Monday, June 30, 2008

it's ok to lie about Kerry's service, but not state facts about McCain's service

McCain campaign attacks John Kerry's war record, says Swift Boat Veterans for Truth were simply telling the truth
(Americablog)
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So, somehow calling McCain a "hero", but stating the fact that his heroic deeds do not qualify him for the presidency is somehow horrible, but lying about John Kerry is A-OK!

My gawd, wouldn't it be amazing if there really was a "fair and balanced" news media who wouldn't let people get away with this insane biased bullshit? Will we ever have a major media outlet that is not ultra-far-right-wing? I can't even imagine it...

amazing that they get away with this

GI Bill Opponent President Bush Lauds GI Bill Opponent John McCain For The GI Bill Expansion
(Think Progress)
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Actually, it is not amazing that they get away with this - it would be if we had a responsible media, but the ultra-conservatives in charge of the news would never call these clowns on this shit...

more statement of facts that most people already knew

this admin lied about oil? What a surprise!

flip-flopper McCain

Late Edition’s McCain Flip-Flop Flashback

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It’s really hard to overstate the audacity of those in the media who tried to make Obama’s recent decision to opt out of public campaign financing out to be some colossal flip-flop without even mentioning the fact that McCain has now flip-flopped a gazillion times on almost every issue under the sun. To summarize just a few of Steve Benen’s list of McCain flip-flops:

McCain was against the repeal of Roe v. Wade before he was for it.

McCain was against torture before he was for it. Really for it.

McCain was against crazy right-wing preachers like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson before he was for them.

McCain was against Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy before he was for them.

McCain was against shady Bush “Pioneer” Texas billionaire swift-boat financiers before he was for them.

McCain was for the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law before he was against
it
and began breaking it.

McCain was against Grover Norquist, whom he called “corrupt, a shill for dictators“ before he was for him.

McCain was against BJU because of its “hateful,” “racist and cruel” policies before he was for it.

McCain was against ethanol before he was for ethanol and then he was against it again.

McCain was against a Martin Luther King holiday before he was for it. …

And that’s not all. There’s many many more. In fact, here’s an even longer list. McCain has reversed his former positions to fall more in line with the Bush administration so many times now it’s really hard to tell Bush and McCain apart (can you beat my 3 out of 5 on the first try?). It might actually be easier to list the issue(s) McCain hasn’t (yet) flip-flopped on, although I can’t think of a single one right offhand.


(Crooks and Liars)

what world do these wackos inhabit?

tax-dodger McCain

Clark states facts - the repugs are outraged!

Clark: McCain a hero, but lacks command experience

WASHINGTON - Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, a former Democratic presidential candidate now supporting Barack Obama, said Sunday John McCain's military service does not automatically qualify him to be commander in chief.

Underscoring during a national television appearance a position he has been expressing for several weeks, Clark said performing heroic military service is not a substitute for gaining command experience.
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"If Barack Obama's campaign wants to question John McCain's military service, that's their right," McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said after Clark's appearance Sunday. "But let's please drop the pretense that Barack Obama stands for a new type of politics. The reality is he's proving to be a typical politician who is willing to say anything to get elected, including allowing his campaign surrogates to demean and attack John McCain's military service record."


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I find it beyond ironic that the repugs who supported the Swift Boat liars that fabricated wild, untrue stories about John Kerry's service are now "outraged" that Gen. Clark is calling McCain a hero! If calling someone a hero is a way to "demean and attack" someone, the repugs are even crazier than i thought!

And more from Crooks and Liars:

Wesley Clark on Face the Nation: CNN accuses Clark of “Swiftboating”

Saturday, June 28, 2008

another clueless (or lying) repug

McCain needs to learn a little more about what concerns us

Friday, June 27, 2008

these guys are really stretching

Right Wing Feigns Outrage Over Delahunt’s Quip, Claims Addington Will Now ‘Be Targeted’ By Al Qaeda
(Think Progress)
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Because the Dems are not as rude and offensive and the repugs, the repugs really have to reach to try to find something to be outraged at. This is truly absurd...

hilarious!

Sens. Craig and Vitter team up to co-sponsor Marriage Protection Amendment.
Larry Craig and David Vitter — “two United States Senators implicated in extramarital sexual activity” — have named themselves as co-sponsors of S.J. Res. 43, the Marriage Protection Amendment. If passed, the bill would amend the Constitution to declare that marriage “shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman.”

(Think Progress)
--
I literally laughed out loud!

absurd military rules

still another reason not to vote for McCain

this is already getting boring, but it is bound to get worse

nice to know that he has principles

well, what did she think would happen?

Delegate who said she'd vote for McCain in fight

MILWAUKEE - A Democratic National Convention delegate pledged to Hillary Rodham Clinton says she hopes to fight off an attempt by Wisconsin Democrats to take away her credentials because of her past statement that she would vote for John McCain if Clinton wasn't the nominee.


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Why would the Dems keep a delegate who wasn't going to vote Democrat? As a privte citizen she can vote for whoever she wants, but how can she stay a DNC delegate and not support the nominee?

thanks, bush!

Friday Beagle Blogging


In the summertime, Harley sleeps with his head under the coffee table. No idea what this means!

Thursday, June 26, 2008

raid on Blackwater

Federal agents raid Blackwater site.
Federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives raided Blackwater Worldwide this week, “as part of an investigation into whether the private security company sidestepped federal laws prohibiting the private purchase of automatic assault rifles.”

(Think Progress)

beyond absurd

impeachment only for Dems, apparently

another bush milestone

June marks highest monthly death toll for coalition forces in Afghanistan since 2001.
Earlier today, a roadside bomb “killed three service members and a local-national interpreter in a coalition convoy in eastern Afghanistan.” CNN reports that “[w]ith the deaths, the number of foreign forces in Afghanistan killed in June has reached 39, the highest monthly toll of the war.”

