But I met the maestro himself the other night when he was in town for the opening of his documentary South of the Border, a paen to Hugo Chavez.

Having written a bit about Chavez and his entente with Iran and Russia, about the regular unmonitored flights between Caracas and Tehran, his deprivation of human rights and his systematic destruction of freedom of the press, I was somewhat surprised that a truth teller like Stone could find himself captivated by the likes of the anti-American dictator.  I told Stone how much I admired him and enjoyed his films.  He preened cockily, but when I told him how surprised I was that he would produce and direct propaganda about Chavez, he wheeled around and simply stated, “See the film.”  Having seen the trailers was enough for me.  I surely am not going to put money down on a piece that praises a leader who does not wish us well.

The following appeared recently in the Huffington Post:

Heart wrenching pictures of oil-coated crabs and poisoned pelicans, black tar balls washing up on white sugar sands and endless live shots of the underwater geyser spewing millions of gallons of toxic plumes into the ocean have fixated our collective attention on the current misery in the Gulf but not the future. Those pictures and non-stop interviews with PR savvy spokesmen have tugged at our emotions but shifted the focus away from possibly permanent effects that lie in the road ahead. Some of the pain has been mitigated momentarily by BP promising to “make things right” as they hawk their $20 billion fund designed not just to help pay off but also to silence locals whose lives have been destroyed. All the while, each of their hat tricks has failed to stop the devastation; plumes the size of underwater states are eradicating sea life and the spill crawls inexorably up the East Coast. Meanwhile the molasses-slow attempts of the White House to mollify worried Americans with useless photo-ops of the president scooping up tarred sand or lambasting no one in particular with tough guy crude remarks about kicking someone’s behind or pontificating from the Oval Office have only temporarily blotted out the unfolding ecological disaster and helped to blur a clear vision of the fate that lies ahead for the citizens of the coast and possibly for the entire country. The truth might be too painful. Perhaps bringing up the long term consequences of the oil spill might cause too much angst as Americans prepare to take their families on summer vacation — many to beaches they may not be able to enjoy much longer. Not a good thing to further inflame the electorate just before the Midterm elections. Better to let the public remain preoccupied with the World Cup or Wimbledon than with unpleasantries like the fact that the ocean is the life support system of the planet and it’s being murdered before our eyes.

Many who have spent a lifetime of summers on beautiful East Coast beaches or surfed in the Pacific off Hawaii or snorkeled in the turquoise Caribbean, have learned about the importance of coral reefs. According to the Nature Conservancy, coral reefs are among the oldest ecosystems on Earth,are the largest living structure on the planet and although they cover less than 1% of the Earth’s surface, they are home to 25% of all marine fish species. The reefs not only serve as habitat for endless species of fish but most importantly for humans, they serve as natural barriers that protect shorelines, coastal communities, beaches and agriculture from the eroding forces of the sea. Now the oil is killing the coral reefs and dead reefs portend that future violent storms may send waves deeper inland than ever imagined, flooding everything in their path. Alabama may become the next Atlantis. At the very least, it’s not an opportune time to buy beach front property.

And then there are the grasses. An Associated Press reporter who has fished in the Gulf every year since childhood just returned from the area. The reason the locals have been so worried about oil getting into the marshes, he told me, is because the marsh grasses also help protect the coast from the bad storms. If the grasses are not healthy then tidal ponds and creeks expand, reducing the land surface to water. The plants also provide food and shelter to many mammals, birds, fish and invertebrates, resulting in one of the most critical plant communities on the continent. The marshes are crucial as incubators for fish and invertebrates, and play a vital role as habitat for migratory waterfowl. Human industries such as seafood and tourism are dependent upon healthy coastal marshes both for their ability to produce and sustain life and for their ability to transform human pollution to less toxic materials. But now oil is in the marshes and it’s killing the marsh grass. Without that protection, the AP reporter said, storms could literally drive an angry ocean 100 miles inland. Without the coral reefs and marsh grasses the Gulf Coast will lie as defenseless as a house without a front door or window panes.

