Download | Play 
Download | Play (h/t Heather)
The surge is working, so sayeth the latest NIE.
Or at least, that’s what the White House says it says. Unfortunately, since the White House refuses to declassify it, they’re just expecting us to take their word for it (and we all know how well that’s worked out for us in the past). The Congressional Democrats have issued a strongly worded letter to express their dissatisfaction. (Ironically, Russ Feingold has issued a strongly worded letter to the Congressional Democrats, asking to think for once about not enabling Bush’s plan).
Rachel Maddow, doing a fantastic job of subbing for Keith Olbermann on Friday’s Countdown (c’mon MSNBC, get with the program already–Rachel did better on her first appearance than Joe Scarborough, David Gregory and Tucker Carlson in all their appearances put together) speaks to VoteVets Jon Soltz about the politicization and incomplete picture of what’s happening in Iraq that the White House is trying to paint in preparation for Gen. Petraeus’s testimony next week.
MADDOW: And in a democracy, the idea is that when a democracy goes to war, the citizenry is informed about why and how it’s going and what the point is. Jon, do you expect that the testimony from Gen. Petraeus and Amb. Crocker is going to be substantive and frank, or are you expecting White House P.R.?
SOLTZ: Well, obviously it’s White House P.R., because it is Gen. Petraeus and Amb. Crocker. Now that’s not to say they’re going to lie, they’re two very honorable men who deserve Americans’ respect. But this is not about a couple of streets in Baghdad, this is not about troops and tactics. The question for Democrats next week and organizations like ours, and VoteVets, is we’re going to broaden this debate. The fact of the matter is that Adm. Fallon retired because he was being undermined by a direct channel that the Iraq commander had to the White House. And so the fact of the matter is that Adm. Fallon, who was concerned about Afghanistan you know, had to retire. So where is the Centcom commander? Where is the Secretary of Defense? Where is the Chief of Staff for the Army, Gen. Casey, to say the Army can’t hack this, this troop deployment any more? So they’re giving you a very limited scope and that limited scope will be honest, but we’re not…they’re not going to tell you that George Bush and John McCain have our country in a policy of retreat and people who served in the military, we’re tired of it.
Filed Under: Countdown/Keith Olbermann, Iraq, Rachel Maddow, Supporting our Troops, White House
No Trackbacks To “Countdown: N.I.E. or L.I.E.?“
Thanks for recognizing the great job Rachel did. Will anyone else mention declassifying the NIE?
Maddow was exceptionally good on KO.
Her own show, please?
L.I.E.- also a great indy movie from ‘01 w/an amazing cast:
L.I.E. (Long Island Expressway)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0242587/
Hubris goes before a fall. Neither party wants to stop the hegemony, the Dems will only use a soft glove, as opposed to the Republican rough boot, and we’ll pay for it, badly.
We are so screwed. Why didn’t Kucinich or Gravel win the Nomination for the Democrats? They were the only anti-war candidates….
Rachel was very good last night. Much better than David on that Race for the Whitehouse Show. That would be a good spot for her with a different title and a different format.
General_Rennenkampf @ 4:
Agree.
Maddow needs to replace Tweety IMMEDIATELY
Conservative Failure # 1, honoring and protecting the constitution.
wheee @ 8:
Which naturally led to their following thousands of failures.
Terrible @ 9:
I agree.
hey rachel….im a lipstick lesbian stuck in a middle aged mans body
marry me
uncle joe hussein mccarthy @ 11:
My thoughts exactly. I can’t get enought of her, but I have to say, she seemed uncomfortable in that structured format.
She’s much better when she is free to beat up on Joke’s Car Burried and Bay Buchannon’s brother.
White House response : ” So ? “
Nicole is spot on! Rachel Maddow deserves her own show. She is the unquestioned master ( mistress?) of on air debating.
Man, what a lineup it would be to have Maddow and Olberman back to back!!!
And no racist, sexist, completely self-absorbed and irrelevant Tweety.
C’mon MSNBC!!
McCain doesn’t like being called a warmonger.
Guess the truth hurts.
Warmonger - One who advocates or attempts to stir up war.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....I&NR=1
OOOOOOOOH yeah!
