Friday News Roundup - Hour 1
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-06-17/friday-news-roundup-hour-1
Anthony Weiner resigned from Congress under pressure from fellow Democrats. Ten congressmen, including three Democrats, went to court to accuse the president of violating the War Powers Act. But the White House insists the administration’s involvement in the Libyan conflict complies with both "the spirit and letter" of the law. Republicans held their first debate for the 2012 presidential nomination. And Fed Chair Bernanke warned against tying an increase in the debt ceiling to spending cuts. Diane and a panel of journalists discuss the week's top domestic news stories.
Guests
Naftali Bendavid
national correspondent, The Wall Street Journal.
Jeanne Cummings
deputy government editor, Bloomberg News.
Michael Scherer
White House correspondent, Time magazine.
Friday News Roundup Video
The panelists discuss the resignation of Rep. Anthony Weiner following the scandal over lewd images of himself that he sent to several women via Twitter. Bloomberg's Jeanne Cummings says she was struck by the fact that the Democrats engaged in a coordinated effort to push Weiner out the door, even after he argued that there was much support for him in his home district. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi reportedly told Weiner of his supportive constituents, "Consider those rose petals to let you go graciously:"
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Hearings have started in congress on the BATFE's botched sting operations named 'gun runner" and "fast and furious". Weapons were deliberately sold to very suspicious buyers most likely straw purchasers by the urging of the ATF. The idea is said to have been an effort by the ATF to find illegal weapon traffickers on the Mexican side of the boarder. The Justice dept. and the Obama administration have stone walled this issue for months and from what I hear have worked behind the scenes to undermine efforts to get to the bottom of this fiasco. Almost all of the weapons smuggled into Mexico are the kind that many high profile democrats including the President have vowed to make illegal in this country, semi automatic rifles, pistols and scoped rifles. These illegal sales were made in the thousands with the blessing of the government, one particular rifle sold through this operation was used to kill a U.S. government agent. Thank goodness some good ATF agents decided to blow the whistle on this mess. What appears to be emerging from this uncovering is the distinct possibility that all this could have been an effort not to find arms traffickers but to convince the American people that unconstitutional gun laws be enacted in the name of national security.
continued.
To people in the know it is pure nonsense that illegal U.S. arms sales are driving the carnage south of the boarder. Most of the weapons used by the cartels are surplus military weapons left over from decades of unrest in South American countries. The profit margins of the cartels are so large that they can and do buy surplus jet cargo planes for one way transport of illegal drugs and then burn the planes. The billions of dollars in profits for the cartels makes the purchase of military weapons chump change and they can get all the weapons they want from many sources in the world. So for the U.S. government to deliberately facilitate the export of weapons illegaly into Mexico that can be traced back to the U.S. that it wants to ban seems very plausible it is simply planting evidence to make the case for gun control. When you see a machine gun or a rocket launcher used by the drug cartels there is no way it came from the U.S. because there are no legal over the counter sales of such weapons in this country period. Do you really think Hugo Chavez would not sell arms to the drug cartels ?
Signed, a concerned member of the militia, a not so free citizen of the United States.
monte, I'm concerned that you feel such a lack of freedom here. I think you should leave and find your freedom. Maybe you could take on Chavez or something.
I was disappointed that Democrats took away the democratic rights of Weiner's constituents to decide his fate. I really thought he was going to stick it out.
On Thursday June 16th New York Times reporter James Risen wrote an article " EX Spy Alleges Bush White House Sought to Discredit Critic" Risen states quote "A former senior C.I.A. official says that officials in the Bush White House sought damaging personal information on a prominent American critic of the Iraq war in order to discredit him." End Quote. That promiinent American critic is University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole whom the Diane Rehm show had on several times after the invasion of Iraq. Can your guest please discuss this revelation. The prominent progressive blogs were all over this story yesterday. As well as some conservative sites.
Professor Cole and others are demanding an investigation into these claims
Hope Diane has Prof Cole and James Risen on to discuss this issue
Article
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/us/politics/16cole.html?_r=1
Can your guest please discuss the fact that President Obama just signed a four-year extension of the questionably named PATRIOT Act, with three central provisions that permit warrantless spying by government agencies on US residents. Congress just rushed this extension through with slight of hand manuevers and opponents of this extension who wanted a public debate were shut down by Boehner and Reid.
