DeRosaWorld

Can Bush, Jr. Even Count To Ten Without Using His Fingers?

"U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is calling for extensive, wide-ranging reforms to the way the government regulates financial markets, including proposals to give the Federal Reserve more power and create new bodies to monitor mortgages and other transactions.

Paulson is slated to formally present the Treasury Department's new plan in a speech scheduled for Monday morning.

Among the many items in the plan is a proposal to make the Fed "responsible for overall issues of financial market stability," according to the executive summary."

God help us. What is wrong with this picture? Can't we hold our breath and wait until the election. This Administration reorganizing the financial markets?

Why do I have a feeling that the working American is going to get screwed right into the floor today?

Here is Paul Krugman's take on the Bush, Jr. Economic Show.

Sunday Morning Music

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings perform 100 Days, 100 Nights.

Barack Obama Wins Endorsement of Anti Abortion, Archie Bunker Senator from Pennsylvania

"Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey endorsed Democrat Barack Obama on Friday, a move that could help the presidential candidate make inroads with white working-class voters dubbed "Casey Democrats" in the Keystone State.

Appearing on stage beside the Illinois senator, Casey told a boisterous rally, "I believe in my heart that there is one person who's uniquely qualified to lead us in that new direction and that is Barack Obama."

Pennsylvania's April 22 primary will allocate 158 delegates, the biggest single prize left in the drawn-out nomination battle between Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. Clinton is leading Obama in the state, by 12 points in one poll this month.

Casey is a first-term senator and the son of a popular former governor of the state. Casey is Catholic and, like his father, is known for his opposition to abortion and support of gun rights. His support could help Obama make inroads among Catholic voters, who have preferred Clinton to Obama in earlier primaries and strongly favor her in Pennsylvania polls."

What the fuck is a "Casey Democrat"? Last month they were "Archie Bunkers"...if they support Hillary they are racists. If they support Obama they are good, upstanding, white, Catholic, ANTI-ABORTION Democrats.

The Huffington Post and other desperate progressive blogs refer to Senator Casey as a major Senator...who ever heard of Senator Casey? The endorsement is odd and probably uncomfortable for the liberal progressive Senator Obama. How do you explain to all the woman in the Democratic Party that Senator Casey believes abortion is illegal and should be a criminal offense.

Maybe Geraldine Ferraro could help out here with the women...oh wait, you all flamed her for being a racist...never mind...you're screwed.

Saturday Musings

- Americans are fighting in Basra and we are not allowed to know the details. I’m afraid that magic number of 5,000 dead US soldiers is going to come sooner rather than later. Maybe even before Bush, Jr. leaves office.

- Some Democrats want Senator Clinton to drop out of the race before her three-state sweep coming up in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Indiana. Why should she? Obama supporters made a mistake that probably can not be reversed, so I guess they want it certified. We all go down together?

Face it Obamamaniacs, you blew your opportunity to vote for the first woman running for President of a major party. Your liberal 'progressive' credentials are in tatters. You got confused and scared, your Primary came, you voted for Obama, now you regret it and there ain’t a damn thing you can do about your choice now. Except hope Clinton steals the nomination. It's a win-win situation for you. You can keep your progressive ID card, but not actually have to deal with an Obama Presidency.

- Senator Obama said something about the economy this week, too…hope, blah, blah, shared blame, blah, blah…he doesn’t know what he is talking about folks. Sorry. Ever see the movie The Candidate?

- The Federal Reserve in printing up another $100 Billion to prop up Banks. Should we be worried now? Can someone check on those New Deal-era Bank reforms that were supposed to protect us? Are there any left? Are we screwed?

- California State Regulators cut by more than half the number of emission-free vehicles that car manufacturers have to produce in the coming years – oh well, fuck the environment, the air and lower gas prices. Big Oil wins again.

- Maybe we should start thinking about boycotting those Olympics in Beijing. What do you think? There doesn’t seem to be any penalty any country or the United Nations is willing or able to place on China. They really want to put on a great show for the world. Let’s not show up.

- President Bush, Jr. and President Vice Dickhead Cheney really love their Iraq war. If it’s good for Haliburton, It’s good for America...and we're winning.

- Another Iraq-themed movie tanked at the box office this weekend. Stop-Loss was ignored by the American people, especially young men. Hollywood can’t put its head around this war and Americans don’t seem to want to deal with it much either.

- A friend of mine turned me on to Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. This former Riker’s Island prison guard is the real next American Idol. Soul singing with a punch in the gut. 100 Days, 100 Nights is the latest.

- Heading south of the border with my reading list. The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano has reached the top of the stack. Just started it and it is blowing the cobwebs off a lot of what I've been reading lately.

Did Anyone Tell 'The Progressives' Barack Obama Doesn't Want To Be Called A Liberal Either?

"I'm going to be sworn in in January, we don't know what the economy's going to look like at that point. And, you know, the thing you can--you can be assured of is that I'm not going to making these decisions based on ideology. I'm not a dogmatist. I know that some, you know, my opponents to the right would like to paint me as this wooly-eyed, you know, liberal or wild-eyed...my attitude is that I believe in the market, I believe in entrepreneurship, I believe in opportunity, I believe in capitalism and I want to do what works. But what I want to make sure of is it works for all America and not just a small sliver of America. And if it turns out--if somebody can make a persuasive argument to me that, you know what, what we need at this juncture, at this particular point in time is a different set of policies than some of the ones that I've proposed, I'm always going to listen to people. Because I think one of the problems, in fact, with the Bush administration has been its rigidness when it comes to economic policy. I mean, you ask them any question, they'll say tax cuts. It doesn't matter what the problem is, if it's, you know, our trade deficit: tax cuts. If it's, you know, slowdown in manufacturing: tax cuts. You know, at a certain point, you know, if you've only got one arrow in the quiver, then you're going to have problems." -Senator Barack Obama (D-IL)

Oh, boy, some Liberals are afraid to call themselves liberal, so they invented Progressive for this election year.

Fuck that.

I'm a liberal. I'm so left that I bend around right again.

Why Are We Being Lied To About The Fighting In Iraq?

"U.S. forces in armored vehicles battled Mahdi Army fighters Thursday in the vast Shiite stronghold of Sadr City and military officials said Friday that U.S. aircraft bombed militant positions in the southern city of Basra, as the American role in a campaign against party-backed militias appeared to expand. Iraqi army and police units appeared to be largely holding to the outskirts of the Sadr City fighting, as American troops took the lead."

All we heard for the past few days is that the Iraqi army is handling things in Basra. Why are we being lied to?

Enough lies. Either our Press is a bunch of fools or they are participating in the lies.

After 5 years and over 4,000 dead soldiers, the American people deserve the truth. The troops deserve the truth be told about them.

Obama at Cooper Union

"Senator Barack Obama called Thursday for tighter regulation of mortgage lenders, banks and financial houses, even as he spoke of pumping $30 billion into the economy to shield homeowners and local governments from the worst effects of the collapse of the housing bubble.

Mr. Obama laid much of the blame for the crisis on lobbyists and politicians who dismantled the regulatory framework governing the energy, telecommunications and financial services sectors.

