Oh, please! Spare us from these Pharisees! They are nothing but bigots hiding behind their "religion" of hate. There is no reason on earth for sane people to object to domestic partner benefits for same sex couples other than homophobia and bigotry. I doubt very seriously that Jesus would like the "outcasts" of the wingnut religious community to suffer in His name. I'm ashamed of these Louisvillians.
While 200 opponents rallied yesterday for a ban on state universities offering domestic-partner benefits to employees, Attorney General Greg Stumbo said the University of Louisville has assured him it will make changes in its plan to make sure it's constitutional.
[. . .]
Rep. Stan Lee, a Lexington Republican who is running for attorney general, said he disagreed with decisions of the two universities to offer health benefits to domestic partners of their employees.
"I felt that it was wrong. I felt that the universities of this state -- the public universities funded by your tax dollars -- should not be in the business of systematically dismantling marriage in this state," Lee said.
But the Kentucky Fairness Alliance presented state lawmakers with a list of more than 1,200 people who support partner benefits.
"This act of unity should show our legislators that Kentuckians from all walks of life believe we should treat all our neighbors fairly, regardless of their family situation," said Christina Gilgor, the alliance's executive director.
What a load of crap this "protect marriage" meme is. I see how well all those GOP marriages are going and think they had better get their own houses in order. Can you hear me Mitch? Read the rest of this dreck here If you must.
Click The link to see the map. It's too large to upload here. Thanks!
Once in the parking lot, go to the West side near Churchill Downs (near railroad tracks) and find Cabooze #6. Click here for map Papa John's CardinalStadium If you come from Central Avenue East you will turn left on S. Floyd from Churchill Downs.
You can always do a Mapquest.com search from your own address for more specific directions from your own house. See you Saturday at Papa John Cardinal Stadium in Caboose #6 at 3 PM.
Hoo, boy! The Senator from the least populous state who has been gouging US taxpayers for decades is now the focus of an FBI and IRS corruption probe. I can honesty say I hope Mr. "Bridge to nowhere" gets exactly what he deserves. From CNN.com
Stevens, 83, is under a federal investigation for his relationship with Bill Allen, an oil field services contractor who was convicted this year of bribing state lawmakers. Stevens was aware for some time that investigators wanted to search the house, the attorney said Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case.
Allen oversaw a 2000 renovation project that more than doubled the size of Stevens' home in the ski resort community of Girdwood, outside Anchorage, Alaska. Allen is the founder of VECO Corp., an Alaska-based oil field services and engineering company that has reaped tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts.
Contractors said they submitted bills to Allen, then received checks from Stevens. The senator has said he paid for all the improvements himself.
Now that the Dems have taken over Congress maybe all the election tampering the GOP has been engaged in for over a decade will be exposed and halted.
Yesterday in a Senate Judiciary Commmittee hearing, Pat Leahy (D-VT) asked Wan Kim, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, whether his department would be investigating Ingraham’s phone jamming. Kim said Ingraham’s actions sounded like a “voter fraud scheme,” but that they didn’t fall under his division’s responsibilities, which cover “voter access.”
Mr. Kims answer? "No." My head hurts. This is Bu$h and Gonzo "Justice." Read more here
I agree with John on this: all taxpayers should contribute to the health and wellbeing of children. Congress needs to hammer republicans over the head about their idiotic objection to paying for child healthcare because it raises taxes. Those are the same slugs who heap taxpayer money on big Pharma and insurance companies, so give me a break! I'm all for sin taxes, but this is getting ridiculous. Why does the GOP hate our children? Here's a snip of Rep. Yarmuth's opinion piece in the C-J.
This week the House of Representatives will consider legislation to provide health care insurance for more than 5 million American children, including a major portion of the 80,000 Kentucky kids who currently have no coverage. I am confident most Louisvillians will agree that all children should have access to the care they need to build healthy, happy and productive futures. This is as clear a moral issue as any I will deal with in my role as congressman.
Extending care to these children will be expensive, as much as $50 billion over the next five years. President Bush has proposed a $5 billion increase in S-CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program) spending, an amount that would not even sustain current rates of coverage. As a recent editorial in The Courier-Journal said, this is not an issue on which there can be serious debate.
In legislation being developed in the House, the increase in S-CHIP spending is part of a larger measure that also would make major changes in the Medicare program designed to correct serious problems that threaten the continuation of this vital service to our senior citizens.
The increased costs of this legislation would be paid for by raising the federal tax on cigarettes and by reducing the subsidies paid to insurance companies like Humana through the Medicare Advantage program. Therefore, this legislation will impose some real burdens on our community.
Since Ditch Mitch hides from his constituents, the Iraq Summer Group took his constituents to him. Mitch may not listen to the will of his constituents, but the loud honking had to have reached his delicate ears.
Big DIck. Who knew he had a heart in the first place? From DLer John
It has been reported that Dick Cheney has undergone a surgical procedure whereby a weakened pacemaker has been replaced with a better model.
Finally, after millennia of disagreements over the existence of God or the Devil, we have scientific proof that a man without a heart can undergo surgery to improve something that does not exist. Physicians in Bethesda can be contacted to confirm they completed this procedure to assist an organ function that cannot be that of a heart.
