Fitz for sure !

fitz!

FITZ!!!

HELL, YEAH!

Fitz?

btw, Kate also said tonight that the indictment of Karl Rove would be a huge blow to the Administration, very costly politically…
I won’t quibble with her there !

no fitz?

‘Wuxtry! Getcher Crony Beat heyah!’

;>)

testify!

I have my own set of fears about the 2006 elections, most of which revolve around the baby-eating ghouls in the GOP deciding to cancel the November polls in the name of some trumped up “national emergency”. Well, as Norske would say (maybe):

KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE PAPER BALLOTS!!

They are definitely hearing us. They are the dinosaurs. We are the meteor.

And I love those skyrocketing FDL stats displayed in that dKos diary.

fitzify!

To be free is to be a democrat, that is a strength and also a weakness, everybody has their own ideas and do not have to follow the lemming leader down to oblivion…taking the whole country down…

darkblack @7 - you zany fella; you’re having way too much fun.

if democrats don’t follow russ feingold by distancing themselves from bush’s foreign policy, it won’t matter who wins the elections this fall — if they cheer when bush attacks iran, our goose is cooked

what’s galling is that our retired generals are more outspoken against our foreign policy than many leading democrats are — why are the folks we elected such chickenshits?

a third party may well be our only hope — those who don’t want a third party are welcome to vote for mediocrities who are too frightened to speak out

Glad to hear someone else has reservations about the 2006 election, Jane. Mine is that the Democrats will take victory for granted. To a certain extent, I think this was the case in 2004 (it’s not the only reason we lost, by any means). The other is that the election is still six months away, and that’s an eternity in the attention span of the average American voter.

The fever swamp breeds patriots.

darkblack @ 7:19 pm (#7) - Where can I subscribe?

Chris Matthews is a cipher. His whole schtick is to be rude and challenging to both guests and audience in a seemingly unpredictable fashion, trying to upset people and arouse controversy. Gee, what will Mr. Cool Guy he say next? Quelle frisson… of disgust.

Matthews is a pure waste of the country’s time, an obnoxious clown who cares about only one thing: the greatness and far renown of his own precious hide.

Tommy Yum 16 — I like that.

Cujo359 15 — or people like Chuck Schumer will see it as a validation of do-nothing politics and set the stage for the GOP to rebound. There’s a lot of work to do (*sigh*). This is a long haul and anyone who thinks otherwise is being unrealistic.

http://tinyurl.com/a6erq

Help Impeach Today

Now… People think this is a waste of time because even the Dems said that they were not going to impeach (yeah right)…

Keep the pressure on Congress… Talking about impeachment wakes people up… They question, it’s a strong motivator to get people thinking. It also lets Congress know how intense the dissapproval is for this President… They seem to be a little slow on the uptake. So please:

1) Sign petitions if you have not done so
2) Send a letter to Congress (both Senators & House rep)
3) Send a copy to the media
4) Enlist friends and family to help, ask them to chip in time
5) Spread the link around, email it (with a request to forward) post it on a blog, or in the comments of a news story.

Help out!!!

Thanks :)

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmp.....ud_money_1

WASHINGTON - President Bush and several other Republican officials have begun shedding campaign donations from former House aide and lobbyist Neil Volz, the latest person to plead guilty in a widening lobbying scandal.

Volz, who pleaded guilty Monday to charges of conspiracy to corrupt his former boss, Rep. Bob Ney (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, has given $26,035 to Republican political campaigns and committees since 2002, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Whoa. Did Tweety’s Kool-Aid IV run out?

undercoverdick says:
May 9th, 2006 at 7:26 pm

Please consider this quotation:

“Parties are… censors of the conduct of each other, and useful watchmen for the public. Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties:
1. Those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes.
2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, although not the most wise, depository of the public interests.
In every country these two parties exist, and in every one where they are free to think, speak, and write, they will declare themselves. Call them, therefore,… Whigs and Tories, Republicans and Federalists, Aristocrats and Democrats, or by whatever name you please, they are the same parties still, and pursue the same object.”

– Thomas Jefferson

The Internet Volunteers of America get it — when the DC Democrats wise up, they will get in front of the pissed off hordes, and lead us to victory.

Feingold has figured it out; whether he is the one to lead the Armies of Truth, Justice, and the American Way remains to be seen. But he definitely gets it.

Will the DC Dems put down their trays of cocktail weenies, and join the fight?

Nothing like a Philosophical conversation between Chris Matthews and Kate O’Beirne to stimulate the mind.

speaking of sneaky tricks; don’t you just see gas prices dropping 65 cents in Oct?

