIOUS..I don't care if the Republicans put up Attila the Hun...I am going to work HARD against Obama because of this health care MADNESS...how many wasted absolutely WASTED hours!!!!!!!!!!He stinks and many in Congress ESPECIALLY the Senate stinks. I will work against Obama because he has shown NO leadership for the 21st century on the BIG issues. This is NOT the 18th century!!!!!!!!!!!!

The STUPID Bowl -- the politics of religious extremism at the Super Bowl. On the issue of choice, I am pro choice. My position is if you do not want an abortion, fine, do not have one BUT allow this serious decision to be between the woman and her physician. Each circumstance is different and it should NOT reside with the government or be influenced for all people by a religious entity. These right wing groups are dedicated, even if it takes 100 years, to make abortion once again illegal, relegated to back alley abortions which were performed often in filthy conditions. Some want it illegal EVEN in the case of rape, incest, fetal deformity, intellectual deformity or if the mother's life is in danger. They will possibly have the corporate money to advocate for it. They can now even ADVERTISE for it which they are doing during this Sunday's Super Bowl. I have provided a link below which describes the ad.

What ever your views SURELY we can agree that a Super Bowl ad financed by an extremist right wing group like Focus on the Family devoted to the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the ruination of our interpreted right to privacy does not deserve air time during the Super Bowl, an event that is SUPPOSED to be fun. I suggest if it is allowed than a warning at the end of that should be required to say that a decision to bring a pregnancy to term, in some cases, may result in the death of the mother and the death or deformity of the fetus. Short of that an equal and opposite response by Planned Parenthood, NARAL (National Abortion Rights League), NOW (National Organization for Women) or others should be offered. As far as I know it is not.

I urge you to contact any of the numbers or web sites below to advocate for this position or find one of your choice. MOST ESPECIALLY let CBS know that if you watch the Super Bowl you will turn off that commercial and others during it OR that you will not watch the Super Bowl at all if the anti-choice Tebow commercial is aired unless disclaimers, disclosure or an opposition to it are allowed to be shown as well.

We cannot sit back and think the right wing will rest. It won't. I hasn't. Our rights on this issue have been chipped away one by one. Moreover, abortion providers have been killed. Whether a woman has an abortion or not should NOT be the prerogative of the public but should be between the woman and her doctor alone!


Online contact: CBS Contact: http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/feedback/fb_news_form.shtml?tag=ftr

CBS No.: 212 975 3247-- VOICE YOUR OPPOSITION

Planned Parenthood No.: 212-541-7800 -- Ask them to provide an opposing ad. They are a huge entity which surely must have the funds for at least one oppositional ad. They have very wealthy clientele in the likes of Norman Lear, Barbara Streisand, Stephen Speiberg and many others.

Planned Parenthood explanation and response to the Tebow commercial:


http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/newsroom/local-press-releases/1310-lesson-tebow-family-story-respect-trust-women-make-important-medical-decisions-themselves-31405.htm?__utma=1.48141533.1265384460.1265384460.1265387410.2&__utmb=1.28.10.1265387410&__utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1265387410.2.2.utmcsr=google|utmccn=%28organic%29|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=Planned%20Parenthood&__utmv=-&__utmk=211296533

APOLOGIES: I just got an email from Scot Leigh of the Globe it WAS a spoof article. Whew. I feel better BUT I would not give ANYONE food for thought. It's too dangerous.

Scott Brown for President?? I am disappointed in Scot Lehigh. I thought better of him unless, of course, his editorial "Get ready for President Brown" in the February 3, 2009 Boston Globe is a spoof. If serious, that would be like my voting for Barack Obama because he was black. No, I voted for Barack Obama because I suspected that he was intellectually brilliant and infinitely more capable than anyone else the Republican party had to offer. He was and is driven by a sense of introspection and studious rigor about which President Obama's Republican opposition could only dream.

