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Who needs Fox when you've got hosts like NBC's David Gregory repeating Republicans' talking points for them as he did here on this Sunday's Meet the Press. Somehow I don't ever remember Karl Rove's dance partner ever complaining about out of control government spending back when George W. Bush was busting the bank with a couple of wars he left off of the books and with tax cuts for the wealthy.

GREGORY: I want to get back to the automatic spending cuts and ask a fundamental question that I think Republican critics of this president are asking. Do you not concede that there is a spending problem in Washington? Even when it comes to the 50% cuts out of the sequester that are for the Defense Department. You have said in recent interviews you could live with those. You don't like the manner in which the cuts would be made, but you could live with those cutbacks to the Pentagon. So isn't there a spending problem here that must be addressed?

DURBIN: Absolutely. And I believe, as chairman of The Defense Appropriation Subcommittee in-- in the Senate, that we can save money, cut waste in the Pentagon, and not compromise our national security. But to do this in such a haphazard way over the remaining six or seven months is going to be unfair to the military and their families.

Think about this for a second. Cutting back on psychological counseling for the members of the military and their family during the remainder of this year, when we have this grievous problem of suicides in the military and readjustment when they come home from battle? We can't do that.

GREGORY: But isn't there always a reason-- (crosstalk) Isn't there always a reason to spend the money in Washington?

Can't you always find a reason not to cut? Isn't this the Republican argument that, at least here, if worse comes to worse and the sequester passes, at least we'll get spending cuts, how else to force the President's hand?

DURBIN: But listen. Do we really want to base our spending cuts on reducing medical research in America, on eliminating 70,000 children from Head Start, that early learning program that's so important? These things don't make sense. Let's sit down and do this in a thoughtful manner. And let's include revenue. We should have half of this as revenue from tax reform and the other half in spending cuts. And I support those spending cuts.

Sadly what was not mentioned here is that the Progressive Caucus in the House has a plan for reducing the deficit without causing pain to the poor and the working class. If Sen. Durbin doesn't want to help Gregory push his right wing talking points, maybe he should consider bringing this plan up the next time he's on the air: The Balancing Act.

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Conservative radio host Glenn Beck on Thursday blasted the Pentagon's decision to lift the ban on women serving in combat roles by warning that the enemies of the United States would not "cower in defeat because we have a female, Hispanic, Eskimo, dwarf crossdresser and some handi-capable, transgendered breast cancer survivor as a soldier on the front line."

"Nobody wants to be a pig, nobody wants to say the unpopular things, we just want to talk about the truth tonight," Beck explained at the top of his Thursday broadcast. "If a few feathers are ruffled, oh well."

"This is the dumbest idea I've ever heard," he continued. "The military is not designed to be beacon of equality, it's designed to defend the country in times of danger. And quite honestly, war is the act of killing each other. And to win, you have to kill people faster than the other team. That's what war is all about."

"The enemy is not going to cower in defeat because we have a female, Hispanic, Eskimo, dwarf cross dresser and some handicapable, transgendered breast cancer survivor as a soldier on the front line ready to unleash an attack of unparalleled diversity. Nope, that's not going to do it. You gotta kill them. That's how you make people cower in defeat."

Beck admitted there there were already many women serving on the front lines, "shooting, getting injured, getting blown up." But he insisted that combat was "a different ballgame."

"This is a disastrous idea that will not only weaken our military, but put women's lives at risk because they'll just lower the standards," he added. "What happens when we train our soldiers to become desensitized and ignore a woman's cry for help? Because that's what's happening. If you're on the battlefield and she's in trouble, you have to fight your natural instincts to make sure that everybody's treated exactly equal."

"We all know how excruciatingly difficult it is to see videos of a terrorist beheading one of our guys. What happens to our country when they start releasing tapes of them beheading our women, our sisters, our daughters? What happens when they start raping them?"

(h/t: Right Wing Watch)

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Bill Maher took on our bloated defense budget and the "vessels of our outsourced masculinity" in America during his New Rules segment on Real Time this Friday night.

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After the outrage we saw from members on both sides of the aisle the evening House Speaker John Boehner cancelled the vote on hurricane Sandy relief and the subsequent displays by Gov. Chris Christie and Rep. Peter King, among others, leave it to Bill Kristol who has never seen a dime of military spending he didn't love, to come to the defense of John Boehner.

Sadly, as Media Matters noted, he wasn't alone. And his fellow guest on Bret Baier's Special Report, Charles Krauthammer was right there with him as well. The excuse given by Kristol and Krauthammer here was primarily based on concerns that the bill was larded up with some pork that the House didn't have sufficient time to look at, even though the Senate had passed their bill a week before they were asking for this vote to be taken in the House. If that was a real concern, apparently it doesn't matter much now, since Boehner caved to the political pressure and is going to have the House vote "to shore up the National Flood Insurance Program on Friday and will vote on another $51 billion Sandy spending package on Jan. 15."