Is it any wonder that medical science has to devise a *heart" for this prick?
So this is how Gonzo thought he could pull off the lie that there was no descent in the Justice Dept. about the legality of spying on US citizens without warrants. He claimed it was all about a different super secret spy program. He was talking about an entirely different illegal program! I really want members of Congress to stop playing around with words like "less than truthful," less than candid" or "misleading." The man is LYING. Look up the definition in the dictionary for crying out loud!
The N.S.A.’s data mining has previously been reported. But the disclosure that concerns about it figured in the March 2004 debate helps to clarify the clash this week between Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and senators who accused him of misleading Congress and called for a perjury investigation.
The confrontation in 2004 led to a showdown in the hospital room of then Attorney General John Ashcroft, where Mr. Gonzales, the White House counsel at the time, and Andrew H. Card Jr., then the White House chief of staff, tried to get the ailing Mr. Ashcroft to reauthorize the N.S.A. program.
Mr. Gonzales insisted before the Senate this week that the 2004 dispute did not involve the Terrorist Surveillance Program “confirmed” by President Bush, who has acknowledged eavesdropping without warrants but has never acknowledged the data mining.
I f the dispute chiefly involved data mining, rather than eavesdropping, Mr. Gonzales’ defenders may maintain that his narrowly crafted answers, while legalistic, were technically correct.
But members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who have been briefed on the program, called the testimony deceptive.
“I’ve had the opportunity to review the classified matters at issue here, and I believe that his testimony was misleading at best,” said Senator Russ Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, joining three other Democrats in calling Thursday for a perjury investigation of Mr. Gonzales.
Jeepers H. Christmas. These Bu$h folks don't even pretend to play by the books any more, yet they expect the Dems to roll over and play dead. Well, it's happened before.
A deal that would see David Palmer, a Bush administration nominee, quietly confirmed to the powerful Equal Employment Opportunity Commission appears to be faltering. Momentum against Palmer's confirmation has been building since former Department of Justice employees took the unprecedented step of formally accusing him of having an abysmal professional and personal record on workplace discrimination issues.
And Thursday, in a letter to Sen. Ted Kennedy, Sen. Barack Obama joined the chorus of those calling for an investigation into Palmer's fitness to serve on the EEOC, the agency tasked with protecting employees from discrimination based on race, gender and religion under the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Kennedy, chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, on which Obama and Sens. Hillary Clinton and Christopher Dodd also sit, is under pressure to investigate the charges against Palmer rather than accept a deal from the White House that would guarantee the renomination of respected Democratic commissioner Stuart J. Ishimaru to the EEOC in exchange for Palmer's confirmation.
Will somebody make my head quit hurting? The man is UNFIT for office! End of story. Enough, already!
The propaganda channel, Fox "news" is having a cow over lefty bloggers. They have been running their usual fact free smears against bloggers, in particular against Markos of the Daily Kos. Blowhard Bill O even claims that the Daily Kos is advocating the violent overthrow of our government. I don't know what is more pathetic-- Bill O or the idiots who call themselves his fans. Watch the video and call Fox's advertisers and let them know what you think.
One of the more frequent complaints Faux makes about lefty bloggers is how foul-mouthed they are. Hahahahaha! Have they listened to their heros Bu$h, the serial "shit" spewer and "go fuck yourself" Big Dick Cheney lately?
Our clowning governor can't seem to work his way out of a paper bag, much less be an effective leader. How clueless is he? The Lexington-Herald Leader has this:
Throughout his 31/2 years in office, Fletcher has struggled to consistently deal with lawmakers.
Even House Republican Floor Leader Jeff Hoover of Jamestown, who spoke against the Democrats' move to leave the special session, acknowledged that Fletcher still hasn't figured out how best to reach out to legislators.
"I, too, was somewhat disappointed that there was not more communication," he said in his July 5 speech on the House floor.
Former Democratic governor and current state Sen. Julian Carroll of Frankfort said that while Fletcher has figured out how to use some powers of the governor's office, he's rarely had a presence during General Assembly sessions and several times waited until it was too late to make a plea for his top initiatives.
One example, Carroll said, was the energy incentives bill that Fletcher included in this special session. The governor made one three-minute request to lawmakers to pass similar legislation in March during the waning hours of the regular session. That proposal died along with others amid political gridlock.
Makes you wonder if he got his medical degree through a correspondence course.
At the very least we found where Dick Cheney’s undisclosed location is!!!
Senator Mitch McConnell, it seems, has also found a very comfortable place to reside, when he’s not in the closet.
IRAQ SUMMER -- Canvass of McConnell's neighborhood
to distribute yard signs and contact supporters to End the War
Saturday, July 28, 11:00am - 3:00pm
Meet in front of McConnell's house, 2318 Dundee Rd (Woodbourne at Dundee)
to pick up signs and flyers for distribution. Please tell you friends to join us.
For more information please contact:
Daniel Richie, Iraq Summer Team
kentucky2@iraqsummer.org
202-4239795
I can't thank Hillbilly "Gentleman Jim," enough for his tirelessness in documenting Liberal activists all over KY protesting Bu$h's despicable "war" in Iraq. The disgust people in Louisville (and elsewhere) feel toward Bu$h's and his #1 cheerleader, Ditch Mitch McConnell. is intense. Have a look at Jim's latest video of the "Impeach Bu$h" action in Louisville on Monday and marvel at the sheer number of horn honks of approval. The same thing happened at the Iraq Summer Group event at the VA center last Thursday. You the man, Jim!