I suspect the enthusiasm for Scott Brown would be different if he looked like, for example, Henry Kissinger. His rugged good looks, brown suede jacket, truck and seemingly perfect family is, I believe, the kindling fuel that ratchets up the presidential timber tag. Presidential timber? What house nationally or even internationally has Scott Brown built? The answer is none but I am sure, sadly, people will be following this man for president not because we know he has the intellectual heft the presidency should require but because he looked great on the front page of Cosmo. How many books does Scott Brown read and what are they? What are his articulation abilities? Most importantly, what and how much does he know? We have no idea because he has not yet even taken his senate seat and Scot Lehigh, editorialist for the Boston Globe, is predicting Brown as president? Shame on you Scot Leigh I thought you were better than that.

Strategies: A bunch of thoughts in the order my mind thought of them on how we get our message out and the good messengers to support.

The President did SUCH a good job at his question period with Republicans. He is INFINITELY more capable than the cerebrally compromised Bush.

Does the American public see the OBVIOUS truth to that as Republicans and some Independents too think Fox News is the most trustworthy...OH SURE. That is infinite stupidity. No matter what the President does he will NEVER NEVER get Republican "bipartisan" help. They want to defeat him at all costs so they go with their tried and true as they insist Dems are tax and spend even though the deficit soared under the Bush because of his rotten tax cuts for the rich which curiously he was able to get Congress to agree using reconciliation and his totally horrendous, illegal, immoral and by many standards inhumane Iraq War. Wars cost HUGE amounts of money and the defense spending cannot be included in cost cutting. It's separate.

So what does anyone expect? A huge amount of the deficit could be eliminated if we curtailed our defense spending significantly. But the Republicans only want to cut so called "entitlement" programs that actually HELP PEOPLE and work. They want to privatize Social Security and Medicare .... in my posterior NO ONE will want that especially those who have paid into it. Can you imagine with the tanking of the economy brought on by another piece of work Reagan through policies of Bush even helped by Clinton (who I have great reservations about now) how seniors now would be affected if Social Sec. were gutted? Plus Bush took money to finance his war from Social Security and borrowed the rest from China. Their philosophy is really no government spending on anything but defense they really want to end all government spending on humans who need help that is what Republicans are REALLY about as an anti-tax "conservative" crusader Grover Norquist says.

Obama was handed a plate of you know what but the Republicans try to hang all the deficit on him with their tax and spend tired mantra. Salt and pepper in the OBVIOUS racism levied at the president and it's just a toxic situation. I have never seen such insulting and often racist disrespect for a president ... EVER.

STRATEGIES:

I think some GREAT strategies now are to call out Fox News and the Republicans for the liars they continuously are. That is the only way. Keep harping on it and harping on it. Call radio talk shows even conservative ones like XM Patriot and our liberal ones too like Sirius Talk Left or even Sirius Indy talk. I think A.M. radio has some rabid conservatives too although I don't know because I only listen to XM. Air America I think is going off ... not sure when. It's too bad as they have some good ones like Ron Reagan. Stephanie Miller is a very funny liberal commentator. I think The Young Turks with Cenk Yugar is on XM and online. Bill Press is wonderful as is Thom Hartman on XM, and there is PBS and PBS radio as of course is Bill Moyers a particular love of mine but it probably is playing to a selective audience. We want to reach the most people we can.

