DOWNLOADS: (121)

PLAYS: (469)

Embed

From this Saturday's Up With Chris Hayes, his Story of the Week is a good reminder for anyone who is not thrilled with a lot of the ugliness of our democratic process, or frustrated with dealing with the United Nations -- it sure beats the alternative.

Hayes: The beauty of process:

ABC's Martha Raddatz did, I thought, on the whole, a pretty good job moderating Thursday night's vice presidential debate, particularly when asking questions on her area of expertise, foreign policy. But her final question of the night, about the negativity and sordidness of electoral politics, really bothered me.

Here's what she asked:

I recently spoke to a highly decorated soldier who said that this presidential campaign has left him dismayed. He told me, quote, "the ads are so negative and they are all tearing down each other rather than building up the country." What would you say to that American hero about this campaign? And at the end of the day, are you ever embarrassed by the tone?

That soldier, of course, isn't alone: Lots of Americans feel the same way. I've heard the same thing from random voters I've interviewed in every campaign I've covered. And it's a recurring theme among the political press paid to cover politics to bemoan the nastiness and negativity of the thrust and parry of electoral politics. But it's an impulse we should collectively resist, because it contains the kernel of an insidious view of the value of democracy and diplomacy and bureaucracy and the manifold ways that we as human beings channel and resolve conflict in a non-violent fashion.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (406)

PLAYS: (171)

Embed

Salon's Dave Weigel captured this video of a voter in Iowa Monday telling Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann that a less-than-flattering photo of her had graced the cover of Newsweek magazine for a profile titled "The Queen of Rage."

"Have you seen it yet?" the voter asked.

"I have not," Bachmann replied.

"It's a big close-up of you, a wild-eyed photo with the headline, 'Queen of Rage,'" the voter explained.

"Ah-hah. Well, we'll have to take a look at that, won't we?" Bachmann said.

The candidate added that her campaign's message was "hope," not rage.

DOWNLOADS: (229)

PLAYS: (594)

Embed

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann didn't hold anything back Wednesday when he announced the news that the "delusional liar" Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) was planning on retiring.

"The end of the line for Joe Lieberman, self-described 'moderate Democrat,'" Olbermann began his show by announcing. "Don`t let the delusional liar door hit you in the delusional liar butt on the delusional liar way out."

"Tonight, goodbye, Joe Lieberman, and good riddance," he later said.

The MSNBC host noted that in comparing himself to President John F. Kennedy, Lieberman had implied that today's Democrats were either anti-civil rights, anti-growth or weak on defense.

"As far as his civil rights record, he was rightly praised for helping to repeal 'don't ask, don't tell' in the Senate," Olbermann said. "Civil rights for Muslims on the other hand? Unlike JFK, Mr. Lieberman supported the American government tossing Muslim suspects into detention, denying them Miranda rights, seeking to strip even US citizens suspected of terrorism of their basic civil rights."

"On tax policies, Mr. Lieberman, like Mr. Bush, supported taxing the rich at the lowest rates they could get, about half of the 65 percent rate favored by President Kennedy," he noted.

"Mr. Lieberman's standard formulation is that he was a Republican on foreign policy and Democrat on domestic, except for the estate tax, the Bush tax cuts, school vouchers, gay marriage, homeland security, the public option, the Medicare buy-in, privatizing Social Security, and tort reform. Did I leave anything off the list?" Olbermann asked Slate's Dave Weigel.

"That was almost complete," Weigel replied. "I think you might have left off in 2006, when Lieberman supported -- opposed a bill in Connecticut that would have forced all hospitals to treat rape victims, even if they were seen to be ovulating. It was the Catholic hospitals were against it. He took the side of them. At the time he famously said, in Connecticut, it's only a short ride to the next hospital, in case you are going to one of these hospitals that doesn`t allow you to get the treatment you need."

"So OK, add that to the list and I think you`ve have got a pretty comprehensive list of reasons why liberals do not like him," he concluded.

DOWNLOADS: (645)

PLAYS: (1599)

Embed

As Keith noted before getting into the meat of this interview, BP apparently doesn't understand that they're not going to improve their image by doing things like this.

In another effort to repair its image, BP picks up tab for fireworks show in Colorado:

In struggling to save its brand name from drowning in backlash from the Gulf oil disaster, BP has launched multiple efforts to revamp its image as “part of the community.” Now, the “embattled oil giant” has “stepped forward to pay” for the annual July Fourth fireworks display in Durango, CO. Agreeing to pay for the display five months before the Deepwater Horizon explosion, BP is pitching the display as a community donation.

