1. of Our Lifetimes' for All Left-Wing MSNBC Anchor Team
Abandoning any pretense of balance, MSNBC's Inauguration coverage will be quad-anchored by four left-wingers: the network's three night time hosts -- Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow -- plus regular analyst Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post. Plugging the team at the end of the 7 PM EST Hardball on Monday night, Matthews trumpeted how "this is one of the great opportunities in journalism to cover history in the face" and declared "it's going to be the honor of our lifetimes."

2. And Obama Shall Bring Tranquility to the Land...
Is there anything President-elect Barack Obama's very aura cannot make better? Apparently, he has eliminated road rage -- and even honking. ABC's David Muir, over video of stuck traffic followed by the sound of singing, in a Monday World News story on the crowds coming to Washington, DC: "So many of the streets are closed those that are open are clogged. But there were no car horns, no shouting. Instead, the San Francisco Boys and Girls choruses practicing for their Inaugural moment on the steps of the Capitol."

3. Woman on MSNBC Exclaims 'Santa Claus Loves' Obama
Never mind how Barack Obama will magically bring "diversity," "excellence" and "unity" to America, "Santa Claus" loves the incoming administration. Seconds before 5 PM EST Monday afternoon on MSNBC, anchor Tamron Hall asked a woman in the crowd around MSNBC's platform on Washington's Mall: "What do you think this next administration brings to the country?" The woman, wearing a Santa Claus hat more than three weeks after Christmas, excitedly replied: "I think they bring diversity. I think they bring a spirit of excellence. I think they bring unity and they bring love. Santa Claus loves them."

4. ABC Touts 'Obama-Stock,' 'American Pilgrimage' of D.C. Visitors
During Monday's Good Morning America, the show's anchors and reporters did not hold back on the hyperbole while discussing Barack Obama's inauguration. While co-host Diane Sawyer discussed those Americans who drove across country to see the inauguration of the 44th president, an ABC graphic trumpeted, "Inauguration of Barack Obama: The American Pilgrimage." During an earlier segment, referring to a star-studded concert for the President-elect, Sawyer gushed: "They are calling it Obama-Stock because the performances were unbelievable." In a third piece, former Clinton aide-turned journalist George Stephanopoulos breathlessly narrated how Obama has been handling final preparations for his speech: "...The President-elect is a real writer...He's in the tinkering stage, which means, like, he's even looking at each word and saying, 'Wait, do I need two syllables and not one?'"

5. CBS's Smith Goes Aboard Obama's Train: 'This Was Something More'
On Monday's CBS Early Show co-host Smith recounted being a passenger on Barack Obama's inaugural train on Saturday: "On a freezing cold Saturday, people stood for hours just to get a glimpse. They wanted to be able to say in the years to come, 'I was there that day when the train went through.'" In his fawning report, Smith used poetic language to describe the train ride from Philadelphia to Washington: "Barack Obama spoke of perfecting the Union, he spoke of common hopes and common dreams, he spoke of recognizing ourselves in one another...This was no mere victory tour, this was something more." Smith found two particular passengers, Patricia and Ted Stiles, who showed bipartisan support for Obama: "Patricia and her husband, Ted, are lifelong Republicans who supported Obama. What did you see when you looked out the windows today?" Patricia declared: "This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for this nation. I'm excited, Harry, let me tell you." Ted exclaimed: "I saw large groups of people, I saw small groups of people. They were standing on their cars. It's like watching a regeneration of our country."

6. On Train a 'Down-Home Folksiness' Between Journalists and Obama
Catching up with something from Saturday I just came across, Newsweek's Howard Fineman pointed out on MSNBC just before 6 PM EST, as the Obama-Biden train arrived at Washington, DC's Union Station, that he was reading "the pool reports that have been filed by reporters on the train and they refer to Barack Obama as PEBO, which is short for 'President-elect Barack Obama.'" Fineman felt that illustrated how "there's an intimacy and a familiarity on that train," presumably between the journalists and Obama, one shared by Fineman who hailed Obama's "many gifts" and saw "a down-home folksiness that belies the tremendous hopes that not only the country, but the whole world, have for him."

7. ABC Cites Only Democrats as 'Warriors' in Civil Rights Movement
On Monday's Good Morning America, co-host Robin Roberts chose to tout only Democratic politicians in a piece honoring the civil rights movement and those "warriors" who made Barack Obama's election as president possible. Not a single Republican was mentioned or featured in the segment. Roberts began by announcing, "And on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we thought it would be appropriate to look back at all the warriors, black and white, who made this moment where we are today possible." All the warriors? The piece went on to feature clips from eight Democratic politicians: Harry Truman, Hubert Humphrey, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, Barbara Jordan and Barack Obama, in addition to a number of non-political civil rights pioneers. Republican Abraham Lincoln went unmentioned, so did New York Governor Thomas Dewey who signed one of the nation's earliest civil rights laws in 1944 and President Ronald Reagan who made Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a federal holiday in 1983.

