DocumentDump.com ^ RWCS.com > Steal This Blog

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I think this was an excellent edition of Countdown today, so here are the majority, of the rest:

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In a long-expected shakeup, Dan Abrams has been removed as host of MSNBC’s 9:00 p.m. hour and will be replaced by political commentator Rachel Maddow, the New York Times reported today (Wednesday), saying that its information was confirmed by MSNBC executives and that a formal announcement is expected today. Abrams’s final program will air on Thursday. Maddow is due to take over the time period on September 8 following the political conventions. Last month MSNBC President Phil Griffin had said “At some point I don’t know when, she should have a show. … She’s on the short list. It’s a very short list. She’s at the top.” Several political blogs interpreted the move as an effort to fashion MSNBC as the liberal alternative to Fox News. The Times itself suggested as much when it commented, “A program hosted by Ms. Maddow will almost certainly be a closer ideological fit with [Keith] Olbermann’s.” Although the Times reported that Abrams would likely remain with the cable network, the website TVNewser quoted an insider as predicting that he will leave. “There’s interest from other news networks,” the source said. ~ movieweb.com

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Rush Limbaugh (if you already listen to him, then you already know this was said by him; but, dittofucks shouldn’t be reading my web site, anyway) said about this move:

“MSNBC is replacing Dan Abrams with Rachel Maddow, a failed liberal radio talk show host with no proven experience garnering an audience at all. It’s gotta be humiliating to be replaced by someone who has more testosterone than you do.”

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On the other hand, Huffington Post had some actually intelligent comments:

Update: Keith Olbermann had Rachel Maddow on “Countdown” Tuesday night to celebrate and discuss the news. In the clip, Rachel said that the show will discuss politics and weird news — like stories on the Iraqi national soccer team and domestic crimes committed by naked men — and that she will remain on Air America.

Original Post: Rachel Maddow will replace Dan Abrams as host of the 9PM hour on MSNBC, the New York Times‘ Bill Carter reports. Just last month in a Times article by Jacques Steinberg, MSNBC president Phil Griffin declared Maddow “at the top” of a “very short list” for those who should have their own show, though at the time he said he “[didn't] know when” that would be. As Carter reports, the final stretch of the 2008 election season will be Maddow’s debut as the host of her own MSNBC show:

Just in time for the closing rush of the presidential election, MSNBC is shaking up its prime-time programming lineup, removing the long-time host — and one-time general manager of the network — Dan Abrams from his 9 p.m. program and replacing him with Rachel Maddow, who has emerged as a favored political commentator for the all-news cable channel.
The moves, which were confirmed by MSNBC executives Tuesday, are expected to be finalized by Wednesday, with Mr. Abrams’s last program on Thursday. After MSNBC’s extensive coverage of the two political conventions during the next two weeks, Ms. Maddow will begin her program on Sept. 8.
MSNBC is highlighting the date, 9/8/08, connecting it to the start of the Olympics on 8/8/08, as a way to signal what the network’s president, Phil Griffin, said “will be the final leg of the political race this year.” He added, “We making that Rachel’s debut.”
Mr. Abrams, who is well liked at MSNBC, is expected to remain at both that network and at NBC News, where he is the chief legal correspondent. He will also serve as an anchor during some of MSNBC’s daytime coverage, as well as a substitute host on NBC’s “Today” show, Mr. Griffin said.

The last broadcast of Abrams’ “Verdict” will air Thursday.

Abrams, the network’s former General Manager, told the Times that he understood the decision.

“Putting my general manager’s hat back on, considering where the network is right now, it is actually the right call,” he said.

Almost immediately, Keith Olbermann took to DailyKos to celebrate the news, brag about his involvement in the decision — “Yes, I had something to do with it,” he wrote — and remind readers that though Maddow’s rise at the network was quick (“less than five months between first paid appearance and own show”), his was quicker (“I believe I still hold the MSNBC record: I came back to guest host for three days in 2003 and 39 days later I had a contract to do the 8 PM show.”).

