DOWNLOADS: (228)

PLAYS: (2414)

Embed

If you didn't think the new George W. Bush library and its "Decision Theater" was bad enough already for the history revisionism on the invasion of Iraq, as MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry explained this Thursday evening when filling in for Rachel Maddow, wait until you get a load of how Bush's disastrous handling of Hurricane Katrina is treated.

HARRIS-PERRY: What are you doing this weekend? Got any big plans?

If for some reason you happen to find yourself in or around Dallas, Texas, there is a brand spanking-new attraction that just popped up in your own backyard. Introducing the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.

Yesterday was the grand opening for the general public and this weekend marks the library`s long-anticipated inaugural weekend.

And if you`re going to be in Dallas over the next few delays, I`m telling you, you just must check it out, if only for the shock value.

Last night on this show, Rachel discussed the main attraction inside the new Bush Library, which is an exhibit called Decision Point Theater. It`s basically an interactive game where you can reenact the biggest
decisions that George W. Bush had to make as president. Decisions like should we invade Iraq.

The problem, as Rachel pointed out last night, when you try to say no, we should not invade! Please let`s do anything but invade Iraq -- President Bush pops up on the screen and starts making the case of all the
overwhelming evidence against Saddam Hussein, evidence that has since been thoroughly discredited 10 years later in what`s supposed to be a library is being taught as fact that Saddam Hussein was an imminent threat who must be dealt with unilaterally if necessary?

So there is a certain shock value to the new Bush Library. But if the Iraq war isn`t exactly your thing, if you want to relive the glory of another Bush decision, the George W. Bush Library gives you the opportunity
to do that. [...]

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (177)

PLAYS: (958)

Embed

Former President George W. Bush openly wept while talking about some of the biggest disasters of his tenure at the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum on Thursday.

At the conclusion of his speech, Bush mentioned "the people of New Orleans who made homemade boats to rescue their neighbors during the floods" caused by Hurricane Katrina and "the servicemembers who laid down their lives to keep our country safe" during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

"I dedicate this library with an unshakable faith in the future of our country," he said. "It was the honor of a lifetime to lead a country as brave and as noble as the United States."

At that point, the 43rd president began to get choked up.

"Whatever challenges come before us, I will always believe our nation's best days lie ahead," Bush concluded, struggling to add, "God bless."

With a wink and a tear, the former president exited the stage. And then in response to the audience's standing ovation, Bush wiped his eyes, cocked his head to the side, smiled and waved.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (134)

PLAYS: (799)

Embed

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) says that if his Imaginary Family were victims of disasters like Hurricane Katrina, they would need to have military-style AR-15 assault rifles to protect themselves against "armed gangs roaming around neighborhoods."

During a hearing Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, the South Carolina Republican pressed Attorney General Eric Holder about his support for a proposed assault weapons ban.

"Can you imagine a circumstance where an AR-15 would be a better defense tool than, say, a double-barrel shotgun?" Graham asked. "Let me give you an example, that you have an lawless environment, where you have an natural disaster or some catastrophic event -- and those things unfortunately do happen, and law and order breaks down because the police can't travel, there's no communication. And there are armed gangs roaming around neighborhoods. Can you imagine a situation where your home happens to be in the crosshairs of this group that a better self-defense weapon may be a semiautomatic AR-15 vs. a double-barrel shotgun?"

Holder pointed out that the senator was "dealing with a hypothetical in a world that doesn't exist."

(Obviously, Eric Holder doesn't get it. That's where all wingnuts live!)

"I'm afraid that world does exist," Graham insisted. "It existed in New Orleans, to some extent up in Long Island [after Hurricane Sandy], it could exist tomorrow if there's a cyber attack against country and the power grid goes down and the dams are released and chemical plants are -- discharges."

(Lindsey really likes to think about --discharges.)

"I don't think that New Orleans would have been better served having people with AR-15s in a post-Katrina environment," Holder replied.

"What I'm saying is if my (imaginary) family was in the crosshairs of gangs that were roaming around neighborhoods in New Orleans or or any other location, the deterrent effect of an AR-15 to protect my family, I think, is greater than a double-barrel shotgun."

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, there were reports of armed vigilantes with assault weapons shooting African-Americans.

"Facing an influx of refugees, the residents of Algiers Point could have pulled together food, water and medical supplies for the flood victims," ProPublica's A.C. Thompson wrote in 2008. "Instead, a group of white residents, convinced that crime would arrive with the human exodus, sought to seal off the area, blocking the roads in and out of the neighborhood by dragging lumber and downed trees into the streets. They stockpiled handguns, assault rifles, shotguns and at least one Uzi and began patrolling the streets in pickup trucks and SUVs. The newly formed militia, a loose band of about 15 to 30 residents, most of them men, all of them white, was looking for thieves, outlaws or, as one member put it, anyone who simply 'didn't belong.'"