Please discuss how patriotic it is to spy on US citizens and then call it the "Patriot Act"
Thanks Monte
Dear Diane,
Thanks for such a great show....you're one my links to home (DC) away from home.
My comment is regarding the current subject, ie, will Obama be elected? Do voters really have such a short memory? Is the country under the impression that the present state of our economy and the high unemployment rate is a result of the Obama Administration? Have they forgotten how much we've spent in Iraq and Afghanistan and the culture of deregulation that were brought to us courtesy of the Bush Administration and the GOP majorities? Perhaps I'm asking this question to the wind but it boggles my mind that voters think that replacing Obama with the same folks to did as much as they could to get us into this mess, would actually be a viable solution.
MSNBC's Chris Matthews keeps pounding on that Mitt Romney is "dull" not "exciting" I keep arguing that Romney is one of the more perfect Father Knows Best, Fred MacMurray on My Three Sons, Ward Cleaver on Leave it to Beaver candidates of all times. He even looks like Alec Betz the handsome father on the Donna Reed Show. The rock steady, economically successful, wise father figure. Who needs "exciting" when you have "Father Knows Best"
Do your guest think Romney has what it takes? I do. Even though he has a long way to go before the election in 2012. I think Romney will be a formidable candidate against Obama
Now that Congressman Weiner has resigned, who will take on the issue he was shining a light on just before the fatal tweet -- Justice Clarence Thomas's unreported household income via his wife from powerful conservative groups? This should not be ignored.
Barbara Bellows-TerraNova
Salt Lake City, Utah
European newspapers carried stories in the early year of the Bush Presidency that the Republicans goal was to create a budgetary crisis to justify their long-term goal to cut spending on social programs. This appears to be true. Their ultimate goal is to destroy any program that helps the poor and the middle class and to give tax cuts to the rich and powerful to help consolidate even more power. The rich don't need us except as 'cogs in their machine' and they don't need any particular country. They can live anywhere in the world and provide themselves with top-notch security. The Republicans are their paid servants to do their bidding. It is the only thing that makes sense for supporting an economic theory and program, tax cuts to the wealthy, that is supposed to create jobs. What job? Where are the jobs? This is a failed policy that is destroying our country but they continue to say 'tax cuts will lead to job creation'. The data shows a much different result which no jobs and majority of wealth being concentrated in the top 0.001% of Americans. One of the greatest promoters of this policy are the owners of FOX News, Rupert Murdoch, who was given citizenship by President Bush.
I understand the top power brokers, the wealthiest Americans and corporate leaders, to manipulate our leadership into maintaining the fiscal boom, their tax cuts, but, it's amazing that an unemployed or underemployed American to believe that this failed policy is helping them. The Democrats have done a lousy job explaining to the public that their needs are not being served by these tax cuts. Ignorance, ignorance, ignorance.
I just read that Wall Street is going to cut staff after giving themselves outrageous bonuses after nearly destroying the global economy. Do they have no shame? NO!!!
People in the US are selling weapons to Mexican drug cartels. President Obama can't make guns illegal (even if he wanted to do so)- only Congress can do that and if they tried it would be found un-Constitutional.
There are no sensible gun control laws. Anybody can buy anything. Anybody can sell anything to anybody.
You need to calm down. Your paranoia adds nothing to the discussion. It is just crazy noise.
Was the heckler at Congressman Weiner's last press conference a writer for the Howard Stern show rather than one of Weiner's constituent? This was stated on Morning Edition today. If so, please comment on the attempted "ambush."
Thanks,
Marto
Is there a source for simplified information on the U.S. budget problems? I would like to see year to year comparisons of revenues and major spending categories showing $ and % increases/decreases. That info would be helpful to American citizens trying to have an honest discussion of what kind of society we want to have, what government programs we want and what we are willing to pay for.
Plant or not, it was a beautiful moment.
Small media brains would certainly explain their support for Obama. Hillary noted this.
