Tag Archives: president-bush

On Martha’s Vineyard, ‘Miss Me Yet?’ Bush T-Shirts Outselling ‘I Vacationed with Obama’ Ones

Posted on August 21, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Picking up on a nugget ( my tweet ) surprisingly included in a Wednesday Boston Globe article, on Thursday night FNC’s Bret Baier reported in his “Grapevine” segment: “President Bush is apparently more popular than President Obama on Martha’s Vineyard – at least when it comes to clothing.” Baier relayed the day the First Family arrived on the Massachusetts island: When the First Family vacationed there last year, Obama-themed trinkets were flying off the shelves. Now, the owner of a store called the Locker Room says this summer’s best-selling shirt features Mr. Bush. And even Democrats are buying it. It reads: “Miss Me Yet? How’s that Hopey-Changey Thing Working Out for Ya?” In an August 18 Globe story, “ Vineyard buzzes less for Obamas’ second visit ,” Milton J. Valencia reported on the Oak Bluffs store: …One barometer of the plunge in excitement has been the sale of Obama-themed T-shirts, which designers had been banking on after the craze of last year. Clothing labeled with the president’s name sold by the thousands, helping to salvage a tough economic year for the island. But this year’s T-shirt sales are much less brisk, merchants say. “Last year, Obama gave you goose bumps, but I don’t think you’re going to see that this year,’’ said Alex McCluskey, co-owner of the Locker Room, who sold more than 4,000 “I vacationed with Obama’’ T-shirts last year. But so far this year, he said, his hot item is T-shirts of former President Bush asking, “Miss me yet?’’…

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CBS’s Schieffer: Obama Right ‘Intellectually’ on Mosque, Just Bad Politics

