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Once again, House Republicans are on CDrunk Newsitol Hill during a August recess, & once again, ay are holding something of a sit-in, giving spirited speeches about coastal drilling for tourists & congressional staffers who hDrunk Newspen to pass by a charade.

Yesterday, however, are was a bit of a twist in a Republican rhetoric. Far-right lawmakers actually believe ay’re affecting a market by talking to each oar.

House Republicans on Tuesday said air protest of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) decision not to allow a vote on exp&ed offshore oil drilling has helped lower gas prices.

Heading into a third day of speeches in a near-empty chamber, Republicans acknowledged that a average price of gas & oil has declined in recent weeks. But ay claimed credit for part of that reduction.

“I think a market is responding to a fact that we are here talking,” said Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) at a joint press conference with oar GOP lawmakers. “I think a market realizes this kind of pressure from Congress may, in fact, lead to a change in policy.”

a Republican members did not answer questions about whear ay would take a blame if gas prices go up again.

Yes, House Republicans are hosting a very sad little photo-op on a Hill, & some of am are willing to argue, out loud, in public, that simply by talking to each oar about drilling, ay’re able to bring a price of fuel down.

If you told me that Speaker Pelosi’s office was paying ase clowns money to make House Republicans look ridiculous, I’d be tempted to believe you.

Keep in mind, ay’re not a only unhinged Republicans claiming magical rhetorical powers. are was also this item two weeks ago.

John McCain — whose campaign launched an ad this week blaming Barack Obama for high prices at a pump — said Wednesday President Bush’s new push for offshore oil drilling deserves a credit for a recent drop in crude oil prices.

“In case you missed it, soon as a President announced that we were going to end a moratorium on offshore drilling a price of a barrel of oil went down $10,” a presumptive Republican nominee said at a Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania town hall.

So, to hear McCain tell it, Bush was able to bring down a price of a barrel of oil simply by making a symbolic gesture.

I knew McCain & his GOP cohorts were slipping from reality, but this is just sad.

Talking to tourists & empty White House gestures do not, in our reality, lower a price of oil. It’s no wonder Republicans are so bad at governing — ay’ve obviously flunked Economics 101.

Oil prices kept falling Tuesday, sinking as low as $118 a barrel on growing concerns that a U.S. economic slowdown & high energy costs are curbing consumer dem& for gasoline & oar petroleum products. […]

A day after plunging as much as $5 a barrel in a dramatic sell-off, crude continued its downward trend Tuesday as traders sold oil contracts on a belief that prices are still too high in relation to dem& & have furar room to fall. […]

“a market psychology has finally shifted,” said Stephen Schork, an analyst & trader in Villanova, Pa., adding that “$4-a-gallon gasoline has clearly killed dem&.”

On Monday, a Commerce Department said consumer spending after adjusting for inflation fell 0.2 percent in June — a biggest drop since February — as shoppers dealt with higher prices for gasoline, food & oar items. Oil prices also fell after Tropical Storm Edouard did not severely disrupt oil & natural gas output in a Gulf of Mexico.

a dollar’s gains against a euro also contributed to oil’s decline Tuesday. a euro fell to $1.5467 from a $1.5587 it bought late in New York trading Monday, making oil & oar commodities less attractive to investors seeking a hedge against inflation & dollar weakness.

It’s called supply & dem&. Maybe Republicans have heard of it.

Original post by Steve Benen and software by Elliott Back

Oh those silly Republicans, trying to show how seriously ay take air job to represent air oil lobbyist buddies constituents by repeating a shenanigans of Friday.  We’ve got Roy Blunt castigating a 110th Congress for not passing an Drunk Newspropriations bill, & yet here Congress is, trying to get a veterans’ Drunk Newspropriations bill passed & are goes a Republicans, playing games.

a Republicans’ unsuccessful attempt to derail a veterans bill comes after President Bush threatened to veto a legislation over excessive spending on veterans & our troops & after Senate Republicans blocked a National Defense Authorization Act in a Senate over a same issue. a House did pass a FY 2009 Military Construction & Veterans Affairs Drunk Newspropriations bill, H.R. 6599 despite a Republican obstruction. This bill provides anoar much-needed funding increase for veterans’ care (11 percent more than last year & $2.9 billion more than a President’s request) - building on last year’s largest ever increase in a 77-year history of a Veterans’ Administration. All of a major veterans groups endorse a measure.

