Watch: Alan Grayson on Anti-Muslim Propaganda, Bush and 9/11
Cenk Uygur and Rep. Alan Grayson discuss the carpetbombing of the news cycle by conservatives hoping to stir doubt about Obama with anti-Muslim propaganda inspired by the 'controversy' over the Park51 center.
Frustrated that Obama is being drawn into the anti-Muslim sentiment by having to proclaim he's a devoted Christian, Rep. Alan Grayson joins Uygur to remind everyone who really disgraced the people who died on 9/11 — the President who did nothing after receiving the memo that terrorists were plotting attacks on NYC and D.C.
Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...
Posted Aug. 21,2010 at 9:29 AM EST by Andy Towle in Alan Grayson, New York, News | Permalink
Let me get this straight. Obama has been in office for 2 years, and the economy is not his fault. But Bush, who was President for 8 months is responsible for 9/11?
Perhaps Bill Clinton should have had a fucking clue after the bombing of the USS Cole.
Alan Grayson is a disgrace and every bit as bad as the Michele Bachmanns of the world. With a little luck, Alan will be back to chasing ambulances after this election and can stop billing the taxpayers for $80,000 for promotional CDs to the voters.
Posted by: LincolnLounger | Aug 21, 2010 10:12:27 AM
Lincoln, get your facts straight. Clinton attempted to get anti-terrorism legislation passed in 1996 and it was Republicans in Congress who fought against it as unnecessary and fear-monger. Ironically, all the provisions that Clinton was pushing for were subsequently passed AFTER 9/11.
Clinton also worked to try and persuade Saudi Arabia to take custody of Bin Laden when the Sudan offered to arrest him and move him there. They wouldn't, Osama went free, and the Bush family continued their cosy relationship with the richest nation on the planet who harbored terrorists but Bush didn't invade.
Hell, even when he tried to cut off funding to Al Qaeda by freezing the assets of organizations who were funding it, Phil Gramm led the charge to block it...and again, guess what passed AFTER 9/11.
Most damning, when the office hand off passed, Bush and his incoming team were specifically warned about Al Qaeda and bin Laden. And finally, Bush rejected the Hart-Rudman report, a 2.5 year study on the threat posed by terrorism, in May of 2001 suggesting that Americans would die on American soil due to terrorism.
So yeah, Obama's in office and the shit-sandwich that is the economy isn't his fault, but Bush was in office 8 months but 9/11 was his because he was too busy already raiding the nation's coffers and ignoring the serious security threats and warnings that Clinton and others tried to give him.
Posted by: Quakerjono | Aug 21, 2010 10:25:36 AM
@LINCOLNLOUNGER, don't be ridulous. in what way is grayson remotely like bachmann? there is nothing you can get straight when your veiw is so skewed. go suck a log cabinette's lincoln log. as least it will keep you somewhat silent. what is a real disgrace is your comandeering and sullying of lincoln's name and image. you disgust me.
Posted by: nic | Aug 21, 2010 10:41:09 AM
@QUAKERJONO, you rock, man.
Posted by: nic | Aug 21, 2010 10:44:02 AM
Frankly we need more Democrats like Alan Grayson and Cenk. For now I'll just go back to watching TYT.
Posted by: ravewulf | Aug 21, 2010 11:11:04 AM
We need more congressmen and women willing to stand up to the Republican mass-smear machine. They're out of ideas so they resort to smear campaigns like calling Obama a Muslim, bringing up a "ground zero mosque" controversy, and saying Obama is a communist who wasn't born in America. It's a disgraceful and pathetic political tactic. We saw it in 2004 when Republicans scared Americans with "the gays"
Posted by: KFLO | Aug 21, 2010 11:45:58 AM
@LincolnLounger: Let's not forget Bush had a memo on his desk entitled "Al Queda determined to attack United States" that his administration chose to ignore ...
Posted by: Beegee | Aug 21, 2010 11:48:35 AM
What a load of crap, Quaker. Bill Clinton hated the Defense Dept., and only a Republican Congress kept the draft dodger from trying to dismantle it. Since when do Republicans vote against defense and counter-terrorism legislation unless its larded up with socialist pork?
The first attack on the World Trade Center. The attack on USS Cole. Qatar called and handed Bill Clinton bin Laden and his aides and family on a silver platter as they were sitting on a plane trying to go to Pakistan. It was Clinton who allowed them to go to Pakistan instead of having the plane shot down.
Grayson is a disgusting Blame America First radical whose heyday was the 1960s. It was Obama who interjected himself into the Ground Zero Mosque. Fortunately, the American people are going to clean up this mess on Election Day. Polling shows they know who's responsible for this economy? Unemployment was 5% under G.W. Bush. If only we pass Obama's stimuls bill, unemployment will not exceed 8%. What a joke.
The day of reckoning for this gang that can't shoot straight is coming this November. I can't wait.
