Close Topic Options

MSNBC

VIDEO: David Schuster interviews Amy Goodman on MSNBC's 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Political Agenda Based News

David Schuster of MSNBC's 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue interviews Amy Goodman on February 27, 2009 about President Obama's plans to delay troop withdrawal in Iraq and escalate the war in Afghanistan.

Complete transcript from MSNBC: (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let me say this as plainly as I can. By August 31st, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SHUSTER: Welcome back. That was President Obama, today, announcing a new timetable for the end of the Iraq war. A date certain is what many Americans have been waiting to hear, especially those Americans who believe, as President Obama did, that the war should have never been fought in the first place. Still, the president's timetable is slower than what he proposed during the campaign. Amy Goodman is a host of 'Democracy Now', radio and T show. And she's blogging at democracynow.com. She's also the author of the book 'Standing Up To Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times.' Amy, the Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Thomas Ricks, from 'The Washington Post' said today on MSNBC, 'I was struck by how similar President Obama was in discussing military affairs to President Bush.' Your reaction'

AMY GOODMAN, DEMOCRACY NOW.ORG: Well, I think that's very interesting, David. Because, yes, when President Obama was speaking at Camp Lejeune he told the soldiers they had gone to do what their mission was, to take out Saddam Hussein. That was not what they were originally sent to do. Of course, it wasn't their fault. But President Bush floated the idea, convinced the American people Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. It didn't happen to be the truth. It was a lie. And President Obama would have had the backing of the American people, most people opposed to this war, to simply tell the truth. So that didn't bode too well. I think Thomas Ricks was right there.

SHUSTER: Does it bode poorly for you that the timeline is essentially a little slower than he said during the campaign' What do you make of it'

GOODMAN: It's not just the three months, from 16 to 19 months. What we're really talking about here is an army that remains. When we're talking about 50,000 soldiers, saying, well, they won't be engaged in combat, of course, these are soldiers. They're there. They're trained in that way. This is what is a grave concern to people, why the United States is continuing to occupy Iraq. And, of course, with the SOFA, the Status of Forces Agreement, they could go on for years and years to come. Not to mention, I've been speaking with some of the engineers who built the largest embassy on earth, the U.S. embassy, it's right there in Baghdad. What's it going to take to protect this embassy' Is it something like four square miles in downtown Baghdad' I questioned Senator Obama, when he was running for president, when he came here to New York and asked him, for example, about the mercenary forces, the para-militaries. You know, the Black Waters-well, now it's called Z, XZ. But these companies, would he support a ban on them in places like Iraq' He said no. That's another question that hasn't been answered today in president's speeches. What's going to happen with these mercenary forces' How many of them are going to be there'

SHUSTER: What would you like Congress to do' I mean, we just had Congressman Chris Van Hollen talking about the hearings coming up. If you had the ear of a congressman, what would you tell him or her to say' And what would you demand to know from the Obama administration' Would you essentially argue some Democrats should take a stronger position against this plan' GOODMAN: Well, you know, I question Congress members all the time on Democracy Now, and ask them. I mean, our job as journalists is to hold those in power accountable. It's about Iraq and it's also about Afghanistan; about a surge in Afghanistan, promising thousands more soldiers and a greater war in Afghanistan. These are very serious issues. I think the global economic meltdown, for one thing, is an indication we cannot afford war. I was just interviewing the Nobel economist, the Nobel-prize winning economist Joe Stiglitz, who wrote the book 'The $3 Trillion War.' Yes, Iraq, $3 trillion over time, and also in paying for the veterans' health benefits as they come back and their care for a lifetime. We cannot afford these wars. Separate the morality just from the economics of it, both Iraq, and we can't forget the whole issue of Afghanistan. There has to be a greater debate in the media about greater war in Afghanistan. Barack Obama came out early opposed to the war in Iraq. And, yet, we don't hear that same kind of opposition or discussion around Afghanistan now.

SHUSTER: Amy Goodman from Democracy Now. Amy, good of you to join us. We appreciate it.

GOODMAN: Thanks, David.
Source: Democracy Now! Blog

MSNBC

MSNBC stands up for Obama

Don't worry loyal cable news viewers! MSNBC will not let the President be slandered by those evil conservatives - they are going to send Chris Matthews and Andrea Mitchell to the rescue (yay?). Check out this incredibly valiant attempt to do what no anchor should be forced to do: defend the Obama administration. They tried to blame the amount of money being spent on food stamps and entitlements on a population growth (really?) and a Congress (reaaaaaallllllyyyyyy?) that up until two years ago was controlled by Democrats. Wow. And hey, Chris Matthews made sure to throw in a Conservatives-are-racist remark with his use of "code language". Ref. Source 3

MSNBC History & Civil Business Politics

MSNBC Slips to Lowest Weekly Prime Time Demo Rating Since 2007:

For the week of April 7th-13th, MSNBC averaged just 147K in the coveted 25-54 news demo in prime time, the network's worst weekly figure since the week of May 21, 2007, when they averaged 142K. Ref. Source 4

MSNBC

Eager for World War III on MSNBC By Eoin Higgins. Let's hope Andrea Mitchell Reports survive the nuclear winter to provide future civilizations with clues as to how we got there. Source 4b.

MSNBC

Wow just wow is all I have to say about this. There is a clear and good reason why we are not taking on Russia or China. That will quickly lead to WWI if MSNBC is wanting that to happen I guess I will head to safety sooner rather than later.

MSNBC

Yeah, this is crazy, absolutely crazy. I'll be heading with you to a safe place with me and mine. After the dust settles and everything gets up and running again I'll meet you on here.

MSNBC

That is insane. Did anyone else notice the new " Satan " missile that Russia almost has ready for action? There was a link in that article to read about it. One of those missiles would take out all of France or Texas.

MSNBC Politics Business Civil & History

Yeah I took a look at it. We are always finding new ways to blow ourselves off the face of this earth. I would hope that we start placing some of this research on saving humanity rather than killing it. I think MSNBC is not helping in that regard at all.