Another Letter to the Hispanic Community

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

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

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

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

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

Flip Flopper in Chief

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

AMAZING!

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

Meet the Chicken Hawks

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

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


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

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

Contemplating the Alternative

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The UNRELATABLE ANN ROMNEY

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

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

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

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

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

Bending Toward Justice

When the special prosecutor in the Trayvon Martin homicide case, Angela B. Corey, brought second degree murder charges against George Zimmerman I felt as I did when Barack Obama won the presidency.  I felt proud to be an American.  Ms. Corey’s press conference announcing her decision and George Zimmerman’s turning himself in to face these charges was almost miraculous.  Ms. Corey is an honorable special prosecutor who by the strength of her words, it appears, is dedicated to the justice all those who wept for Trayvon desired.  Even Mr. Zimmerman's new defense attorney extended his condolences to the Martin family.  It was civilized man at his best.   

In Trayvon’s memory we turn another corner yet again in the nation's Herculean struggle against racism and its fight for human justice. It is a never ending fight as one generation passes the baton of legal jurisprudence to another safeguarding Lady Liberty's flame.

Well over two hundred years ago a group of 18^th century men steeped in Europe’s Enlightenment crafted a document -- the Constitution of the United States -- that has withstood the test of time. It is resilient, it is flexible and it is brilliant.  It is clear, though, the charging of Mr. Zimmerman for the killing of an unarmed black teen would not have taken place had there not been a volcanic push from the bottom up. 

We are in a new age.  No longer will a historically besieged people not stand THEIR ground and allow others to run roughshod over their fundamental Constitutional rights.  When I think of the years -- hundreds of them -- it took for the black man in this nation to disembark the slave ship and cross over the bridge to freedom, I wax incredulous.  The bridge needs constant repair.   The bridge over this river of tears was forged by many.  It was forged by Frederick Douglas, John Brown, Harriet Tubman, Abraham Lincoln, William Lloyd Garrison and a Civil War that killed more human beings, often brother against brother, than any war in the history of this country’s plethora of human conflict.

It was forged by Emmett Till, a young black man slaughtered brutally by vicious racists for the crime of merely flirting with a white woman.  It was forged by Malcom X who said “I am non violent BUT I am not nonviolent with people who are violent to me.”  He instilled a sense of pride and power in a people who had little of either.  And, of course, by Dr. Martin Luther King who said that this nation delivered a promissory note returned and marked insufficient funds; that this nation will live out the promise of its creed and honor that note where its people of color were concerned. 

The Watts section of Los Angeles burned, Bedford Stuyvesant section in New York burned, Detroit burned, Chicago burned and the post Civil War struggle for the rights of African Americans continued.  Human beings with other human beings said NO.  The black sanitation workers of Tennessee said NO, Rosa Parks said NO to the back of the bus.  They said NO to segregation at lunch counters, in schools, in bathrooms, in swimming pools, at water fountains and a thousand other different venues of every day life.  I AM A MAN their signs read because so many whites treated them as if they were something less. 

There is a long road to travel before the Zimmerman case has ended but whatever the outcome the history of Trayvon Martin’s death is inscribed indelibly onto the American historical heart. It hangs as a picture of the American historical landscape as does the hanged civil rights workers, Goodman, Cheney and Schwerner for as long as this country lives. 

The president has a rug in his oval office which reads: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." According to the September 4, 2010 Jamie Stiehm Washington Post article “... those words belong to a long-gone Bostonian champion of social progress. His roots in the republic ran so deep that his grandfather commanded the Minutemen at the Battle of Lexington. For the record, Theodore Parker antebellum American reformers, lyrically gifted abolitionist, Unitarian minister and Transcendentalist thinker who foresaw the end of slavery, though he did not live to see emancipation. He died at age 49 in 1860, on the eve of the Civil War.”

Indeed, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice in this nation once again.  It feels good to be an American today!

A Price Above Rubies (Proverbs 31:10)  -- A Gem: Every time I see an article about Elizabeth Warren (link here ) I am going to say the same thing. IF the people of Massachusetts do not elect her they will be missing out on one of the GREATEST minds, ethical humans, a candidate of IMMENSE ability especially in economics that could not only be good for our state but great for the nation as well. She is a DIAMOND and we simply cannot pass this utterly excellent woman up. 

PLEASE, people of Mass. listen to her speak, listen to her discuss issues. Go wherever she is and listen to her wisdom anyone would be convinced that she is LIGHT YEARS more excellent than Brown and really more superior to even the best in the Senate and there are a few -- JUST A FEW -- but she could be added to them. Please IF you can, contribute to her campaign. Take advantage of this fabulous opportunity to elect someone SO great to represent Massachusetts. 