Don't hold your breath on that one. Abu Gonzales makes a mockery of testifying under oath before Congress. The man is so "forgetful" it makes you wonder if he can remember his name or job title. What a worm. I love this caption from TPMuckraker
Gonzales: I Will Not Walk Away from the Problems I Created
I believe very strongly that there is no place for political considerations in the hiring of our career employees or in the administration of justice. As such, the allegations of such activity have been troubling to hear. From my perspective, there are two options available in light of these allegations. I could walk away or I could devote my time, effort and energy to fix the problems. Since I have never been one to quit, I decided that the best course of action was to remain here and fix the problems. That is exactly what I am doing.
Hoo, boy! What a clowning ass. He has been warned by Senator Leahy not to repeat his past performance before the Senate. In otherewords, LYING.
Have a look at this powerful video (thanks Judy) and marvel that Bu$h, Cheney, etc. are still allowed in the White House. It will make you MAD AS HELL!
Even before discussing what I think is the fundamental question of Ethics, should we do the right thing or the best thing?, I find myself in a moral quandary facing this very question. Certain passages from Mark Twain’s, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" will serve nicely to illustrate my main point, that sometimes we must abandon what we know is right, and do, instead, what we think is best. But the real question for me today is whether or not it is ever “right” to use such a loathsome word.
Ditch Mitch spent a lot of time over the years yammering about an "up or down vote" in Congress and railing away at "obstructionist" Democrats who would not give in to the unpopular and radical demands of the conservative agenda. Now the pitiful hypocrite whines about the Democrat's demand to hold him to those standards. What a creep.
Seven months into the current two-year term, the Senate has held 42 "cloture" votes aimed at shutting off extended debate — filibusters, or sometimes only the threat of one — and moving to up-or-down votes on contested legislation. Under Senate rules that protect a minority's right to debate, these votes require a 60-vote supermajority in the 100-member Senate.
Democrats have trouble mustering 60 votes; they have fallen short 22 times this year. That's largely why they haven't been able to deliver on campaign promises.
By sinking a cloture vote last week, Republicans successfully blocked a Democratic bid to withdraw most combat troops from Iraq by April, even though a 52-47 Senate majority voted to end debate.
Republicans also have blocked votes this year on immigration legislation, a no-confidence resolution for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and major legislation dealing with energy, labor rights and prescription drugs.
Nearly one in every six roll-call votes in the Senate this year has been a cloture vote. If this pace of blocking legislation continues, this 110th Congress will be on track to roughly triple the previous record number of cloture votes — 58 each in the two Congresses from 1999-2002, according to the Senate Historical Office.
Giulaiani is just what the US does not need in our next president--another rigid, thuggish, black and white "moral certainty" candidate. This front page article in the New York Times lays out his questionable racial sensitivity and his willingness to trash minorities. Here are a few snips, but read the entire article to get a sense of his overall belligerent, unacceptable style. It's not becoming of a future president.
. . . “I never thought Rudy Giuliani was a racist,” said Fran Reiter, one of Mr. Giuliani’s deputy mayors. “But he was obsessed with the notion there were certain groups he couldn’t win over. And he wasn’t even going to try.”
Black leaders, Mr. Giuliani said in 1994, had to “learn how to discipline themselves in the way in which they speak” if they expected to chat with him. The city’s welfare-state philosophy, he said later, was racist and “enslaved” black New Yorkers.
“We in this city went through years and years of subdividing people, and that became the most important thing, the subdivision people belonged to,” Mr. Giuliani said.
Certainly he knew such words resonated with white voters who formed the backbone of his electoral coalition. What is less certain is whether a man raised and schooled in a white world understood the force with which his harshest words rained down on black New Yorkers.
And then there is this little charmer:
“I don’t know if this was moral or practical, but Giuliani was having none of it,” Mr. Siegal recalled. “He was insistent that crime was about behavior, not race.”
Still, Mr. Giuliani took a fateful step that would for years prompt questions about his racial sensitivities. In September 1992, he spoke to a rally of police officers protesting Mr. Dinkins’s proposal for a civilian board to review police misconduct. It was a rowdy, often threatening, crowd. Hundreds of white off-duty officers drank heavily, and a few waved signs like “Dump the Washroom Attendant,” a reference to Mr. Dinkins. A block away from City Hall, Mr. Giuliani gave a fiery address, twice calling Mr. Dinkins’s proposal “bullshit.” The crowd cheered. Mr. Giuliani was jubilant. [my bold]
“If you’re acculturated to like cops, you don’t necessarily see 10,000 white guys who don’t vote in the city, don’t write political checks and love you for the wrong reason,” an aide said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is working with the Giuliani presidential campaign.
Mr. Dinkins has not forgotten that sea of angry cops. “Rudy was out there inciting white cops to riot,” Mr. Dinkins said in a recent interview.
Or...
In the summer of 1999, Mr. Giuliani attended an Urban League fund-raiser at the Sheraton in Manhattan. He strode through the ballroom as though leaning into a strong wind.
