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From Fox News Sunday, Bill Kristol is hoping that people will see the lines for H1N1 vaccines and come to the conclusion that the government can't run anything properly. As Juan Williams points out, that's what happens when you have Republicans who don't believe in government running things and don't want government to work as we saw in George's Bush's complete indifference to the plight of the victims were during Hurricane Katrina. Williams should have also pointed out to him that Republicans managed to make sure FEMA worked pretty well when it benefited them politically in Florida.

As Williams also noted, these are private companies working with the government that failed to deliver the vaccines in the time frame promised. Fox News and much of the rest of the media seem to have a problem deciding on whether to fear monger about whether vaccines are safe or not and people being forced to get them as Jon Stewart pointed out not long ago on The Daily Show and complaining about them not being delivered fast enough. Now we've got Kristol conflating receiving vaccinations to the government being capable of administering health insurance.

Wallace: Bill you’ve never liked the Democratic health care plan in its various iterations and you especially don’t like this version. In fact you say it combines the most unpopular Democratic and Republican proposals in the last generation.

Kristol: Right, it’s got the Medicare cuts that almost doomed the Gingrich revolution in 1995, the Pelosi Medicare cuts dwarf the Gingrich Medicare cuts of 1995 and it’s got tax hikes—the tax hikes which the Clintons and the Democratic Congress passed on a party line vote in 1993 that cost them the Congress in 1994. And Nancy Pelosi has pulled off a great feat; you called it a compromised vote. It’s like a compromise between awful and horrendous you know. She’s combined tax hikes and Medicare cuts in the same bill in a bill that does nothing to improve the average Americans’ health care or to improve the cost of the average Americans’ health insurance. It’s an amazing feat that she’s done and now she’s pushing this bill, this huge government take over of the health care system at the moment when we have an experiment, an ongoing experiment in government health care—the swine flu epidemic—an emergency the president called it.

If you like how the government’s run swine flu with lines and cues and promises that haven’t come through in terms of having the vaccines available—if you like the government’s swine flu program, you’ll love Pelosi-Care.

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Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz both responded to Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol's new group Keep America Safe's ad, which accused them of being afraid to debate her. Rachel was polite as always and said Ms. Cheney is welcome on her show any time. Ed Schultz had some of his guests weigh in as well and was not so kind to Cheney. He questioned why she was qualified to work at the State Department in the first place and I think Bill Press' response was the most appropriate.

Press: You know what I think Ed? This was another balloon hoax. This whole thing is a total hoax, this Keep America Safe thing. It is. It's a total media creation. You're right about Liz Cheney. What about Bill Kristol? This is the guy that brought the country Dan Quayle and Sarah Palin—Bill Kristol—the one that wanted Bill Clinton to invade Iraq in 1997—what credentials—and I'm sorry Earnest, but the credentials of the people who represent the organization do say a lot about the organization. You’ve got Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol—neither of them know squat about security. And we’re supposed to believe them?

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This one had me chuckling. After all of the air time Liz Cheney has been given on Morning Joe and some of the other MSNBC daytime programs, her new group, the ironically named "Keep America Safe" is running an ad saying that Chris Matthews, Ed Schultz and Keith Olbermann are afraid to debate her.

From The Plum Line-New Ad From Liz Cheney’s Group Bashes Olbermann, Matthews As “Afraid” To Debate Her:

The implication being, of course, that the MSNBC gang is running scared from Ms. Cheney. If memory serves, though, Ms. Cheney has repeatedly been granted a platform on … MSNBC, again and again and again, to defend her pop’s legacy and champion policies that don’t even exist anymore.

Looking forward to the lily-livered liberal network crew’s response to this one. Maybe they’ll invite her on again a bunch more times to discuss her contempt for them.

