DeRosaWorld

Health Care Debate Pep Talk

Here is Howard Dean with with Igor and Faiz from Think Progress talking up their book and health care reform.

It’s A Bipartisan Thing.

"Dr. Francis S. Collins, the geneticist who discovered the causes of half a dozen diseases, oversaw the government's efforts to map the human genome and wrote a now-famous book presenting scientific evidence for a belief in God, will be nominated to head the National Institutes of Health, the White House confirmed Wednesday."

I'd rather have Socrates.

So a Cosmonaut goes into orbit around the earth, looks out his space ship window and declares: This is proof there is no god.

An Astronaut goes into orbit around the earth, looks out his space ship window and declares: This is proof there is a god.

Francis Collins. Do we trust him to spend the billions of dollars in the right places?  He seems like the perfect example of an Obama-man for-all-seasons.

Education... check. A little too American South for my prejudices.

Curriculum vitae... check.

Science bona fides... check.

Theological bona fides... BioLogos... not so much.

I just wish that somewhere in the Administration we were getting a flaming liberal... no apologies.

I Can Has New Governator?

Can I see you on payday... in October!

"But now, if California continues to issue the IOUs, creditors will be forced to hold on to them until they mature on Oct. 2, or find other banks to honor them. When the IOUs mature, holders will be paid back directly by the state at an annual 3.75% interest rate. Some banks might also work with creditors to come up with an interim solution, such as extending them a line of credit, said Beth Mills, a California Bankers Association spokeswoman.

Meanwhile, on Monday morning, a budget meeting between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders failed to produce a result. Amid the budget deadlock, Fitch Ratings on Monday dropped California's bond rating to BBB, down from A minus, the latest in a series of ratings downgrades for the state.

The group of banks included Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., among others. The banks had previously committed to accepting state IOUs as payment. California plans to issue more than $3 billion of IOUs in July."

How much more can be said about this pathetic Republican Party cluster fuck?

California voters got themselves into this mess.  California voters have to get themselves out of it.

The Audacity To Govern?

Democrats may be afraid to say it. The media hates to admit it. Republicans pray it is not true.

President Obama and the Democratic Congress have a liberal mandate. Will they be able to keep it?

"The economy in Ohio is as bad as anywhere in America. These numbers indicate that for the first time voters have decided that President Barack Obama bears some responsibility for their problems," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

"Until now voters have given President Obama high ratings on the economy, blaming former President George W. Bush for their problems. They might be taking out their frustration on President Obama, possibly deciding that the change he promised has not come as quickly as they expected."

"Ohio historically has been the prototypical swing state. One of the reasons Barack Obama won the presidency by such a wide margin is that he carried Ohio with 52 percent of the vote and captured the lion's share of independent votes," Brown added."

Bold, aggressive, progressive action is needed, right now.

Bipartisanship is a dead end in America, right now.

An anti-corporate climate is deserved, right now.

The Republican Party should be getting ready for another beating in 2010.

Will it happen?

What Does It Take To Recall A Governor In California?

Republican California Governor Arnold I.O.U. Schwarzenegger was swept into power by a phony, Republican/Media outrage against Democratic Governor Gray Davis.

There were no statewide protests of anguish during Davis' term. And Schwarzenegger got in, made sure no one from Enron was arrested for treason and domestic terrorism and now has stayed long enough to oversee the humiliation and destruction of the State's economy and social infrastructure.

What happened in California since the Gray Davis' recall is Republican Party and media politics taken to their endgame.

There is no public outrage in California over the I.O.U.s being sent out. There was no public outrage over Gray Davis. It was manufactured by the Republican Party and their media. Just as the I.O.U. consent is being manipulated.

California's is an embarrassment. More people will show up at Michael Jackson's funeral today, than will ever show up at a political protest rally against this government.

The people of California have not been informed what these I.O.U.s mean to them and their future and the future of their children. The media makes light of it.

The recall of Gray Davis was not about government mismanagement or a people's movement. It was about the Republican Party. The Republican Party at all costs. The public be damned. They know the public will do what the media tells them to do.

