'Hardball' Transcript: 3-30-10

Read the complete transcript of Chris Matthews' 'Hardball' program for March 30th.

BLACKWELL: Look, no. I am the co-chairman of the RNC`s redistricting committee. My job is to work with John Ryder, the chairman, to make sure that we`re in a position of keeping the pens that will draw the maps of the congressional district in our party`s hands for competitive advantage. Pure and simple. That is a full -- that is a full plate.

You asked me a question as someone that is intricately involved in the party, and I gave you an honest answer. We must make sure that we are not distracted from the business at hand and the charge of the Republican National Committee.

MATTHEWS: Right. Is Michael Steele a distraction?

BLACKWELL: I can tell you what is a distraction -- having to explain these weird expenditures, having to explain that we are not high rollers and high flyers and duplicitous leaders. That is a distraction, and it is Michael`s responsibility to make sure that we do away with those distractions, and we do away with incompetence, and we do away with those who would spend money unwisely. That`s what we need to take a step forward (ph).

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: Bob Woodward of the Watergate fame once said, "follow the money." Let`s follow the money. He started with $22 million at the RNC. He has got $9 million now, so that`s down about 10. Big problem. It`s not that just he`s down around 10. He brought in 96 during that period, so he lost $106 million that have gone out the door, have been burned in the last year because it has been spent--

(CROSSTALK)

BLACKWELL: Chris, Chris --

MATTHEWS: Has it been spent wisely?

BLACKWELL: Chris, let`s go back to what you said just in your last segment. The fact of the matter is, is that success has a thousand fathers. So I`m sure that Michael will take credit for Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts, at least part credit. So as a consequence, there has been success.

The RNC is not a bank. We have to spend money in order to win elections. The question is, how are we spending the money? That`s why this is such a distraction. Because, one, there`s no way that you can explain that a stripper club expenditure is help building a grassroot organization in any county in the country.

MATTHEWS: Do you understand the responsibilities as the RNC chairman, is it to make sure -- does he have a fiduciary responsibility? In other words, if somebody writes a check and turns it in and says, I just paid $2,000 to go to the Voyeur Club in L.A. where they have bondage and S&M and all that stuff going on, is it the chairman`s responsibility to have people in place who will see that bill and say, no way in hell should this RNC, should the donors that kick into this party have to pay for that? Is it his responsibility --

BLACKWELL: Yes.

MATTHEWS: OK. So it`s Michael Steele`s responsibility to make sure this kind of (inaudible) doesn`t happen.

BLACKWELL: Look, but this --

MATTHEWS: Yes or no?

BLACKWELL: This is nothing -- Chris, can you hear? I said yes.

MATTHEWS: OK.

President Obama to modify drilling ban

Obama sells-out again. Another promise he has broken. Do you still think either party is going to do the right thing?

President Obama to modify drilling ban

Second Radioactive Substance at Vermont Yankee

Second Radioactive Substance at Vermont Yankee

Test results have confirmed the presence of another, more dangerous, radioactive substance in the soil at Vermont's only nuclear power plant, officials said Tuesday, five days after announcing they had found and stopped tritium leaks at Vermont Yankee.

The state Health Department said Tuesday that cesium-137 was found at the site. The substance has a half-life of 30 years, about 2 1/2 times that of tritium, which was found in early January. A half-life is the time it can be expected to take for a substance to lose half its radioactivity. Unlike tritium, cesium-137 does not occur naturally in the environment; it is a product of nuclear fission.

Both radioactive substances can increase the chances of developing cancer depending on the intensity of exposure.

The presence of trace amounts of cesium-137 was first reported Feb. 24, but Vermont Yankee officials said it was ''consistent with what would be found in soil'' due to atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons in the 1950s and '60s and the accident at the Chernobyl reactor in the Soviet Union in 1986.

The Health Department statement on Tuesday said the cesium-137 found in the Vermont Yankee soil samples was three to 12 times as high as the background levels attributed to the other causes, meaning it ''appears likely the Cs-137 comes from Vermont Yankee reactor related sources.''

Video: Teens Charged with Bullying over Girl’s Suicide

It is time to deal with the serious problem among the young. Bullying has now spread from the schools to the Internet. The laws, and media attention, to catch up and start treating it as an important issue. Bullying can cause serious psychological damage, including suicide and other forms of violence (i.e.,school shootings):

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Video: Jon Stewart Mocks the Violent Reaction to Health Care Reform

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RNC spends nearly $2,000 at sex-themed Voyeur nightclub

Boy, what a mistake Michael Steele has been for the Republicans. He was hired just as window dressing, so they couldn't be considered a racist party. But it seems Steele, the Joe Biden of the Republican Party, takes his position a little too seriously. Apparently, the GOP doesn't want to get rid of this clown until after the elections in the Fall. If they removed him it would be an admission of making a mistake. And they stand to look like they hired Steele simply as window-dressing. They obviously didn't think this guy would be such a pr disaster.