And from Benen:

Earlier this year, Liz Cheney spent so much time on the cable news networks, I think she had her mail forwarded to the green rooms on N. Capitol. At one point, the "liberal media" had the former State Department official on 22 times in 24 days. Not only were many of these appearances on MSNBC, but when people like me started complaining about the news networks turning Cheney into a right-wing celebrity, Liz Cheney's biggest defender was ... MSNBC.

And now Cheney wants to turn the network into a punching bag?

Also, I couldn't help but notice that Liz Cheney's ad targets Olbermann, Matthews, and Schultz, but seems to have left out one high-profile MSNBC host: Rachel Maddow. Indeed, Rachel has invited Liz Cheney onto her show many, many times, and yet, Cheney has declined every opportunity.

To borrow a phrase, why doesn't Liz Cheney want to talk substance? Why doesn't she want to debate the issues?

I would be surprised if Cheney hasn't been invited to appear on all of those shows, although I'm not sure why any of them would want to give the likes of her some air time so she can spend the segment interrupting and talking over them. She doesn't debate anyone. She filibusters and talks over anyone she's on the air with so she can get her talking points out without actually answering any questions. If they put her in a debate box off the set with a mute button they might get a word in edgewise.

I wonder if her cohort Bloody Bill Kristol wants some face time during prime time on MSNBC as well? I'd absolutely love to see him come on Rachel or Keith's shows.

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Liz Cheney told Fox News' Chris Wallace that President Barack Obama should not travel to Oslo in December to accept the Nobel Prize. Cheney called the prize a "farce" that could only be legitimized if family of U.S. military accepted it.

"I think the president himself understands he didn't earn this prize and therefore the notion that this white house has said he would go to Oslo to accept the prize would add to the farce," said Cheney.

She offered the following proposal: "I think what he ought to do, frankly, is send the mother of a fallen American soldier to accept the prize on behalf of the U.S. military. Frankly, to send the message to remind the Nobel committee that each one of them sleeps soundly at night because the U.S. armed forces, because the U.S. military is the greatest peacekeeping force in the world today."

It should come as no surprise that neoconservative columnist Bill Kristol disagrees with the Nobel committee. He responded to the award with sarcasm. "It's hard for me to be objective about this because I'm so disappointed personally. I was up early Friday morning. I thought the phone might ring, you know. Pundits for peace. I deserve it pretty much. President Obama and I have done about the same amount to bring about world peace, I think," said Kristol.

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Gee, who could have seen this one coming? I know, Paul Krugman.

Stimulus arithmetic (wonkish but important):

Bit by bit we’re getting information on the Obama stimulus plan, enough to start making back-of-the-envelope estimates of impact. The bottom line is this: we’re probably looking at a plan that will shave less than 2 percentage points off the average unemployment rate for the next two years, and possibly quite a lot less. This raises real concerns about whether the incoming administration is lowballing its plans in an attempt to get bipartisan consensus.

[....]

I see the following scenario: a weak stimulus plan, perhaps even weaker than what we’re talking about now, is crafted to win those extra GOP votes. The plan limits the rise in unemployment, but things are still pretty bad, with the rate peaking at something like 9 percent and coming down only slowly. And then Mitch McConnell says “See, government spending doesn’t work.”

Let’s hope I’ve got this wrong.

Looks like Paul was right. It's not Mitch McConnell but Kristol and Hume are basically saying the same thing. And for the record, since Bill Kristol seems to think that it was a terrible thing for the economy for the minimum wage to be increased, I'd like to see him try to live off of it for a year.

Transcript below the fold.

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Like many conservatives, The Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol seems delighted that President's Barack Obama's attempt to bring the Olympics to Chicago failed. "You couldn't help but be amused by it," Kristol said on Fox Sunday.

Kristol's publication, The Weekly Standard, reported cheers in their newsroom when it was announced that Chicago lost the Olympic bid.

The conservative columnist thinks that Obama should have been campaigning against America. "By Barack Obama's view of the world, he should have been rooting for Brazil to get the Olympics. South America's never gotten them. It's a rising power. It would help Brazil. We don't need the Olympics. We've had them a million times. Our economy doesn't need the boost of the Olympics," said Kristol.