Whatever the excuses, it seems they were more than happy to give cover to Boehner and the House Republicans for being incapable of being responsible and caring about doing the job of actually governing this country, rather than continued political brinksmanship we've seen from the House and John Boehner and his cohorts taking their vacation time around the holidays, instead of tending to the needs of those suffering in the aftermath of that storm.

Here's more from the Media Matters post on Kristol:

Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol: "I Think The Speaker Was Entirely Right To Pull The Bill." During an appearance on Fox News' Special Report, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol said, "I think the Speaker was entirely right to pull the bill." He added: "$60 billion is about one-tenth of this year's federal domestic discretionary nondefense spending. This is not like, gee, a couple hundred million dollars for some really important, urgent thing." [Fox News, Special Report with Bret Baier, 1/2/13]

Kristol never seems to have those same concerns about our military industrial complex. That's the only jobs program that Republicans seem to support and I've never heard Kristol express any concern over what the waste there is contributing to our budget deficit. Unlimited funds for the Pentagon. Hurricane victims, well you can wait. And don't dare include any pork in that spending because lord knows we can't have that as long as it's going for people who just had their homes destroyed in a storm and to help their state's infrastructure recover.

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Last month, Fox's KT McFarland was attacking President Obama's policy in the Middle East and calling it a failure because he did the opposite of George Bush. This Saturday, she was back, going after Hillary Clinton and telling more lies about their drummed up fake scandal, Benghazi-gate and making the absurd claim that the Middle East was pro-American and stable until President Obama was elected and these uprising we've seen with the Arab Spring.

I'm not sure just how much more revisionist history someone could manage to pack into a four or five minute interview as we had here, but McFarland was doing her best to set a record with the amount of b.s. she was shoveling. Never mind anything that happened under Republican presidents. Everything was perfect until the Kenyan usurper came along and got himself elected.

JARRETT: What do we expect to hear from Secretary Clinton? Joining me now to talk about it KT McFarland, Fox News national security analysts. And, one takes her letter word when she and her spokespersons say she's been ill but she has certainly managed to dodge a lot of this event since September 11.

MCFARLANE: Yeah, you know Gregg, she says she takes full responsibility, but so far she's managed to avoid taking any blame. One thing though I think with these hearings, this will probably be the last opportunity these lawmakers have to question Secretary Clinton as Secretary of State and I hope instead of looking back and saying well “What did you now when did you now it?” and “Why did you talk about the video?” I hope instead they focus forward.

Which is “Why have you not responded?” Why has the American government not responded to these attacks? Why have we not gone after the people who killed our own? Because we know that ten years ago or in the late 1980's... '90's... 1998 East Africa bombings US embassies were bombed. 2000 and the USS Cole was bombed. We did not retaliate. We beefed up security. We changed the rules of engagement, but we never went after al-Qaeda and we knew al-Qaeda had done those attacks.

What happened as a result? Bin Laden said, let's go get them again and my concern, and I hope these lawmakers ask Secretary Clinton why has the United States not gotten those people who killed ours? We know where those people are. We could do a drone strike against them.

And then I think Gregg the second point they ought to ask her is why in two years have we gone from a Middle East which was stable and secure and pro-American to a Middle East which is in political and economic chaos, and and governments that are anti-American and increasingly turned over to Islamist radicals.

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I don't know about anyone else, but I'm really tired of the negotiations on this so-called "fiscal cliff" and whether those tax cuts are going to expire for the wealthiest among us must always be framed the way David Gregory did here, which is that no proposal is Serious unless it causes some pain for the working class. Of course that pain is something which David Gregory and his ilk will never feel themselves.

He also did his best carrying water for Republicans during this interview with Sec. Tim Geithner and pretended that the administration hasn't put forth any specific details about their proposals, which as was already noted here, is just not true.

If Gregory wants to know what's "fair," how about a reminder that those tax cuts were temporary because that's the only way Republicans could get them passed using budget reconciliation. They weren't concerned about blowing a hole in the budget back then and now that they've starved the beast, they want to go after our social safety nets, and David Gregory is always more than willing to help them along.

Rough transcript below the fold.

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I would imagine that Piers Morgan and the producers at CNN were expecting BuzzFeed's Michael Hastings to be pretty harsh on the now scandal ridden Gen. David Petraeus, because I find it hard to believe they would have invited him on the air without reading his recent article here -- The Sins Of General David Petraeus.

What they probably didn't expect was for him to go after the other guest, their own Barbara Starr for taking dictation from the Pentagon and the media in general for their worship of Petraeus. Whatever the case, it was well worth the time watching the segment just to see Piers Morgan squirm in discomfort with his response to Hastings.

