Sunday, August 25, 2013

Meet The Press – August 25, 2013


Guests:
Rep. John Lewis (D-GA)
Al Sharpton
Sheryl WuDunn
Doris Goodwin
David Broooks
Mayor Cory Booker (D-Newark)
Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA)
Raul Labrador (R-ID)

Gregory: wow it's been 50 years since
MLK gave some speech and more
importantly appeared on Meet The Press

Audience: John McCain wasn't available?

Gregory: welcome John Lewis

Lewis: hi David

Gregory: you spoke as a young 23 year-old
at the first March and spoke again
as an elder statesman – that's amazing

Lewis: we were part of a non-violent revolution

Gregory: you said forces want to take us back

Lewis: I see people saying 'I want
my country back' – back to where?

Gregory: back to the future?

Lewis: when I came to Washington
it was segregated – not like now ha ha

Gregory: do you see the same fears

Lewis: I see fears of progress but
we are changing as a nation

Gregory: is there a backlash?

Lewis: yes but let's not be afraid –
embrace the change

Gregory: black unemployment is still 
twice that of white people

Lewis: it's very troubling

Gregory: who is to blame?

Lewis: all of us – businesses, schools, government

Gregory: Tavis Smiley wants Obama to propose 
a bunch of liberal proposals

Lewis: I met with JFK and LBJ and 
we pushed and pulled

Gregory: thanks for coming Congressman

Lewis: thank you Fluffy

Gregory: how does King's message relate today?

Sharpton: it paved the way for a black
President and black Attorney General

Gregory: awesome

Sharpton: but we still have voting rights
struck down, economic inequality and
gun violence in our community

Branch: Civil rights leaders linked 
their caused to Lincoln and the Founders

Goodwin: right – the Founders created
an ideal that all men are created equal –
Lincoln and MLK and others pushed
the nation ever closer to that ideal

Gregory: wow

Goodwin: it was an amazingly hopeful time
we need that again

Brooks: A Philip Randolf and Bayard Rustin
exposed their enemies bigotry
through their great dignity

WuDunn: students at Tianamen Square
invoked the King's speech

Gregory: I love Colin Firth

WuDunn: righty-o

Gregory: at the time white people were
terrified of large numbers of blacks marching

Sharpton: we still hear those complaints today

[ break ]

Gregory: Cory you are trying to become
only the second black person in the Senate 
how far have we come in 50 years?

Booker: the challenge is equality –
we still have too many people in poverty

Gregory: you have expressed frustration
with young people's apathy

Booker: the power of the people is
greater than the people in power

Gregory: ooh

Booker: sure politics can be depressing
sometimes but you can't just sit on
your couch – you gotta get out there
and work for change

Gregory: unemployment is high in
New Jersey and in your city

Booker: if Chris Christie and I didn't
work together Newark wouldn't 
be booming right now

Gregory: is it?

Gregory: yes and then I worked with the
right-wing Manhattan institute on over-incarceration

Gregory: so what will you do in the Senate?

Booker: argue for strategic investment
in education and young people

Gregory: we tried that and America is a failed state

Booker: we need Republicans and
Democrats to work together

Gregory: is the American dream still alive?

Booker: we all need each other –
when a child succeeds it benefits us all

Gregory: We asked Snoop Dogg
and Mitt Romney to riff on Martin Luther King

Dogg: I have a dream of safe communities
for our children

Romney: I have a dream that I didn't
call half of America lazy and
was actually elected President
then I woke up darn it

[ break ]

Gregory: OMG we might go to war in Afghanistan 
Iraq Iran Libya Syria

Engel: the rebels have just received
tons and tons of weapons from Turkey

Gregory: sweet

Engel: also Assad was almost assassinated
and it pissed him off and he personally
approved spraying chemical weapons on the rebels

Gregory: wow

Gregory: Assad says he will allow
weapons inspectors in Syria

Welker: yes but the White House
says there is little doubt chemical
weapons were used in Syria

Gregory: Obama said we need to
address inequality

Brooks: inequality shows up by age 2 or 3

Gregory: um okay

Brooks: we need more love

Gregory: what about the American dream?

