Hump Day, Newsy's.... Open Thread

McCain is 'pre-copycatting' Obama. Bush did this in 04 to Kerry. As soon as Kerry said he was going to do something, Bush did it and pretended like it was is idea.

In this case, McCain snuck a trip to Europe--just on the heels of the news that Obama was going to go to Europe and give a speech to the German people. (The news was that Bush tried to prevent him from being allowed to do that.)

I found this blog that incorporates art and politics. You might like it. (It makes me think of snugbug and Christy with their art/photo tendencies and makes me think of Monkey and his music.)

And the coverup of treason continues...

~~~

WASHINGTON - President Bush has asserted executive privilege to prevent Attorney General Michael Mukasey from having to comply with a House panel subpoena for material on the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.
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A House committee chairman, meanwhile, held off on a contempt citation of Mukasey — who had requested the privilege claim — but only as a courtesy to lawmakers not present.

Among the documents sought by House Oversight Chairman Henry Waxman are FBI interviews of Vice President Dick Cheney.

They also include notes about the 2003 State of the Union address, during which President Bush made the case for invading Iraq in part by saying Saddam Hussein was pursuing uranium ore to make a nuclear weapon. That information turned out to be wrong.

Waxman rejected Mukasey's suggestion that Cheney's FBI interview on the CIA leak should be protected by the privilege claim — and therefore not turned over to the panel

BREAKING: SATIRE TO SUE NEW YORKER

(SYOP 7/16/08) In an unprecedented legal move that should shakeup the dictionary industry already under siege by critics and linguists, Satire - the word and its definition - has filed suit against The New Yorker for classifying its cartoon depiction of Barack and Michele Obama as satire.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/BREAKING--SATIRE-TO-SUE-NE-by-steve-young-080716-977.html

They are smearing Obama for...God forbid!!!..."having no sense of humor" in regards to the NY'er. I think it's B.S.! And yet they still say no word about TREASON!

THEY ARE SAYING "HE TAKES HIMSELF TOO SERIOUSLY!"

Excuse me?!!!

VALUES folks!

WAR, TREASON, OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE, TORTURE, WARCRIMES..

not a effing word!

BUT..this?!!!

Someone SAVE US!

In a stunning development which fell with the silence of a feather yesterday, 9 Republicans broke with their iron-fisted party to put country first, and voted to send Rep. Dennis Kucinich's article of impeachment HR 1345 to the Judiciary, where Chairman John Conyers will hold a hearings on abuses of power by the Bush administration, according to the Congressional Quaterly's CQToday. Ten Republicans abstained in this critical moment, while only 5 Dems did. The vote was neck and neck at many moments, with "Nays" pulling ahead twice.

Those Republicans are (Yea 238 - Nay 180):

Congressman Kevin Brady (TX)
Congressman Wayne Gilchrest (MD)
Congressman Walter B. Jones (NC)
Representative Don Manzullo (IL)
U.S. Congressman Tim Murphy(PA)
Congressman Ron Paul (TX)
Congressman Dave Reichert (WA)
Congressman Christopher Shays (CT)
Representative Mike Turner (OH)

One of the Republicans, Walter Jones, represents Camp LeJeune in North Carolina, one of the largest Marine bases in the country, and one which has borne heavily the sacrifice of the Iraq War.

CQ said of Conyers' hearings:

More at Kos by Ralph Lopez

But no Impeachment

Conyers may hold hearings, but plans no action on impeachment

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Conyers_may_hold_hearings_but_plans_0715.html

July 18, 2008
Gore Wants U.S. to Abandon Fossil Fuels by 2018
By DAVID STOUT
WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Al Gore said on Thursday that Americans must abandon fossil fuels within a decade and rely on the sun, the winds and other environmentally friendly sources of power, or risk losing their national security as well as their creature comforts.

“The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk,” Mr. Gore said in a speech to an energy conference here. “The future of human civilization is at stake.”

Mr. Gore called for the kind of concerted national effort that enabled Americans to walk on the moon 39 years ago this month, just eight years after President John F. Kennedy famously embraced that goal. He said the goal of producing all of the nation’s electricity from “renewable energy and truly clean, carbon-free sources” within 10 years is not some farfetched vision, although he said it would require fundamental changes in political thinking and personal expectations.

