So true

(Click image to enlarge)

Lieberman sinks to a new low

Just in case you need more evidence that Joe Lieberman is a disgrace to the Democratic Party, this audio clip of his appearence on Sean Hannity's show should do it. Seems like traitor Joe was showed his true colors on the show with his relentless criticism of the Democratic Party and kissing up to Hannity.

Someone please tell me why some Democrats defend this guy? Lieberman is nothing more than a self-righteous idiot whoes disrespect of his own party (to the approval of Hannity) is simply disgusting and disloyal.

Lieberman is quoted as saying that he thinks it's time for a third party and now only do I agree with him, I think he shold show leadership and switch parties now so we won't have to waste time, money, and energy booting him out in the primary. Hell, with so many conservatives raising money for his campaign, he should do just fine as a Republican.

Two prominent Republican lobbyists, Craig Fuller and H.P. Goldfield, hosted a fund-raising dinner Thursday evening at Goldfield's Washington home for Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman, seeking re-election in Connecticut this year.

Fuller was President Ronald Reagan's Cabinet secretary and later Vice President George H.W. Bush's chief of staff. Goldfield, a Reagan White House aide and later assistant secretary of Commerce, was a fund-raiser in the two Bush-Quayle campaigns.

While Lieberman is a major voice for lobbyist reform, three of his dinner's five hosts were registered lobbyists. Fuller represents the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. Goldfield lobbies for Airbus and for energy companies (ConcocoPhillips, Dynegy International and Gulfsands Petroleum). Co-host C. Michael Gilliland, a partner in the Hogan & Hartson law firm, represents a variety of clients.

Don't be fooled, Joe Lieberman is NOT A DEMOCRAT and never was one to begin with. When Ned Lamont upsets you in the primary, you and your fellow DLC buddies can go and start you own independent party. Please Joe, just leave and best of luck to you!

Check out the audio here (hat tip to calling all wingnuts). Read the transcript here (hat tip to My Left Nutmeg)

Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies...

Good grief. The truth is finally coming out and it doesn't look good for Bush and Company.

1. The Katrina screw-up.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Bush administration officials said they had been caught by surprise when they were told on Tuesday, Aug. 30, that a levee had broken, allowing floodwaters to engulf New Orleans.

But Congressional investigators have now learned that an eyewitness account of the flooding from a federal emergency official reached the Homeland Security Department's headquarters starting at 9:27 p.m. the day before, and the White House itself at midnight.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency official, Marty Bahamonde, first heard of a major levee breach Monday morning. By late Monday afternoon, Mr. Bahamonde had hitched a ride on a Coast Guard helicopter over the breach at the 17th Street Canal to confirm the extensive flooding. He then telephoned his report to FEMA headquarters in Washington, which notified the Homeland Security Department.

2. The CIA leak case

I. Lewis Libby Jr., the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, told a grand jury that he was authorized by his "superiors" to disclose classified information to reporters about Iraq's weapons capability in June and July 2003, according to a document filed by a federal prosecutor.

If this was done under Clinton's watch, the Republicans would of lost their minds. If they were able to impeach the Clinton for lying about a BJ, why can't the Democrats hold Bush accountable for his pattern of lying to the American people?

Look who's getting out of jail

John Rowland is being released from jail after serving less than a year while Ernest "the Moses of my people" Newton gets slapped with a five year sentance?

Was justice served?

Former Gov. John G. Rowland will be released from prison within days, getting a limited taste of freedom after spending nearly a year behind bars for corruption.

The three-term Republican, who is scheduled to be released by Sunday from Loretto prison camp in Pennsylvania, will be fitted with an electronic ankle bracelet and be under house arrest for four months. He also will have to perform 300 hours of community service.

Ned Lamont is coming to your town

Come and hear what Ned has to say.

