June 2007 - Posts
Stopping the War : When it comes to putting pressure on the White House to end the war in Iraq... Democrats in Congress would seem to have no problem with the first step: introducing measures that would bring the troops home. The hard part comes in actually having the spine to pass the legislation once President Bush starts threatening to veto it, and generally bad-mouth the opposition when he does so. Our fifth story on the Countdown: Stopping the war, take two... Picadilly Bomb Scare The London bomb scare. The intent was clearly the real thing. But what these people put together and left parked, and, authorities say, twice failed to "go off"...Did it even constitute a bomb or would it have been at worst, a car fire? The former State Department deputy head of counter-terrorism has his doubts... ODDBALL Mad Murdoch 2 : In 1976, Rupert Murdoch bought from its family ownership, what had been, for thirty years, the country's strongest, self-proclaimed liberal newspaper -- and promised not to change it. It was The New York Post. It could now no longer be described, either as "liberal," or even as a "newspaper." Our third story on the Countdown -- thirty one years later, Murdoch wants the Wall Street Journal, and is negotiating with it's family owners on editorial control. I I, captain: It's come to this. The guy at the head of the line in New York City, waiting to buy his I-Phone at exactly 6 PM prevailing local time tonight, was an inveterate compulsive publicity hound, Greg Packer, known as New York's Official Man On The Street Interviewee. But in Philadelphia, the third guy on the line there, had a little better resume. Mayor John Street.
WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD Pets and the GOP: No matter how grand its ambitions, politics often has the feel of a dog and pony show...So it's a good idea to be **kind** to the animals. In our number one story on the Countdown... a disturbing trend: Good Ol' Pets -- and other animals -- mistreated by the Grand Old Party. Most prominently, the case of presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney...
Some of what we're working on for tonight...
In his second full day in office, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is dealing with his first crisis : a car bomb in Central London, not far from Picadilly Circus, that police were able to diffuse overnight. The timing, the BBC points out, comes not only in the wake of the transfer of power but also with the anniversary of the July 7 attacks approaching.< CONTINUED >>
White House In Crisis Re-Mission : Dan Bartlett admits, on his way out the door, that he'd like to take back the 'Mission Accomplished' photo op the Bush admin staged on the deck of the Abraham Lincoln when we "won the war" all those years ago. Richard Wolffe does the honors.
ODDBALL Mad Murdoch : Keith piggybacks on the excellent reporting the NY Times did re: Darth Vader (Emperor is probably a better analogy) of FOX News himself, Rupert Murdoch. It's a well done spot that you should really check out.Reunited: The original "Big Show" tag team are reunited on television with David Letterman hosting the festivities (he called them Dan Olbermann). It was great tv...again, don't miss it.WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD What Have We Learned? : If Paris put you to sleep last night (insert bad joke here)...Keith and Michael Musto will jolt you awake with their hilarious Hilton stylings tonight.
Some of what we're working on for tonight...
Here's why many Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee might have voted to issue subpoenaes to the Bush administration, giving the effort broad bipartisan support. Previously, they may have been laboring under the misapprehension they hadn't been allowed to do so. Okay, not really, but in an interview with NPR this morning, Judiciary CommitteeIf you think the White House is going to answer THOSE subpoenaes, today was the deadline for the White House to hand over documents linked to Harriet Miers and Sara Taylor in the firing over federal prosecutors. That deadline has come and gone . Guess what the White One of the U.S. attorneys fired last year testified yesterday that Attorney General Gonzales considers 5 to 10 minutes an "extensive, unusual" amount of his time to devote to the decision of whether a man should be put to death . Even in a case where a body had not been recovered. That Mr. Charlton asked to meet with Mr. Gonzales, to ask him to reconsider, amounted to insubordination. CONTINUED >>
The Paper Chase If you're scoring at home -- or even if you're alone -- sharpen your pencil. The White House, now claiming it will not release documents related to the warrantless eavesdropping program... on the grounds that the executive branch has a right to receive confidential advice... While, at the same time, still refusing to comply with its own executive order regarding the safeguarding of classified documents... meant to apply to all entities within the executive branch. In our fifth story on the Countdown... Something the White House might find more difficult to argue against: Congressional subpoenas.
Rudy Blames Bill: Rudy Giuliani claims he knew that the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center was part of Osama Bin Laden's declaration of war on us...But then President Bill Clinton didn't see it. Sheez, Rudy, maybe you couldn't mentioned it during those eight years between the attacks.
ODDBALL The GOP Horserace It was one of the funniest videos on the internets this year. Will Ferrell, getting hassled for rent money by his foul-mouthed boozing landlady - Pearl. The two year old daughter of Ferrell's comedy website collaborator Adam McKay. Now in our third story on the Countdown - two months after Pearl debuted to the paranoid -- almost hallucinogenic -- cries of child exploitation by the likes of Bill Orally, she is back. And back for what is described as... her farewell performance. And back as... the ultimate bad cop. The ultimate two-year old... bad cop. TiVo Alert! Much like Tony Blair hinting at retirement in 2005, making an official announcement in 2006, then finally actually stepping down today -- the release of the I-phone has been impending so long that it feels like it's already last year's technology. But in our number two story on the Countdown -- the wait is finally... well nearly... over. Apple's first cell-phone goes on sale this Friday. And as our correspondent Jane Wells reports, people are already lining up for it. Or at least, paying others to line up for them. One caveat: I am not convinced that none of these people in line, are not shills of some sort. WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD Paris and the Sheriff : The wheels of government turn slowly, particularly when the wrench thrown in them, is shaped like Paris Hilton. In our number one story on the Countdown, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors was trying, yesterday, to address an inner city hospital so beleaguered, a patient died in it's Emergency Room lobby last month. The Board eventually got around to its health care crisis, but not before facing Sheriff Lee Bocka... to find out why he initially released Ms. Hilton after just a few days in jail. Meantime, Ms. Hilton has now described that jail-cell meltdown...
Here's the report filed by the associated press...rest assured we'll be all over this on tonight's show.
CAPITOL HILL (AP) - A Senate panel is demanding some documents from the White House and from Vice President Cheney's office.
The Judiciary Committee today issued a subpoena for documents related to President Bush's program involving eavesdropping without warrants.
The subpoenas also name the Justice Department and the National Security Council.
A congressional official says the panel is looking for documents that might shed some light on internal squabbles within the administration over whether the program is legal.
Some of what we're working on for tonight...
that has been released to Raw Story. " Addington writes, "The executive order on classified national security information -- Executive Order 12958 as amended in 2003 -- makes clear that the Vice President is treated like the President and distinguishes the two of them from 'agencies.' The executive order gives the ISOO, under the supervision of the Archivist of the United States , responsibility to oversee certain activities of "agencies," but not of the Vice President or the President.”CONTINUED >>
For anyone who has payed any attention to the President's speeches on Immigration reform, you're familiar with the fact that the President is firmly against "amnesty". He repeatedly says so here , here , here and about a bajillion other places.
His critics, and particularly those on his side of the isle, have decried his immigration bill as amnesty in sheep's clothing. They say he's endorsing amnesty without calling it amnesty.