MORGAN: Paula Broadwell calling David Petraeus a role model. How things have changed. Joining me now is General Mark Kimmitt who has known General Petraeus for 25 years, also Michael Hastings, Buzzfeed reporter and writing for "Rolling Stone." He says America should have never trusted Petraeus in the first place. And Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona, a former Defense Intelligence officer who also served with the CIA. Welcome to you all.

General Kimmitt, let me start with you. You've known General Petraeus for 25 years. Do you recognize the man that you've been reading about for the last 24 hours?

GEN. GEORGE KIMMITT, FMR. DIRECTOR, PLANS & STRATEGIES, CENTRAL COMMAND: Well, in many ways, I do, because with this one exception of this incident that he had with Paula Broadwell, I think the fact that this was a guy that stood up when the facts became known, did the honorable thing and resigned. That's the David Petraeus that I know.

MORGAN: Should a general in his position, who has moved on to run the CIA, have to resign his post over an affair, which is really what this seems to have been about?

KIMMITT: My opinion, yes. Any commander of an organization who is caught in that kind of compromising behavior, someone who is supposed to set the standards and enforce the standards for that organization, when he is caught in a compromising position, he's got to do the honorable thing and step down. I think Attorney General Mukasey mentioned that as well. And I stand behind those comments as well.

Any commander that has lost the trust and confidence of his unit has to stand down. MORGAN: Michael Hastings, in your Buzzfeed article, "The Sins of General David Petraeus," you argue that Petraeus was a master of deception. Do you think he should have resigned?

MICHAEL HASTINGS, "ROLLING STONE": I think there's many other reasons Petraeus should have resigned besides who he's sleeping with that's not his wife. But I just want to make a point here. The larger point that I've been making is that essentially the media has played a role in protecting David Petraeus and promoting David Petraeus and mythologizing David Petraeus.

We saw it here tonight. General Kimmitt, who was a spokesperson in Baghdad, who was a roommate of Petraeus, who was involved in one of the biggest debacles in recent foreign policy history, is on TV defending David Petraeus without actually addressing the real problems with David Petraeus' record.

Those are the fact that he manipulated the White House into escalating Afghanistan. He ran a campaign in Iraq that was brutally savage, included arming the worst of the worst, Shiite death squads, Sunni militiamen. And then you go back to the training of the Iraqi army program that also had similar problems.

So for me, all the while, he's going around the country talking about honor and integrity. So for me the questions of honor and integrity -- I was raising those earlier. A number of other journalists who were actually covering David Petraeus were raising those concerns. You might not get that from someone like Barbara Starr at CNN, who essentially is a spokesperson for the Pentagon in many ways.

So I think I just want to step back and have my piece, because this -- even the way the scandal is being covered is so different than how usual sex scandals are being covered, where they hammer the guy mercilessly. Now everyone is saying oh, my God, he just went to the CIA; how could he be -- you know, he was susceptible to being seduced by this woman.

Give me a break. Petraeus now has all his allies coming out to defend him, where Paula Broadwell is there yet again -- where are her protectors?

MORGAN: Barbara is not a spokesperson for him, obviously. Let's move to --

HASTINGS: Not too obviously. I have followed her coverage pretty closely as she has covered my work before, too.

MORGAN: Just because she's written naughty things about you doesn't make her a spokesperson.

HASTINGS: No. What makes her a spokesperson is repeating without question a lot of Pentagon claims.

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Liz Trotta apparently doesn't have any remorse about her statements that John wrote about last week, where she said that women in the military should expect to be raped, and rather than apologize, she decided to double down and blame the liberals and feminists for her woes.

Via Raw Story -- In labored clarification, Fox contributor castigates military’s ‘fake heroism’:

Appearing on the Fox News show America’s News HQ, contributor Liz Trotta attempted to clarify remarks she made earlier this month that became fodder for The Daily Show, during which host Jon Stewart summarized that she did not want the military helping women who’ve been “raped too much.”

Unfortunately for the former Washington Times editor, what she actually said isn’t going to make the controversy go away — but then, that may have been the point.

After suggesting that the issue of women in military roles has “never gotten a fair and open hearing,” Trotta went on to say: “The political correctness infecting the Pentagon has resulted in silly and dishonest fairy tales about female heroism,” she said. “Has anyone forgotten the Jessica Lynch story?”

“There are countless other stories of fake heroism or exaggerated prowess in which women are the stars, many of them tailored for The New York Times and its agenda to promote militant feminism, no matter what the truth,” Trotta added.