The new Times/CBS poll. How’s this for a lede paragraph:
Bush’s Public Approval at New Low Point
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and MEGAN THEE
Published: May 9, 2006

Americans have a bleaker view of the country’s direction than at any time in more than two decades, and sharp disapproval of President Bush’s handling of gasoline prices has combined with intensified unhappiness about Iraq to create a grim political environment for the White House and Congressional Republicans, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.

What’s all the fuss about vitriolic bloggers? Haven’t these people ever listened to right wing talk radio? Good god! You said it, Jane. They’re just a bunch of babies.

Never in the world could we have imagined the kind of access blogs would give us to information and to each other.

Cohen, O’Beirne and others remind me of old timers complaining about new fangled inventions. I suggest they get on board or get out of the way. This is the future.

Jane Hamsher @ 7:30 pm (#19) - That’s the long term danger, I think - they see gains in 2006 using the “do nothing” approach, and it all falls flat during the next election cycle. There’s nothing about guys like Schumer that gives me confidence that they will change their view with anything short of a humiliating defeat. If Democrats still don’t have control of either house of Congress, but do gain some seats - that’s the worst possible outcome, politically. No real power and we’re still stuck with the people who got us there.

I read Cohen’s column. He is becoming a self parody. Most protestors against the Iraq war believe that it was an unnecessary, unwise and illegal war that has killed 2500 US soldiers and between 40,000 and 100,000 Iraqi civilians, AND has damaged US national economic security for decades to come. They sincerely believe this and they have evidence and arguments. And Cohen’s entire response is to express concern over their excessive anger? Who will read this guy amymore without laughing? Or is it very dry irony?.

For the record I do not have anger toward Cohen, so he need not fear my psychic anger waves disturbing his inanity. I think he is a joke. He has nothing of substance to say, nothing to contribute to substantive debate. He recent pifflings are the pundocrat equivalent of the lawyer if you have the facts aregue the facts, if you don’t have the facts, argue the law, if you don’t have the law, pound the table. So, every week he does not pound the table, no, every week he clutches his pearls over civility and unwarrented anger.
So, we should ask him in very non-angry fashion: can father-Cohen perhaps understand why people might be angry over thousands of needless deaths, billions and billions of wasted dollars, and decades of blasted future for millions of people? Seriously, I think FDL should formally ask him if he can see no reason why people who honestly believe those things might be very angry.
Cohen is an idiot useful to his paymasters (and that is not written in anger at all). He is fat cat who wants to collect is paycheck in peace.
I have a suggestion that would make us all happy I think (including “concern pundits” lioke Cohen). Let us find a way to allow pundits like Cohen to be real fat cats. We could take a collection and see if anyone would adopt them. Maybe if we got a food fund up, Duncan Black could adopt pundits like Cohen. They would lie around on sofas and we could have Friday fat cat pundit blogging. We could vote on which human pundit and which feline pic is cutest or funniest each week.

Is Taylor Marsh part of the fever swamp? How about Harry Reid? …maybe former baseball player John Wetteland.

Tweety and Ole 60 Grit commiserated over the extent of republican corruption but he couldn’t resist the gotcha moment leading into a breaks by saying the weak repub field for next POTUS didn’t look so weak against Hillary. Without their HRC voodoo doll to cling to, I think they’d just cry.

A word about “net nuetrality”. For years I had no home phone. As I type this, I am in a Days Inn in Kuttawa KY, hauling another oversized load. I’m gone more than I’m home, so a cell phone was all I ever needed. Then I bought this laptop, you know, for internet porn and stuff. But instead, (ahem) I stumbled across the blogs–something I had never heard of before Howard Dean. To get the internet at home, I had to get a phone line. Now I pay these assholes over fifty bucks a month, just so I’ll know what’s going on. I certainly can’t learn anything from the “infotainment” shows. And now they want more money? Stifle dissent? Put opinions only in the hands of the authorized opinionholders, who don’t want to upset their corporate paymasters?

I have a little blog of my own that I started in January with about 12 posts. And it’s mostly just rants and screeds and junk so I don’t rate a chair at the adult table yet. But it is heartening to know that the blogosphere is making a difference just by the whining factor. FDL, GG, Digby are my main sources for opinion and analysis. Thanks people. Good job.

Who knew “Shock N’ Awe” would come 3 years late ?

Many House races are not competitive because of gerrymandered districts. We should’t expect a huge change. I just hope we get the majority. I don’t think we can know what will happen.

If they’re hypocrits, you must

Fitz?

The Second Greatest Generation,

The next best thing to dad.

One thread off, but here’s my take on the Miller/Cooper/Time/NBC/Mitchell filings:

Miller: 50/50 chance that Scooter gets her notebooks. I think he’s certain to get the pages with Wilson’s or Plame’s name on them.

Cooper: Scooter may get old drafts of Coop’s articles, but he won’t get anything else. Libby’s fishing, and everybody knows it.