So, you'll imagine their amazement when in a speech on Tuesday, the President changed his position and said his bill calls for, let's all say it together, AMNESTY.
You know, I've heard all the rhetoric -- you've heard it, too -- about how this is amnesty. Amnesty means that you've got to pay a price for having been here illegally, and this bill does that.
Oopsie. The White House is now saying the President did not mean to say that, and they've linked to a correction on their whitehouse.gov transcript explaining what the President MEANT to say.
Earlier today, in speaking about comprehensive immigration reform, President Bush misspoke. He told a group, "You know, I've heard all the rhetoric - you've heard it, too - about how this is amnesty. Amnesty means that you've got to pay a price for having been here illegally, and this bill does that." This has been construed as an assertion that comprehensive immigration reform legislation before the Senate offers amnesty to immigrants who came here illegally. That is the exact opposite of the president's long-held and often-stated position.
We're sure his opponents will resepect the mea culpa and not use this one against him...don't ya think?
Sorry so late, folks...
Cheney World Ex Lugar : He's the latest Republican to break ranks and ask the President to bring troops home. He says he took months to arrive at his decision...but he finally came around. Gee, thanks.ODDBALL: Ooh, baby...don't miss tonight's oddball. It was so great. So SO great!Factor Fiction : Bill O'Reilly gets his lunch handed to him by a 16-year-old high school kid (for the second time in as many weeks). We just can't pass up the opportunity to enjoy the moment.
WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD: Well, if you saw the show, you'll notice that our graphic producer used the wrong image of the ultimate worst for this fine Tuesday. Worstie fans will know what we're talking about.Viva Le Paris! : She's sprung from the cooler, she looked fabulous and we wrapped up the day's ridiculous coverage with a redux of the get out of jail news and the one and only Michael Musto.
Some of what we're working on for tonight...
Part Three of the Washington Post's investigative series on Vice President Cheney takes a look at his influence on the administration's domestic policy. Its thesis: That if President Bush is "the Decider" Mr. Cheney serves up his menu of options. For instance, Mr. Cheney led the group that narrowed down the list of potential Supreme Court nominees (we all know how that turned out .)
Mr. Cheney inserted himself in the investigation of Democratic Congressman William Jefferson, apparently as alarmed as Mr. Jefferson's colleagues were about the seizure of the congressman's files... what with being a member of the legislative branch and all. He presented Mr. Bush with the course of action that was taken - the files were placed under seal for 45 days. Lastly, but by no means all, Mr. Cheney has shaped tax cut policy.
The Post reporting that on a rare occasion when the president actually told his alleged second banana 'No' (on deep reductions on capital gains tax on investments) Mr. Cheney did an end run around Mr. Bush and successfully lobbied Congress for them directly. Not that the president will ever even find out about it. He doesn't read newspapers.
CONTINUED >>
The Cheney Presidency : If you are appointed by a Presidential candidate, to head a search committee to find him a Vice Presidential candidate, and the person you ultimately find, and endorse, is you ... it should thereafter surprise no one, that you may be thinking you have completely gamed the system. Nonetheless it had been one of the most cynical jokes made by the critics of the current occupants of the White House: that this wasn't the "Bush Administration," it was really "The Cheney Administration." And yet imperical evidence tonight, that there may be no joke... or even worse... the joke is on us.Mayor Culpa : The Republican who headed the environmental protection agency in 2001 may have finessed whether or not she was blaming Rudy Giuliani for the scandal over the quality of the air at Ground Zero. But she did not pull any punches, blaming him for putting appearances ahead of safety, during the anthrax nightmare. Christie Todd Witman's story and testimony is our Number Four Story.: The world's ugliest dog is really kinda... ugly -- and when attending an air show in Galway, Irelan... don't let the door hit ya.Murder in Ohio : The stomach-turning story from Ohio, turning again. A married police officer charged in the murder of his girlfriend and their child, there is a third woman charged in the case, and the only witness is the two-year old son the dead woman bore him, who told police, "Mommy was crying, Mommy broke the table. Mommy's in a rug."Hung Out to Dry: killing us. The lawsuit that rocked the dry cleaning world -- is over.WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD : When getting your hair cut in Amsterdam, stare straight ahead, talk about the weather, do NOT anger the barber... a shocker, Senator James Inhofe is having some trouble keeping his stories straight... and another Senator announces he's taking his policy cues from right-wing talk radio hosts. Your tax dollars in action.Spoiler Alert! Our modern mythology... The Harry Potter books come to an end in less than a month, and Keith thinks he's figured out the conclusion. Who lives, who dies, and how. It's just an opinion, but you might want to take notes.
ditching Celine Dion already? Not a bar of the French Canadian crooner's "You and I" could be heard at last night's campaign event for Senator Clinton in Manhattan. Instead, loudspeakers were blaring another (far more catchy) tune from the pre-approved list Mrs. Clinton's campaign had offered in its contest: KT Tunstall's "Suddenly I See." This helpful tip to the RNC's opposition research staff: Ms. Tunstall is Scottish.Sopranos spoof ?
Some of what we're working on for tonight... Part two of the Washington Post’s excellent
four-part series on the Vice President reveals Alberto
Gonzales is really no more than a Cheney (and
Addington) flunky. Part one revealed that Mr. Cheney even spies on other
senior members of the White House staff.
Mr. Gonzales
apparently has done nothing to investigate the Vice
President’s refusal to comply with that executive
order requiring all federal offices to comply with
reporting procedures on how they’re safeguarding
classified documents. The Justice Department, even
going so far as to claim it has never even received
any letters about the matter.
(In related news, the office of the nation’s chief
executive appears to be trying to claim it isn’t part
of the executive branch either. Please make the
madness stop .)
really is president after all.
CONTINUED >>
this Rolling Stone investigation is required, sorry. The more articles like this we read, the more we realize that one of the men in the photo above is the President of the United States, and one seems to be not much more than our national mascot .CONTINUED >>
Click here for a good summation at ThinkProgress.
Gitmo and Dick Cheney : If, after two years of planning and intent, the White House does not have an exit strategy for Guantanamo Bay... what are the chances it's going to pull one out of somewhere, for Iraq? 24-hours later, still more questions than answers, about the AP report that the Bush administration was nearing a decision to close the detention facility at the U-S naval base in Guantanamo Bay Cuba. Plus...a severe case of whiplash regarding who exactly this Dick Cheney guy is anyway. Today, White House Spokesperson Dana Perino revealed that Mr. Cheney has now evolved to a point where he is not just in the executive branch, but indistinguishable from the president himself.Jewels of Denial : The CIA is about to catalog its own clandestine and illegal-in-multiple-nations activities. As our correspondent Pete Williams reports -- Central Intelligence is cutting out the middle-man... and passing the savings (and the secrets!) on to you!ODDBALL : It's time once again to demonstrate the dangers of fireworks by blowing the crap out of fresh produce and department store mannequins... plus, voyeur video of a robot in the shower, and one airlines' way to"spice up" the friendly skies.The GOP Horserace : When Presidential candidates show up at a memorial for nine firefighters who perished nowhere near the candidates' states or cities, is it paying respects...or playing politics? And why the firefighters had to ask Rudy Giuliani NOT to speak, when the Secretary of Homeland Security did, saying "the tragedy of monday reminds us that we live in a world in which danger is all around us from accidents to natural disasters to deliberate acts of terror."Dangerous Imports: WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD : The British Ministry of Defense says 'nothing to see here, nevermind those two-mile wide UFO's in the sky".... John Travolta takes the Tom Cruise approach to psychiatric medicine... and Glenn Beck does more to divide the country than the terrorists ever could.The Paris Doctor's Padded Resume: The campaign to get Paris Hilton out of jail for psychological reasons, had one hidden flaw, just revealed: The psychologist wasn't quite who he said he was. Oh here we go.
