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June 29, 2007

Elizabeth Edwards on Ann Coulter

Because decent people objected....

McDermott calls for articles of impeachment

Yesterday on the floor of the House, Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA) called for the impeachment of Dick Cheney. He became the tenth co-sponsor of of H.RES.333, a bill from Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) that introduces 3 Articles of Impeachment against the...

Peter Pace Gets All Touchy Feely on Iraq

Rule number one in project management is to identify measurable goals. You know, things you can see and track. Results! Without them you wander around forever guessing as to whether you're succeeding and making up strategies without knowing their...

Bush Looks to Next Two Years, World Shutters

I love that these two headlines accompany each other on CNN's homepage: U.N. shuts down Iraq WMD unit Focus turns to Bush's final 2 years in office Yes, after four and a half years of war, over 3,500 US troops...

Another call for Cheney impeachment

In a recent op-ed piece on Slate, Bruce Fein - the former Reagan Associate Deputy Attorney General - gets right to the point: The House judiciary committee should commence an impeachment inquiry. As Alexander Hamilton advised in the Federalist Papers,...

Who's Been Doing Bong Hits for Jesus?

So, if you haven't heard by now, the majority-Republican-appointee Supreme Court of the United States recently ruled that a high school student had no right to display a banner that read, "Bong Hits for Jesus" at his high school....

June 28, 2007

Whitman: Another lying Republican

In the final Washington Post expose on Cheney, we learned that Christine Todd Whitman, Bush's first EPA administrator, was lying when she said she was resigning to spend more time with her family. It turns out, it was because of...

Coulter Loses Her Shit on MSNBC

Like GLONO founder Jake Brown, I hate that she gets as much attention as she does but like it or not, Ann Coulter is a major player in conservative politics and to ignore her here would be ignoring an extremely...

Meet Prisoner 28301-016

He's not yet in custody, but Scooter Libby is in the system....

More funding for Amtrak

An editorial in the Grand Rapids Press endorses more funding and support for Amtrak as part of the solution to our energy and global warming crisis. I couldn't agree more. According to the editorial, ridership on the Grand Rapids-Chicago line...

Obama in Q2: 138,000 more donors

While they're not yet saying how much money they've raised in the second quarter, the Obama campaign says they've accumulated 138,000 more donors so far. They hope to move that number up to 150,000 by the end of the quarter...

Dems: Investigate the salmon killer

In a Cheney-related post yesterday, I wondered if anything would come of the WashPo expose on Cheney. Probably around the same time I was writing that, 36 House Democrats - most from the West Coast - called for a hearing...

June 27, 2007

American Idiot

Ann Coulter gets the smackdown. You're watching haaaaaardball....

Dick Cheney kills 77,000 salmon

The final piece in the Washington Post's four part series on Cheney came out today. It is, in some ways, the most damning of the four. But maybe that's just my perspective. As the other pieces did, this one chronicles...

Tearing Down the Wall

Since the earliest days of the United States of America, the idea that religion should be separate from the state has been a cornerstone of American society. Indeed, it is what allows true freedom of religion; that is, the freedom...

June 26, 2007

Ex-Interior official gets 10 months

Steven Giles, who used to be the Deputy Secretary of the Interior under Gale Norton, was sentenced to 10 months in prison today. He admitted to lying to the Senate about his relationship with Jack Abramoff, and is now the...

Rudy Playing to the Dummies

Among the many, many troubling habits in the Bush administration's culture of mediocrity is its preference to employ less than the best and brightest among us. I don't know if it's a product of our C student CEO-in-Chief, or what,...

Can despair sleep? Daily Show on Cheney

It's a Cheney lovefest here at POLJUNK today. Here's some more Cheney related goodness:...

Dick Cheney is evil, part III

The third part of the Washington Post expose on Cheney is out today. This one focuses on his role in domestic policy, particularly on his important role in pushing through the sickening tax cuts for the rich this administration championed....

NYT: "Three Bad Rulings" by the Supremes

The New York Times editorial board made some staffing changes in early January 2007, and it shows. The editorials they've been producing since then are insightful, to the point, and they don't pull punches - especially as far as the...

Don't cut down that tree!

According to an NPR piece this morning, "one-fifth of all greenhouse gases comes from forests that are cut down and burned to make way for crops or pasture." That's not good - 20% of the world's carbon emissions come from...