There is no other word than disgusting.

Robert Strange McNamara: Just Another Failed CEO?

"inglorious retreat or unlimited retaliation".

Robert Strange McNamara has died at the age of 93.

Secretary of Defense from January 21, 1961 – February 29, 1968.

President John F. Kennedy was surrounded by some very strange men. Men who were the ‘best and brightest’, but who also had dark secrets and responsibilities beyond what previous generations of government leaders had experienced.

The atomic bomb ended World War Two, but it also ended a sense of terrain: mountains and seas, protecting people and countries from the total devastation of warfare.

Now, we were all potential victims of the bomb. We could blow up the entire planet in a day if we wanted to.

Men like Curtis LeMay felt a responsibility to protect and defend the nation, but who would protect the nation from the likes of Curtis LeMay?

The best and the brightest. Robert McNamara looked the part. Young, nerdy, glasses, slicked back hair, the President of The Ford Motor Company. The New Frontier was here. Camelot was bivouacked in Washington, D.C.

A question for historians is why was McNamara selected to be the Secretary of Defense. Was it a Kennedy strategy to bring the various defense departments (air, sea, land) under White House managerial control? Was McNamara the loyal corporate man who would take orders from his Commander in Chief?

I want to believe in the good intentions of Robert McNamara and his fellow Kennedy advisers, but their non-reaction to Dallas, other than tears and numb silence, disturbs me to this day. What did they think they were building if November 22, 1963 was just another date on the calendar of history?

The Johnson/McNamara era of the Vietnam War brings out the demons that brought America on the brink of insanity and Richard Nixon. The many locked doors in the White House became too scary for McNamara to open by 1968. He had to get out or was asked to leave. The nastiness was not over. Another Kennedy was going to be killed.

The Fog of War, a 2003 documentary interview with McNamara didn’t answer any more questions than it asked. Nothing was resolved. An expected mea culpa became more shadow box.

There is a sin that will haunt all New Frontiersmen until they die, in fact will haunt America until the question of who killed JFK and why is answered.

Until America looks that mystery in the face and accepts the truthful answer, we will be forced to relive our past sins. Sins the best and the brightest of any generation will never be able to absolve.

Robert McNamara was in the center of the American maelstrom from 1961 to 1968. Decisions made on his watch have led us to the place in history we stand now, on a precarious precipice. Robert McNamara was a watchman at the gate and he let too many bad things slip under our defenses…either by accident, mismanagement or on purpose.

His motivations remain shrouded in fog.

Vice President Biden Says Administration Misread Krugman...

Vice President Biden acknowledged today that the administration underestimated the depth of the economic recession months ago as it prepared a recovery package that is only now beginning to take effect.

"We misread how bad the economy was, but we are now only about 120 days into the recovery package," Biden said on ABC's "This Week." "The truth of the matter was, no one anticipated, no one expected that that recovery package would in fact be in a position at this point of having distributed the bulk of the money."

Oh for christ's sake. Liberals and progressive bloggers have been nagging the Obama Administration for months about the Bush, Jr./Obama Treasury looting, also know as the half-assed recovery package.

Enough bulllshit... Read FDR (see New Deal)... then read Paul Krugman... then arrest the bankers... then take over the banks... simple steps for any Democratic President trying to rescue the economy from a Republican Party demolition.

You were elected President for a reason, Mr. President... and this is it.

Sunday Morning Music: Fleetwood Mac - Sara

Here is Fleetwood Mac performing Sara.

Saturday Musings: 'Show Us Your Tits' Edition

Sarah Palin melted down in a rambling, winking, almost illiterate resignation speech as a 4th of July present to the people of Alaska and to the rest of America.

Oh, she has plans, too big to discuss in front of the evil liberal media… like … FOX News? John King of CNN?... David Letterman?

Look, the Bill Kristol-wing of the Republican Party hand picked this idiot to be John McCain’s running mate in 2008 because they saw their neocon dreams going down in flames. The fact that that dream also brought down the United States of America doesn’t matter to them.