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Bloody Bill Kristol takes up for poor little old Joe Wilson on Fox News Sunday. Bill, the only "stunt" pulled here was by Joe Wilson.

Kristol: He is leading his party off a cliff and Speaker Pelosi is going to lead the party, her party off the cliff if they try to rebuke Joe Wilson. He has apologized. It will be a disgrace if they do some stunt in the House to try to humilitate this man who is in fact, has a reputation for bipartisanship on the Armed Services Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee he's on. Obama and Pelosi are leading the party off a cliff I think and I hope a lot of Democrats say slow down, let's take a look at this bill.

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From Fox's Wall Street Journal Editorial Report, the panel recites the latest GOP talking point that any abuse of prisoners has already been investigated. Scott Horton does a nice job of debunking this in his article at Harpers Magazine, Seven Points on the CIA Report:

The “prior investigation” canard. It looks like the favorite talking point emerging for torture apologists (like David Ignatius) is that the CIA cases were already examined by career prosecutors who decided not to take any action. But this claim is false. Although these cases were enshrouded in extraordinary secrecy from the outset, I closely studied their management and conducted a number of interviews with Justice personnel who were involved; I also worked with the House Judiciary Committee in its review of the matter. The cases were referred by Helgerson to the Justice Department, which in turn passed them to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Paul J. McNulty. (This U.S. attorney’s office was the most highly politicized in the entire U.S. attorneys system, and McNulty was ultimately promoted to the office of deputy attorney general and then resigned amidst accusations of misconduct involving the politicization of the Justice Department.)

McNulty’s office acted as a sort of “dead letter office” for troublesome torture allegations. The suggestion that there was an active investigation is laughable. No grand jury was impaneled or testimony taken, and contrary to Ignatius’s claims no decision was taken not to prosecute. What happened instead was inaction. Why? If the cases had been pressed, the CIA personnel involved would have immediately implicated high-level Bush Administration officials. The Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility has examined the handling of these cases and has confirmed that no serious investigation ever occurred. So the suggestion that Holder is now somehow undermining or second-guessing the decision of career prosecutors is preposterous.

Transcript below the fold.

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It looks like Mary Matalin, Chris Wallace and Bill Kristol all got their talking points from the same place for the Sunday shows this week. Matalin, like Wallace claims that we haven't been attacked since 9-11 and then names anthrax attacks as something that was prevented by the CIA after they tortured prisoners.

Uuummmm.... Mary, I hate to break this to you, but we were attacked by anthrax. But then you're fully aware of that already, aren't you? I doubt there's a single person in the Bush administration that has forgotten the event that was enough to scare some Democrats into voting for the invasion of Iraq.

I'm also wondering how many of the "attacks" she rattled off are on the list from Keith Olbermann's The Nexus of Politics and Terror? My guess is more than a few if she was forced to give specifics and maybe had someone besides her DINO husband and that hack John King sitting across the table from her.

As our own Jon Perr pointed out to me, Matalin is doing a good job of carrying water for Dick Cheney and his strategy to assure that torture is never investigated.

Transcript below the fold.

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While discussing the latest revelations from Tom Ridge's new book that the Homeland Security terrorist threat alerts were used for political purposes, Bill Kristol defends what happened just before the election where they decided it would be too obvious if they raised it again and uses that one example to claim that the program was not used for political purposes. Fox just loves them some little neo-con serial liars, don't they? Bill, just because they finally decided they over played their hand doesn't mean they weren't playing politics with the fear card.

Newshounds has the breakdown of just how the alerts were used in the run up to the election. Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid:

2001
Oct 11: The FBI warned of imminent terrorist attacks in the US "in the next several days". Of course there was no indication of when or where these attacks would occur. There were no attacks.

