If this guy is founn guilty, throw the book at him

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Opening statements are scheduled in the trial of a former Louisiana congressman charged with bribery after federal agents found $90,000 in cash in his freezer.

The case is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. Tuesday in federal court in Alexandria, Va.

William Jefferson is accused of soliciting bribes, racketeering, money laundering and other crimes. Jefferson represented parts of New Orleans until losing re-election last year

X3oDMTMybzU4Z2pnBGFzc2V0Ay9hcC8yMDA5MDYxNi9hcF9vbl9yZV91cy91c19qZWZmZXJzb25fdHJpYWwEY3BvcwM2BHBvcwM2BHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcmllcwRzbGsDZXgtY29uZ3Jlc3Nt

Good morning, all.

I didn't know he made home deliveries. Let's hope President Obama can deliver on universal health care by November. That would make for a great Thanksgiving.

Scientists have warned that the lack of fresh water would be the biggest threat to peace and stability in the 21st century and it looks like it's already started....

As Iraq runs dry, a plague of snakes is unleashed

An unprecedented fall in the water levels of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers has left the rural population at the mercy of heat, drought – and displaced wildlife.

Patrick Cockburn reports.
The Independent
Monday, 15 June 2009

Swarms of snakes are attacking people and cattle in southern Iraq as the Euphrates and Tigris rivers dry up and the reptiles lose their natural habitat among the reed beds...

The plague of snakes is the latest result of an unprecedented fall in the level of the water in the Euphrates and the Tigris, the two great rivers which for thousands of years have made life possible in the sun-baked plains of Mesopotamia, the very name of which means "between the rivers" in Greek. The rivers that made Iraq's dry soil so fertile are drying up because the supply of water, which once flowed south into Iraq from Turkey, Syria and Iran, is now held back by dams and used for irrigation. On the Euphrates alone, Turkey has five large dams upriver from Iraq, and Syria has two.

The diversion of water from the rivers has already destroyed a large swathe of Iraqi agriculture and the result of Iraq being starved of water may be one of the world's greatest natural disasters, akin to the destruction of the Amazonian rainforest.

Already the advance of the desert has led to frequent dust storms in Baghdad which close the airport. Yet this dramatic climatic change has attracted little attention outside Iraq, overshadowed by the violence following the US-led invasion in 2003 and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein...

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/as-iraq-runs-dry-a-plague-of-snakes-is-unleashed-1705315.html

Will we see similar problems in our own country? as climate change takes it toll on some areas making them more dependent on river water for farming? How about in Europe where they depend so much on glacier and mountain snow packs for fresh water?

There have been some major problems in Florida, Georgia and California already. Is the United States united in its water conservation policies? How about sharing and rationing policies.

Have we sold off water rights to wealthy corporation and foreign interests?

Gotta run. later.

Good morning all (except right wing nuts of course)

The situation in Iran continues to be volatile. Some excellent blogging going on at KOS:

Early Report Day 4: Leaders arrested. Military gathers in secret. Death toll rises.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/6/16/743009/-Early-Report-Day-4:-Leaders-arrested.-Military-gathers-in-secret.-Death-toll-rises.

Ahmadinejad Has Left, the Thugs Have Come

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/6/16/742927/-Ahmadinejad-Has-Left,-the-Thugs-Have-Come

Revolutionary Guards Arrested in Iran

According to the Cyrus News Agency, Tuesday morning 16 senior members of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps were arrested. "These commanders have been in contact with members of the Iranian army to join the people's movement," CNA reports. "Three of the commanders are veterans of Iran-Iraq war. They have been moved to an undisclosed location in East Tehran." This report has not been confirmed by other sources. If true, it shows that the regime is losing the loyalty of some members of its control appartus, which is necessary if the opposition has any chance of achieving fundamental change. Mass rallies can easily be broken up and revolutions crushed, as we saw at Tiananmen Square in 1989. But if members of the armed forces, police and especially Revolutionary Guards decided to switch sides, then one can begin speaking of revolution.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/weblogs/watercooler/2009/jun/15/revolutionary-guards-arrested-iran/

This is from the uber-conservative Washington Times! The situation in Iran has all the making of a rebellion. No telling how it could turn out.

One for the road....

A.P. in Deal to Deliver Nonprofits’ Journalism

By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
Published: June 13, 2009

Four nonprofit groups devoted to investigative journalism will have their work distributed by The Associated Press, The A.P. will announce on Saturday, greatly expanding their potential audience and helping newspapers fill the gap left by their own shrinking resources.

Starting on July 1, the A.P. will deliver work by the Center for Public Integrity, the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, the Center for Investigative Reporting, and ProPublica to the 1,500 American newspapers that are A.P. members, which will be free to publish the material.

The A.P. called the arrangement a six-month experiment that could later be broadened to include other investigative nonprofits, and to serve its nonmember clients, which include broadcast and Internet outlets...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/13/business/media/13press.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

I'm not sure this is good or bad. Is this a way of getting more investigative reporting back into the journalism or will political and corporate think tanks use it as a way to advance their causes? I guess it all depends on the integrity of the editors and producers at the media outlets using these "independent" sources?

Well, at least some journalists who have been scrambling for jobs since downsizing started in the print media have employment again. This is an interesting experiment. I look forward to seeing where this leads.

bbl

Ahmadinejad Has Left, the Thugs Have Come....

rj,

Where is he hiding? In Cheney's bunker or a Russian palace? So the mulahs told him to beat it for a while?

I can't believe they are happy with his handling of this "election" and his overall performance in it. Reports on Sunday speculated that he actually came in third.

Makes you wonder how Ron Paul would have done if he had ran last fall. MsSame and McMoosebrain might have had to have gone into exile, too?

bye. Wish I could stay longer and discuss this.

Where is he hiding? In Cheney's bunker or a Russian palace? So the mulahs told him to beat it for a while?
===================================================
Good morning Sandy. Apparently he left the country for an overseas meeting (in Russia?).

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/World/Story/STIStory_390995.html

The interesting part is that there appears to be an internal struggle between the revolutionary guard and the police force loyal to Ahmadinejad (the Hasij).

Apparently, Mousavi, Admadinejad's opponent, has quite a set of bonafides with the Revolutionary Guard.

This looks like an internally engineered fraud supported by Khameni and Ahmadinejad. They did not count on the people becoming so angry!

Let's keep monitoring the situation. US should stay neutral.

Excellent analysis from bonddad on how the housing bubble bursing has effected the American consumer:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/6/16/742833/-Dont-Expect-A-Consumer-Led-Recovery

I suspect he's right. There has been permanent damage.

Iran Updates (VIDEO): Live-Blogging The Uprising

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/13/iran-demonstrations-viole_n_215189.html

Here's another place doing a good job on blogging about the situation in Iran.

heard that the stock market is supposed to rise today, based on housing market up, and inflation down. Good news.........

Some things never change. The GOP is still racist:

Tennessee GOP Staffer Emails Racist Obama "Spook" Photo

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/16/tennessee-gop-staffer-ema_n_216085.html

heard that the stock market is supposed to rise today, based on housing market up, and inflation down. Good news.........
11
PamB on June 16, 2009 at 11:06 AM
===================================================
Good morning PamB. The stock market has been reasonable of late. There is definitely a recovery in the works. Economists are having the usual debate over what "letter" will best describe the curve going upwards - "l" shaped, "u" shaped, etc...

I think bonddad makes a good point that it's unlikely to be a consumer led recovery. That implies to me that it will be a slower recovery - less steep curve going upwards. We'll see.

morning RJ,

Isn't that the most disgusting thing you saw from TN? And the woman is not sorry, merely sorry that it went to the wrong people !

What kind of people have that much hatred in their guts! Makes you sick to think about it.

compared to where the stock market was, at the beginning of the year and Bush's last lame duck days, it is doing great !!!

What kind of people have that much hatred in their guts! Makes you sick to think about it.
15
PamB on June 16, 2009 at 11:09 AM
==================================================
PamB, it amazes me that people have such hatred just because of racial differences. It stems from fear. For some reason, fear of people different than themselves permeates the psyche of some people.

compared to where the stock market was, at the beginning of the year and Bush's last lame duck days, it is doing great !!!
17
PamB on June 16, 2009 at 11:13 AM
======================================================
Bush created a terrible mess. Two recessions under that loser. The worse President in history.

Rj,

there are those people who's self esteem is determined by who they can try and feel superior to. Look at the skinheads, they hate every group except white males. So very very sick.

More good news...........

EU Agrees to Take Guantanamo Detainees

President Barack Obama meets with Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Italy and the EU have committed to accepting Guantanamo detainees. (Photo: Larry Downing / Reuters)
Italy promises Obama administration it will accept several detainees. President's special envoy on the matter is traveling in Europe this week.

Luxembourg - The European Union agreed on Monday to help the administration of President Barack Obama "turn the page" on Guantanamo, saying individual EU nations will take detainees from the American prison in Cuba.

http://www.truthout.org/061609L

The Reich Wing Americans are disappointed that America is headed to success under Obama ! They are PRAYING for America to fail, because they think there is a chance voters will be fooled into voting for Republicans again! The pain of the last 8 years is all too raw and near. There are no Republican leaders outside of Limbaugh, Cheney, Gingrich ! They have no Plans, no policies, nothing, nada.
The Republican party is imploding.......

Why am I not surprised??????

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) – New York has overtaken Miami to be voted the U.S. city with the angriest and most aggressive drivers, according to a survey on road rage released on Tuesday.

Miami topped the annual poll for the last four years but voters in 25 major metropolitan areas gave New Yorkers the prize for angriest, most aggressive drivers who tailgate, speed, honk their horns, overreact and lose their tempers.

The response of New Yorkers to bad drivers also helped push the city into the top slot for road rage.

"New Yorkers were most likely to wave their fists or arms. They were most likely to lay on the horn and they were most likely to make some sort of obscene gesture," said Michael Bush, of the marketing and consulting company Affinion Group, which commissioned the survey.

Dallas/Fort Worth came in second as the worst road rage city followed by Detroit, Atlanta and Minneapolis/St. Paul. Miami ranked a distant seventh.

Baltimore, Sacramento and Pittsburgh rounded out the top five cities with the most pleasant drivers.

Portland and Cleveland were voted to have the most courteous, considerate drivers.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090616/lf_nm_life/us_driving_roadrage

every morning, a certain St. Paul resident comes onto the blog, winds up his gut filled with hate at 7:30AM, and then goes out and gets in his car.
Look out MN !

Here's what torture gets you! Anybody will lie to stop it, yet Cheney wants us all to believe he got some real good info! Senile old liar !