“This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative,” Mr. Gore said in remarks prepared for the conference. “It represents a challenge to all Americans, in every walk of life — to our political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, and to every citizen.”

- more -
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/us/politics/18gorecnd.html?hp

I applaud Al Gore for setting this goal. This fulfills my definition of leadership. If we could develop the atomic bomb in 3 years, and go to the Moon in less than 10, there's no reason why we shouldn't attempt to achieve complete energy independence by 2018.

AL GORE: DC Environment Speech 7.17.08

We Can Solve It TV Ad (We Campaign)

UPDATE: In a statement released after Gore's speech, Barack Obama chimed in:

"For decades, Al Gore has challenged the skeptics in Washington on climate change and awakened the conscience of a nation to the urgency of this threat. I strongly agree with Vice President Gore that we cannot drill our way to energy independence, but must fast-track investments in renewable sources of energy like solar power, wind power and advanced biofuels, and those are the investments I will make as President. It's a strategy that will create millions of new jobs that pay well and cannot be outsourced, and one that will leave our children a world that is cleaner and safer."

I like Obama's statement on Gore. I find it interesting that the media claims he's 'going to the center' but other than FISA, I really haven't seen signs of him tossing out anyone or any ideas from the left.

Of course, he isn't pro-single-payer-universal health care like I am.

I hope he gets there. I hope we get a bunch of new congresskritters elected who will!

House Speaker Pelosi calls Bush 'a total failure'

WASHINGTON - President Bush has been a "total failure" in everything from the economy to the war to energy policy, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday. In an interview on CNN, the California Democrat was asked to respond to video of the president criticizing the Democratic-led Congress for heading into the final 26 days of the legislative session without having passed a single government spending bill.

Pelosi shot back in unusually personal terms.

"You know, God bless him, bless his heart, president of the United States, a total failure, losing all credibility with the American people on the economy, on the war, on energy, you name the subject," Pelosi replied. She then tsk-tsked Bush for "challenging Congress when we are trying to sweep up after his mess over and over and over again."

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino defended Bush.

snip

At one point, Ashcroft said he was so moved by the give-and-take with Bush administration colleagues he was near "standing up and singing the national anthem."

At the heart of the hearing was whether U.S. interrogators acted legally in using harsh tactics on captured terror suspects — including waterboarding — in the years immediately after 9/11. Waterboarding involves strapping a person down and pouring water over his or her cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning. Critics call it torture.

Ashcroft was attorney general when he approved two Justice Department legal opinions in 2002 and 2003 that, essentially, approved the use of waterboarding and other harsh methods so long as they did not "cause pain similar in intensity to that caused by death or organ failure."

Both memos were written, in part, by former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo. Ashcroft agreed to withdraw both memos a few years later after his advisers said they were concerned that the legal reasoning behind them overstepped the limits of executive authority.

"My philosophy is that if we've done something that we can improve, why would we not want to improve it? Why would we not want to adjust it?" Ashcroft told the committee, noting that he had relied on Yoo and other Justice Department attorneys to give him good advice when he first approved the opinions.

He added: "It wasn't a hard decision for me to — when they came to me, and I came to the conclusion that these were genuine concerns — get about the business of correcting it."

Responded Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., "There seems to be the Constitution, and the Constitution as Mr. Yoo thinks it should be. And the two are remarkably different."

Yoo, now a professor at Berkeley School of Law, declined to respond Thursday.

Republicans on the panel argued that waterboarding and other harsh tactics yielded information that may have saved lives, and Ashcroft did not disagree.

snip

"There have been many direct attacks that we're aware of have been foiled by our interrogation process," said Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Calif. "Had we not used those, would the probability of another attack not only be a probability but a certainty?"

"It could well have been," Ashcroft answered.

On the topic of the now-infamous March 2004 hospital visit, Ashcroft demurred from giving many details about the encounter at his bedside that pitted then-White House chief of staff Andy Card and counsel Alberto Gonzales against then-Deputy Attorney General Jim Comey and FBI Director Robert Mueller.

snip

ap link

Judge clears way for first Guantanamo Bay trial

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer 59 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The U.S. can begin trying Osama bin Laden's former driver next week at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, a federal judge ruled Thursday, rejecting the defendant's plea to halt the historic first trial in the military system set up following the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
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In a victory for the Bush administration, U.S. District Judge James Robertson ruled that civilian courts should let the military process play out as Congress intended — a decision that could clear the way for military commissions to begin prosecuting other terrorism suspects, including those charged directly in the 2001 attacks.