a ruling yesterday that
could be bad news for Scooter Libby's attempt to argue
that his sentencing was unreasonable. In Rita v. U.S.,
defendant Victor Rita, convicted of perjury and
obstruction of justice, had been sentenced to 33
months in prison and had asked the court for a lighter
sentence, based in part on his service to his country,
in this case past military service. All in all, sounds
familiar, doesn't it? By an 8-to-1 vote, the Justices
held that criminal sentences that fall within
guidelines set by a commission -- while no longer
mandatory -- are not unreasonable and can be upheld.
chipmunk .
CONTINUED >>
Doug Mills/The New York TimesThe New York Times reports...For four years, Vice President Dick Cheney has resisted routine oversight of his office’s handling of classified information, and when the National Archives unit that monitors classification in the executive branch objected, the vice president’s office suggested abolishing the oversight unit , according to documents released yesterday by a Democratic congressman. Read the full article here.
Closing Gitmo : The most notorious American prison since the Civil War is reportedly on the verge of being shut down by the Bush Administration after a summit meeting tomorrow. Bush, Cheney, Gonzales, Rice, Chertoff, and Pace among the attendees. What happens to the detainees? What happens to the prosecutions? And was the news of the meeting leaked in order to scuttle the plans to close the prison? The latest on the bombshell news breaking in Washington.Cheney in Charge : How many branches of our government are there? Three? Nope...four! The Executive, the Legislative, the Judicial, and...The Dick! The Vice President's office refuses inspection by the National Archives in the erased and illegal e-mails scandal, claiming that law doesn't apply to it -- the fourth branch of government.ODDBALL : From England, the coolest sculpture ever...the most dramatic hamster ever...and the bizarre case of the missing lake .Romney's Police Force : The campaign drives onward, but the Romney camp denies its security people pulled anybody over. A New York Times reporter says it did just that, and told him it had "run his plates" and he should stop following the campaign bus. And all that sounds pretty bad, and maybe illegal.Keeping Tabs: From chihuahua poo... to the poo hitting the fan in the baseball steroids investigation. Jason Giambi's steroid admission... and Paris Hilton's pet problem. WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD : The Prime Minister of France is afraid of Blackberrys... Delusional Bill is now imposing his own timetable for the War in Iraq... and Michael Graham goes on the Glenn Beck show to see he would have liked to see the Clintons murdered in that diner scene from Hillary's Sopranos spoof .If He Did It here we go.
comments section below as well.
Talking Points Memo ...
Rahm Emanuel's office just sent out a nifty chart illustrating Veep Cheney's latest. As you may have heard by now, Cheney reportedly exempted
his own office from the presidential order establishing government-wide
procedures for the guarding of classified national security info. He
reportedly did this by asserting that his office is not an “entity
within the executive branch.”
Some of what we're working on for tonight... House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on the firing of those nine U.S. attorneys. You will recall that last month, under limited immunity, former Justice aide Monica Goodling accused Mr. McNulty of having provided inaccurate testimony to the Senate. As for what role Mr. McNulty played in carrying out the firings, Attorney General Gonzales first said he wished he'd relied more on his former deputy... only to do a 180 and later name Mr. McNulty as THE underling most responsible for the dismissals.
announced the launch of a website to collect information from Justice Department whistleblowers about incidents of politicized dept. operations.
today's Washington Post , the then-acting Assitant Attorney General, Bradley Schlozman, once asked a colleague if even "a career lawyer who had voted for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz), a one-time rival of President Bush, could still be trusted."
CONTINUED >>
don't need to know.Watch this video to see what's really important to "the folks", then send it to everyone you know so we can all be as minimally informed as possible.
It's the War, Stupid : Hillary Clinton and other Democrats get a cool reception from the anti-war crowd, but what exactly were they expecting? Plus Countdown welcomes General wesley Clark to discuss the reality on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the coverage - or lack thereof - here at homeThe Truth About Abu Ghraib : General Janice Karpinski joins Keith Olbermann to discuss the latest revelations about the Taguba investigation of violations of the Geneva Convention at the Abu Ghraib prison facility in Iraq.ODDBALL : A dude in a Jeep sinks a three pointer at 35 MPH, and we think this video is a fake but we can't be quite sure.Digital Gra fitti: A lawsuit from two Yale students over slanderous items written about them on an internet messageboard could set a new precedent for liability on the world wide wild wild west web thingy.Keeping Tabs: Hugh Hefner has an idea for post-prison Paris Hilton... meanwhile, she's busy making pen pals while in the pen...and Nancy Grace finds herself at the business end of a wrongful death lawsuit.WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD : A bra and panties are two items that should never be flushed down a toilet...your own artificial leg should not be used as a weapon in the course of an assault... and lies about 9/11 should not be used to scare Americans about illegal immigrants.The News According to Bill
: Bill O'Reilly says he's not covering the news from Iraq, because it's too hard, it helps the terrorists, and it's "meaningless". He says he covers what's important to Americans. We took a look at all the important news he's covered, just in the last week. It's MUST SEE VIDEO .
Some of what we're working on for tonight... demonstrating how little time the FOX Noise Channel actually covers the issue most important to Americans right now, the war in Iraq.his show covers what's important, such as "the bear issue ", "Scientology and homosexuality", and the body language of Angelina Jolie.real news organizations of being "jazzed" about the deaths of Afghan children , for example.are still being killed, despite what you see on the "no spin zone". CONTINUED >>
Iraq and Roll If not the Civil War, then certainly the Depression. Not since one of those two epic events, has a single topic seemed, each day, ever more inevitably poised, to utterly dominate a looming presidential election, the way the importance of the war in Iraq, seems to grow, every day even after you think, it's at one hundred percent. Our fifth story on the Countdown today alone: it was a weapon used by one Democratic front-runner against the other; it took a bite out of the campaign of one Republican former Mayor of New York; and it certainly contributed to making that man's successor, a former Republican. The Fall Guy : The first man to investigate the torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has broken his silence to reveal his belief that... the real culprits, higher up, remain unpunished... that he was prevented from identifying them, and that both President Bush and Donald Rumsfeld knew about the abuses well before they said they did. In our fourth story on the Countdown, retired Major General Antonio Taguba, also telling the New Yorker's Sy Hersh that his career was destroyed, and he was forced to retire, as punishment for his pursuit of the truth. ODDBALL The GOP Horserace In our third story on the Countdown, it is imperative to remember that the movie "Citizen Kane" pretty much bombed...And the reviews, and sales, of "Moby-Dick" were at best mediocre. But they and countless other initially unimpressive iconic elements of American culture, grew into their status through word-of-mouth, imitation, and in many cases, parody. Thus we bring you this story, nine days after the event that spawned it. What follows, was presented, between innings, on the giant video screen at a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game. For context, all you need to know is that the Pirates have had a series of mascots, some of them actual Pirates, some of them Parrots.