Oct 29: The Administration warned of plans to strike the US "in the next week." No specifics such as dates or targets were given. There were no attacks.

Dec 3: Ridge warns that terrorist strikes "could happen within the next few weeks," possibly connected with the Muslim religious festival of Ramadan. There were no attacks.

2002
Jan 17: Ashcroft warns that suicide attacks "might be expected because of confidential information" the US government had received. No dates or places were given. Nothing more was ever heard about the "confidential information." There were no attacks.

Feb 10: The FBI warned there was a threat of "imminent attacks on the US that might happen as early as Feb 12." There were no attacks.

Mar 27: The government issued a warning that American citizens in 4 Italian cities "would be attacked on Easter Sunday." There were no attacks.

May 19: VP Cheney states that he is "certain of new attacks against the US". There were no attacks.

May 21: The FBI warned of imminent threat of� "attacks against the Brooklyn Bridge & the Statue of Liberty". There were no attacks.

Sep 10: The government raised the National Alert Level to orange stating that there would be "strikes against American sites on the anniversary of the Sept 11 attack". Air patrols were instituted & access to government buildings was prohibited. There were no attacks.

2003
Feb 8: Ridge & Ashcroft announced a high National Terror Alert, claiming they had "evidence that terrorists would attack American hotels & apartment buildings." There were no attacks.

Mar 17. National Alert Level raised to orange. No reasons are given. There were no attacks.

Mar 18. The Arizona National Guard was alerted & sent to a nuclear plant because "an attack by al Qaeda agents was imminent". There was no attack.

Dec 21: Ridge raised alert levels & warned that the" threat of imminent attack is now the most serious since 2001". There was no attack.

2004
Apr 2: The Administration warns about "pending terrorist attacks on buses & trains". There were no attacks.

May 26. Ashcroft & Mueller warn of a "plane attack inside the US" & that terrorists "were poised for an immediate attack". There was no attack.

Aug 1: Ridge raised the alert level to orange, claiming knowledge of plots against US financial institutions. It was later discovered that his "knowledge" was 4 years old & very unspecific. There was no attack.

And then of course we have Keith's reporting which at the time I'm surprised didn't get him kicked off of the air at MSNBC on the Nexus of Politics and Fear, which he just updated and my friend and fellow contributor here at Video Cafe CSPANJunkie just posted for me this week.

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h/t C&L'er Mugsy

Day

Kristol does TDS again. I'm not thrilled that this conservative hatchet man gets valuable air time on CC as much as he has, but Stewart does kick him around. Jon gets Bill Kristol to admit that the government run health care for the military is the best care on earth and then tells us that ordinary Americans aren't deserving of the best health care available. See, Bloody Bill does believe in rationing health care after all. So Kristolthat admits that government run health care is the best, but Americans should only have shitty health care plans with insurance companies making huge profits. (It starts around the eleven minute mark) rough transcript.

Stewart: Why no health care, Why no health care reform for Americans because the military fighting for us, gave it up. Why do you hate America?

Stewart: Why not? Why shouldn't the government provide some sort of care to the 50 million that are uninsured?

Kristol: No, well the military has a different health system than the rest of Americans.

Stewart: It's a public system, no?

Kristol: Yea, they don't have an option they're all in the military.

Stewart: Why don't we go with that?

Kristol: (Stupid look comes across his face.) I don't know. Is military health care what you really...first of all it's really expensive, they deserve it, the military...

Stewart: But people in public do not?

Kristol: No, the American public do not deserve the same...

Stewart: Are you saying Americans shouldn't have access to the same plan health care that we give the soldiers?

Kristol: Yes, to our soldiers? Absolutely.

Stewart: Really?

Kristol: I think the one thing if you become a soldier...

Stewart: So you just said, Bill Kristol just said that the government can run a first class health care system.

Kristol: Sure it can.

Stewart: A government run health care system is better than the private health care system. You just said that...

Kristol: I don't know if it's better.

Stewart: No, you just said it was better.

