apple juice

Ack! It went longer than the schedule on TiVo! So I’ve probably lost the last half hour.

8:27PM Clark – Dean thinks you are a Republican, (reads some quotes) when did you first notice that you were a Democrat? (laughter in audience) Repeats that he voted for Gore and Clinton. While in military, wasn’t a member of a party. But when the president does something he thinks is right, he’ll say it, but he thinks Bush is taking the country in wrong direction. Moderator – From a piece in the Times of London, wouldn’t someone conclude that you did actually agree with the president? He says no… but “I did not support the war”

8:23PM Lieberman – In ’96 and ’99 revolving regional primaries? Was that a good idea? He’s older and wiser. DLC did a good thing by protecting IA and NH. Moderator – will you pledge now, to oppose efforts to boot NH out of the early primary. Lieberman says he will protect it to the death. (He’s pandering)

8:22PM Kerry – What about small business? Are you going to hike their taxes? Republicans are afraid of me (or was it Joe) he has the resources and endorsements. He’s talking common sense, and common sense says you help small business. Republican’s just cut some benefit for small biz. He’s for small biz.

8:20PM Sharpton – (Brit Hume is being melodramatic here, “The Earth is crumbling under the feet of Iran”) How would you deal with Iran? Support democracy, give support through the UN. We should pay our dues, and we shouldn’t step around the UN.

8:18PM Edwards – Are you too young? Is it too early? 32% of Iowans thought it was not too early. (good rebuttal) He lost me on his response though… Moderator – Anything intrinsically wrong with lobbyists? No but their impact is too strong.

8:16PM Clark – As a consultant you helped secure funding for CAPPS II. Says he hasn’t seen it, but the people who are speaking against it, haven’t seen it either. (wtf?) He said that he would have had the ACLU in to pre-approve the CAPPS II. Says he can’t understand why they can’t protect privacy.

8:15PM Lieberman – “We made the right decision.” Saddam was a threat to America. etc..

8:13PM Dean – The 3 senators who voted for the war, “haven’t sorted through the issues carefully” Dean came to a different conclusion. The president was not truthful to the american people.

8:11PM Kucinich – What is the #1 environmental issue facing america? Wants an interesting journey to the Planet Earth. Sustainable, renewable energy, away from oil and towards the good stuff.

8:09PM Lieberman – Should we be going to Canada for prescription drugs? Unfortunately we should, pricing of drugs is unfair. Canada and other countries have price controls on drugs, and american’s pay for it. Voted against prescription drug benefit. Are you encouraging govenors to break the law? Says he would make it legal. When you are bringing in the same drug for a a lower price, what’s the diff? Drug companies need to treat american’s fairly?

8:06PM Kerry’s up first – MTBE’s, what do you propose to balance between economy and environment. Kerry says, Ban it! (Good and strong) Tom Delay and friends have been trying to protect the companies putting the MTBE’s in. Worst administration ever. (on environment) Cleaning up the environment is jobs, and we’re going to create 500k of them in the “first years”

commercial (this is my longest post ever)

8:02PM Sharpton – Why haven’t you campaigned more in NH – Starts out by saying that they need to be Democrats, not more like Republicans. Then says that Kucinich can give him delegates any time he feels like it… And as far as campaigning, can’t be everywhere… and he campaigned in DC

8:00PM Edwards – Specify what additional federal gun control measures you would propose. Says he defeated an incumbent republican. So he must be doing something right. Says he respects 2nd amendment rights. But it doesn’t mean that criminals should be able to buy guns, should do everything to keep guns from kids. Supports 2nd amendment, but there are limits. Moderator – And my question? What additional measures? Extend the brady bill, close forever the gun show loophole, trigger locks.. but must protect 2nd admendment rights.

7:58PM Kucinich – Why did you cut a deal with Edwards? He voted for Iraq and Patriot Act. And, is your party divided over the war? “Of course it is” (He doesn’t explain this, but he says it as a good thing, which it is, IMO). Doesn’t really explain the deal, other than they both wanted more delagates

7:56PM Clark – Patriot Act? Has been roundly criticized. How would your administration revisit the Patriot act and how would you balance civil liberties and security. Clark is very concerned about patriot act. We would suspend all search and seizure parts, sneak and peak. They can do it the old-fashion way, go to a judge. Good subtle jab at Ashcroft. “We’d bring it back to the senate and have former attorney general John Ashcroft to come testify about how it was used.” “We cannot win the war on terror by giving up the freedoms we are fighting to protect.” Good line, and true.

