DeRosaWorld

Bob Welch - Hypnotized

Here is Bob Welch performing Hypnotized, a song he wrote and performed on Fleetwood Mac's Mystery To Me album. He hooks up here with his old band mates. July 31st is Welch's birthday.

Are Republican Politicians So Corrupt That It Drives Them Insane OR Are They So Insane That They Are Easily Corrupted?

"The focus of their ire is a provision tucked deep inside the House bill that would provide Medicare coverage for an end-of-life consultation once every five years. If a person falls ill with a life-threatening disease, more frequent sessions would be allowed."

Republican politicians like Congressman John Boehner (R-OH) may think they are just doing their job... stopping the Democratic Party from succeeding... or they are insane and for some reason get a lot of media air-time... because the media certainly is trying to stop a Democratic success story...again.

Why the folks from Republican districts elect these politicians is a mystery. Ohio needs health care help just as much as the rest of the nation.

The bipartisan hand that President Obama keeps holding out has been just about chewed off at the wrist. You are the President of the United States. You are not powerless because the Republicans in Congress and the Press say you are.

It is time for the President to start worrying about the people of the this nation instead of pleasing the Republican members of Congress and the Press... because if the people turn on you, then you really will be powerless.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Dicks California

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, former actor, has just used the line-item veto to further destroy the reason Californians pay taxes and participate in their government.

But you know folks, we didn't have to give him the keys (or the pen) to the kingdom.

At least Gray Davis never walked around with his dick out.

Have Democrats Forgotten How To Govern?

It’s sad, but seems true. After decades of being beaten up by the conservative movement, especially in the press and on TV, Democrats in the Senate have either forgotten how to lead or don’t want to… or maybe it’s true… are afraid to.

Just who is the Senate Finance Committee compromising for? The citizens of the Unites States? Insurance companies? Themselves?

Do Democratic politicians think if they give in to corporate Republicanism that the Sunday morning talk shows and the radio pundits and Fox News will be nice to them? Or maybe even show them some respect?

The Republican Party practice crash and burn politics. They destroy their enemies and pass very dangerous legislation that protects their corporate backers. Republican sex crimes don’t matter. Low polls for Republican politicians and their laws don’t matter. Republican anti-Americanism doesn’t matter. The Press will stand behind them... even during stolen elections.

For Democratic politicians the choice seems easy enough. The people, the electorate is behind you. Pass bills that mean something to them, that enrich their lives and the lives of their children and grandchildren... If the Republicans and the Press don’t want to go along, leave them behind. You can do it because you have the votes.

You may not have the votes for long.

The Democratic Party was handed a generational shift in the voting patterns of America. Corporate news readers and pundits didn’t matter. Democrats won. Barack Obama won.

Don’t blow it.

Stand up for yourselves and for the people who voted for you.

Bye-Bye Miss American Pie

Sarah Palin officially quit her job as Governor of Alaska without really ever giving a reason to her devoted fans on the far-sighted right.

The global joke of a Vice Presidential candidate in 2008, on the ticket with John McCain, she leaves behind a legacy as shallow as she was.

It was a disgrace to have her on a Presidential ticket and if she really was Bill Kristol's choice for McCain and the Republicans, well that explains a lot about the state of the Republican Party and American politics.

She quit with as much grace, composer and intelligence as she showed on the campaign trail.

She will be back, like a bad penny... and America will be the worse for it.

Miss Marple Should Mind Her Own Fucking Business

Well thank god PBS Masterpiece/Mystery seems to have concluded the Miss Marple Series IV squat on Sunday nights. Julie McKenzie has taken over the role of the tea-cozy sleuth... sorry about that, I know that is exciting news, I do hope you were sitting down.

Anyway... here is some Raymond Chandler to get the taste of bergamot out of my mouth:

"There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Ana's that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge."  (Opening of Red Wing by Raymond Chandler)

Sunday Morning Music: Badfinger - Baby Blue

Here is the group Badfinger performing Baby Blue.

Saturday Musings: 'We Got Him' Edition

Bad week in politics folks.

The evil voice of the right wing has stabilized after the election and now controls the message and the news cycles again.

Bye, bye progressive agenda.

...Oh, and Hilary is old. Let's start that line right now, lest she thinks of running again someday.

-----

President Obama finally fucked up at a press conference… stop the presses!... oh there are no presses left to stop...