Kristol: I didn't say it was better all around.

Stewart: No, you said it was better. You said it's the best, it's a little more expensive, but it's better. I just want to write this down. The government runs the best health care...

Stewart: I understand that so what you are suggesting is that the government could run the best health care system for Americans, but it's a little too costly so we should have the shitty insurance companies health care.

Kristol: I'm suggesting our soldiers deserve better health care...

Stewart: They deserve the best. They have the best government run health care money can buy.

Nobody is denying that solders should have the best care available because they should, but why aren't Americans allowed to have the same benefits? I know Kristol has all that blood on his hands because he helped send the country into Iraq and so many innocents and soldiers have died or been injured because of that travesty. C&Ler Michael writes in via email:

When Stewart asked why the rest of the country couldn't have that, Kristol responded very quickly by suggesting that ordinary Americans didn't deserve it. I'm guessing that's in reference to the fact that the rest of us didn't serve in uniform.

While the statement itself is a little cringe-worthy, it struck me. Kristol seemed to float a notion that there's a tier system as far as American life is concerned. What's more, I realized that this is not a new notion.

Conservatives do seem to put forth a Social Darwinist attitude; but I usually see that coming out of hawks referring to the lives of the people who live in countries other than ours. Usually right before (or during) bombing, but that's beside the point.

Yes, it's easy to miss this point because Kristol blathers on so much. COnservatives want to choose who is deserving of what at all times.

As usual, if Bill Kristol's lips are moving, it's pretty safe to assume he's either lying or has no clue what he's talking about.

Bill Kristol, who writes frequently about health care and advises the Republican Party about how to vote on bills, is misinformed on the basic facts of the situation. And even his misinformation isn't terribly coherent: Later in the interview, he says that the Army health-care system -- which is fully socialized -- is the best health-care system we've got, and the reason we can't give it to all Americans is that it's too expensive. Socialized medicine, in other words, works. The rest of us just don't deserve it.

To be fair, I don't believe that Kristol believes that. When he says that the danger with Obama's plan is that it "would put us well on the road to government-run health care," I take him at his word. But it is interesting to watch what happens when his adoration for all things military collides with the distrust of all things federal. Turns out that the conservative in Kristol is no match for the militarist.

Ezra has some nice charts as well showing the error of Bill Kristol's talking points.

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Fox News pundits said President Barack Obama was arrogant and unwilling to apologize for his handling of the arrest of Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. Sunday.

"The president could have said that was a stupid thing for me to say, but he can't say that for some reason. That would be too self-deprecating and he is an arrogant man and he is entitled to pass judgment on cambridge cops," said Bill Kristol.

Brit Hume seems to think that the Gates arrest will be an issue that will concern the next president. "I fear we will have to await the arrival of the next president who can apologize for Barack Obama on this as he so repeatedly does about previous presidents," said Hume.

I know this broke the other day, but I needed to hit it. William the Bloody Kristol passed on his wisdom for the American people and tells his Republican allies to hurt American families.

With Obamacare on the ropes, there will be a temptation for opponents to let up on their criticism, and to try to appear constructive, or at least responsible. There will be a tendency to want to let the Democrats' plans sink of their own weight, to emphasize that the critics have been pushing sound reform ideas all along and suggest it's not too late for a bipartisan compromise over the next couple of weeks or months.

My advice, for what it's worth: Resist the temptation. This is no time to pull punches. Go for the kill...read on

What a shock. I've was wondering what took him so long.

Ezra Klein responds:

Yawn. This is like saying that Keith Richards still can't get no satisfaction, or that the much-missed Rodney Dangerfield would appreciate a bit more respect. It's useful to remember here that Kristol is less a pundit than an operative. His job isn't to give his opinion. It's to give this opinion.
--
Bill Kristol is right that defeating Obama's health-care plan is a first step for Republicans who want to pick off vulnerable Democrats in the 2010 midterms. But the converse is also true: Passing health-care reform is the first step for vulnerable Democrats who want to save their seats.