They manipulated John McCain, who was never their man, never really one of them, but too weak to defend himself when presented with the Party’s ultimatum of Sarah Palin.

Is Bill Kritsol proud this 4th of July? Is he smirking, knowing that Sarah Palin will be back someday and he will be proven right? I fucking hope so.

Sarah Palin and Bill Kristol are insane. This brand of Republican Party hero has had their day and the day was lost.

The Republican Party, both politicians and media, need to follow Sarah Palin’s example and leave the stage. You stole the American Century and trashed the nation. Thank your god you are not all in jail or up against a wall.

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It seems some Democratic Senators have a “if you build it, they will come” plan for national health care. Okay, let’s see it, but what about a full-court, fuck the Republican Party press on a strong Democratic Party national health care system?

Be brave. Be strong. You are fighting for America… act like it. The Republican Party has acted in bad faith on this issue. So they don’t get a seat at the table. The Democratic Party needs to be willing to kick a little ass when it has to, for the good of the American people.

We deserve that much for putting up with Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich and The Contract With America and the George Bush, Jr. /Dick Cheney take over. You have the ball. Run with it!

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Afghanistan…so it begins.

“When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
   An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
    Go, go, go like a soldier…

NPR Sucks #16: NPR Takes Another Swipe This Week At Public-Option Health Care

NPR is on a roll this week. Their Morning Edition program has another nice hit piece, with a butter knife, on public option health care all wrapped up in a sweet story about Iowa's Republican Senator Chuck Grassley.

No debate here, the farmer-senator was just a reasonable Republican voice against a public option to health care and that was all there was to it.

NPR needs to understand that the elections of 2006 and 2008 were rounds one and two of the liberal rising tide...round three will be here in 2010 and then 2012 will be the knockout.

So NPR better start supporting its educated, middle-of-the-road liberal listeners with more than Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me and some Los Lobos music ... or be rejected by the folks you thought would support you blindly forever.

You are pissing us off.

What Was Everyone Worried About? America's Empire Continues To Expand.

President Obama, in his role as Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces continues to expand America's Empire.

The war finally heats up in Afghanistan. What he promised on the campaign trail, lowering the level of American armed commitment in Iraq so we can raise the level of combat in Afghanistan, is seeing fruition.

And in Columbia, the United States is going to be sending troops to five military bases to help continue and expand the war on drugs in Mexico and Central and South America.

America is about to get an ass kicking in two more places around the world.

The American people are eventually going to pay a dear price this century... we are used to our wars and military adventures taking place in the far reaches of the planet, but the planet in the 21st century is a much smaller place and America is going to be dealing with our streets, our neighborhoods turning into international war zones.

Something wicked this way comes. We are not ready for it.

Worst Supreme Court Ever

Among the wreckage inflicted on the Untied States of America by the Republican Party over the years since World War Two, add the Supreme Court.

The way is stands now, we have some under-qualified conservative Judges sitting on the bench of the highest court in the land... the branch of government that really separates the Unties States from other democracies in history.

I can't wait until Judge Sotomayor is sitting next to these white, small-dicked Republicans (and that includes Justice Thomas) and makes them sweat under those black robes.

"The Supreme Court handed a victory Monday to a group of white firefighters charging racial discrimination, while also giving some fodder to critics of President Barack Obama’s pending nominee for the high court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for a court split 5-4 along ideological lines, reversed an appeals court ruling Sotomayor joined last year that rejected a claim that the City of New Haven, Conn., discriminated against white firefighters by throwing out a promotional exam after all the African-American firefighters who took it scored too poorly to be promoted.

“Whatever the City’s ultimate aim — however well intentioned or benevolent it might have seemed — the City made its employment decision because of race. The City rejected the test results solely because the higher scoring candidates were white,” Kennedy wrote on behalf of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

Kennedy said that allowing the city’s conduct would establish “a de facto quota system” where test results could be discarded whenever a particular racial group didn’t achieve the average score."

Yeah... fellas... that was kind of the point. (see Justice Ginsburg dissent).

NPR Sucks # 15: NPR Does Not Want You To Have Health Care Unless You Can Pay For It.