Posted on August 16, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Appearing on Monday’s CBS Early Show to discuss President Obama showing support for a controversial mosque being built near Ground Zero, Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer agreed with the President’s sentiment but lamented the political fallout: “The President said and made the right intellectual argument, but I’m not sure that it was great politics for him to say it at this particular time.”   Schieffer began by outlining White House talking points on the issue to substitute co-host Erica Hill: “The story they tell is the President thought this Ramadan dinner – these were dinners that were started after 9/11 by President Bush as an outreach to demonstrate that our problems are with terrorists, not with people who are Muslims – he thought this was an appropriate place to say what all Americans believe, in that everyone has a right to practice their religion in this country.” Schieffer later added: “I would agree with the White House.” At the same time, both Hill and Schieffer fretted over the political fallout, particularly Republican criticism. Hill teased the segment at the top of show by declaring that Obama’s “apparent defense of the proposed mosque at Ground Zero has Republicans howling.” Schieffer remarked: “Republicans are trying to take every advantage of this they can.” Continuing to worry about the political impact of the President’s comments, Hill asked: “And this could feed into the criticism of this current administration, that this is an administration that is out of touch, that is, in many ways, seen by folks across the country as being elitist. Is that what you’re hearing?” Schieffer replied: “Yes. Well, that’s exactly the spin that Republicans are trying to put on it, is that – you know, that the President’s not paying attention.”    Earlier, Schieffer described the anxiety of Democratic candidates: “But the response to this has, even from some Democrats, has been, ‘why did he have to say it at this particular time and about this particular site?’ ‘Yes, intellectually that is the correct argument,’ they say, ‘but is it entirely appropriate at this very special place, to try to link a Muslim worship center with this 9/11 ground?'” He later added: “…a lot of candidates around the country are saying, ‘look, with the economy in the shape it’s in, we need all the help we can get. And we really wish the President had not said this.'” Here is a full transcript of the August 16 segment: 7:00AM ET TEASE ERICA HILL: Political firestorm. President Obama launches a five-state political blitz today but his apparent defense of the proposed mosque at Ground Zero has Republicans howling. ED ROLLINS: First, Bob, it was probably the dumbest thing that any president has said or candidate has said since Michael Dukakis said it was okay to burn the flag. 7:01AM ET SEGMENT ERICA HILL: First, though, we do want to get you to this. President Obama heading to Wisconsin this morning. The purpose of his trip, though, could end up taking a backseat to the controversy over the building of a mosque in New York City. CBS News chief White House correspondent Chip Reid has the details. CHIP REID: The President heads out this morning on a three-day cross-country trip. He’ll be talking about the economy and raising money for fellow Democrats. The White House hopes this trip will help change the topic after a weekend of controversy over the President’s comments about building a mosque near Ground Zero. [ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Obama & The Mosque; President’s Comments Could Derail Economic Message] The First Family spent a quick weekend on the Gulf coast of Florida, swimming, mini-golfing and boating. The visit was intended to highlight the fact that on most of the Gulf Coast, the water is clean and the beaches are open. But the President’s own comments over the weekend overshadowed the trip. Speaking at a White House dinner Friday celebrating Ramadan, the President waded into the already deepening political controversy over whether to build a mosque two blocks from the site of the 9/11 attacks in New York City. BARACK OBAMA: Let me be clear, as a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. REID: Saturday, the President seemed to back off from his initial comments, saying that while Muslims have the right to build the mosque, that doesn’t mean they should. OBAMA: I was not commenting, and I will not comment, on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there. REID: White House officials insist the President is not backing down from his original statement, but some Republicans say the White House is trying to have it both ways. PETER KING [REP. R-NY]: The inference or the clear impression everyone came away with is that he was saying he was supporting the mosque at Ground Zero. And he can parse it later on, and sort of back away, but the fact is, that is clearly the impression, I believe, he wanted to leave. REID: The White House says the President has no regrets about his comments even though they turned a local issue into a national debate. Traveling with the President, Chip Reid, CBS News, Joint Base Andrews, Maryland.          HILL: And joining us from Washington now is CBS News chief Washington correspondent and host of Face the Nation, Bob Schieffer. Bob, always good to have you with us. BOB SCHIEFFER: Thank you, Erica. HILL: We know and you know, of course, from talking about this on your show yesterday morning, the firestorm that these comments have ignited, and really, shots coming from both sides. So, why would the President, especially in this time when Democrats are really fighting to hold control of Congress in November, why make these comments at this point? [ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Obama & The Mosque; Will Comments Impact Midterm Elections?] SCHIEFFER: Well, that’s just the question I asked White House officials and some people in the administration last night. The story they tell is the President thought this Ramadan dinner – these were dinners that were started after 9/11 by President Bush as an outreach to demonstrate that our problems are with terrorists, not with people who are Muslims – he thought this was an appropriate place to say what all Americans believe, in that everyone has a right to practice their religion in this country. But the response to this has, even from some Democrats, has been, ‘why did he have to say it at this particular time and about this particular site?’ ‘Yes, intellectually that is the correct argument,’ they say, ‘but is it entirely appropriate at this very special place, to try to link a Muslim worship center with this 9/11 ground?’ And clearly, Republicans are trying to take every advantage of this they can. Now, what White House officials say is, ‘look, this next election is going to be about the economy. It’s not going to be about whether they should build a mosque at Ground Zero.’ But a lot of – a lot of candidates around the country are saying, ‘look, with the economy in the shape it’s in, we need all the help we can get. And we really wish the President had not said this.’ The White House will say, ‘if you do the right thing, the politics will take care of itself.’ Clearly, there are some Democrats who are worried about that, though. HILL: They are a little worried. And this could feed into the criticism of this current administration, that this is an administration that is out of touch, that is, in many ways, seen by folks across the country as being elitist. Is that what you’re hearing? SCHIEFFER: Yes. Well, that’s exactly the spin that Republicans are trying to put on it, is that – you know, that the President’s not paying attention. What really bothers some Democrats, though, is that when the President gets into something like this, when he makes a statement like this, it elevates it to a national issue and every single Democratic candidate running for office is now going to be asked about it and will now have to take a position on something that they were hoping they would be able to say, ‘this is just a local issue. It’s up to the folks in New York to decide what to do about this.’ Yes, I would agree with the White House. The President said and made the right intellectual argument, but I’m not sure that it was great politics for him to say it at this particular time. HILL: Bob Schieffer, always good to have you here. Thanks. SCHIEFFER: Thanks, Erica.

