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tv   Countdown With Keith Olbermann  MSNBC  October 15, 2010 8:00pm-9:00pm EDT

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war. those who hang back in endless meetings and low grade war hawking as if they weren't the one who is did this to the 77,000 people killed by this war and what they did to our country. that's ""hardball" for now. "countdown with keith olbermann" starts now. >> which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow? the plot to buy america? the president in delaware. >> and they don't have the courage to stand up and disclose their identities. >> the latest count, $220 million spent by outside groups. $80 million in the last week alone. leading the latest pushback on behalf of the chamber of commerce. >> we could encourage you to keep attacking the chamber. the chamber is more popular than any politician running for office. >> the president versus the u.s. chamber of commerce and karl rove with the man who compared the scandal to watergate, dnc chairman tim kaine, and from
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think progress, glasis. the not so secret millions of dollars of campaign influence bought by rupert murdoch. with a startling admission to his shareholders. >> we believe that it is certainly in the interest of the country. and all the shareholders and the prosperi prosperity. -- >> do the shareholders have a say? >> no. >> propaganda plus cash with chris hayes. the man who apologized to bp wants to shachair the house ene committee. the woman who said this wants to be a senator. >> the solutions to the health care costs of insurance are free market. >> worse. this was actually said on national radio. >> not every muslim is an extremist, a terrorist. but every terrorist is a muslim.
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>> somewhere timothy mcveigh is very surprised. friday's with thurber and his biggest psych, the cat bird seat. and brett favre meeting apple daily. all the news and commentary now on "countdown." >> i hope there's still some magic left with me. >> good evening from new york. this is friday, october 15th, 18 days until the 2010 midterm elections. and republicans are spending much of their time laughing at the democratic strategy of pointing out how much secret millionaire cash is funding republican ads. laughing because the strategy has failed to gain any attention from voters or the media. at least that's what they keep telling the reporters who keep asking them about it. our fifth story tonight, the secret money funding the republican campaigned to control congress and what republican gloating about the issue reveals about it. the chairman of the democratic
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national committee joins us presently, but we begin with the alleged republican glee over democrats harping on the u.s. chamber of commerce. and other secretive right-wing groups funneling tens of millions of dollars into republican campaign ads. the president not backing off today. ramping up what is now more than a week's worth of steady criticism of the chamber specifically, and of similar group like karl rove serving as cloaks for the millionaires bankrolling them. laying out again why this matters, and calling out again the secret millionaire donor who is funnel not just personal money, but sometimes the assets of companies they run into partisan attack ads without having the courage to say they are doing so. >> right now the same special interests that would profit from the other side's agenda, they are fighting hard. they're fighting back. to win this election they are plowing tens of millions of dollars into front groups that are running misleading negative ads all across america.
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tens of billions of dollars are pouring in. and they don't have the courage to stand up and disclose their identities. they could be insurance companies or wall street banks or even foreign-owned corporations. we will not know because there's no disclosure. they've got inokous sounding names. americans for prosperity. moms for motherhood. i made the last one up. but -- but this isn't just a threat to the democrats. this is a threat to our democracy. and the only way to fight it. the only way to match their millions of dollars is with millions of voices. >> at yesterday's kentucky senate debate, jack conway seized on the distinction between local chambers of commerce that kept up the drum
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beat against the u.s. chamber. rand paul articulated the republican claim that they love when democrats do this. >> we would encourage you to keep attacking the chamber. the chamber is probably more popular than any one running for congress. keep attacking the chamber. it makes no sense whatsoever. it's a really poor political tactic and untrue. >> how much do republicans love the democratic focus on the secret pay masters? news corp. chairman rupert murdoch spent much of today fielding questions in what he thought would be a secret meeting. it turns out it wasn't just a million dollars to the u.s. chamber of commerce from fox's parent news company. there was another donation of $250,000 more.