2/16 Greenwich DTC meeting 7:30 PM, Greenwich Town Hall, Cone room
2/20 Southbury DTC, Kensington Green Assisted Living, Southbury, 7:30 PM
2/21 Killingly Community Center 6:30 PM
2/22 Lower CT River Forum, First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, Sheffield Auditorium, 7 PM
3/1 Groton Public Library (sponsored by Democracy for America SE CT chapter) 7:00 PM

Kiss your car tax goodbye

I wish we could kiss goodbye some of the other high taxes that we're forced to pay (sales tax, state income tax, gasoline tax).

From the Hartford Courant

Gov. M. Jodi Rell wants to eliminate municipal car taxes and cut the state's public utility taxes by 25 percent, two moves she says will save Connecticut residents millions of dollars a year.

Rell is proposing the first significant tax reductions since the 2002 and 2003 budget crisis. A Republican, Rell also wants to phase out the estate tax and eliminate the corporate surcharge - a 25 percent fee corporations pay on top of income tax.

[...]

Under Rell's car tax plan, kept as a secret until moments before her address to a joint session of the legislature, the state would reimburse cities and towns for the money they would have received from residential car tax bills. Commercial car taxes would not be affected by the proposal.

"Starting this July, you will no longer have to write a check for your car taxes. It will be a thing of the past," she said, receiving especially loud cheers from Republican legislators.

The full text of Gov. Rell's State of the State speech can be read here.

Spare me the lecture

The outrage from the wingnuts over the King funeral is downright laughable and this post from Steve Gilliard is right on the money.

Americablog posted this up

Get ready for the white men of the Republican party to lecture black leaders about not knowing their place

by John in DC - 2/07/2006 06:44:00 PM

UPDATE: Well that didn't take long. But rather than old white men, it's an old white woman of the far-right wing of the Republican party telling black leaders to mind their place.

FURTHER UPDATE: Bush was there while everyone spoke. Does anyone think MLK or Mrs. King would pass up that opportunity to give them an a piece of their minds? Doubtful.

At the funeral of Coretta Scott King, the grande dame of America's civil rights and progressive activist community, the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery, a revered elder of that same community, criticized President Bush, and the war, and the fact that America still has so many poor and needy. Kind of something you'd expect at the funeral of a woman who after her husband was assassinated, yet the day before he was buried, led a civil rights march of 50,000 people. A woman who spoke at an anti-war rally in NYC only 3 weeks after her husband was mattered. A woman who devoted her entire life to non-violence.

I say this because you know it's only a matter of hours before the Republican Swift Boating of Rev. Lowery and Coretta's funeral begins. How dare a black man not know his place at a funeral, they'll say. As if the Republican party and its surrogates have any right whatsoever to speak on behalf of Mrs. King, to tell black America what they can and cannot do to honor one of their most revered leaders.

A party that doesn't have a single African-American member of Congress has no right lecturing black people about knowing their place.

And you know that lecture they will.

They'll be all over Coretta and Lowery, with the help of the media they'll trivialize her funeral, her death, the honor being paid to her, by claiming her funeral was all a big stunt, a big act, one big political opportunity for the Democrats to abuse a poor old dead woman, they'll say.

But that's because the Republican party, and increasingly the media, have no clue about black America, about progressives, about civil rights, and about what it means to be a committed activist who actually cares about our country and the direction its heading. If Coretta, on the occasion of Martin's death, could launch (and continue) a decade's-long campaign for equality and justice in his name, we should only be so honored to do the same to mark her passing.

Perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps the old white men of the GOP (read: Ken Mehlman) and their media enablers will sit well enough alone. Perhaps. But I doubt it. Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King, and the legacy they leave behind, is far too dangerous to the right-wing extremists that run our country. They'll have to do something to mar Coretta's legacy. I have a hunch this will be it.

Let me put this simply: Kate O'Beirne needs to shut her filthy mouth.

When black people were dying in New Orleans, they called us everything but a child of God. We were animals, looters, out of control.

Not one of these people said this was a lie, a slander. Jonah Goldberg laughed at the idea of people drowning in the Superbowl. They cheered the idea of black people being shot in the streets. They said we were too stupid to leave the city when they had no cars and no money

While Bush sat on his hands.