“I want to apologize for leaving early,” he said. “It’s very, very hard for me to get a cab.” The ballroom fell silent. Then he went fishing for laughs, and found none. “You think I’m kidding? Have you ever tried to hail a cab in New York?”
He seemed unaware that many in this audience knew perfectly well what it was to hail a taxi that would not stop.
The city did not boil over on Mr. Giuliani’s watch; neither did it unite behind him.
Enough already! No more macho recklessness. We need a healer in this country, not more of the same old tired Bu$h obnoxiousness.
Eeeeeeek. I love it that Rudy Goul-iani is the GOP front runner for president. The man is a skunk, a punk and a brutish thug. He, like GW, has taken the most traumatic event in modern US history and warped it into a tool of undeserved self-promotion. Both men simply "showed up" at the tragedy America faced and mistook national unity for personal, heroic leadership. How despicable. Goul-iani, at the time of 9/11 actually tried to leverage the devastation in NYC into an extension of his term as Mayor just 2 months before an election. His hope was that he was the "essential man in time of crisis" but New Yorkers, in their wisdom, rejected him outright. America will do so again in the 2008 election. Heeeer's RUDY!
Will he invade Iran, declare Marshal Law, lock up all the hippies, declare himself pResident? Who knows what the most sneaky, paranoid man in America will do with his new found power. He sure as hell has made America and the world afraid of his darkness. Thanks to June for this:
-- U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney is to serve as acting president Saturday while President Bush has a routine colonoscopy, the White House said Friday.
The president is to undergo the screening Saturday at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, CNN reported. White House spokesman Tony Snow, who recently announced that his cancer, which began in his colon, has recurred, said the procedure is expected to take about 2 ½ hours.
Cheney is to be acting president while Bush is under anesthetic.
Once again, Bu$h is asserting that he is above the law and is not bound to uphold the Constitution. He shows utter contempt for the rule of law and declares himself to be the only branch of Government--since Cheney is apparently not a member. This is astonishing even by Bu$h standards. From the Washington Post:
Bush administration officials unveiled a bold new assertion of executive authority yesterday in the dispute over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, saying that the Justice Department will never be allowed to pursue contempt charges initiated by Congress against White House officials once the president has invoked executive privilege.
[. . .]
In defending its argument, administration officials point to a 1984 opinion by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. . . It concluded: "The President, through a United States Attorney, need not, indeed may not, prosecute criminally a subordinate for asserting on his behalf a claim of executive privilege. Nor could the Legislative Branch or the courts require or implement the prosecution of such an individual." [my bold]
In the Burford case, which involved spending on the Superfund program, the White House filed a federal lawsuit to block Congress's contempt action. The conflict subsided when Burford turned over documents to Congress.
The Bush administration has not previously signaled it would forbid a U.S. attorney from pursuing a contempt case in relation to the prosecutor firings. But officials at Justice and elsewhere say it has long held that Congress cannot force such action.
Wow. And how did Bu$h inform Congress of this decision? He didn't bother. They heard about it from reporters who asked members of Congress for comment. Where the hell are the Republicans on this? They better start defending the Constitution they swore to uphold as well and help put an end to this abuse of power. Are they foolish enough to let a moron like W tell them they are NOT a co-equal branch of government?
Mr. Family Values, John Vitter, might not be out of the woods just yet. His GOP Senate mates welcomed him back with open arms--for now. Frankly, they should all be mortally embarrassed to toss around the word "values" since it's clear the only thing they value is power. This is from TPM Muckraker via CREW:
The basis of the complaint?
Engaging the services of a prostitute violates both District of Columbia and Louisiana criminal law.
The Senate Ethics Manual provides that certain conduct may be improper even though it does not violate specific Senate rules or regulations. Such conduct has been characterized as "improper conduct which may reflect upon the Senate." This rule is intended to protect the integrity and reputation of the Senate as a whole. The Ethics Manual explains that "improper conduct" is given meaning by considering "generally accepted standards of conduct, the letter and spirit of laws and Rules..."
Whether or not Sen. Vitter is ultimately adjudicated to have broken any criminal laws, the Senate may still discipline him for improper conduct as it has other members in the past.
Unlike in the House, the Senate ethics committee does not require that a member file a complaint in order for it to be heard, so this could potentially become a liability for Vitter.
Does anyone think if the GOP was still in the majority there would be any complaint filed? Hahahahahaha.
Lucy thought this might be fun for a field trip. What do you think?
The play is in the Victor Jory at ATL. Please note this play is for adult audiences ONLY!!! (contains profanity and sexual situations - and a character named "Mr. President" who is a little too
close to certain president in real life - scary!)
Also, if anyone really wants to come, I suggest they call the ATL box office
(584-1205) and reserve tickets, b/c the tickets will very likely sell out.
Larry King interviewed Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt last night on how he linked Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) to an alleged prostitution ring. Flynt now says he's got information linking another U.S. Senator to a sex scandal.
FLYNT: We've got good leads. We've got over 300 initially. And they're down to about 30 now which is solid.
KING: When are you going to print?
FLYNT: Well, the last thing now is we don't know if we want to let it to drip, drip, drip or we want to go with everything at once.
