Possible late start

We have a hell of a show we're getting ready for our audience tonight, featuring Attorney General Alberto Gonzales getting sorely owned by various senators, including my own Senator, Chuck Schumer, and GOP Senators Specter and Coburn.

However, this is going to take a little more time than we had available today. The odds are high that we will start closer to 10:15PM than 10:00 EST.

We will be coming at you live and...

You know. :)

Government accountability NOW!

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) throws down the gauntlet! Bush will not get to use executive privilege to "run out the clock" on accountability! Bravo, Senator, bravo! I am proud to have voted for you.

The RNC plans on allowing Rep. Waxman and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to see a very limited number of e-mails that have been called into question for violating the Presidential Records Act. Obviously, the RNC will not hand over incriminating e-mails under this strategy. If you're not guilty of ethical violations, Republicans, why are you hiding???

Gone-zo is testifying today; we'll have a report on his testimony later today. Sen. Specter has thrown limited support behind Fredo, saying, "I’d like you to win this debate, but you’re going to have to win it." 63% of Americans believe that Gonzo is lying about the firing of US Attorneys, yet only 36% believe he should be fired; 52% of Americans who are following the scandal believe he should resign.

The Bush administration has aggressively tried to restrict voter turnout in battleground states in ways that favor Republicans. The attorney firings were only one part of the whole equation, according to McClatchy Newspapers' Greg Gordon.

Breaking story: John Doolittle may be the next GOP congressman to be indicted! Links to come.

The GOP: Against Democracy, Against America. Fight the "Right," for they are WRONG for America!!!

The Surge isn't working... is it?

Over 200 Iraqis died yesterday, including 140 in one bombing, marking the deadliest day to be an Iraqi since Bush's "surge" began. The comments and reactions by the Iraqis indicate that the surge is almost what we feared - a plan to beef up security around the oil wells while preparing for war with Iran. It's obvious that the Bush strategy has little to do with securing Baghdad, regardless of what he says.

To drum up support for the war, Bush will make a series of fright-speeches in front of high-school students - perhaps intending to scare them into the military, so that he'll have more soldiers with which to "fight them over there so that we don't have to fight them over here."

The "terrorists" that Bush keeps referring to seem to be only those people who stand against the theft of Iraqi oil profits. They bring terror to the wallets of American oil companies by not allowing the companies to steal resources which rightfully belong to the Iraqi people.

In an interesting twist, Karl Rove is now saying that he wishes the Iraq War "never existed," and blames Osama bin Laden for it. WHAT?!?!?! Rove, you jackass, bin Laden had NO involvement in Iraq. If he is, in any way, responsible for Iraq, it's only because you and your PNAC chickenhawk buddies used 9/11 as a cover for militaristically exploiting the resources of a sovereign nation against its will. It's also funny, sir, that you had no problem with the war's existence when telling GOP candidates to use it as an issue to run on!!!

John McCain is a sick, twisted subhuman freak.

"Bomb, bomb, bomb - bomb, bomb Iran!"
(Think Beach Boys and you've got it - or just watch the clip at the link.)

You, sir, are a disgusting, degenerate, misanthropic, piss-poor excuse for a human being. This is not something that is joke-worthy at all.

No surprise that one veterans' group, VoteVets.org, has already spoken out against McCain's crassness.

Surprise! VT shooter was bullied, and the GOP is wrong.

Seems our VT shooter was another kid who was bullied in high school - as most of the other "school shooters" have been. Yet another sign that teachers must take as much of a stand against student-on-student bullying as possible. As someone who himself was bullied through much of his pre-college educational life, I can say that, while I do not (and would never) condone actions such as his, I understand where these people come from. It is a horrid, hellish place that NO child should have to endure.

His plays should have sent off massive amounts of triggers that this was a young man who needed help. It seems that as little help as possible was given to him, other than shoving a bottle of psychoactive pharmaceuticals in his hand and saying, "Hey, good luck, pal."

VT students were somewhat pro-active against Cho. While they weren't likely to go running towards a man with guns who was clearly willing to open fire, they did put up some resistance.

Dinesh D'Souza (or, as Jared is wont to call him, D'Moron) thinks liberals are hypocritical when they complain about Bush's gutting of the Constitution while "opposing" the Second Amendment (as the GOP interprets it, anyway). Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks counters that argument by offering to give the GOP its interpretation of the Second Amendment if it restores the remainder of the Constitution.

D'Souza doesn't get it. As I mentioned previously, the Second Amendment is provisional, NOT inalienable. The government has the right (and, apparently, the need) to determine limits on gun ownership.

Abortion rights in danger!

Yesterday, the Supreme Court upheld Bush's Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 in a 5-4 decision. The multi-personed, single-minded Roberthomascalito block was joined by Justice Kennedy in supporting the ban on "dilation and extraction" abortions. They are called "partial birth" abortions because the fetus is expelled in the same way it would were it carried to term and birthed. An overwhelming number of OB-GYNs declare it the safest way to perform an abortion - other ways often involve serious surgery, and surgery always carries risks.