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[SOURCE: countdown.msnbc.com ~alt. here~]

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[SOURCE: CBS @ YOUTUBE: "Courting The Evangelical Vote"]

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abc7.com
Friday, August 15, 2008
By Jovana Lara

Tune in to watch the Saddleback event live on abc7.com between 5 p.m. – 7 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 16 (among other live on-line feeds and TV broadcasts)

LAKE FOREST, Calif. (KABC) — Saturday, the two leading presidential candidates will share the stage at Reverend Rick Warren’s evangelical megachurch in Lake Forest. The event could have a big impact on the race to the White House.

It could be the hottest ticket in town, and Saddleback Church representative say only about 2,200 people got their hands on them. Apparently space is limited for Pastor Rick Warren’s forum Saturday with Senators Barack Obama and John McCain. Many residents in the area believe an event like this should have been open to the community.

“I’m very, very excited,” said Meriven Deocariza says luck was on her side. And now, she’ll be among the 2,000 people or so to watch presumed presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama in their first joint appearance since the end of the primary season.

“I didn’t think that I would be able to get tickets,” said Deocariza. “It was something I wanted to do, and when they called me yesterday to say that I had won tickets because I had been leader of a small group, and they put me in a raffle ticket. I was ecstatic.”

And for good reason: Tickets to Saturday night’s event, during which Pastor Rick Warren will question McCain and Obama on personal morals, faith and leadership, have been hard to come by.

Church representatives say the forum is an invitation-only event, open exclusively to church members. But local residents say that’s not what they read on the church Web site.

“There was just an unfortunate situation where they promised there would be tickets available to the general public, and they kept postponing the date on their Web site, and finally Wednesday, the big day, they said all tickets have been distributed,” said Jan Young. “I happen to have made a contact here, and she was kind enough to find two tickets for me. She works here. So I’m very mixed about my feelings. In general I think it was unfortunate.”

Some church members say the ticket controversy has been blown out of proportion, and despite the disappointments, the forum will be remembered as one of the most exciting events ever to take place in south Orange County.

“Absolutely exciting,” said Saddleback Church member Tony McGivern. “Guaranteed the next president is in the room, that’s just unbelievable. It’s exciting, it really is.”

Church representatives say they will be streaming the forum live to hundreds of people on campus at three nearby locations. Two of them are tents, and tickets are required to attend those events.

Tune in to watch the Saddleback event live on abc7.com between 5 p.m. – 7 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 16 (among other live on-line feeds and TV broadcasts)

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[SOURCE: 'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' for Friday, May 19]

KEITH OLBERMANN, HOST: A special comment postscript. If I talk about cold-blooded killers in Iraq, why does the lunatic fringe immediately think of our troops there? That’s ahead, but first time for COUNTDOWN’s worst persons in the world.

The bronze to William Kristol, still, remarkably enough, a columnist with the “New York times.” Another column, another glaring factual error; noting Senator Clinton’s 41-point win over Senator Obama in last week’s West Virginia primary, Mr. Kristol writes today, quote,

I can’t find a single recent instance of a candidate who ultimately became his party’s nominee, losing a primary by this kind of margin.

Well, sorry. Way back on February 5, 2008, I believe it was, Mitt Romney beat John McCain in Utah by 85 points. Romney beat McCain in Colorado by 41 points and Mike Huckabee also beat McCain In Arkansas by 41 points. I guess it depends on your definition of the word recent. Or maybe of the word research.

The runner-up, comedian Rush Limbaugh. Apparently his water-carrying assignment this year is try to paint Senator Obama as stupid. Obama connected the dots between the economic meltdown and the period that preceded the Great Depression. The comedian slammed him for it because comedian’s economy is doing just fine, thank you. To humiliate Obama a little more, comedian quoted at length from a 1996 essay he found online called “The Main Causes of the Great Depression” by Paul Alexander Gusmarino III (ph), excoriating Mr. Gusmarino, laughing at his plea that people not plagiarize his work. Limbaugh actually said, Mr. Gusmarino, you better check Karl Marx and see if you plagiarized him in putting this piece together.

Alexander Gusmarino III turns out to have been in 1996 a history student in the tenth grade. Rush, if you’re going to talk over the educational head of your listeners, you’re going to be bankrupt in six weeks.

