R-ISLANDER

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....

REINSTATE MARK HALPERN...SUSPEND THE HOSTS....

Mark Halpern of MSNBC and a regular on Morning Joe has been suspended for his joke about President Obama's attitude at a news conference. He was "...kind of a dick..."   He was led to this remark by the Eddie Haskell of the program, Joe Scarborough.  Scarborough is the one who should be suspended, or even better fired.  Anyone who watched this unfold this a.m., as I did, knows that the suspension of Mark Halpern was a grave miscarriage of justice...the real culprit was Scarborough...he is the one who should be reprimanded...i hope the only one with sense on the program, willie geist, says something about this injustice on his way-too-early program tomorrow.  Gosh only knows that Scarborough won't apologize on his program for this grave miscarriage of justice....

SHAME ON SENATOR CLARE MCCASKILL!

The proposed McCaskill-Corker Medicaid cap would end the program's effectiveness.  SHAME on DEMOCRAT Sen. Clare McCaskill (D-Missouri) for sponsoring such a unconscionable bill. Disabled Americans rely on Medicaid.  The needs of the disabled are the major costs for the program.  Yes, we may need to cut government costs OR we can find new sources of $$$$.  We can do anything we want in the richest country in the world.  The only thing we need to do is have the guts to TAX those who have received most from the system:  The Wealthiest.  Tax them instead of fighting a class war against the poor and middle classes by giving unconscionable levels of tax relief (usually unwanted and certainly unwarranted) to the wealthiest among us.  Tax them appropriately and you won't need to sponsor bills that attack the weakest among us:  the disabled.  As a fellow Democrat, I am ashamed to think that one of my own is sponsoring a bill that would gut Medicaid/Medicare.  SHAME ON YOU SEN. MCCASKILL.

NOM and Churches Attack Chafee over Gay Marriage! 2nd time

NOM Launches Second Attack On Lincoln Chafee Over Gay Marriage is here: http://www.ontopmag.com/article.aspx?id=7502&MediaType=1&Category=26

Such ads just remind me how fruitful it would be to have the question "End Tax Exemption for Churches" on the ballot. Such an end to now outdated exemptions would be a gigantic relief for RI homeowners who pay outrageous taxes so the churches don't need to do so. Speak to your state legislators. Such an end to taxes would also be good for social services. What the churches FINALLY contribute in taxes would allow us to expand on those social services they provide now...AND relieve property taxes for the rest of us.... Keep up the good work Gov. Chafee!  RI is with you...for freedom and civil rights for all Rhode Islanders...

OLBERMANN FIRED! WTF MSNBC!!!!!!!!!

Tonight they fired Keith Olbermann from "Countdown" on MSNBC.  Olbermann is one of the few people on MSNBC, indeed, on TV generally, that I respect.  His perspective is clear and honest...based on fact.  MSNBC has gown down considerably in my book.  I hope Maddow, Geist, Schultz and others whom I respect on the now-disgraced cable outlet will standup for this good man, their colleague, Keith Olbermann.  I'm really going to need to think hard and long about continuing to support MSNBC.  If the outlet makes a decision like this, they don't have the best interest of the entire political spectrum that represents who we are as a people.  WE WANT OLBERMANN RETURNED ASAP!!!! What the hell is wrong with Jeff Zucker and more importantly, Phil Griffin? And this is what we can expect from the new owners of MSNBC, Comcast and Phil Anschutz?  I think my days as an MSNBC fan are coming to an end....

NANCY PELOSI: KEEP HER!

Nancy Pelosi is one of the best Speakers of the House ever.  She is a major hero of the middle class in this country.  She is one of the party's best organizers, and the most effective Democrat in battle against corporate republicans that we as a people have.  KEEP NANCY PELOSI!  Republicans don't want her as Minority Leader because she is effective at putting a stop to their pro- corporate greed politics.  She is effective as a leader and she defeats Republicans regularly.  We need her strength and ability now more than ever!  Eric Cantor and other Republican House leaders don't want her precisely because she is effective!  Bravo, Nancy....heroine of the age!

AMERICAN FREAK SHOW! IT IS HERE!!!

I was up most of the night for two reasons:  1.  the great and joyous drama of the Chilean miners and 2.  Willie Geist's new book,  American Freak Show , arrived from Amazon yesterday afternoon and I just couldn't put it down!  SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO funny......you should run out and get it!  I just wish I could get Willie to sign my copy...  ;-)  

5 Reasons to Continue Obama and the Democrats!

As of today, there are several reasons why EVERYONE should be very happy that Obama was elected President.  True, I wanted more, but this is one great start and more than enough reason to continue a democratic majority who will prevent the Republican effort to repeal this new health care law:
·         Insurance companies: No longer revoke coverage when you get sick.
·         Children can no longer be rejected from a health plan because of pre-existing condition
·         No lifetime limits on health insurance coverage
·         Young people up to age 26  covered under parents plan
·         Preventive Care Services must be provided and without co-pay.

So, if you are wealthy or don't like the above changes, keep voting republican...keep voting for your tea party friends, both of whom want to repeal these important health care law changes that go into effect today thanks to the efforts of Barack Obama and the Democratic Majority.  Thank you Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama!
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HEY, WILLIE GEIST!!!