Detainee claims to have lied under CIA torture

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090616/pl_afp/usattackstorturerights;_ylt=ApBLgRsIJVumRL8AfNab3_qGWo14;_ylu=X3oDMTMycmV1djFiBGFzc2V0Ay9hZnAvMjAwOTA2MTYvcGxfYWZwL3VzYXR0YWNrc3RvcnR1cmVyaWdodHMEY3BvcwM0BHBvcwM0BHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcmllcwRzbGsDa2V5YWwtcWFpZGFk

Oh Yeah!! If McCain were President, we would be dropping bombs, and invading Iran because we did not like their Election resulots!!! Crazy old senile neo con!

Lugar disagrees with McCain’s call for the U.S. to ‘act’ against Iran.

Yesterday on Fox News, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) called the Iranian election a “sham” and said that he hopes the U.S. “will act.” President Obama said that he would refrain from weighing in. “[We] want to avoid the United States being the issue inside of Iran, which sometimes the United States can be a handy political football,” he said. Today, McCain responded, calling on Obama to turn up his rhetoric. “He should speak out that this is a corrupt, flawed sham of an election and that the Iranian people have been deprived of their rights,” he said. But this morning on CBS, McCain’s Senate GOP colleague and Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN)sided with Obama.....

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/16/lugar-disagrees-mccain-iran/#comments

Talk about your Hypocrites!!!

House Republicans prepared to do the ‘immoral thing’ and vote against war supplemental.

The Hill reports that the House Republicans “are preparing to vote en bloc” against President Obama’s war funding bill, representing a striking 180-degree turn:

For years, Republicans portrayed the bills funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as matters of national security and accused Democrats who voted against them of voting against the troops. In 2005, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) went so far as to say sending troops into battle and not paying for it would be an “immoral thing to do.” And just last year, more House Republicans voted for the war supplemental bill than did Democrats, who opposed the legislation because it did little to wind down the military effort in Iraq. But Republicans say this year is different.

The GOP objects to increased funding to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help aid nations through the financial crisis, funding the GOP is calling “a global bailout.” That the financial crisis was largely caused by the United States doesn’t seem to trouble House conservatives.

UpdateAtrios: "I'm so old I can remember when voting against war funding bills - some of them anyway - was an America-hating thing to do

Now let's see if any of those professed Military- loving Republicans out there, will get on the phone to their Representative and tell them to knock off this anti military bullcrap, or if they don't care if our boys don't have funds-----if it means that people might cast a vote for a Republican next year!!!!!

The AMA Does Not Represent Us

By members of PNHP -

As the American Medical Association (AMA) begins its annual convention in Chicago, we want to take this opportunity to make it clear to the American public, to the media, and to the President and members of Congress, that the AMA does not represent us.

It is a common misconception that this organization speaks on behalf of most American physicians but that is a misconception with very serious consequences at such a critical time in the healthcare reform debate. So long as the public, the media and our elected officials lump all physicians together as “the AMA”, then we are guilty by association of a failure of our hippocratic oath to “first, do no harm”.

In fact, the AMA represents less than 1/3 of America’s physicians and half of those are retired. In fact, the American Medical Student Association endorses Universal Healthcare Reform.

The AMA’s longstanding opposition to every effort to change healthcare financing, including Medicare in the 1960s, has resulted in decades of needless and countless morbidity and mortality. Sixty people die every day in this country simply for lack of access to healthcare. And instead of being an advocate for the only solution that accomplishes the goals of universal coverage and fiscal viability, the Single Payer option, the AMA continues to be primarily a trade association looking out for the financial interests of its members.

But who, then, is looking out for the interests of patients? Certainly not Congress and the President. If that were so, the United States would long ago have relieved itself of the dubious distinction of being the only developed country in the world that does not have a Universal system of healthcare. No, the evidence is clear that our Congress and our President are looking out for themselves and continuing the tradition of pay-to-play politics. How else would a reasonable person explain the fact that our elected officials, Democrats and Republicans combined, have accepted 12 million dollars in campaign contributions since 1998 from the American Medical Association?

We would suggest that the American people, the media, President Obama, and the members of Congress need look no further than PNHP, Physicians for a National Health Program, if they want to consult an organization that represents the interests of patients and has been doing so for 22 years.

We are proud members of PNHP. We’re waiting and eager to be consulted. And our physicians are willing and able to continue to engage in acts of non-violent civil disobedience. Healthcare reform is the Civil Rights issue of the decade.

The AMA does not represent us.

Dr. Margaret Flowers
Dr. Carol Paris

http://www.healthcare-now.org/the-ama-does-not-represent-us/

===============================================
Only 20% of Doctors are in the AMA. Most have dropped out of it because they feel it doen't represent them or their patients properly.

Good afternoon, all.

PamB on June 16, 2009 at 01:15 PM

Pam,

Remember when McCain wanted us to start a war with Russia over Georgia? He said they were our best friends and allies. Even Bush scratched his head over that claim.

PamB on June 16, 2009 at 01:48 PM

The Republicans never supported the troops only the war profiteers. Now they would actually vote against helping the troops they want stationed in the Middle East for a hundred years in some lame attempt to make President Obama fail?

They don't make sense and never have. It's all about making money and controlling others. I guess they don't feel alive unless they are causing trouble.

How can Obama fail when this war in Iraq wasn't necessary to begin with?

Only 20% of Doctors are in the AMA. Most have dropped out of it because they feel it doen't represent them or their patients properly.
29
rjsnj on June 16, 2009 at 02:18 PM

I heard that on one of the network newscasts last night, too. I guess the AMA is like the Chamber of Commerce. They are mainly industry shills.

PamB on June 16, 2009 at 01:06 PM

Pam,

If any of these charges were tried in a civilian court of law, the shadow of a doubt would be all over the case. Juries could not convict. The judges would not allow them.

Cheney has put a shadow of a doubt over our entire foreign policy and intelligence operations for decades to come. He's lucky President Obama was elected and has so much stature. Otherwise this country would be isolated from most of the civilized world.

When you get your information by either torturing prisoners or corercing your intelligence agents till they come up with something "that works" instead of the truth, you have lost all credibility.

Why Cheney and his daughter think they can salvage any honor after what the Bush White House lawyers put into writing is beyond me. The world knows that they made a decision to invade Iraq and then tortured people to justify it later. They tortured people over 100 times in one month.

It was cold blooded...just as cold blooded as those who highjacked those planes and flew them into buildings on 9ll. It wasn't even an eye-for-an-eye, because Cheney knew Saddam didn't have anything to do with 911.

Innocent civilians in an occupied country were tortured by their liberators. That's the Bush Legacy. The Cheneys need to learn to live with it and accept the truth.

so 56% of americans either liberal or moderate. this is supposed to be good for the repelicans? i guess if losing all elections everywhere but the deep south is their objective it is great news. as far a having much to do with the direction of the country....not so much. and can someone find a statistic for the percentage of moderates and liberals when you take the deep south out of the mix....i bet you would find more like 45% moderate and 30% liberal if you didn't count the confederacy cohort.....hahahahaha....

Clinton Urges Obama To Stand Firm On A Strong Public Option: Don’t ‘Give Up The Store’ To Get 60 Votes

...Clinton said that he believes Obama will work with the Senate to achieve the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster. But he urged Obama to be ready to use the budget reconciliation process — which would require just 51 votes to pass health care — if necessary to achieve a progressive bill:

"If he can’t get a good bill, I wouldn’t give away the store on that. If he can’t get a bill that’s genuine universal coverage, that genuinely is going to cut costs and make health insurers give up some of these unbelievable administrative burdens that they’ve put on people, and that really gets to the guts of the delivery system and does more primary preventive care and actually measures things that work, then I would go for the 51. But I would spend a little time trying to get to 60."...

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/16/clinton-health-care-meeting/

Everyone knows that Bill Clinton has a pair ( especially since reading the impeachment transcript), so when he tells President Obama he needs to grow a pair and use reconciliation he knows what he's talking about.

Whether Clinton had to cave because he didn't have 51 votes is debatable. I think Dole would have finally come around. But that's past history.

Go for it, President Obama. FDR did.

bbl

"Okla. senator questions stimulus projects
GOP lawmaker lists 100 projects, including skate parks, turtle crossing"

senator coburn of oklahoma ( used to be a part of the united states )finds that a turtle crossing in florida is outlandish....what would really be outlandish would be a coburn crossing...this guy is such a dummie he could use help finding his nose but crossing the street is way beyond his iq...i say put him blind folded in the middle of I-95 outside of miami at rush hour and let him figure it out....

gregg on June 16, 2009 at 03:28 PM

Note that pollsters still aren't asking people if they are progressives. Liberal is an old fashioned term.

While conservative has become a dirty term. But then most of those teabagger assassins like those nasty labels. It makes them feel macho...and dirty somehow.

From 2002 to 2009, voters' partisan identification has moved from virtual parity -- 43 percent Republican and 43 percent Democratic at the height of George W. Bush's popularity in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 -- to a massive Democratic advantage today of 53 to 36, a 17 percentage point split, by far the largest difference in the past two decades.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/21/obamas-new-electorate-pol_n_206249.html

From 2002 to 2009, voters' partisan identification has moved from virtual parity -- 43 percent Republican and 43 percent Democratic at the height of George W. Bush's popularity in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 -- to a massive Democratic advantage today of 53 to 36, a 17 percentage point split, by far the largest difference in the past two decades.
==================================================
Good day Peaceman, the GOP is determined to dig an even deeper hole for themselves by being against everything.

Remember when McCain wanted us to start a war with Russia over Georgia? He said they were our best friends and allies. Even Bush scratched his head over that claim.
25
SandyH on June 16, 2009 at 02:34 PM
====================================================
Poor George was confused. He thought they were talking about Georgia, USA. Someone had to break out a map for him and 'splain to him where the nation called Georgia is located.

Isn't the reich wing silly? They think that the US should perhaps invade Iran or something about this election! So if it ends up Almadinajad DOES win, we have a mortal enemy with a bomb! Now how stupid is that idea. Silly Reich wingers praying for Obama and America to Fail!

Palin backers raising funds for her legal defense

22 minutes ago

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's supporters are holding a Web-a-thon to raise money for her legal defense fund.

Organizers of Conservatives4Palin said they hope to raise more than $500,000 in a week for Palin's Alaska Fund Trust.

Palin has said her legal fees while fighting ethics complaints exceed that amount. She also incurred legal fees during last fall's Troopergate investigation into her firing of Alaska's public safety commissioner.

After settling with the Alaska Personnel Board over a complaint that the state paid for the travel of her children to events, Palin has until June 23 to reimburse Alaska about $10,000 in costs from about 10 trips.

Palin's office said 14 more ethics complaints have been resolved with no findings she has violated the Executive Branch Ethics Act. Earlier this month an investigator for the personnel board found Palin hadn't violated the act when she wore a coat bearing the logo of her husband's sponsor at the start of the Iron Dog snowmobile race last winter.

Palin has called such complaints frivolous.

Fund trustee Kristan Cole said Palin's high visibility this week, after a trip to the East Coast and a public feud with talk show host David Letterman, has helped fundraising efforts.