But our winner, Oliver North. After Mr. Bush was nice enough to criticize Senator Obama in best Bill-O fashion, never stooping to actually mentioning his name, but making it clear that’s who you mean, for being willing to talk to Iran, perhaps. North on Fixed News said

Bush’s historical analogy was correct and added, quote, John McCain Got up and said, you can’t have these kinds of unconditional, no preconditions discussions with despots and dictators, dead on the mark.

Oliver North said this. Oliver North from the Iran-Contra scandal this said. Oliver North from the Iran-Contra scandal, the chief coordinator of the sale of American weapons to the military of Iran, said this. Oliver North, today’s worst person in the world!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

OLBERMANN: Finally, as promised, a post-script tonight regarding last week’s Special Comment. You may remember Mr. Bush had used a cumbersome phrase to describe insurgents in Iraq,

“cold-blooded killers who will kill people to achieve their political objectives.”

Last Wednesday, I quoted that phrase from the Politico.com interview to say that Mr. Bush had now also given America cold-blooded killers who will kill people to achieve their political objectives. I identified them as Mr. Bush’s personnel, quote, those in or formally in your employ, who may yet be charged someday with war crimes.

I also described the chaos of post invasion Iraq with an

“American viceroy, enforced by mercellous mercenaries who shoot unarmed Iraqis and then evade prosecution in any country by hiding behind Mr. Bush’s skirts.”

No writer or broadcaster is ever as precise and clear as he thinks he is. Television goes by quickly and the viewers are not provided a copy of the script. So it is possible that reasonable viewers might have been confused by exactly to whom I referred, especially considering that I edited the original line, which was:

“Mr. Bush, at long last, has it not dawned on you that the America you have now created includes cold-blooded killers who will kill people to achieve their political objectives? They are called your cabinet and your Pentagon.”

During the editing process, it seemed that was a little broad, that there appear to be men in both of those places, General Ricardo Sanchez, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, perhaps even the new Secretary of Defense Mr. Gates, who did not merit inclusion in that list. Obviously, my use of Mr. Bush’s phrase, cold-blooded killers, did not refer to U.S. troops. I have never had anything but the highest respect for them and their sacrifice. This newscast constantly advocates their causes, their needs, our collective debt to them. And we constantly call out the administration on its failures to honor them, to protect them, to stop the Pentagon from sticking a band-aid on those whose hearts and minds are broken, and send them back for another tour.

The U.S. troops in Iraq, even those few who have done bad things there, are still victims in this equation, and most are the proverbial innocent bystanders. My use of Mr. Bush’s phrase, cold-blooded killers, referred not to the them, but rather to those former and current members of Mr. Bush’s administration and Pentagon who so irresponsibly unleashed the hounds of war and may indeed someday face war crimes trials.

And that phrase merciless mercenaries seemed to be self-explanatory. Neither are these U.S. troops, not when there are literally mercenaries in Mr. Bush’s employ, principally from Blackwater USA, who literally shot unarmed Iraqis, most infamously in a massacre in Baghdad last September.

Strangely, when the terms cold-blood killers and mercenaries were used in a public forum, my critics in the lunatic fringe, rather than even considering that the criticism even might be directed at the Pentagon or the administration or Blackwater USA, immediately decided that these were descriptions of our American heroes fighting in Iraq.

It is perhaps instructive, I think, that to the right wing commentators and right wing blogs those terms should first invoke not the war-mongers of the Pentagon, nor the gunmen from Blackwater, but U.S. troops.

I can not imagine that kind of evil knee-jerk reflex. I feel very sorry for those who have shown it. It seems to me that these right wingers have inadvertently shown then their true colors, their instinctive hatred for and contempt for those self-sacrificing Americans who have been needlessly placed in harm’s way by these very commentators and the politicians they support. They hear criticism of our nation’s collective conduct in Iraq and they immediately assume it’s the fault of the soldiers.

In the wake of an insult that exists only in their minds and never in my words nor in my heart, there remains, I think, only one question to ask:

Laura Ingraham and Mark Levin, why do you hate our troops?

Good night and good luck.

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[SOURCE: 'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' for Friday, May 19]

KEITH OLBERMANN, HOST (voice over): Which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow?

On the eve of Kentucky and Oregon: Amid rumors of solidarity and Al Gore-brokered joint events with Clinton and Obama fundraisers—forget the rumors of solidarity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON, (D-NY) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When one of TV networks released an analysis done by—of all people—Karl Rove, saying that I was the stronger candidate. Somebody got a hold of his analysis and there it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OLBERMANN: No, the correct answer was: Karl Rove, blank you and blank the analysis horse you rode in on.

