Here's the first ten minutes from last night's debate:
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Spitzer Goes Overboard Against Bruno
From The New York Times:
Spitzer aides, chiefly his communications director, Darren Dopp, concocted a false story for why the information was being gathered, saying the governor’s office had acted after receiving a press request seeking details of Mr. Bruno’s use of state aircraft, the report said.
Mr. Dopp later made misleading statements about the involvement of the governor’s office in the effort, the report indicates. The report concludes that Mr. Bruno’s use of the helicopters — on trips that included both political and legislative events — was proper.
Minutes after the report was made public, Mr. Spitzer announced he was suspending Mr. Dopp indefinitely without pay. He said he was also transferring his liaison to the State Police, the deputy secretary of homeland security, William Howard, to a position outside the governor’s office.
This is a serious no-no. As the Times notes, Republicans are now looking to review agreements with the Governor such as the campaign finance deal last week and severely curtail whatever amicable working relation that existed before. Suspending Dopp is hardly a fix for this mess, Spitzer might be looking at some form of punishment from the Attorney General's office. The road to reform we put Spitzer on is going to need some serious resurfacing and soon.
Monday, July 23, 2007
YouTube Debate Brings Americans Closer To The Candidates
Tonight's debate between the Democratic aspirants was an interesting one that veers from the typical Q & A brought forth from a media figure moderator. The questions were from ordinary people who have real issues they want answered.
The candidates agreed that over forty million Americans without health insurance is a problem that needs to be fixed. They agree the war should end and a few took shots at each other. That's the usual stuff to be expected 15-16 months before the election. The addition of a public forum is what made it interesting, especially with this question.
From Crooks and Liars:
The mother of a soldier who is on his second tour in Iraq brought the heat to the Democratic candidates. She asks the candidates if the Democrats are putting “politics before conscience” in failing to fight harder to end the occupation of Iraq. She points out that more than 800 members of the military service have died waiting for them to get serious. This was a fantastic question and one of the best questions that could have been asked at this debate.
So many more will die in the months to come. This is the most pressing issue in our country today. Save for the President and the rest of the die-hards, we all know the war is a lost cause. The only things to be achieved from it is higher casualty figures and a nation deeper in debt where the money flows faster and faster to defense contractors like Halliburton. The people that are looking for that are seriously disturbed. The ones that believe that and are in a position to end it must be shown the door, either nicely or by force. Our country needs a real change in course as soon as we can possibly get it.
Condi Who?
Two years ago I was driving down the Pacific Coast Highway from San Francisco to my then home Los Angeles. The beautiful ride was marred by one thing however, a car with a "Condi 08'" sticker. It was repulsive to say the least and scary because at the time, it seemed like a possibility. Nowadays the mention of a Rice presidential run is a joke, preempted by the laughable term as Secretary of State. She is so ineffective in dealing with representatives around the world because of the "I love George and he can do no harm" delusion that surrounds her daily life. It even shows with the mainstream media. A few months ago, she decided to write an opinion piece about Lebanon. She enlisted John Chambers, chief executive officer of Cisco Systems as a co-author, and they wrote about public/private partnerships and how they might be of use in rebuilding Lebanon after last summer's war. No one would publish it. Think about that. Every one of the major newspapers approached refused to publish an essay by the secretary of state. Price Floyd, who was the State Department's director of media affairs until recently, recalls that it was sent to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and perhaps other papers before the department finally tried a foreign publication, the Financial Times of London, which also turned it down. As a last-ditch strategy, the State Department briefly considered translating the article into Arabic and trying a Lebanese paper. But finally they just gave up. "I kept hearing the same thing: 'There's no news in this.' " Floyd said. The piece, he said, was littered with glowing references to President Bush's wise leadership. "It read like a campaign document." It is only a matter of time until she disappears from the public eye, any dreams of a further life in politics has been dashed long ago. The only interest in her is from the corporate masters that she has served so well in the past and of course they will probably pay her well for it. It isn't like she needs the money, but she'll do whatever she can to encourage her failed ideologies so that America and the world can continue to suffer the thoughts of the neo-con community.
From The San Francisco Gate:
And that is the state of the Bush Administration. Everything is about campaigning. It is all they know. Condi wants to make Bush look good and that is why she hangs on to her job. Even with an abysmal 25% approval rating, George and his sycophants will continue to spew bullshit that shouldn't see the light of the day from the garbage heap where it formed.
Kristol Rips YearlyKos, Rightwing Onslaught Continues
Driven by the farcical winds from the wingnut o'sphere and the airwaves emanating from Fox News, YearlyKos is being attacked by conseratives as the date of the convention approaches. The latest set of sticks and stones came from William Kristol yesterday on....you guessed it...Fox News.
From ThinkProgress:
Today on Fox News Sunday, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol attacked the Democratic presidential candidates for their decision to attend the YearlyKos blogger convention. He held it up as evidence that the presidential candidates have “gone left.”
“Every Democratic presidential nominee is going to the DailyKos convention,” said Kristol. “That’s the left-wing blogger who was not respectable three or four years ago. The Howard Dean kind of sponsor. Now the whole party is going to pay court to him and to left wing blogs.”The YearlyKos convention is independent of the blog DailyKos. So the candidates are not going to simply “pay court” to the head of DailyKos, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga. Approximately 1,500 “people from all walks of life who belong to the Netroots community” are expected at the convention this year.
Moreover, as NPR’s Juan Williams points out, what Kristol describes “as left is now center.” “The majority of the American people, 70 percent, want us out of Iraq,” noted Williams. “In fact, if you asked Iraqis, 60 some percent of Iraqis say we’re doing more harm than good in Iraq.” In a survey conducted by Pew Internet and American Life after the 2006 mid-term election, “online political activists” were said to “mirror the general population of those who are civically active.” Like the progressive blogosphere, a solid majority of Americans believe President Bush should not have commuted the sentence of his former aide, Scooter Libby.
