DOWNLOADS: (373)

PLAYS: (4715)

Embed

After Sen. John McCain gave his most recent excuse for opposing the nomination of Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense, which is that Hagel was "disagreeable" to George Bush and was mean to him after we found ourselves lied into invading Iraq, Rachel Maddow took on McCain for his history revisionism and for wanting to re-litigate the fact that everything we were told about why it was necessary to go in there and how things were going once we did was wrong.

Maddow has a new documentary which will be airing this Monday titled: Hubris: Selling the Iraq War and it seems John McCain inadvertently has done his best to do a promotion for the special with his behavior this week, because as Maddow pointed out in this segment, if we allow the likes of McCain to pretend that going into Iraq wasn't a disaster and one of or biggest foreign policy disasters since Vietnam, we're going to see it happen again.

Here's more on Rachel's special next week: Rachel Maddow To Probe Lies That Led to Iraq War in TV Special 'Hubris':

Perhaps you think you’ve read or heard it all. Hell, I even wrote my own book about it, So Wrong for So Long,. But now Rachel Maddow is promising surprising revelations in her MSNBC special Hubris: Selling the Iraq War, next Monday night in her regular time slot.

It will be President’s Day, but it looks like she sure won’t be celebrating George W. Bush. Or the mainstream media.

The special marks the opening of what will surely be a slew of tenth-anniversary programs and other media revisits. If you want to go back yourself now: Ten years ago today Hans Blix made another fateful presentation to the United Nations on his team’s search for WMD in Iraq. It was said to bolster both opponents and proponents of a US invasion, since he still found no evidence of such weapons but Saddam was still not cooperating fully with inspections.

Why does this all matter? Well, consider this major Washington Post piece last night on Iran allegedly boosting nuclear program by pursuing certain…magnets. It never ends. [...]

It will be interesting to see if she covers her colleagues, such as Chris Matthews, backing the war, and her network’s move to oust Phil Donahue partly for opposing it.

Given the deference we generally see her give David Gregory, I doubt it. Go read the rest and Greg's got some excerpt clips embedded along with links to a few others. I read Michael Isikoff and David Corn's book, which her documentary is based on, shortly after it came out, but I haven't picked it back up since. Apparently there are going to be some new revelations that weren't in the book as well. It sounds like it will be well worth tuning in.

DOWNLOADS: (185)

PLAYS: (1879)

Embed

CNN media critic Howard Kurtz on Sunday said that Fox News host Bill O'Reilly had "missed the mark" by offering an absurd defense after asserting that NBC News had not covered a story about drone attacks that the network was actually first to report.

On Wednesday night's O'Reilly Factor, the Fox News host opined that liberals had not complained about recent revelations of the Obama administration's justifications of drone attacks on American citizens the way that people on the left were outraged about the use of waterboarding against detainees during President George W. Bush's presidency.

"Remember the outcry over waterboarding?" O'Reilly asked Fox News contributor Bob Beckel. "You know, everybody jumping up and down? NBC News, I thought they were going to, like, melt down over there."

"You heard anything on NBC about the drones?" he continued. "So you haven’t heard anything over there about this, and neither have I. Neither has my staff. Okay? So we haven’t heard anything. But we heard a lot about waterboarding, but nothing about drone strikes. How do you process that?"

Kurtz pointed out that O'Reilly's comments were "kind of curious," given that the story had been discussed on NBC News and the MSNBC cable network repeatedly after NBC News chief investigative reporter Michael Isikoff exclusively released the memos that President Barack Obama's administration used to justify the drone strikes.

"So O'Reilly obviously misspoke and I thought he would just come back the next night and correct the record," Kurtz assumed.

But, instead, O'Reilly shocked viewers by blaming the "far-left machine" for painting him a "deceiver."

"True!" he exclaimed. "I didn't say NBC broke the [drone] memo story because we weren't talking about that. Waterboarding vs. drone strikes!"

"Bill, the only reason there is a drone debate right now is because NBC News revealed that memo," Kurtz said.

