There goes Sunday
George Stephanopoulos will give up discussing important issues facing the nation and world on “This Week” — which at this stage is such an infinitely superior show to the weak “Meet the Press” starring Dubya’s pal “Stretch,” that it’s really not worth Tivo’ing both shows anymore — to do cooking segments and interview muppets, reality show winners, and cast members from “Glee.” Good luck with that, George. Read more
Remainders: Sarah Palin, Birther/not-birther, Tiger’s mama and Charlie’s whoopsie
Sarah Palin, is, and is not, a birther. Thank God for Facebook retractions. But what will her base think about her believing (sort of) that Barack Obama is American-born?
Meanwhile, if you have any questions for the former governor, please address them in English only. Muchisimas gracias.
Charlie Crist’s headaches continue. This time, his attempt to promote the state’s Kidcare health plan backfires, as he unwittingly steers Floridians to a naughty chat line. When it rains…
Call it smart positioning. The head of Comcast, which is set to face federal scrutiny over its acquisition of a majority stake in NBC/Universal, comes out in favor of the Democratic healthcare overhaul.
And in case you haven’t had enough Tiger, the Globe and Mail has an exhaustive story purporting to take you inside the troubled Woods marriage, including wife Elin’s issues with Tiger’s purportedly overbearing mom.
Happy Friday!
Arab, Muslim groups condemn Fort Hood attack
… and brace themselves for the backlash. Funny how there is no backlash against the entire faith when a Christian commits a horrendous crime…
Weekend wrap: Kennedy laid to rest
It was a heck of a weekend for television, topped by the moving, well orchestrated remembrance and funeral for Senator Ted Kennedy. Highlights of Saturday’s memorial: Read more
Remainders
Today’s burning question: what role, if any, did the interests of British Petroleum and other oil companies play in the release of the convicted Pan Am bomber back to his native Libya (where he arrived to a hero’s welcome, over the objections of the Obama administration…)? Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi was released by Scottish authorities for humanitarian reasons — he is going home to die — but the American families who lost loved ones when Pan Am flight 103 blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland just before Christmas in 1988, killing 270, are not amused.
In his new book, former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge tells what many of us already knew: that the Bush administration (specifically Don Rumsfeld and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft) pushed him to manipulate the terror alert “color code” system for political purposes — specifically, to help George W. Bush in the 2004 election. Ridge writes that the pressure prompted his desire to resign (before you sing too many praises, the alerts he DID raise looked more than suspicious…) Meanwhile, some journos who believed the terrir hype belatedly admit they were wrong. One who won’t have to? Keith Olbermann, who questioned the alert boost every time.
One more CIA scandal: the Agency hired the criminal, Christian extremist militia formerly known as Blackwater to hunt down al-Qaida. Were they successful at least? What do you think?
Skanky John Ensign says: my affair was better than Bill Clinton’s affair.
Meanwhile, John Edwards says: I AM the father. Do I smell comeback??? Oh, sorry, that’s the ashes of JE’s political career still smoldering. So what’s the deal? Why did the “maverick” leave his BFF, Lindsey Graham, all by her lonesome on the Sotomayor vote? Let’s ask an Arizonan: There was never any question that Arizona Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl were going to vote against Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. Not to anyone who has paid any attention to how our senators have acted over the past several decades. And not just our senators, but just about any senator. Basically, if the nominee comes from a president in the senator’s party, he or she is great. If not, he or she is an “activist judge.” I first saw this with McCain when he announced that he believed then-nominee Clarence Thomas over Anita Hill, who was scheduled to testify about alleged sexual harassment, even before Hill testified. For pointing this out in print, McCain refused to answer any of my questions for 12 years. By the same token, when President George W. Bush nominated what many people believe to be the least qualified of any Supreme Court nominee, Harriet Miers, McCain’s quick reaction was, ”Over the course of 30 years, Ms. Miers has accumulated vast experience as a legal practitioner, led her peers as the head of state and local bar associations, and worked tirelessly as a dedicated public servant.” Sotomayor, however, is not to be trusted. McCain, however, did pick Sarah Palin as his V.P., demonstrating his crackerjack skills at finding qualified people. Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates during his July 16 arrest. “There are not many certainties in life, but it is for certain that Sgt. Crowley will not be apologizing,” Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge police told a Boston TV station (in the third person, no less, just so you know he’s serious.) So there! Plus: Professor Gates has his say (spoiler alert: he still wants an apology.) Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley Meanwhile, the Boston Globe interviews Crowley’s friends and neighbors, and cops who speak off the record. The consensus: There are not many certainties in life, but it is for certain that Officer Crowley is not a racist. I mean, he did try to revive a Black basketball player 16 years ago! (Admirable, though the fact that it is cited says more about the Globe writer than it does about Crowley…) Plus: Crowley calls in to a Boston radio show and reacts to the president’s “stupidly” remark, with clearly sympathetic morning drive hosts. He also says he arrested Professor Gates, essentially for following him back out of the house and “continuing his tirade” with other officers assembled. It sounds from the interview like he arrested Gates because Gates annoyed him, not because he deemed the man to have been a threat to him or anyone else. And his interview, while sympathetic, doesn’t answer the question of whether it’s proper to arrest someone for being mean to a police officer and calling him names. If that’s actually illegal, it’s news to me. And the hosts (and I’m assuming the entire right wing world will follow) pick up the meme that his trying to save one Black person (basketball player Reggie Lewis) 16 years ago inoculates Crowley from charges of racism when a totally different black person is involved. Read the arrest report. NEXT: Obama walks back on “stupidly.” With special thanks to Senator Jim DeMint for exposing the Republican playbook, which is about “breaking Obama” — not about helping the American people afford quality healthcare. Watch: Meanwhile, the GOP keeps rowing toward Elba. And why not hand Bobby “Big Country” Jindal an oar, too!Senator The water just keeps getting hotter for the (soon to be former?) Senator from Nevada: Nevada Sen. John Ensign’s wealthy parents gave his mistress and her family $96,000, the conservative lawmaker revealed Thursday, an admission that further darkened his once-bright career and caused even allies to question his continued effectiveness as a U.S. senator. The gifts to Cynthia Hampton; her husband, Doug; and two of their children were made “out of concern for the well-being of long-time family friends during a difficult time,” said a statement from Ensign’s attorney. The money was paid in $12,000 increments in April 2008, the month that both Hamptons left Ensign’s employ. The payments were “consistent with a pattern of generosity” by Ensign’s parents, the statement said. Ensign’s father, Michael, is a former casino mogul who helped bankroll his son’s political rise from congressman to onetime GOP White House aspirant. The admission came after Doug Hampton alleged in an television interview this week that Ensign paid his wife “a lot more than” $25,000 in severance when she left his campaign and political action committee. Doug Hampton also worked for Ensign, as his top aide. A watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, asked the Justice Department to investigate the allegation because neither the campaign nor the PAC had reported the expenditure. Ensign lawyer Paul Coggins, a former U.S. attorney who specializes in white-collar criminal defense, said Thursday that it was the parents who paid the Hamptons, and that Ensign had followed “all applicable laws and Senate ethics rules.” Meanwhile, does what happens in Vegas stay with Rick Santorum? Signs point to no! Iowa Congressman Steve King cast a lonely vote last night against those darned anti-slavery liberals, casting the 1 versus 399 vote against acknowledging the use of slave labor to build the U.S. Capitol because … it was the Christian thing to do: “In the Capitol Visitor’s Center, we agreed to change the name of the Great Hall – which honored the immigrants that came legally to America – to Emancipation Hall to honor the 645,000 slaves and their descendants who were brought to the United States more than two centuries ago. “Last night I opposed yet another bill to erect another monument to slavery because it was used as a bargaining chip to allow for the actual depiction of ‘In God We Trust’ in the CVC. The Architect of the Capitol and liberal activists opposed every reference to America’s Christian heritage, even to the extent of scrubbing ‘In God We Trust’ from the depiction of the actual Speaker’s chair in the U.S. House of Representatives. “This is just the latest example of a several year effort by liberals in Congress to scrub references to America’s Christian heritage from our nation’s Capitol. Liberals want to amend our country’s history to eradicate the role of Christianity in America and chisel references to God or faith from our historical buildings. Either that or he doesn’t think slavery was all that evil, especially when you weigh their numbers against the civil war deaths that came as a result of … the south … seceding … in order to protect … slavery … and plunging the nation into a treason-induced bloodbath … hey, wait a minute!!! King even tried to drag his far better namesake, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., into his mess, saying he believes every word Dr. King ever said. Really? How about these:
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. … In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. Rep. King?John McCain: Politics today, politics tomorrow, politics forevah!
Who does John McCain think he’s impressing by pledging to oppose Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court? The right? They already hate his guts. And with 2010 looming, and we’re assuming he’s still running for re-election, he can’t think the nearly 30 percent of his state that is Hispanic will be impressed, (Arizona has the sixth largest Latino population in the U.S., and despite what Lou Dobbs might tell you, many of them are voting adults!) McCain does face a primary challenge from the founder of the extreme rightwing Minutemen, and a second from a “successful businessman,” but it’s probably the Minuteman he’s worried about.) And if he’s just covering John Kyl’s posterior, one wonders why, since Kyl isn’t up until 2012. (A similar situation exists in Texas, where the two Republican Senators, who also face a large Hispanic voting population back home, will vote “no” together, too. In their case, John Cornyn isn’t up until 2012 either, and Kay Bailey Hutchinson caught between a rock and a secessionist …)Officer Crowley begs to differ
Obama calls out Republicans on healthcare
John Ensign: Is it still bribery if my mama pays?
Rep. King: What’s a little slavery between friends?
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