Category: Politics

Good News: Immigration Bill Takes Body Blow

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Quite frankly, I’m not concerned about amnesty.

I object to the slave labor guest worker program. It’s a deal breaker for me.

I also think that the wall is bull$%#@. 30% of illegals overstay visas, and the draw is employers.

Strong anti-employer measures is what is needed.

Additionally, this is a Bush loss, and makes him even more toxic, which might help in getting us out of Iraq.

Yes, I am suggesting that absent a need to pass any bill right now, it’s best to take Bush a notch.

We can do something with a Dem in the WH.

Senate immigration bill suffers crushing defeat
WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush’s immigration bill suffered a crushing defeat Thursday in the Senate, when members voted against advancing the controversial legislation.

A final tally for the vote has not yet been announced.

The bill would provides a path to citizenship for some of the 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. and toughens border security.

If the bill fails, supporters and opponents of the controversial legislation claim there is no way to bring it back before this Congress ends.

Senators voting against cutting off debate and referring the bill for a final vote. The cloture vote required a three-fifths majority, or 60 votes.

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Coulter’s words help Edwards raise cash

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If I ever run for office, I’m going to need to call Ann Coulter a c*cks*ck*r.

Coulter’s words help Edwards raise cash

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press WriterThu Jun 28, 1:33 AM ET

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards on Wednesday encouraged his supporters to donate to his campaign in response to “hateful” comments from conservative author Ann Coulter.

Edwards made his first comments to The Associated Press in response to Coulter’s suggestion that she wished he would be “killed in a terrorist assassination plot.” His campaign cited her remarks in two e-mails and a telephone text message to supporters for donations, with the fundraising deadline on Saturday.

It’s not the first time Coulter has given the Edwards campaign a financial boost. In March, she called Edwards a “faggot” and the campaign used video of the comment to help raise $300,000 before the end of the first quarter.

In the e-mails, the campaign asked supporters to send donations to defy her remarks and help Edwards meet his goal of raising $9 million in the second quarter. The first e-mail from campaign adviser Joe Trippi showed a clip of Coulter on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” where she made the comments on Monday.

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Some Interesting News for Al Gore Watchers

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I’m just putting this out, that’s all.

My guess is that there were either translation errors, or that Tien is reading too much in between the lines.

This is not something that would leak out in Taiwan first.

My sign that Al Gore is running will be if he is literally running, you know, doing the treadmill, getting slimmed down for the campaign, etc.

Taiwan Quick Take

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ENVIRONMENT
Al Gore visit postponed
Former US vice president Al Gore will not be able to make it to Taiwan this September to address the issue of global warming, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) said yesterday. Tien, who invited Gore to visit Taiwan to promote awareness on global warming, told reporters yesterday that she received an e-mail from the Harry Walker Agency, which has the exclusive right to arrange Gore’s speeches, saying that Gore had canceled all his scheduled events in the next six months. The visit to Taiwan had been postponed to next year, she added. Tien said the reason for the cancelation was that Gore was considering a presidential bid.

Abramoff Snares Doolittle

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Someone here is going to talk. Either Doolittle will roll to protect his wife, or she’ll talk when she finds out that Doolittle has thrown her under a bus.

I would bet on his wife rolling on him though, as he has already fingered her to the press about this entire thing.

Feds contact ex-Doolittle aide
By ERICA WERNER Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — California GOP Rep. John Doolittle’s former chief of staff is providing documents to federal prosecutors investigating Doolittle and his wife in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal, the aide’s attorney told The Associated Press on Monday.

The aide, David Lopez, who was Doolittle’s longtime chief of staff until 2005 and continued to work for him as a campaign consultant for about a year after that, has turned over several hundred pages of campaign finance records to the Justice Department under subpoena, said his attorney, Bill Portanova.

A different former Doolittle staffer, Kevin Ring, who went on to work as a lobbyist with Abramoff, was already known to be under investigation in the wide-ranging probe. Portanova’s comments marked the first public confirmation that prosecutors have sought to interview other former Doolittle aides.

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A Historic First: Heath Shuler’s Play Calling DOESN’T Suck

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Seriously, I’m a Redskins fan, and what a bust he was. (Yes, I know that this is bad English)

Seriously, he had a cannon for an arm, but he had maracas for his head.

