Hey, Harry Potter...your Nimbus 2000 is showing!
Our number one story on the Countdown: Daniel Radcliffe, the actor who has played Potter since they started making movies out of the books, has thrown his producers, his fans, Ginny Weasley, and every twelve year old girl reader, a curve.
He's going to go on stage, in London, next month, in the nude.
From Hogwarts to warts-and-all. And yes, I know he upgraded brooms to a "Firebolt."
GN&GL...you can continue the discussion at Countdown Nation
Worst Person in the World
Senator Inhofe just doesn't get it; making the roads taste good for sheep; and Bill Orally's media analyst who can't seem to get even one single fact right.
A terrorism scare across a major U-S city...
Cable news networks and local television, captivated and breathless...
Rampant speculation about "improvised exploding devices" -- commonly used in Iraq -- suddenly turning up here in the United States...
In our number two story on the Countdown -- who was responsible?
Not Al-Qaeda.
Not Hamas.
Cartoon Network.
It has been a haunting undertone to the new year. At moments, the start of 2007 has sounded like the end of 2002, or the start of 2003.
It's been as if you could just substitute one letter -- an "N" for a "Q" -- and all that President Bush once said before he took us to war in Iraq, was being re-cycled as what he's been now saying... about Iran.
Our third story on the Countdown: your ears and your instincts are not deceiving you. It feels that way because it's literally -- almost word-for-word -- the truth.
January 31, 2007
Two birthdays to note...
One, of the actress Kelly Lynch, who we have been delighted to find out is a regular viewer. She should in turn be delighted to find out she is and will always be four days younger than me.
Two, a birthday that will numb the brain of countless sports fans.
Hall of fame baseball pitcher Nolan Ryan -- once the boy strike-out wonder -- is 60 years old today.
Sixty.
Let's Play Oddball!
So far, the trial of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former chief of staff for Vice President Cheney, has focused on the charges that Libby lied about his conversation with NBC's Tim Russert.
Today, in our fourth story on the Countdown, the trial's focus shifted to the charge that Libby also lied about his conversation with former Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper.
Lied, specifically, by claiming that when he told Cooper that war critic Joe Wilson's wife worked for the C-I-A, Libby also said this was based only on what Libby knew from other reporters.
David Shuster joined us with the latest.
Not since the British Prime Minister decided against committing his own troops to the escalation of U-S forces in Iraq... has President Bush lost as significant an ally in that conflict.
Not since a Senator from Virginia called a member of his opponent's staff "Macaca" has a comment about race so dominated a political campaign.
Our fifth story on the Countdown: The Bush administration managing to alienate its most passionate supporter of the president's plan for Iraq -- Senator John McCain -- by failing to give him information that he hd requested.
And on a parallel track... what Senator Joe Biden had to say about Iraq today on this, his first day as an official candidate for the White House... all but drowned out... by the unfortunate description he gave of his African-American opponent -- Senator Barack Obama.
Biden, giving in to his self-admitted tendency to bloviate, having launched his bid for the White House by declaring his candidacy on the web this morning.
Comments made the old fashioned way -- to a newspaper reporter -- stealing all of his thunder.
Those nine suspicious electronic devices that forced a shutdown of highways and bridges around Boston and wall-to-wall coverage on the cablers all afternoon?
Turns out it was not a terrorist plot after all...
It was a guerrilla publicity campaign for the new movie based on the Cartoon Network's "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" gone terribly, terribly awry.
Some P-R guy is either getting fired -- or promoted -- this very minute.
First Lady Laura Bush has hired a new pastry chef at the White House.
The French trained William "Bill" Yosses appears to be eminently qualified for the job...
The looming Constitutional battle over who can stop a war seemed to edge closer today.
A bi-partisan group of Senators dashed off a quick note to Attorney General Gonzales.
It asked him, in short, to summarize what the current transients in the White House think, about Congress's right to terminate American involvement in a foreign conflict.
Our fifth story on the Countdown: hope they included a self-addressed stamped envelope, because the administration suddenly has a lot of plates, spinning atop a lot of sticks... from Iraq, to an erupting scandal about Global Warming, to another about the insertion of political overseers in every agency of government.
