Only conservatives may sue!!!!

Judge Robert Bork, one of the leading advocates for tort reform and limiting your ability to seek justice in a courtroom, is suing the Yale club after he slipped and fell on his way to the stage to make a speech!!!!!!!

Nice double standard. So much for conservatives standing up for what they believe in. If he was so concerned about tort reform, you would think he would settle his little injury out of court with the Yale club. The only thing conservatives support is limiting the common man's ability to earn a living and seek justice.

Disgusting hypocrite. These people make me want to smash things.

Glenn Beck's big green monster...

Either envy or jealousy... take your pick.

Apparently, Dennis Kucinich is not good-looking enough to Beck to be married to a beautiful woman without her being drugged in some way - even a date-rape drug. He also says that if "[y]ou take his shirt off and put him in a loincloth, he's Gollum." (cf. Lord of the Rings movies)

In the meantime, Beck is getting OWNED in the ratings by every other cable news outlet. However, in the "you always fail upwards" Bush-Bizarro-world that we live in today, Beck is being eyed by the owners of Washington Post Radio as a ratings savior!

This man is the living embodiment of FILTH. He should be slinging fries somewhere, not taken seriously as a political commentator!

Another sad round number.

We have now passed 3,500 troop deaths in Iraq.

"Send directly up to me, outside of system"

Those are the words of one Monica Goodling, in an email exchange solidifying the delegation of power of the Attorney General to hire and fire non-civil-service employees of the Justice Department to Goodling and Kyle Sampson. No wonder there were people within the administration who had no idea that these two young Bushies had such power.

Send directly up to me, outside of system.

Hmm... One is left to wonder exactly what ELSE has occurred "outside the system"...

Rudy Giuliani:Proof of his fascism......

Last night Rudy Giuliani had a reporter arrested for asking a question he objected too!!!! The reporter had all the required press credentials, but he asked a question Rudy was terrified of, his knowledge of the twin towers collapsing. Rudy once told Peter jennings that he knew the towers were going to collapse after the impact, at a later date he denied ever saying this to Jennings. Do you see now why I scream on the top of my lungs about this disgusting degenerate fascist. He wants a police state. Is this not proof?

Why is he so afraid of this issue anyway?????? Makes you wonder

Scum Of the Earth: Mark Levin, the future Limbaugh

Pay close attention to Mark Levin, a fast rising right wing propagandist, becasue when Limbaugh finally drops dead of an Oxycotin overdose, Levin will be the new right wing radio poster child. This man is a disgusting enemy of America. I think you should listen carefully to his program and link to his page. Understand what kind of degenerate filth, the main stream media (ABC) is pushing on to our airwaves. Listen to every word this low life speaks for he is the biggest propagandist in the history of main-stream media. Sadly, media matters and the rest are pretending he does not exist. I recommend media watchdogs cover him as carefully as Savage and Limbaugh only more carefully as he is the future of right wing radio and the biggest "R" over America party loyalist out there today. Levin, makes Limbaugh seem objective. As much as it hurts, listen to the enemy, you must know what the enemy is planting into the minds of psuedo-conservatives everywhere.
I declare war on Marc Levin, for he is unfit to be an American.
expose the right, mock the right......
Jared

Random bits and pieces

- Bill O'LIElly tells another whopper: The "quasi-socialistic" New York Times failed to mention the JFK Islamo-hackist "terror" plot on its front page. Hey, Bill, REAL newspapers' front pages are folded in HALF. You have to actually OPEN the paper to see the whole page. So get your master's New York Post out of your ass and learn something.

- Gone-zo is guilty of perjuring himself. Last year, he said there was no serious dissent on Bush's spying programs within the administration. Unfortunately, James Comey's recent bombshell testimony differs from Gonzo's claim - then-AG Ashcroft was against the program. At the time, two possibilities were considered: Gonzo was lying about the lack of dissent, or there were multiple spying programs. Gonzo has now all but confirmed he lied last year.

- Resigned interim US Attorney/voting-roll cager/loyal Bushie Tim Griffin can't seem to find gainful employment now that he has left the administration in disgrace. Can't lie on your resume anymore, eh, Timmy? Let's be nice to the guy now; someday, he may be the guy who will spit on your Big Mac.

