Justin's Political Corner
(Crooks and Liars: NRA ‘A’ Rating Now a Scarlet Letter)
Rachel Maddow detailed the surprising dynamic going on in a Democratic primary in Illinois where a former congresswoman likely won’t win because of her vocal support of the gun nuts lobby, even to the point of channelling Wayne LaPierre with her [gun laws] “always hurt law-abiding citizens” crap from a 2010 YouTube video for a Second Amendment Freedom Rally in Chicago.
For her part, Halvorson blames outside groups like Bloomberg’s PAC for trying to buy a congressional seat. Halvorson even claims she’s still the frontrunner, seemingly oblivious to her fate. Or perhaps she figures she’ll land a gig at Fox News slamming Democrats anyway, as evidenced by this segment with Megyn Kelly last week.
Perhaps you think you’ve read or heard it all. Hell, I even wrote my own book about it, So Wrong for So Long,. But now Rachel Maddow is promising surprising revelations in her MSNBC special Hubris: Selling the Iraq War, next Monday night in her regular time slot.
It will be President’s Day, but it looks like she sure won’t be celebrating George W. Bush. Or the mainstream media.
The special marks the opening of what will surely be a slew of tenth-anniversary programs and other media revisits. If you want to go back yourself now: Ten years ago today Hans Blix made another fateful presentation to the United Nations on his team’s search for WMD in Iraq. It was said to bolster both opponents and proponents of a US invasion, since he still found no evidence of such weapons but Saddam was still not cooperating fully with inspections.
Why does this all matter? Well, consider this major Washington Post piece last night on Iran allegedly boosting nuclear program by pursuing certain…magnets. It never ends.
The doc is partly based on the book Hubris by David Corn and Michael Isikoff but reportedly goes beyond it. An NBC press release claims the documentary features “new and original interviews with members of the Bush administration, the CIA, members of Congress and other insiders who were part of the internal debate over the ultimately faulty-intelligence that led to the invasion of Iraq.
More excerpts on the Yellowcake lies here and on “Cheney’s Speech” here and on “The Build-up” here and WMD not found.
The Rachel Maddow Show: Investing in children shows strong returns.
Segment from Thursday’s show that discusses Oklahoma’s Early Childhood Education programme … which was also the subject of a segment on NPR’s This American Life several weeks ago
The last two nights of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show featured segments on how abortion rights are under attack in 4 states (Arkansas, Mississippi, North Dakota, and South Dakota), both by anti-choice zealots and GOP Governors (Bryant [MS], Dalrymple [ND], Daugaard [SD]) and their legislatures, as part of the War On Women playbook to drastically curtail and/or end abortion rights and to defund Planned Parenthood, to name a few.
Mississippi’s last women’s health clinic, Jackson Women’s Health Organization, could be closed down due to anti-choice extremist Governor Phil Bryant (R)’s wishes that “Mississippi should be an abortion-free state.” If his plan successfully goes through, it would be the 1st state since the highly controversial 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling by SCOTUS to effectively ban abortion.
Of the four states with only one women’s health service clinic (or abortion provider) left in their respective states, all except Arkansas currently has a GOP Governor running the state. All four of the states listed have both their state Houses and Senates under GOP control.
(via Karoli at Crooks and Liars: Rachel Maddow Slams Conservative Fox Commentators and Other Right Wing Scammers)
Rachel Maddow’s long report on conservative scams could not have come at a better time. As I’ve followed the money throughout the years, I’ve noticed a pattern to the money trail that almost always includes scammy fundraising techniques at the heart of things.
As Rachel points out in this piece, Karl Rove uses his Wall Street Journal column and Fox News commentator position as a way to raise even more money for Crossroads GPS, his right-wing money machine.
Mike Huckabee has lots of different ways to raise a few bucks. Using his Fox News show and his gig as a paid commentator there, he’s launched various fundraising efforts such as this one, asking for donations to help keep the movement alive to repeal Obamacare.
Even ridiculous Dick Morris used his Newsmax and Fox News visibility to raise funds alongside Michael Reagan for the SuperPAC for America. Despite raising nearly $3 million from small donors, just over half was spent to oppose President Obama’s bid for re-election.
Here’s the framework:
- Get connected with a high-profile media outlet. Maybe even two or three.
- Make outrageous statements, raise your visibility.
- Point viewers and readers to your fundraising page.
