Greg Fischer Democratic Primary Senatorial Candidate in Kentucky holds press conference in response to opponents new TV ad which he, Greg Fischer, claims is negative campaigning.
The video was shot in Louisville, Kentucky May 15, 2008 at 10:00am.

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Update from Pol Watchers: Bruce Lunsford, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, apologized Wednesday for a misstatement during a statewide televised debate on Monday about his prior campaign contributions to Republican candidates.

 

LOUISVILLE, May 13, 2008 – Bruce Lunsford did not tell the truth during the KET Democratic Senate Primary debate last night when he said he didn’t donate “tens-of-thousands of dollars” to Republicans. According to state and federal election finance records, Lunsford has given more than $60,000 to Republican candidates since 1990.

In the most heated moment of the debate, Lunsford criticized Fischer’s financial contributions to Democrats as insufficient. Responding to the attack, Fischer pointed to Lunsford’s financial contributions to Republican candidates. “Bruce has given tens-of-thousands of dollars to Republicans,” Fischer said.

Lunsford then accused Fischer of distorting the truth “I haven’t given tens-of-thousands of dollars to Republicans. In fact it’s just the opposite,” Lunsford said.

The following list of Lunsford contributions to Republicans shows that Lunsford gave $60,850 to Republicans from March 1990 to Ocober 2006. The list is compiled from records from the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance; Arkansas Secretary of State Office, New York State Board of Elections; and the Federal Election Commission.

 

06/10/97 National Republican Senatorial Committee $2,500.00

07/10/97 Bluegrass Committee (Sen. McConnell’s PAC) $2,500.00

07/11/97 Citizens for Bunning $1,000.00

07/30/97 New Republican Majority Fund $5,000.00

03/16/98 Bluegrass Committee (Sen. McConnell’s PAC) $2,500.00

04/24/98 Northup for Congress $250.00

07/09/98 Northup for Congress $1,000.00

10/27/99 McConnell for Senate $250.00

04/07/00 Bush for President Inc. $1,000.00

05/01/02 Lamar Alexander for Senate $1,000.00

05/15/02 Mike Huckabee $1,000.00

05/22/02 Janet Huckabee $500.00

05/25/04 Republican Party of Kentucky $1,000.00

06/23/04 Northup for Congress $500.00

03/14/05 Northup for Congress $500.00

10/13/05 New York State Senate
Republican Campaign Committee $1,000.00

10/31/05 Rep. Trey Grayson, Sec. of State $1,000.00

05/15/06 Northup for Congress $1,600.00

05/15/06 Northup for Congress $500.00

10/05/06 Northup for Congress $1,500.00

Total $60,850.00

 

“I don’t enjoy having to point out this discrepancy,” said Fischer. “But when a candidate for public office stands before a statewide audience on live TV and says something that’s blatently false, I think you have to point that out.”

In another misleading attack during last night’s debate, Lunsford lambasted Fischer for failing to support Democratic Congressman John Yarmuth in 2006. However, Lunsford failed to disclose that he himself contributed $4,100 to Yarmuth’s opponent, Republican Anne Northup in that campaign.

“Lunsford has a problem with the truth. He’s demonstrated a pattern of distortion when it suits his purposes,” said Kim Geveden, Fischer campaign political director. “He’s bending the truth when he describes Vencor, a company he bankrupted, as one of the greatest business success stories in Kentucky. He’s bending the truth when he defends his record as CEO of Vencor, by saying the company never admitted guilt when it paid a $104 million fine to settle Justice Department charges of fraudulent billing. And he outright lied last night when he said he hadn’t donated tens-of-thousand of dollars to Republicans.”

“The pattern is clear,” Geveden said. “When you confront Lunsford with facts he doesn’t like, he twists, distorts and hides the truth.”

Lunsford’s history of supporting Republicans is well documented. In 2003, Lunsford entered the Democratic Primary race for Governor against fellow Democrats Jody Richards and Ben Chandler. However, four days before the election, Lunsford abruptly quit the race. Then during the general election for governor, Lunsford endorsed Republican Ernie Fletcher and appeared at a press conference with Sen. Mitch McConnell to make the announcement. After Fletcher won the governor’s race, Lunsford chaired the Fletcher transition committee that re-cast Kentucky’s executive branch in a Republican mold.

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Below is a Youtube play list of Mike Cassaro, Greg Fischer, Bruce Lunsford and Kenneth Stepp.
All 4 of the videos are on the player below.
Special thanks to Ed. Marksberry.

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It’s that time of year again, folks. As soon as January hits, I get antsy with anticipation for baseball season and, perhaps even more so, BBQ season. I hope to enjoy both this weekend. Squee!

