Liveblogging The State Of The Union

by Bob Cesca @ 8:38 EST

10:50PM
Wait! One last thing. Brian Williams just said the president’s eyes filled with tears several times tonight. Which address was Williams watching?

10:45PM
That’s all for tonight. The next major shpeech for the president will be at the Republican Convention this Shummer, then that should be it. The trucks that are usually tasked with driving through his pregnant pauses will now be deployed elsewhere. Thanks, everyone! Comments will remain open below…

10:36PM
The Romney Unit on CNN with Anderson Cooper. *raise taxes* Talking about illegal immigration. *raise taxes*

10:35PM
Mitch McConnell on FOX News. Has anyone checked to see if McConnell and Steve Forbes are the same person?

10:34PM
Senator Obama with Olbermann: “It was a warmed over past State of the Union speech.”

10:28PM
WHAH! On MSNBC, John McCain looks like a Wal-Mart smiley-face sticker tonight. That was shocking.

10:23PM
You know what’s awesome about Governor Sebelius? She’s a Democratic governor — from Kansas. AND, you can use her head as a straight-edge.

10:19PM
Governor Kathleen Sebelius making with the Democratic response.

10:12PM
Zoinks! Velma from Scooby-Doo is on MSNBC!

10:08PM
Just flipped over to FOX News. Fred Barnes: This speech “will be forgotten pretty much. Haha!”

10:07PM
There’s a gigantic bald man — or the Cloverfield monster — talking to the president and asking for an autograph. Seriously, I know the president is short but this bald dude was 12 feet tall.

10:05PM
Olbermann mentioning something similar to my observation below regarding the Iranian nuclear enrichment program.

10:04PM
“Let us set forth to do their business.” By “their” he means the telecoms. And… he’s done with his last Shtate of the Union shpeech.

10:00PM
I’m staggered by this president’s nerve in talking about liberty and “We, the People.” He supports an amendment banning gay marriage.

9:59PM
Bob Dooooooolle!

9:56PM
“Congress must pass liability protection for companies believed to have assisted in efforts to defend America.” Believed to have assisted?

9:53PM
“Ballishtic mishils.”

9:50PM
Dick Lugar has the same skin tone as a Krispy-Kreme.

9:48PM
The Iraqi government passed de-Baathification. No they didn’t. That’s a lie. Up next, the Iraqi government rides unicorns and poops rainbows!

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Japanese Councilor (Senator) Mr. Yukihisa Fujita Questions the Official US 911 Story

by Geezer Power …7:17 pm

< Thanks to:

Yumi Kikuchi’s Blog and Podcast

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

It was historical and exciting to watch 911 truth being questioned at the Japanese Diet (Parliament) on Jan 10, 2008. For the first time in Japan serious questions were first asked as to the legitimacy of Japans support for the US ‘War On Terror’. The proceedings were aired live on NHK TV (Japan Broadcasting Corporation). See the full session below on YouTube, with English subtitles… A transcript can be read here.

Though the session was broadcast live on NHK TV, no newspaper or TV new program on that day or in the days following has mentioned it. Only people who happened to be watching TV at the time it was broadcast know of it, and that, of course, is not so many people.

It is quite obvious that the media here is Japan is controlled by powers that do not want this topic to be brought to the attention of the population in general.

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The Economic Stimulus Plan That No One’s Talking About: A New GI Bill

By Paul Rieckhoff @ 7:31 PM EST

In his 2008 State of the Union address, President Bush is expected to focus heavily on the state of the sluggish economy and how to stimulate it, now and beyond. But as Washington wrangles over how best to do this, our leaders have largely overlooked a proven strategy for growth that promises more than immediate relief: a new GI Bill.

When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the original GI Bill in 1944, he ensured that eight million World War II veterans would be able to afford an education. The GI Bill gave many of our nation’s leaders their start, including Presidents Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, and former Senators Bob Dole, George McGovern, and Pat Moynihan, to name just a few. Additionally, the GI Bill educated 14 Nobel Prize winners and two dozen Pulitzer Prize winners, including authors Joseph Heller, Norman Mailer, and Frank McCourt.

Aside from furthering the education of many veterans, the GI Bill reinvented America after a half-decade of war, and helped to prevent a looming economic crisis. The government’s investment in the GI Bill resulted in higher national productivity, consumer spending, and tax revenue. More impressively, every dollar spent on educational benefits for the Greatest Generation added seven dollars to the national economy.