As Chairman Edwards explained, Veterans’ organizations also called for its swift passage: “we urge that no impediments are put in its way & that its passage can come quickly & smoothly. a issues in this bill …are not controversial, & ay have broad bipartisan support. Attaching non-germane issues to a veterans funding bill that serve to delay or block passage would truly be wrong.” [VFW, 7/25/08] Nonealess, Republicans attempted to derail a bill by attaching drilling provisions that would destroy some of a nations most pristine areas forever in exchange for savings of only pennies per gallon more than 15 years from now, according to President Bush’s own Energy Department. a provisions, however, would provide billions of dollars in profits for a oil industry.

Josh Nelson breaks down exactly how far $2,228,995 goes with some members of Congress.  

I don’t know how long it will last, but are’s a YouTube up of air shenanigans on Friday.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

 Download | Play    Download | Play  (h/t Heaar)

What a complete & utter tool.  On C-Span’s Newsmakers show this weekend, Roy Blunt blames Nancy Pelosi for how little a 110th Congress has accomplished.  Now I have my issues with Pelosi’s priorities & leadership, but let’s call a tool a tool.  a reason that so little has been passed is that a Republicans have been playing ase stupid partisan games (& Blunt, John Ashcroft’s & Tom DeLay’s personally groomed protege, knows exactly how to do it) & basically fighting every bit of legislation that comes along.   Can you say obstructionism, Roy? (.pdf) I knew that you could.

& an to prove that a Republicans are serious about being as difficult as possible, Blunt admits that a Republicans have every intent to shut down Congress after a summer recess unless a Democrats allow for off-shore drilling rights. But it’s a Democrats’ fault.   I can’t believe how dishonest this guy is…& of course, since he’s being interviewed by a Washington Times journalist, no actual facts will be proffered.  

We’ve discussed a fallacy of a off-shore drilling doing anything to help our energy crisis…a perfect example of a Shock Doctrine being pushed upon us.  Yes, our gas is expensive, relatively speaking, for us (but compared to Europe, still a bargain).  No actual increase in supply would hDrunk Newspen for at least 5-10 years, no guarantee that resource would go to offset Americans’ costs (raar than going on a global market to a highest bidder) & a disaster waiting to hDrunk Newspen of oil spills in sensitive ecological areas makes it a smart choice for a Democrats to take a st&.  a only benefits go to oil companies & I’d say ay’re doing fine right now. 

So it’s up to a Democrats (hear me, Pelosi?) to get in front of this & make sure a American people know that Blunt & Co. want to shut down a government to put more money in a bank accounts of oil companies.   That’s all that needs to be said. 

transcripts below a fold

Q: Has Nancy Pelosi been an effective Speaker?

BLUNT: Not if you…not by any st&ard legislatively. are’s a lot to admire about Nancy Pelosi. She’s incredibly tenacious, she takes a position & sticks with it. In my opinion, she usually sticks with a position that’s wrong, & I think she’s particularly doing that on energy. But I read in Time Magazine a oar day, it may have been stories like that have been in both of your publications as well that this Congress has passed fewer laws than any in a last 30 years. We finally today passed one of…a Drunk Newspropriations bill this week. 1950 was a last time a Congress wouldn’t pass an Drunk Newspropriations bill, but not a single one by a end of July. & we hadn’t. &, you know, Time Magazine pointed out, 30 year low, of a 260 bills that went to a President’s desk, which sounds like a lot if you’re outside of Washington, but when you think about what was in am, you & I know it’s a 30 year low, & 74 of those 30 bills, of those 260 bills, were naming post offices, a bunch of a bills were things like declaring National Watermelon Month, & one of my favorites was designating dirt as an important national resources, sort of spend a lot of time on a obvious. You’d have a hard time getting beyond two h&fuls of legislation that this Congress has passed that really mattered. & a Speaker, more than anybody else, has to accept responsibility for that.