Britain's Real Talent: Some are born great. Some achieve greatness. And some have greatness thrust upon 'em. But in our number two story on the Countdown, when writing that, in "Twelfth Night," William Shakespeare left out the fourth option. Some win greatness when the singing group made up of Drag Queens, leading the British version of "American Idol," get thrown off the show in the wake of prostitution charges. If you yet haven't heard of Paul Potts, you will.
WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD Wild About Larry : Even in the context of the endless Anna Nicole Smith saga... it was ineffably ridiculous. Judge Larry Seidlin wagged a finger and said -- quote -- "There's no circus here, my friend"...Anyone who had watched him for more than 15 seconds knew just how wrong he was.He was the circus... He was each of the three rings... He was the damned tent!
This is supposedly a Ukranian Military Recruitment video posted on YouTube (with a translation if you really wan t ). It appears to have been produced by the same team that does Borat's show.magic chess games and try this approach.
Hillary's own version of the final scene of the Sopranos -- complete with a cameo appearance by Johnny Sack.VIDEO is a must-see.
If you've always wondered why Rudy Giuliani walked
away from the Iraq Study Group - having failed to
attend a single, official meeting - it was because the
events conflicted with six-figure speaking gigs. As
New York Newsday , which broke the story, points out
"by giving up his seat on the panel, Giuliani has
opened himself up to charges that he chose
private-sector paydays and politics over unpaid
service on a critical issue facing the nation." What's
more important to Rudy - Commander-in-Chief
credentials or his checkbook?
FRED BARE
Elsewhere on the (presumptive) Republican ticket,
veteran Watergate journalist Bob Woodward
debunks Sen.
Fred Thompson's role during the Watergate hearings.
Specifically, the myth that Mr. Thompson asked THE
crucial question about whether Nixon kept tape
recordings. Here's Woodward's answer during an online
chat:
"Fred Thompson (who was the Republican counsel to the
Senate Watergate committee) asked Alexander
Butterfield the question about possible tape
recordings in the White House or Oval Office,
Thompson, like a good lawyer, knew the answer --
because three days before the public testimony,
lawyers and investigators for the committee got
Butterfield to reveal the existence of the secret
tape-recording system. Though Thompson seems to get
public credit for asking this critical question, it
was the work of others on the committee staff who dug
out Butterfield's revelation in a lengthy interview on
a hot Friday afternoon on July 13, 1973."
Charlie Savage of the Boston Globe, who won a Pulitzer
for his series of investigative reports uncovering the
fact that, since taking office in 2001, President Bush
has challenged over 1,100 laws by secretly issuing signing
statements, weighs in today on a new GAO report that
says the signing statements might be having their
intended effect. "Federal agencies have
disobeyed at
least six new laws that President Bush challenged in
his signing statements."
TOUCHY SUBJECT
It seems the folks at Kilmer Middle School in Vienna,
Virginia have had a difficult year enforcing
THIS
policy . No touching. None. Hugging? Handshakes?
High-fives? All banned. Ridiculous? Yes.
You've Not Mail : Karl Rove, Andrew Card, Alberto Gonzales and others... At the center of what might be, quote, "the most serious breach of the Presidential Records Act" in its history. The House Oversight Committee says the Bush Administration has widely and improperly used Republican National Committee and Bush-Cheney Campaign e-mail accounts for official government business - and erased most of the records. And there is evidence that the office of then-White House Counsel Gonzales knew the laws were being broken, and did nothing.Not So Clean : Senator Obama's "clean politics" platform takes a hit. Anonymous memos to news organizations about the Clintons' finances turn out to be from the Obama campaign. But did Hillary's team gain the higher ground by releasing the memos themselves?ODDBALL : Wascally wabbits gettin' it on force a major airport to shut down... the Greek police abuse case that we can't stop laughing at... and a countdown at NASA with unexpected results.The Sippy Cup Scandal : The woman passenger who says airport security in DC mistreated her and her toddler because they spilled water from her kiddie cup. The TSA releases the security video to prove it was right...only... it seems to support the position... that they were wrong.Two Princes: Nearly ten years after their mother, Princess Diana, died, Princes William and Harry and their exclusive interview with Matt Lauer.
WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD : The high school kid who did a little extra-credit work to raise his grades, hiring thugs to steal his report card... the convicted Administration official trying to get community service instead of jail, by offering to work for a lobbying group... and Sean Hannity's hackery works better when he completely ignores the facts.Still in Jail : Keith thught for sure that Paris would be sprung before he returned from vacation, he was wrong. Yes, it's a flimsy excuse to revisit the story yet again with our pal Paul F. Tompkins.
Perhaps it was inevitable. Perhaps
it was only a matter of time before any defense attorney worth his/her salt was going to defend his/her client in federal court by bringing up the U.S. Attorney firings and then claiming THEIR clients may have targeted for political reasons as well. What would surely qualify as unintended, long-term fallout.
POST-WARNING
Speaking of unintended, longterm fallout... It turns out British Prime Minister
Tony Blair knew the U.S.
had no plans for post-war Iraq, and sent his troops in anyway, his friends and aides have told a television documentary to air next Saturday. What's amazing is that when he shared his concerns with the White House, President Bush apparently offered him a way out, saying "Perhaps there's some other way that Britain can be involved" and Blair didn't take it, demurring, "No, I am with you." What may well be THE pivotal moment of the Blair legacy.
Do I hear 50 years? General David Petraeus is still doing his best to knock down September's assessment reporting deadline to Congress. And he now puts the American presence in Iraq at
an estimated half century , at least.
PHOTO FINISHED
Investigative Reporter Seymour Hersh has yet
another must-read in the New Yorker. The guy who investigated the abuses at Abu Ghraib for the U.S. Military, Army Major General Antonio Taguba, was, of course, punished severely for doing his job well. He was even threatened by General John Abizaid who told him "You and your report will be investigated." Gen. Taguba saying of that moment "I thought I was in the Mafia."
In the end, Gen. Taguba was demoted and forced to retire.
And as for
the White House ? It "didn't think the photographs were that bad."
Pace Off : Pretty soon, General Peter Pace will have all of his days off... now that the Bush administration has decided to replace him as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a decision that General Pace disclosed today was forced upon him. In his words, "I've been told I'm done." But people who are competent are rarely asked to leave their jobs involuntarily, something to keep in mind amid all the "outrage" over Senator Harry Reid's revelation that he once told General Pace -- directly -- "what an **incompetent** man" Reid thought he was.The Pardon Problem : With his approval rating already at 29 percent - could pardoning Scooter Libby actually help President Bush with his base? Even if it hurts -- will 27% or 26% be any more painful? ODDBALL : The world's longest tunnel, the world's craziest birds, and world's most dangerous way to keep fit in the office. The Geek Squad Has Arrived : It shouldn't be surprising that solving computer problems in space isn't nearly as easy as pressing "control, alt,delete"... or even calling Mumbai for tech support. But the Number three story in our countdown: success! The space nerds score at least a partial victory over the balky computers inside the international space station, two-hundred miles over our heads.Resignation: The testimony of Reade Seligman, one of the Duke lacrosse players falsely accused of rape last year was striking. "We went from being viewed as athletes to being viewed as rapists." In our number two story on the Countdown, the district attorney in that case is now on trial himself for possible ethics violations and today has said he will resign. Step on Down! And after 35 years, Bob Barker signs off the price is right for the last time. Countdown takes a look back at the man, his ladies, and all those Showcase Showdowns. Just remember, America, without him, we'd be overtaken by cats!