Owen Covington at the Messenger-Inquirer reports that neither Sen. Barack Obama nor Sen. Hillary Clinton will be in Owensboro this weekend, though representatives of the campaigns are coming. Unsurprisingly, Sen. Mitch McConnell also has better things to do than hang out at the beer garden in McConnell Plaza. Of course, I don’t suppose he’s ever pretended to be a real “man of the people” or anything. (*cough* elitist *cough*)

Organizers are “working to get the other Republican candidate, Daniel Essek, to attend.” Yeah. The guy who, earlier this year, listed a Tennessee address for his campaign. The Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate who have confirmed so far are Bruce Lunsford, Kenneth Stepp, and Michael Cassaro.

Oh yeah, there’s also the KDP fundraiser tonight in Louisville at the Kentucky International Convention Center. I understand it’s quite a bargain compared to those thousand dollar dinners the GOP has.

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(crossposted at B & P)

I’ve honestly never seen supporters of a candidate gloat about being 25 points down in a poll with only 20 days until an election. I’m not sure whether to laugh or feel sorry for them. It’s like they are Greg Fischer’s Tinkerbell constituency: just clap louder and everything will be OK.

What’s not funny is that Fischer’s folks are actually believing their own hype in order to justify starting Mitch McConnell’s attack Vencor ads for him. For all this talk about Lunsford’s “baggage”, the only relevance I can see is that Fischer is serving as Mitch McConnell’s bellboy, doing all of Mitch’s heavy lifting for him. Once more, pointing out the Fletcher endorsement and claiming he’s too far to the right are fair game; beating on Vencor is simply Mini-Mitch mudslinging.

And I love this ridiculous theory about how Lunsford will inevitably fail at the end of the campaign. The last time I checked, Jonathan Miller wasn’t in this race about to drop out and hand over a significant % to Fischer. And the last time I checked, criminal Steve Henry isn’t in the race imploding with supporters going to Fischer. Looking at this objectively, there’s absolutely no comparison between this year and last year.

Want more proof? 80% of voters say they have already made up their mind, with only 20% saying they might change their mind. It’s simple math.

(There also seems to be little discussion of Fischer’s internal poll from two months ago showing the race 39%-22% for Lunsford. Does this mean that Fischer has dropped 8 points in the past 2 months???)

You may not like it (as I don’t), but Bruce Lunsford is in all likelihood our nominee, and it’s time to close ranks behind him if he wins this primary so we can Ditch Mitch. Every time Fischer makes this low blow, Mitch McConnell is sitting back and laughing. It’s like Greg Fischer’s campaign is being run by Hunter Bates. It’s sick.

So to all the Fischer supporters: I have no beef with you, but once this primary is over, if Bruce is our nominee, we have to let bygones be bygones and focus on Mitch.

Remember, when Greg Fischer makes statements like this:

“…replacing Mitch McConnell with Bruce Lunsford is no change at all”

…he is simply deceiving you. He’s insulting your intelligence. We may not love (or even like) Bruce, but he is NOT Mitch McConnell. Not even close. Not in the same ballpark. Our state and our country can’t afford to let grudges stand in the way of ridding us of Mitch once and for all. (looking at you, Crazy Shark)

(P.S.- since when is Greg Fischer the candidate of the KY Netroots? I know of only one pro-Fischer website. Odd…)

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(Cross posted at Hillbilly Report)

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(Cross posted at Hillbilly Report)

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(Cross posted at Hillbilly Report)
Last week I had the time and opportunity to watch ” Sick Around The World” a FRONTLINE production.
Senator Mitch McConnell, I hope you had time to watch it, but just in case you were too busy kissing George W. Bush’s ass and found it difficult to focus on what’s going on in the real world, a problem commonly know as a “Skills Gap“, I have put all the information below for your viewing pleasure.
Enjoy Senator!!!!!

In Sick Around the World, FRONTLINE teams up with veteran Washington Post foreign correspondent T.R. Reid to find out how five other capitalist democracies — the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, Taiwan and Switzerland — deliver health care, and what the United States might learn from their successes and their failures.
To Read more click here.
To view the online video click here.

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(Cross posted at Hillbilly Report)

Senator Mitch McConnell it’s time for you to speak up on this issue or approve of it with your silence!!!!!

