Saturday, May 7, 2011

The Fireside Chat for May 8th, 2011 (VIDEO)

Speaking from a hybrid vehicle transmission company in Indiana, the President explains how investments in a clean energy economy are the only solution to high gas prices in the long term.

Friday, May 6, 2011

The simple, mathematical equation that shows why George Bush deserves ZERO credit for killing Bin Laden (VIDEO)

This has been floating around out there since Sunday. It started with Andy Card (for Bush Chief of Staff) that Sunday, on through last night's waste of time interview with Condelezza Rice. How much credit does former President Bush really deserve?

Now, there are a number of people (including the current President) that have been generous, trying to share the stage with the former President as a way of healing the divide. And a part of me understands that. But on thinking about the issue, I have come to one unapologetically simple conclusion:

George W. Bush deserves absolutely no credit for the raid that killed Bin Laden.

Zero. None. Zilch.

Granted, I'm a Liberal and I will freely admit to hating on the former President.

But, believe it or not, Politics, nor my own ideology does not come into this. If it was just a matter of Politics or Ideology, I'd probably be more generous.

But this is really about the workload involves. Who did the most work (between the Presidents --as Seal Team Six did the actual work), and at what cost?

Mathematics reveals all. The answer is revealed by simply reversing the components of the formula in question. Instead of how much credit would George W. Bush been given or accepted had the mission to kill Bin Laden gone badly? The question is now:

How much blame would George W. Bush been given or accepted had the mission to kill Bin Laden gone badly?

Whatever number you come up with is the answer to how much credit George Bush actually deserves.

If my Father (the...you know...actual Professor of Mathematics) has any notes, I'll post them when I get them.


Thursday, May 5, 2011

Lawrence O'Donnell's interview with Matthew Alexander on Torture, Ethics and OBL.

Matthew Alexander's first book How To Break A Terrorist, was a fantastic read, and fully recommended by this blog. His a former Interrogator for...well...someone in our Armed Forces. I'm not sure who, especially given that Matthew Alexander is not his name.

Now, he's back with a new book, and rips apart the Conservative line on Torture and Information gathering.

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"We mean what we say..." (VIDEO)

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Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Missed Stories: Lara Logan's Interview on 60 Minutes (VIDEO)

One of the things President Obama mentioned in his speech about his long-form Birth Certificate, was the fact that the Media gets us all distracted on things (like his birth certificate) that we don't need to get distracted on.

Unfortunately, sometimes other, actually relevant events can swamp aside other, equally important stories.

One of those unfortunate circumstances took place during Sunday's announcement of the death of Osama Bin Laden. We lost track of Lara Logan's interview talking about her sexual assault while working on the Egyptian Uprising Story for CBS.

This is one of those instances for a woman in Ms. Logan's position, that's both hard and necessary. To have to relive that order is hard, but to share that experience with the world, on a major news telecast, is necessary because it helps chip away at the stigma that seems to still exist about these crimes. Still, she got up in front the camera, and broke that code of silence. I don't even know Ms. Logan, but I'm proud of her for doing this.

It's a damn shame that a proper discussion of what she said was swept aside. Well, at least here, you have a chance to see the interview in case you missed it:



And 60 Minutes Overtime:

"We don't need to spike the football..." (VIDEO)

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UPDATE: 4:30pm Pacific:

Never mind, here's the actual interview bit from 60 Minutes:



Needless to say, I'll be putting up the 60 Minutes story when its posted next Monday.

TPM: Remembering McCain and Clinton, slamming then Senator Obama over trying to kill OBL... (VIDEO)

Hell, somebody got it right. Any guesses as to who?



I guess he meant what he said.

Then again, one of the people that should be labeled as "wrong" in this video is, errr...ummm...the current Secretary of State. She'd be the one gasping in that famous photo.

Lawrence O'Donnell: This is how George Bush got himself re-elected without going after OBL (VIDEO)

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Apparently, Christiane Amanpour pretty much nailed OBL's location back in 2008 (VIDEO)

Maximum credit where credit's due.

Watch Jon get lied to, TWICE in his interview with Pervez Musharraf (VIDEO)

From before the days this Blog existed. Interesting, given the context of the times.

"Do you know where he is?  We'll follow you."

Well, apparently that's what happened.


Part 1:


Hmm.  Watch the where Musharraf emphasizes over and over again that Pakistan eliminated Al-Qaeda from their cities.

You know...little bit of a problem there...

Methinks Jon got upset...at the wrong lie.

Part 2:

"What more proof do you need? Abject cruelty to children??" (VIDEO)

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To Kill a Mockingturd - Pakistani Intelligence
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To Kill a Mockingturd - Pervez Musharraf Lies About Osama bin Laden
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Lawrence O'Donnell: So much for that whole "Democrats soft-on-defense" meme (VIDEO)

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Will Ferrell is back...along with his classic George Bush (VIDEO)

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Maddow: Why is it all these HVT's keep getting picked up in Pakistan? (VIDEO)

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The New Graphic...

Well, finally a new banner graphic for ye old blog. Last time I did it around the time of the last State of the Union. But as much as I liked the "Win The Future" speech, it didn't catch me like his defense of the Social Safety net did. Hence, the quote is from that speech. If there had been room, I would have put in a quote I found by FDR: "We've always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics."

Same thing really.

I also came dangerously close to using a quote of the President's from October 7, 2008 promising to kill Bin Laden, and paralleling that with his statement about the death of Bin Laden. But having those quotes along with that image would have been really, really inappropriate.