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Is there a least deserving person on a cable news gig than Luke Russert? He graduated from Boston College in 2008 and was hired by NBC News to cover the prtesidential election. While still in college Russert was co-hosting the XM Satellite Radio show 60/20 Sports with James Carville. I have no idea what their shared expertise in sports is.
If you think Luke Russert didn't get these gigs because his father is Tim Russert than you are a fool. In Russert's entire journalism career he has never broken one story.
Sen. Cory Booker and Sen. Rand Paul have an excellent discussion on MSNBC about the racial problems with the criminal justice system. The senators also talk about expunging criminal records for nonviolent drug offenses.
Booker and Paul both come out strongly against solitary confinement for minors. The ACLU has described solitary confinement as a human rights violation.
Solitary confinement of youth is itself a serious human rights violation and can constitute cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment under international human rights law. In addition,
the conditions that compound the harm of solitary confinement (such as lack of psychological care, physical exercise, family contact, and education) often constitute independent, concurrent, and serious human rights violations. Solitary confinement cannot be squared with the special status of adolescents under US constitutional law regarding crime and punishment. While not unusual, it turns the detention of young people in adult jails and prisons into an experience of unquestionable cruelty.
It is time for the United States to abolish the solitary confinement of young people. State and federal lawmakers, as well as other appropriate officials, should immediately embark on a review of the laws, policies, and practices that result in young people being held in solitary confinement, with the goal of definitively ending this practice. Rather than being banished to grow up locked down in isolation, incarcerated adolescents must be treated with humanity and dignity and guaranteed the ability to grow, to be rehabilitated, and to reenter society.
This is a rare interview when two lawmakers go on cable news to actually talk about policy.
Via Daily Kos: the team of Morning Joe are sad because they are forced out of denial on Chris Christie's role in the BridgeGate scandal. Daily Kos blogger Billionaires for Wealthcare notes how painful it is for Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough to come out of their conventional wisdom bubble and face reality.
Reading the headline that Christie never read the statement attacking Wildstein's high school record, Brzezinski asked incredulously, and with dejection in her voice, "how is the possible".
Scarborough jumped in, "there's no way he didn't see it". He went further, saying he didn't believe Christie's claims that he didn't know about the traffic nightmare when it was occurring. He twisted himself into a pretzel saying Christie wasn't behind the traffic jam, but Christie had to know the world's busiest bridge had turned into a parking lot.
Scarborough is still trying to defend Christie but his heart just doesn't seem to be in it. The good news is Christie still has the gang at Fox and Friends backing him.
This is hyterical. MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell interrupted Rep. Jane Harman for Justin Bieber's bond hearing. Moments like this prove cable news is infortainment. Justin Bieber's bond hearing is not important.
I don't hold out much hope on Chuck Todd being an actual journalist. I do support Nicole Belle's petition as a way to call out Todd on his open hostility to fact-checking.
In a Morning Joe segment this week on misinformation about the Affordable Care Act, NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd made the outrageous claim that it isn’t his job to inform viewers when Republican politicians lie about political issues.
How is it possible that the Political Director of NBC News doesn’t think it is his job to inform NBC viewers with facts about important political issues?
Todd appeared on Morning Joe and made this remark to Ed Rendell.
"What I always love is people say, 'Well, it's you folks' fault in the media.' No! It's the President of the United States' fault for not selling it."
I do agree with Todd that it is not the media's job to sell Obamacare. What angers Belle and other progressives is Todd's glib attitude on fact-checking the MSNBC guests he interviews. Being a member of the Village is more important than journalistic accuracy to Todd.
New Republic Senior Editor Julia Ioffe tore Lawrence O'Donnell to pieces in her column. Ioffe has reported from Russia for three years. O'Donnell doesn't let Ioffe's superior knowledge in Russia politics get in the way of his narrative of Vladimir Putin having Godlike powers. Ioffe explains in her column.
* Vladimir Putin is not omnipotent. He does not control everything that happens in the Russian Federation, a vast and often inhospitable landmass that spans 10 time zones.
* Similarly, Barack Obama does not have total control over the minutiae of the United States of America.
* Putin does not orchestrate, he reacts. Putin is no chess player. He is a knee-jerk, short-sighted little tyrant. Don't give him credit where credit isn't due.
* Americans, especially Americans who have never been to Russia, overestimate the abilities of both Putin and the Russians. Because, I mean, come on. Tank!
* The Russians did not create the Snowden situation; Julian Assange and the U.S. government did. Assange insinuated himself into the situation and sent Snowden to Ecuador (the country granting him asylum) through Russia (his great friend).
