Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Our jr. US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and the #10 POTUS Dem. 2016 candidate in the Wash. Post blog lineup, wants me, and others, to ask the US Supreme Court to uphold the portion of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that gives the Justice Dept. power to approve changes in state level voting practices among at least 17 states.

Our jr. US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and the #10 POTUS Dem. 2016 candidate in the Wash. Post blog lineup, wants me, and others, to ask the US Supreme Court to uphold the portion of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that gives the Justice Dept. power to approve changes in state level voting practices among at least 17 states.
Sen. Gillibrand wants me, and others, to tell the SCOTUS to uphold the relevant section of the Voting Rights Act.
Ok,Senator.
And listen up, SCOTUS Justices Scalia and Thomas, do what is proper here!
Of course, I’ve also advocated that these two radicals follow the example of Pope Benedict and retire.
They haven’t do that as yet!
Below is Sen. Gillibrand’s mass email on this:
Gordon,
The Supreme Court’s oral arguments on the Voting Rights Act begin today.
We have to speak up in support of this landmark civil rights act now. There’s no time for silence. Not when a strike to this civil rights law would cause serious harm to our democracy.
In this case, an Alabama county is arguing that a provision of the Act – requiring local governments to get the Justice Department’s approval before making changes that affect voting – has outlived its use.
I only wish it were so.
In reality, too many states are cynically passing restrictive voter ID laws and forcing some voters to wait hours just to cast a ballot. We have to do better. We can’t go backward.
President Obama has spoken out. We have to join him.
Click here to tell the Supreme Court that we support the Voting Rights Act.
The entirety of the Voting Rights Act remains critical. Underminingt could lead to citizens being egregiously and unfairly denied their right to vote. That would be unacceptable.
Join President Obama and me in support of the Voting Rights Act. Speak out now.
Thank you,
Kirsten

Robin Kelly, a pro-gun control candidate backed by Bloomberg and his money, won a congressional primary in Illinois. (WP))

(Robin Kelly, a pro-gun control candidate backed by Bloomberg and his money, won a congressional primary in Illinois. (WP))
************
“A multimillion-dollar ad blitz by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to stop an NRA-backed House candidate in Illinois paid off Tuesday night, as local official Robin Kelly crushed more than a dozen Democratic candidates vying to replace disgraced former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.
Bloomberg and gun control proponents seized on the results as evidence of momentum in their push to enact President Barack Obama’s gun control package. The mayor will take that message to Washington Wednesday in meetings with Vice President Joe Biden, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), according to Bloomberg’s public schedule.
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/voters-deciding-jackson-jr-replacement-88143.html?hp=r1
*************
Bloomberg’s gun control advocacy, and the use of his vast fortune in this area, may be the Mayor’s most important legacy.
Critics see his role here as another manifestation of his innate “nanny state” instincts.
I see this as a rational, productive way to translate his clout into good public policy.
The 2ndA was written when the single bullet musket was the gun of choice.
It is time to reframe, revise, rewrite the 2ndA to respond to the realities of the 21stC.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

NY's Assemblyman Hikind's attempt at humor; no better than the Oscar's Seth MacFarlane

(..Assemblyman Dov Hikind, D-Brooklyn, drew criticism when he donned an Afro wig and black face to dress as a “black basketball player”)
******************
Mr. Dov seems to lack sensitivity.
Perhaps he should spend more time in criticizing the Orthodox community in this district; and the seeming amoral behavior of many of its’ counselors and religious leaders.
I don’t know what point Mr. Dov was trying to make.
Just as an aside, when I was a teenager, a previous life in another century, I was a fairly good rear guard on a park basketball team.
Our team was all white; and we were so good we beat the Rochester James Madison HS all black team.
It may have been the last time in US history when an all white basketball team beat an all black team.
We have come far since that time.
Now, all the basketball teams above high school are all black; and the fans in the stands are all white (well, almost all white), including Jack Nicholson.
Speaking of ‘ol Jack, did you all see him at the Oscars?
He had to submerge his very large ego, forgo opening the envelope for the best picture award; and allow the FLOTUS Michelle to open the envelope.
And was it appropriate for Michelle to do that, linking Hollywood and the WH as perhaps the two haven’t been linked since Reagan or Kennedy?
And did you all see ‘ol Jack Nicholson interrupt George Steph. as he, George, was interviewing Jennifer Lawrence?
Jack interrupted twice, and after putting on his dark glasses, told Jennifer she reminded him of a girl he once dated.
Jack’s pickup line was rather lame.
But he will never change.

The sequester and the austerity brigade

E.J. McMahon says sequester, by the numbers, isn’t a huge deal. (Torch)
Republicans ripped Barack Obama for sounding an alarm over sequester cuts, as negotiations to bring bills to the floor of the U.S. Senate continued. (WP)
************************
McMahon’s position is the position of the GOPers, teapartiers, and the right-wing yakety-yakers.
In fact, Peggy Noonan, in her felicitous phrasing, writes that Obama is freaking out about the alleged affects of the sequester.
(http://online.wsj.com/article/declarations.html )
A leading House GOPer told Charlie Rose this morning (CBS Morning News),that spending needs to be cut; and she mentioned one example: spending $2 billion on free cell phones for the disabled.
How sad to be picking on the low income disabled, and the program to give cell phones to be used for emergency and vital communication.
It’s all about austerity; and cutting non-defense fed. spending.
It’s all about reducing the fed. govt. to a size to drown it in a bathtub.
The obsession with austerity is the opposite position that should be guiding our decision-makers.
NYT’s Keynesian economist Paul Krugman recently has repeated his mantra that this fixation on austerity will bring on a second recession in the US; and has already put Europe in recession.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/opinion/krugman-austerity-italian-style.html?ref=paulkrugman&_r=0

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Zero Dark Thirty is the dark horse to win best picture Oscar this ev