You MUST realize how lucky Massachusetts is to have her. Once again she is a price above rubies. Elect this gem while you can!

 

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/10/massachusetts-senate-poll_n_1416174.html

Damned if I Know: Sorry for the title's light profanity but I was just reviewing some past articles of Matt Taibbi the brilliant, creative writer for Rolling Stone who makes the explanation of the economic catastrophe of 2007 actually entertaining to read. 

This is a wonderful February 16, 2011 article entitled "Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail?"  Truthfully, it's fun, read it and either weep, be enraged or both.  Whatever you choose you should choose never to forget who REALLY landed us in this kettle of soup.  You can click here or on the link below!

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-isnt-wall-street-in-jail-20110216

I post the link to his articles which appear in Rolling Stone so that unlike most Americans your memory and my aging one are not short about the single most damaging historical rip off this country or the world has ever seen, in my opinion, worse than the Great Depression.  At least in the Great Depression of 1929 remedies were legislated to prevent another catastrophe only to be reversed 70 years later by a Congress in love with greed and Ayn Rand -- Alan Greenspan's secret love.  I wonder what Andrea Mitchell sees in that guy anyway.  I doubt she wed him for his looks!  Did I make that looksist comment?  I did.  Apologies but he reminds me of a Basset Hound.  I digress.

Our current economic kettle of rancid fish the "bipartisan" "American Jobs Act" about which Taibbi writes here is just another segment of the saga that goes on and on and on and on.  Most who read my posts and I who write them may not be around to see the utter catastrophe this brings on but your children, if you have them, probably will.  Ah, the good ole USof A what the hell happened to it?  Damned if I know.  I keep trying to figure it out. 

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/why-obamas-jobs-act-couldnt-suck-worse-20120409

"Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail?" -- By Matt Taibbi -- February 16, 2011

Companies like AIG, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley. Most of these firms were directly involved in elaborate fraud and theft. Lehman Brothers hid billions in loans from its investors. Bank of America lied about billions in bonuses. Goldman Sachs failed to tell clients how it put together the born-to-lose toxic mortgage deals it was selling. What's more, many of these companies had corporate chieftains whose actions cost investors billions — from AIG derivatives chief Joe Cassano, who assured investors they would not lose even "one dollar" just months before his unit imploded, to the $263 million in compensation that former Lehman chief Dick "The Gorilla" Fuld conveniently failed to disclose. Yet not one of them has faced time behind bars."

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-isnt-wall-street-in-jail-20110216#ixzz1rf5Jl411

Tulsa, Trayvon and Me -- I AM elated local authorities along with the FBI and the US Marshall’s office caught two suspects in the random shooting, killing and wounding of five African Americans as they walked on a street in Tulsa, Oklahoma. On the heels of the Trayvon Martin murder, handled SO incompetently by Florida officials, this latest act of mayhem if not handled promptly could result in more violence and rioting of people who are fed up being the main component of this nation’s indelible stain. I NEVER advocate for violence but who in their right mind could not understand a historically besieged people’s fury when they are the recipients of racist violence which knows no end?

Unlike the people they killed who will never see justice, the perpetrators of these heinous acts will get their day in court. Trayvon Martin’s murderer SHOULD get the same day in court and while they are at it in Florida repeal or amend significantly the damn “stand your ground law.”

One Tulsa news blogger said "there are always mitigating circumstances." Oh really? In this case it surely does not seem so. But I will not, like the victims’ killers would, rush to judgment. The blogger sounded like a neo-Nazi. Perhaps he is and perhaps he is not but what kind of a sadistic statement is that when two white men go around shooting numbers of black people at random, victims they did not know and who, as reported, were out for a walk. It is clear on which part of the political spectrum this right wingnut extremist lies when he makes a statement like that. Unfortunately too many in this nation feel the same as he or simply do not care. I care.

I only wish Trayvon Martin received the same care. Alas the infection and putrification of our nation which has not overthrown its Civil War past still poisons its sinew. How is it that our Founders, men of the Enlightenment and its birth of liberalism could live with the hypocrisy they created? A nation built on that liberalism seemed to forget or did not think that human beings dragged here against their will might one day rise up against the injustice viciously perpetrated against them. Our Founders sadly did not understand that the chains they placed around African American necks, the whip lashes they inflicted upon African American’s backs, the rapes they viciously perpetrated upon African American women would be revenged and that those chains would one day be thrown off, the whips stopped, the scars healed and a people would seek the full measure of the justice they so belatedly deserved.