The legal defense fund was established in April. The Web-a-thon started Monday.
==============================================
Why does Guv Moose Crap continue to raise money for her legal defense? Sounds like she is concerned ...

Arianna Huffington
Posted: June 15, 2009 04:26 PM

Whistling Past the Economic Graveyard: The Audacity of Misplaced Hope

..And investors seem anxious to do the same. Witness the "fierce rally" in the collateralized loan obligation market. CLOs are made up of sliced and diced assets (including high-risk and junk loans) -- and are kissing cousins to the collateralized-debt obligations (i.e. crap) at the heart of the financial meltdown.

But according to analysts at Morgan Stanley there has recently been a "remarkable change" in investor sentiment towards these securities, including an "exuberance" for the lowest grade junk being sold.

In other words, we are right back to risky business as usual. No harm, no foul. Let's get back to the fun we were having before this whole worldwide economic collapse thing started happening.

It puts a whole other spin on the audacity of hope...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/whistling-past-the-econom_b_215672.html

Arianna isn't kidding here.

A supposedly solid financial columnist this weekend in the Business Section of our newspaper suggested that conservative investors take their money out of CDs and T bills and put them in market funds that carry these CLOs.

It's not enough that they fooled us once? Now that they have saddled us with the cost of the TARP, other bailouts like AIG, and the cost of the required stimulus to get the ball rolling again, now they are allowing the same thieves who got to keep their jobs and bonuses to go in for the kill?

How could anyone suggest such an irresponsible thing to a retired person who is already frightened and lost half of their savings?

President Obama better put a tail on his financial team in the after hours when they leave the White House. Something is terribly wrong here.

rjsnj on June 16, 2009 at 04:21 PM

rj,

Well, at least we now know what all the fuss was about with this Letterman flap.

Palin needs money. And she wanted to cash in while she still could to raise some ready for future litigations that apparently she already knows are coming.

She’s better at picking pockets that I thought.

PamB on June 16, 2009 at 04:20 PM

All these old Republicans like to think they are atomic cowboys.

Afternoon all good Dems,

I agree completely. We should not get involved in Iran. It is none of our damn business. Our best alternative is to offer moral support and let it play out.

hannity however was going on and on today saying that President Obama is a coward and doesn't want to rock the boat in the Middle East. he went on to say that President Obama is no raygun. "raygun" would have taken action since it is our responsibility". hannity is such an ass. he's the coward hiding behind his microphone and won't submit to waterboarding. last week he was hiding behind phalin's skirt because she was "insulted". What a lily livered coward. The fact is SNL made a much worse comment about phalin suggesting incest with in relation to her daughter and she appeared on the show. Other comics such as Leno had snipes a hell of a lot worse than with Letterman did. Asshole mcloser called Chelsea a "dog" during the last election cycle. I want an apology from this loser. The neocons are trying to get Letterman fired and have been demonstrating in front of his studio in New York. Screw them. If they succeed in getting the ear of the president of CBS then we should send mass emails to the president telling him to ignore these neocon assholes.

THE ATTACK ON LETTERMAN IS PURELY POLITICAL. LET US NOT GIVE THE BITCH THE SATISFACTION OF GETTING LETTERMAN FIRED.

GOP Pushed For Incomplete Health Care Study, Then Politicized It:

On Monday afternoon, critics of a major health care overhaul seized on a report from the Congressional Budget Office showing that a Democratic reform bill could cost $1 trillion over ten years despite adding only 17 million Americans to the ranks of the insured. But the results are incomplete, and they know it.

The CBO findings made for a traditional attack based around fears that the government would spend larges swaths of taxpayer money with minimum systematic change.

"CBO makes it clear -- the Democrats' plan will force millions of Americans to lose the care they have now," Sen. Mike Enzi, the ranking Republican on the Senate HELP Committee, said in a statement. "Anyone who says that if you like the care you have, you can keep it under this bill doesn't have their facts straight."

House Minority Leader John Boehner sent out an email alert on the report, saying the Democrats "costly plan is exposed." His colleague, Minority Whip Eric Cantor, meanwhile said the CBO score card was "troubling when we're trying to save money that we would be calling for that kind of expenditure."

The CBO's findings, however, are for an incomplete piece of legislation, making the cost-per-coverage estimates much worse than they will ultimately be. Republicans on the committee knew this, according to Democrats. But they pushed for the bill to be studied by the CBO now. And when poor results came back, they ran with them.

"The reality is there are still some outstanding issues, including employer responsibility and a public insurance option," said a Democratic aide to a committee member. "Those are two outstanding issues. So what we did in a good faith effort to find bipartisan consensus, we did not include those elements because we are trying to find common ground. But Republicans wanted there to be a score even though, the reality is, if there is an incomplete bill you will have an incomplete statement."

Another Democratic aide to the HELP Committee member concurred, adding that Sen. Ted Kennedy's office, in an effort to "find bipartisan consensus with Republicans colleagues" filed the bill and allowed it to be scored by the CBO -- not expecting it to be used as partisan fodder.

Top 10 Reasons Sarah Palin's "Outrage" is Misplaced and A Little Late...

10) Last September, a skit on Saturday Night Live suggested incest in the Palin family. "What about the husband?" asked a mock Times reporter. "You know he's doing those daughters. I mean, come on. It's Alaska!" No outrage. Sarah Palin appeared on the show one month later in late October.

9) Days after the announcement of Bristol's pregnancy, Conan O'Brien joked, "It's true, John McCain's running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, has revealed that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant. Palin said, 'We should never have introduced her to John Edwards.'" Where was the outrage? Was Conan promoting infidelity with an underage girl?

8 ) From two different Tonight Shows: "Governor Palin announced over the weekend that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is five months pregnant. Oh, boy, you thought John Edwards was in trouble before, now he's really done it!" AND..."All the Republicans are heaping praise on Governor Palin. Fred Thompson said, as an actor, he could see them making a movie about Sarah Palin and her family. Didn't they already make that movie? I think it was called 'Knocked Up!'"--Jay Leno

7) Craig Ferguson's skit of "Larry King vs Levi Johnston" asks about "kinky sex" with the drapes open. Craig Ferguson's honorary Alaska citizenship, granted by Governor Palin wasn't rescinded.

6) "According to expense reports, Sarah Palin charged the state of Alaska over $21,000 for her children to travel with her on official business. In fairness to Gov. Palin, when she leaves them home alone they get pregnant." --Seth Meyers (SNL). Sarah Palin was in a sketch with Meyers a week earlier.

5) On October 8, 2008, Sarah Palin walked out on the ice with six year old Piper and 13 year old Willow, before the game, Conan O'Brien said, "Saturday night, Sarah Palin is going to drop the first puck at the Philadelphia Flyers' hockey game. Then Palin will spend the rest of the game trying to keep the hockey players out of her daughter's penalty box."
Oh, yes he did. You get the outrage...but not a peep then. According to the new "logic", O'Brien was advocating for some really sick stuff.

4) Rush Limbaugh: "Everyone knows the Clintons have a cat. Socks is the White House cat. But did you know there is a White House dog?" Limbaugh put up a picture of Chelsea Clinton. At the time, Chelsea Clinton was 13 years old. Rush also said, "In last year's campaign, the most prominent, articulate voice for standard run-of-the-mill good old-fashioned American conservatism was Sarah Palin." Calling a young teenager a "dog" can't be helpful to her "self-esteem." Where is the apology from the leader of the GOP?

3) "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno."--John McCain, Sarah Palin's running mate. Should McCain apologize to every young woman in America?

2) Palin's friend, political defender and informer of the David Letterman comments, John Ziegler, was fired from his radio show for using the "n-word" online and on air in 1997. In 2000, he was fired for spelling the "n-word" on the air. How much does that word affect the psychological health of America's youth, regardless of their race? Now he is pimping his film about how mean the "liberal media" was to Sarah Palin.

AND...The NUMBER 1 REASON Sarah Palin's Outrage is Misplaced and A Little Late...

1) The "candidate who must be obeyed" was talking about Palin's family when he said, "Kids are off limits." Jake Tapper of ABC News interviewed then Candidate Obama, and asked, "Governor Palin and her husband issued a statement today saying their 17-year-old daughter Bristol, who is unmarried, is five months pregnant. Do you have any reaction?"

OBAMA: "I have said before and I will repeat again, I think people's families are off-limits. And people's children are especially off-limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Governor Palin's performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president. And so I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories. You know, my mother had me when she was 18. And, you know, how family deals with issues and -- and, you know, teenaged children, that shouldn't be the topic of -- of our politics."

The Palin children have been fodder for comedians since they were brought to the national stage. Incest isn't funny. Ugly kid jokes aren't funny. Many of the things said about public figures are just flat wrong. Being "knocked up" isn't much fun. Racist comments hurt all of us. I exhausted the top 10 list before I ran out of outrageous instances ignored by the Palins.

The National Organization for Women named David Letterman to their Hall of Shame. Will Letterman be joining Jay Leno? Conan O'Brien? Craig Ferguson? Seth Myers? Rush Limbaugh? Or John McCain? Of course not! I guess N.O.W. didn't bother checking Sarah Palin's "feminist" credentials. All across America, right wing radio and television talk show hosts feigned outrage in perfect synchronicity. The same people who back up Palin's high drama assertions against Letterman ignored the connections between Bill O'Reilly's irresponsible incitement and the murder of Dr. George Tiller. David Letterman, a late night entertainer, apologized. Fox New's Bill O'Reilly has not.

As a parent, I understand being defensive. I just wonder what took so long. Why now?

Are the phalin backers evangelical losers like her? Do they also believe that alaska should secede from the Union? They are obviously just trying to raise money for her legal defense. That's what all this flap is about. Are these backers as stupid as she is?

22
PamB on June 16, 2009 at 01:15 PM

Mccain is such an ass. Wasn't it last year that he wanted to bomb Russia? This guy is a loose cannon yet he is in demand on talk shows. He needs to be drummed out of the senate for being too senile. Fortunately he never had a chance to become president or WWIII would have started by now for he would have attacked Russia, China, Iran, the West Bank, North Korea, Japan, France, England, Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Columbia, Greenland, Ireland, Vietnam, ad infinitum.

Afternoon all good Dems! I hope that you are all doing well today. It's a HOT, steamy day in the Mississippi Delta today. middle 90s with about a million percent (LOL) humidity! The air is so heavy, you can feel it pressing on you here.

This demonstrates the type of Republican racist idiot I deal with nearly every day!

TN GOP staffer apologizes for racist image of Obama.
Leading Democrats in Tennessee want a legislative aide fired. But, for now, an apology is all they are going to get. Sherri Goforth, an administrative assistant to state GOP Sen. Diane Black, admitted she sent out what state Democratic Party Chairman Chip Forrester calls a “reprehensible” e-mail on May 28 titled, “Historical Keepsake Photo.” Initially, Goforth said that she mistakenly sent the e-mail “to the wrong list of people.” Then, earlier today, Goforth issued a statement of apology, but in doing so, tried to blame the person who sent the picture to her:

“I want to offer my deepest apology regarding the offensive nature of the email forwarded to several of my colleagues.