Zero Dark Thirty is the dark horse to win best picture Oscar this evening.
As everyone who hasn't been in a cave for 12 months, this flick dramatizes the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
Many of our esteemed political class in DC earlier denounced the picture because it appeared to sanction torcher, or enhanced interrogation, by our anti-terrorist organizations.
In my humble opinion, the more important question is our executive action, assassination, of the bad guy.
Osama was a bad guy, a terrorist criminal, but he should, if possible, have been taken alive, captured, and put on trial.
Put on trail where?
Don't know, but even this evil criminal deserved to legally defend himself.
He likely would have killed himself first; and likely would have said nothing if he had been put on trial.
But 9/11 remains an enigma, wrapped in a riddle.
I have never accepted the extreme conspiracy adherent's claim that 9/11 was a home grown act, planned by our own intelligence agencies.
But there are so many questions that remain in limbo, without satisfying answers.
The result of 9/11 was a per-emptive war against Iraq; and unnecessary invasion long advocated by our neo-con militarists.
9/11 also led to a 12 year war in Afgan; a war that began as an action to vaporize the terrorist training camps; and then somehow evolved into a long exercise in nation-building; in our nation working to invent a viable central gov. in a land of local tribes, controlled by warlords.
Osama on trial may , just maybe, would have revealed why 90% of the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.
Could 9/11 have been a Saudi Kingdom operation that was to motivate the US to invade Iraq?
Then, of course, there is the question of US Presidential executive action, ordering the assassination of Osama.
Good luck to the producers, directors, actors of Zero Dark Thirty tonight.
The picture is not favored, but
Zol zayn mit mazel! Good luck!
I do want Sally Field to win for Supporting Actress.
She'll be able to replicate her decades ago mantra, proclaiming that everyone likes her, really likes her.
I like her.
  • Marian Wright Edelman, Pres. Childrens Defense Fund, believes it is more important to know "what killed JFK", then it is to know "who killed JFK."

    Marian Wright Edelman, Pres. Childrens Defense Fund, believes it is more important to know "what killed JFK", then it is to know "who killed JFK."
    *************************
    "...Shortly after President Kennedy’s assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King,
    Jr. wrote that it was time for our nation to do some soul-searching,
    and while the question “Who killed President Kennedy?” was important,
    answering the question “What killed President Kennedy?” was even more
    critical. Dr. King believed the answer was that “our late president was
    assassinated by a morally inclement climate”: “It is a climate filled
    with heavy torrents of false accusation, jostling winds of hatred, and
    raging storms of violence. It is a climate where men cannot disagree
    without being disagreeable, and where they express dissent through
    violence and murder..."

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marian-wright-edelman/what-killed-president-ken_b_2746658.html


    *******************
    Dr. King's statement continues to resonate today.
    Gun violence is rampant in our nation; and the political rhetoric in DC is poisonous.
    Mrs.Edelman's blog is a good read.
    But I also believe that it is important to know "who killed JFK".
    It is the 50th anniversary of his assassination, and the question of why he died should continue to be asked.
    We will never know the identities of the high cabal that directed, planned , and paid for the assassination.
    It was a conspiracy, but the cabal that was behind it will never be fully revealed.
    After 49 years of good research, by good analysts, we are closer to the truth.
    And it is important to continue to move toward the light of complete discovery in the brutal murder of JFK.

  • Saturday, February 23, 2013

    Gawker took a creative way of explaining the sequester. and it spot on explanation.

    (Gawker took a creative way of explaining the sequester.)
     http://gawker.com/5986069/kate-upton-and-ryan-gosling-explain-the-sequester

    **********************
    Actually, this is good expanation.
    I've long thought the sequestration described the process of securing horses for the winter season.
    What do I know?
    Maybe the sequester can be made into a board game, similar to Monopoly.
    Like Monopoly, the board has sections for all the programs that will be on the chopping block, with section on defense, sub-divided by military bases that will close, aircraft carriers that will not be deployed, and weapons contracts.
    The other sections will be the domestic, civilian-type programs that will be cut...Head Start, food stamps, M and M, etc.
    The board pieces would be little men wearing tri-corn, tea party hats.
    Tea partiers playing would roll the dice, move the little men to sections that would like to see cut.
    I imagine most will gravitate to the civilian domestic sections, and allow the defense sections to remain standing.


    Friday, February 22, 2013

    NY State's psychiatric centers need to go.


    (The governor’s budget could result in the closing of up two dozen psychiatric centers in order to create regional centers for psychiatric care.)
    *****************
    (Harvey Rosenthal, executive director of state Association of
    Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services, said he supports Cuomo’s effort to
    move patients out of psychiatric hospitals and into more community-based
    settings — part of a nationwide trend.“New York has lagged behind all other states from moving resources from state hospitals into the community,” Rosenthal said.)
    ******************
    It's deja vu all over again.
    In the 1970ies, the mental health and developmental disability bureaucracies were split.
    The mental health, the Holland Ave. central office, was dominated by state hospital old guard protectors.
    As the de-institutionaliztion of mental patients moved forward, the unified services concept was to kick in and provide funds and services in the community.
    The old guard at Holland Ave. worked to prevent this from being successful.
    And the patients were released, properly, but the streets of our major cities, especially NYC, filled with homeless released patients.
    The remnant of the psychiatric hospital old guard remains. The old guard can disguise itself as bureaucratic zombies, roaming the halls of Holland Ave...but they persist and engage in daily mischief.
    In the 70ies, Gov. Carey needed to put the state mental health bureaucracy into what the private sector calls "receivership"; and the receiver then should have been the governor's office.
    Gov. Cuomo may need to consider doing the same.


    Thursday, February 21, 2013

    The Belgian diamond heist, Cosco, and Tiffany

    (Robbers breach gate, steal $50 million in diamonds at Belgian airport)
    http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/1...
    ***********
    "Tiffany has never sold or would it ever sell its fine jewelry through an off-price warehouse retailer like Cosco"
    Tiffany pr statement on the recent Cosco scam on using Tiffany name on diamond rings.
    **********************
    The question now facing all of us is whether the Belgian diamond
    robbers will try to unload their stash at the Cosco distribution
    warehouses?.
    As someone once said, "..it will come out in the long run, but in the long run we'll all be dead."
     .

    New York United Teacher's lawsuit on property tax cap!

    (New
    York State United Teachers filed a lawsuit to overturn the state’s
    two-percent cap on property taxes. The move was blasted by several
    business groups. (TU/BN))
    ***************
    “The issue, as it has been for years, is money. The recession arrived
    not long after a ruling by the State Court of Appeals in 2006 and an
    agreement by the Legislature and Gov. Eliot Spitzer in 2007 ended a
    battle of more than a decade over financing of poor schools, and the
    state is $5 billion behind what it pledged to spend, according to the
    Campaign for Fiscal Equity, the group that won the court ruling.”
    http://www.nytimesdotcom/2012/12/10/nyregion/years-after-ruling-poor-schools-in-new-york-still-struggle.html?_r=0
    *************
    The state still owes billions under the Court of Appeals decision of 2006.
    With the property tax cap in place, additional funding must come from the state.
    Without knowing the details of the United Teachers brief in its’
    lawsuit, hopefully the serious disadvantages of relying on local
    property taxes for school funding are detailed.
    If so, perhaps the Court can look at the local property tax, and decide it should be eliminated as the source of school funding.

  • Blogger response to Rahm blog.

