'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' for Thursday, September 1st, 2011
video 'podcast'
screencaps
ShowPlug1: Scheduling Conflict - the WH rolls over; how GOP sources are saying the fuel to this embarrassing fire was Rush Limbaugh
ShowPlug2: @RyanGrim on the timeline of the disaster; Economist Jeff Madrick of @rooseveltinst on why POTUS's jobs idea must be of FDR-scope
ShowPlug3: Perry promises "nothing in my life will embarrass you."Then his support of International Government Health Insurance is revealed
ShowPlug4: Bush's Brain co-author Jim @MooreThink joins me on Perry's HCR problem plus Bachmann bowing out of NH & Romney's fake populism
ShowPlug5: NYPD not only running secret CIA, also lists "Ancestries Of Interest" to infiltrate. AP's @MattApuzzo here w/latest scoop
ShowPlug6: Worsts: Local AZ GOP'er slams Tucson GOP for raffling off Glock 8 months after Giffords shooting; Steven Seagal kills animals
ShowPlugLast: And Billo Cop Scandal makes it to Apple Daily Animated Video. @MaysoonZayid joins me. We will laugh derisively.
Segments:
watch whole playlist
#5 'Timing Play', Ryan Grim
YouTube
#5 'Obama Under Pressure', Jeff Madrick
YouTube, Current.com (excerpt)
#4 'Fight for the Far Right', Jim Moore
YouTube
# Time Marches On!
YouTube
#3 'N.Y.C.I.A.', Matt Apuzzo
YouTube
#2 Worst Persons: Steven Seagal & Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Rep. Michele Bachmann, Mike Shaw (R-AZ)
Current.com, YouTube
#1 'No Sin Zone', Maysoon Zayid
YouTube, Current.com (excerpt)
printable PDF transcript
KEITH OLBERMANN: Which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow? Come on! The White House shifts the address. They look like clowns. The Republicans look like publicity grubbers.
(EXCERPT FROM VIDEO CLIP)
JAY CARNEY: We were interested in speaking Wednesday because Congress was returning both houses. First day. There were no initial objections to that.
OLBERMANN: Instead, the president speaks next Thursday, pushing up against kickoff of the opening NFL game. Thus are the real victims identified. What about the pre-game show?! Who's looking out for the pre-game show?! Won't somebody think of the pre-game show?! Fortunately, somebody else always sounds worse.
(EXCERPT FROM VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE BACHMANN: Now, does this show, maybe, a little insecurity on the part of the president? He doesn't want the American people to hear what the next president of the United States is going to say about the president's job plan.
OLBERMANN: Wait, you think Obama isn't the next president of the United States? I mean there are delusions, lady, but --
Rick Perry to supporters: there is nothing in my life that will embarrass you. Hours after that revelation, revelations of his past support, not just of government health insurance, but of multinational health insurance brought to you by the U.S. and Mexico. Obama-Calderon care?
The NYPD, the "P" is for paranoia. Not just running its own version of the CIA, spying on noncriminal activities by Muslims through demographics unit, but complete with a registry of ancestries of interest, and plans to infiltrate them. Indian, Yugoslavia, Bangladesh, and American black Muslims? Broken by my guest, Matt Apuzzo of the Associated Press.
"Worsts," Republicans raffling off a Glock in Tucson, where Gabby Giffords and 19 others were shot with a Glock. And release the "Apple Daily" video. (EXCERPT FROM VIDEO CLIP)
(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
OLBERMANN: Bill O'Reilly wears a stove-pipe hat?
All of that and more on "Countdown"!
(EXCERPT FROM VIDEO CLIP)
ROY SCHEIDER: That's some bad hat, Harry.
(TITLE SEQUENCE)
OLBERMANN: Good evening from New York. This is Thursday, September 1st, 432 days until the 2012 Presidential election. The president of the United States has postponed one of the most important speeches of his incumbency and perhaps the most important so far in his quest to extend his incumbency to a second term. He has done so at the insistence of the weepiest speaker of the House ever, who was, apparently, himself pushed to this confrontation by, in a truly nauseating development, Rush Limbaugh.
The fifth story on the "Countdown," from going against the GOP debate, to going against the NFL.'s opening night. The president punts. Lyndon Johnson would guffaw at this show of weakness. A move worthy not of Harry Truman, more like "The Truman Show." Speaker Boehner, claiming the president's speech had to be moved, not because it conflicted with the scheduled GOP debate, but because of scheduled votes and security logistics. According to "The New York Times," the House is supposed to vote next Wednesday on it's suspension calendar, naming post offices and other essential business. But at the White House, Press Secretary Jay Carney said, "Hey, no problem."
(EXCERPT FROM VIDEO CLIP)
CARNEY: Wednesday seemed to be the best option. When that wasn't available, when that seemed to be a problem, Thursday was fine with us. And we are just looking forward to, the president looking forward to, the opportunity to talk about what the American people really care about: the economy and the need to create more jobs.
OLBERMANN: Despite that happy talk, an anonymous White House source told Politico.com, "It is a big deal the House said 'no' to the president from our end. This confirms what we all know: they will do anything in the House to muck us up." You just figuring that out? However, Carney insisted Mr. Obama was not bothered.