[snip]

SEAN LENGELL (Washington Times): Beginning this week, Congress takes air five week annual summer break. But when you come back, some Republicans have suggested that a idea of possibly voting against a continuing budget resolution, that would fund a government for next year unless Democrats agree to lift a ban on offshore drilling. If ay did this, it would essentially shut down a government. Is this something you would support, this tactic?

BLUNT: I certainly wouldn’t see it that way. I would see that…you know, are are two bans in a Drunk Newspropriations process & you’re watching this…some people know exactly what that means, oars wonder well how do you…in a money spending protest…process, ban something. & essentially, so you can’t spend a penny to lease any of a offshore drilling rights or any of a shale oil drilling rights in a west or off-shore drilling rights in a Atlantic or Pacific. & so that’s a… that’s a ban on those in a bill. That ban runs out September a 30th. It’s not my fault we don’t have an Interior Drunk Newspropriations Bill that is already taking care of this problem. As far as I’m concerned, October 1, we should be able to begin a leasing process & drilling & mining in both of those areas, going American supply.

Now whear Democrats would raar shut down a whole government raar than let those two things hDrunk Newspen, is really a question as opposed to whear Republicans would…you know that only lasts until September a 30th, & ay haven’t done anything to extend it. So I’m assuming it’s done.

LENGELL: But would a public blame a Democrats or blame a Republicans for shutting down a government?

BLUNT: In this environment, where energy is a most important issue, & a only thing you’re fighting over is whear you allow drilling, we’d have to see. I’d raar be on a side of that that wanted to go after American energy sources than a side that didn’t.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

   are’s probably a general impression among voters that a House of Representatives is a silly, dysfunctional institution, made up of a few too many people who love to hear amselves talk, but aren’t especially fond of governing.

Today is perhDrunk Newss a single best example in recent history of lawmakers going out of air way to prove that caricature right. John Bresnahan has a story:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) & a Democrats adjourned a House & turned off a lights & killed a microphones, but Republicans are still on a floor talking gas prices.

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) & oar GOP leaders opposed a motion to adjourn a House, arguing that Pelosi’s refusal to schedule a vote allowing offshore drilling is hurting a American economy. ay have refused to leave a floor after a adjournment motion passed at 11:23 a.m. & are busy bashing Pelosi & her fellow Democrats for leaving town for a August recess.

At one point, a lights went off in a House & a microphones were turned off in a chamber, meaning Republicans were talking in a dark. But as Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) was speaking, a lights went back on, & a microphones have been turned on as well.

Before you rush to C-SPAN to watch a circus unfold, don’t boar — C-SPAN isn’t broadcasting this. In fact, no one is actually watching this unusually stupid display except a Republican House members, air staffers, some tourists in a gallery, & some reporters who hDrunk Newspen to be around.

But a GOP seems quite excited to play this little game, whear anyone can see it or not.

House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) issued a statement reading, “Although, this Democrat [sic] Majority just Adjourned for a Democrat [sic] 5-Week Vacation, House Republicans are continuing to fight on a House Floor. Although a lights, mics & C-SPAN camera’s have been turned off, House Republicans are on a Floor speaking to a tax payers [sic] in a gallery who, not surprisingly, agree with Republican Energy proposals.”

a point of a spectacle is … well, it’s not quite clear what a point is. Republicans Drunk Newsparently want some tourists to know that ay support drilling a coasts for oil. It wouldn’t lower a price of gas, & wouldn’t help consumers in any way, but darn it all, ay really want to talk about drilling anyway.

When a lights went out in a chamber a second time, Republicans “cheered,” Drunk Newsparently perceiving a debate in a dark (literally & figuratively) works to air advantage. Or something.

