Where's the Outrage?

Why is it that some Republicans try to out-hate everybody? It’s not that they have cornered the market on hate. That would be an overstatement. Instead, there are some who seem to go out of their way to be nasty, testy and downright anti-American. Mike O’Neal, a Kansas legislator, sent out an e-mail that basically said that he hoped that Obama’s children and wife would be fatherless and husbandless. What the heck this this about???? (He sent Psalm 109, which states in verses 7-9, “When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”)

Donald Ainsworth just appears to be an old curmudgeon who has knee-jerk reactions when he hears things. Unfortunately, he drives for Greyhound and kicked 13 people off the bus because they were “associated with” the Occupy movement. As far as I know, they weren’t being disruptive and didn’t violate any of the Greyhound rules. I don’t get it. I guess this is why he was labeled the WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD.

Tags: Countdown by ecthompson md
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Keith Olbermann is on now.

• Keith starts with Libya. It is interesting that he started with this topic. Whether you like our action in Libya or not, you must admit that we should have the debate. The Obama administration is trying to avoid the debate. I have argued that we don’t have debate in this country any more.
• First Guest – Michael Moore
• His second story was on the Supreme Court throwing out a class action lawsuit against Wal-Mart. (good analysis here) He then discusses Justice Clarence Thomas’ conflict of interest with him and his wife receiving money and expensive gifts. I can’t stand Clarence Thomas. I’m very biased against him and therefore, I don’t like to talk about him. He makes me nauseated. Anyway, Keith brings back John Dean to discuss these issues!!
• Worst Persons in the World is back!

I have nothing against Lawrence O’Donnell. I think that he is very knowledgeable. He simply isn’t compelling TV. I want someone with a little bit of an edge. Keith has that edge.

Tags: Countdown, Media by ecthompson md
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Here’s what I don’t understand. Is there a policy at MSNBC or not? If there is, then is it being applied to everyone or only to Keith Olbermann?

From Josh Marshall at TPM:

I find the Keith Olbermann story bizarre, on both sides but mainly on MSNBC’s. First, political contribution records are the most public thing in the world for anyone who is even somewhat in the public eye, certainly for someone who courts controversy. So political giving strikes me as something done entirely in the open for someone of Olbermann’s stature. On the one hand that sounds like MSNBC is flipping out about something that must have been all but an open secret. On the other, if this is MSNBC’s policy, why was Olbermann openly flouting it?

Second, MSNBC’s policy forbids employees from making donations to political candidates, unless they ask for permission to do so, in which it seems usually to be granted. That seems to me to undercut the principle behind the policy.

But of course all of this pales behind the larger point which is that Olbermann’s job at MSNBC is to be an extremely opinionated commentator on politics. And he’s the centerpiece (along with Maddow and more equivocally, Matthews) behind the business strategy of making MSNBC the liberal cable news/chat network. (How they square that with simultaneously having a more traditional and by the books NBC News is something they clearly have yet to work out.) But when you take that all into account, seeing him now all but canned over a handful of individual political contributions because he’s compromised the objectivity he’s supposed to bring to the job sounds like a bit of a joke.

Greg Mitchell comments on the media for The Nation. Here’s what he has had to say:

Just hours after Politico dug up the fact that MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, a few days ago, had donated to three Democrats running for office, the cable news network suspended the newsman / commentator without pay indefinitely.  Olbermann has not yet responded and it is unclear when, or if, he will return.

A little later, Rachel Maddow tackled the episode, saying that she understands the NBC rules about asking permission before making a donation–as MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough apparently did at least once.  But she insisted that the “point” had been made and “we need Keith back.” She then profiled the multitude of Fox hosts donating to, fundraising for and outright endorsing Republicans.  ”We are not a political operation,” she said. “Fox is. We are a news operation. And the rules around here are part of how you know that.”  Here’s a transcript.

More from Greg Mitchell:

Liberal bloggers were quick to point out that  Scarborough, once and current MSNBC host, donated $4200 to a House candidate in 2006.   Records also show that Scarborough made a $5000 contribution to a candidate earlier this year.  He claims the records are wrong — the donation was from his wife.