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Newsweek Defends Obama’s Leisure But Mocked Bush’s Working Vacations at Texas Ranch

Posted on August 16, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

While Newsweek’s David Graham is hard at work defending President Obama’s summertime leisure — “A Short History of Presidential Vacation Outrage” — by insisting that the press corps always complains about any president’s vacation habits, it’s instructive that he failed to indict his own magazine. “War on terrorism stalled, economy on precipice, time for a month on the Crawford ranch.” Accompanied by a disapproving down arrow, that’s how the August 5, 2002 Newsweek feature “Conventional Wisdom” derided President Bush’s working vacation a mere three months before midterm elections in his first term. Elsewhere in Newsweek’s coverage at the time, writers put the term working vacation into derisive quote marks, and otherwise presented President Bush’s time away from Washington, including a quasi-campaign swing called the “Heartland Tour,” as a nakedly political move to bolster his sagging approval numbers. From Martha Brant’s August 7 “Web exclusive” entitled “Look Who’s Back”: The White House went on the defensive: aides whipped up a WESTERN WHITE HOUSE logo to tack up behind the podium at the makeshift briefing room at the Crawford Elementary School. They cut his vacation short a few days, apparently so it wouldn’t be the longest on record (which is held by Richard Nixon at 31 days). The Republican National Committee did a focus group on the president’s vacation. Pollsters found that most people believe that the president is never really on vacation. That’s the line they’re sticking with this year. The president, Press Secretary Ari Fleischer explained the other day, “is going to bring the White House with him to Crawford.” But all their efforts didn’t stop Letterman from making fun of Bush’s vacation again this year. The other night he gave the “Top Ten Signs President Bush Needs A Vacation.” No. 7: It’s been, what, two weeks since he went fishing? Late-night comedy and the RNC focus group agree on one thing: Bush needs to remain proactive on vacation, especially now with the Iraq situation bubbling up and the economy flagging. This month Bush will meet with his defense secretary as well as the president of Mexico. He will host an economic forum at Baylor University in Waco. And he will visit at least 15 cities, spending about half his vacation time on public events in politically significant states. At least once a week, he’ll attend a so-called “political activity” (read: fund-raiser). But the main thrust of August is what the White House bills as Bush’s “Home to the Heartland” return tour. This is Hughes’s specialty: keeping Bush in touch with average people and their issues. He’ll appear at events with “real Americans,” as one top aide explained, and talk to them about their economic “concerns.” There’s nothing like a photo op with a prize-winning pig at the Iowa State Fair to get out the message: I’m not from Washington, D.C., where pork has a whole different meaning. A year earlier and prior to the 9/11 attacks, Anna Quindlen took a different tack, calling on President Bush in an August 27, 2001 piece to push for European-style August vacations for everyone: Mandate the closing of everything else in the country during the month. The liberals would love the energy savings, the lights off in office buildings, the fossil fuels unburned. Conservationists would be thrilled as national parks and forests revive without the tramp-tramp-tramp of millions of tourists. Health-care professionals would breathe a sigh of relief as Americans walked to the homes of friends, elevating their heart rates and, in the process, seeing people they’ve been meaning to get together with for ages. Republicans could tout the family-values aspect of four weeks in which parents would be more or less forced to stay home and talk to their children. And talk about community activism! Instead of government programs or even nonprofit organizations taking meals to the homebound by van, ordinary Americans could find it in their hearts to carry a nice plate of pasta next door. Newspapers and news magazines would close, too, and television could run previously shown programs. (Whoops! I guess someone already took care of that one!) George W could mash his finger without any snide Gerald Ford comments, and he could take his vacation without any editorializing. No press, no mail, no bills, no sweat. The stock market would have a much-needed timeout; so would Major League Baseball, especially those Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Sure, there would be opposition from conservatives who object to big government’s interfering with the right to develop blocked arteries and sleep difficulties. But research on work habits, as well as observation of the typical American tourist ripping though a European cathedral in record time, suggest that there’s a deep-seated inability to relax in the U.S. of Type A. Each president brings to the job his own ethos, his own character, his own karma. George W. Bush has it in him to become the Vacation President, to lead a grateful and very tired nation to a place in which its citizens can stop and smell the onion rings.  Fast forward nine years to President Obama’s second year in office, and Newsweek’s David Graham all but sighs at the supposed pettiness in the media when it comes to criticizing any president’s vacation habits: Despite White House spokesman Bill Burton’s suggestion that the Obamas are being harassed with unprecedented attack for their recent leisure travels, this is nothing new. As Kenneth Walsh says , criticizing the president’s cottage destination has become a cottage industry in D.C.: “No matter who is the president, the opposition party delights in criticizing him for taking time off, billing it as insensitive to the problems of struggling Americans, demonstrating aristocratic excess, or betraying some hedonistic character flaw.” The only thing new are the creative methods of finding fault with taking time off. Ironically what Newsweek is attempting to do is defend an approval rating-challenged liberal president by capitalizing on the public’s low approval of the press corps. This is further amusing given the magazine’s complaint in the February 1 “Conventional Wisdom” feature that Obama was too docile, not “fighting” hard enough. “Yo, professor: CW wanted someone to fight for us. Not lead a bloodless seminar,” Newsweek huffed as it lamented that “Obama celebrates first year [in office] by losing Kennedy seat to GOP. Will he finally take the gloves off?” Perhaps Newsweek is now convinced that the more pugilistic Obama sounds ahead of the midterms, the more damage he’s likely to do for his allies in Congress. 