WuDunn: the civil rights issue today
is thriving in an inner city with
bad schools and poverty

Gregory: and less opportunity than before

Goodwin: the lesson of the civil rights
movement is great change can happen
with effort and commitment and we
need to commit to fight poverty

Gregory: is Obama blind to poverty
and too focused on the middle class?

Sharpton: Congress just cut Head Start!

Gregory: Raul you became a mormon
and a lawyer and a single mother

Labrador: I was born poor to a mother
who decided not to get an abortion
and sacrificed to get me a good education

Gregory: wow

Labrador: my mother said I should speak English 

Gregory: I've heard that's useful 

Labrador: your panel is bunch of depressing losers

WuDunn: well sorry Raul but social
mobilization is worse than ever and
while Washington dithers America burns

Brooks: Head Start is a terrible program

WuDunn: wrong!

Brooks: America has Juwan and 
Pedro and Goldbergs

Goodwin: my father was an orphan
but succeded because of WWII
and income taxes

Sharpton: Martin Luther King directly
attacked America's bad check given to blacks

Labrador: King's principal message was
that America is great and so everyone
should have hope

Sharpton: no his message was to fight injustice

Gregory: the President says we don't
have an urgent deficit crisis and
called for more spending to
help children – what do you think?

Jindal: the debt is $17 trillion!

Gregory: what else?

Jindal: the reality in America is that
too many kids go to bad schools

Gregory: true

Jindal: in Louisiana we have privatized
schools and created Charter Schools

Gregory: I love it

Jindal: now we allow minority kids
to take their dollars with them

Gregory: I love you

Jindal: thanks

Gregory: Colin Powell says there is
a vein of intolerance in the GOP

Jindal: the left spent 8 years
attacking George Bush

Gregory: uh-huh

Jindal: we shouldn't impeach Obama -
we should repeal Obamacare and
anti-poverty programs have made
people poor so we should repeal them too

Gregory: Obama is not going to sign
a bill repealing Obamacare

Jindal: Obamacare is taking away
people's doctors and raising costs

Gregory: would you shut
down the government over it?

Jindal: why not?

Gregory: what does the American
dream mean to you?

Jindal: my Dad came here knowing
nobody and succeeded – its amazing story

Gregory: and that's another
episode of Meet The Press

This Week with George Stephanopoulos – August 25, 2013



Hosts: Martha Raddatz & Jon Karl
Guests:
Col. Steve Ganyard
Amr Moussa – Frm. Egyptian Foreign Minister
Matt Bradley – Wall St. Journal
Ashraf Khalil - Time
Abigail Hauslohner – Washington Post
Dan Balz
Donna Brazile
George Will
Cokie Roberts

Raddatz: holy cow Syria may have used
chemical weapons so the U.S. may go
to war in the middle east again

Karl: Assad may have gassed children and
the White House is trying to get Russia
to agree to bomb the Syrian government

Raddatz: how do you bomb a country like Syria?

Ganyard: a tomahawk missile which is an
accurate flying torpedo with wings on it

Raddatz: is Syria defended?

Ganyard: yes so we will fire our
missiles from far away

Raddatz: but how do you bomb a
chemical weapon?

Ganyard: you can't – if you do it will spread
the chemical everywhere and make it worse

Raddatz: that seems like a problem

Ganyard: instead you bomb airplanes,
airports, and Syria coffeemakers

Raddatz: will that work?

Ganyard: it might scare Assad or
might just make him madder

[ break ]

Raddatz: should the U.S. bomb Syria?

Moussa: only if the U.N. Security Council approves

Raddatz: you'd leave it up to Putin?

