Nothing really matters, Pt 7

Im a political man and I practice what I preach

I may not be a high traffic blogger, but I sure know some. Thus, I was lucky to be invited to attend a small private Ned Lamont (D-CT I hope I hope I hope) fundraiser in Los Angeles last night. Hosts were largely Hollywood writers, producers, as well as my buddy Arianna, who because of book tour engagements, wasn't able to attend. John Amato, Jane Hamsher, and Mickey Kaus were among the other bloggers there.

Here is Jane interviewing Ned a while back:



Ned chatted with various groups of us, very at ease, friendly. He did deliver a 15 min. address, the usual talking points, but coming from him, I believe them. While this wasn't a real press event, I did take some notes:

He does believe in Universal Health Care. 47 million Americans have no health insurance, and he's not really happy about that. And America spends 50% more per person than many other fully insured countries. There's some American productivity down the crapper.

He mentioned that Lincoln, the Republican that every Repub today liked to emulate by doing everything that Lincoln was against, funded the Morrill Land-Grant Acts, which gave Federal lands to states for universities. This, he said, was an appropriate use of Federal powers and funds.

He talked about his state of Connecticut having 63 lobbyists per elected Representative and Senator as a bad thing.

He mentioned the newly leaked NIE. Leaked apparently because someone(s) in the intelligence communities don't seem to think like GWBush does, that we are, you know, safer now.

And in re: Iraq, he said that, as a businessman, he believed that often, schedules need to be made, and adhered to. And that it was time to start an over-the-horizon deployment of American troops from Iraq, ending sometime in '07. Time for both sides to put up and shut up.

I spoke with him after, and he agreed to do an email interview with me, which I will post here and at HuffPo. I also spoke with some supporters working and traveling with him, who seem to genuinely like the guy, and believe in him.

Any inaccuracies here are solely my error, by the way. I took largely illegible notes, so I can only go by what I wrote tempered by my memory. I really enjoyed meeting him, and feel he would be a great addition to the Senate.

Far better than Lieberman. Far, far better.

Nothing really matters, Pt 6

Ooh my head!

Just heard on Scarborough:

"The left is attacking O'Reilly's new book as filled with lies. Are they right? Let's ask John Stossel."

Jeebus!

John Kerry on Bush: It's the same old song

“President Bush owed Americans a candid assessment of the situation in Afghanistan, but offered more misleading rhetoric. Less than five years after American troops masterfully toppled the Taliban, the disastrous diversion in Iraq has allowed these radicals the chance to rise again. Time is running out to avert disaster in the war we were right to fight after 9/11.

Funded largely by the flourishing opium trade, the resurgent Taliban continues to threaten the Karzai government, especially in southern Afghanistan. Roadside bomb attacks have more than doubled this year, and suicide attacks have more than tripled.

We have seven times more troops in the crossfire of a civil war in Iraq, which our own intelligence agencies say fuels terrorism, than we have in Afghanistan, where al Qaeda still roams free. And his words about providing money to rebuild Afghanistan ring hollow when his Administration has appropriated nearly four times more in reconstruction funds for Iraq than for Afghanistan and actually cut Afghan aid by 30% this year. The President continues to pretend that the recent plot to blow up US-bound jets justifies the war in Iraq when that plot was masterminded from Afghanistan by the same al Qaeda types who attacked us on 9/11.

We need to get our priorities in order by re-committing to the real front line in the war on terror. Just last week NATO Secretary General Scheffer again called for more troops for Afghanistan, saying “more can be done and should be done.” Where allies have pledged troops and economic assistance to Afghanistan, they must follow through. But we must lead by example by sending more troops and more aid to help combat the opium trade, which funds the Taliban and threatens to turn Afghanistan into a narco-state, and ensure that the elected government in Kabul, helped by the United States and our allies, not the Taliban, helped by al Qaeda, rebuilds the new Afghanistan.”

Indeed.

Nothing really matters, Pt 5

Nothing really matters, Pt 4

Nothing really matters, Pt 3

Nothing really matters, Pt 2

Nothing really matters, Pt 1