I always remember what our own Nicole Belle said on 12/11/08:

Bill Kristol is NEVER right. And even Foreign Policy Magazine agrees with me, as they list the worst predictions of 2008 and who else but our favorite war-mongering chickenhawk neocon, William "The Bloody" Kristol

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Well, we've already had Mary Matalin defending Palin's decision to step down as Governor of Alaska. Now, no surprise, it's Bill Kristol's turn. Is it just me, or does anyone else think the man doesn't look like he believes a word that's coming out of his mouth? More than usual I mean.

Even though Kristol admits that the move is "high risk", he defends it as some sort of brilliant strategy where Palin can now go campaign full time and become the Obama administration's chief critic. Good luck with that Bill. As Juan Williams points out, Palin can no longer even say that she's a one term Governor of Alaska.

I thought conservatives didn't like it when someone decided to "cut and run". I guess that's okay if you're the object of their affection and want to cut and run for President.

John Amato:

It's no wonder why William the Bloody is defending Palin's decision to bail out. He's the one who pushed McCain big time to make her his VP.

Jane Mayer explains it all took place on a cruise in her piece: How John McCain came to pick Sarah Palin.

Palin received two memos from Paulette Simpson, the Alaska Federation of Republican Women leader, noting that two prominent conservative magazines—The Weekly Standard, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, and National Review, founded by William F. Buckley, Jr.—were planning luxury cruises to Alaska in the summer of 2007, which would make stops in Juneau. Writers and editors from these publications had been enlisted to deliver lectures to politically minded vacationers. “The Governor was more than happy to meet these guys,” Joe Balash, a special staff assistant to Palin, recalled.

On June 18, 2007, the first group disembarked in Juneau from the Holland America Line’s M.S. Oosterdam, and went to the governor’s mansion, a white wooden Colonial house with six two-story columns, for lunch. The contingent featured three of The Weekly Standard ’s top writers: William Kristol, the magazine’s Washington-based editor, who is also an Op-Ed columnist for the Times and a regular commentator on “Fox News Sunday”; Fred Barnes, the magazine’s executive editor and the co-host of “The Beltway Boys,” a political talk show on Fox News; and Michael Gerson, the former chief speechwriter for President Bush and a Washington Post columnist.

Kristol fell in love with Palin, kinda like Sanford fell in love and called his Argentinian girlfriend his soulmate.

The most ardent promoter, however, was Kristol, and his enthusiasm became the talk of Alaska’s political circles. According to Simpson, Senator Stevens told her that “Kristol was really pushing Palin” in Washington before McCain picked her. Indeed, as early as June 29th, two months before McCain chose her, Kristol predicted on “Fox News Sunday” that “McCain’s going to put Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, on the ticket.” He described her as “fantastic,” saying that she could go one-on-one against Obama in basketball, and possibly siphon off Hillary Clinton’s supporters. He pointed out that she was a “mother of five” and a reformer. “Go for the gold here with Sarah Palin,” he said. The moderator, Chris Wallace, finally had to ask Kristol, “Can we please get off Sarah Palin?”The next day, however, Kristol was still talking about Palin on Fox. “She could be both an effective Vice-Presidential candidate and an effective President,” he said. “She’s young, energetic.” On a subsequent “Fox News Sunday,”

Kristol again pushed Palin when asked whom McCain should pick: “Sarah Palin, whom I’ve only met once but I was awfully impressed by—a genuine reformer, defeated the establishment up there. It would be pretty wild to pick a young female Alaska governor, and I think, you know, McCain might as well go for it.” On July 22nd, again on Fox, Kristol referred to Palin as “my heartthrob.” He declared, “I don’t know if I can make it through the next three months without her on the ticket.”

And now Kristol is forced to back Palin's weird decision to quit on the people of Alaska to pursue her own agenda. Way to go, Bill.