Time: Except for old drafts (see above), Libby’s not getting anything.

NBC: Hard to tell what the judge is going to do with this. I suspect that NBC (except of Mitchell, see below) is going to win on all counts here.

Mitchell: She may not have to offer up any documents, but I can’t see how she’s going to duck testifying. That’s what you get for being coy.

Oilfieldguy 33 –

and a right fine kitten stompin’ blog it is!!!

I love what we’re doing in terms of winning the battle of “hearts and minds” and winning on the issues:

1. most Americans want out of Iraq
2. most want to protect abortion
3. most do not like seeing the Preznit shit on the Constitution.

But will it translate into votes? It doesn’t really matter since the Repubs count the votes now.

http://www.dkosopedia.com/wiki.....gularities

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001300.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2.....exit_polls

Perhaps a bit OT but I just retreated to the blogosphere because I had to walk away from Judy Woodruff on the Newshour so obviously trying to make the Abramoff scandal bi-partisan. Of course she had the assistance of one of her guest reporters (didn’t catch the name) who immediately went to Mollohan, without clarifying that his situation had nothing to do with Abramoff. I have given up watching virtually all television “news” shows because I start talking back to the T.V. and it annoys my husband (who agrees with my commentary but doesn’t seem to get as frustrated).

Ta, Punaise & Cujo359.

You’re here, so you’ve already subscribed.

;>)

wesgpc @ 7:39 pm (#30) - I like the way you think. Of course, that might be because I like cats more than I do stupid people. Cats have an excuse for never learning from their mistakes.

Earlier in the week, I posted a response to Dana Milbank’s “Can’t someone get Baton Rouge a life?” comment when some chat participant took him to task. I listed the stats of someone from Baton Rouge who died in Iraq. I explained that the actions of his paper have consequences, and that’s why we’re sometimes so angry when they don’t take valid criticism seriously. No response, of course, either direct or indirect from the WaPo.

They really don’t get it over there.

“There’s no reason to cry “victory” yet, and unlike some I have serious worries about the 2006 election.”

True. It’s kind of funny though that some Republican pundits say “there’s a lot of time between now and November”. For what? More Republican scandals? LOL BRING.IT.ON. ; )

spite @ #26

You’ve hit it on the head. This is exactly what’s going to happen. And we’ll hear all about same-sex marriage, too. It’ll be a 2004 deja vu. Unless… Rove gets indicted. Take him out of the GOP campaign game and we’ll have a chance. He’s evil and repulsive, but there’s a reason everyone gives him credit for getting Bush elected. I think an indictment for Rove changes the outcome of the election.

The thing about falling poll numbers now is that it’s the story all by it’s self. And it’s right up the lazy media alley. They’ll ping this thing until the bottom shows up. The rats are at the railings now. It’s a Kodack moment.

on centrist Dems, my worry is that if they have to beliefs or vision they are willing to express, I do not see how they will be able to effectively rule the house or senate if they regain power there? What the hell do they propose to do? As I have said before they have confused being careful with being nothing. Even if they win one or both houses, they will still have to oppose Bush. So why will they still not be paralyzed about what will happen in the presidential election? You don’t get something from nothing. Right now, they have nothing. Or sorry, Emanuel has said he wants to see periodic pro-active policy “things” from the Dem challengers, or else he cuts off their allowance.

Schumer and Emanuel cower in front of their opponents but swank around like school yard bullies in fron of their own troops, because they have a wad of money they can use to punish and intimidate. Do they have any idea how contemptible that kind of behavior is, how demoralizing, how empty? Can Emanuel name one policy “thing” he believes in?
True visionary leadership. FDR and Ike would have won WWII with that. Just like the fearless Truman, huh? Shades of Lincoln, TR and JFK right up front, huh?

This is the stuff Jane, keep pounding on the fraudulent M$M, the patriotic side of the blogosphere is breaking through the wall….now we must get to the other side.

Bush is a paraplegic duck NOW, but as has been described here by the FDL community so eloquently in the past, it’s the rightwing movement that must be broken.

A return of the Fairness Doctrine and assurances that our elections are on the level, and our democracy survives.

Keep up the great work, you gals are doing outstanding work and I’m only sorry that I can’t lend more support than buying a single FDL mug. Thanks.

Peace!

I am also concerned about the 2006 elections. “Reality” seems to be very different in the blogosphere and outside of it. I can’t believe the number of people, both Democrats and Republicans, who believe that the Bush admin is just business as usual and that in America, the pendulum will automatically swing in the other direction.

In fact, I’ve been so struck by the number of otherwise intelligent Republicans who have blinders on to the transgressions of this administration that I wonder if we are trying to take over the wrong party. I’m almost convinced that Progressives could re-label themselves as Republicans and 80% of the Republican party would never know the difference and vote for them.