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you will hear murdoch on tape defending these actions to his shareholders later in this hour. but despite the republican claim, this story does not matter, karl rove's group sent reporters an e-mail blast playing defense, trying focus attention on democrats who previously worked for groups that did not disclose their donors. and what to make of claims they are benefitting from the scrutiny because it's prompting new do nations? politico saying rove's group got more than $100,000 since the president began to criticize them, and they will use the money to pump $2 million into eight more house races today. how does $100,000 to get them to $2 million? a separate story in politico reports $13 million raised in the same time period. but the 100,000 was "small dollar donations." which would make the remaining
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$900,000 medium to large donations. let's turn to matthew eglesias. matt, good evening. >> good to be here. >> republicans say they love this story, which asks -- sort of leads me to ask you, why are they so ticked at you guys for breaking it? i think they would be sending over champagne. >> it's a good story. if they were eager to have people know who was donating to them, they could put the information out there in the public domain. it's always been about disclosure and transparency, not about who does it help in the fall. since the new stream court ruling came down there was an effort in congress, a disclose act that would have forced people putting these tv ads up to say who was giving them money. republicans didn't like the idea. big business didn't like that idea. because what they want is the ability to intervene in the political system without anyone being able to hold them accountable. that means voters can't hold the politicians accountable. it means customers can't hold companies accountable for what they do.
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and so, you know, that's why there's all this pushback. that's why they were against the disclose act. that's why it bothers them. >> let me correct something. the extra $250,000 that murdoch and fox news gave was not to the chamber of commerce, but rather the republican governor's association. it's a distinction somewhat without a difference. but i wanted to make sure i corrected this end of it. let me ask you about this other report on think progress. the number of foreign members of this u.s. change ber of commerce are in the outsourcing business. what's the implication of that? >> well, you know, we were looking specifically to gather as much information as we can about who are the chamber's foreign donors. one branch was the branch in india. a number of the firms there advertise themselves as being in the outsourcing business. we're putting this out there because, you know, we want people to understand what kind of reasons companies have for wanting to intervene in american politics. these are indian companies, so
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what do they care about us? and there are a lot of questions we still don't know. there's a set up similar to the indian one for egypt and brazil, the websites don't have the information about the countries donating into the general funds are. so we're trying to find out as much as we can. we would appreciate it if other people in the media and political system would join us in trying to look into it. >> to their credit, politico examed federal records of third-party groups that do have to disclose, and they found, the profile of the 2010 corporate profiler says they represent long term democratic adversaries and long term bush loyalists. >> i think it's no surprise. i remember when tom delay was running the house of representatives. they had lobbyists in the
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committee room writing the bills. when george w. bush was president, they had lobbyists having members put in to be heads of agencies. they have a lot of influence in america. but they know, you know, whose side is best for them. and they're putting the money in to make that happen. make them come to power. and you see that. >> matthew, great work. and again, great thanks. >> thank you. >> now as promised, we're joined by democratic national committee chairman tim kaine, formally the governor of virginia. thank you for your time tonight, sir. >> you bet, keith. glad to be with you. >> you heard rand paul encouraging you, please keep on attacking the chamber. do you expect to oblige the man? >> well, the american public has the right to know who is funding campaign ads. and that's the issue, keith. the republicans have made a cn effort to fund as much of the
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campaigning as possible to secret groups. by turning that they've turned back on 35 years of development that came out of the watergate scandal towards openness and transparency. they're doing it in a way shocking americans. americans have a right to know who is funding the campaign ads. any republican who wants to stand up and say no, americans don't have a right to know, i would encourage them. >> the abc headline said tim kaine worried karl rove may be right. obviously referencing rove's claim that donations have been pouring in since the reality of the situation involving particularly the u.s. chamber of commerce and rove's nominations have gotten traction. are you indeed karl rove may be right and this is turning into a funding thing for republicans? >> no, and i never said that in any interview. we're pointing this out because we think the polling suggests, but more important, the right and wrong of this suggests the republicans are pushing a secret
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agenda. and the story of this, for the reporters that care to focus on it. and i'm glad that you are is that the republicans are running an effort to hide donors for the american public. the reason they're doing that is the american public would be shocked to find out who is supporting their candidates. it's people who want to repeal wall street reform, repeal health care reform. possibly others, including foreign entities promoting the outsourcing of american jobs in the midst of the worst economy since the 1930s. they're embarrassed about who the donors are and that's why they're hiding them. >> he has gotten $100,000 in contributions and able to produce $2 million. he proves the point of the entire story, that they can take money and pull it out of mystery orifices. is this playing out to a significant degree if your party? >> well, the democratic national committee, all of our dollars come from individuals, we don't
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raise money from corporations, pacts or federal lobbyists, and we're raising more money than ever in history of the midterm elections. i think it's interesting that karl rove, his first response to this attack was not to defend the rightness of what they were doing. but to say, oh, great, it's a great fund raising thing for us. he has not even addressed the merits of the claim i made, that one of the biggest improvements in american politics since watergate is the trend towards openness and closure. and they are making an effort to roll back that trend. he hadn't defended that. he's just rubbed his hands and said, wow, maybe i can raise more money off this. when the guy who is the ar architect of the entire plan is worried about the money and not what's right for the american people, that gives you a clear contrast between the two parties. >> you're not going to get very talking openness to karl rove. but that's a rhetorical point
