Video courtesy of CBS News.

Bob Schieffer's comments on President Obama's vow that torture will no longer be a part of national policy.

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Hey look who else apparently has their fax machine from the RNC in good working order. John King. King opens up this discussion on the stimulus package with Mike Pence by citing the nonexistent CBO report which was debunked by the Huffington Post. I guess it's a good thing these guys don't get their "news" from blogs, huh?

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On The McLaughlin Group, John McLaughlin starts off his panel discussion by citing the nonexistent CBO report debunked by the Huffington Post, but since that is the Republican talking point du jour McLaughlin's not going to let a few facts get in the way of his spin.

The other thing that really irks me about his show is that he constantly puts conservatives on the "left" side of the panel with Eleanor Clift. What, you can't find even one milk toast liberal to fill that seat John? This week's choice was Mort Zuckerman. Four conservatives (well three actually and one batshit crazy wingnut in the form of Monica Crowley) and one liberal. Fair and balanced huh?

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I've already posted one example of this, and now here's a second one I happened across. Zach Wamp went on Washington Journal and repeated the CBO stimulus lie debunked by the HuffPo. This is going to be an ongoing theme and the subject of more posts here at Video Cafe until these guys quit repeating this lie.

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The panel of Bob Woodward, Kelly O'Donnell, Anne Kornblut and Howard Fineman making excuses for the Obama administration and Congress if there are no prosecutions for torture committed by the Bush administration.

Matthews: How do you read that...what he just said?

Woodward: No. In other words he's not going to, he doesn't want investigations. I mean if, first of all in some of these things, it's so ambiguous and uh, he has got to get beyond the past. He does not want to create the feeling, which in a sense this week he did create by saying he's going to close Guantanamo, that the war on terror is over. It is not over. What he said is some of the tactics, namely torture and harsh interrogation tactics are gone but the war continues and if there is a, some sort of perpetual investigation of these things the message will be we're going soft and I tell you those in the intelligence world and the military and I think Obama himself doesn't want to send that message.

Matthews: Well let's talk about the Republicans on the Hill. What are they worried, aren't they trying to hold Eric Holder's feet to the fire and say "Promise you won't launch an investigation as our new Attorney General".

O'Donnell: Well one of the problems is if they do dig back into all of these things you do lose some of the Republicans support and President Obama's trying to reach out. You also reinforce what detractors of the Bush/Cheney years already think. So there's very little political upside. And so Eric Holder has been certainly tested and they definitely, Republicans definitely want to be able to feel like they can stick with their strong principle of defense without having to worry about digging back into some of those things.

Matthews: Yeah. Anne obviously the people on the left, the netroots people, John Conyers up on the Hill, they want action. They want some kind of at least an extra-legal kind of truth and reconciliation commission like you had in South Africa that doesn't prosecute but does investigate.

Kornblut: And yet we haven't heard any signal from Obama or the White House itself that they would authorize that, encourage it. Even something that would be as sort of as benign as a truth and reconciliation commission, every indication is they want to leave that to reporters, historians. They want to move on, you know the Hill can do what the Hill can do, but they're not behind it.

Matthews: Well why did we prosecute people at Abu Ghraib for abusing prisoners if we're not going to prosecute people who may have authorized that kind of treatment?

Fineman: It is an issue. But Obama has to run the country and he and the leaders of the Democratic Party on the Hill have said "It's not worth the cost". I mean I know that Harry Reid, the Democratic leader in the Senate wants no parts of this. Whatever John Conyers is going to do on the House side, he's going to do and you'll hear a lot of noise from him and maybe some investigations. But it's not going to be backed up by the Democratic leadership in Congress. It just isn't.

(crosstalk)

Woodward: Well who would you investigate and prosecute? I mean the people who did these interrogations and so forth believed with good reason they had authority from the President.

Matthews: They had orders.

Woodward: Now you know it's too late to impeach Bush. It's over.

On Hardball while discussing the Obama administration's proposed stimulus package, Brian Bilbray cites a report by the CBO saying much of the money would not be spent until after 2011. As reported by the Huffington Post, it turns out that report by the CBO does not exist. I can't believe it. Republicans just making crap up again. I'm shocked! Heh.

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From Countdown Jan. 23, 2009. Wicked Witch of the West-Gate, V.A.-Gate and Terrorist-Gate.

In his first weekly address since being sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, President Barack Obama discussed how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan will jump-start the economy.

Can anyone imagine this being done under W.? Recovery.gov I didn't think so.

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From The Cafferty File:

President Obama’s hopes for broad bipartisan support for his $825-billion emergency stimulus package have been dashed.

The President wants the emergency bill on his desk by President’s Day. But there’s an obstacle in the way: Opposition from Republicans that seems to be growing by the day. Now they are complaining they’ve been shut out of the process of writing the bill. They are pointing a finger at the Democrats for ignoring the President’s call for bipartisanship.

We’re in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Voters made it clear they’re sick and tired of partisan warfare in Washington. Is anybody listening?

Today President Obama met with GOP leaders to hear their concerns. House Republican leader John Boehner said he and his colleagues feel the package is too expensive and too slow. Republicans want tax relief in the hands of Americans right away.

The President said he would take the Republican concerns under consideration. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said President Obama will go to Capitol Hill next week to meet with lawmakers and try to get this thing done.

My question to you is: Are Republicans making a mistake by opposing President Obama’s stimulus plan?

Here’s my question to you: Are Republicans making a mistake by opposing President Obama’s stimulus plan?

Continue reading »

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Kit Bond making one of the most convoluted arguments I've ever heard about why Gitmo should stay open and what defines torture. He resorts to the latest GOP talking point that if we allow the prisoners at Gitmo to be brought to US prisons we should all be very afraid that they're going to escape and kill us all. Way to keep that fear mongering up Sen. Bond. He also claims that anyone wanting to prosecute the Bush administration for war crimes is suffering from the "ultimate in Bush derangement syndrome".

This man makes me really, really ashamed to have to have him representing my state and really, really grateful he's not running for reelection.