The Chicago Sun Times explains why the msm can kiss their viewers goodbye.

Long Live the Colbert Nation!!

In the 60s some family members labeled me a “hippie” because I dressed like Cher. I didn’t mind then, and I don’t mind now being an old liberal hippie who has independent thought but believes our government should work only for the common good of all.

For sure, the liberal blogs educate. There are civics lessons, there are social studies lessons, economic lessons, and on and on . .
We are learning our lessons well. As proof, when I called Sen. Talent’s office the other day about the Enzi’s bill, the staff was so ineffective handling my counterpoints to her talking points. She finally said, “We have another 30 phone calls to take.” Not only do our government officials receive thousands of phone calls and faxes from us, but they hear well-founded arguements. Thanks for being!

Consolidated EPU’d posts (hat tip to cujo359) –

Billmon’s latest makes the point that domestic wiretapping isn’t a salient issue for the Democrats, but it’s probably not a winner for BushCo either.

http://billmon.org/archives/002433.html

The CW-O (cocktail weenie opinion) in Washington is that domestic wiretapping is a loser for the Dems, but I don’t think it is. (It’s probably not a big winner, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t useful.)

If the pitch is crafted to appeal to the NRA black helicopter fearin’ types, it can be a corrosive wedgie into the core of what’s left of Bush’s base.

Maybe use “Black Helicopters” as a lead in joke — then segue into “every call you make, every email you send, might be intercepted by Bush’s illegal NSA spying program” — something like that.

Boston Legal giving hell again as usual….

Jeesh Jane,

The Old 60 Grit pictures always give me agita. I would rather put my nuts in the microwave and hit the popcorn button than look at her pruny mug. Just another overpaid, overbitten fascista. Can you slash a big “censored” label over her face so I don’t wake up at 3:00 in a sweat with visions of Old 60 Grit doing a conga in my cranium.

What’s her book rating in at these days, by the way?

Also, grim milestone, Iraq War deaths top those of Pearl Harbor attack.

http://story.malaysiasun.com/p.....d086cfc79/

Let’s be clear about this PumpkinHead, Beirne, Tweety, The Beard are all part of The Corporate Slave State as such they are not on the side of Freedom, Justice and the blogosphere’s progressive take on ‘The American Way’. They are the enemy. Only one side will be standing when this fight is over for it is a fight for the nation’s soul. The soul and not the mind for the soul cannot live without hope and a vision of a better, brighter day to come. This vision is something the living dead of the MSM will never be able to see. They lost their capacity to see anything beyond the narrow confines of their power and greed driven lives when like Faustus they sold their souls to the Devil Corporate State.

The ‘blogosphere’ will win this battle because the ‘blogosphere’ is what Jefferson in an earlier day called ‘We the people…’.
This is our nation not PumpkinHead’s if he did not hold the multi-million dollar megaphone of the MSM in his hand would anyone listen to him.

I think not.

The man has nothing to say, never has and never will.

But the megaphone you say! He has the megaphone.

I urge you to go to this diary at dKos

and check out what’s happening right now on the blogopshere.

This is the Golden Age of the Blogosphere and what that means is everyone can raise their voice to speak out on the subject of who we are and who we ought to be.

So speak up. The time is right now.

Jon Stewart !!!

wesgpc @ 7:51 pm (#45) - A more direct problem, which I alluded to in a previous thread - if the Democrats don’t come out now saying they want hearings that may lead to censure or impeachment for Bush, are they at all likely to call for it if they win a slim majority this year? I think the (completely obvious) anser is “no”. They’ll still be afraid for the same reasons they’re afraid now.

As for Schumer’s and Emmanuel’s behavior, it reminds me of the behavior of Tom Delay - buying influence with campaign money. They may have gotten that money more legitimately than Delay did, but they’re using it the same way. That I find this an unflattering comparison should also be completely obvious.

as i’ve said elsewhere:

another thing that strikes me about cohen’s vapors over those nasty bloggers…if you ignore someone long enough, eventually the frustration at being continually ignored builds up and explodes as anger (or, 3,000 mean emails).

the msm should start listening, if not to the individual ranting, then to the phenomenon of thousands of people feeling the need to rant, and they should ask themselves, what does this mean, how are we involved in this apparent need to yell, and why?

of course, they won’t. they long for the days when journamalism was a one way street, with pundits on high gracing the unwashed masses with their pure thoughts without fear of debate.

anyway, my take on the msm’s rather late take on colbert’s take on aWol is here.

I start talking back to the T.V. and it annoys my husband (who agrees with my commentary but doesn’t seem to get as frustrated).

jhc –

Boy, do I know whereof you speak. I don’t just talk back to the teevee, I yell at the flickering lying faces on the screen. And if it’s REALLY outrageous, a slipper or two gets thrown.

