A Blog Called Hope

Check out this new web ad from The Democratic Party

Third Bush Term on the Economy…

McCain’s Short-Term Solution For the Economy? Tax Cuts for the Wealthy in Two Years, Of Course. When asked what efforts who have a short-term impact on the economy, McCain responded “In the shorter term, if you somehow told American businesses and families, ‘Look, you’re not going to experience a tax increase in 2010,’ I think that’s a pretty good short-term measure. And as far as confidence is concerned, I think if you say, ‘Congress is going to cut corporate taxes right away,’ if you say that you’ve got a plan to eliminate the AMT, I think some of those are kind of short-term measures right now.” [Wall Street Journal, 3/3/08]

Republicans Postponing Consideration of Housing Bill So McCain Doesn’t Have to Make a Hard Vote. “Consideration of the mortgage package was delayed earlier in the week when a debate over the Iraq War lasted longer than expected. At the time, Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., maintained that Republicans were intentionally delaying consideration of the mortgage package so that Arizona Sen. John McCain — the presumptive GOP presidential nominee — would not have to cast a vote on the bill before the March 4 Ohio primary.” [Congressional Quarterly Today, 2/27/2008]

Third Bush Term on Iraq…

McCain Would Spend ‘a Hundred Years’ or a ‘Million Years’ in Iraq. McCain interrupted a voter during a town hall meeting in New Hampshire telling him we could spend “maybe a hundred” years in Iraq and “that would be fine with me.” After the town hall meeting, he told a reporter “that U.S. troops could be in Iraq for ‘a thousand years’ or ‘a million years,’ as far as he was concerned.” [McCain Derry, NH town hall meeting , 1/3/08; motherjones.com , 1/3/08]

McCain Consistently on Bush Talking Points on Iraq. In 2003, McCain echoed Bush’s rosy predictions by claiming that the end was “very much in sight” in Iraq. In 2005, McCain backed Bush, arguing that another year would prove “stay the course” was working. [The Hill, 12/8/05; ABC News, Good Morning America, 4/9/03] In 2006, McCain argued that Iraqwas “on the right track” even as it slipped further toward civil war. [MSNBC, Imus in the Morning, 3/1/06] As of late, McCain’s campaign insists, “terrorists are on the run,” even while half of Afghanistan appears to have fallen back under the control of the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden remains at large. [johnmccain.com, press release, 12/17/07; Time, 12/8/07; Investor's Business Daily, 12/14/07]

Third Bush Term on Health Care…

John McCain Does Not Have a Plan For the Uninsured. According to the Wall Street Journal, McCain’s plan does not focus on “reducing the ranks of the uninsured,” of which there are about 47 million, or one in seven Americans. [Wall Street Journal, 10/11/07]

McCain Opposed Reauthorizing SCHIP and Providing Insurance For Millions of Uninsured Children. McCain voted against reauthorizing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program for five years, expanding the program by $35.2 billion. [Senate Vote #307, 8/2/07]

Third Bush Term on Social Security…

2008: McCain “Totally In Favor” of Bush Social Security Plan.  “I’m totally in favor of personal savings accounts and I think they are an important opportunity for young workers. I campaigned in support of President Bush’s proposal and I campaigned with him, and I did town hall meetings with him.” [Wall Street Journal, 3/3/08]

2005: McCain Campaigned for Bush Social Security Plan.  “McCain has been especially supportive of his onetime rival, appearing with Bush at three events over the past two days in trying to prod Democrats into negotiations to include private accounts in a plan to revamp Social Security.” [Washington Post, 3/23/05]

From the Oscars last night:

Here’s some video from Mike Huckabee’s visit to RI earlier today. In this clip, he talks about the mathematical challenge of winning the Republican nomination.

We successfully infiltrated McCain’s double-talk express stop in Warwick just a few hours ago and are just beginning to go though the video. We’ll be posting the lowlights shortly, but here’s a little tid-bit we thought you’d find interesting.

Former Chafee campaign aide characterizes Obama endorsement as “mistake”

It’s got to be depressing for Lang to see his old boss get behind one of our two great candidates for president. But it’s not just happening here, all across the country Republicans and independents are pouring into Democratic primaries and caucuses in record numbers to support Sen. Obama or Sen. Clinton because they’re tired of the failed Bush policies and recognize that John McCain represents more of the same. Speaking of that, Chairman Lynch sent out this release earlier today calling on Carcieri and the GOP members of the Assembly to justify their support of John McCain – a candidate who is on the wrong side of almost every issue important to their constituents.