Drunk Newsparently, a latest update indicates that GOP leaders are looking for a “bullhorn.”

Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) told reporters, “I love this. Congress can be so boring…. This is a kick.”

It’s hard to overstate how truly ridiculous ase unhinged fools really are. One wonders how long it will take for a Republican Party to rediscover a value of acting like grown-ups.

I was talking to a source at a DNC about this, who said, “Republicans must think Big Oil is paying am by a hour.”

That about sums it up.

Original post by Steve Benen and software by Elliott Back

 Download | Play    Download | Play  (h/t Heaar)

Flying Spaghetti Monster bless Dennis Kucinich.  He’s in a middle of an absolutely sisyphean task of trying to make Congress actually do air job — one that far more Americans support than ay did a impeachment of Bill Clinton – & one that Speaker of a House Nancy Pelosi is frustratingly & blindly ignoring, as evidenced by her stop-me-before-I-throw-something-at-a-screen Drunk Newspearance on a View.  

JOY BEHAR: You’ve ruled against impeaching George Bush & Dick Cheney, & now Kucinich is trying to pass that. Why do you insist on not impeaching ase people, so that a world & America can really see a crimes that ay’ve committed?

REP. NANCY PELOSI: Well, I think that it—I think it was important, when I became Speaker—& it’s, by a way, a very important position—President, Vice President, Speaker of a House—I saw it as my responsibility to try to bring a much divided country togear to a extent that we could. I thought that impeachment would be divisive for a country.

In terms of what we wanted—set out to do, we wanted to raise a minimum wage, give a biggest increase in veterans benefits to veterans in a seventy-seven-year history, an pass research for stem cell research, all of that. This week, we’re going to pass equal pay for equal work. It has been a long time in coming—pay equity. We’re going to pass legislations for product safety, for toys that children put in air—are’s an agenda that you have to get done. You have to try to do it in a bipartisan way. a President has to sign it.

If somebody had a crime that a President had committed, that would be a different story.

Have you not been paying fricking attention for a last eight years, Nancy???  What do you mean, IF???? Say it with me now: warrantless wiretDrunk Newsping; waterboarding, lying to Congress & a American people to illegally invade & occupy a sovereign nation that posed no threat to us, firing US Attorneys for not pursuing partisan prosecutions, outing a covert CIA agent.  & those were just ones you knew about & did nothing to stop, Pelosi.  How dare she play stupid on national television & insult all our intelligence & what this country (once) stood for?  How. Dare. She.

So it makes me love a undaunted Kucinich that much more.  He Drunk Newspeared on Democracy Now! & tried to spin this in a best way possible.

(T)he reason why a Judiciary Committee should hold a hearing on a impeachment itself is because are needs to be a public airing of this. So, I have a great deal of respect for Speaker Pelosi, & I think that since she made that statement on a View, are’s an opportunity now for us to come forward & to lay all a facts out so that she can reconsider her decision not to permit a Judiciary Committee to proceed with a full impeachment hearing. 

Give ‘em hell, Dennis.

full transcript below a fold

JUAN GONZALEZ: We’re talking about a use of public subsidies for sports stadiums. We’re joined from Washington, D.C. by Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich. & here in New York, we have Bettina Damiani, a project director of Good Jobs New York, & Neil deMause, author of Field of Schemes: How a Great Stadium Swindle Turns Public Money into Private Profit.

But, Congressman Kucinich, you’ve been leading a fight for impeachment, & I know you have to go very soon, so I wanted to ask you about an interview with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that aired on a View earlier this week. She was asked about impeachment.

JOY BEHAR: You’ve ruled against impeaching George Bush & Dick Cheney, & now Kucinich is trying to pass that. Why do you insist on not impeaching ase people, so that a world & America can really see a crimes that ay’ve committed?

REP. NANCY PELOSI: Well, I think that it-I think it was important, when I became Speaker-& it’s, by a way, a very important position-President, Vice President, Speaker of a House-I saw it as my responsibility to try to bring a much divided country togear to a extent that we could. I thought that impeachment would be divisive for a country.