And yet, there are still white apologists for a system so rancid it inflicts, even until this hour, mind numbing illness. Our nation is torn apart by the disease at its cancerous core eating away at the body politic which cannot live because of it. Tulsa and Trayvon have many things in common but if nothing else what they do not have in common is the Tulsa killings will NOT go unavenged like so many other black killing by whites historically have.

I believe Iowa has the death penalty for crimes such as this. I am usually against the death penalty BUT in this case IF found guilty I want that Shakespearean pound of flesh. Yes, I am angry. Any person of conscience SHOULD be angry when innocents’ lives are taken from them merely because of an accident of birth. A hate crime murder is worse than other murders because it threatens not merely the victims but ALL the members of the group to which the victim belonged. This country's war against people of color MUST and WILL stop as Malcolm X so rightly said “by any means necessary.”

The Tulsa victims, Trayvon's ghost and I want the long arc of the moral universe to bend toward the justice the Founders promised this nation. That promissory note about which, Dr. King so eloquently spoke, is STILL not satisfied and the moral arc of justice is not yet bending far enough for me.

Two Great Men: Interview by Bill Moyers of Andrew Bachevich, BU Prof. of History

I sent an email to Professor Andrew Bachevich, a well known professor of history at BU. He also is a retired career officer in the US Army, served in Vietnam and lost a son in Iraq. He knows from whence he speaks.

Dear Prof. Bachevich: Just a quick note because the night grows late but I wanted to tell you that I taped your appearance on the great Bill Moyers and watched it this evening. You were, of course, brilliant. Hard to believe that the president is touting Robert Kagan's book "The World America Made" and not yours, "The Short American Century a Post Mortem." Clearly hindsight is 20/20 but in that hindsight we surely can see the grievous error of our foreign policy ways.

This progressive who believed so fervently in the election of our president, has on her Kindle your earlier book "Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War." I will, after I finish that and few others including Rachel Maddow's "Drift" (absolutely superbly written), purchase "The Short American Century a Post Mortem."

I wonder if I can convince the man I thought would be another FDR to tilt his course a little more to the left? I still love our president, but I remain disappointed in his attempt to win over those who consistently when they hit him on one cheek hit him on the other also. He needs to know his base, people like me, want America's penchant for permanent war to come to a close. My years attending BU and knowing Howard Zinn gave me hope after Vietnam that it would happen. So far it does not appear to be the case. Maybe next year, if god willing, he wins again it will. I surely hope it does not take another century, which I will never see, to do so.

Excellent interview as usual. What else would I expect of two great men!

The Hispanic Vote 2012--No se deje engañar (Do NOT be fooled)--a letter to the Hispanic Community: It is no secret that Republicans are talking about capturing a good percentage of the Hispanic vote in the general 2012 presidential election. Some say if they do not secure at least 33% of the Hispanic vote they will lose in November against the president. Obviously, Republicans are working furiously in an effort to determine exactly how to do this. It is a difficult task when the party who claims it WANTS to secure the Hispanic vote promotes policies which clearly identify it AGAINST the Hispanic vote. One need only listen to what the Republican leadership and its base are saying.

I will not enumerate all the myriad of ways it says it will seek to, in actuality, diminish the Hispanic population in the US by advocating draconian anti-immigration practices in states such as Arizona with its "papers please" law signed by one of the most right wing extremist Republican governors in that state's history to Republicans in red states like Alabama and Mississippi which have attempted to create an immigration barrier and codify into law undocumented worker round-ups to keep small businesses from hiring them. Businesses in those states are suffering from those policies and some are in bankruptcy. Many Republicans want to ramp up efforts on the US borders to seize and kill, if necessary, those who are attempting to cross. They relegate human beings to less-than-human status. It is shameful. The Republican Party is the new Nativitist Party of this century. There are even efforts by right wingnuts to stop the teaching of Hispanic history in public schools. The list of anti-Hispanic policies by the Republican Party goes on and on. All one has to do is Google the facts.

Therefore, I ask you NOT to fall for the Trojan Horse of Republican politics that sounds so nice when its candidates tell you how much they love Hispanics and speak in Spanish for one purpose only and that is to secure the Hispanic vote. The Republican Party in reality does everything from border vigilantism to gerrymandering districts as well as enacting voter ID suppression laws to diminish the impact of the minority vote because they KNOW that vote is usually cast for Democrats.

As a last point and one which I hope you convey to the Hispanic community: DO NOT FALL for Republican attempts to place the Cuban-American Senator from Florida, Marco Rubio, as the Romney vice-presidential pick in order to lasso the Hispanic vote. This is a feeble attempt to take the Hispanic population as fools. Marco Rubio is NOT a Cuban refugee. He will no more be an advocate for Hispanic people than a white racist sheriff in a southwestern state, who wants to round up Latino people by any means necessary in an effort to deport them, is.