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for another time. >> but the good news is the american public cares about this. as demonstrated by the polling. >> and to that point, what is next as a matter of strategy? do you have somewhere to go with this next week and in the days before the midterm? >> well, we'll continue to talk about it. the polling shows over 80% of americans, democrats, republicans and independents, this is not a partisan issue think they have a right to know who is funding the campaigns. we're going to point out that the republicans are violating the basic expectation of the american electorate. and in particular races where candidates are being benefitted from the secret contributions, we're going to put them on the carpet, and have our candidates as in the kentucky race you showed, you know, pin down their folks about why they are trying to buy elections with secret money. >> well, good luck with that. it's like trying to pick up mercury off the floor. particularly in the case of dr. paul in kentucky. the chairman of the democratic
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national committee, thank you for your time, have a great weekend. >> thanks, keith. >> next, the chairman of the largest single corporate donor to the republican governor's association. he gave even more than we thought. it's $1,250,000 in total from rupert murdoch. he also runs a tv network that reports to cover news. he basically told shareholders if they don't like his propaganda, they can go rupert themselves. next. ♪ [ growls ] ♪ ♪ [ polar bear grunting ] [ growls ] [ male announcer ] introducing the 100% electric nissan leaf. innovation for the planet. innovation for all.
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as news of a third huge news corp. contributions, what are shareholders are going to say in how much money their company donates to republicans? no, he squawks. a tough day at the annual meeting for emperor palpetine. at least you can understand him. we're still trying to decipher her comment. it's like a contest at fox.
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who can be the biggest, and he's one. and is there an apple daily version of his quarterback option package? stay tuned to find out. set it in motion... and it goes out into the world like fuel for the economy. one opportunity leading to another... and another. we all have a hand in it. because opportunity can start anywhere, and go everywhere. let's keep it moving. ♪ oh. see that? great job. ok, now let's get ready for the ball... here it comes... here you go. good catch. perfect! alright now for the best part. let's see your pour. ohhh...let's get those in the bowl. these are way too good to waste, right? oh, yea. let's go for it... around the bowl and...
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[ male announcer ] share what you love... with who you love. mmmmm. kellogg's frosted flakes... they're g-r-r-reat! good catch, dad. [ laughs ] we should all know by now what fox news is and what it is trying to do, but in our fourth story, rupert murdoch gave the
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most overtly political explanation to date. regarding $250,000 benefitting the republican party. quote, it's certainly in the interest of the country and of all the shareholders that there be a fair amount of change in washington." and now this other quarter million dollar donation has surfaced. today at news corporation's annual shareholder meeting, they wanted to know why they had given $1 million to the u.s. chamber of, which backs republican. and $1 million more to the republican governor's association. and since then, irs disclosures show they gave another $250,000 to the republican governor's association. that according to think progress. that brings the total to a million and a quarter. as to the question posed, mr. murdoch only offered this. in these two donations that you are speaking of, we judged it to be in the best interest of the company. it has nothing to do with the editorial policies or the journalism, or the films or
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anything or anything else. >> could you take a moment to explain how you believed it to be in the best interest. >> no, we believed it is in the interests that -- we believed that it's certainly in the interests of the country. and of all the shareholders and the prosperity of the -- that there be, a degree of, a fair amount of change in washington. >> murdoch also said news corp.'s political action committee had given more money to democrats than republicans. another shareholder correctly noted those donations were comparatively small. $78,000 to democrats. $66,000 to republicans. in various congressional races. the shareholder further noted the million dollar donations by news corp. would be kind of different. >> the questions came from various stockholders including
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the nathan cummings foundation calling for full disclosure of news corp.'s political contributions -- >> on that note, let's turn to the washington editor of the nation. msnbc contributor chris hayes. >> good evening. he's a real prince, isn't he. >> as we said before, a real emperor. reduced to essence, what did
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prince murdoch do there. >> it was the cheney treatment. if you don't like it, screw you. everyone should go listen to the transcript. it's really great. it's up in the media matters site. the best part is they start asking the audit committee at one point. the audit committee says, well, you know, we defer to management's judgment on the thing. so it's like why do we have an audit committee. that summarizes a lot of what went wrong in the next decade in corporate america. that's sort of another story. >> if we were 18 days for the 2006 midterms, mr. bush was president, looked like democrats may regain the house, a very near run thing as mr. wel wellington, once said. and the ceo of a parent company of another news organization called for change in the context, the right would have detonated. fireworks would have been coming out of various parts of bill
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o'reilly. it would have been a huge story. fox has built up an effective strategy. is the result of this, the media complacancy or do people not care? >> i think people do care. this story is interesting. when i first heard it, i was down at 30 rock when the story first came out. i thought, well, let's look across the board how unusual it is. it really is sort of remarkable and unique. murdoch admitted that today. it isn't the run of the mill. the pack funding is one thing. that's in the $60,000, $70,000 range. they sprinkle it around. economy of influence that runs capitol hill. what's happening in the chamber is something much more hard edge. it really does pose a problem.
