Al Gore, who already won an Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth, added an Emmy to his collection for Current TV. The next major award Gore is up for is the Nobel Peace Prize.
Liberal Values Defending Liberty and Enlightened Thought
Impeach on the Beach
September 16, 2007 — Ron Chusid
While I”ve done it in the past, there are far too many variations on “impeach” photos to cover very many of them. Having recently been in San Fancisco, this one caught my eye.
Lincoln Chafee Left Republican Party
September 16, 2007 — Ron ChusidThe Providence Journal reports that Lincoln Chaffee quietly left the Republican Party in June or July:
Chafee said he disaffiliated with the party he had helped lead, and his father had led before him, because the national Republican Party has gone too far away from his stance on too many critical issues, from war to economics to the environment.
“It’s not my party any more,” he said.
Chafee’s departure is another step in the waning of the strain of moderate Republicanism that was once a winning political philosophy from Rhode Island and Connecticut to the Canadian border. For the first time since the Civil War, the six New England states combined now have only one Republican U.S. House member, Connecticut’s Christopher Shays.
Chafee said he disaffiliated from the party “in June or July,” making him an unaffiliated voter. He did so quietly, and until yesterday, he said, “No one’s asked me about it.” He said he made the move because “I want my affiliation to accurately reflect my status.”
“There’s been a gradual depravation of … the issues the party should be strong on,” and the direction of the national party, he said.
The report lists several areas in which Chafee has disagreed with Republican policies. He was the only Republican to oppose the Iraq War Resolution. He has criticized Republicans for making tax cuts without accompanying spending cuts to offset the lost revenue, creating “permanent deficits.” Chafee objected to the “starve the beast” philosophy for undermining social programs which benefit the middle class. He also opposed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
While I wish there were more such reasonable people fighting to take back control of the Republican Party from the extremists who control it, it is understandable that Chafee would no longer find the party to be acceptable. It is a shame that he couldn’t bring himself to leave the Republican Party until after the 2006 elections. If he had been willing to change parties before the election he probably could have kept his Senate seat.
Bill Maher on 9/11 Conspiracy Theories
September 16, 2007 — Ron Chusid[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6GWIyMx_D4]
New Rule: Crazy people who still think the government brought down the Twin Towers in a controlled explosion have to stop pretending that I’m the one that’s being naïve. How big a lunatic do you have to be to watch two giant airliners packed with jet fuel slam into buildings on live TV igniting a massive inferno that burned for two hours and then think, “Well, if you believe that was the cause?” Stop asking me to raise this ridiculous topic on this show and start asking your doctor if Paxil is right for you.
Alan Greenspan Accuses Republicans of Waging War For Oil
September 16, 2007 — Ron ChusidLiberals who accused the Bush administration of waging war for oil have often been criticized by conservatives with attacks such as this one from In The National Interest:
Nothing demonstrates the political and moral bankruptcy of the American liberal left more clearly than the current attempt to portray military action against Iraq as “for the oil”.
They are going to have to add Alan Greenspan’s name to the politically and morally bankrupt in light of his accusations in his current book, as reported by The Times of London:
AMERICA’s elder statesman of finance, Alan Greenspan, has shaken the White House by declaring that the prime motive for the war in Iraq was oil…
… it is his view on the motive for the 2003 Iraq invasion that is likely to provoke the most controversy. “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil,” he says.
Greenspan’s book has already gained publicity for his criticism of Republican economic policies including the abandonment of their small-government philosophy.
Mr. Greenspan, who calls himself a “lifelong libertarian Republican,” writes that he advised the White House to veto some bills to curb “out-of-control” spending while the Republicans controlled Congress. He says President Bush’s failure to do so “was a major mistake.” Republicans in Congress, he writes, “swapped principle for power. They ended up with neither. They deserved to lose.”
Before his long career in government, Greenspan was a disciple of Ayn Rand, the topic of this recent post regarding the 50th anniversary of the publishing of Atlas Shrugged.
