First of all, youtube shmootube...you better darn well believe CNN won't allow a question on this story in the Village Voice with any of their fancy interweb questions. We'll have the article's author, Wayne Barrett, to discuss.
First this weeks news that Oprah Winfrey would stump for Obama (after endorsing him some time ago) now comes word from the Clinton camp that they've netted another big name celebrity endorsement. It's not a surprise (Streisand has been an F.O.B. for a long time) but would you like to see an Oprah/Barbra debate? Did the Clinton Campaign time this to steal back the major celebrity endorsement headlines? Will Celine Dion endorse Joe Biden?
Rewriting History: Scott McClellan today not only accused the President of the United States -- and the Vice President -- and Karl Rove -- of being quote "involved" un-quote in lying to the American public about who outed C-I-A operative Valerie Plame... He also, by implication, accused the President of the United States of commuting the sentence of Scooter Libby, even though some of Libby's lies to the Grand Jury were lies in which Mr. Bush was quote "involved." Our fifth story on the Countdown: His publishers releasing the briefest of excerpts from McClellan's upcoming book, but those 121 words portray President Bush as, at best, a passively-involved, liar-in-chief.
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Last week the Romney campaign cried foul when they found out that there was push polling going on that might adversely affect their campaign. This week they're crying foul because some are implicating the Romney Campaign of push polling themselves. Not sure how this is going to turn out, but if it goes the wrong way for Mitt, this could be trouble. A reader of TPM wonders out loud.
Barack Obama gave a little glimpse into his life as a school age under achiever as he took questions at a Manchester, New Hampshire High School. When asked what his high school/college experience was like, he responded:
"I will confess to you that I was kind of a good off in high school as my mom reminded me. I went to high school in Hawaii, so there's a lot of opportunity to goof off because the weather is really good all the time. I did well in school but I didn't really apply myself. I did what I needed to, to get into college and it came fairly easily to me, but I never worked as hard as I should have. I was big on bball, I was a bball player, we were state champs. I thought I was better than I was. But I just loved the game and I played bball a lot. I thought about girls a lot. " you know I I made some bad decisions….You know, got into drinking and experimenting with drugs, there was a whole stretch of time whee I didn't apply myself. It wasn't until I got out of college - er, got out of high school, and went to college that I started realizing man I wasted a lot of time. “
He then goes on to outline how he found his calling in life, and did a 180 in college. This from the guy who is trying to separate himself generationally from Sen. Clinton and who was courting the folks on the Google Campus last week. Is Obama's candor about 'goofing off' in his youth another attemp to make inroads with younger voters? We're sure a lot of bios of the people he's trying to reach read about the same.
The full Obama text after the jump.
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The ever escalating feud between Bill O'Reilly and Dallas Maverick's owner Mark Cuban was ratcheted up a notch this weekend with this blog by Cuban himself. In it he details how he was able call Fox News to advertise for his movie 'Redacted' on Bill O'Reilly's show (this is the movie that O'Reilly have railed against for the past few weeks because he believes it is anti-American). Fox News gladly took Cuban's money and showed the ad specifically during the 8pm hour in an O'Reilly commercial break. The video is posted here.
In The Line of Firings: Saint Rudy of 9/11 may have just had his Ascendance handed to him. Our fifth story on the Countdown: it was the 9/11 Commission... Rudy Giuliani was even sarcastically identified today by the usually boot-licking New York Post as "Mr. 9/11"... yet today, the Republican co-chair of this nation's official investigation into the nightmares of the 2001 terror attacks endorsed for his party's presidential nomination, not Rudy Giuliani but John McCain... And because, he says, McCain has helped keep us safe -- not Giuliani.
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It has long been assumed that Rudy Giuliani would be the presidential candidate best able to make hay out of being associated with the terror attacks of 9/11 (and if you don't think he's running on 9/11, this will change your mind). Well, now he has some company.
Also tonight...Barack Obama makes a big deal out of the alleged dirt on him in the Robert Novak column. We'll give you the real story on what's going on here.
Plus, the Buzzy Cookie Krongard takes another twist...find out why the brothers are in another jam.
And finally, we're sorry we didn't post on Friday evening, but this story and this campaign ad ought to make up for it.
