[chris in sacto]

I love how Rachel uses geeks on her show. No bottle-blonde neo-nazi spin meisters, no, no. She interviews smart, witty people who may not be matinee idol attractive, but have brains galore. Killer Rachel. Thanks!

[RitaAnn]

Rachel Maddow interviewed Robert Reich about auto makers building new plants in the south. The senators who are against the bailout unless they agree to lower wages in the union plants have given tax subsidies to these foreign auto makers. They are non-union. It is in essence if you're blue collar, it's your fault. If you're white collar, it's let's talk about the company.

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[RitaAnn]

Rachel talks about Obama's choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration. Warren is an extremists who says gay people should not have a right to get married and compares that to incest and pedophilia. He also agreed with Sean Hannity that Iranian President Ahmadinejad should be assassinated.

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[RitaAnn]

Rachel talked about Bush's 11th hour extension of the "RIGHT OF CONSCIOUS VIEW" which allows workers to refuse medicines to patients for religious reasons.

It even extends to people being allowed to refuse to handle medical equipment such as surgical instruments. Rachel asked the guest, a congresswoman, whether or not someone could refuse AIDS drugs to a patient if they believe their disease was caused by their own sin.

"Yes" came the reply.

[RitaAnn]

Dick Cheney has said some bizarre things. He's getting "Frost/Nixon-y" and says that the VP has powers beyond the constitution and said his "highest moment" was 9-11. Chris Wallace reminds him that it was also the lowest point.

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[RitaAnn]

Rachel says that the Rick Warren controversy of him doing the invocation at Obama's inauguration is not going to go away---not if she can help it. Warren is saying weird things, such as people who critize the choice of him doing the prayer at the inauguration as "hate speech" and "Christophobic." Warren taped a talk to his congregation denying that he compared pedophilia and incest with gay marriage. Then Rachel shows Warren saying just the opposite.

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[RitaAnn]

Even though this video is from The Young Turks, it's appropriate here because it's about Rachel and her integrity. Cenk compares liberal show hosts with conservative ones. If the media had taken Rachel's example to the build up of the Iraqi war, things may have turned out much differently.

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[RitaAnn]

There won't be a cease fire from Israel until Hamus makes a commitment to it, according to Deputy WH Spokesman.

Weird thing---the Israeli Consulate joined Twitter. Since Twitter only allows so many characters per updates, about every word in their updates are abbreviated.

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[ZoWie]

It won't go away. The new president is being sworn in by a homophobic whack job from the scariest part of a very scary county, in a very dysfunctional state, in a very self-absorbed and generally clueless country, in a very scary world largely of its making, in a universe doesn't care if we blow the whole thing up and give the insects a chance to run it.

[RitaAnn]

Rachel talks to law professor Jonathan Turley about the administration's asking Iraq to hold the detainees at Guantanamo without charges once the prison on the bay is closed. Rachel asks if we can reject such a proposal and Turley wonders if Obama will enforce the law when it comes to those who have tortured prisoners:

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[RitaAnn]

Rachel shows a clip of Gov. Blogoyovich losing it when he compares the charges against him to a cowboy flick. As Rachel says, after feasting on popcorn during Blago's screenplay, "this is coo coo for Cocopuffs territory..."

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[RitaAnn]

Rachel takes issue with Obama's bipartisan ship. He appointed Sen. Judd Gregg, a republican who voted with his party 83% of the time. Despite Obama's attempt to reach across the aisle, the republicans "are just not that into you."

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[Mac McFadden]

Rachel Maddow is MSNBC's rising star.
SAhe gets guests that no one else can get.
Like Dan Rather talking about his recent trip to Afganistan.
And of course, her interview with O'Bama was great.


Mac

[jenniearcheo]

Her "Night of the Living Head" routine last night concerning the never-ending Blago nightmare was hilarious. I loved the dimmed-lights flashlight-under-the-face Muahahahaha!!! bit. She's fabulous.

[RitaAnn]

Good interview with Sen. Bernie Sanders about the Wall Street bailouts. Seems Wells Fargo was stopped from sending it's top executives on a tour of LasVegas after they were bailed out. But Sanders wants to put a cap on executive pay. He says it's outrageous that tax payers are being charged up to 30% by these banks after the bailout. On top of that, he wants a criminal investigation into what caused the economic collapse in the first place. It will be difficult because many politicians were involved in the deregulation to begin with.

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[crtclb3185]

Did anyone else see Rachel on The Martha Stewart Show yesterday? She made a carrot soup with Martha and mixed a cherry julep. She was fabu!

[turtle_girl72]

I missed it but, luckily, Kent brought it up during his segment last night.

[jenniearcheo]

Yeah. I don't watch Martha Stewart (although I did catch an episode of "Whatever, Martha!" which was hilarious), but I saw Kent's bit about it. Pretty funny. Hubby and I have just begun to watch Rachel's show in the evenings (he gets home while it's on, and we now eat dinner to it, oddly). I told him that when she was on the radio, Kent's bit was announced with, "And now, it's Kent Jones Now! With Kent Jones! . . . Now!" He just looked at me like I had two heads. lol

You know, regarding the Vegas trip . . . I have to sympathize somewhat with Wells Fargo. See, my husband's company also rewards their top sales staff with trips. It's a contest they have every year, and the top five folks who sell the most in their group of stores during the year win a trip the following spring. It used to just be to Vegas, but last year they started offering a trip to Orlando, instead. They give the employee free air fare (the wife and kiddies have to pay for their flights), free hotel room for three nights, and $500. (Years ago it was $1000. Then it was $700. Now it's 5. That's how things go, I suppose.) However, my husband's company also didn't take any bailout money.

They don't need to. They're a huge chain of pawn shops. Rather a booming business at the moment.

[ZoWie]

Corporate bashes are out of hand. They don't need to hire major rock stars to play 45-minute sets for $150,000 just for one party. Hell, hire a DJ like everyone else.

[jenniearcheo]

Oh, no rock stars for us. Unless you count the kids drumming at Disney's Animal Kingdom, I suppose.