7:53PM Lieberman – Same question, but Joe has said that dems are too liberal on social values, what do you say about Dean and Kerry. As long as democrats are hesitant to talk about faith and values. Lets not let republicans frame faith issues. He’s rambling on about the environment all the sudden. Moderator is prodding him to attack Dean and Kerry. Joe says “Nice try” says he will talk about himself, not his opponents.

7:52PM Kerry – Same question.. I’m a vet, been a prosecutor, helped fight acid rain, stood up for fairness, voted for welfare reform, is a gun owner and hunter, education reform. Other efforts to make the workplace fair, for all american’s, wants to hold bush accountable for pushing seniors off medicare, prohibiting medicare from negotiating bulk purchase meds, turning an energy bill into a bonanza for his friends in the oil industry. Workplace is unfair for average american.

7:50PM Dean again – Republicans characterize you as not having mainstream values, show how you would push back as this? First on money, republican presidents haven’t balanced the budget in 34 years, I have, I’m much more conservative than Bush about money. Second, issues like guns, gets him in trouble with the dems, should renew assault weapon ban, background checks, but states need to make gun laws cause montana is different than New York. Finally, values, “I’d challenge him any day on values” when president uses word quota, plays the race-card and to fears that people will lose thier jobs.

thank God for Tivo, I just got 4 phone calls in a row, and I’m still paused on Peter Jenning’s cute face…

7:49PM Sharpton – You questioned dean’s lack of a minority cabinet member in Vermont. He says states rights is a dangerous precident, need to protect people at a federal level (applause) Govt should have a goal of inclusiveness. Diversity is good for everyone even when populations are small..

7:46PM Dean – NH voters most cite health care when they look at the candidates, how is your plan different, or if you’d like, talk about civil unions. Says that vermont did civil unions, not marriage, without really going into why that is different. Switches to health care, talks about record on health care, he’s done what everyone is talking about, 99% of under-18, everyone under 150% of poverty, all working poor, and 1/3 of seniors have prescription drug benefit. Didn’t wait for bush. Expand what we did in VT. We can do health care and balanced budgets. Can’t do it without taxes, bush will put us even farther into debt. Have to be truthful about programs and their costs

7:43PM Edwards – Defense of marriage act. Kerry voted against it, bush says it needs to be stronger. Was Kerry right? Edwards says yes. Points to Vermont, Massachusetts, says DFA took power from states. Should other states be obliged to recognize Vermont’s civil unions? He says, it’s a state issue, state by state. GLB couples deserve to be treated fairly, etc. he’s way over time. Does not the defense of marriage act specifically say that court rulings in one state may not be imposed on another, isn’t that your position? Edwards is flustered, says as he understands DFA takes away right of states to make the decision on recognizing gay marriage.

7:42PM Clark – Says he hasn’t looked at the facts about Bush being a deserter.

7:40PM Clark – From Jennings “This is a simple question” (you can’t make this stuff up) Knowing people by knowing their friends. Talking about Michael Moore. Moore said Bush was a deserter. which is not supported by facts (according to jennings). Clark just rattled off three endorsers. “The breadth of the democratic party”.

7:38PM Kucinich – How will you close the deficit with all your new spending? He’s answering the question by saying he’ll spend more money. Oh wait, 15% reduction in pentagon budget. One thing he won’t do is cut domestic programs. Target date depends on how bad bush messes it up. (applause)

7:37PM Lieberman – Will never say no to troops in battle, they are our best and brightest, etc. etc.

7:36PM Lieberman – looking to pick up some gephardt votes, Lieberman is delusional. Would never use war until it was the last resort. And says that this time war was a last resort.

7:33PM Kerry – How would you feel about war veterans who would throw away their medals in protest? Talking about how Nixon had disdain for the veterans sleeping in the mall. Would never go to war cause we want to, only when we have to. Current president is showing disdain for men in uniform. (he way over) He would always support veterans

7:30PM Commerical… Ba dupe ba dupe ba dupe ( the tivo noise)

7:29PM Sharpton is up, question is about domestic policy, what kind of person would you nominate for chairman of the federal reserve. Talk about your monetary policy. Says Dean shouldn’t be so hard on himself for hooting and hollering, if he had gotten 18% he’d still be there hooting and hollering. Sharpton basically talking a lot and not saying anything about this. Starts off on the IMF, Jennings interrupts, says that the question is about Fed… sharpton is a little flustered. Still talking, would replace greenspan, but doesn’t know who.