So now, these filthy vermin want to give us lectures . They can eat their lectures.

We don't care what they think. They may have their lackies, and they best keep their mouths shut about this, but 98 percent of blacks have no use for the GOP.

What? They think we don't know they're racists? They hated Dr. King and his wife in life and now in death. They hate that blacks and latinos no longer live in peonage. Only one of their bought and paid for fools would attack how Mrs. King was buried. To the rest of it, it was a fittintg tribute and making Bush sit there for hours was wonderful. He was told the truth and he couldn't run.

They didn't help us back then, they won't help us now, not when they can spit on us, and now they want to give us lectures? Please, please send Lynn Swann, Ken Blackwell and Michael Steele out to denounce this, do us this favor. Tell us how the GOP really likes black people.

Help remind us why blacks vote Democratic.

MUST SEE Video: Standing O for Reverend's "No WMD" Speech

(big hat tip to My Left Wing and Crooks and Liars)
Click here for the video

Speaking before four presidents, including President George W. Bush, Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery received a standing ovation today at the Coretta Scott King funeral. Watch the UPDATED video, from C&L:

"We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. But Coretta knew and we know that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more but no more for the poor."

Look, maybe I'm crazy and maybe it's wishful thinking... But the sight of all those people standing up to applaud words so OBVIOUSLY aimed at the Pretender in Chief... Man, I've got chills.

And to the inevitable right wing complaints about "politicising" this:

It is about time people stop trying to pretend that Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King were APOLITICAL people. They LIVED the political life.

This is the BEST tribute he could have given them both.

Amen to that.

LAMONT GETS HIS 1,000 SIGNUPS

Game on!

As of 9:26 this morning, we received our 1,000th signup from Connecticut, and by the end of the day, I expect we will break our 4,000th signup from around the country.

We now have volunteers in 168 towns and cities around the state. I haven't done a close check to see how this matches to the offical list of 169 municipalities, but for all essential purposes, we have every town represented.

As well as receiving their 1,000th sign up, the Lamont team has also made upgrades to the campaign website and will make further upgrades over the next few weeks.

Looks like the campaign is a ready to go; I think it's a good time to start sweating Joe (look at me, I made a rhyme).

I can't tell the difference

Click here and see if you can tell the difference..

Lisa in a good mood

Cleared

Gov. M. Jodi Rell's chief of staff did not violate criminal laws when she handed out invitations to a campaign fundraiser for the governor, Connecticut's top prosecutor said Monday, ending a two-month investigation.

Chief State's Attorney Christopher Morano said criminal prosecution of Lisa Moody is not warranted.

He said no criminal statutes bar the governor's chief of staff or her commissioners from campaigning on state property and said the use of state time was too minimal to warrant a larceny charge. Such a charge would have required an intent to defraud the state.

"There's insufficient evidence that any of these individuals intended to defraud the state," Morano said.

He said a team of lawyers reviewed the laws before issuing that conclusion.

Lamont creating campaign team

I received word of Tom Swan taking a leave of absence from the Connecticut Citizen Action Group in order to work for Ned Lamont earlier today and now the story is hitting the press.

From the Hartford Courant

Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont has hired the beginnings of a campaign staff and is about to create a candidate committee as he moves closer to challenging U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman for the Democratic nomination.

Effective today, the Connecticut Citizen Action Group has granted its executive director, Tom Swan, a leave so he can work full-time on what is still being called Lamont's exploratory campaign for U.S. Senate.

[...]

CCAG's political director, John Murphy, also will join the campaign.

"We are taking this leave because we believe that Ned Lamont's potential candidacy for United States Senate presents a historical opportunity to challenge the status quo in Washington DC and to help turn Connecticut's congressional delegation truly blue in 2006. This is a race that can be won!!!" Swan said in an e-mail.

In an interview, Swan said Lamont is ready to create a candidate committee, a step that will allow him to raise and expend money to further his candidacy. The committee papers could be filed this afternoon, Swan said.