Over at NPR headquarters, a bunch of white guys were jumping and high-fiving like a bowling team whose worst player just hit a 7 – 10 split: ‘President Obama lost the health care initiative today by defending his black friend against white arresting officers…”

At CNN Wolf Blitzer and Candy Crowley were dancing and hugging and spinning around the halls to Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries: ‘President Obama stumbles badly defending the indefensible, a black man vs. a white cop… well we now see the President’s true colors…’

At FOX News they knew the time had come… they wanted to beat Rush Limbaugh to it…

BREAKING NEWS from FOX: an interview with Newt Gingrich about the Democratic Party corruption in New Jersey is interrupted with Glenn Beck shouting:

“I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, President Obama is a fucking nigger!

-----

On the health care front, it now seems to have made no difference if we voted for John McCain and Sarah Palin in 2008; the Democrats in the United States Senate are still getting on their knees and sucking Republican policy at the corporate well. I’m embarrassed for them and I’m embarrassed to be a Democrat. Harry Reid is a loser... double suck.

-----

As for the financial crisis, this one is on the President. Fire your economic team and take your frustrations out on the banks. Regulate those motehrfuckers if you still can.

FDR was able to do what he did because the bankers, the Republicans were on their knees and helpless for a short time at the beginning of the Great Depression One. That opportunity has happened again… and the window is closing fast.

-----

So Supreme Leader Dick Cheney wanted to send the United States Army to Buffalo to arrest the Lackawanna Six. Har, har, har...

Even Jr. and Condi had the sense to oppose this. I’m sure Big Dick he will be on all the Sunday talk shows justifying this to the nodding, smiling, overpaid fools on our TV news shows. Why is Dick Cheney still walking around without leg irons?

Senator Harry Reid Shits Himself After Seeing His Own Shadow

Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), the Cowardly Lion of the United States Senate is going to delay the Senate vote on President Obama's health care reform.... Why?

What is Harry Reid afraid of this time? The Republican minority?

Democratic voters do not want bipartisanship. Republican Party members are never going to give it.

Take the fucking vote and win a new Democratic Party health care reform bill for America. Make history.

After what the Republican Party did to the Clinton Administration's health care reform, a new Democratic majority should be chomping at the bit to pass health care reform without the Republican's support.

And how can any politician worth a damn not relish smashing his enemies... and sir, the Republicans in the Senate are your enemies.

Harry Reid needs to go as majority leader.

And Mr. President, you need to start kicking a little more ass around Washington, D.C. before you find yourself out of a job. I'm starting to doubt this 'grand scheme' idea people have about you.

Its Not That We All Think We're Rich In America... We Just Don't Realize We're Poor.

Credit cards allowed us to keep buying... we replaced our music CDs with iPods. We replaced our videotapes with DVDs and now Blu-Ray disks. Every year there was a new game player... not compatible with your old games... But would any of this shopping been possible if we only used cash to buy things?

What happens when the credit cards stop working?

What happens when the banks stop working.

Most Americans have not saved for a rainy day... well it is pouring outside.

"...You probably thought that the big problem with skyrocketing executive pay was the fact that it left nothing for the rest of us.  And you're right: that 24% increase for "American workers" includes the 48% increase for the top earners.  In other words, the executives got a 48% increase, the rest of us got approximately nothing, and it all averaged out to 24%.

But that's not all!  It also means that the average joes with stagnant wages couldn't keep up, so they went deeper and deeper in debt.  And who loaned them the money to do that?  Well, the rich can't really spend that ocean of extra dough they're getting — the technical reason is that they have a lower marginal propensity to consume than average joes; the nontechnical interpretation is that you can only buy just so many yachts — so they ended up loaning most of it back to the middle class.  We all know how that turned out — but the rich got bailed out by the taxpayers so they ended up OK.  The rest of us, not so much.

And now the Journal is pointing out yet another problem with running our economy solely for the benefit of the wealthy: you only owe payroll taxes on income up to $106,000.  This number rises every year, but it doesn't rise nearly as fast as the earnings of the rich.  Which means that more and more income every year is above the cutoff and doesn't get taxed.  And that in turn means that Social Security is in considerably worse shape than it would be if increases in national income weren't being hoovered up almost exclusively by the executive class...."

And in California, the State government just passed a budget that has the rich laughing all the way to the bank and at the rest of us.