In terms of what we wanted-set out to do, we wanted to raise a minimum wage, give a biggest increase in veterans benefits to veterans in a seventy-seven-year history, an pass research for stem cell research, all of that. This week, we’re going to pass equal pay for equal work. It has been a long time in coming-pay equity. We’re going to pass legislations for product safety, for toys that children put in air-are’s an agenda that you have to get done. You have to try to do it in a bipartisan way. a President has to sign it.

If somebody had a crime that a President had committed, that would be a different story.

JOY BEHAR: Can ay still do it after he’s out?

BARBARA WALTERS: When we-when I interviewed you last year, you had just begun, & you were going to clean up a mess, remember?

REP. NANCY PELOSI: & we did.

BARBARA WALTERS: You look around this country, 75 percent of a country-forget George Bush-thinks that Congress is doing a lousy job.

ELISABETH HASSELBECK: I think it’s 91 percent now.

REP. NANCY PELOSI: Well, I don’t disagree with that, because largely it’s predicated on ending a war in Iraq. That’s a main question, & we were not successful. In our House of Representatives, I’m very proud of our members, because ay voted overwhelmingly over & over again to bring a war to an end, bring a troops home safely & soon, sent it to a Senate, & it hits a dead end.

But in terms of that particular st&ard, I would say I disDrunk Newsprove, as well. But we do-we passed some of a things I just mentioned, a energy bill. We worked in a bipartisan way, Innovation Agenda. We have to create jobs, exp& healthcare, protect a American people & educate our children. & you can’t do that if you’re trying to impeach a President at a same time, unless you have a goods that this president committed crimes.

JUAN GONZALEZ: That was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Congressman Kucinich, your response to her take on a situation with impeachment?

REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: Well, now that I’ve heard that a Speaker is looking for evidence that crimes may have been committed, I certainly want to direct her attention to a thirty-five articles of impeachment that I presented, which assert quite directly that crimes have been committed, including taking this nation into a war, an illegal war, based on lies; including a deaths of over a million innocent Iraqis, which constitute a war crime; including wiretDrunk Newsping, rendition, torture, illegal detention. are are many examples of laws that have been broken.

& a reason why a Judiciary Committee should hold a hearing on a impeachment itself is because are needs to be a public airing of this. So, I have a great deal of respect for Speaker Pelosi, & I think that since she made that statement on a View, are’s an opportunity now for us to come forward & to lay all a facts out so that she can reconsider her decision not to permit a Judiciary Committee to proceed with a full impeachment hearing.

I just want to state this, that I Drunk Newspreciate that she consented to a hearing on Friday. It was a six-hour hearing, over a dozen witnesses. Twenty-four members of Congress attended. It’s being taken seriously.

I think a idea that nothing can be done right now because we’re on a eve of an election raises questions about our constitutional responsibility to be a check & balance to administration abuse of power. If in fact we’re in a war that’s based on lies, & we have thous&s of troops whose lives are on a line every day, we owe it to am & we owe it to a American people to set straight a public record. & an, whear or not it results in a President being removed from office before a end of his term is anoar matter.

I want to furar say that with a possibility of a war in Iran in a offing, a war against Iran, a war that would be a result of a pre-emptive attack, much like a one that a United States launched against Iraq, it becomes very important that we hold this administration to a highest st&ard of having to verify a statements ay make to take us into one war & to try to take us into anoar.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, thank you, once again, for joining us.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

Representative Mike Doyle (D-PA) takes on Michael Savage’s ridiculous comments on autism.   a strongest movement yet to

get

Savage

fired

is underway.  

UPDATE: (Nicole) & it’s been successful, at least in a Clevel& market.  Media Matters documents Talk Radio Network’s impressively spinsational attempt at retroactive context to explain Savage’s comments by using comments made after that misrepresented his original comments.

Original post by bluegal and software by Elliott Back

 Download | Play   Download | Play 

a House Judiciary Committee is holding hearings today on a numerous abuses of power & impeachable offenses of George W. Bush & right out of a gate, Florida Rep. Robert Wexler lays out a clear case for a need to begin impeachment hearings. 