Iraq news for today:

Iraqi oil workers have gone on strike, expressing a lack of confidence in the Oil Pipeline Company's leadership and its connection to the Oil Ministry, particularly in how it relates to the Hydrocarbon Law that Bush's oil buddies are desperate to see passed.

The exodus of the Iraqi intelligensia continues: its most recent college graduating class considers it "suicide" to remain in their homeland.

A bipartisan group of senators has introduced legislation that implements many of the Iraq Study Group's recommendations. However, it calls for troop withdrawals if certain benchmarks are met, which, to me, seems like an open invitation to the Bush administration to do their best to ensure such benchmarks are not met.

The Bushies may have finally found the right hack to lead our military: Gen. Petraeus now claims that the surge hasn't even started yet! Meanwhile, another Bush lackey, Iraq Ambassador Ryan Crocker, says that he doesn't "see an end game... in sight."

Who will protect Scooter?

On Monday's ELPN broadcast, I surmised that Bush will take many unusual stands on various topics in the next year and a half, as he is a lame-duck president that is not the brains behind the operation in the first place, and has an opposition Congress that will try to block many of his actions anyway... hence, his recent stances on global warming and diplomacy with our "enemies."

We can now, firmly, add the Scooter Libby pardon to Bush's set of unusual stands. According to Dana Perino, Bush is "not going to intervene."

Bush seems to be standing alone in this, though. The editors of the National Review want an immediate pardon; Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol wonders if anyone can still respect Bush if he does not exercise the power of the pardon before Libby has to spend even one night in jail - and before Libby's appeal is even heard! Most of the GOP candidates for president also believe Libby should be pardoned; Giuliani ("...ultimately, there was no underlying crime involved") and Romney (Fitzgerald "clearly abused prosecutorial discretion") are the most vocal supporters of Libby. Reps. Hunter and Paul, along with former Govs. Huckabee and Gilmore, at least want to learn more about the case before calling for a pardon, and McCain is at least willing to let the appeal be heard before deciding on a pardon. What the candidates are forgetting is that obstruction of justice IS A CRIME.

VP Cheney has, as could be expected, has expressed "sadness" over the verdict; his statement (issued through a law firm, apparently!) sounds like one made by the actual criminal when someone has successfully taken the fall for his criminal actions.

Bradley doesn't know much, either?

Bradley Schlozman, Bush hack and Justice Department appointee in various hiring capacities, has been testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding his hiring practices.

ThinkProgress has compiled a list of the "highlights" of Schlozman's tenure at the DoJ. They also compiled Sen. Patrick Leahy's comment regarding Schlozman's usage of the "I don't know" defense (popularized by soon-to-be-proven perjurer Alberto Gonzales) with Schlozman's actual use of that defense.

Schlozman also has this odd notion that groups that protect the rights of minorities are, in effect, liberal, and are the "flip side" to groups like the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society. At the same time, he claimed to not know what the political leanings of ACORN are (they're liberal, Brad)... He also admits to bragging about the number of Republicans he's hired, to changing the performance evaluations of lawyers who were considered not to be "loyal Bushies," and to telling prospective employees what sorts of political affiliations to scrub from their resumes to ensure their hiring at the DoJ. What kind of political hack rejects are running this country?

The same political hacks, apparently, who are doing the massively partisan hiring over at the Department of Homeland Security. Look for more on this scandal soon!

UPDATE 6/7: Schlozman, as former US Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, brought charges against the state's Secretary of State, Robin Carnahan (D) for "fail[ing] to eliminate ineligible voters from registration rolls." After 18 months, a judge ruled in favor of Carnahan AND criticized the US Attorney's office (and, presumably, Schlozman) for bringing this case up with little evidence of either wrongdoing or damages. Not surprisingly, the DoJ is appealing the verdict.

An editorial from Monday presents this case, and other similar cases, as being raised on a partisan basis.

