Shoot It To Me Straight

Its pretty apparent that White House counsel, Greg Craig has been offered up as sacrificial lamb over President Obama's failure to keep the closure of GITMO on his own self imposed timeline. Now the truth is the real failure came from the White House when Republicans and their wingnut allies in the blogosphere and on talk radio took to the airways to fear monger over bringing GITMO detainees to America in order to make sure they faced justice. Not only did the White House not attempt to counter this ridiculous messaging, they didn't even support the Democrats in Congress who tried to do so on their behalf.

Now I remember one of the members of Congress who was most forceful in pushing back on the right wing bullshit was Congressman Jim Moran. It turns out that he isn't happy about how Craig is being treated and he doesn't mind telling it like it is.

"Those of us on the Hill who wanted to defend the administration's policy because we knew we had the facts on our side got no back up, no support, no information," Moran said, speculating that the Obama team simply didn't want to spend political capital on the issue.

That became clear to Moran and others in Congress in May, when the war funding bill was moving through Congress and Republicans took to the airwaves to decry the plan to shudder the prison. "We were at the Alamo, and the cavalry was galloping in the other direction," said Moran, "I think it was a political decision. I don't know who made it, but I very much doubt it was Greg Craig."

Other key appropriators who were trying to fund the effort, such as defense subcommittee chairman Jack Murtha, D-PA, and Appropriations chairman David Obey, D-WI, couldn't and wouldn't fight the Republican machine without Obama's help.

"They talked to the White House and the White House wasn't willing to stand alongside them," said Moran. The thinking among Democrats was, "If we can't take advantage of Obama's credibility on this issue, we probably are not going win."

Now the administration is trying to press the reset button on Guantánamo, but Moran argued the damage is done and it is now nearly impossible to sell the idea of moving the prisoners to U.S. soil.

"This is their first major fuck up, and it's an enormous fuckup, because now that you've lost ground you're not going to be able to recover it," said Moran.

Moran is harsh here but exactly on point also. To me this situation along with the fight over the stimulus bill showed that the White House was somewhat gun shy on their own legislative agenda. This signaled to he right wingers that as long as they were loud and as long as they were repetitive, they could make President Obama and his White House back away from issues they saw as politically difficult. It will be interesting to see where we go from here because Moran doesn't seem very hopeful about the closing of GITMO anymore. And honestly considering how he himself put his ass on the line only to get sold out by he White House, can you blame him at all?

Real Talk From Bill Maher

I don't agree with Bill Maher's anti religous views, but I couldn't have said what he says in this clip any better myself. President Obama and his White House needs to grow a pair. Just sayin.

Don't Let The Smooth Taste Fool You

I missed Harold Ford Jr on "Morning Joe" today but Ta Nehisi Coates posted the video of him talking about Skip Gates' arrest. I have to say that he handled his business today for a change.

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Now Coates has some thoughts on why he believes Harold Ford Jr is more animated on this subject than usual. I think that he is partly right that class has something to do with it. But I also grew up in Memphis just a couple of years behind Ford Jr. and my folks were all big time supporters of his dad. The truth is the dude grew up priveleged yes, but his family is mad gully. His uncle, John Ford, of course has made the most news for getting caught up in two different corruption probes at the same time. But many of his other relatives both in and out of politics have also been on the wrong side of the law. His father, Harold Ford Sr. was even charged with some federal crimes back in the day but got off. And his dad also famously referred to east memphis which was overwhelming predominantly white at the time as a place where the "devils" lived after he won reelection in 1994. So the guy isn't somebody who has been shielded from the realities of being a black man in America.

And the truth is the reason WHY I am usually so hard on Harold Ford Jr is because I am used to him representing like he did today or being even more passionate on everyday issues. But since he has been appearing on Morning Joe its like he is just a lap dog for Joe Scarborough. So for me it always seemed like he was selling out so he could keep coming on the show. Now the thing of it is today just so happened to be a day when Scarborough wasn't there so I have to wonder if that factored in to why he spoke more freely. But what I really hope is that we see more of this from him from this point forward.

They Can't Handle The Truth

Shepard Smith apparently doesn't give a damn what wingnuts say about him for speaking truth to power:

At various points on his Fox News program, the anchor Shepard Smith irritated Rush Limbaugh, teased Glenn Beck and grilled Samuel J. Wurzelbacher (a k a Joe the Plumber) over his attacks on President Obama. But it was not until he forcefully confronted the topic of hateful e-mail — some from Fox’s own viewers — that he drew fire over his approach.

On June 10, Mr. Smith was in the middle of three hours of coverage of the killing at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, in which officials identified an elderly anti-Semite as the killer. He then mentioned a prior warning by the Department of Homeland Security about right-wing extremist groups and connected that to the angry e-mail messages he had been receiving.

“When a crazy man has walked into a Holocaust museum and shot the security guard, maybe that’s an appropriate time to warn people: you’ve got a crazy person in your life, keep an eye on him,” he said in an interview in his Manhattan office last week.

snip

“It is the reporting of this news organization that Barack Obama is a citizen and he is not a Muslim,” Mr. Smith said, touching on a subject — Mr. Obama’s birth status — that has animated conspiratorial discussion in conservative circles, from relatively obscure far-right Web sites like Atlas Shrugs all the way up to the loudest mainstream conservative voice, Mr. Limbaugh.

Without specifically addressing Mr. Limbaugh (whom he said he enjoys), Mr. Smith said: “An unreasonable comment to me is beginning with a statement that is contrary to fact and moving on from that premise: ‘Barack Obama is not a citizen; he is a Muslim looking to take down the nation.’ When you begin with that premise, you are out of bounds.”

He said he was trying to counter “an ideological base” that argues: “The president is illegitimate. The country is off the rails. It’s been hijacked.”

snip

Then there was Mr. Smith’s confrontation with Mr. Wurzelbacher. Mr. Smith pressed him on his claim that a vote for Mr. Obama would be a vote for the death of Israel.

“I just want to make this 100 percent perfectly clear,” Mr. Smith said, closing the interview. “Barack Obama has said and demonstrated repeatedly that Israel will always be a friend of the United States, no matter what happens once he becomes president of the United States. His words. The rest of it? Man, some things; it just gets frightening sometimes.”

He also argued against the imprisonment without trial of the terrorism suspect Ali al-Marri, and memorably banged a desk during another debate, saying: “We are America; we don’t torture. And the moment that is not the case, I want off the train.”

These positions have hardly endeared him to the conservative base. Mr. Limbaugh criticized Mr. Smith after the e-mail episode; so did Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs, who called him a “pompous elitist” and said on the site that he should be fired.

Whatever the criticism from outside, Mr. Smith said that, inside Fox, there is no conflict: “Relations in the building are perfect. Roger is 100 percent supportive.” And he said he continues to be “very happy at Fox.”

Like I have said in the past, I will never be a fan of FoxNews, but Shep at least gives them one person who, for the most part, shoots straight.

Stop Playing Games

President Obama takes on FoxNews and the tea baggers.

"You Can Call Cheerios Frosted Flakes If You Want To, But Its Still Cheerios"

Shep Smith serves up another classic today when talking about torture. He connects the dots and even invokes the name Pol Pot to point to how absurd the argument for torture has become. I can't wait till he ends up at MSNBC after FoxNews fires him. lol

Shepard Smith Is Definitely NOT Pro Torture

Tell us how you REALLY feel Shep



I have said it before, I will say it again, Shepard Smith is the only person worth watching on FoxNews.

*Update: More from HuffPo