Interestingly, in Bush's 2007 State of the Union address, he talked about how "we must remember that the best healthcare decisions are made not by government and insurance companies, but by patients and their doctors." By such standards, this is far from the "best healthcare decision."

One of the main problems with this decision is that the bill forbids D&E abortions even in cases where it is the only option to preserve the life of the mother. The GOP, as I always mention, has NO heart.

I have to come back to this due to a browser problem.

Dems caving in to Bush?

Yesterday, Bush met with members of the House and Senate, ostensibly to bridge the impasse over a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq that has stalled the "emergency supplemental" war funding bill - you know, the one Bush is waiting to veto, the one that had all that "pork" like funding for VA hospitals, financial support for military families, and funding for LIHEAP and CHIP programs.

Bush's message to the Dems was likely, "If you don't give me what I want, I'm not going to give you anything."

No surprise, then, that the Dems may scroll back their firm timetable to an "advisory" one - meaning, they will strip the teeth out of the bill, giving Bush exactly what he wants: the right to occupy Iraq until the PSAs are in place and the oil companies are pumping Iraq's money out of the ground and into their pockets.

Our elected officials are in an unenviable Catch-22 situation: If they press for the timetable (which Bush will keep vetoing), they will be painted as the "troop-hating" party; if they cave in, they risk letting down every American who voted Democratic in 2006.

Americans need to understand that the Democrats are hamstrung here. It is wholly unfortunate, but, without a veto-proof majority, even a Congressional majority is not enough to prevent Bush from getting exactly what he wants. Even more unfortunate is that many Republicans in Congress are all too happy to vote for the letter R; they will not listen to their constituents, in order to support Bush's failed policies.

This war will NOT end until the American people mobilize in ways not seen since the Vietnam War. We must be millions strong in front of the Congress and take a stand!

More attacking the victim

That filthy, vile, right wing degenerate Neil Boortz (who wears the white hood in his spare time) attacked the students of Virginia tech for not tackling the gun-man in action movie fashion. Right wingers are mentally sick freaks. Conservatism is a mental illness and Neil Boortz proves it. It is now time for the media to abandon the whole idea of conservative talk radio, it is a disease.

A little more on the VT massacre

Bush addressed a crowd at VT yesterday regarding the shootings. He described the scenes of terror so vividly that a student fainted during his recounting of the circumstances.

America, your president has NO HEART. What he did is akin to describing the gory details of someone's last minutes at their funeral. You, sir, are a hideously poor excuse for a human being. I am having trouble right now considering any of these bastards as humans.

MSNBC.com profiles the victims of this horrendous, heinous act.

My take on all of this:

1. Substances that alter mood and/or personality are dangerous. More care should be taken before giving them to people, and patients taking them should be carefully monitored. Many studies have shown that these substances lead to harmful behavior - often, suicide, but sometimes violence inflicted upon others as well (as my example in the previous post).

2. People on such medications should be prohibited from receiving a gun license, and should not be allowed to own guns. If your mental state is so off-kilter that you need medication, you should not be trusted with a gun. Owning a gun is NOT a right, it is a privilege (much like driving - you need a license for both). The Second Amendment gives us a provisional - not inalienable - right to have weapons.

3. Our gun laws do NOT need to be changed to allow MORE people to carry weapons. Some right wingers are calling for an end to "Gun-Free School Zones." This is absolutely ludicrous. (I'm looking at you, John Gibson, you decrepit hack!) Students have every right to expect to be safe in a school's classrooms, whether they are 5, 25, or 65.

Evidence of the gun nuts' calling for an end to "Gun-Free School Zones" comes from the Columbus Dispatch:

"The latest school shooting at Virginia Tech demands an immediate end to the gun-free zone law," Gun Owners of America president Larry Pratt said in an e-mail. "It is irresponsibly dangerous to tell citizens that they may not have guns at schools."

That sentiment was shared by Mike Stollenwerk, 44, co-founder of OpenCarry.org, a Virginia-based gun-rights networking group.

"The only person who is responsible to defend you is you -- the police are incapable of defending each and every one of us all the time," he said.

These freaks are dangers to society!

Right wingers are vile scumbags.

There is no better way to say it, based on some right wingers' reactions to the Virginia Tech massacre.

Michelle Malkin: "You want a safer campus? It begins with renewing a culture of self-defense -- mind, spirit and body. It begins with two words: Fight back."

John Derbyshire of the National Review: "...why didn't anyone rush the guy? It's not like this was Rambo, hosing the place down with automatic weapons. He had two handguns for goodness' sake—one of them reportedly a .22."

Mark Steyn of the National Review: "They’re not 'children.' The students at Virginia Tech were grown women and — if you’ll forgive the expression — men. They would be regarded as adults by any other society in the history of our planet... Nonetheless, it’s deeply damaging to portray fit fully formed adults as children who need to be protected. We should be raising them to understand that there will be moments in life when you need to protect yourself..."

Nathanael Blake at HumanEvents.com: "Something is clearly wrong with the men in our culture. Among the first rules of manliness are fighting bad guys and protecting others: in a word, courage. And not a one of the healthy young fellows in the classrooms seems to have done that."