7:28PM Edwards – we need to get to know the people of the middle east.. not just the leaders (he’s way over but he finishes)

7:26 Edwards – Tell us about what you know about the practice of Islam? How does “President Edwards” understand Islam? He’s been to the middle east. Met with their leaders. Discussed their problems. He’s not an expert on Islam. Shows respect for different cultures. says he unstands the tragedy of those living in hopelessness. US must get to the root cause of the animosity.

7:24PM Clark – What exactly are you standing for cause your all over the map? (sorry, paraphrasing) Bush must be held accountable. Didn’t do everything he could’ve before 9/11, hasn’t done everything he could do since then to keep us safe. Not going to live in fear. Going to go get Bin Laden. Going to use all resources of the US Allies, economics, etc. and military to keep us safe. The questioner is now saying that’s a far cry from a guarantee for keeping us safe.(Which apparently he had said) Clark is disputing, never said he’d guarantee our safety. He considers that 9/11 couldn’t have been prevented is an excuse, that they hadn’t done everything to prevent it.

7:22PM Dean – Quoted as saying that if the UN given us permission and asked us to be a part of a coalition he would’ve gone to iraq. Now bush has made reference to not needing a permission slip… what do you say now? Iraq was not an imminent threat. Did not have WMD. Much of what the president said was not true. Saddam Hussein’s removal was good, but the way we did it was bad. Should’ve been UN.

Says he’s not perfect, people have had fun with him over iowa speech, that’s fine. But the things that he’s said are things that he believes in, president should stand for what’s right, not just what popular. Stood up against NCLB, Iraq, and stood for Civil Unions. (appaulse in the crowd)

7:20PM Kucinich – Would you throw out No child left behind? (NCLB from here out) Yes, replace it with something that stresses arts, languges, music. New focus on education, stop focusing on tests. Stop teaching to tests. NCLB hasn’t worked out how people thought it would. It’s unfunded, misdirection of education in america. Free college tuition for everyone. Boos and claps at that one.

7:18PM Lieberman – Young people have problems getting health care… how would you help them? There is a morally scandalous fact that 43 million americans without healthcare. He’s proposing a national health care pool. Free for low income working poor. Fired from work, you’ll still have your health care. Birth to 25 for Medikids. (This could play to Dean on his health care record in Vermont if they get to him, as they’ve now skipped him twice..)

7:16PM Kerry is way over again.

7:16PM Kerry is up again – Would you increase troop count, voluntary vs. draft. Where do you stand on the draft? “We don’t need it” to attract people to the military we need a responsible president.

7:16PM Sharpton is so badass.

7:15PM Sharpton – What is the Sharpton doctrine on foreign policy. “We don’t only need to talk about a military presence, we need to talk about a humanitarian presence, a development presence.” “Try to project that we’re their friends, not their cops.” “People need our trade and aid, they know we’re a super power, the question is can we be a super help, in a time of need.”

7:12PM Edwards – How have your positions been consistent on Iraq. He was duped!

7:10PM Kucinich – If no UN help, would you still take the troops out? – He says, would ask UN to handle the administration, UN peacekeepers in, UN would handle contracts, etc. Applause from audience

7:08PM Clark is smoking the wacky-tobaccy. “Spent his entire time in uniform taking care of other people.” By killing them?

7:06PM Same question to Lieberman… good anecdote to start question. Bush said he would be the toughest candidate to beat. Would tax the upper 2% more, everyone else less.

7:05PM Dean is (way) over too… but they also asked him about his speech the other night… so two questions in one 😉 “Somebody has to stand up and say we can’t have everything…” we must have balanced budgets.

7:04PM Dean is up… the question is how will you defend increasing taxes against Bush. Same as Kerry’s question.

7:04PM Whoops, Kerry went over on his first question.

7:02PM Ah Peter Jennings is there as well

7:01PM They’re scaring me with this graphic zooming in and out.

7:00PM Oh sweet Brit Hume is the moderator

Debate tonight at 7pm CST on Fox “News” Channel.

This ought to be interesting.