It recently came to light that Fox’s Sean Hannity, and his wife, each gave $5000 to Michele Bachmann.  Neil Cavuto has also donated to candidates.

Greg Sargent at the Washington Post raises the question: Did Olbermann even violate the network’s policy?   Activists are already circulating petitions — more than 100,000 signed by the end of the evening –  and jamming NBC phone lines.

Tags: Countdown, Media, Rachel Maddow Show by ecthompson md
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Nice Commentary from Keith to go along with my opening paragraph:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

• The media loves a point-counterpoint. They love bad versus good. They love rich versus poor. Any time you can paint a story as two extremes they start salivating. Now we have Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal versus President Barack Obama. There is a magazine article in which there are supposed to be some disparaging comments about Barack Obama, Joe Biden and his cabinet members. Frankly, some of the comments were juvenile. It is almost as if they were speaking off the record or they thought that the reporter was in a coma. President Obama has a complex decision to make — fire Stanley McChrystal in the middle of an offensive in Afghanistan, which could disrupt the military and its chain of command or keep the general and risk losing face with the military. Personally, I think it depends on the assessment of the Afghanistan war. If the offensive is meeting its goals then I would keep the general. If the offensive has been a huge waste of time, money and manpower then I would trash the offensive and fire the general. This is not an easy decision. No matter which President Obama goes on this one, look for the conservative media to bash him one way or the other.

• Judge Martin “Marty” Feldman of the US District Court in New Orleans is making news. (I don’t know whether he is called “Marty” for short. Of course, Marty Feldman was a great comedian, best known for his performance in Young Frankenstein.) This Feldman has overturned the president’s moratorium on drilling in the Gulf. The Obama administration will appeal.
• HHS has issued regulations for the Affordable Care Act. I’ll need to review this in detail. Here’s a quick summary fact sheet.
• Many people are now picking up on Rep. Joe Barton’s apology to BP as the Republican Party line rather than a rogue personal statement. As I’ve said many times, Republicans are very disciplined. They’re not known for emotional outbursts. (I think that Joe Wilson’s You Lie outburst at the President was planned.) When they say something, it generally has been thought about and approved on many levels. Republicans are outraged that a corporation would be asked to clean up something that they caused. There’s a reason that the Superfund was allowed to dry up by the Bush administration. Corporations were supposed to pay fines for their transgressions, fines collected and placed into the Superfund. The Bush administration stopped collecting fines. Without fines there would be no Superfund because in their minds making business clean up what they messed up is a bad thing.
• I was too disgusted after the NBA finals to actually talk about them. I wasn’t disgusted that the Los Angeles Lakers won. I was disgusted that instead of watching a basketball game, I watched a professional wrestling match. In spite of frankly my having gotten nauseated throughout the game, I feel compelled to congratulate Kobe Bryant, Phil Jackson (arguably the greatest coach of all time) and the Los Angeles Lakers. I would only ask that in the off season, point guard Rajon Rondo learn how to shoot free throws. Is that so hard?
• Michael Jackson died approximately one year ago (it’ll be one year on the 25th). Some are confused about the fact that he has left a mixed legacy. I am not confused. I grew up with Michael Jackson. I had all of the J5 albums. I saw the J5 when they came to Dallas in 1970. Michael was 11 but they said he was 8. I was 9. Michael Jackson was a complex person, just as many of us are complex people. He was a great humanitarian and one of the best entertainers to ever live. He also slept in an oxygen chamber, had a zoo complete with a tiger and chimpanzee and he had problems with personal relationships with adults and children. I love him as an entertainer. Whenever I see his Emmy award-winning performance of Billie Jean at the Motown 25th anniversary special or his performance of Man in the Mirror at the Grammys, I get goosebumps. In spite of my utmost respect for his musical talents, I’m not sure I would leave my grandson with him for more than a nanosecond.
• The goal of the day from the World Cup -

Tags: Afghanistan, Countdown, Healthcare, Military, Music, Obama administration, Sports by ecthompson md
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I have been arguing for months that economic stimulus is doing exactly what it was supposed to do. It stopped a Depression. Yet, for reasons that are unclear, nobody seems to be interested. It is like this recovery was a foregone conclusion. I can tell you that if John McCain were president the unemployment rate would be sitting around 15% as he would have cut taxes and done little or nothing to stimulate the economy.

