Occupy Wall Street Will NOT Falter: These bastard banksters need to be taken down. The law must take them down. I do not care how long it takes but these swine, these bloated greedy Wall Street gluttons need to have the scales of justice smash them and take them down! I HATE what they have done to the country and the president gets the VERY pigs into his administration as his Treasury secretary and his merry men who created this mess over years doing the "fixing."

This country is a place I do not recognize anymore. The hope and the dream are gone and the Wall Street swill have taken what is ours right from under our noses because we THOUGHT that dream was meant for us and the generations which come after us. They have taken this economy to the brink of destruction, swallowed 401Ks, pension plans, selling worthless crap bundling it into phony mortgage securities junk, selling it all over the world and insuring themselves in credit default swaps buying S&P to rate that crap triple AAA deceiving ALL who bought it. The reason for so many state government employees being laid off is laid at the Wall Street titans filthy feet. Wall Street is a gambling casino where the house NEVER loses. It is meant for only the top 1% to rape us in a con game with our hard earned money.

Moreover, they have sent wily nily our youngest and most able to fight in wars that meant nothing to us based on lies spending TRILLIONS. Those overlords who have ruled over us are a sham and about ONLY the top 1%. Their corporatist hands are dripping with the blood of so many innocents. But they will tell you they have no money for fire departments, no money for teachers, no money for building roads, bridges, infrastructure repair and all those things that make government work for the people and secure the people. What is going to happen to these sickos when the very ones they fire will not be there to protect THEM? They make me sick as they have made the American economy sick! We have a government bought, signed, sealed and delivered by the corporation; an oligarchy which is choking its own people. We have a body that is turning on itself and eating itself alive BUT the body is fighting back!

Occupy Wall Street is catching on like a fire and we can thank other people's uprisings and revolutions all over the world which pointed the way to exude unremitting pressure. Either they FIX this gd economy or face the public wrath. The demonstrators of Occupy Wall Street will never give up, will never falter and will NOT fail.

Lest I be Considered Humorless: Yes, most of my opinions are serious and rather gloomy BUT have no fear I DO have a sense of humor!

In case you have not noticed the collection of Republicans vying for the presidency, arguably the most powerful position in the world, or just simply Republicans are nincompoops, idiots, morons and dumbed down Know Nothings. Let me give you some examples which represent that fact and are quite funny INDEED. Well, it had me laughing with incredulity anyway:

Rick Perry after the last debate was showering effervescent praise on our Founders who as he stated fought so hard for freedom in the 16th CENTURY. Okay so he was a mere 200 years off. What's a few years? After all our Founders WERE men of the Enlightenment preceded by the Renaissance weren't they? Considering the sands of time, I guess he was close.

Michele Bachmann TRIED to show how smart she was by using the word HEINOUS except it came out Hein-Y-ous. Heinyous, yes we get it, Michelle, I guess it’s not as bad as saying Concord, New Hampshire where she so assuredly thought the American Revolution began. This was BIG news for those of us living near Concord, MASSACHUSETTS. Eh, what's a few miles. Maybe geography AND history are not Michelle's strong suit. Who needs to know where the American Revolutionary War began when one was allegedly a tax attorney, small business woman and is a Congressional Rep?

The best screw up came when a Florida GOP Rep. Brad Drake said he wanted to bring back the electric chair and firing squads to execute criminals because lethal injection is just too darn humane. As Drake said “In the words of Humphrey Bogart, ‘Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.' I'm so tired of being humane ...".

You know Humphrey Bogart of "Gone with the Wind" fame; that famous quote a sixth grader might know was uttered by Clark Gable and after all he thought of that when someone at the "Waffle House" -- a restaurant like IHOP -- said that profundity.

So big deal, Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart who cares? At least we have to be happy he didn't say Marilyn Monroe! GENIUSES all!

Occupy Wall Street STILL Occupying Wall Street: Mayor Bloomberg stopped the removal by police of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators shortly before it was supposed to begin today, Friday, October 14, averting a feared clash between the police and demonstrators who are protesting a fraudulent and corrupt Wall Street.

Smart move! Throwing police into an Occupy Wall Street crowd at 7:00 a.m. on a Friday morning when everyone is tuned into The Today Show is NOT a smart thing to do. It is a non violent crowd dedicated to peaceful civil disobedience. It is the ONLY kind of protest that we have seen historically to work ESPECIALLY in a 24/7 media, video cell phones and other recording devices which will capture the entire thing. It serves only to be an advocate for our cause.

FINALLY our sleeping giant has awoken will and is giving the Republican (and some Democrats too) obstructionist politically malevolent Congressional "representatives" a run for their money (forgive the pun).

This has shed light on the most rancid time I have ever experienced in my decades of watching the American political landscape. It is not a landscape it is a trash heap. Wall Street, the banks, Geithner, Summers and their ilk wielding the batons of power and ALL those who think they can get away with the fraudulent theft of millions of Main Street money while they live like kings with their bailout and bonuses of taxpayer money are having a RUDE awakening.

I think too our president who was put into the oval office by people like me sees now we CANNOT be taken for granted. I believe the sleeping giant is arising from his slumber -- I HOPE -- as Blankfein, Dimon, Goldman Sachs, City Bank, Merrill Lynch and the rest of those bloated gluttons infected with corporate gout feel a little chill running through their greedy bodies.

The Cretans of Wall Street MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE, investigated, regulated to within an inch of their life, indicted, tried by a jury -- HOPEFULLY -- convicted and sent to jail while their posterity pays BILLIONS. This must NEVER EVER happen again or our capitalist system which I support and the nation I love with it will end up in the trash bin of history!