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his whole explanation when he says there needs to be change in washington has nothing to do with the republican governor's association. it's completely nonresponsive to the question. why does change in washington require $1.25 million? >> well, maybe he's thinking of other political contributions that we don't know about. >> that's right. >> that leads to a very serious question. how on earth would we know about them? >> that is the big issue here. these irs filings getting at this disclosure is difficult. some of it may come out later. the way the campaign finance regime works is you have fairly prompt regular filing deadlines. the reason disclosure is so important is not because it fixes things. it's not a panacea. but it's a disincentive. when target in minneapolis wasn'ted the fund an anti-gay candidate, they took hell for
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it. people found out and went after target. corporations do not want to alienate customers. so the ideal world for them is a situation in which they can manipulate the levers of political power via anonymous donations and never have to pay the consequences with the public. we're seeing here that that's what makes it so dangerous. the fact that people don't know what's going on. >> and lost in this and barely covered in the barely covered story, murdoch's admission that he was surprised it became public, which means necessarily, he gave them the money expecting it to be kept a secret. that's a microcosm of this whole issue, is it not? >> that's the thing. if you went around and polled the top 500 companies by market share, by market capita in the country, would you like to see the republicans win, they're going to say yes. maybe you can slip them a million dollars and nobody will
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know. the other thing is chamber and fox news are giving money to the republicans for a reason. >> chris hayes, thanks for your time. >> you too, keith. where the secret money is going. tonight's example, sharron angle. there are and ge-- also, we hav video of brett favre's sexting scandal. ♪
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sharron angle says something about a choice between free choice and americanism. to boost ratings, cnn proposes putting miners back one by one. ouch. good news, everyone. amazon reports pitch forks and torches is now in stock. buy one, buy two. buy 30. if you know how to read, there's nothing better than a book. and my new book is a book. now available without description. let's play "oddball." we begin in india. it's the special time of the year when the leaves and babies begin to fall. the tradition has existed for over 200 years. although back then they were tossed from 40 feet. today it's done in an effort to toughen up the babies. none of the children were harmed physically.
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the next time somebody invites you to a baby shower, ask them to clarify. now sometimes these videos need a little explaining. i think this one speaks for itself. no props included. [ speaking foreign language ] [ speaking foreign language ]
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[ speaking foreign language ] >> you know, it is too bad he didn't have the laser heart eyes on the practice field. time marches on. asked about which procedures health insurance should have to cover, sharron angle gives an answer they're still trying to figure out. ♪
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as the tea party tries to become a partial theocracy, the candidates offer more insight to their lack of insight. forget chickens for checkups. try funding free schools and energy policy left up to the guy who apologized to bp. 138 tea party candidates running for nearly half of the
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democratic or open seats in the house, one-third of the seats in the senate. the latest analysis of "the new york times" puts 33 of the candidates in toss up races or running in house districts either leaning republican or solidly in the gop corner. eight stand a good or better chance of winning. like sharron angle last night debating senator reid. the former federal employee, he thinks it's best to leave your doctors visits up to the free market. >> is there anything at all that you think the insurance companies should be mandated to cover? anything? >> anything at all? i think what we have here is a choice between the free market and americanism. america is about choices. we need to allow people to have choices. the free market will weed out the companies that don't offer as many choices and don't have a
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cost-effective system. >> translators still trying to decipher that one. suffice to say, mrs. angle did not let facts or her previous record get in the way. she did support insurance mandates in the state legislature.proposed five laws. in kentucky rand paul emphasizing his envision of a government without a department of education. >> i don't like the idea of somebody in washington deciding that suzy has two mommies is an appropriate family situation and should be talking to my kindergartener at school. >> never mind the ignorance and insensitivity of making such comments a week after the many teen suicides after hate crimes. the department of exdoes not set curriculum standards for school. that is done at the state and
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local level. over on the house side, as potential new members weigh michele bachmann's efforts to run camps, barton is making his offer to chair the house energy committee. he's already promised to look into all the new regulations. to further illustrate a chairmanship, here's the congressman back in june apologizing to bp ceo tony hayward. sorry our gulf got in the way of your oil. >> so i'm only speaking for myself. i'm not speaking for anybody else. but i apologize. i do not want to live in a country where any time a citizen or corporation does something legitimately wrong is subject to some sort of political pressure that is is again, in my words, amounts to a shakedown. i apologize. >> let's turn to senior fellow at the brookings institution.
