NJ Senate Votes To Repeal Death Penalty

By a 21-16 bipartisan vote;

Aye (17 Democrats, 4 Republicans):
John Adler (D-Cherry Hill)
Diane Allen (R-Edgewater Park)
Wayne Bryant (D-Camden)
Barbara Buono (D-Edison)
Richard Codey (D-West Orange)
Joseph Coniglio (D-Paramus)
Sandra Cunningham (D-Jersey City)
Nia Gill (D-Montclair)
John Girgenti (D-Paterson)
Ellen Karcher (D-Marlboro)
Bernard Kenny (D-Hoboken)
Raymond Lesniak (D-Union)
Robert Martin (R-Morris Plains)
James McCullough (R-Egg Harbor Township)
Joseph Palaia (R-Deal)
Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge)
Bob Smith (D-Piscataway)
Stephen Sweeney (D-Thorofare)
Shirley Turner (D-Ewing)
Joseph Vitale (D-Woodbridge)
Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck)

Nay (13 Republicans, 3 Democrats):
Nicholas Asselta (R-Cape May)
Martha Bark (R-Mount Laurel)
Anthony Bucco (R-Denville)
Gerald Cardinale (R-Cresskill)
Anthony Ciesla (R-Brick)
Lenoard Connors (R-Forked River)
Peter Inverso (R-Hamilton)
Thomas Kean Jr. (R-Westfield)
Joseph Kyrillos (R-Middletown Township)
Leonard Lance (R-Flemington)
Robert Littell (R-Franklin)
Fred Madden (D-Turnersville)
Henry McNamara (R-Wyckoff)
Nicholas Sacco (D-North Bergen)
Nicholas Scutari (D-Linden)
Robert Singer (R-Lakewood Township)

Not Voting:
Sharpe James (D-Newark)
Ronald Rice (D-Newark)

CIA Agena: Torture Is Bad, But Saved Lives...You Decide

Begin the endless bickering and name calling;

You pussy-headed liberal morons want to protect the rights of people who want to kill you. You should die or move to Canada.

And you terrorist war criminals who are no better than the people you are waterboarding should be put in chains and thrown in jail for war crimes for eroding the moral highground America has long stood on.

America at it's best!

Congress Reminds Us Christmas Is A Christian Holiday

Just in case we were too busy buying our children poisonous toys from China and forgot, Christmas is in fact a Christian holiday, says Congress.

So now back to your shopping with all you holy rollers.

Special Elections Today

Two special elections today, one in Northwest Ohio, another in Eastern Virginia, for Congressional seats left open by the deaths of two Republicans.

In Ohio, Democrat Robin Weinrauch has a shot at picking up the seat of the late Republican Paul Gilmor, but she faces Bob Latta, son of the guy who represented the district before Gilmor. Latta's internal poll yesterday showed him trialing Weinrauch in a district Bush won over 60% of the vote in.

In Virginia, Democrat Phil Forgit, an Iraq war vet is running against Republican Bob Whitman for the seat of the late Jo Ann Davis who died in October. Forgit is an underdog. The seat was won by Bush in 2004 and Republican candidates for Governor (Kilgore) in 2005 and Senator (Allen) in 2006.

If you're in one of these two districts, GO OUT AND VOTE TODAY!

The True Meaning Of Christmas

It's only commercialized when you buy crap that doesn't shove Christianity down your throat.

Huckabee Takes The Lead

Has the GOP found their candidate? Probably not, but the Southern Baptist anti-gay, anti-choice, misogynistic ex-Governor of a red state likely to be won by Hillary Clinton sure is attractive.

The other guy, America's mayor? Yeah, we're done with them.

Rudy: I Made Big Mistakes, But Only A Few

Karma's a bitch and so are you.

LA-04: McCrery To Retire

This is a pretty shocking announcement out of Northwest Louisiana. Rep. Jim McCrery (R-Louisiana), who is the ranking Republican member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, will retire next year. The district, the fourth district of Louisiana, includes the entire Shreveport area, 3/4 of the Louisiana/Texas border, and the west half of the Arkansas/Louisiana border.