KNOW THE TRUTH: Economist Robert Reich who was Clinton's Secretary of Labor destroys the GOP's seven biggest economic lies. Read and learn how the opposition tries to put one over on you by CONSTANTLY LYING!:


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/10/12/economist-destroys-the-gops-seven-biggest-economic-lies/?utm_source=Raw+Story+Daily+Update&utm_campaign=9c8c237dd0-10_12_1110_12_2011&utm_medium=email

How I'm stopping the Koch brothers' poisonous influence:

There's a town in Arkansas being poisoned to death by the Koch brothers factory. Residents of Crossett, Arkansas are collecting messages that they will hand deliver to the Koch brothers. Watch how the Koch brothers poison their community with pollution, then help fight back to save lives and write a message to the Koch brothers:

http://KochBrothersExposed.com

The Help--A Movie Review: I very much enjoyed this film. Was it absolutely perfect? Probably not BUT I must disagree with Melissa Harris Perry Professor of political science at Tulane University who, on Rachel Maddow, said how much she loathed it. She gave as her rationale that it was not about the dreary drudged-filled life of a black maid exposing the essence of the black experience in the south. She thought it was all about white women and the aspiring white writer who comes from the white background of privilege but decides she wants to write and publish a story from the perspective of the black maid -- The Help.

I disagree with Ms. Perry which surprised me as most often I agree with her well thought out expert analysis. The story was NOT, in my opinion, centrifugally about the white writer but the writer was used as a vehicle to tell the story of the black experience in the south through the black maids among them Viola Davis as Abiline, her friend Minnie and others who made up, I thought, the preponderance of the film. It was about the black/white cultural ethos in the south.

The maid performances were nothing short of STELLAR. I LOVED them. Their white taskmasters gave excellent performances too as they showed well the empty meaninglessness and immorality of their lives. Those southern whites who profess Christianity so strongly should reflect on Christ's words: "What profit a man if he gain the whole world but lose his soul?" I felt both sorry for these shallow white women and hated them at the same time.

In my opinion, Viola Davis should get best performance of an actress NOT in a supporting role but in a MAIN role. Her role, as I see it, was the central character. I thought the white writer Skeeter (Bryce Dallas Howard) was simply the narrator through which the story could be told and the expositor of the cultural reality of black people and their white supremacist masters in the south during the early 1960's. Their experience with each other was, I believe, one step above slavery since the cultural mandates -- violence and death -- at the hands of the white power brokers enforcing this vile system still survived.

The film was heart wrenching and gripping. The danger the black person experienced in the south most especially, perhaps, in one of the worst southern states for its treatment of black people, Mississippi, was bone chilling. Yes, I know, all states have some racism but this type of racism in the early sixties in the south takes that loathsome fact to Olympian heights. What a trapped, awful, difficult and sad life the maids experienced. Even with all the difficulty, though, there was room in their hearts for laughter and humanity about the cruel fate bestowed upon them. I LOVED them.

I hated the white women, felt sorry for them and their utter STUPIDITY. As a white woman I felt ashamed that in this country something so heinous, so cruel and so embedded in the culture existed and to some extent still does. There was NO escape. My heart goes out to a people who have known unspeakable suffering in this country. I want a collective apology to entire group of people who still suffer humiliations NO ONE in this country should EVER have to suffer again. Representative John Lewis an African American House member, a cultured and wonderful gentleman, was spat upon on the steps of the Capitol by utter racists whose temperature rose when a black man entered the oval office. The half white part of Barack Obama to them matters not as just one drop of blackness in a person determines the threat of systemic violence heaped upon them.

It makes me see how brave the MLK's of the world were, how brave the Ralph Abernathy's were, how brave Representative John Lewis was and so many more heroes too numerous to mention here. Confederate flags, the rancid symbol of this de jure racist segregation, should be taken down from the top of every State House in the south as we live now, hopefully, to erase any vestiges of that ugly system and make a fairer world!

I highly recommend this film.

The Right to Our Life, Civil Liberties Abridgment and the Ordered Killing of US Citizen Al-Alwaki: This is the kind of action that drives many liberals, civil libertarians and people that compose the president's base crazy. It would be as if the Republican candidate admitted he were an atheist. It is that important to those who care about what Constitutional due process is. They are the people who put candidate Obama into the presidency.

But there are some others like I, for example, who considers herself a member of Obama's base, decries some of his leadership abilities, truly cares about unlawful search and seizures, cruel and unusual punishment, and power operating without due process BUT in certain circumstances who sees particular instances where those civil libertarian guarantees must be breached.

I believe after 9/11 that we live in a different nation. When Benjamin Franklin said “those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety” he NEVER knew what an atom was, never knew the atom could be split, never knew about nuclear weaponry, and never knew about a dirty bomb. I believe a nation state has a right -- no a duty -- to defend itself and its populous from ever having to endure such a dastardly attack even IF it means breaching some Constitutional rights to apprehend a perpetrator.

We live in a NUCLEAR age. We live in an age where mayhem can be delivered upon a country after which that country truly could perish. Think about it. We in this nation most love, we who NEVER worried about going to a restaurant, to the movies, to a classroom must court the possibility now that an innocent task could turn into utter destruction. THAT is the truth we must live with in our time.

I do NOT fear my government under Obama and I do not fear my government even under a Republican. Perhaps I am naive but I believe in the endurance of this nation even under the most difficult and trying times we experience today. I believe in defending our lives and our way of life by any means necessary.

A Play in Three Acts--Paul Krugman tells you what you need to know! For those of you who need to understand even more clearly and from an expert, NYT columnist Prof. Paul Krugman explains why Occupy Wall Street is happening, why it is good and in three easy acts what our financial crisis all about. He explains it as a "Play of Three Acts" in his October 6, New York Times Op Ed "Confronting the Malfactors" and states as follows:

So, in case you’ve forgotten, it was a play in three acts.

In the first act, bankers took advantage of deregulation to run wild (and pay themselves princely sums), inflating huge bubbles through reckless lending. In the second act, the bubbles burst — but bankers were bailed out by taxpayers, with remarkably few strings attached, even as ordinary workers continued to suffer the consequences of the bankers’ sins. And, in the third act, bankers showed their gratitude by turning on the people who had saved them, throwing their support — and the wealth they still possessed thanks to the bailouts — behind politicians who promised to keep their taxes low and dismantle the mild regulations erected in the aftermath of the crisis.

