Usually every night we post the top political clips from the day that was. However, tonight we will devote all the clips to hypocritical Republican lawmaker Larry Craig, who was caught trying to engage in lewd behavior with an undercover male cop in a Minnesota bathroom.
Interestingly enough, back in 1998 Craig was one of the GOP lawmakers leading the effort to impeach Bill Clinton. In January of 1999, this was what :
"The American people already know that Bill Clinton is a bad boy, anaughty boy. I'm going to speak out for the citizens of my state, whoin the majority think that Bill Clinton is probably even a nasty, bad,naughty boy."
You will see that video and more tonight at midnight eastern. It's the Republican hypocrisy train wreck in full swing!
Two years after hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, there are still so manypeople without homes. Robert Greenwald has a new video and message abouthurricane Katrina, and what you can do to help.
Below is quoted from an email sent by Jamiah Adams and Paris Marron of
Tomorrow marks the two year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and still thereare tens of thousands of families without homes. 30,000 families are scatteredacross the country in FEMA apartments, 13,000 are in trailers, and hardly any ofthe 77,000 rental units destroyed in New Orleans have been rebuilt. To sharesome of these people?s stories, we have put together a short film, "Whenthe Saints Go Marching In."
During the making of this video, we heard the heartbreaking stories of goodpeople unable to return home. We have heard the story of the Aguilar family wholost their home to the storm and only received $4,000 in payments from theirinsurance company. We have met Mr. Washington, an 87-year-old man and formercarpenter, who owned three homes prior to the storm. He is still living in aFEMA trailer today. And we've met Julie, who could have returned to her job andnormal life, if the government had opened up the public housing units that shehad lived in prior to the storm
is a site dedicated to helping the victims of Katrina.
'Two years after Katrina and thousands are still w/o homes'
I don't understand how some of our politicians sleep at night, knowing theconditions others are in...and not only in New Orleans, but throughout Our Country.
You can sign a petition for Senator Dodd.
We, the undersigned, urge the United States Senate to pass (S1668) to assist the Gulf Coast region in rebuilding the infrastructure lost after the Katrina and Rita disasters.
Passage of this bill is an important step towards returning the Gulf Coast residents to their homes.
The signing of the petition consists of Name, email and Zip Code.
Here is a new and very powerful ad on climate change, called The Black Balloon and it compellingly illustrates our personal contribution to the problem. Check it out and pass it on.
We were seeing reports about this , and even then it was bad. But a new report submitted by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime found that Afghanistan's drug economy is soaring out of control -- over the last two years:
Afghanistan's opium production has doubled in two years, reaching a newhigh in 2007, with the country almost the exclusive supplier of theworld's deadliest drug, the United Nations announced Monday.
Production was estimated to have jumped 34 percent this year over lastwith the number of heroin labs also increasing, the UN Office on Drugsand Crime said in its Annual Opium Survey.
The southern province of Helmand had meanwhile become the world'sbiggest source of illicit drugs, surpassing the output of entirecountries.
Earlier this summer, I reported on the severity of the disaster in Helmand Province. In that province alone, three times as much opium is produced than in Burma, the second worst opium country. Of course, the US only has 20,000 troops in Afghanistan, so it is unmistakably difficult to do anything about it right now.
No one really faults newspapers for having an ideology. Just don't let ideology get in the way of facts. This morning, the may have shocked its conservative readership by pointing out that Republicans, not Democrats, are responsible for today's budget mess:
While we welcome the fiscal restraint now being demonstrated byPresident Bush and congressional Republicans, we regret that theirunrestrained profligacy during the previous six years has contributedso much to the fiscal challenges that now confront the nation. Duringthe last six years alone, federal outlays have increased by 49 percent,rising from $1.863 trillion in fiscal 2001 to a projected $2.779trillion for fiscal 2007, which ends Sept. 30. Inflation-adjustedfederal outlays have increased nearly 27 percent in six years. (Federalspending in 2001 was less than 10 percent above its 1995 level.) Forthe 2001-07 period, the average annual real increase in federal outlaysexceeded 4 percent. Because the real economy would have increased byonly 2.5 percent per year between fiscal 2001 and fiscal 2007, federalspending as a share of the economy jumped from 18.5 percent in 2001 (arecession) to 20.2 percent in 2007 (the sixth year of an expansion).
It is a fact that the currently stands at $8.9 trillion. It is also a fact that no Republican president has balanced the budget since .
Carter Andress, and proponent of a prolonged US occupation in Iraq, wrote a commentary in the conservative that contradicts a seemingly endless string of evidence about the current state of affairs in Iraq. This morning, Andress wrote that the US is winning, and that Iraq is not in a state of civil war:
Slowly but surely, Iraqi security services are building up. You onlyhave to travel outside the Green Zone to see them undertaking heroicrisks as they work to control the streets in growing numbers and withgrowing professionalism. In the past couple of months, the Ministry ofthe Interior established an operations center for all of Baghdad thateffectively coordinates nonmilitary logistics movements throughout thecapital -- a function previously only undertaken by a coalitioncontractor. From chaos has come order and in turn, step by step, theIraqi military is becoming a truly national, not sectarian, force.