I tuned in to NRP's Weekend Edition, this past weekend and Scott Simon was interviewing a spokesperson for the insurance industry about  President Obama's health care plans... no fair & balanced coverage,  he let her present the insurance industry talking points without asking any probing questions or presenting the other side of the issue.

Sometimes, NPR really sucks.

They are cowards and jerks.

Hiding behind an intellectual veil of deceit.

And they ask for my money to do this.

Lowell George and Litte Leat: Lowell George Passed Away 30 Years Ago Today

It has been 30 years since Little Feat's front man, Lowell George passed away. Here is the band performing All That You Dream in 1977.

Sunday Morning Music: America - Ventura Highway

Here is a very mellow America performing Ventura Highway.

Saturday Musings: 'Moonwalking At 50' Edition

An interesting climate bill was passed by Congress last night. America had to jump into this at some point with both feet, after leaving Al Gore at the alter back in 2000... but, we should not be breathing easier.

Humans, not individual nations, need to understand that we all live and breathe on the same planet. We all go down together if we get this one wrong.

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Michael Jackson is still going strong. The folks behind his corporate/music career are working over time to make sure they can milk the singer for everything they can get, even after his death.

Michael Jackson is going to be in our lives for a long time. Just imagine how many careers are going to be revived by the funeral, alone. The freak show keeps moving on and we are going to be forced to watch.

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Governor Sanford (R-SC) who was caught in Argentina having an extra-martial affair says that David (King David from the Bible…) didn’t resign after having his affair with Bathsheba...so why should he.

Well I knew King David, sir and you are no King David. But… maybe the trailblazing Governor was speaking code… so is there also a ‘Jonathan’ in the Governor’s closet?

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President Obama keeps putting his hand out and it keeps getting bit. I wonder how long this will go on? His latest idea of drafting an executive order that would indefinitely incarcerate terrorist suspect is not playing well with the liberal progressive base that love voted for him. In fact they are the ones gnawing on his knuckles.

The President thinks this comprise puts him on the high ground for this issue. Okay, we get it… he is never gong to take a strong left-wing stand, we are going to get four, maybe eight years of little baby steps back from the right-wing abyss.

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So, is the public option health care plan dead? Sometimes, societal change happens overnight. It has to, or be thwarted.

I Remember This Performance On TV...

The dancing around is fun, but he's lipsynching. I don't remember that part. Well, this clips says all that there is to say about this guy. Everything else gets pretty sick.

I Had This Farrah Fawcett Poster In My Room As A Teenager

THERE WAS A TAPE MACHINE, Ass-Sweat.

Most Americans know most national religious figures are charlatans.

Most Americans know that most Republican political leaders are phonies.

I'm not saying these two groups aren't smart, they do fool a lot of people into following them, but man... Richard Nixon takes the cake.

These newly released Presidential recordings of Nixon just keep getting worse for the former, failed, Republican President. We already knew he was anti-Semitic and racist, but in that everyday, all-American, white- guy, asshole from the 1950's kind of way.

I know Richard Nixon never slept with pre-teen boys, or sexy female interns, but he committed every other sin the book. And like all professional assholes, he takes people down with him.

The Reverend Billy Graham is toast. Butter his ass and file it under L for liar... "Synagogue of Satan"?

I love the Presidential tape recording system. Not only does it prove for history that Republican Presidents are degenerate, racist, lying pricks who belong in prison rather that the Oval Office... it also has proven that Democratic Presidents are interesting, smart, patriotic leaders who deserve to be in the Oval Office.

I read a few hate biographies of President Kennedy that have him in a back-brace, rolling around the floor of the Oval Office crying to the Joint Chiefs of Staff to help him out of the Cuban Missile Crisis... but wait... there is TAPE!!! And guess what... JFK was actually a hero... and the Joint Chiefs were treasonous bastards that would have blown up the world. Check out the movie 13 Days based on the tapes.

"Bomb, Bomb, Bomb... Bomb, Bomb Iran"... how would that have worked out for us all, in the light of history, huh?

Republicans... trash 'em.

