Today: Ana Marie Cox has the inside scoop on politics and Rachel has her friends’ backs.
Not a Lone Actor
Rachel led off with the news that initial reports that accused murderer Scott Roeder was a lone actor were just as farfetched as they sounded.
Roeder was in frequent contact with Operation Rescue and had multiple conversations about murder victim Dr. George Tiller.
Not that Roeder really needed that much in-person help, since Operation Rescue had thoughtfully posted Tiller’s home and church addresses online. The section on their site was called “Tiller Watch,” which I guess seemed classier than “Just in Case You Want To Murder This Guy.”
Rachel also noted that the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act made harassment and vandalism at an abortion clinic a federal crime. A crime that the Bush administration enforced at 20% the rate the Clinton administration did.
Way to be tough on terror, guys.
“Jeffrey Pederson,” if you’ll recall, is not accused of a crime. He had to appear with his face hidden and with a fake name because someone might stalk and murder him for doing his perfectly legal job — with a little help from “pro life” groups like Operation Rescue.
Joint Terrorism Task Force?
Rachel moved on to another ongoing domestic terrorism case, that of Abdulhakim Muhammad, also known as Carlos Bledsoe, who killed one soldier and wounded another at a military recruiting center.
After his capture, investigators found information on other potential targets and semiautomatic weapons in Muhammad’s belongings.
Former FBI counterterrorism specialist David Cid checked in to Rachel to have one of those “What the hell can we do?” conversations that you have to have.
Spoiler: We don’t know and it’s scary.
Ms. Information
Were you taking some small comfort in the fact that there’s only so much one lone, unbalanced total bastard can do on his own? Well, cut it out, because the government has accidentally leaked confidential information on hundreds of civilian nuclear sites.
That should go nicely with the handy Erector Set nuclear weapons instructions the Bush administration mistakenly leaked a few years ago.
The ants that make occasional forays over my windowsill stopped to watch this story. By the end of it they were using itty bitty surveying tripods to figure out where in my apartment they’d put different parts of the colony and laughing their gasters off.
Did the temperature of your television drop down into the Kelvin scale toward the end of the Ms. Information segment? I’m guessing it coincided with Rachel saying, apparently in reference to the President’s remarks about her colleagues at MSNBC, that Obama is “not too busy to propound facile and demonstrably untrue beliefs about the hosts and contributors of this network.”
Whoa. Rachel believes in civility in public discourse, but if you go after her friends she will cut you.
Newt What He Meant at All
People keep saying that Newt Gingrich is the face of old-school Republicanism and has nothing left but bluster and weaselbag vocabulary lists.
Well, I say they’re wrong: The man is an innovator, still pushing the envelope. This week he has taken the standard boilerplate political non-apology and turned it into a delicately crafted Taj Mahal of slime.
Air America national correspondent (and, as Rachel enjoys pointing out, contributing editor for Playboy) Ana Marie Cox joined Rachel (hooray!) for a terrific segment about why Judge Sotomayor’s nomination is causing so many problems for the Republicans.
I mean, beyond their perfectly legitimate fears that Sotomayor might use her mysterious Martian language to secretly conspire with non-white plaintiffs to make all the white guys have to move to reservations in Utah.
GOP in Exile
Just say goodbye to restful sleep and hello to cold sweats, trembling, and sudden crying jags. I don’t know why I didn’t see this coming.
Dick Cheney has been touring the country with his delightful Stepford daughter Liz, and has finally revealed the next phase of their nefarious plan: He coyly mentioned this week that he would like to see Liz Cheney run for office.
Is that you screaming, or is it me? Or is it the very butterflies and blades of grass themselves, rising up in a chorus of pure, keening terror?
Oh, it doesn’t matter — just hold me. HOLD ME!
George Bush Senior would like to see Jeb Bush run for office too, which, Rachel pointed out, means that a Bush/Cheney 2012 ticket is a real possibility. Jumpin’ Jehosephat, the Mayans were right!
Just hope to goodness that Bush/Cheney II: Electric Boogaloo are satisfied with just taking over the White House.
Because what if it occurs to them to breed?
Oh, God, HOLD ME!
Abroadside
Tim Pawlenty does not have competition in not running for President!
Rachel reported that Mitt Romney, who has cast off a few inconveniently ostentatious houses but not declared a run for the Presidency, is now trash-talking Obama’s foreign tour. As a run-of-the-mill concerned citizen who does not have too many houses.
Charles Pierce, the author of Idiot America, dropped by the studio to talk Mitt with Rachel and oh, my stars and garters, is he wonderful.
Cocktail Moment
New Hampshire legalized gay marriage!
Oh, you lovely New Englanders. I like to think that the Pepperidge Farm guy is happily picking out a tux somewhere.