Moussa: well no one wants another
war around here

Raddatz: but Assad is using chemical
weapons against little kids

Moussa: well that's not very nice I concede
but let's not rush into anything

Raddatz: thanks for coming

[ break ]

Bradley: this is already an international
war and if the U.S. gets involved it could
get much much worse

Khalil: Egypt is the sun around
which the middle east revolves

Raddatz: wow

Khalil: the Arab Spring was supposed to
modernize the whole region and now that's fucked

Hauslohner: Cairo police opened fire
on protesters – it was frightening

Raddatz: and yet people support the military

Bradley: the military is the heart and
soul of the nation – the people people adore them
– they're the Ferris Bueller of the country

Hauslohner: it was a coup but a
popular one – it's a mass movement
in support of authoritarianism

Khalil: the people welcomed military
control and broke the country

[ break ]

Karl: we have to attack Syria don't we?

Will: not necessarily

Karl: but we have to!

Brazile: or we could carefully determine
the facts and form a large coalition

Karl: oh pooh

Brazile: the people of that region don't
want us to control that whole region

Roberts: oh yes they do

Brazile: oh really

Roberts: if America does not attack Syria
it will be a breeding ground for terrorists

Karl: Assad seems to be finally scared

Balz: something has to be done!!

Karl: right!

Balz: unfortunately our bombs will have
no effect but we should do it anyway

Roberts: exactly – ineffective actions are
still a great idea because we have to do something

Brazile: great – another damn war

Balz: Obama ran against unilateral
war in the middle east – could he act
without the U.N.?

Roberts: I WANT WAR GODDAMMIT

Karl: Putin may even agree to kill people with us

Balz: screw the U.N. - bomb right now I say

Karl: military action will be useless but
we must bomb just for the sake of it

Will: Jonathan the military is not in the
businesses of useless gestures

Karl: but Obama has to bomb Syria
to retain U.S. credibility!

Roberts: exactly!



Sunday, August 18, 2013

Meet The Press – August 18, 2013


Guests:
Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH)
Sen. Jack Reed (D-RH)
Richard Engel
Robin Wright
Ben Jealous – NAACP
Sybrina Fulton
Benjamin Crump
Donna Edwards
Bob Gibbs
Rich Lowry
Chuck Todd

Gregory: what about Egypt?

Ayotte: we should defeat the
muslim brotherhood at the ballot box

Gregory: President Ted Cruz says
we are encouraging the muslim
brotherhood to be violent with all our massive aid

Reed: Saudi Arabia provide lots of aid too

Gregory: but American money is better

Reed: we need to enage in the whole region

Gregory: please bash Obama for me

Ayotte: he should have said we will
suspend aid until Egypt restores democracy

Gregory: but the military will keep
the Suez canal open

Reed: we need the canal open and
a nice functioning democracy

Gregory: well sure

Reed: look Fluffy it takes time and there's
going to be some zigs and zags

Gregory: Richard what's happening in Egypt?

Engel: people in Egypt think it would
be a disaster for Egypt and the
U.S. to cut off aid – it would break
the spirit of Camp David and would
ally the US with the muslim brotherhood

Gregory: interesting

Engel: hell even Egypt and Israel agree!

Gregory: what can't the U.S. control
the situation in Egypt? Why??

Wright: the Egypt military is thumbing
its nose at America – it's unacceptable

Gregory: could Egypt fall apart?

Engel: yes people are being killed
on both sides – but if the US cuts off
aid the muslim brotherhood would
take that as a sign the US is on their side

Wright: these events send a signal
in the middle east that democracy doesn't work

Gregory: too bad

[ break ]

Gregory: Ray a federal judge ruled
that stop-and-frisk is racist and unconstitutional

Kelly: the judge called all cops racist – so unfair!