This is a great article from NYT:

Imagine if, one year ago, Congress had passed a stimulus bill that really worked.

Let’s say this bill had started spending money within a matter of weeks and had rapidly helped the economy. Let’s also imagine it was large enough to have had a huge impact on jobs — employing something like two million people who would otherwise be unemployed right now.

If that had happened, what would the economy look like today?

Well, it would look almost exactly as it does now. Because those nice descriptions of the stimulus that I just gave aren’t hypothetical. They are descriptions of the actual bill.

Just look at the outside evaluations of the stimulus. Perhaps the best-known economic research firms are IHS Global Insight, Macroeconomic Advisers and Moody’s Economy.com. They all estimate that the bill has added 1.6 million to 1.8 million jobs so far and that its ultimate impact will be roughly 2.5 million jobs. The Congressional Budget Office, an independent agency, considers these estimates to be conservative.

Yet I’m guessing you don’t think of the stimulus bill as a big success. You’ve read columns (by me, for example) complaining that it should have spent money more quickly. Or you’ve heard about the phantom ZIP code scandal: the fact that a government Web site mistakenly reported money being spent in nonexistent ZIP codes.

And many of the criticisms are valid. The program has had its flaws. But the attention they have received is wildly disproportionate to their importance. To hark back to another big government program, it’s almost as if the lasting image of the lunar space program was Apollo 6, an unmanned 1968 mission that had engine problems, and not Apollo 11, the moon landing. (more…)

Keith has more (BTW, I will be back to Foreign Policy Week tomorrow. I’m going to try to discuss Afghanistan and why Obama was right to increase the troop strength.):

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Tags: Countdown, Economy, Obama administration, Party Politics by ecthompson md
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President Bill Clinton had some short intermittent chest pain. He was admitted to the hospital and underwent several stents.

From WaPo:

Former president Bill Clinton was hospitalized Thursday in New York, where doctors inserted two stents into a clogged coronary artery after he complained of chest pains. The one-hour procedure went smoothly, according to his cardiologist, and Clinton could be released as soon as Friday.

Clinton, 63, was recovering at New York Presbyterian Hospital’s campus at Columbia University, the same hospital where he underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery in 2004. The former president had recurring episodes of chest pain over the past several days, a Clinton aide said, and he could have suffered a heart attack if the condition had gone untreated.

Clinton’s cardiologist, Alan Schwartz, said the former president would recover fully and resume his “very active lifestyle.” Within two hours of the operation, Clinton was walking around his hospital room, and Schwartz said he could return Monday to his work leading the humanitarian response to the Haiti earthquake. (more…)

Tags: Countdown, Healthcare by ecthompson md
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I’ve been supporting a single-payer plan for the last several months. I am convinced that this healthcare debate has become overly complex and confusing. The complexity has been injected into healthcare reform in order to fake out, confuse and frustrate the American people. There’s no reason why we have to have healthcare exchanges. It is just like healthcare savings accounts. Having healthcare savings accounts is simply a way for you to pay more and to assume more risk. (If you want to save money, open a savings account or invest in mutual funds or stocks or dig a hole in your backyard and stuff the money in there.)

Think about this — single-payer would pay for your basic healthcare needs and would include dental and mental health. You can choose your own doctor and your own hospital. Everyone is covered. Such a system should cost somewhere around $2.5 trillion, which is $300 billion more than we spent in 2007.

How can we afford this? We figured out how to put a man on the moon and pay for it. We figured out how to start a war of convenience and not pay for it. There are a hundred different ways we can pay for this and not burden everyone. Reverse the Bush tax cuts. We can place a tax on sodas and fast foods since they contribute so heavily to diabetes and cardiovascular disease. By taking private insurance out of the equation we save hundreds of billions of dollars. Most estimates are somewhere around $150 billion. Then, because of decreased overhead, the system becomes more efficient. (I know that Republicans keep telling us that business is more efficient, but what business is efficient at is billing the government more money and milking us.)

