Wednesday night on “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart hit Karl Rove and Bill O’Reilly with damning evidence of their hypocrisy regarding Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
While Rove recently praised Palin’s experience as the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Stewart showed video of Rove trashing Virginia Governor — and former Richmond Mayor — Tim Kaine’s executive experience, listing all the cities that are bigger than Richmond and calling such a pick “political.”
Then, after recent video of O’Reilly describing Bristol Palin’s pregnancy as a family issue, Stewart showed a clip of the Fox News host blaming Jamie Lynn Spears’ parents for her teenage pregnancy.
Finally, after showing video of Dick Morris complaining about the rampant sexism in the media coverage of Sarah Palin, Stewart unveiled a clip of Morris saying that Hillary hides behind the sexism defense, and that anytime “the big boys” pick on Hillary, “she retreats behind the apron strings.”
“In Dick Morris’ defense,” Stewart said, “he is a lying sack of sh*t.”
Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden said yesterday that he and running mate Barack Obama could pursue criminal charges against the Bush administration if they are elected in November.
Biden’s comments, first reported by ABC news, attracted little notice on a day dominated by the drama surrounding his Republican counterpart, Alaska governor Sarah Palin.
But his statements represent the Democrats’ strongest vow so far this year to investigate alleged misdeeds committed during the Bush years.
“If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone for a criminal violation, they will be pursued,” Biden said during a campaign event in Deerfield Beach, Florida, according to ABC.
“[N]ot out of vengeance, not out of retribution,” he added, “out of the need to preserve the notion that no one, no attorney general, no president — no one is above the law.”
“If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone for a criminal violation…” OF COURSE there is. George Bush is a well known war criminal, it’s just a matter of time now.
CNN’s Campbell Brown slaughters John McCain’s official liar spokesman Tucker Bounds (yes that’s his unfortunate name) on Sarah Palin’s national security experience. Bounds tries to lie about Sarah’s extensive experience as commander of Alaska’s National Guard and Campbell exposes his BS.
Georgian television reporter Tamara Urushadze was shot in the arm today while reporting on live television. Unbelievably she tries to continue her report as colleagues bandage her up. In the dramatic footage she says that her arm had been grazed by a sniper bullet.
I was fortunate to go along with the Coast Guard on Thursday for one of their semi-monthly flights to patrol the coast of Alaska and train in the Arctic.
We flew on an 8 1/2 hour mission from Anchorage to Barrow in a HC-130. A whopper of a plane.
The missions are called Arctic Domain Awareness Flights. The Coast Guard conducts Arctic training, ice and coastal erosion observation and vessel documentation.
The crew were total professionals and very accommodating to the media as we crawled all over the plane and them.
For more on the mission, check out the Coast Guard’s website here.
Operating the HC-130.
Cockpit of the HC-130
Petty Officers David Sexton and John Ferrari.
Petty Officer John Ferrari operating a video camera mounted on the bottom of the HC-130.
Near Barrow.
The crew lowered the cargo door and allowed a pool camera to shoot some video.
Coast Guard Admiral Gene Brooks and North Slope Borough Mayor Edward Itta. Itta said it is “a special pleasure and honor” to work with the U.S. Coast Guard.
Dried salmon and caribou in Barrow. Nearly every house had some kind of meat drying outside.
Beach erosion is a major problem in the arctic, sandbags are everywhere.
We passed by Denali on the way home. It was incredible to be that close to the mountain by air.
Summit of Denali. This is shot with a fisheye lens. We were a lot closer.
The crew returns to base.
VIDEO
(August 2008) — Members of Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak conduct rescue swimmer operations offshore of Barrow in support of the Arctic effort. USCG video by PA1 Kurt Fredrickson
Ted Stevens had a biker/supporter rally at his campaign headquarters in Anchorage yesterday. About 100 or so hard-core Republicans cheered and shouted “6 more years.” I think they meant in office, not years in jail after his impending convictions.
Kate Klonick, from my favorite political news website TalkingPointsMemo, used my video from Ted’s campaign rally to put together a great piece about Ted and his biker buddies.
From TPM:
No, it’s not the latest Steven Seagal movie. It’s not the latest Chuck Norris movie. It’s the latest episode of TPMtv!