    Rza gecannonphd an hour ago

    You do realize Chicago has a gun ban, correct? So how is gun disarmament going to work?
    Chicago has a much bigger problem than guns, but you're white liberal who lives in Saratoga so I wouldn't expect you to understand.
    Avatar
    gecannonphd Rza 3 minutes ago

    The acerbic Algonquin Roundtable wit, Dorothy Parker , always complained that she was ill with the "frankies"....an illness that forced her be as frank as possible with her comments about others.
    Rza, you seem to be afflicted with the same "frankies" illness.
    I'm white, and live in the great historical city of Saratoga Springs, and would describe myself as a progressive/populist, with liberal and libertarian tendencies.
    Chicago's gun ban is a flap-doodle exercise in failure.
    Mr. Rahm needs to disarm the kids in the city.
    Institute a NYC-type pre-emptive policing, stop-and-frisk, policy in the high crime neighborhoods.
    If Chicago doesn't have this policy, Rahm should do it.

    Rahm Emanuel for POTUS? Wouldn't that be a slippery slope to Dem. nihilism?

    (Rahm Emanuel for president? (WP))
    *******************
    Once Rahm gets the Chicago streets under control, through gun disarmament, then he can consider a POTUS race.
    All of us need a breather from 2016 POTUS speculation.
    If one considers all the unresolved, outstanding, issues our country faces, 2016 POTUS discussion is far down the list.
    The Wash.Post list of the top ten Dem. potentials for 2016 is certainly interesting, but it’s armchair speculation.
    Kirsten Gillibrand is at #8.
    Has anyone else, anywhere, put our junior Senator on a 2016 POTUS list?
    A female POTUS will be reality soon..but Kirsten?
    The list also has Mass. liberal icon Senator Eliz. Warren on the list, #10.
    Hm, interesting.
    This blogger likes her, respects her, but POTUS?
    How about VP in 2016.
    Gov. Cuomo is #3.
    He has pivoted to the left on social issues, but one POTUS wannabe from the great state of NY is enough for the nation.
    You cannot have Andrew and Kristen both running, or both on a national ticket.
    Hillary is #1.
    She would like to be POTUS, but she is not likely going to go through the extended primary/caucus circus.
    She’ll accept a crowning by the Dem. establishment.
    The Post has VP Biden at #2.
    Why not?
    He’ll be 74 in 2016, but the 70ies are now the new normal 60ies, or 50ies.
    And the rumor is that he has bottles of my home town, Saratoga Springs, mineral water shipped to his house.
    The Saratoga springs can make a 150 yr. old run for POTUS, even entering the Iowa caucuses.
    http://www.washingtonpostdotcom/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/02/15/hillary-and-the-rest-the-fixs-ranking-of-the-
     

    Tuesday, February 19, 2013

    (Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, said cuts from sequestration are “mindless” and should be replaced with revenue from closing tax “loopholes.” (TU))

    (Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, said
    cuts from sequestration are “mindless” and should be replaced with
    revenue from closing tax “loopholes.” (TU))
    *************
    Spot on, Mr. Paul.
    But the deep, and not so hidden, politics behind the sequestration is
    the tea party, Koch brothers, billionaire right-wing plutocrats to
    reduce the size of government..to create a greater space for unfettered
    private market activity.
    Over the weekend, S.C. Sen. Lindsey Graham lifted the curtain on the
    hidden,behind the scenes, machinations of the right-wing plutocrats.
    He proclaimed that one way to avoid the sequester is to kill Obamacare.
    You can’t make this stuff up.
    (Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Sunday the government should protect
    the Defense Department from automatic spending cuts by slashing $1.2
    trillion from the Affordable Care Act.
    During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Graham suggested that the
    sequester’s across-the-board cuts to federal spending, including about a
    roughly 7.5 percent reduction in military spending, would be
    “destroying the military.” But rather than agree to President Obama’s
    proposed alternatives to the sequester, the South Carolina Republican
    said we should save money by eliminating health care for the 30 million
    people covered by the Affordable Care Act)
    http://thinkprogressdotorg/health/2013/02/17/1604781/gop-senator-would-take-away-health-coverage-from-30-million-americans-to-avoid-military-cuts/?mobile=nc
    **************
    Graham is up for re-election in 2014; and he needs to protect his right flank from the tea partiers.
    He doesn’t want to be primaried; doesn’t want his political gravestone
    to say he joins Dick Luger, Utah’s former Sen.Bob Bennett, and other
    moderate GOPers.
  • The POTUS goes golfing in Florida, while 35k-50k rally in DC against the approval of the Keystone pipeline.

    The POTUS goes golfing in Florida, while 35k-50k rally in DC against the approval of the Keystone pipeline.
    *************************
    One late night comedian cracked that you must conclude that the
    Obamas have a strong marriage when Michelle goes skiing in Aspen,
    allowing her husband to spend a weekend with Tiger Wood in Florida.

    This blogger can laugh at the joke, but also there is very likely a
    hidden, deep political reason that the POTUS left town this past
    weekend.

    It may have been to avoid seeing up to 50k climate change believers
    ,anti-Keystone pipeline ralliers demanding that he, and Sec. of State
    Kerry, reject the pipeline proposal.

    The Keystone pipeline would be a 2000 mile line, sending up to
    700,000 barrels of heavy Canadian tar sand crude oil daily down to the
    Gulf coast.

    The 50k ralliers believe that approving the pipeline will begin the end of civilization as we know it.
    The Alberta tar sand crude will send tons of additional CO2 into the
    atmosphere, enough to tip the climate,environmental to a pollution level
    that could not be reversed.
    Could it be that Obama left town because he, and Kerry, have already decided to green light the pipeline?
    http://thinkprogressdotorg/politics/2013/02/17/1605541/forward-on-climate-rally/

    The position in support of the Keystone pipeline was articulated by the NYT's Joe Nocera.
    If found the column unpersuasive.
    Nocera is dressed up as Prince Poppycock on this issue; and his position if flap-doodle
    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/19/opinion/nocera-how-not-to-fix-climate-change.html?ref=joenocera&_r=0

