MSNBC» NOW with Alex Wagner

Extreme weather: The new normal?

Allison MacDonald — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:46:35 +0000

On Monday, when a devastating tornado touched down in Moore, Okla., the mile-wide twister traveled for 20 miles with wind speeds up to 200 mph and was on the ground for 40 minutes. Officials say the latest death toll now stands at 24 people and rescue teams are still sifting through the wreckage.

Between Oklahoma’s recent tornadoes, record-breaking heat and drought, the escalation of wildfires and the devastation of Superstorm Sandy, it’s becoming more apparent that extreme weather has become the new normal.

On Tuesday, Andrew Revkin, senior fellow for Environmental Understanding and writer for the New York Times’ “Dot Earth”blog joined NOW with Alex Wagner to discuss the latest news out of Oklahoma and how communities can better prepare themselves for future environmental disaster.

Controversy, an immigration bill’s best friend?

Allison MacDonald — Mon, 20 May 2013 20:24:58 +0000

While the White House finds itself mired in controversy, Congress is moving forward on legislation. For the past two weeks, the Senate Judiciary Committee has debated the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill, tackling dozens of amendments on each day. The bill is expected to hit the Senate floor by June.

But many questions remain. Namely, what the House’s version of the bill will look like and whether Republican House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio will allow the Senate bill to come to a vote at all.

On Monday’s NOW with Alex Wagner, the panel parsed the future for immigration reform and how the current controversies facing the White House might even help it.

Gillibrand on new bill to prevent sexual assault in military

Matthew Alexander — Thu, 16 May 2013 20:54:07 +0000

A new bill–the Military Justice Improvement Act–would mark the biggest change to the Uniform Code of Military Justice in over three decades by taking the reporting process outside the chain of command and turning it over to military prosecutors. New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who introduced the bill, says it’s aimed at stopping the rising incidence of sexual assault in the military.

“I think you have to change the system by changing how justice is served and that means allowing victims to report directly to a trained military prosecutor who will then decide whether the case should go to trial,” Gillibrand said Thursday on NOW with Alex Wagner.

A Pentagon report released last week revealed that the number of reported cases of sexual assault has risen 6% since 2010, while the number of unreported incidents–based on an anonymous survey of members of the military–rose 35% from 19,000 in 2010 to 26,000 last year.

“This is a crime that has been happening for a very long time and they have been trying to fix it for decades,” Gillibrand said. “What we need to do is change the system. We actually need to change how these cases are reported, how they are reviewed and how they are prosecuted so we can begin to see justice.”

New WikiLeaks film discusses government secrecy

Matthew Alexander — Wed, 15 May 2013 23:19:08 +0000

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney stopped by NOW with Alex Wagner Wednesday to discuss his new film “We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks” as well as the latest revelations about the Department of Justice’s subpoenaing of Associated Press phone records.

The interview and discussion was conducted in two parts. (The other part of the interview can be seen Here).

Gibney addressed the film’s central figure—WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange—and the massive leaks of information about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq which catapulted him into the media spotlight in 2010. The film also spends a good deal of time focusing on U.S. soldier Bradley Manning—the alleged source of the leaks. The film portrays Manning, an army intelligence officer who becomes troubled by some of the sensitive information he is privy to in a more sympathetic light than Assange, whose personal troubles and paranoia may have eventually interfered with his organization’s free speech advocacy.

“When the Afghan War logs and Iraq War logs were released, suddenly there was a transformation about these wars and what had been hidden from us,” Gibney told the panel. “That’s where the focus should have been and unfortunately too much of the focus shifted to Assange—I think, in part, because the administration wanted to shift the focus and that’s how they’re dealing with Bradley Manning too. They’re looking for a way to scapegoat Manning and say ‘this guy is the problem.’

The film also explores Assange’s anti-secrecy crusade and how, in response to the leaks in 2010, the U.S. government waged an information offensive of its own against Assange. American authorities argued that the leaked documents had put U.S. troops’ lives at risk and that Assange had “blood on his hands,” a charge Gibney says distracted media attention away from the grisly contents of the documents themselves.