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good evening, e.j. >> good to be with you, keith. >> nevada, first. do we have consensus this was not a game changer for either candidate last night? >> i was really struck with the sound bite you showed. it was a choice between the free market and americanism. was she saying the free market is un-american? which maybe the real news of the debate is she is the closet socialist. listening to some of the commentary on this, i have to say that, if the standards apply to sharron angle for winning the debate were applied to my baseball skills, i would be in the alcs tonight. i don't belong there. for me in judging this debate. i can't imagine she won over any people who are for harry reid. but for the life of me, i can't understand why anyone is undecided in that race. and to the extent that that debate is supposed to move undecided voters, i don't know what sense they made of it. the one place i thought he miss ad chance to use one of our
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favorite lines is when she did the innuendo about reid making money while in the senate. you wanted to say have you no sense of decency, ma'am? that was a moment where you really would have liked him to be more challenging. he just seemed to be laying back and shaking his head. maybe that will persuade somebody. >> meantime, rand paul managed to condemn educational standards and gay bash in the same breath. today in new york, karl paladino sent out a campaign e-mail a kuzikuz i accusing his opposing candidate cuomo of not doing enough for gay rights. if they got a caucus of 33 congressmen and some governors, are they just going to sit and yell at each other or discuss thing nobody understands? >> or throw pocket constitutions at each other. when democrats are looking down the road at the election, and
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they're gloomy right now. when they try to imagine the top ten rationalizations for why this won't be so bad, one of the things i think about is if republicans take over, they have to write a budget. i don't know how they write a budget based on promises to cut taxes, cut the debt, and then not tell us what they're going to cut. you're looking at either incredible disappointment on the part of the tea party folks when the deficits go up and government doesn't shrink much. or if you really cut this as much as the tea party wants to, they will become very unpopular in a week and a half. so this is mostly a movement that says government is bad. beyond that, it's hard to know what it is they stand for. >> the a.p. did their own analysis. there's a quote from jim bennett, the son of senator bob
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bennett, thrown out at the state gop convention by the tea party. the quote is i've decided the republican party in utah doesn't exist anymore. it's the tea party and the democrats. is that true, and is it national? >> you know what, i think one thing that will happen after the election, a lot of republicans will say, if they win, this served our purposes. let's try to move away from these folks. but they're going to have a real problem. what you saw in one republican primary after another is that the republican primary electorate has gotten so conservative it becomes harder and harder to win a primary if you're anything but a right winger. mike castle being the best example. if they continue to dominate the primaries, it will become the tea party. >> e.j., always a pleasure. have a great weekend. >> great to be with you, thank you. of murder and file cabinets. a classic from james thurbor tonight. and the pharmacist at the
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humor of the darkest kind. the cat bird seat. not every muslim is an extremist, a terrorist. but every terrorist is a muslim. worst person is next on countdown. five months ago. we are building a website by ourselves. announcer: there's an easier way. create your own small-business site with intuit websites. just choose a style that fits your business and customize, publish and get found in three easy steps. sweet. all from just $4.99 a month, get a 30-day free trial at intuit.com.
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one of the epic tales from the minds of james thurbor, the
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cat bird seat. that's next. first, time for the worst persons in the world. regular pharmacy customer katherine o'connor was walking by when she has an asthma attack. they wouldn't give her a refill. not because of the prescription, that was fine. the inhaler cost $21.99. and she and her boyfriend only had a $20. he offered the pharmacist his cell phone and wallet and would run home to get the $2 they were short. by this time they were on the floor of the cvs, so the boyfriend called the paramedics. fortunately she didn't die. the cvs pharmacist was and is a jackass. and it's the foreign election of businesses and governments. never once they revealed last
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month the u.s. chamber released a poll commissioned about health care reform and small businesses u u.s. chamber of commerce described the survey as a poll. unless they did it as a hobby, they paid him. he had him onto discuss the favors and never mentioned that they paid him. instead they described him as a democratic pollster. but our winner, brian kilmead. there's stupid and there's bigoted and there's paranoid, through it takes a big man to combine all of it. no we're not. but that was just a warm up. wait for the hate.