    Monday, February 18, 2013


    1. "I oppose the ban on 16 oz. sodas and will break the law drinking one in
      my announcement press conference. This is the Nanny State taken to the
      extreme. Mayor Bloomberg should not decide what we eat and drink or
      subject us to a body search without probable cause, a sad erosion of our
      civil liberties. Big Brother is upon us….
      As someone who worked as the Vice President of Operations a $2 Billion
      Hedge Fund, I made a nice living on Wall Street before opening the
      escort agency that supplied high-end call girls for Attorney general and
      Governor Eliot Spitzer. I know how the economy works. I’ve read Von
      Mises, Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek. I understand the barriers
      to growth and what creates wealth. I think economic growth is
      paramount. I believe a rising tide lifts all boats….”
      Kristen Davis, website announcement of NYC Mayoral candidacy .
      *********************
      You can’t make this stuff up.
      Will she be drinking Coke or Pepsi?
      Bloomberg has announced that having pot will be considered a violation, not a misdemeanor or felony…and that is progress.
      Davis’ libertarian call for pot legalization will eventually see fruition.
      The Bloomberg/Kelly preemptive policing, the stop-and-frisk policy is more complex.
      Bloomberg makes the case that this policy has lowered the violent crime in the city.
      And the stop-and-frisk has been made less rigorous…i.e. the pot possession change.
      Davis’ advocacy of legalizing prostitution also has strong positive arguments, but will not become reality in most of our lifetimes.
      Davis’ says she has read Von Mises, Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek.
      I’ve also read these libertarian true believers.
      But that doesn’t mean I agree with them.
      Davis should also read Keynes , J.Kenneth Galbraith, and his son’s James (U.of Texas economist), Robert Reich, and other liberal economists.
      It’s good to be well-rounded, informed and educated in these matters.

    Former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and his hubris on steroids

    (Former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. was charged with misusing hundreds of thousands of campaign dollars for personal use.)
    **************
    Another argument for public financing of federal/state elections.
    Jackson Jr.’s action on the money smacks of hubris on steriods.
    And his wife is also caught in the web.
    Jackson’s personal use stuff included a $43,350 gold-plated men’s Rolex watch.
    Jackson can try to hide behind a claim of bi-polar mental illness, but this Rolex stuff is more likely case of hubris, arrogant stupidity.
    His plea bargaining may produce a suspended sentence, community service and full restitution of the money.
    His father has been a productive civil rights leader for decades, but there has also been previous investigations of money spent by his Rainbow Coalition.
    Hubris may be in the family DNA.

    Cable Fox and the failed GOP right-wingers

    (Fox News has signed Herman Cain, the former Republican presidential candidate, as a contributor.)
    **********************
    Cable Fox has lost ratings since Nov.
    Perhaps it is because of Ailes’ ( president of Fox News Channel, and chairman of the Fox Television Stations Group) proclivity to hire failed GOP POTUS/VP candidates
    gecannonphd
    (Jonathan Soros and Dan Cantor told Bill Moyers about their efforts to implement public campaign financing. (Moyers))
    *************************
    This show was informative, and is well worth watching.
    Their advocacy of a public finance of NY state elections is spot on.
    The NYC public finance law seems to working to promote small donations…the law has a public donation of $6 for every $1 dollar donated by small donors.
    The show can be watched at:
    http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-the-fight-to-keep-democracy-alive/

    Saturday, February 16, 2013

    The 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination.

    This year is the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination.
    Properly, there will be increased discussion, cable movies on this  important event.
    The JFK assassination is a cold case that should be of interest to all us.
    It's important to understand why he died; and why his death should still resonate.

    Fox's Bill O'Reilly's Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot has been in the top five book sellors for months.
    People are reading this book; and many, unfortunately,  are accepting the premises that O'Reilly promotes.
    ( http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Kennedy-The-End-Camelot/dp/0805096663/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361031983&sr=8-1&keywords=killing+kennedy+by+bill+o%27reilly).

    O'Reilly states that the book is to make "history fun to read".
    His Killing Kennedy also a dangerous distortion that  misleads, misinforms millions on the JFK murder.

    The first half of the book covers the personal life of the Kennedys; and a  cursory  review of the events of the JFK administration.

    Much of this portion of the book not only attempts to make "history fun", but also reads like a cheap romance paperback.

    O'Reilly recounts the adulterous affairs of JFK, an account that most of us already are familiar with.

    But to serious students of the JFK assassination, their are likely only 4 women that should be considered important.

    First, of course, is Jackie.
    Jackie was 32 when sitting in the Dallas limo., and watched as JFK's head was brutally destroyed.
    For that reason alone, Jackie is an important woman.

    But she was also an enigma.
    In recent interviews with Jackie released by Caroline and the Kennedys, Jackie states that she believed that LBJ was behind (the plotter) the murder of JFK.
    But yet, in the LBJ White House tapes, LBJ and Jackie, post-assassination, sound like they are engaged in phone sex...very romantic talk.


    The second woman is Marilyn Monroe.
    Celebrity writer Darwin Porter , in his new biography of MM, actually tells us who the Chicago Mob Giacana killers of MM were, including photos of the hit team.

    MM was murdered.
    She was deeply involved with JFK and RFK ; and was considered a national security risk by the brothers, and the national security state actors involved in the Castro assassination program.
    http://www.amazon.com/Marilyn-At-Rainbows-End-Cover-up/dp/1936003295/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361033146&sr=1-2&keywords=darwin+porter+books

    The third woman is Mary Pinoche Meyer, the Georgetown free-thinking, bomenian flower child former wife of CIA honcho Cord Meyer.
    She perhaps was one of the few females that JFK connected with on a cerebral level.
     And relative Peter Janney claims she was murdered by the CIA because she knew too much about the JFK assassination..
     http://www.amazon.com/Marys-Mosaic-Conspiracy-Kennedy-Pinchot/dp/1616087080/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361033328&sr=1-1&keywords=mary+pinchot+meyer

    The fourth woman is Judy Campbell, the link between JFK and the Mob's Sam Giancana.

    *************
    But it is the second half of O'Reilly' s fun history that deals with Dallas; and is the dangerous distortion that  misleads, misinforms millions on the JFK murder

    O'Reilly travels down the rabbit hole, following Oswald, and concludes that he fired shots in Dealy Plaza and that he was a left-winger, a communist.

    There is substantial documentation that Oswald was a CIA contract employee; a double- or triple-agent; and a kid who was deeply involved in the political right-wing groups in New Orleans and Dallas.

    Oswald was sent to Russia by the CIA; and likely provided the Soviets with information on the U2 spy plane. He provided this information as a CIA agent because the CIA wanted the U2, flown by Powers, to be shot down in order to sabotage the Ike summit with Khrushchev.

    O'Reilly describes Oswald's attempt to get into Cuba, and his trip to Mexico City and the Cuban Embassy.
    To O'Reilly, this confirms Oswald's communist bona fides.

    This is so wrong on so many levels.