(EXCERPT FROM VIDEO CLIP)
CARNEY: I spent a great deal of time with him this morning and it never came up, honestly.
OLBERMANN: The time line of the travesty: it started Wednesday around 10:00 A.M. with a call from White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley to Boehner's office requesting a joint session of Congress the following Wednesday, next Wednesday, at 8:00 p.m., Politico's White House source says Boehner's office said okay. Then things really got rolling.
11:55 p.m., White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer tweets that the president had called for a joint session of Congress with the date and time, and then speaker Limbaugh objects. Limbaugh, calling the president's speech political, undeserving of a joint session of Congress. His usual bull sh--crap, the spewer of radio hate insisting, on the air, that Boehner had the say-so.
At 12:26, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney tells reporters the speech was not scheduled to conflict with the GOP debate.
2:55, it starts to unravel. Fox News claims White House told Boehner's office just 15 minutes before making the announcement.
2:56, the GOP debate sponsors e-mail that the debate will not be postponed.
3:21, a Republican National Committee press release bowing to his lord almighty Limbaugh says the speech's timing cements Obama's reputation as Campaigner in Chief.
4:17, Boehner asks Obama in a letter to delay the speech for a day, earning praise of his Limbaughness. The White House claims the speech had been cleared with Boehner's office.
5:50, Boehner's spokesman claims no one in the speaker's office signed off on the date. By "no one," he means Limbaugh, the lord almighty.
6:17, a senior Democratic aide says, "consultation always occurs but the president always gets the date he wants."
9:16, the surrender: Jay Carney declares the president would welcome the opportunity to speak a day later. Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck-Limbaugh piles on saying, "It's unfortunate" Limbaugh "the White House" Limbaugh "ignored" Limbaugh "decades, if not" Limbaugh "centuries of the protocol working out a mutually agreeable date and time to" Limbaugh "before making any public " Limbaugh "announcement."
But to congressional historian Betty Koed, the bad manners came from Capitol Hill. She said, "The Senate Historical Office knows of no instance in which congress refused the president permission to speak before a joint session of congress."
Whatever the president finally says when he makes his jobs address, congressional progressive caucus co-chairs Raul Grijalva and Keith Ellison want to see "large-scale programs that will significantly reduce unemployment and our deficit. Specifically, we urge you to support emergency jobs legislation that will immediately put Americans back to work." Tell it to the speaker of the house, Rush Limbaugh.
Ryan Grim, The Washington Bureau Chief of The Huffington Post, joins me to kick over the rubble of this. Good evening, Ryan. Thank you for your time tonight.
RYAN GRIM: Glad to be here.
OLBERMANN: How bad was this? Why did the White House seemingly pick a fight and then run away?
GRIM: You know, what would have been really remarkable is if after the president came out and said, "Okay, fine, we'll do Thursday."
OLBERMANN: Mm-hmm.
GRIM: If Boehner came back and then said, "Well, you know what, actually, we just checked, and Thursday is not going to work either. What about -- what about late next week? Do you have anything? You know, 8:00 a.m., 9:00 a.m."
OLBERMANN: Monday, Monday morning.
GRIM: Yeah, what do you have? You know, I'm sure we can move a few things around and have you over here. But, no, I don't, I don't think -- My sense is that the White House didn't pick this fight, that they didn't think that this was going to become a fight, that they kind of stumbled into this. And then, as soon as they got hit -- Well, not as soon as they got hit. They took three or four hours, but three or four hours after they got hit, then they crumbled. You know, throughout the day, it looked like they were going to make a fight out of this and try to paint the Republicans as not even willing to hear the president out. That wouldn't have been a hard argument to make because they weren't even willing to hear the president out.
That's all the president would have had to go out and say is, "I want to go to Congress and present a jobs plan and the Republicans won't let me." You know, the word "optics" is thrown around a lot in Washington in useless ways, but this time, it actually does fit. The optics of that are incredible for the president, and they're devastating for Republicans. They don't even want to hear his jobs plan, let alone, hear it and then vote it down. So that the White House, you know decided not to -- not to fight this and instead cave and say, "Fine, we'll do Thursday. Whatever you want, Mr. Boehner." You know, it's just kind of in line with how they've been negotiating, if you want to call it that, with Republicans since the beginning.
OLBERMANN: Yeah, it's not optics if there is substance behind the optics.
GRIM: Exactly, exactly.
OLBERMANN: Is there any clue in the White House, though, about the impact of this, not on the Republicans, not on the debate, not on the whether or not the people who need jobs get jobs, but on Democrats and Liberals and supporters of the president and his programs?
GRIM: You know, the people running the president's campaign are pretty convinced that this is going to come down to a couple of points at the end. You know, you're going to have, you know, 48 on one side, 48 on the other, and then you're going to be battling it out for the undecided Independents at the last minute.
And a lot of those folks don't -- don't start paying attention until the very end. But, this is the -- this is the type of thing that colors the perception of a president, and a president who can't even come up to Capitol Hill to present a plan is not the kind of people that it's easy to rally people behind and say, "This is the guy that I'm going to follow."
OLBERMANN: Do they sense the opportunity that was missed to, in fact, turn this around and go all F.D.R. on the Republicans, and have him say exactly as you posited it before. You know, "we're denied this opportunity to do this. The Republicans won't let me. This is Republican obstructionism. This is what's wrong. This is why you can't vote for them. This is why you can't trust them.
