May 2008 - Posts
The Fallout:
Scott McClellan's sincerity and his contrition continue to be the target of the White House and the right-wing echo chamber. But the fellow rings true every time. Moments after he left this studio last night, where he was asked about his 2004 put-down of former Bush Security Advisor Richard Clarke after Clarke's criticism of the White House, McClellan returned to his New York City hotel, and ran right into... Richard Clarke. "Can you forgive me?," McClellan confirms he asked Clarke. "I think I can forgive you now," Clarke confirms he replied. Our fifth story on the Countdown: Day Four of the McClellan Fallout... having less to do with the book's contents... than with everything the former White House press secretary has said since. Including -- on this news hour last night -- that he is contemplating voting for Barack Obama... And... the possibility of military confrontation with Iran. CONTINUED >>
What Really Happened: For
punch and for brevity, just skimming the chapter titles may tell you everything. "Selling the War"... "Deniability"..."Triumph and Illusion"... "Revelation and Humiliation"... and "Out of Touch." Our fifth story on the Countdown: the book by former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan... Perhaps the most extraordinary collection of revelations about a sitting President since John Dean was sworn in before the Ervin Committee in 1973...Continues today to make the metaphorical ground beneath the Bush White House, shudder. Its author is here, for his first prime-time, his first cable, interview. CONTINUED >>
Tonight at 8p ET tune in for Keith Olbermann's cable exclusive in-depth interview with former Bush Press Secretary Scott McClellan.
I wasn't able to find (a free online version of) the judge's ruling Keith mentioned in last night's story #4 but I did find
the original filing and the ruling in
a nearly identical case in the Florida's Northern District.
The #3 item in Bushed last night, "War-Profiteering-Gate" referenced an audit of Pentagon spending. I believe that was based on a report submitted to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform as part of a "
Hearing on Accountability Lapses in Multiple Funds for Iraq." Lots of interesting source documents linked there.
Only tangential but still interesting, the failure of the stratospheric skydiver mentioned in Oddball doesn't mean no one has ever managed a similar feat. Witness
Joe Kittinger's August 16, 1960 jump from the edge of space. (I thought I'd seen a version of this with natural sound that was even better but maybe I imagined it.)
The follow-up item to Tuesday's story about former Senator Gramm serving as both a paid lobbyist for UBS bank and also McCain's top economic advisor was a Financial Times story about some British UBS employees being discouraged from visiting the U.S. for fear of their being arrested. The
older version of the story mentions some points not in the
newer version.
Here's the
full statement from Joe Lieberman on his decision to attend the Christians United for Israel Summit headed by rejected McCain endorser Pastor John Hagee.
The McClellan Book:
He is not John Dean, testifying to Congress within a year of the crime, that the President offered to get him a million dollars to bankroll the Watergate cover-up, when all around him called him liar and traitor. But -- in our fifth story tonight -- as the second day of the Scott McClellan story we brought you first last night unfolded with the subtlety of a ten megaton device... This thought. If an entire Administration lied a nation into war, essentially killed and maimed thousands of its own troops, and one man finally says "I can't lie any more"... has he earned himself some credit? Those who are or were deceiving can only do one of two things. They can keep deceiving...Or they can stop. McClellan... stopped. They are his words -- NBC News has learned tonight -- no ghostwriter CONTINUED >>
Tune in tomorrow night at 8pm ET for Keith's interview with Scott McClellan about the revelations in the former Bush Press Secretary's new book "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception".
Background on the McCain co-chair Phil Gramm scandal
handily provided in sidebar of the article published on msnbc.com.
The story is pretty well exploded by now but
the Politico story that broke the news of the McClellan book is here.
The GAO report on port security mentioned in the Bushed segment is
summarized here or
in full in pdf form here.
I wasn't able to find a copy of the IAEA's report on Iran's nuclear capability (
just this story) but the Wall Street Journal is
hosting a pdf version.
And in case you don't arrive at this blog by way of the Countdown with Keith Olbermann homepage (
Countdown.msnbc.com), a new, much improved design went public just a few minutes ago.