    The real story, vividly described by Judyth Baker (in Me and Lee) is that Lee worked with her in New Orleans during the Summer, 1963.
    She,Lee, and David Farrie got involved in a CIA financed research project with cancer researchers at Tulane U.
    The project took a bizarre turn as they worked on developing a bio-weapon of mice/monkey virus that could be transferred to humans to cause rapid spreading cancer.
    Oswald's visit to Mexico City was to deliver this bio-weapon virus to someone who would get it into Cuba, to assassinate Castro.

    Judyth Baker is a creditable, important person in the JFK assassination/conspiracy.

    She describes how Oswald, this mixed up kid who was controlled by the CIA, actually tried to stop the JFK assassination; and knew he was going to die.
    http://www.amazon.com/Me-Lee-Came-Harvey-Oswald/dp/1936296373/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361033907&sr=1-1&keywords=me+and+lee


    Perhaps the best written, and documented, book to read on the JFK assassination is James Douglass,JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters.
    ( http://www.amazon.com/JFK-Unspeakable-Why-Died-Matters/dp/1439193886/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361033969&sr=1-1&keywords=james+douglass+jfk+and+the+unspeakable+why+he+died+and+why+it+matters)

        

     

    (Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, said
    cuts from sequestration are “mindless” and should be replaced with
    revenue from closing tax “loopholes.” (TU))
    *************
    Spot on, Mr. Paul.
    But the deep, and not so hidden, politics behind the sequestration is
    the tea party, Koch brothers, billionaire right-wing plutocrats to
    reduce the size of government..to create a greater space for unfettered
    private market activity.
    Over the weekend, S.C. Sen. Lindsey Graham lifted the curtain on the
    hidden,behind the scenes, machinations of the right-wing plutocrats.
    He proclaimed that one way to avoid the sequester is to kill Obamacare.
    You can’t make this stuff up.
    (Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Sunday the government should protect
    the Defense Department from automatic spending cuts by slashing $1.2
    trillion from the Affordable Care Act.
    During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Graham suggested that the
    sequester’s across-the-board cuts to federal spending, including about a
    roughly 7.5 percent reduction in military spending, would be
    “destroying the military.” But rather than agree to President Obama’s
    proposed alternatives to the sequester, the South Carolina Republican
    said we should save money by eliminating health care for the 30 million
    people covered by the Affordable Care Act)
    http://thinkprogressdotorg/health/2013/02/17/1604781/gop-senator-would-take-away-health-coverage-from-30-million-americans-to-avoid-military-cuts/?mobile=nc
    **************
    Graham is up for re-election in 2014; and he needs to protect his right flank from the tea partiers.
    He doesn’t want to be primaried; doesn’t want his political gravestone
    to say he joins Dick Luger, Utah’s former Sen.Bob Bennett, and other
    moderate GOPers.
  • The POTUS goes golfing in Florida, while 35k-50k rally in DC against the approval of the Keystone pipeline.

    The POTUS goes golfing in Florida, while 35k-50k rally in DC against the approval of the Keystone pipeline.
    *************************
    One late night comedian cracked that you must conclude that the
    Obamas have a strong marriage when Michelle goes skiing in Aspen,
    allowing her husband to spend a weekend with Tiger Wood in Florida.

    This blogger can laugh at the joke, but also there is very likely a
    hidden, deep political reason that the POTUS left town this past
    weekend.

    It may have been to avoid seeing up to 50k climate change believers
    ,anti-Keystone pipeline ralliers demanding that he, and Sec. of State
    Kerry, reject the pipeline proposal.

    The Keystone pipeline would be a 2000 mile line, sending up to
    700,000 barrels of heavy Canadian tar sand crude oil daily down to the
    Gulf coast.

    The 50k ralliers believe that approving the pipeline will begin the end of civilization as we know it.
    The Alberta tar sand crude will send tons of additional CO2 into the
    atmosphere, enough to tip the climate,environmental to a pollution level
    that could not be reversed.
    Could it be that Obama left town because he, and Kerry, have already decided to green light the pipeline?
    http://thinkprogressdotorg/politics/2013/02/17/1605541/forward-on-climate-rally/

    The position in support of the Keystone pipeline was articulated by the NYT's Joe Nocera.
    If found the column unpersuasive.
    Nocera is dressed up as Prince Poppycock on this issue; and his position if flap-doodle
    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/19/opinion/nocera-how-not-to-fix-climate-change.html?ref=joenocera&_r=0

    Monday, February 18, 2013


    1. "I oppose the ban on 16 oz. sodas and will break the law drinking one in
      my announcement press conference. This is the Nanny State taken to the
      extreme. Mayor Bloomberg should not decide what we eat and drink or
      subject us to a body search without probable cause, a sad erosion of our
      civil liberties. Big Brother is upon us….
      As someone who worked as the Vice President of Operations a $2 Billion
      Hedge Fund, I made a nice living on Wall Street before opening the
      escort agency that supplied high-end call girls for Attorney general and
      Governor Eliot Spitzer. I know how the economy works. I’ve read Von
      Mises, Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek. I understand the barriers
      to growth and what creates wealth. I think economic growth is
      paramount. I believe a rising tide lifts all boats….”
      Kristen Davis, website announcement of NYC Mayoral candidacy .
      *********************
      You can’t make this stuff up.
      Will she be drinking Coke or Pepsi?
      Bloomberg has announced that having pot will be considered a violation, not a misdemeanor or felony…and that is progress.
      Davis’ libertarian call for pot legalization will eventually see fruition.
      The Bloomberg/Kelly preemptive policing, the stop-and-frisk policy is more complex.
      Bloomberg makes the case that this policy has lowered the violent crime in the city.
      And the stop-and-frisk has been made less rigorous…i.e. the pot possession change.
      Davis’ advocacy of legalizing prostitution also has strong positive arguments, but will not become reality in most of our lifetimes.
      Davis’ says she has read Von Mises, Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek.
      I’ve also read these libertarian true believers.
      But that doesn’t mean I agree with them.
      Davis should also read Keynes , J.Kenneth Galbraith, and his son’s James (U.of Texas economist), Robert Reich, and other liberal economists.
      It’s good to be well-rounded, informed and educated in these matters.

    Former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and his hubris on steroids

    (Former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. was charged with misusing hundreds of thousands of campaign dollars for personal use.)
    **************
    Another argument for public financing of federal/state elections.
    Jackson Jr.’s action on the money smacks of hubris on steriods.
    And his wife is also caught in the web.
    Jackson’s personal use stuff included a $43,350 gold-plated men’s Rolex watch.
    Jackson can try to hide behind a claim of bi-polar mental illness, but this Rolex stuff is more likely case of hubris, arrogant stupidity.
    His plea bargaining may produce a suspended sentence, community service and full restitution of the money.
    His father has been a productive civil rights leader for decades, but there has also been previous investigations of money spent by his Rainbow Coalition.
    Hubris may be in the family DNA.