DOWNLOADS: (320)

PLAYS: (2439)

Embed

From this Friday's The Young Turks -- It’s no accident that Republicans hired firm being investigated for voter fraud :

Cenk has been covering the issue of voter fraud all year, and we’ve shown one example after another about how rare it actually is. Except, it turns out, for a company hired by the Republican National Committee to work in seven swing states.

“It’s not like this is a one-time accident, like, oops, golly gee, we just happened to hire a guy who happened to do something wrong,” Cenk says. “No, they hire him to do something wrong.”

Karoli already broke down a good deal of this story for C&L here, much of which Cenk touched on in the segment above -- Stupid GOP Voter Registration Tricks Continue in Swing States.

Thankfully this story is making its way into the national news, as we saw with some of Michael Isikoff's reporting, which he discussed with Chuck Todd this Friday -- RNC Cuts Off Firm in Wake of Voter Registration Fraud Allegations.

And for anyone trying to follow this story, the most comprehensive reporting has been from Brad Friedman, who you can follow on Twitter here. And you can read all of his reporting at his blog here -- The Brad Blog.

Here are his latest on this scandal:

VIDEO: My Appearance Breaking the News About the Nationwide GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal on Thom Hartmann TV Thursday Night

NC GOP Joins FL in Firing RNC's Romney-Tied Voter Registration Firm Accused of Fraud

KPFK 'BradCast': Palm Beach Election Supervisor Says FL Sec. of State Yet to Return Call About GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal

FL GOP FIRES ROMNEY CONSULTANT'S VOTER REGISTRATION FIRM AFTER FRAUDULENT FORMS REPORTED IN PALM BEACH COUNTY

DOWNLOADS: (139)

PLAYS: (374)

Embed

Republicans love to complain about voter fraud, but it seems when there are real problems with rigged elections, actual voter fraud or voter suppression, it's almost always their side that's doing it -- RNC Cuts Off Firm Over Voter Registration Fraud Allegations:

The Republican National Committee has ended its relationship with Strategic Allied Consulting, a firm it paid at least $2.9 million to register voters in several states this year, after investigators launched a probe into potentially fraudulent registration forms submitted by the company.

NBC reported on Thursday that the RNC dropped the firm after a Florida elections official referred more than 100 questionable voter registration forms to investigators.

“We’ve made it clear we’re not doing business with these guys anymore,” RNC spokesman Sean Spicer told NBC’s Michael Isikoff. “We’ve come out pretty strong against this kind of stuff — and we have zero tolerance for this.”

The firm, NBC reports, is run by GOP consultant Nathan Sproul, who has not responded to TPM’s requests for comment. Sproul’s other firm, Lincoln Strategy Group, has been paid by Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.

And here's more from Isikoff's report at NBC -- RNC cuts ties with firm over voter fraud allegations:

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (1646)

PLAYS: (1964)

Embed

Looks like some more bad news for the Bachmann presidential campaign -- Bachmann's husband got $137,000 in Medicaid funds:

While Rep. Michele Bachmann has forcefully denounced the Medicaid program for swelling the "welfare rolls," the mental health clinic run by her husband has been collecting annual Medicaid payments totaling over $137,000 for the treatment of patients since 2005, according to new figures obtained by NBC News.

The previously unreported payments are on top of the $24,000 in federal and state funds that Bachmann & Associates, the clinic founded by Marcus Bachmann, a clinical therapist, received in recent years under a state grant to train its employees, state records show. The figures were provided to NBC News in response to a Freedom of Information request.

The clinic, based in Lake Elmo, Minn., describes itself on its website as offering "quality Christian counseling" for a large number of mental health problems ranging from "anger management" to addictions and eating disorders.

The $161,000 in payments from the Minnesota Department of Human Services to her husband's clinic appear to contradict some of Michelle Bachmann's public accounts this week when she was first asked about the extent to which her family has benefited from government aid. Contacted this afternoon, Alice Stewart, a spokeswoman for Bachmann, said the congresswoman was doing campaign events and was not immediately available for comment.