The superdelegate scoreboard: Obama 10, Clinton three over the weekend as of supper time. Obama has included Federico Pena, President Clinton’s secretary of transportation, then secretary of energy.

Obama, using his energy on playing nice in Portland.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D-IL) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Senator Clinton and I have had a terrific contest. And she has been a formidable candidate. She has been smart and tough and determined and she has worked as hard as she can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OLBERMANN: John McCain in bed with lobbyists, metaphorically speaking, with the fifth time a McCain campaign honcho quits after his lobbying firm was identified has been taking $15 million from Saudi Arabia after 9/11.

Mr. Bush backpedals, won’t say his criticism at the Knesset were meant for Obama.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH, UNITED STATES: My policies haven’t changed.

But evidently, the political calendar has.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OLBERMANN: The White House howls over that interview by Richard Engel with the president because NBC doesn’t run the president’s full answer. So we’ll run his full answer.

A special comment postscript: When I mentioned “cold-blooded killers” as mercenaries in Iraq, why does the far right automatically assume I mean U.S. troops rather than say, our leaders or the Blackwater mercenaries?

And: The curse of the Yankee Stadium. Remember the Boston uniform buried by a Red Sox fan and cement mason, the one who had to dig out of the new stadium’s floor? We learn exclusively tonight the same guy buried another Red Sox artifact in the same cement. Gentlemen, start your jack hammers.

All of that and more: Now on COUNTDOWN.

(on camera): Good evening. This is Monday, May 19th, 169 days until the 2008 presidential election, only hours to go until the Oregon and Kentucky primaries.

If you support or supported Senator Hillary Clinton, you may have blanched when she implied back in New Hampshire, in a very Republican fashion, that her challenger was not ready to lead on day one. You may have reeled when she claimed FOX News had treated her fairly while it was still insisting she might be a murderer. You may have staggered when her husband appeared on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show. You may have keeled over when she accepted the endorsement of the bankroll of the vast right wing conspiracy Richard Mellon-Scaife.

Well, in our fifth story on the COUNTDOWN tonight: Hold on to your dinner. Senator Clinton has now embraced the number-crunching of the man who once said,

“You’re entitled to your math and I’m entitled to the math.”

She has, today, accepted the fruit of the abacus of Karl Christian Rove.

Senator Clinton telling voters in eastern Kentucky today that, quote,

“there is no way this is going to end any time soon,

” citing a manufactured lead in the popular vote, the spectacular claim that, quote, “more people have voted for me than anybody who’s ever run for president before.” Her campaign later clarified, she meant more Democrats, still the math is fuzzy, and the analysis of a very unlikely ally and perhaps ultimately, an unwanted one, to argue that she is the best candidate to take on John McCain in November.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: There’d been a lot of analysis about which of us is stronger to win against Senator McCain. And I believe I am the stronger candidate. And just today, I found some curious support for that position when one of the TV networks released an analysis done by—of all people—Karl Rove, saying that I was the stronger candidate. Somebody got a hold of his analysis and there it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OLBERMANN: There it is, looking exactly like a Turdblossom. If the senator’s argument is aimed at superdelegates, somebody forgetting to tell the superdelegates, Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia today, endorsing Obama even though the senior statesman’s beloved home state gave Senator Clinton that 41 point blowout victory last week. Since West Virginia, the superdelegate tally: Obama 22.5, Clinton 4 making totals 302.5 to 279.5. In overall delegates: Obama 1,904.5 to 1,723.5 for Clinton.

On the campaign trail today in Montana, Senator Obama keeping his attacks focused solely on the presumptive Republican nominee, Senator McCain. In a massive rally last night in Portland, some estimates putting the crowd as high as 80,000. The Illinois Democrat also having mentioned Karl Rove, but perhaps not in the way that Senator Clinton might have hoped.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: You saw George Bush go to Israel on the 60th anniversary and suggest that those of us who believe in direct diplomacy are somehow appeasers, comparing us to those who appeased Hitler. That’s the kind of fear mongering that we’ve got to put to an end. That’s not making us safer, that’s for domestic political consumption.