No matter what version of healthcare reform you believe in, we need to continue to press our congressmen. Do you have your congressmen on speed dial? Call his/hers office as often as possible. Simply state your name, where you live and that you support healthcare reform — strong public option or single-payer. They have to hear from us all the time.

Update: I got an enormous amount of love from Jack and Jill Politics. I really appreciate it.

Tags: Countdown, Healthcare by ecthompson md
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• I’ve put a new comment system into place. Let me know if you like it. I think, I hope, I can change back if you don’t.
• I’m gonna consider amount of comments and traffic today about Joe Wilson’s outburst. I guess a right wing blog linked to me because a lot of the comments are clearly off the wall. “Joe Wilson is a true patriot and should be lifted up on our shoulders.” “It’s about time the Republicans said something to this assmaggot Obama. It’s long overdue!!” There are more but they all are about the same. Only a few are thoughtful. There was one person who made a point that I thought was relatively insightful. He/she stated, “there is no method for clarifying whether or not a person qualifies for the plan. If it is not explicitly written into the bill that illegals are not eligible, they will slip into the system.” This is the most thoughtful response of the bunch. The commentor admits, though, that he has not read the bill by stating if it is not explicitly written into the bill. It is. Page 143 states: “Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who were not lawfully present in the United States.” Read and then comment. You sound smarter that way.

Keith has more:

• New census data is out. Since I live here in North Carolina, I was interested in North Carolina numbers. One out of six North Carolina residents lack health insurance coverage. Over the past three years an average of our 1.5 million residents were without health care. The national average was 15.5%. North Carolina averaged almost 17% of its residents without health insurance.
• Median income fell almost $2000 from 2007 to 2008. The median income for Americans in 2008 was $50,303. This is a 3.6% decline in median income which is the largest one-year decline on record (since 1967). I think this completely and totally closes the book on Bush’s tax cuts. Median income dropped throughout President Bush’s tenure.
• After Joe Wilson’s outburst, Democratic challenger Rob Miller has raked in over $500,000 from over 14,000 individual donors. That’s what I’m talking about!
• ACORN continues to have issues.
• I haven’t talked about the resignation/firing of Van Jones. I didn’t talk about it because I didn’t know anything about the man. I would like to think I follow politics pretty closely and I don’t remember ever hearing this guy’s name. Yet when he resigned people like Glenn Beck rejoiced. Why? As I understand the controversy, Van Jones said something crazy eight years ago. I don’t see this as a victory for the right but a capitulation of the Obama White House. I guarantee George W. Bush would not have accepted the resignation under such circumstances — remember Rumsfeld.
• Paula Abdul is out. Ellen DeGeneres is in. Ellen is funny and Paula really isn’t. That is your American Idol update.

Tags: Bush Administration, Countdown, Economy, Healthcare, Obama administration, Party Politics, Television by ecthompson md
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Really busy at work. Trauma is one industry in the US that really is recession proof, sadly. My schedule is crazy. Flipping from days to nights.

Anyway, from Political Animal:

• At the start of a two-day summit between the United States and China, President Obama emphasized the fact that the relationship between the two countries will shape the 21st century. The U.S. delegation for the talks will be led by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
• New home sales in the U.S. far exceeded expectations last month, showing the largest increase in more than eight years.
• Images from intelligence satellites of Arctic ice bolstered the evidence of global warming. The Bush administration kept the images hidden; the Obama administration has released them.
• Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) have announced their opposition to the Sotomayor nomination. No big surprise.
• The $644-million Community Stabilization Program in Iraq has been suspended due to alleged widespread corruption.
• Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, in what I believe is a first, seems to be hitting the campaign trail, hoping for a second term.
• How can policymakers pay for health care? John Kerry’s idea about imposing an excise tax on “gold-plated Cadillac” insurance plans seems to be generating quite a bit of support.
• In the wake of the controversy surrounding Skip Gates’ arrest, racial slurs at The Root have become a real problem.
• Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is real sorry he suggested last week that the U.S. needed to prepare for a possible military confrontation with India.
• It was a pleasant surprise to see Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) acknowledge that United States has detention facilities that could safely hold Gitmo inmates. Alas, he’s still wrong about the policy. [Read more →]