Questions about the Bachmann family's receipt of government funds arose this week after a Los Angeles Times story reported that a family farm in which Michelle Bachmann is a partner had received nearly $260,000 in federal farm subsidies.

When asked by anchor Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday" about the story's assertion that her husband's counseling clinic had also gotten federal and state funds, Bachmann replied that it was "one-time training money that came from the federal government. And it certainly didn't help our clinic."

At another point, she said, "My husband and I did not get the money," adding that it was "mental health training money that went to the employees."

But state records show that Bachmann & Associates has been collecting payments under the Minnesota's Medicaid program every year for the past six years. Karen Smigielski, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services, said the state's Medicaid program is funded "about 50-50" with federal and state monies. The funds to Bachmann & Associates are for the treatment of low-income mentally ill patients and are based on a "fee for service" basis, meaning the clinic was reimbursed by Medicaid for the services it provided. Read on...

And keep in mind that this clinic of his is reportedly one where they "pray away the gay" as TPM wrote about back in '06 -- MN-06: Does GOPer Bachmann's Husband "Ungay" Homosexuals?:

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (297)

PLAYS: (2299)

Embed

Rachel Maddow reports on the funding source behind Liz Cheney's "Keep America Safe". Surprise, surprise...a man who's helping to attempt to "polish" Dick Cheney's political legacy. I don't know how anyone could possibly "polish" that big of a turd, but it looks like it's not going to stop them from trying.

Maddow: Big news to report tonight about a new effort by the Cheney family and funded by some of the biggest money men in the Republican Party to attack President Obama on national security to try to undermine his presidency. It’s an effort that’s being led on the surface by Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz. And tonight we’re learning new details about whose bankrolling their mission behind the scenes.

In conjunction with former Vice-President Cheney’s speech this week attacking President Obama for not having yet announced a decision on the way forward in Afghanistan, a new pressure group headed up by Mr. Cheney’s daughter Liz has released this new attack ad. […]

According to Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff Keep America Safe is gearing up to run TV ads and radio ads and web ads like that in the home districts of Democratic members of Congress in the lead up to the 2010 elections. They’re promising in particular to attempt to exploit the issue of closing Guantanamo for political gain.

The lead story on the Keep America Safe web site right now says “Transferring Gitmo Prisoners To U.S. Will Set Them Free”. Well today Mr. Isikoff revealed on Newsweek’s new Classified blog exactly who is bankrolling the Cheney family’s Keep America Safe political machine. America—meet Mel Sembler. He may not be a household name to most of us, but he’s a Florida real estate mogul who is very, very well known in Republican circles.

Mr. Sembler is the former finance chairman of the Republican National Committee. He served as President Bush’s ambassador to Italy and he’s now throwing all of his considerable financial muscle behind the Cheney’s new anti-Obama venture. Mr. Sembler told Newsweek “I love Liz Cheney and what she’s doing… [I’ll be] as supportive as my budget will allow”.

Mr. Sembler is a very close friend of the Cheney family. Here he is posing with the Second Lady of the United States Lynn Cheney. He’s so close to the Cheney’s in fact that in addition to bankrolling the Cheney’s family’s new anti-Obama political group, Mr. Sembler is also the chairman of the Scooter Libby Legal Defense Trust, set up to defend Mr. Cheney’s Chief of Staff Scooter Libby when Mr. Libby was charged with lying and obstructing the investigation into the Bush/Cheney White House for outing a covert CIA officer as political revenge. The “Scooter Didn’t Do It” chairman is the new bankroller of the opposition to President Obama and incidentally the polishing of Dick Cheney’s political legacy, which seems like it might be an expensive undertaking.

Michael Isikoff joined Rachel to discuss his column at Newsweek--Update: Major Republican Donor Plans to Fund Liz Cheney’s New Organization

DOWNLOADS: (1254)

PLAYS: (1407)

Embed

From Newsweek: Report Reveals CIA Conducted Mock Executions:

A long-suppressed report by the Central Intelligence Agency's inspector general to be released next week reveals that CIA interrogators staged mock executions as part of the agency's post-9/11 program to detain and question terror suspects, NEWSWEEK has learned.