Luckily, though I also have a laid-back kinda guy, Mr. K8 seems to value my fire — he seems to think that I function as HIS safety valve, vicariously. When he gets pushed over the edge, this previously quiet guy can seem awfully scary, too.

Recently we were watching nothing but a combination of Turner Classic Movies, PBS, and C-Span ! & 2 (the C-Span is mostly my doing, but he doesn’t complain about it). At any rate, all networks involving no commercials.

One day, for the hell of it, we put on a more “commercial” station. Hooowheee!!! It was like being physically assaulted, that exposure to the insanity of advertising felt like a physical blow, and we recoiled in such mutual revulsion, confirmed in our approach to teevee consumption. That’s some really toxic stuff out there on the airwaves.

TCM is just fine. All through May, every single Tuesday & Thursday night (including tonight) they’re featuring “Race in Hollywood: Images of Blacks in Film.” A very, very interesting line-up of films (some of them quite rare and difficult to get a chance to see) indeed.

Otherwise the teevee is off, and we play music. Tomorrow an order should be arriving: the new Neil Young (”Living With War”) and the new Springsteen (”We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Collection”). We’re pumped!

Channeling the anger constructively seems key to me — it keeps me motivated to remain as active and vocal as possible in the long-term herculean effort to save the country we love.

ck @ 7:52 pm (#50) - Another thing is to remind them of the things they’re afraid of. Janet Reno, the Weaver compound, the Waco thing. I’m not sure how that can be woven into the narrative, but there’s lots of fear about those things. I suppose it would go something like “What if Janet Reno could have listened into any conversation she wanted to. How would you have felt about that?” To those guys, Reno’s the bogey(wo)man, not Clinton.

Jane- I don’t often post here in the comments section, but you said something in this post that resonated with me.

Sadly, I truly believe at this point that no matter what happens between now and November 7th, the American people will believe whatever the television tells them vis-à-vis the results on November 8th.

Mrs. K8 @ 8:03 pm (#57) - All I can say is, thank goodness for remote controls with the “skip” and “mute” buttons. I miss most of the annoyance that way. Of course, anyone else watching at the time might not feel that way, but I don’t usually have that problem …

Cujo359 #55: I think we are more or less in agreement. I would prefer that Dems forcefully present a general vision of where they want to go, and some general policy statements that they aggressively and frequently push, and use that as a base for very forceful constructive criticisms of Bushite approach. The criticism would all fall on Bushites and the “constructive” would all refer to voting for Democrats. Then they can explain why investigations are needed (eg, where’s did billions of Iraq money go?) as necessary part of rebuilding and changing policy direction.

But just attacking GOP for the current dangerous messes and disgraces would be better than now. So we agree enough I think.

Hey! Lookie… there they are!

Kate O’Beirne’s Teeth!
waves at Kate O’Beirne’s Teeth

Ok, reading now.

Last post tonight — had to go to the airport for spousal pick-up….

I am not at all sanguine about the 2006 elections. That is why I think we need to really focus on the long term (which ought to bring us the short term as well). That is why I support Lamont in Conn. which is decidedly NOT a short term strategy for 2006.

From last thread and some comments from BarbaraB and ??? It may be true that a pardoned person is similar to a person granted immunity and that they no longer has a fifth amendment privilege. But that is where the analogy ends because a pardoned person has no obligation to testify before a grand jury. They could, in short tell the GJ to eat shit for thirty years and there could be no legal recourse. The whole of law depends on consequences for bad acts and because a pardoned person is like a new born baby in his or her legal purity, there is no legal leverage which could get them to talk. So, no prosecutor with integrity would ever subpoena a pardoned person and if there ever was such a subpoena there is no Judge around who would not quash it in a New York minute. There is simply no legal recourse after pardon. Frankly, we will see more information from memoirs than from legal proceedings post-pardon.

As for impeachment (and my opposition although I take seriously Valley Girl’s points) I believe that the Dems could make a huge gain by having a promise of no impeachment as long as everyone participated in a truth-finding process. In other words, a truth and reconciliation process. It would get to all the info. (one way or another) and would appear healing and helpful, while still holding a threat of prosecution/contempt/impeachment for those who resisted. As for Nixon, his impeachment process started long before the mid-term election in 1974 — he still had most of his second term left when things really started to heat up. By the time a Dem Congress comes in, there will be very few months to create the system necessary for investigations, let alone to investigate and then proceed with impeachment. I think a quick impeachment attempt is the only thing that could raise Bush’s slipping numbers. Again, I think very differently if there is a nuclear attack on Iran…
Sleepy sleepy good nighty night, J.H.s of the left!

Stewart just ripped Rumsfeld and his media-acolytes new ones…

sunny @ 7:51 pm (#48) - Wow, someone at a major newspaper actually gets it. Figures he’s the TV critic.