Speaking at Cooper Union in Manhattan, Mr. Obama blamed Democrats no less than Republicans for the crisis that now casts a shadow of foreclosure and insolvency over millions of Americans. He did not mention former President Bill Clinton by name, but the target of his criticism seemed clear.

“Under Republican and Democratic administrations, we failed to guard against practices that all too often rewarded financial manipulation instead of productivity and sound business practices,” Mr. Obama said. “The result has been a distorted market that creates bubbles instead of steady sustainable growth, a market that favors Wall Street over Main Street but ends up hurting both.”

Well, considering that Bill Clinton is the only Democratic President in a generation, yeah...both Partys would imply President Clinton.

Sorry, I like to hear him talk about hope and change, but when he gets to specifics he sounds unsure of himself and the lilting tones ring hollow for me.

For someone who is going to bring us all together and erase the line that divides the two aisles in Congress, he sure ain't making no friends. I wonder where the coalition is going to come from.

Basra Surging

"One of southern Iraq's two main oil export pipelines has been severely damaged in a bomb attack, officials said today.

The bombing of the pipeline, seven miles south of Basra, came as clashes between Iraqi security forces and Shia fighters in the port city entered a third day.

"This morning, saboteurs blew up the pipeline transporting crude from [the] Zubair 1 [oil plant] by placing bombs beneath it," an oil company official said.

"Crude exports will be greatly affected because this is one of two main pipelines transporting crude to the southern terminals. We will lose about a third of crude exported through Basra."

With Operation Cavalry Assault, the Iraqi government is trying a little surge of their own as they move in on militias that are roughing up the locals. I don't think Senator McCain is going back to stroll the markets anytime soon.

The price of crude oil has surged this morning, too.

Arianna Huffington May Not Need Hillary Clinton, But America Does

"Even though her proposals would involve tens of billions in government spending, Clinton moved to head off anticipated charges that such measures would constitute a bailout. “To those who object to our government helping middle-class and low-income families devastated by the housing crisis, I say this: We’ve given Bear Stearns a $30 billion lifeline, we’ve given their creditors, their lenders, their customers, and those associated with them the same lifeline,” she said. “How can you tell a family about to lose their home that there’s nothing we can do to help them?”

Some progressive blogs have made their choice clear. They want Senator Barack Obama to be the Democratic nominee for President. Talking Points Memo, The Huff Post have become Drudge-like daily embarrassments of uninformed partisan blogging. Their anti-Hillary obsessions align them with the wingnuts and stop them from being the daily, reliable news sources they so want to be.

Senator Clinton leads in Pennsylvania, West Virgina and Indiana so of course those States don't count. But Obama leads in North Carolina, so that is the next State we must pay attention to and if Obama wins Hillary should drop out of the race. I disagree. There are reasonable and mighty strong scenarios that have her still winning the Democratic Party nomination. I'm enjoying the debate. The longer the Democrats fight, the less appealing Obama becomes...because he isn't saying anything. And people are finally hearing that big, loud nothing.

I want solutions. I want a big, fat Federal government to create social programs and fund the shit out of them. I want FDR/New Deal-like solutions to America's problems.

America has poured its treasure into the military industrial complex for 60 years. The biggest socialized bureaucracy in world history. I want that to end. The American people want that to end. It will take a revolution. That revolution is the white middle class turning out to vote for a woman. Ronald Reagan took those voters from the Democratic Party in 1980. Hillary Clinton is taking them back. There's your once in a generation election.

Richard Widmark Has Died

Richard Widmark has died. One hell of an actor. One great tough-guy. A very decent man.

He was 93. He was not pushed down the steps.

“The businessmen who run Hollywood today have no self-respect. What interests them is not movies but the bottom line. Look at ‘Dumb and Dumber,’ which turns idiocy into something positive, or ‘Forrest Gump,’ a hymn to stupidity. ‘Intellectual’ has become a dirty word.”

What Did McCain See In Iraq?

The 'Surge' never worked. It is another lie told to us by the Bush, Jr. Administration and the Media.

"Iraq's leaders faced their gravest challenge in months Tuesday as Shiite militiamen loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr battled for control of the southern oil capital, fought U.S. and Iraqi troops in Baghdad and unleashed rockets on the Green Zone.

Armed Mahdi Army militiamen appeared on some Baghdad streets for the first time in more than six months, as al-Sadr's followers announced a nationwide campaign of strikes and demonstrations to protest a government crackdown on their movement. Merchants shuttered their shops in commercial districts in several Baghdad neighborhoods.

U.S. and Iraqi troops backed by helicopters fought Shiite militiamen in Baghdad's Sadr City district after the local office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa Party came under attack, the U.S. said. Residents of the area reported intermittent explosions and gunfire in the area late Tuesday.

Senator McCain might believe in the 'Surge', but I doubt it, he is just too afraid of the current administration to stand up to them. He is neither a maverick nor a hero. He has sold his soul for the Republican Party nomination and I don't think the rest of America is buying his act.

Under Cover With Eliot Spitzer

Here is another take on the events surrounding the resignation of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer from Greg Palast.

Sure, Spitzer was a bad boy, but what the Governor of New York was doing in Washington was going after the bad guys.

"While New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was paying an ‘escort’ $4,300 in a hotel room in Washington, just down the road, George Bush’s new Federal Reserve Board Chairman, Ben Bernanke, was secretly handing over $200 billion in a tryst with mortgage bank industry speculators.

Both acts were wanton, wicked and lewd. But there’s a BIG difference. The Governor was using his own checkbook. Bush’s man Bernanke was using ours.

This week, Bernanke’s Fed, for the first time in its history, loaned a selected coterie of banks one-fifth of a trillion dollars to guarantee these banks’ mortgage-backed junk bonds. The deluge of public loot was an eye-popping windfall to the very banking predators who have brought two million families to the brink of foreclosure.

Up until Wednesday, there was one single, lonely politician who stood in the way of this creepy little assignation at the bankers’ bordello: Eliot Spitzer..."

"...Indeed, the feds actually filed a lawsuit to block Spitzer’s investigation of ugly racial mortgage steering. Bush’s banking buddies were especially steamed that Spitzer hammered bank practices across the nation using New York State laws.

Easter Sunday Sees The Death Toll Hit 4000 US Soldiers In Iraq

"Those who oppose the war will see the 4,000 dead as further reason to end it. Those who support the war will point to military progress and say that future casualties will be much lower."

Congratulations Mister Bush and Mister Cheney, Ms. Rice and Mister Wolfowitz, Perle, Powell and Rumsfeld. I hope you are celebrating Mister Kristol and all the employees of FOX News. Have another cigar Mister Limbaugh.

Everything Easter Sunday stands for has been thrown to the floor and pissed on by this Republican Administration, the Republicans in Congress and the Media.

I hope the ghosts of these 4000 haunt your dreams. Look at your children and grand children and think about the families of these dead soldiers...you fucking pigs.