Given this history, how can you not applaud the protesters for finally taking a stand?

Now, it’s true that some of the protesters are oddly dressed or have silly-sounding slogans, which is inevitable given the open character of the events. But so what? I, at least, am a lot more offended by the sight of exquisitely tailored plutocrats, who owe their continued wealth to government guarantees, whining that President Obama has said mean things about them than I am by the sight of ragtag young people denouncing consumerism.

Bear in mind, too, that experience has made it painfully clear that men in suits not only don’t have any monopoly on wisdom, they have very little wisdom to offer. When talking heads on, say, CNBC mock the protesters as unserious, remember how many serious people assured us that there was no housing bubble, that Alan Greenspan was an oracle and that budget deficits would send interest rates soaring.

A better critique of the protests is the absence of specific policy demands. It would probably be helpful if protesters could agree on at least a few main policy changes they would like to see enacted. But we shouldn’t make too much of the lack of specifics. It’s clear what kinds of things the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators want, and it’s really the job of policy intellectuals and politicians to fill in the details.

Rich Yeselson, a veteran organizer and historian of social movements, has suggested that debt relief for working Americans become a central plank of the protests. I’ll second that, because such relief, in addition to serving economic justice, could do a lot to help the economy recover. I’d suggest that protesters also demand infrastructure investment — not more tax cuts — to help create jobs. Neither proposal is going to become law in the current political climate, but the whole point of the protests is to change that political climate.

And there are real political opportunities here. Not, of course, for today’s Republicans, who instinctively side with those Theodore Roosevelt-dubbed “malefactors of great wealth.” Mitt Romney, for example — who, by the way, probably pays less of his income in taxes than many middle-class Americans — was quick to condemn the protests as “class warfare.”

But Democrats are being given what amounts to a second chance. The Obama administration squandered a lot of potential good will early on by adopting banker-friendly policies that failed to deliver economic recovery even as bankers repaid the favor by turning on the president. Now, however, Mr. Obama’s party has a chance for a do-over. All it has to do is take these protests as seriously as they deserve to be taken.

And if the protests goad some politicians into doing what they should have been doing all along, Occupy Wall Street will have been a smashing success.

A Second Declaration of Independence In Our Time--BUT: Yesterday, in response to these ever-so-hopeful Occupy Wall Street demos all over the country I wrote something about it below. BUT I want to add while these protests on Wall Street are just what the doctor ordered I FEAR what happened in 1968 when the Democratic VP incumbent Hubert Humphrey lost the presidency to the nauseating Republican Nixon because of such strong protest against the Vietnam War and other causes of the left. I do NOT want this to happen again to a Democrat. I do NOT want a repeat performance. In the final analysis it will be OUR Democratic president Obama against most probably Mitt Romney. Whoever the Republican party nominee is we cannot, through our protest, sacrifice this election to the Republican.

Obama can be criticized but NO president has suffered the opposition he has and make no mistake race is embedded in this impossible oppositional Republican House in Congress. Let us protest that the president can hear our plea so he can act as he might have done without such impossible Republican hateful opposition. We MUST overturn this know nothing House of Representatives and let the president do what he stated in his campaign. Here is what I posted:

Occupy Wall Street in New York put forth an enumeration of its grievances against the multi-billion dollar corporate takeover of our government and the Citizen United permission slip for its plundering of our country obliterating the great middle class of our entire electorate.

This is an IMPORTANT movement and MUST continue. The Declaration of the Occupation of New York City is similar to the list of grievances the colonists brought against Charles III of England in 1776 presenting a justification for our revolution and its first Declaration of Independence. Our first Declaration of Independence had as its prime mover its anger against certain corporate strangleholds and the power they and the government in England had against the unrepresented individual in its colonies. In 2011 the Occupy Wall Street Declaration and its rationales have an eerie similarity to the first. It was riveting and brilliant then as is the Second one in our time.

Our Second Declaration grievances are as follows. I quote:

Declaration of the Occupation of New York City

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.

They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

They have profited from the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.

They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.

They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.

They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.

They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.

They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.

They have sold our privacy as a commodity.

They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.

They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.

They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.

They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.

They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.

They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.

They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.

They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.

They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.

They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.

They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.

Boycott Bank of America and City Bank: These two gluttonous banks, City Bank and Bank of America have the utter gall after receiving some of the largest taxpayer bailout money and paying themselves bonuses to soon be charging a $5.00 monthly fee for simply using their ATM card IF you do not have $15,000 or more in your account. City Bank will charge a fee for checking accounts. These banks with chutzpah (nerve) say brazenly that they have a "right to make a profit" doncha know. Okay, sure great make your rancid profits. And the consumer has a right and even a duty to boycott them, pull money OUT of their banks and find a bank with no fees. I am counting on American competitive capitalism for some banks to compete with City Bank and Bank of America by offering NO fees for using either a checking account or an ATM for convenience.

I have heard other consumers say if it does not happen that there are any banks which do not have a fee then they will return to the good ole days of paying cash. It seems to me paying cash for something is a wonderful thing. Why? Because if you have the money in your pocket you may be less inclined to spend it so easily. So this way you get them several ways. You get them by NOT using their bank, by not using their cards, by not paying fees and saving money at the same time. Worth a shot I would say.

BOYCOTT BANK OF AMERICA AND CITY BANK TO SAY YOU ARE MAD AS HELL AND YOU ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE.

A Second Declaration of Independence In Our Time: Occupy Wall Street in New York put forth an enumeration of its grievances against the multi-billion dollar corporate takeover of our government and the Citizen United permission slip for its rape of our country obliterating the great middle class of our entire electorate.