...Many conservative leaders have jumped on the “shakedown” bandwagon, seeing BP’s $20 billion for an escrow fund as a real danger to the company’s viability. But if the company can pay for fireworks and baseball trophies while launching aggressive media campaigns and funding a front group to downplay the disaster, BP can cover its responsibility to the victims in the Gulf.

Maybe one of these days the idiots that run PR for BP will figure out that actually taking care of cleaning up and containing rather than hiding and dispersing the oil gushing out of that pipe is the only thing that's going to satisfy anyone who's not a complete moron and that is following how they've handled this disaster. They're obviously so used to getting away with this sort of corporate malfeasance that the media generally ignores that they are hoping this won't be any different than business as usual for them.

And then we have Haley Barbour, who again is showing himself to be nothing but a puppet of big oil.

Haley Barbour: ‘No one has more to lose in this deal than BP.’:

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (872)

PLAYS: (3402)

Embed

As Susie already noted, the Washington Post contributor and frequent Countdown guest Dave Weigel resigned over a dust up after his private emails were released by Betsy Rothstein and Tucker Carlson and the right wing unleashed their flying monkeys to attack him. Keith calls out Rothstein and Carlson for releasing the private emails and also hammers the Washington Post for buying into the notion that you cannot fairly cover conservatives without sharing their ideology.

OLBERMANN: But our winners the manager at the Washington Post, a Betsy Rothstein of Fishbowl D.C. and Tucker Carlson of the website Daily Caller. Dave Weigel who's been a frequent guest on this program since he was with the Washington Independent is now no longer affiliated with the Washington Post. Ms. Rothstein posted a series of Weigel's private emails from one of the private listservs run by Ezra Klein that is also a guest on this program often. Mr. Carlson then posted more of the private emails.

None were complimentary to the conservatives that Weigel has covered for his own blog, for the Right Now blog at the Post and for us. Today, Dave resigned from the Post. Rothstein and Carlson define what it is to not understand the concept of private but at the heart of this is the Post.

Ben Smith of Politico quotes Post national editor Kevin Merida's web chat in April. He was asked if the post would be "adding more conservative/Republican voices to better balance what is now your predominately liberal/Democratic leaning coverage?” Merida answered “[W]e recently have added to our staff the well-regarded Dave Weigel, and also mentioned columnists Kathleen Parker and Charlies Krauthammer."

Somebody at the Post and most of the people critical of David Weigel today seem to be under the impression that to cover conservatives you have to be one and you cannot be critical of them, even in a private setting. Nonsense. Weigel was a blogger and he made no bones about it, offered a subjective but thoroughly reported view of the conservative world and on occasions, on this program defended conservatives when he'd thought I'd gone too far in criticizing them.

We asked Dave to join us tonight. He didn't want to. He wanted to take the high road. It's too bad the Washington Post and especially Fishbowl D.C. and the Daily Caller did not. We will keep asking Weigel back because he does a hell of a job, a unique and an invaluable one.

DOWNLOADS: (493)

PLAYS: (1962)

Embed

Keith Olbermann talks to the Washington Post's Dave Weigel who apparently isn't too popular with the right wingers for defending journalist Joe McGinniss who has moved in next door to Sarah Palin while working on an unauthorized biography of the ex-half-term-Governor. Here's Dave's article that generated the hate mail.

Sarah Palin's strange, unprofessional and paranoid grudge:

Sarah Palin took to her Facebook account today to inform her readers that Joe McGinniss, an award-winning reporter and author, had rented the house next door.

I saw Ben Smith flag this earlier today but did not really appreciate how strange and, frankly, immature Palin's post was until I read it.

Palin informs her readers that McGinniss is "overlooking my children’s play area" and "overlooking Piper’s bedroom." Alternately sounding angry and mocking, she refers to "the family’s swimming hole," which at first reference sounds like she's accusing McGinniss of checking out the Palins in their bathing suits, until you realize the family's "swimming hole" is Lake Lucille. And she posts a photo of the space McGinniss is renting, captioning it, "Can I call you Joe?"

Can somebody explain to me how this isn't a despicable thing for Palin to do? She describes McGinniss as the author of "the bizarre anti-Palin administration oil development pieces that resulted in my Department of Natural Resources announcing that his work is the most twisted energy-related yellow journalism they’d ever encountered."

Another way of putting it would be that McGinniss is an investigative journalist who wrote his first best-seller at age 26 and was shopping a book about Alaska and the oil industry when Palin was named John McCain's running mate. And another way of describing those "bizarre" pieces is that no one has ever challenged the facts in them. Read on...

As Dave noted, Palin has already gone running to Glenn Beck for help. It really is disgusting how this woman continually uses her children as human shields every time someone says or writes something about her she doesn't like.