Thompson found that at least 11 African-American men ended up being shot near the Algiers Point neighborhood by a militia of men who were apparently all white.

(h/t: Think Progress)

DOWNLOADS: (502)

PLAYS: (16393)

Embed

The hosts of Fox & Friends on Friday suggested that NBC should postpone a Hurricane Sandy telethon until after the election because making sure that the event did not benefit President Barack Obama was more important than helping storm victims.

NBC announced earlier this week that Christina Aguilera, Jon Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen and Sting would all be performing a the Friday benefit concert, "Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together." Money collected during the one-hour broadcast will go to the American Red Cross Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.

But because most of the announced stars have supported Obama in the past, conservative media have panned the concert as "an ode to Obama’s grand and glorious leadership during Hurricane Sandy."

On Friday, Fox & Friends guest host Eric Bolling floated the idea that NBC had rushed the concert "to make President Obama look presidential."

"It does look like they are trying squeeze things in," co-host Steve Doocy agreed. "Where are the conservative performers? There aren't any on the list I saw.

Doocy recalled that during a telethon for 2005 Hurricane Katrina, singer Kayne West had declared that "George Bush doesn't care about black people."

"How is NBC going to control what the people say?" the Fox News host wondered.

Bolling noted that NBC had waited for 10 days to host an event to support victims of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

"It let the city get its feet under itself first," Bolling insisted. "This just seems like a rush job because the election is going to be three days after that."

"Is it a hurricane benefit or a concert for Obama?" Doocy added.

"I don't know," Bolling replied.

(h/t: Huffington Post)

DOWNLOADS: (588)

PLAYS: (1400)

Embed

Rachel Maddow reviews the case against six New Orleans police officers who are now finally facing federal charges for shooting unarmed citizens on the Danziger Brige in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It's really sad that it has taken this long for the Justice Department to finally be doing something with this case. It's long overdue. TPM has more.

DOJ Charges Six NOPD Officers Involved In Danziger Bridge Shooting:

The Justice Department has charged four New Orleans police officers with opening fire on unarmed civilians in the days after Hurricane Katrina, killing two and wounding four. The DOJ has also charged them, and two other officers, with conspiracy relating to the resulting cover-up.

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten and Attorney General Eric Holder announced the charges in an afternoon press conference today, five years after the shootings on the Danziger Bridge in New Orleans.

Four police officers -- Kenneth Bowen, Robert Gisevius, Robert Faulcon and Anthony Villavaso -- are being charged with civil rights violations in connection with the shootings. If convicted, they could face life imprisonment or the death penalty.

The two others, Archie Kaufman and Gerard Dugue, are charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice. Kaufman and Dugue were the investigators in the original case, and are accused of falsifying reports and false prosecution.

Five other police officers and one civilian have already pleaded guilty to charges related to the cover-up. The four accused of the shooting had been charged with murder in connection with the incident, but the case was thrown out in 2008.

On Sept. 4, 2005, seven NOPD officers, including the four charged today in the shootings, rode to the Danziger Bridge after getting reports of officers under fire. There, they encountered a family on their way to the supermarket for supplies. For unknown reasons, the officers allegedly opened fire, killing 17-year-old James Brissette and wounding others.

The officers then allegedly drove to the other side of the bridge, where they found another group of people and again opened fire. Ronald Madison, 40, who was mentally disabled, was shot in the back and killed.

Faulcon is the one who allegedly shot Madison, according to the indictment. Bowen is accused of kicking Madison as he lay on the ground dying.

DOWNLOADS: (183)

PLAYS: (598)

Embed

Douglas Brinkley with another great interview on CNN, joined by Riki Ott, a marine toxicologist from the Earth Island Institute. I just want to highlight two of the things Brinkley said here. First on how this spill by British Petroleum is going to change the debate on offshore oil drilling and BP's future.

BRINKLEY: As soon as they're -- BP is getting called out on something, and then they backtrack.

It's been a mess. The disaster has been BP. And I think those two initials are the DDT of our era. When you think back in 1962, when Rachel Carson wrote "Silent Spring," a whole country woke up to what pesticides do to the environment. That's what this spill is doing to the Gulf. People are going to have to wake up anew. We're going to be looking at all of these shoddy kinds of laws and tricks that big oil has played in the Gulf of Mexico.