On the Hill today, even the administration's pick to head up U-S Central Command warned the Senate Armed Services committee to temper expectations in Iraq.
But while most eyes are on Iraq, the Democrats might gain easier ground against the Administration on the environment instead.
This morning, the Senate started to look into capping emissions on greenhouse gases, and the House began investigating whether the White House quashed its own scientific evidence of global warming... and is still trying to cover up... the cover up.
Aside from politicians and government officials, there is one civilian, one ordinary American who is blamed more than any other by critics of the Iraq war -- for making that war possible.
Our fourth story on the Countdown: today, Judith Miller went to court -- not as a defendant, but as a possible key to the saga known as Plame-gate.
Today she became the sixth witness to testify that Libby knew about Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, before July 10th of 2003, the date Libby told investigators he learned about Plame from NBC's Tim Russert.
David Shuster gave us all the latest details.
ODDBALL
The bare toes of a neocon Wolf and the webbed feet of a colombian chicken.
WATCH VIDEO
On January 18th of this year, exactly two weeks after the 110th Congress, a Democratic Congress, first convened... President Bush issued executive order 13,422.
In among the legalese of executive order 13,422, is our third story tonight: It is language that constitutes what appears to be not only another presidential attempt to weaken the Congress, but also opens the door for potential threats to the health and safety of every American.
Here's what's at stake. Every year, the people's representatives pass laws to protect the people from dangerous or unfair practices of their bosses, big business, special interests and so on. You may have read about this in school. Government agencies then figure out how best to execute those laws. The classic example is regulating corporations to prevent them from doing things like using lead paint or asbestos insulation, or poisoning fish with mercury.
In one fell swoop, executive order 13,422 changes all that.
Here are Mr. Bush's magic words: "Each agency head shall designate one of the agency's Presidential Appointees to be its Regulatory Policy Officer."
Meaning every new rule at every federal agency will now have to go through a political appointee chosen solely, and unaccountably, by the president.
What could possibly go wrong?
It has been identified as a religious shrine, a place for human sacrifice. In the days of legend, the product of the magic of Merlin The Wizard. About a month ago, a story that it was actually a hospital.
In our number two story on the Countdown: now the results of an archaeological dig have suggested yet another explanation. A kind of Beverly Hills 2000 B-C.
Lester Holt had the report.
WPITW
Dick Morriss just can't let go of a good smear, no matter how untrue it may be -- and "Three Dollar" Bill O'Reilly, still blaming the victim and fleecing the troops
Keith's Special Comment, on Presidents and terrorism.
And on the seemingly trivial fact that West Yorkshire in England, has a new Chief Police Constable.
Upon his appointment, Sir Norman Bettison made one of the strangest comments of the year: "The threat of terrorism," he says, "is lurking out there like Jaws 2."
Sir Norman did not exactly mine the richest ore for his analogy of warning. A critic once said of the flopping sequel to the classic film: "You're gonna need a better screenplay."
But this obscure British police official has reminded us, that terrorism is still being sold to the public in that country -- and in this -- as if it were a thrilling horror movie, and we were the naughty teenagers about to be its victims.
And it underscores the fact that President Bush took this tack, exactly a week ago tonight, in his terror-related passage in the State of the Union, a passage that was almost lost amid all the talk about Iraq and health care and bi-partisanship and the fellow who saved the stranger from an oncoming subway train in New York City.
But a passage -- ludicrous and deceitful... Frightening in its hollow conviction...
Frightening, in that the President who spoke it...tried for "Jaws"... but got "Jaws 2."
GN&GL...you can continue the discussion at Countdown Nation
That's Paul Wolfowitz there.
President of the World Bank, one of the principal architects of the war in Iraq.
Maybe no one told him he'd have to remove his shoes when entering the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, western Turkey this weekend...
...or maybe that's just his best pair of socks.
It was four years ago yesterday that President Bush stood before Congress and the nation and, with the help of 16 words, delivered a prologue to war, a necessary war, he told America, because Iraq had pursued the makings of that ultimate weapon, affording no warning... the nuclear bomb.
Today, in our fifth story on the Countdown, Ari Fleischer, who served as the president's mouthpiece, his voice in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, took the stand in a criminal trial and revealed part of the administration's campaign to sell the war to Americans, and take down its critics.
