One of the most important, lasting decisions a president makes are Supreme Court appointments.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter plans to retire, U.S. media reported on Thursday, a development that would give President Barack Obama his first chance to make an appointment to the court.

NBC News and National Public Radio cited unidentified sources in reports that Souter, considered one of the court’s liberal members, would step down. A spokeswoman for the Supreme Court said Souter “has no comment on these reports that he is planning to resign.”

Sarah Vaughan – “Bye Bye Blackbird” (Live)

This is one of my favorite tracks from “Sassy” Sarah Vaughan, but odds are you haven’t heard it. It’s an audience request number from a Live in Tokyo album that seems to be out of print, but luckily, iTunes has it. Enjoy.

Hypocrisy on parade. From DailyKosTV:

FYI…….

Starting on Monday, April 27th,we are proud to announce that GI Radio Network will be airing live Monday – Friday during the Morning Drive 7AM-9AM on South Florida’s 1340 AM on the dial and simulcast around the world via the internet at www.giradio.us

The G I Radio Network has come a long way in 2 1/2 years. They started with a Saturday night show on West Palm Beach WBZT 1230 AM and simulcast on the Internet. The show, 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM featured military oriented topics. They grew to now have listeners from all over the world, including current FSO recipients.

The subject matters include information on the VA, G I Bill, updates on VFW, American Legion, Vietnam Veterans of America, Disabled Veterans of America, AmVet, to name a few. Military stories from veterans, Lots of Laughs about basic training and time served, along with “theme music” appropriate to the subject matter. Call in’s are encouraged…the show’s call in number is 866-936-9727. In addition, the show will have the “Military Person of the Week”. Listeners will have the opportunity to e-mail in their recommendations to militarytalk@aol.com.

Once a week the National Defense Hour with Jerry Newberry will aire on Wednesday’s at the 8:00 AM time slot.

Their national charity is Forgotten Soldiers Outreach!

The host and founder of this program is Mr. Tom Graver. He is a professional businessman with experience in various stages of business activities. He has been a salesman, sales manager, national sales manager, buyer, company president, CEO, and owner of various businesses in advertising and communications. He has traveled throughout the world in conjunction with multi-million dollar projects to include but not limited to entertainment, environmental issues, project exporting and importing, automotive industry, casino ownership, publishing, telecommunications, DNA, Internet projects, and mergers and reverse mergers. Mr. Graver resides in Delray Beach, FL, with his wife of 26 years.

His current position is working side by side with veterans in many areas of their daily lives.. He also owns the G I Radio Network and is host of Military Talk heard over the G I Radio Network Monday through Friday at 7:00 AM, and over the Internet via http://www.GIRadio.us.

Laughable. The only people STUPID enough to fall for this are already in the republican camp.

For the GOP to shed their corrupt, selfish, hateful, callous, and moronic image, nothing short of a permanent exile of top republican leaders would be effective. And even then I see no future for the party. Your average republican voter demands nothing short of full-blooming lunacy for leadership.

GOP set to launch rebranding effort

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Coming soon to a battleground state near you: a new effort to revive the image of the Republican Party and to counter President Obama’s characterization of Republicans as “the party of ‘no.’”

CNN has learned that the new initiative, called the National Council for a New America, will be announced Thursday.

It will involve an outreach by an interesting mix of GOP officials, ranging from 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain to Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and the younger brother of the man many Republicans blame for the party’s battered brand: former President George W. Bush.

In addition to Sen. McCain and Gov. Bush, GOP sources familiar with the plans tell CNN others involved in the new group’s “National Panel Of Experts” will include:

*Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a former national GOP chairman
*Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal
*Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney

GOP’s new America, same as GOP’s old America…

EXXON MOBIL PROFITS DOWN 58% IN FIRST QUARTER…….TO $4.6 BILLION

6.3 MILLION UNEMPLOYED

MILITARY LAWYERS: RELEASE GITMO YOUTH

SERIES OF GUN ATTACKS KILLS 34 IN PAKISTAN

OBAMA’S KNOCKOUT PRESS CONFERENCE

PRESIDENTIAL SWAGGA….. YOU’RE KIDDING ME, RIGHT?

SENATE STARTS DEBATE ON HELPING FAMILIES SAVE THEIR HOMES ACT

SENATE CONFIRMS ADDITIONAL OBAMA NOMINEES

DEMS UNVEIL FIRST FLORIDA ATTACK AD OF 2010

DICK DURBIN: BANKS OWN CONGRESS

I’M WITH JOE

IMMIGRATION AGENTS TO TURN FOCUS TO EMPLOYERS

TORTURE LAWYER PROBE BACK ON TRACK IN SPAIN

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Citizen Cope – Son’s Gonna Rise

No surprise here….. although I do have to go look and see what Kucinich’s problem was with it.