It must be lonely out there Billy Boy in that bubble you live in. As Graham Nash once sung, "Won't you please come to Chicago for a ride" We promise it won't hurt, much.
Project Phin Part Two
This episode simply tells people how we can start to make a change in how we fuel our rides. Go to the website and check it out.
Congressman &$%#"^! Shays
It has to be hard to be one of the last Republicans in Congress from the Northeast. He barely hung on last year and he's a top target to be taken out next year in this highly liberal part of the country. But is it an excuse to yell obscenities at every other person you come into contact with?
From My Left Nutmeg:
The guyis losinghas lost it:
According to sources familiar with the event, the outburst began after Officer Randy Cooper informed a staff member that he could not bring a tour through a lower west front door that has restricted access.One source said that after Cooper informed the staffer that the family could not enter through the door, the staffer called Shays and tried to have the officer speak with him. When the officer refused, Shays himself came down to the post and proceeded to “scream obscenities” at Cooper before touching his nametag to read it in the rain and storming away.
Update: Other recent acts that might have caused a neutral observer to question Shays' mental state have included attacking NASA scientist James Hansen in a committee hearing, literally screaming at the widows of Blackwater contractors who had died in Iraq in a committee hearing, and dismissing Abu Ghraib as a "sex ring" and not torture, among others.
Looks like Chris is sliding down the hill of mental stability at a steadily increasing rate. I hope he gets some rest after we kick him out of Congress next year, for his sake and those around him.
Regulating The Over-Regulation of NYC
New York has plenty of ridiculous laws and plenty more on the way from legislators and the city council. These lawmakers are hoping to prove they know how to write legislation without making a real difference for New Yorkers. Unless you think banning metal baseball bats and restricting people from dancing in bars without having cabaret licenses is a good thing, there is much we need to do and get rid of.
From AM New York:
New Yorkers learned about the unfunny side of such laws when Rudy Giuliani, while mayor in the 1990s, began enforcing a 1926 law requiring cabarets to obtain a special license if more than two people would be dancing.
The law was originally enacted as a response to "civilized" New York's horror at increasingly popular multiracial jazz clubs. Seventy years later, no one in a more tolerant city had bothered taking the law off the books, and bars and clubs sometimes faced serious fines.
Among proposed laws out there now are one that would prohibit pet owners from keeping their animals outside on a leash for more than three hours in any 12-hour period.
Others would put the kibosh on selling permanent markers to anyone under 21, establish stiff fines for defacing U.S. flags on private property that are on par with those reserved for hate crimes against religious institutions, and create a raft of well-intentioned -- but sometimes impractical -- new street names (Brother George Washington Way "Legendary Boxing Trainer" in Brooklyn is going to need either a really big sign or illegibly small lettering).
So many laws, so little room to maneuver around the pens of legislators we keep electing. What we need are laws that truly make a difference for the city. Clean elections would be a great start. With last week's steam pipe explosion, mandating a permanent fix for the antiquated infrastructure beneath our feet sounds like a no-brainer. There is so much our government could spend their time on, instead we have to worry about trans-fats, spitting in bars and putting on puppet shows in city windows (I kid you not).
Bill Maher On Bush
Taking a break from "Real Time," Maher goes on the road, attacking public enemy #1 along the way.
What Good Does Censure Do?
I commended Russ Feingold for bringing up Censure for George Bush last year, although it ultimately failed. It's a simple statement that shows the President is off course. Now Russ is bringing it up again, but why? We are far beyond censure as we were even back then. Senate leaders do not see much in it now as they did last year, but they won't look at impeachment either. Impeachment is what we need, not censure and certainly not inaction.
From The Huffington Post:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Feingold's proposals showed the nation's frustration. But Reid said he would not go along with them and said the Senate needs to focus on finishing spending bills on defense and homeland security.
"We have a lot of work to do," Reid said. "The president already has the mark of the American people _ he's the worst president we ever had. I don't think we need a censure resolution in the Senate to prove that."
As for the Senate's top Republican, "I think it's safe to say Russ Feingold is not a fan of George Bush. I think that's the best way to sum that up," said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
That pretty much sums it up. The nation knows what time it is. Republicans are watching clock tick down until Bush is gone, trying as hard as they can to keep this war and the assault on the Constitution going as much as possible. The only way to stop it is to get rid of Dick and Bush with a trial in the Senate, but Democratic leaders would rather pass bills that are ultimately slapped down and ignored by a tyrannical despot that occupies the White House. At least we know where our priorities are.
Mitt Loves The Crazies
Do you ever drive or walk by a Republican sign waving event feeling repulsed by some of the shit they put on those posterboards? The worst is the three by six foot pictures of aborted fetuses, but the other stuff is pretty bad too. Comparing Obama to Osama just because of the name is a pathetic moniker and a favorite of the Republican sign waving crowd. A few days ago Presidential candidate Mitt Romney took part in the festivities.
From TMZ:
Not everyone is a fan of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, but comparing them to one of the most dastardly pieces of human excrement of all time -- that might be bit much. Especially for a presidential candidate.
TMZ obtained photos of presidential candidate Mitt Romney trying to win over grammatically challenged South Carolinians Thursday by holding a sign that said, "No to Obama, Osama and Chelsea's Moma."
The woman took her time on the sign, you can almost see the faded pencil marks. Thinking about the disgusting comparison probably took far less time. Watching Fox News for a couple minutes must have done the trick.
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