The
irrepressible Matt Drudge is having a bit of fun with all the death and destruction going on in Gaza, where
100 people have been killed this week, adding a cute little caption to a photo of a Hamas fighter...
CONTINUED >>
Some of what we're working of for tonight... If you've wondered why President Bush has kept
legislation banning his administration's ability to
use an obscure provision in the Patriot Act to appoint
interim U.S. Attorneys at will - legislation that
passed with broad bipartisan support - on his desk for
nearly two weeks without signing it... here's why: He
was waiting for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to
re-install one final U.S. Attorney
without benefit of
Congressional oversight .
Gonzo re-appointed George
Cardona as interim federal prosecutor for the Central
District of California yesterday. Only then did Mr.
Bush finally
sign the bill , which had been sitting on
his desk since June 4. Naturally, Judiciary Committee
Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy had some choice words to
say about it: "It’s almost like they live in an
alternate world, as though they’re not realizing the
reaction of Democrats and Republicans about this
misuse of this power. That’s wrong."
CONTINUED >>
Here are the latest campaign ads from former Democratic Senator from Alaska. I don't know if David Lynch is directing these, or if these are some kind of Jedi mind trick (those aren't the candidates you're looking for...vote Gravel...move along). All we know is that these ads are frickin' creepy!
Wonkette has speculation on the origins of the ads.
Inmate Scooter : It's a good thing President Bush sees himself as "The Decider" because it looks like he's going to have to make a most controversial decision. Now that a federal judge has said he will not delay the prison sentence of convicted Scooter Libby, the president has to decide whether he's going to give the former White House aide a get out of jail free card.Spiel Like Us : The FBI says it maybe kinda sorta possibly violated the law while collecting phone records and emails. How many times did they break such law? Over a thousand .ODDBALL : The birs in Peoria are on the attack, the cars in France are on the water, and the world's tallest man is off the market.2008 2.0 : The GOP issues a 39 page document warning its candidates of what not to do while on the campaign trail in '08 to avoid another "Macaca Moment", Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton launches her very own version of the Drudge Report. Who's taking the lead in using the internet in 2008? Stuck in Space? Russian computers on the International Space Station go on the fritz -- crashing twice in two days. Problem? They control the station's water and oxygen supplies.Countdown's Dreamgirls: The gifts that keep on giving... Angelina tells the press to step off...Paris moves back to her original jail...and Britney is looking for a few good titles for a comeback album. It's just too easy.
Some of what we're working on for tonight... he will not
delay a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a
ruling that could send the former White House aide to prison within
weeks.
Full coverage tonight on Countdown.CONTINUED >>
this one had "stupid" written all over it from the get-go -- beginning with Drudge's silly link to the story...VIDEO at the KUTV website with the accompanying story wondering: 'what could it possibly be?'gee , to us it looks almost exactly like that mythical flying craft they call the blimp! But that's just crazy talk, everyone knows blimps don't really exist...do they?The truth is out there .
The Buck Stops : President Bush's White House, officially dragged into the Gonzales Gate investigation for the first time today... with the delivery of subpoenas this morning to former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and former top aide to Karl Rove, Sara Taylor. Plus, another attack on one of Iraq's holiest sites is fueling new fears tonight of an escalation in the civil war.O'Reilly Doesn't Care About Each Troop Death : Bill O'Reilly's been off the deep end for quite some time now, yet each week his nuttiness crosses into some new offensive territory. This time, as he tries to call MSNBC and CNN un-American, he manages to insult his own network's correspondants, and the troops who die in the "meaningless" bombings in Iraq.ODDBALL : Fun with pyrotechnics in West Virginia, the worst/best National Anthem performance ever... and when extreme off roading goes extremely wrong.Pants Suit : The seemly, or rather "in-seamly" $65 million lawsuit over a pair of pants. Judge Roy "Pantsless" Pearson, who is acting as his own attorney, launched into an hours-long tirade, describing the emotional pain caused by the loss of his trousers and the hundreds and hundreds of hours he's spent on the case. E.R. Outrage:
43-year-old Edith Rodriguez died after 911 refused to come pick her up because she was already in a hospital emergency room, an ER where the staff so thoroughly ignored her that a janitor cleaned up around her as she lay dying on the floor.Parents of the Year: Reports say Kevin Federline is going to be a father...AGAIN. Please tell us this isn't true. Meanwhile Britney Spears is has been going around town giving more views of her underwear than a Victoria's Secret window.
relax its standards for organic foods. By, you know, allowing non-organic additives like chemical fertilizers and the like. Only in the Bush administration could something that is so black and white - either it's organic or it isn't folks - become so infuriatingly gray.
Some of what we're working on for tonight... told
a House committee yesterday that the Iraqi Army was
short by about 20,000 soldiers. As well as many years
away from being able to take full responsibility for
its own security. We're there for good folks, should
anyone think the outcome of the 2008 election isn't
important.
ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROVE
Justice Department officials were never supposed to
let the world know that one of the U.S. attorneys was
let go to make way for a protege of Karl Rove. Nuh uh.
A major meltdown from one of Turdblossom's underlings,
after Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty had spilled
the beans on Capitol Hill - in other words, testified
truthfully - is just one of the gems in the latest
batch of emails released yesterday by the Justice
department.
subpoenaed that former Rove aide, Sara
Taylor, as well as former White House Counsel Harriet
Miers, whose office thought in January that the ousted
prosecutors had "disloyally stirred up the senators"
but argued against criticizing them publicly because
they hadn't "fired any shots" at the administration.
CONTINUED >>
Well, just a day after news that former White House Political Director Sara Taylor may have had more to do with the U.S. Attorney firings broke...Sara Taylor gets a shiny new subpoena.
From the AP : Two congressional committees are issuing subpoenas for testimony from former White House counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor on their roles in the firings of eight federal prosecutors, according to two officials familiar with the investigation.
If you've been following this case, you'll recall this was widely rumored to happen when Ms. Taylor turned in her badge and left the White House about a month ago...now it has come to fruition. Mark your calendars for July 11th, and oh by the way... Harriet Miers (you remember her) also gets dinged. She'll testify the day after Taylor.
In the second most cryptic instance of television drama this week (only to Tony Soprano's choose your own adventure series finale), Fred Thompson appeared on the Tonight Show and declared his desire to be President without declaring his candidacy. The AP described the guest appearance like this...
Asked by Jay Leno on The Tonight Show if he'd like America's top job, the former Tennessee senator said, "I've never craved the job of president, but I want to do some things that only a president can do."