KING: You mean you might release 30 names at once?
FLYNT: A good possibility.
KING: Will we be -- I don't want to get into names yet. Will we be shocked?
FLYNT: Yes.
KING: Were you shocked?
FLYNT: I was shocked, especially at one senator but...
KING: One senator especially?
FLYNT: Yes.
Last month, Flynt offered a $1 million bounty to anyone who could provide proof of an illicit sexual encounter with a high-ranking government official.
Categories:
There must be some very sweaty politicians in DC about now. If Larry Flint is shocked...
Glenn Greenwald points out the disturbing messianic psychosis that "guides" Bu$h's warmongering. It's part of the reason neocons are pushing him to wage more war against the evildoers in the Middle East. W needs to be in the nervous hospital and out of the White House. Maybe W could ask God for the money to pay for it all.
I examine at length in A Tragic Legacy because it is one of the principal -- and most dangerous -- forces driving the Bush presidency.
At a September 2006 gathering of right-wing pundits, Bush waxed endlessly about his belief that the U.S. is currently in the midst of a Third Religious Awakening and that the wars over which he presides are a central part of that Awakening. At least in large part, Bush sees the "battles" he is waging in epic theological and religious terms, and as a result, political constraints and pragmatic limits are irrelevant to his actions. It is such an uncomfortable reality -- that religious fervor drives our wars and other foreign policy -- that it has been ignored almost completely over the last five years, even though ample evidence exists proving that it is true, beginning with his own continuous statements.
The danger in cynically dismissing religious fervor as a motivating force for Bush -- the insistence that Bush's religious beliefs are contrived and nothing more than a political tool -- is that it conceals the true threat posed by having a President who is not merely religious (there is nothing uncommon or dangerous about that), but who draws no distinction between his political decisions and his religious obligations.
As I documented in the excerpt from A Tragic Legacy published by Crooks & Liars, neoconservatives who seek to persuade the President of his obligation to wage war with Iran do so by appealing to his religous obligations to act against Evil and in service of his messianic self-perception as delivering "God's gift" to the world. As The Weekly Standard's Irwin Stelzer wrote about yet another right-wing gathering with the President earlier this year:
On one subject the president needed no lessons from Roberts or anyone else in the room: how to handle pressure. "I just don't feel any," he says with the calm conviction of a man who believes the constituency to which he must ultimately answer is the Divine Presence. Don't misunderstand: God didn't tell him to put troops in harm's way in Iraq; belief in Him only goes so far as to inform the president that there is good and evil. It is then his job to figure out how to promote the former and destroy the latter. And he is confident that his policies are doing just that.
Thanks Jake! We appreciate you catching this for us and for these kind words. We agree!
Carol Trainer, veteran and peace activist of Louisville, was arrested on Memorial Day 2007 for merely holding an anti-war sign. She has given countless hours of blood, sweat and tears fighting for what's right in America.
Please take the time to view Carol's presentation on today's Hot Button segment at WAVE3.
It's about time the Dems forced the obstructionist Republicans to go on the record in rejecting legislation to end the war in Iraq. From Think Progress
Reid accused conservatives of “protecting the President rather than protecting our troops” by “denying us an up or down vote on the most important issue our country faces.” He said that if a vote on the Reed/Levin Iraq legislation is not allowed today or tomorrow, he will keep the Senate in session “straight through the night on Tuesday” and force a filibuster. From Reid’s speech:
Republicans are using a filibuster to block us from even voting on an amendment that could bring the war to a responsible end. They are protecting the President rather than protecting our troops.
They are denying us an up or down — yes or no — vote on the most important issue our country faces.
I would like to inform the Republican leadership and all my colleagues that we have no intention of backing down.
If Republicans do not allow a vote on Levin/Reed today or tomorrow, we will work straight through the night on Tuesday.
The American people deserve an open and honest debate on this war, and they deserve an up or down vote on this amendment to end it.
Remember all the Republican threats to use "the nuclear option" when the Dems were trying to block Bu$h's radical judges? Now the hypocrites will show what they really think of the fillibuster.
Take a look at what Hillbilly Jim has put together to remind Ditch Mitch of what his constituents think about Bu$h's dirty war he so fervently supports. He also writes letters: Click the link to the Hillbilly Report.
Dear Senator Mitch McConnell
Since you don't spend much time here in Kentucky let me give you a flavor of what’s going on.
Folks here in Kentucky are sick and tired of what’s going on in Iraq and are pissed as to how we got there and your part in all of the above. They also believe it’s your job to represent them, not your wife’s boss George W. Bush.
I suggest if you spent more time listening to your constituents and less time kissing the ass of George W. Bush your voting record on the Iraq debacle would be different.
Mitch I’m not asking you to take my word on this all I am asking you to do is listen to what the people are saying. Thanks to Youtube you can do that in Washington while you’re kissing the ass of your favorite person George W. Bush.