“I also want to make it clear that it was forwarded to me from an acquaintenance with absolutely no political party ties and who is outside the Tennessee Capitol Hill arena. I should have deleted it upon receipt.

“Again, I am deeply sorry and offer a sincere apology to anyone offended.”

Goforth did not mention President Obama in her apology.

Good evening fellow Americans. How many times do you remember President Bush 43 buying lunch for staffers?

Sandy: This is part of an article that is posted now on Think Progress:

"As Paul Begala noted, the AMA doesn’t bother to even survey its members. So not only is Wallace wrong to try to speak for all American doctors when she attacks the public option, she doesn’t even necessarily speak for AMA doctors.

It is difficult to take the AMA as an honest player in the health reform debate. The AMA secures over 20% of its revenue from selling doctor information to the pharmaceutical lobby in a complex scheme to help the drug lobby market its products. This arrangement certainly clouds the AMA’s policy voice.

Unlike the AMA, Doctors for America, an actual member-driven group, conducted a poll of physicians over the weekend asking if they support the public option. Within 48 hours, over 1,500 responded from 48 states with an overwhelming 97% of respondents voting “Yes.” One of the respondents to the DFA survey, Dr. Andrew Janssen, noted:

As a rural family physician, I see people daily who cannot afford or who have been denied private insurance. Without a public insurance option meaningful health care reform is impossible.

Even with the AMA leadership opposing meaningful reform, physician members of the AMA should support a public insurance option. A robust public plan would not only eliminate unnecessary paperwork gimmicks used by private insurers today, but would also give providers timely payments that would allow doctors to focus on delivering the best quality care to their patients."

BobVADemocratHawk on June 16, 2009 at 05:10 PM
No matter who paid for it (the taxpayers, probably :-0), can you imagine Bush43 carrying it to them. What a nice person we elected!

Afternoon Marymac,

The AMA seemed very receptive to President Obama's remarks. They did ask about the cost of malpractice insurance. Doctors are paying through the nose for this insurance and the people who benefit most are lawyers. I think there should be some regulation of this industry as well. President Obama was noncommittal when asked about it. The insurance companies that provide malpractice insurance are probably run by the same greedy pigs who rip us off on the cost of medical insurance.

I see our resident trolls are whining about the POTUS' effort to provide every single American with affordable healthcare. Yes, it would be a shame if every American had access to healthcare regardless of income status, wouldn't it. Why, all of your Republican fat cat buddies would have to sit next to us in the waiting room. What a shame!

If the Republicans keep fighting us on this, I say we use it to bury them in 2010 using the tactic above. If any Democrat balks, do you hear me Sen. Baucus (D-MT), Sen Landrieu, (D-LA), then they need to go through a primary challenge.

I wonder when the repuke party is going to ask for a bailout.

Johne on June 16, 2009 at 05:18 PM

That's an easy one, Johne. If a doctor doesn't committ malpractice, then they shouldn't have to worry about their premiums increasing. But you're absolutely correct to point out that some regulation is needed.

Bob,

The bad doctors need to be removed from practice. Although I imagine if their insurance is high enough, that would take care of itself.

Perhaps some regulation such as monetary limits on salaries of lawyers or perhaps limits on jury awards.

Hi Johne. Hope you are well today. You are correct, here in Tennessee, the largest lobbying body is the Insurance Industry, by far and away the largest. We have the department of Commerce and Insurance here but they have zero real "teeth" to make or enforce any rules or regulations. Basically, the insurance industry as a whole has almost no regulation here in Tennessee.

Obama tells doctors: ‘The public option is not your enemy, it is your friend.’

Last week, the American Medical Association (AMA) registered its opposition to a key plank of President Obama’s health reform efforts — the creation of a public health insurance plan. At the same time, Senate Democrats have begun backing away from a public plan and instead gravitating towards a proposal to create a non-profit co-operative. Media reports have suggested that the White House may be warming to the idea of dropping the public plan. But today, in a speech before the AMA convention, Obama reiterated his strong support for a truly national public health insurance plan:

OBAMA: If you don’t like your health coverage or don’t have any insurance, you will have a chance to take part in what we’re calling a Health Insurance Exchange. … And one of these options needs to be a public option that will give people a broader range of choices and inject competition into the health care market so that force waste out of the system and keep the insurance companies honest.

Obama told the physicians, “The public option is not your enemy, it is your friend, I believe.” Watch it:

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/15/obama-public-plan-friend/

Bob,

With professional engineers as with other fields, a licensee is required to recognize their shortcomings and not take on work that they are not qualified to complete successfully.

I wonder if the same applies to doctors.

Palin needs money. And she wanted to cash in while she still could to raise some ready for future litigations that apparently she already knows are coming.

She’s better at picking pockets that I thought.
43
SandyH on June 16, 2009 at 04:33 PM
==================================================
Moosebrains is all about herself. She is a political hack.

Marymac,

California used to have (and they may still have) an insurance commissioner who really gets tough on insurance companies that commit fraud or fail to pay off claims. They fine them big time.

I wonder however why they don't enforce health insurance companies who deny claims.

Report: NKorean leader's son secretly visits China

By SHINO YUASA, Associated Press Writer Shino Yuasa, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jun 16, 8:24 am ET

TOKYO (AP)– The youngest son — and reportedly heir apparent — of North Korea's ailing leader Kim Jong Il secretly visited China last week and was urged by President Hu Jintao to have the North halt additional nuclear tests, a top Japanese newspaper said Tuesday.

During the trip around June 10, Kim Jong Un asked China — its key ally and biggest aid donor — to continue its energy and food aid to the North, the Asahi newspaper said, quoting unnamed North Korean sources in Beijing.

It also said that Hu urged the 26-year-old to have Pyongyang refrain from carrying out any further nuclear and missile tests. It did not provide further details.

An aide to Jong Un, who accompanied him on the trip along with senior officials, used the occasion to inform Chinese officials that Jong Un would be inheriting power from his father, the report said.

South Korea's Foreign Ministry and Unification Ministry said they could not confirm the report. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a regular news conference in Beijing on Tuesday that he had no knowledge of any such meeting.

Little is known about Jong Un, who was born to Kim Jong Il's late wife, Ko Yong Hi. He studied at the International School of Berne in Switzerland until 1998 under a pseudonym and learned English, German and French, the Swiss weekly news magazine L'Hebdo reported earlier this year, citing classmates and school officials.

South Korea's largest television network, KBS, reported Monday that Jong Un's supporters tried to assassinate his elder brother Kim Jong Nam, but that China sent agents to Macau to move him to an undisclosed location. The report quoted unidentified government sources in Beijing.

The South's Yonhap news agency reported Tuesday that North Korea's defense chief Kim Yong Chun secretly visited Beijing Saturday but did not specify his mission. Yonhap quoted an unnamed source privy to the North's affairs...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090616/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_nkorea_4

Kudos to the Japanese for cutting off all exports to N. Korea. The rest of the world should do the same. Let China feed its own lapdog. Perhaps Beijing will keep a tighter leash then.

Good afternoon, DEMS!

54
marymac_memphis on June 16, 2009 at 05:08 PM

Mary, her first "explanation" (read "excuse") was that she forwarded that to "the wrong list". It makes me wonder just who is on the right one?

Pam,

That war supplemental has been dirtied up considerably, and contains a $108Bn Dollar bailout for European banks, and the countries who own and operate them. That much money could pay for universal health care, AND bail out California, AND allow for low cost college loans etc.

Jane Hamsher has been burning up the phone lines and has a LOT of Congress Critters running scared on both sides of the aisle. Now the Pugs are saying that they will be running hard and heavy against the Blue Dogs who vote against it, saying "He voted against the troops", and the Pugs will be vulnerable if they vote either way because either they A) vote against the War supplemental, or B) vote FOR a bailout of Euro-Banks.

It's damned if they do, and damned if they don't for both sides. But, the Pugs are more vulnerable in the 2010 cycle than the Dems, and they know it. The Boner will cry.

Here is Jane Hamsher explaining it on C-Span this morning:

Supplemental Fight Explained — Hamsher on CSPAN

This is a classic example of the Progressives playing hard ball when everybody else is playing bean bag, and the Blue Dogs are playing footsies with the Pugs.

Doo-Bee-Doo-Bee-Doo on June 16, 2009 at 05:45 PM

Okay! Finally - you are back!
Where have you been? Everyone was looking for you here yesterday!

Johne on June 16, 2009 at 05:26 PM

That's an interesting point you raise Johne however, it does pose a bit of a dilemma for you. Since you seem to be advocating tort reform, it begs the following question. Exactly how much is a human life worth?

Mary, I was here testerday morning. I saw that Chicago wanted my prediction on the Sox/Cubs games. So, here it is. I predict that today the first game of the series will be rained out.

;)

Really, at the end of the 6 game split series I'm guessing it will be 4/2.

;)

Gothca guessing, huh?

OK. 4/2 Sox. There I said it. If I'm right I can say "see?". If I'm wrong that means that the Cubs beat the dastardly South Siders, and I will be happy either way. See how I rationalized that? I must be a secret Blue Dog.

Doobie = Blue Dog in Disguise!

I wonder however why they don't enforce health insurance companies who deny claims.
60
Johne on June 16, 2009 at 05:34 PM
================================================
Hi JE, health insurance regulation varies considerably by state. You have to do some digging to find out what the law says. I recommend contacting Public Citizen:

http://www.citizen.org/

They are very good on citizen advocacy issues and health care is a big issue for them.

Obama blocks list of visitors to White House

Taking Bush's position, administration denies msnbc.com request for logs

The Obama administration is fighting to block access to names of visitors to the White House, taking up the Bush administration argument that a president doesn't have to reveal who comes calling to influence policy decisions.

Despite President Barack Obama's pledge to introduce a new era of transparency to Washington, and despite two rulings by a federal judge that the records are public, the Secret Service has denied msnbc.com's request for the names of all White House visitors from Jan. 20 to the present. It also denied a narrower request by the nonpartisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which sought logs of visits by executives of coal companies.

Updated: CREW says it filed suit Tuesday against the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service. Here's a copy of CREW's complaint...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31373407/ns/politics-white_house/

Mr. President, it doesn't have to be this way. We should have nothing to hide from anyone. You campiagned on governmental transparency. Do not break this promise. The American people deserve better than Bush 43 policies.

If the Republicans keep fighting us on this, I say we use it to bury them in 2010 using the tactic above. If any Democrat balks, do you hear me Sen. Baucus (D-MT), Sen Landrieu, (D-LA), then they need to go through a primary challenge.
52
BobVADemocratHawk on June 16, 2009 at 05:20 PM
=================================================
Hi Bob, I agree with you completely. These politicians can't claim the right to put a "D" after their names if they are blocking the agenda that their party campaigned on in 2008.