* The Obama administration trapped Snowden in Russia. The U.S. unsealed the charges before it had Snowden in custody, revoked his passport, then downed the plane of the president of a sovereign state over other sovereign states because it thought Snowden was on board. The only place, by design, where Snowden could go was back to the U.S. Where he was charged with espionage, for which the maximum punishment is death.
Russia is a brutal place where whistleblowers are harassed and killed, but Russia, unlike the U.S., has no death penalty. And it is only because the Russians made a stink about it, that Eric Holder was forced to come out and assure the Russians that Edward Snowden won't be put to death. This happened over a month after Snowden's arrival in Moscow, and after the charges of espionage were unsealed.
* If a Russian Edward Snowden ended up in JFK Airport, there is no way in hell we'd turn him over to the Russians. Not in a hundred years, and not ever.
* You can't back Putin into a corner and leave him no options. If you are a world leader worth your salt, and have a good diplomatic team working for you, you would know that. You would also know that when dealing with thugs like Putin, you know that things like this are better handled quietly. Here's the thing: Putin responds to shows of strength, but only if he has room to maneuver. You can't publicly shame him into doing something, it's not going to get a good response. Just like it would not get a good response out of Obama.
* The Obama administration totally fucked this up. I mean, totally. Soup to nuts. Remember the spy exchange in the summer of 2010? Ten Russian sleeper agents—which is not what Snowden is—were uncovered by the FBI in the U.S. Instead of kicking up a massive, public stink over it, the Kremlin and the White House arranged for their silent transfer to Russia in exchange for four people accused in Russia of spying for the U.S. Two planes landed on the tarmac in Vienna, ten people went one way, four people went the other way, the planes flew off, and that was it. That's how this should have been done if the U.S. really wanted Snowden back.
* However, the decision to blow off the Moscow summit was a good one. See yesterday's post.
* I am not a Putin apologist. I think he and his people do bad things, like kill people and fleece the country for its wealth. But neither do I think he's oppressing the Russian masses. He is their most extreme and natural, their most post-Soviet manifestation.
There.
European countries view the death penalty differently than the United States. Putin would have received grief domestically if Snowden was sent back to the United States to be executed. Putin cares more about his poll numbers than the United States justice system. Putin doesn't have a love for whistleblowers. Putin just doesn't need the grief.
Ioffe made an important point of the United States forcing Bolivian President Evo Morales' plane to land in Austria is important. Putin would have looked weak if he gave up Snowden after the Bolivia incident. Vladimir Putin never wants to appear weak. Ioffe pointed out that Putin would only give up Snowden if he could save face. The United States never provided that option. It didn't help with the heavy-handed language coming from members of Congress. Of course, Donnell didn't want to hear nuance, so he yelled over Ioffe. That explains why Ioffe will likely never appear on O'Donnell's show again.
My main beef with O'Donnell is not that he wouldn't let me make these 11 points—because, let's face it, that's not what the TV is for—but that he did exactly the same shit Russians did to me when I was in Russia. They assumed that the U.S. and its government was one sleek, well-functioning monolith, that Obama was omnipotent, and that everyone in the world, including other important (and nuclear!) world leaders, act and must act as Russia demands it should, using Russian foreign policy calculus, and with only Russian interests in mind.
Sound ridiculous? Believe me, it sounds just as insane in reverse. The problem is that this was not in the ranting comments section, but was coming from the host of a prime time, national television show. And if you don't have the good sense and education or, hell, the reporting experience to know better, then just let the guests you invited on speak.
Otherwise, don't waste my fucking evening.
MSNBC host Chris Hayes interviewed Phillip Agnew, Executive Director of Dream Defenders.
Agnew on the Dream Defenders meeting with Gov. Rick Scott.
Thank you for having me again, and i think it was symbolic. I think it was an opportunity, of course, to open up a dialogue, but the governor the benefit of Monday or Tuesday and Wednesday of last week to hear on a number of outlets what our demands were, and so a meeting to further discuss our demands and then to tell us, no, must be symbolic and indicative of what he has determined to be his plan of action moving forward. So, yeah, i do, I think it's a way forward, a beginning of a way forward, but as I said last week, our people and people from around the country have encouraged us to stay. We're determined to stay because we believe that we have a plan to win.
Agnew tells Hayes that the Dream Defenders will stay in the capital until Scott calls a a special session to repeal the "Stand Your Ground" law.
I noted that Sen. Marco Rubio made the laughable comment that President Barack Obama is running a "culture of intimidation."
Tas and I both noted that Obama is still operating under the delusion that Republicans want to be bipartisan. Apparently, Obama forgot about the impeachment hearings and the government shutdowns of the last Democratic presidency. Obama said this at a recent fundraiser.