Sunday Morning Music

The Three Degrees singing When Will I See You Again? (The Sound Of Philadelphia)

Saturday Musings

-The gruesome body count of US soldiers is on in Iraq as we approach the magic number 4,000 killed. Then we will forget again until 5,000. No judgments from the media. No condemnation. No protest. Dick Cheney fishes and parties with his freaky billionaire friends in the Middle East. The President is stupid and says mean, hurtful and foolish things.

-Barack Obama spoke this week in Philadelphia. It wasn’t quite the second coming or an Elvis encore, but the pundits liked it. We were told that history was spoken that day. My impression was that the Senator needs a psychiatrist.

-John McCain spoke this week, too. The stupid, old-man ramblings over Iran and the war in Iraq. Man, he seems old. President Reagan never gave off the impression of an old man. McCain oozes it. They say The Gipper’s mind was slipping during the second term. McCain seems to have lost his already.

-Senator Clinton seems poised to win big in Pennsylvania. This thing is a street fight. She spoke this week on Iraq, too. Her sensible moderation may be too little, to late. She seems to be the only person left standing who understands Iraq, but her words are no longer echoing.

I guess we leave it up to the racists to see if she can pull this out. Her strength is the economy, or lack of economy, right now. I think people are voting their pocket book when they vote for her, not their racial prejudices.

-Speaking of racism and economics. In Philadelphia, there was a plan to make the entire city WI-FI friendly. Internet for everyone, rich and poor…then the companies did the math and there was no profit to be made in the poorer, mostly black neighborhoods, so they are changing their minds. Something similar happened in the 1980s in Philadelphia when cable TV was being introduced across the country. No company wanted to lay cable in the poor neighborhoods where the population was mostly black. Philadelphia became one of the last major cities to have cable TV. So maybe the Archie Bunkers aren’t just living in the wilderness of Pennsylvania. They are also in the penthouse suites of communication corporations including some Gen-X and Gen-Y favorites.

-Arthur C. Clarke died this week. Kids today will have no idea what they have missed if they do not seek out his works. His fiction inspired reality in young scientists’ minds. Your cell phones and satellite technology for example.

Arthur C. Clarke formulated the following three "laws" of prediction:

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Go for it! It’s the 21st century!

-Anne Garrels is a senior foreign correspondent for NPR's foreign desk. She has spent the past four years in Iraq. She did a retrospective series of reports this past week. What caught my ear at one point was a harrowing story in which her transport came under attack, but she said” Al-Qaeda was firing on our vehicle!” I thought, how did she know who was firing on her vehicle? Suddenly her story started to smell of propaganda. I just don’t trust NPR. I wish I could. Sorry Anne.

-Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico endorsed Senator Obama for President. He worked for President Clinton as Ambassador to the United Nations, and as the Secretary of Energy and it was expected he would throw his support behind Senator Clinton's candidacy.  Richardson said that Obama has ‘something special’.

No endorsement yet from John Edwards. No word from Al Gore either. I wouldn’t be surprised if Gore did not endorse anyone. Why should he? No one endorsed him after he won the election in 2000.

It should have been John Edwards this year. If Big Al didn’t want it, Edwards was the guy. Democrats have made an historic mistake, here I think.

-Wow, I actually saw a skull appear over hot Dana Perino’s face during her press briefing this week. It was just like the ending of the movie PSYCHO. She was stuttering and spitting trying to roll back Bush, Jr.’s lies and stupidity. It was really cool. They really are devils!

-Made Fallenmok’s Spaghetti Punttanesca last night and it was delicious. Some folks aren’t used to the olive, caper, garlic combination. Sometimes that taste clashes with red wine. But if you follow his recipe, I think you will be hooked. (Just ask the whores of Naples)

-Stop everything! Buy Gnarles Barkley’s The Odd Couple. For the kids today who don’t know what TSOP is. Check this out and then go download The Stylistics, The Three Degrees, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, and The O’Jay’s.

iTunes has Stacey Keach reading The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. The drawback to this collection is the stories are not listed individually as tracks. It is one big track, so getting to a specific story is impossible. But Keach is the right person to read these stories. Hemingway's stories are very clear when read aloud.

"So?" Fuck You, Too, Dick Head

President Vice Dickhead Cheney needs a good smack in the mouth.

CHENEY: On the security front, I think there’s a general consensus that we’ve made major progress, that the surge has worked. That’s been a major success.

RADDATZ: Two-third of Americans say it’s not worth fighting.

CHENEY: So?

RADDATZ: So? You don’t care what the American people think?

CHENEY: No. I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.

Vice President Cheney Celebrates Five Years of War in Iraq

"Vice President Dick Cheney has spent the day fishing in the waters between Oman and Iran on the Sultan of Oman's 60-foot royal yacht.

Cheney was accompanied by his wife and one of his daughters on the fishing trip, but the sultan didn't take part.

Oman is a key U.S. military ally. It allows the U.S. to use four air bases, including one just 50 miles from Iran.

A senior administration official says Cheney wanted to visit the sultan to show U.S. appreciation for its cooperation in fighting terrorism, and to talk about Iran.

The official says the Omanis are concerned by the escalating tensions between Iran and the international community over its nuclear program, as well as its activities outside its borders in places like Iraq."

Dick Cheney is so fucking creepy. Did any reporter remind him that it was the fifth anniversary of his bloody war in Iraq? If you are looking for a monster in  politics, look no further.

Five Years. Really?

School books tell us that World War Two started, more or less in 1937 with Japanese aggression and exploded in 1939 with Germany's attack on Poland. America entered officially in 1941 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. By 1945 the Empire of Japan and the Third Reich were in ruins, literally. The war was costly, but the aggressors were destroyed...

America invaded Iraq after the Bush, Jr. Administration and the Press fed America a steady diet of lies. But did they even need to bother? Would American citizens have cared if the news just reported on March 19th, five years ago that the U.S. military was moving on Iraq? That Saddam Hussein was overthrown? I don't think so.

At a certain point the blame and the shame shifts from Bush, Jr., Cheney, Rice, Powell, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and the other intellectually twisted neo-cons and even away from the press and corporate media to us, to American citizens, who have watched our elections become meaningless. We watched our economy grow weak and predatory. We watched our televisions and laughed at the same sit-coms and reality competition shows and nightly news where we see our sins displayed before us and mix it all up in our heads as the same thing, give it all the same importance...none. No consequences.

The Republican Party should be in shambles. There should be pockets across this nation where there is no Republican Party representation left. Their leaders have failed and betrayed us for decades.

Today there should be mass protests in the streets across the nation...mass protests.  But there won't be. The protest will be minor. At the end of the day America will have spoken.

Five years in Iraq and let's not forget Afghanistan. Five years? Really? And this is all we have to show for it?

Does anyone have to answer for it? I think we do. I'm sure we will.

Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) Endorses Senator Clinton

Representative John Murtha endorsed Hillary Clinton for President.

"Mr. Murtha, a Democratic congressman from the Pittsburgh area since 1974, has become a particularly high profile opponent of the Iraq war; as a retired Marine Corps colonel and a leading voice on defense issues, his criticism of the American strategy and ongoing presence in Iraq has made him a frequent presence on television and cable news."

