2008 GOP Ticket – Beavis and Butthead?

By- Suzie-Q @ 8:45 PM MST

AP/Mary Altaffer

Photo swiped from- Dependable Renegade

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Republican Revival… Convention…

By- Suzie-Q @ 7:00 PM MST

GOP Unveils Its Convention Stars

AP/CNN |   August 20, 2008 03:23 PM

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani will give the keynote address at the Republican National Convention next month and Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Joe Lieberman also will take center stage at the GOP gathering.

John McCain’s vanquished Republican primary rivals — and a slew of potential McCain running mates — also have speaking roles at the four-day gathering in St. Paul, Minn.

President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, first lady Laura Bush, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lieberman, who was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000 and is said to be under consideration for the same role with McCain, will open the convention on Monday, Sept. 1, with speeches that focus on service.

When asked about the RNC lineup, McCain’s campaign manager Rick Davis said:

‘the senator wanted the list of speakers to showcase the “diversity” of the Republican Party.

“I think one of the things that is important, especially for John McCain, as unique a politician as he is, is to demonstrate the diversity and differences of ideology I would say of our party,” Davis said. “I think one of the things that people forget about is we are not a very monolithic as a party. We really want to show some of that.”‘

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Obama’s Ad Links McCain To Ralph Reed And Jack Abramoff

By- Suzie-Q @ 6:00 PM MST

Obama Ad Links McCain to Reed, Abramoff

TPM Muckraker- By Zachary Roth – August 20, 2008, 5:14PM

Maybe there’s some truth to the reports that Barack Obama is finally planning to get tough on John McCain. According to the Altanta Journal-Constitution, the Obama campaign will tomorrow release in Atlanta this ad, which links McCain to disgraced former Jack Abramoff crony Ralph Reed:

The hard-hitting ad notes that when McCain led a Senate probe of Abramoff, he never called Reed to testify, then points out that Reed is currently helping to raise money for McCain’s campaign.

Reed, who during his unsuccessfully 2006 bid for Georgia Lieutenant Governor was dogged by questions about his Abramoff ties, did indeed send out an email to friends recently announcing his participation in an Atlanta fundraiser for McCain last week. After Reed’s involvement raised eyebrows, he was a no-show at the event itself.

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Senator David Vitter Can’t Use Campaign Funds To Pay For DC Madam- Related Legal Fees

By- Suzie-Q @ 5:05 PM MST

Vitter Can’t Use Campaign Funds to Pay for Madam-Related Legal Fees

TPM Muckraker- By Zachary Roth – August 20, 2008, 2:29PM

Looks like the price that Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), who last year was identified as a client of the “DC Madam,” the late Deborah Palfrey, will be paying for his transgression just got even steeper. The Hill reports that, according to a draft opinion released by the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Vitter won’t be able to use campaign funds to pay over $160,000 in legal fees associated with the scandal.

Vitter has so far accumulated over $200,000 in legal bills. The FEC opinion allows him to use campaign funds to pay for only $31,000 of that figure — the amount related to a Senate ethics committee probe. It does not allow him to tap his campaign coffers to pay for hiring a lawyer to help quash a subpoena issued by Palfrey’s defense, or to pay for monitoring Palfrey’s criminal proceedings.

Vitter, who is up for re-election in 2010, admitted last year that he had been a client of Palfrey’s firm, and apologized for “a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible.” He has already spent $70,000 of his own money on his Palfrey-related legal expenses.

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Evening Jukebox… Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner

By- Suzie-Q @ 5:00 PM MST

Warren Zevon – Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner

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DC Judge To Senator Stevens: “REQUEST DENIED!!”

GEF @ 6:38 PM ET

Via: Thinkprogress

Judge rejects Sen. Stevens’s bid to move trial to Alaska.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan today ruled that Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) will stand trial on seven felony counts in the nation’s capital, rejecting his request to move the affair to Alaska. Jury selection for the four-week trial is set to begin on Sept. 22. Federal prosecutors argued that “holding the trial in a place where Stevens is already campaigning for reelection could taint the home state jury pool.” Indeed, Stevens’s lawyers said that the senator wanted to “campaign in the evenings and on weekends during the trial.”

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Ralph McReed is on Caspers McCampaign

by Geezer Power…3:14 pm

McLames Victory Team

August 20, 2008

McCain’s Abramoff investigations found Ralph Reed at center, now Reed says he’s on McCain’s victory team

American News Project: John McCain’s investigation into Jack Abramoff’s Indian-gaming scandal found Ralph Reed at it’s center. But now Reed claims to be on McCain’s “Victory Team 2008.” ANP went to Atlanta to observe a McCain fundraiser promoted by Ralph Reed.