And then there’s the Corexit. BP has poured 185,000 gallons of dispersant onto the out-of-control wellhead (plus 800,000 on the surface) making matters far worse than if they had used a biodegradable version and creating hazardous health issues for years to come – both in the water and on land. The dispersant is so toxic it’s been banned in Europe for years but BP evidently thinks it’s ok for the USA. Unfortunately, it’s killing everything in the water, including the coral, the fish, shrimp, and the traditional diet staple–oysters. (Restaurants that once served up oyster sandwiches like McDonald’s serves Big Macs, now have to rely on oysters which they froze before the spill and the limited supply has driven up prices exponentially. The Po’Boy sandwich — oysters on a special French bread — is now only fodder for rich boys. Some Gulf restaurants are charging $18 for the Po’ Boy and who knows what they’ll cost as the oyster supply dwindles.) The dispersant may be keeping the oil out of sight and below the surface — good for BP, because much of it remains invisible — but it is causing a depletion of oxygen as well as causing oil to remain at deep sea levels. Marlin, grouper, shark , whales, snapper and tuna swim hundreds of feet down and will inevitably swim through it. Marine scientist, Ellycia Harrould-Kolieb says the spill could be an end to bluefin tuna, whose numbers are already depleted by overfishing. Even small amounts of crude could suffocate tuna as well as other deep water fish as it gets into their gills. If the supply of seafood becomes further depleted, if you think the cost of the Po’ Boy is high, wait till the next time you order sushi.

A longer term problem is the health of the men and women who are trying to clean up the mess. American Rights at Work report that 27,000 men and women working to clean up the oil and chemicals have no breathing protection because reportedly BP has refused to provide it, fearing news footage of people wearing gas masks might underscore just how toxic things really are. Those unprotected workers are experiencing nausea, vomiting, nosebleeds, headaches and chest pains. Their lungs and lives are at risk. The situation is reminiscent of the massive health problems experienced by the 911 workers who spent months inhaling toxic ash as they helped to clean up the detritus of the World Trade Center. They were told the air was safe. Now the cleanup crew in the Gulf is being exposed to toxins that may destroy their health. Benzene, a deadly carcinogen, which has a ’safe’ level of 0 to 4 parts per billion, is being measured at 3,400 parts per billion in the air around the Gulf region. With poisons in the air as well as the water, and hurricane season in full swing, how long will it be before countless people are affected? Gulf residents are beginning to ask whether they can afford to live there anymore. Their livelihoods are wiped out and health problems related to the spill are arising. But with joblessness in the US still at 10%, where can Gulf residents go to find jobs that will pay for a new home, let alone health care? Some of the Gulf workers say they have only known shrimping all their lives and are not educated or trained to do anything else. They are trapped between Scylla and Charybdis. If they stay put how will they live? If they move, how will they find work and survive? When the storms and the floods and the illness come they may have no choices. In fact, there may be forced to leave unwillingly. We may witness a diaspora moving North searching for food and safe haven. It is possible that refugee camps would have to be set up to accommodate the large numbers?

There is also the cost of the moratorium on off shore drilling. While it may have a squelching effect on the “drill, baby, drill” mantras of the Sarah Palins and may give heart to supporters of Climate Change legislation, oil companies who’ve been told they can’t drill will depart US waters and look for product elsewhere, like Brazil or the shores of Africa, and they wont be back soon, leaving the Gulf coast in further financial devastation and causing you cost of oil at the pump to skyrocket.

Thirty years ago the pioneering ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau reported that every square mile of the world’s oceans is covered with a thin film of oil. Barely visible, if at all, but it’s there. Now there will be much more of it. As the oil film increases, some say it will prevent evaporation from occurring from the sea surface, decreasing rainfall, causing droughts and water shortages. Others say what does get evaporated will come down as oil rain, coating crops and causing widespread illness. According to Philippe Cousteau, the Florida Keys, the third longest barrier reef in the world is now ” a dead zone. 90% of the big fish, the tuna, the sharks and everything are already gone in the ocean. There’s a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico every summer the size of New Jersey where there’s not enough oxygen for things to live. So it’s not a question of can the oceans can take any more. The ocean can’t take any more. They couldn’t take any more fifty years ago.”