Gibney also responded to the suggestion that President Obama’s administration has been far more secretive than its predecessors and has left many on the left concerned by its aggressive pursuit of whistleblowers. The filmmaker acknowledges that all presidents inevitably have to strike a fine balance between keeping the country safe and protecting the First Amendment.

“Look, I think he is in a tough spot,” Gibney said. “All presidents are in a tough spot, it’s not an easy job, but that doesn’t mean anybody should stop talking about this tension and it’s a natural tension in a democracy between national security and the need to know certain things. The distressing thing about the Obama administration though is that he’s great at talking the talk but really he hasn’t been so good on walking the walk on civil liberties and things like closing Guantanamo.”

Some of Gibney’s other films include: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005), Taxi to the Dark Side (2007) and Client 9: The Rise and fall of Eliot Spitzer (2011).

Crisis at Guantanamo: 100 detainees on hunger strike

Allison MacDonald — Wed, 15 May 2013 20:25:18 +0000

This Friday will mark the 100^th day of the hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay prison, where 100 detainees are now on strike. Thirty of the detainees are being force-fed through a nasal tube, a practice the American Medical Association called “a violation of medical ethics.”

On Tuesday, Attorney General Eric Holder said the White House remained committed to closing Guantanamo and that they were “in the process” of looking at candidates to help clear and close the facility.

On Wednesday, the Miami Herald’s Carol Rosenberg joined the NOW with Alex Wagner panel to discuss the climate at Guantanamo, the ongoing hunger strike, and President Obama’s options. Rosenberg has been reporting from Guantanamo since 2002.

“Guantanamo now is pretty grim,” Rosenberg said. “The vast majority of the 166 men are under lock-down. That means single cell detention, inside their own cell 22 hours a day. Twenty-four if they choose not to go to recreation and they’re not force-fed.”

“This is a very different Guantanamo than during much of the Obama administration,” Rosenberg said, “it was during the Bush years that they were under this kind of lockdown.”

In the absence of a Guantanamo Envoy, Rosenberg said, “it’s hard to imagine this stalemate, this stand-off, this hunger strike, will be resolved.“

NOW Today: The Gitmo story

Robert Gifford — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:04:19 +0000

It’s been open more than a decade now, but there is still much Americans don’t know about the detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. One person who is more familiar with Gitmo than most is the Miami Herald’s Carol Rosenberg, who has been reporting from the prison since the first detainee arrived in 2002. Upon his first-term inauguration in 2009, President Obama famously vowed to close the facility, but so far the Administration has failed to make good on that promise. Obama once again made that same pledge last month and on Tuesday, embattled Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters that the Administration is trying to “close Guantanamo” and “the President has indicated that it’s too expensive, that it’s a recruitment tool for terrorists, it has a negative impact on our relationship with our allies.” For many progressives and civil liberties groups (not to mention the 166 detainees) Holder’s latest comments couldn’t have come soon enough. A six-man hunger strike at the prison that began in March has now grown to 100 inmates, including 30 who are being force fed. On Tuesday, the U.S. military said medics were called to a cell after a prisoner had been reported “unresponsive,” but was later determined to be okay. The so-called “code yellow” is just the latest incident fueling calls on the military to stop the force feeding. With no specific closing date in sight, a mere 6 of the detainees actually charged and another half of the 166 slated for release, what needs to happen before the White House actually does something? We’ll ask Rosenberg when she joins NOW at noon ET on msnbc.

PANEL

Frank Bruni, Op-Ed Columnist, The New York Times (@frankbruni)

Heather McGhee, Vice President, Demos (@hmcghee)

Katty Kay, Anchor, BBC World News America (@kattykaybbc)

Michael Eric Dyson, Professor, Georgetown University/msnbc Political Analyst (@michaeledyson)

GUESTS

Alex Gibney, Filmmaker, “We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks” (@baluebolivar)

Carol Rosenberg, The Miami Herald (@carolrosenberg)

WikiLeaks and the information war

Matthew Alexander — Wed, 15 May 2013 09:18:48 +0000

On Wednesday’s NOW with Alex Wagner, acclaimed documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney will join the panel to discuss his latest film, “We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks.”