McCrery has represented the Shreveport area in Western and Northwestern Louisiana for nearly 20 years. McCrery won 55% of the vote in 2006 against two Democrats who received a combined 43% of the vote.

The seat leans Republican, but a strong Democrat, such as former Shreveport mayor Keith Hightower, can pick off this seat.

Happy Hour

Turns out the Page program is like any other high school in the United States.

"Nobody gets anything until the we make the Democrats look as bad as we possibly can"

The President not a criminal, just dangerously incompetent.

George W. Bush and Kim Jong Il, BFF!

Dana Perino gets thousands of dollars in taxpayer money to tell the nation daily that she doesn't know a damn thing about anytihng.

Barack who? I just want to see Oprah, she's my girl!

Bush seeks tax cuts for fives, tens of people...otherwise, all of you are getting taxed like you've never been taxed before.

It's not a problem that needs immediate attention until a couple hundred people die.

Dick Cheney is a jerk, Speaker Pelosi seems surprised.

Eliot Spitzer is giving everyone high-speed internet access...that should make everyone forget about the whole giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants thing.

Mitt Romney won't take orders from the Mormom church, but he'll gladly take orders from any other church that will vote for him!

Our next V$CE PRE$IDENT must be loaded!

Will It Really Kill Him?

All this brouhaha about Mike Huckabee and his appealing for the paroling of a rapist who later killed someone when he was Governor of Arkansas is of little interest to me.

The story goes that a relative of Bill Clinton was raped and her rapist went to jail. Anti-Clinton forces in Arkansas, where they were more ferocious than anywhere else early on, thought the convicted rapist got an unfair deal because his victim was a relative of the Clintons. The pressure put on Huckabee to push for his parole was obvious from anti-Clinton forces, but whether or not Huckabee's pleas for parole were political or just his Christian sympathetic personality is up for question. Perhaps this is the unintended consequence of his Christian beliefs, sort of like his sympathetic stance on illegal immigration and his reluctant support for the death penalty.

Even if Huckabee's support for parole was politically motivated, I cannot see how it would hurt him in the primary. Rather, it may actually help him. Republicans are only motivated due to their hatred for the Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton. In the general, however, it could hurt with independents, especially if he is not facing Clinton and anti-Clinton sentiment is not an issue.

Less than a month away from the Iowa caucus and with Huckabee opening quite a lead there, is it too late to derail his momentum? Is it too late for his GOP rivals to come back and stop him, or should Democrats be preparing to face the former Governor of Arkansas in the general. Is that why this issue is suddenly coming to light?

Flowers For Hillary

The former first lady may have the support of someone VERY interesting.

When your mistress and wife get together, well, it's a Lifetime movie in the making.

House Passes Energy Legislation

The House of Representatives passed an energy legislation that will cut tax breaks to oil companies and requires the automotive industry to increase fuel economy 40% to 35 miles per gallon by 2020.The bill will also mandate that electric utility companies generate 15 percent of their energy from renewable sources of energy such as wind, biomass or solar power by 2020. That mandate, and the tax breaks, were dealbreakers with the White House, who threatens to veto it.

The bill got the support of 14 Republicans;
Mary Bono (R-California)
Mike Castle (R-Delaware)
Jim Gerlach (R-Pennsylvania)
Robin Hayes (R-North Carolina)
Tim Johnson (R-Illinois)
Mark Kirk (R-Illinois)
Ray LaHood (R-Illinois)
Frank LoBiondo (R-New Jersey)
Jim Ramstad (R-Minnesota)
Dave Reichert (R-Washington)
Illeana Ros-Lehitnen (R-Florida)
Christopher Shays (R-Connecticut)
Chris Smith (R-New Jersey)
Greg Walden (R-Oregon)

7 Democrats opposed the bill, mostly from Southern oil states;
John Barrow (D-Georgia)
Dan Boren (D-Oklahoma)
Allen Boyd (D-Florida)
Gene Green (D-Texas)
Nick Lampson (D-Texas)
Jim Marshall (D-Georgia)
Charlie Melacon (D-Louisiana)

Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell warn the bill may not get passed the Senate, for no other reason than the Republicans will filibuster...again. Reid is ordering the parade of Presidential candidates back to Washington for the vote.