Glenn Beck Leaps To Palin’s Defense, Threatens To Boycott Random House:

This could turn into an interesting showdown. Glenn Beck leapt to fellow Fox News employee Sarah Palin’s defense on his radio show today after her recent Facebook announcement that journalist Joe McGinniss had taken up residence next door to her Wasilla home.

Palin apparently sent Beck an email last night before posting the news on her Facebook telling him McGinniss’ presence was a “nightmare for our family.” Beck thinks McGinniss moving next door is the equivalent of stalking, is “really creepy” and that “Todd Palin should receive a medal for restraint.” Beck also issued this threat:

If you don’t get control of your authors I will never mention a Random House book ever again. And I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but I tend to sell books, not just my books, but books from other publishers.

Sarah Palin takes on Joe McGinniss:

As you've no doubt heard, journalist Joe McGinniss rented a house next door to Sarah Palin while he works on a book about her. And Palin complained on Facebook about this fact, and many people seemed to take her accusations of stalking seriously.

McGinniss is by no means an ideal reporter, but he is a serious and talented one. He wrote a critically respected book on Alaska 30 years ago, and his one reported story so far on Palin was factual and responsible. There's nothing even remotely tabloidy about McGinniss' Portfolio story on the years Palin wasted not getting a gas pipeline built.

But Palin is banking on the fact that, much like she could turn the story of a right-wing blogger fessing up to an affair with a candidate into a story of liberal media smears, she can, through sheer force of will and the devotion of her cult, make this into the story of a creepy gotcha journalist stalking her, and threatening her children.

After a day or so of coverage that just repeated her Facebook claims, media critics and political journalists are wondering if she's crossed the line this time. Read on...

DOWNLOADS: (240)

PLAYS: (456)

Embed

Chris Matthews talked to The New York Daily News' and talk show host Errol Louis and The Washington Post's Dave Weigel about Rand Paul's rough entry into the Kentucky Senatorial race and his interview with Rachel Maddow and they all had some harsh words for Rand, especially Errol Louis.

MATTHEWS: Errol, let me ask you about this problem. I grew up during this. I know the debate over the Civil Rights Act in `64. It was in some sense a constitutional fight. Did the federal government have the right to use the interstate commerce clause to force businesses that were racist, owned by racists, to serve black folk?

Gas stations -- I drove through Georgia -- you were obviously more firsthand on this -- drive through Georgia, you saw the "white only" signs on the men`s rooms, the ladies` rooms. It was a fact of life. I saw laundromats with "white only" when I was in the Peace Corps training still there in `68. It`s a fact of life that some people want to discriminate. The federal government said you can`t do it in this country. Rand Paul seems to sympathize with the goal of desegregation, but not with the law itself. What`s your view of this?

ERROL LOUIS: Well, that`s right, and he doesn`t seem to understand the law or its evolution. I mean, the reality is, there are cases filed every year under the Title II of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. You see big public ones pop up every now and then. There was one involving Denny`s restaurant chain a few years ago.

MATTHEWS: Right.

LOUIS: You know, it`s not like it`s a dead issue. I`m the same age as Rand Paul, and you know, seeing what has happened since the passage of that law as we grew up, as we saw this nation mature, you know, it reflects such a fundamental misunderstanding.

And it`s important to note also that this isn`t the only case. I mean, has talked about actually repealing the Americans with Disabilities Act. You know, he`s got to answer a lot more questions.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (519)

PLAYS: (1571)

Embed

Keith Olbermann talked to The Washington Post's Dave Weigel about the significance of Bob Bennett's defeat in Utah.

How the Club for Growth beat Bob Bennett:

The free-market PAC's spokesman, Mike Connolly, explains all to David Catanese. The rundown:

-- The Club for Growth spent only $177,750 against Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah), "largely on phone calls to delegates, online strategy, mailings and robo-calls."

-- The pivotal moment for Bennett, as many strategists told me, was the election of a new crop of conservative activists in the March 23 caucuses. Those activists, many coming out of the tea party movement, held Bennett's fate in their hands. And he never had a chance at the convention.

It emphasizes that as exciting as this story was, it's simply not repeatable in other states -- Utah's empowerment of the most dedicated activists, which lets them shrink the primary field to their two preferred candidates, is unprecedented.

Keith asked Dave Weigel if electing these tea party candidates is going to be beneficial to the Democrats.

Weigel: Well, they do celebrate whenever this happens. They’ll have a better shot at a couple of Senate seats, a couple of House seats if tea partiers nominate somebody who can’t win. In this case Utah’s a very tough nut to crack. They’ve got a candidate but they’re not optimistic. But in Arizona if J.D. Hayworth beats John McCain they’ve got a Phoenix city councilman who they think could win there.