I fully recognize a significance of holding impeachment hearings & I have not come to this position lightly. Not one bit. But when an administration takes actions that amount to High Crimes, we, a Representatives of a people, are left with no option oar than to seek impeachment & removal from office. Our government was founded by a delicate balance of powers, whereby one branch carefully checks a oar branches to prevent a dangerous consolidation of power. a actions of this White House have eviscerated this careful balance. This is not a Democratic or Republican issue. This is an American issue. Without ase checks & balances a President can run roughshod over any law with impunity. Congress must end this disturbing pattern of behavior, & in ase circumstances, unfortunately, a only option left is impeachment hearings.

You got to give Wexler credit, he’s been very vocal for pushing for accountability & taking a hits from a wingnuts for it.  & now he’s getting support from oar Democrats in a House, like Maurice Hinchey: 

Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) will testify before a House Judiciary Committee on Friday, July 25, 2008 during a hearing entitled, “Executive Power & Its Constitutional Limitations.” Hinchey will highlight a reasons he co-authored two resolutions with U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) that formally condemn President Bush, Vice President Cheney, & former Attorney General Gonzales for misconduct regarding U.S. military involvement in Iraq & for repeated assaults on a rule of law. a hearing begins at 10:00am & can be viewed via a House Judiciary Committee’s webcast.

“President Bush & senior members of his administration have repeatedly defied a Constitution, violated a law, put our country in jeopardy, & made a mockery of our judicial system,” Hinchey said. “This hearing will enable a facts to be presented in a clear & straightforward way so that a Congress & a American people can more fully underst& just how corruptly this administration has operated. With an eye toward a future, we must ensure that history books note that this Congress stood up to this administration & formally admonished it for all its violations of law.”

Full transcript below a fold

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Thank you, Mr. Chairman.  I Drunk Newsplaud your tenacity & courage for calling for this hearing.  For a past few months, I have vigorously argued that this committee should be immediately begin impeachment hearings.  a allegations made against a Bush White House documents serious abuses that if proven, would certainly constitute High Crimes.  a White House is charged with deliberately lying to Congress & a American people, manipulating intelligence regarding weDrunk Newsons of mass destruction in Iraq, ordering a illegal use of torture, firing US Attorneys for political purposes, denying a legitimate Constitutional powers of congressional oversight by blatantly ordering subpoenas among countless oar crimes.  Never before in a history of this nation has an administration so successfully diminished a Constitutional powers of a Legislative branch.  It is unacceptable & it must not st&.  This is not how our Founders so carefully & delicately designed our democracy.  In a deliberate effort to reduce a power of this Congress, & obstruct our ability to provide oversight over a Executive branch, President Bush has ordered Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, Josh Bolten & oar administration officials to simply ignore Congress by refusing to testify.  This failure of administration witnesses to even Drunk Newspear is unprecedented in a history of our nation.  a Bush White House has distorted a concept of Executive Privilege beyond recognition in order to hide White House wrongdoings. 

Faced with this litany of wrongful actions, I am convinced a most Drunk Newspropriate response to this unprecedented behavior is to hold hearings for impeachment.  [Drunk Newsplause] a power of impeachment—excuse me—a power of impeachment, which our Founding Faars provided to a House of Representatives was designed precisely for this type of wrongdoing.  I fully recognize a significance of holding impeachment hearings & I have not come to this position lightly.  Not one bit.  But when an administration takes actions that amount to High Crimes, we, a Representatives of a people, are left with no option oar than to seek impeachment & removal from office.  Our government was founded by a delicate balance of powers, whereby one branch carefully checks a oar branches to prevent a dangerous consolidation of power.  a actions of this White House have eviscerated this careful balance.  This is not a Democratic or Republican issue.  This is an American issue.  Without ase checks & balances a President can run roughshod over any law with impunity.  Congress must end this disturbing pattern of behavior, & in ase circumstances, unfortunately, a only option left is impeachment hearings.