June 25, 2007

The Cheney way: just don't call it torture

Believe it or not, I was listening to Rush's Caress of Steel as I was reading the second piece in the Washington Post series on Cheney. There's a song on that record called Necromancer, and it's actually a fitting description...

No Bong Hits 4 Jesus, after all

'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' case limits student rights. Boo. The justices ruled 6-3 that Frederick's free speech rights were not violated by his suspension over what the majority's written opinion called a "sophomoric" banner. "It was reasonable for (the principal)...

Princeton professors' climate change game

NPR ran a piece on Morning Edition this morning about a climate change game that starkly lays out the challenges we face over the next 50 years. But there's a positive spin - part of the goal is to show...

June 24, 2007

More calls for change to farm policy

There are a few editorials out there this weekend that call for big changes to the farm bill that will be voted on this year. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which calls out the fact that there are about $22 billion...

Friedman: Senate energy bill is weak

In Sunday's New York Times, Thomas Friedman calls last week's Senate energy bill a baby that "only a lobbyist could love." True, it's the first energy bill to raise fuel efficiency standards in twenty years, but it's still too little,...

Cheney and his bad behavior

It wasn't that long ago that Dick Cheney was chastising Speaker of the House Pelosi for her supposed "bad behavior." But frankly, Cheney is at the top of the heap when it comes to bad behavior in Washington. Pelosi has...

June 23, 2007

LA Times: Cheney arguments scary, specious, ludicrous

The big news in Washington the past couple of days has been Vice President Dick Cheney's assertion that his office is, in fact, a unique fourth branch of government, not subject to the rules and laws that govern either the...

June 22, 2007

NYT Ad: Impeach the bastards

In today's New York Times, there is a full page ad on page A9 that leads with the following headline: 2008 IS TOO LATE Too late for what? Too late for getting Bush and Cheney out of office. So it's...

Conyers: Respond to subpoenas, or face contempt

Yesterday, Representative John Conyers (D-MI) let the White House know that they will face contempt of Congress charges if they don't respond to subpoenas related to the U.S. attorney purge case by June 28th. Specifically, Chief of Staff Josh Bolten,...

June 21, 2007

Trent Lott on electric fences

Could it be true? Is Senator Trent Lott (R-MS) reading POLJUNK again? Based on a statement he made about electric fences, I'm afraid he may be taking my satirical suggestion that we electrify fences on the border a bit too...

You may know Arabic, but you're too gay for us...

According to this article, the U.S. military has dismissed at least 59 Arabic linguists in recent years because they are gay. Which is shocking and infuriating, given the limited number of U.S. Arabic linguists in the military and their importance...

Canon tops climate scorecard, Amazon and Apple at the bottom

An organization called Climate Counts does an annual scorecard of how corporations are doing (or not doing) in the battle against global warming. They use 22 different criteria for the scoring. I'm not clear on how they pick the companies...

June 20, 2007

New Wyoming Senator not Lynne Cheney

Good news! Lynne Cheney - wife of the Dark Lord himself - is not in the running to replace recently deceased Wyoming Senator Craig Thomas. Rumor had it that she might throw her name into the ring, and as I...

Fences are stupid, part deux

Many in South Texas are up in arms about proposed border fencing. And rightly so. As currently conceived by the federal government, the fence will put part of the UT Brownsville campus on the "Mexican side" of the fence and...

Bush to veto stem cell bill

The president again demonstrates his contempt for science with a planned veto of another stem cell bill. It plays well with his base - which would like to return us to pre-Enlightenment days - but 70% of Americans want more...

A Tragic Legacy

There's a great Glenn Greenwald piece up on Salon right now detailing how Bush's moral certitude has left the United States, and upon which everything this country was founded, in a shambles. A Tragic Legacy Excerpt: One of the principal...

Giuliani S.C. Campaign chair indicted on cocaine charges

As George Bush might say, politics is hard work. So it's no wonder that South Carolina State Treasurer Thomas Ravenel appears to have a serious cocaine problem. He has been accused of "buying less than 500 grams of the drug...

June 19, 2007

Bloomberg ditches the G.O.P.