I see no civil war between the Shias and Sunnis as I travel practicallyevery day on the roads of Iraq with my Arab and Kurdish security team.The potential for renewed internecine warfare faded earlier this year,when al Qaeda failed to reignite the waning sectarian struggle thesecond time around with another attack on the Golden Mosque in Samarra.
Andress' subjective claims contradict actual numbers that put the sectarian death toll rate at twice what it was before the troop surge began. Furthermore, since the implementation of the surge strategy, more Iraqis been internally displaced.
Crystal Thompson is among many soldiers fed up with Bush's foreign policy. Although she is about to be deployed for another tour of duty, is so evident. It made her decide to change her party affiliation from Republican to Democrat:
"I used to be Republican. Now, I'm voting Democrat," Thompson said."Just get out of there. If we could get relief or something … just needhelp."
Thompsonsaid she was exhausted just to think about the additional 15 monthsshe'll have to spend in Iraq starting in October, because she thoughtshe was supposed to leave the Army this November.
"I hate to beselfish and say I want to come home and I want to stay home -- I hatesaying that. I know there's a job to be done, but there's a job to bedone here, too," Thompson said.
Standing at Veterans' MemorialWall downtown, Thompson said it's a very emotional site for her tobehold because two of her friends are listed.
"Just when you see your friends, you know -- blown up at 18, 19 years old -- it's not worth it," Thompson said.WhenChannel 4 first talked to Thompson last year during her first tour, shewas very supportive and even said she was excited to get back, but heropinion has since changed.
As far as recruiting is concerned, July Army enlistment was up by two percent, but only because soldiers who signed up before late-August would receive a .
The excessive need for troops to fight in this quagmire is continuing to have an effect here at home. Police departments all across the country are facing because the resources are being used in Iraq. Unless something gives, police will soon not have enough bullets to train with.
The demand for troops will not die down anytime soon -- no matter what the Bush Administration tells the press. British forces this week that their redeployment from Basra is a sure bet.
With the news that Michael Chertoff may be Bush's top choice to replaceAlbert Gonazales, I thought it would be appropriate to post this video of his(what I believe to be) incompetence. So sit back and watch the show, then askyourself "is this the guy that deserves or is qualified to be the next AttorneyGeneral of The United States"? I'm sure if he is chosen, the petitions will start flying again (hopefully).
Tim Russert exposed the lies that came from the administration after Katrina
As I post each morning, here are some of the political stories thatmight not be worthy of their own posts, but are nonetheless newsworthy:
Confirming an earlier report on Sunday, Michael Chertoff will likely be named as the new Attorney General. Long-time Bush loyalist will then as the new head of the Homeland Security Department.
According to , Michael Chertoff is not the only one among the short list of candidates vying to replace Alberto Gonzales: "Among those being mentioned as a possible successor were MichaelChertoff, the secretary of homeland security who is a former federalprosecutor, assistant attorney general and federal judge; ChristopherCox, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission; and Larry D.Thompson, a former deputy attorney general who is now senior vicepresident and general counsel of PepsiCo Inc."
Although his resignation was announced yesterday, Alberto Gonzales will step down on.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on the of Alberto Gonzales: "He lacked independence, he lackedjudgment, and he lacked the spine to say no to [White House adviser]Karl Rove. This resignation is not the end of the story. Congress mustget to the bottom of this mess and follow the facts where they lead,into the White House."
Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) was arrested in June for after complaints at a men's restroom at a Minnesota airport. He plead guilty on August 8th. The news never broke until this week.
A police officer among President Bush's motorcade on Monday and died.
Civic engagement among young adults is way up. Today, at least 80% of incoming college freshman have , compared to just 66% in 1989.
The International Association of Firefighters will Chris Dodd for president.
At a on Monday, when challenged by John Edwards about her campaign contributions from lobbyists, Hillary Clinton said there was nothing wrong with accepting lobbyist money. "I believe in working with everybody and being influenced by nobody," the former First Lady said.
If we left something out, it's because we either wrote about ityesterday or are scheduled to do so in an individual post later today. Otherwise, feel free to add any stories in the commentbox.
As we post in the middle of each night, here are some of the popular political clips topping the blogs tonight:
Center for American Progress vs American Enterprise Institute on the issue of Iraq.
Bush officially accepts resignation of Alberto Gonzales. This is the President's official live statement.
Alberto Gonzales press conference on his resignation. At the end, a reporter asks, "Why are you leaving?"
Edwards responds to a very serious question on health care. (This is more than just scripted rhetoric from Edwards. I believed every word he sad here. As a grassroots organizer last spring, I heard so many stories like this.)
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