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John McCain's Lobbyists

John McCain's Friends

Technorati Tags: John McCain, Lobbyists

VIDEO: 20 Minutes Of Pure Inspiration, Optimism and Excitement

Hillary may be the better debater and Edwards may have the better policies but no one can deliver a speech like Barack Obama did at the Jefferson Jackson Dinner in Iowa on November 10, 2007.

IMPEACHMENT WEDNESDAY: WOULD PRESIDENT PELOSI BE DISTINGUISHABLE FROM PRESIDENT BUSH?

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse for Democrats and the Democratic leadership comes this from the Washington Director of the ACLU, Caroline Fredrickson, responding to criticism that there was no organized lobbying against the new FISA bill that greatly expands Bush's power to spy on Americans:

Much of your criticism is unwarranted: we worked FISA and hard (and have been since December 2005).  We reached out to Democratic leaders -- we met with Pelosi and with Reid -- we spoke with the staff from every leadership office. They did not listen to us. It was dem leadership who scheduled the vote on these particular bills. Why be mad at us and not at them? We met with them. They rebuffed our arguments.

We weren't notified that the bill was moving until 6 days before when Rep. Harman let it slip on Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer. We gave it the full court press: with action alerts, meetings with Members of Congress and Senators and their staff.

Pelosi and friends spent the entire week negotiating with the DNI and cut out ALL the civil liberties groups - not just the ACLU. Senator Rockefeller led the effort on the Senate side (with McConnell). The bill only passed because a) 41 dems crossed the line in the house, after the “liberal leadership” could NOT muster up its own party to assert its 30 seat majority, and b) most importantly, Pelosi, our “liberal leader” scheduled the bill in the first place. She could have put any bill on the schedule and she chose the Administration's. We worked this hard, and somehow you blame the ACLU?

Wow. Damning to say the least for Pelosi, et al. One wonders if Pelosi put impeachment back on the table which the House acted on and the Senate followed with convictions, would we notice any change in governing by our new president?

Read more at Open Left

BUSH CHOOSES CIGARETTES OVER CHILDREN

Marian Wright Edelman appeared on Democracy Now today to discuss legislation supported by Democrats and Republicans in both houses, along with 91% of the American people, to extend health coverage to nine million uninsured children. Amy Goodman points out that the expansion of the so-called “S-CHIP program” to cover more children even enjoys “tepid” support from pharma and insurance groups.

Yet, while Americans overwhelmingly want to protect the most vulnerable among us, at least one person fervently disagrees:

President Bush: “I believe government cannot provide affordable health care. I believe it would cause --- it would cause the quality of care to diminish. I believe there would be lines and rationing over time. If Congress continues to insist upon expanding health care through the S-CHIP program --- which, by the way, would entail a huge tax increase for the American people --- I'll veto the bill.”

That's what they call compassionate conservatism. Also, the “huge tax increase for the American people” is an outright lie. The $35 billion needed to fund the program would come from a $0.61 tax on cigarettes. And only about 47 million Americans smoke. Further, the tax itself is beneficial to society as the increased price of cigarettes will cause more smokers to quit which will result in reduced health care costs and lower taxes in the future.

And let's not forget that this is the second time Bush has sided with Big Tobacco over the health and well-being of American children. It was only two years ago when the US Department of Justice suddenly and unilaterally slashed a legal settlement with Big Tobacco by $120 billion. That money was supposed to be used to educate children about the dangers of smoking.

It is with this backdrop that the great Marion Wright Edelman of the Children's Defense Fund justifiably says George W. Bush “doesn't know what he is talking about,” is “uninformed,” “not believable,” “out of touch,” and spouts “hollow words.” Edelman also wonders what will become of our democracy if Bush gets his way. “Can we stand up for children? If we can't stand up for children and for children's health, we don't stand for anything in this nation.”

A slightly different video was posted at BradBlog yesterday.