And this White House has the credibility to say “you can take my word for it”?
I DON’T think so.
*
Rachel Maddow has a show, it’s on air america at 6pm ET M-F. She did well on TV but I like her even better on the radio show that I’ve been listening to for a year or so. I hope she stays on AAR but also continues to contribute to msnbc.
lipstickhottie @ 7:
We’re on the same page with that one. During the show I em’d phil.griffin@nbc.com & steve.capus@nbc.com along with letters@msnbc.com to tell them how terrific Maddow is and how we don’t need 3 hours of tweety, er, Matthews a day. Send your comments in a nice way & who knows, maybe they’ll hear us. I wish they’d have given her a show instead of Shuster. Boy was she missed on his weak panel yesterday….
Why don’t they give Rachel her own show? She is probably one of the more honest of all the anchors. Tweety, Joe, and Tucker are a joke.
Since there is no way I can see to contact the Web master, I’ll say it here. Good-bye to this chronically underpowered site.
I wonder how scared the President got when the read the letter from the dems??
I always count on Countdown, no pun intended, for the truth. However, I think the standard stock footage of the troops breaking down doors, firing off 1000’s of rounds of one munition or another needs to be balanced with footage of the results, ie. frightened, injured and dead civilians. I think shots like that are readily available. Wishful thinking on my par, I guess.
Chris, This President is such a egomaniac that he isn’t afraid of of anything. You know, like the truth. The Democrats are spineless. If they would try to impeach him, I have no doubt the country would back them. Except the 28% or so that are either totally ignorant or the right-wing lunitics.
It just confirms, these NIE shenanigans, that Bush is no leader and never has been. he doesnt care about the military, not in the true way he should, as he continues to use them to illegally occupy a country that we invaded for no valid reasons at all. they are stretched way thin and he has flatly declared no draft on his watch. he never was a leader and can never hope to be. he’s nothing. we should be done with this petulant brat but we, sigh, have to wait until jan 20 2009. unless the dems impeach him of course. dont expect that to happen.
Just as I said over at “The Hounds”.
You go, Rach!
I didn’t know that she also has, I think, a Masters in Political Science, and is also a Rhodes Scholar…..
Eat your hearts out Seannie,and Billo….
Dnurse
I love Rachel and I was disappointed that she had to talk to Dana Milbank and Jonathan Alter. WHEN will we get new voices? when Alter said that McCain gets a PR pass because he has made himself ‘accessible’ I wanted to puke. In Rachel’s host role she I guess had to let it go? She is too good for this panning.
Sure add Maddow. After all the All Obama network can always use another Obama shill like her. MSNBC means never having to pretend to be honest. She’ll fit right in.
uncle joe hussein mccarthy Says:
hey rachel….im a lipstick lesbian stuck in a middle aged mans body
marry me
——————
You can’t have her, uncle joe. I too am a lipstick lesbian stuck in a middle aged mans body. Get away from my girl or I will scratch your eyes out.
;)
LibVet
And in a democracy, the idea is that when a democracy goes to war, the citizenry is informed about why and how it’s going and what the point is.
There’s the problem…the United States isn’t really a democracy any longer.
Soltz begins with “Well, obviously it’s White House P.R., because it is Gen. Petraeus and Amb. Crocker. Now that’s not to say they’re going to lie, they’re two very honorable men who deserve Americans’ respect.”
Then later Soltz says right out that “they’re not being honest.”
There’s more than one kind of lie. If Petraeus and Crocker leave out details vital to the public’s understanding what’s really going on in Iraq, then those are called lies of omission.
I do not respect people who lie to me and otherwise try to deceive me for political purposes. Some Americans understand just how much harm such people do to this nation.
I loved Rachel…..thank you MSNBC and Keith Olbermann. I just told some neo-cons that they should relax,and that diebold will make McPain win and we’ll all live happily ever after. Silence….it was great.
kenoshaMarge Says: Sure add Maddow. After all the All Obama network can always use another Obama shill like her. MSNBC means never having to pretend to be honest. She’ll fit right in.
Kenosha, Maddow isn’t a shill for Obama. She said that when it comes to Clinton vs. Obama she’s an agnostic.