I think that Gus Frerrotte, the league minimum 2nd stringer who outplayed him in every imaginable way, is still in the NFL

Rep. slammed as ‘chickenshit thief’ for ‘borrowing’ Democrat’s sign
RAW STORY

A Republican House member (pictured) was slammed by a Democratic colleague as a “chickenshit thief” after borrowing one of his signs, a Capitol Hill newspaper reports.

“On Thursday, during House votes, a very angry Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) had some distinctly non-collegial words for Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas),” Emily Heil reports for Roll Call’s “Heard on the Hill.” “The words ‘gutless,’ ‘chickens–t’ and ‘thief’ were flung.”

The paper reports, “Shuler, a former NFL quarterback, was spotted towering over a seated Gohmert, wagging a finger in his face during the heated session, spies tell HOH.”

“Gohmert’s crime?” Heil continues. “Shuler and his gang, the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats, say the Texas Republican pulled off a high-stakes heist.”

Heil observes, “Next time Gohmert gets the urge to steal — or borrow — something, HOH humbly suggests he chooses a less physically intimidating target.”

…..

What Mr. Willis said

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One of the nice things about the blogosphere is that you can always find someone who makes the point you wanted to make better than you ever could.

In this case, it’s Oliver Willis (like Kryptonite to stupid).

Margaret Carlson Had A Column To Fill
A long time ago I used to believe that a lot of these people were just talking over my head, their discourse too lofty for a regular guy like myself. But that isn’t true. They’re just stupid.

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Dick. Lugar Trows Bush and Petraeus Under Bus

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The Republithugs are starting to peel off.

Richard G. Lugar, United States Senator for Indiana – Press Releases

Connecting our Iraq Strategy to our Vital Interests

Monday, June 25, 2007

Mr. President, I rise today to offer observations on the continuing involvement of the United States in Iraq. In my judgment, our course in Iraq has lost contact with our vital national security interests in the Middle East and beyond. Our continuing absorption with military activities in Iraq is limiting our diplomatic assertiveness there and elsewhere in the world. The prospects that the current “surge” strategy will succeed in the way originally envisioned by the President are very limited within the short period framed by our own domestic political debate. And the strident, polarized nature of that debate increases the risk that our involvement in Iraq will end in a poorly planned withdrawal that undercuts our vital interests in the Middle East. Unless we recalibrate our strategy in Iraq to fit our domestic political conditions and the broader needs of U.S. national security, we risk foreign policy failures that could greatly diminish our influence in the region and the world.

The current debate on Iraq in Washington has not been conducive to a thoughtful revision of our Iraq policy. Our debate is being driven by partisan political calculations and understandable fatigue with bad news — including deaths and injuries to Americans. We have been debating and voting on whether to fund American troops in Iraq and whether to place conditions on such funding. We have contemplated in great detail whether Iraqi success in achieving certain benchmarks should determine whether funding is approved or whether a withdrawal should commence. I would observe that none of this debate addresses our vital interests any more than they are addressed by an unquestioned devotion to an ill-defined strategy of “staying the course” in Iraq.

Emphasis mine

OOps…Me Bad. Opposing the president apparrently does not mean voting against him.

Wanker.

Lugar won’t switch vote
However, Fisher said the speech does not mean Lugar would switch his vote on the war or embrace Democratic measures setting a deadline for troop withdrawals.

In January, Lugar voted against a resolution opposing the troop buildup, contending that the nonbinding measure would have no practical effect. In spring, he voted against a Democratic bill that would have triggered troop withdrawals by Oct. 1 with the goal of completing the pull out in six months.

Next month, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to force votes on several anti-war proposals as amendments to a 2008 defense policy bill. Members will decide whether to cut off money for combat, demand troop withdrawals start in four months, restrict the length of combat tours and rescind Congress’ 2002 authorization of Iraqi invasion.

Expected to fall short of the 60 votes needed in the Senate to pass controversial legislation, the proposals are intended to increase pressure on Bush and play up to voters frustrated with the war.

The Voice of the Corrupt, Stupid Washington Elite Calls for Cheney to Go

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Sally Quinn is everything that is awful about the inside the beltway set, and she speaks for them.

Atrios describes her as, “Sally Quinn, the permanent hostess of the floating Washington cocktail party.”

Once again, he shows me why he’s an A-list Blogger, and I’m a Z-list blogger.

A GOP Plan To Oust Cheney

By Sally Quinn
Tuesday, June 26, 2007; 12:00 AM

The big question right now among Republicans is how to remove Vice President Cheney from office. Even before this week’s blockbuster series in The Post, discontent in Republican ranks was rising.