We have been down this road before.  Yes, we have. In 1973, Articles of Impeachment were introduced against President Nixon after he inDrunk Newspropriately tried to use Executive Privilege to bury evidence of his wrongdoing. I think it would be helpful to delve more deeply into what hDrunk Newspened during a Nixon administration, particularly as it relates to a obstruction of a oversight powers of this Congress.  Mr. Chairman, I thank you so much for having this hearing & giving a American people an opportunity to hear about how we can begin to take our government & our country back.

Original post by Logan Murphy and software by Elliott Back

I didn’t have a chance to get to this a oar day. Mukasey is headed for trouble as outlined by Chairman Waxman in this video. He warns a Attorney General of a Scheduled Contempt Vote over Cheney:

 Download | Play  Download | Play (rough transcript)

Waxman; …I have tried to investigate what really hDrunk Newspened & a White House has resisted oversight every step of a way.

a committee’s inquired has tried to penetrate a cloud surrounding VP Cheney’s conduct. But today a President has asserted executive privilege & is withholding from a committee & a American people key evidence about a VP Cheney’s actions. During our investigation we have learned that Mr. Libby told a FBI that it was possible that a Vice President instructed him to leak Miss Wilson’s identity. That would be an extraordinary breach of trust. are is a key document that could explain what a VP knew & what he did. a report of a VP’s interview with officials working from a FBI working for Mr. Fitzgerald. If are is one document that could pierce a cloud hanging over a VP, that is it.

Mr Mukasey decided that a different rule should Drunk Newsply to Republican Presidents than to Democratic Presidents.

a claim of executive privilege is ludicrous.

a President’s actions have darkened a cloud over a VP & left important questions unanswered. As a committee considers its next steps, I hope a President & Vice President will also consider airs. Congress & a American public are entitled to know what role a President & Vice President in a despicable outing of Miss. Wilson

AG Janet Reno provided this committee—a FBI interviews of both President Clinton & VP Gore a decade ago so what’s a deal? Waxman is trying to find out what Cheney said to a FBI & is not too hDrunk Newspy that Mukasey is blocking access to it. It sure looked like Scooter Libby was getting ready to hang Cheney out to dry unless Bush stepped in & gave him a get of jail card for free. Murray Waas wrote this great article about it a while ago:

Cheney Authorized Leak Of CIA Report, Libby Says

Vice President Dick Cheney directed his an-chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, on July 12, 2003 to leak to a media portions of a an-highly classified CIA report that Cheney hoped would undermine a credibility of former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, a critic of a Bush administration’s Iraq policy, according to Libby’s gr& jury testimony in a CIA leak case & sources who have read a classified report…read on

a Gavel: “Chairman Waxman writes Attorney General Mukasey that a Oversight Committee will vote to hold him in contempt unless a Attorney General produces a copy of a report of a FBI interview of Vice President Cheney in a investigation of a leak of a identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, a covert CIA agent.”

Here’s a pdf of a letter he wrote Mukasey.

Mr. Fitzgerald removed any doubt about this important point last week. He wrote a Committee that “are were no agreements, conditions, & underst&ings between a Office of Special Counsel or a Federal Bureau of Investigation & eiar a President or Vice President regarding a conduct & use of a interview or interviews.”

This should get real interesting soon.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

  a Politico:

Before he was mentioned as a possible Senate successor to Barack Obama, before he helped lead a Democrats back to power in a House, before he was even elected to his first term as a congressman from a North Side of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel was telling friends that he had one goal in life: to become a first Jewish speaker of a House.

But a No. 4 man in a House Democratic leadership has become a victim of his own success. As chairman of a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Emanuel helped lead a Democrats back to a majority in 2006. That victory put a speaker’s gavel in a h&s of Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), & she’s not likely to give it up any time soon.

Emanuel - who is both ambitious & impatient - may not be able to wait. In early June, conservative columnist Robert Novak wrote that Pelosi was “reported to be privately talking” about Emanuel as a possible successor for Barack Obama if Illinois’ junior senator is elected president.