(Think Progress)

repugs don't want to be known as repugs

Shhh! Don't Tell Anyone We're Republicans..."

It's a rare event when the political messages in my inbox make me laugh, but this one from the Washington State Democrats had me rolling:

On Monday on FOX News Dino Rossi was caught trying to trick Washington's voters. You may have heard that Rossi and 27 other Republican candidates in our state will not allow the word "Republican" to appear next to their name on the ballot.

Thanks to the new Top Two primary, candidates can choose what party label they want on the ballot in November. As we reported on June 11th, Dino Rossi will have "Prefers G.O.P. party" next to his name, which is clearly a scheme to avoid having the word "Republican" next to his name.

Or as one of their candidates admits in this newscast:

"There's 30 percent of the people in this state that would not vote for a Republican no matter what, and we want to get around that..."


(En Tequila Es Verdad - first seen at Pharyngula)

more Daily Show genius

Daily Show: Terror Attack + Election = Republican Victory

In light of Charlie Black’s ridiculous and revealing comments to Fortune magazine Monday, Jon Stewart shows how Republicans are calculating their winning November strategy.

“Why is it that a terror attack helps Republicans? Well, it’s quite simple. A terror attack, when added to an election, equals Republican. Why is that? Let’s show our work. First we have to solve for ‘R.’ Now, if you add 7 1/2 years of Republican administration, times the five years we’ve been at war, which has divided the nation, add in the government’s incompetent response to the domestic disaster of Katrina, minus the equity in your home thats disappeared, plus the price of oil squared, over the boon that the Iraq war has been to terrorist recruiting, times tortue, minus the resoucres we could have been using in Afghanistan, plus the resources we could have been using to catch bin Laden, carry the Cheney and….”


(Crooks and Liars)
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It is pretty phenomenal that a terrorist attack on this country - which would prove once again that the repugs are complete failures when it comes to security - would be seen as a plus to a repug. Only in this Bizarro-World that we find ourselves in.

Of course, once a Democrat is president, it will suddenly be his fault that we are attacked instead of somehow being a vindication of his presidency. No, i have no idea how a repug's mind works...

be informed!

Will pro-choice women back Obama or McCain?
(Americablog)
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Amazingly enough, according to the Time Magazine article that Americablog references, many women don't realize that McCain believes that Roe v. Wade should be overturned.

bizarre attacks on Obama

Running for third term, McBush attacks Obama -- as another Repub. mocks Obama as Jesus

This attack was from the Bush part of the duo seeking Bush's third term:

At Laurel Manor in suburban Livonia, Bush laid out a traditional Republican attack on Democrats and, by extension, Obama, accusing them of seeking to raise taxes, support liberal judges and go wobbly on terrorism and the Iraq war.

"The Democratic Party has consistently shown they would take America in the wrong direction," Bush told the crowd of about 325.

That's a good one. Bush talking about the taking the country in the "wrong direction" when almost 80% of Americans think the country is heading in the wrong direction after eight years of Bush. Makes selling a third term all that much harder.

And, just when you think the GOP attacks on Obama can't get any more bizarre, they do:

The only mention of Obama during the entire event came from Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, who attempted a joke in which he argued that media outlets had portrayed the presumptive Democratic nominee as Jesus Christ.

"Apparently Barack Obama was born in a manger," Cox said. "...Whether there was any room at the inn, I don't know."

Jesus Christ. Those Republicans really have no shame. Can you imagine any Democrat invoking Jesus to mock another candidate? It seems very un-Christ like -- and I'd imagine a bad joke like that will spark outrage from James Dobson, Bill Donahue and the rest of the right wing religious types. Right?


(Americablog)
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I am constantly amazed that bush and his cohorts can get away with saying the absurd things that they do without people laughing in their faces.
Obama taking this country in the wrong direction?!
How can someone take the biggest criticism about themselves and lob it at their opponent with a straight face? And how does no one call him on this?! Oh, our "liberal media"...

Speaking of which, what world is Cox living in where Obama is treated fairly by the media?! Certainly not in this country where McCain gets away with everything - including breaking the campaign laws that he helped create - without a peep while Obama is scrutinized over every person he has ever met!

oh yeah, that's a fair comparison

more horror in Iraq

20 die in attack on meeting west of Baghdad

BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber struck Thursday inside a municipal building west of Baghdad, killing at least 20 people at a meeting of tribal sheiks opposed to al-Qaida, police said. The U.S. confirmed American casualties but gave no further details.

Another 18 people were killed and about 60 wounded in a car bombing near a government headquarters in the northern city of Mosul, officials said. The attacks Thursday were part of a spike in violence in Iraq after weeks of relative calm.


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bush negotiating with a dictator

Bush administration lifts North Korea sanctions

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Thursday lifted trade sanctions against North Korea and moved to remove it from the U.S. terrorism blacklist, a remarkable turnaround in policy toward the communist regime he once branded as part of an "axis of evil."


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Gee, I seem to remember bush saying that it was a bad thing to negotiate with a dictator with nuclear capabilities just a few weeks ago...Funny how things change when it's a repug doing the talking and not a Dem.

i wish that people didn't want them, but i agree that it is a right

Supreme Court says Americans have right to guns
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I can't stand guns myself, but I do believe that this is a right of the people, despite how distasteful it is. Just as long as there are still waiting periods and thorough background checks.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

a new low, even for Malkin

Michelle Malkin picks on a 7 year old and a 9 year old - from T Bogg

seriously - how could he do this with a straight face?!

Rove Rips NYT For Outing CIA Agent’s Identity And ‘Putting Our Country At Risk’
(Think Progress)
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C'mon now! Rove is just flat-out telling us that he think we are a bunch of f'king idiots and flipping us off. How dare he say something this outrageous and an agent who WAS NOT undercover as he is still has lawsuits pending about outing undercover agent Plame.