This is an IMPORTANT movement. The "Declaration of the Occupation of New York City" is similar to the list of grievances the colonists brought against Charles III of England in 1776 presenting a justification for our revolution and its first Declaration of Independence. Our first Declaration of Independence had as its prime mover its anger against certain corporate strangleholds and the power they and the government in England had against the unrepresented individual in its colonies. In 2011 the Occupy Wall Street Declaration and its rationales have an eerie similarity to the first. It was riveting and brilliant then as is the Second one in our time.

Our Second Declaration grievances are as follows. I quote:

Declaration of the Occupation of New York City

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.

They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

They have profited from the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.

They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.

They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.

They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.

They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.

They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.

They have sold our privacy as a commodity.

They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.

They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.

They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.

They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.

They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.

They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.

They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.

They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.

They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.

They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.

They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.

Occupy Wall Street Occupies my Mind: Yesterday I wrote: I am thinking about creating an opinion article on this very very important movement which is spreading across the country. Today, Occupy Wall Street in New York came out with an enumeration of its grievances against Wall Street and its multi billion dollar Citizen United ties to our government and its rape of our country which is effecting the great middle class of our entire electorate and most importantly the 99% of us who have gotten whacked by the onslaught of the 1%.

Make no mistake this is an IMPORTANT movement, it is national in scope and even has international implications. Obviously with what is happening in the Arab Spring and in Europe the US too has its own flavorful revolutionary spirit. Keith Olbermann tonight read from the list of grievances developed by Occupy Wall Street which sounded more like the list of grievances the colonists brought against Charles III of England in 1776 presenting a justification for our revolution and its Declaration of Independence.

This is real, it is strong, it is being joined by many more as the days progress and I HOPE it will last in view of the oncoming winter. I also hope it stays non violent although there have been some attempts to at night occupy Wall Street which has meant a few have faced arrest, clubbing and pepper spray by the NYPD. There is no doubt that there are some in the crowd who are furious enough to even want to throw a brick or two into the CEO's offices of those on Wall Street who have done such EGREGIOUS things to us. I am a totally non violent person and believe in passive resistance and civil disobedience like Martin Luther King and Gandhi did but I will admit to a sympathy with those young who are SO angry, whose lives, whose homes, whose livelihoods and whose youth have been stolen by the worst most disgusting alliance between government and Wall Street titans pay for play tyranny which I submit is and will be WORSE than the Great Depression of 1929. It has taken down our country. These frauds that have been perpetrated on the people by a Wall Street run wild MUST stop and there are many grievance to address. We must start somewhere.

Tomorrow I will illuminate more.

As I see it -- The Economic Debacle made easier--Things you should TRY to know:I am a person who is thirsty for knowledge and in my own numbers-challenged way I try to read those who do understand to explain our economic debacle. I try to read those who can explain our Great Recession and how it happened it in a way so I can understand to fairly grasp the HUMONGOUSNESS of what has been done (and still is) by our government and Wall Street.

I am reading Matt Taibbi's book "Griftopia". He tells it easily, makes it fun and is riveting. I have read other things of course.This is how I see it made as simple as possible and written off the top based on ad infitum reading TRYING to get it:

The problem with the whole thing is that our government and economic system is broken in so many places and worse by both Democrats AND Republicans who basically were doing the same thing with OUR money. The only difference is that the Democrats spout a different philosophy BUT they did not really act on it that much; some did but not enough. Money involved in politics corrupts SO badly it is indescribable and the decision of the Sup. Ct of Citizen's United opened up the flood gates of money in politics.

I have divided the issues into seven categories (generally) which, I think, made the near economic collapse and our still Great Recession happen so that I and others can more easily understand.

The first problem: what the government did over thirty years since Reagan with the peoples' Social Security money the middle class person depends upon. They raised the Social Security tax BUT did not keep it away from everything else i.e. separate. They SPENT it on a bazillion OTHER things and gave it to BIG corporate everything which in turn greased the hand that fed them i.e. campaign money Congress persons need to get elected into office and/or stay there by being reelected. Our Social Security money was and is NOT safe BUT it should have been. Al Gore in 2000 talked about a LOCKED BOX for Social Security but Congress over decades did no such thing. Beginning with Reagan 30 years ago, continuing, through Reagan (with Alan Greenspan's Ayn Randian help), to Bush I, Clinton and WORSE under Bush II by giving tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires but still making the middle pay taxes on through to Obama who extended the Bush tax cuts under duress. Congress initially raided Social Security by raising the Social Security tax to us and kept it to spend on many things ESPECIALLY war and the military but other things too and SPENDING wildly.

When Perry said Soc. Sec. was a Ponzi scheme he was not so off the mark BUT he did not or COULD not OR WOULD NOT say HOW it was a Ponzi Scheme. It was because it took your money, stole it from what should have been a locked box for you for your retirement years and replaced it with government backed IOU’s at lower interest rates. They STOLE our money from under our nose and then spent it on the military, eternal wars and what IS an American empire all over the globe as well as spending it on earmarks for pet projects within a bill or say Medicare Part D which was a giveaway to big pharma.

It was a scheme because it depended on new members, new workers, new generations to keep the coffers afloat and ALAN GREENSPAN that swine figured out a way they could do that and have the people not understand it and raid that money. Then later administrations tell us Soc. Sec. is bankrupt. Greenspan became Federal Reserve Chairman even though he was a rotten predictor of economic trends. Congress voted him in and he fixed this racket so they took the money by raising the Social Sec. Tax, filled it instead with that money they took from the people giving the Soc. Sec. money IOU tickets instead by buying T-bills at low interest but interest nonetheless and then USED that money for their cronies. Reagan especially but all since used it WILDLY hence increasing the DEBT and deficit to Everest heights. I quote someone (I forget whom) explaining it away. He said: "There's just so much damn money!" Sure because the people paid in SO much money and they even raised the amount of money they put in but Congress TOOK it, left paper IOU’s with government backed T bills and spent it!