Blogs are another way to get your opinion out. Make it smart, not nasty if you can, and brevity is always good not that I personally follow those rules but they are good ones. Also try blogging or writing editorials (make them as well written and short as possible) as I have written many times on the Metro West News, the Globe, Times,Washington Post, McClatchy News, Newsweek and others. Metro West Daily News blog has a shortage of liberals. Many blog at the end of each article. I have done it so much that I stopped blogging in the MDN. It does get very tough to read comments against you so beware but the more of us out there the better, grow a thick skin if you can. Huffington Post too is great as is Salon.com ... another site I love is Democracy Now with Amy Goodman. Support for good liberal authors like Jane Mayer, Tom Ricks, Naomi Klein (The Shock Doctrine), JeremyScahill on Blackwater an expert, Michael Isikoff, NYT editorialists Paul Krugman, Frank Rich, Bob Herbert, Gene Robinson. Jeff Scharlet wrote "The Family" an expose on "C " Street religious fundamentalists and the Washington Congressmen. A Ugandan connection there too getting the kill/imprison the gays legislation in Uganda believe it or not. Support liberal publications like the Nation, Mother Jones, or internet Moveon.org. Glen Greenwald is BRILLIANT from Salon.com There are many others. Especially there are military guys out there who are wonderful. I can't think of their names at the moment but probably the Rachel Maddow site has them. Also some are involved in getting rid of the Don't Ask Don't Tell insanity like Dan Choi ... read them and support them if you can.

Some conservative stations if they screen calls and you are critical of them they won't let you on. So I say I just want to discuss such and such and don't sound angry and you might get on. Visibility is what the Democratic party and progressives need it for 2010 and 2012. I cannot BELIEVE that anyone with 1/2 a brain especially if they are middle class or blue collar would want to vote against their OWN economic interest and go back to a Republican party which is not about them, and fundamentalist religious wing nuts to boot and a party which nearly catapulted us into a severe Depression maybe worse than 1929 and possibly could have meant the end of this country as we have known it as a Depression that was avoided by the bailout could have been utterly disastrous. The potential for that was that huge. We do not realize how bad it really was and it was on Bush's watch. McCain sarcastically says BOB -- blame it on Bush .. well YES OF COURSE blame it on Bush who else? If the situation were reversed and it happened with Clinton can you imagine how they would play it and do?

Thank God for Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and even Chris Matthews on MSNBC 7:00 p.m., 8:00 pm. and 9:00 pm. respectively. Try to watch them frequently if you can and write in supportive comments. See the Internet for their email. Rachel's is rachel@msnbc.com.....Be SUPPORTIVE they are the ONLY ones who point out night after night the hypocrisy and are supremely entertaining and BRILLIANT ... especially Rachel...she is a ph.d and it shows. She is just the best as she has on even those who disagree and holds their feet to the fire!

Support our PROGRESSIVE Journalists and media. OOPS almost forgot Ed Schultz on XM at 3:00 p.m. AND MSNBC at 6:00 pm. Onward.

Natalie

p.s. I am in mourning for my former professor, mentor and email correspondent Howard Zinn who recently died. I miss him every day! His book A People's History is excellent. He influenced my political philosophy like no other ever could. I just loved him. He was kind, inspiring and dedicated to a humane philosophy. I did not always agree with everything he said but his dedication to his basic principles of speaking truth, humanity and justice could not be doubted.

Glorious Bastards – a review of the film Inglourious Basterds: I am Jewish and I LOVED this film. I wasn't prepared to love it as I had heard about the violence which I often cannot endure but I did love the film. Why? I was born in 1948 after the greatest catastrophe, the Holocaust, was perpetrated on the Jewish people – my people. Thankfully, I never experienced it but year after year I absorbed the horror of it in film and by the word of mouth from parents and friends who knew about it or experienced themselves the evil that had befallen our people. I have viewed hundreds of hours of film footage of it, documentaries on it, bought and read books and anthologies about it, viewed TV drama devoting hours to it, viewed and participated in lengthy discussions and yet through all of that one burning question remains and it is not necessarily the word why. We can find thousands of rationales for the Holocaust but the question of what can we do about it remains illusive. As a naïve child I said to my parents but we won the war as if that were the happy ending of it. The answer always was an unsatisfying yes we won the war but … .