I cannot wait until YearlyKos to put faces on all the people who now follow blogs. Unless I am very mistaken we are all ages, economic groups, sexuality and races.

I am just sick to death of hearing about those angry bloggers with the not always subtle insinuation that we are young, long haired, uncouth, uneducated twits.

There may not be many seniors there, but I’ll be sure an make a point of being front and center. I know damn well they are doing it because we are demanding truth over bullshit and I for one am not going to shut up.

I went on over to see what the freepi were making of a potential Rove indictment and came across this link. It’s an entertaining read on how the wingnutosphere is seeing the case :

http://strata-sphere.com/blog/.....hives/1773

Read William Rivers Pitt’s takedown of Richard Cohen.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050906R.shtml

Cur him off at the knees.

cujo –

Ah, yes, the “mute” button — and captions. I’m thankful for the frequent heads-up I get from others in the “angry” left blogosphere, enabling me to tune into a news bit or interview just as it’s happening (being in a western time zone really helps in knowing what’s coming). If I know in advance I can switch briefly to get a gander, and mute voices of people like Kate O’B(-noxious), just reading in caption the drivel they spew.

But what’s a “skip” button? We don’t have one…

fwiw, I just got my Medicare card in the mail … not everybody here are spring chickens

After the 2004 election, don’t count on Democrats winning in 2006. Hiding their heads in the sand will never counter the fear and hatred that the GOP will be spreading across America.

GOP will only lose once Americans screen out corporate propaganda and feel reality slamming against their lives.

Cohen and all of the rest of them have been phoning it in for so long that they can’t tell the difference between impassioned and trenchant argument and raving.

Or else they have economic incentives to pretend they can’t.

Impeachment is a loser. The Dem’s gained seats in 1998 because of it, sympathy vote, which is why they’re “skeered” of it now. The bar is “high crimes and misdemeanors” and we don’t have that (proven). The GOP is trying to make this a “wedge issue”…Don’t give it to them.

http://www.rnc.org/News/Read.aspx?ID=6301

immanentize #63: I think a “truth” process that is convincing to most of public necessary and more important than impeachment, or criminal proceedings. But “reconciliation”? No way. It will be an affair of Democrats and any moderate Republicans interested in saving their party and willing to stand up to their own side’s goon squads (and I hope a few GOPers like that still exist). The Bushites will fight it tooth and nail, will fight filthy, will fight destrctively of everything except their own asses, right down to the last gasp.
So, I think it has to be a very adversarial process, simply because the Bushites will want it that way. They are either too crooked or too fanatical to choose otherwise.
I want to make it clear that I am being very aggresseive and very maximal in my goals. For the safety of the country, I want the whole Bushite wing of the GOP party to be utterly disgraced, utterly destroyed, utterly banished from respectable political opinion.
But, I think that has be be done in a way that a majority of the voters understand why that is the right thing to do. That has to be a matter of changed political awareness, a change of national politcal consciousness, not just of legal proceedings or political judical proceedings like impeachment.
So Dems need to have guts to forcefully make case based on strong evidence and argument that broad majority of public accepts. Needs to be done by Democratic party. That is why I think Schumer and Emanuel and DiFi and the rest so inadequate.

Come out of the White House with your hands up!

cujo@65-everybody is a critic!

Hrrrmmm.

There is simply no legal recourse after pardon.

immanentize –

Let us not forget the civil suit.

No, there may not be the criminal penalties we crave, but it’ll be good for getting lots more information. And CIVIL penalties! Joe Wilson jokes that Rove’s car will look great in Valerie’s spot in the garage.

But I don’t understand why someone who was pardoned and then subpoenaed by a grand jury wouldn’t have to testify? Aren’t there penalties of some sort for that? What about naming someone a “material witness”?

Hoping there are multiple legal beagles available to give as much input as possible on this angle…

Mrs. K8 @ 8:17 pm (#69) - You may have some variation of it. The skip button allows you to watch another channel for a set period of time, which happens to be in thirty-second increments on my TV. First hit the skip button, then tune the alternate channel, and you can watch it for some multiple of thirty seconds before being switched back to the original channel.

Really handy if you’re prone to getting distracted.

There’s another feature called “surf” on many remotes that you might want to try out, too. Think of it as a form of skip that’s under manual control.

I wrote a note to Richard Cohen, advising him (in all goodwill) to stop being so defensive and actually listen to what his readers are saying– and the email was returned. Mailbox full. :)

jumpsuit 68: Yeah, the Pitt is excellent.

My daughter just got home from her freshman year in college. We were watching the Newshour and a little of Olbermann. I asked if she and her friends ever watched these news programs, and she said, “Never. We get all our news from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. I don’t trust those other sources.”