Ryan's conflicts of interest: Please, you Democrats have completely run out of ideas. He can't vote on some issue that indirectly effects less than 5% of his in-laws annual income. You people are pathetic. You should hold Nancy Pelosi and her tens of millions of dollars of personal investments to the same standard.
comment removed
Look at how much time was spent talking about the Presidential election which is 17 months away. It's as much a distraction as the Anthony Weiner case. We could have talked about the Afghan war costing $1.5 Billion a week; the T. Boone Pickens bill; the Wisconsin Supreme Court decision to allow the restraint of collective bargaining to take place.
University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole started his blog "Informed Comment" in 2002 in response to the push to invade Iraq by the Bush administration. Thousands of us started following what he had to say about the middle east. Now millions. It turns out that the Bush administration had asked the CIA to dig into Cole's personal life. Blackball him from news programs, panels etc. There is an article in the New York Times by James Risen about the Bush administration going after him. He has been on the Diane Rehm show twice as well as Rachel Maddows I think once. Would be great if you BBC folks would have Cole on. Amy Goodman of Democracy Now had him on her program yesterday
http://mondoweiss.net/2011/06/nyt-report-uncovers-bush-plot-to-torpedo-j...
‘NYT’ report uncovers Bush plot to torpedo Juan Cole, but ignores some crucial questions
by Hugh Sansom on June 16, 2011
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James Risen of The New York Times reports today on a former C.I.A. official's charges that the Bush administration sought to torpedo world-renowned Middle East scholar and blogger Juan Cole, professor at the University of Michigan and author of the blog Informed Comment. The story is notable for several reasons, including at least two the Times entirely omits or severely downplays.
According to Risen, Bush people were unhappy with a prominent academic voicing — and getting a wide hearing for — deep criticism of and opposition to the Iraq war. Former C.I.A. intelligence officer Glenn Carle, "a top counterterrorism official during the administration of President George W. Bush, said the White House at least twice asked intelligence officials to gather sensitive information on Juan Cole."
HOPE YOU HAVE PROFESSOR JUAN COLE ON YOUR PROGRAM TO ASK HIM ABOUT THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION GOING AFTER HIM.
Here is Professor Cole's website
http://www.juancole.com/2011/06/retd-cia-official-alleges-bush-white-hou...
Ret’d. CIA Official Alleges Bush White House Used Agency to “Get” Cole
Posted on 06/16/2011 by Juan
Eminent National Security correspondent at the New York Times James Risen has been told by a retired former official of the Central Intelligence Agency that the Bush White House repeatedly asked the CIA to spy on me with a view to discovering “damaging” information with which to discredit my reputation. Glenn Carle says he was called into the office of his superior, David Low, in 2005 and was asked of me, “ ‘What do you think we might know about him, or could find out that could discredit him?’ ”
Low actually wrote up a brief attempt in this direction and submitted it to the White House but Carle says he intercepted it. Carle later discovered that yet another young analyst had been tasked with looking into me.
It seems to me clear that the Bush White House was upset by my blogging of the Iraq War, in which I was using Arabic and other primary sources, and which contradicted the propaganda efforts of the administration attempting to make the enterprise look like a wild shining success.
Carle’s revelations come as a visceral shock. You had thought that with all the shennanigans of the CIA against anti-Vietnam war protesters and then Nixon’s use of the agency against critics like Daniel Ellsberg, that the Company and successive White Houses would have learned that the agency had no business spying on American citizens.
#The well traveled blogs that covered this story on Thursday June 16th.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/06/16/cia_juan_cole/index.html
Did the CIA spy on Iraq war critic Juan Cole?
Former agency officer claims the Bush White House asked for personal information on antiwar blogger
I can't believe Michael Scherer said that Obama can't connect with out of work people - this is a quality that is almost exclusively a Republican trait.
I think one thing the Democrats don't realize is that most people have almost no understanding of economics. They think that people will wise up to the fact that what the Republicans are doing, in terms of cutting the budget, preventing tax increases & threatening not to raise the debt ceiling, is going to stifle the economy in the long run, & they will turn against them at the polls. Not so! Most people just hear the sound bites the Republicans throw out & believe them, having no comprehension of the truth. I think the media, & the Republican dominance of it, have this country on a very scary, slippery slope!
Thank you, fandango! I second that.