Along with the launch of the new design comes new video and audio podcasts. Now you can schedule downloads of the entire show instead of clips. Find those in the iTunes store or on the msnbc.com podcast page at
Podcasts.msnbc.com.
General Dissent:
His presidential campaign already defined, in part, by his admissions that the economy is hardly his area of expertise... And by the acknowledgment that the four dozen lobbyists still in his campaign might be a glaring hypocrisy for a man who purports to be a maverick... John McCain saw the two stories merge today when federal disclosure forms proved that John McCain was being advised on the mortgage crisis by a lobbyist still being paid by the investment banks to help them in the mortgage crisis... a man identified by some economists as the principal enabler of the mortgage crisis. Our fifth story -- a Countdown exclusive -- John McCain's Phil Gramm scandal... in a moment. First, as preface, the Obama-McCain battle. CONTINUED >>
Here's the video of Senator John McCain's spiritual advisor
Rev. Rod Parsley preaching the evils of Islam.
Here's also the
original Mother Jones item and the segment in which Keith
debunked Parsley's claim that "America was founded in part with the intention of seeing [Islam] destroyed" was back in March.
The front page article from the Washington Post about the lobbyist problems in the McCain campaign is
McCain Adviser's Work As Lobbyist Criticized and there's another in today's paper,
McCain's Rules on Lobbying Face Test.
Here's the
Gallup poll Keith mentioned that shows Obama ahead in every category except women over 50.
The documentation on FBI Agent Bassem Youssef's testimony before the House Committee on the Judiciary's
Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security in which he is critical of the FBI's abilities in the war on terror is
in pdf form here. (NBC's Investigative Unit
interviewed Youssef in December of 2006.)
You've probably seen it all in short clips, but here's the full video of the
exchange between Ellen DeGeneres and John McCain.
Tune in tonight at 8p ET for our normal excellent show...featuring a very special Number 1 guest, the legendary comedian John Cleese.
Pastor Disaster: A political apocalypse for the Republican presidential candidate... Renouncing the endorsement of one influential evangelical preacher... who called Hitler a hunter sent by God against the Jews... and who today revoked his endorsement, right after John McCain's renouncement announcement. But, in our fifth story, McCain still not renouncing the endorsement of another influential evangelical preacher whose anti-Islamic hate speech has begun to stir anger in the Arab world. We start with Pastor John Hagee.
CONTINUED >>
Keith remarked that the pledge taken by Democratic candidates not to campaign in Florida and Michigan seems so long ago few people seem to remember it (least of all Hillary Clinton). It's interesting to see that
the New York Times story on that pledge on September 1, 2007 also mentions, "The decision seemed to dash any hopes of Mrs. Clinton relying on a strong showing in Florida as a springboard to the nomination."
Senator Jim Webb referenced an essay he'd written for the Wall Street Journal in 2004. Thankfully he's hosted a copy on his site so we don't have to deal with any of the WSJ registration barrier:
Secret GOP Weapon: The Scots-Irish Vote.
The discussion of voting trends in Appalachia brought to mind a fascinating item in Talking Points Memo
pairing a map of the Appalachian region with a map of the counties Hillary Clinton has won by more than 65%.
In case you missed it, the reference Keith made in the flying fish Oddball story was to
Lew Zealand.
The audio of
John McCain supporter Pastor John Hagee explaining to his congregation that Hitler was sent by God to force the Jews to Israel can be found on the Talk to Action site.
Campaign and Suffering: As John Brown led the raid on Harpers Ferry... As Elizabeth Cady Stanton redd the Declaration of Sentiments at Seneca Falls... As Martin Luther King led marchers to the County Courthouse in Selma... So, too... in our fifth story on the Countdown... did Hillary Rodham Clinton today rally to the cause of the 10,000 elderly residents of Century Village in Boca Raton, Florida. Hey! All that is Senator Clinton's analogy -- not mine.
CONTINUED >>
Countown Supplemental is a new feature on The News Hole offering links to source material for some of the stories on Countdown.
The fruit of the calculator of Karl Christian Rove -his electoral map projections. (pdf)
McCain's "Lobbyist Bundlers" according to Public Citizen's WhiteHouseForSale.org.
View the invite to the Al Gore event uniting Clinton and Obama fundraisers.