Tags: Countdown, Iraq, Obama administration, Party Politics, Supreme court by ecthompson md
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You know, we are on TV more and more.  Between being filmed in Sam’s Club, the bank and probably the mall, we’re all movie stars.  This means a lot of what we say and do is being recorded.  Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen knew that she was being recorded, yet she kept talking anyway.  Not only does she discount any notion of climate change and global warming, she also states as FACT that the earth is 6000 years old and finally that Arizona residents have nothing to worry about by accepting all of America’s uranium.  As she says, “you won’t know it’s there anyway.”  One of the craziest statements I’ve ever heard.  Keith Olbermann labeled her today’s worst person in the world. (Senator James Inhofe wins the silver.)  I really don’t think he needs to say anything in order to win a silver everyday.

Watch the video:

Tags: Countdown, Environment by ecthompson md
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I interviewed Mike Finnigan from Crooks and Liars about six month ago.  Mike is a great piano/Hammond B-3 organ player and we talked about Miles Davis and the 50th anniversary of Kind Of Blue.  After that interview, I asked Mike if we could chat about some other aspects of music.  He was very agreeable.  Unfortunately, when I decided to do a show on the origins of Funk, Mike was busy.  He told me he was touring with Joe Cocker!!!  He said that he had a friend in Texas, a bass player who would be perfect.  Mike was right. Larry Fulcher was/is perfect.  Larry has recorded with Smokey Robinson, Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton and the Crusaders, just to name of few.  He has won two Grammys playing with Taj Mahal.

We begin the show by talking about the death of Michael Jackson and how very important he was to the music business.  Michael was truly loved world-wide.  We then begin talking about Funk.  Funk is all about the bass and the drums.  Everything started with James Brown.  I play “Livin’ in America,” “Sex Machine” and “Cold Sweat” as examples of James’ music.  Sly and the Family Stone is next up.  Sly’s bassist was a man named Larry Graham.  Graham, like many of the bassists whom we talk about, came out of gospel music.  Wanting more of a percussive sound, he began playing the bass with his thumb since there was no drummer.  Larry did form his own group called Graham Central Station.  I play a tune called “Hair” that has one of the best bass lines I have ever heard.  We then go back to James Brown and talk about Bootsy Collins who started playing with James Brown when he was just a teenager.  Bootsy Collins became the sound that was Parliament, the group that is most associated with Funk. (!)  Part one ends with the Ohio Players and their tune “Skin Tight.”

This is a great interview.  This is part one.  I should have part two up in a little while now.  The internet has been down in North and South Carolina, according to Charter Cable.  So I have been struggling all afternoon.

Update: Part 2 of my interview – Larry Fulcher discusses how governments need to work on how to bring people together and not breaking us apart.  We then talk about George Clinton and Parliament, Funkadelic.  I play “Theme from the Black Hole” and “Dr. Funkenstein” from Parliament and “One Nation under a Groove” from Funkadelic.  We end up coming full circle in this conservation.  We started by talking about how gospel music drove Funk in the early days.  Now, to find Funk we went back to Gospel music.  Kirk Franklin – Stomp and Sounds of Blackness - Testify.  I mention how the bass line is being played by the synthesizer and Larry adds Stevie Wonder‘s great hit Livin’ for the City as probably the first tune that was really driven by synthesizer.  Larry Fulcher leaves us with some words of wisdom about music and its lasting value.  George Duke takes us home with “Reach for it.”

Enjoy!

The Errington Thompson Show 7-4-09 interview with Larry Fulcher part 1 [ 13:15 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Part 2 of my interview with Larry Fulcher Grammy award winning bass player [ 11:06 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Countdown, Music, Podcasts by ecthompson md
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Wednesday Morning News Roundup

I find Guantánamo Bay extremely disturbing. Yesterday, we found out another prisoner has killed himself. This gentleman, Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah Salih, also known as Al Hanashi, had been detained since 2002 without charges, of course.