My god, they are being run by Rush Limbaugh." The opportunity's there to get in 10 or 12 punches without anybody saying anything, anybody -- there's no --
GRIM: Yes.
OLBERMANN: How does Boehner repsond to that? "I'm not being run by Rush Limbaugh." To which Rush Limbaugh then says, "The hell you aren't."
GRIM: Right. No, there are two camps in the White House. There was the one camp that was fighting this throughout the day, saying, "Let's go beat up Boehner for this."
OLBERMANN: Yeah.
GRIM: You know, "Let's make him look silly for this. Let's make him look obstructionist." And then there was camp that was saying, "Don't pick this fight, we want to just give our speech whenever we can give it."
That camp is the one that, obviously, won out. Now, as this has unfolded, and it's made them look a little bit sad in the eyes of the media and the public, then the camp that was saying, "We ought to fight," at least they get elevated a little bit. So, maybe in the next round, they'll have a better chance of winning. But, you know, they've been getting beaten as regularly as the White House has been by the House Republicans.
OLBERMANN: The next round, that would be Round 206. Ryan GRIM:, Washington Bureau -- And they're 0 for 205. The Washington Bureau Chief of The Huffington Post, Ryan Grim, as always a great thanks and great thanks for you insights, sir.
GRIM: Thanks for having me.
OLBERMANN: For more on the politics, in particularly the economic fallout from this latest White House cave, I am joined by Jeff Madrick, a senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. Thanks for coming in, Jeff.
JEFF MADRICK: Nice to see you.
OLBERMANN: And we're also plugging the fact, again, that you're author of the excellent book "The Age of Greed," but you already knew that. All right, setting aside the optics and the substance behind the optics, whether Congressional Republicans can hear it or not, whether that deadbeat dad, Representative Joe Walsh, is not going do show up or not, what is the president now need to say, and is it -- does it have to be stronger than it would have been yesterday before this scheduling fiasco?
MADRICK: I think he has to be bold.
OLBERMANN: Yeah.
MADRICK: I know it's hard to be bold. I know his advisors are talking about all the obstacles. I know keeps talking about going after those independents we just talked about, but the country is in a mess. The American job machine is broken. He can say we didn't know, even a year ago, what we know today.
The economy has stalled in the last six to nine months. Tomorrow morning, we get some jobs numbers. If they're bad, that should give him some ammunition to come out fighting. Whether he will come out fighting, I don't know. He can say the facts change, and as John Maynard Keynes once said, as you know, "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"
OLBERMANN: Yeah. All right, so the role model here is the -- it was quoted 400 times today, the F.D.R. speech about Republicans in the mid '30s, or is it thinking bolder, think John F. Kennedy announcing we are going to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade and instead saying, by the end of 2015 we're going to have added 1.5 million, 2 million jobs to this economy, whether the Republicans like it or not.
MADRICK: I think we have to do something like that, and I think it can be done. It can be done through investment programs. We talk a lot about it. We have to get serious, better infrastructure, energy. It can be done through an F.D.R. Washington hiring program. There is a lot to be done in America.
OLBERMANN: Right.
MADRICK: There's a lot to be done by lawyers for poor people. We've been reading about that. There's a lot to be done by young people. The old and the young need jobs. There are many ways to go about this, but it will take spending money.
OLBERMANN: Mm-hmm.
MADRICK: I think what he can tell the American people is, do you want a dumb deficit, or do you want a smart deficit? If we don't do something bold, we're going to get a dumb deficit and lots of people out of work and malaise. We can do a smart deficit, and get us working again.
OLBERMANN: Is his goal to make an immediate impact and say, "Okay, in six months, we're going to be here, in 12 months, we're going to be here," when it's clear the Republicans would further tank the economy that they have already tanked, one could argue, well back into 2007, certainly into 2008, or does he say, "I got 14 months until the election. In 14 months, you will get to vote on whether or not you want people in here who are actively trying, against all odds and all political opposition, to create these jobs for you or these schmucks over here who are supporting the corporations and the moneyed interests that wants to keep every dollar bill so they can have something to use after they go to the bathroom rather than spending on giving you a job"? Does it become a campaign speech, or is there something practically he can do in the next 14 months?
MADRICK: He has to get Republicans to vote for his plans.
OLBERMANN: Well, there it is.
MADRICK: There are probably some executive actions he could take, if he were bold enough. He hasn't shown much of that. He can probably do some things without congressional support, but I've long maintained he can put the onus on the Republicans. If you don't do this, Americans won't have jobs, and he can tell the American people over and over again that story, and I believe it will sink in, and I hope he and those people around him believe it will sink in.
OLBERMANN: The easiest practical way is infrastructure. Is it something as simple as saying, look at the east coast, at all of the power that is out a week after a hurricane. Why, in many communities that could support the economics of the process, why do we still have overhead power lines? Let's dig up every street in America and put the power lines in the ground.
MADRICK: Very good point. OLBERMANN: How many jobs would that be by itself?
MADRICK: Lots of jobs. It is infrastructure, but it is direct job creation. It's getting some money to state and local governments because they are firing people. OLBERMANN: Yeah. MADRICK: Let's get them to stop firing firemen, policemen and teachers. Let's plug that hole.