64
BobVADemocratHawk on June 16, 2009 at 05:53 PM

That is a tough one. I have read about other cases, not medical, where they figured what the average person would earn in a lifetime and use that figure. Where the patient lives, they figure in the salary that person would have earned plus what medical expenses that person would have racked up.

I don't know if this is the answer but the main thing is to reduce the attorney's take of any jury award.

Time to tie on the feed bag. bbl.

Good evening, all.

The GOP is now "dead meat" according to RNC Youth?

College Republicans Convention: 'We need to find our Happy Meal'

Tue, 06/16/2009 - 2:05pm.
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Rebecca Freitag

In the last couple of years, the GOP lost control of the Senate, House, the White House, and more recently, their mouths in Washington, D.C. at the College Republicans National Committee convention June 4-6.

At the 58th biennial convention, Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) gave the keynote address. And among the other speakers at the event were Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Republican National Chairman Michael Steele, Phyllis Schlafly, former Sen. Rick Santorum, Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL) and Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA).

The turnout for the convention was less-than-thrilling. Attending the more well-known speakers, such as McCain, Steele, and Pawlenty, audiences barely reached 200 people. A significantly smaller group attended the others.

Those numbers seem worse when you consider that according to the blog of outgoing National Committee Chairman Charlie Smith, there were 203,000 proud College Republicans on 1,800 campuses in all 50 states.

Because of these small attendance numbers, one of the main focuses of the weekend was how to increase membership in the barely-breathing GOP.

Elicia Huffaker, a GOP Youth Convention recruiter, suggested that the party advertise itself in a different way, using McDonalds' strategy as a model.

"[They] don't advertise dead cow meat, they advertise a Big Mac or a Happy Meal," Huffaker said. "We need to find our Happy Meal or our Big Mac in order to energize the party."...

http://blog.buzzflash.com/analysis/817

That's the Republicans. They're always thinking ways to re-brand stale policies and re-frame unpopular messages instead of coming up with a new quality product that people want without having to be tricked into buying them.

Each and every post rise or fall on their own merit and are the responsibility of their author. The DNC IT department is repsonsible for the maintenance of this blog as well as its content as noted in the terms of service.

As far as someone thinking one, or more, of my posts are chickensh*t, as they put it, is their own opinion, no matter how misguided said opinion may be and usually is. However, I would surmise that just like their party, the GOP, they are in the minority with that opinion.

rjsnj on June 16, 2009 at 06:21 PM

rj,

I agree with you and Bob. There needs to be accountability for those Dems that do not support the compromised agenda. Nobody is going to like everything, but they must vote for change or face the consequences.

marymac_memphis on June 16, 2009 at 04:49 PM

Hi, mary.

Thanks for posting this to clarify this matter. You can always bet that the Republicans are holding back some pertinent information.

High-Altitude Wind Machines Could Power New York City

By Alexis Madrigal June 15, 2009 | 6:36 pm

The wind blowing through the streets of Manhattan couldn’t power the city, but wind machines placed thousands of feet above the city theoretically could.

The first rigorous, worldwide study of high-altitude wind power estimates that there is enough wind energy at altitudes of about 1,600 to 40,000 feet to meet global electricity demand a hundred times over.

The very best ground-based wind sites have a wind-power density of less than 1 kilowatt per square meter of area swept. Up near the jet stream above New York, the wind power density can reach 16 kilowatts per square meter. The air up there is a vast potential reservoir of energy, if its intermittency can be overcome.

Even better, the best high-altitude wind-power resources match up with highly populated areas including North America’s Eastern Seaboard and China’s coastline.

“The resource is really, really phenomenal,” said Cristina Archer of Cal State University-Chico, who co-authored a paper on the work published in the open-access journal Energies.”There is a lot of energy up there, but it’s not as steady as we thought. It’s not going to be the silver bullet that will solve all of our energy problems, but it will have a role.”

For centuries, we’ve been using high-density fossil fuels, but peaking oil supplies and climate concerns have given new life to green technologies. Unfortunately, renewable energy is generally diffuse, meaning you need to cover a lot of area to get the energy you want. So engineers look for renewable resources that are as dense as possible. On that score, high-altitude wind looks very promising...

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/highaltitudewindpower/

Yet another scientific step taken toward getting us off of carbon-based energy. Cities, like NYC, should mandate that each building have a wind generator installed and plugged into a smart grid electrical system. Furthermore, that smart grid should be ruggedized against EMP's.

It is difficult to take the AMA as an honest player in the health reform debate. The AMA secures over 20% of its revenue from selling doctor information to the pharmaceutical lobby in a complex scheme to help the drug lobby market its products. This arrangement certainly clouds the AMA’s policy voice.

marymac_memphis on June 16, 2009 at 05:11 PM

mary,

This is the key information for me. There is an incestuous relationship with money changing hands in addition to never polling members for their opinions.

Nevada Sen. John Ensign to admit affair; sources say blackmail involved

Nevada Republican Sen. John Ensign said Tuesday evening he is “truly sorry” about an affair he had last year with a campaign staffer, going public with an embarrassing admission about his marital infidelity.

Political insiders in the Senate and in Nevada told POLITICO that Ensign began an affair with a staffer several months after he separated from his wife. When Ensign reconciled with his wife, the sources said, he gave the aide a severance package and parted ways.

Sometime later, a Nevada source said, Ensign met with the husband of the woman involved and had what this source described as a positive encounter. Sources said that the man subsequently asked Ensign for a substantial sum of money – at which point Ensign decided to make the affair public.

At a Las Vegas press conference, Ensign admitted his affair, said his wife sought counseling after the episode, but added that he and his wife have reconciled, according to a Twitter feed of the press conference from LasVegasNow. The press conference was not carried on national cable TV networks. Ensign took no questions.

Ensign’s office did not return calls for comment, but the senator released a statement saying "I deeply regret and am very sorry for my actions."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23813.html

Well, one thing you can say for Sen. Ensign (R-NV) is that he differs from his Republican colleagues. It would appear that his affair was of normal heterosexual variety. None the less, this is a personal matter for the Ensigns and it'll be up to the voters of NV to gauge the seriousness of the personal failing.

Evening Sandy. The trolls here are so stupid, they think that we don't read or research everyday. The come in here and post the most stupid crap and I usually ignore their stupidity but every once in a while I will post something to contradict them, just because it's so easy to do!

BobVADemocratHawk on June 16, 2009 at 07:05 PM
Bob: Does it seem like male politicians (both Rep. & Dem.) are more prone to extra-marital affairs than the rest of the population?

Little is known about Jong Un, who was born to Kim Jong Il's late wife, Ko Yong Hi. He studied at the International School of Berne in Switzerland until 1998 under a pseudonym and learned English, German and French, the Swiss weekly news magazine L'Hebdo reported earlier this year, citing classmates and school officials.

South Korea's largest television network, KBS, reported Monday that Jong Un's supporters tried to assassinate his elder brother Kim Jong Nam, but that China sent agents to Macau to move him to an undisclosed location. The report quoted unidentified government sources in Beijing.

BobVADemocratHawk on June 16, 2009 at 05:45 PM

Bob,

Now there are two conflicting images of the next Divine Leader. Can this guy be reasoned with or is he just as crazy and ruthless as his father? It certainly would helpful to have a sane person that Secretary Clinton could negotiate with.

I oftimes wonder if there is a shadowy Fourth Branch military general really pulling all the strings not the nutcase and his family that is shown to the world as North Korea's leadership.

There is an incestuous relationship with money changing hands in addition to never polling members for their opinions.

83
SandyH on June 16, 2009 at 07:01 PM

I could not agree MORE!

"Kim Jong Il's late wife, Ko Yong Hi"

My first thought, when I read this was - How did she 'become' his "late" wife?
Kim Jong Il is downright Evil!

Obama slams Fox News

CNBC's John Harwood sat down with Barack Obama today and POLITICO's Josh Gerstein gives us a preview:

Asked by CNBC’s John Harwood about perceptions Obama has gotten an easy ride from the press, the president called the charge “very hard for him to swallow,” but then acknowledged “generally positive” coverage. Also took yet another shot at Fox News.

“I’ve got one television station that is entirely devoted to attacking my administration…That’s a pretty big megaphone. You’d be hard pressed if you watched the entire day to find a positive story about me on that front,” Obama said.

“We welcome people who are asking us some tough questions. I think I’ve probably been as accessible as any president in the first six months…..I think that actually the reason people have been generally positive about what we’ve been trying to do is people feel as if I’m available and willing to answer questions and we haven’t been trying to hide the ball.”

http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0609/Obama_slams_Fox_News.html?showall

That's about as polite as you can be about it, Mr. President. None the less, the First Amendment must apply to everyone or it means nothing. But now the entire planet recognizes FNS for exactly what it is, an extension of the money-worshipping wing of the RNC.

Ensign Acknowledges Extramarital Affair

By Chris Cillizza and Paul Kane

UPDATE, 6:55 p.m.: In a press conference moments ago, Ensign admitted the affair but seemed resolved to remain in political life. "Last year I had an affair," said Ensign. "I violated the vows of my marriage." Ensign did not name the woman with whom he had the affair, saying only that "the woman who I was involved with and her husband were close friends of mine." He added that he was "committed to my service in the United States Senate". Ensign took no questions.

UPDATE, 5:55 p.m.: Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) has acknowledged an extramarital affair with a campaign staffer in a statement released by his office. "I deeply regret and am very sorry for my actions," said Ensign. He is expected to announce the affair at a press conference at 6:30 pm tonight. The affair, which was with a woman who worked for both Ensign's re-election campaign and his Battle Born leadership political action committee, began in December 2007 and ended in August 2008. Ensign's wife, Darlene, said that the couple's "marriage has become stronger" and added: "I love my husband."

Original Post
Sources in Washington and Nevada say Republican Sen. John Ensign, a rising star in the Republican Party considering a 2012 presidential bid will hold a press conference later today in which he will acknowledge an extramarital affair.

Sen. John Ensign has admitted an extramarital affair. Washington Post photo by Ray Lustig

Ensign, a member of the Senate GOP leadership, flew back to his native Las Vegas today in anticipation of the public announcement, sources said, missing a vote considered key to the Nevada tourist industry.

Two senior GOP political strategists, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, said the announcement was imminent. They declined to say with whom Ensign had the affair.

In February 2002, Ensign took an unexplained two week leave of absence from the Senate citing "personal reasons."

When he returned from that respite, Ensign told the Las Vegas Sun that he was "not making any comments one way or the other. I'm just asking people to respect my privacy."

Elected in 2000 and reelected in 2006, Ensign has been a leading conservative among Senate Republicans, playing a key role in demanding the resignation of Larry Craig in September 2007. Ensign called Craig a "disgrace" after he was arrested in June 2007 in an airport men's restroom on disorderly conduct charges. Craig resisted the calls from Ensign to resign but retired from the Senate last November.