    Cable Fox and the failed GOP right-wingers

    (Fox News has signed Herman Cain, the former Republican presidential candidate, as a contributor.)
    **********************
    Cable Fox has lost ratings since Nov.
    Perhaps it is because of Ailes’ ( president of Fox News Channel, and chairman of the Fox Television Stations Group) proclivity to hire failed GOP POTUS/VP candidates
    gecannonphd
    (Jonathan Soros and Dan Cantor told Bill Moyers about their efforts to implement public campaign financing. (Moyers))
    *************************
    This show was informative, and is well worth watching.
    Their advocacy of a public finance of NY state elections is spot on.
    The NYC public finance law seems to working to promote small donations…the law has a public donation of $6 for every $1 dollar donated by small donors.
    The show can be watched at:
    http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-the-fight-to-keep-democracy-alive/

    Saturday, February 16, 2013

    The 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination.

    This year is the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination.
    Properly, there will be increased discussion, cable movies on this  important event.
    The JFK assassination is a cold case that should be of interest to all us.
    It's important to understand why he died; and why his death should still resonate.

    Fox's Bill O'Reilly's Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot has been in the top five book sellors for months.
    People are reading this book; and many, unfortunately,  are accepting the premises that O'Reilly promotes.
    ( http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Kennedy-The-End-Camelot/dp/0805096663/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361031983&sr=8-1&keywords=killing+kennedy+by+bill+o%27reilly).

    O'Reilly states that the book is to make "history fun to read".
    His Killing Kennedy also a dangerous distortion that  misleads, misinforms millions on the JFK murder.

    The first half of the book covers the personal life of the Kennedys; and a  cursory  review of the events of the JFK administration.

    Much of this portion of the book not only attempts to make "history fun", but also reads like a cheap romance paperback.

    O'Reilly recounts the adulterous affairs of JFK, an account that most of us already are familiar with.

    But to serious students of the JFK assassination, their are likely only 4 women that should be considered important.

    First, of course, is Jackie.
    Jackie was 32 when sitting in the Dallas limo., and watched as JFK's head was brutally destroyed.
    For that reason alone, Jackie is an important woman.

    But she was also an enigma.
    In recent interviews with Jackie released by Caroline and the Kennedys, Jackie states that she believed that LBJ was behind (the plotter) the murder of JFK.
    But yet, in the LBJ White House tapes, LBJ and Jackie, post-assassination, sound like they are engaged in phone sex...very romantic talk.


    The second woman is Marilyn Monroe.
    Celebrity writer Darwin Porter , in his new biography of MM, actually tells us who the Chicago Mob Giacana killers of MM were, including photos of the hit team.

    MM was murdered.
    She was deeply involved with JFK and RFK ; and was considered a national security risk by the brothers, and the national security state actors involved in the Castro assassination program.
    http://www.amazon.com/Marilyn-At-Rainbows-End-Cover-up/dp/1936003295/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361033146&sr=1-2&keywords=darwin+porter+books

    The third woman is Mary Pinoche Meyer, the Georgetown free-thinking, bomenian flower child former wife of CIA honcho Cord Meyer.
    She perhaps was one of the few females that JFK connected with on a cerebral level.
     And relative Peter Janney claims she was murdered by the CIA because she knew too much about the JFK assassination..
     http://www.amazon.com/Marys-Mosaic-Conspiracy-Kennedy-Pinchot/dp/1616087080/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361033328&sr=1-1&keywords=mary+pinchot+meyer

    The fourth woman is Judy Campbell, the link between JFK and the Mob's Sam Giancana.

    *************
    But it is the second half of O'Reilly' s fun history that deals with Dallas; and is the dangerous distortion that  misleads, misinforms millions on the JFK murder

    O'Reilly travels down the rabbit hole, following Oswald, and concludes that he fired shots in Dealy Plaza and that he was a left-winger, a communist.

    There is substantial documentation that Oswald was a CIA contract employee; a double- or triple-agent; and a kid who was deeply involved in the political right-wing groups in New Orleans and Dallas.

    Oswald was sent to Russia by the CIA; and likely provided the Soviets with information on the U2 spy plane. He provided this information as a CIA agent because the CIA wanted the U2, flown by Powers, to be shot down in order to sabotage the Ike summit with Khrushchev.

    O'Reilly describes Oswald's attempt to get into Cuba, and his trip to Mexico City and the Cuban Embassy.
    To O'Reilly, this confirms Oswald's communist bona fides.

    This is so wrong on so many levels.

    The real story, vividly described by Judyth Baker (in Me and Lee) is that Lee worked with her in New Orleans during the Summer, 1963.
    She,Lee, and David Farrie got involved in a CIA financed research project with cancer researchers at Tulane U.
    The project took a bizarre turn as they worked on developing a bio-weapon of mice/monkey virus that could be transferred to humans to cause rapid spreading cancer.
    Oswald's visit to Mexico City was to deliver this bio-weapon virus to someone who would get it into Cuba, to assassinate Castro.

    Judyth Baker is a creditable, important person in the JFK assassination/conspiracy.

    She describes how Oswald, this mixed up kid who was controlled by the CIA, actually tried to stop the JFK assassination; and knew he was going to die.
    http://www.amazon.com/Me-Lee-Came-Harvey-Oswald/dp/1936296373/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361033907&sr=1-1&keywords=me+and+lee


    Perhaps the best written, and documented, book to read on the JFK assassination is James Douglass,JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters.
    ( http://www.amazon.com/JFK-Unspeakable-Why-Died-Matters/dp/1439193886/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361033969&sr=1-1&keywords=james+douglass+jfk+and+the+unspeakable+why+he+died+and+why+it+matters)

        

    Friday, February 15, 2013

    NY's Medicaid spending.

    (A congressional panel voted to ask auditors to look at New York’s Medicaid program, which federal officials believe overcharged by $15 billion. (TU))
    ******************
    NY’s Bureau of the Budget has a long history of using mental health and developmenmtal disability patients as a Medicaid payment mill.
    The decades’ ‘ol mental health de-institutional movemnt was used by the budgeteers as a Medicaid tool.
    Moving mental health patients out of state hospitals and into the community allowed the state budgeteers to bill the feds. for Medicaid reimbursement.
    It was the money that mattered.
    The Medicaid money flowed from the feds., but there was also no legal requirement to provide a certain level of services for the de-institutionized patients.