This is the full Richard Engle interview with President Bush. Here's the White House letter objecting to the editing by NBC News and the response from NBC News.
"[Monday] night, Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, wrote that Fixed News chairman Roger Ailes, 'warned that if Olbermann didn't stop such attacks against Fox, he would unleash O'Reilly against NBC and would use the New York Post as well.' Hours later, Richard Johnson, the editor of the Page Six gossip section of The New York Post, was nice enough to print on his page of fairy tales, a story even the online gossip blogs have disproved, about purported disputes between me and colleagues that never happened. So hats off for the best timing in NewsCorp history, as Richard Johnson proves that he, and his column, and his newspaper, have no actual purpose except to permit Ailes and Bill-O to retaliate against people who call them out. Thanks, Dick."
Educating William Kristol - Another column, another glaring factual error.
Campaign and Suffering: If you support or supported Senator Hillary Clinton...You may have blanched when she implied, back in New Hampshire, in a very Republican way that her challenger was not ready to lead on "Day One." You may have reeled when she claimed Fox News had treated her fairly while it was still insisting she might be a murderer. You may have staggered when her husband appeared on Rush Limbaugh's radio show. You may have keeled over when she accepted the endorsement of the big bankroll of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, Richard Mellon Scaife. Well -- in our fifth story on the Countdown -- hold on to your dinner -- Senator Clinton has now embraced the number-crunching of the man who once said "you are entitled to your math, and I'm entitled to the math." She has today accepted the fruit of the calculator... of Karl Christian Rove
CONTINUED >>
War and Appease: Appeasement is, by definition, quote: "The political strategy of pacifying a potentially hostile nation in the hope of avoiding war, often by granting concessions." That's a substantially different thing than talking with another state... negotiating...That is, quote: "Formal discussions among parties to bring about a resolution to a problem." In our fifth story on the Countdown: Senator Obama didn't just fire back against President Bush and Senator McCain for "dishonest, divisive" attacks hinting that Senator Obama would "appease" Iran... He didn't just defend himself from their charges -- he also pivoted, and went on the offense confronting them directly on what he called "failed foreign policy and fearmongering of the past."
CONTINUED >>
Obama vs. Bush: Playing the Hitler card... in Israel... to smear a Democratic Presidential candidate. In our fifth story on the Countdown: George W. Bush, surprisingly enough, still president of the United States at this hour... Even after an array of fear-mongering and hate-mongering... of violations of international and domestic etiquette... of just plain sleazy plagiarism from his own former Defense Secretary... All of it directed at Senator Barack Obama, and all of it done so poorly and transparently, that it would probably make Rush Limbaugh hesitate -- and make Obama's campaign chiefs secretly cheer. CONTINUED >>
Finally tonight, as promised, a Special Comment on two topics a lot of us had foolishly thought, had naively hoped, we would not again have to address… and a third topic nobody thought a President would ever seriously mention in public unless perhaps he'd just been hit in the head with something and was not in full possession of his faculties how he expressed his empathy to the families of the dead in Iraq by giving up golf.
CONTINUED >>
The Edwards Endorsement: Senator Clinton...last night she won the what in the where, now? Our fifth story on the Countdown: the polls have now closed in the State of John Edwards: Senator Obama tonight winning the Edwards endorsement by a margin of 100 percent. And 24 hours and 30 minutes after voting ended in West Virginia it, and perhaps Senator Clinton herself is old news.
CONTINUED >>
Tune in to Countdown tonight at 8p ET for Keith Olbermann's special comment 'Of War and Golf'.
Read an excerpt below:
"Mr. President," he was asked, "you haven't been golfing in recent years. Is that related to Iraq?
"Yes," began perhaps the most startling reply of this nightmarish blight on our lives as Americans -- on our history.
"It really is. I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the Commander-in-Chief playing golf. I feel I owe it to the families to be as -- to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal."
Golf, Sir?
Golf sends the wrong signal to the grieving families of our men and women butchered in Iraq?
Do you think these families, Mr. Bush - their lives blighted forever -- care about you playing golf?
Do you think, Sir, they care about you?
You, Mr. Bush, let their sons and daughters be killed.