This is beyond the beyond...What a f'king asshole prick...

If we didn't have one of the most conservative news media in the world, this would be front page headlines everywhere...

More from Crooks and Liars:
Karl Rove lashes out at NYT for identifying CIA agent

Sometimes, the irony is so overwhelming, I have to wonder if it’s some kind of satirical performance art, and I’m just not in on the joke. Consider this fascinating exchange between Bill O’Reilly and Karl Rove on Fox News last night.

There are two key angles to this. First, the NYT article did, in fact, identify the CIA interrogator who questioned Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. The article characterizes him as one of the good guys, gaining information through non-abusive means. Indeed, the interrogator, who refused training on how to waterboard a detainee, established a rapport with the terrorist — which “astonished his fellow C.I.A. officers” — by talking and bringing KSM food. The article, in other words, wasn’t a slam job.

So why include his name? It was a judgment call, but the Times explained that the interrogator “had never worked under cover and that others involved in the campaign against Al Qaeda have been named in news stories and books. The editors judged that the name was necessary for the credibility and completeness of the article.” Whether one finds this responsible or not is open to debate.

But for Karl Rove to have the chutzpah to lambaste the Times for this is extraordinary.


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i'm still amazed that he's doing this well

Bush’s approval hits new low: 23 percent.
(Think Progress)
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But i guess some people will never admit that they made a mistake by backing this monumental failure.

funny now, but why didn't he speak up when it could have helped?

McClellan: Cheney’s memoir could be called, ‘I Upped Halliburton’s Income - So Up Yours.’
(Think Progress)
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So now McClellan is feeling guilty about all the lies he helped to perpetrate...I'm glad that he's speaking out, but i wish he had found his backbone when it could have made a difference...

because lord knows the oil companies need a break these days!

SCOTUS slashes Exxon damages for Valdez spill by $2 billion.
This morning, the Supreme Court issued a 5-3 decision (Justice Samuel Alito did not participate) slashing punitive damages Exxon Mobil must pay for the 1989 Valdez spill disaster from $2.5 billion to $500 million. “Nearly 33,000 Alaskans are in line to share in the award,” AP reports, which have been cut now from $75,000 each to about $15,000.

(Think Progress)
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WTF is that about?

frightening just how dumb some Americans can be

Voters say McCain better suited to handle Iraq than Obama

WASHINGTON (AP) — John McCain's stance on the war is unambiguous: He voted for it, supports the current enhanced U.S. troop presence in Iraq and vigorously opposes any timetable to withdraw.

The public's stance on the war is as equivocal as McCain's is not: A strong majority of Americans oppose it and believe it was wrong in the first place, but more find McCain better suited to handle Iraq than his Democratic presidential rival, Barack Obama.


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Kinda mind-boggling - though they disagree with everything McCain stands for on Iraq, some people think he would somehow be "better"?! Do they not understand how ridiculous that position is?

i dunno, i think if any crime deserves the death penalty, it would be this one

Court rejects death penalty for raping children
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Maybe a simple castration? Without anesthesia?
---
Obama's response:

Obama disagrees with high court on child rape case

CHICAGO - Democrat Barack Obama said Wednesday he disagrees with the Supreme Court's decision outlawing executions of people who rape children, a crime he said states have the right to consider for capital punishment.

"I have said repeatedly that I think that the death penalty should be applied in very narrow circumstances for the most egregious of crimes," Obama said at a news conference. "I think that the rape of a small child, 6 or 8 years old, is a heinous crime and if a state makes a decision that under narrow, limited, well-defined circumstances the death penalty is at least potentially applicable, that that does not violate our Constitution."


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I agree with Obama - the death penalty should not be used often, but in certain circumstances I think it is applicable.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

good!

more on bush's Iraqi failure

Baghdad bombing kills 4 Americans

BAGHDAD - A bomb struck a district council building Tuesday in Baghdad's Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City, killing at least nine people, including four Americans — two soldiers and two government employees, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.


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Obama speaking common sense about religion

James Dobson accuses Obama of `distorting' Bible

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - As Barack Obama broadens his outreach to evangelical voters, one of the movement's biggest names, James Dobson, accuses the likely Democratic presidential nominee of distorting the Bible and pushing a "fruitcake interpretation" of the Constitution.
---
"Even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools?" Obama said. "Would we go with James Dobson's or Al Sharpton's?" referring to the civil rights leader.

Dobson took aim at examples Obama cited in asking which Biblical passages should guide public policy — chapters like Leviticus, which Obama said suggests slavery is OK and eating shellfish is an abomination, or Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, "a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application."

"Folks haven't been reading their Bibles," Obama said.
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"Am I required in a democracy to conform my efforts in the political arena to his bloody notion of what is right with regard to the lives of tiny babies?" Dobson said. "What he's trying to say here is unless everybody agrees, we have no right to fight for what we believe."


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Obama is making perfect sense in saying that the Bible can't be used to form public policy, but Dobson goes off onto a wild tangent that has nothing to do with anything that Obama has said. Someone here sounds like a "fruitcake" and it ain't Obama!

unifying behind Obama

bush's Afghan disasterous failure

Monday, June 23, 2008

returning rights to people

Appeals court rules against Bush administration in enemy combatant case.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has “overturned the Pentagon’s classification of a Guantanamo detainee as an enemy combatant,” undermining “the basis for his more than six years in detention.” The court also rejected the argument that the President can “detain people who never took up arms against the U.S.,” dealing another setback to the Bush administration’s detention program.

(Think Progress)

here comes the lies and slander!

First Obama attack book in the works

The same publisher that distributed the 2004 best-seller that took aim at John Kerry’s Vietnam service is planning a summer release of what’s scheduled to be the first critical book on Barack Obama.