The trials at Nuremberg, the trial of Eichmann, the imprisonment and execution of some of Nazi hierarchy to be sure was some satisfaction but not the kind of satisfaction I desired for such unpardonable and unspeakable crimes. I had to face reality. There was no revenge huge enough and there was certainly nothing that could bring back the cerebrally unfathomable six million. What does six million mean? It is an utterly incomprehensible number made even worse because it is a number that COULD have included me. Only an accident of location and time of birth made me a learner about and not a victim of those events at that horrible time. Still, there is no revenge which is able to give purpose to the purposeless. That is a hard reality for a Jew who was born in America to swallow. Are not the good guys supposed to win? Do not the bad guys get sent to hell? The answer is a discouraging no the good guys do not always prevail and no, the bad guys probably do not end up in hell. Truly there is no good ending for this incredible story.

This film, though, albeit in fiction form, satisfied the desire for revenge for those dastardly deeds perpetrated within a historical minute slightly more than 65 years ago. The end of the film was the Dante’s inferno for the Nazi curse. It was glorious to watch as hell by Jewish hands was visited upon the entire Nazi hierarchy including Hitler himself in the confines of a beautiful theater as if the entire war was played out right then and there on film and I rejoiced. I felt like I took a bath in flames that cleansed the world and me of one of man’s most horrific crimes. It was as if God himself burned the screen, blew up the theater where Nazi big wigs sat and screamed to them this is Jewish revenge; this is Jewish punishment for what you have done. I loved it and wished it were true.

Alas, it is not true though as it is a work of fiction. So afterward I am bounced back to reality yet again and know there is nothing I can or will be able to ever do about it. I can as a Jew never exact my pound of flesh but I did, for over two hours, feel as if I had.

Boycott the Darkness: Recently a new film starring Mel Gibson called "The Edge of Darkness" has been or will be released in theaters. I ask that you boycott this film and ALL Mel Gibson films for that matter. This man is a Holocaust denier and blatant anti-Semite. I refer you to this link below in an article by Roger Friedman of Shobiz411.com that explains Gibson's anti-Semitism without my trying to compile a list of my grievances against him.

I refused to see the "Passion of the Christ" first because it was horrifically violent and second because a film emphasizing the death of Christ and the alleged Jewish involvement in it served only to inflame ancient absurd Christian anti-Semitic vitriol against the Jews and stoke the fires of potential violence in this age old insanity. He is not a friend either to the traditional Catholic church as he promotes his own brand of Catholicism.

Mel Gibson is vile and I ask you not to contribute to the success of anything he creates. The only way to hit him back is in his pocketbook and I ask you to consider never seeing anything Mel Gibson is in or creates.

Thanks.

http://showbiz411.blogs.thr.com/2010/01/27/mel-gibsons-father-goes-after-the-pope-and-catholic-church/

On Howard Zinn: There has been no one in my life since the historian Howard Zinn, left wing professor, at Boston University in the late 60's who had a more profound influence on me than he. I truly loved this man for over 40 years and remained in touch via email. I call that generation of the late 1960's the greatest generation as the values of peace it promulgated and the hope it engendered for me has gone unmatched.

Although he is gone, I will continue to re-listen to his lectures, re-read his book, and try to keep his spirit alive in my heart for the rest of my own life. I am saddened today but in my email from him just about three days ago when I felt so dispirited by the the election in Massachusetts as it seems yet again I am assaulted by the forces on the right standing on the precipice of regaining power (as if the last eight years were not enough), said that I should never lose hope, that I should always continue to remember that change comes not from the top down but from the bottom up. He said I should never give up my passion for justice and change. He lived that fight up even up until his death yesterday, January 27, and said there can be no change without hard work and that it is, as iterated in his recent documentary for the History Channel, the people who truly speak. I will always remember him.

SPOT ON! When I read, Frank Rich, NYT preeminent editorialist, write an op ed for the Sunday NY Times and says everything or near everything I have been complaining about the Obama administration for months, I am, if you will excuse my ego this one time, patting myself on the back. If Frank Rich has written brilliant columns, this was, in my opinion, one of his best. I can disagree with none of it because I have said most of it myself albeit not quite as elegantly.

