DeRosaWorld

Annie Haslam - Class and Grace

Annie Haslam singing The Young Prince and Princess.

Happy Halloween

Frankenstein's monster versus the Wolfman!

Republican Stooges and Democratic Candidates Debate Senator Clinton

The Republican pundits/journalists(?) authors like chubby Tim Russet (the best part of him ran down his mamma's legs) and Chris (Tip O'Neill would kick your ass) Matthews and all the mean men from the Democratic Party are debating Senator Clinton (D- NY) and it seems coordinating their attacks and questions.

Talk about bipartisan cooperation. Specific debate questions about New York Congressman and the New York Governor?  The Senator from New York should remind Edwards and Obama that the Senate is a grown-ups playground. Biden and Dodd should know better and the others, frankly who cares at this point. I actually was missing Al Sharpton, at least he would have been man enough to admit that Clinton is one hell of a Senator.

The front runner should be ready for these kinds of attacks. No one is better prepared to run for President (obviously) than Hillary Clinton. She knows how to fight, been through some of the worst in our history and still comes out in the lead.

There is a lot 'not perfect' about her, but take a look at the other Democrats on stage with her last night in Philadelphia...none of them should be President. On the Republican side, god help us.

I'm sure she is ready for the attacks from both the Press and her opponents, but is America? Will we be able to take a year of Hillary-hate? That is what's coming.

She represents the first step in swinging the pendulum back to the left in this country. Her universal health care system may be the straw that broke the conservative camel's back. We can send Reagan-ism back to the Herbert Hoover days of disgrace and bring in a new century and a new deal for America and the world.

We were once a world power under strong, progressive leadership. We became a global disaster of greed and ignorance and violence under conservative leadership and their take-over of our government institutions...including the Press. We are still living through it but there is finally hope. It took a stolen election and the worst President in American history to get us there, but here we are. The Democratic big guns are not stepping up. The only heavyweight in the race is Senator Clinton. Why?

Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

"Impeachment Is Off The Table." So What The Fuck Is He Complaining About?

President Bush, Jr. is complaining about Congress wasting time investigating his administration and about the Senate trying to end the war in Iraq.

“The president calls congressional oversight that has uncovered tens of billions of dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse in Iraq a ‘waste of time,’ ” Pelosi said. “We call billions spent in no-bid contracts to Halliburton a waste of money.”

With regard to Bush’s claim that the 110^th Congress has little to show for, Pelosi pointed to several major bills that have been signed into law this year, including homeland security legislation, a minimum wage increase, and a tightening of lobbying and ethics rules.

“Instead of criticizing Congress, the president’s time would be better spent working in a bipartisan way to end this disastrous war in Iraq, keep our promises to our veterans by providing the largest veterans’ healthcare investment in history, and providing healthcare for 10 million children.”

Jr. better hope that this Democratic controlled Congress is as inept at investigating him as he claims or his stupid ass is going to jail.

Is there anything that can get Speaker of the House Pelosi angry enough to start the impeachment process? I mean come on...if not now...when?  If not him...who?

Use the hammer, lady.

A New Deal

Pacific Views points out that there is really light at the end of the tunnel. She links to an interview of Paul Krugman by Ezra Klein about Krugman's book: The Conscience of a Liberal.

"Ezra Klein interviewed Paul Krugman on his new book the other day. And it seems that Krugman believes as I do, real universal health care would usher in a true progressive day as it would affirm to Americans that a government that works for the citizens of the United States can be relied upon to do things right."

The first shots of a revolution?

Here is an important excerpt from the interview:

"EK: And one thing you sort of suggest in the book is that universal health care isn't merely good policy but has the potential to act as the wedge on rolling a lot of this back, on changing how people think of government, what they think of what their responsibility to each other is -- that it has a cultural component.

PK: Yeah, I mean this is one of the few things on which William Kristol and I are in complete agreement. Bill Kristol had this famous memo during the defeat of the Clinton health care plan saying, we as Republicans must ensure that there is no plan because if there is a plan, if Clinton gets something, it will legitimize, re-legitimize the welfare state, and he's right. Universal health care is important and worth doing in its own right, but it also clearly would be a demonstration that you can do good things, that government can make society safer and more equitable, which is why conservatives are so hysterical over even S-CHIP. If we can get heath care, and I think we have slightly better than even odds that we can, it does change the whole set of norms.