The trial pivots on the central point...
Did Mr. Libby, the former Chief of Staff to Vice President Cheney, intentionally lie when he told investigators that reporters told him Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife was a covert C-I-A operative named Valerie Plame -- rather than that he told others about her?
While the political significance of the trial pivots on another central point:
Did the administration intentionally lie when it told Americans that intelligence made the war in Iraq necessary -- rather than that the desire for war in Iraq made the intelligence necessary?
Two and half weeks after the President announced a planned troop increase in Iraq...
Five days after he re-iterated it in the State of the Union...
Four days after a democratic resolution opposing the plan passed a Senate Committee...
U-S backed Iraqi troops kill 200 enemy fighters in a single raid.
Our fourth story on the Countdown -- the timing might instigate cynicism; the realities suggest otherwise.
This weekend's raid happened not where the troops are supposed to surge -- in Baghdad, or in Anbar Province.
But rather, in Najaf.
And the enemy wasn't Al Qaeda, or Baathists, or radical death squads backed by Iran, but instead a messianic, Shiite cult, looking to bring about Armageddon.
Jane Arraf reported from Baghdad.
A Rocket car crash, a bullfight gone wrong, and your big head Hillary dress... video coming shortly.
In the parallel universe of politics, it's the equivalent of those Disney World commercials filmed right after the Super Bowl:
"You've just decided to run for President, what are you going to do now?"
"I'm going to Iowa!"
Our third story on the Countdown, Senator Hillary Clinton hits the Hawkeye state, campaigning... and singing... and further nuancing her stand on Iraq with the implication we need to be out of there -- or on the way out of there -- before Mr. Bush is on his way out of the White House.
Making her first visit as a Presidential candidate to the first stop on the campaign trail over the weekend and choosing a town hall question and answer session to step up her rhetoric against the administration.
"This was his decision to go to war with an ill-conceived plan and an incompetently executed strategy, and we should expect him to extricate our country from this before he leaves office."
The White House responding the way it often does to those who disagree with it - by labelling criticism... partisanship.
"It is disappointing that Senator Clinton is responding to the President's new strategy for Iraq with a partisan attack that sends the wrong message to our troops, our enemies, and the Iraqi people who are working to make this plan succeed."
You would think that surviving a mountain lion attack would be all fate would ask of a 70-year old man in Northern California.
Not so.
In our number two story on the Countdown, tonight Jim Hamm has been transferred to a San Francisco hospital.
An infection that found its way in through the wounds inflicted by the animal, has now led doctors to list Mr. Hamm in critical condition.
Andrew Sullivan hates girls, and the FOX Noise Channel take the top two spots with smears of Obama, Hillary, Anderson Cooper and... of journalism itself.
It was the masterful, late and lamented comedian Bill Hicks who pointed it out in the starkest terms:
If those really were intelligent beings from another planet or even universe coming to earth in what we call U-F-O's...
Why did they invariably show up in out-of-the-way places, along America's truck routes and rural outposts?
Tonight, in our number one story on the Countdown, perhaps the first true evidence of intelligence from outer space.
Flying saucers seen... over Hawaii.
We talk with Lester Velez, Assistant State Director for MUFON, The Mutual UFO Network.
President Bush continues to rationalize sending more troops into Iraq, in part anyway, by evoking the war on terror.
He did it again in last week's State of the Union address.
The president again claimed credit for the government for having stopped several terror plots, everything from an attack on the Library Tower in Los Angeles to the scheme to use liquid explosives to blow up British Airplanes flying to the U.S.
Except, as in his other State of the Union speeches, the president was factually challenged.
Terror experts openly questioned what -- if anything -- was really disrupted.
Tomorrow night, Keith Olbermann's special comment:
We are faced once again with the nexus of Politics and terror, when -- if ever -- will the President stick to the facts?
javascript:msnvDwd('00','139bf049-ed6c-4b67-8e81-579a8215b0c6','us','News_Comment - Analysis','c1149','msnbc','','16833316','Rickshaw racing')Breaking News: Newsweek's Michael Isikoff reports deputy chief of staff Karl Rove and counselor Dan Bartlett have been subpoenaed to testify in the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
Isikoff joins Keith with the news.