According to two sources—one who has read a draft of the paper and one who was briefed on it—the report describes how one detainee, suspected USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, was threatened with a gun and a power drill during the course of CIA interrogation. According to the sources, who like others quoted in this article asked not to be named while discussing sensitive information, Nashiri's interrogators brandished the gun in an effort to convince him that he was going to be shot. Interrogators also turned on a power drill and held it near him. "The purpose was to scare him into giving [information] up," said one of the sources. A federal law banning the use of torture expressly forbids threatening a detainee with "imminent death."

The report also says, according to the sources, that a mock execution was staged in a room next to a detainee, during which a gunshot was fired in an effort to make the suspect believe that another prisoner had been killed. The inspector general's report alludes to more than one mock execution.

Continue Reading.....

Transcript:

MADDOW: But we are beginning tonight with some breaking news. NBC News has learned that as early as Monday, the Obama administration plans to release what we on this show have been calling the big kahuna. It`s the report on the Bush administration`s torture program that was made while the program was still going on in 2004. This is the report that supposedly stopped the torture program in its tracks when the report circulated inside the administration.

The CIA inspector general`s report has been described as sickening by some who have seen it. The only version of it that`s been publicly released so far looks like this -- it was released last year, and as you can see, it`s almost completely redacted.

In her book, "The Dark Side," Jane Mayer quotes a source who read the report as saying, quote, "You couldn`t read the documents without wondering why didn`t someone say, `Stop.`"

Well, on Monday, we`ll get a chance to read this report, although we don`t yet know how much of it is going to be redacted this time. Michael Isikoff of "Newsweek" magazine has sources who have both read a version of the report and who have been briefed on it. He has just posted an account at Newsweek.com based on those sources, which says that we`re about to learn from this report that in CIA interrogations, at least one prisoner "was threatened with a gun and a power drill" was fired up next to his head to terrify him that he was going to be killed.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (177)

PLAYS: (880)

Embed

Rachel Maddow and Michael Isikoff debunk Liz Cheney's earlier appearance with Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC. Rachel says she's trying to get either of the Cheney's to come on her show but they won't do it. I bet Rachel wouldn't have to go back and do her "homework" to bebunk either Cheney. She'd have done it before they came on with her. You know...like you'd expect from a journalist.

DOWNLOADS: (1924)

PLAYS: (2641)

Embed

Rachel Maddow talks to Michael Isikoff about his report in Newsweek The Lawyer and The Caterpillar. This is big news if Holder follows through.

Maddow: Based on your reporting it appears that the White House and the Department of Justice are maybe on very different pages when it comes to the question of prosecutions and torture. Is that what you see going on inside the Obama administration?

Isikoff: Well I have to say, they should be on different pages. Just listening to some of the comments in the last few days, particularly from Rahm Emanuel and Robert Gibbs about how the President is focused on looking forward and not backward and he's not interested in seeing these people prosecuted. You know there's some people at the Justice Department who were listening to that and saying that's not their decision to make.

Decisions about criminal prosecutions are made by the Justice Department based on evidence, the facts and the law and this actually is sort of a taboo about the White House meddling and dictating to the Justice Department about who should be investigated and who shouldn't. If fact if you go and Google Justice Department White House communications you'll the first thing that will pop up is Justice Department guidelines that very specifically lay out the ground rules for communications between Justice Department and White House on pending criminal cases and when, how those communications should be handled and what role the White House has in even learning about criminal investigations, much less trying to dictate who should be investigated and who shouldn't.

Maddow: So are you hearing from sources at the Justice Department that when they heard Raum Emanuel yesterday and Robert Gibbs today saying there won't be prosecutions in that sense there were, there was surprise, there was anger at the Justice Department?

Continue reading »

March 16, 2009 MSNBC