Earlier today, I said Michael Bloomberg was my favorite Republican - one of the two I have any admiration for. That was pretty short lived. Bloomberg announced today that he is leaving the GOP. Independent run for the presidency, anyone?...

Scalia Defends Jack bauer on Torture

The argument for placing conservatives on the Supreme Court has always been that they would interpret the Constitution in the strictest manner—that is, they would apply the law as it is written and not find unwritten meaning to suit a...

White House Blames Clinton for Emails

So, not only did White House aides (including Karl Rove) use Republican National Committee and Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign emails for official business—which in itself is against the law—and not only did they later destroy emails from certain staffer—also against the...

The Clintons vs. The Sopranos

The Hillary Clinton campaign takes on the talk of the town with a sorta funny send-up of the Sopranos finale. Concept: B+ Execution: C Acting: Bill (D); Hillary (F)...

Bloomberg: The U.S. is "really in trouble"

During an appearance at Google headquarters in Mountain View, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg pulled no punches in his assessment of Washington, D.C., and the state of the union. According to Bloomberg, the reputation of the U.S. "has been hurt very...

Maine caps emissions, Florida pretends they have enough water

In state news, Maine has passed a bill that will cap carbon emissions at 5.9 million tons in 2009, and reduce them by 10% by 2019. Maine is the third state to pass such a law, and Maine is also...

June 18, 2007

Southern Baptists question global warming

Last week at their annual convention, the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution that questions the human impact on global warming, and calls for no government limits on greenhouse gas emissions. The resolution urges Southern Baptists to "proceed cautiously in...

June 14, 2007

Chicago considers "congestion fee"?

Also on Wednesday, a Chicago alderman - Edward Burke - introduced a resolution that calls for hearings on the concept of a "congestion fee". The idea is to charge a fee to drivers in downtown Chicago. Said Burke: Can it...

House passes gun control measure

On Wednesday, the House voted to pass a bill that will provide grant money to states to update the national database that gun dealers use for background checks. If the Senate follows suit - and they are likely to do...

June 12, 2007

Instant Karma: Save Darfur

Today, Amnesty International released a collection of John Lennon covers by the likes of U2, Black Eyed Peas, and even Christina Aguilera, the goal of which is to bring more attention to the genocide going on in Darfur and fund...

Let's drop the bomb. The gay bomb, that is...

Yes, it's true. The Pentagon actually considered trying to develop a non-lethal bomb that would turn enemy troops into drooling, foaming at the mouth, sex obsessed.... gay boys. Back in 1994, a research lab in Ohio (where else?) sought $7.5...

June 11, 2007

That's What I Say!

Bush at a press conference on Saturday: Q: And on the deadline [for Kosovo independence]? Bush: In terms of the deadline, there needs to be one. This needs to come — this needs to happen. Now it's time, in our...

Appeals Court Stomps Bush Case for Illegal Dentions

"In the United States, the military cannot seize and imprison civilians -- let alone imprison them indefinitely." -- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. That we needed an appeals court to remind us of this is a...

Connecticut may legalize medical marijuana

On June 1st, the Connecticut State Senate voted to pass a law legalizing medical use of marijuana for certain debilitating medical conditions, 23 to 13. The State House voted in favor of the same bill on May 23, 89 to...

50 MPG by 2017

Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) - one of about 30 Democratic Senators making a bid for the presidency - has the boldest plan for addressing global warming. And he knows it. Among other things, it calls for all automobiles to get...

June 9, 2007

No-confidence vote on Monday

In their latest move against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Senate Democrats will introduce a no-confidence measure against him on Monday. It's unlikely to achieve 60 votes, and even if it did, it's still primarily a gesture. But it also forces...

June 8, 2007

Pace out as Joint Chiefs Chair

Earlier today, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Pace was out as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And Navy Admiral Mike Mullen is in. This is a typical Rovian maneuver to bury important news - quietly announce it on...

For first time, Virgin runs on biodiesel

On Thursday, the first train in Europe powered by biodiesel (at least in part) had its maiden voyage. Virgin Trains, part of Richard Branson's Virgin Group, has modified a train to run on 20% biodiesel as a part of a...

Friday video fun with Dick and Don

Frontline has been running a lot of web ads, at least on the news sites I frequent, for a Frontline piece about Dick Cheney called The Dark Side. You can watch the whole thing online. I found a particularly juicy...