As the reputed architect of the war in Iraq, Cheney is viewed as toxic, and as the administration’s leading proponent of an attack on Iran, he is seen as dangerous. As long as he remains vice president, according to this thinking, he has the potential to drag down every member of the party — including the presidential nominee — in next year’s elections.

Removing a sitting vice president is not easy, but this may be the moment. I remember Barry Goldwater sitting in my parents’ living room in 1973, in the last days of Watergate, debating whether to lead a group of senior Republicans to the White House to tell President Nixon he had to go. His hesitation was that he felt loyalty to the president and the party. But in the end he felt a greater loyalty to his country, and he went to the White House.

Today, another group of party elders, led by Sen. John Warner of Virginia, could well do the same. They could act out of concern for our country’s plummeting reputation throughout the world, particularly in the Middle East.

For such a plan to work, however, they would need a ready replacement. Until recently, there hasn’t been an acceptable alternative to Cheney — nor has there been a persuasive argument to convince President Bush to make a change. Now there is.

The idea is to install a vice president who could beat the Democratic nominee in 2008. It’s unlikely that any of the top three Republican candidates — former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Sen. John McCain of Arizona or former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — would want the job, for fear that association with Bush’s war would be the kiss of death.

Nor would any of them be that attractive to the president. Giuliani is too New York, too liberal. His reputation as a leader, forged on 9/11 and the days after, carries him only so far. McCain, who has always had a rocky relationship with the president, lost much of his support from moderate Democrats and independents (and from a fair amount of Republicans) when the Straight Talk Express started veering off course. And no matter what anyone says about how Romney’s religion doesn’t matter, being a Mormon is simply not acceptable to Bush’s base. Several right-wing evangelicals have told me they don’t see Mormons as “true Christians.”

That leaves Fred Thompson. Everybody loves Fred. He has the healing qualities of Gerald Ford and the movie-star appeal of Ronald Reagan. He is relatively moderate on social issues. He has a reputation as a peacemaker and a compromiser. And he has a good sense of humor.

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These Weapons are For Use on Americans, not Brown and Black People

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Maybe I’m paranoid, but I can’t see either this administration, or the military being so concerned about the non white or non Christian people that they bomb.
This is intended for use against US Citizens.

Pentagon Struggles To Define Nonlethal Weapons Roadmap(subscription required)

Aviation Week & Space Technology
06/25/2007, page 55

Michael Bruno
Washington

Nonlethal weapons beckon, but Pentagon struggles to ascertain the way forward

Printed headline: Stunned Progression

The U.S. Defense Dept. has a bevy of high-end nonlethal weapon technologies being developed, but whether it can better exploit the seemingly endless possibilities that nonlethal weapons promise, even by the next major war, is still uncertain.

It’s not for lack of trying. There are still dreams of unmanned aircraft raining electromagnetic pulses or corrosive agents on alleged overseas weapons-of-mass-destruction sites to obliterate their navigation, guidance and detonation circuits—as one Naval War College paper once outlined—or UAV fleets dropping polymer foam agents to render an enemy facility temporarily useless without the collateral damage of lethal bombs.


The Active Denial System, heavily promoted by the U.S. Defense Dept. and even formally sought by combat command officials in the Middle East, continues to see deployment slip into the future as researchers try to fine-tune the nonlethal weapon.Credit: U.S. DEFENSE DEPT.

Take the Active Denial System, the Defense Dept.’s first nonlethal directed-energy weapon and the most prominent new-technology effort trumpeted by the Defense Dept. The ADS uses a gyrotron to generate a focused millimeter-wave radio frequency beam that, when directed at targeted humans, creates a subcutaneous heating sensation that is often described as feeling like one is being cooked alive. Assuming enemies flee the targeted beam or the weapon is disengaged, effects do not linger
….

Of course, they tested this on people with no change in their pockets, contact lenses, eyeglasses, etc.
And that guy with the artificial hip? fugget about it

Claude Rains Would be Shocked: More Lobbyists On McCain Staff Than Any Other 08 Candidate

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(It’s a reference to Casablanca)
McCain has been dirty since his Keating 5 days.
BTW, when you read this look at the ads. I bet that $#@% McCain ad will be back on the right column.

More Lobbyists On McCain Staff Than Any Other 08 Candidate
John McCain, who made his name attacking special interests, has more lobbyists working on his staff or as advisers than any of his competitors, Republican or Democrat.