I Guess Gay-Marriage Really Did Destroy Gov. Sanford's (R-SC) God-Blessed Marriage

Governor Sanford (R-SC) was caught fucking a woman in Argentina.

"I could digress and say that you have the ability to give magnificent gentle kisses, or that I love your tan lines or that I love the curve of your hips, the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of the night's light - but hey, that would be going into sexual details ..."

I lost my office pool. I assumed it would be an underage boy.

Well, we still have to wait for "Maria" to book time on the American talk show circuit.

So this guy, Sanford voted to impeach a President of the United States for lying about a sexual indiscretion while in office.

I guess if he supported gay-marriage in his State, it would set a bad example for all kids.

Bye-bye!

Can President Obama Really Help If He Doesn't Know Whether The Money Is Coming Or Going?

"...First off, it conveniently ignores the fact that TARP accounts for a fraction—about $700 billion—of the government's $13 trillion banking stabilization scheme. At some point, investors are going to balk at buying up federal debt (Treasury bonds), thereby forcing the government to pay higher interest rates, which will wipe out much of the TARP payback benefit. The second sentence is more ominous: It suggests that if banks need that money back, it'll be waiting for them right there at the Treasury Department."

Are we all getting played by the Banks and 'Wall Street'?  Nomi Prins thinks so...

The economic meltdown was a tragedy worthy of a super hero coming to the rescue. Instead, we seem to have a well intentioned President with some pretty shaky advisors.

It really is 'New Deal' time here. Break 'em and shake 'em.

A Man Works From Sun To Sun, But A Woman's Work Is Never Done

I have a growing family of house finches living in the trees and large bushes behind my house. I sat in my yard on Father's Day and watched a female house finch teach two of her babies how to fly. It was something special to see. A few other birds, a blue jay and a hummingbird parked on the phone wires to watch.

The small birds left the wire and seemed to hang in mid-air and it seemed quite the struggle to move forward, but they did, slowly, flying over the house and out of sight.

The adult birds take off like fighter planes, but these little guys put-putted along.

After about three minutes, both birds came back to a wobbly landing on the wires next to their mother.

My cats ignored the festivities.

Sunday Morning Music: Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady, Grace Slick - Third Week In Chelsea

Remnants from crashed Airplanes and Starships; Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady are joined on stage by Grace Slick for the song Third Week In Chelsea from the Jefferson Airplane album Bark.

Saturday Musings: 'Plane and Boats and Trains' Edition

I’m sure glad all the tanker fires at freeway underpasses in California are not terrorism.

Strange time for airplanes, too. They seem to be having trouble staying in the air.

Maybe there are just too damn many of us people traveling around.

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If President Obama was a socialist dictator in waiting, where are the mass executions?  That list would be long and we wouldn’t be worrying about those rich, CEOs flying around in executive jets.

If President Obama was a fascist dictator in waiting, where are the mass executions? That list would be long and FOX News reporters would only be seen and heard in show trials on TV.

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So if I opt-in for a national health care plan, would that part of my salary taken from each paycheck be mine? It would be like a pay raise! Damn the AMA and the big Pharmaceutical corporations… where’s my Paxil?

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Saving Grace is back on the air. I guess it is the point of the show, but they don’t even need the angel. The ensemble acting is so good. This is one of my favorite police shows, but the angel… I don’t see the need for an angel in post-Bush, Jr. America… seems unnecessary, now... with heathens in charge.

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June-gloom in Southern California. It's raining this morning. A good day for reading.

It Can't ALWAYS Be Politics

Next to Bugs Bunny, one of the biggest influences on my life was Curly, from The Three Stooges. I'm a product of television and that's where I met most of my roll models... from cartoons to movies.

Would You Buy A Used Car From This Man?

"The legal mechanisms in our country do not allow cheating. How can one cheat with a margin of 11 million votes?"

From god's word to his mouth. Everyone go home.

"Mr Khamenei said foreign powers were now conspiring to ruin that achievement, and to destroy the Iranian people's trust in their political leaders, by suggesting the vote was rigged.