Ensign traveled to Iowa earlier this month to speak at a event sponsored by the American Future Fund, stoking speculation that he was interested in running for president in 2012.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/eye-on-2012/ensign-to-acknowledge-extramar.html?hpid=topnews

Hmmm, very interesting ....

Gets even better:

Nevada Sen. John Ensign admits affair; sources say blackmail involved

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23813.html#ixzz0Idd2LCh4&C

marymac_memphis on June 16, 2009 at 07:11 PM

Power corrupts and absoulte power corrupts absolutely, my friend. Case in point with Sen. Ensign, President Clinton, et al...

SandyH on June 16, 2009 at 07:12 PM

All the strings are being pulled from Beijing, IMHO, Sandy. As far as your theory into the sanity of the new kid, I seriously doubt he is sane in the conventional sense. He's been subjected to the same brainwashing as his fellow citizens have no doubt. Though, like you, I hope he is willing to negotiate because the alternative is to turn N. Korea into a radioactive parking lot.

BobVADemocratHawk on June 16, 2009 at 07:05 PM

Bob,

I always find these confessions the height of conceit. After Clinton was impeached for his affair, haven't we, the public, been punished enough by these public displays of contrition?

I could care less if this Senator had an affair nor do I want to hear him saying things like all the parties involved were "dear friends." It makes these public pronouncements sound even more stupid.

Keep it in the family. Quit flaunting your dirty underwear in public. Next thing you know they will be flogging themselves or having their wives putting them in a public stock. Pleeese. Enough already.

I personally would like to have Elliot Spitzer return to public life. He was the only one onto the corruption on Wall Street which the Bush administration was covering up. That was the real obscene behavior. What he does in private is his own business. Let him pay his fines for getting caught and sign his divorce papers and then run for office again.

We need consumer protection from economic fraud not prostitutes.

STFU Repigs with your crappy culture wars. The mask has been ripped off. The Repigs are lying swine.
Ensign now joins the ranks of Larry Craig. Bye, bye ahole!

Good night fellow Americans. Keep the Faith and keep the faith. Yes we can, yes we will, and yes we did!

BobVADemocratHawk on June 16, 2009 at 07:23 PM
Can you believe how stupid this particular troll is. As if what Sen. Ensign did is somehow okay just because his wife is apparantly healthy. What a jerk this troll is. I feel like saying something like "at least John Edwards didn't break the law like Sen. Vitter, the Republican from Louisiana did by patronizing prostitutes while spouting about morality and railing against birth control for poor women!" But, I won't say anything to him because he is a small, insignificant troll, nothing more.

Evening Dems......

This IS a good question! WHY did Palin let everyone else make fun of her kids, but now is all the victim because of Letterman????Couldn't be she is trying now to generate sympathy for her Presidential run? Why don't some of the leaders, Gingrich, Limbaugh, Cheney tell her to save her breath----she will NEVER be chosen to be the candidate.

.Top 10 Reasons Sarah Palin's "Outrage" is Misplaced and A Little Late...

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Comments10) Last September, a skit on Saturday Night Live suggested incest in the Palin family. "What about the husband?" asked a mock Times reporter. "You know he's doing those daughters. I mean, come on. It's Alaska!" No outrage. Sarah Palin appeared on the show one month later in late October.

9) Days after the announcement of Bristol's pregnancy, Conan O'Brien joked, "It's true, John McCain's running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, has revealed that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant. Palin said, 'We should never have introduced her to John Edwards.'" Where was the outrage? Was Conan promoting infidelity with an underage girl?

8 ) From two different Tonight Shows: "Governor Palin announced over the weekend that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is five months pregnant. Oh, boy, you thought John Edwards was in trouble before, now he's really done it!" AND..."All the Republicans are heaping praise on Governor Palin. Fred Thompson said, as an actor, he could see them making a movie about Sarah Palin and her family. Didn't they already make that movie? I think it was called 'Knocked Up!'"--Jay Leno

7) Craig Ferguson's skit of "Larry King vs Levi Johnston" asks about "kinky sex" with the drapes open. Craig Ferguson's honorary Alaska citizenship, granted by Governor Palin wasn't rescinded.

6) "According to expense reports, Sarah Palin charged the state of Alaska over $21,000 for her children to travel with her on official business. In fairness to Gov. Palin, when she leaves them home alone they get pregnant." --Seth Meyers (SNL). Sarah Palin was in a sketch with Meyers a week earlier.

5) On October 8, 2008, Sarah Palin walked out on the ice with six year old Piper and 13 year old Willow, before the game, Conan O'Brien said, "Saturday night, Sarah Palin is going to drop the first puck at the Philadelphia Flyers' hockey game. Then Palin will spend the rest of the game trying to keep the hockey players out of her daughter's penalty box."
Oh, yes he did. You get the outrage...but not a peep then. According to the new "logic", O'Brien was advocating for some really sick stuff.

4) Rush Limbaugh: "Everyone knows the Clintons have a cat. Socks is the White House cat. But did you know there is a White House dog?" Limbaugh put up a picture of Chelsea Clinton. At the time, Chelsea Clinton was 13 years old. Rush also said, "In last year's campaign, the most prominent, articulate voice for standard run-of-the-mill good old-fashioned American conservatism was Sarah Palin." Calling a young teenager a "dog" can't be helpful to her "self-esteem." Where is the apology from the leader of the GOP?

3) "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno."--John McCain, Sarah Palin's running mate. Should McCain apologize to every young woman in America?

2) Palin's friend, political defender and informer of the David Letterman comments, John Ziegler, was fired from his radio show for using the "n-word" online and on air in 1997. In 2000, he was fired for spelling the "n-word" on the air. How much does that word affect the psychological health of America's youth, regardless of their race? Now he is pimping his film about how mean the "liberal media" was to Sarah Palin.

AND...The NUMBER 1 REASON Sarah Palin's Outrage is Misplaced and A Little Late...

1) The "candidate who must be obeyed" was talking about Palin's family when he said, "Kids are off limits." Jake Tapper of ABC News interviewed then Candidate Obama, and asked, "Governor Palin and her husband issued a statement today saying their 17-year-old daughter Bristol, who is unmarried, is five months pregnant. Do you have any reaction?"

OBAMA: "I have said before and I will repeat again, I think people's families are off-limits. And people's children are especially off-limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Governor Palin's performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president. And so I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories. You know, my mother had me when she was 18. And, you know, how family deals with issues and -- and, you know, teenaged children, that shouldn't be the topic of -- of our politics."

The Palin children have been fodder for comedians since they were brought to the national stage. Incest isn't funny. Ugly kid jokes aren't funny. Many of the things said about public figures are just flat wrong. Being "knocked up" isn't much fun. Racist comments hurt all of us. I exhausted the top 10 list before I ran out of outrageous instances ignored by the Palins.

The National Organization for Women named David Letterman to their Hall of Shame. Will Letterman be joining Jay Leno? Conan O'Brien? Craig Ferguson? Seth Myers? Rush Limbaugh? Or John McCain? Of course not! I guess N.O.W. didn't bother checking Sarah Palin's "feminist" credentials. All across America, right wing radio and television talk show hosts feigned outrage in perfect synchronicity. The same people who back up Palin's high drama assertions against Letterman ignored the connections between Bill O'Reilly's irresponsible incitement and the murder of Dr. George Tiller. David Letterman, a late night entertainer, apologized. Fox New's Bill O'Reilly has not.

As a parent, I understand being defensive. I just wonder what took so long. Why now?

(Bob, ignore the gas bags, they will soon be nothing but an empty space here)

this is a scary, scary thought! Where would we be now, had McCain been made President? Thank you God, thank you American voters !!!

"It is summer 2009, and John McCain is president
In which the author imagines what America would be like if the GOP's man had won. Critics of Obama, take note.

By Michael Lind

Pages 1 2 S
S
S RSSPrint
Email ..Read more: John McCain, Opinion, Michael Lind, Recession, Iraq War, Barack Obama

June 16, 2009 | Picture, if you will, an America apparently like our own. A country like ours bogged down in war on two fronts and suffering from the greatest economic slump since the Great Depression of the 1930s. An America indistinguishable from ours in every respect except that when you turn on the nightly news you see the face of President John Sidney McCain ...

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/06/16/president_mccain/index.html

This IS a good question! WHY did Palin let everyone else make fun of her kids, but now is all the victim because of Letterman???
================================================
Good evening PamB. I think it was Sandy that came up with the right answer. The scoundrel Palin needs contributions for her legal defense fund. Weeeee!!!

So why does "sister sarah" need a war chest for her legal defense? Could it be that she is guilty?

SandyH on June 16, 2009 at 07:29 PM

Former Gov. Spitzer's (D-NY) affair was the heighth of hypocrisy in as much as he went out of his way as the NY AG to bust up prostitution rings. Spitzer may run again but I seriously doubt he would get elected even in liberal NY. Doinking a prostitute is one thing and can be forgiven. Hypocrisy such as this is whole other matter, IMHO.

rjsnj on June 16, 2009 at 07:31 PM

Sen. Ensign's affair is a far cry from that of former Sen. Craig's (R-ID) escapades. If we start comparing the two, we run the risk of appearing to unnecessarily bash Sen. Ensign. This was a normal extramarital affair, if such a thing can be classified as normal, that is a matter between Sen. Ensign, his family, and the voters of NV in 2012. Perhaps we're best off taking the high road on this one and leaving it at that.

Bush and Cheney says that God was on their side in water boarding and Abu Ghraib Guantanamo treatments, what God promotes a War President Inquisition. This poem state that God does not declare Wars that politicians do.

politicaL goD

worlD leaderS with their goD, declaring their might
Using hiM as a tool to make waR for profit fights,
Where they deny their enemy any humaN rightS,
Taking away civiL rightS, in God’s children plights.

Where leaderS redefine humanitY into Inquisitions
Using techniques so abusive, in crucifiX positions.
Where naked men are covered in bile human feces,
Where in a Christian God, we see haunting abused faces.

Blackwater religioN with Wild West InJustice mercy
Upon corporatE cowboyS spraying bullet mercenaries.
waR presidenT that “Lies” in washingtoN prefabrications
Conservative Think Tanks warS with Creative Calculations.

intelligencE of Creative Accounting in dire manipulations,
Golden Idol hidden coffin body bags billions computations.
Quagmire death Walking Wounded PTSD veteran motions
Searching heaven’s prayers need in therapy attention devotion.

americaN Guantanamo Military Tribunal of denied due process,
Lost Lady Liberty for Abu Ghraib nationaL securitY procession
In water boarding images with nations needed Holocaust treatments,
With ethnic cleansing views of noncombatants abusive comments.