Fox & Friend: As the full extent of the relationship between Rudolph Giuliani and the firm that owns Fox News is slowly being revealed, layer by layer, like a rotting onion... Another long-suspected belief about a different holding in the Murdoch media empire has finally been confirmed. Our fifth story on the Countdown: Day three of the Judith Reegan lawsuit... bringing us the best nugget yet from her filing with the court. On page 21, for those of you who'd like to read along at home:
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The shoe has finlly dropped and Barry Bonds has officially been indicted on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. We'll have Lance Williams of the San Francisco Chronicle, and author of "Game of Shadows" who broke the Bonds story way back when. So many questions to answer...did Bonds' trainer flip on him? Will Bonds go to the cooler (he faces 30 years)? Tune in...
Not only have we got more juicy details in the Rudy-Judi-Rupert-Roger-Bernie-Fox News-White House scandal...
Not only do we have more on the Buzzy and Cookie Krongard mess...
Not only do we have all the latest on Harry Reid's attempt to block recess appointments by fielding a team of Senators during the Thanksgiving recess...
But was also have the ladies pictured above, fresh off their big New York Times story. It's a been a Dixie Chick-like experience for the gals, and they'll share all of it with Keith. It's a real hum dinger of a show tonight, folks.
Click the can of cranberry sauce to find out which candidate most people want sitting next to them this Thanksgiving.
Rudy Can't Fail: This is Wednesday, November 14th... 356 Days until the 2008 Presidential Election. At which time apparently -- if Fox News has anything to say about the outcome -- Rudolph Giuliani will be the next president of the United States. Our fifth story on the Countdown: That Fox Noise Channel would be pulling for the Republican nominee -- whomever that will be -- was a given. That executives at the News Corporation have allegedly been working to suborn perjury to protect the candidacy of one individual -- Mister Giuliani, a close friend of Roger Ailes, the head of Fox News -- would be monumentally inappropriate... Even for Fox. David Shuster, and Giuliani biographer Wayne Barrett, join us.
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My Way Or The Highway: Judith Regan, the high-profile book publisher and editor, suing Rupert Murdoch's News-Corp, and claiming one of NewsCorp's executives wanted her to lie about her affair with Bernard Kerik, to federal investigators who were vetting Kerik, in order to protect the presidential aspirations of Kerik's benefactor, Rudy Giuliani. An allegation that News-Corp tried to suborn perjury to benefit Giuliani... and that there is evidence to prove that. There are few details... but we'll bring you more of them, and some reaction, in a moment. But in our fifth story on the Countdown: Regan is seeking a hundred million dollars in damages from the Murdoch empire... That is a sneeze compared to the startling revelation tonight about what the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are really costing this nation. The new estimate -- the low estimate -- begins at one and a half trillion dollars. Yet despite that, in Indiana this morning, President Bush had the gall to demand an additional 200-Billion for the conflicts from Democrats in Congress... after criticizing them for wasteful spending.
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Click the pic for the story.
Veteran's Day: It is the most solemn and ceremonial of remembrances for our fallen dead and surviving soldiers, dating from the time of our first grim venture into international combat in World War One, the beginning of our role as, if not the policemen of the world, then rather its moral force. The ceremonial laying of the wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier at Arlington National Ceremony on Veterans' Day. And where was the President of the United States? In Waco, Texas. Our fifth story on the Countdown: the Commander in Chief who has sent our troops to their deaths on nonsense intelligence throughout a presidency of loopholes, who has described his own grief at the soldiers' suffering so much he has made a brand name out of it, who has exploited every wound as an opportunity to sell his agenda of fear and his politics of hate...He couldn't be bothered to lay the wreath on Veterans' Day. Why does George W. Bush hate the troops?
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Deja Vu All Over Again: I'mThe Writers' Strike isn't affecting the White House, but you might not know it to look at the fight going on behind- the- scenes over Irahn's nuclear program... because the Bush administration seems to be running repeats. Our fifth story on the Countdown: New charges that the administration is picking , choosing and redacting Intelligence now... The same way it is thought to have DONE SO in the run-up to the war with Iraq.
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Pimp My Override: It's 362 days until the 2008 Presidential Election and 2,483 days, since George W. Bush assumed the Presidency. And it is the first day in which it was actually proven to him that Congress has the right to override his veto. It was not about Iraq and not about water-boarding, just water. But that doesn't mean those who see symbolism in it, are all wet. CONTINUED >>
It's Pat!: This is Wednesday, November 7...363-Days until the 2008 Presidential Election...57Days until the first primary votes are cast at the Iowa Caucuses. Our fifth story on the Countdown: Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition -- a man who blamed the 9/11 attacks on America and its tolerance of abortion -- apparently now places more trust in preventing future terrorist attacks in Rudolph Giuliani... than he does in the faith he has spent half a century selling as if it were toothpaste.