Earlier today, the House passed the conference report on the budget — once again without a single Republican vote.

The vote was 233-193, with 17 Democrats siding against it. The budget now heads to the Senate for final approval. (This budget blueprint DOESN’T require a signature by the president.)

During the floor debate before the vote, Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the budget “a magnificent blueprint for the future,” touting its investments in health care, education, and energy.

But Republicans blasted the size of the budget, as well as all the spending in it. House Minority Leader John Boehner said it was “nothing short of the most audacious move to a big socialist government in Washington DC than anything I could have ever dreamed about.”

House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (IN) argued that it was the “most fiscally irresponsible budget in American history.” He added, “It is more government, more spending, more debt, and more taxes.”

*** UPDATE *** The 17 Democrats who voted against the measure are some of the most conservative and/or vulnerable members of the Dem caucus — with one exception: Dennis Kucinich. Those 17 are: Barrow (GA), Boren (OK), Bright (AL), Childers (MS), Foster (IL), Griffith (AL), Kratovil (MD), Kucinich (OH), Markey (CO), Marshall (GA), Matheson (UT), McIntyre (NC), Minnick (ID), Mitchell (AZ), Nye (VA), Taylor (MS), Teague (NM).

As Think Progress reports, the Republicans are hysterical over the hate crimes bill.

From Media Matters:

On April 29, 2009, in a speech on the House floor, Rep. Virginia Foxx claimed that Matthew Shepard’s death was merely the result of a robbery gone bad. While his killers Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson did rob him, they also admitted that they were well aware of his sexual orientation and pretended they were gay to lure him away from the bar he was in at the time. The most striking feature of the case, of course, is that during the course of a normal, simple robbery, the victim is not generally beaten, tied to a post, and left for dead.

Rep. Foxx: “The bill was named after a very unfortunate incident that happened, where a young man was killed, but we know that that young man was killed in the commitment of robbery. It wasn’t because he was gay. The bill was named for him, the hate crimes bill was named for him, but it’s, it’s really a hoax, that that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills.”[House Floor Speech, 4/29/09]

All the evidence clearly indicates that this was a vicious hate crime, not a robbery gone bad.

(more…)

I received this in an email from the Florida Audubon this morning. Florida Senate contact numbers can be found here. Let them know this is NOT acceptable.

Florida House Rushes to Approve Near-shore Oil Drilling

Audubon Calls on the Florida Senate to Protect the State’s Beaches and Tourism Economy

April 28, 2009, Tallahassee, FL—Audubon of Florida called on the Florida Senate Tuesday to block desperate attempts by the Texas oil industry and the House of Representatives to open all of the state’s coastal waters to near-shore oil drilling. The call came following a vote by the Florida House Monday to adopt HB 1219, thus allowing the legislation to advance to the Senate.

“The House proposal puts every beach and coastline in Florida at risk for a few million dollars,” said Eric Draper, Audubon of Florida Policy Director. “Our valuable marine resources, coastal communities, and tourist economy is worth much more than that.”

The Senate has an opportunity pass a renewable energy policy, called the Renewable Portfolio Standard, which would increase the state’s clean energy and decrease our dependence on oil and gas, the principle drivers of global warming. Rather than prolong our dependence on petroleum, the Senate should block attempts to damage Florida’s beaches, its coastal communities, and its almost $562 billion tourist economy.

The House drilling proposal is just too high a price to pay in terms of environmental and economic risks. As a result of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, the US Coast Guard reported that more than 9 million gallons (214,286 barrels) of oil were released (and this does not include the 5,000 so-called minor spills recorded). For comparison, the Exxon-Valdez spill was 240,000 barrels. Spills don’t just occur during storms. The US Coast Guard documented 1300 spills from rigs, 1300 spills from pipelines and 2400 spills from storage tanks in 2008 alone.

Audubon is encouraged and supports the positions of Governor Charlie Crist and Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, to hold off on a decision of this magnitude. Passing this proposal would be gambling with the ideals of good government in Florida: transparency, accountability and public participation. Making a decision of this magnitude in the last two weeks of session without substantive discussion, squanders the public trust in government in the Sunshine.

WELCOME SPECTER! AND THANK YOU GOP!

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iReporter David P. Kronmiller welcomes Arlen Specter to the Democratic party, while ripping the GOP a new one. Go get’em, Dave!

Is this all there is? Nothing like our previous “leader” it would seem…