GOP: Rudy out of control

Be certain on tomorrow's ELPN live we will dissect the CNN Republican debate in depth, but I wanted to make a few observations. Rudy Giuliani is completely unfit to be president. Last night, he displayed exactly why. Rudy defended Bush's decision to invade Iraq by babbling about the JFK and Ft. Dix "terror plots", Giuliani's answer to the immigration issue, is computer data bases (as if they do not exist already) in one of the most inept and meaningless nswers in the history of politcal debates, Giuliani vehemently defended Scooter Libby and demanded a pardon, and in a revolting display of hatred for the American family, he espoused the wonders of private health care insurance plans and went as far as to say employers should not be responsible in any capacity for health care, Rudy also basically said he would bomb Iran in an almost immediate answer "I think conventional weapons would work"!!!!
This man's whole campaign is fear, fear and more fear, his answers to the the Iraq and Iran questions were frightening. His contempt for the American family and love of the HMO was enough to make me want to puke. His ineptness in explaining his views on the immigration issue was laughable. Also laughable was his insipid babbling about "values" towards the end of the debate. The only question he answered with a normal response was the Global Warming question (to my surprise he admits global warming is real). His abortion response was bizarre as well, after a technical malfunction of his mic, he admitted he believes a woman has a right to choose. Even a broken clock is right twice a day..........

We will rip the debate apart tomorrow night in classic ELPN fashion...
Be sure to tune in

RIP, Sen. Craig Thomas (R-WY)

Sen. Craig Thomas died yesterday, at the age of 74, after a long battle with leukemia. Our thoughts go out to his family.

Although Wyoming now has a Democratic governor, the state's laws all but ensure a Republican will continue to hold that Senate seat. You'd never guess who is on that GOP favorites list (look at the fourth point).

Investigating the criminals in Congress

As the investigation into the 16 criminal charges on Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) heat up, a few interesting things have surfaced:

- Jefferson will resign from his sole committee seat on the House Small Business Committee. Freshman Democratic Congressman Steve Kagan of Wisconsin thinks Jefferson should go a step further, and resign from Congress altogether.

- House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) wants Jefferson run out of town. However, he wasn't so eager to remove another indicted House member, disgraced former Rep. Tom DeLay. Guess expulsion is only good for Republicans when it is not one of their own being expelled, no matter how guilty the bastard is.
UPDATE 6/7 - Only 26 House members voted against Boehner's measure. One of them was Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA), a scandal-in-waiting if ever there was one.

- The House overwhelmingly passed a bill that directs the House Ethics Committee to launch an investigation within 30 days of the indictment of a House member, or present reasons why it does not need to. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) wants to go one step further: She wants to set up a bipartisan outside-the-House commission whose purpose is to file ethics complaints. As the system works now, only House members can file ethics complaints against other House members (which becomes a "don't tell on me and I won't tell on you" situation when both sides are dirty). The House Ethics Committee would not be obligated to act on complaints generated by the outside committee, but it would be a start. Also being considered is allowing anyone to file ethics complaints. As it is, the outside panel will meet resistance from congressmen of both parties; however, this is a change whose time has come, and is a responsible move by House Democrats, who campaigned partly on cleaning up the House.

- Last but definitely not least, FOX News, as always, shows their true colors. They "accidentally" showed pictures of Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) while discussing Rep. Jefferson's ethics violations! Their "apology" did not directly address Rep. Conyers (which, in my opinion, it should have), and Conyers is not having any of it.

Con bloggers: Shit for brains

I love to read conservative blogs. COnservative blogs for the most part display to the entire world how ignorant and clueless many Americans are. Take for example the Democratic debate, which we discussed last night at length. Cons are shrieking about how Clinton and Obama skirted the "English as an official language" question as were we. We actually agree with the cons on this issue, but the knuckle draggers have to confuse and destroy their own argument by labeling Obama and Clinton as "liberals". Obama a liberal??? Clinton a liberal???

This is what happens when you lack the knowledge on the topic you discuss. Cons do not understand political ideologies, to them it does not go beyond "D"=liberal and "R"=conservative.

The liberal who answered the same question Gravel, agreed with the conservative side, that English should be the official language, yet cons use this opportunity to attack "liberals", who agree with them !!!!!!