There's a lot to do. I like infrastructure, energy investment. Get the feel that America is working again, and I think Americans are finally, getting, even those who don't travel, are getting the fact we have a pretty primitive infrastructure system, and I love it when I hear Republican governors asking for help from FEMA.
OLBERMANN: Yeah.
MADRICK: We've got one nearby in New Jersey.
OLBERMANN: Yes, he was praising the president for his personal involvement in New Jersey, and you sit there and go, "Then promise New Jersey, 250,000 jobs that are related to infrastructure," or say, "And we're going to add 200,000 teachers to the American economy in the next four years. And predicated on, and I need the Republicans to vote this, and I need them to vote that, and if they don't do it, you know who to blame."
MADRICK: Exactly.
OLBERMANN: But if it's coming out with another one of these we need to work together and people get past the bickering in Washington, it's just going to go right through people.
MADRICK: If he goes that direction, I think he'll be in serious trouble. People have had it with this compromising soft talk.
OLBERMANN: I think you're exactly right.
MADRICK: And it's just not going to gain any respect from anybody, right or left or center, which he seems to be most interested in.
OLBERMANN: Yeah.
MADRICK: This is a perfect Roosevelt moment.
OLBERMANN: Exactly.
MADRICK: This is the time to pull the guns out of the holster.
OLBERMANN: Figuratively speaking, of course. Jeff Madrick, Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow, as always, thanks for coming in.
MADRICK: Good to see you.
OLBERMANN: On the other hand, there is the Republican presidential field, one of them sees oil deposits under the Everglades that geologists can't see, another of whom is trying to sell himself as a man of the people because he flies Southwest and eats at Subway and then tweets pictures of himself doing so, and a third of whom suddenly has a Mitt Romney-like problem. Turns out, he not only supported government health insurance, in the last ten years he supported international government health insurance. Rick Perry, adios.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OLBERMANN: "There is nothing in my life that will embarrass you," so said Rick Perry to evangelicals just before his support of international government health care insurance came to light. The New York City police department under this commissioner, its own CIA, we knew about that. Its own ethnic, religious and ancestries profiling, we did not know until today. Plus, its plans to infiltrate cafes, clubs, cricket matches and houses of prostitution.
The washed-up actor and the Fascist Arizona Sheriff sued for killing hundreds of animals on the pretext of trying to stop animal cruelty.
And the Bill O'Reilly police scandal has now received the stamp of approval of "Apple Daily." Animation ahead on "Countdown."
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OLBERMANN: As if it were foreordained Governor Rick Perry was figuratively just finished telling evangelical leaders that if they supported him there was nothing in his life that would embarrass them, when something was revealed that will embarrass them.
In our fourth story tonight, even as government health care information emerges that could hurt him with far Right voters, Michelle Bachmann seems concerned about his surging popularity, and the candidates gear up for New Hampshire, Romney by telling voters that he is a man of the people, Huntsman by firing his top staffer in the state and Bachmann by, well, actually, by skipping the whole thing. Governor Perry trying to lock in evangelicals by meeting with more than 200 Christian leaders on a remote Texas ranch last weekend, and telling them, "I can assure you that there is nothing in my life that will embarrass you if you decide to support me for president."
Famous last words. Let's start with the first potentially embarrassing episode from Perry's past, unearthed by our friends at Think Progress. Back in 2001, when Perry met with then Mexican President Vicente Fox, he praised Medicaid, something he now calls unconstitutional, and even proposed bi-national health insurance, that B-I-national.
An international government program that would have provided health insurance not only to Americans and also to Mexicans saying, "We have much to gain if we work together," pointing to "an important study that will look at the feasibility of bi-national health insurance."
That was after he reportedly sent a letter to then First Lady Hillary Clinton praising her efforts to reform health care in this country, mono-country health care. Clinton's plan is widely, of course, regarded as one of the predecessors to President Obama's health care legislation, which Perry is now vowing to repeal. Even so, Bachmann seems conditioned Perry could moving in on her far-right turf. She told Fox News yesterday how the race has changed since he entered it.
(EXCERPT FROM VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE BACHMANN: When you have a new candidate come in, that sucks a lot of oxygen out of the room. And, of course, the numbers do deviate.
OLBERMANN: And she needs all of the oxygen she can get. Deviant? Deviate. And they're deviating in Perry's favor now, the numbers show him in the lead, Bachmann hoping she can win back voters from the far right by focusing on Iowa and South Carolina, reportedly ignoring New Hampshire completely. Huntsman, on the other hand, so concerned about his prospects there he reportedly fired his New Hampshire state campaign manager earlier today. Mitt Romney sees the Granite State as a must win, and seems to be trying to appeal to the large number of white working class voters there by positioning himself as a man of the people, at least on Twitter, tweeting pictures like this one, with a crew of his Southwest Airlines flight, subtext, "I don't ride on a private jet, even though I am a multimillionaire from Massachusetts."
And this one, eating a Subway sandwich. Take the wrapper off first, governor. And here, at Carl's Jr., a burger. "I like fast food," is the subtext, "just as much as the next guy," providing the next guy is Morgan Spurlock making another documentary.