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The Progressive Magazine Commemorates Anti-America Historian Howard Zinn for the Fourth of July: ‘Put Away the Flags’

Posted on July 4, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Fireworks, barbecue, parades on the Fourth of July … but hold the flags. Sounds ridiculous, right? Although Howard Zinn died earlier this year, that was his suggestion back in 2006. And what does The Progressive magazine do this July 4th? They trot Zinn’s anti-American sentiments out for their left-of-center audience by republishing his piece, “Put away the flags.” “On this July 4, we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blesse[d],” Zinn wrote. “Is not nationalism — that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder — one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred?” And that disgusting sentiment comes in addition to Progressive magazine editor Matthew Rothchild’s immature July 3 anti-patriotism piece saying that “between God, country, and apple pie, I’ll take the apple pie” suggesting patriotism is “toxic.” Although it’s not out of the norm to see left-wing vile coming from such a publication, it is a little surprising to see anti-American tripe – including Zinn’s tired and nearly four-year old screed about America’s role in history. “How many times have we heard President Bush tell the troops that if they die, if they return without arms or legs, or blinded, it is for ‘liberty,’ for ‘democracy’?” Zinn wrote. “One of the effects of nationalist thinking is a loss of a sense of proportion. The killing of 2,300 people at Pearl Harbor becomes the justification for killing 240,000 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The killing of 3,000 people on Sept. 11 becomes the justification for killing tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan and Iraq. And nationalism is given a special virulence when it is said to be blessed by Providence. Today we have a president, invading two countries in four years, who announced on the campaign trail in 2004 that God speaks through him.” Perhaps it is wishful thinking for the brilliant minds at The Progressive magazine to set aside one day to commemorate the birth of the world’s greatest nation and not someone who loathed the United States.

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The Progressive Magazine Commemorates Anti-America Historian Howard Zinn for the Fourth of July: ‘Put Away the Flags’

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238 presidential scholars: Bush worst president of modern era, fifth worst in US history

Posted on July 1, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

t's one thing for a coterie of liberals at a late-night Washington soir

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NBC’s Todd Defends Obama ‘Twitters’ Gaffe: ‘Written Incorrectly in His Prepared Remarks’

