R-ISLANDER

After Hearing the News -- a poem

After Hearing the News

When I look in on myself

I see you with me and no one else

But now you have gone away

We can no longer as in the past play

 The game that brings bumps to my skin

That willingness to make sin

Behind that Harvard statue after a date

When the night was long and late

At first we heard others and were afraid

But the urgency grew and we were soon staid

Swelling away against the wall

You experiencing me and protecting me from a fall

I heard your pleasures as they grew

And then I knew

When I look in on myself

I see me with you and no one else

That wondrous sensation on my neck, a breath

Is forever stolen now by your sudden death.

michael vocino, 23may2012

kingston

 

MAUREEN DOWD SPEAKS TRUTH ABOUT CARDINAL DOLAN

As educators, it is our duty to help direct social policy in the direction of the greatest good and it is the duty of all good women and men.  Maureen Dowd, and other social commentators help us do that.  Maureen Dowd comes from a faithfully Catholic family and those of us who share her religious experiences and still consider ourselves Catholic are VERY alarmed by the Church's continued attack on women under the guise of protecting religious freedom or as she says: "[What the} ...bishops portray as an attack on religion by the president is really an attack on women by the bishops."  She is not the only one saying that, either.  Most people in Catholic pews are positing the same!  Her article is here:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/23/opinion/dowd-father-doesnt-know-best.html

Why Vote for Elizabeth Warren?

Elizabeth Warren, senate candidate in Massachusetts, has long been a champion for consumers especially in their transactions with banks.   As was said by Sen. Bernie Sanders: Congress Doesn't Regulate Banks; Banks Regulate Congress. How true, how true...and the last thing we need is a Republican Senator like Scott Brown who always sides with the banks.  If you are not a super wealthy citizen of Massachusetts and you want to protect yourself from the predatory practices of the banking industry it is in your best interest, and certainly mine, to see the election of the consumer's champion, Elizabeth Warren, to the U.S. Senate.

VOTE FOR ELIZABETH WARREN to put the interests of the middle class consumer back on the agenda.  The Republican agenda, as represented by candidate Scott Brown, is solely to protect the monied interests such as those predatory banks.  Like banks? vote for scott brown.  Want protection from banks?  VOTE ELIZABETH WARREN.

Prez Election is Basically One Issue

This coming presidential election is basically a choice between 1. taxing the super rich as they should be (President Obama's position) OR 2. cutting social services to the poor, working and middle classes (Mitt Romney and Republican position.)  It is interesting to note that most economists tell us that the math of the Republican and Romney position just does not work.  The Romney/Ryan budget wants to cut taxes for the super wealthy and also cut social services for the poor, working and middle classes.  The math indicates that if the U.S. does that the deficits will only grow and not be reduced.  Under Reagan, the deficits tripled.  Under George W. Bush they were doubled.  Under Obama, the deficit has been halved.  The rise in the continuing deficits has historically been because of the Bush tax cuts.  To elect Romney or some other Republican like Paul Ryan and give even greater tax cuts to the super wealthy means a return to tripling and doubling deficits even if Republicans coninue to mean-spiritedly cut services to the needy.  RE-ELECT OBAMA for the sake of the poor, working and middle classes.

Happy Mother's Day 2012!

this is an Azalea bush my sister gave me years ago...now in full bloom on this fine May 13, 2012 Mother's Day.  Happy Mother's Day to all mothers!

SEN. SCOTT BROWN (R-MA) SCREWS COLLEGE STUDENTS!

MA Sen. Scott Brown a Republican voted NO on a bill to stop student loan interest rates from doubling on July 1st.

Can you believe it? Who would vote for this guy, a pawn for Corporate Greed, Banks, Oil Companies and now he slaps college students and their ever-paying parents!

He backs the Republican war on women, and now he tells college students drowning in debt that they will get no relief from him or his Club for Growth buddies...Don't know the Club for Growth?  Google it...they are the corporate profiteers who are supporting Brown for the Senate...it's where he gets lots of his money...his vote against students tells you where his loyalties lie...with BIG PROFIT-SUCKING CORPORATIONS...don't believe me...again, just google CLUB FOR GROWTH...they are the rich guys against us, the middle and lower classes...look at their record...Scott Brown = Club for Growth.