The Electorate took the House of Representatives away from him.
The Electorate took the Senate away from him.
The Electorate returned every incumbent member of the party that opposes him.
A bi-partisan study group to which he acquiesced, told him to reverse course.
After his urgent speech to the nation, polling showed support for his position not only didn't increase, it actually dropped.
Yet, in our fifth story on the Countdown, as late news breaks tonight that two of his top advisors, including Karl Rove, have been subpoenaed to testify in the Scooter Libby trial, apparently the only change President Bush is truly willing to make about Iraq, is to stop calling himself "the decider," and to today start calling himself... "the decision-maker."
Richard Wolffe wonders why Bush needs to constantly drive that point home: "This is a man who has a Presidential Seal on his mountain bike."
Plus, John Dean joins Keith to talk about the idea expressed by HotSoup.com's Ron Fournier today:
"President Bush has lost the greatest commodity a president can possess: The public's trust."
And that the President, in part due to the virtue of his office, "never lost his relevancy, but that is little solace when the core value of his presidency has always been credibility. People trusted Bush to do what was right, even when they disagreed with him on policy. That bond has been broken. Nothing could be more damaging."
Raise your right hand and repeat after me..."I Karl Rove"...
Our fourth story on the Countdown: Michael Isikoff reporting tonight for Newsweek.com, Rove and White House communications advisor Dan Bartlett have been subpoenaed to testify in the Scooter Libby trial.
Isikoff joined Keith to deliver the latest details.
ODDBALL Rickshaw racing and a long walk off a short catwalk.
When Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel talks about senators who served in Vietnam, he draws a distinction between his friends John Kerry and John McCain -- who fought from the water and air, respectively -- and himself and Jim Webb, both of whom saw, participated in and were decorated for combat on the ground.
Hagel patrolled -- and fought among -- civilians and a native army that was supposed to bear the brunt of it.
Today, he wears the scars of America's mistake in Vietnam on his face; carries pieces of it in his chest.
In our third story tonight, how one of President Bush's staunchest supporters, has become one of his most dogged adversaries over the war in Iraq.
On issue after issue... tax cuts, societal concerns, Social Security, the environment... Hagel lines up with the right's right... not just President Bush, but the Christian Coalition.
That is one reason... but only one... that observers have found his dissent on the war so breath-taking, particularly with the rhetoric he used as he implored Congress to take a stand this week.
The U.S. Military has been authorized to capture or kill Iranian operatives inside Iraq. Our second story on the Countdown: this may be the silver lining inside the Presidential disconnect.
When two weeks ago he told the American public he would "interrupt" any Iranian influence in Iraq's Civil War, this was widely interpreted as a threat to attack Iran.
But since the speech, journalistic and political sources have repeatedly said that the President was surprised that we all thought he meant another optional war.
Today, he repeated his claim that he is focused only on Irahnian agents inside Iraq.
The latest in the continuing saga known as "Weekend at Brownie's".
Where in the world is the body of the late James Brown?
We know where Michael Jackson is... Las Vegas.
Keith ties it all together with a special edition of "Michael Jackson Puppet Theater", followed by in-depth analysis from pal of the show Paul F. Tomkins.
gn&gl
The popsicle sticks will come out of retirement tonight for the first "Michael Jackson Puppet Theater" of 2007.
Seems Jacko has been spotted back in the United States, so the Countdown puppet-makers are hard at work this afternoon so Keith can bring you the dramatic reenactment of The King of Pop's return to... Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada!
Of course, we'll have all new puppets, as the original M.J.P.T. Crew has been enshrined in the Golden Palace Museum.
U.S.News' Washington Whispers blog finds former Representative Katherine Harris taking full advantage of her "floor rights" at the State of the Union address this week - mingling and handing out business cards on the GOP side of the aisle.
"Yes, I'm selling Craftmatic Adjustable Beds now -- call me!"
Makes you wonder how many other squatters are still hanging around the Capitol building.
Some of what we're working on for tonight...
