DOWNLOADS: (109)

PLAYS: (315)

Embed

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on Friday said that Monday's tragic bombing at the Boston Marathon was a reason not move to quickly to pass a bipartisan proposal for comprehensive immigration reform.

"Given the events of this week, it's important for us to understand the gaps and loopholes in our immigration system," Grassley told the Senate Judiciary Committee. "While we don't yet know the immigration status of people who terrorized the the communities in Massachusetts, when we find out, it will help shed light on the weaknesses of our system."

"How can individuals evade authority and plan such attacks on our soil? How can we beef up security checks on people who wish to enter the United States? How do we ensure that people who wish to do us harm are not eligible for benefits under the immigration laws, including this new bill before us?"

CBS News reported on Friday that 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the man being hunted by police as a suspect in Monday's bombings, became a U.S. citizen on Sept. 11, 2012 after coming to the country on a tourist visa in April 2002. Before becoming a citizen, he sought asylum in September 2002 and gained lawful resident status in February 2007.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was killed in a firefight with police on Thursday night. His legal status was not immediately known.

Earlier this week, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) speculated that the bombings in Boston had been perpetrated by a “foreign national” and that Congress should proceed with caution on any immigration reform efforts. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) also warned that “radical Islamists” were “being trained to come in and act like Hispanics.”

(h/t: Huffington Post)

DOWNLOADS: (308)

PLAYS: (1288)

Embed

Last week on his show, Fox host Bill O'Reilly and his guest Lou Dobbs decided to attack former Secretary of Labor and professor Robert Reich, calling him a "communist" who "secretly adores Karl Marx." O'Reilly was called out by Reich both on MSNBC and in a post he wrote at the Huffington Post here -- Why Anyone Should Care That Bill O'Reilly Calls Me a Communist .

Reich challenged O'Reilly to a debate both on Ed Schultz's show and in his column. O'Reilly's response? He was "obviously joshing around" and laughing when he called Robert Reich a Communist. Whether O'Reilly and Dobbs were joking or not, Fox intentionally confuses their audience by conflating the words Communist, Marxist and Socialist on a regular basis, with the worst being Glenn Beck when he was still on there, to the point that all of them are meaningless and nothing but a general slur or insult to be lobbed at liberals. The sad joke is that their audience doesn't know the difference between any of them. And I doubt most of their viewers thought O'Reilly was joking at the time.

h/t Media Matters

DOWNLOADS: (148)

PLAYS: (411)

Embed

This has to be one of the more pitiful segments that I've had the unfortunate circumstance of watching for a while now. Anderson Cooper really should be ashamed of himself for allowing Mary Matalin and Ari Fleischer get away with this ridiculous defense of Rush Limbaugh where they decided to start attacking Arianna Huffington for a satirical piece posted at her web site, The Huffington Post.

Here's the offending piece that apparently had Fleischer and Matalin worked into a tizzy -- The Jesus-Eating Cult of Rick Santorum.

And here's his response which was also posted there as well where he explains what he wrote and why he wrote it -- Dear Catholics: I Am Heartily Sorry, etc.:

Actually, I'm not sorry at all, but I suppose an explanation is in order.

Last week, I wrote a piece with the somewhat provocative title "The Jesus-Eating Cult of Rick Santorum." The purpose was to take Santorum to task for his persistent and opportunistic attacks on the faith of others, in particular his dog whistle references to President Obama's "phony ideology" and his assertion that it is impossible to be a Christian and liberal. My criticism took the form of a ridiculously over-the-top broadside against Roman Catholicism, a demonstration of the type of vicious religious ignorance and intolerance I too often see coming from too many so-called Christians, especially Santorum. [...]

I won't say that Catholics need to lighten up or learn to take a joke, because the piece wasn't intended to be light-hearted or funny. It was satire, meaning... well, you can look that up. (It was probably a mistake to put it in the Comedy section; the editors wanted readers to know it was not to be taken literally.)

It's traditional at this point for me to half-apologize, to say that I'm sorry if anybody was offended, but I really don't mind if anybody was offended. I hope they will now think twice before they question the faith of progressive Christians, or Mormons or Muslims. I doubt they will.

Apparently that was completely lost on Matalin and Fleischer as well, or maybe not and they know full well the piece was satire and their only defense of Limbaugh is to distract, attack and lay it on thick with the false equivalencies. And note to Maria Cardona here, the correct answer for Fleischer when he ambushes you with a question about something you haven't read is to say you haven't seen it and won't comment on it until you do and you'd be happy to discuss it later after you look at what he's talking about instead of ceding ground to their attacks.

A writer that most people have not heard of at Huffington's site writing a piece of satire and his response after the fact explaining what he did and why is in no way the same as Rush Limbaugh's nasty, personal attacks on Sandra Fluke and Fleischer and Matalin know it.

And speaking of Ari Fleischer, why is anyone listening to anything this man has to say about women's reproductive rights or contraception after that sage advice he was paid to give the Komen foundation?

And one last note to Cooper and Cardona, someone needs to call Matalin out when she conflates contraception with abortion like her buddy Rove did a little while back.

h/t Digby

Transcript below the fold.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (247)

PLAYS: (841)

Embed

Friend of and occasional contributor to Crooks and Liars Bob Cesca appeared on The Ed Schultz Show to discuss his recent column at The Huffington Post, The GOP Plot to Screw the Economy and the Middle Class. Great job Bob. I hope MSNBC gives you some more air time. Here's some of the beginning and end of Bob's post:

We're only three months away from the midterm election when a shockingly large number of American voters will inexplicably vote for Republican candidates. I have no idea if this will mean a Republican takeover of the House or Senate or both, but there will definitely be enough voter support for Republicans to significantly reduce the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.