I guess I do not "need my head examined" after all as I was accused by a relative of mine I did when I have been critical of Obama who for some walks on water. He does NOT for me. He has made, vis a vie the Scott Brown election, a GRIEVOUS if not fatal error and could if he does not change his modus operandi cost our country lives and fortune. Scott Brown is NOT a man of the people like the Republican mantra dupes people into believing and sometimes I wonder if Barack Obama is not as well. He needs to change course or, in fact, he will be a one term president. Sad, because his potential in November, 2008 was so overwhelmingly good.

I provide the link below for those who have not read it.! He is SPOT ON and the White House should take note and FAST!! Onward.


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/opinion/24Rich.html?hp

Ramblings: I have had little sleep. My cat keeps screaming at 3:00 a.m., my eye is bothering me, I have to have a glucose fasting test at 9:00 so I can't eat OR think, my partner's mother has Alzheimer's and is in the Metro West hospital because they can't control her in assisted living, Haiti is well Haiti, my president who I used to be in love with has deserted me and is in la la egotistical, deluded, naive and denial land, the democrats around him are shaking in their boots blaming "leftists" for their plight!! Nancy Pelosi was nearly incoherent when she made her lovely announcement about health care she barely could get the sentence out, the Supreme court handed down a decision that is nearly as bad as the all time bad one Dred Scott decision and makes this country nearly a permanent oligarchy, I am hoping the Democrats can come up with something to stave that off but seeing how they act on health care forget it, we are ruled by one minority party vote of Scott Brown and the Republicans (sounds like a rock group ... hey we can make some money off that Scott Brown and the Republicans.) Republicans are breaking out the champagne and are thrilled that their bank accounts will reach the stratosphere.

So no one talked about the fact if there will be more billionaires so just who is going to service them, build their buildings, do all the things blue collar and middle America does, who will have the factory jobs when the factories are overseas, who will teach their kids, who will get into universities, who would even want to come to this country now with it's glorious rags to riches gone, it's minorities protected gone, where your child will be worse off than you not better??? Where people just will be continuing to die without health care.

Well I'm in my usual suicide mode :-( only kidding ... as that great racist Scarlett O'Hara said in Gone with the Wind that fabulous 1938 Academy Award supreme racist film that Americans were then flocking to: "Tomorrow is another day." Yes, it is and we are going backward. Reactionaries anyone?

Sorry, it's 6:30 a.m. I have to be cynical and mad or I'll just sit and cry and then after my glucose test look for a whiskey bottle AND I don't even drink EVER and I don't smoke gave smoking up a LONG LONG LONG time ago, I am a health food addict, a fanatic about trying to move as much as I can even though it could kill me if I fall. Why am I doing this? Maybe I could write a satire and make LOTS of money and then go to Denmark!

Sorry, I'm a little off this a.m. :-\ Need to regroup... Read the below link of Glen Greenwald. It's perfect!

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/

A DECIDEDLY BAD DECISION: If any of us on the left ever thought Obama would be the end to our problems have SURELY gotten a rude awakening. Feast your eyes on the most disgusting opinion ever written by the Supreme Court since Dred Scott. Corporations now have clear sailing to spend as much as they want on political candidates. Now the nation is TRULY bought and paid for by the corporation. They even rolled back McCain/Feingold.

If we thought it could not get any worse, welcome to the United States of Oligarchy!! More conservative justices anyone?

We are unraveling and fast but the people elect Brown and think HE will be an independent Republican and will be for them. Oh sure. In which universe? We are plagued by corporate swindles that nearly brought down not only the US economy but world economy as well and NOW they can buy all US elections everywhere with ad infinitum amounts of cash. Sure, let's get some more deregulation of the always good-willed corporation. I say great. Let's see how fast we will be selling apples on street corners while the phenomenally wealthy sip mint juleps in the Caribbean! Finally, sometime maybe in some distant future this country will have learned its lesson. 1929, 2008 and a few other depressions in addition, were simply not enough for the never-to-be-underestimated masses.