The Bush administration has authorized the U.S. military to kill or capture Iranian operatives inside Iraq as part of an aggressive new strategy to weaken Tehran's influence across the Middle East and compel it to give up its nuclear program, according to government and counterterrorism officials with direct knowledge of the effort.
President Bush, on a collision course with Congress over Iraq, said Friday "I'm the decision-maker" about sending more troops to the war. He challenged skeptical lawmakers not to prematurely condemn his plan.
"I've picked the plan that I think is most likely to succeed," Bush said in an Oval Office meeting with senior military advisers.
About those decisions... "Iraq was put under occupation, which was an idiot decision," said Iraqi Vice-President Adel Abdul Mahdi at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Hotsoup.com's Ron Fournier: President Bush has lost the greatest commodity a president can possess: The public's trust.
Chuck Hagel, Superstar. His Republican colleagues regard him warily. The White House barely speaks to him. He is reviled by his party's conservative base...looks as though Sen.Chuck Hagel is on a roll.
Also...
The body of James Brown is still above ground, though it may have been moved to a funeral home as the late singer's adult children battle with trustees over the management of Brown's estate.
Speaking of embalmed Motown stars...Michael Jackson is back in the United States after a year of self-imposed exile, and is reportedly planning a couple of "fan appreciation events." Sweet!
Location, Location, Location. A 77 square-foot dilapidated apartment without electricity in London's exclusive Knightsbridge neighborhood is going for $335,000. The selling agent says the buyer can expect to spend an additional $59,000 to make the place liveable.
Scientist develops caffeinated doughnuts. That cup of coffee just not getting it done anymore? How about a Buzz Donut or a Buzzed Bagel? That's what Doctor Robert Bohannon, a Durham, North Carolina, molecular scientist, has come up with. Bohannon says he's developed a way to add caffeine to baked goods, without the bitter taste of caffeine. Each piece of pastry is the equivalent of about two cups of coffee.
5 Just when the President thought he knew the approximate size of the gigantic opposition to escalation in Iraq rising up out of Congress like the Loch Ness Monster, it turns out it has a twin.
Our fifth story on the Countdown, the very same people voting almost daily against the plans to throw away more American lives in Iraq are now hoping to stop him throwing away more American taxpayer money there, too.
Plus, Davis Shuster gave us the latest from the Scooter Libby trial, where the behind the scenes plan in the Vice President's office to discredit Joe Wilson is becoming more clear everyday.
4 Piece by piece, testimony at the Scooter Libby trial is dismantling the already tattered reputation of this nation's vice president, portraying him as consumed with retaliating against a serious, credible critic of his attempts to sell the war.
Well, actually, that's kind of always been his reputaton, hasn't it?
But in our number four story tonight, the circle of Dick Cheney's critics is widening.
On Sunday, Senator Joe Biden used decidedly un-Senatorial language to articulate a view widely held among Democrats.
"Every single person out there that is of any consequence thinks, knows the vice president doesn't know what he's talking about," Biden said. "I can't be more blunt than that. He has yet to be right one single time on Iraq. Name me one single time he's been correct."
But when those sentiments are echoed by a friend, a Republican courting your conservative base, you know you're in trouble.
"The president listened too much to the Vice President," said McCain. "The president bears the ultimate responsibility, but he was very badly served by the Vice President."
At what point does the Vice President become a liability to the administration?
Or is there no such point?
ODDBALL... Love, crocodile style and an iguana at attention. Video coming shortly.
3 Yes, it's still 649 days until the 2008 general election.
Yes, the field of candidates isn't even set.
And yes, as British prime minister Harold Wilson pointed out -- even a week is a long time in politics -- and he said that five decades ago.
But in our third story on the Countdown, that hasn't stopped the politicians, the pollsters, and the political attack dogs from spinning the Presidential vote -- especially when it comes to one candidate's relative elect-ability.
A new Time Magazine poll putting Hillary Clinton in the lead for Democrats -- but not necessarily winning the election if it were held today.
2 The love triangles of fiction are always dramatic and often deadly.
In real life, they tend to be mundane and cheesy, and if somebody really gets hurt, the only doctor called in is usually a psycho-therapist.
But in our number two story on the Countdown: a love triangle tragedy from Europe that might've been deemed too Hollywood even for Alfred Hitchcock, or any of the "Law & Order" franchises.
