The Hollywood Liberal

Here is our weekly installment of HL’s NBC News Raw Video Blog. Every Monday we do a video for NBC News Raw, where we discuss the stories that we are following and what’s coming up this week. Here is the latest installment, check it out.

Plug it in, fire it up, Mr. President

The Detroit News
Excerpt:
Credit Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally with saving the leader of the free world from self- immolation. Mulally told journalists at the New York auto show that he intervened to prevent President Bush from plugging an electrical cord into the hydrogen tank of Ford’s hydrogen-electric plug-in hybrid at the White House last week. Ford wanted to give the Commander-in-Chief an actual demonstration of the innovative vehicle, so the automaker arranged for an electrical outlet to be installed on the South Lawn and ran a charging cord to the hybrid. However, as Mulally followed Bush out to the car, he noticed someone had left the cord lying at the rear of the vehicle, near the fuel tank.

“I just thought, ‘Oh my goodness!’ So, I started walking faster, and the President walked faster and he got to the cord before I did. I violated all the protocols. I touched the President. I grabbed his arm and I moved him up to the front,” Mulally said. “I wanted the president to make sure he plugged into the electricity, not into the hydrogen This is all off the record, right?”

HL’s Take
There’s gotta be a comic in there somewhere. Nahhh its just too easy and obvious.

Pope: ‘Nothing Positive’ From Iraq

AP
Excerpt:
VATICAN CITY Apr 8, 2007 (AP)— In an Easter litany of the world’s suffering, Pope Benedict XVI lamented that “nothing positive” is happening in Iraq and decried the unrest in Afghanistan and bloodshed in Africa and Asia.

“How many wounds, how much suffering there is in the world,” the pontiff told tens of thousands gathered Sunday at St. Peter’s Square on what is Christianity’s most joyful feast day.

“Afghanistan is marked by growing unrest and instability,” Benedict said. “In the Middle East, besides some signs of hope in the dialogue between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, nothing positive comes from Iraq, torn apart by continual slaughter as the civil population flees.”

HL’s Take
It would be nice to see the church devote more time to “thou shalt not kill” and speaking out against the war more then twice a year, (Christmas, and Easter) but even the Catholic church has to do what it can to make the murder monkey look good. So they avoid the situation most of the time. If the church fought as hard against war as they do against abortion, and homosexuality, there would have been a lot more people against Bush and the war a lot sooner, and maybe it would have made a difference.

Democrats back away from Iraq troops withdrawal demand

AP
Excerpt:
For the second straight weekend, top Senate Democrats shrunk further away from core principles they had set out in the Iraq war debate, signaling Sunday that they were prepared to drop a timetable mandating the withdrawal of U.S. troops, should President Bush fulfill his vow to veto current war funding legislation.

Last Sunday, senior Democrats said that they would not hold back funding for the war if the president vetoed a bill including an Iraq withdrawal timetable. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, reiterated that point on ABC’s “This Week.” He said, “We’re not going to vote to cut funding, period.”

HL’s Take
They will never stop being weak and pathetic. They get lots of benefits and kickbacks from war just like Bush does so they really don’t care if it ends or not (most of them) They are just trying to make a good looking stand so when they run for re-election they can say, hey we tried but there was nothing we can do. BS. We’ll just have to elect a whole new crop of Dems. next election who will maybe then get the message that we voted for them to stop the war not make lame excuses.

Gonzales aide Goodling resigns

AP
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON – A top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales abruptly quit Friday, almost two weeks after telling Congress she would not testify about her role in the firings of federal prosecutors.
Monica M. Goodling, the Justice Department’s liaison to the White House, gave no reason for her resignation. Since she was at the center of the firings, Goodling’s refusal to testify has intensified questions about whether the U.S. attorney dismissals were proper and heightened the furor that threatens Gonzales’ own job.

She was involved in an April 6, 2006, phone call between the Justice Department and Sen. Pete Domenici (news, bio, voting record), R-N.M., who had complained to the Bush administration and the president about David Iglesias, then the U.S. attorney in Albuquerque. Domenici wanted Iglesias to aggressively pursue a corruption probe against Democrats before the 2006 elections.

Additionally, Goodling was among aides who on Feb. 5 helped McNulty prepare his testimony for a Senate hearing the next day — during which he may have given Congress incomplete or otherwise misleading information about the circumstances of the firings.

Last month, House and Senate panels investigating the ousters signaled they would subpoena Goodling and four other senior Justice officials to testify. But Goodling, who took an indefinite personal leave from the department, balked.

In letters responding to the congressional inquiries, her attorney, John Dowd, said testifying would amount to a perjury trap for Goodling. He likened her potential legal jeopardy in testifying during a Democratic-led investigation to that of I. Lewis Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney who was convicted last month in the CIA leak case.

Gingrich: Gonzales should consider resigning

Washington Post
Excerpt
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joining a growing list of Republicans, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Sunday that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should consider resigning. The possible presidential candidate said the botched firing of U.S. attorneys has destroyed Gonzales’ credibility as the nation’s top law enforcer.

“I think the country, in fact, would be much better served to have a new team at the Justice Department, across the board,” Gingrich said. “I cannot imagine how he is going to be effective for the rest of this administration. … They’re going to be involved in endless hearings.”

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, who is helping lead the investigation into the firing of eight federal prosecutors, said Gingrich’s comments pointed to building bipartisan support for a new attorney general.

HL’s Take
At this point Bush is keeping Gonzo in there just to keep the heat off himself. How many more people died in Iraq this weekend, I didn’t see that story, but plenty about old torture boy.

McCain flipflops on Iraq Yet Again. Last week he said Baghdad was safe, but he was lying, as we showed in the comic. Strolling Through Baghdad with John McCain
Now he is showing the real story as we reported it.

McCain says he misspoke in upbeat Baghdad comments

AP
Excerpt:
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. Senator John McCain (news, bio, voting record) said in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday he misspoke in his recent upbeat comments about security in Baghdad, where he traveled under heavy military protection.

McCain said he regrets comments he made after a tour of Baghdad last Sunday, when he said he could see progress and the American people were not being told the “good news” about the war, according to excerpts of his comments and a press release provided by “60 Minutes.”

“Of course I am going to misspeak and I’ve done it on numerous occasions and I probably will do it in the future,” said McCain, according to “60 Minutes.”

HL’s Take
McCain is a joke. He is trying to pull a Bush and say “hey don’t listen to what I say” I make a lot of mistakes when I talk becuase I am not that bright. So if I lie, it was all just another stupid mistake from the ultimate flip-flopper.