8. CBS's Nancy Giles Describes 'Carnage' of Bush Administration
On Monday's CBS Early Show, co-host Maggie Rodriguez asked Sunday Morning liberal commentator Nancy Giles about the incoming Obama administration and Giles could not resist bashing Bush: "Well, Barack Obama's going to have his hands full with a lot of the carnage that was left by the previous administration." Republican strategist Bay Buchanan was seated next to Giles and Giles defended her statement: "I had to put it that way, Bay. It is carnage." Buchanan joked: "I was told it would cease-fire here for two days." Giles replied: "I know, I'm sorry, carnage just slipped out, but I mean, he's going to have his hands full." Co-host Harry Smith then chimed in, saying to Giles: "I spent the entire afternoon yesterday talking to people, and there were actually very few people who were echoing the sentiments you were echoing...There were some people who were angry and still carrying grudges. But moreover, it was a sense of for the moment, no more Republicans, no more Democrats, we're all on the same page, at least for a moment."

9. Olbermann Calls for Prosecution of Bush, Invokes Nazis & Slavery
On Monday's Countdown show, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann delivered his latest "Special Comment," in which he called on President-elect Barack Obama to prosecute President Bush and administration members on a charge of torturing prisoners, and invoked extreme examples such as slavery leading to the Civil War, and the handling of Germany after World War I leading to the rise of Nazism and World War II, to illustrate that "this country has never succeeded in moving forward without first cleansing itself of its mistaken past," and that Obama must try to prosecute Bush for the sake of the country's future. After quoting Bush's recent words about the interrogation techniques he authorized against 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and statements by Obama expressing reluctance to pursue prosecutions against the Bush administration, Olbermann began invoking extreme examples from history.

10. Before the Coming of Obama, Springsteen Slams Bush 'Nightmare'
This past weekend singer Bruce Springsteen got in his last anti-Bush licks as he vented to a British newspaper about how the Bush years have been a "nightmare" in which "thousands and thousands of people died, lives were ruined" because of Bush's policies: "The philosophy that was at the base of the last administration has ruined many, many people's lives. The deregulation, the idea of the unfettered, free market, the blind foreign policy. This was a very radical group of people who pushed things in a very radical direction, had great success at moving things in that direction, and we are suffering the consequences."

of Our Lifetimes' for All Left-Wing MSNBC
Anchor Team

     Abandoning any pretense of balance, MSNBC's Inauguration coverage will be quad-anchored by four left-wingers: the network's three night time hosts -- Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow -- plus regular analyst Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post. Plugging the team at the end of the 7 PM EST Hardball on Monday night, Matthews trumpeted how "this is one of the great opportunities in journalism to cover history in the face" and declared "it's going to be the honor of our lifetimes."

     With a graphic on screen showing pictures of the four and announcing MSNBC's 9:45 AM to 4 PM ET coverage, Matthews trumpeted: "This is one of the great opportunities in journalism to cover history in the face. We're going to see history in the face and when you get up tomorrow morning I recommend you stay tuned all day because I don't think you're going to stop seeing history being made, from the very beginning in the morning. It's going to be our best coverage all day. We're going to end up -- Keith and I and Rachel and Gene Robinson -- it's going to be the honor of our lifetimes to be here on the Washington Mall."

     [This item, by the MRC's Brent Baker, was posted late Monday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

     Meanwhile, FNC's coverage will be co-anchored by Bret Baier and Chris Wallace (a veteran of NBC News and ABC News), neither known as ideologues.

     Nonetheless, last week MSNBC President Phil Griffin insisted "we're less about ideology than Fox." See: weblogs.variety.com

And Obama Shall Bring Tranquility to
the Land...

     Is there anything President-elect Barack Obama's very aura cannot make better? Apparently, he has eliminated road rage -- and even honking.

     ABC's David Muir, over video of stuck traffic followed by the sound of singing, in a Monday World News story on the crowds coming to Washington, DC: "So many of the streets are closed those that are open are clogged. But there were no car horns, no shouting. Instead, the San Francisco Boys and Girls choruses practicing for their Inaugural moment on the steps of the Capitol."

     [This item, by the MRC's Brent Baker, was posted Monday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

Woman on MSNBC Exclaims 'Santa Claus
Loves' Obama

     Never mind how Barack Obama will magically bring "diversity," "excellence" and "unity" to America, "Santa Claus" loves the incoming administration. Seconds before 5 PM EST Monday afternoon on MSNBC, anchor Tamron Hall asked a woman in the crowd around MSNBC's platform on Washington's Mall: "What do you think this next administration brings to the country?" The woman, wearing a Santa Claus hat more than three weeks after Christmas, excitedly replied: "I think they bring diversity. I think they bring a spirit of excellence. I think they bring unity and they bring love. Santa Claus loves them."

