November 23, 2009 ABC NIGHTLINE

Part 1

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Part 2

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In the "Nightline" interview, Hampton provides astonishing new details about the affair and its many repercussions, including the end of a close 20-year friendship between the two families and the loss of the Hamptons' jobs.

"Lost my job. Lost my best friend. Nearly lost my wife," he said on the ripple effect of Ensign's affair.

Hampton makes allegations of hypocrisy, hubris -- cover-ups and maybe even crimes -- that have destroyed lives and could destroy Ensign's political career.

"It's hard to comprehend what's still taking place, what's going on this moment, with regards to the unraveling of the choices and the decisions that John's made," Hampton said.

Hampton said he's finally speaking out because he wants Ensign held accountable.

"I think there are missing pieces to what's been reported," he said. "Important for people to understand what the senator has done. ... The truth needs to come out."

Ensign Once the Rising GOP Star

Ensign was a rising star in the Republican Party. During his second term, there were already rumblings that the junior senator from Nevada might be the party's next best hope for president.

Ensign was an attractive candidate: good-looking, from a wealthy Las Vegas family, with impeccable conservative credentials. "Born again" in college, Ensign was a loud and leading voice for lawmakers adhering to strict Christian family values. He argued passionately for the Federal Marriage Amendment and publicly condemned President Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal and Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, when he was accused of propositioning another man in a public restroom.

Read more at NIGHTLINE

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(Manuel Noriega 1989 - The smuggled cocaine turned out to be Tamales)

Twenty years ago this December we were busy overthrowing yet another government whose defacto head just happened to be on our CIA payroll. Sound familiar? Well, Manuel Noriega ran afoul of the Bush(Sr.) administration and, amidst a flurry of propaganda, set-ups and allegations, we landed a good sized invasion force in Panama and promptly unseated our former "buddy" and installed a more sympathetic head.

Face The Nation ran a q&a between Leslie Stahl, Deputy Secretary of State Bernard Aronson and Les Aspin (D-Wisconsin) on the fallout of the invasion and what was next.

Leslie Stahl: “Have we created a situation where he’s no longer the issue, and we’re the issue? I guess the main question right now is why didn’t our government plan for the situation that did develop, which was chaos and anarchy, and why wasn’t more done to build support or to anticipate the problems the new government would have? Endara, the man we did . . helped install says that when we came to him the night before or the night of our invasion it was like a punch in the stomach, he didn’t expect it, he hadn’t formed a government, he hadn’t thought about forming a government . . . .

Aronson: “That’s actually not true. He had done an awful lot of work in trying to form a government and plan a government. And I think one indication of that is in five days he’s named a senior Minister. He’s named a new commander for the public forces and a new deputy commander. His White House . . . U.S. Ambassador has already arrived in Washington, taking control of the embassy. His U.N. Ambassador has been named and gone to New York. His OAS Ambassador has been named. And in fact their new Ambassador told me they had a new economic team they wanted to send to Washington. So I . . what he was saying he didn’t know in advance that this military operation was coming and he was taken by surprise, and obviously he didn’t know, we didn’t know, it happened as a dangerously deteriorating situation.”

At the time of this broadcast (Sunday morning December 24), Noriega hadn't given himself up yet, and there was speculation this would be a drawn out operation with no plan in sight.

However, that changed within a matter of hours as Noriega gave himself up, and for some bizarre reason was arrested on a Cocaine charge (which turned out to be a bag of tamales . . .so go figure).

All part of our somewhat baffling foreign policy the last hundred or so years.

The Villagers always love to attack us liberal bloggers and leave conservative bloggers alone. I know in their hearts they can't stand the dirty hippies that we are, but then I read this post by my pal John Cole and I realized something:

The moment I heard Snowe was going to vote for the bill, I began furiously refreshing Red State for the reaction. Finally, they deliver:
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That is right, folks. To show unhappy they are, they are going to ask you to buy rock salt through their amazon store and mail it to Olympia Snowe. They don’t call them the Red State Strike Farce for nothing.

Seriously, how do I make a joke about this?

(You have to check out the screen grab Cole has. It is "the joke," Mr. Cole.)

They are too stupid to be taken seriously even by the John Harwoods of the pundit class so I know why they do it. Because we do have political influence and it bothers the Beltway media elites profoundly. I'd say we're doing our job. Now pack up your rock salt and get to UPS.

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In a new poll done by CBS and the NY Times shows that not only do Americans want a public option, they want it BIG TIME. These are numbers that the White House and Rahm can't ignore anymore.
65% of Americas do favor a government administered health care plan like Medicare that would compete with private insurance companies. That's something the Baucus Dogs and Republicans do not want to see after the mark ups have just completed. I'm sure they thought the teabaggers spoke for America, but as any informed person would know, they do not.

Adam Nagourney of the NY Times explains some of the poll results and the only reason that Adam finds the answer to the public option interesting is because the Villagers have spoken and said that the public option is dead and they get confused when Americans voice a different opinion than the one they think Americans should have.