Joining me now from Austin, James Moore, author of "Bush's Brain" and the forthcoming book on Rick Perry. Jim, thanks you for your time, good to talk to you again.
JAMES MOORE: Hey, Keith. Good to be with you.
OLBERMANN: For Rick Perry, how dangerous, and I know this wasn't what he was promising those evangelicals. We'll get to that in a minute. But how dangerous is saying, "I am never going to embarrass you," and days later, his 2001 support for multinational government health insurance leaks out or comes back into the forefront?
MOORE: I don't think it's really dangerous because he has demonstrated since that committee began to look at that particular issue that he is really all about big business, and he is all about bringing money to big business. Just a real quick example Keith, he tried to privatize Medicaid in the state of Texas, the children's health insurance program. He gave it to a big consulting company. They blew it. Applicants from poor people and families with children who needed health care ended up in Seattle in a warehouse, there were lost applications, the data was messed up. The state ended up canceling the contract. The company walked away with hundreds of millions of dollars and the state of Texas, in the past five years, has reduced the number of children on that health care program by 222,000 children. So he's obviously interested in making money for big business. And the important thing to remember about this, even after this entire debacle, Perry did not want the contract cancelled. So, he's all about making money. And that's their big concern.
OLBERMANN: So the question, obviously, as I suggested from the collection of evangels there, was not about multinational government health insurance, regardless. And he said to them, "I can assure you there is nothing in my life that will embarrass you if you decide to support me for president." I know what that sounds like. Is that what it actually is meant to be describing? Tell me what you know about that.
MOORE: Well, that's not exactly what it is. I mean there's two pieces to this. One is, your career, your politics, the policies that you have established through the years, and anything that you did when you were Ag commissioner in the legislature. But the truth is there was a story in the "American Statesman" here in Austin back in '04 about rumors related to his personal life. And these things have not gone away. This town, right now, is crawling with reporters looking at Rick Perry's personal life, getting people to go publicly on the record and talk about that. And the "American Statesman" story even talked about a possible potential divorce pending, and I think that that is a part of what was being discussed and that they were asking him at that meeting over the weekend.
OLBERMANN: So, for those of us who are batting our heads against the wall on the other topic about President Obama. To switch off to Romney for a second.
MOORE: Sure.
OLBERMANN: Those tweet pictures, Carl's Jr. burger, why doesn't he just get out into the rodeo and try to wrestle a steer with himself with no clown with him or something? Is he there to remind us that it always could be really worse, I mean, man of the people because he's on an airplane?
MOORE: I think what's funny about this, you know, I was in Iowa when Steve Forbes tried to eat a Coney dog and he got it all over his suit and tie. And I'm sure you remember when George H.W. was at the check-out counter in New Hampshire, happened to be there that day, and he couldn't tell anybody about the price of a gallon of milk. And, of course, Mitt Romney is now talking about bulldozing his magnificent house in Southern California and building one that's even bigger and more expensive. The truth is that he has no connection to what the average wage earner and the homeowner and people worrying about paying their mortgage and their health care. He doesn't know. It's not something he's had to fret about, just as has been the case with Bush and the others. And the truth is I think you're exactly right, that Perry, although he comes from West Texas, he's forgotten from whence he sprang. But Mitt Romney has got too much money to even know what the rest of us are living like and what we are dealing with.
OLBERMANN: When he says, "I'm not making up a house three times the size of my old one.
It's only going to be twice the size of my old one," as if that's like, okay, check, please. Cross him off the list. Rick Perry must be delighted about that with Romney. Jim Moore, the co-author of "Bush's Brain," at work as we speak on a book on Governor Rick Perry. Can't wait for that. Thank you, Jim.
MOORE: Thank you, Keith.
OLBERMANN: If you thought the idea that New York City was running its own secret CIA, spying on the nonviolent, and the law-abiding was bad enough you ain't heard nothing yet. The Demographics Unit and the list of "ancestries of interest," ahead.
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OLBERMANN: The secret CIA-like operation in New York City, they weren't illegally monitoring just Muslims. They also traced people with ancestries of interest, like Bangladeshis and Indians in an ancestry their documents called "American Black Muslim." Details next.
First, the sanity break, and on this date in 1969, much of Libya celebrated its independence after a coup d'état chased King Idris from the throne and the country. The new temporary military dictatorship promised housing for all and government-subsidized schools and health care. And soon per captia income rose to $11,000 a year. It was good at first. Then the 27-year-old army colonel at its head decided to purge the country of what he called "politically sick" people and used terror as a way of international diplomacy. Dude's name was Gaddafi and we all know how that turned out.
"Time Marches On!"
And we begin with the "Time Marches On: Adorable Video of the Day" where the Aflac spokes-duck apparently is trying to branch out and become the next Noid. Proving that pizza is not just for turtles, this little guy dives right in and gorges on a mixing of toppings and cheese. Notice how he goes right for the pizza, no utensils required. A la Donald Trump, the little guy eats as much as he can and graciously leaves enough so the nearby humans can eat as well. But, true to form, he ducked out on the bill, Ha-ha-ha.
Staying in the animal kingdom, in Austria it's a cow in a store. Laura the cow decided to take a break from her studies at Bovine University and do a little shopping. Walks straight to the ladies' department, headed to the discount section. Looks like she really is taking her time, milking the rare shopping trip. Outraged, the store had nothing in her size, she angrily stormed out, either that or she unfortunately wandered into the leather section. Moo.
