Pioneer Press: Norm Coleman Atones on Yom Kippur for Slimy Negative Ads Against Al Franken

Seems like every Jew in Minnesota is involved in this senate campaign imbroglio. Norm Coleman (Jew) has introspected and reflected over Yom Kippur (Jewish Day of Atonement) to drop his negative attack ads against opponent Al Franken (Jew) and everyone commenting on this mess in the Pioneer Press article appears to be Jewish too. [As voters tire of attack ads, Coleman pulls his: Is the decision a polite gesture, a political tactic — or too little too late? By Rachel E. Stassen-Berger]

"This is not about a calculation," said Coleman, who made his decision as the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur ended Thursday night.

"This is a reflection," he said. A reflection born of: "Having spent three days on the road in Minnesota listening to Minnesotans; having spent a day where I could sit back and reflect upon where we're going; having watched the stock market go to places where it hasn't been in our lifetime; and making a decision about, 'How you want to be perceived? How do you want to win a race? How do you want to serve in the U.S. Senate?' "

Coleman's opponents and others said the move can be seen only as a tactic....

The Franken campaign didn't make immediate plans to change its ad strategy in reaction to Coleman's move.

Last week, in the candidates' first general election debate, Franken said, to laughter: "We've been running ads against Norm Coleman's record ... so they're negative."

Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley, who hasn't had the money to run TV spots, said Coleman's move won't undo the race's negative tone.

"I think the tone of the campaign has already pretty much been set in stone," he said.

Larry Jacobs of the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute said the move is clearly calculated.

"The very claim of it not being calculated is calculated," he said.

If Jacobs is right, then Coleman cheapens his religion by using it to disguise his tactical political change.

And apparently the chazan was not as effective in Al Franken's shul since he was not as moved by his Yom Kippur davening to repent of running sleazy ads.

New Republic: Palin Worse Than Nixon

H.T. to Henry for sending me this article from the New Republic which he retitles, "The New Dumber Nixon."

Barracuda by Noam Scheiber: The resentments of Sarah Palin.

My response is blunt,

Nice dirt but Palin is burnt toast and the culture wars have ended with the defeat of the right.

Electoral shutout.

Reuters: Happy Pope Endorses SS Christianity

I could not make this up. [Does he look happy in this official picture?]

Reuters reports that the New Pope praises the WWII Pope for his SS activities ("Secret and Silent") regarding the Jews.

Of course the evidence for all the "silent and secret" things that the WWII Pope did to save Jews will remain "silent and secret."

And the identities of all the Jews he supposedly saved will remain "silent and secret."

And as I have said in a previous post, if Jesus had taken this Pope's path through life, there would be a "silent and secret" religion called, not Christianity, but are you ready, yes, the SS religion!?

In the latest step in the discussion about Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust, Pope Benedict has issued a ringing defence of his wartime predecessor and said he hoped his beatification “can proceed happily.” To critics who say Pius should have spoken out publicly against the Nazi slaughter of European Jews, Benedict said Pius’s “secret and silent way” was the right approach.

Times: Brilliant Analysis by Robert Reich of Tricky Republican Politics and Economics

This writer is a genius. Wanna know what is really going on? Read it!

Saved by the Deficit?

By ROBERT B. REICH

If the nation plunges into a deeper recession, the deficit will be even larger as a proportion of the economy. Yet all is not what it seems....

Rabbi Shear-Yashuv Cohen Suffers Sarcasm and Mock Outrage from Vatican Blogger Tornielli

Faithworld (Reuters) reports:

A leading Italian biographer of Pope Pius XII has sharply criticised Rabbi Shear-Yashuv Cohen for recalling the controversy about the pope’s role in the Holocaust during an unprecedented address to a synod of Roman Catholic bishops at the Vatican. Andrea Tornielli, the Vatican correspondent of the newspaper Il Giornale who has written four books defending the wartime pope, said no cardinal could have ever spoken that way at a major Jewish forum in Jerusalem.

My response to the writer Mr. Tornielli:

Your sarcastic comments about the rabbi are most unwelcome. He is entitled to his expression of opinion and did so in most restrained terms. Perhaps it was insensitive of the Vatican to valorize Pius in front of a prominent Jewish leader. Anyone reading the record can see that Pius was not brave but timid when it came to opposing the vicious evil of the Nazi era. He surely did not follow the example of Jesus - publicly standing up for faith and belief regardless of the consequences.

Imagine this if you will. Had Jesus followed Pius' path - all of that quiet diplomacy and secret activity - there would never have been a crucifixion, never a Christian narrative of any drama or meaning and hence, no Christianity.

So in my view to honor such a man and his narrative of timidity is hardly the best way to serve your religion. But please note this very well. That's my viewpoint. That is not what Rabbi Cohen was saying. He was far more diplomatic and proper in his tone and his content.

And your mock outrage at him is uncalled for.

Why is Palin Not Humiliated and Crawling Under a Rock?

I had students like Palin, so probably did most teachers.

They never opened the book and never answered the assignment or exam questions – they were pure fakers. In college after a few weeks, once they found out that they were failin’ on account of that fakery, wink wink, they dropped my course and never showed up again.

See, everybody went to school and so everybody knew a faker who walked away and hid when they were found out.

But not Sarah Palin. She (like George W.) is different.

Palin is destructive to our culture and all that we worked to build up in our educational systems. She needs to be humiliated and the message driven home that nobody can fake their way to positions of responsibility in a society that rewards merit and hard work.

Will that happen? Yes and no. Yes among those who care about quality. No among the slacker populace that has spread under the Bush delusion.

And now - how do you understand the nearly 100% solid block of Bush-Palin backers in our Orthodox community?