Nothing says “not guilty” like dozens of leather-clad bikers. So it was a good thing that a large group of motorcyclists were on hand at the Anchorage airport yesterday to meet Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) and escort him to his first post-indictment campaign rally, where Ted shook his fist and reassured his fans: he’s still in the race. Welcome home, Ted!
Phillip Munger and I paid a visit to Ted Stevens’ campaign office yesterday afternoon. It was like visiting a morgue. The place was quiet and smelled heavily of fresh paint.
We delivered a series of tubes to Ted from Phil’s contest.
In one of the most ridiculous moves Don Young has ever made, (and that’s saying a lot) he is claiming in a campaign ad that a taxpayer group (one of his harshest critics) gave him an award called “Hero of the Taxpayer.”
Coconut Don has received a different sort of praise over the years from watchdog groups then he’s claiming. “These two bridges are the most egregious example of government waste we’ve ever seen,” said Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste when speaking about Don’s “Bridge to Nowhere” in Ketchikan.
“I wish people would let us know when we give them awards,” Steve Ellis, Vice President for Taxpayers for Common Sense told TPMmuckraker. “We don’t even have a ‘Hero of the Taxpayer’ award to start out. But we did scrub through our records and we found out that we had given him an award– the ‘Golden Fleece’ award in 2003 for the Bridge to Nowhere.”
According to Ellis, “The Golden Fleece Award” is given for “extreme cases of wasteful government spending.”
Listen to Don’s ad -
Here’s the full script: “This is Congressman Don Young and I approved this message. On February 29, Mark Begich told the Daily News that he didn’t run for Congress because it would take too long to gain seniority to benefit Alaska. Now Sean Parnell claims that Don Young’s seniority brings too much money to Alaska. Parnell says he’d put a stop to all Alaska earmarks. Why would Parnell do this? To get money from a group called Club For Growth, which opposes projects that benefit Alaska. Now that Parnell’s in the Club for No Growth, they’re running false ads accusing Don Young of pushing higher taxes on Alaskans when the opposite is true. Don Young was even presented the hero of the taxpayer award by Taxpayers for Common Sense. Sean Parnell ought to be ashamed. Congressman Don Young ought to be re-elected.”
UPDATE: Taxpayers for Common Sense responds to Don’s ad:
The following is a written Statement by Ryan Alexander, President of Taxpayers for Common Sense:
It has come to our attention that Alaskans for Don Young has run advertisements citing a “Hero of the Taxpayer” award supposedly given to him by Taxpayers for Common Sense. Taxpayers for Common Sense has notified the campaign that we have no such award and to immediately stop using it in advertisements and publically issue a correction. For the record, the only award Rep. Young has received from TCS was the “Golden Fleece” award in 2003 which is given for “extreme cases of wasteful government spending.” TCS is a 501(c)(3) organization and does not endorse or oppose candidates.
UPDATED: For Immediate Release: July 25, 2008
Campaign Spokesman: Michael Anderson
Anchorage, AK - In recent radio ads, we mistakenly credited the wrong organization with giving Congressman Young the Hero of the Taxpayer Award. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Please be assured that the ads are being corrected to reflect that Americans for Tax Reform awarded the Congressman with this award for his commitment to the American taxpayer and his support of legislation to decrease taxes.
I went to the Alaska Women’s Political Caucus forum in Anchorage on Sunday. There was one person everybody wanted to hear from. Lt. Governor Sean Parnell. He managed to dodge this one too. He was slapping hands at the Governor’s picnic in Fairbanks.
I’d say the forum was a tie. All three candidates did very well, even Coconut Don. At one point Don said “My ethics and my wife’s ethics and my families’ ethics should never have been questioned” to quite a few chuckles in the audience. We were all waiting for Don to explode but it never happened. Why the hell else would we be inside for three hours on a Sunday afternoon in the middle of summer. We wanted action.
Rare sighting - Don Young without his glasses
Ethan Berkowitz
Diane Benson
Coconut Don wasn’t drunk at the forum. When you take a lot of pictures of people you get quite a few outtakes with closed eyes, smirks, and sometimes gold like this one. Don Young is by far my favorite photography subject. I’ll miss him after his election defeat. I guess I’ll still be able to get pictures at his corruption trials though.
Diane Benson on Earmarks
Ethan Berkowitz and Don Young on ethics (yes, Don actually talks about ethics)