Here is the decision if anyone can stomach to read it.

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Sections/NEWS/A_Politics/scotus.pdf

p.s.: Here is Glen Greenwald's column for Salon.Com He is BRILLIANT and writes spot on opinion.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/

My next prediction: Scott Brown/Mitt Romney 2010 or vice versa Romney/Brown

A Full Court Press: This was an email I sent to Bill Press in response to one of his opinions.


It's true, Bill, we did not have 60 votes anyway BUT and this is HUGE -- the right wing white entities are energized like they have not been before and will try to duplicate this ALL around the country.

Two days ago I got a robo call from it said Washington D.C. asking if I thought a marriage was between a man and a woman. I screamed of course NO but this is what they take from the Brown win. They go into other issues and no matter Brown did not characterize himself as Republican he is. He is 150 degrees the opposite of Teddy. This is more than about health care although that is part of it this is about a right wing crazy nationalistic base that is angry about our war losses after WWII and the inability to recapture that glory. It is an anger about that and an anger about race AND I would even say an anger about god and gays. It's ALL in the mix and this is why this THING that happened in Mass is so threatening. They will use this as their own ticket to ride their own rancid teabag extremist right wing agenda. For them it's full steam ahead and WE are in the cross hairs! Just my opinion.

Election Malaise: The special senatorial election is a pathetic loss for the Democrats. There is enough to go around in the blame game. In fact, in my opinion, it is everyone's fault involved in this election: (1) the candidate was utterly remiss and non existent literally on vacation until it appeared Brown was breathing down her neck. She seemed cold, like an iceberg and out of touch. Her gaffes were ridiculous (2) The White House because they are playing an over thought game. They are MUCH too removed and should be taking as I have been saying for ages a more Bushian approach. I.e. Bush got EVERYTHING he wanted done. Why? Because through Cheney, et al the mantra was a STRONG ultra strong executive. In my opinion, since FDR that is the essence of our politics. The Congress is impotent especially a Democratically controlled Congress. We have a big tent and many different opinions in the tent. He put the ball in their lap on health care when he SHOULD have carried it himself coming out STRONGLY against the idiocy of the teabag movement in the summer I call the summer with guns. He didn't. He went to Martha's Vineyard and let those town halls work their poison. Racism runs deep in this country and it should NEVER be forgotten.

If you have a 60 vote majority and a huge majority in the House and a so called "liberal" Democratic president you should lose NOTHING. NOTHING should be as hard as they have made it. The White House said the Coakley campaign didn't ask them for help. WHAT? Are you kidding me? As Keith Olbermann said "what the hell do you want an engraved invitation?" They should have moved in FAST with such a HUGELY important election. Coakley never should have run. She has as much exciting charisma as a rock and listening to her is as interesting as a course in advanced calculus. (3) The banks: Obama put in the foxes in to guard the chicken coup. I have been saying that from the beginning. His economic team of Geithner, Summers and by proxy Rubin are NOT Main Street. They are Wall Street. Those highly unethical bonuses should have been fought. (4) The Healthcare madness in general (5) The Democratic party for not vetting a GOOD solid candidate to replace the utterly charismatic Teddy. They got the opposite in Coakley (6) The Democratic people (including me) for not voting Capuano. He would have taken this race by 10 points. I learned my lesson. Take NOTHING for granted and look at candidates carefully. A 35 point lead has been absolutely squandered by a third rate candidate, Brown, who is the 100% opposite of Teddy Kennedy. I hear Teddy rolling around in his grave.