The fact that Osama bin Laden is still alive to issue press statements or edicts is a crime against the American people. Yet, he is alive enough to spew more of his vile rhetoric: “…new seeds of hatred and revenge against America.” What atrocity have we committed now? We’ve asked Pakistan to stand firm against the Taliban and we have provided assistance. When do we quit playing around with Osama bin Laden? Why are we going to send 100 elite troops with whatever backup and support they need into the Pakistani mountains to hunt down and kill or capture Osama bin Laden?

President Barack Obama has traveled to the Middle East. His first stop is in Saudi Arabia. Tomorrow he will address an audience in Cairo, Egypt, where he is widely expected to ask for an improved dialogue between Muslims and Americans. It will be interesting to see Obama’s relationship with the Saudi royal family.

It is my personal opinion that torture did not produce any valuable information. It appears that VP Cheney may be parsing his words a little bit. Cheney said in a recent interview with Fox News, “Yes, but the way I would describe them is that they have to do with the detainee program, the interrogation program. It’s not just waterboarding. It’s the interrogation program that we used for high-value detainees. There were two reports done that summarize what we learned from that program, and I think they provide a balanced view.” Notice that VP Cheney is trying to wrap the issue of torture inside the larger program of detaining high-value targets. I think this is typical for Cheney and several of the others. They will argue and argue a point until they’re blue in the face. Once they’re called on that argument, they’ll segue into what they really meant.

Watch the video:

US has signed a contract with MedImmune to produce the H1N1 swine flu vaccine.  We’ll see how far $90 million goes.  I’m figuring that it ain’t going to go that far.

Buzzflash is having a contest to name Dick Cheney memoirs.  There are some great entries.  Check it out.

Tags: Bin Laden, Countdown, Domestic Issues, Healthcare, Obama administration, Saudi Arabia by ecthompson md
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Liberals are nothing but whiny, Volvo-driving tree-huggers.  Can you believe what Sotomayor said now?

Here’s what she said in response to a simple question.

Questioner: Can you comment just about Sonia Sotomayor, and what she cares about, and let us see a little bit of your heart and what’s important to you in life?

SOTOMAYOR: … I tried to provide a little picture of who I am as a human being and how my background and my experiences have shaped me and brought me to this point.

SOTOMAYOR: I don’t come from an affluent background or a privileged background. My parents were both quite poor when they were growing up.

And I know about their experiences and I didn’t experience those things. I don’t take credit for anything that they did or anything that they overcame.

But I think that children learn a lot from their parents and they learn from what the parents say. But I think they learn a lot more from what the parents do and from what they take from the stories of their parents lives.

And that’s why I went into that in my opening statement. Because when a case comes before me involving, let’s say, someone who is an immigrant — and we get an awful lot of immigration cases and naturalization cases — I can’t help but think of my own ancestors, because it wasn’t that long ago when they were in that position.

And so it’s my job to apply the law. It’s not my job to change the law or to bend the law to achieve any result.

But when I look at those cases, I have to say to myself, and I do say to myself, “You know, this could be your grandfather, this could be your grandmother. They were not citizens at one time, and they were people who came to this country.”

When I have cases involving children, I can’t help but think of my own children and think about my children being treated in the way that children may be treated in the case that’s before me.

And that goes down the line. When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that into account. When I have a case involving someone who’s been subjected to discrimination because of disability, I have to think of people who I’ve known and admire very greatly who’ve had disabilities, and I’ve watched them struggle to overcome the barriers that society puts up often just because it doesn’t think of what it’s doing — the barriers that it puts up to them.

So those are some of the experiences that have shaped me as a person.

Oh, wait… my bad.  This wasn’t Sotomayor.  It was Samuel Alito during his confirmation hearing.  The whole thing should read like this:

U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Judge Samuel Alito’s Nomination to the Supreme Court

U.S. SENATOR TOM COBURN (R-OK): Can you comment just about Sam Alito, and what he cares about, and let us see a little bit of your heart and what’s important to you in life?

