Archive for The Rachel Maddow Show

VIDEO: GOP Benghazi hysteria debunked. For one, Congress had the revised talking points for months.

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Yesterday I posted PhotOH! What will be on your TV Machine Sunday morning. Hint: BENGHAZI!!!!!!!

It’s only Saturday, but Alex Witt led off the second hour of her broadcast (I missed the first hour, but I can only imagine… ) questioning the Obama administration’s honesty about Benghazi and whether or not the manufactured controversy would affect Hillary Clinton’s possible run for president.

Yes, she did that, because see, she’s objective and fair and balanced, see, and apparently looking to boost her ratings by stirring the pot. So it appears that it’s not only Republicans who are hoping that this “scandal” sticks.

I’m watching now, and she just said, “We now know that there were 12 different drafts” and asked “what this does to the Obama administration’s credibility.” That was followed by a clip of Rand Paul saying Hillary Clinton should never hold high office again, to which Witt wondered aloud if this will “haunt” Hillary.

Perhaps she should have watched her colleague Rachel Maddow’s show last night:

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Rachel Maddow:

Who changed the talking points? The intelligence community talking points for the administration officials in the immediate aftermath of the attack, they were sent around to the FBI, and the state department, and the White House. The e-mail chain showing the initial draft of those talking points, and the revision process, that e-mail chain was sent to members of Congress a couple months ago in February while they were considering the nomination of the new CIA director.

So Congress has had the talking points and how they were changed and by whom for a couple months now, showing the revisions, showing how they happened.

ABC published them today for the public as if they were a smoking gun, and all the Republicans in Congress who already had these things and have had them for months reported to be outraged by what was in them, shocked, , impeach, impeach!

They have had them for two and a half months now, and they never said anything about them before. Just today they decided it was a smoking gun, even though this has been long answered.

tv impeach

Here is the entire segment:

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Co-author of racist “low Latino IQ” report resigns from the Heritage Foundation as Hispanic college enrollment tops white enrollment

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damage control

This news alert just showed up in my inbox:

The Heritage Foundation announced the resignation Friday of senior policy analyst Jason Richwine, co-author of a controversial report critical of the Senate’s immigration reform bill. After Heritage issued the report this week, news articles pointed out that Richwine had argued in his Harvard dissertation that there was a long-standing difference between the IQ of white Americans and immigrants. Friday afternoon’s announcement was part of an urgent damage control effort by the giant conservative think tank, which has come under unaccustomed criticism for the immigration report.

For more information… http://www.politico.com

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Rachel Maddow:

This is where the white supremacist problem comes in.

So, yesterday, it was Dillon Matthews at “The Washington Post” who looked up the credentials of the people who wrote the anti-immigration reform study for Heritage and they found out that one of the co-authors for the big Heritage study on this issue, did his doctoral dissertation on American immigration policy and specifically on the question of how we should shape our immigration policy to account for the fact that Latinos are so dumb as a race. I`m only barely paraphrasing.

The dissertation describes Latino immigrants as generally having an IQ that is, quote, “substantially lower than that of the white native population.” Quote, “Immigrants living in the U.S. today do not have the same level of cognitive ability as natives.” Quote, “No one knows whether Hispanics will ever reach IQ parity with whites, but the prediction that new Hispanic immigrants will have low IQ children and grandchildren is difficult to argue against.”

So, not only are Latinos intellectually inferior to whites, but, of course, they breed. Echh. Disgusting, right?

After that was reported the Heritage Foundation, which is now run by former Republican Senator Republican Jim DeMint, the Heritage Foundation tried to distance themselves from this guy who they had write their immigration report.

They lamented that people were focusing on this guy`s dissertation instead of on this new study from him. They said that the dissertation was, quote, “not a work product of the Heritage Foundation. Its findings do not reflect the positions of the Heritage Foundation or the conclusions of our study.”

They further dismissed the guy who wrote the Latino’s equal dumb thing by saying, quote, “he did not shape the methodology or the policy recommendations in the Heritage policy paper, semicolon, he provided quantitative support for the lead author.” So, basically, “the guy was just a temp. He was good with a calculator. That`s all we hired him for.”

Think Progress demonstrates that not only is timing everything, but also, irony is not dead:

A Pew Research Center report released Thursday notes that Hispanic college enrollment reached a record high for the class of 2012, surpassing the rate of white enrollment for the first time. [...]

This should catch the attention of Heritage Foundation’s Jason Richwine, who coauthored a debunked immigration study that argues reform is too costly. Richwine argued in his dissertation that immigrants naturally possess a lower IQ, a pseudoscience point linked to anti-immigration groups actively working against reform.

graph hispanic education rises

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Republican “Block!” heads

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Let’s see how much the Republican Party has evolved today. If you’re a regular reader, you know I’ve been keeping track. After all, they’ve promised America that they’re undergoing a major makeover, reinventing themselves, reaching out to all Americans, and showing the country what a swell party they really, truly are.

But rather than altering their extremist positions, rather than compromising, rather than meeting the president and the Democrats half way, they’re resorting to their usual obstructionist tactics. Again.