While mosleM allaH goes to waR bleeding in shiitE and sunnI blood
beheadinG in the name of goD, while committing massacre bloodbath
suicideS upon each other mosqueS in desecrating Moslem holy spaces
In religiouS fatwa’s death sentence needs for imprisoned Taliban places.

worldwidE conservatisM segregating us as slaveS in cloned religioN pieces.
Conforming their goD of waR of hatE, over a God of Love living in Divine Peace.
God Bless Made in America in equality of diversity spreading His Harmony,
Where we have Real human religious compassion in Bible Uni-Verse memory.

My God is not a politicaL goD of torY republicanS, or democratS fraternitieS,
But a Whig “We the people” one of Katrina Red Crosses of caring Societies.
Where Real Conservatives and Liberals rally, when washingtoN CorPoliticians
Use HooverNomic Great Depressions, we instead rally as proud American civilians.

HeArt Beats of God Bless America’s creative Artmosphere of blessed tranquility
Restoring God’s Constitutional Will in Civil Liberties Lady Liberty Freedom quill
Rewriting our Declaration of Independence, from torY executivE privilegE redefinitions
That “At Will,” Scales of Justice denied courts “Truth,” with needs of secrecy definitions.

“We the people” must demand Concrete Accounting of this politicaL goD of warS,
Under God’s Biblical oath that resides among Divine “Truth,” inside a nation’s healing.

David Lester Young 06/16/09 © all rights owned by author
De-Terminated poet, somewhere in America not on company time

marymac_memphis on June 16, 2009 at 07:11 PM

mary,

See my comments at 7:29. Just like this Palin/Letterman ruckus, these people will use anything including their family's grief and suffering as a political opportunity.

The more I think about how Palin "intentionally" drug her 14-year-old daughter into the unwed sister's embarrassment, I start getting angry. If Ms. Sarah wants to plead statutory rape, then I can plead child abuse by the parent.

And today she even tried to make this a patriotic act? This woman isn't fooling anyone but the Fundies. The old white men of the GOP (and the young hungry ones) will never let her near the nomination again even if they have to pull an Ahmadinejad.

this is a scary, scary thought! Where would we be now, had McCain been made President? Thank you God, thank you American voters !!!
==================================================
PamB, I can't imagine it. Along with that political huckster Palin we would be in grave trouble right now.

Ensign admitted his affair, said his wife sought counseling after the episode,...

Mental or marital or LEGAL "counseling"? But Jay-Zues or whomever is on his side. Right?

Ensign..your ship has sailed.

94
BobVADemocratHawk on June 16, 2009 at 07:26 PM

I have noticed over the years that once a country gets rid of the old fart politicians from the WWII generation they generally moderate. I think Cuba will moderate once Castro is taking his dirt nap. The old Soviet Union was run by a bunch of old farts up until Yeltsyn then they moderated. We were run by a bunch of old farts like raygun and bush the first. Then bush the second was appointed so it through off our momentum.

modified:

americaN Guantanamo Military Tribunal of denied due process,
Lost Lady Liberty for Abu Ghraib nationaL securitY procession
In water boarding images with nations needed Holocaust comments,
With ethnic cleansing views of noncombatants abusive treatments.

PamB on June 16, 2009 at 07:41 PM

Pam,

It would sort of like being living in Iran?

Perhaps we're best off taking the high road on this one and leaving it at that.
102
BobVADemocratHawk on June 16, 2009 at 07:42 PM
=================================================
Bob, Ensign is a hypocrite along with the rest of the GOP. They scream about the defense of marriage while they trash their own marriage. I wouldn't care an iota what they did in their personal lives as long as they didn't inflict their notion of "morality" on the nation. Also please note - Ensign started the impeachment against Bill Clinton for having an extramarital affair. Now here he is caught doing the same. So perhaps Mr. Ensign should resign now!

That should have been "Threw off". My head must be up my butt.

This makes me absolutely sick. When I remember how anyone who dared to complain about Bush & Co., was called "unAmerican" and "unpatriotic" and now they have a problem when their voices aren't heard. How hypocritical! Typican GOPPERS!

ABC Responds To "False" RNC Attack On Planned Health Care Special

An executive from ABC News has responded to a letter from RNC Chief of Staff Ken McKay that criticized a planned ABC series about health care, set to be broadcast from the East Room of the White House.

In the original letter, McKay wrote he was "deeply concerned and disappointed with ABC's astonishing decision to exclude opposing voices" on the issue.

Today, the Republican National Committee requested an opportunity to add our Party's views to those of the President's to ensure that all sides of the health care reform debate are presented. Our request was rejected ... I find it outrageous that ABC would prohibit our Party's opposing thoughts and ideas from this national debate, which affects millions of ABC viewers.
ABC Senior Vice President Kerry Smith responded, calling McKay's arguments were based on "false premises." Smith said that the health care specials are "devoted to exploring and probing the President's position and giving voice to questions and criticisms of that position," and he dismissed charges that the program would feature a partisan, one-sided message.

ABC News is looking for the most thoughtful and diverse voices on this issue. ABC News alone will select those who will be in the audience asking questions of the president. Like any programs we broadcast, ABC News will have complete editorial control. To suggest otherwise is quite unfair to both our journalists and our audience.
The healthcare special is set to air on June 24.

Ensign..your ship has sailed.
106
Doo-Bee-Doo-Bee-Doo on June 16, 2009 at 07:45 PM
====================================================
Time for Ensign to resign. Bye, bye jerko Ensign.

Night Dems......

Have a good evening, and blog ya tomorrow.

BobVADemocratHawk on June 16, 2009 at 07:42 PM

Bob,

I see your point. He was responsible for prosecuting those who provided him good service. Where is the justice in that?

On the contrary, when society started criminalizing prostitution that was the height of hypocrisy, too, imho.

Family values??

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

What a laugh.

RJ: Thanks for this info! I either did not know that or I had forgotten. In any case, it is important information!

"Ensign started the impeachment against Bill Clinton for having an extramarital affair"

Still, my heart goes out the to poor wife and family of this GOP hypocrit!

The healthcare special is set to air on June 24.
112
marymac_memphis on June 16, 2009 at 07:49 PM
================================================
Hi Mary, the GOP doth protest too much. Remember all the air Bush got when he went on his social security privatization road show? I didn't hear anyone complain back then ...

Family values??

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

What a laugh.

RJ: Thanks for this info! I either did not know that or I had forgotten. In any case, it is important information!

"Ensign started the impeachment against Bill Clinton for having an extramarital affair"

Still, my heart goes out the to poor wife and family of this GOP hypocrit!

rjsnj on June 16, 2009 at 07:47 PM

I thought it was Sen. Graham (R-SC) who started the Clinton impeachment. If memory serves, Sen. Ensign wasn't elected until 2000. But since, as a candidate against Sen. Reid (D-NV) in 1998, he called on President Clinton to resign, your point is well taken, RJ.

Family values??

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

What a laugh.

Family values??

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

What a laugh.

Still, my heart goes out the to poor wife and family of this GOP hypocrit!
122
marymac_memphis on June 16, 2009 at 07:56 PM
==================================================
Mary, that's always the case in all these situations. The families don't deserve the publicity. Let's not forget that it's Republicans who made these sort of issues into ones of public attention. They have politicized "mores issues" with their culture wars. Well, the culture wars are eating them alive. I think they would be wise to drop them.

"Ensign started the impeachment against Bill Clinton for having an extramarital affair"

marymac_memphis on June 16, 2009 at 07:55 PM

Say it isn't so, mary. Letterman is going to get into all kinds of trouble when he tells a joke about Ensign tonight. The guy will accuse him of torturing his wife and family...and kicking his dog.

What a ridiculous bunch of jokers. Politicians have to live on the lowest pedestal they could ever put themselves on.

Give Letterman an Emmy.

Good night, everyone. Catch you tomorrow.

Again, good night all. Take care.

I didn't hear anyone complain back then ...

119
rjsnj on June 16, 2009 at 07:55 PM

That's right - even complaints from democrats didn't get any air time!

Well, on that note!
bbl - maybe

Family values??

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

What a laugh.

Family values??

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

What a laugh.

Family values??

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

What a laugh.

Goodnight Sandy and Bob.

I wonder if ensign is taking tap dancing lessons?

Maybe he visited too many legal whore houses in Vegas. Gotta try them all at least once.

Hi Marymac, Sandy, RJSNJ, Johne, Bob, and all other fine Democrats on the blog this rainy day.

How about this. Let's line up the republicans, put them all under oath, and ask them if they have been faithful to their wives or husbands. THEN, when the facts come out on a slimeball like Ensign, he can be charged with perjury and removed from office.

Shut up, Sally, you stupid fool.

Shut up Harpo, you idiot.

Evening Chicago,

Sorry for the rain. It's 88 and clear here. We may have a little rain tomorrow.

146Johne on June 16, 2009 at 09:24 PM

Johne,
I was really looking forward to a game of baseball between the White Sox and the Cubs.
Oh well.

Chicago,

It's lucky we don't live in Memphis. Marymac says it is 95 degrees and impossible humidity. The entire SE is being hit with a heat wave. A little rain is always welcome. The desert is still in full bloom and green.

Johne,
I agree completely. A cool gentle rain is great in the evening. Just not when the White Sox are scheduled to beat the Cubs.

Honorable President and Legislators,

Health care costs and facts:

http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml

http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2008/0508harrison.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-van-gelder/what-americans-want-natio_b_110830.html

Why do legislators on both sides of the aisle think OUR tax dollars is their money? Since when I ask? Use our existing pie of tax dollars to insure all in the USA for 24/7 health care! Cut off wasteful corporate welfare and spend OUR tax dollars on OUR medical insurance.

Don't force employers to pay one thin dime! There are plenty of tax dollars in DC to cover all of us. Yes this National Health Insurance concept is the most practical and comprehensive in this nations history.Tax dollars come from the hard working people NOT from the government. It's time to give peoples tax dollars back to the tax paying people.

Yes to National Health Insurance. It’s a wise investment in the people and america!

Remember RATIONING is what the medical insurance industry has been offering for many decades. The level of care is dependent on how much money one is able to put on the table. This is no question about it corporate american style rationing and/or class warfare.

What could be more american than allowing USA people to pay for THEIR OWN insurance with THEIR OWN tax dollars?

HR 676 would cover every person for all necessary medical care plus end deductibles and co-payments = more expendable cash for ourselves and/or our families. Now we’re talking dollars and sense.

The government( all those wealthy elected officials) gets free health insurance which is why ALL OF US should have OUR health insurance covered by OUR tax dollars just like 60% of those who are insured which comes to $1.2 trillion.

Just think how much more efficient $1.2 trilion health insurance tax dollars can be spent by covering all USA people instead of only 60% of those with insurance. Now we are talking like efficient, fiscally responsible, dollars and sense conservatives.

Further it will end bankrupt cases due to medical bills thus reducing the number of people requiring social services = more common sense fiscally responsible conservative thinking.

What the hell is going on with the Obama administration? They are refusing to release visitor logs to the white house? What happened to "transparency"?
Unacceptable.