    Cory Booker will be bored in the Senate

     
    (New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg announced he’s not running for re-election, creating a clearer path of Newark Mayor Cory Booker to take his place. (Star-Ledger))
    *************
    Being a blue state, NJ’s Booker will likely win the Senate seat in 2014.
    The more important question is why he would want to move to the US Senate after being a public executive used to giving orders, and having them carried out rather quickly.
    The US Senate is still a slow, ponderous, gentleman’s club. Cory will be both frustrated and bored there.

    Hegel and the neo-con. swamp people.

    (The U.S. Senate blocked Chuck Hagel’s nomination as secretary of defense. (NYT))
    **************
    Harry Reid apparently can’t count.
    60 votes were needed to end the filibuster, or what’s called cloture.
    The vote was 58-40.
    There’s alot of deep politics involved in this shameful exercise.
    The Dems. have to get 60 votes in order to bring Hagel’s nomination to the floor.
    The neo-con trifecta on the Armed Services Cmt. (McCain, Lindsey Graham, and NH’s Kelly Ayotte) are opposed to Hegel because he may be opposed to another US war in a Muslim country..i.e. Iran.
    And Kelly Ayotte is such a delicate flower.
    What is she doing dwelling with the neo-con. swamp people?

    Thursday, February 14, 2013

    Sen. Marco Rubio, the tea partiers, and their alternative to Obama's center/left social capitalism

    Sen. Marco Rubio, the tea partiers, and their alternative to Obama's center/left social capitalism
    ************************************
    Rubio's SOTU response has become a late-night comedian's dream.
    His move to drink from a water bottle has become "the slurp heard 'round the world."
    His political message was warmed over tea party nostrums...small government, reduce spending, give more power to the states, yada yada.
    I describe how Obama's social capitalism SOTU speech is a centrist/liberal call for ameliorating the inequality and distortions that the private market produces.
    It was not a progressive/populist blueprint.
    Rubio's response does nothing to ameliorate the private market distortions.
    It's the old mantra from the 'ol gibber's notebook.
    As Reagan often said, "Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other."
    and"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"
    Rubio, and the tea partiers, favor the so called "sequester" because it will reduce fed. spending by over a $1 trillion in one year.
    It's the Norquist, Reagan "starve the beast" strategy.
    Reduce spending, and make the fed. govt. small enough to be drowned in a bathtub.
    The "sequester" is what Obama called a manufactured crisis.
    But the reality of the power in DC will have the military-industrial-Congression complex (MIC) shifting the budget cuts to domestic spending.
    If the "sequester" is made law, the discretionary domestic, non-military spending will go down to a level not seen since the 195ies Eisenhower era.
     

    Wednesday, February 13, 2013

    The SOTU , Part 1

    The SOTU , Part 1

    Justice Scalia doesn’t attend the SOTU address, arguing that
    it is “frivolous” and meaningless.

    It may be one of the few times this writer agrees with this right-winger.

    But this writer also did watch it, short of a pizza party
    super bowl type occasion.

    In spite of the right-wing, and conservative radio yakety yaks
    rants, Obama is not a socialist; or even a progressive or populist.

    If there was one broad, cosmic theme of this speech, it was
    the important link between the private sector and government.

    He can best be described as a social capitalist. A believer
    in the corporate private sector, but also believing that the corporate sector
    produces inequality and distortions.
    It is the government that needs to play a role in ameliorating
    the private market, capitalist distortions.

    He wants to repair our infrastructure; reform our education
    to allow the private sector to be able to recruit trained people for the
    future; and ameliorate the inequality through programs like a national minimum
    wage.

    There was no talk of nationalizing the corporate sector;
    breaking up banks that are too large; or stopping the off shoring of corporate
    profits in the Cayman Islands.
    Now that would be a progressive or populist agenda.

    Obama has about 12 months to achieve some significant laws,
    before the 2014 election cyle kicks in.

    It does appear that immigration reform and some gun control reforms
    will be achievable.

    The Senate Armed Services Committee. What a show!

    (A Senate panel advanced Chuck Hagel’s nomination as secretary of defense. (AP))
    **********
    To those of us who may be recovering politicians, but are still addicted to the Wash. shenanigans, the Senate Armed Services panel hearing was a scary thing to observe, or read about.
    The newly minted, freshman tea partier Texas US Senator Ted Cruz spent his alloted time jibber jabbering about Chuck Hagel receiving speaking fees from the Saudis.
    Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill, D.Missouri, gave him a withering look; and in essence told him to shut up.
    The Armed Services comt. is a power center in the Senate; and Cruz has no significant clout. Perhaps in twenty years.
    The strange GOP US Senator from Ok., James Inhofe got really personal in his attacks on Hagel, and again McCaskill, and even John McCain told him to keep quiet.
    And then there was Lindsey Graham, GOPer,S.C. who proclaimed that, “(Hagel) is in a league of own, guys..I say dumb things every day, but..”
    I would agree with the “dumb things every day” part.
    Graham and McCain, the militarist “Hardy boys”, did wear green ribbons last night at the SOTU speech, in honor of the Newtown shooting victims.
    They were only two of the few GOPers wearing the ribbon.

    Tuesday, February 12, 2013

    NY hydro-fracking.

    Mark Ruffalo’s blog on Gov. Cuomo and hydro-fracking is a good read.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-ruffalo/governor-cuomo-not-one-well_b_2665639.html

    “..Of course Hillary Clinton’s stratospheric approval ratings demand a
    cologne all her own. It should be a symphony of spices and flowers from
    the different continents she visited as secretary of state, a bouquet of
    international ambition, with a moniker to match. All our diplomats will
    wear Beyond Borders, or they’ll wear nothing at all…”
    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/opinion/bruni-a-spritz-of-power.html?_r=0
    **********
    Bruni’s column today is funny LOL.
    It allows us to escape the often depressing news coming out of Wash.
    Yes, perhaps the Wash. politicos should market their own cologne/perfume.
    In one of my previous lives, a Dean of Students at a private business school gathered the new class of male students.
    His dictum to us was that the one rule we could not violate was wearing Old Spice.
    Before classes, I would splash on the Old Spice and walk by his office.
    This Old Spice rule likely planted the seed that germinated in my life long anti-authority ethos.
    And now that Hillary has been highlighted, the NY Post’s cartoonist Sean Delonas has Hillary walking into St. Peter’s Basilica and telling the Cardinal conclave “I’m available.”
    It’s a good one, although Delonas usually visits the dark side.
    http://www.nypost.com/opinion/cartoons/delonas.htm
    Some of the NYC politicos are promoting Cardinal Dolan as the best choice for the next Pope.
    It’s what they have to say, but it will not happen.
    The US Church is waist deep in the big muddy of the child sex scandals; and there will be little support among the Cardinal conclave to go that way.

    NY hydro-fracking and Obama's decision on the Keystone XL.