The GOP’s only real goal is to destroy President Obama and his legacy, despite how their negativity and attacks affect their fellow Americans. What matters to them is more power and profit. That’s why they’re so relentless in pushing their loony conspiracy theories, that’s why they’re on that insane Benghazi Witch Hunt (with the added bonus of trying to smack down Hillary Clinton and her possible 2016 presidential run), and that’s why they have done all of this:

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But back to the legislation and nominees at hand. Via David Hawkings at Roll Call:

Speaker John A. Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced they would simply ignore a provision in the health care law calling on each leader to pick someone for a new panel with the power to dictate Medicare spending reductions without fear of congressional reversal.

The two said in a letter to Obama that such a bureaucratic maneuver was the best way they knew to protest the new Independent Payment Advisory Board, in light of their inability to kill it by repealing Obamacare completely.

At the same time, all eight Republicans boycotted this morning’s meeting of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which under a wrinkle in the rules prevented the panel from advancing Gina McCarthy’s nomination to run the EPA.

The protest came less than 18 hours after the Republicans on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions panel leveraged another obscure procedural obstacle to stop Thomas E. Perez’s nomination for Labor secretary from getting to the Senate floor.

See how evolved they are?

evolution of gop smaller devolution devolved

By the way Harry Reid, how’s that that “gentleman’s agreement” with Mitch McConnell workin’ for ya?

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Doonesbury– Bush Lie-Bury “Decision Points” Option 2: “Fly over flooded city and look out window with concern.”

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If you missed Doonesbury, Rachel Maddow and the Bush Lie-Bury: “You’re a top decisioner!” “Way to go, wusses!” then please link over, because Rachel Maddow was nearly as snarky as Trudeau was in his strip.

As the inimitable Garry Trudeau continues his wickedly satirical story arc about the George W. Bush “lie-bury”, Melissa Harris-Perry didn’t hold back either. She hosted The Rachel Maddow Show last night, and full-on skewered W in this segment:

bush library katrina interactive

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Melissa:

What is the Decision Point that the Bush library asks you to confront when it comes to Hurricane Katrina? A disaster in which nearly 2,000 Americans died, many in their own homes. What’s the Decision Point that’s laid before you at the Bush library?

“Officials in New Orleans are overwhelmed. The president can send in troops, but those troops would serve in supporting roles and state efforts and would not have law enforcement powers unless the president invokes what’s called the Insurrection Act. President Bush had to make a choice: One, rely on the National Guard and local police. Two, send in federal troops in a supporting role with no law enforcement authority.
Three, invoke the Insurrection Act and send in troops to restore order.”

Excuse me, restoring order was the problem when it it came to Hurricane Katrina, seriously? The main dilemma faced by President Bush when it came to the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina was quelling disorder?

The Bush library takes you through this whole scenario about how to deal with the problem of looters and how to restore law and order in New Orleans. That is the Decision Point. No mention at all of, you know, search and rescue.

Eight years later, the people of New Orleans, who were basically left to starve and dehydrate and die in our city, mostly elderly people and children, eight years later, these people are memorialized at the Bush library as public enemies, not as citizens who were in need of relief….

So it should be noted that the level of urgency that’s on display inside Decision Point Theater was not so much on display when it came to the decider himself.

This was President Bush, the morning that Katrina made landfall, sharing a cake with John McCain in Arizona! This was after his administration had already been informed that levees in New Orleans had been breached. This was President Bush on Day Two of the disaster, yukking it up with the country music star in Southern California.

That night as the situation was growing worse and worse in New Orleans, George W. Bush decided to return to his ranch in Crawford, Texas to finish up his vacation.

When he finally headed back to D.C. the next day, President Bush got an aerial view of the damage in Louisiana and Mississippi.

But by Friday, five days into that disaster, his aides at the White House were putting together DVDs of news coverage to convince President Bush how bad things were in New Orleans. During those five days,

President Bush was not “on the edge of his seat” as the Bush library would like you to believe. He was basically checked out. That’s the real history.

The truth is, the American people have already decided how they felt about President Bush’s leadership during Katrina, and while his approval ratings before Katrina weren’t that impressive, they never recovered afterwards.

15 months after the failed response, Democrats took control of the House. They took control of the Senate. and they took a majority of gubernatorial seats across the country. The public has already decided.

But, hey, if you’re in Dallas this weekend, you’ve got some time, go see how President Bush “saved” a city from disaster, and “restored a sense of calm” in all of the disorder.

bush blew it katrina headline

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Doonesbury, Rachel Maddow and the Bush Lie-Bury: “You’re a top decisioner!” “Way to go, wusses!”

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If you have no time to watch the entire video below, watch the 16-second clip above.

doonesbury Bush Library

It was bound to happen. Garry Trudeau The Decisioner decisioned to go after the Bush Lie-Bury as only Garry Trudeau could.