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I can't imagine being a Democratic presidential candidate - you have to have the toughest skin in the world to deal with the attacks from all sides. The constant media attacks, the crazy cons - it's gotta be insane...

Sunday, June 22, 2008

because laws apparently don't apply to repugs

as well they should

Plame and Wilson vow to press on with lawsuit.
(Think Progress)
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It's been confirmed now that bush's administration committed a treasonous act by revealing Plame's identity, so they should try to get some justice.

no one agrees with bush

bush's administration agrees with Obama, not bush

sick, crazy motherf'kers

Friday, June 20, 2008

racism is alive and well

Website pulls down racist Obama t-shirts.
(Think Progress)
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Kudos to Road Kill T-shirts for their prompt action, but just the fact that slime exists that could conceive of this shit is literally stomach churning. (Click the link for photos of the shirts.)

does this sound really dirty?

changing the Constitution to take away people's rights?

because bush doesn't give a f'k about this planet

hyperbole much?

Lamar Smith Compares McClellan To Judas, Declares ‘It’s Hard To Take Mr. McClellan Too Seriously’
(Think Progress)
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Calling McClellan a "Judas" does nothing to change the truth of his statements.
Also, McClellan did far worse when he betrayed the American people by flat out lying to us as an administration shill.

McCain & oil companies

McCain heckled for accepting most money from Big Oil.

Last night during a townhall event in Missouri, John McCain was confronted by a protester who yelled out that he had accepted a half million dollars this year from “big oil.” “That’s more than any other senator!” the protester said. “How can you be trusted?” (Raw Story has the video.) Later, McCain was asked about this in a news conference. “I don’t know what he’s talking about. So I can’t respond,” McCain said. The Wall Street Journal informs:

Indeed, McCain does lead all other senators, and all others who ran for president, in contributions from the oil and gas industry, according to the Center for Responsive Politics’ analysis of federal data in the 2007-08 election cycle. McCain collected $724,000 through May.


(Think Progress)

no hypocritical lie that they won't sink to

helping those who help themselves

utterly outrageous!

Iraqis really want us to leave

Hundreds of Shiites protest US-Iraqi security deal

BAGHDAD - Hundreds of followers of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took to the streets after Friday prayers in Shiite areas to protest plans for a longterm security pact between Iraq and the United States.

Iraqi officials and lawmakers have opposed the proposed security pact, which would provide a legal framework for the presence of U.S.-led forces after a U.N. mandate expires later this year. The opposition claims it infringes Iraq's independence and sovereignty.

Sadrist Sheik Assad al-Nassiri warned the agreement, which faces a July 31 target date for completion, will "humiliate Iraqis, rob the Iraqi government of its sovereignty and give the occupier the upper hand."

"We do believe that the presence of the occupation is the main reason behind all of our crises, and unfortunately we hear some of our government officials calling on the occupation forces to stay," he said during a sermon in Kufa.


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more Afghanistan horror

Suicide bomber ambushes military convoy, killing 6

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber attacked a military convoy as it drove through a town in southern Afghanistan Friday, killing five civilians and one soldier from the U.S.-led coalition, officials said.


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why religious fanaticism is dangerous

Teenager from faith-healing family dies in Oregon

GLADSTONE, Ore. - Authorities say a teenager from a faith-healing family died from an illness that could have been easily treated, just a few months after a toddler cousin of his died in a case that has led to criminal charges.

Tuesday's death of 16-year-old Neil Beagley, however, may not be a crime because Oregon law allows minors 14 and older to decide for themselves whether to accept medical treatment.

"All of the interviews from last night are that he did in fact refuse treatment," police Sgt. Lynne Benton said Wednesday. "Unless we can disprove that, charges probably won't be filed in this case."


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What truly sucks is that the kid probably thought that he would end up in heaven and wasn't worried about leaving this mortal world. It truly sucks when people don't appreciate the life that they were given.

what the hell is wrong with these idiots?

Reports: Teen girls made pact to get pregnant
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Teens are supposed to be doing everything to avoid getting pregnant! This is a nice way to f'k up their lives forever.

working together


Obama, Hillary Clinton to campaign together


CHICAGO - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama's campaign announced Friday that he will campaign with former rival Hillary Rodham Clinton next week, a step toward unifying a fractured Democratic Party after a bruising primary fight.



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Let's heal the wounds and pull everyone together for the greater good. November can literally change the course of the world for the better. Let's hope that no one f'ks it up!

more proof of the lies

Former aide: Bush should tell all on CIA leak

WASHINGTON - A former White House spokesman told Congress on Friday that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney wanted him to say that Cheney's chief of staff wasn't involved in the leak of a CIA operative's identity, an assertion that turned out to be false.


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Friday Beagle Blogging!

"If you're not going to pay attention to me, I will turn my back on you! And, by the way, this is MY blanket!"

Thursday, June 19, 2008

this is good

Obama first general election ad is on the air in 18 states
(Americablog)
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Obama really is the man to get people interested in politics again. He speaks like a smart, sane man (unlike some presidents we know), he's passionate, he has good ideas and he has youthful enthusiasm. How long has it been since you could say that about almost any politician?

We will be a mighty lucky country if we can get this man into office. It's almost too frightening to contemplate if his opponent wins...

crazy cons find a way for gay marriage to effect straights!

Three California counties to locals: No marriage for you

I’ve long wondered what, exactly, opponents of same-sex marriage believe will happen if gay couples have the same right to marry as straight couples. Several years ago, I recall Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum telling TV preacher Pat Robertson, “[T]he consequence is very clear. Marriage loses its significance. People will stop getting married. Homosexuals will not get married; heterosexuals will stop getting married. And that to me is the real threat to the American family and to the culture generally.”