And BP has taken a hit for everybody now, but it's their third environmental disaster in the United States in the last five years. They had one in Texas City in '05. They had one up in the North Slope in Alaska in '06, and now this one.

So, for them to be acting not accountable, and putting that kind of waiver, having people sign them, all British Petroleum is doing is trying to skirt responsibility right now. And I think you're seeing a great company crumbling before our eyes.

And on this being Barack Obama's "Katrina".

COOPER: Doug, you wrote the definitive book on Hurricane Katrina, an oral history of what happened. A lot of folks, conservatives, are trying to say this is Barack Obama's Katrina. Is there any comparison?

BRINKLEY: There's no comparison whatsoever between them.

This was a corporate bungle -- it might be three or four corporations by the end of the day -- of a deadly magnitude. Katrina had an engineering failure, the levees in New Orleans, and this is also an engineering failure.

I'd love to see a few more Doug Brinkley's and a few less Dana Perino's on the air speaking truthfully about this issue.

Full transcript below the fold via CNN.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (272)

PLAYS: (436)

Embed

January 17, 2010 FOX News

Heather: Let's see how many Democrats and everyone else on the planet that little Annie can manage to insult within a matter of a few minutes while defending our great leader The Shrub for being wrongfully attacked. This woman is in some serious need of medication for being this delusional about the last umpteen whatever years of our political history. I'm pretty sure she doesn't believe most of the bullshit that comes out of her own mouth as long as the paycheck is large enough to keep her wingnut welfare going.

Coulter: Can we get to the shame and embarrassment of Bill Clinton being involved in this bipartisan effort?

News Model: Why not. Please.

Coulter: I mean it's not like there aren't ex-other Democratic Presidents out there as long as there are you know no Jews in Haiti, I think Jimmy Carter would do just fine. He would be better than you know, the horny hick... um you have Bill Clinton leaving...

News Model: Why couldn't Geraldo have just... okay go ahead...

Coulter: I can't believe you're doing this portion, and you should ask Rush about what I had to say this week. You know this isn't just your average ex-Democrat. This isn't Walter Mondale. This isn't a matter of party... he's a national embarrassment and to have the poor, poor ex-President Bush like he hasn't suffered enough be hanging around with Bill Clinton is leaving his essence on Kleenex to the White House for the White House stewards to clean...

Look he did it. Okay if you're embarrassed by it then you shouldn't have this president serving on a bipartisan commission.

Powers: I think that a lot of Democrats would say that it's an embarrassment for Bill Clinton to be with George W. Bush and I think that... that a lot of people see it that way and more importantly I think that the ex-president Clinton for all the issues that I might have with him and I did work in his White House but I still have some issues with him, I think he's a good humanitarian.... (crosstalk_

I don't think it's bad. I think he's the perfect person for it. I think it's nice to see two ex-presidents together. I think that like I said he has a good track record of being a humanitarian with his own foundation...

and more crosstalk.

Annie when you can start explaining why there is some moral equivalency between blowjobs and starting unnecessary wars, maybe we’ll find the time to take you seriously with your praise of Bush and going after Bill Clinton. In the mean time it would be nice to just see you STFU if you don’t want to ever have a serious discussion on our foreign policy and what it means for the lives and deaths of the people of Haiti. When you have to resort to cheap attacks on someone’s sex life because that's all you've got and think that represents some sort of serious political discourse, that’s about as pathetic as you are as a pundit and as ClusterFox is in general. Deny, attack and distract and hope your viewers are too stupid to know what you’re doing.

There are plenty of reasons to be unhappy with Bill Clinton being called upon for this relief effort in Haiti. His sex life isn't one of them. And poor, poor Bush deserves every ounce of criticism he’s received and then some.

DOWNLOADS: (1263)

PLAYS: (11164)

Embed

From Rep. Grayson's You Tube page:

Former Republican Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani claimed that no attacks happened on US soil 'except' for 9/11. Rep. Alan Grayson responded by pointing out all of the other exceptions the Republicans would like to exclude from history.

Dave N.: You gotta love Alan Grayson. Republicans' are desperate to make Americans forget what an abject failure conservative governance has been. Grayson is one of the few congresscritters actively fighting back:

Grayson: And I realized that I was witnessing the birth of a new form of political discourse from the right wing in this country: The Exception. The Exceptional Exception -- the exception that proves the rule or disproves the rule, as the case may be.

So in the future I'm expecting that we'll hear from the right wing the claim that no cities drowned under the Bush administration -- except for New Orleans. And that there were no wars that were started by mistake under the Bush administration -- except for the war in Iraq. And that the Bush administration added nothing to the federal debt -- except for a half-trillion dollars, which works out to $15,000 for every man, woman and child in this country. And that they respected all of our constitutional rights as Americans -- except when they didn't.