He does make sure to highlight the parts that Obama is struggling with, but when it comes to the public option, there is no conflicting results, right Adam? On the question asked on this page, the public option shows the most clarity of any question asked.

Q)....it is interesting that in spite of those numbers, in spite of the confusion there is also some clarity forming in what people want because what the poll also reveals that as far as the public option is concerned, 65% favor that, 26% oppose it.

Adam: Yes, that was kind of an interesting finding particularly considering that the fact that the public option I think appears dead at least in the form that we were asking about. There's still a lot of support for it...The poll had a lot of interesting and I think in some ways---conflicting messages....

I think the public opinion as measured in polls is very important because it shows that people want something done. I don't know how it can affect them on thing s like the public option for example, but I think there's a sense in Congress, at least among Democrats that this is a big issue and people expect them to get something done and there sort of credibility is going to rest on less they succeed or not.

Adam says that the Obama administration is closely watching the polls, but still throws the public option under the bus. Isn't it always a left wing priority that is A-OK to chuck overboard by the pundits and reporters, but other facets of the Baucus Bill are quite OK to negotiate around. How about Conrad's co ops get jettisoned in a swamp?
We're keeping up the pressure on the public option and until we see an actual bill come out of committee we do not know what we're actually debating about.

Adam's article in the NY Times about the poll is interesting and does mention the public option which is a huge story unfolding on Capitol hill and in his own poll.

On one of the most contentious issues in the health care debate — whether to establish a government-run health insurance plan as an alternative to private insurers — nearly two-thirds of the country continues to favor the proposal, which is backed by Mr. Obama but has drawn intense fire from most Republicans and some moderate Democrats.

mcjoan at KOS has a good post about the public option in Blue Dog districts: Public Option Popular in Blue Dog Districts

ginandtacos: 'Democrats-as-socialists' comments are particularly lame coming from someone like the CEO of Coca Cola. Dirt-cheap, subsidized corn sweeteners, anyone?

Scott Horton: Republican Gomorrah - Six Questions for Max Blumenthal

Pacific Views: Act in haste, repent at leisure

Danger Room: Inside Bob Gates' Overhaul of the Pentagon

Eschaton: Atrios has news...

Consortiumblog: Neocon judge's history of coverups

Forbes is a magazine so bad, I once canceled a free subscription. So I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they've published articles attacking what they call "ObamaCare."

I especially like this one, "ObamaCare Can Punish You for Being Healthy." Now, you would think of the audience that reads Forbes, they would agree - but the comments are overwhelmingly critical of the author's outright hackery. (Which makes me wonder: if readers of a magazine like Forbes are so critical of the health care system, where are the calls opposing reform coming from? Hmm.)

Anyway, here's a sample:

This has got to be one of the worst articles I have seen on Forbes. I am a registered Republican and no left winger but what a crock. The assumption is that the HMO system motivates people to live a more healthy life. God has anybody looked at Americans in the last 40 years! We have a country full of Obese, Unhealthy, entitlement mentality citizens. On the other hand looking at countries like Japan which have partially subsidized health care similar (but not the same) to what the Obama administration is offering has allowed Japan to become one of the healthies countries in the world. They live longer than anywhere else. It is because you can get regular check ups that Doctors are able to influence people with bad habits more regularly to adjust or face the consequences. I know this problem and the laws are MUCH MORE complex than just this, but the logic behind parts of this article are pretty sad.

Or this one:

Will you stop publishing biased articles? First, a piece about the 10 best blue collar jobs -- but you fail to mention that these jobs are all held by men. Then, this slick article about how the healthy will be punished by the prospect of decent health insurance coverage for all. I'll have you know that I have had allergies to dust and mites all of my life. That is considered a "pre-existing" condition. Yep -- something minor treated with allegra is in the same category as a serious condition such as diabetes, heart disease or cancer. My untreated assault as LAUSD while substitute-teaching a PE class with 53 students is also considered a pre-existing condition. But the District's insurance has been stalling treatment for more than a year and when they finally approved it, they approved it for one day two weeks ago. That is absolutely ridiculous. You should be ashamed for misleading the public and writing complete falsehoods.

Or this:

I have no idea where you can get health insurance that tailors your premium to your fitness. My employer (300,000 employees) certainly doesn't offer it and I doubt if most other employers do either. Since I'm tied to my employers' offered plans, it doesn't matter if "someone" out there offers it, I have limited choices. If I could get it, it would probably be like my life insurance- my doctor says I'm extremely healthy but because I have a condition that "can" be a problem, I pay outrageous rates for life insurance. I don't need that for health insurance, too.

Get the picture? Even relatively well-off Americans are unhappy with their very expensive, unreliable health care coverage and see it as inherently unfair - because it is.

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Why on earth would anyone ask Bill Kristol's opinion on foreign policy when his percentage of being correct on any issue is somewhere well below the Mendoza line?