Gregory: so sad

Kelly: look we stopped 4 million people

Gregory: are you perhaps stopping too many people

Kelly: there are no innocent people –
there are only people who are
probably criminals or soon will be

Gregory: got it

Kelly: the Rand Corporation told the
NYPD that black teenagers are criminals

Gregory: that's your best argument
the Rand Corporation?

Kelly: hey Fluffy they've been around for 100 years

Gregory: well peachy

Kelly: also there are some
black police officers

Gregory: it sounds like you saying
all young black men are suspicious

Kelly: well fine but black neighborhoods
are full of crime and murders are at
an all-time record low

Gregory: that's good

Kelly: stop-and-frisk saved thousands
of lives of young black men

Gregory: if stop-and-frisk is
abandonded will people die?

Kelly: no question many people
will be murdered

Gregory: wow

Kelly: stop-and-frisk is not some program –
it's pretty all NYC cops do all day

Gregory: thanks for coming

[ break ]

Jealous: this guy wants to be head of
Homeland Security and he oversees
a program that routinely violates the Constitution

Gregory: he says its saves lives

Jealous: the drop in crime started before
stop-and-frisk started

Gregory: is that so

Jealous: under Giuliani 80,000 people
were stopped under Bloomberg
it's exploded to 600,000

Gregory: so by my math that 60% more

Jealous: 90% of those stopped
didn't even have a weapon

Fulton: you shouldn't stop
someone just based on the
color of their skin

Crump: Trayvon Martin was
just walking home and was
racially profiled and killed

Fulton: we are trying to get Stand Your Ground
laws changed around this country –
we are in this fight for long haul

Gregory: Ben we are now having
a conversation about how much
surveillance is needed and how
aggressive police need to be in
this scary era of rapidly dropping crime

Jealous: this is about more than race –
it's about the freedom to walk out
the door without being threatened by the cops

Gregory: thanks for coming

[ break ]

Gregory: OMG Hillary Clinton is
running for President!!

Todd: this is shocking because people
used to like and now she's in favor of
people voting everyone will hate her

Gregory: Rich Lowry you say she is
low and dishonest and creating hatred

Lowry: Voter ID laws are very popular
and if you criticize them you are a
race-baiting demagogue

Edwards: um okay

Gibbs: she should have laid low
for a couple of years

Todd: right

Gibbs: Clinton didn't enter the
race until the fall of 1991

Gregory: Newt Gingrich said Clinton
a liberal and a loser

Lowry: she has an amazing resume
but the GOP have young fresh faces

Gregory: do Democrats want another
Clinton or another Obama?

Edwards: she doesn't need to
fight for the base – the nomination
is hers for the asking

Gibbs: so why is she campaigning so early?

Todd: if Hillary Clinton keeps giving
speeches it makes Obama a lame duck

[ break ]

Gregory: Chris Christie says the GOP
doesn't need intellectual pinheads
likes Rand Paul – they need power

Lowry: they're both right – we the bad
ideas of Rand Paul with the terrible
campaigns of Mitt Romney

Gregory: good point

Lowry: Christie can run for President as
the only moderate in a sea of crazies
and that's a good way to win

Gibbs: fewer debates is a good idea –
the more people saw of GOP candidates
the less they like them

Gregory: I miss Ronald Reagan

Todd: Chris Christie could win
over fat white guys

Gregory: true

Todd: but he would yet another moderate
when GOP moderates keep losing

Gibbs: Newt Gingrich says the GOP
should not just be against Obama
but actually have their own governing vision

Lowry: I agree with that – for example
we need to argue that Obamacare
is ruining America

Gregory: this is the 50th anniversay
of the march on Washington and
Martin Luther King appeared on
Meet The Press arguing for political and
social and economnic equality

Edwards: it's amazing how far we've
come but we need more economic equality

Lowry: MLK like Abraham Lincoln challenged
America to live up to the ideals of
the Declaration of Independence

Gibbs: he is indeed a 20th century Founding Father

Gregory: and that another episode 
of Meet The Press