Tag: Rachel Maddow

Rachel interviews Tom Ridge

I can’t believe they have the clips up this fast already. That was fast.

had to share, I know alot of you dharmadawgs dont “do” teevee. heh. edger, check out the one with Iraq in the topic title.

egads. on youtube too, embed below…

Since the GOP is fond of saying that “the USA has the Best Health Care System in the World”, I decided to do a little Fact Checking. … And according to the World Health Organization:

Health Performance Rank By Country

United States of America:

Performance: On level of health : 72nd

Performance: Overall health system: 37th

Health expenditure per capita in international $’s

Country Rank:  USA: 1st

http://www.photius.com/ranking…

We’re Number One! alright — BUT only in terms of HOW MUCH WE PAY PER PERSON, for our Health Care! (1st in the World, in terms of Cost)

That’s sounds like a contest, that we just don’t want to keep winning!

Crossposted at Daily Kos

   The lesson we should learn from Dr. Tiller’s murder is that if someone is demonized enough in the mass media, some crazy person will try to kill them.

   Marabout40 has an excellant RecListed diary at Dkos titled Thank You Rachel Maddow & Frank Schaeffer!. Within that diary there is a video featuring Frank Schaeffer which I strongly suggest that you watch. In that video Mr. Schaeffer is quoted as saying :

    “Their coded message to their own lunatic fringe is very simple, ‘Go for broke’

~snip~

    [It is} literally leaving a loaded gun on the table, saying ‘The first person who wants to use this, go ahead’“

   I do not wish to fear monger, but I genuinely fear for our President, and our Democracy.

as reported on Rachel Maddow’s Thursday show:

Congressman Weiner’s bluff-calling, put-up-or-shut-up amendment to the House health care bill (H.R. 3200):

Really Republicans, don’t like Publicly run Health Care?

Would you care to put your Vote where your rhetoric is,

to eliminate a very successful Public Health Care Program — Medicare?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

So what happened?

Will Medicare be relegated to the “junk heap of history” as another “failed idea” of the Liberal Agenda? … well in a word, HARDLY!

Way back in March of 2009, Rachel explained the “Highway Robbery” which happened on Wall Street, using a few simple word-pictures. (ie. simple Frames).  These perhaps deserve a quick review …

Rachel Maddow – Cops and Robbers

Link to Rachel’s very humorous  Clip

Great Framing Rachel! … I love it, when Progressive Talkers, make learning FUN! The simpler the Word-Pictures, the better the Frame!

“Is our childrens learning?” as George W. used to ask.  

Could be, … Maybe we just needed to “Turn the Page” …

The Presumption of Innocence, and other Quaint Ideals

Presumption of Innocence

(Innocent until proven guilty)

A principle that requires the government to prove the guilt of a criminal defendant and relieves the defendant of any burden to prove his or her innocence.

The presumption of innocence, an ancient tenet of Criminal Law, is actually a misnomer. According to the U.S. Supreme Court, the presumption of the innocence of a criminal defendant is best described as an assumption of innocence that is indulged in the absence of contrary evidence

[…]

the presumption of innocence is essential to the criminal process. The mere mention of the phrase presumed innocent keeps judges and juries focused on the ultimate issue at hand in a criminal case: whether the prosecution has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the alleged acts. The people of the United States have rejected the alternative to a presumption of innocence-a presumption of guilt-as being inquisitorial and contrary to the principles of a free society.

http://legal-dictionary.thefre…

Rachel Maddow – former Rice confidant Philip Zelikow on the torture memos, part 1

copyright © 2009 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org

In his attempt to counter a perceived threat to America, Philip Zelikow, the policy representative to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the National Securities Council (NSC) Deputies Committee, unexpectedly became the threat from within the White House.  

The Bush Administration believed the best way to deal with suspected terrorists was to inflict extreme physical and psychological pressure on these perilous persons.  Mister Zelikow offered his dissent.  In a written and verbally stated opinion, Philip Zelikow contradicted what the occupants of the Oval Office accepted as necessary.  “Individuals suspected of terrorism, can be legally tortured.”  

A short time after the Office of Legal Council (OLC) issued the now infamous judgments which allowed for officially sanctioned torment, Mister Zelikow, his superior, who was then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and her Legal Adviser, John Bellinger, gained access to the torture memos.  After a review, Philip Zelikow stated his concern.  He sensed others within the Administration might share his angst.  However, no one, inclusive of Mister Zelikow,  publicly voiced an apprehension, that is, not until this past week.

It’s been an emotional two days for those of us who don’t sleep well knowing our country almost certainly committed war crimes.  It’s a kneejerk issue for me — I’ll admit that without apology.  If America doesn’t hold its leaders accountable for torture, then it’s no longer my America.  And I love my America dearly.  Country aside, the core of my being is offended by the existence of torture in this world.  If some of my money bought waterboards, I now have a stake in the company.  Call it moralizing if you like, but I just can’t live with that.  And yes, I become very emotional.

But tonight, after an especially discouraging day, hope comes from the Rachel Maddow Show in the form of interviews with the estimable Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Michael Isikoff from Newsweek Magazine.  For me, sources don’t get much more reliable than Senator Whitehouse.

From Politico:

As one who was a victim of violence and hate during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, I am deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign.  What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history.  Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse.

During another period, in the not too distant past, there was a governor of the state of Alabama named George Wallace who also became a presidential candidate.  George Wallace never threw a bomb.  He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights.  Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama.

As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all.  They are playing a very dangerous game that disregards the value of the political process and cheapens our entire democracy.  We can do better.  The American people deserve better.

link: http://www.politico.com/arena/…