I have taken the time to document what your constituents have to say about you and the Iraq debacle so you wouldn’t have to drag your lazy ass back to Kentucky to see how the regular guy and gal in the street feels. So be my guest and watch the following videos of your constituents:
This reminds me of the Orwellian statement that : "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
In San Diego, poor people who want public benefits must give up their privacy. Investigators from the district attorney’s office there make unannounced visits to the homes of people applying for welfare, poking around in garbage cans, medicine chests and laundry baskets.Applicants are not required to let the investigators in. But they get no money if they refuse.,Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable government searches. So far, the courts have disagreed, saying that rooting out welfare fraud justifies the searches, but not without drawing some fierce dissents.
“This situation is shameful,” seven dissenting judges wrote when the full federal appeals court in San Francisco refused to rehear the case a few months ago. “This case is nothing less than an attack on the poor.”
No SHIT! What the hell is wrong with this picture? If ever there was a case in US history of such a deeply twisted government stacking the courts with political hacks who would trash the Constitution in such a manner I haven't seen it, thankfully. It should never have happened in the first place and it should never happen again. Who the hell are we as a nation if we allow this to stand? Just try to comprehend this load of tripe My head hurts.
The Sunday talk shows were full of blowhard Republicans and members of the press pretending that there was even a sliver of hope that Bu$h will pull off a "victory" in Iraq. Give me a break!. Every last hacking clown that tells you we are making progress in Iraq or that we're fighting terrorists "over there" so they won't attack us here should be laughed out of the room. As always, this Frank Rich column gets right to the point
So what if the Qaeda that's operating with impunity out of Pakistan, North Africa and other non-Iraq havens actually is the most pressing threat to America? This president is never one to let facts get in the way of a political agenda. That agenda is to avoid taking responsibility for losing a war, no matter how many more Americans are tossed into its carnage. From here on in, you can be sure that whomever we're fighting in Iraq on any given day will be no more than one degree of separation from bin Laden.
Nor do the latest fictionalizations end there. To further prop up the war, Mr. Bush had to find some way to forestall verdicts on the "surge," which commanders had predicted could be judged by late summer. He also had to neutralize last week's downbeat Congress-mandated report card on the Iraqi government's progress toward its 18 benchmarks.
The latter task was easy. The report card grades on a steep curve (and even then must settle for a C-minus average and a couple of incompletes). Deflecting gloom about the "surge" is trickier. It's hard to argue that we're on our way to securing Baghdad, the stated goal, when attacks on our own safe haven, the Green Zone, are rising rapidly, more than doubling from March to May, according to the United Nations.
But you can never underestimate this White House's ingenuity. It turns out that the "surge," which most Americans thought began shortly after the president announced it in January, is brand-new! We're just "at the starting line," Tony Snow told the network morning news shows last week, as he pounded in the message that "we have a new course in Iraq, and it's two weeks old."
Enough already. How many more service members and Iraqis have to die while the loyal Bu$hies play games?
It's no secret that Mitch McConnell is out of touch with his constituents. His votes to Impeach president Clinton, his support for the wildly unpopular issues of privatizing Social Security and having the government interfere in a man's quest to take his brain dead wife off life support are just a few of the ways he proves that to be the case. Of the most the most burning political issue of the day, the war in Iraq, he has been completely in lockstep with Bu$h's failed policy. The Iraq Summer group and the public at large are the ones who "get it."
-- Hours after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN that Kentuckians are "overwhelmingly" behind the Iraq war effort, sponsors of a new ad campaign attacked him for being out of touch with the state.
A coalition of groups opposed to the troop surge began airing new ads in Louisville and Lexington yesterday targeting McConnell for his support of President Bush's war policies.
The ads are in addition to other anti-McConnell ads that began airing in Kentucky this week, sponsored by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
"His constituents are absolutely fed up with his out-of-touch, reckless policies," said Aniello Alioto, Kentucky field director of the Iraq Summer Campaign [my bold], a national effort opposed to the troop surge and run under a coalition called Americans Against Escalation in Iraq. The coalition is sponsoring the new ads.
Read the C-J article here Then let the newspaper (AND Mitch) know how you feel about his reckless disregard for the soldiers in Iraq and the wishes of an overwhelming majority of US citizens by writing a letter to the editor here:
My head hurts. Good ole Senator Mitch, his wife (Labor Sec. Elaine Chao) and their master, GW Bu$h, finally lose one to the good guys. You don't need to look too deeply into this gang of Dirty Energy worshipers to know how horribly corrupt they are. Bu$h, Cheney, and McConnell are all huge recipients of dirty energy largess. Given the moral obligation of putting human life and the environment above politics or accepting piles of campaign cash, (and then legislating accordingly) they chose the cash. They can try to spin it, but they have no defense. They are dirty and corrupt to the core. Read the C-J piece here.
The President has just dropped his repeated attempts to force the confirmation of Hoosier native John Correll to run the U.S. Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and EnforcementAmong other things, . .[T]he Sierra Club said that, as deputy assistant secretary of Labor for mine safety and health, Mr. Correll bore responsibility for both the cover-up after an infamous 300-million-gallon sludge spill in Martin County, Ky., which has been called one of the worst environmental disasters in the history of the eastern United States, and for the subsequent retaliation against Jack Spadaro, a courageous official who refused to sign a report whitewashing the incident.
And that was just the first item on a bill of particulars that linked Mr. Correll to policies contributing to a series of mine disasters that took many lives last year.
Mr. Correll is another of the industry veterans with whom the Bush administration has loaded the federal regulatory system -- in the case of coal, obviously tilting the system toward industry concerns.