In its February financial report filed with the Federal Election Commission, the RNC itemized its disbursements for the month, including:

$53.99 to Staples in Bismarck, N.D., for office supplies.

$123.17 to the Courtyard hotel in Lansing, Mich., for lodging.

$282.01 to Hertz in Dallas for car rental.

$1,946.25 to Voyeur in West Hollywood for, uh, meals.

Meals, huh? And quite a menu they have at Voyeur, according to write-ups in the Los Angeles Times about the new club:

"Impromptu bondage and S&M 'scenes' being played out on an elevated platform by scantily clad performers throughout the night."

Chairs "detailed with the metal hardware and bondage straps of leather fetishists. . . . One with a harness that designer Ted Nemeth calls the Restraint chair."

"One female performer with a horse's bit in her mouth was being strapped to the wall by another."

"The dark, leather-heavy interior is reminiscent of the masked orgy scene" from the movie "Eyes Wide Shut."

"There is also a heavy net suspended above the club's lounge area where performers writhe above the heads of club-goers. Even more provocative scenes are played out in an enclosed glass booth area adjacent to the club's dance floor area."

And Al Gore got in trouble for going to a Buddhist temple?

Now, it's true that Steele promised to reach out to young voters in "urban-suburban hip-hop settings." But for a political organization relying on a base of religious conservatives and family-values types, the Voyeur line item would seem to risk getting Republicans branded "the party of no-no." Tying up the Senate is one thing, but doing party business where women tie one another up is quite different.

Steele's foray into political masochism began when the Daily Caller noticed the Voyeur line item in the FEC report. Writing about the RNC chairman preference for private jets, the story noted: "Once on the ground, FEC filings suggest, Steele travels in style. A February RNC trip to California, for example, included a $9,099 stop at the Beverly Hills Hotel, $6,596 dropped at the nearby Four Seasons, and $1,946.25 at Voyeur West Hollywood, a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex."

...full article

'60 Minutes' Video: The Persecution of Nada Prouty

Last night I watched the The Changeling. It's a movie about how those in power can wrongfully persecute the innocent to save face. Nada Prouty is a patriot who was wrongly persecuted by the U.S. government. She was made a scapegoat for a failed war on terror. You see, this government can't say they are failures. They see terrorists and spies everywhere. Prouty was a victim of a witch hunt. Since it is easier to punish one of our own, especially if they fit the profile. That's what they did with Bruce Ivins. The government couldn't find the Anthrax killers so they persecuted an innocent man until he committed suicide out of desperation. We see the same heavy hand at work in the case of Nada Prouty. She is a another convenient scapegoat for the failures of those who claim to want to protect us.

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Transcript: 'Meet the Press' (3-28-10)

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Unemployment Rate in Teens at "Crisis:" Expert

What do you think these teens will up doing? You can bet nothing good:

More than 1 million young adults have become so frustrated in their search for a job, that they’ve given up and left the labor force, according to published reports.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, 1.3 million workers ages 16 to 24 left the labor force since the recession hit in December 2007.

That's about 6 percent of them, and it's nearly 3 1/2 times the exodus rate of workers ages 25 to 54, the Sacramento Bee reported.

The unemployment rate for young adults is at a crisis rate according to Dean Baker, a co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a nonpartisan economic and social research center in Washington, D.C.

...full article

Video: 'Face The Nation' (3-28-10)

Senator Jim DeMint trashes the President: He is "mocking" the American people. Also, Michelle Bachman:

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Transcript: Sarah Palin, John McCain Interview with Greta Van Susteren

This interview was in Keeping with FOXNews' custom of providing propaganda for the Republicans. Susteren serves them up:

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, you got there fast, Senator, because I just spotted you in the United States Senate not about 12 hours ago, so you move fast. So let's -- let me make the interview go fast, as well. Let me ask you the first question, Senator. If we -- we're 14 months into this new presidency. How would a Senator McCain/President McCain presidency with a Vice President Palin look different from what we're experiencing right now?

MCCAIN: Well, I think dramatically. And this president is governing from the left. It's a -enter right country. We would never own Chrysler, General Motors. We'd have never passed a $787 billion stimulus package. We certainly wouldn't have done this massive 2,730-page health care reform. It'd be just contrasting philosophies. And I'm sorry I was not able to do a better job, perhaps, in drawing that contrast because he was the most liberal senator in the United States Senate.

