"And that is why, personally, I cannot be part of a network funded by the Russian government that whitewashes the actions of Putin," Wahl said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Wahl told Anderson Cooper that staffers at Russia Today were forced to whitewash the coverage of the international crisis in the Ukraine.
"RT is not about the truth; it's about promoting a Putinist agenda," Wahl told CNN. "And I can tell you firsthand, it's about bashing America."
Russia Today is funded by the Russian government. Wahl is an American journalist. She was formerly employed in the RT Washington bureau.
Rep. Peter King has called Ted Cruz "a fraud" and doubled down on Anderson Cooper's show. King accuses Cruz of only threatening a shutdown to defund Obamacare only for Cruz's own political benefit. King goes so far as to call Cruz "crazy."
No one likes Cruz. Josh Marshall investigated Cruz's college days at Princeton and Harvard and found that Cruz's classmates couldn't stand him.
Let's do some geography. Below is a map of the continent of Africa. In the northeastern corner of Africa is Libya. These kind of mistakes have become so common for Bachmann that it is impossible to take her seriously.
Tea Party candidate darling Carl Palladino forwarded an email to friends of a woman having sex with an animal. VPalladino told Anderson Cooper that the email was forward because things happen "in the heat of the day" in the construction business. I have worked in construction and I never remember videos of horse fucking being part of the job. Palladino said he didn't "remember" the woman and horse shagging video. To conservatives that will defend Palladino I ask this: why would Palladino send out an email that contained x-rated bestiality without checking the content first? I would certainly remember a video with this kind of imagery.
This is a jaw dropping exchange between Anderson Cooper and former White House Press Sec. Ari Fleischer.
COOPER: Ari, was President Bush lying when he said, we do not torture?
FLEISCHER: No, I don't think he was lying.
COOPER: Was he telling the truth?
FLEISCHER: Yes. I think that it depends, again, on things that none of us were privy to, that none of us saw, that none of us know.
COOPER: If what they did was -- was right and -- and correct and legal, why did they destroy the evidence? Why did they destroy the videotapes?
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: They destroyed the videotapes of two people being tortured, water-boarded, more than 100 times.
FLEISCHER: I think that's a fair question. And I think the CIA destroys a lot of things. They -- they typically like to destroy as much things as they can. That's a matter of procedure at the CIA, not only on this, but on a host of...
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Porter Goss, I think, head of the CIA, specifically did not want those tapes destroyed. And, yet, they were.
FLEISCHER: Well, and that's why I said I think that's a fair question. I think it's a matter of CIA routine procedure to destroy a lot of things. And, sometimes, they go too far, get themselves in trouble for it.
People can draw their own conclusions on why the C.I.A. destroyed 92 videotapes. If a drug gang or mafia destroyed evidence prosecuters would use that information to charge the leaders of criminal conspiracy. The cover up is what got the Watergate Seven and Lewis "Scooter" Libby convicted. The destruction of the videotapes hurt the Bush administration.
I'm not sure the Bush people should publicly defend waterboarding and say President Barack Obama is endangering America. Obama didn't have the stomach to prosecute. Dick Cheney and other former Bush officials attacked Obama on on the cable talk shows. Moveon.org, Firedoglake and Daily Kos pressured Obama to prosecute. Obama slightly retracted his earlier position of no prosecution of Bush officials.
Cheney badly miscalculated against Obama. Cheney will lose if he fights Obama in the political arena. The same way Hillary Clinton and John McCain lost. George W. Bush had enough sense to maintain a low profile. Cheney is a Vice-President so unpopular that he was not invited to the Republican Nation Convention. Democrats maintain control of both houses of Congress. Cheney has no political collateral. His surrogates Ari Fleischer and Michael Hayden have less. The smart move for Cheney would have been to keep his mouth shut and work a backroom deal with the Justice Department. Cheney isn't that smart.
Obama can turn the heat on Bush administration officials involved with torture and take the economy on the front page. Republicans will play defense for a highly unpopular President and Vice-President. The GOP is tanking in the polls and fighting amongst the moderates and red meat conservatives. Prosecuting the John Yoo isn't going to hurt Obama's approval ratings. If Republicans want to run on waterboarding in 2010 and 2012 the Democrats will win. Guaranteed.
I wrote previously how the tea bagging protests received underwhelming numbers. The astroturf movement was created by Fox News, Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey and corporate friends of the GOP. An April 2 Fox News poll found only 32 percent willing to attend tea parties. Conservatives should have learned from the Harriet Miers nomination. All credibility is gone once a cause becomes a national punchline.
Power Line blogger Scott Johnson vents his anger by unleashing a comedy masterpiece. Money quote.
The star hosts of CNN and MSNBC news shows have notoriously derided the tea party demonstrations around the country with reference to the practice of teabagging (which I had never heard of before they brought it up).
It gets even better. Johnson accuses Rachel Maddow of sexually practicing tea bagging. Johnson doesn't explain how Maddow would perform the deed with her lesbian partner. Has Johnson heard about lesbians? Seriously.
There is something funny going on here, if not exactly where Cooper, Maddow and Sullivan find it. Cooper is widely reputed to be homosexual. Maddow and Sullivan are of course public homosexuals. It is funny in an ironic sort of way that these folks choose to disparage the tea party protesters from somewhere inside the homosexual subculture. Why not just call the protesters girly boys and let everyone in on the joke? Or would that spoil the fun?
Johnson thinks only homosexuals engage in tea bagging. That is silly. I like to see Johnson's reaction when he finds out what ass to mouth means. His parents obviously never had that talk with him about sex. Poor boy.
I find it interested the Power Line bloggers don't know what tea bagging means. These bloggers used to have the online names Hind Rocket and Big Trunk. This is the last conservative blog that should be defending the Right against the Left's use of the words tea bagging.
