Almost as soon as it went up The Shoe has been brought down. The monument commemorating the journalist who hurled his shoes at President George W. Bush was taken down only one day after it was erected. Seems the Central Government just didn't approve.

Children unwrap the sculpture of a shoe created as a monument to the shoes thrown by an Iraqi journalist at former U.S. President George W. Bush, in Tikrit, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Jan. 30, 2009. The director of an orphanage in Tikrit said Iraqi police told her the shoe sculpture had to be removed because government property should not be used for something with a political bias. (AP)

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Reports say that President Obama might nominate Republican Sen. Gregg as Secretary of Commerce. Many have speculated that the Democratic Governor of New Hampshire would replace Gregg with a Democratic Senator giving Democrats a possibility of 60 seats in the Senate.

This morning on Fox, Sen. Kyl hinted that the New Hampshire Governor would not appoint a Democratic Senator to replace Gregg. A panel on Fox News interpreted Kyl's comments to mean that the New Hampshire governor may replace Gregg with a Republican Senator.

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From The Rachel Maddow Show:

Former Guantanamo prosecutor, Army Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, describes the sorry state of the government's case against many of the inmates at the prison on Guantanamo Bay.

Andy Worthington -- Former Guantánamo Prosecutor Condemns “Chaotic” Trials in Case of Teenage Torture Victim:

On January 13, in a declaration submitted to a Washington D.C. District Court in the case of Guantánamo prisoner Mohamed Jawad, Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, a former prosecutor in the Military Commission trial system, delivered perhaps the most blistering attack on the US military’s detention program by a former member of the Pentagon’s team to date.

Speaking of the man he was once tasked to prosecute, Vandeveld said prisoner Mohamed Jawad’s continued detention is “something beyond a travesty,” and urged that Jawad be released given a “lack of any credible evidence.”

Some of this information was revealed in September 2008, after Vandeveld (who has served in Bosnia, Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan in the years since the 9/11 attacks, and has received several military awards) resigned as a prosecutor, complaining that “potentially exculpatory evidence” had “not been provided” to Jawad’s defense team, and that his accidental discovery of information relating to Jawad’s abuse helped convert him from a “true believer to someone who felt truly deceived.”

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From Go Left TV and Ring of Fire Radio:

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Mike Papantonio run down this week's stories that the mainstream media did a poor job of reporting - Everything from the ongoing Karl Rove subpoena saga, to the irreversible effects of climate change.

Ring of Fire's Buried Stories Jan. 30th Pt. 1

Part 2

Part 3

Americans United For Change, the labor-backed political group that is currently campaigning for President Obama's stimulus package, has releaased a round of radio ads tying the GOP to Rush Limbaugh, Obama's loudest critic on this issue. They're targeting Republican Senators in Nevada, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

NARRATOR: Listen to what Rush Limbaugh said about President Obama's Agenda and his Jobs Package.

LIMBAUGH: I HOPE HE FAILS!

NARRATOR: The Obama Jobs bill overwhelmingly passed the House.... But not one Republican voted yes. Every Republican member of the House chose to take Rush Limbaugh's advice. Every Republican voted with Limbaugh....and against creating 4 million new American jobs.

We can understand why a extreme partisan like Rush Limbaugh wants President Obama's Jobs program to fail....but the Members of Congress elected to represent the citizens in their districts?... that's another matter.

Now the Obama plan goes to the Senate.... And the question is:

Will our Senator, ___ ,side with Rush Limbaugh too...

LIMBAUGH: I HOPE HE FAILS!

NARRATOR: OR will he reject the partisanship and failed economic policies of the past,

and stand up for the people of ___

In a week that saw Wall Street treat itself to $18.4 billion in bonuses (while receiving billions in taxpayer money), and both President Obama ("outrageous") and Sen Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) ("idiots") lambaste them for it, CNBC's loudmouth commentator, and Wall Street apologist, Charlie Gasparino picks an especially inopportune time to put his foot in his mouth.

Gasparino: The bonus question, we shouldn't be talking about it. It's a stupid, fucking...it's a stupid debate.

Deutsch: Wow, did he?

Gasparino: I'm sorry.

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Jerrold Nadler on Countdown discussing what will be done if Karl Rove again refuses to honor subpoenas and appear before Congress.

January 30, 2009 C-SPAN

Heather: I just wanted to add that Clair McCaskill is my Senator, and I had the chance to meet her once. She is as spunky in person as she is in this video. I am very glad to have her as my Senator as opposed to Jim Talent a.k.a. Bush rubber-stamper who decided that whatever the GOP and Bush did while he served his term in office was fine by him and hey... who needs Congressional oversight? What a silly thing to expect of someone. Even though I don't agree with everything Clair McCaskill has done while in office I think she's been a breath of fresh air for MO.

I applaud her for speaking up about these fat cats sucking off of the tax payers teet. The GOP always loooves welfare for corporations. For poor people...not so much. I agree with her that if you're going to take tax payers' money there should be some limits as to how you benefit from that.