The triangle?
Unfortunately, as Keith Miller reported for us... three sky-divers... but only two working parachutes.
WPITW
Bronze:
WLEY-FM, Chicago
Silver:
Melanie Morgan
Worst Person in the World:
Comedian Rush Limbaugh
1 If a security guard had to escort an "American Idol" contestant out of an audition this week, you can't help but wonder, 'why don't they do that more often'?
But in our number one story on the Countdown, the judges were comparatively mild this week, even though many of the wannabees seem to deserve more of the snideness that Simon Cowell, et al dished out last week.
Not that we're keeping track of this nonsense, mind you.
The man who was virtually booted has previously worked as a telephone psychic, reportedly.
So....
Didn't he know this was coming?
It may not have meant much to you, but at least one Countdown producer will miss the old New Haven (CT) Coliseum. This producer saw dozens of concerts there as a teenager, and even got his first ride in a paddywagon outside an Iron Maiden show in 1988.
At least the place went out with one last great pyrotechnics display.
YouTube has some home video from other angles.
Just remember, never stand too close to a building implosion...
[YouTube:RPeNyw1VtIA]
5 If President Bush had been hoping for some sort of honeymoon period after appealing to Congress, in his State of the Union address last night, for support on Iraq...
The honeymoon consisted entirely of that Congresswoman from Minnesota finally getting her kiss, and it ended when she let him free from her long, lingering grasp.
Worse still for Mr. Bush, the marriage between the White House and Republicans on Capitol Hill could well be over.Our fifth story on the Countdown: A key Senate committee voting today to oppose sending more troops to Iraq.
And a key Republican on the committee... Chuck Hagel of Nebraska... admonishing his colleagues for not taking a stand on the conflict.
Senator Jim Webb of Virginia joins Keith.
4 If you have dismissed the trial of Lewis "Scooter" Libby as a case of nit-picking charges, or inside-baseball minutiae, you have missed a central truth.
That truth, as we hit our number-four story tonight, is this:
Forget the legal wrangling, set aside even the guilt or innocence of the vice president's former chief of staff.
The priceless gift this trial offers us is its unprecedented revelations about how Mr. Cheney operates... and exactly how intent he was on selling the Iraq War.
ODDBALL
Fiery night at the museum and a prehistoric shark astronaut. Video coming shortly.
3 Our third story on the Countdown -- and then there were eight... only eight.
There was never a campaign, so the people who actually thought John Kerry would run again for the Presidency might have totalled in the low hundreds. But he had people working unofficially on a prospective bid.
Plus, part two of Keith's exclusive interview with Hillary Clinton.
2 In our number two story on the Countdown, the true "grabber" of the evening.
Brand-new Congresswoman Michele Bachmann -- who told voters that God had told her to run for the office -- getting an autograph, a hug, and a kiss from the President, in a bizarre and uncomfortable sequence, that might have been about 10 seconds short of requiring the intervention of the Secret Service!
Worst Person in the World
Bronze: Major League Baseball
Silver: "Authentic Hendrix"
Worst: Beck, Boortz, Hannity, Comedian Rush Limbaugh and Steve Doocy, the Wingnut Weatherman
1 Our number one story on the Countdown: Tom Cruise... is Jesus.
Or at least, he is the Jesus Christ of Scientology...
The leader of that... uh, religion... David Miscavige, reported to have said he believes that Mr. Cruise will ultimately be worshipped like Jesus for his hard work in spreading the word of scientology.
We talked with the one and only Michael Musto, but not before we did a little Christ versus Cruise "Tale of the Tape."
5 It has been evident for more than three years, that the White House hoped to delay, postpone, table, defer, and stall the mess that was Plame-Gate, into the distant future.
Our fifth story on the Countdown: welcome to the distant future.The gory details from the infamous "sixteen words" in the 2003 State of the Union...breaking just hours before the 2007 State of the Union.
Prosecutors on the opening day of the trial of Scooter Libby...Alleging that Vice President Dick Cheney was far more deeply involved in the leak of C-I-A agent Valerie Wilson than had been previously revealed in documents or court filings.