Go to Original
Torture and the Law
By Spencer Ackerman
The Washington Independent
With nine months remaining in President George W. Bush’s term, virtually no legal analyst expects that anyone in his administration will face indictment and prosecution in connection with the torture of terrorism detainees. However, a new admission from Bush last week has some legal analysts contending that the case for such prosecution has gotten significantly stronger.
ABC News reported on Apr. 9 that then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice chaired an informal panel of top administration officials that approved specific brutal interrogation tactics for use on three suspected Al Qaeda detainees. The panel consisted of Vice President Dick Cheney, and former administration officials - Donald H. Rumsfeld, then defense secretary, Colin L. Powell, the former secretary of state, George Tenet, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and John Ashcroft, then attorney general. This group debated for use on detainees - and eventually approved - methods of abuse like being “slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding,” ABC reported.
On Apr. 11, Bush told ABC that he was personally aware of the panel’s discussions. “Well, we started to connect the dots in order to protect the American people.” Bush said. “And yes, I’m aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved.”
Read More.

Go to Original
Top Bush Aides Pushed for Guantanamo Torture
By Richard Norton-Taylor
The Guardian UK
Senior officials bypassed army chief to introduce interrogation methods.
America’s most senior general was “hoodwinked” by top Bush administration officials determined to push through aggressive interrogation techniques of terror suspects held at Guantánamo Bay, leading to the US military abandoning its age-old ban on the cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners, the Guardian reveals today.
General Richard Myers, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff from 2001 to 2005, wrongly believed that inmates at Guantánamo and other prisons were protected by the Geneva conventions and from abuse tantamount to torture.
The way he was duped by senior officials in Washington, who believed the Geneva conventions and other traditional safeguards were out of date, is disclosed in a devastating account of their role, extracts of which appear in today’s Guardian.
In his new book, Torture Team, Philippe Sands QC, professor of law at University College London, reveals that:

Senior Bush administration figures pushed through previously outlawed measures with the aid of inexperienced military officials at Guantánamo.

Myers believes he was a victim of “intrigue” by top lawyers at the department of justice, the office of vice-president Dick Cheney, and at Donald Rumsfeld’s defense department.

The Guantánamo lawyers charged with devising interrogation techniques were inspired by the exploits of Jack Bauer in the American TV series 24.

Myers wrongly believed interrogation techniques had been taken from the army’s field manual.
Read More

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(Cross posted at Hillbilly Report)
The video below is a political ad made by a Democrat. Can you imagine what we will be seeing when the Republithugs air their political ads against Bruce Lunsford, if he wins the Kentucky Democratic Primary race for US Senate?
To Bruce Lunsford’s credit, he’s spending a ton of his own money to win this race, but Senator Mitch McConnell isn’t exactly broke.
Bruce, no one wants Senator Mitch McConnell out of office more than I do, hells bells, I’ve spent time and money, along with others that have spent their time and money to get rid of his ass. I realize we’re just grassroots folks with limited budgets, but we haven’t been slackers when it comes to Ditching Mitch McConnell and we will continue to do so.
My questions are these:
Bruce are we gonna be subjected to watch videos like the one below all summer?
Bruce do you have something on Mitch McConnell that we aren’t aware of?
Your comments are welcomed!

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Pol Watchers
Republican U.S. Sens. Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning laid out their case for Republicans keeping control of the White House in the 2008 election during Northern Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District Lincoln Day Dinner Saturday night.
McConnell, who is also up for re-election in November, defended the Bush administration’s decision “to go on offense” by invading Iraq. And he said presumptive GOP presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, has the right perspective on what must be done in the Middle East, as opposed to the two Democratic candidates who favor removing U.S. troops as soon as possible.
“We’d be kidding ourselves,” McConnell said. “This is a different kind of war. The enemy is not a country, it’s a movement … There’s nobody to negotiate with.”
Bunning used an even harsher description.
“The people we’re fighting against now are worse than Adolf Hitler and Nazis. And we don’t know where they live, half of them,” Bunning said.

Well Senator McConnell and Limp Dick Bunning, it’s not the terrorist kicking folks out of their homes, outsourcing their job, making education unaffordable and etc etc etc. It’s you and your right wing neocon policies.

Pol Watchers
U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis, a Hebron Republican, compared Obama and his message for change similar to a “snake oil salesman.”
He said in his remarks at the GOP dinner that he also recently participated in a “highly classified, national security simulation” with Obama.
“I’m going to tell you something: That boy’s finger does not need to be on the button,” Davis said. “He could not make a decision in that simulation that related to a nuclear threat to this country.”

Geoff Davis, I’m here to tell you that calling a grown black man “boy” will get you a real good ass whippin’ where I come from. Mr. Davis sir, I hope you call Barack Obama “boy” to his face, because I’m looking forward to seeing you with a black eye and a fat lip.