Sadly, the current educational benefits available to veterans are far inferior to what their predecessors received. Today’s GI Bill covers less than 70% of the average cost of tuition at a 4-year public college and less than two years at a typical private college. National Guardsmen and Reservists, including those who have served multiple combat tours, typically receive only a fraction of these benefits. Yet, the annual price tag for fully-funding college for today’s veterans is less than the amount of money we spend every two weeks in the War on Terror.

Educating our country’s veterans was the right thing to do after World War II, and it is the right thing to do now. For considerably less than 3 percent of the proposed economic stimulus package, we can send the newest generation of veterans to college every year. Not only would an updated GI Bill be a prudent investment with huge returns, it would demonstrate to our veterans that they are indeed returning to a grateful nation. As President Roosevelt reflected, “[The GI Bill] gives emphatic notice to the men and women in our armed forces that the American people do not intend to let them down.”

This year, President Bush should call on Congress to pass a modern GI Bill. A new GI Bill would reenergize the U.S. economy and go a long way toward helping our newest generation of heroes build a better life. Instead, President Bush is only expected to briefly reference it with a proposal allowing service members to transfer unused education benefits to their spouses or children.

If this is the full extent of the President’s plan for the GI Bill, it’s a slap in the face to the nearly 1.6 million veterans who have come home from these wars. It’s like you asked for a tank, and the president just offered to repaint your bicycle.

For more information on the need for a modern GI Bill, see IAVA’s new Issue Report: A New GI Bill: Rewarding Our Troops, Rebuilding Our Military at www.iava.org/education. This report is the first in a series of in-depth issue reports IAVA will release later this week.

Cross-posted at Huffington Post.

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Vice President Cheney on FISA at The Heritage Foundation

by Geezer Power …11:28 am

Darth,s smile always has a sinister overtone, as he spins the same old Sh*te one more time, to the point that it could now be called diahrea… 911, terrorists, hisszz, safety, 911, terrorist attacks, the world changed, heh heh, chemical biological weapons highjackings, 911, yadayadayada….Bhahblablabla…G:

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White House Squeeze Play…

By- Suzie-Q @ 11:00 AM MST

Today’s Must Read

The White House surveillance bill squeeze stepped up to another level over the weekend. So the scene is set for an ol’ fashioned cloture vote rumble this afternoon at 4:30.

To refresh your memory: the administration’s far-reaching surveillance bill, which was passed last August in a similar White House squeeze play, expires February 1st.

To take the time pressure off and ensure that surveillance would be unaffected by the lapse, Senate Majority Leader has repeatedly proposed a 30-day extension to the Protect America Act. Republicans in the Senate have repeatedly blocked any effort to have a vote on it. They’ve also blocked attempts to hold votes on almost all of the offered amendments, leading to the situation today.

On Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) filed for cloture, forcing a vote which would end debate, preclude any votes on the amendments, and lead immediately to a vote on the underlying Senate bill — the administration-supported Senate intelligence committee bill, which contains a provision granting retroactive immunity to the telecoms. The Republicans need 60 votes to make that happen.

Now things are at the point where even if the Senate did manage to pass some sort of bill before Thursday, the process of hashing out the differences with the House version (which doesn’t contain retroactive immunity) would drag on past the deadline. Reid has said as much: “The president has to make a decision. He’s either going to extend the law… or there will be no wiretapping.”

More

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Afternoon Jukebox… Manic Monday

By- Suzie-Q @ 10:45 AM MST

The Bangles – Manic Monday

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Buchanan: McCain win would mean war with Iran

anthony @ 17:05 GMT 

 

David Edwards and Muriel Kane | Raw Story | Published: Monday January 28, 2008

Says McCain would provoke new wars, ‘he’s in everybody’s face’

“More wars” could prove to be the oddest of all presidential campaign slogans. Especially if it works.

Presidential candidate John McCain shocked observers on Sunday when he told a crowd of supporters, “There’s going to be other wars. … I’m sorry to tell you, there’s going to be other wars. We will never surrender but there will be other wars.”

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough asked old-line conservative Pat Buchanan about McCain’s remarks, saying, “He talked about promising that more wars were coming. … Is he so desperate to get off the economic issue?”

Pat Buchanan replied that McCain never used the word “promise” but simply said there would be more wars, and that from McCain’s point of view, “that is straight talk. … You get John McCain in the White House, and I do believe we will be at war with Iran.”