The second problem is the DEREGULATED Wall Street thievery creating rotten stocks sold by the banks, Goldman Sachs, City Bank, Merrill Lynch, Lehman, etc. and AIG (which insured the whole damn thing with credit default swaps). When the economy bubble in 2008 collapsed they needed to be bailed out with OUR money supposedly because they were "too big to fail." Even AIG had to be bailed out as they could not pay on their CDS (credit default swaps which is stock insurance the investment banks took out.) The Fed a quasi private institution (which people do not know) just prints money to bail them out at a bargain basement lower interest rate window than any of us ever get at banks. Great gig if you can get it!

Third problem--the rating agencies like S&P: The investment houses sold stocks that were rated triple AAA because they were employed by the banks themselves. These instruments were JUNK utter junk. They sold it off to people and entities who did not know such as those who managed pension funds and their own 401K's etc. It would be like someone buying my home on the advice of the agent I pay to rate my home. My agent would give it a 100% AAA rating of course or I would fire him and get another who would. When it went bust the whole house of cards collapsed.

The fourth problem was the housing market. This was one of the biggest CONS and kicked off the whole collapse giving sub-prime loans by the billions duping especially poor people who bought into the American Dream scam and simply did not understand what they were getting into. They could not pay their mortgages and worse lost their jobs when the market collapsed that they did not think they would lose AND as an aside lost their health insurance too. It was NOT only the poor.

Fifth Problem: The DEREGULATED banks chopped up these mortgages and bundled them and sold them as stocks ALL over the world as rotten worthless stock. So when your mortgage went bust you could NOT even FIND the bank that had it because you could not trace it and they sold BILLIONS of these impossible to figure out phony investments ALL over the world and many are still living in their cars, in motels or on the street because of it. It's A GLOBAL problem and why Europe is SO over leveraged and going bust. It's tied to us.

The Sixth problem is Trade Agreements like NAFTA: These put the US at a decided disadvantage to the middle class jobs but the big corporate titans LOVE it because it's CHEAP no health or ANY benefits to pay for dirt cheap overworked labor overseas who do not complain and labor they could not get here because who would put up with work days of seven days nearly round the clock and TERRIBLE working conditions. The trade agreements like NAFTA and GATT are NASTY and are stacked against this country because goods coming in are cheap and are taxed little as are the industries going in to countries like China or Sri Lanka or even Vietnam but few of our goods go out because they are heavily taxed. It is why there is NOTHING made in America any more. Since we do not have jobs and our health insurance runs out because of it, unemployment insurance runs out too we are in a BIGGER in my opinion mess than the Great Depression and it WILL be a Depression soon.

The seventh problem is the fusing of investment banks with Commercial savings and loan banks. It USED to be separate after the Great Depression. They repealed the 1933 Glass Steagall Act which KEPT them separate finally in 1999. Quoting Cyrus Sinanti of the NYT in 2009 “Commercial banks played a crucial role as buyers and sellers of mortgage-backed securities, credit-default swaps and other explosive financial derivatives,” Demos, a nonpartisan public policy and research organization, wrote in a report discussing the problems it said were caused by the repeal of Glass-Steagall.”

One final problem: Obama put the financial foxes in charge of the chicken coop i.e. Geithner, Summers etc. who helped create the mess and knew ALL the financial wizards who were involved in making it and probably some who should receive a nice room in a Federal penitentiary. They would not even act on the reforms he wanted. Ron Suskind in his book "Confidence Men" allegedly illuminates that! The lack of leadership is BONE CHILLING!

How on God's earth do you fix all of this during my lifetime or even people's children's lifetimes I have NOT a clue. The fact that it is so COMPLEX is GOOD for the banks and the investment houses and big business because FEW of the little guys the middle class like me i.e. the voters will take the time to UNDERSTAND something which has literally life and death consequences and vote wisely. I was in that category until I HAD to figure this out, am thirsty for knowledge anyway and our lives literally are at stake. I forced my tired brain into learning at least SOMETHING about it. I doubt myself a lot BUT I will give myself SOME credit as one who hates economics at least TRYING to read other economic experts who explain it to TRY to understand that which could in effect really kill us and I don't think I am being too histrionic saying that.

The top 1% will get all of us jerk's money who are in the middle. The top 1% will and have run away with it. That is the essence of a Ponzi scheme or a CASINO where the house NEVER loses but the poor jerks like me who gamble in the market because we thought it was a good thing to do at the time DO lose and plenty. The market may go bust but the House keeps our money, gets government bailouts and says too bad. The banksters go off, get bonuses yet, buy yachts with our money and we are left with nothing. Madoff was not the only one who did what he did. Wall Street in its way did also. Madoff just got caught but the banksters go free. It shows you WHY I am crazy with worry as this is not only a US problem but a GLOBAL problem. It has tentacles. Not only do I have to worry about this country going bust but I have to worry about Europe going bust too. We are ALL tied together in this horrible rigged for the rich global marketplace.

If you have more to add or better explanation I would love to see it.

IF you think government regulations are not for you think again: I suggest you read the email below sent to progressives who understand the necessity of the benefit of a regulatory government. It can protect you, it can save you, it can help you when the greed of capitalism run wild thinks of nothing else but making all the big bucks it can at the expense of all of us even them. When you get in your car, fasten your children's seat belt,when you remember the danger of tobacco, when you are saved by the regulations of natural gas, nuclear power or drilling for oil you see how you, you and your children's lives -- millions of them -- are spared.

Send this to ALL the Republicans and others who are dedicated to the deregulation of a Wall Street gone mad, whose rancid behavior has taken your 401Ks, your homes and in so many cases your jobs. Read up on it by reading Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone Magazine, see the documentary Inside Job, read others who explain in detail what they did in language you can understand. See how these new robber barons have destroyed millions of lives and bought off Congress and then ACT. Get these miserable swine OUT of office, get them OUT of state houses, get them OUT of governors' mansions, and get them OUT of Congress and most especially OUT of the White House too or make the one who occupies the oval office know that your vote cannot be bought with lies! AND regulate Wall Street to within an inch of its life separating investment banks from savings banks and by reintroducing Glass Steagall. If you do not know what Glass Steagall is LOOK IT UP on Wikipedia.and by eliminating bonuses of bailed out banks!