Now why don't you good Democrat sheep go back to your flop and wait for more inaction on ENDA, DADT, etc., by our "vigorous" proponent, Barack Obama. Keep writing checks to the Democrats who take you for granted and lie about how much they will support you.
And before you swipe with a broad brush against all Republicans, remember you are including Ted Olson who finally got something done in California, as well as the Judge who was appointed by G.H.W. Bush.
Posted by: LincolnLounger | Aug 21, 2010 1:03:05 PM
Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the Log Cabin.
Sorry Ms. Lincoln, your up-is-down revisionsism is totally unsupported, and your worship of Dubya is embarrassing.
Posted by: Tranquilo | Aug 21, 2010 1:10:31 PM
@LincolnLounger Your screen tag disgraces the very name of the man who once was the positive symbol of the Republican Party, Abraham Lincoln.
Here's a hot tip for your GOProud, LCR, head-up-your-ass self: everything, EVERYTHING, the two gentlemen discuss in this video clip are FACTS.
They are not the lies and distortions that you stuff your very small mind with everyday by watching Faux News, listening to reich-wing shout-radio and drooling over the latest gossip items about Ann Coulter on that Queen of Denial's web-site, The Drudge Report.
Go ahead. Be brave. Take your head out of your nether regions and do the research. It's all out there, just waiting for you.
George W. Bush failed the American people. He and his administration were handed clear and precise intelligence data about al-Qaeda, bin Laden and the inevitability of a major terrorist attack on American soil. Bush & Co. chose to ignore it and toss it (literally) into the trash can.
The Clinton administration (which was OBSESSED with finding and assassinating Osama bin Laden) was thwarted at every turn by the Republicons in Congress.
Clinton tried to beef up America's counter-terrorism capabilities, coordinate intelligence gathering and force the various federal agencies (FBI, CIA, NSA, etc.) to share intelligence data, create a special unit to investigate money-laundering and other means by which terrorist networks funded their operations, and increase airport security and surveillance.
Clinton even tried to initiate new federal regulations through the FAA to mandate that armed, undercover agents be on all domestic and all international flights to and from the U.S.; and to mandate that the airline companies redesign the cockpits so that the cockpits could not be penetrated by hijackers or other criminals.
The Republicons blocked Clinton's proposals at every step, screaming that "it's big government and it will increase the federal payroll and it will increase government spending and it will take away our civil liberties and deny us our Constitutional rights".
And, then, that pervert Kenneth Starr and the Republicon seditionists in Congress decided that they could get rid of Clinton by exploiting some minor, unimportant, private, consensual, sexual liaison between Clinton and a young woman named Monica Lewinsky.
Thus, we had to endure the impeachment of William J. Clinton--a Republicon-sponsored attempt at overturning the 1996 election results (Clinton was reelected by a large majority of Americans).
By their petty, hypocritical and reprehensible actions, the Republicons caused our country, our government, our president,our Congress and the American people to be distracted by the impeachment charade because the Republicons actually believed that Americans would rise up against Clinton and applaud the Republicons' efforts to remove him from office.
Thankfully, they were wrong. The adults in Congress prevailed and Clinton was cleared. But the price America had to pay because of the Republicons' treasonous and seditious actions was manifested in the 9/11 attacks.
It IS the Republicons and George W. Bush who betrayed America, who have corrupted America, who have bankrupted America, who have shamed America.
9/11 should never have happened. Regrettably and sadly, it did happen and all the evidence of culpability points directly at the Republicons and G.W. Bush.
@LincolnLounger, you and your LCR, GOProud buttboys are disgusting.
Posted by: jamal49 | Aug 21, 2010 1:15:02 PM
I actually thought Grayson's point was a lot broader than just blame Bush, but demonstrated, that trying to make this mosque issue into a big issue is really just another distraction from what's important - rather than looking at who really caused 9/11 with complexity - go for easy targets.
I don't necessarily blame Bush (or even the CIA - which is likely more complicit by never telling the president that this was a serious threat - but who would thing it was), but I think in the same way we shouldn't just start blaming every muslim. It reeks of hypicrosy on the right, because if they are willing to blame American muslims who are not connected at all to the issue, then they need to blame everyone including bush.
And sorry @LincolnLounger, but telling democrats to wait of inaction on ENDA and DADT is BS. While democrats haven't been great at fighting for these issues, I'd take this any day over a party that still has very vocal voices that want to criminalize gays, believes AIDS is a punishment by god for gays, doesn't believe in gay adoption and doesn't want gays teaching in the classroom because of a homosexual agenda to destroy the world. There's a lot more of those on your side then there are on the Democrat side (and at least any Dem who feels that way KNOWS IT'S WRONG).