"I genuinely believe there are Republicans out there who would like to work with us but they’re fearful of their base and they’re concerned about what Rush Limbaugh might say about them. And as a consequence we get the kind of gridlock that makes people cynical about government."
No, Mr. President, Republicans have no interest in governing. They can barely be bothered to show up to work and legislate.
An interesting happened on MSNBC. Rubio was ranting on about Obama running a "culture of intimidation" and refusing to be bipartisan. Chuck Todd noted that Rubio's Reclaim America PAC has been attacking the President and can hardly be accused of being bipartisan. As usual, Rubio fumbled the response. That is happens when Rubio conducts his interview with conservative radio and Fox News. He isn't used to getting asked a question that isn't a softball.
"This is not just limited to the I.R.S. This is a culture of intimidation, a willingness to play hardball politics against your political opponents."
Chuck Todd: Your PAC put out an email raising money on the IRS issue… That’s campaigning, that’s politics, too.
Rubio: …But here’s the point. I’m trying to get a petition of American citizens and Americans who support us in this endeavor so that we can rally people together to work against these sorts of abuse of power. That’s different from going around and saying I am going to put on my website every single day, every donor to the Obama campaign. I’m going to attack that individual, a private citizen by name, and I’m going to try to create this culture where people feel intimidated as they oppose me. Those are two very different things I’m talking about.
Almost every fundraising email is written in the form of a petition. Neither party ever submits those signatures as a petition. It just a fundraising ploy.
MSNBC host Martin Bashir talks to Rep. Gwen Moore, (D-Wis.) about the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Recordings from Martin's phone logs reveal that Zimmerman was less than candid with his claims of self-defense. Martin made phone calls to his girlfriend as Zimmerman followed him.
"She says: `Run.' He says, `I'm not going to run, I'm just going to walk fast,'" Crump says, quoting the girl.
After Martin encountered Zimmerman, the girl thinks she heard a scuffle "because his voice changes like something interrupted his speech," Crump said. The phone call ended before the girl heard gunshots.
The last call was at 7:12 p.m. Police arrived at 7:17 p.m. to find Martin lying face down on the ground.
"Trayvon tells her, 'I think I lost him,' but then he says, "He is right behind me,'" Crump said. "She hears him say, 'Why are you following me?' Then she hears, 'What are you doing here?'"
"Are you following him? the dispatcher asked. Zimmerman replied: "Yep."
"Okay, we don't need to do that," the dispatcher warned.
State Attorney Norm Wolfinger has opened an investigation into the shooting. Wolfinger released this statement to the media.
"I share in the desire of the family and the community to accurately collect and evaluate all the facts surrounding the tragic death of Trayvon Martin. That is why I directed the expeditious review of the investigation which was delivered by the Sanford Police Department one week ago today; areas for further investigation have been identified; and, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has agreed to assist and has been working hard with my office since Friday, March 16. I will also be utilizing the investigative resources of the Seminole County Grand Jury which will be called to session on Tuesday, April 10, 2012.
I respectfully request that the public remain patient as this process continues forward. We are a country based upon law, and as the State Attorney for the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit I am sworn to uphold those laws. As I have previously stated, the public is entitled to no less than a thorough, deliberate, and just review of the facts. We intend to honor that commitment."
This is key: Zimmerman told the police that he stopped following Martin. Zimmerman claims that Martin jumped him as he tried to enter his car. Zimmerman is a fairly large man. Martin is a skinny 17 year-old. The phone logs paint a story of Zimmerman continuing his pursuit of Martin.
Update: Listen carefully: Zimmerman mumbles the racial slur "fucking coons," during his call to the dispatcher.
Stephen Colbert appeared on Morning Joe. Colbert defended Newt Gingrich by saying Gingrich was enough of a Southern gentleman to ask his second wife if he could "bang" someone else.
Judson Phillips falsely claimed that Jared Loughner is a "card carrying liberal." Another bizarre conspiracy theory from Phillips is that President Obama won because his campaign was funded by Hamas. Phillips suggested that Boehner should face the wrath of tea party activist if the Speaker raises the debt ceiling.
Phillips is lying on MSNBC when he says he would like to see the debt ceiling raised. Phillips gives away his true intention by twice dodging the question on if the debt ceiling should be raised. The third time Phillips says he does not believe the effect of not raising the debt ceiling would be bad. We are already seeing the futures markets and other countries panicking over the debt ceiling being unresolved.
Why question is why is MSNBC bringing a conspiracy theorist to talk about the debt ceiling?