These individuals make me sick. I'd be willing to bet each of these "men" (yeah, Malkin, you sloppy, filthy media-whore, you too) would have piss tricking down their legs, shaking in their shoes, were they confronted with a similar situation. It's real easy to call someone a coward when you're not the one with the gun pointed at you.

I know a little something about campus violence. During my time dorming in college, I had a roommate who was on Paxil. One night, he went out drinking, and came back to our room acting very belligerently towards me. I tried to prevent the situation from escalating, but he seemed to have little on his mind other than fighting me. Having figured out that he was not of his normal demeanor, I did not want to beat the piss out of him. Eventually, however, he had his hands around my throat, choking me, telling me, "My only purpose in life is to kill you." (Yeah, you filthy right-wing trolls, I know: "Too bad he didn't succeed!" Go fuck off now, thanks.) Needless to say, at that point, the kid gloves were off; I ripped his hands off my throat and knocked him unconscious. In the meantime, none of the people in my hall even knew what was going on; when I exited the room (which was second-to-last in the hall), there were two RA's and two security guards going door-to-door, looking for my roommate - for getting unwantedly frisky with a young lady earlier in the evening.

It was a very scary situation, even when I wasn't fighting for my life. No one wants violence brought to them, and you cannot hold people liable for being concerned for their own safety.

Michael Savage - Exposed!!!

Michael Savage went off on MediaMatters again - even though he has said before he'd never mention them on his program again. So, Michael Savage is a liar... but we already knew that he invents much of what he says.

However, peering down the rabbit hole, even hardcore neo-con supporters are finding it goes pretty deep.

Michael Savage has given $5,600 - the maximum allowable donation - to the campaign of "pro-abortion, pro-gun control" liberal Jerry Brown, running for California Attorney General. (N.B.: the story is about halfway down the article)

WOW! How hypocritical can one man get? No wonder he's so angry.

Even Gates disagrees with Bush and Chaney

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Tuesday
The debate in Congress . . . has been helpful in demonstrating to the Iraqis that American patience is limited"........... "The strong feelings expressed in the Congress about the timetable probably has had a positive impact . . . in terms of communicating to the Iraqis that this is not an open-ended commitment."


Complete opposite of Bush who says the timestables for Iraq will result in the Iraqi civil war comming to America and total and complete chaos around the globe !!!!!


Let me guess cons: "Gates is a filthy anti-American liberal terrorist lover"
right??????

Fast notes on Iraq

I have no time to do this, so it's going to be short and (not-so-)sweet:

The death toll for US soldiers in Iraq has passed 3,300.

John Bolton now thinks we should have deposed Saddam and left Iraq to its own devices.

Moqtada al-Sadr pulls his (small) bloc out of the Maliki-run Iraqi government.

ThinkProgress debunks Bush's "the Democrats' emergency Iraq war bill is full of pork" lie.

"Blame Whitey"??? More like "Blame Blacky"!!!

We're going to talk a little more about the Imus tonight... mostly because it's evident that, any time a racial incident involving a white person going racial on a black person, two things happen:

1) The media trot out Al Sharpton, who can (unfortunately) always be counted on to be pushed into an idiotic, over-the-top comment of his own, and
2) The media scream, "OMG you're just blaming the white man!"

Michelle Malkin, filling in for Bill O'Lielly, thinks it's all about "blame whitey." Rush Limbaugh has this unfounded impression that black people in positions of power get "free passes" that whites in power don't. Neil Cavuto brings a rapper on his show to attempt to prove that "a ho is a ho," regardless of who says it. Bo Dietl uses the Imus discussion to remind everyone again (yawn) that Barack Obama's middle name is, in fact, Hussein.

Disgusting!

Tomorrow is Gone-zo Day!

Soon-to-be-removed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will be testifying tomorrow in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. It's being predicted his statements will make liberal use the phrase "nothing improper." However, that couldn't be further from the truth. In addition to many of the previous issues we've raised here at the ELPN, it has been revealed now that Sen. Pete Domenici, who attempted to pressure New Mexico's US Attorney David Iglesias to accelerate investigations into Democratic nominees prior to the 2006 election, actually called the White House - and spoke to Bush directly - about removing Iglesias from his post!

Interestingly, polls show that two-thirds of Americans - and a slight majority of Republicans - believe there were political motivations behind these US Attorney firings. Also, the American Freedom Agenda, a group that supports conservative legal principles, whose members include such noted GOP members as Richard Viguerie and Bob Barr, are calling for Gonzales' ouster.

Hey, Alberto, don't let the doorknob hit you on the way out!

All Bush can do is scare us

Bush gave another speech this morning regarding the Iraq war supplemental bill - you know, the one he won't agree to because it has a timetable.

He keeps trotting out the same old lines (though, to his credit, he left out the old "oceans no longer protect us" line that is thoroughly stupid) - fight them there so we won't have to fight them here, September the 11th, September the 11th, September the 11th...

ThinkProgress has edited his speech to the "punchlines."

All these neo-con bastards have is FEAR. Recall the words of a great man whose ideas the neo-cons hate so much: "The only thing we have to fear is FEAR itself!!!"