June 7, 2007

Libby deserves to serve

General Pace doesn't think Scooter Libby should do time for his crimes. So do some other conservative apologists. But if you take a look at the editorial pages around the country, they disagree. Mr. Libby should do his time. That's...

Big Solar could mean big green

This article from Business 2.0 lays out the potential for Big Solar - super powerful arrays of photovoltaic cells - by looking at a handful of companies making big moves in the industry. Get one for your backyard....

Habeas Corpus: making a comeback?

Today the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11 to 8 to push a bill out for consideration by the full Senate that would restore the right to habeas corpus. The ignoble Military Commissions Act of 2006 revoked that right, as we've...

June 6, 2007

Support the OPEN Government Act

Take action! Tell your representatives to Improve the Freedom of Information Act by passing S. 849, the OPEN Government Act of 2007. All you've got to do is fill out your name and address, and the EFF will send your...

Bush at G-8: no on climate change, more missles in Europe

Six years into his presidency, Bush continues to prove he has no idea how to run an effective foriegn policy shop. Leaving his greatest blunder - Iraq - aside, let's look at his approach to global warming and missle defense...

Goodbye, Honda Accord Hybrid...

We hardly knew ye... but your parent company was too stupid to develop a hybrid that got significantly better gas mileage than the regular Accord, and they still charged more for you. You were destined for oblivion... Honda only sold...

June 5, 2007

Leahy grills Schlozman

Bradly Schlozman was an attorney general in Missouri, for a brief time. Just long enough to influence an election, with a politically motivated investigation of four ACORN activists for "allegedly submitting bogus voter registration forms." Right before an election -...

Use Rove's evil genius for... good?

Dare I say it? Could the Rovian grab bag of deceits, tricks, and spins be used to help America rather than destroy it? If op-ed columnist David McGrath, writing in the Daily Southtown, could have his way, the answer is...

Libby gets 30 months

That's 2 years and 6 months, but he surely won't serve it all. He also got a $250,000 fine. Next question: When will Robert Novak do his time?...

Military judges just say no

Apparently, military judges love terrorists. They want to have like ten million of their babies. At least, that's how the Bush administration and its lapdogs will spin the decisions yesterday - by two different military judges overseeing two different cases...

Wyoming Senator dies

Senator Craig Thomas (R-WY) died on Monday. He was 74, and was diagnosed with Leukemia last year. Governor Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat, will appoint an interim replacement, who will serve until a special election can be held in November 2008....

Democrats can get indicted, too.

Mostly, it's national Republican legislators that get indicted or convicted for corruption, bribery, etc. But yesterday was William Jefferson's day at bat. The Louisiana Democrat was indicted yesterday on 16 felony counts. Ouch! That's a not a good way to...

June 4, 2007

Bush's Legacy, or the White Man's Burden?

I've often wondered if an unpublicized aspect of President Bush's Iraq strategy has been to ensure that the war in Iraq does not end. I've thought this for a couple of reasons: 1) In the run-up to the 2004 presidential...

June 3, 2007

Dem debate to get wide coverage

Over 600 journalists - with over a 100 from internationl news orgs - will converge on Saint Anselm College tonight to watch the second Democratic primary debate....

Texas. Number One. Again

Texas: the number one producer of carbon emissions in the country. Texas produces 1.5 trillion pounds of carbon dioxide each year. In addition to making them the number one state producer, they also beat out every other country in the...

June 2, 2007

Pelosi pushes for cap and trade bill in 2007

After returning from a congressional trip to see the icesheets of Greenland, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pledged to get a cap and trade bill through the House before the end of 2007. She was skeptical of the president's announcement on...

Bush's tepid warming plan met with skepticism, ridicule

Bush's tepid warming plan has been met with skepticism by most, and even ridicule by some. David Doniger, climate policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council: The president is warming up to throw his opening pitch while business, states...

June 1, 2007

Bush Riles the Christian Right with SG Nominee

With approval rating stuck in the mid-30s for months now, what is a lame duck president to do? How can he galvanize what little base he has left? One way is to make them feel as though they're under attack....

Dan Bartlett Resigns - Now Serving Duck

The true sign of lameness in a Presidency is when, as the end of his term in office is coming to a close, key officials and aides start to resign in order to "enter private business" or "spend more time...
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