     [This item, by the MRC's Brent Baker, was posted Monday night, with video, on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

     You'd think Santa Claus would be jealous of Obama for intruding on his specialty of giving away stuff. But maybe the woman was mixed up and meant to say that Obama is just as great as Santa Claus because she expects to get hand outs from him too.

ABC Touts 'Obama-Stock,' 'American Pilgrimage'
of D.C. Visitors

     During Monday's Good Morning America, the show's anchors and reporters did not hold back on the hyperbole while discussing Barack Obama's inauguration. While co-host Diane Sawyer discussed those Americans who drove across country to see the inauguration of the 44th president, an ABC graphic trumpeted, "Inauguration of Barack Obama: The American Pilgrimage."

     During an earlier segment, referring to a star-studded concert for the President-elect, Sawyer gushed: "They are calling it Obama-Stock because the performances were unbelievable." In a third piece, former Clinton aide-turned journalist George Stephanopoulos breathlessly narrated how Obama has been handling final preparations for his speech: "...The President-elect is a real writer...He's in the tinkering stage, which means, like, he's even looking at each word and saying, 'Wait, do I need two syllables and not one?'"

     [This item, by the MRC's Scott Whitlock, was posted Monday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

     While discussing the soon-to-be President's plans for the first 100 days, Stephanopoulos repeated the misrepresentation that George W. Bush somehow banned stem cell research. The "This Week" host said he expected action "on issues like stem cell research, repealing the ban on stem cell research." Of course, all Bush did with his 2001 decision was limit the use of federal funds for research on infant stem cells. States, private research and adult stem cell studies were unaffected.

     A transcript of the George Stephanopoulos segment, which aired at 7:06am, follows:

     DIANE SAWYER: And right now we have the bottom line, George Stephanopoulos here. Here come to you, George.
     GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Good morning.
     SAWYER: Great to see you. So, bring us up to date on this morning in the life of the President-elect. Is the speech finished?
     STEPHANOPOULOS: I think Jake is right. I think the speech is basically done. They set aside some time last weekend for the President-elect to do his own real work. He likes to dig in on the speech and he did rehearse over the weekend including trying to get a handle on when you're up at that podium and you've got these hundreds of thousands of people going all the way to the Washington monument it's very hard to get a sense of the crowd and they're trying to warn him to be ready for the silence that you're not going to get a lot back immediately from the crowds. But also, as you know, Diane, the President-elect is a real writer. And now, as Jake said, he's in the tinkering stage, which means, like, he's even looking at each word and saying, "Wait, do I need two syllables and not one?" And really trying to get the rhythm of the speech down. But, it's done. No all-nighters on Monday night for this.
     SAWYER: Even though his daughter did say, better be good.
     STEPHANOPOULOS: High standard.
     SAWYER: Yeah, right. It's great.
     STEPHANOPOULOS: Go ahead. Beat Lincoln.
     SAWYER: Something else is going to take place today which is also a measure of the bridges they are trying to build. They're going to have a dinner tonight which is going to honor John McCain.
     STEPHANOPOULOS: And that really is remarkable. This is an amazing story right here coming right out of this election and elections are always bitter. The President-elect and his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel made it a point to reach out to John McCain. They had a meeting in the first week after the election, with John McCain on a host of policy issues. When John McCain went overseas in December, came back and gave an interview to me and said, "First thing I did was called Barack Obama. He called me." Gave him a briefing. They've been vetting national security appointments by John McCain. I think the President-elect knows that he will be judged on his claims of bipartisanship if he can reach out to his opponent and I think he's hoping that John McCain on two big issues, national security and government spending, will be a key, key ally. He's really working it.
     SAWYER: We should also say that General Colin Powell will be honored.
     STEPHANOPOULOS: And Vice President-elect Joe Biden.
     SAWYER: And Vice-president elect. There is a story afoot that the White House staff is going to peel off right after- the White House staff-to be now- is going to peel off right after the speech and go right to work.
     STEPHANOPOULOS: I think that is very, very true. I mean, they have an agenda set for this first 100 hours of the first 100 days where they want to demonstrate, as they say, that they're going to hit the ground running. And it means actions on foreign policy. It means actions, executive order, maybe not in the first minutes but in the first couple of days on issues like stem cell research, repealing the ban on stem cell research. It means appointing new envoys to hot spots like Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan to demonstrate a fresh start in foreign policy, as well.
     SAWYER: And we should also point out that the President-elect gave an interview to the Washington Post about race and basically talked about the fact that it will change how black children look at themselves and white children look at black children this election.
     STEPHANOPOULOS: And we're already see this in the country in our own polling show the number of Americans who see racism is a problem has dropped in half over the last ten years and the election clearly has reinforced that and I don't know how much time you had a chance to walk around here in Washington yesterday, Diane. But you can feel it everywhere. African-American families bringing young kids into Washington, all to capture this moment when an African-American takes the oath and it's just completely different.
     SAWYER: Saw it on the train down. Linking arms with white families. They didn't even know and walking into-
     STEPHANOPOULOS: I think for very young kids growing up white or Hispanic, it's just going to be natural pace, African-American president.