Prediction time: Stream of conscious: Not only will Brown win, he will win bigger than expected and a tip of the hat to Coakley, Obama, and the Democrats who shoot themselves in the foot ALL the time. She is a LOUSY candidate who ran a LOUSY campaign and Obama pure and simply LIES. Oh sure as he said yesterday a vote for Scott Brown is a vote for Wall Street. NO, Mr. President, a vote for YOU was a vote for Wall Street as he put in Wall Street hacks to fix the economy. They fixed it alright ... for themselves! I have gone from love of Obama to divorce inside of a year. This senate seat if it happens will be a HUGE HUGE loss and a BIG HUMILIATION and will dump Obama's health care OR what's left of the damn thing into the city dump. It's anemic and he is NOT what he said he was. Capuano would have been a MUCH better candidate. Coakley is about as charismatic as listening to a lecture on advanced calculus and now CNN is talking about her Shilling Red Sox gaffe. This is the intelligence of the media and the inability of her to handle a ridiculous question. Coulda, woulda, shoulda, it matters not. Sit back and enjoy the next three years of a worse economy, thousands dying from lack of proper health care, a climate disintegrate and eternal never ending war. The country should have great entertainment as long as the bombs do NOT fall on us!

Obama cannot rule, he cannot legislate and he is NOT accountable to his base. Why doesn't he just switch to the Republican party? That way he can have all the Republicans on his team he wants and obviously he wants them there. He is after one year in my opinion a FAILURE I don't care HOW HARD IT IS TO LEGISLATE. HE had a 60 vote majority in the Senate and a commanding majority in the House and he is a Democrat too. What would LBJ have done with his situation? Obama withdrew his power on health care when he shouldn't have, let the insanity of tea bagging rule the day and he reached out to Republicans that hate him. He did not rein in Lieberman by threatening to take his chairmanship away and he did not know how to manage the blue dogs. That's what we elected him for -- TO BE A POLITICIAN! He ratcheted up war, toned down his rhetoric on restoring civil liberties and became tone deaf to those who supported him the most.

Moreover, he forgot the racism of the past 300 years. It matters and is directed at him like a white very white laser. So many of us who were his base loath him now. But oh yeah, Rahm Emanuel says you can take your base for granted. BULL SH&^%. No you can't and I am proof of that par excellance. Am I furious about tomorrow YES! In my solidly blue state of which I was so proud to be a resident, Teddy Kennedy's 48 year seat possibly will turn Republican and his life-long dream of health care among so much other socially good legislation will be down the toilet. Am I mad at even the prospect of that? YOU BETCHA!

Both on the Mark: Two Boston Globe editorialists Joan Vennochi and Jeff Jacoby have competing op ed pieces about the impending special election between Coakley and Brown. One hangs Coakley's probable loss on the character or lack of it of Beacon Hill state government and Duval Patrick's unpopularity. The other Jeff Jacoby, hangs it on Obama. I had my own opinion which is as follows:

Both of your editorials are excellent. Naturally, I am an ardent Democrat and would not even think for one second about voting Republican no matter if they ran god for office, but I am utterly dismayed at the confluence of events which have collided into a potential head-on train wreck for Coakly, Obama, Democrats in general and any vision of health care Obama may have had. Rahm Emanuel was dead wrong, Obama cannot take his base for granted. They will not necessarily a priori support him. I think I will hear rumbling at Ted Kennedy's grave in Arlington if a Republican wins his former 48 year seat on Tuesday.

It's not that I do not think Coakley capable and bright. I do and I personally think she is yards smarter than Brown. If she looses, and I suspect that may happen, she will lose because of both Beacon Hill AND Barack Obama. You both are correct. Moreover, incumbency is out. I would add, however, one more rationale perhaps more important than the ones you site. I watched the gathering today of the Democratic big wigs online. The one with whom I was MOST impressed was Mike Capuano. He was riveting, charismatic and had passion. I asked myself why I voted for Martha Coakley in the primary when Capuano was CLEARLY more moving. Answer: I have NO idea. I did not watch the Democratic candidates carefully enough perhaps. It is my opinion that Capuano would have taken Brown and the element that is missing in Martha Coakley is passion. She looked tired and worn out to me. Moreover, Capuano has experience. There is something to be said when a candidate moves you. Besides the Boston police officer singing the national anthem which made me cry, Capuano was the most emotionally rich speaker. He was better -- much better -- than Kerry and Kennedy's cane, better than Vicki Kennedy, better than Martha's niece and better than Martha herself. She is missing passion and both Capuano and Brown have it.