Murtha was adopted by the progressive movement, begrudgingly when he came out against the Iraq War. Not many in either Party were brave enough to speak out to Bush, Jr.'s face. The Press made fun of him and tried to take his legs out from under him, but Murtha was too tough for that.

It will be interesting to see if the Progressives turn on him now that he has come out for Senator Clinton and not Senator Obama. There seems to be a price to pay for liberal credentials this election year.

Anthony Minghella Dies

Anthony Minghella was a filmmaker whose movies I looked forward to. He died unexpectedly while recovering from an operation for lung cancer. He leaves behind a shocked family, film community and cinema fans.

I check IMDB occasionally to see if some of my favorite stars or directors or writers are coming out with something new. Minghella was on that list. At age 54, he had the promise of a few more decades of work in him. He will be missed.

Nina: I love you.
Jamie: I love you.
Nina: I really love you.
Jamie: I really, truly love you.
Nina: I really, truly, madly love you.
Jamie: I really, truly, madly, deeply love you.
Nina: I really, truly, madly, deeply, passionately love you.
Jamie: I really, truly, madly, deeply, passionately, remarkably love you.
Nina: I really, truly, madly, deeply, passionately, remarkably, umm... deliciously love you.
Jamie: I really, truly, madly, passionately, remarkably, deliciously... juicily love you.
Nina: Deeply! Deeply! You passed on deeply, which was your word, which means you couldn't have meant it! So you're a fraud, that's it!
[Jaime playfully pushes Nina away, then pulls her back towards him]
Nina: You're probably a figment of my imagination...
[pause]
Nina: Juicily?

What Barack Obama Told Us In Philadelphia

Senator Barack Obama spoke in Philadelphia today to answer critics of his former pastor and spiritual mentor Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr. The speech sounded strangely more like a concession speech than the major address on race that the Obama campaign said he was going to deliver.

He made a lot of honest points about race in America, honest and obvious, maybe painfully obvious. But he sounded confused. He sounded unsure and inexperienced, not about race in America and its role in this campaign, but about who he is. I think this speech was a more adequate reflection of the man than he intended. He is not ready for the Presidency.  I think he knows it. I think he told us as much in Philadelphia today.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur C. Clarke is among the stars now.

Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan

"Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan will feature testimony from U.S. veterans who served in those occupations, giving an accurate account of what is really happening day in and day out, on the ground.

The four-day event will bring together veterans from across the country to testify about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan - and present video and photographic evidence. In addition, there will be panels of scholars, veterans, journalists, and other specialists to give context to the testimony. These panels will cover everything from the history of the GI resistance movement to the fight for veterans' health benefits and support."

There is not much coverage out there in the Republican Press and Media. Interesting and powerful history is being told by these young soldiers. The videos are worth our time.

Bushonomics

President Bush, Jr.and the Republican Party singing and dancing in the 21st Century.

In Search of Hearts and Minds

President-Vice Dickhead Cheney slouches toward Bethlehem.

The Second Coming by W.B. Yeats

TURNING and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Happy Saint Patricks Day

The Leprechaun Brothers perform Danny Boy on The Muppet Show.

Tar & Feathers Back In Vogue

From the Columbia School of Journalism comes an article by Dean Starkman that all working and middle class Americans should read.

"One body of work, compiled by nonprofit groups, academics, documentarians, and others, has marshaled data to make visible what readers already sense: a dramatic qualitative and quantitative—and recent—shift in the relationship between the credit-card industry and its customers. Yes, this narrative says, something has changed, and, no, the change does not benefit you. The credit-card exchange, we are told, has shifted from a lending and underwriting paradigm to a sales paradigm; penalties, fees, and default interest at rates that were illegal a generation ago are no longer regrettable outcomes to be avoided but central to the business model."

By middle class I mean those who are barely making ends meet. By working class I mean the working poor, those that are sinking under the weight of the economic mismanagement of the Republican Party for decades.

Mostly Republicans are probably watching the John Adams miniseries on HBO, but I wish most working class Americans could afford cable and HBO and take a few lessons from the American Revolution.

Wouldn't it be terrible if the people who made collection calls for credit card companies were greeted in the parking lots after work by an angry mob with hot tar and feathers?

John Adams

I am enjoying the John Adams miniseries on HBO. I could watch a seven-part series on the Continental Congress debating independence. (Fucked up American trivia: Paul Giamatti is said to be a member of the Skull & Bones)

Here are some quotes from John Adams:

The right of a nation to kill a tyrant in case of necessity can no more be doubted than to hang a robber, or kill a flea.

In politics the middle way is none at all.

The proposition that the people are the best keepers of their own liberties is not true. They are the worst conceivable, they are no keepers at all; they can neither judge, act, think, or will, as a political body.

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. 

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

Sunday Morning Music

Ottorino Respighi's Pines of Rome (Pines of the Villa Borghese and Pines Near a Catacomb)

Saturday Musings

If  I Can Make It There, I’d Make It Anywhere. It’s Up To You,  New York, New York.

-New Yorkers in the news:

-The Greatest President who never was, Mario Cuomo, has a solution for the Democratic Primary. Instead of CNN and MSNBC debates, make the candidates answer long, substantial questions on the issues facing America today. Sorry, Mario, Not in our life time. It is all about the sound-bite. Besides, would the average American understand the answers?

Ok, that’s being cynical, but come on, we just had two terms of a retard as President, and we really don’t seem to mind. We also pay $4.00 for gas and don’t seem to mind. We also went to war on an admitted lie, and don’t seem to mind. Jr. got in on a stolen election and we don’t seem to mind….on an on and on.

In a nation where the answer to Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? is 'No', substantive policy talk is not going to help people decide who should be the next President. It is not a standard we ever held to Republican Presidents. Jr. has yet to form a complete sentence while in office. We mocked Bill Clinton and Al Gore for being policy wonks.

All politics are local and it’s the economy stupid work pretty well as a voting guide.

-Eliot Spitzer…WTF? You have a wife and three daughters.

-Geraldine Ferraro is not a racist. Neither is Ed Rendell or Bill Clinton. Josh Marshall and The HuffObama Post need to take a look in the mirror. Americans are not evil because they don’t necessarily support Senator Obama in the Democratic Primary. Americans are evil when they shout and point and scream like brats when they don’t get their way, like Rush Limbaugh and FOX News and the Republican Congress…not very good company, I’d say.

-Congress went into a closed-door session to debate the unconstitutional acts of the Bush, Jr. Administration when it comes to warrantless wiretapping, meeting in secret so national security can be preserved. Republicans hide behind national security when they’ve really done something bad. Remember, it became the motto of the Reagan Administration where everything from his Alzheimer’s to supporting Iranian Hostages and Contra Founding Fathers became matters of national security and could not be investigated in public. And how did that work out for us?

-Bush, Jr. is trying to keep another critical report by the military out of the hands of the public. Another report on how misguided and mismanaged our war in Iraq actually is and how there is more proof that the neo-con fascists that infest Washington are playing the American people for fools. The report is already on the internet, but CNN, FOX News, MSNBC can’t seem to find it.