Occupy Wall Street, now, tomorrow and forever and NEVER let what happened in 2008 the Greatest Recession/Depression EVER happen again!

Scroll down, read Ralph Nader's brilliant message and then pass this along to whomever you think needs to read it!

-----Original Message-----
From: Ralph Nader
To: alerts
Sent: Mon, Oct 3, 2011 3:13 pm
Subject: corrected column

Masters of the repeated lying sound byte, the craven Congressional Republicans
are feasting on the health and safety of the American people with gleeful greed
while making the corporate and trade association media swoon. “Job-killing
regulations,” exudes daily from the mouths of Speak John Boehner, his Wall
Street-licking side-kick Eric Cantor and Senate minority leader, Mitch
McConnell.

Then all the way down the line, the Republicans are on cue bellowing
“job-killing regulations” must be revoked or stopped aborning over at OSHA
(protecting workers), EPA (protecting clean air and water), FDA (safer drugs and
food), and NHTSA (making your vehicle safer). Imagine how much more civil
servants could do to accomplish the statutory missions of their respective
agencies if they could get the Republicans and their corporate pay masters off
their backs.

These same Republicans get in their cars with their children and put on their
seat belts. Out of sight are the air bags ready to deprive them of their freedom
to go through the windshield in a crash. Who makes those seat belts and air
bags? Workers in the USA.

The jobs these regulations may be “killing” are those that would have swelled
the funeral industry, or some jobs in the healthcare and disability-care
industry. On the other hand, by not being injured, workers stay on the job and
do not drain the workers’ compensation funds or hamper the operations of their
employer.

About twenty years ago, Professor Nicholas Ashford of MIT came to Washington and
testified before Congress in great detail about how and where safety regulations
create jobs and make the economy more efficient in avoiding the costs of
preventable injuries and disease. He received a respectful hearing from members
of the Committee. It is doubtful whether Messers Boehner, Cantor, McConnell and
Dr. Coburn (Senator from Oklahoma) are reading Professor Ashford these days, who
just co-authored a book with Ralph P. Hall called Technology, Globalization, and
Sustainable Development.

The corporatist Republicans’ minds are made up; don’t bother them with the
facts. But we must keep trying to dissolve the Big Lie.

In 2009 Professor David Hemenway published a stirring book titled While You Were
Sleeping: Success Stories in Injury and Violence Prevention which in clear
language described the success stories of people, often with the support of a
past, more enlightened Congress, made lives safer and healthier in the U.S. Yes,
life-saving, injury-preventing, disease-stopping regulations resulting in
life-sustaining technology produced by American industry and workers.

Wake up Democrats. Learn the political art of truthful repetition to counter the
cruelest Republicans who ever crawled up Capitol Hill. You’ve got massive,
documented materials to put the Lie to the Republicans.

President Obama should set an example. For instance, on September 2, 2011
President Obama fell for the regulation costs jobs lie. He said: “[I] have
continued to underscore the importance of reducing regulatory burdens and
regulatory uncertainty, particularly as our economy continues to recover."
Pete Altman, from the Natural Resources Defense Council wrote:

"In reversing his Administration’s previously strong support for ozone
regulations to protect the health of American children, President Obama (in the
words of one observer): “drank the conservative Kool-Aid, and agreed that
tightening ozone emission rules would have cost billions and hurt the economy.
But clean air is very popular politically, and the EPA's own studies show that a
tighter standard could have created $17 billion in economic benefits.”

Earlier this month, Public Citizen issued a report about five regulations that
spurred innovation and a higher quality of economic growth. As one of the
authors Negah Mouzoon wrote, "when federal agencies implement rules for
efficiency, worker safety, or public health and welfare, companies need to
reformulate their products and services to comply. And so begins good ol’
American competition. To comply with federal standards, companies need to invest
in research and development, which often yields to new products and systems that
both solve public policy problems and, often, boost business. The result? A
brighter idea emerges."

It is important to note that such regulations give companies lengthy lead times
to comply and, under the daily sandpapering of corporate lobbyists, regulations
issued lose much of their early industry-controlling reach.

Here are the report’s five innovation-spurring products or processes that at
their outset encountered significant industry resistance and inflated estimates
of complying with the regulations. Before that is, the companies came to their
senses, responded and found that such changes were not just good for the people
but for their own bottom line.
1. Protecting workers from poisonous vinyl chloride.
2. Reducing sulfur dioxide emissions.
3. Preventing ozone-layer-destroying CFC emissions from aerosols.
4. Improving the energy efficiency of home appliances.
5. Utilizing energy-efficient light bulbs.

For the full report go to http://www.citizen.org/regulation-innovation.

Maybe some “kids”—between the ages of 10 and 12 – having learned from their
parents the importance of telling the truth, can start a Kiddy Corps for a
Truthful Congress drawn from the Internet-savvy children all over the U.S. What
a wonderful expression of grassroots truth-telling directed toward the Great
Prevaricators on Capitol Hill. Yes –job-producing, life-saving,
economy-stimulating, innovation-producing regulations for a more secure future
for our children.

Interested parents may contact us at info@csrl.org.


---------------------------------------------------------------------
Tell your friends to visit http://www.nader.org/ and sign up for Ralph Nader's
weekly column.

Just click on the link that says: Sign up for Ralph Nader's Column
or click on the following link:

http://nader.org/index.php?/categories/9-Sign-up-for-Ralph-Naders-Column

Elizabeth Warren's Appeal: Ms. Venocchi is quite correct in her Sunday Boston Globe October 2, 2011 opinion "The preseason hype on Elizabeth Warren." (Link below) In the final analysis it is not the predictions before the election that count but the votes counted after it has happened where the proof of the pudding lies.