Is it any wonder no one is talking about the future?

The resolutions passed unanimously, first in the House of Representatives in December 2005 and later in the Senate in February 2006.

This May, the Library of Congress, National Archives, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum will all feature exhibits paying tribute to the generations of Jewish Americans who have helped form the fabric of American history, culture and society.

We welcome you to check out JewishAchievementBlog.com and its subsequent YouTube Channel and Twitter Feed- The book, “The Golden Age of Jewish Achievement“, written by Steven L. Pease, is a fascinating retrospective on a people, a culture and their stunning performance.

At the huge dinner, which was held in a ballroom the size of Dulles airport, Vice President Biden filled in for President Obama, who stayed away to host his own St. Patrick’s Day party at the White House.

Biden brought down the house with some of his remarks:

On Radio, Television and newspapers: “At least you guys still have an audience.”
On living in the Vice President’s Mansion, having commuted to Washington from Wilmington, DE during his Senate years: “I’ve voted for public housing all my life. But I never knew it could be so good.”
On freedom of the Press: “Liberty can’t be protected without freedom of the press, but the only news outlet that’s ever given me a fair shake is Amtrak magazine.”
On how words have a different meaning in the Nation’s Capitol: “I’ve learned that Reconciliation means war and a Senior White House Official means Rahm.”
On being attacked in the press: “When Dick Morris is quick to point out every time I put my foot in my mouth, at least I can say it’s MY foot.”
On the 2,000 page Health Care bill: “ That’s more than Sarah Palin can write on her palm.”
On the Economic Recovery bill: “Republicans say the recovery bill hasn’t created any new jobs. Tell that to Scott Brown.”
On the wide screens surrounding the dinner crowd Biden showed a photograph of him with the family dog biting his cuff. “You can it’s a Democratic dog. It’s biting the hand that feeds you.”

The vice president was followed by Chinese-born comedian Joe Wong. “My childhood memories were totally ruined by my childhood, he began. Wong said that he recently became a US citizen after having to take many tests about American history. On one test he was asked to identify Ben Franklin.“Oooohhh,” he said, having been unsure of the answer. “The reason our convenience store gets robbed?” One question on the test was regarding the meaning of Roe v Wade. Wong answered, “Two ways of coming to the United States?” If Wong runs for president in the future he says he might run on a health care platform. “I know that most people die of natural causes. As president I will find a cure for natural causes.”

“I have a great foreign policy. I’m from China. I can see Russia from my back yard.” Wong said he would stay in close touch with US allies by text message, but he would only “text our enemies when they’re driving–’So you’re building a nuclear weapon. LOL.”

Bob Fertik on the Bill Press Show

In February, a Washington Post poll found 80% of Americans disagree with the ruling in Citizens United v. FEC.

Bob Fertik, who appeared today on WWZN, Boston, is a Democratic consultant and co-founder of Democrats.com, a 10-year-old website with over 630,000 supporters. He believes those five activist Justices were catastrophically wrong.

“Generations of American citizens – not corporations – have fought and died for our freedom,” Fertik said. “American democracy is sacred, and our elections are for American citizens. We will fight against corporate-dominated elections until the Supreme Court’s unacceptable ruling is overturned.”

Fertik is launching a multi-partisan and multi-year campaign to overturn the Supreme Court’s ruling with his new website, Democracy.us

The New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times all wrote about this election crisis on Monday. The LA Times reported that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is building a large-scale grass-roots political operation that has begun to rival those of the major political parties, funded by record-setting amounts of money raised from corporations and wealthy individuals.

