"Minister" Nashim Nzinga (actually I think his name is "Hashim", not "Nashim"), a leader in the Black Panthers (a communist, racist, and violent group) appeared on Hannity & Colmes tonight. I can't describe this segment in words, it's probably best that you view it. I will just say this man believes Jews knew about 9/11 beforehand, there is some type of "mother ship" guarding earth, and white people intentionally blew up the levee in New Orleans to kill blacks.

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As Noel Sheppard posted on NewsBusters on Sunday, George Stephanopoulos' “entire twenty minutes” with Bill Clinton on This Week “appeared to be an opportunity for President Clinton to defame the current administration while pumping up his own legacy. Assisting this goal was Stephanopoulos who, regardless of what his former employer said, didn’t once challenge the accuracy of any of Clinton’s numerous misstatements of fact.” NBC's Tim Russert also got a sit-down with Clinton, at the Clinton Global Initiative conference, and did little more than toss up talking point cues to him in the taped interview aired on Sunday's Meet the Press.

Russert was even easier on Clinton than Stephanopoulos, pitching up such softballs as, "Do you think the war in Iraq has hurt the U.S. image in the world?," "Do you think global warming influences, effects, creates hurricanes or the severity of them?" and on paying for the Iraq war and Katrina, "How can we afford that? What is it going to do to the deficit? And what should we do about tax cuts and spending cuts?" Russert plugged the interview: "In his first Meet the Press interview since 1997, former President Bill Clinton reflects on poverty, religion, and politics 2008, right here on Meet the Press."

A full rundown of Russert's questions follows.

Over the weekend on his syndicated show Chris Matthews compared Bush's performance during Katrina to Jimmy Carter's infamous 'malaise' speech in 1979 and NPR's Ed Gordon cribbed from Jon Stewart when he proclaimed Katrina to be Bush's Monica.  Matthews also suggested Katrina was an opportunity to make good on reparations. All the while Newsweek's Howard Fineman and the New York Times openly questioned Bush's leadership qualities and how it will affect his legacy.

Chris Matthews opened the show with his Carter comparison: 

"First up, loss of faith. This week terror swept through Iraq, the Katrina death toll spiked and gas prices continued to gobble up grocery money. Only 32 percent of Americans now think the country is headed in the right direction, an all-time low for George W. Bush. Only 53 percent are optimistic about the future of the country. That’s down 16 points since July. Does it reek of 1979 when a full 84 percent of the country said they didn’t like the way things were going? Remember this? Jimmy Carter’s famous ‘malaise’ speech."

Here's a story from the Onion that the MSM only wish were true.

There is a good story on FreeRepublic about the adventures of Brer W, Brer Democrat and Brer Media.

The Los Angeles Times reports that NBC anchor Brian Williams "couldn't bring himself" to stay away from New Orleans for very long.

"The experience has also moved him to consider other areas of coverage that he says need to be addressed."

And what a surprise, the other "areas" that need to be covered are mostly issues that MoveOn activists hold dear.

"I will be asking my network to lead a discussion on the issues of class, race, energy, the environment, disaster planning, Iraq — all those things and more," Williams said. "This encompasses so many of the major issues of our time."

As Brent Baker reported two weeks ago, Williams wondered, "had this been Nantucket, had this been Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, how many choppers would have--"

The hurricane may have knocked anti-war Bush-hater Cindy Sheehan off the news pages of the New York Times, but she still has enough liberal cred to make a local splash, as shown in a Monday Metro Section report in the Times by Marc Santora on Sheehan's visit to a church in Brooklyn, "Mother Who Lost Son in Iraq Continues Fight Against War."

"Cindy Sheehan, the mother of an American soldier killed in Iraq, last night brought her campaign to end the war to New York, where she accused Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of not doing enough to challenge the Bush administration's Iraq policies. Speaking in front of more than 500 supporters in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, Ms. Sheehan, speaking of Senator Clinton, said, 'She knows that the war is a lie but she is waiting for the right time to say it.'"

Santora ignores the far-left nature of Sheehan's posse: "Since leaving Texas, Ms. Sheehan, of Vacaville, Calif., has been traveling around the country, rallying people against the war. Her entourage includes other parents who lost their children in the war, families of soldiers overseas, and veterans who have returned from Iraq."

Santora also ignores Sheehan's latest bizarre statement, but the New York Sun did not, noting: "Ms. Sheehan wrote a letter posted on filmmaker Michael Moore's Web site in which she accused the federal government of evacuating people unnecessarily in the days after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. 'George Bush needs to stop talking, admit the mistakes of his all around failed administration, pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans and Iraq, and excuse his self from power,' she wrote."