Now, this quote has always stood out for me because I’d really like to meet the straight person who believes, “I planned to marry the person I love, but I’ve decided not to. If gays can marry, it’s just not worth it.” That, I assumed, was the only way for Santorum’s argument to make any sense.

As it turns out, there’s another way Santorum could have been right.

June 17 marks the date that gay and lesbian couples can marry legally in California, following a landmark ruling by the state’s Supreme Court in May that struck down the ban on same-sex marriage. The day will be marked by joyous celebrations and eager couples earning a right they have waited years to obtain.

Yet, the occasion will also be punctuated by the division it creates throughout the state…. [T]he Butte County clerk-recorder issued a June 11 news release saying her office will stop performing wedding ceremonies altogether — for gay and heterosexual couples. The Kern County clerk issued a June 4 release that she would do the same.

Calaveras county has decided to follow Butte’s and Kern’s lead, and will also stop performing marriages altogether.

It never occurred to me that conservatives would actually find a way to make marriages between gay couples affect marriages between straight couples. Kudos to their right-wing, hate-filled creativity!


(Crooks and Liars)
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Wow - who could imagine that people would be so vindictive that they would screw over everyone just so they don't have to face their own bigotry?!
These people are just crazy assholes...I can't imagine that they don't see themselves in the same way as the southern racists who kept refusing service to African-Americans in the 60's. Maybe they are proud of that kind of heritage...
Man, I can't spend the energy on that kind of baseless hatred...

horrorific

another failure in Iraq

Iraqi re-Baathification law not being implemented.
In January, the Iraqi parliament passed a nominal re-Baathification law that was meant to allow thousands of former Baathists to join the Iraqi government. Conservatives and war hawks loudly touted the law’s passage as a sign of success in Iraq. But, as Reuters reported yesterday, the law is not being implemented.

(Think Progress)

why are so many repugs such racist f'ks?

Limbaugh: Black Katrina victims ‘whined and moaned’; white Iowa flood victims are ‘backbone of America.’
(Think Progress)
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The repugs really are the party of the racists, aren't they?

even Rice agrees!

Rice: ‘It’s time for new blood’ in the White House.
Asked whether she is interested in being Vice President, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Fox & Friends this morning, “It’s time for me to go back to Stanford. … It’s time for me to do something else.” She added, “You have to know when your time is up, and it’s time for new blood.”

(Think Progress)
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And thank goodness she's not interested. The last thing we need is one of the major players in the disasters of the last 8 years still in the administration.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Baracknophobia

Jon Stewart examines the media’s affinity for smearing Obama
(check out the video at Crooks and Liars)
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The "best" part is Steve Doocy claiming Obama plagiarized a speech that had different topics and the only words that were the same were "of" "to" and "the", if i remember correctly.

The desperation is palatable...

Obama's energy plan

It is ba-ack!

Is the industrial policy debate back in the U.S.? A WSJ interview with Barack Obama would suggest so:

The heart of Sen. Obama's spending program is his plan to spend $15 billion a year for 10 years on energy technology. It would be funded by revenue collected from a separate Obama proposal to cap greenhouse emissions through a system of trading pollution permits. Sen. Obama would auction those permits to producers of carbon dioxide, such as electric utilities, and figures the sales would yield about $100 billion a year. Most of that would go to consumers as rebates on utility bills, he said.

He also would fund an "infrastructure reinvestment bank" that would finance $60 billion in high-speed railways, improved energy grids and other projects over a decade. He would double spending on basic research, subsidize investment in high-speed Internet hook-ups, and offer $4,000 a year in tuition credits for students who later perform public services.

To "capture some of the nation's economic growth," he said in the interview, "and reinvest it in things we know have to be done like science, technology, research and fixing our energy policy, then that is actually going to spur productivity."
...
Sen. Obama made the case in the interview for large-scale government intervention in the energy market, saying that although venture funds are investing heavily in energy technology, there was a gap in funding that should be filled by Washington. He called it supporting the "middle stage" between innovation and commercialization. "You have this point in time when things haven't quite taken off yet and still entail huge risks," he said.
...
Sen. Obama likened his proposal to a venture-capital fund, with the government seeking private investors to contribute. He lauded a Central Intelligence Agency project which helps fund technologies the CIA finds important, but which lack long-term capital.

And the predictable Republican response:

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, chief economic aide to Republican candidate Sen. John McCain, dismissed the Obama strategy as "classic industrial policy which shows a lack of faith in private markets."

Although it is difficult to be sure, Obama's comments in the interview suggest that he has thought these issues through more carefully than we are accustomed to with politicians and presidential aspirants. I sense the outlines of a coherent and economically sensible strategy here. And it is too bad that Doug Holtz-Eakin is playing the role of party hack.


(Dani Rodrik - first seen at Crooks and Liars)
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Wow - how about that? An actual plan with real alternatives! Gee, how could anyone come up with something so radical?

check it out!

Cool interactive 360 degree photo of Gore speaking at Obama rally

You have to click through, then when the picture comes up, scroll around with your mouse on the page to move the picture - it's literally 360 degrees of photo. Amazing.

(Americablog)
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This is wild - i've seen less people at Kiss concerts!

Barack fights back perfectly

McSame fear and smear

Different year, same fear. Despite his best effort, McCain can't separate himself from the Bush team and how cold he? They remain joined at the hip.

A defiant Barack Obama said Tuesday he would take no lectures from Republicans on which candidate would keep the U.S. safer, a sharp rebuke to John McCain's aides who said the Democrat had a naive, Sept. 10 mind-set toward terrorism.

"These are the same guys who helped to engineer the distraction of the war in Iraq at a time when we could have pinned down the people who actually committed 9/11," the presumed nominee told reporters aboard his campaign plane. "This is the same kind of fear-mongering that got us into Iraq ... and it's exactly that failed foreign policy I want to reverse."