To 202Rolando: Apparently, the majority of Americans have selective amnesia. As I stated in my comment, most of them just believe the sound bites they hear on the media, planted by the republican PR moguls. I think the Democrats need to learn to fight fire with fire. We need to learn how to deliver our own one-liners. "Keep it simple, Stupid!"
hainc on June 17, 2011@ 10:42 am wrote: “I was disappointed that Democrats took away the democratic rights of Weiner's constituents to decide his fate. I really thought he was going to stick it out.”
Oh, of course, it’s all the Democrats' fault. Republi-Cons had nothing to do with it. They, and the conservative Faux News and Squawk Radio, didn’t mount a drumbeat hounding him and demanding his resignation. (Of course they did.)
The really interesting question, though, is how the GOP handles its own sex scandals. Of course, we all know the answer:
Senator Craig: (caught in that bathroom in 2007, and having pled guilty to the crime later that year) remained in office until his term ended in 2009.
Senator Ensign: who insisted Clinton should resign, remained in office for two years after his own infidelity (and far worse) was exposed, resigning to avoid sanctions the Ethics Committee would have imposed as it released its damning report about him (which has been forwarded for criminal investigation).
Senator Vitter: is STILL in the Senate, despite proof that he has been “professionally” unfaithful, with women who were paid to assist him in that. (Oh, and his constituents re-elected him after the scandal broke.)
Governor Sandford: after hiking “the Old Appalachian Trail” (with the help of his Argentine mistress), remained in office (although he was censured, the proverbial “slap on the wrist”).
So, I’m not “overwhelmed” by the new-found Republi-Con cries for purity and integrity we are seeing everywhere.
P.S. - There was another two other prominent politicians caught in sex scandals at around the same time: Governors Elliot Spitzer of New York and Jim McGreavey of New Jersey. The difference? They resigned! (And they were nasty, liberal, “anti-family values” Democrats!)
“The best thing for Obama would be for Gaddafi to be forced out, or leave.”
I don’t know what that statement says about the guest’s priorities, but I would think Gaddafi leaving would be the best thing for the Libyans and the world!
Indeed, leaving aside the question of the Law (the War Powers Act), this is the reason why we need to stay involved in the campaign to be rid of him.
However, for me the Law is always the pre-eminent issue. So, I welcome taking this important question to the courts.
Ciao, for now.
WillT26 wrote:
"People in the US are selling weapons to Mexican drug cartels. President Obama can't make guns illegal (even if he wanted to do so)- only Congress can do that and if they tried it would be found un-Constitutional.
There are no sensible gun control laws. Anybody can buy anything. Anybody can sell anything to anybody.
You need to calm down. Your paranoia adds nothing to the discussion. It is just crazy noise."
Sorry to have to inform you but you have once again embarrassed yourself.
We will be hailed as liberators, welcomed with open arms and loved! Kill the guy already and let's make some peace.
Do American people have amnesia? No, it is just our cultural ‘spin’, how the American dream is pandered to our child like egos to make a buck for the money changers. I am guilty, yes; I want that house, that education, that job, that success and I will pay for it because I Believe. Shame on me; shame on the money changers. I’ve grown up a little now and don’t believe everything I am told anymore, but I look around me and see so many silent when the emperor is wearing no clothes. I am reading this wonderful book, “Lives Without Balance” by Steven Carter and Julia Sokol and just read Franklin Roosevelts 1933 Inaugural speech where he likens the economic crisis to a foreign foe and it is the primary issue to address. Likewise Carter and Sokol also echo Roosevelt’s admonishment of unscrupulous money changers and ideas of what success is. Two great reads I wish I would have read so long ago – wisdom. That amnesia, wow go read that inaugural address, it is like it was written for today. It’s the game, the pandering of the American dream by the money changers, who have sold their soul and their country to the devil. How are we going to get it back?
kathleen, I appreciate your input here quite frankly most of what I read here is shallow nonsense. The bottom line is we mostly speak to ourselves and can only hope we ourselves get something out of it. The frustrating part of life is being on the right side of a argument does not win an argument. Most people are lured in by an eye and ear pleasing presentation and reality be damned. If I may be so bold I will assume we both speak to the loss of freedom.
Etaoin:
I responsed to your questions on "Job Growth" Monday June 13th. I know you appreciate in me giving you a "head Up"