-Bearn Sterns needs money. The Federal Reserve is going to give it to them. Okay, but when the average American can’t make a car payment, who do we call?

-The EPA is complaining that Bush, Jr. overstepped his authority again and made the air less safe for Americans and the world. We should add up all the damage this administration has inflicted on the world and compare it to the damage terrorist evil-doers have inflicted on the world. I would like to see a grid of damage: Bush, Jr. vs. Terrorists.

-Pope Benedict XVI has created some more sins. Ecological damage and genetic manipulation. How awesome is that? Catholics all over the world can no longer pollute nor grow or eat genetically modified foods! No more bovine growth hormones. They can only eat hamburgers made from organically raised cows.  Am I misinterpreting the new rules? Genetic manipulation covers our food too, right, Father?

-I’m reading The Life of Andrew Jackson by Robert Remini, not the three-volume set. I’m cheating and reading Remini’s one-volume version. I was watching television and The Wind and the Lion came on. One of those films that once I see a scene, I stay until the end. Mainly to watch Brian Keith’s performance as Theodore Roosevelt. In one scene he tells reporters that Andrew Jackson shot a man off the porch of the White House. When the movie was over I went on Amazon.com, looked up Andrew Jackson, read some reviews of his biographies, settled on Remini’s and ordered a nice used copy. Good reading.

Theodore Rex is coming soon, too.

- "I'm puttin’ on my top hat, Tyin’ up my white tie, Brushin’ off my tails." Tonight I’m getting out of the house and rubbing elbows at a concert of Respighi’s Roman Trilogy. Then off to a late dinner at a nice, local Italian restaurant. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a classical music concert. Too, long. In fact I haven’t been to one since I’ve moved to the West Coast. I’m excited.

Geraldine Ferraro Can Be Seen Holding A Fire Hose!

Mavis Staples sings Eyes On The Prize. (Warning: some graphic violence from the the civil rights wars of the 1950s and 1960s.)

Calling Geraldine Ferraro a racist and a clown is a little unfair. She's not exactly been an enemy to the Democratic Party cause over the years.

Why, Mister President?

"The Environmental Protection Agency weakened one part of its new limits on smog-forming ozone after an unusual last-minute intervention by President Bush, according to documents released by the EPA.

EPA officials initially tried to set a lower seasonal limit on ozone to protect wildlife, parks and farmland, as required under the law. While their proposal was less restrictive than what the EPA's scientific advisers had proposed, Bush overruled EPA officials and on Tuesday ordered the agency to increase the limit, according to the documents.

"It is unprecedented and an unlawful act of political interference for the president personally to override a decision that the Clean Air Act leaves exclusively to EPA's expert scientific judgment," said John Walke, clean-air director for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The president's order prompted a scramble by administration officials to rewrite the regulations to avoid a conflict with past EPA statements on the harm caused by ozone.

Solicitor General Paul D. Clement warned administration officials late Tuesday night that the rules contradicted the EPA's past submissions to the Supreme Court, according to sources familiar with the conversation. As a consequence, administration lawyers hustled to craft new legal justifications for the weakened standard.

The dispute involved one of two distinct parts of the EPA's ozone restrictions: the "public welfare" standard, which is designed to protect against long-term harm from high ozone levels. The other part is known as the "public health" standard, which sets a legal limit on how high ozone levels can be at any one time. The two standards were set at the same level Wednesday, but until Bush asked for a change, the EPA had planned to set the "public welfare" standard at a lower level."

Bush, Jr.'s family has to live on this planet, too. They have to breath the air with us. Drink the water with us. Eat the food with us. So why, Mister President?

The Day of Secrets

The House held an unusual closed-door session to talk about classified intelligence gathering in anticipation of a vote Friday on a warrantless eavesdropping bill.

The Democratic bill would set rules for the government's surveillance of phone calls and e-mails. President Bush has vowed to veto it.

The president's main objection is that the bill does not protect from lawsuits telecommunications companies that allowed the government to eavesdrop on their customers without permission from a court after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

House Republicans succeeded Thursday in delaying the vote by one day by requesting a rare, late-night closed session of Congress to discuss the bill. It was the first secret session of the House in a quarter century.

The last such session was in 1983, on U.S. support for paramilitary operations in Nicaragua. Only five closed sessions have taken place in the House since 1825...

...Bush and congressional Republicans want the House to adopt the Senate version of the legislation, which provides a legal shield for telecom companies.

About 40 lawsuits have been filed against telecommunications companies by people and organizations alleging the companies violated wiretapping and privacy laws. The lawsuits have been combined and are pending before a single federal judge in California.

The Democrats' measure would encourage the judge to review in private the secret government documents underpinning the program to decide whether the companies acted lawfully.

The administration has prevented those documents from being revealed, even to a judge, by invoking the state secrets privilege. That puts the companies in a bind because they are unable to defend themselves in suits that allege they violated wiretapping and privacy laws.

The surveillance law is intended to help the government pursue suspected terrorists by making it easier to eavesdrop on foreign phone calls and e-mails that pass through the United States. A temporary law expired Feb. 16 before Congress was able to produce a replacement bill. Bush opposed an extension of the temporary law as a means to pressure Congress into accepting the Senate version of the surveillance legislation.

Bush and most Capitol Hill Republicans say the lawsuits are damaging national security and unfairly punish telecommunications companies for helping the government in a time of war."

And what exactly was the national security being protected in 1983?

Ahh, President Reagan was lying and breaking the law. Congress should have impeached him.

Congress should impeach President Bush, Jr. Now that would be protecting national security.

See What Happens When Democrats Get In! Welfare!

"The Federal Reserve said Friday that it has voted to endorse an arrangement to bolster troubled Bear Stearns Cos. and stands ready to provide extra resources to combat a serious credit crisis.

The Fed announcement came in a brief two-sentence statement that was issued as stocks were plunging on Wall Street over worries that a plan to ease a liquidity crisis at Bear Stearns Cos. might not work.

"The Federal Reserve is monitoring market developments closely and will continue to provide liquidity as necessary to promote the orderly functioning of the financial system," the board said.

The statement said that the board had voted unanimously to approve the arrangement announced by JP Morgan Chase and Bear Stearns earlier on Friday.

The plan will provide secured funding to Bear Stearns for an initial period of 28 days, seeking to provide short-term relief for Bear Stearns.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson praised the Fed's leadership and said that the country's financial system would be able to weather the problems.

"As we have been saying for some time, there are challenges in our financial markets and we continue to address them," Paulson said in a statement. "This is another challenge that market participants and regulators are addressing. We are working closely with the Federal Reserve" and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Paulson said he appreciated the leadership of the Fed "in enhancing the stability and orderliness of our markets."

The action by the Fed board in Washington represented an endorsement of a rescue effort for Bear Stearns that had already been arranged by JPMorgan and the Federal Reserve's New York regional bank.

It was seen as a last-ditch effort to save the investment bank, which on Friday acknowledged its serious financial problems after a week of denials."

Wow, the Federal Government is giving regular folks cash back this year. The Federal Reserve is giving banks cash back this year. What a way for the Bush, Jr. Administration to end.