(Americablog)

obstructionist repugs blocking help to Americans in need

GOP objects to jobless benefits extension bill

WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans blocked legislation Tuesday that would have given an extra three months of jobless benefits for all unemployed Americans, but congressional Democrats plan to bring the bill back by attaching it to an Iraq war funding measure.


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ah, our "liberal media" at it again

former male escort is still a repug stooge

once again, they're only mad that they got caught

White House Derides Investigation That Exposed Drug Testing On Vets As ‘Irresponsible Reporting,’ ‘Awful’
(Think Progress)
---
This is so unspeakably vile. The horrible treatment of the vets mean nothing to these inhuman monsters - all they care about is the fact that it was exposed.

their desparation is showing

Beck: ‘It Is Approaching Treason’ To Elect A Progressive Congress
(Think Progress)
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There is no slander that these scumbags won't use....

repugs flip-flopping like fish outta water

nothing but the best for the repugs

Obama smear merchant has lengthy criminal record.
(Think Progress)
---
Well, I guess that just goes to show the kind of morals you need for this kind of "work".

more incompetance

US: 4 helicopter engines worth $13M missing
---
But hell, it's only 13 million - they've lost billions in the past, so I guess we should consider this an improvement!

more of what we already knew

Report: Exams prove abuse, torture in Iraq, Gitmo
---
Nothing like creating more terrorists - thanks bush!

bush: no new ideas and blaming Congress for his failures

Bush to Congress: Embrace energy exploration now

WASHINGTON - With gasoline topping $4 a gallon, President Bush urged Congress on Wednesday to lift its long-standing ban on offshore oil and gas drilling, saying the United States needs to increase its energy production.
---
There are two prohibitions on offshore drilling, one imposed by Congress and another by executive order. Bush is not lifting the executive order, saying he wants Congress to take the first step. He said he will lift the executive ban once Congress lifts its moratorium.

---

Congressional Democrats were quick to reject the push for lifting the drilling moratorium, saying oil companies already have 68 million acres offshore waters under lease that are not being developed.


House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Bush's proposals "another page from (an)... energy policy that was literally written by the oil industry — give away more public resources."


Sen. Barack Obama, the Democrats' presumptive presidential nominee, rejected lifting the drilling moratorium that has been supported by a succession of presidents for nearly two decades.


"This is not something that's going to give consumers short-term relief and it is not a long-term solution to our problems with fossil fuels generally and oil in particular," said Obama. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, lumping Bush with McCain, accused them of staging a "cynical campaign ploy" that won't help lower energy prices.


"Despite what President Bush, John McCain and their friends in the oil industry claim, we cannot drill our way out of this problem," Reid said. "The math is simple: America has just three percent of the world's oil reserves, but Americans use a quarter of its oil."


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Bush's main defense of his failures is the kindergarten defense - "i didn't do it - he did it!"
Bush and the repugs have been in charge and this is completely their failure - this has nothing to do with the Democrats who have had a small majority in Congress for what - 8 months?

And notice that bush doesn't want to take the first step - he wants to blame Congress for the backlash that this policy would bring.

Wouldn't it be nice to have someone with some real ideas in charge instead of this petulant child? Maybe like Obama, who speaks on this issue like an adult, with logic and real solutions?

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

fear-mongering Fox style

racism is alive and well

Creators of ‘The Sock Obama’ toy plan to move forward with production.
(Think Progress)
and from Americablog:
Pin at the GOP state convention in Texas: "If Obama is Presisdent... will we still call it the White House?"
---
Wow! They are proud to be asshole racists, aren't they? The repugs are the party of bigotry - they hate anyone who is different, be it their color, their sexual orientation, or even their gender, considering their lack of support of women's rights.

It is an extremely sad commentary that so many people are still so prejudiced. I guess despite the progress that has been made, we really haven't moved that far in the last 50 years.

hated around the world

The Independent: ‘The end of this disastrous presidency is finally in sight.’

On the heels of President Bush’s farewell tour of Europe, the Independent (UK) issued a scathing editorial today reflecting on his visit and presidency:

[P]erhaps Mr Bush’s most significant legacy, as far as Britain is concerned, will be the destruction of the instinctive trust of America and its leaders that once prevailed here. It is no exaggeration to say that Mr Bush has done more damage to relations between our two nations than any president in living memory. This rupture is not an accident of circumstance; there are no impersonal forces of history to blame. This sorry state of affairs is the consequence of the actions of a single leader and his small coterie of advisers.
[…]
And whatever the future holds for transatlantic relations, there will be very few in this country who watched President Bush’s plane depart yesterday without a feeling of profound relief that the end of this disastrous presidency is finally in sight.


(Think Progress)

because lies are all they have - the never-ending repug saga

that's gotta hurt

Village re-elects dead mayor

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - The residents of a Romanian village knowingly voted in a dead man as their mayor in Sunday's municipal election, preferring him to his living opponent.

Neculai Ivascu, 57, who ran the village for almost two decades, died from liver disease just after voting began -- but still won the election by a margin of 23 votes.


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and in Iraq - another bush failure

I've got a wild idea to solve the problem - get over your baseless prejudice!

the terrorists love bush

Taliban militants destroy bridges in Afghanistan

ARGHANDAB, Afghanistan - Taliban militants destroyed bridges and planted mines in several villages they control outside southern Afghanistan's largest city in apparent preparation for battle, residents and officials said Tuesday.

More than 700 families — meaning perhaps 4,000 people or more — had fled the Arghandab district 10 miles northwest of Kandahar city, said Sardar Mohammad, a police officer manning a checkpoint on the east side of the Arghandab River. Police on Tuesday stopped and searched every person passing on the road.

On the west side of the river, hundreds of Taliban controlled around nine or 10 villages, Mohammad said.


