DeRosaWorld

Saturday Musings: 'What's A President To Do' Edition

The story of Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan (D-Kenya) is a horrific one. What would lead a man to such an outburst?

Well, he lives in a nation where guns are worn to Presidential events. He lives in a nation of serial-killer TV junkies. He lives in a nation where the TV news spews hatred of politicians that work for the common good. He lives in a nation where the TV news covers shooting by someone like him, but not by acts of violence against doctors and patients at abortion clinics.

Maj. Hasan has been delving into the minds of the modern American soldiers… what do you think he found there?

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The stupidity of the modern Republican is astounding. The latest Tea-Party against healthcare parades the crazies out in front of the nation and is proudly covered by the national media. I trust the American people, despite the assault on their reason over the last 30 years.

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2010 is going to be an election year in which the media takes the gloves off and tries to put the blindfolds on the America people. Does America really want to be run by the Michele Bachmanns of this country? Do we really want leaders who will do anything to let the financial giants raid the U.S. Treasury over and over again? I don’t think so.

And President Obama needs to look around the Oval Office and re-think some of his financial advisors. Voters may not switch Parties because of a Afghanistan, we are grown numb to our small foreign wars,  but they sure as hell will based on being unemployed and seeing a gang in the White House who really don’t seem to care.

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The United States needs to pull out of Afghanistan and fight the war on terror, or whatever we need to call it, Homeland Security or world peace… on a much different battlefield.

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The black ash of the Bush, Jr./Cheney administration is still reigning down on our heads with the U.S. unemployment rate hitting double digits. The solution is in the voting booth folks. Liberal politicians will solve our problems. Conservative and moderate politicians will not.

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A note to President Obama and the Democratic Party Leadership: If all your momentum is in the health care bill to carry you into the 2010 elections… you better have Plan B or Mariano Rivera ready to go.

Saturday Musings: 'What The Fuck Is John McCain Doing On TV, Again?' Edition

It took less than a month for the U.S. military to strike Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. The troops were amazing, even trapping Osama Bin Laden, but the Commanders-in-Chief, Cheney and Bush, Jr. were very bad warriors.

Iraq became their focus, and oil. Afghanistan didn’t really matter, they said over and over on FOX News and the pundits rallied to that cause, even shouting down Senator John Kerry as he tried to focus attention back onto that war in 2004.

But the Republicans and their Press would hear none of it. They mocked anyone who questioned them.

Now we have the neo-coward bastards all steaming about how the Obama Administration does not know how to conduct the war in Afghanistan.

They should all shut up or be sent to the front, like the German Army threat of the Russian Front during World War Two for those who disagreed with their current military policy... after all... Obama is the new Hitler, right?

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Health Care Reform. I am sick and tired of this nonsense. I do not care what the Insurance industry wants any more. Having the majority in both Houses means we should have went for the single-payer option and be disappointed with a robust public option (their words not mine) instead of going for a public option and being disappointed with the Insurance industry maybe not raising our premiums, but accepting no oversight.

I know the fight ain’t over, Obama is playing long-ball and all that shit, but the Republicans don’t even have a bloody nose, yet. Maybe that is coming in 2010 and then a knockout blow in 2012, but I’d like to see intelligent, humane public policy again. We haven’t had it since 1980.

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The Media in America... it should not be a war against FOX News alone. Pundits and news readers should be afraid to let their children go to school.  They should be intimidated when out to restaurants or at the movies. They should be branded TRAITORS and their heads should be shaved.

Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tools for thee.

Saturday Musings: 'Coast To Coast' Edition

Taking a quick coast-to-coast tour of issues between Philadelphia and  Los Angeles...

First up, MLB, the National League Playoffs... Dodgers and Joe Torre vs. Phillies…

The series is tied at one game apiece…what to do, what to do… Go Phillies!

Cliff Lee takes the mound for The Phillies Sunday.

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Some other comparisons between the two cities;  we can see that both public school systems are still screwed up by people mostly at the city and state level who have no idea, no interest and no investment in the future of the public school system. There will be hell to pay.

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Back east, it looks like Senator Arlen Specter (D?-PA) is going to get his ass kicked in his re-election bid. That magic-bullet theory coming back to haunt him?

My California Congresswoman, Jane Harman, a died-in-the-wool Blue Dog is painting herself pink down to her underwear by supporting a public-option in any health care reform bill.

And I quote:

"Far from being an option of last resort or a government-funded takeover of the country's health care system, we see the public option as a critical market mechanism that will drive down costs, foster competition and expand Americans' insurance choices.

This is not just smart health care policy, it is smart economic policy."

A man works from sun to sun, but a woman’s work is never done.

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In Philadelphia this past week, Dawn Smith’s mini van arrived at CIGNA’s headquarters and she was joined in the lobby by a group of nurses to ask the CEO why the insurance company had rejected her daughter’s brain tumor treatment needs. It wasn’t pretty and some CIGNA folks were seen looking down at them in the lobby and giving her the finger.  Now that is bad karma.

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Meanwhile, in the rest of the country… Is the Health Care Debate over now that Olympia Snowe is Sicko Czar?

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How’s that surge idea in Afghanistan coming?