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

On NBC’s Today on Friday, White House correspondent Chuck Todd preemptively dismissed any criticism of President Obama referring to “Twitters” during a joint press conference with Russian President Dimitri Medvedev on Thursday: “It turns out he didn’t misstate it. It was written incorrectly in his prepared remarks.” During Todd’s report, a clip was played of Obama noting how in a visit to California’s Silicon Valley, Medvedev went to “visit the headquarter of Twitters.” Obama simply placed an ‘s’ after the wrong word. Rather than let the minor gaffe stand, at the conclusion of the report, Todd made to sure to explain the typographical error to viewers: “You did not mishear. The President did say the word ‘Twitters,’ plural.” Despite Obama’s inability to correct the remarks off the cuff, Todd solely blamed a White House staffer for the mistake: “A speechwriter falling on his sword on that one.”                              Todd quickly changed the subject to a similar gaffe made by President Bush: “…it did bring back memories of President Bush one time referring to those ‘internets.'” The media was certainly never quick to come to Bush’s defense after a verbal misstep.   In his report, Todd observed how Obama got a “diplomatic head-start” on the upcoming G-20 economic summit in Canada by meeting with Medvedev and how “…the President treated Medvedev to cheeseburgers at one of the President’s favorite burger spots in northern Virginia.” Here is a full transcript of Todd’s June 25 report: 7:07AM MATT LAUER: President Obama will be keeping an eye on what’s happening in the Gulf today from Toronto. He’s heading there this morning to join a host of world leaders at the G-20 summit. NBC’s chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd is there as well. Chuck, good morning to you. CHUCK TODD: Well, good morning, Matt. The President is scheduled to arrive here later this morning. He’s going to have a new Wall Street reform deal in his back pocket. It’s something he’s going to try to use to convince these other nations from around the world to do similar action. On Thursday he met with an important G-20 ally, the Russian president. Believe it or not, it’s the seventh time these two have met face-to-face. Security here at the G-20 meeting is tight. The Canadian government has spent more than any other host country ever to try to make sure world leaders are safe. Heading into the important economic summit, the President got a diplomatic head-start by meeting with one of America’s most touchy allies, Russia, and its president, Dimitri Medvedev. BARACK OBAMA: America’s most significant national security interests and priorities could be advanced most effectively through cooperation, not an adversarial relationship, with Russia. TODD: And yet, despite the global economic concerns and the presence of the Russian president- UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Does the change in command in Afghanistan- TODD: A reporter’s first question brought the President back to the issue that’s dogged him all week, Afghanistan. OBAMA: I am confident we’ve got a team in place that can execute it. TODD: The President promised no more personnel changes after Wednesday’s dramatic firing of General Stanley McChrystal and the President made sure to leave himself wiggle room on the question of whether the U.S. will actually go through with its plans to draw down troops in July, 2011. OBAMA: We didn’t say we’d be switching off the lights and closing the door behind us. We said as we begin a transition phase in which the Afghan government is taking on more and more responsibility. TODD: Medvedev was asked if he had any advice for the President, given Russia’s long and costly war in Afghanistan. DIMITRI MEDVEDEV: But I try not to give pieces of advice that can’t be fulfilled. TODD: But Defense Secretary Robert Gates did have words of advice. ROBERT GATES: No one, be they adversaries or friends, or especially our troops, should misinterpret these personnel changes as a slackening of this government’s commitment to the mission in Afghanistan. OBAMA: Visit the headquarter of Twitters. TODD: On a lighter note, President Obama noted President Medvedev opened a Twitter account and joked it was a 21st sentry substitute for the old Cold War hotline. OBAMA: I have one as well, so we may be able to finally throw away those red phones that have been sitting around for so long. TODD: Earlier in the day, the President treated Medvedev to cheeseburgers at one of the President’s favorite burger spots in northern Virginia. MEDVEDEV: Probably it’s not quite healthy but it’s very tasty and you can feel the spirit of America. TODD: Alright. You did not mishear. The President did say the word ‘Twitters,’ plural. It turns out he didn’t misstate it. It was written incorrectly in his prepared remarks. A speechwriter falling on his sword on that one. But it did bring back memories of President Bush one time referring to those ‘internets.’ Matt. LAUER: Alright, Chuck Todd, thank you very much. He’s in Toronto this morning.

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Behar: Prayer ‘Take the Place of Thinking’

Posted on June 22, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Oh, Joy of little faith. On the June 22 episode of “The View,” co-host Joy Behar criticized prayer, saying it “takes the place of logical thinking, then I think that’s dangerous.” Behar’s attack on prayer came as she defended comedian Janeane Garofalo, who during a June 16 appearance on Behar’s Headline News show called prayer “anti-intellectual” in criticizing President Obama’s reference to prayer during his speech about the Gulf oil spill. Behar said Garofalo should have said prayer was “un-intellectual,” not “anti-intellectual.” “Faith is something that you feel,” Behar said. “Thinking is something that you do with your brain. It’s different.” Behar’s criticism of prayer riled co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who challenged the attack. BEHAR: When prayer takes the place of logical thinking, then I think it’s dangerous.             HASSELBECK: Prayer’s not illogical.             BEHAR: No. But it takes the place of thinking. HASSELBECK: No it doesn’t. That’s a complete bigoted statement to say that when I’m praying, I’m not thinking.             BEHAR: How dare you say that to me! Excuse me! After Behar clarified her statement by saying that intellectual people can pray, she called for people to pray preemptively for regulation. Behar has a history of criticizing prayer. Behar never challenged Garofalo when she ridiculed people who pray on her own show; she only clarified the statement almost a week after the interview. Last April during a discussion with Phil Donahue on “The Joy Behar Show,” she made an outlandish comparison of President Bush’s prayers to God with a terrorist’s prayers to Allah. Behar has also claimed that prayer hinders medical and scientific advances , calling it a “distraction.”