VAN SUSTEREN: Governor, how do you think that the presidency would look if the two of you had won and not the current administration? What would we be experiencing now?

PALIN: Senator McCain is a man of his word. And I think what we could have counted on and looked forward to was the transparency that John also talked about in the campaign that's so necessary in order to build more faith into our government. Constituents right now are feeling so disenfranchised and disenchanted because of the lack of transparency that the Obama administration has ushered in. John wouldn't have done that.

VAN SUSTEREN: Senator, one of the criticisms you've gotten over the years, and Governor Palin, as well, is from within your own party for reaching across the aisle. We got an enormous issue here in this country with the Democrats versus the Republicans here on Capitol Hill. What is the secret for bipartisanship? Had you -- had you won, would it be a different situation? And how do you know that?

MCCAIN: Well, I know that because I've worked with these people for years. And the fact is that you can have bipartisanship, as long as you don't betray principle. What the Obama administration is seeking is for Republicans to go along with his agenda. And obviously, they decided they didn't need bipartisanship. They just decided to ram things through, like the stimulus package and the omnibus bill and health care on a pure party- line basis.

I would have worked in a bipartisan fashion. You can as long as you preserve principle. Ronald Reagan was able to work with Tip O'Neill, a liberal Democrat from Massachusetts, but he always adhered to his principles. And you can compromise on details, but you adhere to your principles.

PALIN: And Greta, this is another case to candidate Obama -- candidate Obama not having a track record at all of bipartisanship, whereas John McCain has that record. I have that record as governor of Alaska being able to reach across party lines and the aisle in order to do what was right for constituents. Candidate Obama didn't have the record. That's coming home to roost today with his lack of bipartisanship that's hurting our country.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, you know, it's sort of interesting -- and Senator, I'll throw this to you because you're the one who's up for reelection -- is that you get so much criticism within your party, or even someone within the Democratic Party when you do reach across the aisle. And yet now you're in sort of the awkward position of trying to -- you know, to get all those votes back for the very -- you know, for doing something that we ultimately want our leaders to do.

MCCAIN: The issue here in Arizona, Greta, is who's going to be most effective for Arizona? We have 40 percent of the homes underwater. We have probably one of the worst economies in the country. We have 17 percent real unemployment. What's on the minds of the voters in Arizona is jobs and jobs and jobs and the economy. That's what they want. That's what I'm working every day for. Of course, they're worried about national security and the men and women who are serving, and they're proud of having so many from Arizona and the military representation we have here. But it's jobs, jobs, jobs and the economy. That's what the people of Arizona want.

PALIN: And Greta, can I chime in on that, too? Just coming from a voter, the position that I'm in today, not holding any kind of elected office but as a voter -- you know what we say about bipartisanship in this atmosphere that we see right now in Washington, D.C.? We don't want our Republican -- our senators and our representatives to hold hands with the Democrats if the Democrats are going to keep growing government. And why - - why engage in bipartisanship there if the Democrats are doing the wrong thing? We want our Republicans to stand tall, stand strong for smaller, smarter government, for those principles that so many independents and those in the Republican Party have believed in all these years. We want them to stick with those principles.

...full show transcript

Transcript: 'This Week' Show (3-28-10)

Complete transcript. Excerpt below:

TAPPER: Good morning. I want to get to the president's big accomplishment in a second, but first, front-page headlines right now about Iran. What can you tell us about the reports that Iran is suspected of preparing to build two nuclear sites, defiantly against international law, and what is the Obama administration prepared to do about it?

JARRETT: Well, what I can tell you is what the president has said consistently, which is that we're going to continue to put pressure on Iran. The fact that the president and Russia are about to sign the START Treaty is a good sign that we're making cooperation and good progress with countries such as Russia. We're going to have a coalition that will really put pressure on Iran and try to stop them from doing what they're trying to do.

TAPPER: You're talking about we're going to have a coalition that will do that. The President Obama set a deadline for President Ahmadinejad of Iran of the end of 2009. We're now about a quarter of the way through 2010, still no major international cooperation putting pressure on Iran. You know a little bit about Iranian culture. Don't you think that this in some ways conveys weakness or the inability to rally international support?

JARRETT: Quite the contrary. In fact, over the last year, what we've seen, when the president came into office, there was a unified Iran. Now we're seeing a lot of divisions within the country, and we're seeing steady progress in terms of a world coalition that will put that pressure on Iran. So no, I think that we have a strong force in the making, and Iran will back down.

TAPPER: When are we going to see sanctions in the United Nations?