This is an important first step for Lamont and hopefully things are getting in gear to challenge Lieberman because time is of the essence. You can read Swan's leave of absence letter by clicking here.

Lamont campaign gaining media attention

As the Ned Lamont's campaign continues to attract media attention and closes on their 1,000 person sign-up mark, the Greenwich Times published an interesting feature story on the Democratic challenger who had some choice words for Joe Lieberman.

From the Greenwich Times

On the wall of an office in Republican Greenwich hangs a sign: Ned Lamont for U.S. Senate.

It might as well be a collector's item because it's the only one.

But it's a start, says Lamont, a local businessman and former town selectman who fueled the Internet blogosphere last month when he revealed that he was considering a challenge of Sen. Joe Lieberman.

Lamont is no Republican, however. That's a label he says is more fitting for his would-be opponent.

"Joe is clearly the most popular Democrat for all Republicans," said Lamont, who called the entrenched incumbent out of touch with state Democrats such as himself.

A recent Quinnipiac University poll supports that theory, with 75 percent of Republicans surveyed saying they would support Lieberman for re-election this year, compared to 59 percent of Democrats.

Lamont is trying to seize on those figures, as well as antiwar sentiment among Democrats, to go from relative obscurity to credible challenger in what some observers regard as an uneven contest that could also feature a challenge from former Gov. Lowell Weicker Jr.

At the least, Lamont said it will be an opportunity for Democrats to debate and for Lieberman to explain his strident support of an unpopular war that has eroded civil liberties, as well as his stance on other issues such as judicial nominations.

[...]

A lifelong Democrat with a similar academic pedigree as President Bush -- Lamont holds an MBA from Yale University, a bachelor's degree in sociology and history from Harvard University and a diploma from Phillips Exeter Academy -- the presumptive candidate said he was inspired to run because of Lieberman's admonishment of those against the war.

"The senator sort of said those that critique the president are sort of undermining the war effort," Lamont said. "It was at that point that got me off the couch."

Lamont also knocked the incumbent for his recent vote to cut off debate on the nomination of Associate Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, which effectively squashed Democratic attempts to block the nomination. Alito was approved along party lines in the Senate, with Lieberman voting against the reputed conservative.

"To me, Sam Alito is not a close call," Lamont said.

The article is good and I encourage everyone to
read the article in full at the Greenwich Times website. This follwoing quote in the article caught my eye as it sums up the opinion most Connecticut Democrats have of Lieberman and why the Ned Lamont's campaign is important.

Mary Sullivan, a former Democratic National Committee member from Riverside, said she would also back Lamont in a primary.

"I think it's always a long-shot, but on the other hand, I think there must be a lot of disillusionment with Joe Lieberman among many Democrats, and I think they would welcome a chance to debate the whole record of Lieberman," Sullivan said.

Gas refund (don't hold your breath)

Connecticut lawmakers scream "foul" over oil companies recent record-profits reports.

From The Connecticut Post

Connecticut lawmakers have renewed their call for big oil to pump some of their record profits back into taxpayers' pockets.

Sens. Chris Dodd and Joe Lieberman and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, said last week that consumers deserve a break from high gasoline and home heating oil prices — especially since oil companies are ringing up record profits.

Exxon Mobil Corp. announced last week that it earned $36.13 billion in profit in 2005 — the largest single-year profit for a U.S. company in history.

"Consumers have all the pain and the big oil companies have all the gain, and that's simply not fair," said Dodd, a Democrat. "Congress can and should move to correct that, and this news just may be the spark that makes it happen."

The American Petroleum Institute opposes the windfall-profit tax, saying it would drain revenues from the industry that could otherwise be used to invest in new oil and gas production.

[...]

"It is bad enough that consumers, families and businesses have been struggling for a year with high energy costs, but to see major oil companies enjoy excessive profits during this crisis is wrong," DeLauro said. "This is a time for our nation to come together. Responsible corporate citizenship during this time of national emergency is the least this thriving industry can do."