Posted by: Joe | Aug 21, 2010 1:36:15 PM
One thing that's definitely true is that radical left wingers are just as bad as radical right wingers...in that they're both cult-like and dogmatic...and anyone who disagrees is wrong simply because they disagree. Alan Grayson isn't a radical left winger, though. Radical moonbats have zero interest in the well being of the middle class, or even the poor...no interest in the majority (this is had in common with the wingnut). Grayson fails that criterion (is too populist, in fact), and therefore, isn't a moonbat.
Posted by: TANK | Aug 21, 2010 1:54:00 PM
@Joe Ever hear of Richard Clarke? The chief counter-terrorism advisor on Bush's National Security team? He said, and I quote, Al Queda posed "an immediate and serious threat to the United States." This, during the Spring of 2001.
What was the Bush administration's response? To strip his office of it's access to the President.
Posted by: Rodney Wollam | Aug 21, 2010 2:07:45 PM
Wow, Sheep or Judas Goat. Hmmm, tough choice.
Anyway, I was going to respond, Lounger, but JAMAL49 summed it up quite nicely. So this derail is done as far as I'm concerned.
I do have to say this, though, about your "Clinton! Hippie! SOCIALISM!" tripe. The second you invent a retro-active line-item veto and a goddamn time machine, then you can talk about past Congressional riders. Until then, BOTH sides of the political aisle play that ruinous zero-sum game, so if that's the best you've got, you haven't got a damn thing.
Posted by: Quakerjono | Aug 21, 2010 2:28:33 PM
I'm glad you brought up Monica Lewinsky, Jamal. It was Clinton who lied under oath. ("It depends on what the meaning of "is" is.") It's nice that you get to decide what's unimportant and what's important. Lying under oath violated the law and his oath of office. He determined whether he would be "distracted" by his own actions.
"I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." Did Republicans force him to say that? No, because the Clintons lie even when it's not necessary. Has Hillary's plane been under fire lately?
Bill Clinton was President for 8 years and met with the Director of the CIA a total of 2 times. He did everything he could to undermine the Defense Dept. until the American people slapped him with a Republican Congress (like they're going to do to Obama). Suddenly, he and his inept Secretary of State Madeleine Albright discovered there were terrorists in the world after sleeping through the first term.
Nobody addresses the USS Cole or the first attack on the World Trade Center. I hate the Michele Bachmanns and Glenn Becks of the World, but the Keith Olbermanns and William Ayerses are every bit as bad, if not worse. I'm not a Bush apologist. My point from the beginning is that Bush had been President for ten minutes and 9/11 was his fault, but Obama has no blame for unemployment or the economy and he has been President for nearly 2 years.
If Obama and the Democrats were going to fight for our community, a good time to do it was when they had huge, veto-proof majorities in the Congress. Instead, the professional gays like the HRC crowd are bought off with occasional parties at the White House and no real progress on our commmunity's agenda. At least we know where we stand most of the time with the Republicans -- unlike the Democrats who just want our money.
And before I hear again what a "populist" the multi-millionaire ambulance-chasing trial lawyer who is one of the most wealthy members of Congress, Alan Grayson, is, tell him to stop mailing out CDs to his district touting the "accomplishments" of his first term to the tune of $80,000 to the taxpayers.
I love how we gays preach tolerance and acceptance, but just the mere mention of assigning blame to a Clinton or Obama or the Democrats creates hysteria and ugly, outraged, hysterical rants. Talk about hypocrisy.
Posted by: LincolnLounger | Aug 21, 2010 2:42:36 PM
But when Clinton lied, no one died. You aren't seriously comparing the uss cole and the monica lewinsky scandal, and even the first attack on the twin towers to 9/11 and the faulty justification for invading iraq, are you? Clinton was a pretty lousy president, but bush was apocalyptically terrible by comparison.
Posted by: TANK | Aug 21, 2010 3:04:22 PM
@Rodney Wollum, I'll admit that I'm nto as informed on the timeline of Bush recieving memos from the CIA and intel on 9/11 specifically (not just the Al Queda threat) as I should be. However, I don't think it gets us anywhere to constantly debate and harp on Bush for causing 9/11. I won't doubt that he's neglectful, but it just allows us to overlook current issues now, I think.
@LincolnLounger, really? You'll vote for a republican because at least you can count on them to despise us rather than a democrat who you can at least influence to support us?
@Tank, YES!
Posted by: Joe | Aug 21, 2010 3:36:49 PM
"but just the mere mention of assigning blame to a Clinton or Obama or the Democrats creates hysteria and ugly, outraged, hysterical rants."