JARRETT: Well, we'll see. As I said, we have a START Treaty that's good progress. We have a number of countries, 44 countries coming to the United States at the request of the president to focus on nuclear proliferation, and as we begin to forge those relationships and they strengthen, that will enable us to put the pressure we believe is necessary on Iran.

TAPPER: OK. Turning to the president's big achievement of the last week, health care reform. Let me show you some numbers from today's Washington Post. Indicates that 50 percent of the American people oppose this new law; 46 percent support it. Those can't be numbers that you're happy about for the president's major domestic legislation.

White Men Shun Democrats

This explains why Republicans are using race (thinly disguised) as a political strategy. They believe that by attacking a black President that this will lead the way to the return to political ascendancy:

Millions of white men who voted for Barack Obama are walking away from the Democratic Party, and it appears increasingly likely that they'll take the midterms elections in November with them. Their departure could well lead to a GOP landslide on a scale not seen since 1994.

For more than three decades before the 2008 election, no Democratic president had won a majority of the electorate. In part, that was because of low support -- never more than 38 percent -- among white male voters. Things changed with Obama, who not only won a majority of all people voting, but also pulled in 41 percent of white male voters.

Polling suggests that the shift was not because of Obama but because of the financial meltdown that preceded the election. It was only after the economic collapse that Obama's white male support climbed above the 38 percent ceiling. It was also at that point that Obama first sustained a clear majority among all registered voters, according to the Gallup tracking poll.

It looked for a moment as though Democrats had finally reached the men of Bruce Springsteen's music, bringing them around to the progressive values Springsteen himself has long endorsed. But liberal analysts failed to understand that these new Democrats were still firmly rooted in American moderation.

Pollsters regularly ask voters whether they would rather see a Democrat or Republican win their district. By February, support for Democrats among white people (male and female) was three percentage points lower than in February 1994, the year of the last Republican landslide.

Today, among whites, only 35 percent of men and 43 percent of women say they will back Democrats in the fall election. Women's preferences have remained steady since July 2009. But white men's support for a Democratic Congress has fallen eight percentage points, according to Gallup.

White men have moved away from Obama as well. The same proportion of white women approve of him -- 46 percent, according to Gallup -- as voted for him in 2008. But only 38 percent of white men approve of the President, which means that millions of white men who voted for Obama have now lost faith in him.

...full article

Russia says U.S. Should Eradicate Afghan Opium

The Russians might have a point here. But they shouldn't be pointing fingers given their history in Afghanistan. Here we are fighting in the country that since our arrival has become the biggest poppy (which is the source for opium/heroin) producer, controlling most of the world's market. The heroin created with this crop ends up on the streets of America. How is this possible? I don't believe that our military would deliberately ignore the problem, or are in some kind of unholy alliance to allow the crop to grow without interference. Then again, what is being done? And why be in Afghanistan if we can't prevent this poison from growing under our very noses? One of the main reasons the Taliban have become so formidable is as a result of the drug trafficking they've become. What's ironic is that poppy production was almost completely wiped out during the period they ruled over Afghanistan. So it would seem to me that we should work harder to eradicate a plant that is costing U.S. troop lives in Afghanistan and young people on the streets of America:

Russia accused the United States on Sunday of conniving with Afghanistan's drug producers by refusing to destroy opium crops, the second time in a week Moscow has taken a swipe at the West over drug policy.

U.S. Marines have advanced into one of the main opium-growing regions of Afghanistan's Helmand Province since February, but have told villagers there they will not destroy the opium crop that is blossoming this month.

"We believe such statements are contrary to the decisions taken on Afghan narco-problems within the U.N. and other international forums," said a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry released by the embassy in Kabul.

...full article

Swiss Casino Raid: Armed Gang Steals Hundreds Of Thousands Of Francs During Heist

Swiss Casino Raid: Armed Gang Steals Hundreds Of Thousands Of Francs During Heist

- This is a classic copycat crime. The media is going to romanticize this incident as they did with the German robbery.

Bombshell: The Anthrax Killers Identified

I believed early on that the anthrax attackers were al Qaeda. The only question was where did they get it. Now the truth is finally coming out. And according to this credible source, the FBI covered it up. Not only that but they drove an innocent man to kill himself. I am not saying that I believe this account completely. But there should be a public hearing organized by a special Congressional committee. Much like the Warren Commission or the United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA). We need to know the truth. The ball is in your court, President Obama.

There's a gaping hole in the FBI's argument that U.S. Government scientist Bruce Ivins was the anthrax mailer.