I think we'll hear Republicans claim that the Bush administration managed the economy quite well -- except when they brought it to the brink of national bankruptcy. In fact, they'll claim that the Bush-Cheney administration was a complete success, except for the fact that it was an abject failure -- an abject failure.

In fact, what we learned in Washington for eight years is that the reason why Republicans hate government so much is because they're so bad at it.

It's this willingness to tackle the right-wing media and its talking points that sets Grayson apart from his colleagues. No wonder his fund-raising campaign has been so successful. People want to reward someone who stands up for them.

DOWNLOADS: (156)

PLAYS: (367)

Embed

November 19, 2009 FOX News

A federal judge says the agency showed 'gross negligence' in the years before Katrina. The ruling could leave the government open to billions in claims.

DOWNLOADS: (2074)

PLAYS: (15339)

Embed

Here's one for the memory banks from Bill Moyers Journal, September 2008, talking about the rise of hate talk on right wing radio, and Glenn Beck saying he'd like to kill Michael Moore along with some other right wing screechers doing their best to incite violence in the name of keeping their ratings up.

RICK KARR: Michael Savage isn't the only right-wing talk-radio host who launches blistering, even violent, verbal attacks on people and groups he doesn't like. Glenn Beck, for instance, fantasized about murdering a liberal filmmaker.

GLENN BECK: "I'm thinking about killing Michael Moore and I'm wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it. No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out of him. Is this wrong?"

RICK KARR: Michael Reagan, son of the former president, suggested that people who claim that "nine-eleven was an inside job," a U.S. government conspiracy, deserve to die.

MICHAEL REAGAN: "Take them out and shoot them. They are traitors to this country, and shoot them. But anybody who would do that doesn't deserve to live. You shoot them. You call them traitors, that's what they are, and you shoot them dead. I'll pay for the bullet."

RICK KARR: Neal Boortz went after victims of Hurricane Katrina.

NEAL BOORTZ:"That wasn't the cries of the downtrodden. That's the cries of the useless, the worthless. New Orleans was a welfare city, a city of parasites, a city of people who could not, and had no desire to fend for themselves. You have a hurricane descending on them and they sit on their fat asses and wait for somebody else to come rescue them."

RICK KARR: Muslims are some of Boortz's favorite targets.

NEAL BOORTZ:"It's Ramadan and Muslims in your workplace might be offended if they see you eating at your desk. Why? I guess it's because Muslims don't eat during the day during Ramadan. They fast during the day and eat at night. Sorta like cockroaches."

RICK KARR: Reverend Chris Buice says he's heard that kind of language before.

REVEREND CHRIS BUICE: If you look at the history of like situations like in Rwanda in 1994, the talk radio was a big part of leading to the conditions that created a genocide. The Hutu radio disc jockeys would call the Tutsi cockroaches. There's the sense that these aren't human beings. You know, they're not human beings with children or grandchildren. These are cockroaches. And when you hear in talk radio that liberals are evil, that they are traitors, that they are godless, that they are on the side of the terrorist. That's hate language. You don't negotiate with evil people. You don't live in community with people you consider to be traitors.

RICK KARR: Millions of Americans tune in to right-wing talk radio every day. Rory O'Connor is a media critic and a liberal himself who's written a book on shock-talkers. He says not all of these broadcasters use violent language. But they do all share a predilection for outrage and, he says, they're all practically addicted to constantly cranking up that outrage.

RORY O'CONNOR: Here's the real problem. When you shock somebody, if you come back the next time and you apply the same stimulus, it's not shocking any longer. It's already happened. So you have to ratchet it up a little bit. So how do you cut through? How do you really shock? I think that in order to continue to outrage, you have to constantly be jacking up the pressure. And ultimately, there's gonna be some deranged person out there in that audience who's gonna say, "You know what? That's a good idea. Let me act on that."

GLENN BECK:"The fusion of entertainment and enlightenment."

RICK KARR: Entertainers — that's what a lot of the shock-talkers call themselves. O'Connor says, maybe. But their words can motivate their listeners to act.

RORY O'CONNOR: Now first and foremost, we have to recognize that many of them are employed across multiple platforms. So they may say something on their radio show, but they may repeat it on their television show. They may then repeat it in their newspaper column. They may repackage the ideas into their best-selling books.

Keith Olbermann said he was looking for everything anyone can find on Glenn Beck. Maybe this one makes the list on his show this week.