Charlie Crist if he ends up winning that three way race or if Kendrick Meek wins in Florida that’s better than they could have had in a two way race. They actually had a bad situation this weekend in Hawaii where there’s an intra-Democratic Party feud that cost them a seat. But generally they’re quietly cheering and they’re waiting to unleash a lot of opposition research once these nominees are well chosen. Utah not so much, other states like South Dakota, Ohio, not Ohio yet, other states they’re hoping that tea party candidates make these challenges.

Keith also asked him if some of them getting elected are going to hurt the Republican Party since it's going to show them to be extremists. Weigel expressed something along the lines of my feelings about Republicans. If the crazies like Michele Bachmann haven't already hurt the party, a few more of these wingnuts isn't going to matter much with the electorate as pissed off as they are now at politicians in general.

DOWNLOADS: (869)

PLAYS: (6082)

Embed

Rachel Maddow takes another shot at Dick Armey in response to his cheap shot at her during his tea bagger rally. Rachel explains why Dick Armey might have been aggravated enough to go after at her in the first place. As Adele Stan at AlterNet reported, apparently Armey's "die in" didn't go so well along with his appearance at the National Press Club. I'm sure he's still mad about losing that lobbying gig as well. Keep giving him hell Rachel.

MADDOW: That was Dick Armey getting big yucks from the crowd, giving my name the old Norm Crosby treatment. Today, we learned what might have put Mr. Armey in such a contentious mood as he took the stage mid- afternoon.

About an hour prior to that taping you just saw, Dick Armey had scheduled a 12:30 p.m. luncheon at the National Press Club, an event, a big press event, starring him, talking about his favorite issues and reportedly for him to launch his new political action committee.

As it turned out, there was no turnout. The Dick Armey luncheon was canceled. Canceled by whom? By Dick Armey? Not exactly. After Adele Stan at "AlterNet.org" reported that she had tried to attend the Dick Armey national press club event only to find it called off.

We reached out to communications and event manager at the National Press Club, Melinda Cooke, to find out why. She told us that the luncheon was canceled because, quote, "They didn`t have enough reservations."

Ooh, not enough people wanted to luncheon with Mr. Armey. We then asked the minimum number of interested reporters required to hold on to a reservation for such a luncheon. And Ms. Cooke quite diplomatically responded, quote, "Let`s just say there`s a minimum required and they didn`t meet it."

Mr. Armey`s noontime fizzle wasn`t the only torch-and-pitchfork grassroot-sy, tea baggish event that failed to launch yesterday. The Tea Party Patriot`s anti-health reform group planned a die-in in Senate offices yesterday. They were going to show up in droves at Senate offices and pretend to die because the health reform is a secret plot to - whatever.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (221)

PLAYS: (810)

Embed

Rachel Maddow talks to the Washington Independent's Dave Weigel about the crazy train that was this week's Values Voters Summit.

MADDOW: Behold, a Missouri congressman, candidate for U.S. Senate, until recently, the number three Republican in the House, telling what seems to be a really long, meandering, gut-churning racist joke.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ROY BLUNT ®, MISSOURI: Supposedly it‘s the turn of the 19th century, the end of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th century, there was a group of British occupiers in a very lush, very quiet, very peaceful, very uneventful part of India. And this group of British soldiers who were occupying that part of India decided they‘d carve a golf course out of the jungle of India. And there was really not much else to do. So, for over a year, this was the biggest event going on getting this golf course created.

And they got the golf course done and almost from the day the first ball was hit on this golf course, something happened they didn‘t anticipate. Monkeys would come running out of the jungle and they would grab the golf balls. And if it was in the fairway, they might throw it in the rough. If it was in the rough, they might throw—they might throw it back at you.

And I can go into great and long detail about how many things they did to try to eliminate the monkey problem, but they never got it done. So finally, for this golf course and this golf course only, they passed a rule, and the rule was you have to play the ball where the monkey throws it. And that is the rule in Washington all the time.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: Well, who does what? So, who‘s the—who‘s the monkey in Washington in this story? It‘s Republican Congressman Roy Blunt who wants to be the next Republican senator from the great state of Missouri. Mr. Blunt performed his lamentation of Washington monkey at this weekend‘s Values Voter Summit in Washington—which in addition to hosting much of the Republican congressional leadership and most of the probable Republican candidates for president in 2012, it also had some kind of strange stuff going on.

You might recall on Friday‘s show, we warned you there was going to be a breakout session at the summit to define what they called a new masculinism, like feminism but for guys.

Here‘s how that went.

Continue reading »