In addition to the 100 scientists with access to virulent anthrax from Ivins's flask whom the FBI claims to have ruled out, one unauthorized individual had a special kind of access-the kind you get when you steal something. Hovering in proximity to an unlocked refrigerator with the anthrax at George Mason University was Islamic ideologue Ali al-Timimi, who in early 2001 was studying for a Ph.D in computational biology. Al-Timimi has since been arrested and sentenced for inciting Muslims in Virginia to travel to Pakistan to fight against U.S. forces.

Al-Timimi's office was right around the corner from the offices of Charles Bailey and Ken Alibek, co-principal investigators on a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)-funded anthrax project. Bailey was a former deputy commander of USAMRIID at Fort Detrick, Maryland, where he had been a boss of Bruce Ivins. Alibek was the former deputy director of the Soviet biowarfare program. Bailey and Alibek had partnered on a patent application for a method of preparing anthrax that would closely resemble the sophisticated preparation in the letters mailed to Senators Daschle and Leahy.

...read the full article appearing in Accuracy in Media

Nevada Tea Party Candidate Facing Felony Charges

The Tea Partyers seem to have trouble differentiating themselves from the corrupt Republicans they are trying to replace:

A Nevada asphalt contractor who faces a legal challenge to his Tea Party of Nevada candidacy for U.S. Senate was hit Friday with felony theft and bad check charges in Las Vegas that allege he bounced a $5,000 business check last year.

Scott Ashjian is one of a record 22 candidates, including 12 Republicans, running for the seat held by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is seeking a fifth term.

Bernie Zadrowski, head of the Clark County district attorney's office bad check unit, said he would seek an arrest warrant Monday in Las Vegas Justice Court. Ashjian could face up to 14 years in state prison if convicted.

Bullet mailed to Italian PM Berlusconi

Bullet mailed to Italian PM Berlusconi

Italy's postal service intercepted a threatening letter containing a bullet addressed to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, while letter bomb sent to a minister caught fire, police said Saturday.

A large envelope containing a letter addressed to Berlusconi with the threat "you will end up like a rat" was discovered on Friday in a post office in the Libate suburb of the northern city of Milan, police said.

The package, which also referred to other leaders of Berlusconi's centre-right People of Freedom (PDL) party, was addressed to the prime minister's private residence in the Milan region, they said.

Arabs to Unite Against Israel at Annual Summit

Israeli arrogance has succeeded in uniting the Arab world. The result of this will mean war. Which means America will get involved. This translates into more Americans dying:

Arab leaders opened their annual summit Saturday determined to send a clear message that the Middle East peace process is doomed unless Israel freezes settlements in mostly Arab east Jerusalem.

Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who hosted last year's summit in Doha, addressed the opening session in the Mediterranean city of Sirte before handing over the presidency to Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.

The two-day meeting, the first hosted by the maverick Kadhafi who considers Israel an implacable "enemy" of the Arabs, follows the worst violence in Gaza in 14 months and repeated rejections by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Arab demands to stop settlement building in occupied territory.

A Palestinian was killed and seven wounded during an overnight incursion by Israeli tanks into blockaded Gaza, Palestinian medics said on Saturday.

The incursion followed a fierce clash Friday on the border between the Gaza Strip and the Jewish state in which two Israeli soldiers, one an officer, and four Palestinians were killed, according to the Israeli army.

Fresh US efforts to broker indirect Israeli-Palestinian peace talks earlier this month were still-born when Israel announced a plan to build 1,600 new homes for Jewish settlers in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.

Worse yet, they've succeeded in united the Islamic world. Even with their arch enemy - Iran:

The Arab League chief is urging the 22-nation bloc to engage Iran directly over concerns about its growing influence and its nuclear activities.

Amr Moussa presented his proposal to a two-day Arab League leaders summit in Sirte, Libya, that started Saturday. The proposal could undermine U.S. and Israeli efforts to isolate Iran.

Obama's Health Insurance Rule — it was a GOP idea

Another example of the infinite hypocrisy of the Republicans:

Republicans were for President Barack Obama's requirement that Americans get health insurance before they were against it. The obligation in the new health care law is a Republican idea that's been around at least two decades. It was once trumpeted as an alternative to Bill and Hillary Clinton's failed health care overhaul in the 1990s. These days, Republicans call it government overreach.

Mitt Romney, weighing another run for the GOP presidential nomination, signed such a requirement into law at the state level as Massachusetts governor in 2006. At the time, Romney defended it as "a personal responsibility principle" and Massachusetts' newest GOP senator, Scott Brown, backed it. Romney now says Obama's plan is a federal takeover that bears little resemblance to what he did as governor and should be repealed.

...full article