RI: GOV. LINCOLN CHAFEE SCREWS RI, ITS UNIVERSITY, AND ITS STUDENTS

One of the great economic engines of the state of Rhode Island is its
University, and THAT IS US.  One of the most attractive reason for
students to come to URI is its faculty.  The quality of the faculty is
central to the student population and their future successes.  To keep
competitive, to keep RI on the cutting edge of research and
scholarship in so many areas, but especially in the expanding fields
of the sciences and engineering, etc., the University needs to offer
its presently underpaid faculty the salary and benefits that other
institutions of higher education and private industry offer our well
credentialed faculty and staff as a matter of course.  Dr. Frank
Annunziato, the executive director of our faculty union, the AAUP,
reports that the Board of Governors of Higher Education, at the urging
of the now infamous Gov. Lincoln Chafee, decided behind closed doors
last night that they no longer want to invest in the future of Rhode
Island by supporting a fairly and long negotiated contract with the
faculty union for a very modest salary increase that virtually only
covers the increases in health care insurance costs that the State is
forcing all employees to pay.

The AAUP bargained in good faith.  The contract with Annunziato at the
helm was fairly negotiated over months of long and difficult sessions.
 It was accepted by both sides.  The board of governors were scheduled
to give its "OK" at a meeting weeks ago.  All the signals were
positive.  Then, the infamous Gov. Chafee stepped in at the last
minute, long after his representatives had a chance to negotiate
differences with the AAUP, and told the Board to reject the fairly
negotiated contract.  The board, being politically appointed by the
Governor, fell right in line with the demands of an unreasonable
politician and voted against the contract last night.

It is my understanding that the AAUP stands firm in the belief that
the board, in rejecting a fairly negotiated contract between the AAUP
and representatives of the board of governors, negotiated unfairly and
certainly not in good faith.  We can only hope, and I am sure they
will, that the AAUP and all good people of faith, will do something to
stand up to the Governor and the Board of Governors.  Tho I am not a
lawyer, It seems to most commentators that there are legal violations
on the part of the infamous governor and his Board that should be
brought to the attention of the courts.  And beyond that, I am with
one of the speakers from the faculty at URI who said that he was up to
any action the AAUP would suggest in an attempt to remedy this just
AWFUL betrayal of "good faith" collective bargaining.

One of the big questions of the night of betrayal was being asked over
and over...."Where is President Dooley?"  The BOG went into executive
session to do its damage to the students, faculty and staff of the
University and the state of RI, and there was no "head man" from URI
to support his faculty and the students.  He knew of the vital
importance of the issue, yet he was a no show.  I, for one, am
terribly disappointed.  Leaving such important work to underlings is
not the hallmark of good leadership.  He should have been there,
especially since in recent weeks it became obvious that the Gov. was
"out to get" the faculty and graduate students at URI.  What was so
important that the President of the University could not be there to
defend his faculty?  ...one of what should be among his top
priorities.  HE FAILED US.  The Governor failed us and certainly, the
Board of Governors failed us and maybe even more importantly, they
failed the University's students and the state of Rhode Island.

BULLYING CATHOLIC NUNS

Two of the U.S.'s most prominent journalists, Maureen Dowd and Nick Kristof, both Catholics, have come to the defense of American nuns now under attack from an all-male hierarchy more upset about outspoken women than the sordid pedophilia that puts the Church in the grave danger of losing its soul....the attackers are those same men who prey on those who do most of the Church's work that protects the poor, sick, elderly and disadvantaged and are responsible for educating our young.  Everyone interested in the health of Mother Church should read these columns:

Dowd :  Bishops Play Church Queens as Pawns

Kristof: We Are All Nuns

Work-at-home Moms, Ann Romney and Scott Brown

No one can possibly think that staying home as a mother of 5 boys is an easy job. However, when you are a multi-millionaire as Ann Romney is, with two Cadillacs of her own, not to mention how many people working with her at home just to help...well that can hardly be compared to the heavy workload of the stay-at-home mother from the middle or lower classes who face economic difficulties everyday. Ann Romney knows a lot about raising 5 boys....what she doesn't know about is the economic difficulties women who stay at home face every day...The situation of those stay-at-home mothers will be made even more difficult if Ann Romney's husband is elected and implements drastic economic cutbacks to programs that significantly effect work-at-home-moms. Just as a sad aside, Massachusetts Senate candidate Scott Brown supports fully Mitt Romney and those anti-middle class programs that Romney advocates cutting and is fully engaged in the Republican War Against Women.

MSNBC PUSHING HATERS?

Clearly, MSNBC does not want its viewers to know the truth about one of its VERY frequent guests, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council which has been named a "hate-group" because of its continual spreading of lies, half-truths and complete distortions about gay Americans.  MSNBC has some excellent "out" gay commentators in its stable of reporters such as Jonathan Capehart and Rachel Maddow, as examples, and I applaud them for that...AND they can continue to have Tony Perkins as one of their guests, but why not let a group of faithful Americans run an ad telling their view of the truth about the hate Tony Perkins is spreading?  Don't disappoint us, MSNBC.  Just be fair.  Advocate story is here.

ANTI-BULLYING SHORT -- WELL DONE

http://youtu.be/M4LlEGUYVoU  at this URL you'll see a great anti-bullying short written by a high school student...well done.

MITT ROMNEY IS THE POLITICS OF GREED

Mitt Romney talks about the politics of envy, while he himself is all about the politics of GREED.  That is not my analysis, it is the analysis of virtually all the other Republican candidates for president.  They are correct.  Mitt Romney is the living representation of the politics of greed.

MINNESOTA ARCHBISHOP IS DESTROYING MY CHURCH

Friends have suggested that those who are gay, but can't admit it to themselves let alone others, are usually the most virulent anti-gay oppressors.  I wonder if that is the case with this unChrist-like
Archbishop.  With all the morally negative stories coming out about Catholic bishops and priests, he's a little over the top on gay-rights issues.  His attention is needed by the poor, the needy, yet he continues to waste millions on his dirty little private crusade against God's gay children.  It's men like Nienstedt who are destroying the Church that raised us to love Gesu'. Here's the full story from Towleroad

Minnesota Catholic Bishop Nienstedt Asks State's Catholics to Recite
Anti-Gay 'Marriage Prayer' at Mass

Virulent anti-gay Twin Cities Archbishop John Nienstedt, the guy who
spearheaded a mass mailing last year of 400,000 anti-gay DVDs, has
created a special "marriage prayer" which he is asking the state's
Catholics to recite during Mass in an effort to create support for the
anti-gay amendment on Minnesota's ballot in November 2012. MORE>>>

Thank You, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse!

Senator Whitehouse, I just wanted to thank you VERY MUCH for co-sponsoring the Respect for Marriage Act. As a practicing Catholic, it is nice to see public servants standing up for the rights of all Americans. In an age when the bureaucrats of my own Church work so hard at denying rights to people who happen to disagree with them, like Bishop Thomas J. Tobin, who in this week's editorial in RI CATHOLIC, puts you down for your courageous stand for basic human rights for all Americans, all Rhode Islanders, he writes for himself not all of RI Catholics. Please know, that I am one among millions of Catholics who disagree with the Bishop's unAmerican and unChrist-like stand. Keep up the good fight, Senator Whitehouse, and let's hope that many more Rhode Islanders continue to support you and write to you to tell you so.... Thanks again for standing up for the civil and religious freedoms good Americans, including good Catholic Americans, profess even in the face of a Church bureaucracy that is clearly "disordered." best, m. vocino, catholic.