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Caving on Mukasey: This is Tuesday, November 6th... 364 Days until the 2008 Presidential Election. And only at this point in our political history could a president who just set the unprecedented mark of 50 percent strong disapproval ratings, and who has just had to acknowledge that this fifth year of his adventure in Iraq has already become the deadliest for U-S service personnel... Only now could that kind of Lame Duck president, successfully blackmail the Senate into approving an Attorney General who will not acknowledge that precedent has already established that water-boarding is illegal torture... And only today could that Loopholer-in-Chief use as his blackmail... the threat of actually appointing somebody worse. Our fifth story on the Countdown: presidential blackmail works. Ask Senator Feinsein. Ask Senator Schumer.
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Big show on tap for this evening...Keith will interview Michael Moore on the day his 'Sicko' DVD is released, and the day some states vote on their own versions of the S-CHIP children's healthcare plan.
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A Year and a Day: This is Monday, November 5th... 365 Days until the 2008 Presidential Election. One day until the Senate Judiciary Committee votes on the confirmation of Michael Mukasey as Attorney General. In 1983, in President Bush's home state of Texas... federal prosecutors charged a state sheriff and three of his deputies with violating the civil rights of prisoners by forcing their confessions. According to the complaint, the four conspired to quote "subject prisoners to a suffocating water torture ordeal" that "generally included the placement of a towel over the nose and mouth of the prisoner and the pouring of water in the towel until the prisoner began to move, jerk, or otherwise indicate that he was suffocating and or drowning." In short, water-boarding. All four defendants were convicted, and the sheriff was sentenced to ten years in prison. Our fifth story on the Countdown: The man likely to be the President Bush's next Attorney General... still refusing to comment on whether a practice illegal during the Reagan administration... is still illegal during the Bush administration.
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The full transcript of Keith's Special Comment after the jump.
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More in little bit, but we wanted to give you all a heads up that tonight Keith will deliver a special comment on a story we did on Friday that continues to percolate on the eve of the Mukasey hearings. We'll have an excerpt for you soon.
****Update, click continued for excerpt******
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In The Line of Firings: Three years ago, the Bush Administration received a first-hand account from one of its own Justice Department officials -- who volunteered to let himself be water-boarded -- that it was indeed torture. And they promptly fired him. Our fifth story on the Countdown: despite the A-B-C News report tonight about former Acting Assistant Attorney General Daniel LeVin's ultimate litmus test, and the Bush Administration's suppression of it -- it appears a nominee for Attorney General who will not concur with, nor dispute, Mr. LeVin's conclusion that water-boarding is torture, will be recommended for approval by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
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Do or Die: During the last election, Mr. Bush's Administration brought you the stark, terrorizing threat: Vote Republican or You Will Die. Now he has personally rolled out its Fall 2007 sequel: Confirm Judge Michael Mukasey as Attorney General... or Al Qaeda will attack America again. Our fifth story on the Countdown: President Bush... back to the politics of "Give me my way, or perish...
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****UPDATE****
An exclusive excerpt of the interview below....
Countdown with Keith Olbermann will air an exclusive interview with the career home run champ tonight. The great sports reporter Jim Gray somehow got Mr. Bonds to sit down for a lengthy and in depth interview on everything from his immediate future in the game, to the Hall of Fame (Bonds says he isn't going), Marc Ecko, the guy who will brand the ball before it goes to the hall (and one-time guest on Countdown) and the ongoing debate about his steroid use. It's a great interview, and something you will see nowhere else. We'll also have Jim Gray on live after we air his outstanding 'get', for his sense of how the interview went. We hope you join us tonight 8P ET.
Here's an excerpt of the interview...
BONDS ON THE RECORD-SETTING HOME-RUN BALL AND THE HALL OF FAME: I don't think you can put an asterisk in the game of baseball and I don't think that the Hall of Fame can accept an asterisk in their Hall of Fame. You can't, you cannot give people the freedom, the right to alter history, you can't do it. There's no such thing as an asterisk in baseball.
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