He has been an instrument of what safety and environmental advocates consider a notorious "compliance assistance" policy, wherein the Bush administration and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao have sought to replace confrontational enforcement with some form of constructive cooperation between the overseers and the overseen.
Of course, when you try that with an outlaw industry like coal, , what you get is death and destruction.
Bu$h, McConnell, Chao, and even some coal state Dems have blood dripping from their hands by protecting the monetary interests of Big Coal over lives of miners and planet Earth.
Time to storm the Bastille! This type of greed and reckless tax policy has drained the US Treasury of revenue from the moment GW was appointed to the WH. The Robber Barons have found their match in the GOP and Bu$h White House. Read the full account in the Times if you dare.
The Blackstone Group, the big buyout firm, has devised a way for its partners to effectively avoid paying taxes on $3.7 billion, the bulk of what it raised last month from selling shares to the public.
Although they will initially pay $553 million in taxes, the partners will get that back, and about $200 million more, from the government over the long term.
The plan, laid out in the fine print of Blackstone’s financial documents, comes as Congress debates how much managers at private equity firms like Blackstone and hedge funds should pay in taxes on their compensation.
Lee Sheppard, a tax lawyer who critiques deals for Tax Notes magazine and has studied the Blackstone arrangement, said it was a reminder of the disconnect between the tax debate in Congress and how the tax system actually operates at the highest levels of the economy.
[. . .]
Compared with the $553 million tax paid, the Blackstone partners will get back $198 million more than they paid in taxes.
Remember how St. Ronald Raygun bitched about "welfare queens?" The GOP hates to see poor folks game the system but cheers on the really, really big gamers. Hypocrites.
Woo hoo! Thank you Hankers for passing this along. Our fabulous DL bartender, Jeff, is the man in charge of this. Whadda ya say, peeps? Click here to sign up
12th Annual Indiana Microbrewers Festival
by RickSouthward @ 6:00 pm. Filed under Other
July 21, 2007
Over 20 Indiana Breweries. Over 200 different beers to try (included in admission price). * Free commemorative tasting glass * Program guide * Unlimited sampling * Meet the brewers * Food Bands, door prizes, games *
Dunk the brewer, toss the keg, etc.
Other Participating Brewers: Bell’s, Bluegrass Brewing Company, Cumberland Brews, Dark Horse, Founders, Goose Island, Gordon Biersch, He’Brew, Hoppin’ Frog, New Holland, Schlafly, Stone, Thomas Family Winery.
Cost: $75 per person Price includes motor coach transportation, ticket to festival, and refreshments.
Contact: Jeff at 807-7531 or Rick at 314-6056 to reserve a spot with us. Should make for a fun Saturday of beer, food and fun. Plus, we’ll take care of the driving.
Email me if you think this is something we want to do at Louisville@drinkingliberally.org
At Bu$h's ridiculous press conference today, long on canned replies and short on substance, a reporter finally asked a question that should make news. He asked Bu$h if he was "disappointed" that members of the WH staff leaked the identity of a CIA agent. Apparently not. After verbally staggering around a while Bush told reporters that the whole scandal had been HARD on the White house. I grabbed this video from TPM
TPM says:"He couldn't even manage a perfunctory statement of disappointment or regret. He managed to slip in a dig at Rich Armitage, a general statement that the whole thing had been very rough on the White House staff and that now "we're" moving on.
Needless to say, the president was involved from day one. He was always in favor of doing it. And he basically said so again today. Truly a shameful man"
Woo Hoo! Someone in Congress has actual balls. My friend Rick works in Chicago (home to Patrick Fitzgerald, as well) for Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and he sent me this little bit of heaven:
U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-2nd) wants his fellow Democrats in Congress to put the impeachment of President Bush "back on the table."
Jackson noted that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) shortly after taking office said that Democrats would not pursue impeachment proceedings against Bush.
But in the wake of the President's commutation of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's prison sentence for perjury and obstruction of justice, Jackson said it's time Democrats asserted the full oversight powers of the legislative branch of government.
Jackson went so far as to imply that when the U.S. attorney general ordered the firings of numerous federal prosecutors throughout the country, the ratings system his office put in place may have been intended to intimidate Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney for the northern district of Illinois, who was investigating the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's name by officials in the White House.
"If I threatened a U.S. attorney during the course of a criminal investigation, that would be a crime," Jackson said. "Well, when you threaten the job of a U.S. attorney during the course of an investigation into the White House, that's the same thing."
Indeed it is. Read the rest of the article here. Crikey! If Congress doesn't think they have grounds to impeach these two scary clowns they should abolish impeachment altogether.
With Mitch, you can always follow the money he gets from Big Pharma, Big Ins. companies, blah blah blah. He takes their money and sticks it to his constituents. Ditch Mitch.
SENATOR MCCONNELL’S RECORD ON HEALTHCARE http://www.ontheissues.org/Social/Mitch_McConnell_Health_Care.htm
Rated 0% by THE AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION (APHA), indicating a anti-public health voting record.