Presidents and Religion

Here's an interesting list of the religions of our past Presidents;

George Washington- Episcopal
John Adams- Unitarian
Thomas Jefferson- Deist
James Madison- Deist/Episcopal (disputed)
John Quincy Adams- Unitarian
Andrew Jackson- Presbyterian
Martin Van Buren- Dutch Reformed
William Henry Harrison- Episcopal
John Tyler- Episcopal
James Polk- Methodist
Zachary Taylor- Episcopal
Millard Fillmore- Unitarian
Franklin Pierce- Episcopal
James Buchanan- Presbyterian
Abraham Lincoln- unknown
Andrew Jackson- unknown, probably Baptist
Ulysses S. Grant- Methodist
Rutherford B. Hayes- Methodist
James Garfield- Disciples of Christ
Chester Arthur- Episcopal
Grover Cleveland- Presbyterian
Benjamin Harrison- Presbyterian
William McKinley- Methodist
Theodore Roosevelt- Episcopal
William Taft- Unitarian
Woodrow Wilson- Presbyterian
Warren G. Harding- Baptist
Calvin Coolidge- Congregationalist
Herbert Hoover- Quaker
Franklin D. Roosevelt- Episcopal
Harry Truman- Baptist
Dwight Eisenhower- Jehovah's Witness/Presbyterian
John F. Kennedy- Roman Catholic
Lyndon Johnson- Disciples of Christ
Richard Nixon- Quaker
Gerald Ford- Episcopal
Jimmy Carter- Baptist
Ronald Reagan- Presbyterian
George H. W. Bush- Episcopal
Bill Clinton- Baptist
George W. Bush- Methodist

Presidential Candidates;

DEMOCRATS:
Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden: Roman Catholic
New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton: Methodist
Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd: Roman Catholic
Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards: Methodist
Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich: Roman Catholic
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama: Christian (United Church of Christ)
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson: Roman Catholic

REPUBLICANS:
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani: Roman Catholic
California Rep. Duncan Hunter: Baptist
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee: Southern Baptist
Arizona Sen. John McCain: Episcopalian
Texas Rep. Ron Paul: Baptist
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney: Mormon
Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo: Presbyterian
Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson: Southern Baptist

The Religious Litmus Test

It's sad that in this country we need to have a religious litmus test for a Presidential candidate, at least in the Republican Party.

Mitt Romney's presidential campaign should be judged on his ideas, his stances on policies and his record as Governor of Massachusetts from 2003-2007, not on whether or not he worships at a temple or a church. Today's speech by Mitt Romney, where he almost seemed desperate, is a sad event in our history.

I found this part of Romney's speech especially titilating;

Let me assure you that no authorities of my church, or of any other church for that matter, will ever exert influence on presidential decisions. Their authority is theirs, within the province of church affairs, and it ends where the affairs of the nation begin. As governor, I tried to do the right as best I knew it, serving the law and answering to the Constitution. I did not confuse the particular teachings of my church with the obligations of the office and of the Constitution - and of course, I would not do so as president. I will put no doctrine of any church above the plain duties of the office and the sovereign authority of the law.

See Mitt blew it there in my opinion. He's right to respond to the fears of the Christian fundamentalists that his religion would have some say in his presidency. The problem is, the reason these nuts are so worried are because they want THEIR religion to control the decisions of the next President. These zealots see their religion, their Bible, their version of the story, as the rightful ruling doctrine of the United States, and Mitt Romney cannot be President because he does not belong to that doctrine, he belongs to another doctrine. It's a scary thought, that our country is really like that, but it's even scarier that I'm defending Mitt Romney.

I sort of want him to win the nomination now, just to spite the fundamentalists.

NY-20: Gillibrand Pregnant

The Albany Times-Union has reported the freshman Democratic Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand, who defeated John Sweeney to be the 15th, and majority clinching, seat on election night, is pregnant with her second child.