CHRIS HAYES' "UP" ON MSNBC, SATURDAY AND SUNDAY MORNINGS

 Up with Chris Hayes is finally here. The show, which airs at 7 AM on Saturdays and 8 AM Sundays on MSNBC is well worth watching.  Intelligent, cutting-edge discussion of current events.  Thoughtful and enlightening analysis...WATCH IT...as a university professor, i would like to make it required watching for all students in all disciplines.  Good job Chris, keep it up!

Irish Prime Minister, Dublin's Archbishop, the Vatican and Abuse

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny says Cloyne report on child sex abuse by priests in Ireland, just released, highlights dysfunction and elitism in Rome.

Analysis by Maureen Dowd and the story from the Guardian follow...

This is a full revelation of how the Church has and continues to undermine Irish Law which is for the protection of children from "abuse and torture."

Dowd also reports how the Vatican and other Irish Bishops are isolating and ignoring the Archbishop of Dublin for his support of the victims. 'What church “cabal” is this in the Vatican or Ireland, he asked, “who try to undermine what is being done, or simply refuse to understand what is being done?”'

Ireland once enshrined a special place for the Church in its Constitution. Not any more. As one political observer noted of Irish Prime Minister Kenny and his late July 2011 speech to parliament “Kenny has tapped into a vein in the Irish psyche, people saying, ‘Well done for standing up to those bloody bishops and the pope.’ It was lancing a boil.”

The Guardian report: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/20/irish-prime-minister-attacks-vatican?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

The Maureen Dowd Report: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/opinion/sunday/24dowd.htm
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ELIZABETH WARREN FOR U.S. SENATE IN MASSACHUSETTS 2012

Join the Coffee Party! http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/ collective group for progressive Americans... Supporters of Elizabeth Warren for U.S. Senate from Massachusetts.

REPUBLICANS ARE FOR THE WEALTHY; DEMOCRATS FOR THE MIDDLE AND WORKING CLASSES

Republicans are the one's to blame over debt impasse according to the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson. He's absolutely right, President Obama is bending over backwards to please them. I am not a fan of the cutting of any entitlements...the middle, working and poor classes need them to survive. Actually we should be doing more and could if the RICH were required to pay their fair share of the nation's taxes. Read all of Robinson's perspective in todays Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dont-blame-both-sides-for-debt-impasse/2011/07/11/gIQA0XDg9H_story.html

Kentucky's Two Second-Rate Senators....shameful!

The Republicans, being led by Kentucky's two second-rate senators, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, are putting the country and it's citizens at risk in order to protect the tax-bill of millionaires and billionaires. Shameful...poor Kentucky has to deal with these two...Nick Kristof asks of us, Do we do what these second-rate Republican senators want us to do when he writes:

"Do we try to balance budget deficits just by cutting antipoverty initiatives, college scholarships and other investments in young people and our future? Or do we also seek tax increases from those best able to afford them?"

We are the richest and most successful country in the world. We can afford anything we'd like to do, it is just a matter of where we want to focus our resources...do we want to insure tax savings for the richest among us with no taxes and tax loopholes? Or do we want to save those programs that help the middle and working classes not to mention the elderly and our students? The answer is clear to a majority of Americans according to the polls: TAX THE RICH!!!

BISHOP THOMAS TOBIN: A KNOW-NOTHING-CATHOLIC

Most Americans at one time refused the dignity of respect for American Catholics. In fact, it was so bad for American Catholics, in the 1850s a gift of a block of marble from Pope Pius IX for the connstruction of the Washington Monument “was thrown into the Potomac River” by members of the anti-Catholic “Know-Nothing” party. Just as Nativists taught hate for the difference that Catholics represented, Bishop Tobin et al are now preaching against Gay Americans and their legal rights. He is a sad little man, an ignorant bureaucrat hardly in tune with the Jesus who taught us about LOVE....he should be ashamed of himself...as a Catholic I certainly am ashamed of him while at the same time very proud of the majority of Catholics who support marriage equality for their gay brothers and sisters according to multiple polls. I guess it is pretty safe to call Tobin a Know-Nothing-Catholic....