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Shill Baby Shill: Rachel Maddow’s Oily Misdirection From Democrats Supporting Offshore Drilling

Posted on June 16, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

There are lies, damned lies and statistics, so the saying goes. Add Rachel Maddow’s lies of omission to the list. Maddow is doing her best to shield MSNBC viewers from awkward facts about political support for offshore drilling. Here’s how she began her show on Monday, with an announcement from July 2008 by then-President George W. Bush —  BUSH: For years my administration has been calling on Congress to expand domestic oil production. Unfortunately, Democrats on Capitol Hill have rejected virtually every proposal. … One of the most important steps we can take to expand American oil production is to increase access to offshore exploration on the Outer Continental Shelf, or what’s called the OCS. … Today I’ve issued a memorandum to lift the executive prohibition on oil exploration in the OCS. MADDOW: That was President George W. Bush in July 2008 lifting the presidential ban on offshore oil drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf. It was a presidential ban that had been first put in place by President Bush’s dad in 1990 after the big Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska. Here was why Bush the second said he was lifting the drilling ban of Bush the first — BUSH: New advances in technology have made it possible to conduct oil exploration in the OCS that is out of sight, protects coral reefs and habitats, and protects against oil spills. MADDOW: See, the technology is so safe now there’s no need to worry about oil spills any more. Now as I mentioned, President George W. Bush here was rescinding the presidential drilling ban that his father had put in place after the Exxon Valdez disaster. He was sort of trying to box Congress in, into repealing Congress’s drilling ban as well. Congress’s ban was even older than the presidential ban. Congress’s ban had been put in place starting in the early 1980s. BUSH: With this action, the executive branch’s restrictions on this exploration have been cleared away. This means that the only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action from the US Congress. … But Congress has restricted access to key parts of the OCS since the early 1980s.  Maddow’s misdirection begins here — MADDOW: Well, why had Congress done that? Why had Congress restricted offshore drilling since the early 1980s? Ah, because of this. (Footage shown of Ixtoc oil spill) The Ixtoc oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. It blew up in 1979. They did not cap it until well into 1980. It released an estimated 140 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. In trying to figure out what to do about that, Congress decided to put a moratorium on drilling in hundreds of thousands of acres of federal waters. Sorry, no more drilling. Did you see what just happened, people?! After a huge spill like that, you can see how politicians at the time maybe might want to stop and reassess things for a while. After the big Ixtoc disaster, that’s what Congress did. After the big Exxon Valdez disaster, that’s what the first President Bush did. And after the most recent BP oil disaster in the Gulf, that’s what President Obama has done, implementing a six-month moratorium on deepwater oil drilling.  Moratoriums on drilling are what we have done in the past to respond to big oil disasters. The idea, presumably, is that we’re going to make drilling safer before we allow it to expand again. And even though President Bush touted that supposed improved safety back in 2008 when he was lifting the presidential moratorium, we no longer have to take anyone’s sober assurances about things like that. That issue has now been factually, conclusively settled. Notice what Maddow does — Bush the younger is depicted as an irresponsible outlier, running against the grain in comparison to three other parties: Congress imposing its moratorium in the early 1980s, Bush senior issuing his presidential ban in 1990, and Obama ordering a six-month moratorium after the BP spill. What Maddow couldn’t bring herself to acknowledge in the excerpt quoted above, nor in the entirety of the opening segment on Monday ( linked here ), is that Congress — and a Democrat-led Congress at that — ended the offshore drilling moratorium in September 2008, two months after the younger Bush’s announcement. Nor could Maddow bear to divulge the equally awkward fact that Obama came around to Bush’s enthusiasm for offshore drilling — weeks before the deadly Deepwater Horizon explosion on April 20. This deceitful whitewashing, however, pales compared to the shabbiness from Maddow last night while reporting on five oil company CEOs testifying before a House Energy subcommittee (second part of embedded video) — MADDOW: For oil industry executives, even the biggest accidental blowout ever, 140 million gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, even Ixtoc, even that is apparently not a big deal when they think about their own industry. It’s not part of what they’ve learned about oil and oil companies and drilling. It’s not something that they talk about, it’s not a term they’re familiar with, it’s apparently, if you’re the head of an oil company, if you’re the CEO of an oil company, it’s apparently something you’ve never even heard of before. Footage is then shown from that day’s subcommittee hearing attended by executives from BP America, Exxon, Chevron, Shell and ConocoPhillips, and this question from Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky. — WHITFIELD: I was reading an article about a well referred to as I-X-T-O-C 1, which I think was back in 1978 or ’79. … Are any of you familiar with the history of that particular well blowing in the Gulf? Any of you aware of the facts of that? Whereupon audio from the footage is silenced, a BP America executive begins to answer but cannot be heard, and Maddow makes this bizarre claim — MADDOW:  Yeah, we didn’t edit that to take away the sound. That’s them, they just, blank stares all around. Except for the man I just censored to keep you from hearing him speak. Except for that. When Maddow does things like this, is her rule of thumb — What Would Mao Do? Where Maddow sees blank stares, I see noncommittal responses from four oil executives to an exercise in Kabuki theater guilt by association. (For those interested in what BP America chairman Lamar McKay had to say, here is a link to C-SPAN’S coverage of the hearing; go to 1:30:52 in the clip . C-SPAN helpfully keeps the audio intact for the entire segment).