Had the trial been delayed, as requested by former bin Laden chauffeur Salim Hamdan, it would have been a sign that the entire terror-trial process might crumble under the weight of judicial scrutiny.

Hamdan argued that he should be given a chance to challenge the legality of the military trials, based on last month's Supreme Court ruling that said Guantanamo Bay prisoners can oppose their detentions in federal civilian courts. If judges hold that to be the case, every detainee at the U.S. naval base in Cuba could use court challenges to delay his trial for months or years.

But Robertson refused to step in to stop the Hamdan trial, which is scheduled for Monday.

A.P. LINK

Rove tried to fire Fitz

surprise...surprise!

Costly Weapon-Detection Plans Are in Disarray, Investigators Say
By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 16, 2008; A15

Bush administration initiatives to defend the nation against a smuggled nuclear bomb or a biological outbreak or attack remain poorly coordinated, costing billions of tax dollars while basic goals and policies remain incomplete, according to new reports by congressional investigators.

The administration budgeted $2.8 billion in 2007 for nuclear detection but lacks a strategic plan to plug gaps and move beyond its initial goals, such as placing radiation detectors at domestic and overseas ports, according to reports by the Congressional Research Service and the Government Accountability Office for a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing that will be held today.

Separately, a five-year-old program to detect the airborne release of biological warfare agents such as anthrax, plague and smallpox in more than 30 major U.S. cities still lacks basic technical data to help medical officials determine how to respond to an alert triggered by the sensors, congressional investigators and state and local officials will report to the House Homeland Security Committee.

In written testimony submitted for a House hearing today, state and local public health laboratory directors were highly critical of the program known as BioWatch, saying it is underfunded, improperly managed and of unclear benefit, despite $400 million in federal spending.

"The BioWatch program has been variously described by my fellow state and local laboratory directors as a parasite to the public health laboratory and squatters in valuable public health laboratory space," said the prepared testimony of Frances Pouch Downes, a Michigan state health official and president of the Association of Public Health Laboratories. "I am hard-pressed to disagree."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/15/AR2008071502874_pf.html

President Carter 1st US TV address 2Feb1977 Energy Policy

Report to the Nation on Energy

U.S., Iraq seek troop withdrawal 'time horizon'
Withdrawal would be one of several 'aspirational goals,' White House says

WASHINGTON - President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki have agreed that a security deal under negotiation should set a "time horizon" for meeting "aspirational goals" for reducing U.S. forces in Iraq, the White House said Friday.

In the closest the Bush administration has come to acknowledging the likelihood of some kind of timetable for future U.S. troop cuts, the White House said "the goals would be based on continued improving conditions on the ground and not an arbitrary date for withdrawal."

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25736448/

Funny...you guys!

I heard that the "inexperienced Obama" on foreign policy is now leading Bush and McBush's policy. (Meaning Bush and McBush are now following Obama's plans.)

Does that mean that McCain is McBush or McBarack? (I heard that on the media.)

July 18, 2008 1:39 PM
monkey said:
U.S., Iraq seek troop withdrawal 'time horizon'
Withdrawal would be one of several 'aspirational goals,' White House says

Yeah, what HE SAID. I heard this this morning and I just thought.....how convenient, right before election and well, you know....

Maliki is suggesting we withdraw our troops? Isn't that "miraculous"? Just like in the Wizard of Oz.

McCain is certainly hard on the eyes. I'm JUST SAYIN'.............!

Obama in Kabul

I'm curious....

I watched a show...Dobbs maybe? Or Matthews. Can't remember which.

And anyways, the guests there were calling Gore a fruitloop about the envirnoment and the sky is falling, etc... And I just wondered why that kind of language is even given air time when it's fairly much proven and accepted by most that there IS global warming and that it's not just Gore being a loony-treehugger like they called him in 2000.

I'm sick of the hate speech the wingers get away with on corporate media...OUR airwaves!

Sparrow,

I think the wingers get air time because one of the things they use to fill air time is get proxies in for each party and have them argue with each other. I think they think that is "good theatre". Most of them have probably never met the candidates or done much politically. It's superficial fluff to make people think they are getting some news, when alot of the time the proxies only know as much as the rest of us.