---
How much more f'k'd up will things get before we can get bush out of office? How many failures will be leave to his successor?
Even worse, if McCain wins in November, will the world survive another 4 years?

do some people actually think that McCain will be a change from bush?

Obama holding on to small lead over McCain: poll
---
I'm glad that Obama has a lead, but how can it be a small lead?
I honestly don't understand how anyone could have lived through the last 8 years here in the United States and still even consider another repug for president, especially one so closely aligned to bush's policies.
But then, I couldn't understand how so many people could vote against their own self interest in 2004 either.
I know that the American public is not very bright, but it always amazes me when people purposely hurt themselves. Are that many people sadists?
I really can't comprehend it...

Monday, June 16, 2008

surprising

Pro-Bush biographer to release pro-Obama book
(Americablog)
---
Actually, as surprising as it is that the same author would write approvingly of these two polar opposites, it is also surprising, and to me a little disappointing, that Barack is that religious. But, i suppose a politician needs to be these days...

everyone hates bush

World trusts Ahmadinejad more than Bush ‘to do the right thing regarding world affairs.’
(Think Progress)
---
Man, I've had a couple of co-workers or neighbors annoyed with me, but can you imagine the entire world actually, actively hating you?
I guess it's a never-ending circle - he's a dick so everyone hates him which makes him more of a dick which makes him more hateful....

bush remains an arrogant cock

I'm not holding my breath, but imagine if justice was actually served?

not surprisingly, this is the same repug who believes in demons

and I'm completely certain that McCain will be vilified for this! (/sarcasm)

McCain says “it’s tough, it’s tough in some respects” to be proud of America
(Crooks and Liars)
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If a Dem said this, it would be on the news 24/7, but has anyone other than C&L even reported this?

McCain debates himself - and loses

On Bush: McCain Vs. McCain
(Crooks and Liars)

apparently, they are counting on everyone forgetting who has been in charge for the last 8 years

wow!

wow - this is so bizarre that you would think it was satire

Organizer of McCain meeting to woo Clinton supporters is infamous for trying to keep blacks out of Thomas Jefferson family reunions
(Americablog)
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The racism in the republican party is mind-boggling! Why would any African-American even vote for one of these scumbags?

after ignoring bin Laden for almost 7 years, it is suddenly time to look for him

Get Osama Bin Laden before I leave office, orders George W Bush
(Times Online)
---
Gee, I can't imagine what would bring this up in June of an election year...
More from Americablog:
Seven years after 3,000 died on September 11, Bush finally decides it's time to catch Osama

I'm speechless. Bush has suddenly decided that it's time to catch Osama bin Laden. Conveniently in time for the presidential campaign. Last year, and the 5 years before that, it wasn't very high up on Bush's agenda, avenging the deaths of 3,000 people in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001. But now that John McCain's presidential race, and Bush's legacy, are at stake, suddenly Bush is "ordering" his administration to catch Osama.

Why didn't he give that order six years ago?


---

hyperbole much?

another bush failure

sweet story

Lesbian couple of 55 years ready to say 'I do'

SAN FRANCISCO - Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin fell in love at a time when lesbians risked being arrested, fired from their jobs and sent to electroshock treatment.

On Monday afternoon, more than a half-century after they became a couple, Lyon and Martin plan to become the first same-sex couples to legally exchange marriage vows in San Francisco and among the first in the state.

"It was something you wanted to know, 'Is it really going to happen?' And now it's
happened, and maybe it can continue to happen," Lyon said.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom plans to officiate at the private ceremony in his City Hall office before 50 invited guests. He picked Martin, 87, and Lyon, 84, for the front of the line in recognition of their long relationship and their status as pioneers of the gay rights movement.

Along with six other women, they founded a San Francisco social club for lesbians in 1955 called the Daughters of Bilitis. Under their leadership, it evolved into the nation's first lesbian advocacy organization. They have the FBI files to prove it.


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Friday, June 13, 2008

another day, another cheney lie

RIP

a proposed running mate for McCain has participated in an exorcism

We’ve heard of politicians battling demons, but this is ridiculous
(Crooks and Liars)
---
Politics gets weirder and weirder the more I learn about it!

Read the story - this is seriously crazy!

effective

Why I’m Voting Republican
(Crooks and Liars)
---
This video is making the rounds - check it out - it's good.

McCain's fake town hall meeting

are there any repugs that aren't closeted, hypocritical gays?

Friday Beagle Blogging

"Whachu lookin' at" edition...

Thursday, June 12, 2008

just funny

who could blame them?

bush's lapdogs crossing the line again

can't we get rid of this looney-tune along with bush?

Scalia: Court’s Decision Restoring Habeas ‘Will Almost Certainly Cause More Americans To Be Killed’
(Think Progress)
---
Is the Supreme Court supposed to simply parrot one party's talking points? Especially in an election year?

nice that bush says he will open the law (for a change)


Bush disagrees with court's Guantanamo ruling


ROME - President Bush on Thursday strongly disagreed with a Supreme Court ruling that clears foreign terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts. Bush suggested new legislation may now be needed to keep the American people safe.



---

That last line makes it sound like he will try to find some way to circumvent the law - once again.

another problem for bush and company

hardly surprising

how low will they go?

Bush, Cheney, and Rice sink to lowest ratings ever.
(Think Progress)
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As always, i'm still impressed that they have any positive ratings at all. I guess some people will never turn their backs on their party.

gosh, ya think?

Fox: Producer ‘exercised poor judgment’ with ‘Obama’s baby mama’ chyron.
(Think Progress)
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Yeah, I would think that an offensive, racist, sexist phrase would be considered in "poor judgement" for a major "news" station.