A Huffington Post examination of the campaigns of the top three presidential candidates in each party shows that lobbyists are playing key roles in both Democratic and Republican bids –although they are far more prevalent on the GOP side. But, all the campaigns pale in comparison to McCain’s, whose rhetoric stands in sharp contrast to his conduct.

“Too often the special interest lobbyists with the fattest wallets and best access carry the day when issues of public policy are being decided,” McCain asserts on his web site, declaring that he “has fought the ‘revolving door’ by which lawmakers and other influential officials leave their posts and become lobbyists for the special interests they have aided.”

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Alberto Gonzales Is the Key to the Bush Admin Corruption

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It seems that every bit of skulduggery, though not every bit of incompetence, has Abu Gonzalez’s fingerprints on it.

Seriously…This guy is the alpha and omega of Bush corruption.

If he gets flipped, we uncover everything.

A New Dick Cheney-Alberto Gonzales Mystery
Newsweek

July 2-9, 2007 issue – A new battle has erupted over Vice President Dick Cheney’s refusal to submit to an executive order requiring a government review of his handling of classified documents. But the dispute could also raise questions for embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. For the past four years, Cheney’s office has failed to comply with an executive order requiring all federal offices—including those in the White House—to annually report to the National Archives on how they safeguard classified documents. Cheney’s hard-line chief of staff, David Addington, has made the novel argument that the veep doesn’t have to comply on the ground that, because the vice president also serves as president of the Senate, his office is not really part of the executive branch.

Cheney’s position so frustrated J. William Leonard, the chief of the Archives’ Information Security Oversight Office, which enforces the order, that he complained in January to Gonzales. …

Why didn’t Gonzales act on Leonard’s request? His aides assured reporters that Leonard’s letter has been “under review” for the past five months—by Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). But on June 4, an OLC lawyer denied a Freedom of Information Act request about the Cheney dispute asserting that OLC had “no documents” on the matter, according to a copy of the letter obtained by NEWSWEEK.

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El Paso Times – Suit shines spotlight on immigration judgeships

By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 06/24/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT

Guadalupe Gonzalez is the chief counsel for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in El Paso, a lawyer with more than 20 years of experience in immigration law and a stellar record. In 2002, she made the next logical career move, applying to become an immigration judge.

“I love El Paso. It is my home. I was born and raised here, and it’s important for me personally to contribute in a role that is both vitally important to our country and of particular importance to the El Paso community,” she said.

But the job went to a Anglo male candidate with no reported immigration experience. In 2004, when two other judgeships opened, they went to two other Anglo males, both of them Gonzalez’s subordinates with markedly less expertise in immigration law than Gonzalez.Ê

Gonzalez, 56, sued the U.S. attorney general for discrimination on the basis of gender and national origin, and the suit is pending in a court in Washington, D.C.

In her filings, Gonzalez claimed that since 2001, only two Hispanics were appointed nationwide for 40 immigration judgeships. The four immigration judges in El Paso are all Anglo men.

The case has attracted national attention amid a scandal over the apparent politicization of attorney general positions and judgeships.

…

Gordon Brown apologises for Tony Blair

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Really, this is about separating himself from Tony Blair, who is about to do the only thing that could possibly make him less popular in Britain, he is becoming a Catholic.

Brown is calling Blair a lying sack of $#@!.

Brown apologises for Iraq intelligence ‘mistakes’

Britain’s next prime minister Gordon Brown apologised for mistakes in intelligence made in the run-up to the Iraq war in a BBC television interview Friday.

Brown has stressed that he will push for a new emphasis in Iraq when he takes over from current premier Tony Blair on Wednesday but went further than before in his latest comments.

“We have apologised, and I repeat that, for the mistakes that were made in intelligence,” he said.

“I think we’ve got to be honest about it that mistakes were made at the point of reconstruction after Saddam Hussein fell … mistakes made by all of us in the reconstruction progress,” he said.

Brown also said that there would be clearer boundaries between intelligence and politics when he was in office.

“I’m setting in place what I think are far more rigorous procedures so that the intelligence is seen to be different from, if you like, any decision by a politician,” he added.

“I want people to know that in future, they can be satisfied that, where public information is provided, it has gone through an authoritative process and it is free of political influence.“

emphasis mine

Bush Admin to Create New Gulags

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Replacing one Gulag with a bunch of little ones….Delightful.

