NBC host Matt Lauer confronts President Bush on a fundamental apparent inconsistency in his interrogation policy: If it’s legal, why are we doing it in secret CIA prisons abroad? Cornered, Bush doesn’t answer straight. Watch the fireworks.
In perhaps his most powerful monologue ever, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann savagely harangued Bush for using 9/11 as a wedge to pit Americans against Americans. “Who has left this hole in the ground? We have not forgotten, Mr. President. You have. May this country forgive you.”
Maher, along with guests Rob Thomas, P.J. O’Rourke and Joan Walsh, ripped into ABC’s undocu-drama, which pins the blame for 9/11 on Bill Clinton. Maher reminds us: As president, Clinton had a meeting a week about bin Laden; George W. Bush, before 9/11, had zero. Watch it on the jump.
A satire of ABC’s “The Path to 9/11” has popped up on YouTube. It envisions how ABC would dramatize Vietnam, the San Francisco Earthquake and the Revolutionary War. Not gut-bustingly hilarious, but significant in terms of how quickly these kinds of things appear nowadays. (h/t: AMERICAblog)
Watch the part of ABC’s undocu-drama “The Path to 9/11” in which Sandy Berger goes weak-kneed when presented with an opportunity to order the killing of bin Laden. DISCLAIMER: This never happened in real life, and is one of the most blatant falsehoods contained in the miniseries.
Check out this hip new video trailer about a new graphical book, “The Best War Ever,” which chronicles how the U.S. defeated itself by believing its own propaganda that the invasion and occupation of Iraq would be a cakewalk. It just hit the Internet today (Sept. 11, 2006).
To commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, we have assembled a collection of the most memorable and compelling footage related to that day—some of it iconic and unforgettable, like the images of the planes crashing into the towers, some of it more below the radar, like Jon Stewart’s first show after the attacks.
Rush Limbaugh said something stupid again, only this time on CBS nightly Free Speech segment, where the radio show host railed against those evil people who are more interested in punishing this country over a few incidents of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay than they are in defeating those who want to kill us. (Video & Transcript)
Harvey Keitel, who stars in ABCs upcoming 9/11-themed miniseries, appeared on CNNs Showbiz Tonight to relate his own concerns over the projects manipulation of history. When asked if a work derived from 9/11 held a special obligation to the truth, Keitel responded: Absolutely, you cannot cross the line from a conflation of events to a distortion of the event. No. Where we have distorted something we have made a mistakeand that should be corrected.
On Wednesdays Countdown, 9/11 commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste, above, added his voice to those criticizing ABCs credibility-challenged 9/11 docudrama, saying: It was quite clear, as the 9/11 commission report states, that Clinton authorized the CIA and the American forces to get Bin Ladencapture or killand this miniseries does not depict it accurately.
Roger Cressey, a top counter-terrorism official to Bush II and Clinton, called ABC’s upcoming miniseries “The Path to 9/11” something “straight out of Disney and fantasyland. Its factually wrong. And thats shameful.
Keith Olbermann has been on a roll lately, contesting the administrations recent Nazi kick with a series of essays. This time the Countdown host went after the man himself, saying: Mr. Bush, you are accomplishing in part what Osama Bin Laden and others seeka fearful American populace, easily manipulated, and willing to throw away any measure of restraint, any loyalty to our own ideals and freedoms, for the comforting illusion of safety. (Video & Transcript)
Elizabeth Dole was asked by Fox News to name a Democrat who was appeasing terrorists. She couldnt, but instead launched into a nonsensical yarn, loosely linking opposition to the long-ineffective missile defense program and the Patriot Act to appeasement.
Join Truthdig’s Robert Scheer, Tony Blankley and Matt Miller for a lively discussion on the week in politics, policy and culture. This week: Campaign Kickoff and Labor Day Blues.
While out pimping his book, Pat Buchanan made an appearance on Fox News on Wednesday, where he exposed himself with a statement as racist as it was whiny: Id like the country I grew up in. It was a good country. I lived in Washington, D.C., 400,000 black folks, 400,000 white folks, in a country 89 or 90 percent white. I like that country. (Video & Transcript)
In recognition of Bush’s visit to the Utah capital, Mayor Rocky Anderson gave a speech to a crowd of thousands calling Bush a “dishonest, war-mongering, human-rights-violating president” whose time in office would “rank as the worst presidency our nation has ever had to endure.” Thank you, Salt Lake City! Watch it here. Full transcript here (pdf).
Watch with amazement as our commander in chief mangles the English language, and speaks nonsensically about the war in Iraq, America’s standing in the world, his relationship with his father, and Albert Camus. (Via crooksandliars) A must-see!
Rush Limbaugh, pioneer of inane babble, has accused the left, the government and the United Nations of exacerbating the obesity epidemic in America by attempting to feed the hungry. Limbaugh, in a trail of thought Magellan couldn’t have navigated, used as his inspiration a recent study which noted the prevalence of obesity-related health problems in poor communities. (audio & transcript)
As presenters during the annual television Emmy awards, Jon Stewart played straight man to Stephen Colbert as he railed against the “godless sodomites” in the audience.
For a dose of perspective, check out this clip of Nixon V.P. Spiro Agnew lashing out at the press after a magazine called him “the great polarizer in American politics.” Also, listen to what he has to say about anti-Vietnam War protesters.
Join Truthdig’s Robert Scheer, Arianna Huffington, Tony Blankley and Lawrence O’Donnell for a lively discussion on the week in politics, policy and culture. This week: Plan B, for Lebanon, Iraq and America’s women; a look back at a decade of welfare reform; Republican Congressman Christopher Shays says “let’s get out” of Iraq.
Jon Stewart plays up the irony when a Katrina survivor drives from Louisiana to Washington, D.C., for an unsolicited meeting with President Bush. The contrast with Cindy Sheehan is hilarious. Watch it.
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough asks whether Bill O’Reilly has a point when he argues that Jon Stewart isn’t really running a “fake news” show. (Great clips included)
Jon Stewarts “senior black correspondent” Larry Wilmore said that Republicans like Tony Snow and Va. Sen. George Allen are giving real racists like Strom Thurmond a bad name.
We ‘Support’ the Troops by Burdening Them More