CBS's Smith Goes Aboard Obama's Train:
'This Was Something More'

     On Monday's CBS Early Show co-host Smith recounted being a passenger on Barack Obama's inaugural train on Saturday: "On a freezing cold Saturday, people stood for hours just to get a glimpse. They wanted to be able to say in the years to come, 'I was there that day when the train went through.'" In his fawning report, Smith used poetic language to describe the train ride from Philadelphia to Washington: "Barack Obama spoke of perfecting the Union, he spoke of common hopes and common dreams, he spoke of recognizing ourselves in one another...This was no mere victory tour, this was something more." Smith found two particular passengers, Patricia and Ted Stiles, who showed bipartisan support for Obama: "Patricia and her husband, Ted, are lifelong Republicans who supported Obama. What did you see when you looked out the windows today?" Patricia declared: "This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for this nation. I'm excited, Harry, let me tell you." Ted exclaimed: "I saw large groups of people, I saw small groups of people. They were standing on their cars. It's like watching a regeneration of our country."

     A Sunday article in The Denver Post quoted Patricia Stiles, a Colorado native, about hugging Obama at the beginning of the trip in Philadelphia: "President-elect Barack Obama, the greatest, most articulate speaker I've known in my lifetime, standing there to my left. I just melted away." See: www.denverpost.com

     [This item, by the MRC's Kyle Drennen, was posted Monday morning on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

     After describing the trip to Washinton, Smith concluded his report by interviewing people at the inauguration: "The Ervins were carried there by a force they could not resist...The Peterson-Davis family came from Ohio. This is what they felt." Kerri Peterson-Davis excitedly gushed: "Hopeful, hope-filled, just a sense of the best that we're to be and that it's more than just Republicans and Democrats. It's Americans coming together to be who we're supposed to be as people."

     At the start of the show, co-host Maggie Rodriguez remarked: "A new day is dawning here in the nation's capitol on the eve of the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States...Does it get any better, or more beautiful, or more spectacular, than this? I don't think so." Smith agreed: "What a great seat to be right literally in the front row of where history is going to take place in just a little over 24 hours as Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States."

     In a report just prior to Smith's, correspondent Jeff Glor explained that despite the inaugural celebrations: "...the incoming administration is trying to send a message that this is as much about work as it is about celebration. The administration has confirmed to us this morning they'll have shuttle vans ready to take some staffers directly from the inauguration into the White House so they can be sitting at their desks tomorrow afternoon to start working." Rodriguez added: "Wasting no time."

     Here is the full transcript of Smith's report:

     7:05AM SEGMENT:
     HARRY SMITH: It is a special time. We're going to talk about that a lot more as the morning continues. But I was fortunate enough to be able to ride along on the train for part of the journey from Philadelphia to D.C. Saturday afternoon.
     RODRIGUEZ: Oh, wow.
     SMITH: Check this out.
    
     [TAPED REPORT]
     SMITH: On a freezing cold Saturday, people stood for hours just to get a glimpse. They wanted to be able to say in the years to come, 'I was there that day when the train went through.'
     BARACK OBAMA: Hello, Baltimore!
     SMITH: Barack Obama spoke of perfecting the Union, he spoke of common hopes and common dreams, he spoke of recognizing ourselves in one another.
     OBAMA: See you at the next stop!
     SMITH: This was no mere victory tour, this was something more.
     PATRICIA STILES: This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for this nation. I'm excited, Harry, let me tell you.
     SMITH: Patricia and her husband, Ted, are lifelong Republicans who supported Obama. What did you see when you looked out the windows today?
     TED: I saw large groups of people, I saw small groups of people. They were standing on their cars. It's like watching a regeneration of our country.
     BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Come on up for the rising!
     SMITH: On the Mall Sunday afternoon, hundreds of thousands came to hear Springsteen and Beyonce-
     BEYONCE: Stand up,sing with me!
     SMITH: -and celebrate the inauguration. The Ervins were carried there by a force they could not resist.
     NAKEIA ERVIN: Were all family. My family's come here from Georgia, and North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, so we're very far traveled.
     SMITH: Why are you here?
     ERVIN: It's a monumental, historical event. It -- there was no question of being here, it was just how we were going to get here and when.
     SMITH: The Peterson-Davis family came from Ohio. This is what they felt.
     KERRI PETERSON-DAVIS: Hopeful, hope-filled, just a sense of the best that we're to be and that it's more than just Republicans and Democrats. It's Americans coming together to be who we're supposed to be as people.

On Train a 'Down-Home Folksiness' Between
Journalists and Obama

     Catching up with something from Saturday I just came across, Newsweek's Howard Fineman pointed out on MSNBC just before 6 PM EST, as the Obama-Biden train arrived at Washington, DC's Union Station, that he was reading "the pool reports that have been filed by reporters on the train and they refer to Barack Obama as PEBO, which is short for 'President-elect Barack Obama.'" Fineman felt that illustrated how "there's an intimacy and a familiarity on that train," presumably between the journalists and Obama, one shared by Fineman who hailed Obama's "many gifts" and saw "a down-home folksiness that belies the tremendous hopes that not only the country, but the whole world, have for him."