And here's more via Mediaite -- Fox’s Liz Trotta Clarifies Remarks About Women In The Military:

Later in her appearance, Trotta noted that:

The military is not a social services operation, or a testing ground for gender wars. It is a fighting machine. Women are not as strong as men. Their instincts and reactions in crises are markedly different. There’s a reality the left will not face: biology is not destiny.

“I certainly did not say all military men are rapists,” she added. “I believe that the environment of combat, by definition, sets up the situation where basic instincts rule. Any scientist will tell you that testosterone rules.”

Dr. Nada Dhaif, and Dr. Fatima Hajji discuss the sentences and give their shocked reactions to them.

These doctors, and eighteen more, were sentenced simply for providing aid to injured protesters, the rest of the charges fictitious.

It should also be noted that while the U.S. State Department is "deeply disturbed" by these sentences, Bahrain is home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet, and thus a key ally in the region. The U.S. has provided the tiny island nation of Bahrain nearly $100 million in aid since Barack Obama became president. Iran's PressTV is only too happy to provide (accurate) figures on the contradiction:

The Pentagon has cut deals with Bahrain in arms trade, sending dozens of American tanks, armored personnel carriers, helicopter gunships, thousands of .38 caliber pistols and millions of rounds of ammunition, from .50 caliber rounds used in sniper rifles and machine guns to bullets for handguns, some of which were undoubtedly used against protesters.

In addition to all these gifts of weaponry, ammunition, and fighting vehicles, the Pentagon in coordination with the State Department oversaw Bahrain's purchase of more than $386 million in defense items and services from 2007 to 2009, the last three years on record.

From the CNN report:

(CNN) -- A group of 20 doctors who were detained during this year's protests in Bahrain have been convicted of attempting to overthrow the government and hit with lengthy prison sentences, authorities and a human rights group said Thursday.

Thirteen of the physicians were sentenced to 15 years in prison, two for 10 years and five for five years, said military prosecutor, Col. Yussef Rashid Flaifel.

The U.S. State Department, "deeply disturbed" by the sentences, said the Bahraini government should provide fair trials, access to attorneys and judicial transparency.

Deputy spokesperson Mark Toner said the United States was "concerned about trials of civilians, including medical personnel, in military courts and the fairness of those proceedings."

Charges against the doctors included possession of unlicensed weapons, inciting the overthrow of the government, provoking sectarian hatred and forceful occupation of a public building, officials said. Prosecutors have alleged that, at the height of the protests earlier this year, the accused medical personnel refused to help patients at Salmaniya Medical Complex, the main hospital in the capital city, Manama.

Amnesty International called the charges "ludicrous" in their press release.

“These are simply ludicrous charges against civilian professionals who were working to save lives amid very trying circumstances,” said Philip Luther, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme. “It appears that the real reason for targeting these health workers was the fact that they denounced the government crackdown on protesters in interviews to international media.”

“We’ve repeatedly said that Bahraini authorities should never have used military courts to prosecute ordinary civilians, including doctors, teachers and human rights activists.

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GOP Preps Emergency Bill With Deep Cuts If Shutdown Becomes Inevitable:

While the GOP preps House members with guidance in the event of a government shutdown, they're also readying a one-week stop-gap funding bill, including $12 billion in domestic discretionary cuts, and six month's worth of Pentagon funding.

The purpose is simple. If negotiations over a six-month spending package don't yield an agreement in the next day or two, the Congress will be armed with the proper protocols for operating during shutdown. But the House of Representatives will also pass a politically tough temporary funding package -- with cuts too deep for many Democrats to accept -- and leave the question of a shutdown in their hand. If the Senate can pass it, and the President signs it, it buys congressional leaders and the White House another week to hash out a longer plan -- but at the cost of steep, steep cuts. On an annualized basis, it would amount to well over half a trillion dollars.

Ed Schultz talked to Rep. Karen Bass about the Republicans preparing for a government shutdown and she had a bit of additional news not already reported to MSNBC. Apparently the stopgap spending measure only funds the government for a week, but it funds the Pentagon for the rest of the year.

And so much for Eric Cantor saying this would be the last of these CR's to keep the government funded. The Republicans look like they're playing an extremely dangerous game here. Let the hostage taking begin. Here's more from Josh-- Hostage Drama:

With negotiations still at a standoff, House Republicans are preparing a one-week stop gapping spending measure to keep the government open for a single week. But the price is roughly half a trillion dollars of program cuts on an annualized basis. So the aim is present Democrats and the White House with cuts they can't accept and force them to be the ones who 'shut down the government.'

This is being presented as a clever ploy. And perhaps it is. But if my memory serves me right this is actually pretty similar to the ploy they used in 1995 and which worked so well for them.

And as Think Progress reminded us this week, it's the Republicans who have been clamoring for shutting down the government -- Caught On Tape: Republicans Touting Support For Government Shutdown.