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Right-Wing Vets For Freedom Attacks Hagel’s Military Service

By- Suzie-Q @ 12:05 PM MST

Right-Wing Vets For Freedom Attacks Hagel’s Military Service: ‘Show Me What Battle He Fought In Iraq’

Think Progress- By Amanda at 12:11 pm

Today on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, a caller questioned Vets for Freedom (VFF) founder David Bellavia about the group’s attacks on Vietnam veteran Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE). Bellavia quickly praised Hagel, saying he was a “patriot.” “You don’t question another man’s service,” said Bellavia.” “I will never attack a Vietnam veteran, like some of these other individuals have during this political season.”

Content he paid enough lip-service to Hagel, he then began attacking the senator, an outspoken critic of the Bush administration. Bellavia’s dismissed the Hagel’s service in Vietnam — for which he earned a Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, Purple Heart, Army Commendation Medal, and the Combat Infantryman Badge — as irrelevant to the current conflict:

BELLAVIA: Sen. Hagel has never been shot at in Iraq, he’s never seen what an IED looks like or been detonated on. This is an individual that could embed himself instead of doing a two-day congressional delegation. Go out there, walk with the troops, see what’s going on on the ground. […]

Now, again, with Sen. Hagel — my problem with Sen. Hagel is, again, his experienced is based on what? The Mekong Delta. It’s based to Vietnam, a totally different fight, a totally different enemy, and by the way, it was 30 years ago.

Watch it

It’s doubtful there any military experts who would agree with Bellavia that there’s nothing to learn from past U.S. conflicts. In 2000, President Bush even said, “A generation shaped by Vietnam must remember the lessons of Vietnam.” Bellavia and VFF also have no problem with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), even though he also fought in a war “30 years ago.”

VFF is largely a front group for the Bush administration, with their supposedly “objective” work being pushed by former White House officials. The organization has gone after lawmakers, such as Hagel and Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA), who have dared to oppose the Bush administration’s policies in Iraq.

Additionally, just because Bellavia and other VFF members have served in Iraq doesn’t mean that they speak for all U.S. troops. Other soldiers and veterans — including groups like VoteVets — are increasingly rejecting the Bush administration’s policies.

Transcript:

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Afternoon Jukebox… Werewolves Of London

By- Suzie-Q @ 12:00 PM MST

Warren Zevon – Werewolves Of London

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Rice Signs Missile Deal With Poland

by Geezer Power…10:28 am

NY Times: August 20, 2008

By NICHOLAS KULISH and TOM RACHMAN

WARSAW — Despite fierce opposition from Moscow, the United States and Poland signed a long-stalled agreement Wednesday to place an American missile defense base on Polish territory.

The Kremlin has leveled sustained criticism against the American plan, characterizing it as a hostile act near the Russian border. But American officials insist that the system will defend against threats from countries like Iran and would not target Russia.

“Missile defense, of course, is aimed at no one,” said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who signed the agreement in Warsaw with her Polish counterpart, Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski. “It is in our defense that we do this.”

More

Why should Russia be concerned by this development?

Well, in the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq, the Bu$h administration scrambled to pull together a “coalition of the willing”, and simultaneously negotiated and financed an unprecedented multibillion-dollar arms deal with Poland – a compact that promised to funnel at least $6 billion in U.S. investments into the former Warsaw Pact nation, which has become one of the United States’ primary wartime supporters.

On December 27th, 2002 the Polish government decided on to buy rather than lease up to 48 F-16 new fighter aircraft from Lockheed-Martin. The major element in this deal was an offset agreement, between Lockheed-Martin and the Polish government, called “Peace Sky”.

The contract was signed on April 18th, 2003, for $3.5 billion, the biggest defense contract by a former Soviet bloc country since the end of the Cold War. The purchase contract also includes spare engines, missiles and bombs as well as technical details and the terms of training for Polish pilots. The aircraft will be built in Fort Worth, Texas, and deliveries started in 2006. which seen an amount of up to $9 billion return in the Polish economy. Major projects included plans by General Motors to expand a plant in Gliwice, Poland, and a pledge by Motorola to invest in a state-of-the-art communication system for Polish public services.

To date, the central European country has received 41 of the 48 F-16s it has on order, and is rapidly increasing its number of qualified pilots with help from seasoned instructors at the 162nd Fighter Wing based at Tucson International Airport.

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