Nina Totenberg's call for higher taxes makes a little more, but not much, "sense" when you consider that she thinks giving to faith-based charities just ends up rewarding the President's political supporters. A few minutes after Totenberg called for a "Katrina tax" on Sunday's Inside Washington, she remarked:

The next question is going to be the execution of this. You know, in the immediate aftermath of Katrina, the charities listed on the FEMA website for people to give to, 20 of the 22 charities were faith-based. If we end up with a Halliburton Revival, so to speak, and the President’s cronies in terms of politics getting this money, it will be worse for Republicans. It is very important for him that this be done right.

Of course, if FEMA specifically and the Bush administration at-large are genuinely as incompetent and ineffective as Totenberg believes, how does throwing more money into Big Government's collection plate solve anything?

The Houston Chronicle hits a home-run with this sap-fest on Illegal Immigration, delivering one sympathetic story after another on how mean the US border control policies are to people breaking the law.

So, we get to hear about a "Mexican youth who washes windshields for tips on Brownsville streets," and a "group of men who waded the Rio Grande." One public defender quoted in the Chronicle complains that "you have a guy who washes car windshields, and now he's facing a (potential) felony." Certainly he isn't facing a felony for washing windows, and probably for illegall entering the country, but I guess that is a different point for a different day.

The Chronicle then seems shocked to learn that enforcing the border will, in turn, need an increase in people actually enforcing the border:

It's got to be hard for Today and its MSM cohorts. In the wake of President Bush's inspired speech, with its ambitious agenda for rebuilding the gulf coast, attention is turning toward the future and away from the 'good old days.' You know: that period right after Katrina hit when the liberal media were in their glory, reveling in the halting governmental response, focusing almost entirely on the shortcomings of the Bush administration.

Gripped by nostalgia for that glorious recent past, and being the good recyclers that liberals are, the Today show took a walk down memory lane this morning, re-running some of the most inflammatory footage from the hurricane's immediate aftermath.

NBC reporter Mark Mullen, live in New Orleans, introduced file footage of a black woman at the notorious Convention Center, holding a baby as she screamed at the camera "get us out of here, we want to get out of here."

The Washington Post reports that the Lincoln Center hurricane fundraiser (broadcast in condensed form Saturday night on PBS) carried some liberal speechifying in it from celebrities.

Unlike other benefit concerts, "Higher Ground" was not marked by an apolitical tone: "When the hurricane struck, it did not turn the region into a Third World country . . . it revealed one," actor Danny Glover told the audience in a speech with Harry Belafonte. "Katrina was not unforeseeable," Belafonte said. "It was the result of a political structure that subcontracts its responsibility to private contractors and abdicates its responsibility altogether."

Just 40 minutes into the Emmy Awards presentations Sunday night on CBS, Blythe Danner, in accepting the award (picture of acceptance) for the Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role in Showtime’s Huff, relayed views she attributed to her late husband Bruce Paltrow, best known as the producer of St. Elsewhere, though it was unclear if her political statement about Iraq, coming after a tribute to New Orleans, was her own or just what she believed her husband would have thought: "I know Bruce would want me to pay tribute to New Orleans, his favorite city, and all the Gulf Coast and our kids in Iraq. Let's get the heck out of there!” Just under two hours later, however, in accepting (picture of acceptance) the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her starring role on NBC’s Medium, Patricia Arquette delivered a classier appreciation of the troops in Iraq. She announced: “My prayer for you is that when you get home you can come home safe and sound."

Afterwards, on the E cable channel’s post-Emmy coverage, Arquette elaborated: “I think even though the troops aren’t on television all the time, they’re part of our country and it’s important to remember they’re there and to reach out and remind them that we haven’t forgotten them.”

Gaggle is a daily comic strip about the Washington press corps and Larry the press secretary. Larry deals with the shenanigans of reporters who couldn't imagine anyone voting for a Republican.

There will be a new Gaggle strip, fully colored, every weekday.

Click here for previous strips.

Tonight (Sunday, September 18, 2005), 60 Minutes aired a segment entitled "Life in Baghdad," hosted by Scott Pelley and produced by Shawn Efran. The story was nothing but the bleakest of portraits of life in the city of Baghdad. The story? Violence, fear, despair: repeat.

However, unless you were paying close attention to Pelley's introduction to the story, you may have missed the fact that the segment originally aired nearly one year ago (On 60 Minutes II, October 6, 2004)! ("Last fall," as host Pelley put it.)

Well, a lot has happened since last fall! Free elections! A stronger Iraqi security force! A forthcoming constitution!

Has life improved in Baghdad since last year? 60 Minutes doesn't want to tell us. (On the other hand, if they don't want to tell us, that could be a sign that things are getting better.)