Maddow Looks At The Republican Presidential Contenders

LicentiaThe8th

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow looks at the list of viable contenders for the Republican nominee for President of the U.S.

Maddow also discusses Lar Daly. Who was Lar Daly?

Wikipedia:

“Lawrence Joseph Sarsfield Daly (January 22, 1912 – April 18, 1979), aka Lar ‘America First’ Daly, was a fringe American politician who ran unsuccessfully for a variety of political offices (including President of the United States), often campaigning wearing an Uncle Sam suit.

“Daly was a Republican primary candidate for Governor of Illinois in both 1956 and 1964. He was also a primary candidate for Mayor of Chicago in 1959, for both the Democratic and Republican parties, and also ran in the Republican primary in the 1963 and 1967 Chicago mayoral elections. He was the ‘Tax Cut’ and ‘America First’ candidate in the 1960 elections for President of the United States. He stood in primaries for United States Senator from Illinois, as a Democrat in 1962 and as a Republican in 1966, 1970, and 1978. He also ran for United States Representative from Illinois, in a special election in the 7th District in 1973, as a Republican.”

Maddow also looks at the 2008 scenario where Ron Paul was excluded from a Fox News debate even though he received 10% of the vote in the Iowa caucuses. Rudy Giuliani got only 3% of the vote at the Iowa caucuses, but was allowed on stage for the debate at Fox.

(Video from May 6th.)

(Updated post)

Rachel Maddow – Are The News Gods Testing Your Capacity For Outrage?

Licentiathe8th

Ever have a day when it seems there isn’t much new going on in the news? Then – BAM – MSNBC or another group weeds out six stories that show a lot is going on.  Here, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow shows recent news stories that are pushing the “outrage-o-meter” over the line.  (Video from May 21st, 2015.)

The stories include:

A Colorado law requires the family of an Aurora mass-shooting victim to pay $220,000 in legal fees to the ammunition maker they tried to sue. The ammunition from that company was used in the shooting that killed their daughter.

OSHA levied penalty of $99,000 last week over six months after a toxic gas leak killed four workers at DuPont’s chemical plant in La Porte, Texas.  OSHA stated that those who died “would be alive today had their employer…taken steps to protect them.” DuPont, however, is a $60 Billion company, according to Maddow.

It came as something of a shock recently when detectives showed up at the Capitol building in Montpelier, Vermont, during work hours and apprehended Vermont State Senator Norman McAllister, writes Vox.  The shock compounded as the charges against him became known: the longtime lawmaker was allegedly running a grisly sexual extortion racket from his dairy farm in Franklin County, in the far northwestern corner of the state. So far, he’s been accused of sexually assaulting two women who were previously employees.

Kansas lawmakers are threatening to cut off all funding for the judicial branch of state government if the Kansas Supreme Court strikes down a law enacted last year on how chief judges in the district courts are selected. House and Senate budget negotiators agreed to the language in a bill that would fund the judicial branch for the next two years, according to Lawrence-Journal World.

(And other stories as well…)

https://www.texastribune.org/2015/05/23/osha-chief-fine-deadly-dupont-leak-petty-cash/

http://www.vice.com/read/the-vermont-state-senator-accused-of-sexual-assault-515

Rachel Maddow On Changing Positions On The War In Iraq In The Republican Party

Licentiathe8th

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow sets the record straight on the untruths told to support the decision to go to war in Iraq. She also discusses how political coverage of “the Iraq question” is allowing Republican candidates to re-write history with Dan Rather of AXS (pronounced “access”) TV.  (Note:  excellent footage of presidential candidate Marco Rubio’s changing positions on Iraq.)

(Updated post)

(Unexplained break in video coverage at the 8:48 mark)

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Looks At Bill O’Reilly’s Statesments About Lee Harvey Oswald Associate’s Suicide

Hien Lun

According to Media Matters, Bill O’Reilly has repeatedly claimed in his books and on Fox News that while he was reporting for a Dallas television station in 1977, he was directly outside the home at the moment that George de Mohrenschildt — an associate of Lee Harvey Oswald — shot himself in Florida.

Rachel Maddow of MSNBC took on O’Reilly recently, and she ran a clip of him on “Fox & Friends” repeating the story from 1977.

Maddow played audio tapes released by CNN last week of phone calls made by O’Reilly from 1977.   The recording was recently released by CNN on Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter.

On the tapes, O’Reilly can be heard asking the congressional reporter Gaeton Fonzi about the details of the suicide, and adding that he is not yet in Florida — a claim that is at odds with O’Reilly’s statements that he was near the home where de Mohrenschildt killed himself, states Media Matters.

Did Governor Chris Christie Cut A Deal With Exxon?

There is a controversy out of New Jersey which continues to get more interesting by the day, according to MSNBC.  Years ago, after decades of misuse, Exxon had damaged more than 1,500 acres of wetlands in northern New Jersey.

The state of New Jersey filed an $8.9 billion lawsuit about a decade ago.  The case progressed in the state’s favor — Exxon’s culpability was finally effectively decided.  The only remaining question was how much the oil giant would pay in damages.

Last week, however, New Jersey settled the case.

Why?  After seeking $8.9 billion — $2.6 billion for environmental restoration and $6.3 billion for compensatory damages — the state agreed to accept just $250 million. That’s roughly 3% of the original amount.  Most of that total would go towards closing the governor’s budget shortfall, rather than environmental repair.

New Jersey State Senator Raymond Lesniak (D) said to MSNBC, “We want to find out who engineered this. Was it the attorney general’s office? Was it [the state’s Department of Environmental Protection] or was it maybe someone in the governor’s office?”

The New York Times seeks to answer that question as well:

“For more than a decade, the New Jersey attorney general’s office conducted a hard-fought legal battle to hold Exxon Mobil Corporation responsible for decades of environmental contamination in northern New Jersey.

“But when the news came that the state had reached a deal to settle its $8.9 billion claim for about $250 million, the driving force behind the settlement was not the attorney general’s office — it was Gov. Chris Christie’s chief counsel, Christopher S. Porrino, two people familiar with the negotiations said.”

Christie’s chief counsel “inserted himself into the case, elbowed aside the attorney general and career employees who had developed and prosecuted the litigation, and cut the deal favorable to Exxon,” according to Bradley Campbell, the commissioner of New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection.

More:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/05/nyregion/christies-office-took-over-exxon-settlement-ex-official-says.html?_r=1