It’s not limited to the likes of Rove, Morris and Huckabee, either. Ali Akbar’s National Bloggers’ Club is one of the best representations of the model. The Breitbart empire serves as one of the media outlets to conservative bloggers. For the past six months, any conservative blogger who writes about their current invented stable of villains finds a place to shine with the Breitbots.
Rachel Maddow criticizes Fox News for their scare tactics regarding the black population.
Go get ‘em, Maddow!
(via reallyfoxnews)
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow has been nominated for a Grammy Award.
Maddow is a nominee for the audio version of her book Drift in the “Spoken Word Field.” She is up against some steep competition, including President Bill Clinton and comedianEllen Degeneres.
h/t: TVNewser
Maddow: Time to end the ‘war on terror’ (via Raw Story )
Friday night on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” host Rachel Maddow questioned whether or not the U.S. is ready to shift away from the state of permanent war that was begun during the Bush administration. She began the segment by discussing the color-coded “terror alert” system imposed in 2002 by…
(via Your helpful Thanksgiving charts about the deficit)
Rachel rocks as usual.
As Rachel promised on the show, here are the charts that show the U.S. deficit is not growing but shrinking — in fact, it’s shrinking faster than at any time since the end of World War II. The first chart comes from our own Steve Benen. The second is from Jed Graham at the Conservative-biased Investor’s Business Daily. Let us know how it goes out there, will ya?
Particularly impressive were the results of the two powerhouse programs on the MSNBC lineup: Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell. Maddow won seven of the eight days against her Fox competition, Sean Hannity. For the 8-day run Maddow beat Hannity by 18% and her 544k average was second to only Bill O’Reilly in all of cable news. O’Donnell won all eight days against Fox’s Greta Van Susteren. His margin of victory over Van Susteren was 17% for the eight days.
This can no longer be considered a temporary blip on the ratings scales. With two weeks having elapsed, the MSNBC programs are showing steady strength against competition that was once thought insurmountable. Only Bill O’Reilly is holding his top position for Fox in primetime. This may indicate that Sean Hannity is wearing thin with viewers who are likely disappointed with his overly confident (and harebrained) assurances that all the polls were wrong and that Mitt Romney would emerge victorious.
(via truth-has-a-liberal-bias)
On MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, Rachel Maddow explains today’s presidential election and the 1st four years of Barack Obama’s term in office.
Maddow: Romney not even trying on foreign policy (via Raw Story )
Tuesday night on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” host Rachel Maddow expressed her growing dismay at former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA)’s apparent lack of knowledge on foreign policy matters, and his apparent lack of concern about learning anything more. She kicked off the segment with a story about a fundraising…
Maddow: The right has an ‘irresistible impulse’ for conspiracies (via Raw Story )
Noting the right-wing conspiracies about President Barack Obama and his administration, liberal MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said Mitt Romney’s performance at the second presidential debate revealed he had succumb to conspiratorial thinking as well. “That impulse on the right now to not just downplay…
Maddow: Right wing copying Iranian mullas by creating their own reality (via Raw Story )
Friday night on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” host Rachel Maddow compared so-called conservative “poll-truthers” to the mullahs and theocrats of Iran, who would rather construct an artificial, sanitized Internet than risk having their fellow Iranians access the wider internet and be exposed to…
(via Pelosi tells Maddow she’s bullish on Dems chances of winning House)
Let her be speaker. #PelosiforSpeaker
The race to control the House hasn’t been getting much attention, but it just got a little hotter. Until recently, Democrats didn’t seem to have much of a shot of retaking the chamber, which they lost in the 2010 midterm elections. Now, however, polls suggest it’s a real possibility. And House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi agrees.
Appearing on The Rachel Maddow Show Wednesday night, Pelosi said Mitt Romney’s selection of Rep. Paul Ryan—who has made turning Medicare into a voucher program a centerpiece of his political identity—was a game-changer for Democrats.
“August 11 is when the race changed,” the party leader said, referring to the day Romney announced Ryan as his running mate. “That’s when the election became all about “Medicare, Medicare, Medicare—the three most important issues in the campaign in alphabetical order.”
Democrats lead Republicans by an average of 5 points in generic polling, which is enough to pick up the 25 seats they need to secure a majority, according to Pelosi. She said they are focusing efforts all around the country, both in states where President Obama is competitive and where he isn’t.