"Your efforts to stabilize prices through direct government purchasing of pork and dairy products are very much welcomed by the producers in Minnesota, and I would encourage you to take any additional steps necessary to prevent further deterioration of these critical industries, such as making additional commodity purchases and working to expand trade outlets for these and other agricultural goods," Bachmann wrote.
This is the federal government directly getting involved in the private market. Bachmann's request actually has policy merits. My problem is that Bachmann goes around saying that the federal government should never get involved in the private. It is hypocrisy on Bachmann's part.
Rep. Steve King is having a problem that radical Islam is overtaking America. Facts matter little. Attacking Muslim Americans is the latest version of the Southern Strategy.
Nicole Sandler talks to MSNBC host Cenk Uygur about her arrest at the Allen West townhall meeting. Sandler tells Uygur how questions were screened. Sandler told Uygur that she was repeatedly pushed by a police officer before her arrest.
Keith Olbermann says goodbye to his Countdown. The MSNBC press release reads like Olbermann was fired.
MSNBC and Keith Olbermann have ended their contract. The last broadcast of "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" will be this evening. MSNBC thanks Keith for his integral role in MSNBC's success and we wish him well in his future endeavors.
Update: according to Jane Hamsher, Lawrence O'Donnell will replace Olbermann in the 8:00 PM time slot.
6:00 p.m. Cenk Uygur 7:00 p.m. Chris Matthews 8:00 p.m. Larrence O’Donnell 9:00 p.m. Rachel Maddow 10:00 p.m. Ed Schultz
I am interesting in what Uygur will do with is Los Angeles-based Young Turks online show. MSNBC is in New York City.
Amen. Politicians and pundits are playing victim for being taken to task for their violent rhetoric. What did these pols and pundits think the public reaction was going to be when someone used violence against an elected official? We now see Fox News and Republican officials running from their own comments about violent revolution against Democrats.
I have a personal soft spot for the awfulness of Kendrick Meek and Christine O'Donnell. I should send personal thank you notes to both candidates for the great comedy material they provided this blog.
Alex Sink and Charlie Crist both made The Daily Rundown's finalists for worst candidate. What made Alex Sink stand out is she lost to Rick Scott. Losing to a man whose company was caught embezzling $1.7 billion from Medicare is pretty bad.
This campaign cycle had its share of horrible candidates. Rick Scott being one of them. It is not a stretch to think Sink would have trouble running a campaign against someone as loony as Allen West.
Democrat Chris Van Hollen said the House Democratic caucus will not support the estate tax. House Democrats intend to pass a different tax bill than the Senate. Van Hollen said the bill will go to the floor for a vote in the lame duck session.
***
Paul Krugman said he can not support the Obama-McConnell tax cut compromise.
The actual stimulus in the plan comes from the other measures, mainly unemployment benefits and the payroll tax break. And these measures (a) won’t make more than a modest dent in unemployment and (b) will fade out quickly, with the good stuff going away at the end of 2011.
The question, then, is whether a year of modestly better performance is worth $850 billion in additional debt, plus a significantly raised probability that those tax cuts for the rich will become permanent. And I say no.
Krugman correctly believe the stimulus doesn't have enough for the $850 billion price tag. The one year extension of unemployment benefits and Social Security payroll tax cut only keeps things from getting worse. What is needed is a national jobs program. The best stimulus is giving people gainful employment. The Obama economic team though throwing stimulus dollars at the private sector would suddenly increase jobs. Lawrence Summers predicted the stimulus would drastically reduce unemployment. The White House now hopes to get unemployment down to 8.5 nationally before the 2012 election. The reason why Obama's original stimulus failed because there wasn't enough funded for job creation. Another factor is Obama and Summers compromised with Mitch McConnell on tax cuts that failed to justify their cost.
Senate Republicans seek to slash income and corporate tax rates as well as the overall level of spending in the bill. "We need to sober up here and take a look at what we're doing," said Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Summers said Obama wants to keep his tax cuts but will consider other changes. He said "Buy American" provisions for U.S. manufacturers could "send a protectionist signal."
The president "has been prepared to walk a long mile for bipartisan support," Summers said. In the end, he said, Obama wants the best possible package delivered to his desk by Feb. 16.
Obama and Summers caved. The stimulus had $237 billion in tax cuts. Republicans didn't vote for the stimulus bill and the economy still sucks. Obama and Summers are essentially using the same failed policy.
Chris Hayes hosts a panel on the cynicism of President Obama. It is rare to see Obama attacked from the Left on cable tv. Short version: the panel agrees Obama is politically incompetent and a corporatist. The panel sees the Bush tax cuts as the make or break issue for Obama.