He named Britain as the "most treacherous" of those countries, prompting roars of "Death to the UK" from the solid ranks of Basiji – Islamic volunteer militiamen – packed into the vast prayer hall.

The Islamic establishment would never commit "treason" by manipulating the vote, he said."

"The legal mechanisms in our country do not allow cheating."

It is historically interesting that by "foreign powers' he means Britain, more so than the United States.

The Man Who Stole His Election, Bush, Jr., Not Ahmadinejad, Criticizes President Obama

"You can spend your money better than the government can spend your money." - Bush, Jr.

Well, I guess he proved that.

"Government does not create wealth. The major role for the government is to create an environment where people take risks to expand the job rate in the United States" - Bush, Jr.

Well, I guess he failed at that... a record-breaker in fact.

The former President Bush, Jr. spoke before the Manufacturer & Business Association in Erie, Pennsylvania. You think these folks would have stoned him.

"Mr. Bush weighed in on some of the most pressing issues of the day: the election in Iran, the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba, and his administration's interrogation policies of terrorists held there and elsewhere. The former president has not commented on Mr. Obama's decision to ban "enhanced interrogation techniques" such as waterboarding, which the current president has called "off course" and "based on fear."

"The way I decided to address the problem was twofold: One, use every technique and tool within the law to bring terrorists to justice before they strike again," he said, adding that the country needs to stay on offense, not defense. On Guantanamo, which while in office Mr. Bush said he wanted to close, the former president was diplomatic.

"I told you I'm not going to criticize my successor," he said. "I'll just tell you that there are people at Gitmo that will kill American people at a drop of a hat and I don't believe that -- persuasion isn't going to work. Therapy isn't going to cause terrorists to change their mind."

The Obama administration has started to clear out some of the more than 200 detainees at the facility."

I thought the deal was Jr. would just go away and shut up. But if him and Dick Cheney want to get back into it... Start the criminal investigations.

Obama Already Spoke To Iran...In Cairo

"For many years, Iran has defined itself in part by its opposition to my country, and there is indeed a tumultuous history between us. In the middle of the Cold War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically-elected Iranian government. Since the Islamic Revolution, Iran has played a role in acts of hostage-taking and violence against U.S. troops and civilians. This history is well known. Rather than remain trapped in the past, I have made it clear to Iran's leaders and people that my country is prepared to move forward. The question, now, is not what Iran is against, but rather what future it wants to build."

As the world moves on into the 21st century, President Obama is trying to develop hope in a future that we make, not trapped by the mistakes of the last century. He needs to make a place for America in this new world.

What is going on in Iran seems to be this struggle encapsulated into a fight over a stolen election that aims to stop a progressive move forward in the Middle East.

Here in America, the right-wing Republicans and media want to see Iran explode so Obama's message fails. The hope of failure is all the Republicans have left. As we are seeing, it takes stolen elections and violence to maintain the old ways.

Media, Media, Wherefore Art Thou Media?

I actually turned the cable news shows on today because I figured I should find out what is going on in Iran. It turns out that the American media only reports that the Republican Party hates President Barack Obama... nothing else... all day.

But I know that already.

So I turned to the Internet and started with Juan Cole's Informed Comment. I got an interesting perspective on Iran. The kind of insight I would have expected from a major news magazine, but I didn't have to wait for a weekly publication. I got it when I wanted it.

I don't even think any of the former major American newspapers have an international desk anymore.

No wonder newspapers are dying... or rather, committing suicide. If they took a stand back in... well 1980 against Ronald Reagan... or against Bush, Sr.  Or they stood with President Clinton on health care or supported him during the Lewinsky lynching... or stopped Bush, Jr. from stealing the election... or ever told Dick Cheney to go fuck himself... well maybe they wouldn't be shutting down.

So, forget TV. Go to one of the major search engines on-line and find the news that is important to you. It will be there... hot off the presses... because who really cares what Newt Gingrich thinks about anything, right?

Sunday Morning Music: Bill Evans - Waltz For Debby

Here is Bill Evans in 1965 performing Waltz For Debby.