Why? Because too many voters tend to be low-information, knee-jerk Springfield-from-The-Simpsons types, and the Republicans have lashed their crazy trains to this new wave of inchoate roid-rage to help sweep them into more congressional seats.

[...]

Unless there's some sort of mass epiphany, or unless the Democrats actually speak up and take the discourse by the horns and fight, middle class American voters in November will augment the number of Republicans (and conservadems) in Congress mostly because they've been suckered into endorsing these insane Republican economic policies. Subsequently, the Republicans will balloon the deficit and undermine the economic recovery in order to give more handouts to the super rich. And the middle class will continue to be an accomplice in its own slow-roasted homicide.

Go read the whole thing here.

You can read more from Bob over at his place and at the HuffPo.

DOWNLOADS: (740)

PLAYS: (1560)

Embed

The Huffington Post's Jason Linkins talks to Rachel Maddow about the fringe groups that the Republicans have resorted to using to oppose Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court. Jason wrote about one of those characters in this article at the HuffPo.

Witnesses Against Kagan Include Head Of Conspiracy-Mad Law Firm:

On Thursday, the confirmation process of Elena Kagan will enter the stage where the Senate Judiciary Committee will entertain witnesses both in favor of and opposed to Kagan's nomination. Of particular interest is one witness who will be testifying against Kagan, William J. Olson, Esq. of William J. Olson, P.C. -- a law firm that is heavily involved in all sorts of conservative cause celebres, from the standard-issue, to the totally bonkers. Read on...

And there's more as Rachel explained in the opening portion of the segment.

MADDOW: Attorney William J. Olson. If you go to the Web site for Mr. Olson’s law practice right now, you can see that among the expertise he brings to bear on a Supreme Court nomination is his propounding of a conspiracy theory that Obama-care might secretly be a mind control plot. Mr. Olson’s co-counsel in his firm, Herb Titus, is cited in an article on the Web site, World Net Daily, that’s titled, quote, "Obama-care’s control plan: behavioral modification."

That’s the sort of thing that is being promoted on William Olson law firm Web site, because presumably the John Birch society wasn’t available to testify today against Kagan.

Today at "The Huffington Post," Jason Linkins took a deeper look into William Olson, again, one of the Republican witnesses today against Elena Kagan. It turns out he is way more kookier than just Obama-care mind control. For instance, he’s representing an organization called the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee, which is worried that the U.S. government has been secretly flooding the market with gold from Fort Knox in order to keep its value low.

His law firm is also representing Daniel Chapter One, a Christian ministry that ran afoul of the FTC for running advertisements for miracle cancer cures with web headlines like, "Brain Tumor Gone!" Or as Jason Linkins puts it, "Jesus Will Cure Your Cancer with Food Supplements."

In my whole lifetime, Supreme Court nomination battles have been clash of the titans, big-hitting political battles. They’ve been the high point on the political calendar no matter what else is going on that year, even elections. And this time around, it’s really not like that.

And William Olson is what the Republican forces against Elena Kagan look like. What does that mean exactly?

Joining us now is "Huffington Post’s" Jason Linkins.

Jason, it’s really nice to see you. Thanks for being here on the show.

Continue reading »

Q&A with Alex Gibney:

Alex Gibney talked from New York City about the recently released documentary film he wrote and directed, Casino Jack and the United States of Money. It tells the story of Jack Abramoff, who since November 2006, had been in prison after pleading guilty to three felonies with regard to his lobbying efforts for several Indian tribes. He also pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe a member of Congress. Mr. Abramoff was released from prison to a half-way house June 8, 2010. Alex Gibney runs Jigsaw Productions. A previous documentary, Taxi to the Dark Side, won the Academy Award for Documentary Feature in 2008. In 2006, he was nominated for an Oscar for Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Mr. Gibney writes regularly for the Huffington Post and has also written for New Republic, Newsday, and The Los Angeles Times. His films include Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson starring Johnny Depp (2008). His current project is a documentary about former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. Video clips were shown, including some that contain language that some may find offensive.

To find out more you can go to the movie's action page CASINO JACK and the United States of Money and the documentary is still playing in theaters for a little while longer. Check here for dates and times.

You can also pre-order the DVD at Amazon here.

h/t Media Matters

And the Huffington Post has confirmed that the woman in the video is Fox News producer Heidi Noonan:

"The employee is a young, relatively inexperienced associate producer who realizes she made a mistake and has been disciplined," Bryan Boughton, Fox News Channel Washington Bureau Chief told the Huffington Post.

Here's the segment as it aired on Fox News.

So where is the rest of the media on this story? Maybe Rick Sanchez will bother to cover it for CNN. I'm sure we'll see this on Monday when Keith and Rachel get back on the air.

DOWNLOADS: (158)

PLAYS: (488)

Embed

Rachel Maddow gave some kudos to friend of the site Bob Cesca for his most awesomely titled headline at the Huffington Post, Healthcare Reform Named After Ted Kennedy Must Not Suck. I'll just add that I agree completely with both of them.

DOWNLOADS: (104)

PLAYS: (322)

Embed

Nico Pitney, the National editor of The Huffington Post, has been covering the Iranian presidential election and the subsequent turmoil on his live-blog. He was a guest on The Rachel Maddow Show last night to discuss his coverage.

A great thing too, as we've seen broadcast news has been woefully inadequate (Rachel excepted). Andrew Sullivan has also been performing yeoman's service at his blog, The Daily Dish.