EK: And why do you think there's slight better than even odds that we can get it? Why will this time succeed when so many others failed?

PK: First, there's a progressive movement where there wasn't one before. Clinton came in when the Democratic Party was basically an uncoordinated coalition of people with their own special interests. There is a real progressive movement now. They've learned something from the debate. And health care itself, a lot of the sense of crisis over health care in '92 was because the economy was in recession, and things got better on the health care front and the economy recovered even as Clinton was trying to get plan through. This time around private health insurance has been declining even in the midst of economic recovery, so the crisis is that much deeper. And because of the progressive movement, the Democrats have more or less coalesced on a plan. LBJ passed Medicare in July of '65 because he hit the ground running and knew what he wanted. Clinton didn't give his first speech on health care until September '93. This time around, we hope, if it's a Democrat in the White House, that he or she will be much closer to the position that Johnson was in when he passed Medicare."

Let's hope a progressive movement is strong enough to hold together and take the nation back to a sense of self worth. Not only has the weaker argument ruled the day, but that argument has proved false and has self destructed, however, the Right in this country has taken the heart and soul of the nation, our free press, our constitution, even our electoral system and corrupted it beyond recognition.

Moving the nation forward will not be as easy as voting for a Democratic president in 2008. There is a battle coming. Look at our nation's brief history. The American Right does not yield power without a fight.

Sunday Morning.Time To Go To Church

Ann Wilson from the band Heart has a solo ablum out: Hope & Glory.

Here is a video of The Immigrant Song, a Led Zeppelin cover. The Wilson sister do not mess around.

Things Lost On Bush, Jr.'s 'Watch': The Enemy Within

Pundits and Presidents like to make lists of things accomplished on an Administration's 'watch'.

There are no accomplishments for Bush, Jr., but he sure has an epic 'loss' column:

-The 2000 Election

-The U.S. Budget Surplus

-The World Trade Centers (including Building 7 - that could arguably go into Rudy's column)

-Part of the Pentagon

-The War in Iraq (started by him)

-The War in Afghanistan (started by him)

-The City of New Orleans

-The Congress

-Fresh drinking water in the South-East

-1/3 of California to fire (multiple freeway underpasses, we'll throw them in)

-World credibility of the United States of course, but that comes and goes with Democratic Presidents.

Feel free to add your own and of course, if you can think of a 'win' please feel free to add that too.

Who needs Islamo-fascist terrorism when we have this guy.

Secretary of State, Doctor Condoleeza Rice Shows Us, Again Why She Is Not Qualified To Hold That Office

It is just easier and more fun to let The Next Hurrah explain it to us:

Secretary of Sate: I did not say that talking about corruption would hurt our relationship with the Iraqi government....

...I'm overseeing a very large organization, we are determined to look at allegations of corruption, we have many many hundreds of documents, hundreds of reports of corruption. Nothing is going to be gained by speaking pre-maturely about corruption.

Bush Jr. Promises To Bring Casinos and Whores Back To Havana

President Bush, Jr. is promising to do what IKE, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, His Dad, Clinton could not do...re-open the bar at the Havana Yacht Club.

"President Bush, ever pushing for a Cuba without Fidel Castro, wants allies around the world to offer money and political support so the island can be ready to transform itself.

It is Bush's vision for Cuban regime change: providing help on the outside, prodding change on the inside. (Just like in Iraq and Afghanistan!)

Seizing on Castro's fading health as a rare opening, Bush was to ask other nations Wednesday to help Cuba become a free society."

The Beard responded with a speech titled: Bush, Hunger and Death.

Now Bush, Jr. Is Just Getting Mean

"About 30 million low-income American households who will need help paying heating bills this winter from a U.S. government program will be left in the cold because of a lack of funding for the program.

The poor, already digging deep to pay for expensive gasoline, also will face much higher heating fuel costs, especially if oil prices stay near record levels.

Consumer groups and state energy officials have sounded the alarm, saying a federal program to help poor families pay heating bills will have nowhere near the money needed to cover those expected to seek assistance.

The government's Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP, only has enough funding to cover 16 percent of the 38 million poor households eligible for the program."

This President, his entire Administration and the Republican Party do not care about this issue.

The Christian Right will not be quoting passages from the New Testament about charity to their Republican representatives on this issue.

When low-income Seniors freeze to death this winter, the Bush, Jr. Administration will use that as proof that there is no such thing as global warming.