Adding to the alarm bells, the chamber has signed up some 6 million individuals who are not chamber members and has begun asking them to help with lobbying and, soon, with get-out-the-vote efforts in upcoming congressional campaigns.

Fertik’s mission therefore is even more imperative to intervene before it is too late. “Our immediate goal is to force Congress to pass a strict new law against spending by U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies based in the Middle East, Asia, Canada, or any foreign country. American elections must be for Americans only,” said Fertik.

“And for U.S. corporations, this law must also require advance shareholder approval of all campaign ads. Corporate money belongs to shareholders, not management, so shareholders must decide which candidates their corporation spends money to elect or defeat,” Fertik added.

“Our longer-term goal is a Constitutional Amendment to overturn the Supreme Court ruling and prohibit all corporate spending on elections. We also need “clean election” laws like the Fair Elections Now Act, which provide public matching funds for small donor contributions, so candidates can safely reject special interest money,” Fertik said. Fertik’s campaign will include TV ads, billboards, as well as extensive Internet advertising and petitions. The first TV ad can be seen on Democracy.us.

While new laws and a Constitutional Amendment are pending, Fertik will seek binding pledges from corporations not to buy or sell election ads. He plans petitions and shareholder actions as well as protests and boycotts against irresponsible corporations.

Fertik will also appear tomorrow at 8:30 am EST on the Bill Press Show (Dial Global Network), Thursday on the nationally-syndicated Thom Hartmann Show at 1:00 pm, Friday on the Mark Thompson Show on Sirius XM Radio, as well as on WILM Wilmington. On Sunday, he will appear on the Bob Kincaid show (H.O.R.N. Radio Network).

On Capitol Hill, Bill Heniff from the Congresssional Research Service and Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, offered some insight into Reconciliation, the process which will most likely be used to pass Health Care Reform.

Reconciliation is relatively new. It was first used in 1974 and is a legislative process in the Senate intended to allow consideration of a contentious budget bill without the threat of a filibuster. It is used specifically to change existing law, explained Heniff. It is referred to as an expedited procedure and must be reported by the Budget Committee, which is prohibited from making any changes to what has been submitted. That is left to the Rules Committee. Reconciliation goes to the heart of how the Senate operates. Under normal rules, Senators can debate as long as they like and offer amendments. Reconciliation strips Senators of those rights.

Unlike cloture, a procedure which allows the Senate to cut off debate with 60 votes and get to a final vote on a bill, (“After 30 hours they can vote. That’s how they did the Xmas Eve vote on Health Care Reform. They were able to calculate when they could vote,” said Heniff.) reconciliation does not guarantee a final vote. Senators can offer an unlimited number of amendments, allowing a determined opposition to indefinitely delay a reconciliation measure. And although those amendments cannot be debated, merely voted on, the only way to end the adding of amendments is “through exhaustion.”

In the reconciliation process there is also the matter of the Byrd Rule which stipulates that reconciliation cannot include “extraneous matters.” A matter is considered extraneous if it does not have any impact on the budget or reduce the deficit by $1 billion. A provision would also fit the definition of “extraneous” if it increases the deficit in any fiscal year in the future, whether in one, five, ten or 20 years. And there are “no bright lines,” said a Heniff. “It is very challenging to determine whether a proposal is extraneous.” However, The Bird Rule can be waved by 60 votes and has been waved on reconciliation measures before.

Green discussed recent polling which found the public is “fine with the Senate using reconciliation to pass health care reform,” as long as they “like the bill.” Green’s organization polled 9 key Senate States and found a majority of those poled, including 56% in Nevada, 65% in Washington Sate, 62% in Iowa, 62% in Minnesota, 57% in North Dakota, 61% in Virginia, 58% in Colorado, 57% in Missouri all like a bill that contains a Public Option and House districts favored Public Option by 64%-73%.

It is unlikely, however, that a Public Option will be included in any final bill that is passed simply because the White House has not offered strong support for the measure.