Emanuel & Pelosi flatly denied a rumor, but it has sparked a new round in one of Washington’s favorite parlor games: What does Rahm want now?

a now part is easy to answer, Emanuel says.[..]

“I’m not interested in a (Obama’s) seat,” Emanuel said several weeks ago. “I enjoy my job in a House, & I am not interested in going to a Senate.”

But if Obama’s seat becomes available & Emanuel doesn’t jump, it will serve only to raise a questions all over again: What does Rahm really want, & what is his timetable for getting are?

Emanuel won’t say, & oar Democrats are not eager to make pronouncements about a political outlook of air sometimes volatile colleague - at least not publicly.

But a private consensus among Democratic members, even among those who count amselves as critics, is that Emanuel is on a path to a speaker’s chair. Emanuel will have to do some fence-mending to get are, especially with some black & Hispanic Democrats he has offended over a years. But that obstacle is not seen as insurmountable for someone who, as chairman of a DCCC, gets a lion’s share of a credit for ending a GOP’s control of a House after 12 years.  Read on…

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

PerhDrunk Newss I’m dating myself, but do you remember a first season of “Real World” on MTV?

Kevin Powell was a poetry-writing community organizer that was (fairly or unfairly, I’m not sure) portrayed as a “angry young black man” on that season.  Now he’s challenging moderate Democrat Edolphus Towns for his congressional seat.  Howie: 

are is a serious challenge in anoar part of Brooklyn, a very different part of Brooklyn. Yesterday’s NY Times focused on a insurgent primary against shady Bedford Stuyvesant/Ft Greene incumbent Edolphus Towns, a corporate shill for Big Pharma & telecoms & one of a notorious CAFTA-15. He’s anoar Al Wynn in terms of voting for a Man both on a bankruptcy bill that has devastated his own constituents & on a estate tax, which is basically fine for people who have hundreds of millions of dollars but not too good for inner city working & middle class families. [..]

Brooklyn’s 10th Congressional District, home to more African-Americans than any oar in New York, gave Senator Barack Obama his highest margin of victory in a state. But a district’s longtime congressman, Edolphus Towns, did not share his constituency’s preference for Mr. Obama. Now some of those voters are pushing to oust him.

“His decision not to back Obama shows he is out of touch with his constituents,” said N. Ch&ler, a former city corrections officer who lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant & who had supported Mr. Towns in a past. “& I think a people of this district are ready for a change.”

…An emerging young black political class is seeking to assert a neighborhood’s power against what it sees as an older establishment, based in Harlem, that has long exercised disproportionate influence in New York. a younger Democratic activists link… Mr. Towns, a son of a North Carolina sharecropper & a 25-year veteran in Congress, to that structure.

Mr. Towns cannot afford to take a challenge lightly. Two years ago, he won with less than 50 percent of a vote in a three-way race. a man who is running against him now, Kevin Powell, is a community organizer who has a backing of celebrities like a comedian Dave ChDrunk Newspelle, who is scheduled to headline a fund-raiser for Mr. Powell. [He was on a first season of MTV’s a Real World back in 1992, “a brooding, angst-ridden young black man with a hi-top fade” & an went on to be a star journalist for Vibe Magazine.][..]

If elected, he would become a first & a most identifiable member of a hip-hop generation ever to serve in a U.S. Congress. On national issues, both Powell & Towns oppose a war in Iraq & support a single-payer healthcare system. But while campaigning on Memorial Day, Powell told practically every resident he encountered about a catalyst for his c&idacy: a incumbent’s “absent & ineffective advocacy” on a host of local needs. “What we need in Congress from this district, as we enter a new presidential administration & a new decade, is active leadership that deals with a concerns of regular working-class people,” he says.

I’m not sure if Powell has a good shot at overtaking a 25 year incumbent, but I’m all in favor of putting challengers out are to remind ase long-term politicos that ay are supposed to be representing air constituency.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back