Gillibrand, 40, and her husband, Jonathan Gillibrand, have one child, Theodore, who is four years old. The congresswoman will continue to do her duties until her doctors tell her otherwise.

Gillibrand is due in May. She will be the second woman to give birth this session. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (R-Washington) gave birth to a baby boy, Cole McMorris Rodgers, last May.

Only four other members of Congress, including one other New Yorker, have given birth while in Congress. Yvonne Brathwaite Burke (D-California) was the first in 1973, followed by Enid Greene (R-Utah) in 1995, Susan Molinari (R-New York) and Blanche Lincoln (D-Arkansas), both in 1996. McMorris Rodgers was the fifth this year.

The Boy Who Cried Weapons Of Mass Destruction

They charge that liberals and the left are flip-floppers who change their views on an issue based on what's popular. Well, sometimes they do, but sometimes changing your views is warranted when it turns out you were wrong all along.
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Today we learned that Iran perhaps isn't as great a threat as the President had let us to believe. Are we supposed to be shocked? He insists they're still dangerous and still wants nukes, but his insinuations are just plain assumptions at this point. It is dangerous and counterproductive to make allegations based on assumptions. It destroys our credibility as a nation, not that we have any credibility anymore. We were wrong on Iraq, we were wrong on Iran. We are 0 and 2 in that region as of now.

Only six weeks ago, this President was invoking World War III, all the while his administration, and perhaps even the President himself. knew there was no immediate risk from that country. Europe, Russia and China aren't excited at all about pressuring an important oil producing country. They will be less so now it appears there is no immediate risk from Iran.

President Bush convinced us Iraq was an immediate threat. We went to war, a war we can't end, and we found out, everything was true. If not a liar, the President and his administration were incompetent and wrong. This is not the type of thing where an hypothesis is ok. We cannot run around being bellicose and threatening war because we have a hunch. The world is not going to stand besides a government that keeps overstating threats and is consistently wrong. How are we to be trusted? What happens when we're actually right? Will our allies around the world trust our judgment?

President Bush stands in front of the world today as the Boy who cried Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Bush: Iran Still Dangerous

"Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous, Iran will be dangerous"
-George W. Bush

Replace Iran with President Bush and the statement still rings true.

OH-05: Are Republicans Worried?

There's two special elections occurring next Tuesday. One is in the Ohio 5th District, vacant since it's Representative, Paul Gilmor, died in early September. The district leans Republican. It has been in Republican hands since 1939. President Bush won over 60% of the vote in this district.

OH-05 is centered in Northwestern Ohio, including Fremont, Tiffin, Norwalk and Bowling Green, as well as the southern suburbs of Toledo.

The Republican nominee is Bob Latta, an Ohio State Senator and the son of Del Latta, who held the seat for 30 years. The Democratic nominee is Robin Weirauch, who got 43% of the vote against Paul Gilmor last year. As of late, Republicans are pouring a lot of money into the special election campaign, raising flags that perhaps they believe Weirauch to be stronger than they think. An internal poll showed Latta 14 points up, but only at 50%. In response, Democrats appear to have poured a lot of their resources hoping to pull off an upset. Some insiders say the race is likely to be close, reminiscent of the 2005 race in the similarly-conservative Ohio-2 district near Cincinatti where Democrat Paul Hackett, an Iraq war vet, won 48% of the vote against Republican Jean Schmidt, an Ohio state legislature. The closeness of the race (Schmidt's predecessor, Rob Portman, had consistently gotten 70% of the vote in earlier elections) was seen as a harbinger for 2006, when Democrats won both houses of Congress.

Election Day in the Ohio-5 is December 11th

US Now Says No Nuke Program In Iran

Seriously, can this governmet make up their damn minds.

A US intelligence report now says the Iranian government halted nuclear development in 2003 and has not restarted a nuclear weapons program, despite what the Bush administration has been telling us.

The report concluded that Iran is at least three years away from developing the technology that could be used to enrich uranium and build a nuclear bomb.