Bush Administration Nears Decision To Close Gitmo

AP) WASHINGTON The Bush administration is nearing a decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detainee facility and move the terror suspects there to military prisons elsewhere, The Associated Press has learned.

President Bush’s national security and legal advisers are expected to discuss the move at the White House on Friday and, for the first time, it appears a consensus is developing, senior administration officials said Thursday.

The advisers will consider a proposal to shut the center and transfer detainees to one or more Defense Department facilities, including the maximum security military prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, where they could face trial, said the officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing internal deliberations.

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Good News: WTO Talks Fail

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A bit late, but….

This is a good thing.

The rules are about making bankers rich, depressing wages, and imposing neo-colonial regimes on less developed countries.

Until we redefine what free trade should be, and it shouldn’t be denying drugs to babies in Guatemala, progress should stop.

WTO talks stumble, raising doubts over future of Doha pact

U.S. blames Brazil and India for asking for impossible concessions; future of World Trade Organization’s Doha pact in question.
June 21 2007: 1:23 PM EDT

POTSDAM, Germany (Reuters) — The future of World Trade Organization’s Doha pact is under doubt, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said Thursday, as talks between the United States, European Union, India and Brazil broke down.

“It places a very major question mark on the ability of the wider membership of the WTO to complete this round,” Mandelson told a press conference in Potsdam. “It does not in itself mean that the negotiations cannot be put back on track.”

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Indeed

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The origins of the Religious Right have to deal with their losing the right to be tax-exempt and segregated, not abortion.

Obama says some have ‘hijacked’ faith

By STEPHEN SINGER, Associated Press WriterSat Jun 23, 5:11 PM ET

Sen. Barack Obama told a church convention Saturday that some right-wing evangelical leaders have exploited and politicized religious beliefs in an effort to sow division.

“Somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and faith started being used to drive us apart,” the Democratic presidential candidate said in a 30-minute speech before the national meeting of the United Church of Christ.

“Faith got hijacked, partly because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, all too eager to exploit what divides us,” the Illinois senator said.

“At every opportunity, they’ve told evangelical Christians that Democrats disrespect their values and dislike their church, while suggesting to the rest of the country that religious Americans care only about issues like abortion and gay marriage, school prayer and intelligent design,” according to an advance copy of his speech.

“There was even a time when the Christian Coalition determined that its number one legislative priority was tax cuts for the rich,” Obama said. “I don’t know what Bible they’re reading, but it doesn’t jibe with my version.”

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Not currently my first choice for Democratic nominee, but he’s right on the money here.

Yes, It Is Racist, Beds Are Burning Edition

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(It’s a reference to the song by Midnight Oil.

Australian clampdown on Aborigines condemned as racist

Fri Jun 22, 1:44 AM ET

An Australian government plan to ban alcohol and pornography in Aboriginal communities to try to curb rampant child sexual abuse was labelled racist and knee-jerk by indigenous groups Friday.

Prime Minister John Howard announced the unprecedented measures on Thursday following a government report detailing paedophilia and juvenile prostitution in Aboriginal communities across Australia’s vast Northern Territory.

As government ministers appealed on national television for health professionals to help solve what Howard described as a “national emergency”, critics said Canberra’s plan had been hastily prepared and poorly thought out.

Indigenous activist Michael Mansell accused Howard of trying to stir hysteria against Aborigines ahead of national elections later this year, where the prime minister’s conservative government will seek a fifth term in office.

Mansell said the government’s plans singled out Aborigines.

“It would be different if his social behaviour strategy applied to everyone in Australia, but it doesn’t, making his policies racist,” said Mansell, the director of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre.

“This is a racist attack on the weak and an immoral abuse of power, amounting to nothing more than political vote scoring.”

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Emphasis mine

T-Shirt Fun

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In 2001, I printed up the following T-shirt to protest GW Bush.


Photo: Texas State Library & Archives Commission, used with permission

It’s one way to get the opinion of the general public.

At the 7-11 where I filled up, the clerk said, “Nice Shirt”.

Once I got to DC, someone walked up to me, and asked, “Don’t like him, huh?”, and I replied “Yes.”, and we both grinned.

I had one person give me a thumbs up, and on my way back to the Metro, a guy in a shirt and tie, smiled at me and said, “Liar”.

We hit Barnes and Noble on the way home, and the clerk said that he liked my shirt.