The war that began March 19, 2003, was justified to the country by alarming claims that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and connections to al-Qaida terrorists—almost all of which turned out to be false. Some of the most senior officials in the U.S. government, including President Bush himself, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, asserted these claims in public with absolute confidence, even while privately, ranking U.S. military officers and intelligence professionals were voicing their doubts. Hubris: The Selling of the Iraq War, a documentary special hosted by Rachel Maddow that will air Monday night on MSNBC at 9 p.m. provides new evidence that the dissent within the administration and military was even more profound and widespread than anybody has known until now.

David Corn writes:

"One chilling moment in the film comes in an interview with retired General Anthony Zinni, a former commander in chief of US Central Command. In August 2002, the Bush-Cheney administration opened its propaganda campaign for war with a Cheney speech at the annual Veterans of Foreign Wars convention. The veep made a stark declaration: "There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us." No doubt, he proclaimed, Saddam was arming himself with WMD in preparation for attacking the United States."

"Zinni was sitting on the stage during the speech, and in the documentary he recalls his reaction":

"It was a shock. It was a total shock. I couldn't believe the vice president was saying this, you know? In doing work with the CIA on Iraq WMD, through all the briefings I heard at Langley, I never saw one piece of credible evidence that there was an ongoing program. And that's when I began to believe they're getting serious about this. They wanna go into Iraq."

But, this is but a glimpse. There is much, much more.

The film is based on Michael Isikoff and David Corn's book, "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War."

Also, "congratulations" are in order to David Corn. Corn is the reporter for Mother Jones magazine who broke the story of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s remarks that 47 percent of Americans “believe they are victims” is among the winners of the 64th annual George Polk Awards in Journalism.

And rape really does cause pregnancy sometimes...

In an election season in which the Republican Party learned the limitations of appealing almost exclusively to white male voters, a handful of otherwise anonymous white, male, Republican candidates distinguished themselves with a questionable grasp of human reproduction and some disturbing perspectives on rape.

Rachel Maddow reviews the litany of GOP candidates who made the mistake of expressing their offensive ignorance about rape and/or women's bodies out loud in public and notes that the American voting public rejected them at the ballot box.

DOWNLOADS: (290)

PLAYS: (3957)

Embed

Moments after Paul Ryan's speech Wednesday night, Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin got into a fiesty and heated exchange with the MSNBC panel. Walker defended Ryan's false claim that Obama failed to save a Wisconsin auto plant, and even appeared to claim that for Wisconsin workers, the Obama administration's auto bailout hasn't been a success.

The problem with Ryan blasting Obama for the closure of the Wisconsin General Motors plant is that the plant actually closed under George W. Bush.

Ryan said, "Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said, 'I believe that if our government is there to support you … this plant will be here for another hundred years.' That’s what he said in 2008."

"Well, as it turned out, that plant didn't last another year," Ryan continued. "It is locked up and empty to this day. And that’s how it is in so many towns today, where the recovery that was promised is nowhere in sight."

In June 2008, Ryan sent a letter along with his Wisconsin colleagues Senators Russ Feingold (D) and Herb Kohl (D) protesting the closure of General Motors plant in Janesville, Wisconsin.

“We ask that you reconsider the decision to close the Janesville GM plant and request a meeting with you as soon as possible to discuss OM’s plans for the Janesville plant, including the possibility of retooling the plant for different production lines,” said the letter from the three lawmakers to GM CEO Rick Wagoner.

Ryan actually voted for a Bush-era effort to expand government loans to GM, a plan that failed to save the Janesville plant.

In 2008, Ryan supported the Bush loans that Romney infamously opposed in an editorial titled “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.”

Scott Walker was apparently trying to assist the Romney-Ryan campaign's efforts to re-write history, but as you can guess, Rachel, Ed, Al and company didn't let him off the hook.

Maddow kept her cool as she spoke to Walker, "It is surprising to hear you run down the American auto industry at a moment that it really has come back and to see such a bright spot in the economy, you talked as if things haven't worked out in the auto industry since the bailout," she said. "It's a surprise."

Schultz wasn't having any of it, and broke in hitting back at Walker's claims. "It was not Barack Obama's economic policies that closed that GM plant," he insisted. "That plant was closed in December 2008. That's in the Washington Post right now Governor. It has nothing to do with Barack Obama's economic policy whatsoever. You can't get away from that fact."

Walker smugly repeated the tired "managed bankruptcy would have been more effective" meme and Schultz quickly snapped back that Walker could not guarantee the plant would still be operating under that strategy.

Al Sharpton tried to enter the fray, but Walker retorted, "If you want to talk over and not let me talk that's fine. Apparently that's what you do a lot of."

If there weren't so much at stake this November for so many people, this would all be quite the comedy. *Sigh.*

Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews discussed some newly released data that reveals the effects of new Republican Voter ID legislation on the numbers of newly registered voters, and compared the numbers to those of previous election periods. The results are startling.