The Republican Party is NOT about Hispanic people. It is about white people trying to cement their power which they perceive is slipping away. Do NOT be FOOLED--No se deje enganar. The Republican Party is NOT about you or any who are among the 99%. They merely want you to THINK that they are to win power at your expense. Securing your vote for that purpose is too steep a price for any of us to pay.

The Olbermann Saga: For those of you who are interested in the fate of progressive commentator Keith Olbermann as I am I was just informed that Keith will be on David Letterman tonight and will perhaps explain his side of the story relating related to his firing. This story has transfixed me because I consider Keith Olbermann to be the king of commentary -- progressive commentary. When he was on MSNBC after Rachel Maddow they delivered, in my opinion, a one two knock out punch to the wingnut know-nothing extremists of Fox News and other so called "conservative" stations on the right.

When he left MSNBC under not the best of circumstances and took a major interest along with Al Gore and Joel Hyatt in forming the new progressive cable network Current TV channel 192 on FIOS, I was hopeful that this would provide him the latitude the other stations he was employed by over the years did not. Alas, it was not to be the case. My king of commentary was summarily fired last Friday by the co-owners Al Gore and Joel Hyatt. Very little was said except for a my-side-of-the-story statement by Al Gore on the Current web page. Keith has yet to say much except that Gore/Hyatt will have one whopper of a lawsuit headache for breach of contract in the ensuing months. I'm sure there will be counterclaims as well.

I have blogged as others have on the Current web page. Many of his supporters feel as dedicated to him and as sick about this situation as I. I am hoping he will explain his side of the story tonight on Letterman and hoping he will part of another progressive format shortly. I consider Keith one of the most important vehicles for presenting a fantastically charismatic, brilliant and significantly progressive viewpoint which is hard find in lamestream -- oops I mean mainstream -- corporate media today. I am hoping Keith will not be out of earshot long as I believe we need him now more than ever before.

Sarah Palin cohost of the Today Show: I just heard your advertisement for a ratings push to have Sarah Palin on co-hosting the Today Show next week. I am sending all I know an email and posting on my Facebook page and your Facebook page that I am canceling my regular series programming for the Today Show.

I think it is despicable to have a clearly right wingnut know nothing biased politico on the Today Show to co-host. I urge all those who agree with my political positions or even some of my political opinions to do the same and boycott the Today Show for at least a week.

If you want to have her on that is, of course, your right but the Today Show always taped every day in my house will be erased!

The Least of These: The questions of the Court regarding the Affordable Health Care Act appear ominous from the four died-in-the-wool right wingers and the one right of center moderate Anthony Kennedy as I originally thought. It is exactly why I am so nervous about this. Why are we being dangled on a string when this life or death decision is, it seems, already decided if one can count to five? It is so hugely sad.

Last night Keith Olbermann demanded Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law scholar and expert on various progressive and libertarian legal issues, "cut to the chase." I thought that a bit rude to demand of such a distinguished man like Jonathan Turley. Now I rather know what Olbermann meant. I personally think the conclusion of the Supreme Court has already been made. None of the so called conservative justices would dare offend their compatriots by siding with an administration that passes Democratic legislation to actually lend a helping hand to people in desperate need and in health crises across this country.

So I ask now, Justices, respectfully, do not make me wait until June to see you bit by bit take an administration down to further your own alliance with HUGE corporate power as you did in Citizen United. Yes, please cut to the chase and do what as Macbeth said when contemplating the killing of King Duncan:

"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly" because by your decision, Justices, on this issue you are committing as Christ is alleged to have talked about "the least of these" your brethren to an early grave.

This cannot and MUST not be allowed to derail the Obama presidency. The destruction an extremist right wing presidency could bring is inexplicable. We will be a doomed nation for decades if this is allowed to happen and for the least of these our brethren we should NEVER let it.

A Progressive Oasis: I have just purchased Rachel Maddow's new book "Drift -- The Unmooring of American Military Power." I am reading reviews that it is a wonderful book and an easy read. It was reviewed well by Glenn Greenwald. Frankly, that was good enough for me. Rachel is OUR powerhouse of progressive action. She has and I hope will for many many years be a progressive oasis in a conservative desert.

I humbly suggest you purchase her book if you can. I put the link below to link you to it.

I know you and I will enjoy it!