4 When an American president assesses the state of this union, it is appropriate to gauge that assessment in light of his past addresses.
And so, in our fourth story tonight, a partial survey of statements in previous state of the union speeches that turned out not to be -- or we learned later never were... true.
3 Whether or not it actually results in the nomination, for the first time in American history, the front-runner for a party's Presidential candidacy is a woman -- in fact a former first lady.
Of course this is 364 days before the first vote in the first primary, but if the voters give points for political craftiness, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York has put the first ones on the board.
In our third story on the Countdown tonight: she insisted to me again today that her announcement was planned this way -- for just before the State of the Union -- to get what she called "the results you see."
2 A blogger today suggested that Senator Hillary Clinton's live interactive web-chats are nothing less than the new template, for a new means, of presenting The State of The Union.
We'll get into depth with her bid to get to be the person who delivers The State Of The Union -- no matter the means, as Keith's interview with presidential candidate Hillary Clinton continues...
1 If everything runs as scheduled at 9:01 and thirty seconds, eastern standard time, the Sergeant- at- Arms of the House of Representatives will announce President Bush's arrival for his sixth state of the union address.
Mr. Bush could take as long as twelve minutes to get to the podium...unless, as more than one wag argued here tonight, he'd just as soon, get this over with quickly, and he runs to the podium.
Keith counts down to the State of the Union now with Chris Matthews.
Check out MSNBC's LIVE VIDEO of the speech.
As the President prepares to deliver his sixth State of the Union address tonight, the focus is on a Washington D.C. courtroom, and 16 words Bush spoke on this night in 2003.
In opening statements of the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, there just wasn't enough room under the bus for everyone.
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald painted a picture in which Vice President Cheney was far more deeply involved than anyone ever knew in the outing of Valerie Plame, while Libby's attorney claimed he was "sacrificed" to protect the incompetence of Karl Rove and others who allowed the 16 words to remain in the State of the Union.
Tonight, Dick Cheney sits behind the President as it all comes full circle. Countdown's special coverage begins at 8pm ET, with a look back at the misinformation and undelivered promises from that very podium in six previous speeches.
Plus, Keith's exclusive interview with Presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton.
Then, Hardball's Chris Matthews joins Keith for comprehensive post speech analysis until midnight.
It's Must-See MSNBC.
The bronze today to the White House Correspondent's Association, which after selecting such edgy performers for its annual dinner as Jon Stewart, Cedric the Entertainer and last year Stephen Colbert, it has announced this year's star attraction, impressionist Rich Little. He still does a killer Calvin Coolidge.
Our runner-up, Ricardo A. Nance Jr. of Monroe, Louisiana. Mom told him, if he wanted to keep living at her house, he would have to get a job. So, investigators say, he responded as any child would do. He set fire to mom's house, burned it to the ground. Little Ricardo, by they way, is 31-years-old.
But our winner is your Department of Defense Surplus Auctions Division. A Government Accountability Office investigation shows that the Pentagon auctioned off literally hundreds of lots of stuff to just about anybody willing to buy them, even though the items were not supposed to be sold to the public.
Items included missile components, fighter jet parts, things like that. And they're not going into the hands of collectors. Chinook helicopter engine spare parts were sold to a guy already convicted of exporting U.S. missile elements to, wait for it, Iran. He promptly sold the Chinook parts to Iran. And investigators are terrified that the Iranians might also have been able to buy, from a guy who bought them from the Pentagon, parts for the F-14 Tomcat fighter. Now why would Iran want them? Because decades ago we sold Iran F-14 Tomcat fighters.
The Pentagon's Army Surplus Auction House, today's worst persons in the world!
On this date in 1905, baseball's St. Louis Browns reclaimed an obscure outfielder named Frank Huelsman from the Washington Senators to whom they had loaned him. They immediately sold his contract to Boston, which immediately traded Huelsman back to Washington, the seventh time in eight months he`d changed teams, from Chicago to Detroit, back to Chicago, then to St. Louis, on to Washington, back to St. Louis, to Boston, and back to Washington.
Any wonder that 65 years later to the day, outfielder Curt Flood filed suit to stop baseball teams from making trades without the player's consent?
On that note, let's play Oddball.
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