“That’s one of the things that makes me very nervous about him,” Buchanan went on. “There’s no doubt John McCain is going to be a war president. … His whole career is wrapped up in the military, national security. He’s in Putin’s face, he’s threatening the Iranians, we’re going to be in Iraq a hundred years.”

“So when he says more war,” Scarborough commented, “he is promising you, if he gets in the White House, we’ll not only be fighting this war but starting new wars. Is that what conservative Republicans want?

“I don’t say he’s starting them,” Buchanan answered. “He expects more wars. … I think he’s talking straight, because if you take a look at the McCain foreign policy, he is in everybody’s face. Did you see Thad Cochran’s comment when he endorsed Romney? He said, look, John McCain is a bellicose, red-faced, angry guy, who constantly explodes.”

“Not a happy message,” commented Scarborough. “Not Reaganesque.”

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Kennedy spurned Hillary over husband’s ‘misleading’ statements, racial remarks

anthony @ 16:55 GMT

John Byrne | The Raw Story | Published: Monday January 28, 2008

Liberal lion Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) will announce his support for Illinois senator Barack Obama (D-IL) in Washington today, after a heated behind-the-scenes battle for his endorsement.

Media pundits will almost certainly play up the endorsement by the only remaining son of Joseph Kennedy, who fathered John Fitzgerald and Robert Kennedy. His endorsement follows a protracted backroom discussion between Kennedy and the Clinton campaign.

Clinton aides and allies had pressed hard to keep Kennedy neutral until after the Democratic Party had a nominee, according to a Monday report by Jeff Zeleny and Carl Hulse in the New York Times.

“But Mr. Kennedy had become increasingly disenchanted with the tone of the Clinton campaign, aides” told Zeleny and Hulse. “He and former President Bill Clinton had a heated telephone exchange earlier this month over what Mr. Kennedy considered misleading statements by Mr. Clinton about Mr. Obama, as well as his injection of race into the campaign.”

Kennedy called Bill Clinton Sunday to inform him of the decision. The endorsement was first leaked to Politico by “Democratic sources.”

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Busted! Those Text Messages Are Evidence!

By- Suzie-Q @ 8:30 AM MST

Sex, Lies, and Text Messages

On Thursday morning, Detroit’s Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (D) and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty — and all of Detroit, courtesy of the Detroit Free Press — woke up to find the irrefutable evidence of the love affair they had both denied under oath:

Beatty asked the mayor, on Sept. 12, 2002, if she could “come and lay down in your room until you get back?”

The next morning Kilpatrick, referring to his bodyguards, wrote: “They were right outside the door. They had to have heard everything.”

Beatty replied: “So we are officially busted!”

“Damn that,” Kilpatrick responded. “Never busted. Busted is what you see!”

Worse than the humiliation and embarrassment at the very public disclosure of both their affair and the unraveled coverup, is, yes, the real possibility of getting “busted” on a perjury charge, a felony. If charged and convicted, Kilpatrick, a lawyer, could be disbarred, would be removed from office, and could even face up to 15 years of jail time. Beatty, a law student, would have to find a new career.

The other big loser in this tawdry affair is the city of Detroit.

The mayor has cost Detroit taxpayers more than $9 million to date, because he was sued as a public official. Many are calling for the resignation of “a mayor with so much potential squandered on the keyboard,” a “talented” and “charismatic ” politician – “so knowledgeable on policy, so lacking in discipline.

More

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Judiciary Committee Should Move to Impeach Bush and Cheney

Sudhan @11:10 CET

Elizabeth Holtzman

served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1973 to 1981

Since mid-December, members of the House Judiciary Committee Robert Wexler (D., Fla.), Luis Gutierrez (D., Ill.) and Tammy Baldwin (D., Wis.) have called for hearings on the impeachment of Vice President Cheney.

This should not be surprising, given the strength of the case for impeachment. What’s surprising is that it took so long for members of this committee, normally tasked with holding impeachment proceedings, to call for them.

They face huge political resistance on Capitol Hill. But they aren’t alone. Other Democratic members are joining them. Former senator and Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern recently published an op-ed demanding impeachment proceedings for both Bush and Cheney. Bruce Fein, a Republican who served in the Reagan Justice Department, and many other constitutional scholars also argue for impeachment.

There is more than ample justification for impeachment. The Constitution specifies the grounds as treason, bribery or “high crimes and misdemeanors,” a term that means “great and dangerous offenses that subvert the Constitution.” As the House Judiciary Committee determined during Watergate, impeachment is warranted when a president puts himself above the law and gravely abuses power.

Have Bush and Cheney done that?

Continued . . .

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