Rachel begins:

"Nikki Haley signed a law last year making it harder to vote in South Carolina. You have to show documentation you never had to show before, and that 200,000 people in her state, who are legal voters, it's documentation they do not have. There was one point on this issue about voter suppression , making it harder to vote that I want to particularly highlight, because we are in Florida tonight. We're heading into Ann Romney 's speech, but keep in mind the importance of the location in which this speech is happening. This is probably going to be the highest profile moment of the entire convention, we're going to get from Ann Romney , except maybe her husband's speech. But in the state of Florida, where tonight's Republican convention is being held, last July, Republicans in the state passed a whole slew of new restrictions that make it harder to register to vote in the state."

"Voting rights activists at the time said it would disproportionately affect minority voters who tend to lean Democratic. Those activists appear to be proven right."

"Today the Florida Times Union released some remarkable new analysis on voter registration in Florida that Ialmost cannot believe. In the lead up to the '04 Presidential Election , look at this. This is what the increase in voter registration looked like on the Democratic side. That was '04, 159,000 new Democrats registered to vote over that time period . In '08, same time period , 13 months, it was pretty much the same story, right. Democratic voter registration surging in the same time period before the election. But then last year, Florida republicans made it harder to register to vote in the state. Look at what has happened in the lead up to this year's election over an equivalent time period . Look. New Democratic voter registration has disappeared in Florida. It has fallen off a cliff, over the same amount of time -- look, the Republican numbers have been basically static."

"The way they have changed these laws in these states have partisan outcomes. Voter registration drives like the ones that were crimped in Florida tend to get Democrats signed up. You get rid of those, you get rid of Democratic voters. Thanks in part to these new republican laws, Democratic voter registration has been absolutely devastated in florida heading into the 2012 election. Since the beginning of last year, its 19 states that have put in place strict new barriers to voting or barriers to registering to vote, barriers that have never been there before in modern times -- but which you just heard Nikki Haley defend to the Republican National Convention audience -- and which got her a rather lusty round of cheering from that audience."

Joined by Chris Matthews, he adds "Wherever this issue of voter ID, and more difficult voter registration or participation gets in these proposed changes that are now law, the more the Republicans cheer. of course, we had the legislative leader up in Harrisburg openly saying this will help Romney carry the state. It's blatantly partisan. And I have to tell you, I was talking to the Reverend Jesse Jackson today, and he points out there's a real strategy here. One is suppression, the other is frustration of minority voters. Not just stopping them from voting, discourage them because it's so hard to do. In states like Pennsylvania, you have to go back to the cities of your birth in South Carolina, and you have to come up with the documentation. It's also encouraging white anger. It's an interesting pincer that is their plan here."

2012 Feb. 20 • Silent Protest for Women's Rights • Virginia State Capitol • Richmond, Virginia from Silver Persinger on Vimeo.

Update: Lawmakers in Virginia put off a final vote Tuesday on a highly contested bill that would require women in the eastern US state to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound prior to an abortion.

Republican Governor Bob McDonnell, a Roman Catholic father of five, was poised to swiftly sign the so-called "informed consent" bill -- adopted by the state senate earlier this month-- into law.

But a day after 1,000 protesters descended on the state capitol in Richmond, the House of Delegates held off on third and final reading of the legislation, leaving open the possibility it might yet be amended or dropped altogether when it comes before the chamber again on Wednesday.

====================================
Over 1,000 demonstrators assembled outside of Virginia’s Capitol on Monday. Standing silently in the cold, they lined the walkway used by the legislators who have been voting on -- and voting away -- women's rights in Virginia.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that a bill to require ultrasounds of women about to undergo an abortion was scheduled for passage on Monday, but was pushed back by the House:

With hundreds protesting outside the Capitol, the House of Delegates delayed multiple contentious bills that appeared poised for final passage today.

The chamber pushed back votes on a measure that would require an ultrasound of all women considering an abortion as well as adoption- and gun-related legislation.

`From their Facebook page:

The Capitol ground rules say that we cannot assemble, hold signs, chant, yell or protest. We think silence in the face of this struggle and their unconstitutional rules presents the strongest response to their assault on women. Please come out and stand up for our rights and for the rights of all women in VA to choose the best reproductive route for themselves. These people are used to signs, yelling, chanting etc. It is not new. They are not used to silently being stared at and having to look us in the eye. It gives us the power.

Tuesday, reports indicate that even as women continue to protest at the Capitol, the ultrasound bill is now headed to the Governor:

After garnering national attention and jokes at the state's expense, a bill to require ultrasounds of women about to undergo an abortion will likely head to Gov. Bob McDonnell after final passage in the House of Delegates today.

On Monday, about 1,000 people appeared at the Capitol to oppose the measure as part of a women's rights rally that came together quickly through social media and word of mouth.

Continue reading »