ALITO: Senator, I tried to in my opening statement, I tried to provide a little picture of who I am as a human being and how my background and my experiences have shaped me and brought me to this point.

ALITO: I don’t come from an affluent background or a privileged background. My parents were both quite poor when they were growing up.

And I know about their experiences and I didn’t experience those things. I don’t take credit for anything that they did or anything that they overcame.

But I think that children learn a lot from their parents and they learn from what the parents say. But I think they learn a lot more from what the parents do and from what they take from the stories of their parents lives. ….

Well, that’s something else entirely, isn’t it?  What does say about Alito?  What does say about empathy and live experience?  More from Keith Olbermann (watch the video):

Tags: Bush Administration, Countdown, Party Politics, Supreme court by ecthompson md
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What a sack of crap!! Glenn Beck has always been, in my opinion, out there. He has come up with some of the craziest, most unsubstantiated stuff that anybody on major network TV has ever afflicted on the American people. But this list is simply a lie for no particular reason. He wanted to portray the “liberals” of The View as elitist. He therefore made up the story. The women on the show call him on it. I congratulate the women of The View.

Keith Olbermann has a summary in his Worst Persons in the World. Take a look:

Tags: Countdown, Media, Party Politics by ecthompson md
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As Marcy notes this was a Friday night news dump.  The amount of information about enhanced interrogation techniques is coming into focus.  There were more than one or two voices that made it clear that these techniques violated American and International law.  The Joint Chiefs asked each branch of the military about this techniques and the answer that came back from all branches was that these techniques violate international and US law.

From WaPo:

“The unintended consequence of a U.S. policy that provides for the torture of prisoners is that it could be used by our adversaries as justification for the torture of captured U.S. personnel,” says the document, an unsigned two-page attachment to a memo by the military’s Joint Personnel Recovery Agency.  (The whole JPRA document can be seen here).

Tags: Bush Administration, Countdown, Torture by ecthompson md
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I have had Amanda Terkel on my radio show a couple of times. She is very thoughtful and knowledgeable. Because she doesn’t agree with Bill O’Reilly, she was hunted down on her vacation. What was Amanda’s terrible offense that warranted being hunted down like a criminal? She pointed out that O’Reilly had made statements that suggested that women who drink too much perhaps deserved to be raped (more later).

She was on Countdown with Keith Olbermann last night. Watch this great video:

Tags: Blogging issues, Countdown by ecthompson md
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To expand on an item that I mentioned last night: These new memos are truly remarkable. In the post-9/11 confusion, John Yoo, deputy assistant attorney general for the Office of Special Counsel, and Robert Delahunty, a special counsel, wrote extraordinary memos. Basically, as they saw it, the president had the power to do anything and ignore everyone. They saw a “legal” way to do anything. There is much, much more to this story. Keith talked about it last night. Watch:

From NYT:

“The law has recognized that force (including deadly force) may be legitimately used in self-defense,” Mr. Yoo and Mr. Delahunty wrote to Mr. Gonzales. Therefore any objections based on the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches are swept away, they said, since any possible privacy offense resulting from such a search is a lesser matter than any injury from deadly force.

The Oct. 23 memorandum also said that “First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully.” It added that “the current campaign against terrorism may require even broader exercises of federal power domestically.”

Mr. Yoo and Mr. Delahunty said that in addition, the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally bars the military from domestic law enforcement operations, would pose no obstacle to the use of troops in a domestic fight against terrorism suspects. They reasoned that the troops would be acting in a national security function, not as law enforcers.

