Bush Impeachment Will Go To Committee

And this time it doesn't look like they are sending it there to bury it:

Kucinich Says Unidentified Foreign Official
Wants to Speak at Impeachment Talks

An unidentified government official of a U.S. ally wants to participate if and when Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich makes his case to impeach President Bush before the House Judiciary Committee, according to the Ohio Democrat.

The House voted, 238-180, on Tuesday to send Kucinich’s latest impeachment effort (H Res 1345) to the Judiciary Committee.

Chairman John Conyers Jr. said he will hold a broad hearing on the general topic of abuses of power by the Bush administration.

“There’s never been one [hearing] that accumulated all the things that constitute an imperial presidency,” Conyers said, explaining that the anticipated hearing would review more than a year of committee inquiry into such matters as the firing of U.S. attorneys, the leak of the identity of former CIA operative Valerie Plame and the information provided to Congress in the run-up to the Iraq War.

Read on... But before you go to read that, why is torture not on that list? It should be.

West of the Border Bigot

A storyline that has come to typify republican hate is going on just west of the border from North-Western Connecticut:

During a July 2nd meeting of the Pawling, NY town board. Republican town supervisor Beth Coursen called town republican chairman Glenn Carey a "faggot" and said "everybody knows it". The town of Pawling sits about 70 miles North of New York City. This wouldn't be the first time Ms. Coursen has used such language against Mr. Carey.

Lucy Watson, wife of Democratic Councilman David Watson, said, while she did not hear the July 2 exchange, it was familiar to her.

Watson said she was present in late 2007 at a restaurant and in May 2008 in town hall after a board meeting when Coursen referred to Carey in the same manner.

Cross Posted at Political Newsline

Of course, ctblogger is still being kept busy documenting the worst that Connecticut has to offer:

Would you like some death threats with that racism?

Danbury News-Times=all the comments that's fit to print.

And ctblogger is right... It does sound familiar.

How Does Obama Offer an Olive Branch for FISA Capitulation?

This may be one way:

Obama Seeks Info on Dodd in Vice President Search - TIME

Barack Obama's presidential campaign has requested information from Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd as part of its search for a possible vice presidential candidate.

The former White House hopeful and Connecticut lawmaker indicated Wednesday that he has been approached by the campaign. "There's been some inquiries, yeah," Dodd said. "They ask for a lot of stuff. I'll leave it there."

Senator Dodd may not make the final Vice Presidential cut, but the choice would go a long way towards repairing the minor rift among his supporters that resulted because of Obama's participation in eviscerating the 4th amendment. Needless to say, McCain was even worse on this issue because he wasn't man enough to actually show up and vote on it - something McCain does almost every time there is an important vote. Spineless Republican.

Dodd was the most vocal Senate opponent of protecting the telecoms from civil suits arising from their aiding the bush administration's illegal spying on Americans. CTNewsJunkie has more on the possible implications of Dodd as VP candidate.

Robocall Watch CT-05 Edition

Apparently a Republican attack dog, Freedom Watch, is planning on running a robocall campaign against House Rep. Chris Murphy:

Freedom’s Watch, the conservative advocacy group that has vowed to spend millions against Democratic congressional candidates this fall, will be running robocalls this week in 16 congressional districts where Democratic incumbents seem vulnerable or where an open seat has given rise to a competitive election.

The robocalls will focus on the issue of high gas prices.

No Nutmeggers... It's not the Enron-esque practices of the oil industry, where the oil industry owns leases on millions of acres of undeveloped oil and refuse to develop them, or unregulated market speculation, nor the lack of refineries needed to actually meet today's demand. And it's certainly not the result of illegal invasions and occupations.

It's that pesky 5% to 10% in taxes (depending on your state) that are the direct result of gas more than doubling in price at the pumps.

And Freedom Watch is out to piss you off with those insane Republican robocalls full of complete and total BS.

Previously brewed in New Milford:

Republican Lies About Offshore Drilling

environmentalist from dKos cuts through the GOP's BS concerning offshore drilling:

First of all, there is no "ban".

"Ban" is just more GOPer-speak. In reality, there is a moratorium on drilling in certain coastal areas. Other areas are not only open to drilling but leases and drilling permits have already been issued.

And they are not being drilled.

In fact, only 17% of the leased areas [are] in production. So, with about 33 million acres of offshore areas already available to drill and not being drilled, why does the oil and gas industry need to have access to still more? The fact is that nearly 25 BILLION barrels of oil off the coast of the United States is currently available for drilling...and industry is not drilling it.

Not to mention natural gas. Most of the natural gas occurring offshore (over 328 TRILLION cubic feet – an eleven year supply at current consumption rates) is currently available for leasing and development.

And they’re not going after it.

This is the story throughout the country, more than 44 million acres of onshore public lands are leased for oil and gas development and yet most of it is not being drilled. All told (onshore and offshore), 68 million acres are leased and sitting idle. Over 10,000 permits are currently 'stockpiled' by industry. But still they want more.

Between 1999 and 2007, the number of drilling permits issued for development of public lands increased by more than 361%. And did you see your gasoline costs drop? How about your electricity costs? Propane? natural gas? Uh...no. There is absolutely no correlation between the industrialization of public lands and the price of fossil fuels.

It has been estimated that if all of those currently inactive leases were drilled, the USA would produce an additional 4.8 million barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas EVERY DAY, accounting for a doubling of US oil production and a 75% increase in US natural gas production. The Minerals Management Service tells us that about 80% of fossil fuels available in offshore are currently available for development.

What's going on here is yet another cynical attempt by the GOP and the oil and gas robber barons to increase and assure huge industry profits at the expense of the American people. These companies don’t want to drill these areas. They want to hold them as [assets] to limit the amount of oil and gas on the market so that prices rise still further - and they make more money.

Republicans and the oil industry are lying to America out the ying yang on this. Surprised? I didn't think so...