Isn’t it amazing
The Obama Campaign & Movement 

From the way she knows how to trim her sails, Ms. Bono must be a pretty decent sailor. Although busy planning her wedding, Bono senses, quite rightly, that change is in the air. The new winds are coming out of the left; where-as in the past it blew decidely from the right.

Now that her voting record is getting a lot more attention, she’s pulling a “Cher” on us. In Cher’s case it is the extreme make-over approach. Using her on the record voting and the well placed news conference, Bono would have us believe that she, Bono, is to the left of Hillary on domestic issues. While this may or may not have some validity, it is so recent a change as to raise eye-brows. According to Ms. Bono, healthy families is critically important. Hard to argue with that sentiment. Also, it is that kind oh hot air that is “critically important” in sailing as well.
 

Rush doesn’t consider anyone who disagrees with him a real person, that’s been obvious for a while.  But I guess the fact that this comes so SOON after the whole MoveOn/BetrayUs thing strikes me as odd.  You’d think that whole deification of the military thing would kick in and prevent him from smearing men and women in uniform so soon.

Jon Soltz of VoteVets has a righteous post.  And Jerry McNerney really has his back up (this is from an email):

Where does Rush Limbaugh get the moral standing to pass judgment on our heroes who wore this nation’s uniform and returned to exercise their First Amendment rights? Even for Rush, that’s too far!

Will you join me in calling the following radio stations to demand they take Rush’s show off the air?

KWSX in Stockton – (209) 551-1280
KSFO in San Francisco – (415) 954-7449
KFBK in Sacramento – (916) 929-5325

Hey, he’s consistent, right?  He voted to condemn the MoveOn ad.

I don’t want Rush’s show off the air.  I think free speech means accepting the speech you don’t like.  And this idea that anyone who’s ever served in the military is immune from the slightest criticism kind of makes me squirm.  None of this is to defend Rush, who obviously thinks that anyone who doesn’t serve the country in EXACTLY the way he sees fit is simply not genuine, and worthy of derision.  There’s a difference between MoveOn’s substantive, fact-based argument, and Limbaugh’s hatred of anyone who doesn’t think like him.  But you don’t ban it, and you don’t ignore it.  You HIGHLIGHT it.  And you make sure everyone knows about the vast emptiness within his soul.

UPDATE: Full context of Limbaugh’s remarks on the flip.

LIMBAUGH: Mike in Chicago, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER 1: Hi Rush, how you doing today?

LIMBAUGH: I’m fine sir, thank you.

CALLER 1: Good. Why is it that you always just accuse the Democrats of being against the war and suggest that there are absolutely no Republicans that could possibly be against the war?

LIMBAUGH: Well, who are these Republicans? I can think of Chuck Hagel, and I can think of Gordon Smith, two Republican senators, but they don’t want to lose the war like the Democrats do. I can’t think of — who are the Republicans in the anti-war movement?

CALLER 1: I’m just — I’m not talking about the senators. I’m talking about the general public — like you accuse the public of all the Democrats of being, you know, wanting to lose, but —

LIMBAUGH: Oh, come on! Here we go again. I uttered a truth, and you can’t handle it, so you gotta call here and change the subject. How come I’m not also hitting Republicans? I don’t know a single Republican or conservative, Mike, who wants to pull out of Iraq in defeat. The Democrats have made the last four years about that specifically.

CALLER 1: Well, I am a Republican, and I’ve listened to you for a long time, and you’re right on a lot of things, but I do believe that we should pull out of Iraq. I don’t think it’s winnable. And I’m not a Democrat, but I just — sometimes you’ve got to cut the losses.

LIMBAUGH: Well, you — you —

CALLER 1: I mean, sometimes you really gotta know when you’re wrong.

LIMBAUGH: Well, yeah, you do. I’m not wrong on this. The worst thing that can happen is losing this, flying out of there, waving the white flag. Do you have —

CALLER 1: Oh, I’m not saying that. I’m not saying anything like that, but, you know —

LIMBAUGH: Well, of course you are.

CALLER 1: No, I’m not.

LIMBAUGH: Bill, the truth is — the truth is the truth, Mike.

CALLER 1: We did what we were supposed to do, OK. We got rid of Saddam Hussein. We got rid of a lot of the terrorists. Let them run their country —

LIMBAUGH: Oh, good lord! Good lord.

[…]

CALLER 1: How long is it gonna — how long do you think we’re going to have to be there for them to take care of that?

LIMBAUGH: Mike —

CALLER 1: How long — you know — what is it?

LIMBAUGH: Mike —

CALLER 1: What is it?

LIMBAUGH: Mike, you can’t possibly be a Republican.