In another of the opinions, Mr. Yoo argued in a memorandum dated Sept. 25, 2001, that judicial precedents approving deadly force in self-defense could be extended to allow for eavesdropping without warrants. (more… )

Tags: Bush Administration, Civil Liberty, Countdown, Domestic Spying, Legal by ecthompson md
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Friday Morning News Roundup

• I continue to be amazed at how Senator Ronald Burris has gone from political genius to a national embarrassment. Now it appears that former Governor Rod Blagojevich hired Ronald Burris, II, as senior counsel, for the state’s Housing Authority in mid-September. This worked out very well since the young attorney had just been slapped with a $34,000 tax lien and a mortgage company had foreclosed on his house. I remember the senator saying something about there was no quid pro quo. Maybe I was mistaken.
• New York Governor David Paterson has changed his top political staff and hopes of changing his fortune.
• Well, this was a shocker — John McCain, in front of a conservative audience has warned that America could lose the game that it has currently going in Iraq.
• It appears that President Barack Obama is planning on pulling out all combat troops from Iraq by August of 2010. The big question is what will be the residual force?
• Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who has opened an exploratory committee looking into her chances at running for governor of Texas, said the strangest thing on CNBC. “Every major tax cut we’ve ever had in history has created more revenue (for the treasury).” This may not be the stupidest thing that has ever been said, but it is stupid nonetheless. Not one of President Bush’s tax cuts increased revenue. As a matter of fact, President Reagan’s tax cuts in 1981 decreased revenues so dramatically he quietly increased taxes in 1982 and again in 1983. I guess when you’re a senator, or a politician for that matter, facts don’t matter.
• A new Government Accountability Office report reveals that companies that have been banned from doing business with the United States are continuing to do business with the United States.
• Jesus’s General has come up with a new T-shirt that he is selling — “Palin/Plumber 2012 — EMPOWER THE STUPID!“

Keith Olbermann has an excellent summary of Governor Bobby Jindal’s speech. Watch:

Tags: Countdown, Iraq, Obama administration, Senate by ecthompson md
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Houston, we have a problem… stupidity in Congress.

I am still dumbfounded over what Congress is doing. Our problem, in a nutshell, is that Americans saw the financial disaster that the crash in the housing market and financial institutions have created. Americans’ response to this was to stop buying; therefore, we have an economy with plenty of supply and no demand. The purpose of a stimulus bill would be to increase demand. As President Barack Obama said last night, the purpose of the stimulus plan is to spend money. Thus, let us increase demand and get the economy going.

The new job numbers are out and they are awful. 598,000 jobs were lost last month alone. Over 1.5 million jobs were lost in last three months. We’ve now had 14 straight months of job losses. 3.7 million people have lost their jobs since the start of this recession. The unemployment rate is now 7.6%. The employment rate for men, 66.1%, is the lowest level ever recorded. The unemployment rate for blacks is 12.6%; Hispanics, 9.7%; and for whites, 6.9%. We can take these numbers and slice them and dice them and dissect them, but the bottom line is it looks ugly. It looks ugly from every angle.

So a reasonable person would expect that the Senate will look at these numbers and act quickly to increase spending in the economic stimulus plan. We would expect that our senators, knowing at least a little something about the economy and economic principles, would come to their senses and pass a spending plan to help state and local businesses, government jobs and, more importantly, to help us, the American people. But no. The Senate is one place where logic and facts cannot penetrate cold stone walls. The package that appears to have come out of this “compromise” has over 40% of the overall spending is made up of tax cuts… not infrastructure… and not aid to states.

watch video:

Tags: Countdown, Obama administration, Senate by ecthompson md
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Thanks to Stu for the heads up.

RS has several stories on the NSA. First -

On Wednesday night, when former NSA analyst Russell Tice told MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann that the Bush administration’s National Security Agency spied on everyone in the United States, specifically targeting journalists, the Countdown host was so flabbergasted that Tice was invited back for a second interview.

On Thursday, he returned to the airwaves with expanded allegations against the NSA, claiming the agency collected Americans’ credit card records, and adding that he believes the massive, warrantless data vacuum to be the remnants of the Total Information Awareness program, shut down by Congress in 2003.

Asked for comment by Olbermann’s staff, the agency responded, “NSA considers the constitutional rights of US citizens to be sacrosanct. The intelligence community faces immense challenges in protecting our nation. No matter the challenges, NSA remains dedicated to performing its mission under the rule of law.”

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Next, Senator Rockefeller of the Senate Intelligence Committee stated that he thinks that he was spied on.

Tags: Countdown, Domestic Spying by ecthompson md
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