Even Fox News’ Shep Smith said it: America doesn’t torture ... although the recently released set of torture memos belies that declaration. Meanwhile, President Obama’s none too pleased with credit card companies, and Chrysler has hit the skids. Was there any good news this week? Tony Blankley thinks so.
So, Sean Hannity told Charles Grodin on Wednesday night that he would agree to be waterboarded “for charity”—and you’d better believe that that sort of talk wasn’t lost on Keith Olbermann. On Thursday’s “Countdown,” Olbermann upped the ante for Hannity’s date with “enhanced interrogation techniques” by offering to open his own pocketbook for the cause.
What has emboldened Dick Cheney and Karl Rove to so brazenly criticize the new administration? Has Cheney lost his trademark sneer since he left the White House? All this and more in this clip from Wednesday’s “Daily Show” episode.
What is it with politicians who don’t seem to understand that anything they say these days may later haunt them on TV or even The Internets? Consider, for example, former President Bush’s three-word declaration of yore: “We don’t torture.” Oh, really?
Clearly, several dozen delegates at the United Nations anti-racism conference in Geneva, Switzerland, disagreed with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s assessment of Israel as a “racist government” on Monday.
Celebrity gossip impresario and Miss USA pageant judge Perez Hilton didn’t get the answer he wanted when he asked Miss California whether states should legalize gay marriage, but he saved his ire for a post-show video blog, where he called the contestant a “dumb bitch (okaaaaaay?).”
It hasn’t taken Benjamin Netanyahu long to show his true colors by creating new hoops for the Palestinians to jump through in order to resume peace negotiations with Israel. This week’s “Mosaic Intelligence Report” has the story.
Did the nationwide “tea parties” on April 15 constitute a much-needed boost for the Republican base? Was the Obama administration right to release the latest batch of torture memos from the Bush years?
Now that the Department of Justice has released the latest stunning Bush-era torture memos, this Al-Jazeera English interview with former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, in which he admits that the Bush administration flouted the Geneva Conventions and that he probably should have resigned, is even more alarming.
Stephen Colbert is a big fan of the National Organization for Marriage’s “Gathering Storm” ad—“It is like watching ‘The 700 Club’ and The Weather Channel at the same time!” But now the storm is hovering over Colbert’s own state, and he’s getting nostalgic for more traditional times of yore.
With an electorate estimated at 714 million voters, India began a massive five-part election on Thursday. The U.S. could learn a thing or two from the world’s biggest democracy. Indians have used e-voting since 2004, without the kinds of shenanigans that have become so familiar. Check out the BBC’s mega-coverage, including this gallery.
Yes, Keith Olbermann and other pundits (paging Anderson Cooper) had a field day with the right wing’s adoption of “tea bagging” as the driving metaphor behind their Tax Day protests. But no, the double entendres didn’t start “on the blogs,” as Bill O’Reilly’s “nice lady” guest Amanda Carpenter suggested on his show.
The first family showed off new puppy Bo on Tuesday. He’s a Portuguese water dog, which appears to be a kind of mutant poodle with webbed feet. President Obama claims they are used to herd fish, though we’ll believe that when we see it.
It’s hard to say what made Columbia University professor David Buckner pass out during Monday’s episode of “Glenn Beck,” but perhaps standing so close to the Fox Newser and being obliged to describe a complex economic scenario with the aid of a cheesy graphic entitled “Path to Destruction” had something to do with Buckner’s sudden need to take a break from full consciousness.
Well, he actually meant piracy, but we get the picture: President Obama followed up on this weekend’s Somali pirate showdown with a salute to the crew of the Maersk Alabama and a pledge to crack down on the problem in the future. Looks like the pirate contingent is planning to take a similar tack toward American sailors.
The whip-smart and ever-sly Gore Vidal visited “Real Time” on Friday, giving his historical and sometimes hysterically funny take on the state of the United States. He also revisited a few key moments from his personal history, illustrated by some priceless archival footage found by Bill Maher’s crack research team. Is it too soon to make an Amelia Earhart joke?
President Barack Obama draws upon the traditions and meanings behind “two very different holidays”—Passover and Easter—as his jumping-off point for his weekly address about the state of the country and the world ... and about his time rubbing elbows with other world leaders during the past week.
The economy’s not the only thing that “Left, Right & Center” co-conspirators Matt Miller, Tony Blankley and Robert Scheer are thinking about this week, but it’s a biggie again, as are the Obama administration’s announcement about defense spending and the changes under way in American foreign policy. Also: Somali pirates!
Two protesters storm the stage during a talk by Lawrence Summers, who tries to laugh off the incident. If only there were something funny about President Obama’s top economic adviser making $8 million last year from some of the financial firms that have benefited from his economic policies.
Uh, so we’re not completely sure what to make of this trailer for the Japanese animated series “Cat Shit One” (?!), which features a specialized squad of mercenary sniper rabbits duking it out in the desert with turban-clad camels. Don’t be fooled by the cute-and-fluffy tail action—these bunnies are killing machines.
Rep. Michele Bachmann is sounding the alarm to radio-show host/wingnut Sue Jeffers about the scary government-controlled future that will surely result if Barack Obama has his way with us—starting with “mandatory” re-education camps for American children. And don’t even get her started on SCHIP.
So, Matt Lauer busted right out of the gates with the sex-scandal questions in his interview with Eliot Spitzer on Monday’s “Today” show, taking far too much time to extract mea culpas from the fallen former New York governor before getting to the better part of the program, during which Spitzer holds forth about the economy.
William K. Black made a name for himself busting bad bankers and the lawmakers who loved them during the savings and loan scandal. His book, “The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One,” says it all. Here he tells Bill Moyers that the treasury secretary is a failed regulator engaged in the cover-up of a massive fraud.
Honduras’ Top Court Refuses to Reinstate Zelaya