But on Fox News, having a grasp of facts is not a hiring qualification, though it appears that bloodlust is. Because in discussing North Korea's recent missile tests, the consensus among all the pundits is that it's time to go bomb North Korea. You know, Obama has had all of five months in office to show that his sissy diplomacy tactics could work and as per Mara Liasson, clearly, they've failed.

But it's "Brother Kristol" (when did Fox News hosts start sounding like Communist Party Leaders?) who so righteously earned his spot on the Worst Person list on Countdown by saying that it's probably not a bad idea to launch an attack or two (or a dozen) against North Korea:

You know, it might be worth doing some targeted air strikes to show the North Koreans, instead of always talking about ‘gee, there could be consequences’ to show that they can’t simply keep going down this path.

Funnily enough, this was the same advice he gave for Iraq. Problem was he didn't have any ideas about what we do after those air strikes. And we're still there in Iraq, losing lives left and right six years later. Then after Brit Hume, Juan Williams and Liasson weigh in with their eagerness to sacrifice other people's children, William the Bloody ups the ante, by raising the spectre of North Korea encouraging a nuclear Iran --NIE and signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty be damned--that leads to some ooga-booga scary Middle Eastern nuclear domino theory:

We have some huge priority in—correctly put a huge priority in trying to stop Iran from going to nuclear...going nuclear. If we look back-- if the Iranians look around and see that Pakistan went nuclear, no consequences. If North Korea is going nuclear, has gone nuclear, no real consequences, except a lot of talk of how it's not acceptable. Well, now we’re saying, ‘Gee, Iran is not acceptable too.’ North Korea is awfully important to Iran for a couple of reasons -- proliferation issues, they could actually help directly or indirectly the Iranian program, bu more importantly, the example. I do think the Obama administration to the degree that they really do not want four years from now looking at a world where Iran is nuclear and Egypt and Saudi Arabia is going nuclear and the entire non-proliferation regime has collapsed. They need to be, from their own point of view, in actually dealing with Iran, much tougher on North Korea, I think, than our previous policies have been.

Seriously, are we not paying dearly for your utter wrongness enough now? If you're so gung-ho for yet another war, Wiliam the Bloody, suit the hell up or shut the hell up.

Transcripts below the fold (h/t David)

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I was saying that Chris Matthews should have read Janis Karpinski's book when he was trying to rebut Michael Smerconish the other day. Well it looks like someone else at MSNBC has. Keith Olbermann talks to former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski about how the torture at Abu Ghraib was a direct result of policies which were crafted by the higher ups in the Bush administration.

Olbermann: What does the Levin tell us about this prison and what happened there.

Karpinski: It basically says there's a direct line from these memorandum, the policies and the permissions and the directives included in those memorandum through Gen. Miller at Guantanamo Bay Cuba, migrated directly with Gen. Miller and his Tiger Team of about twenty four people who came to advise the military intelligence interrogators of these harsher interrogation techniques. Straight line.

She has a few words for Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld and the rest of the Bush administration that let the soldiers take the fall for their decisions.

Karpinski: This is one of the most shameful aspects of these memos and the knowledge that people at the highest levels of our government had about these memos, actually sat together and wrote them and rewrote them and crafted them to meet the requirements of these techniques they wanted to use.

They were well aware, these people, Rumsfeld, Sanchez, all of them and were well aware of these policies and these memorandums while these soldiers were being accused....five years ago. And if it was okay Mr. Former Vice President, if you're saying that this was necessary today and that it produced good intelligence..where were you five years ago stepping up to the plate and saying hold on, we can't discuss this because this is classified information, but these soldiers did not design these techniques? Where were all of those heros then to step up to the plate and defend these soldiers and to defend me? These were soldiers that were serving in a combat zone that were good Americans and remain good Americans and that were so unfairly blamed. Five years this month to get these memos released, declassified and released and people still trying to say that what happened at Abu Ghraib was different than what these memorandums were directing. No! It is not!

The Republicans have been desperate to put distance between what happened at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo and are barking that all over the airways the last few days. Janis Karpinski is the best spokesperson to blow a hole in that argument since she was right in the middle of it and I was glad to see Keith have her on.

Oh Noes, Billo!

In response to our Stop Supporting The O’Reilly Harassment Machine campaign, UPS told us yesterday that it was investigating whether to continue supporting O’Reilly’s show. “We are sensitive to the type of television programming where our messages and presence are associated and continually review choices to affect future decisions,” spokeswoman Susan Rosenberg told us.

Today UPS announced it will stop advertising on O’Reilly’s show. Here is the statement UPS emailed out just moments ago:

Thank you for sending an e-mail expressing concern about UPS advertising during the Bill O’Reilly show on FOX News. We do consider such comments as we review ad placement decisions which involve a variety of news, entertainment and sports programming. At this time, we have no plans to continue advertising during this show.

Can I get a Woot! for UPS? You just know this is going to make Billo nuts.