And the MSM wonders why it’s in a tailspin.

HookerGate baseball jerseys!!

http://www.cafepress.com/reddpepper.57224937

No impeachment in exchange for a promise to participate in some Truth and Reconciliation Commission is simply not adequate.

The law was broken.

My Constitution got mugged.

I am so not exchanging dropping the assault and battery charges in exchange for an apology.

My deal — Impeachment now, instead of the Hague in ‘09.

We’re dealing with professional, recidivist, high-criminals.

sunny @ 8:24 pm (#75) - I responded to this in a previous thread. Let’s just say I’m not big on conspiracy theories. Let’s see if I can find it … there it is:

http://www.firedoglake.com/200.....ment-96566

A couple of thoughts on Cohen, the blogosphere, peace, and freedom:

Cohen’s “poor me” schtick was weak months ago when Howell played the room. Those are the same people who don’t say a word when the White House, the senate leadership, and the entire Right-Wing Noise Machine runs around for 15 years insulting them for being liberal and telling people not to read them. Calling them traitors day after day on national media like Rush does is OK but sending them e-mails crosses the line? I’ll quote Mike McCurry: “Puh-leeze!” I’m sure that many of the e-mails were lame, but that’s life. Now he knows what people think about his column. If he doesn’t like the e-mails he can give out his home phone number, for all I care. I caught the “they” in his war comment in my first scan of the column and my head almost exploded. It was the disassociative converse of Tonto’s famous “What do you mean WE, white man?”, if you’re old enough to remember that joke.

The blogosphere has been a very important part of the nation’s growing awareness of the incompetence, cronyism, and criminality of the Bush regime, but it is important to remember that there have been important contributions made by some old media sources too. Dana Priest, for one, as well as the folks who exposed Abramoff and the long-suffering writers from The Nation , The New Yorker, and others. The audience participation in the blogosphere is a blast, though, and FDL is definitely one of the only sites where the authors read and respond, which is a real tribute to Jane, Christy, and the rest of the gang. It is very cool of you.

I participate in the blogosphere, and also in other anti-war and social activism and I would love to see more mutual support and respect. I sometimes get a sense that the blogosphere has very little interest in supporting the “sandals on the ground” anti-war movement, which is a shame. As I have said many times, when we achieve world peace, there will be plenty of credit to go around.

I went to the Kavanaugh hearing today and it was much less interesting/exciting than I had hoped. I’ll try and do a diary about it on kos tomorrow but I’ll give you a tidbit. Somehow, Mr. Kavanaugh worked with Gonzalez and elsewhere in the White House for the last few years, but didn’t know anything about the Bybee memos, torture and rendition policy, NSA wiretapping, Guantanamo, the Pickering or Bybee nominations, or anything else at all controversial. I call this the “Golden Child” theory. They had this absolutely brilliant young legal mind that they were grooming for the fastest possible track to Supreme Court Eternal Salvation, but it was important not to poison his mind with any of the dirty details of the unconstitutional criminal enterprise that was going on right in the same room. To solve this problem, the Golden Child was fitted with earplugs and locked in the closet during large portions of each day so that he could honestly say “No, Sen. Leahy, I never saw any of those memos.” when it came time for his first Senate Confirmation Hearing. (Some families buy their sons an escort, some get a car, some real nice white boys get a lifetime appointment, this is just plain how it goes.)

Oh, and Senator Specter made sure that we were all aware that this brilliant young fellow actually went to law school, graduated, clerked for judges, and worked at a law firm. Senators Hatch and Sessions repeated all of this information in case we weren’t listening. It was very special.

Schumer stepped up big time. I know that he can be a centrist whiner, but he worked that hearing hard today and he deserves a little credit.

The saddest moment of the hearing came up during a discussion of the Bybee/Gonzalez/Abu Graib torture fiasco, when Kavanaugh said that he thought the episode “damaged the presidency, and the president.” I stayed in my seat and kept my mouth shut. It damaged the soul of our country, you little prick, and was a crime against humanity. Acquiescence is participation, case closed.

peace,
jim

cujo –

Thanks! Will have to explore the gigundo “universal” remote we sometimes use; there are all sorts of doohickeys on it which seem mysterious to me.

Once upon a time I had a cable remote that let me program *several* stations to switch between. It was great for me at the time, which was when I was doing p.r. for a national cultural non-profit which had a relatively high profile in the area, and would often be featured in the local news. Just programmed in the local news stations, and skipped around as rapidly as I pleased looking for the segments I knew had been planned for inclusion in the broadcasts.

That was back in the Northeast, and I haven’t seen a feature like that on a remote since — just one which lets you alternate between *two* channels. The technology’s not difficult, wonder why nobody ’round our way seems to offer the option.