     Full quote: "I've been reading the pool reports that have been filed by reporters on the train and they refer to Barack Obama as PEBO, which is short for "President-elect Barack Obama" and there's an intimacy and a familiarity on that train, a down-home folksiness, that belies the tremendous hopes that not only the country, but the whole world, have for him."

     [This item, by the MRC's Brent Baker, was posted Monday, with an MP3 audio clip, on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

     More of Fineman, from 5:56 PM EST on January 17, during a special Saturday edition of Hardball broadcast from Washington's Mall:

I got to say as a reporter, that these are the kind of moments that you and I got in the business for -- these few days, starting yesterday, continuing through Tuesday, because whatever history is, this is it and it's the moment for people like [fellow guest Maryland Democratic Congressman ] Elijiah Cummings and for the whole country to revel in. And those pictures you had of Obama arriving here, President-elect Obama arriving at Union Station so rich with history, so many echoes of the past including, as you mentioned Lincoln basically having to sneak into town in 1861. And the distance we've traveled since then is almost unimaginable, but yet very much in the American grain.

I've been reading the pool reports that have been filed by reporters on the train and they refer to Barack Obama as PEBO, which is short for "President-elect Barack Obama" and there's an intimacy and a familiarity on that train, a down-home folksiness, that belies the tremendous hopes that not only the country, but the whole world, have for him.

He has the gift of familiarity, of being able to seem as though he is talking straight to you and straight to people as individuals even when he's making sweeping declarations about the country -- which is, among his many gifts, that's probably one of the most important now because he's calling on people, as individuals, to pitch in in these tough economic times we're facing.

ABC Cites Only Democrats as 'Warriors'
in Civil Rights Movement

     On Monday's Good Morning America, co-host Robin Roberts chose to tout only Democratic politicians in a piece honoring the civil rights movement and those "warriors" who made Barack Obama's election as president possible. Not a single Republican was mentioned or featured in the segment. Roberts began by announcing, "And on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we thought it would be appropriate to look back at all the warriors, black and white, who made this moment where we are today possible."

     All the warriors? The piece went on to feature clips from eight Democratic politicians: Harry Truman, Hubert Humphrey, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, Barbara Jordan and Barack Obama, in addition to a number of non-political civil rights pioneers. Republican Abraham Lincoln went unmentioned, so did New York Governor Thomas Dewey who signed one of the nation's earliest civil rights laws in 1944 and President Ronald Reagan who made Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a federal holiday in 1983.

     The piece also ignored the inconvenient fact that a higher percentage of Congressional Republicans voted for the historic 1964 Civil Rights Act than did Democrats. Another point left unmentioned was the heroic effort by the conservative GOP minority leader in the Senate, Everett Dirksen, in supporting that legislation:

Sen. Thomas Kuchel of California led the Republican pro-civil rights forces. But it became clear who among the Republicans was going to get the job done; that man was conservative Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen.

He was the master key to victory for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Without him and the Republican vote, the Act would have been dead in the water for years to come. LBJ and Humphrey knew that without Dirksen the Civil Rights Act was going nowhere.

Dirksen became a tireless supporter, suffering bouts of ill health because of his efforts in behalf of crafting and passing the Civil Rights Act. Nonetheless, Sen. Dirksen suffered the same fate as many Republicans and conservatives do today.

     For more, see a December 14, 2002 article by Diane Alden on NewsMax.com: archive.newsmax.com

     Roberts began the segment by repeating, "And there's a phrase we've been hearing so much I want to share with you. 'Rosa sat so Martin could walk. Martin walked so Obama could run. Obama ran so our children can fly.'" It would have been nice if GMA found time to highlight some of the many pro-civil rights politicians in the Republican Party.

     A transcript of the segment, which aired at 8:15am on January 19, follows:

     ROBIN ROBERTS: And there's a phrase we've been hearing so much I want to share with you. 'Rosa sat so Martin could walk. Martin walked so Obama could run. Obama ran so our children can fly.' And on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we thought it would be appropriate to look back at all the warriors, black and white, who made this moment where we are today possible.
     MARY MCLEOD BETHUNE (1939): Democracy is for me and for 12 million black Americans a goal to which our nation is marching. It is a dream and an idea whose ultimate realization we have a deep and abiding faith.
     PRESIDENT HARRY TRUMAN (1947): There is no justifiable reason for discrimination because of ancestry or religion or race or color.
     HUBERT HUMPHREY (1948): For those who say that we are rushing this issue of civil rights, I say to them, we are 172 years late.
     PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY (1963): 100 years of delay has passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons are not fully free. And this nation for all its hopes and all its boasts will not be fully free until all its citizens are free.
     MARTIN LUTHER KING: I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.
     MALCOM X (1964): Our forefathers weren't the pilgrims. We didn't land on Plymouth Rock. The rock was landed on us. So what you and I have got to do is get involved. You and I have to be right there breathing down their throat. Every time they look over their shoulder, we want them to see us. We want to make them -we want to make them have the strongest civil rights bill they've ever passed.
     FANNIE LOU HAMER (1964): I question America. Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave where we have to sleep with our telephones off of the hook because our lives be threatened daily, because we want to live in peace as human beings in America?
     PRESIDENT LYNDON B. JOHNSON (1965): But, really, it's all of us who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome.
     STOKELY CARMICHAEL (1966): We have never lynched. We have never shot. We never burnt a church. We've never beaten people. We've never taken them to jail. That is the question for white America. The real question is can she civilize herself before we get ready to civilize her?
     MARTIN LUTHER KING: I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.
     SENATOR ROBERT F. KENNEDY (1968): We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times, but the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life and want justice for all human beings that abide in our land.
     BARBARA JORDAN (1976): We are a people and a quandary about the present. We are a people in search of our future. We are attempting to fulfill our national purpose to create and sustain a society in which all of us are equal.
     REVEREND JESSE JACKSON (1984): We've experienced pain but progress as we ended America's apartheid laws. We lost Malcolm, Martin, Medgar, Bobby, John and Viola. The team that got us here must be expanded not abandoned.
     PRESIDENT ELECT BARACK OBAMA: If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

CBS's Nancy Giles Describes 'Carnage'
of Bush Administration

     On Monday's CBS Early Show, co-host Maggie Rodriguez asked Sunday Morning liberal commentator Nancy Giles about the incoming Obama administration and Giles could not resist bashing Bush: "Well, Barack Obama's going to have his hands full with a lot of the carnage that was left by the previous administration." Republican strategist Bay Buchanan was seated next to Giles and Giles defended her statement: "I had to put it that way, Bay. It is carnage." Buchanan joked: "I was told it would cease-fire here for two days." Giles replied: "I know, I'm sorry, carnage just slipped out, but I mean, he's going to have his hands full." Co-host Harry Smith then chimed in, saying to Giles: "I spent the entire afternoon yesterday talking to people, and there were actually very few people who were echoing the sentiments you were echoing...There were some people who were angry and still carrying grudges. But moreover, it was a sense of for the moment, no more Republicans, no more Democrats, we're all on the same page, at least for a moment."

     [This item, by the MRC's Kyle Drennen, was posted Monday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

     In contrast to her view of Bush's "carnage," Giles praised Obama: "Barack Obama said something last year that I heard him say about his definition of homeland security and national security. It had to do with making education a real important thing. He felt that educating our young people would make the nation that much more secure. And I love that way of thinking."

     At the end of the segment, Buchanan attempted to discuss Obama's accountability as president: "And then Harry...And then next year you can't keep looking back and blaming other people...then it's all Obama's responsibility in two days, fellas." However, she was cut short by Smith declaring: "So for 48 hours, we will beat the swords into plow shares," and Rodriguez singing "Kumbaya."

     Here is the full transcript of the segment:

     7:43AM SEGMENT:
     MAGGIE RODRIGUEZ: Euphoria in Washington, D.C. on the eve of the inauguration of Barack Obama. A crowd has already gathered here on the National Mall. We're joined now by Bay Buchanan who is a Republican strategist, as well as Nancy Giles who is a CBS News Sunday Morning contributor. And we're here to talk about what happens-
     HARRY SMITH: Who's dressed like a bear. NANCY GILES: I didn't mean to, but it's cold.
     RODRIGUEZ: What happens after this, after the fun, after the party when we have to get down to business? Right?
     GILES: Well, Barack Obama's going to have his hands full with a lot of the carnage that was left by the previous administration. I had to put it that way, Bay. It is carnage.
     MAGGIE RODRIGUEZ: Are you pushing her buttons?
     GILES: No, we actually have been getting along in the make up room, we sort of bonded.
     BAY BUCHANAN: That's right, I was told it would cease-fire here for two days.
     GILES: I know, I'm sorry, carnage just slipped out, but I mean, he's going to have his hands full.
     SMITH: You know, it's interesting, because we -- I spent the entire afternoon yesterday talking to people, and there were actually very few people who were echoing the sentiments you were echoing.
     GILES: Oh, dear.
     SMITH: No, no, no. There were some people who were angry and still carrying grudges. But moreover, it was a sense of for the moment, no more Republicans, no more Democrats, we're all on the same page, at least for a moment.
     BUCHANAN: And that's the way it should be.
     SMITH: How long can that last?
     BUCHANAN: It can last two days. I mean, come on.
     GILES: Thank you for saying that, because I was feeling like carnage was-
     BUCHANAN: In fairness, they should celebrate, they -- it's time to celebrate.
     GILES: We should all celebrate.
     BUCHANAN: Because they did win, they won fair and square. There's a great tradition in this country that we have orderly transfer of power. And then there's this idea of fresh ideas that kind of come, new policies, a new, fresh outlook on things, and Mr. Obama's a very optimistic, positive person that gives you a feeling that things can be turned around. But listen, all of those things are good, but we need really some very strong policies that are going to change the direction of the country. That's what we're going to be starting to talk about in two days. Are the policies he's implementing going to work or are they not? Is there going to be a real effort on the part of conservatives to try to move it into some direction that we feel that can possibly work for this nation.
     RODRIGUEZ: Even he is downplaying expectations, though, he's saying this is going to take a lot of time.
     GILES: Which I think is a smart thing to do because there is a lot to handle. But I'll say one thing along the lines of what you were saying about, you know, these new ideas. He's -- Barack Obama said something last year that I heard him say about his definition of homeland security and national security. It had to do with making education a real important thing. He felt that educating our young people would make the nation that much more secure. And I love that way of thinking. And I think that that's going to inspire a lot of young people and a lot of older people. And that inspiration may help get some of his policies in place, don't you think?
     SMITH: So for 48 hours, we will beat the swords into plow shares.
     BUCHANAN: And then Harry-
     RODRIGUEZ: Kumbaya.
     SMITH: Hold hands, hold hands.
     GILES: Her hands are cold-
     RODRIGUEZ: Kumbaya.
     BUCHANAN: And then next year you can't keep looking back and blaming other people-
     GILES: Come on, bay, sing with me-
     BUCHANAN: -then it's all Obama's responsibility in two days, fellas-
     GILES: Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya-
     BUCHANAN: Never learned-
     GILES: She won't sing it with me. Oh well, we tried.

Olbermann Calls for Prosecution of Bush,
Invokes Nazis & Slavery

     On Monday's Countdown show, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann delivered his latest "Special Comment," in which he called on President-elect Barack Obama to prosecute President Bush and administration members on a charge of torturing prisoners, and invoked extreme examples such as slavery leading to the Civil War, and the handling of Germany after World War I leading to the rise of Nazism and World War II, to illustrate that "this country has never succeeded in moving forward without first cleansing itself of its mistaken past," and that Obama must try to prosecute Bush for the sake of the country's future. After quoting Bush's recent words about the interrogation techniques he authorized against 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and statements by Obama expressing reluctance to pursue prosecutions against the Bush administration, Olbermann began invoking extreme examples from history.

     Olbermann: "This country has never succeeded in moving forward without first cleansing itself of its mistaken past....We compromised with slavery in the Declaration of Independence, and, fourscore and nine years later, we had buried 600,000 of our sons and brothers in a civil war. After that war's ending, we compromised with the social restructuring and protection of the rights of minorities in the South. And a century later, we had not only had not resolved anything, but black leaders were still being assassinated in the cities of the South. We compromised with Germany in the reconstruction of Europe after the First World War. Nobody even arrested the German kaiser, let alone conducted war crimes trials then. And 19 years later, there was an indescribably more evil Germany and a more heartrending Second World War."

     [This item, by the MRC's Brad Wilmouth, was posted Monday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

     The Countdown host soon brought up more of his favorite historical subjects -- McCarthyism and Watergate -- and charged they had influenced Bush administration members like Dick Cheney. Olbermann: "We compromised with the Palmer Raids and got McCarthyism, and we compromised with McCarthyism and got Watergate. And we compromised with Watergate, and the junior members of the Ford administration realized how little was ultimately at risk. And they grew up to be Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney."

     Below is a transcript of the last three minutes of Olbermann's nine-and-a-half minute "Special Comment" from the Monday, January 19, Countdown show on MSNBC:

Sadly, as commendable as the intention here might seem, this country has never succeeded in moving forward without first cleansing itself of its mistaken past. In point of fact, every effort to merely draw a line in the sand and declare the past dead, has served to only keep the past alive, and often to strengthen it. We compromised with slavery in the Declaration of Independence, and, fourscore and nine years later, we had buried 600,000 of our sons and brothers in a civil war. After that war's ending, we compromised with the social restructuring and protection of the rights of minorities in the South. And a century later, we had not only had not resolved anything, but black leaders were still being assassinated in the cities of the South. We compromised with Germany in the reconstruction of Europe after the First World War. Nobody even arrested the German kaiser, let alone conducted war crimes trials then. And 19 years later, there was an indescribably more evil Germany and a more heartrending Second World War.

We compromised with the trusts of the early 1900s, and today, we have corporations too big to fail. We compromised with the Palmer Raids and got McCarthyism, and we compromised with McCarthyism and got Watergate. And we compromised with Watergate, and the junior members of the Ford administration realized how little was ultimately at risk. And they grew up to be Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.