But we must play the ball where it lies. Today's gathering was a hail Mary pass. I just hope like Doug Flutie she can run it into the end zone and win the game. I have my doubts!

Dismayed: A Letter to Howard Zinn: Hi Professor Zinn. Whenever I feel sad or down regarding the political trajectory of the country I go onto Utube and listen to one of your lectures which I did entitled "The Holy Wars." I loved that. Tonight we rented a film about Woodstock which, of course, catapulted me back to those late 1960's years that I loved so much. I love reliving those days when I thought all change was possible and continue to shake my head and wonder what happened. I thought, too, how just a year ago I was SO hopeful with the Obama presidency only to have those hopes dashed one by one as his policies reflected little and sometimes no change at all. So now we come to the Coakley race and believe me it's not that I love Coakley so much but it is the unbelievable boomerang that is the nature of the American public. Upset with the power that is go to the Democratic corner. Upset with that go to the Republican corner. It reminds me of a bouncing ball bouncing from one side to the other not knowing where to land and so it bounces in perpetuity never to find a safe place to rest.

I see something not so nice within the heart of this country. There is a nastiness, an anger and an almost fascistic quality to a large part of the electorate. I know that in the history of this country there have been times when the good shows through and major change occurs. Sometimes though that change takes centuries. Often those who fought the hardest for rights never make it to see those rights won. Yes, the Coakley race has taken its toll on me NOT because I love her so much at all but because of a HUGE disappointment in a president for whom I held out such ebullient hope just a year ago. Does the public especially in Massachusetts REALLY think Scott Brown or those other Republicans like him will be the key to extracting them from their malaise? It's like putting the same germ in your body to rid you of the illness. Can people be so incredibly stupid? I suspect they can and THAT is the etiology of my sadness.

Yes, we can continue to fight an uphill battle but now I am 61 years old and I have hoped since those wonderful days when all hope seemed possible that WE would create the better world. I know you say leaders cannot be counted on to do anything and that change must come from the people but when the people themselves disappoint one so, where is there to turn? If I were a religious person I would turn to god but I'm not a religious person. So I still do not see except when I hear you speak that the nature of this land can be molded for the better. I think it has a crudity, ignorance and an angry white racist strain running all the way through it -- north and south, east and west. So where do I look to recoup what I thought I had so many years ago -- hope?

What a disappointment -- a HUGE disappointment Obama has been. I think his use of his vast power has been dismal and he is not the man I thought he was. I think when he invited Rick Warren to his inauguration I SHOULD have seen the handwriting on the wall. How can one analyze him without thinking he lied. All his beautiful words were simply words and meant nothing. This loss will be STINGING and I can hear the Republicans crowing for days. It makes me sick. So back to Republican rule yet again. When will it end? I truly fear for the structure of the nation. It is split right down the middle. Pat Buchanan said that this is a "center right" country." If so how that change will come from the bottom up I have no idea. I simply do not see the good in man at all. I say Hobbs was right. Life is nasty, brutish and oh so very short and that is true in this country and is true nearly everywhere else.

Why I Love the Jews: I often wondered why in me there was an ever present lust for knowledge, a value for learning above anything else even money, an unrest because the shortness of life dictates there will be much I never know, a horrible sadness in my soul that I should be better than what I am, and a love for those who are blessed with the cerebral acuity and the collegiate success to prove it.

We must, I am afraid, play the hand we were given but I boastfully take pride in my people whose DNA I am thrilled and blessed to share. This article by David Brooks appearing in the New York Times (link below), even as I certainly know some of it, illuminated to me why I love the Jewish people so.


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/opinion/12brooks.html