I don’t want to over-emphasize this secret NIE because I suspect there’s some political jiu-jitsu going on here.
1. Bush administration says this NIE won’t be released to the public.
2. Bush critics say, “They’re trying to cover up the real truth about Iraq.”
3. Administration reluctantly agrees to release NIE.
4. NIE says everything is hunky-dory.
5. Administration says, “Well, you’re the ones who said it was the real truth.”
They control the horizontal. They control the vertical. Let’s be careful about attaching too much importance to reports that they control.
chris @ 22:
You mean when “uncle cheney” read it to him? I’m sure his reaction was similar to the My-Pet-Goat incident.
I understand the NIE was in it’s final stages before the fighting in Basra started.
However, that caveat aside, high numbers of the civilians left in Iraq are still being killed, but not counted due to weird finegaling of numbers so people like Petraeus can claim their crime victims, not war victims.
Less Americans are being killed, but they’re staying holed up in the Green Zone, and only move in large groups.
JerryO @ 30:
It’s not just in a Democracy, Sun Tzu would call that the Moral force.
Rachel needs to move into Randi Rhodes slot on Air America and Sam Seder can then take her slot. This will allow her the time needed to get to Olberman’s show and allow her 3 hours on her own show!
I respect General Betrayus… and his sidekick.
I love Rachel but I thought her performance on Count Down was not very good. She was tense and here delivery was fast and strained - way too fast. It effected her interview with the vet, causing him to rush in to call into “the fact of the matter” cliche a dozen times.
She has her own voice, which is quite good, but was not able to transition to the more balanced mode necessary for moderating - let the guests be the heavies.
Also, she hasn’t quite figured out how to present herself to the camera - she usually comes off looking a little snarky on her guest appearances.
I think if she has her own show she needs a co-host to play straight man to her.
Content-wise, I enjoy her far more than anyone else on TV news.
chester young @ 40:
Give her time.
You can’t put Rachel on the air with her own show while Keith is on the air with his own show. That would make MSNBC the Fox News for the left. I think they’re smart to just make her a contributor and have her fill in for Keith when he’s out. They would instantly lose credibility by pandering so hard.
Emma Hussein Goldman @ 41:
I agree, give her time. I remember when Shuster would choke while hosting Hardball. He’s still not very good, but he has improved a lot over the last couple of years.
Madge has the bloody nerve to mention a left leaning
network when our entire media rivals the Goebbels network
in Nazi Germany. Stick with FOX MS/MR. Madge.
The ONLY reason Rachel doesn’t have her own show yet is because she’s an extremely smart, strongly opinionated, well spoken female lesbian. All four of those things are what most of the other white, older, straight & dull opinioned broadcasters are scared of ‘casue they have to feel secure in their manhood by keeping those such as herself ‘in her place’ I guess.
Why tell the truth when a lie will support their crazy logic! Dubya and company are so far from the truth the Hubble couldn’t find it!
Rachel…you were awesome!
MSNBC is off their rocker….to put David “I ask a hard question once every 99 questions” Gregory on is ridiculous….
Hopefully this will become a frequent gig for you when KO is off….and then to your finally getting that slot that David Gregory is wasting right now…
Rachel Maddow is unique to cable news. She seems to be the only one tuned into the best political reporting and analysis today: the interwebs.
Not only did she ace her first test, but I found her more enjoyable than Keith. Keith’s heart and brain are in the right place but his fondness for awkward histrionics have been getting chronic lately. A little subtlety from Keith would be pleasantly shocking.
Informed Public Debate?
What a concept! Except I think it got outlawed by the Patriot Act!
Informed public debate is the last thing this administration wants. They’ve been playing their dirty political games ever since 911. It’s obscene! What shame G.W. Bush and Dick Cheney have brought to our nation! Tragedy and shame! Who the hell is going to get us out of this ugly position? Something tells me none of the current presidential candidates will manage that trick. We are in deep shit!
I don’t like Rachel as much as Amy, but I could warm up to her. She’s got to stop wagging her head around so much. Anyway, she’s way better than Shuster. I hate him.
It just seemed like she was trying to imitate KO because she was on countdown. No biggie. It’s not really her, but it was a good impersonation. Were she to get her own show, I think you’d see her more loose.