Davis X. Machina 83 –

The deal is — Resign, and skate. Either that, or face Impeachment AND the Hague.

jhc #39: I caught a bit of that broadcast, and had a similar reaction. They admitted that there was “no evidence” any Democrats were involved in the Abramoff scandal, but said (eagerly and repeatedly) “that could change” at any time.

No, it can’t. It’s of a piece with calling this a “lobbying scandal.” Duke Cunningham is a lobbying/bribery scandal. MZM is the same.

Abramoff wasn’t a lobbyist, he was a Republican political machine architect, who used a lobbying business as a means of laundering money to his advantage and ripping off anyone he could. Can anyone cite an instance where Abramoff did successful lobbying to benefit a client that didn’t at the same time do more to further a Republican cause or benefit a GOP operative?

That’s why there won’t ever be any Democrats involved in the Abramoff scandal. No matter how hard some reporters wish for it.

I’m beginning to think that we are in the midst of a reality TV show called “Regime.” During the show, the Prosecutor Team throws scandal after scandal at Bu$h, his pet thugs and MSM reporters and we get to see who will be left standing. And it’s -of course- broadcast on FAUX. Pass the popcorn.

Redshift @ 8:39 pm (#89) - Saw that, too. I was wondering why the moderator (Judy Woodruff) didn’t ask - “Oh, which Democrats are on the spot?” when the WaPo reporter said that. For that matter, she didn’t ask him to list the six Republicans he figured could be in trouble.

There’s no curiosity in the news business anymore. If that had been Entertainment Tonight, do you think they wouldn’t have asked that kind of question?

What’s her book rating in at these days, by the way?

Kate’s book is currently coming in at #2,802 in Amazon’s sales rankings.

Jane (your last paragraph), T Rex #9 and Cujo #15 re 2006 elections

It seems to me that it would be difficult to interfere with the elections per se, considering that they are administered by the states, mostly according to state law. They’d have a better opportunity contesting various close elections for Congressional and Senatorial seats, especially if a small handful of seats in close races could swing the Congress houses either way. Perhaps a replay of the 2000 presidential BS only for Congressional seats. Where things could get really interesting is if the Goopers are deprived of majorities in both houses, investigations lead to impeachment, and Bush-Cheney refuse to fly off into the sunset with tail between legs like Nixon did. At that point Cheney and Rummy may begin to regret they pissed off so many generals.

They probably think us bloggers are all teenage boys or something. From now on when I email these slugs, I’m going to let them know my age and sex and let them know I’m not.

Relax folks, we’re in good hands. Giltin’ Joe is cleaning up DC, one scandal at a time:

Meanwhile, Sen. Lieberman’s joining the calls for an investigation into the HUD Secretary.

(via TPM)

undercoverdick(#14):

those who don’t want a third party are welcome to vote for RUSS FEINGOLD or WESLEY CLARK or AL GORE or whatever democrat who’s ready to drive a stake through the hearts of the perpetrators of this SNAFU mess that’s been created over the past 6 years. a third party would wreck any chance of a change in the situation as it is now and would get us NOTHING. we do not have the luxury of waiting for another 2 years, much less 6. Get Real.

You realy couldn’t make this stuff up.

“GOP House Speaker taps Cheney, Goss for Congressional Distinguished Service Awards

On Wednesday afternoon in the U.S. Capitol, Distinguished Service Awards will be bestowed upon Vice President Dick Cheney and former CIA Director Porter Goss, two former House members selected by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL), RAW STORY has found.

“The Congressional Distinguished Service Award was established to honor former Members of the House who have performed their duties on behalf of their constituents and the American people with such extraordinary distinction and selfless dedication as to merit special recognition,” reads an invitation to the ceremony obtained by RAW STORY.”……………

http://tinyurl.com/qxsw4

itwasntme @ 8:46 pm (#94) - To tell you the truth, I don’t think there are many regulars here who are under 30.

Think about it this way. What would you rather have?
1) impeachments and convictions that half the country thinks were politically motivated and US soon goes back to same near 50-50 split between parties, with GOP still heavily influence by rightwing crackpots, and a cliff hanger election every 2 years to see if next pupptet/nucase gets elected.
2) thorough-going exposure of information that educates public regarding true nature of Bushites, and vast majority of public repuditing Bush/Cheney/RumDum thought. Country goes to 55% Dem, 45% moderate GOP. And any one contaminated with any Bushite embrace, such as McCain, or Allen or Frist, any of those people, will be electorally dead?
I would prefer 2). And I think if 2) happens, then enough information will be public for many saluatory and instrutctive prosecutions.

But 2) requires that Democrats wage public opinion war. Dean?

Whoops.

Aheh.

Forgot to switch back to my real name.

jinny @ 8:50 pm (#97) - I think I’m gonna barf.