"So," Thompson added, "the answer is yes."
The former senator, turned turned member of the Hollywood elite, said he is finding the political waters "warm". He then plugged his website, and took a swipe at Hillary Clinton. Sounds like he's ready to run.
Amy Robach in for Keith tonight...
High Noon No official word on what was served for lunch today when President Bush made a rare visit to the Capitol... to beg fellow Republicans to keep his immigration reform bill alive... but the menu probably featured crow... or possibly even lame duck. Our fifth story on the Countdown: High Noon on Capitol Hill... Mister Bush facing backlash on yet another domestic agenda item... only this time, it was coming from his own party. The Commitments Rudy Giuliani announces his vision for America if he wins the White House... but will it do anything to smack down the challenge from a candidate who isn't even really running yet? ODDBALL
The Gay Bomb Sixty-two years ago, when America dropped the ultimate weapon, the atomic bomb, on Japan, the U-S Army Air Force chose for the mission the B-29 bomber, "The Enola Gay." In our third story tonight, it turns out that the Air Force has been considering a **new** ultimate weapon... that won't drop on our enemies from the Enola Gay... it'll just **make** them gay. The story of the so-called "Gay Bomb," actually a chemical spray, has floated around the internets ever since the Sunshine Project, which studies weapons research,
Pool Parties : What happens in Vegas...these days happens mainly at the pool. Think of that scene from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" times about one hundred. Tonight a report on the Las Vegas pool party phenomenon.Paris Paris Paris !: It's been almost 24 hours since Countdown last updated the Paris Hilton phenomenon...we're gonna end the wait right here and now.
Some of what we're working on for tonight... How many times has President Bush made a domestic agenda item a priority, only to see it fail miserably?
Today, Mr. Bush tries again,
heading to Capitol Hill in a push to revive his overhaul of the nation's immigration laws. Several GOP Senators, having already “issued a terse warning yesterday: Don’t expect much.”
PROPS TO SCOOTER In a meeting with the Wall Street Journal's editorial board, Ms. Rice hinted that
a pardon for Lewis "Scooter" Libby was in order . Ms. Rice said that Mr. Libby, who - in leaking the name of a covert CIA officer and being convicted of four counts of perjury and obstruction of justice - had "served the country really well." As the president's work wife does Condi Rice know something we don't, or might this have been a bit of wishful thinking on the Secretary of State's part?
THE FLIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM Good luck to the FBI the next time it asks Congress for an annual $3.6 million for upkeep and use of its $40 million Gulfstream V jet that it acquired under the pretense that it would be "an essential tool for battling terrorism" now that the Washington Post has revealed Bureau Director
Mueller regularly uses the jet for personal travel "to speeches, public appearances and field office visits." Countdown feels so much safer now, don't you?
We missed this yesterday, but thankfully, the good people of the internets did not. President Bush's hero's welcome by a massive crowd in Albania involved cheering, groping and maybe a little petty theft.
CONTINUED >>
Kinda Confident? President Bush may be a rock star in Albania...but after the reception he received on Capitol Hill today -- and the week that he still has ahead of him -- he might start to regret coming home from Europe. Our fifth story on the Countdown: The bad news for Mister Bush's Attorney General: 53-U-S Senators voted earlier tonight that they do not have confidence in him...The good news: the motion required 60-votes to pass. Colin Powell Speaks: Colin Powell speaks out about the war in Iraq and the chances of anything coming of the surge. He also takes some shots about people who've criticized him about prewar intelligence. We'll give Tyler Drumheller... formerly of the C-I-A a chance to respond. And who is Powell advising in the '08 race?
ODDBALL The Sopranos Mystery : On one very basic level, "The Sopranos" series finale was brilliant -- maybe even perfect -- because everyone who saw it wants to talk about it. But whether you found the final episode satisfying or infuriating? That's another story... and our third on the Countdown. Cut to black: Did Tony Soprano get whacked in the moments after that final shot... or did he continue in the most mundane American setting imaginable -- eating dinner with his family? Near Miss/Collision: Back in 1981, thousands of air controllers went on strike claiming they were overworked, that the nation's air traffic control system was understaffed and potentially dangerous. President Reagan eventually fired them. Number two in our countdown: Once again, fasten your seat belt and put your doubts about airline safety in an upright position. asWe'll Always Have Paris : All the latest from our favorite celebrity gossip maven, Michael Musto.
CONTINUED >>
Yes, We're Leading With Paris Hilton: It's called "ratings gold" folks, you'll have to deal with it on a Friday night! The most famous for being famous probation violater in the world is ordered back to jail to serve her entire 45 day sentence. The scene in the courtroom, outside the Hilton home, and in dueling press conferences between the court and the sheriff's department brought us one of the nuttiest public spectacles in history. And we've got team coverage.Bush's Belly Aches: And yours might too after this week. First President Bush gets sick at the G8 summit, and now he needs to get himself a new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Of Staff. It's enough to drive a man to drink near-beer. Peter Pace Picks A Pecka Problems.ODDBALL : Bad bears, bad bears... what you gonna do? What you gonna do when they come for you? ... Plus, a guy in China gets thrown under the bus - literally - and lives to tell about it.Dismissal Defense : Is it the ruling that could close Gitmo? The Pentagon tells the Judges "wrong answer, come back when you're ready to agree." Professor Neal Cutyul from the Hamdan Case joins us again.Woke Up This Morning... Television bids goodbye to the Sopranos. We'll predict how it will all end, and we'll do it without Keith who's a few weeks behind on his TiVo. Catch up Keith!WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD : Robert Bork was against punitive damages for injury victims, until he became one - now he's suing... A James Dobson pastor-pal says America would deserve to have an entire city destroyed because we celebrate "lesbian sex". Hey, don't ask us to explain it.... and Bill O'Reilly is surprised to see that murder in Kansas was committed by a "white-bread guy" - guess he thought all crime was committed by illegal immigrants. Hilton's All Booked Up : Yeah, more Paris Hilton. But this time we're going to attempt to have a reasoned discussion with Dana Milbank of the Washington Post about what this all really means about us as a society. Oh, and there will be puppets.
This is the iconic photograph you'll be seeing a hundred years from now in US Weekly's "Images of the 21st Century" edition...
...then again
this whole circus may be a sign that we're not going to make it that long.
Feel free to discuss this one in the
comments , because we just don't know what to say...but you're not going to want to miss Countdown tonight at 8pm ET.
Some of what we're working on for tonight...
In a shocking Friday afternoon Joint Chief of Staff Chairman drop , Sec. Def. Gates announced that the increasingly controversial General Peter Pace would not be renominated to keep his position. According to Gates:
"There was the very real prospect the (nomination) process would be quite contentious...A divisive ordeal at this point is not in the interest of the country."
We'll be all over this one tonight.
Before you get any ideas, we're pretty sure that's a Buckler non-alcoholic beer the President is drinking, but even with near-beer, Meister Bush pulls a major party foul.