Bonavista, Newfoundland, hello. Never too hot to talk hockey. Two and a half months after the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup right winger Michael Rider got his day with the cup. Now, it's such a prestigious trophy you need to handle it carefully. So he sets it gently on a nearby table and down goes Lord Stanley. Not the first time the cup has been dinged. It won't be the last. It was once famously drop-kicked into an Ottawa canal. After a quick trip to the dressing room for repairs Lord Stanley will live on to skate again, which is more than we can say for the Atlanta Thrashers.
"Time Marches On!"
Can't believe I shook this guys freaking hand.
Want to guess which Republican presidential candidate knows there are secret oil deposits under the Everglades we should be drilling for and that they are being kept from us by the radical environmentalists?
Uh-huh.
Ahead in "Worsts"!
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OLBERMANN: We are live from the M.C. Escher studio and railroad storage facility in New York City each night at 8:00 p.m. eastern. Program is replayed at 11:00 p.m., 2:00 a.m., 7:00 a.m., noon and 3:00 p.m. "Countdown," we call it, "Our little miracle."
The covert New York City police department unit infiltrating Arab-American communities throughout the tri-state that area, the one that doesn't exist, keeps very real notes, according the new documents obtained by the Associated Press. In our third story on the "Countdown", the exact dimensions of the pernicious demographics unit, a secretive CIA backed NYPD counterterror group, exposed for the first time. Its objectives, tactics, targeted ancestries and utter disregard for the law or American principles almost defy description. A PowerPoint presentation instructed ethnically matched undercover police, within immigrant neighborhoods how to identify signs of terrorist activities. It laid out unit objectives, identification methods used, such as type of employment a Pakistani cab driver, for instance. Key indicators to watch, including postings on community bulletin boards in places of worship.
The presentation also listed 28 "ancestries of interest," estimated concern including individuals of a "American black-Muslim" religious affiliation. Business locations operating procedures also of concern also known for the first time supervisors routinely assessed job performance, including a review of a sergeant named Timothy Mehta, in which his -- he was admonished for his "substandard" performance. This on top of last week's revelation that the CIA and New York City police department run a joint operation using community mapping techniques in which police nicknamed "rakers" monitor business and social groups. Police will also pressure locals to become informants or "mosque crawlers" with directions to monitor religious sermons. All illegal for the CIA to conduct on its own domestically. Congresswomen Yvette Clarke, Democrat of New York and member of the house homeland security committee has joined with local Muslim organizations calling for the Justice Department of to launch an investigation. And to spite all this, the NYPD today to us still insisted the demographic unit does not exist.
Joining me now Matt Apuzzo, a reporter from the Associated Press, who along with his colleague Adam Goldman exposed this program and is back with more today. Thank you for your time again, Matt.
MATT APUZZO: Always good to be here, Keith.
OLBERMANN: Last time I asked you if there were any Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, Latvian-Americans being watched. Now there's this list of 28 of ancestries, there nearly all Muslims or potentially.
I'm assuming the NYPD just happened to be experts on geopolitical terrorism without CIA backing or something that they happen to come up with this list.
APUZZO: Well I mean, to be fair to them, they have quite a bit of expertise on an international terrorism.
I think the question here is, you have a unit that we reported on that it exists and, you know, we were told it didn't exist, and not to be cute, we said, "Well, was there ever any unit like this?" Maybe by a different name or something like that? And we were told no. Obviously, the documents make clear that it exists, and it really -- it really does show how in the name of terrorism and fighting terrorism, you know, whole communities ended up being scrutinized in ways, frankly we haven't found that exist in any other city in America. The want one thing I wanted today correct, Timothy Mehta the sergeant was not the one being reviewed. He was one of the ones doing the review. We redacted the name of the officer, because he was undercover.
OLBERMANN: All right, good. Thank you for the correction.
APUZZO: No problem.
OLBERMANN: This PowerPoint presentation. First off, it's a PowerPoint presentation. Secondly, it instructs participants to infiltrate business locations or to purchase things if they see them like radical compact disks, to participate in any cricket matches that might be somehow breeding grounds or ways of identifying terrorists or perhaps go into houses of prostitution and find links to them then. What was the goal? To follow every citizen every second of their lives if they didn't have an average sounding name? What was the scope of this thing supposed to be?
APUZZO: Well, the way it was described to us was actually modeled on, in some ways, on the way the Israelis have operated in the West Bank, sort of knowing your zone and being, sort of, intimately familiar with the community. It's kind of the post-9/11 spin on the old beat cop, except now that -- you know, in this instance, the beat cop is undercover and is, you know, is going in. And, you know, the thing that was striking about -- these undercovers are called "rakers" -- as they go into the business and as you see in the PowerPoint, one of the first things they do is assess the ethnicity of the business. What was also really interesting to us is that, you know, after our first story came out, Mayor Bloomberg, who we haven't been able to get a comment from on the demographics program said, you know, the NYPD does not take any religion into consideration when making -- when making police decisions. And at least in the case of, you know, what they're calling "American black Muslim," "American black Muslim" is not a country or an ethnicity. I mean, it is a religion. I mean -- you know, Islam is a religion, so, at the very least, it would seem to go against what the mayor has said after this. After our report.