Isn't America great? this is like the 1930s all over again. FDR is in the White House and there is a New Deal for every American.

With All the Apologizing and Resigning, Will The President Apologize and Resign Over Iraq?

"ABC News Jonathan Karl Reports: The Bush Administration apparently does not want a U.S. military study that found no direct connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda to get any attention. This morning, the Pentagon canceled plans to send out a press release announcing the report's release and will no longer make the report available online.

The report was to be posted on the Joint Forces Command website this afternoon, followed by a background briefing with the authors.  No more.  The report will be made available only to those who ask for it, and it will be sent via U.S. mail from Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia. 

It won't be emailed to reporters and it won't be posted online."

Doesn't this document belong to the people of the United States, we the tax payers? I would like to see the President, or how about the Vice President, answer questions about this report instead of dancing and singing to reporters.

"The report is based on the analysis of some 600,000 official Iraqi documents seized by US forces after the invasion.  It is also based on thousands of hours of interrogations of former top officials in Saddam's government who are now in U.S. custody.

Others have reached the same conclusion, but no previous study has had access to so much information.  Further, this is the first official acknowledgment from the U.S. military that there is no evidence Saddam had ties to Al Qaeda.

The study does, however, show that Saddam Hussein did much to support terrorism in the Middle East and used terrorism "as a routine tool of state power."  Saddam's government, for example, had a program for the "development, construction, certification and training for car bombs and suicide vests in 1999 and 2000."   The U.S. military is still dealing with the fall-out from this particular program.

The report says Saddam's bureaucrats carefully recorded the regime's connections to Palestinian terrorists groups and its financial support for the families of suicide bombers.

The primary target, however, of Saddam's terror activities was not the United States, and not Israel.  "The predominant targets of Iraqi state terror operations were Iraqi citizens, both inside and outside of Iraq."  Saddam's primary aim was self preservation and the elimination of potential internal threats to his power."

So, has the war been worth it?

Is the press going to let the Administration get away with not releasing this report?

Are the citizens of the United States going to let the Administration get away with it?

You bet we will.

Does The Military Like Bush, Jr.?

George Bush, Jr. took the Presidency from two Veterans: Al Gore was in the U.S. Army. John Kerry was in the U.S. Navy. Both men served their country admirably in Vietnam.

Would those two men have treated the U.S. military, our veterans and current commanders in such a terrible fashion? I think Jr. hates the military because of his past performance as a deserter.

Admiral William Fallon retired from military service. Forced to because he spoke out and disagreed with his Commander-In-Chief. In most cases, this would be the correct way of things, but with this President and his idiotic group of neo-con war criminals, Fallon's actions should be praised and an investigation should be opened into why high-ranking military leaders are being forced out of their commands.

If George W. Bush is the one left standing, there is something seriously wrong with our government, our military and nation's security.

How does the United States military really feel about Bush, Jr.? It is time they all step forward and call him out. He does not deserve their loyalty. He has no authority to demand their silence.

Answering To A Higher Authority

"A leading Israeli rabbi has ruled that the anti-impotency pill Viagra can be taken by Jews on Passover, reversing a previous ban.

Viagra had been deemed not kosher since 1998 under strict dietary laws over the week-long Jewish spring holiday.

Rabbi Mordechai Eliahu said the pill can be swallowed if it is encased in a special soluble kosher capsule first.

Viagra's Israeli manufacturers said they sought an answer after receiving queries from worried religious men.

Forbidden foods : The drug was previously prohibited because its coating was considered inedible over Passover, when contact with everyday ingredients, known as hametz, is forbidden under Jewish law...

...Viagra's Israeli manufacturer, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals-Israel, said swallowing the capsule does not breach Jewish law because the Viagra would not come into direct contact with the body.

A prescription for Viagra is issued in Israel on average once every minute, the newspaper reports."

Side effects include...

Say It Ain't So, Eliot

WTF? Client 9?

“I have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family and violates my, or any, sense of right and wrong,” the governor said. “I apologize first and most importantly to my family. I apologize to the public to whom I promised better.”

“I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself. I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family.”

An affair is one thing, this seems to be a little more problematic for a government official. An apology probably doesn't cut it.

Americans Get Pissed.

"A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.

In the course of a five-month inquiry, the AP discovered that drugs have been detected in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas — from Southern California to Northern New Jersey, from Detroit to Louisville, Ky.

Water providers rarely disclose results of pharmaceutical screenings, unless pressed, the AP found. For example, the head of a group representing major California suppliers said the public "doesn't know how to interpret the information" and might be unduly alarmed.

How do the drugs get into the water?

People take pills. Their bodies absorb some of the medication, but the rest of it passes through and is flushed down the toilet. The wastewater is treated before it is discharged into reservoirs, rivers or lakes. Then, some of the water is cleansed again at drinking water treatment plants and piped to consumers. But most treatments do not remove all drug residue."

So half the country is seriously worried about their water supply and the other half damn well should be.

Sunday Morning Music

A kid on American Idol sings Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah and they talk about Jeff Buckley for few seconds and suddenly Jeff Buckley, a young musician who died in 1997, is selling (or being downloaded) more than Brittany Spears, Hannah Montana and Justin Timberlake. And Buckley never was a Mousketeer. Sometimes Pop culture gets something right. Wait until the kids get a load of Leonard Cohen.

Jeff Buckley-Hallelujah.flv
Uploaded by Rock-90s

Saturday Musings

-What else needs to be said about the Democratic Party. After the stunning political comeback of Senator Clinton in the Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island primaries, the progressive blogs and Obama-brats declared the historic night a nightmare. Accusing the three states of racism and reducing their attacks to name calling like ‘Monster’ and ‘vermin’ and ‘Archie Bunker’ to describe the Senator from New York, her staff and supporters. That does not exactly fill me with hope nor does it bring anyone together.

I think, like most of the popular press and TV news media, the progressive bloggers have been outed as elitists and maybe closeted liberal Republicans. They are not neo-cons, Dick Cheney makes them puke, and they have opposed Bush, Jr. gallantly, but from a safe distance, …the pen is mightier than the sword… and all that. But Bloomberg makes them smile, so does Chuck Hagel.

There is no room at their party for the Clintons from Arkansas or the white working class guy, not middle class, working class, who did not go to college, but goes to work everyday and pays his taxes and buys a house and raises a family. (Remember, Archie Bunker supported Meathead and his daughter in that small house.)

These guys aren’t buying what Senator Obama is selling therefore they are dumb, or lie in polling, or worse…they come out to vote, but vote for Hillary Clinton.

‘Archie Bunker’ has not voted for the Democratic Party since 1980. A generation ago… Now they seem to be heading to the polls and voting for Clinton and it is assumed that they are not voting for Clinton but against Obama because they are racist.

I’m not buying it, either. But you just gave them a reason not to vote for Obama in November if he is the Democratic nominee. You made it clear they are not welcome at the party.

-Tom Daschle, the poster boy for the Democratic Party’s salad days, doesn’t like someone in Hillary’s camp comparing Obama’s tactics to Ken Starr’s. Tom Daschle, are you fucking kidding me? I guess knee pads know no Party lines.