CALLER 1: I am.

LIMBAUGH: You are — you are —

CALLER 1: I am definitely a Republican.

LIMBAUGH: You can’t be a Republican. You are —

CALLER 1: Oh, I am definitely a Republican.

LIMBAUGH: You are tarnishing the reputation, ’cause you sound just like a Democrat.

CALLER 1: No, but —

LIMBAUGH: The answer to your question —

CALLER 1: — seriously, how long do we have to stay there —

LIMBAUGH: As long as it takes!

CALLER 1: — to win it? How long?

LIMBAUGH: As long as it takes! It is very serious.

CALLER 1: And that is what?

LIMBAUGH: This is the United States of America at war with Islamofascists. We stay as long — just like your job. You do everything you have to do, whatever it takes to get it done, if you take it seriously.

CALLER 1: So then you say we need to stay there forever —

LIMBAUGH: I — it won’t —

CALLER 1: — because that’s what it’ll take.

LIMBAUGH: No, Bill, or Mike — I’m sorry. I’m confusing you with the guy from Texas.

CALLER 1: See, I — I’ve used to be military, OK? And I am a Republican.

LIMBAUGH: Yeah. Yeah.

CALLER 1: And I do live [inaudible] but —

LIMBAUGH: Right. Right. Right, I know.

CALLER 1: — you know, really — I want you to be saying how long it’s gonna take.

LIMBAUGH: And I, by the way, used to walk on the moon!

CALLER 1: How long do we have to stay there?

LIMBAUGH: You’re not listening to what I say. You can’t possibly be a Republican. I’m answering every question. That’s not what you want to hear, so it’s not even penetrating your little wall of armor you’ve got built up.

[…]

LIMBAUGH: Another Mike, this one in Olympia, Washington. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER 2: Hi Rush, thanks for taking my call.

LIMBAUGH: You bet.

CALLER 2: I have a retort to Mike in Chicago, because I am a serving American military, in the Army. I’ve been serving for 14 years, very proudly.

LIMBAUGH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER 2: And, you know, I’m one of the few that joined the Army to serve my country, I’m proud to say, not for the money or anything like that. What I would like to retort to is that, if we pull — what these people don’t understand is if we pull out of Iraq right now, which is about impossible because of all the stuff that’s over there, it’d take us at least a year to pull everything back out of Iraq, then Iraq itself would collapse, and we’d have to go right back over there within a year or so. And —

LIMBAUGH: There’s a lot more than that that they don’t understand. They can’t even — if — the next guy that calls here, I’m gonna ask him: Why should we pull — what is the imperative for pulling out? What’s in it for the United States to pull out? They can’t — I don’t think they have an answer for that other than, “Well, we just gotta bring the troops home.”

CALLER 2: Yeah, and, you know what —

LIMBAUGH: “Save the — keep the troops safe” or whatever. I — it’s not possible, intellectually, to follow these people.

CALLER 2: No, it’s not, and what’s really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media.

LIMBAUGH: The phony soldiers.

CALLER 2: The phony soldiers. If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve. They want to be over in Iraq. They understand their sacrifice, and they’re willing to sacrifice for their country.

LIMBAUGH: They joined to be in Iraq. They joined —

CALLER 2: A lot of them — the new kids, yeah.

LIMBAUGH: Well, you know where you’re going these days, the last four years, if you signed up. The odds are you’re going there or Afghanistan or somewhere.

CALLER 2: Exactly, sir.

Doolittle is refusing to turn over 11 years worth of documents to the FBI, which were recently subpoenaed, as part of the ongoing probe into Jack Abramoff.  This will set up a constitutional crisis over the ability of the Executive Branch to request documents from the Legislative Branch.  Yes, this was an issue with the raid on William Jefferson’s office last year.  AP (over at TPM).  h/t to jeremybloom

Prosecutors recently demanded documents from Doolittle and five staffers, the congressman said. The subpoenas seek “virtually every record including legislative records” for the past 11 years, Doolittle’s attorney David Barger said in a news release issued Thursday by the congressman’s office.

There is more from Doolittle’s lawyer below the fold.  The AP story does not have any quotes from Justice.  I look forward to hearing constitutional experts weigh in on this case.  At the very least, it seems like Doolittle has something to hide, or else why defy the subpoena?

“These efforts raise serious constitutional issues going to the very core of our separation of powers created by the Founding Fathers,” Barger said.

The Constitution prohibits the executive branch from using its law enforcement powers to interfere with legislative business. Barger said he and Doolittle would “be vigilant” to ensure Congress’ independence is “vigorously protected.” Any court challenge would go before a federal judge, but the documents would be sealed.