OLBERMANN: Yeah, I wish we could just laugh about it but the last part of this, I guess -- is there a way of assessing how much or any of this -- how much of it is legal or how much of it is illegal?
APUZZO: Yeah, I mean that's -- I mean that's the -- I mean, we never really set out to say "is this legal or illegal?" What we tried to do was say, "Look, this is what's being done in our nation's largest police department, in our biggest city, at the site of 9/11, in response to our nation's greatest tragedy." And to just put it to the people and say, "This is what's being done" and let them make the decision. Certainly, there are aspects of this where, if it is just straight infiltration with no leads, which the NYPD says, categorically, it is not, it would go against what the what the FBI guidelines allow and what the -- what the NYPD has told a federal judge it will abide by. So in that instance, there is this -- there is a red line that NYPD can't across that they insist they are not crossing.
OLBERMANN: And as you point out, that seems very dubious in terms of its maintenance, when there -- when they seem to think there is a country called "American Black Muslim Land" or whatever. Matt Apuzzo of the Associate Press with another harrowing exclusive. Great thanks for it and great thanks for your time.
APUZZO: Thanks a lot.
OLBERMANN: Eight months after Gabby Giffords is shot in Tucson with a Glock pistol, the Republicans of Tucson are raffling off a Glock pistol. Really. "Worst Persons" coming up.
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OLBERMANN: Bill O', Mrs. Bill O', the cops and the donation and now the "Apple Daily" video. Maysoon Zayid joins me to -- well, to lampoon all of it. And what happens when you put one of the worst actors of all time together with one of the worst sheriffs of all time, you give them a tank and you ask them to go stop animal cruelty? Correct. You get a lot of dead animals. And a "Worst Persons" segment.
That's next. This is "Countdown."
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OLBERMANN: The wizards of Taiwanese computer generated political cartoon satire hit Bill O'Reilly real hard. Next, along with comedian with Maysoon Zayid.
But first, because these people are cartoons but sadly, they are no computer generated. Here at "Countdown's" top three "Worst Persons in the World."
The bronze to the sad former movie star Steven Seagal and the pathetic publicity whore Sheriff Joe Arpaio, of Arizona. Seagal and Arpaio joined forces to record a bit for Seagal's reality TV show and Arpaio's reality TV show approach to the job for which he is amazingly unqualified. They got them a tank. They raided a home which was believed to be a den of illegal cockfighting. Seagal explained to an Arizona radio station that he was doing it because animal cruelty was one of his pet peeves. So, as dozens of Arpaio's clown college deputies watched, Seagal drove his tank into the home of Jesus Llovera and, in the name of stopping animal cruelty, Seagal crushed hundreds of roosters and Mr. Llovera's dog. Mr. Llovera is now suing Seagal and Arpaio, both.
The runner-up, Michelle Bachmann, who has now doubled down on her insistence that we drill for oil and gas in the Florida Everglades. "Let's access this wonderful treasure trove of energy that God has given us in this country. Let's access it responsibly. That radical environmentalists put up one roadblock after another to prevent accessing American energy." Uh -- a geologist at the University of South Florida puts it very simply. There is no known evidence that there is a significant hydrocarbon deposit beneath the Everglades. She wants to drill in the Everglades, even though there's not oil down there. Migraine medication is a hell of a drug.
But our winner, Mike Shaw, the acting chairman of the Republican Committee of Pima County, Arizona. He came to power there just two months ago, after the committee ousted its last chairman. It's gonna have to change again next week. Shaw's first big Pima Republicans fundraising effort -- raffling off a Glock pistol. $10 a chance. The goal is to raise money to support "get out the votes" efforts in Pima County.
Pima County. That's Tucson, where last January, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and 19 others were shot, 6 of them fatally, by a man using a Glock pistol. I could tell Mr. Shaw and the Pima County Republicans that I think they have ceased to be humans or that the rest of us really think it would be a good idea if they seceded from the country but for a more rational comment, I'll turn, instead, to a gentleman named James Kelley. Mr. Kelley said, "Post-January 8th, it's bad messaging and it's insensitive. It doesn't mean the Republican Party doesn't have an incredible record of supporting the Second Amendment but at this point, it's ill-advised and I won't stand with them on this." Mr. Kelley, critical of this crass, heartless, Neanderthal gesture by the Pima County Republican Party, is the Arizona Legislative District 29 Republican Chairman. Bravo to him and not to this human-shaped pile of feces, Mike Shaw and his Pima County Republican Committee Party. Today's "Worst Person in the World."
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OLBERMANN: For two nights here, we have covered with comparative seriousness and detachment Gawker.com's report that the Nassau County New York police commissioner had one of his own detectives investigated on suspicions that the man was having an affair with Bill O'Reilly's wife. We have related with appalling probity that there is only an inference that the investigation was conducted because O'Reilly might have been dangling a huge donation to the commissioner's police charity. Well, that ends here.
Our number one story -- bring out the O'Reilly in bed with the cops jokes and the one-liners about, "So that's why they call it internal affairs. Let the party begin."