Well, the world is too dangerous for us to be engaging in that kind of nonsense and John McCain, he has been echoing what George Bush has to say. We don’t need anymore of that Karl Rove politics. We need a different kind of politics if we’re going to keep America safe.

I will hunt down bin Laden and the terrorists who killed 3,000 Americans but I’m also going to worry about nuclear proliferation and reduce nuclear stock piles.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[SOURCE: 'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' for Thursday, April 24]

KEITH OLBERMANN, HOST: Why is Bill-O showing pictures on national TV of a 14-year-old superstar girl showing off her bra and mid drift. Why does he think a conference has to be held? For Pete‘s sake, what‘s he going to do at the conference? Worst person a little worse than usual, next on COUNTDOWN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

OLBERMANN: … But first, time for our number two story, COUNTDOWN‘s worst persons in the world.

The bronze to Senator John McCain, a two-fer, staging a photo op in the still rubble strewn Ninth Word of New Orleans, trying to become a Republican president based on the failure of the current Republican president. He says, we need to have a conversation about what to do, rebuild it, tear it down. Whatever it is.

Tear it down, you say? Just in case losing the vote of the Gulf Coast was not enough, Mr. McCain also declared his opposition to legislation guaranteeing women equal pay for equal work. Women instead need the education and training, particularly since more and more women are heads of their households, as much or more than anybody else, especially in the area of mining, he said, where there are so few women miners. Even I wish I was making this up.

The silver to Tony Zerkle (ph), who is again trying to gain a Congressional nomination from the Republican party for the second district of Indiana. He said he would speak to any group that invited him. He attended a luncheon honoring one outfit‘s hero and talked about how white women are targeted for prostitution and pornography. The group holding the luncheon was the American Nationalist [read: Nazi] Socialist Workers Party in Chicago, and the birthday they were commemorating was Hitler‘s. Yes, the guy talked to several dozen Nazis while he was standing in front of a big picture of Hitler.

Even the Republican county chair has called him repulsive.

But our winner is Bill-O. He devoted a segment last night to showing the marginally risque photographs of teen star Miley Ray Cyrus, you know, Hannah Montana. In the most of them, she‘s merely hugging a teenage boyfriend. In one, her mid-rif is exposed. In another, she pulls her t-shirt away from her neck to reveal she‘s wearing a bra.

Bill professed to be shocked by the thought that a now 15-year-old girl, earning 20 million dollars a year, might have a boyfriend. And he kept showing and talking about these photos. “Look, we have so few role models, particularly for little girls in this country. She‘s the main one. I hate to see this. Parents all over the country like this girl because she‘s clean cut. She‘s kind of doing a tease peek-aboo thing.”

OK, so, it‘s just Bill‘s usual level of creepiness. Nothing you really would feel the need to phone the authorities about, until he said that the peek-aboo photos of Hannah Montana had led him to conclude, quote, there should be a conference. A conference? A conference to discuss photos of a 14-year-old girl‘s stomach and chest? Who is going to be at this conference?

Bill, are you going to be at this conference? What are you going to do at this conference as you look at the photos of a 14-year-old girl‘s stomach and chest? Bill O‘Reilly, today‘s worst person in the world.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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[SOURCE: 'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' for Thursday, April 24]

KEITH OLBERMANN, HOST: An awful cover-up at the Veterans Administration. Its mental health director insisting fewer than 800 military personnel attempted suicide last year. The same man in primary in an e-mail, even bearing the remarkable admonition, Shh (ph), admitting the number of suicide attempts last year was not 800, but more like 12,000.

Our fourth story on the COUNTDOWN: Even as one of its hospitals closed its psychiatric ward after a fourth vet killed himself there, the V.A. is still treating the crisis with denial or deception or both.

Last November, CBS News exposed the shockingly high number of vets committing suicide or attempting it. But the chief mental health of the V.A., Dr. Ira Katz vigorously denied it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATZ: There is no epidemic of suicide in V.A.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OLBERMANN: Then, earlier this the year, the V.A. released data claiming only 790 veterans had attempted suicide in 2007. Yet Dr. Katz‘s own correspondence, written shortly and thereafter, belied that release in a forwarded e-mail titled, “Not for the CBS News interviews request.”

