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Friday, July 29th, 2005 Opening Thread

By Vanessa Peel
Bush Fingering the World Fingered!
Hey, are we seeing that right?   He's never done that before... Except when he was in Texas

Bush Fingering Texas
That's the Bush we know and love!

TOP STORY
Frist Prepares Republicans for '06 By Moving to the Mainstream With the Rest of America on Stem Cells

 

UNDERBELLY STORY

 

FRONT PAGE STORIES
Bolton Lied to the Senate


The Most Pressing PR Issue at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.? Bush's Finger.

 PET STORY
Rachel’s New Ex-Con Boyfriend

EXTRA CREDIT:

Ready for your John Roberts Supreme Court Nomination update?  Two developments today.  First.  The democrats in the Senate are setting up a website that will solicit questions from YOU and ME!  From the public.  Questions that should be asked of Roberts during his confirmation hearings.  That's cool.  I don't know what the website is yet, but I'll tell you when I know.  Second development.  You know how the republicans are saying attorney client privilege is the reason we can't see john roberts papers from when he worked for Kenneth Starr?  It turns out that the legal precedent on that question - whether a lawyer in the solicitor general's office can use attorney client privilege to shield his papers? - the legal precedent on that goes AGAINST the White House.  You know why the legal precedent on that goes against the White House?  Because KENNETH STARR won a ruling on that very issue when he was leading the witch hunt against Bill Clinton.
It's Friday, hopefully you can get some time off this weekend, maybe take some time at the beach.  And hopefully not remember anything I'm just about to tell you.  The National Resources Defense Council put out their annual clean beaches report yesterday, and the answer is that US beaches are, um, not so fresh.  Beaches were closed due to pollution 9% more days last year than the year before.  Yes, that means our beaches are more polluted.  But the silver lining is that the rise is also due to better monitoring.

A rightwing talk show host in Washington DC, Michael Graham, last week started to get some critical attention for the fact that he has said on his show that Islam - Islam itself - is a quote "terrorist organization".  His station, WMAL, has finally suspended him without pay.  Graham has said quote "the problem is not extremism, the problem is islam.  we are at war with a terrorist organization named islam".  Operation Truth's Paul Rieckhoff wrote a great post about Graham on huffingtonpost.com recently.

On the Rachel Maddow Show we've been keeping track of the special election in Ohio's second district on Tuesday.  Republican Jean Schmidt and Democrat Paul Hackett are running to replace republican Rob Portman, who is the US trade rep now.  Paul Hackett is an Iraq War Vet; Jean Schmidt is a hack.  She went on Olbermann last night and said that Hackett's service overseas is not really the kind of experience that voters here at home are interested in.

Schmidt's campaign consultant has also disparaged Hackett's service and said he didn't serve in combat.  Tell that to the guys with whom he ran a checkpoint in and out of Fallujah.  The election is Tuesday.  Hackett's website is HackettForCongress.com. 

Listen.  Stream.  Download.

Robert Byrd

Rachel, just a quick comment about your view that Sen. Byrd shouldn't be in the Senate because of his privious affiliation with the KKK.  I agree that anyone who belongs to a hate group shouldn't be in the Senate, however, people do repent, and this is the case with Sen. Byrd.  I would rather have someone in the Senate who acknowledges their past sins, than someone who lies and continues down the path of evil.  Sen. Byrd is a more valuable spokesman for Civil Rights than the entire Repuplican Party combined.  We all have skeletons in our closet, but Sen. Byrd is out of the closet and has repented.  A former drug addict can better speak of the pain of addiction than someone who has never been down that path.  Sen. Byrd is a very good spoksman for the evil of racism.  Just my opinion.  Robert

By ropetersen1July 31, 2005 - 9:40am