Elizabeth Warren is a liberal's candidate extraordinaire. I have been smitten since she was interviewed by Bill Moyers on PBS. I can safely say this liberal is wholly and hopelessly in love with Elizabeth Warren not because I like her glasses, her jacket or her Scott Brown look-alike truck if she had one. I adore her because she is articulate, inspiring and phenomenally BRILLIANT. I am in love with that woman's brain which after all is the most important part of a candidate or certainly should be.

If I were a betting person (which I am not) I would put my money on Elizabeth Warren. No matter where she goes she never disappoints me. She could ride a scooter or a truck to a campaign stop her knowledge would be the determining factor which will get my vote. My vote certainly would NOT be influenced by a nude picture in a sleazy magazine either. No matter how many six pack racks Scott Brown has from his continual workouts he NEVER could come close to Elizabeth Warren's cerebral embellishments.

I am glad she never posed for Playboy but I surely would love to see an MRI of her brain and wonder how I can make mine look the same!

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/10/02/the_preseason_hype_on_elizabeth_warren/

A Civil Libertarian's Dilemma: I admit it I am torn. In the sleepy little town of Ashland right in my backyard they picked up a young man who was planning a MAJOR terrorist attack on either our capitol, the Pentagon and who knows what else.Some say the FBI entrapped him. I am a civil libertarian advocate and sometimes angry at our government for flouting this in its amorphous never-ending expensive in blood and treasure war against terrorism. BUT when the terrorist threat is in your back yard and one sees people around you and your own being having to encounter that threat which could take so many innocent lives or worse, my civil libertarian ideological commitment begins to wane. I know one thing: OUR COUNTRY MUST SURVIVE this onslaught.

If the US changed its foreign policy 180 degrees overnight -- which, in part, I want it to do -- and if it withdrew every boot from Arab soil would the attacks against this country and the west or the threat of those attacks diminish? My suspicion is NO they would not because it has gone significantly beyond that.

I wallow in a pool of ideological doubt. I do NOT know the right approach. I know two things, however, and that is the US must survive to remain culturally as it has been and I want western civilization to thrive. I do not want the west to wage war against Islam nor I do not want Islam to wage a war against the west. How one protects oneself by keeping our civil liberties in tact according those same rights to those who would not accord them to us and to those here who, indeed, want to eradicate us I do not know.

Benjamin Franklin’s famous quote "Anyone who will trade freedom for security deserves neither" may not have relevance now. Those in the 18th century fought war man to man with weapons which could kill a few but could not eradicate entire species or demolish nations. That is not the case now. If we are facing an existential threat then a line for me is drawn. If we are in that kind of war – a war to save our very existence – then I am willing to sacrifice some of that which is the essence of who we always have been to protect other things we traditionally are.

We live in a different age. We live in a nuclear age and all those who spout philosophically ideological niceties, I think, in the comfort of their living rooms playing video games do not realize the stakes are that high and we cannot afford to fail -- not even once!

The Boston Red Sox and Me: I'm SICK. I'm just crying. Seriously I am crying for a team which puts nothing in my bank account. But as George Carlin would say “There’s a reason; there’s a reason for this. There’s a reason …”

The Red Sox break our heart this time almost worse than Buckner’s boot of the 1986 series. The Red Sox are part of my psyche since I was 3 years old and could remember wanting to play hardball and be a baseball player because of them. They said to that little girl I couldn't cuz I was a girl, so I said I want to be a rabbi instead -- it is 1953 -- nope they said a girl can't BE a rabbi so this little girl had to be satisfied watching from the bleachers and figuratively sitting behind a prayer wall reserved for women among the orthodox to separate them from the men. The two stories have no relation except my heart was and is broken. It has had to, many times, adjust to an alien reality. The Red Sox, my beloved Red Sox, lost what was one out away from a come back reminiscent of the 2004 Series win.

I wore a Red Sox uniform to sleep when I was a kid. My loved-to-the core Boston Red Sox yesterday fractured my heart again. I LOVE this city and this state SO much I would not care if it seceded from a union in a country that does not work for me and does not work for many others anymore. The country has lost the American Dream because of other’s greed and a bought off Congress. It is perhaps gone for the rest of my lifetime; a country where so many lost homes, their life savings, their 401K’s, their health insurance, and their health. Now they are within reach of putting a Party into office that they do not understand is not about them and WORSE is responsible for the mess in the first place.

Have I known disappointments in life? YOU BETCHA. But our president says “Stop whining, stop crynin, stop complainin, stop grumbin.” Those words fall into a trash bin of history as our president, now a multi millionaire, will draw a hefty salary with benefits for the rest of his life even if he loses 2012. He says those audibly stupid words which fall on deaf ears because many others to whom he says those empty words STILL, after nearly four years of his leadership, cannot afford their next meal, have no roof over their head and cannot prevent their tears from falling into a Salvation Army food bank dish.

So I am sad on many levels. I never became a rabbi and I never got to play hardball. Now, yet again, my heart is down to my toes as my Red Sox fail us one more time, my country sinks to the bottom, evil on Wall Street does NOT get punished but rewarded and we elect a president I thought was going to be my FDR idol but is FAR from it.

I prayed this AM. I rarely pray and do so not because it's Rosh Hashanah, one of the Jewish high holy days although it is. I prayed because I am SO sad. Life's dreams get shattered and you don't know why except maybe god -- if there is one – had other plans. I just wish His plans included me once in awhile! Please God can't you choose me to be on the lucky team just ONCE -- only once? Lucky are they who strike life's lottery. I didn't and the clock is running out on my game. I ask God: if not now when? Yes, I am cryin; yes, I am whinin; yes, I am grumblin and, Mr. President, there are darn good reasons why I am! Happy New Year to my Jewish brethren – Happy New Year indeed!

TAKE DOWN THE SHADOW CAMPAIGN: I just sent the following email to five progressives in the mainstream media: Rachel Maddow, Keith Olberman, Dylan Ratigan, Larry O'Donnel and Ed Schultz.