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every terrorist is a muslim. scott roeder must be surprised to find out he's a muslim. the church murder who says he was inspired by bernie goldberg's writing converted without his knowledge. the guy who tried to attack the tides foundation and the man who detonated the bomb at a mosque all muslims. >> and the people equate timothy mcveigh with al qaeda terrorist organization, which is growing, and a threat that exists. >> that's right, see, because when mcveigh was put to death, that ended all threats of american born terrorists. here's one for you.
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all brian kilmeads are bastards and tonight's worse person in the world ♪
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we close another week with another story. i love it. the stories in my life have been great. tonight we begin with what may be the best of them all. while he set this story in the business world of new york city of the early 1940s, when it was made into a film in 1959. they moved it to a scottish distillery. the battle of the sexes. starred peter sellers and donald
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ples sa plesanace. i'm reading thurber writings and drawings. hold onto your cat. "the cat bird seat" by james thurber. mr. martin bought the pack of camels on monday night in the most crowded cigar store. it was theater time and seven or eight men were buying cigarettes. the clerk didn't glance at him. he put the pack in his overcoat pocket and went out. if any of the staff had seen him buy the cigarettes, they would have beens a stonished. for it was generally known that he did not smoke and never had. no one saw him. it was just a sweweek to the da since he decided to rub out. the term pleased him. it suggested nothing more than the correction of error. an error of mr. flitwiler. he spent each night working out his plan and examing it.
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as he walked home he went over it again. for the hundredth time he resented the element of inprecision. the margin of guess work that entered into the business. the project as he had worked it out was casual and bold. the risks were considerable. something may go wrong anywhere along the line. and there in lay the cunning of his scheme. no one would ever see in it the cautious pain staking hand of erwin martin, head of the filing department of fns, of whom he once said man is fathomable, but martin isn't. no one would see his hand, that is, unless it were caught in the act. sitting in his apartment, drinking a glass of milk, he reviewed the case as he had every night for seven nights. he began at the beginning. her quacking voice and laugh had first profaned the halls on march 7th, 1941. mr. martin had a head for dates. old roberts, the personnel chief
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introduced her as the newly appointed special adviser to the president of the firm. the woman had appalled mr. martin instantly, but he hadn't shown it. he had given her his dry happened, a look of studious concentration and a faint smile. well, she said looking at the papers on the desk, are you lifting the ox cart out of the ditch. as mr. martin recalled that moment over his milk, he squirmed slightly. he must keep his mind on her crimes as a special adviser. not on her personality. as he felt difficult to do. the faults of a woman as a woman kept chattering on his in mind like an unruly witness. she had for almost two years now baited him in the halls, in the elevator, even if his own office, into which she romp now and then like a circus horse. she was constantly shouting these silly questions at him. are you lifting the ox cart out
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of the ditch? are you tearing up the pea patch? are you hollering down the rain barrel? are you scraping around the bottom of the pickle barrel? are you sitting in the cat bird seat? it was joey hart, who explained what the gibberish met. she must be a dodger fan. red barber announces the radio games over the radio. he uses the expressions. picked them up down south. joe we went onto explain one or two tearing up the pea patch meant going on a rampage, sitting in the cat bird seat meant sitting pretty. like a batter with three balls and no strikes on him. mr. martin dismissed all this with an effort. it had been annoying, but he was too solid a man to be moved to murder by anything so childish. it was fortunate, he reflected, as he passed onto the important charges against her. that he had stood up under it so well. he maintained an outward appearance of tolerance.
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why i even believe you like the woman, his assistant once said to him. he simply smiled. the case was resumed. she stood charged with willful and bla tent attempts to destroy the efficiency of fns. it was confident material and relevant. mr. martin had gotten the story from mrs. perd who seemed always able to find things out. they met at a party where she had rescued him from the embraces of a powerfully built drunken man who had mistaken it for a football coach. she led him to a sofa and worked upon him a monstrous magic. the aging gentleman jumped to the conclusion there and then that this was a woman of singular attainments, equipped to bring out the best in him and in the