Today, the great co-host of Morning Joe, Willie Geist celebrates the one year anniversary of his own program, Way Too Early.  Although really early at 5:30 a.m., I try to watch it every day.  Geist has made a great rise in the news business on MSNBC from producer for a failed program hosted by Tucker Carlson (who himself has moved on to other things) to hosting his own program.  He is just the absolute best at relating to an audience...no one, not even his dad, has better skills at reaching out to us, his many faithful viewers.  We also liked seeinghim exercising his many skills as a substitute host for vacationing MSNBC hosts at more reasonable times during the day.  He is also making guest shots on the Today Show, where he shines, and of course, he was GREAT at doing the last Olympic coverage coming from Vancouver.  I just wish that Jeff Zucker would take the next logical step and GIVE WILLIE A LONGER HOSTING ASSIGNMENT AT A LATER TIME OF DAY (maybe with Geist pal, Jonathan Capehart, as co-host) when more Americans, especially younger viewers, can be exposed to Willie's MANY talents.   In any case, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY WILLIE...keep up the good work! 

DEMS GET IT: Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

The Democrats are moving closer to making the government and society more responsive to the common man.  The Republicans who are still pushing for more for those at the top of the financial ladder are fighting the Dems, but they failed on the Financial Reform Act recently passed, thank god!

Here's what the new Financial Reform and Consumer Protection Act does for us:

Create a new Office of Financial Research that will help provide early warning to regulators about financial problems, and allow regulators to act on that information and keep pace with new financial products being created on Wall Street.

Strengthen consumer protections by creating a strong Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which includes an Office of Service Member Affairs that will monitor and respond to complaints from military families.

Close dangerous loopholes and gaps in financial oversight by requiring advisers to hedge funds and private equity funds to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Hold credit rating agencies accountable by empowering the Securities and Exchange Commission and improving accountability and accuracy within the credit rating industry through a strong new liability provision that allows investors to take action when a rating agency knowingly or recklessly fails to review key information in developing a rating.

Protect investors by strengthening the SEC’s ability to bring enforcement actions, addressing issues revealed by the Madoff fraud, and modernizing the SEC’s ability to obtain critical information.

Create a national foreclosure database to give regulators an important tool to monitor and anticipate issues stemming from foreclosures and defaults in our housing markets and better pinpoint assistance to struggling homeowners.

THANK GOD FOR NANCY PELOSI AND THE DEMOCRATS! 

SINGLE PAYER, PUBLIC OPTION, MEDICARE FOR ALL OR KILL IT!

The time Mr. President has come for you to stand with those who voted for you.  Those of us who worked diligently to make sure you could give us the change we need.  We did not elect you to give a windfall to the insurance money suckers with a mandate without a public option, without single payer or without medicare for all.  I will never vote for Obama again unless he comes through on health care.  Meaningful healthcare.  SINGLE PAYER OR MEDICARE OPTION WITHOUT A MANDATE.  Why trust a democrat again without change.  Obama has failed us on public surviellance, gay rights, the war...the least he can do is come across on a meaningful health care package that does do little more than give insurance pigs more money.

LISTEN TO KEITH OLBERMANN, RACHEL MADDOW, ED SCHULTZ AND YES, NANCY PELOSI AND HOWARD DEAN!

Chris Matthews vs. the Bishop of Providence

Chris Matthews was at his very best on HARDBALL today.  He interviewed Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of Providence, RI and and the subject:  the Bishop's advising Catholic Patrick Kennedy not to partake in Communion because he voted for women's reproductive rights.  Tobin, who likes to think of himself as a "political junkie" did not do well.  Matthews asked, if the Bishop considers abortion murder, how would he criminalize it?  Would he put women who agree to an abortion into jail?  The Bishop couldn't answer outright.  He fumbled.  If it is murder, the woman having an abortion, in the Bishop's view, is an accessory to murder and should be put in jail.  Bishop Tobin said maybe some jail time for the woman...can you imagine?  The Bishop wants to put women in jail who find it necessary to choose abortion.  But Chris' best point was the distinction that he made between Catholic morality, to which he and I subscribe, and the law.  Tobin in wanting to play politician is transgressing in area NOT of his responsibility or his expertise.  And Matthews noted that the Church has failed to teach its flock that abortion is wrong in all instances and now wants to bring out the police and get involved in writing the law to reflect their beliefs.  In a secular society, where not everyone believes abortion is murder, it is not within the Bishop's purveiw to tell a Congressman how to vote.  When asked what law he would espouse on abortion, the Bishop had no answer.  Matthews stated, well if you have no alternative, what the heck are you doing telling a Congressman how to vote?  Time for the Bishop to be more Christ-like, render unto Caesar what is Caesar's (the law) and teach by example, like Christ, that abortion is wrong...for those committing abortion, for those having an abortion, for those facilitating specific abortions, the Bishop should be coming down hard...not on Congresspeople who are writing laws in a secular society where abortion is not seen as the killing of an innocent child as it is in Catholic theology.

Stop playing second rate politics, your Excellency, be a good Bishop not a political bishop and TEACH by example, and don't use force and threats when people don't do what you want.....