Its been a while since he poured one of those bad boys...so, you'll notice in the pics below the foamy head flowing over the side of his glass in one of the side shots.
see them here --->
CONTINUED >>
Cheney Knows Best : Vice President Cheney is not a lawyer... and unlike Fred Thompson... (now contemplating a run for the White House)... nor has he ever played one on T-V. Yet despite that -- in our fifth story on the Countdown -- Mister Cheney saw fit to tell top lawyers at the Department of Justice that they were mistaken in their belief that the secret surveillence of Americans was illegal. It is what may be the clearest sign yet that the law... has absolutely nothing to do with the Bush administration's... well...administration of Justice.Czar Czar Hi-jinks : He's been called "The Fall Guy"..."A Political Pawn"...And "Another Bureaucrat"...Will the Senate let the President call him "War Czar"? ODDBALL : Sad you can't partake in all the fun and excitement of those G-8 protests in Europe? Well, dry those tears crybabies...Oddball is all G-8 protest, all the time tonight!Factor Fiction : "Tell her to get over it". Six words, about a 14 year old rape victim, attributed to a Superior Court Judge by a Boston newspaper. Then broadcast nationwide, with righteous anger and calls for termination, by Bill O'Reilly. The outcry cost the Judge his health and his career, and put his life in danger. Even though he never actually said anything of the sort. Our third story on the Countdown, the paper was held responsible for libel. So why isn't Bill-O likewise liable?
Bye Bye Bob: When we look at today's reality shows-- the coarseness, sex, and superficiality-- it makes us harken back to a simpler time, when reality shows were just called game shows... and they showcased a more basic aspect of human nature. Good, old-fashioned love... of money. In our number two story tonight, a mainstay of the genre... the second-longest- running game-show in history-- after Sabado Gigante... is losing the man who has hosted it since 1972. Bob Barker is retiring, at the age of 83. George Lewis was a witness, as the final chips were dropped down the Plinko Board that is Mr. Barker's stewardship of an American institution. WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD : Well...Bill-O is out of the running tonight....or is he? Tune in to the greatest worstest person in the world of all time!!! Or maybe of all week? Last night's was pretty good...ok, it's the greatest of the day, let's just say that.The Liberation of Paris: If you count thirty minutes from last Sunday night as one day...And a few minutes from early this morning as one day...Then Paris Hilton spent five days in jail before her release. Apparently enough time for her to teach jail officials everything she knows about arithmetic. As for why she was re-assigned to home confinement...It was reportedly a psychological condition, not a rash. Our number one story on the Countdown: Woman on the Verge of a very well-staged Nervous Breakdown.
The Good News: a
climate change deal has been reached at the G8 Summit. German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced "We agreed... that CO2 emissions must first be stopped and then followed by substantial reductions" and that the leaders agreed to hold talks on writing a replacement to the Kyoto Treaty... maybe even one that the U.S. might actually participate in this time.
The Bad news: While Countdown would like to think Mr. Bush couldn't handle being the most unpopular guy at the big world party after all, Reuters is reporting
the U.S. still won't commit to firm goals in cutting emissions.
Correction: Any road that doesn't lead to Karl Rove leads to Vice President Cheney. In another bomb shell from former Deputy Attorney General James Comey, the Veep told Justice Department officials that he disagreed with their objections to a secret surveillance program during a high-level White House meeting in March 2004.
Mr. Cheney later blocked the promotion of another senior lawyer at the Justice Department, Patrick Philbin, because of his role in raising concerns about the surveillance program.
CLINTON-MANIA Do you think, 8 years from now, students at Harvard -- or any institution of higher learning that was not founded by an Evangelist -- will be
scalping tickets to a commencing address by former President Bush for $100 a pop? Just asking.
The new "Street View" feature on
Google Maps
has some privacy advocates in a
tizzy , and has the rest of us searching for
the hidden gems like these ...
CONTINUED >>
GOP Divide It is believed to be a first for a sitting President. At his own party's Presidential debate, he emerges as the... clear loser. And he isn't even one of the candidates. Our fifth story on the Countdown: the good news for President Bush: only one of the former members of his cabinet threw him under the bus in New Hampsher last night. The bad news for Tommy Thompson and the other would-be Republican nominees to succeed Mr. Bush: they won't be running against him. All in all, it is enough to make a man skip town. The President, having already done that... still in Germany for the G-8 summit.
Save Scooter! : The cries for a pardon of Scooter Libby. Despite the fact that the prosecutor and the judge were both appointed by President Bush...The Right is up in arms that Libby is going to jail.. and even turning on the president for not granting a pardon already. John Dean on the Conservative reaction to the Libby Sentence. ODDBALL The Plot Continues to Thin Our third story on the Countdown: Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York astonishing some of his critics and comforting some of his friends, by not only not joining the stampede after the revelation of the technically impossible "JFK Pipeline Plot"... but actually encouraging New Yorkers to remember how unlikely terrorism truly is.
The Face of Death: For ten years, the images were taboo - even to Britain's infamous tabloids. But in our number two story on the Countdown, for the first time ever tonight, the grainy paparazzi shots showing Princess Diana's last moments alive, have tonight been broadcast on British television. Producers at the network in question, Channel Four, claimed the photos were an essential part of it's documentary entitled "Diana: The witness in the tunnel" WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD Divas Behind Bars: One's in the klink, the other can't drink...shocking celebrity headlines with In Touch Weekly's Tom O'Neil
Neo-con William Kristol, in his latest column for the Weekly Standard
So much for loyalty, or decency, or courage. For President Bush, loyalty is apparently a one-way street; decency is something he's for as long as he doesn't have to take any risks in its behalf; and courage--well, that's nowhere to be seen
The last bit about courage got our attention...and after a three minute search down the tubes of the internets, we found Kristol applauding the President for his courage.....
CONTINUED >>
At tonight's Republican Presidential Debate in New Hampshire, Rudy Giuliani made news with his response to a question about whether Scooter Libby should be pardoned.
While he didn't actually answer the question, the former New York Mayor did say the 30-month sentence was "way out of line."
He continued by adding that he'd "recommended over a thousand pardons to President Reagan when [he] was associate attorney general" - a blatant attempt to go for the solid-gold Reagan vote.
What he failed to mention was that - according to the newly released
Reagan diaries - when Giuliani had also recommended drawing up an indictment against Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos to Mr. Reagan, the Gipper had concluded: "I think he's crazy."
Joe Wilson EXCLUSIVE :
From the White House... to the Big House. Well, you knew that phrase was inevitable. After 77-months of a Bush administration that has: Fixed and inflated intelligence...Stone-walled investigations...And otherwise maintained an arm's-length acquaintance with the truth. The consequences of those actions can now be measured in months, for one of its former officials... 30 months, to be exact. Our fifth story on the Countdown: Lewis "Scooter" Libby... today sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for lying and obstructing the C-I-A leak investigation. Ambassador Joseph Wilson joins us to discuss the sentencing. The Fall Guy : Dozens and dozens of letters pleading for leniency for Scooter Libby. Not one from the Vice President for whom he was conniving. What happens next to the case... and Dick Cheney? ODDBALL The Hamdan Case The White House today said it disagrees with the two dismissals of charges against accused terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay. In our third story tonight... it is increasingly clear why the White House disagrees-- because the legal basis for dismissal... applies to everyone at Guantanamo. In each case yesterday, a military judge--one Army colonel and one Navy captain... found that jurisdiction applied only to unlawful enemy combatants. How Would Jesus Vote?: If you thought Republicans had cornered the market on faith...Boy are you preaching from the wrong prayer book. Our number two story on the Countdown: just as it was in the '60s and '70s -- the era of "the radical priest come to get me released" as Paul Simon sang -- thus it may be anew. Senator Hillary Clinton, among others, invoking that old-time political winner, religion. WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD The FCC Bomb: The Bush administration version of the F-C-C...The one infused by 'family-values'...Has it seems -- all this time -- been suffering from a divorce. In our number one story on the Countdown, a federal court says that the F-C-C's remarkably strident rules for broadcast television are -- quote -- "divorced from reality." And the court cites, as its examples of real-world expletive-slinging... President George Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney.