Comedienne and "Countdown" contributor Maysoon Zayid joins me in a moment, but first, our excuse for letting the missiles fly. Hallelujah, hallelujah. The fine folks at "Apple Daily" have told l'affair Bill O. in one of their patented computer-generated animated vignettes. Caution. Caution. You are about to enter the no-ethics zone.
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I've seen that tank. As promised, here's my friend, activist, comedienne, "Countdown" contributor Mayzoon Zayid just back from her "The Muslims are Coming" tour. And congrats on instituting the Calafate. I thought it went over very well. Well done.
MAYSOON ZAYID: It was very easy, easier than we ever thought.
OLBERMANN: And nobody noticed, too.
ZAYID: Yeah, they had no idea.
OLBERMANN: It's hard to know where to begin on this story. I mean, can you envision somebody of the, like, the normal persuasion going to the cops and saying, "I think one of your guys is having an affair with my wife. Tell them to knock it off?" I mean, what?
ZAYID: Okay. There's lot of stuff going on.
OLBERMANN: Yes.
ZAYID: First of all, I don't think that Bill O'Reilly had a lot of friends in high school because you don't go to a brotherhood and ask them to snitch on each other, but I don't blame him. He learned it from watching Papa Bear Murdoch. He saw Murdoch buying Scotland Yard, and thought that that was the way we roll here, but that's not how it is in Nassau County.
OLBERMANN: How, by the way, happy must Murdoch be after a summer behind him of dealing with the consequences of doing exactly that -- literally being accused of being in bed with the police -- and then have this break open in New York where it was the last thing he wanted was even anything that would remind you of the possibility that it didn't happen just in Great Britain with Scotland Yard, but something like it might have happened here.
ZAYID: I feel like he's feeling like Christmas came early.
OLBERMANN: Yes.
ZAYID: I mean, honestly for me as a comedienne, this is a gift from God. Condoleezza Rice with Muammar, that, for me, was like happy aid, but this? This is like the equivalent of, again, being in high school and doing that thing where you drive by your ex's house to see who's car is parked there. I mean, it's insane and also, I feel like he is like "My Idiot Brother," that movie with Paul Rudd.
OLBERMANN: Yes, yes.
ZAYID: Like, really? You're bribing cops? You're Bill O'Reilly. Of course it's going to come out.
OLBERMANN: But the other part is that the public -- his public stance is against elites. You know, "I'm looking out for you." He is just one of the folks. And he goes to the cops and offers to, you know, to buy a million tickets to the policemen's ball if they'll shut this detective down who's schtupping his wife. I mean, is that the way the average guy does it?
ZAYID: Was the idea that he buy up all the tickets so the other cop couldn't take his wife to the ball? Is that why he was doing it? Or maybe he just loves the police athletically. Like, let's not judge. But I feel like she's pretty justified in anything that she does because he's one really weird guy. He was talking about falafel and showers last year, and since then, I have not been able to eat at sandwich.
OLBERMANN: Falafels, by the way, don't hold up well in the shower. Or with --
ZAYID: Have you tried?
OLBERMANN: No, I'm just saying with very -- how many foods hold up well in the shower, let alone a falafel? I told this will story a couple times before. A couple years ago, he was on the field at Yankee Stadium -- Yankees-Mets series -- with one of the passes that you get as a celebrity you get to go on the field. I was on the field with a media pass because I used to be sports reporter and I still do some baseball coverage from time to time. He went into the clubhouse which he was not permitted to do with the pass, and it got into the papers. And it got into the papers that I was there and they didn't throw me out and they threw him out. His response was to call the PR people -- Howard Rubenstein -- call the Yankees and demand they take my pass away so that if he couldn't have a pass, I wouldn't have a pass either.
And then there was the time he called the -- or said he was going to call the police on some guy who called up his radio show. He didn't like what he was talking about. This is one of those people who think that the police and the authorities are there to let them cut corners while the rest of us have to play by the rules? Is that the gist of this?
ZAYID: I feel like he thinks the police are his mom and dad and that he just gets to call them up at any time and be like, "This is what I want you to do." But in all reality, if anyone else had done this -- if Anderson Cooper had called up the cops and been, like, you know, "Find me the place where most children are starving and I'll buy up all of your tickets," what would Bill O'Reilly say about that? Like I think that for someone who is like, "I'm Mr. America," what's more Anti-American than doing that? Like you're screwing with the police department to figure out your love life. Try to keep it separated. Have some pride.
OLBERMANN: Yeah, what about the police investigating your own guy because they wanted to do him a favor whether he asked for it or not? That's not exactly good either.
ZAYID: Well, again, that's pure hubris thinking that, like, they're going to betray the brotherhood for Bill O'Reilly. At least ask a fireman. Not the stealthiest thing to have around your wife, but there's rivalry.
OLBERMANN: That's right. A truck pulls up with her in the -- oh, my God. Maysoon Zayid, "Countdown" contributor, comedienne and Bill O'Reilly "No Cuckolding Zone" -- Great thanks as always. Good to see you.
ZAYID: Thank you so much.
OLBERMANN: Safe travels.
That's "Countdown" for this, the 32nd day since the Republican's debt ceiling blackmail worked. Speaker Boehner, where are the jobs? Where's our credit rating?
I'm Keith Olbermann.
Good night, and good luck.