McConnell scores 0% by APHA on health issues
is the oldest and largest organization of public health professionals in the world, representing more than 50,000 members from over 50 occupations of public health. APHA is concerned with a broad set of issues affecting personal and environmental health, including federal and state funding for health programs, pollution control, programs and policies related to chronic and infectious diseases, a smoke-free society, and professional education in public health. .
Whew! I watched Michael Moore on CNN's "The Situation Room" tonight and he was awesome! He righteously ripped the media and CNN at large for their lack of courage in reporting on the war in Iraq, healthcare, etc. He put the blame on them and their corporate masters for where we stand as a nation thanks to mis-information. This Alternet entry has the video as well, so see for yourself.
I have always noticed that Michael Moore only receives one kind of coverage from the mainstream media: the bad kind. Every time one of his films comes out, from Bowling for Columbine, to Fahrenheit 9/11 and now Sicko, they have been on a quest to "debunk" them. Why? Because one of the themes that has run consistently throughout Moore's films is a contempt for the mainstream media's laziness and complicit role they have many American atrocities and problems. He has, as he points out in this fantastic (and live) broadside delivered to the archetypal cable news tool, Wolf Blitzer, been ahead of the curve on Walter Reed, the War in Iraq, gun violence, and a host of other issues and all these networks and talking heads can do is try to pick apart his work to "expose" how he's somehow "fudged the facts", always ignoring how incredibly right he has been and continues to be about our American condition. We all love to see Wolf Blitzer (who tirelessly defends CNN medical "expert" Sanjay Gupta) taken down a peg, but the video to your right is really about the whole mainstream media getting called out on their bullshit, which makes it so much more satisfying. Naturally smug bigots like Lou Dobbs act amused by what they consider Moore's "act". Little do they know, the joke's on them.
BTW, I thought Wolf Blitzer took it like a man and was quite gracious with Mr. Moore. Didn't even call him fat.
Ceeeeerikey. The sleazy way Colin Powell runs away from his responsibility for getting this country into an INVASION of Iraq is breathtaking. What a lousy human being. First there is this from Think Progress
‘I tried to avoid this war.’
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell revealed that he spent 2.5 hours “vainly trying to persuade President George W. Bush not to invade Iraq and believes today’s conflict cannot be resolved by U.S. forces. ‘I tried to avoid this war,’ Powell said at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado. ‘I took him through the consequences of going into an Arab country and becoming the occupiers.’” In terms of the current situation in Iraq, Powell said: “It is not a civil war that can be put down or solved by the armed forces of the United States.”
And in the Times yesterday there was a Bu$h quote about his "worst 20 minutes'" as Governor of TX when he decided to sign the death warrant on Carla Fay Tucker. Wow. "Sanctity of life" issues take mere minutes and hours of these guys time to before they commit folks to death. Stunning. Horrific,
I first saw this yesterday on www.crooksandliars.com and today it popped up TPM today as well.
A month ago, Fouad Ajami, a prominent neocon at Johns Hopkins, wrote a bizarre op-ed for the Wall Street Journal in Scooter Libby's defense. "In 'The Soldier's Creed,'" Ajami wrote, "there is a particularly compelling principle: 'I will never leave a fallen comrade.' ... [Libby] can't be left behind as a casualty of a war our country had once proudly claimed as its own." [my bold]
Yesterday, David Shuster, guest hosting MSNBC's Hardball, took Ajami to task for comparing Libby to American troops.
Ideally, this should be routine. A marginal neocon appeared on MSNBC to talk about a column he wrote a month ago. A professional broadcaster, who knew what he was talking about, pointed out the guest's errors of fact and judgment for the benefit of the television audience. At the risk of sounding ridiculous, this is what TV shows are supposed to do.
But exchanges like the one between Shuster and Ajami are so rare, that some of us see them and can barely contain our excitement. What should be routine has become extraordinary.
Yep. Our press corp is so broken that we've grown accustomed to slobbering hacks like Chris Matthews conducting rah rah interviews with neocons and treating them as though they were not totally insane. My head hurts. Good for Shuster. His Scooter Libby coverage was equally bullshit free.
This is fairly interesting. More Independent voters are in favoring impeachment than Democrats. What's wrong with that picture?
All of a sudden, pollsters think enough of the impeachment question to start putting the question in the field. The latest comes by way of Rasmussen Reports.
Thirty-nine percent (39%) of Americans now believe that President Bush should be impeached and removed from office. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 49% disagree while 12% are not sure.
Those figures reflect a slight increase in support for impeachment over the past year-and-a-half. In December 2005, 32% believed that President George W. Bush should be impeached and removed from office. Fifty-eight percent (58%) took the opposite view at that time.
A majority of Democrats (56%) now believe the President should be impeached.... Republicans, by an 80% to 16% margin, say that the President should not be impeached.... Among those not affiliated with either major party, 40% now favor impeachment while 45% are opposed.
This is the third poll I've seen on this in the last two months, and the results are similar enough to bolster their collective reliability. An American Research Group poll released this week showed that among all U.S. adults, 45% support the House initiating impeachment proceedings against Bush (the percentage was 54% in relation to Cheney impeachment). And an InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion poll taken in early May showed 39% of American favor impeachment.
First, for a "fringe" idea that "serious" people are supposed to reject out of hand, 40% of the electorate sounds like a fairly substantial number of people.