    (..Environmental groups are taking out a full-page ad in tomorrow’s Des Moines Register urging Cuomo not to approve hydrofracking. It’s an early primary state in 2016, but Cuomo claims he doesn’t care. (Politico/NYO))
    ******************
    And according to Fred Dicker’s unnamed sources, the gas and oil interests that mingle in Albany feel that Gov. Cuomo is an old-line Stalinist communist that is allowing NY at the Pa. border to resemble East Berlin/East Germany before the fall of the wall.
    I say fuggedaboutit( New York urban slang for ‘forget about it.)
    (I like “fuggedaboutit”. It has the pizazz; the sound of a strong belief without engaging in profanity.)
    I don’t agree that running an ad in Iowa displays political smarts…
    a waste of money.
    The reality however is that Cuomo and Obama have to make two decisions that will have a major long term impact on our environment; climate warming; and the economy.
    Cuomo will eventually have to decide on the fracking issue.
    He will likely split the difference between the environmentalists and the gas/oil interests.
    He may approve some fracking, but not full approval.
    Obama soon has to make a decision on the Canadian Alberta tar sands heavy, dirty oil being transported to US refineries via the Keystone XL.
    If he approves it, the damage will be long term and severe.
    http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/02/11-0

    Dick Cheney is alive and well.

    Dick Cheney is alive and well.
    *********
    After he was shot, POTUS Ronald Reagan joked to the operating Dr. “I hope you’re a Republican”.
    Dick Cheney seldom displays a sense of humor, but we can imagine him telling the heart transplant Drs. “I would like, if you please, the heart of an unrepentant neo-conservative.”
    In this morning’s interview with CBS’s Charlie Rose, Cheney looked in fairly good health.
    God bless him!
    In appears that his new neo-con heart is functioning well, allowing him to enter the political battles in Wash.
    He believes Hagel, Brennan and likely Kerry are “second rate”, weak national security appointees.
    And he blames the POTUS.
    As Cheney declared to Rose, “The POTUS lives in a very big house; and earns lots of money.”
    But to Cheney, Obama is weak on national security.
    The former VP, with the new strong neo-con heart, believes Hagel will hesitate to put ground troops in another Muslim country; display caution on attacking Iran; and will support major cuts in the bloated Defense budget.
    God bless Hagel is he does all of this.
    Cheney should really sell his Halliburton stock; take a lo

    Monday, February 11, 2013

    Gov. Cuomo has lost his mojo, says those unnamed sources to the powerful Post Albany editor Fred Dicker.

    Gov. Cuomo has lost his mojo, says those unnamed sources to the powerful Post Albany editor Fred Dicker. ********************* Those perennial “unnamed sources” have whispered in Fred’s ear that the Gov. has lost his mojo, and is now drifting leftward, looking toward reelection in 2014. According to Fred,”this criticism comes from one unnamed source who whispered to Fred that“He’s running around like a banshee, blaming his staff and everybody else for the problems of his own making,’’ said a highly knowledgeable source, adding, “I’ll be a dead man in Albany’’ if his identity is disclosed” “A dead man in Albany”???? These mysterious unnamed sources seem to be engaging in hyperbole. Fred ends his column with this laugh line: “The New York/Pennsylvania border is like the old Berlin Wall, with Pennsylvania being free West Berlin, with prosperity and good jobs thanks to gas drilling,’’ said a top New York business official. “The New York side is communist East Berlin — poor, humbled, and humiliated, with no high-paying jobs to speak of,’’ the official continued…” Perhaps Cuomo should travel to the NY/Pa. border, and like JFK, proclaim that he is an ” Ich bin ein Berliner (“I am a Berliner” ). This business official is implying that Cuomo is an old communist hack, like East Germany’s Walter Ulbricht. This official,with Fred’s blessing, is implying that Cuomo is a communist if he refuses to ok hydro-fracking. And we thought the Albany political rhetoric was softer than found in Washington. How wrong we are. Words have meaning; and positive words can have good results. They could change the world. The one minute video on changing the world with words is well worth a minute of our time: http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=Hzgzim5m7oU&vq=medium Dicker’s column this morning: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/cuomo_loses_his_mojo_qynJXUCoOav6HLTKcFUOSO

    Pope Benedict is going to retire

    Pope Benedict is going to retire ******************************* Why not?? Lifetime tenure is not the norm in the real world. The dilemma for the Cardinals is whether to move a young (50-60 years) Cardinal into the Papacy; and have this man at the helm for 30-40 yrs; or go with an older (70-80 yrs.) Cardinal and have another vote within a a decade. Why not bring the Church into the 21stC, split the difference; and select a Pope with a 10 year contract that could be renewed? The advantage of this agreement is that a female Cardinal could be a contender in 10 yrs. LOL. That possibility is as likely as Leno or Letterman retiring. Could we petition the Supreme Court to have Scalia and Thomas consider following the move of the Pope; give up their lifetime tenure; and retire?

    Senator Lindsey Graham, reincarnation, and Shirley MacLaine

    Senator Lindsey Graham, reincarnation, and Shirley MacLaine,
    ***********************************************************
    Hollywood’s Shirley MacLaine believes in reincarnation, believing that we live many lives; and that those random episodes of “Déjà vu” are proof of previous lives.
    Buddhists believe in a form of reincarnation:
    “We can learn a valuable lesson from the teaching of reincarnation.
    In what realm do you now live? If you are hungry for power, love, and self-recognition, you live in the Preta world, or hungry ghosts. If you are motivated only by thirsts of the human organism, you are existing in the world of the beast.
    Consider well then your motives and intentions. Remember that man is characteristically placed at the midpoint of the ten stages; he can either lower himself abruptly or gradually into hell or through discipline, cultivation and the awakening of faith rise to the Enlightened state of the Buddha.”
    http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/reincarnation.htm
    Living a sinful life can guarantee a future new life as a lower form of animal.
    While I may be misinterpreting the Buddhist belief, I’m a skeptic, or perhaps an agnostic, on reincarnation.
    But South Carolina US Senator Lindsey Graham gives me pause.
    He is threatening to apply esoteric Senate rules to hold up the Hagel and Brennan nominations.
    For those political historians, political junkies, it is easy to believe that Graham has lived a former life, and it was the powerful North Carolina US Senator Jesse Helms.
    One of Helms’ claim to glory was holding up POTUS nominations that he believed were insufficient anti-communist.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Helms
    Sen. Lindsey, like McCain, are neo-con militarists.
    To them, Hagel and Brennan are too soft, too unreliable in their foreign policy beliefs.
    This blogger does support moving control of drones out of the CIA, and over to the Pentagon.