More video coming.

Happy Thursday, folks, let’s have a little fun with this one. Get the creative juices flowing and write what you think should appear as the caption underneath this photo from today’s Kent County Daily Times of House Republican Whip Nick Gorham, who lost control the other night at a Coventry Town Council meeting and had to be escorted out of the building by the Coventry Police.

Keep it clean please (this ain’t Craigslist) and relatively nice.

John McCain’s claims to be the biggest critic of George Bush’s war are flat-out laughable.

From The Washington Post ‘08 campaign blog:

“We have received reports from Romney supporters who have gotten calls providing inaccurate information about the Governor and caucus locations. There is no excuse for these types of activities and they have no part in the caucus process,” Romney spokesman Matt Rhoades said.

Also, Fred Thompson’s campaign said one staff member and several of its supporters received computerized calls that targeted Thompson and John McCain for criticism. One supporter, according to the campaign, said the call starts with a live operator saying, “Do you have a minute to listen to a taped message from Fred Thompson?” The caller next plays a tape of Thompson talking about how he doesn’t have the “fire in his belly.” The operator then returns and says “Do you really think a man like this could beat Hillary Clinton?”

The Narragansett Times has the scoop this week on Republicans in South Kingston whining about a recent speech given at the high school by Dr. John Nirenberg, a Vermont resident who is walking from Boston to Washington, D.C. to encourage Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney for abusing the Constitution and blindly misleading the country into war.

Both the current and previous local GOP chairs showed up at the last school committee meeting to complain that their children had been subjected to the left-leaning speech and were asked if they wanted to sign Nirenberg’s petition demanding impeachment. Jim Cavanaugh, the former GOP chair, was so peeved he had this to say:

“It’s well I’m not armed. If I find my granddaughter signed that petition, the next time I see you will be in court and I will sue your butts.”

It’s well he’s not armed? You can only imagine what dinner was like in his house that night. “You sign that petition? That’s it, I’m getting my .45!”

Anyway, here’s the man that stirred up all the controversy, in his own words:

I am not an activist. The defense of the Constitution isn’t ideological. I march because it is essential to stand up to this shame. I march also because I am fortunate enough to do so. I march for everyone uncomfortable with movements, organizers and radicals, but who understand the dire straights we’re in. This is about saving our Constitution. This is about restoring the promise of America. This is about doing what I can as a citizen.

It should be noted that Democrats in both the House and Senate have kept their promise to push an agenda that will get us out of Iraq and move the country forward, but unfortunately, they’ve have been rebuffed time and time again by obstructionist Republicans who remain hell-bent on ignoring the overwhelming majority of Americans who want this war brought to an end.

This year Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., told the congressional newspaper Roll Call, “The strategy of being obstructionist can work or fail … and so far it’s worked for us.”

This just in from the ProJo Blog…

Governor Carcieri will appeal to the state Supreme Court a judge’s ruling last week that he must take the stand at the criminal trials of seven Narragansett Indians arrested in a state police raid on a tribal smoke shop in July 2003, arguing that his testimony is not relevant to the cases.

Judge Susan E. McGuirl ruled in Providence County Superior Court Friday that the tribal members’ lawyers could call the governor to testify. She said the defendants’ rights to due process outweighed the governor’s claim of executive privilege, particularly since he made numerous public statements following the raid.

The judge limited any questioning to the instructions Carcieri gave Col. Steven M. Pare, then superintendent of the state police, in the days leading up to the raid.

“Governor Carcieri’s conversations with Col. Steven Pare have no relevance to the criminal charges against the seven defendants,” Michael Maynard, the spokesman for the governor, said in a statement. “The Governor believes that there is nothing that he could say that is in any way relevant to the charges of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, which is what this trial is about.”

The governor is stuck and he knows it. He knows what he said in the days after the smoke shop raid, and he knows that he’s been caught in a lie. Col. Pare testified in open court that he was given no order to withdraw if the State Police encountered resistance. But as we all know, that contradicts what the governor said during his initial press briefings. The governor’s staff is desperate to keep him off the stand, and, if you knew what they knew…who could blame them?