Here is what I asked of them:

As you probably know so well if you looked at Huffington Post today there is a big headline on the "Shadow Campaign."

The floodgates have been opened wide. Millions upon millions and perhaps even over a billion bucks will be placed in GOP coffers in the race for the presidency and a Congressional takeover because of the poisonous rancid SCOTUS decision of Citizens United. I am physically incapable of beginning a movement but I believe any one of you with high profiles could do it. Call it: TAKE DOWN THE SHADOW CAMPAIGN of obscene amounts of corporate cash paid into Pacs MOST of them Republican forcing the people to go up against a Goliath.

I want you to be the Davids and through your efforts expose these utter swine for what they are -- blood sucking buyers of government the rest of us cannot afford and ruining our country in the process. You have the agility, the stamina and the money to begin this campaign. Like John Stewart organized thousands of those in the middle who hated dysfunctional government and loathe a Congressional infighting beholden to
MASSIVE money I want YOU to begin a HUGE movement as well.

We all know that Barack Obama MUST retain the presidency. He has done much good with so much opposition trying to take him down while being handed a plate of scorpions from his White House predecessor. Now if elected to a second term Barack Obama can and, I believe will, do even better IF he gets a Congress who is not so murderous to his presidency. We must do this if for no other reason than to fill possibly THREE Supreme Court seats. Filling even TWO seats would be a defeat for these unscrupulous usurpers of unlimited money soaked power which the majority of we the people cannot hope to fight to OVERTURN the malevolent Citizen's United decision.

Please help TAKE DOWN THE SHADOW CAMPAIGN by exposing its underbelly to the light. It is through light-giving transparency that only the media can bestow can we HOPE to return our country to those who would REALLY fix it and not simply gather buckets of cash for their own Republican campaign coffers and subvert the electoral process as well.

I am looking to you to do what I cannot. I watch all of you every night of my life. You have become my ONLY hope! TAKE DOWN THE SHADOW CAMPAIGN. If you have not read the post on Huffington about it, I attach it below.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Bing or Bling: You can read the link below about the "Goggle-Microsoft antitrust war for the web" and decide for yourself. The name of the game is power ball in Washington when Citizens United was the abominable pro corporate decision de jour handed down by the illustrious right wingnut political SCOTUS jurists Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy, Alito, and Roberts. It extended big time the stranglehold corporate America already has on ALL of our lives. They do so now EVEN more by Google buying, through massive contributions, into the Republican wingnut camp. Now these corporate swine are extending their poison to what you read on the web. The RepubilcRAT extremist party has managed to get even formerly progressive Google into their rightwing extremist boat.

It might seem that this does not mean much as the moneyball game, we know, is played out ALL OVER Washington by both parties. It nonetheless is important, I believe, VERY important. I am switching my search engine to Bing. Bing is very good and until I read otherwise I humbly suggest you do the same if you truly do want fairly distributed information available to all on the web. If there is, I admit, a progressive slant to a company I will use that company. I suggest you do the same unless you want to be bought by entities that do NOT -- DO NOT -- have most of your interests at heart unless you have a membership in the top 2% which holds 98% of the wealth strata. I suspect most of you do not.

If you are concerned that the information you receive from the HUGELY influential Internet will be unfairly tainted by right wing extremist conservative sites because Google will give them positional preference or even omit progressive ones than switch to Bing. How could it hurt? Every little bit the little guy can do to help erase BIG MONEY'S rancid influence on all of our lives is a good thing. At least one must try!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/25/google-antitrust-microsoft-war_n_976804.html

My Jewish Heart: I am a secular Jew. Still, I will never turn my back on the Jewish people and on the State of Israel. I am left of center in my politics and on the question of Israel I stand firm in my belief that being supportive of the Jewish state is a humanitarian act. I want the Palestinian people to acknowledge the State of Israel as a Jewish state so peace can ensue. It is my hope that some day this will occur and result in the two states living side by side not in a state of perpetual war.

The State of Israel came into being in 1948 given to the Jewish people by the victorious Allies of World War II and sanctioned by the UN after the greatest disaster ever to befall humanity happened to them. Israel exists because the Holocaust happened. The Allied victors of that era literally did not know what to do about their Jewish population who suffered this catastrophe. Some did not want the Jewish refugee (millions) on their shores. But, I believe, the Allies, too, by humanitarian gesture and to assuage collective guilt for two millenia of antisemitism, strove to satisfy a life-long yearning of an ancient people, who had no home, to finally have one rooted in their history.

The horror of the six million must be remembered for eternity; the brutality of the camps, death in the fires of Nazi barbarity is NEVER far from my mind. I think about it every day; every day when it is boiling hot and every day it is freezing cold my people experienced what few others in history could barely even contemplate as 2/3rds of the Jews of Europe -- men, woman and one million children were exterminated. I will never abandon that thought, I will never abandon the Jewish state and I will never abandon my people.

Al Jolson, one of the first very famous early 20th century American showmen, the son of lines of rabbis and cantors but who chose a secular life despite what his parents wished, sings the gorgeous plaintive Kol Nidre ("All Vows") on the holiest day of the year Yom Kippur. We beg God on that day for the forgiveness of sin, erasing vows and inscribing us in the book of life. The Days of Awe begin with Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year and end with Yom Kippur the day of Atonement.) Al Jolson gave up his occupational heritage but his Jewishness remained in his DNA.

A secular Jew or any person can appreciate this plaintive, sad, cantorial chant (linked below) as we, mere mortals, TRY to DO better, try to BE better human beings, nullify all vows made the year before and begin anew. Listen, love and enjoy this rendition and try to ingest into your heart its sound even if you cannot understand the words. The prayer to me means to be humble and appreciative in the sight of something greater even if we cannot define its nature. The Jewish people KNOW the world can turn its back on us in an instant. Our Holocaust must never be forgotten from generation to generation; when we have turned to dust let those who follow us always remember! It is written on my very Jewish heart.


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