You seem to be confused, Lounger. It is not the "mere mention of assigning blame". Instead, it is the false and incorrect assignment of blame as obfuscation and the unequal comparison of action to push an agenda that provokes response. Obama and Clinton are both guilty of many things, being wrong on the unemployment numbers perhaps the least of them. That's undeniable and not the point. Your delusional assertion that Obama is the culprit behind our broken economy and that because Bush has been out of office for two years then that somehow means he and his cronies couldn't possibly be responsible and your spectacularly ignorant accusation that because Clinton didn't blow bin Laden's plane off the fucking tarmac in 1996 when it was refueling in Qatar means he's worse on terrorism than George W. Bush who specifically did NOTHING although he was warned multiple times about impending threats from Al Qaeda and bin Laden...these are what is provoking response.
This shit has been asked and answered and the fact that you're offering up these widely discredited talking points likes some bastard love child of NewsMax and WorldNetDaily is what's provoking response. None of it hysterical, but most of it soundly demonstrating how far off base you are.
Posted by: Quakerjono | Aug 21, 2010 3:52:06 PM
I never said that Obama bore the sole responsibility for the state of the economy. I was referencing Andy's original remarks when he posted this item that laid the blame of 9/11 at Bush's feet. I was trying to point out that Obama's Hallelujah Chorus on MSNBC can't have it both ways. They say the economy isn't his fault, but he's had more time than Bush had on 9/11. Further, he and his Pelosi gang's spending are going to break this country.
Just because you don't like my points doesn't mean that they are "widely discredited" -- except on MoveOn.org, Daily Kos, or MSNBC.
Joe, there are lots of Republicans I will vote for, but I can't stand the fringe of the right or the fringe of the left like Olbermann or Ed Schultz or Pete Stark or Maxin Waters. As a community, we do ourselves a disservice by being a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Democrat Party. They take us for granted and the Republicans have no reason to even talk to us. It's political suicide and why Team Obama fears no repercussions.
Posted by: LincolnLounger | Aug 21, 2010 4:56:45 PM
I hope you're ready to condemn the fringe of the right like Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Andrew Breitbart, Rush Limbaugh, Bill OReilly, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Bill Kristol, and matt drudge, too....oh wait, that would mean bidding the right a fond farewell as there is no centrism; it's all extreme, fringe crazy. Neil Cavuto you can keep...he's got diabetes, after all.
Posted by: TANK | Aug 21, 2010 6:53:44 PM
actually, TANK, neil cavuto has survived cancer and is wrangling with multiple sclerosis. but as we mezcuns say, "yerba mala nunca muere." (a bad weed never dies). nevertheless, you enumerated all the right-wing disilluminati, pop, pop, pop.... just like that, and put ms lincoln chaise-lounge firmly in her place. for that i salute you.
what is the actual antonym of illuminati? i have no bavarian in me and i don't fear closet monsters, but i could use a good dose of blond germanity in me, now and again. perhaps someone can help me out.
Posted by: nic | Aug 21, 2010 8:32:31 PM
@LincolnLounger
Democrats = generally weak/pathetic
Republicans = Insane
Democrats = Bad
Republicans = Far worse
I'm not a Democrat, I'm a Progressive. There's a big difference. I like Bold Progressives like Cenk and Alan Grayson, not weak Democrats like Obama. Although, Obama is still FAR better than McCain/Palin. If you think the Republicans could do better, you're insane (and more than likely have been watching the Fox propaganda machine for too long).
Posted by: ravewulf | Aug 21, 2010 11:04:49 PM
Sorry, Rave. I don't like it when people paint with a broad brush and categorize all gays as one way or another, and I don't like it when people do the same with Republicans. There are a number of good moderate Republicans whom I am happy to support. (The same could be said for Fox News, by the way.)
The gay community will never be taken seriously as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Democrat Party. The Democrats take us for granted, and the Republicans have no reason to fear us.
Posted by: LincolnLounger | Aug 22, 2010 7:15:39 AM
@LincolnLounger "The gay community will never be taken seriously as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Democrat Party. The Democrats take us for granted, and the Republicans have no reason to fear us."
That's a laugh. Like I said, I'm not a Democrat, I'm a Progressive. Most gays are not owned by Democrats, instead they are furious at the lack of movement on key issues. While Democrats aren't moving very fast, at least they don't oppose every single gay rights legislation (as well as vilify the gay community in general) as most Republicans do.
The Republican Party is a wholly-owned subsidiary of corperate America; Wall St. and the big banks' butt boys. They say they are for "small" businesses, but they only try to help big bisinesses and the top 2% of Americans. That doesn't work for solving economic problems, it makes them worse. Our middle class has shrunk, the income gap between middle and upper class people has been getting wider and wider. And don't you dare suggest I like what Obama has been doing. He doesn't have the balls or desire to do the right thing for our country.
Posted by: ravewulf | Aug 22, 2010 4:38:03 PM
lounger's a republican party shill, which I have proven time and again...who will say and do anything to defend it. There's no "ethic" or belief behind it...it is completely vacuous partisan hackery...and there's no reasoning with it, either.
Posted by: TANK | Aug 22, 2010 4:51:04 PM