Fight the Smears

Obama has a website dedicated to debunking the lies that are being told about him. See:
Fight the Smears

I'm not surprised, but it is a sad commentary that so many lies are being spread that he needs to have regular updates to let people know the truth. But, this is a smart tool that will hopefully allow him to concentrate on the issues, since the repugs will do anything to shy away from any meat in this campaign because all they have is lies.

our "liberal media" at it again

Here's the headline on Yahoo:
Some Hill Dems won't endorse Obama

The presidential race may be topic A, B and C in Washington these days, but some people are just too busy to think about it — particularly, it seems, centrist Democrats from conservative districts, who aren’t exactly eager to align themselves with Sen. Barack Obama.
----
he NRCC identified five such Democrats in a statement distributed Tuesday.

One of them, Kansas Rep. Nancy Boyda, has since decided to endorse Obama. Another, Ohio Rep. Charlie Wilson, had done so a few days before the statement went out — which is to say, only after Clinton announced that she was suspending her campaign.

---

So, the repugs came up with a couple of names, mostly undecideds, yet what is not in this article (from Americablog):

14 Republican House members are refusing to endorse McCain

The best part? McCain issued a press release this week bragging that one - count 'em, one - Democratic House Member wasn't supporting Obama. Oops. From The Hill
At least 14 Republican members of Congress have refused to endorse or publicly support Sen. John McCain for president, and more than a dozen others declined to answer whether they back the Arizona senator....

While some conservative Democrats have yet to endorse Obama and didn’t back Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in 2004, there are both centrist and conservative Republicans representing various parts of the country who are not embracing McCain.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

just plain silly and funny

everything is a sign of success in Iraq!

even more repug obstructionism!

Coburn Places A Hold On HIV/AIDS Prevention Bill
and
Senate conservatives repeat obscure objection to block another Judiciary hearing.
(Think Progress)
---
I think that the repugs are trying to prevent any work from being done between now and November and will then blame the Dems for not accomplishing anything.
There is nothing that these scumbags won't do to win an election - no matter what the cost to our country and its people.

throwing our money away

Bush administration gag order preventing discussion of $23billion lost in Iraq.
A BBC investigation estimates that $23 billion “may have been lost, stolen or just not properly accounted for” in Iraq. But, reports the BBC, “a US gagging order is preventing discussion of the allegations.”

(Think Progress)

yet another WTF moment regarding Obama

another reason not to vote for McCain

repugs continue to be obstructionists

Go Olbermann!

because lies are all they have

Fox does the right thing

E.D. Hill loses her Fox News show after ‘terrorist fist jab’ remark.
(Think Progress)
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Though they haven't actually fired the woman, at least she received some disciplinary action. Her remark was so far out of left field that no one could understand where it came from!

US creating more tension

US defends airstrikes that angered Pakistan

WASHINGTON - U.S. airstrikes into Pakistan that may have accidentally killed allied fighters have upset the already fragile relations between Washington and Islamabad over how to stem violence in the lawless border region.

Defense Department press secretary Geoff Morrell defended the bombing Wednesday and said it was too early to know whether the strike killed 11 Pakistani paramilitary forces, as alleged by the angry Pakistani Army.


---

more on McCain staying in Iraq

McCain says cutting casualties in Iraq is primary goal

PHILADELPHIA - Avoiding casualties in Iraq is more important than bringing troops home, Republican John McCain said Wednesday, feeding an outcry from Democrats who quickly declared him to be out of touch with the public and the needs of the military.
---
The answer was in keeping with McCain's long-stated argument that as Iraqis take more control of security in their country, the number of killed and wounded U.S. soldiers should decline. He has said he could envision troops withdrawing around 2013 but has refused to fix a date.

Among the first to respond was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

"McCain's statement today that withdrawing troops doesn't matter is a crystal-clear indicator that he just doesn't get the grave national-security consequences of staying the course. Osama bin Laden is freely plotting attacks, our efforts in Afghanistan are undermanned, and our military readiness has been dangerously diminished," Reid said in a statement. "We need a smart change in strategy to make America more secure, not a commitment to indefinitely keep our troops in an intractable civil war."

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a former presidential candidate, equated McCain to President Bush and said, "It is long past time to refocus our foreign policy on the many challenges we face, not just Iraq."

"Senator McCain's comment is evidence that he is totally out of touch with the needs of our troops and the national security needs of our nation," Biden said. "I think many of our brave soldiers and their families would disagree that it's not too important when they come home.

"He can't tell us when, or even if, this war will end," Biden said.


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Tuesday, June 10, 2008

well, I doubt that i will ever be that "not rich"

innapropriate, but funny coming from Fox

Fox’s Smith: People who get stuck in toilets are ‘a little crazy,’ just like global warming deniers.
(Think Progress)
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Since it was from Fox, I initially though that he was calling people who believed in global warming crazy - not the deniers!
I think that he has gotten off message and Fox will straighten him out!

But regardless of the message, that was weirdly innapropriate...

WH ties to Abramoff

“The White House had stronger ties to disgraced superlobbyist Jack Abramoff than it has publicly admitted,” according to House Oversight Committee report. “President Bush himself met Abramoff on at least six occasions, the report said, citing White House documents; the White House had previously acknowledged only two.”

(Think Progress)

Wow! Go Kucinich!

Breaking: Kucinich introduces articles of impeachment against Bush.
(Think Progress)
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I certainly don't expect anything to come of this with the small Democratic majority, but it is impressive that Kucinich is even making the gesture.

here we go again!

Max Boot: ‘Iran’s top terrorist is hoping’ U.S. ‘will elect Barack Obama this fall.’
(Think Progress)
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And yet, no repug can ever make a feasible case for why terrorists would want a Democrat to win, seeing as the repugs have been their best friends and have immeasurably strengthened their cause.

Actually, Boot's quote is truly convoluted - he says he personally doesn't think that the terrorists would favor McCain (though he doesn't say why), so he concludes that they must favor Obama, and then says that Obama needs to re-think he policies!