-Josh Marshall news flash: Hillary doesn’t have foreign policy street-cred. (TPM readers please see above)

“Probably the strongest experience I have in foreign relations is the fact I spent four years overseas when I was a child in Southeast Asia.” -Senator Barack Hussein Obama

Alrighty then.

-The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was described by Bill Maher, to Governor Ed Rendell’s face, as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between. Ed Rendell endorsed Senator Clinton, of course.

Pennsylvania went for Gore in 2000 and Kerry in 2004. Alabama voted for George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004.

-And just for all you people who plain don’t trust Hillary Clinton, I'll let you up for air:
(a gift from Skippy with multiple links (thanks to Fallenmonk for keeping it real)

"connect the multitudinous dots.....
united technologies (helicopters, aircraft engines) wants to buy diebold. (yeah...that diebold...voting machines, atm's)
a major lobbyist for united technologies is charles r. black, jr.
charles r. black, jr. is mccain's chief political advisor
the company that charles r. black, jr. heads is bksh & associates.
some of bksh's other clients...at&t, blackwater and the lincoln group.
a joint venture with stonebridge international (helmed by "sandy berger" former national security advisor to the clinton administration) is the civitas group (homeland security experts), on whose board, joseph allbaugh (former fema head and college roommate of "way to go brownie") sits.
bksh is also a subsidiary of burson-marsteller.
the c.e.o. of burson-marsteller? mark penn, hillary clinton's presidential strategist.

doesn't this seem a little too politically incestuous for our country's good?"

Yes is does.

-Speaking of the country’s good:

The price of gasoline at the pump is going up. /The price of oil is reaching new highs every week. /The dollar is at record lows, again. /Job loss is up. /Folks are losing their homes.

The President thinks the economy is ‘doin’ ok’ and who knew he could tap dance?

-The President thinks we need torture to fight the war on terrorism.

“Do unto other as you would have them do unto you.” – Jesus

-I have been listening to Michael Nesmith's Live at the Palais. As a kid he was a Monkee, but really wanted to invent a country-rock fusion. He did pretty well, but never had a lot of commercial success. This live concert is a good sampling of his work. Crippled Lion and Propinquity are my favorite tracks right now.

-I’m debating starting down the long road of either Star Trek: Deep Space 9 or Babylon 5. Either is a major commitment and I don’t have the time or energy to watch both series. Any advice on this would be appreciated.

-Thomas Pynchon is failing me. I think I prefer Gore Vidal’s fantasies: Live From Golgotha, The Smithsonian Institution, Duluth.

-We are out of coffee here at DeRosaWorld, so I am off to buy some expensive Italian import brand. (I haven't drank Maxwell House since 1992 when they left Hoboken after forcing their workers at their plants in Jacksonville, Florida and Hoboken, New Jersey to compete for who would take the biggest pay and benefits cuts. Jacksonville won...or lost depending on how you look at it...and Maxwell House, the largest taxpayer and employer in Hoboken, New Jersey left town. Starbucks was god's revenge.

Is Anyone In The Press Brave Enough To Ask Dick Cheney, To His Face, About This?

"Kellogg Brown & Root, the nation's top Iraq war contractor and until last year a subsidiary of Halliburton Corp., has avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies based in this tropical tax haven.

More than 21,000 people working for KBR in Iraq - including about 10,500 Americans - are listed as employees of two companies that exist in a computer file on the fourth floor of a building on a palm-studded boulevard here in the Caribbean. Neither company has an office or phone number in the Cayman Islands.

The Defense Department has known since at least 2004 that KBR was avoiding taxes by declaring its American workers as employees of Cayman Islands shell companies, and officials said the move allowed KBR to perform the work more cheaply, saving Defense dollars.

But the use of the loophole results in a significantly greater loss of revenue to the government as a whole, particularly to the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. And the creation of shell companies in places such as the Cayman Islands to avoid taxes has long been attacked by members of Congress."

Eight years. We could have stopped this in 2000, but the nation we had become made this inevitable. Total failure on every level. Complete mismanagement of every policy, except those that hurt us as a nation. Eight years. Accountable to no one.

Patent Number 174,465

Patent Number 174,465 was issued to Alexander Graham Bell on March 7, 1876 by the U.S. Patent Office which covered "the method of, and apparatus for, transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically… by causing electrical undulations, similar in form to the vibrations of the air accompanying the said vocal or other sound."

They are hard to recognize today, but the corporate entity formerly known as Bell Labs has a long and interesting history of innovation.

Obama Didn't Lose Rhode Island, Ohio and Texas. Racists Stole Them From Him.

Senator Barack Obama's supporters are fucking brats.

I'm a white man and I voted for Senator Hillary Clinton in California. Does that make me a racist? Or only if I live in RI, OH or PA?

Are white women who vote for Clinton racists, too?

If you are a man and voted for Obama, are you sexist?

The race card is being played by the Obama supporters with Rove-like shrewdness.

"Barack Obama has an Archie Bunker problem.

The white, blue-collar voters personified by the 1970s fictional television character cost Obama yesterday. His Democratic presidential rival, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, beat him 54 percent to 44 percent in industrial Ohio, and 58 percent to 40 percent in heavily Catholic Rhode Island.

In Ohio's 10th district of Cuyahoga County, a suburban enclave on Cleveland's west side that includes a large population of Polish-Americans, Clinton trounced Obama 61 percent to 37 percent, according to exit polls. In the state's Belmont County, an economically depressed Appalachian border area that is predominantly white, she had a 50-point lead over Obama, the first black candidate to have a shot at the White House.

``Race played a significant factor in Ohio,'' said Cuyahoga County Commissioner Timothy Hagan, who supported Obama. ``These people are not necessarily bigots, but the image they see every day of black America is drugs, crime, guns and violence.''

Clinton's victories yesterday in contests in Texas, Rhode Island and Ohio -- and just one defeat, in Vermont -- pumped new life into her candidacy after 11 consecutive losses to Obama. She now has renewed momentum heading into the next big test on April 22 in Pennsylvania, where the electorate looks much like Ohio's."

Did white, racist men steal New Hampshire, Nevada, Arizona, Arkansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, California, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Ohio, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Michigan and Florida? And are they setting up to steal Pennsylvania? 

Man, that Barack Obama campaign is in trouble.

Spotlight: Pennsylvania

Based on the early primary crunch and the late date of Pennsylvania's primary, the Commonwealth usually doesn't get to play such a big roll in Presidential primaries. For 2008, the Democratic race may very well be decided in PA.

Governor Ed Rendell, more of an old school, backroom Democratic politician is even being interviewed on Bill Maher's show. 

His early endorsement of Senator Clinton, has dumped some dismissive scorn and abusive reports upon him, mainly from the left of course. He didn't back Senator Obama so he must be stupid or corrupt.

Like a lot of Governors across America,from both Parties, he has had to try to manage healthcare for his state in the absence of any meaningful coverage and open hostility from the Republican Party-led Federal Government.

The Governor of Pennsylvania has a health care plan and is pushing it.

"Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Health Dr. Calvin B. Johnson on Wednesday met with area medical professionals to promote Gov. Ed Rendell’s plan to provide health insurance to those without coverage across the state..."

...More than 10,000 adults and 1,000 children in Mercer County and 767,000 adults statewide don’t have health insurance, he said.

Rendell’s plan would give uninsured individuals and small businesses that don’t offer insurance the chance to buy affordable coverage that will cover physical and behavioral medical care and prescriptions, he said.

“Access to affordable insurance is critical to help prevent disease, successfully manage chronic diseases such as diabetes and asthma and to reduce the burden that caring for the uninsured places on our health care system,” Johnson said.

It costs the $1.4 billion a year to care for the uninsured in Pennsylvania and about $400 million of that cost is paid by the state to hospitals to cover uncompensated care for the uninsured.

The remaining amount is paid by businesses and individuals who already pay for health insurance coverage.

Rendell’s plan could be funded by different sources including a 10-cent increase on the state’s cigarette tax and taxing smokeless tobacco products.

“We are one of the few states that doesn’t tax those products,” he said, adding Rendell hopes to ban smoking in public places.

Another funding source would be surplus cash from the state’s Mcare abatement program, which is used to reduce doctors’ out-of-pocket costs for medical malpractice coverage. There is a surplus because of the state’s improving medical malpractice climate, Johnson said."

Bush, Jr. Bitch-Slapped

The President's friends in OPEC accuse him of mismanagement of the US economy and the current high price of oil.

SLAP!

"Oil prices reached a record close, surging above $104 after OPEC decided Wednesday to keep its production unchanged. The cartel ignored calls from President Bush to pump more oil into an ailing economy.

OPEC rebuffed its top consumer, arguing that the world was well supplied with oil and blaming financial speculators and mismanagement of the United States economy for the current high prices."

Jr.'s response was to warn them that the next time the World Trade Centers come down, he's not flying them out of the country.

“America’s got to change its habits; we’ve got to get off oil,” President Bush said at a conference on renewable fuels. “Until we change our habits, there’s going to be more dependency on oil.”

He really is a dick, isn't he.

“In reviewing the prospects for the oil market, the conference highlighted the economic slowdown in the U.S.A., which, together with the deepening credit crisis in financial markets, is increasing the downside risks for world economic growth and, consequently, demand for crude oil,” OPEC said in its final statement."

Sounds complicated. We better re-think that Senator Clinton bashing, huh.

"Meanwhile, Exxon-Mobil, America’s top oil company, plans a significant increase in its capital spending on new oil and gas projects in coming years as costs increase across the industry and rising political constraints mean oil companies are finding it increasingly challenging to pump oil out of the ground."

The President just said we've got to get off oil!

The Comeback Kid II

"Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) cemented her case for continuing the fight for the Democratic nomination against Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) by winning Texas and Ohio Tuesday night."

Rhodes Island, Texas and Ohio! Wow. Hillary has beaten Obama in every big-state primary in the union so far, and Pennsylvania is waiting for her train to arrive. She does not give up.

Most progressive blogs and the media organizations said this race was over. They couldn't post polling data fast enough that declared the end of the Clinton candidacy, some even wanted her to quit before March 4th. Some are not too happy this morning.

I sense the tide has turned in our party's blind acceptance of Senator Obama's campaign. Some questions were finally asked. His stand on Iraq is confusing, his stand on use of Blackwater and mercenaries is confusing, his stand on Europe and NATO is confusing. His healthcare plan is confusing, his leadership skills and decision making skills are not passing the test.

He let the phone ring at 3am.

Hillary is going to take Pennsylvania.

Delegate count, super-delegates, pledged delegates are going to get more confused and wonder why they have been led down this path...and by whom.

So, let me congratulate the first woman to win the Rhode Island, Ohio and Texas primaries.

Come on Huffington Post, come on progressive blogs, come on FOX News, let's give three cheers for a Democratic candidate that does not give up! That fights for us and for what she believes in.

It will be interesting to watch Senator Obama over the next few weeks. The race is still on. We have never seen him really have to fight. We've never seen his reaction to being told "No". I have a sense that like the Millennial generation he speaks for, he may start acting like a brat.

Democracy: Some Thoughts On Super Tuesday II

Here is a really nice, poignant post about the campaign trail, the candidates and the voters by linfar at MyDD.

"Sen. Hillary Clinton arrived before dawn today to greet the morning shift at the Jeep factory plant in Toledo, Ohio.

It was 5:30 am and still dark outside as she shook hands and smiled at the workers during their shift change.

This is nothing, you may be tempted to think. It's only a line in the newspaper, another little photo op for a political candidate.

Think again.

Working people reward those who are willing to share their hours and address their issues. I know this because when I read that story I thought about my Mom, and I remembered my childhood."

The working class in America can really make a difference in an election if it is rallied as a movement. I believe Hillary Clinton is the best candidate for them this year. Her campaign has touched a lot of poor and working families.

With lies, the Republican Party and the media have crushed the Democratic base since 1980. It's nice to see a politician up and out early paying attention where attention is needed. Maybe Hillary can focus the anger a lot of people feel into positive change away from failures of conservatism.

This seems to be the stuff campaigns are made of.

Water Wars: The Shape of Things To Come?

"Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne acknowledged Saturday that White House-brokered water negotiations among Alabama, Florida and Georgia have failed.

Without an agreement, the Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies will begin implementing a water-sharing plan of their own, Kempthorne said in a letter to the governors.

"Regrettably, it will necessarily be a solution being directed to the states instead of our much hoped for solution coming from the states," he wrote in the letter, released Saturday."

The Federal Government dictating to the Southern States? Interesting to see this work itself out.

"...The three states have been feuding for nearly two decades over water rights in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint and the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa river basins, which run south through Georgia into Alabama and the Florida panhandle.

Georgia is fighting to hold back more water in federal reservoirs around Atlanta to serve its growing population.

Florida and Alabama argue that Georgia hasn't adequately planned for growth. The extra withdrawals, they argue, would damage the environment and dry up river flows into their states that support smaller municipalities, power plants, commercial fisheries and industrial users like paper mills.

With a record drought creating a critical water shortage last fall, President Bush dispatched Kempthorne to try to settle the dispute.

But the talks appeared doomed from the start, with Florida almost immediately backing away from an initial agreement to allow Georgia to temporarily hold back more water in Lake Lanier outside Atlanta as the governors worked toward a longer-term pact by Feb. 15.

Then Georgia lost a major court ruling in a case that raised questions about whether the federal government can allocate the state more water from the river basins without first getting approval from Congress or the U.S. Supreme Court."

It will be very interesting to see how the Federal Government deals with this issue. New Deal era water & power enforcement and 1960's civil rights law enforcement were hard-fought battles between states' rights and the federal government. Not to mention, the Civil War... Another chapter is about to be written in the history of the America republic in this area.

I can't wait to see how the Presidential candidates dodge having to answer questions on this topic.

Sunday Morning Music

Mike Nesmith released three albums with The First National Band.  1970's-Los Angeles-folk-alt. country-rock. Here is fan video created for the song Propinquity.