But, Mr. President-elect, you are entirely correct. As you say, what we have to focus on is getting things right in the future, as opposed to looking at what we got wrong in the past. And that means prosecuting all those involved in the Bush administration's torture of prisoners, and starting at the top. You're also right that you should not want your first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt. But your only other option might be to let this sit and fester indefinitely because, Mr. President-elect, some day, there will be another Republican President or even a Democrat just as blind as Mr. Bush to ethics and he will look back to what you did about Mr. Bush or what you did not do, and he will seek precedent or, as Cheney saw, he will see a not to get caught next time. Prosecute, Mr. President-elect, and even if you get not one conviction, you will still have accomplished good for generations unborn because merely by acting, you will deny Mr. Bush what he most wants, right now, without prosecutions, without this nation standing up and saying this was wrong, we will atone, Mr. Bush's version of what happened goes into the historical record of this nation: Torture was legal. It worked. George Bush saved the country. The end.

We have tortured people. You and I, Mr. President-elect. This is a people's democracy. We are the people. These were our elected officials. That they did not come to us and ask to act thusly in our names is unfortunate and indeed criminal, but it is almost irrelevant. They worked for us, they tortured people, and so we have tortured people. Thus, beginning tomorrow, it is up to you, not just to discontinue this, but to prevent it. At the end of his first year in office, Mr. Lincoln tried to contextualize the Civil War. For those who still wanted to compromise with the evils of secession and slavery. "The struggle of today," Lincoln wrote, "is not altogether for today. It is for a vast future also." Mr. President-elect, you have been handed the beginning of that future. Use it to protect our children and our distant descendants from anything like this ever happening again. Good night and good luck.

Before the Coming of Obama, Springsteen
Slams Bush 'Nightmare'

10) For years -- especially, it seems, the past eight years -- the "news" media have made a habit of asking liberal celebrities about their political views -- in essence, handing the microphone over to a small, unrepresentative group of left-wing Bush-bashers, blame-America-firsters and enviro-wackos. Thus, actors and singers and comics are elevated in our national discourse above the military, businessmen and scientists.

     [This item, by the MRC's Rich Noyes, was posted Monday evening on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

     Those same celebrities are now giddily celebrating Barack Obama's arrival as the 44th President, but this weekend singer Bruce Springsteen got in his last licks as he vented to a British newspaper about how the Bush years have been a "nightmare" in which "thousands and thousands of people died, lives were ruined" because of Bush's policies: "The philosophy that was at the base of the last administration has ruined many, many people's lives. The deregulation, the idea of the unfettered, free market, the blind foreign policy. This was a very radical group of people who pushed things in a very radical direction, had great success at moving things in that direction, and we are suffering the consequences."

     In September 2007, Springsteen trashed Bush on NBC's Today show, stringing together a left-wing rant about "rendition," "illegal wiretapping," "voter suppression," "an attack on the Constitution," "the neglect" of New Orleans and "the loss of our best young men and women in a tragic war." See the October 1, 2007 CyberAlert: www.mrc.org

     For video, check the MRC's Best Notable Quotables of 2007: www.mrc.org

     Here's an excerpt of Springsteen's comments in an interview with producer Mark Hagen as printed in the January 18 edition of The Observer, a British newspaper:

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: The past is never the past. It is always present. And you better reckon with it in your life and in your daily experience, or it will get you. It will get you really bad. It will come and it will devour you, it will remove you from the present. It will steal your future and this happens every day.

We've lived through a nightmare like that in the past eight years here. We had a historically blind administration who didn't take consideration of the past; thousands and thousands of people died, lives were ruined and terrible, terrible things occurred because, there was no sense of history, no sense that the past is living and real.

So the song is about this happening to this character. He moves ahead. He tries to make the right moves. He awakes from a vision of his death, and realises: life is finite. Time is with me always. And I'm frightened. And he rides west where he settles down. But the past comes back in the form of this bounty hunter, whose mind is also quickened and burdened by the need to get his man. And these possessed creatures meet along the shores of this river where the bounty hunter of course is killed, and his last words are: 'We can't undo the things we've done.'

In other words, your past is your past. You carry it with you always. These are your sins. You carry them with you always. You better learn how to live with them, learn the story that they're telling you. Because they're whispering your future in your ear, and if you don't listen, it will be contaminated by the toxicity of your past.

MARK HAGEN: So do you think that kind of nightmare is going to change? That to an extent America has now taken account of that?

SPRINGSTEEN: Yes, because, you know... the whole place practically has come crashing down. [laughs] Yes, there is severe accounting being taken of it right now. We're going through something that we haven't gone through in my life. Foreign policy, domestic policy - driven to its breaking point. Everything got broken.

And the philosophy that was at the base of the last administration has ruined many, many people's lives. The deregulation, the idea of the unfettered, free market, the blind foreign policy. This was a very radical group of people who pushed things in a very radical direction, had great success at moving things in that direction, and we are suffering the consequences.

     END of Excerpt

     For the entire interview: www.guardian.co.uk

-- Brent Baker

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