Shit for brains. This is the result of talk radio and Fox News.

Libby: 30 months in the slammer!!

I guess those love letters to the judge did not have much of an impact.....
A bittersweet victory for America, now it's time to jail the treasonous bastards that orchestrated the outing of Plame. Rove and Cheney???

PARDON LIBBY!!!!!!

Today "scooter' libby is is going to be sentenced for his crimes of obstruction of justice. What is most entertaining regarding Libby is the outpouring of support from the filth in the White House and former staff members of this sick administration. Wolfowitz, Kissinger, Rumsfeld, bolton, Pearle, Feith and James Woolsey all spearhead the cause by sending pardon letters to the judge. some of these letters are hysterical. In the world of neo-con insanity, obstruction of justice is patriotism, covering up for treason is patriotic!!!!!!! Treason is patriotic!!!!!!!!

More and more on Iraq

Last week Joe Lieberman visited Iraq and noted the progress is indeed being made!
Progress indeed......
Amputee soldiers are being sent back to Iraq, Huffington post reports
Washington Post reports attacks on US troops are increasing in brutality
Civilian deaths in Iraq up almost 30% last month alone

Iraq embassy controversy

The company hired to build the embassy in Baghdad is reportedly using coerced labor!!
They are smuggling in cheap labor into Iraq, and you wonder why the insurgency keeps growing..
Speaking of the Baghdad embassy, the State department ordered pictures of the $592 million dollar building to be taken off of a website.
This embassy spells.. permanent occupation

Democratic debate stuff

Sunday's Democratic debate in New Hampshire had a few interesting moments. But first...

I personally did not get to watch the debate, as I was dead tired from my week of moving. However, I had heard mentioned on Thom Hartmann's program earlier that the "big three" candidates (Edwards, Clinton, and Obama) were dead center, although CNN swore that the selection of spots was random.

They failed to consider the mathematics of the situation before making that claim, however. With eight candidates on stage, there are 40,320 different sequences of candidates. Of those, 720 of them place the "big three" together, and only 240 of those place them, in a row, in three of the middle four slots on stage. This configuration has a little less than a .6% chance - that's 6 in 1000 - of actually occurring "randomly." In addition, the two most progressive, "independent" candidates - Gravel and Kucinich - were placed at the far ends of the lineup... a sequence that would occur in 24 of those 240 sequences, or .06% of the possible random sequences. Boy, CNN got really lucky, didn't they? Hmm...

Anyway, math lesson over; now, on to some substance.

John Edwards' position in the "big three" may soon be at an end. He openly challenged Clinton and Obama on their quiet stances on the recent Iraq funding bill.

Hillary talks about using diplomacy in dealing with Iran, though she doesn't answer what she would do if diplomacy should fail.

Kucinich is the total peace candidate - he would not assassinate bin Laden if given the opportunity, preferring to bring him to justice. Every other candidate raised their hand in support of assassination, though some qualified that position based on the amount of collateral damage it would cause. Kucinich's point, though, makes sense: If we practice assassination politics, that may spur others to take that approach with the US and our leaders, which then only serves to make the situation far worse.

Gravel is the only candidate that believes that English should be declared the official language of the US, with a sensible point that was not exclusionary. Obama and Clinton, however, took political stances: Obama wanted to veer off into immigration, while Clinton got into some BS nuance about the difference between a "national" language and an "official" one.

All of the above clips can be found on PoliticsTV.com.

Friction in the G.O.P.

It seems the bush administration itself has split. It seems Rice and Bush are becoming more moderate( did I just write that??), while the V.P is remaining a loyal neo-conservative ... The split is all over diplomacy in the Middle East.

Still, Rice lies about their relationship and insists there is not friction

Weekend JFK terror plot; islamo-hackists again?

We heard a lot about the terror plot at JFK airport, the issue dominated the media this weekend, only problem the plot would have NEVER worked.....

Note on the podcasts:

Hey folks,

Apparently, our podcasts are working on our MySpace page but not on iTunes.

I'm going to try a few fixes to alleviate the problem, and apologies for the delay. My goal is to get one podcast working now, then check the studio connections to make sure everything is up and running, then work out the kinks for the other podcasts.