Dr. Katz writes:

“Shh! Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1000 suicide attempts per month among the veterans we see in our medical facilities. Is this something we should carefully address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it?

”

In compounding that, after he criticized CBS News for reporting last year that there were more than 6,200 suicides in 2005 alone, he then wrote another e-mail three days letter that read in part, quote,

“There are about 18 suicides per day among America‘s 25 million veterans. This follows from CDC findings that 20 percent of suicides are among veterans it is supported by the CBS numbers.”

Joining me now: Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Great thanks for your time again tonight, Paul.

PAUL RIECKHOFF, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, IAVA: My pleasure, Keith.

OLBERMANN: Dr. Katz is denying that there is any cover-up here. He says the numbers were not released because of consistency and accuracy concerns. Do you believe him?

RIECKHOFF: No. He started his message with Shh! I mean, I think that says it all. And it doesn‘t the smell test.

It‘s clear that we‘ve got very serious problem of suicide across this country, specifically with Iraq and Afghanistan vets. There had been 283 between 2001 and 2005 alone. Anybody who‘s been in the military, all my friends, know someone who has committed suicide. It is a growing problem. It‘s a serious problem.

And this is a great challenge for the new V.A. secretary, Peek. He inherited a heck of a mess here from his predecessor much like Secretary Gates did at the Department of Defense. And this is a challenge to him. He‘s got to step up and deal with this aggressively.

OLBERMANN: More shocking than that misrepresentation or whatever we want to call it, there are other facts here, go hand and go up (ph) with us, 300,000 Iraq and Afghanistan vets either with clinical depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. The suicide rate among veterans is anywhere from three to seven times higher than the rest of the country, and this number of suicide attempts at 1,000 a month. Why are the numbers so terrifyingly high?

RIECKHOFF: I would say it boils down to because of the fact that our country is not ready to receive these people, Keith. We‘ve sent 1.7 million people to war in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11. Hundreds of thousands of them are coming home with serious mental health problems. This recent (ph) study that came out last week verifies it.

We‘re passed the point of canaries and the coal mine. Everybody knows that there are serious mental health issues across the veterans‘ population. And we‘re not taking care of them. There are backlogs at the V.A., the average claim takes 183 days, and it‘s not a proactive system.

I‘m actually grateful to see that the V.A. next month is going to start reaching out. They‘re going to be proactive, they listen to groups like IAVA and other veterans groups that have been banging away on this for years and they‘re going to start now in reaching out and being proactive. That‘s the key. You‘ve got to reach out to veterans, let them know that there is help available and provide that help when they come forward and ask for it.

OBLERMANN: Can you get the point across to them when you talk to this people, as I know you do, that 183 days in response to a mental issue is the same as 183 days if the guy had an arm falling off and was losing blood for 183 days? Is that point intelligible to the V.A.?

RIECKHOFF: We try our best. The reality is that we need everybody in America to tell the V.A. We need everybody in America to tell the president. We need everybody in America to tell all the presidential candidates that the veterans issue—mental health care specifically, and the growing rate of suicide is a top priority for this country.

These folks have served their country honorably. And when they come home, they deserve the care and resources that we can afford them. There‘s no excuse. At this point, there are no excuses. It should be apparent to everyone.

OLBERMANN: All right. Chime in here, John McCain has refused to sign on to Senator Webb‘s G.I. Bill, the new G.I. Bill that is so much bipartisan support and has his own legislation which he says rewards those who stay in the military. Give me your assessment on this? How does it measure up to the new G.I. Bill?

RIECKHOFF: It doesn‘t. Not even close. Senator Webb and Senator Hagel, Senator Warner, 57 senators from both parties have put together S-22, the new G.I. Bill that puts us on a World War II style of G.I. Bill. This is going forward. More than half the House is behind it, every major veterans organization of the country. It‘s time for John McCain and other senators to get on the bus, not build their own bus.

We need everybody in America to go GIBill2008.org. Find out if your senator and congress are on there. And if they‘re not, give them a call.

OLBERMANN: Bus with three wheels by the way.

RIECKHOFF: Yes.

OLBERMANN: Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. As always, thanks for coming in, Paul.

RIECKHOFF: Thank you, Keith.

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