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=drift+rachel+maddow&tag=googhydr-20&index=stripbooks&hvadid=18083526810&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=978488657393727352&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&ref=pd_sl_5itsnm0cq2_b

Masochists in our Midst: A quote from an MSNBC article which sums up my fear: "Some argue that Congress, for one, is likely to refuse to make changes to the law to develop alternatives to the mandate. “It isn’t going to get fixed,” said Robert Laszewski, who runs a consulting firm, Health Policy and Strategy Associates, in Alexandria, Va. “Republicans want to blow it up. They’re going to be happy that the Supreme Court threw a grenade in it.”

IN OTHER WORDS THE SUPREME COURT MUST NOT NEGATE THE MANDATE IN THE AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE ACT AKA OBAMACARE FOR IT TO WORK.

YOU MUST PRESSURE EVERYONE BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY THAT THE SUPREME COURT DOES NOT NEGATE THE MANDATE. THIS IS SIGNATURE LEGISLATION FOR THE PRESIDENT AND REPUBLICANS ARE SALIVATING BECAUSE THEY THINK IF THE COURT NEGATES IT WILL SINK THE PRESIDENT AND HIS REELECTION LOST. DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN!

I DO NOT CARE HOW YOU APPLY THE PRESSURE WHETHER IN WRITTEN WORD, CALLS TO THE SUPREME COURT AND ELSEWHERE OR GOING TO WASHINGTON TO PICKET WITH OUR GROUP BUT DO IT. YOU and YOUR CHILDREN'S LIVES DEPEND UPON IT. NOTHING SHORT OF LIVES ARE IN THE BALANCE!

WHY ANYONE ON PLANET EARTH WOULD OPPOSE SOMETHING THAT CAN AT LEAST HELP TO FIX OUR INSURANCE BLOATED HEATH CARE EMPLOYER-BASED INSANITY IS BEYOND ME. THERE ARE MASOCHISTS IN OUR MIDST WHO LOVE PAIN AND SADISTS WHO LOVE TO SEE IT INFLICTED ON OTHERS!

Not that Mad about Mad Men—Season Five: I LOVED Mad Men from the beginning. It was set in an era in which I worked for a large corporation and remember those times well. There was not a segment of Mad Men I missed. Just in case I had forgotten something I reviewed the prior episodes.

Having said that and respecting ALL the actors' craft (I love them all) the new episode left me cold. I simply do not know what it is trying to do. It seemed like it was a line up of great actors in search of a story. It was not coming through to me. Don Draper's hook up with his secretary left me head scratching. She is a younger woman who is so adept handling his children but clueless about the private nature of the man and throws him a surprise 40th birthday party -- oh yes we all love those turning of decades celebrations so much -- dances seductively in front of his co-workers in their own home and she thinks he will be thrilled at that? It stumped me. It was good to see the inclusion of the black experience in America but the rest of it seemed pointless.

I am a faithful viewer so I will go on no matter what but from first view of this new season I wonder if the writers can ever duplicate that which it was before.

My Week with Marilyn -- A Film Review: Rented the Academy Award nominated film for best actress, "My Week with Marilyn" and since I lived during the Marilyn Monroe era but never knew this particular episode of her life it interested me. She was the film sensation of the 1950's and reflected much about the crushing superficiality of that time. As a child I could not appreciate her artistry because I WAS a child and because she was used mercilessly by Hollywood and the public who sold her as a piece of ornament or satisfaction for the lust of men and as an object of envy of women for Hollywood to make a buck. She was, in the final analysis, only human; the product of her childhood which was empty of love and absent parental care.

Looking as an adult at the artistry of Marilyn Monroe I see something quite different and lament the fact, as I do about all film and theater genus who die before their time, that we are deprived from enjoying more of their excellence. Other films Marilyn made outside of the ones of fluff had substance. Her roles in "Niagara," "The Misfits" and "Some Like it Hot" reflected her once-in-a-lifetime talent.

I walk away from this non-fiction film sad because Marilyn Monroe WAS sad. She was intrinsically sad. I thought the film quite accurately showed that sadness. The role of Marilyn was played, I thought, as perfectly as it could by Michelle Williams. It is difficult to play larger-than-life figures.

Some of the other characters were to me forgettable because Marilyn absorbs one's attention whether in real life or fantasy like a sponge. Marilyn oozed beauty and vulnerability. It is only natural that men and some women too must have desired to rescue this damsel in distress. Alas, maturity tells us only we can be the rescuer of us.

There was no Oprah show then to show us how to overcome the impossible obstacles placed before us in life. I wonder what Marilyn would have been like if she could have experienced the social revolution of our time. We will never know. The child in Marilyn never got to become an adult and we as the adults never get to see her morph into one.