Thanks so much for bearing with us, and remember: We will be back LIVE tonight at 10PM Eastern US Time!!!

-Ralph

P.S. - A post on the Democratic debate is forthcoming as well.
P.P.S. - One podcast down (well, up!), three to go... make that two and two.

Someone's lost his mind...

The new head of the Republican Party in Arkansas, Dennis Milligan, is not making much sense:

"At the end of the day, I believe fully the president is doing the right thing, and I think all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on [Sept. 11, 2001], and the naysayers will come around very quickly to appreciate not only the commitment for President Bush, but the sacrifice that has been made by men and women to protect this country."

So, wait a minute... another terrorist attack on US soil will show Americans that Bush has done the right thing by attacking Iraq and creating terrorists? If there is another terrorist attack here, how exactly has Bush shown a commitment to protecting America? How does this make Americans "come around very quickly to appreciate... the sacrifice... made by men and women to protect this country"?

I guess Bush is a success if he fails at his job. Sounds like the GOP's standard rationale: failure gets you accolades, success gets you out of office.

The quagmire in Iraq

Some interesting facts here:

- Iraqi President Talabani says that Iraqi troops will be ready to "stand up" by the end of next year. Ironic, isn't it, that he made a similar claim... two years ago?!

- Government officials are beginning to openly discuss maintaining a military presence in Iraq for decades to come - much like the presence we still have in South Korea. This blatantly disregards the fact that the war spending bill Congress recently passed has provisions that prohibit the Bush administration from spending money in such a fashion. Signing statements, anyone?

- Retired Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez - who ran the first year or so of the Iraq occupation - has added his voice to the chorus of retired military commanders saying both that there is no chance for "victory" in Iraq, and that there is a "crisis of leadership" that runs through the government and the US military.

Read my lips: Maybe new taxes!

Rudy Giuliani's at it again!

Seven of the ten GOP presidential candidates have signed the "Taxpayer Protection Pledge," a document that says they won't raise taxes if elected president. Rudy - along with Tommy Thompson and McCain - has refused to sign it.

He then criticizes Sen. Clinton for wanting to raise taxes on people making over $200,000/year, saying, "She wants to go back to the 1990s…. It would hurt our economy. It would hurt this area dramatically. That kind of tax increase would see a decline in your venture capital. It would see a decline in your ability to focus on new technology."

Rudy is clearly delusional. Did he miss the 1990s??? Our economy was solid, venture capital was stronger than ever, and technology was booming.

Just another sign that Rudy Giuliani is wrong for America.

Gone-zo desperately clings to his office!

Alberto Gonzales plans on finishing his term as Attorney General, vote of no-confidence be damned!

Unfortunately for Gonzo, Bradley Schlozman will be testifying before Congress tomorrow, and will be pressured to reveal details of his attempts to disenfranchise Native American voters in Minnesota. Thomas Heffelfinger, the (former) US Attorney for Minnesota, was targeted for removal from his post after he began looking into this situation.

A story published last Thursday by Murray Waas shows that Todd Graves, former US Attorney for western Missouri who was eventually replaced by Schlozman, was pressured to resign under circumstances similar to Heffelfinger, Iglesias and McKay: failure to prosecute voter-fraud charges against Democratic-leaning voter-rights groups. Graves' recommendations for his replacement fell on the deaf ears of Bush hack Monica Goodling, and replacements for Schlozman had their political alliances questioned in their interviews.

Arguably more shameful is what's brewing in Republican neo-con bastard territory: Republicans who have expressed no confidence in, or desire for the resignation of, Gonzales plan on voting AGAINST the Senate vote of no-confidence. Just another case of voting party over country!

Conservatives coming apart!

This immigration issue has conservatives finally realizing that Bush really doesn't care about them! Cernig at The Newshoggers blog presents the evidence. Mark Hemingway at The Agitator provides even more links, and a stunner - GOP small-money donations have dried up over the Bush plan for immigration reform!

This seems like a prime issue for the Democrats to jump on and offer a position that makes sense to Americans of either party affiliation.