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What 60 Minutes Missed in Uganda AIDS Story

Posted on April 6, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

This past weekend, 60 Minutes aired a story about the $15 billion anti-AIDS initiative known as PEPFAR, the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, which was launched by President Bush in 2003. For the story, correspondent Bob Simon traveled to Uganda, a country that has lost more than a million lives to AIDS and has since benefited greatly from PEPFAR. But I noticed one glaring omission in the piece. When Simon interviewed Pastor Martin Ssempa, one of Uganda’s most well-known Christian ministers, he failed to mention Ssempa’s role in the country’s controversial anti-gay bill. It’s true that Ssempa has been one of Uganda’s leading HIV activists and that over the years his preaching of an abstinence-only approach has made him a darling of many US evangelicals. But more recently, Ssempa has become the Pied Piper of Uganda’s anti-gay campaign, leading rallies and protests to push the legislation through. We're in the process of editing the piece we shot on Uganda's anti-gay bill for the upcoming season of Vanguard. And where the two stories intersect is over the question of what effect anti-gay legislation might have on the fight against HIV/AIDS in Uganda. Many health care professionals we spoke to worry that the bill could have a very negative impact on whatever strides the country has made to combat HIV/AIDS. We’ll be exploring this question and more in the upcoming documentary. Follow the Vanguard team on Twitter. Also on the Vanguard blog: + Tutu: In Africa, Human Rights Moving “Backwards” + Ugandans Rally In Support Of Anti-Gay Legislation + Wrapping Up in Uganda + Uganda in Pictures added by: MarianaVanZeller

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Conservative journalist David Frum admits that the GOP screwed up concerning the health care bill

Posted on March 21, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

I know you are feeling good about today, but I encourage you to read this and allow yourself to feel even better! Conservatives and Republicans today suffered their most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s. It’s hard to exaggerate the magnitude of the disaster. Conservatives may cheer themselves that they’ll compensate for today’s expected vote with a big win in the November 2010 elections. But: (1) It’s a good bet that conservatives are over-optimistic about November – by then the economy will have improved and the immediate goodies in the healthcare bill will be reaching key voting blocs. (2) So what? Legislative majorities come and go. This healthcare bill is forever. A win in November is very poor compensation for this debacle now. So far, I think a lot of conservatives will agree with me. Now comes the hard lesson: A huge part of the blame for today’s disaster attaches to conservatives and Republicans ourselves. At the beginning of this process we made a strategic decision: unlike, say, Democrats in 2001 when President Bush proposed his first tax cut, we would make no deal with the administration. No negotiations, no compromise, nothing. We were going for all the marbles. This would be Obama’s Waterloo – just as healthcare was Clinton’s in 1994. Only, the hardliners overlooked a few key facts: Obama was elected with 53% of the vote, not Clinton’s 42%. The liberal block within the Democratic congressional caucus is bigger and stronger than it was in 1993-94. And of course the Democrats also remember their history, and also remember the consequences of their 1994 failure. This time, when we went for all the marbles, we ended with none. (You can read the rest of Frum’s article here ) I have made this point over and over again on this blog. The reason the Republicans fought so hard, and played so dirty, is because they knew that passing this bill would be extremely helpful to the Democrats in the long run. When they saw it getting closer and closer to passing the Republicans and the Teabaggers, became more and more horrified that after this was passed, without their support, they would be marginalized or even cease to exist. I don’t how long it will take before

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