Watching Crossfire on CNN I've got to say that so far, Paul Begala has played right into Tucker Carlson's hands with the guest Ralph Nader. Instead of using this as a forum to further expose Bush, Begala basically attacked Nader by giving the old 2000 argument. True the amount of votes he got could and probably would have tipped the election, but Al Gore did run a poor campaign. I have abandoned my initial view that Ralph Nader should simply not run, and adopted a more positive outlook on the situation that some democrats, such as Begala do not see. Ralph Nader can attack President Bush in ways that John Kerry and the DNC simply can not afford to politically. Ralph Nader can energize an entire group of voters to be against George Bush that John Kerry would have a tough time doing. I agree with Ralph, this should be a situation we dreamed of. We have an attack dog that is not beholden to electoral votes and polls. We shouldn't look at it as splitting the vote. After 2000, the difference will be negligible. We should look at this as what it is, a crisis perhaps addressing where exactly the DNC is going wrong, and quite possibly moving too far to the center. While I still and will always fully support John Kerry, who is a good progressive Senator that is a large step in the right direction, I appreciate what Ralph Nader does, and I hope we can bring him in the fold sooner rather than later.

The President just gave a press conference announcing Rice will testify. I can't believe a guy elected to the highest office in the land is such a poor speaker. He sounds so unnatural and robotic, like a computer type-read program.

Don't forget to check out Air America radio, which launches tomorrow. You can listen to a live stream of the O'Franken Factor (Al Franken) beginning at noon EST here. Check here for a list of stations that will carry it.

The White House has done an about face and has decided to let Condi testify, in public, and under oath. What took so long? I'm surprised they didn't do damage control on this last week. The agreement that they came to was that the commission would not ask any more public officials to testify and this would not set precedent. Hopefully we won't need to have any more of these type of commissions.

John Kerry early today set off his fundraising trip with a much more than anticipated 3 million dollars. Things look so good from the bottom, but for some reason the media still wants to play us as a fractured, injured party. We'll see i suppose. No less, Kerry unveiled a plan for energy independence, and to lower gas prices. Personally, I think the fact that we have paid lower prices for gas than most anywhere else around the world has hurt us in the long run. We've become dependent on cheap gas, our environment has suffered, and we're beholden to middle eastern oil. I say if gas prices are going to rise, we kinda had it coming. That said, energy independence is definitely not a bad thing, something we should have been talking about a long time ago. Hopefully this campaign promise can come to fruition.

Here is an editorial that says that we must marginalize Nader in order to avoid a repeat of 2000. I disagree. We must actually do the opposite, and adopt some of his views to bring him into the fold. He can be a powerful voice, and by dammit, he is right on the issues, republican funded or not, 2000 or not. Speaking of 2000, I really don't believe that if Ralph stays out the race, that he will even get half of the 2 percent he got nationwide. It's a lot easier to poll for Ralph Nader than it is to vote for him, and people still have 2000 fresh in their minds. Why bother with him then? Because it would be a good way to bring young people in. Yes, these people would have voted for Kerry anyway more than likely, but it will be more of a solid, welcome to the fold vote than a cold feet vote, something that could work out well for us in the long run.

If we are to lose this election, which I strongly believe we will not, I believe that this will be the last election that is decided by the older generation. We are the next generation, a more progressive, positive generation, a more informed generation. Just look at the statistics on gay marriage and ratings for Bush. If we have to sit through this now, worry not, we will get our time in the end. Hopefully in about 8 months.

Here's a good article on Salon.

Finally for this post, there is a new report saying outsourcing is good for the economy. That really depends on which side you look at it. True, certain people do stand to gain from this, and we in turn get cheaper prices. That said, without jobs, price really doesn't matter. Check it out for yourself.

Just when you thought that the Bush administration was getting their footing back after misstep after misstep early this year, a new, tough foe emerges, one that is always two steps ahead of you. This foe is Richard Clarke. Bill Frist wants to declassify and cherry pick certain parts of a Clarke statement from last year. Does Clarke do a Bush and assassinate the character of Bill "Kitty" Frist? Does he duck the issue? Does he back away from his claims in the face of intimidation? No no no, Clarke says declassify it all. This couldn't have been done better. This already trustable, bipartisan, public servant receives another boost in my book. It is clear to me he just wants his story to be heard.I have spoken at length about how this is the most important and potentially the most damaging attack on the formerly Teflon like administration. Today, however, the fallout is beginning to show.

While recent poll numbers do not show any huge change in either approval or security ratings for Bush, the foundation is being chipped away. Condi Rice today refused to testify publicly and under oath for the 9-11 commission, using the excuse that there is executive privilege involved. Anyone as savvy as Karl Rove would know this would shine poorly on the president, so my thoughts are that there is something to hide. Perhaps after all of the character assassination, Clarke is right? Dr. Rice is ignoring a newly bipartisan call to rise above, something that would amount to a blockage for some of the Clarke mess, but still she refuses. Whether they have something to hide or not, I think that the court of public opinion is already deliberating. This does not bode well for a White House that has been plagued with a credibility gap and increasing questions about their honesty in leading us to war. What if it came out that GW was in fact, not strong on security and was actually just obsessed with Iraq? Well that isn't much news to those of us in the loop, where Dick Cheney says apparently Richard Clarke was not.

commercial Idea for Kerry or 527s
Voice: Some say the president is untouchable on Security
Flash to soundbyte of Dick Cheney from the Rush Limbaugh show: "Well, he wasn't -- he wasn't in the loop, frankly, on a lot of this stuff."
Voice: How secure is a President who keeps his Terrorism advisor out of the loop on terrorism?


I am Justin Kelly and I approved this message because dammit, we can't let them get away with saying stuff like that with no strings!

In the good sign department, John Kerry and Ralph Nader are meeting next month to discuss how to defeat GW. Hopefully, this will bridge the gap between the two, and they can act as separate fronts towards a common goal. I don't see Nader dropping out of the campaign at this point, but there really is no downside to the two men meeting. Although Kerry's agenda is rather progressive in my eyes, a little Nader influence couldn't hurt.

A pat on the back to John Kerry, who is already showing signs of learning from Al Gore's mistakes. He is raising the important issue of why it is when Bush and crew are attacked, they resort to character assassination instead of actually debating the issue at hand.

To the comedic note of the day, George Bush and crew are accusing John Kerry for using the bible for political purposes. Pot, kettle, black, this is like Hitler calling Rush Limbaugh a bigot. Before you go and say I compared Bush to Hitler..Ah hell, go ahead and say it.

Finally for this post, Zell Miller's seat in the Senate now has a democratic contender. While you all know what I think of Zell Miller, best of luck to Ms. Majette. You have an uphill battle after Miller's little stunt.

Hello, and welcome to the new Left Times Blog. Allow us some time to adjust to this new in house blog format, courtesy the fine folks at blogger, and the new site, the fabulous www.lefttimes.com. If you want to read our rants up until now, you can check out our original blog here.

Blogdrive was a good site and a great place if anyone is looking for a free blog, but along with the new site, we wanted to move to host all of our branches in house. Blogger allows that. Stay tuned for the latest political rants and keep checking on the front page, our official launch or relaunch is coming in a matter of a few days. Thanks for stopping and reading, we'll be updating fully again very soon.