152
merrill on June 16, 2009 at 10:20 PM

Excellent article and URL's

152merrill on June 16, 2009 at 10:20 PM
Merrill,
That makes GREAT sense.

Just stopping by....

I found this interesting. Those posting on this blog who aren't really Democrats better not think Jonah is going to jail to protect their identities......

Associated Press

Feds serve Las Vegas newspaper with subpoena

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The Las Vegas Review-Journal says the subpoena seeks information that would lead to the identities of people who commented on a story about a federal tax fraud case against Las Vegas business owner Robert Kahre.

Editor Thomas Mitchell says the paper plans to fight the request.

Kahre and others are accused of defrauding the Internal Revenue Service with a scheme involving gold and silver U.S. coins. The defendants have pleaded not guilty.

The paper says the subpoena was received June 2, a week after it ran its story about the trial.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney for Nevada declined to comment...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/06/16/financial/f114454D26.DTL&tsp=1

And if Jonah doesn't give them up to the Feds, Pam will.

Be afraid...very afraid. I hear the new AG is going to crack down on these tax-evading teabaggers if they continue shooting people for the glory of their God Limbaugh.

The repelicans should be for Merrill's plan as well. It is essentially a large tax cut for EVERY American.

Hi Sandy,
Glad to see you back.

It is amazing to me that Greta Van Susteren can still speak out of that slit of a mouth she has left. All the plastic surgery required to make her acceptable to Faux news has really done a number on her face.

Chicago on June 16, 2009 at 10:23 PM

Jeff Gannon is back in action?

Hi, Chicago/Johne.

All the President's Men must be meeting with Wall Street types that they know would piss people off if we knew about it. I haven't read what their argument is, but it seems to me they have either done something wrong or they are planning to do it.

Either way I don't like any secrecy. It's breeds abuse. We were promised transparency. Where did President Obama's sincerity go? If he starts using the national security argument, we know absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Who could be such a toxic guest and/or visitor that we would cringe?

Catch you tomorrow.

Good night, Dems, Independents, Reagan Democrats, Libertarians, and the few remaining moderates left in the GOP.

surgery required to make her acceptable to Faux news has really done a number on her face.
159
Chicago on June 16, 2009 at 10:47 PM

HaHaHa. Are her ears on top of her head now? I guess they don't make thick enough makeup to hide a prune face.

Things are changing fast in Iran. Here's the latest from McClatchy....

Posted on Tuesday, June 16, 2009

TEHRAN, Iran — Supporters of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his main rival in the disputed presidential election, Mir Hossein Mousavi, massed in competing rallies Tuesday as the country's most senior Islamic cleric threw his weight behind opposition charges that Ahmadinejad's re-election was rigged.

"No one in their right mind can believe" the official results from Friday's contest, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri said of the landslide victory claimed by Ahmadinejad. Montazeri accused the regime of handling Mousavi's charges of fraud and the massive protests of his backers "in the worst way possible."

"A government not respecting people's vote has no religious or political legitimacy," he declared in comments on his official Web site. "I ask the police and army personals (personnel) not to 'sell their religion,' and beware that receiving orders will not excuse them before God."

As many as three more protesters were reported killed in clashes during Tuesday's opposition demonstration in Vanak Square — adding to eight who were confirmed killed in Monday's protests.

Foreign news organizations were barred from covering Wednesday's demonstrations, and the source of the report of the latest deaths was a witness known to McClatchy, who asked that his name not be used for his own security...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iran/story/70155.html

There will be some sort of ramifications. I'm not sure what. But some of the old men seem to realize they underestimated the response to such an outrageous outcome.

They shouldn't have made it a landslide. I wonder if that was Ahmadinejad's idea. The kids don't seem to care about dying in the streets. It must be terrifying for the Supreme One. He is now the Shah in the eyes of his people if he continues to side with a hoax.

Mousavi apparently has allies inside the ruling body and they now don't seem to be afraid to speak up against Ahmadinejad in defiance of the Supreme One.

bye.

obama was great yesterday when asked about the bizznezz world resistance to new financial sector regulations....he said memories are short and some have forgotten how we got into the mess we are in but he plans to keep reminding them....finally a president with the will and brains to take on the captains of robbery!

Good morning Dems.....

Going to be a really nice day here in CT, so I will probably be outside most of it.

Now here is a guy, who, if living in the USA would be a Republican Neo Con Chicken Hawk, like the rest of them:

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea warned Wednesday of a "thousand-fold" military retaliation against the U.S. and its allies if provoked, the latest threat in a drumbeat of rhetoric in defense of its rogue nuclear program.

Japanese and South Korean news reports said North Korea is preparing an additional site for test-firing a long-range missile that experts say could be capable of striking the United States. Russia's deputy defense minister reportedly said it would shoot down any missile headed its way.

The warning of a military strike, carried by the North's state media, came hours after President Barack Obama declared North Korea a "grave threat" to the world and pledged that recent U.N. sanctions on the communist regime will be aggressively enforced.

Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met in Washington Tuesday for a landmark summit in which the two leaders agreed to build a regional and global "strategic alliance" to persuade North Korea to dismantle all its nuclear weapons.

Pyongyang claims its nuclear bombs are a deterrent against the United States and accuses Washington of plotting with Seoul to topple its secretive regime — led by the unpredictable dictator Kim Jong Il who is reportedly preparing to hand over power to his 26-year-old youngest son.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090617/ap_on_re_as/as_koreas_nuclear

small little men, who's hunger for power comes from low self esteem.

SandyH,

Trust me, the secret service and FBI have files on various cyber abusers and stalkers. I have some very very racist,homophobic, filthy, threatening, comments that would stand up in any court.

Like this one for instance:

Posted by Johne
All this water is going to head south along the Mississippi and guess what city is at the end of the line. You guessed it.

Yessiree Johne Boy, that toilet is about be flushed again! Dark turds with guns and welfare checks washed out into the gulf. Man-o-mandango, Lordy Lordy what's we gonna do???

Posted by Harpo_has_decided_that_you_are_all_idiots on June 13, 2008 at 07:57 AM

It does not take much reviewing old back up DNC tapes to track this kind of Hate ! THIS is the kind of skinhead who is out there killing people!As time goes on, more and more of these comments will be checked out.

back later on, Dems.

Morning gregg and Pam,

It appears that phalin is just making a fuss about Letterman so she can raise more money for her legal defense fund.

I hope the Alaska legislature stomps on her good.

Much worse things were said about her and her children. SNL commented about her pregnant daughter and questioned whether incest was involved. She appeared on the show the next month. mcloser called Chelsea a "dog" during the recent campaign. Even fat assed thompson was getting in on the action.

She is just trying to raise public awareness and con the dupes out of more money for her legal defense fund.

Is there a list of republican excuses as to why single payer health care will not work?

I haven't heard on single slam that makes any sense. Smokers did the same thing when we were trying to stop smoking in restaurants. "They will go broke". "You are taking away our rights."

None of their dire predictions even came close to reality. It is the same thing with health care. They have all kinds of trumped up excuses why it won't work but they are all utter republican lies. So what else is new. We were barraged with the same crap when they were tyring to sell cheney's phone wars.

I will not buy any more of their phony excuses (lies).

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY WILL BE EXPUNGED IN THE NEXT ELECTION CYCLE. We need to get raygun off the pedestal of hate. His remains need to be cremated and taken out to sea and dumped. All mention of there ever being a republican party will disappear from the textbooks. The lame raygunomics theory will disappear from all economic textbooks never to be published again. These dupes never learn from their bad experiences so why even allow it to be taught.

Good morning Pam,Gregg,Johne and fellow Democrats.

Morning Peaceman,

Who are the republicans going to complain about today? The republicans are like little kids, they stomp, scream and hold their breath and turn blue if they can't get their way. They have been allowed to get away with this behavior their entire lives starting with their lame parents and now they are like little brats always thinking of themselves first and demanding attention.

Why doesn't the sergeant of arms of the congress thump these people with a billy club when they start their tirades.

Well, off to work. One of our stimulus projects will start the middle of next month. Things are really looking up despite the naysayers hannity, bates and limpballs.

Good morning, all.

He criticized Larry Craig, a married Republican senator busted in an airport toilet looking for gay love in exactly the wrong place.

Now former veterinarian John Ensign, sophomore senator in more ways than one, just admitted to having an affair with a staffer. The infidelity, typically, only made his marriage stronger, says his wife.

Says Ensign, "I violated the vows of my marriage."

Ensign belongs to a religious society named... wait for it... wait for it...

...the Promise Keepers.

http://welcomebacktopottersville.blogspot.com/

I don't believe even John Edwards was this blatant with the tabloids on his case.

Ensign’s Promise Keepers’ role rapped

Sat, Sep 27, 1997

The event is being staged by Promise Keepers, a conservative Christian movement co-founded in 1990 by then-University of Colorado football coach Bill McCartney.

Ensign has belonged to Promise Keepers for five years and is expected to attend next month's rally. He cosigned a Sept. 9 letter on congressional stationery, inviting other congressmen to "this historic and powerful event."

Elizabeth Toledo, a spokeswoman for the National Organization for Women, says Ensign's participation in Promise Keepers could hurt him with some voters.

"It's anti-choice, it's anti-equality, it's homophobic," Toledo said of Promise Keepers.

Suzann Denton-Pratt of the Southern Nevada Women's Political Caucus said Promise Keepers is too right wing "when what you want to be politically is in the middle." Statewide voter registration is split almost equally between Republicans and Democrats.

Ensign, a two-term Las Vegas Republican, is expected to run for the Senate in 1998.

Like the incumbent, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Ensign is anti-abortion, which would give neither an advantage among women voters. But Ensign's allegiance to Promise Keepers could be a factor for some, Toledo said.

Ensign, a Protestant raised as a Catholic, said critics don't understand Promise Keepers, which he says encourages fidelity, purity and "spiritual renewal."

"Promise Keepers strongly emphasizes the husband not being so career-oriented that he sacrifices family," Ensign, the father of two, has said. "Life is about balance - job and family."

The letter Ensign wrote to his colleagues earlier this month says Promise Keepers is "a nationwide movement of men seeking to commit one another to their families, racial reconciliation and God."

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/1997/sep/27/ensigns-promise-keepers-role-rapped/

"God made me drop that football and my marriage vows."

When conservatives began organizing their morals not through their religious roots but a former football coach, you sort of got the feeling they maybe were playing a game?

Senator John Ensign certainly was. "Everyone involved in this tragedy are great friends." He had an affair with one of his political operative's wives who may also have had sights on his wife, too? Now I'd call that a end-round play.

....a nationwide movement of men seeking to commit one another to their families, racial reconciliation and God...

I can't wait to find out how the Promise Keepers have committed to racial reconciliation. Is that were the rap part comes in?

As a former Catholic, I feel for this guy. It's not easy trying to live among Protestants who don't know the wonder of confession and immediate forgiveness.

Gotta run. later.