Sir, to show your solidarity with them - you gave up golf?
Sir, to show your solidarity with them - you didn't give up your pursuit of this insurance-scam, profiteering, morally and financially bankrupting war.
Sir, to show your solidarity with them - you didn't even give up talking about Iraq - a subject about which you have incessantly proved without pause or backwards glance, that you may literally be the least informed person in the world?
Sir, to show your solidarity with them, you didn't give up... your
4,000 dead Americans and your response... was to stop playing golf!
Golf.
Not "gulf" - golf.
Last week on Countdown, Keith Olbermann brought you an exclusive look inside the new Yankee Stadium currently being built in the Bronx. This week Keith got a personal tour of the new Mets ballpark, Citi Field, going up in Queens. Tune in tomorrow night at 8p ET for the full tour...and to see if Keith got to keep the hardhat. (For now...check out more still images after the jump)
CONTINUED >>
Primary Numbers: As the Super-Delegate tide turns for Obama...It is the kind of illogical inevitability that made Joseph Heller coin the term "Catch-22." Slate dot com, quoting campaign finance law, reminding all, that Senator Clinton has to pay virtually every bit of the 11-million dollars she's loaned to her campaign, before the convention in August, or she loses it forever. The New York Times reporting today that the likelihood is increasing that Senator Clinton will loan her campaign still more of her own money. Our fifth story on the Countdown: In order to pay off her debt to herself... she needs to keep her campaign running. But in order to keep her campaign running... she needs to spend more money.... that she does not have... thus increasing her campaign debt... debt she owes... to herself.
CONTINUED >>
Still Not Over: While Senator Clinton has today made a jaw-dropping racially-divisive rationalization to continue her lame-duck candidacy... in its self-destructiveness and delusion, a comment worthy of Richard Nixon's final days... While her campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe has insisted this will continue to -- and be resolved by -- June... In our fifth story: if the candidate is usually the last to know, the chairman might be the runner-up.
CONTINUED >>
The Biggest Prize: On the eve of the 97th different make or break day in the Democratic primary, with the latest pronouncement that nearly half of all the remaining pledged delegates are up for grabs in Indiana and North Carolina, with all of it spiced up only by a new high in hyperbole about how your future literally depends on voting for Senator Clinton, tomorrow already feels like.... Groundhog Day. CONTINUED >>
Gas Pains: A gallon of gas -- regular, un-leaded -- goes for about four dollars and nineteen cents... on the American territory of Guam. If this fact somehow seems irrelevant to you, consider that this afternoon, just four days before the Democratic nominating battle is re-joined in North Carolina and Indiana...The price of a gallon of gas in Guam was one of the issues for Senators Clinton and Obama.Considering Guam is caucusing today -- Saturday, their time. Eight pledged delegates, with half-a-vote each. Five Super-delegates. Our fifth story on the Countdown: Both Senators doing radio interviews by phone to Guam today. Senator Clinton specifically pushing her gas plans. Senator Obama emphasizing that he was from a Pacific Island himself. Senator Clinton restraining from saying "so am I."
CONTINUED >>
This is a test post.
Dude, You're Getting a Delegate: If Bill Richardson became "Judas" and Fox News became "fair" and Richard Mellon Scaife became a "deathbed conversion"... what will Senator Clinton's campaign call Joe Andrew? Let's start with the most influential politician you probably had never heard of. In our fifth story on the Countdown: not just a Super-Delegate switched from Clinton to Barack Obama on the premise that he is the better candidate, and the divisions have served only to aide John McCain... But a man, appointed National Chairman of the Democratic National Committee nine years ago... by President Clinton. In fact the name-calling has begun. Mr. Andrew, of Indiana, who joins us in a moment... Immediately found his right to say he was from Indiana, challenged by Senator Clinton's Communications Director, and her foremost supporter in the Hoosier State, Senator Evan Bayh. No, I'm not kidding.
CONTINUED >>
Tune in tonight at 8p ET for our interview with Barack and Michelle Obama (their first together in more than a year). Meredith Vieira conducted the interview for the Today Show, but they were only able to air some of the sit down. Tonight, we'll air an unaired extended portion that you won't see anywhere else.