To buttress his genius, here is Rachel Maddow’s on the same topic. This is an astounding piece of video:

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Rachel Maddow:

They do set up three options to choose from, right? You can seek a new U.N. resolution; okay, that makes sense. You can invade. Of course, they don’t say “invade,” they say, “lead an international coalition”…  which means invade.

And if you want to not invade, what’s the label for not invading? That choice is labeled “take no action.”

So that’s the neutral presentation of options here: You can lead, or you can do nothing. If you choose to do nothing, well, President Bush’s former White House Chief of Staff then appears on screen and obviously expresses his disappointment in you.

“Time’s up. it’s time to make a decision. You were asked how to address the threat of Saddam Hussein. You had three options. The people in the theater today decided to take no action and accept that Saddam Hussein will remain in power.”

“And accept…” Way to go, wusses!

bush library bush saddam hussein

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Nearly a Third of Americans Believe Armed Revolution Against Government May Be Necessary: Return of the KKK

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Remember this video  from the Rachel Maddow Show? “Be afraid, white people! The black people are coming for you!” It’s worth another look.

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And with that, here’s your Daily Dose of BuzzFlash at Truthout, via my pal Mark Karlin:

Farleigh Dickinson University conducted a poll released on May 1 that implies that much of the pro-gun sentiment has nothing to do with self-defense, but rather with anti-federal government rage:

Overall, the poll finds that 29 percent of Americans think that an armed revolution in order to protect liberties might be necessary in the next few years [...]

But let’s be clear that the willingness to take up firearms allegedly “to protect liberties” is occurring after a long right wing-fomented Tea Party siege against a black president. Furthermore, it is – as BuzzFlash at Truthout has often noted – a rebellion of whites who can’t separate the image of America as a Caucasian-ruled nation from the legal basis of a democracy as enshrined in the US Constitution.  Theirs is a racist fantasy that a democracy should look like the skin color of the “founding fathers,” not about the legal framework of the nation that they created.

As the demographics of the United States have changed, the white Alamo contingency has come more and more to define the empowerment of a multi-cultural society as the alleged “taking away of their liberties.”

What is in their head is a return to guaranteed white sovereignty.  It is the clash of a vision of a white patriarchal society versus the constitutional guarantee of rule by the majority.

It’s starting to feel like the US has a solid 1/3 Afrikaner mentality contingent, and the gun has become the symbol of defiance.  Most of them, according to the poll, are in the Republican Party. [...]

So get ready for more militia, NRA, gun guy and survivalist brandishing of firearms on behalf of white supremacy (because that is what it amounts too, only in coded words).

Please read the entire post here.

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FBI investigating relationship between Va. Gov. Bob McDonnell, his wife, and major campaign donor

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Time for a refresher course on Bob McDonnell’s excellent adventures: Gov. “Ultrasound” McDonnell’s “improper use of government money, facilities, power for personal enrichment of friends”! That post was all about who paid for his daughter’s wedding at the governor’s mansion and questions about a possible (read: probable) quid pro quo. Rachel Maddow:

Specifically, the former chef’s catering company ended up doing the $15,000 dinner when Governor McDonnell hosted his daughter’s wedding at the governor’s mansion… The campaign contributors secretly paying for the daughter’s wedding at the mansion in Virginia, then blaming the daughter, saying it was her relationship with this guy that was under investigation now

Ruh-roh!

And now, the FBI is looking into the relationship between the McDonnells and the campaign donor. This can’t end well.

Ruh-roh squared!

WaPo:

FBI agents are conducting interviews about the relationship between Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, his wife, Maureen, and a major campaign donor who paid for the food at the wedding of the governor’s daughter, according to four people familiar with the questioning.

The agents have been asking associates of the McDonnells about gifts provided to the family by Star Scientific chief executive Jonnie R. Williams Sr. and actions the Republican governor and his wife have taken that may have boosted the company, the people said. [...]

Now, federal officials are trying to determine whether to expand that investigation into a broader look at whether McDonnell or his administration took any action to benefit Star Scientific in exchange for monetary or other benefits, according to the four people familiar with the interviews. [...]

The focus of the FBI interviews has been to determine whether any of those actions constituted a quid pro quo — McDonnell using his office to promote the company in return for anything of value for him or his family

If enough evidence is found, they could open a formal public corruption inquiry. Stay tuned.

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H/t: @Gr8RDH

UPDATE, via The Roanoke Times, where there are many more details:

RICHMOND — Gov. Bob McDonnell said today his administration never gave special treatment to a dietary supplement company that is under a federal securities investigation, despite more than $100,000 in political contributions from its chief executive and thousands of dollars more in gifts to McDonnell’s family.

McDonnell said on WTOP radio he and first lady Maureen McDonnell have been friends with Star Scientific CEO Jonnie Williams for four or five years. He acknowledged receiving gifts from Williams, including a $15,000 check to his daughter to help her pay for her June 2011 wedding.

Williams’ gifts to McDonnell and to state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, both Republicans, have come under growing scrutiny in the past two months. It intensified after the Executive Mansion chef was charged with stealing food from the mansion and alleged that his prosecution by Cuccinelli was politically motivated.

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