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Is it just me or are there too many vampires in our pop culture right now.

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Did I see it right? Were there actually friends of Lou Dobbs Banksters arrested this week… it is hard to get the real story from CNNMoney, or FOX News. I heard they were going to put them in front of a firing squad for treason against Capitalism.

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So the big question going into the next round of health care reform seems to revolve around the bulge in Senator Harry Reid’s pants… who exactly is on his Underoos? Captain America or Wonder Woman?

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"Flow backward to your sources, sacred rivers,
And let the world's great order be reversed.
It is the thoughts of men that are deceitful,
Their pledges that are loose."
- Euripides, Medea

Be Careful What You Wish For

"Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine ended months of speculation today by voting yes on the health care reform bill before the Senate Finance Committee. She was the only Republican to do so..."

Okay, so was it worth it? Does this one vote in a Committee mean bipartisanship is not dead?

I am not so sure President Obama is going to want this version of health care reform to go down in history as Obamacare.

I don't see any leadership here from the President. I do not see a mandate for change. The Senator Baucus bill that came out of the Finance Committee does not seem the the type of health care reform America needs or wants.

One of the reasons the Republicans are so against health care reform is that it is a major win for the Democratic Party and strong Federal Government oversight.

The exact reason to pass a bill the Republicans cannot support is to break the strangle hold the minority, Republican Party has on the nation.

Another lost opportunity.

Swing And A Miss... Strike One

"After an intense debate that captured the essence of the national struggle over health care, a pivotal Senate committee on Tuesday rejected two Democratic proposals to create a government insurance plan to compete with private insurers."

I don't think our esteemed Senators realize how out of step they are with their constituents on this issue.

I predict big changes in the Senate over the next few elections... maybe get some young'ens in there.

A Truly American Life

The life story of Crystal Lee Sutton, her entire life, up to the very end is truly an American story in the era of Republican Party politics.

The story of her fight for her labor rights inspired the film Norma Rae and won Sally Field an Oscar.

The movie could have a sequel in which the American health care systems watches Crystal get sick and insured or not,  won't cover the medicine she needs to fight her illness.

A very sad story and undignified way to grow old and sick in America.

Saturday Musings: "You Lie" Edition

If you are into reading tea leaves, Insurance companies stocks went up across the board after President Obama’s health insurance speech the other night. Trust the market.

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Republican Party politicians still dominate the news with as much, if not more enthusiasm as the President. Let’s hope this backfires and more and more Democrats are elected to Congress in 2010 and 2012… or we as a nation are probably over.

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I believe  that the economic collapse was a missed opportunity to restructure the United States for the 21st century, just as the Great Depression in the 1930s was the chance America was given to become the great nation it was for a brief time in the 20th century. The Republican/Corporate powers were on their knees. FDR and his team took action. Obama and his team, not so much. Democrats may have made a big, historical mistake by keeping Hillary Clinton away from the nomination in 2008. She would have known how to wield the sword.

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I want a national, single payer health care system. A strong public option could be the first step in that direction. Without at least the strong public option, I don’t want a health care bill at this time.

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September 11, 2001. The World Trade Centers were hit by airliners and collapsed into the streets of Manhattan. An airliner hit the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., an airliner crashed into a field in Pennsylvania on its way to crash into Washington, D.C.

All air traffic over the United States was grounded.

On September 13, 2001 some secret flights started up. Not good.

9/11 Trivia question: Who is Marvin Bush?

Some Thoughts On The President's Speech To The Joint Session of Congress

First of all, you only have Progressive friends. That is how you won the election.

Second, Republicans hate you and will never support you. If you can't get a public option out of your electoral mandate, Jeb Bush is going to kick your ass in 2012.

Third, after Congressman Wilson (R-SC) interrupted your speech and called you a liar, that was the time to roll up your prepared text, go off book and declare yourself dedicated to a single-payer, nationalized health care plan and thanks to the obvious insidiousness of the insurance companies and the Republican Party, you and your Democratic Majority were going to shove national health care down their throats.

Change you can believe in.

President Clinton's Address on Health Care Reform, September 22, 1993

Here is another Democratic President trying to give Americans health care that the Republican Party stopped.

Is history about to repeat itself?

President Clinton Health Care Security, September 22, 1993.

I saved the September 23rd issue of The New Times the following morning with Clinton on the front page holding up his Health Care Security Card.

I had dreams of another FDR.

Those dreams were dashed.

Looks like it is happening again.

...and the Democrats are in charge again this time!

President Obama Looks For The Union Label

This ought to be interesting. President Obama, friend of the working man is going to eat BBQ and drink regular tap water with the AFL-CIO today.

Richard Trumka will be there, and that probably means there will be no corporate sponsored and armed teabaggers to protest the President or health care reform.

Richard Trumka has already put Democrats in Congress on notice that his support in 2010 depends on at least a strong 'public option' as part of a health care reform bill.

I don't know whether Obama is in Ohio to talk Trumka out of that or to encourage it. I just can't tell with President Obama what he wants in health care reform.

I hope the final deal doesn't simply mean billions if not trillions of dollars in a TARP-like taxpayer give away to the insurance industry in hopes they will lower costs. I won't like that.