This is a community that grew up out of academic blood sweat and tears – nobel prizes and 800 SATs; where knowledge of the Mishnah and Talmud and Codes and Commentaries and Responsa is valued above all wealth and the diligent study of Torah day and night is cherished above all activities.

What happened?

Where did all that "respect for learning" go?

Beats me.

Reuter's Blog: Jews Question Pope Pius and the Nazis

You remember that I have some thoughts to share about the Pope.

I guess I wonder more each day what kind of power the Catholic Church has if it could stop neither the external threat of the Nazis, nor the internal epidemic of priestly sexual abuse.

Some Jews have other things to say.

FaithWorld Religion, faith and ethics October 6th, 2008

Jews remind Vatican of darker side of Pius XII anniversary

Posted by: Tom Heneghan

Just as the Vatican is gearing up to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Pope Pius XII, two Jews have spoken out to recall the darker side of his papacy. Their tone is neither shrill nor polemical, unlike many articles and books that have appeared over the years accusing Pius of being “Hitler’s Pope” and not doing enough to save Jews from the Holocaust. They do not seem keen to pick an argument with the Vatican just as it is preparing to hold what may be its most open defence of the controversial pontiff. But they raise difficult questions that remain even after Pope Benedict insisted his predecessor “spared no effort” to save Jews during World War Two.
Rabbi Shear-Yashuv Cohen (photo above), the first Jew to address a Vatican synod, told the Roman Catholic bishops there that Jews “cannot forget the sad and painful fact of how many, including great religious leaders, didn’t raise their voice in the effort to save our brethren but chose to keep silent and helped secretly. We cannot forgive and forget it and we hope that you understand.”
The chief rabbi of Israel, 80, was less diplomatic a few hours earlier in an interview with our Vatican correspondent Phil Pullella: “We feel that the late pope (Pius) should have spoken up much more strongly than he did … He may have helped in secrecy many of the victims and many of the refugees but the question is ‘could he have raised his voice and would it have helped or not?’ …
“We, as the victims, feel yes. I am not empowered by the families of the millions of deceased to say ‘we forget, we forgive … I have to make it very clear that we, the rabbis, the leadership of the Jewish people, cannot as long as the survivors still feel painful agree that this leader of the Church in a time of crisis should be honored now. It is not our decision. It pains us. We are sorry it is being done.”
Cohen said only God knows if Pius spoke out enough against the Holocaust: “God is the judge … he knows the truth.”
Yehuda Bauer, professor emeritus of Holocaust studies at Hebrew University, prefaced his remarks in The Tablet by saying he was a non-religious Jew just trying to reflect historical reality as best he could. He lamented the fact that Vatican archives for the wartime period are still not open and said Benedict offered no new documentary evidence to back up his claim that Pius had spared no effort to save Jews. “Until the archives are opened, no objective view can emerge,” he said.
“Could he have ’saved the Jews’? I do not think so. The Vatican was isolated,” Bauer continued. “But it is not a matter of practical politics – the Pope was, in his own eyes, as God’s vicar on earth, responsible not only for Catholics, but for all humans. The Pope’s failure was moral and theological, not practical. A public statement would not have changed the fate of the Jews, who were being totally annihilated everywhere the Nazis could find them. Had he spoken out in public, he would probably not have saved a single Jew, but he might conceivably have saved his soul – according to the belief system he genuinely believed in.”
Pope Benedict will celebrate mass in honour of Pius on Thursday and the Vatican will open a photo exhibition about him on October 21. Since he has suspended the synod for the mass and invited all bishops to attend it, Benedict might make a major announcement, for example that he would soon beatify Pius. I wonder if Benedict or other Vatican officials will produce any new documentary evidence or any new moral arguments to answer the criticisms these two men have made.

Teaneck, New Jersey Register to Vote by October 14

The last day to register to vote in New Jersey is next Tuesday, October 14th.
Are you registered? Are your friends and family?
If you only forward one email to your friends, family, and neighbors today -- make it this one.
Each and every vote in New Jersey is absolutely crucial to victory on Election Day.

Visit VoteForChange.com, our one-stop voter registration website, and register before the New Jersey deadline.

Supporters like you have built the biggest grassroots movement in the history of American politics.
But in just 9 days, the time for bringing new voices into the political process will be over.
You need to be certain that you, your friends, and your family are registered by the deadline -- it's a small step that will have a huge impact on our Election Day results.
This election is too important to leave anything to chance. Make sure your voice is heard -- and forward this email to all the Garden Staters you know.

Thanks,
Barack

Times: Where can you get the best Prefab Sukkah?

Go figure. Why a report from Minnesota? Nobody in New York to cover this? Anyhow, Happy Tabernacles!

The Times reporter in Minneapolis compares and reviews four prefabricated Sukkahs.Some snappy innovations among them.

By the way, Sukkot is the culmination of the High Holiday Season. The three main themes of the Days of Awe are Creation, Suffering and Revelation along with a heavy concentration on introspection, sin and atonement.

Sukkot brings us the time of rejoicing - the taste of redemption - the messianic age and more concretely - the harvest.

The greeting I have been hearing much more frequently and nervously than ever this time around is, "May you have a prosperous year." And if the promised redemption (bailout or rescue) is not in the cards, as always, there will be plenty of surplus sukkot to go around after the holidays, groan.

Is Mayor Michael Bloomberg Jewish?

Yes. Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a Jew. He was born to a Jewish family of Russian and Polish descent in Boston on February 14, 1942.

Bloomberg is also incredibly wealthy. Forbes reports his net worth at $20 billion as of 2008, ranking him eighth among American billionaires, up from 34th in its list of 400 Richest Americans in September 2006 and 142nd in the March 2007 List of the World's Billionaires.

Bloomberg also has shown his unbelievable chutzpah in announcing this week that he is seeking to change the law so that he can be elected to a third term as mayor of New York City.