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(Cross posted at Hillbilly Report)
I’ve traveled all over Kentucky, on my own dime, doing my best to shoot video of all the Democratic candidates so folks here in Kentucky can view the candidates on Youtube and get a feel for who best represents them. All of the candidates have been very cooperative and respectful of what I am trying to do. They seem to understand the importance of attending events and trust me to shoot video of them so folks here in Kentucky can make up their own minds.
Further more I have, on my own dime, videotaped numerous protest against Senator Mitch McConnell and these protest and the videos of these protest have made Senator Mitch McConnell vulnerable.
The problem is this, Bruce Lunsford has been absent from the events I’m speaking of and the only video information the voters receive from Bruce Lunsford are his commercials, commercials that he can buy with his unlimited personal fortune.
Here in Kentucky we already have a Senator, Mitch McConnell, that refuses to appear before regular folks and it’s beginning to look like Bruce Lunsford is of the same mold.
There’s a reason why Senator Mitch McConnell doesn’t speak to groups of folks he has no control over here in Kentucky, he knows he will get booed out of the place and he’s scared shitless that I will put that on Youtube for the world to see.
I suggest that Bruce Lunsford has the same fear and I challenge him to stand up like a man and start attending events like all the other Democratic candidates do.
Chuck Shumer might think this is OK for Kentucky, but this Hillbilly is here to tell you that shit won’t flush!!
So I put together the video below, so there would be no doubt as to how I feel about what appears to be a chicken shit Democratic candidate for the US Senate!!!!!
Jim Pence

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Kathi Monday interviews Greg Fischer.

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Just thought I’d share this blast issued by the League of Conservation Voters about Sen. Mitch McConnell, the self-proclaimed “Godfather of Green“:

LCV Members Elect Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell the new Don of the “Dirty Dozen”

Self-proclaimed “Godfather of Green” Continues to Stand for Polluters while Standing in the Way of Clean Air, Clean Water, and Clean Energy

Louisville, KY – The members of the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), the independent political voice for the environment, today added Senate MinorityLeader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to its 2008 “Dirty Dozen” list.

LCV members voted online to decide which 2008 candidate had committed the most egregious offenses against the environment. 25,000 concerned citizens voted for the next member of the “Dirty Dozen,” and chose Sen. McConnell by an overwhelming margin.

“Our members know that Mitch McConnell has voted against our health and safety since he came to Washington. They know that he stands as an impassable roadblock in the way of a clean energy future for this country,” said LCV President Gene Karpinski. “They know that it is time to tear down this roadblock. That’s why Mitch McConnell, this ‘Godfather of Green,’ is the new ‘Don’ of the Dirty Dozen.”

McConnell’s lifetime LCV score of 7% is among the worst in Washington. In 24 years in the Senate, he earned an annual score of 0% twelve times, and in the last fourteen years, McConnell has cast only two pro-conservation votes. Since becoming his party’s Leader in the Senate, McConnell has served as the chief enforcer for Big Oil and other corporate polluters, leading efforts to derail and weaken legislation that would protect our families and keep America’s land, air, and water clean.

LCV’s trademark “Dirty Dozen” program targets current and former members of Congress – regardless of party affiliation – who consistently vote against the environment and are running in races where LCV has a serious chance of affecting the outcome.

“In 2006, our members brought down nine members of the Dirty Dozen, nine of the worst politicians in Washington. With that kind of record, this Dirty Dozen election may be the last vote that Senator McConnell ever wins,” Karpinski said.

McConnell joins Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-MI), and former Rep. Bob Schaffer (R-CO) on the 2008 Dirty Dozen. LCV will name the rest of the 2008 Dirty Dozen members in the coming months.

For information on LCV’s “Dirty Dozen” program, visit www.lcv.org/campaigns/dirty-dozen.

For more on McConnell’s voting record, visit www.lcv.org/mcconnell

In case you forgot, Sen. McConnell’s “Godfather of Green” claim stems from the fact that he secured pork-barrel spending for Louisville’s oustanding park system. And while I am a fan of parks, I’m also a fan of math. Louisville’s park system, great as it is, only occupies about one-half of one percent of all of the land in Kentucky, and is only about 3.5% of the size of our state park system, which of course doesn’t include national parks, municipal parks, private hunting and fishing areas, farmland, mines, land developments, etc. Parks are great places to spend time and are of real value to our communities, but as wonderful and important as they are, they are NOT the sole indicators of land, air, and water conservation.

One-half of one percent, folks. I’d say that’s probably a good number when measuring just how much Sen. McConnell really cares about Kentucky’s citizens. It is time to DITCH MITCH!

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According to Heather Ryan, former director of Paducah’s Maiden Alley Cinema and Democratic candidate for Kentucky’s 1st Congressional seat Senator Mitch McConnell’s latest political ad contains footage from the Non Profit Maiden Alley Cinema and was shot without her permission as director of Paducah’s Maiden Alley.
The clip containing Mitch McConnell in the Non Profit Maiden Alley Cinema, shot without permission from the former director of Paducah’s Maiden Alley Cinema is below.

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