The logo for the 2012 London Olympics was recently unveiled to a cool reception in the UK and here across the pond. Some say it looks like graffiti from an NYC subway car crossed with the Dead Kennedy's logo. Others say the logo's promo video caused them to suffer epileptic seizures .
We like the internet gremlin who likened the logo's design to something from the opening sequence of a certain 1990's teenie bopper sitcom.
Check it out here --->
CONTINUED >>
(Photo: Jeff Riedel) Here's a nice story from New York Magazine about the ecological disaster in Brooklyn no one knows about.Valdez spill... the largest known oil spill in American history," now bubbling to the surface in New York City.The Ooze " to consider yourself safe.
Some of what we're working on for tonight... two-and-a-half years for lying and obstructing the CIA leak investigation. He also gave him a $250,000 fine, but that might be the equivalent of lunch money for Mr. Libby (the I. stands for Irve, by the way and FYI.) Still to come next week is Judge Walton's decision on whether Mr. Libby gets to remain out on bond pending appeal. He seemed to be leaning against it in court today.CONTINUED >>
It's one of the cardinal rules of television...make sure your b-roll follows what you're talking about. That's why we're sure FOX News had only the best of intentions when they were reporting on the indictment of Louisianna Democratic Congressman Bill Jefferson (seen above), and they rolled video of Michigain Democratic Congressman John Conyers .
Now, if Countdown had a nickel for every wrong piece of tape we rolled, let's just say we'd have a crapload of nickels...still, something's a little oogie about this one.
Joshua Marshall's Talking Points Memo has the video .
------------------------------------
Update: Fox News has apologized
---------------------------------------
Update Update: John Conyers is not satisfied
Keith Returns Tonight...
Fight or Flight That Iraq has eclipsed the current presidency; that it will dominate the race for the next one -- we all already knew, and all too well. How much -- we might not have guessed. Last month was the deadliest month for Americans there in more than two-and-a-half months. June has already seen the daily average escalate. Our fifth story on the Countdown: The U-S military, announcing that 14-Americans have already been killed in the first three-days of June in Iraq... four of them in a single roadside bombing. And the Democrats had to debate it.
The Plot Thins The JFK Terror plot... heavy on the hysteria... short on the "plot"... We'll ask an expert about the real impact of the possible attack.
ODDBALL Nexus of Politics and Terror: Since last August, there had been a period of calm. The screaming hair-on-fire pronouncements about terror plots that may have had real plotters but no real conceivable chance of actually happening... ceased. That the period, spanned the time between the 2006 mid-term elections, and the week we reached exactly 18 months until the 2008 presidential election -- just a coincidence. Our third story on the Countdown. ..from the mind-bending idea that four guys dressed as Pizza Delivery men were going to out-gun all the soldiers at Fort Dix. ..to the not-too-thought-out plan to blow-up J-F-K Airport... here we go again. Time for an update of our segment "The Nexus of Politics and Terror".
Looking Ahead to Paris : We're trying to fit 20 lbs of cranberry stuffing into a fifteen pound bird here, folks. On a night when we have the Nexus of Politics and Terror, we need to shorten #2 to fit it all in (see #1).WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD Paris in the Pokey
Some of what we're working on for tonight... Countdown found it interesting that the New York
Times, JFK airport’s hometown paper, not only didn’t put the story of
the alleged plot to bomb a fuel pipeline feeding that airport on its
front page yesterday morning. It didn’t even put it in the A section of
the paper,
burying it in the Metro section.
Update : We were wrong about this, as was Bill O'Reilly .This morning the story got even more curious, with the revelation that the informant in the case was a “
twice-convicted drug dealer ” who agreed to help in exchange for a lighter sentence. And the "
unthinkable devastation " that U.S. officials say was so narrowly averted may have been exaggerated as well, with pipeline experts saying the explosions could have been contained by simply shutting off the fuel flow.
More curious, was that yet another terror plot was announced at a politically opportune time for the Bush administration -- this time, the day before the Democratic debate in New Hampshire. Tonight, Keith will revisit "
The Nexus of Politics and Terror ", an amazing list of announcements of purported "terror plots' at moments when the administration most needed a distraction from other news and events.
CONTINUED >>
President Bush this past Wednesday in New Jersey :
We're fighting an enemy that is cruel, an enemy that murders the innocent to achieve objectives....
They do want to spread their vision as far and wide as possible. They have a vision of establishing a califate. They hate the United States of America and what we stand for. They hate many of our friends, including Israel. The only way to deal with these people is to stay on the offense, fight them overseas so we don't have to fight them here at home. (Applause.)
With this latest arrest in New York , and the one last month in New Jersey ...even though we're busting up terror plots before they're executed, does anyone else feel like we are indeed fighting them here at home?
Well, it wasn't complete hogwash...it was more like a hog rinse. Countdown brought you the expert cynicism of Jungle Jack Hanna last night. Tonight, the truth behind Monster Pig continues to be ferreted out, and The Newshole is all over it.
Keith's back Monday, Alison Stewart hosts tonight....
Bartlett: Out : President Bush's inner-most circle of advisors is 33-percent smaller tonight, but the confidante he is losing... is probably not the one you would expect given recent hirings and firings of late. Our fifth story on the Countdown: Karl Rove - Staying. Alberto Gonzales - Staying. Dan Bartlett - NOT STAYING. TB Guy Speaks : In isolation and repentant. The man with a deadly form of Tuberculosis speaks out . His claims point to a government unable to handle a biological outbreak...heaven forbid, attack. ODDBALL : A jewel encrusted diamond skull and another episode of Oddball's Amazing Kids...catch the fever!The Book on Hillary : So, let's just say you're the wife of a politician who becomes president. You live in the white house for eight years, some turbulent, put away your law degree in favor of picking china, but then you strike out on your own, win two-terms as a senator then run for president yourself. And then people start writing books calling you..the "a" word... ambitious. Number three in our countdown, maybe there are some surprises in two new books with the potential to stir-up the 2008 campaign... The Return of Monster Pig : A shocking development in the Monster Pig investigation...turns out the pig wasn't a feral hog...he was a Christmas Gift. You have to see this one to believe it.Plays Of May : We round out the week and the month with the Oddball's greatest hits. Trust us, it's one of the top 5 Oddball plays of the month this year!!! Catch the OTHER fever!! The OPOTM fever!!! Two fevers in one show!! Plus TB!!!! Ah, nevermind.