The Bush Administration is not backing down on it's assesment that Iran is the boogey man of the world. National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley reiterated the administration's message that Iran's nuclear ambitions, which the NIE report says may not exist at all, is a serious risk.

Venezuela Rejects Chavez's Reforms

If there was any doubt in anyone's minds that Venezuela was a democracy with a bad leader, here's your proof.

Chavez says he will respect the voice of the people. I have my doubts he'll go quietly in 2012, but the moral of the story is...Venezuela is a democracy and Chavez is a democractically elected leader, whether you like it or not.

Iowa Congressman Endorses Edwards

As the Democratic Iowa Caucus turns into a three way dead heat between Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Barack Obama and former Senator John Edwards, the first endorsement came out today from Iowa's congressional delegation.

Freshman Demcorat Bruce Braley, who represents Iowa's First District centered around Dubuque, Davenport and Waterloo, endorsed John Edwards.

Braley says of Edwards;

“Throughout this campaign, on issue after issue, John has proposed bold ideas to end the power of special interests in Washington and restore our government to the American people,” Braley said in a statement released by Edwards’s campaign. “John is the only Democratic candidate who grew up in rural America, and he has the most specific, most progressive and most far-reaching ideas.”

The rest of Iowa's delegation; two other Democratic House members, two Republican House members and Senators Tom Harkin, a Democrat, and Chuck Grassley, a Republican, have yet to endorse.

Braley's endorsement comes as Marc Ambinder states that Edwards has the best organization on the ground in Iowa. Ambinder notes that the campaign has trained "at least two precinct captains in more than 87 percent of caucus precincts statewide. Generally, campaigns don't release this kind of info, but in Edwards's case, it reinforces the case made by rival campaigns privately: if the caucuses were held tonight, based on organization alone, Edwards would probably win."

Iowa is much of a tossup as a tossup could be.

Music Memory Jar: December 3, 1984

2,000 people were killed instantly and another 6,000 would later die from a chemical leak at a Union Carbide plant sends a toxic cloud of odorless gas through the town of Bhopal, India.

Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke sees his governmet reelection by a narrow margin.

British Telecomm, now known as BT, is privatized by Margaret Thatcher's conservative government.

In New York City, a certain blogger was...eh, he was an 18 month old colicky baby who took a liking to the soothing sounds of Hall and Oates...especially their latest hit; "Out Of Touch"

Rove's Delusional Attempt To Shift Blame

See, Karl Rove's biggest problem is that he is no leader; when he's right, he wants to be praised like some God, when he's wrong, he wants someone else to take the blame. In his latest WTF moment, he blames Democrats in Congress for the Iraq war, trying to convince us that the President never wanted to go to the war in Iraq, but it was Tom Daschle and the Senate Democrats who pushed the President into the war.

On Fox News Sunday, Rove kept to his story, even as Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) countered his argument with a quote by former Bush Press Secretary Ari Fleischer;

"It was definitely the Bush administration that set it in motion and determined the timing, not the Congress. I think Karl in this instance just has his facts wrong."

Rove disagrees and one wonders...does he really believe the crap he says?

Rudy: GET AWAY FROM ME!

Rudy Giuliani reminds us that as President, he will not answer questions about anything to a media that doesn't wish to paint him in a positive light.

Yesterday, as media approached him to ask him questions on his controversial shifting of funds during his affair with his now wife, Rudy's henchmen got physical with the media.

Seriously, if Rudy can't handle Newsweek, how is he going to handle North Korea? Oh right, blow them up while he hides in a bunker. Isn't that what Giulianis do?

Democrats To Pass Energy Legislation

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has struck a deal with Michigan Democrats in a new energy bill that will increase fuel economy standards by 40% by 2020;

Automakers would be required to meet an industrywide average of 35 miles per gallon for cars and light trucks, including SUVs, by 2020, the first increase by Congress in car fuel efficiency in 32 years.

Republicans protested the bill because it did not include funding for domestic oil drilling and production. Pelosi stated she hoped the bill would push for alternative forms of energy and renweable energy.

The bill is expected to pass the House and Senate and go to the President desk, and what he does is still in question.