The film tells the story of two men–WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Bradley Manning, a U.S. soldier arrested in May 2010 on suspicion of having leaked classified material to WikiLeaks.

Assange, an Australian teen hacking prodigy and free speech advocate, shot to international fame when his organization publicly released thousands of secret U.S. documents that came into his possession in 2010. The film tracks his rise from teen hacker (codename: Mendax or “Noble Liar’) to media frontman in a campaign against censorship. His subsequent downfall–he was accused, but not charged with sexually assaulting two women in Sweden–has led to the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where he lives in order to avoid extradition to that country.

The film also tells the story of Manning, a social outcast stationed at a Forward Operating Base in Iraq, who, shocked by some of the things he saw, believed people across the world needed to see the darker sides of the war. His isolation, gender identity issues and increasing emotional instability are examined at length.

A third figure in the plot is Adrian Lamo, dubbed the “homeless hacker,” who finds himself in a no-win situation when Manning confides in him.

On Wednesday’s show, Gibney and the panel will discuss the central figures in the story as well as the daily information war waged between governments and journalists, free speech advocates, and hackers.

Some of Gibney’s other films include: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005), Taxi to the Dark Side (2007) and Client 9: The Rise and fall of Eliot Spitzer (2011).

The Plan B Battle

Allison MacDonald — Tue, 14 May 2013 20:46:08 +0000

Just when it feels like the legal fight over access to Plan B couldn’t possibly get any more complicated, it does.

On Friday, Judge Edward Korman denied the Obama administration’s earlier request to delay his ruling to make Plan B available over-the-counter with no age restrictions. Then on Monday, the administration appealed Judge Korman’s order yet again.

Given the White House’s record on women’s reproductive rights, and the scientific evidence that Plan B is safe and effective for women and girls of all ages, it’s unclear just what the administration is doing at this point.

On Tuesday, Ilyse Hogue, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, joined NOW with Alex Wagner to discuss the latest in the tug-of-war over Plan B.

“It’s like every day is Freaky Friday on this story,” Hogue said. “The real question is whether we’re going to have the science based policies that we were promised by this administration,” she said, “what we know is that Plan B and other morning-after pills are safe.”

NOW Today: Political footballs

Robert Gifford — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:55:40 +0000

“Ugh.” That was the reported response of one progressive activist when he heard the news that the Justice Department secretly obtained phone records from the Associated Press. The latest “scandal” comes after last week’s revelations that the IRS targeted conservative and Tea Party groups seeking tax-exempt status. The AP mess also follows the ongoing back-and-forth over the White House’s ramp up and response to last September’s attacks in Benghazi, Libya. On Monday, President Obama used a joint news conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron to downplay the GOP’s fixation on Benghazi, calling it a “sideshow.” However, the President was not as dismissive about the Internal Revenue Service, calling the reports “outrageous” and “contrary to our traditions.” But this was before word of Justice’s probe of the AP went public. For its part, the DOJ said in a statement, “Those regulations require us to make every reasonable effort to obtain information through alternative means before even considering a subpoena for the phone records of a member of the media.” The AP called the move a “massive and unprecedented intrusion,” but the White House says it had “no knowledge”of the collection of the records. Regardless of the public stances the organizations are taking at this juncture, the conventional wisdom in Washington and in the media is that 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has some explaining to do. Will the swarm of scandal infect the White House and undermine the President’s second term (not to mention the Democrats’ hopes in 2014 and even 2016)? We’ll try to juggle all the political footballs when we see you at noon ET on msnbc.

PANEL

Howard Fineman, Editorial Director, Huffington Post Media/msnbc analyst (@howardfineman)

Karen Finney, Fmr. DNC Communications Director/msnbc Political Analyst (@finneyk)

Frank Foer, Editor, The New Republic (@franklinfoer)

Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine (@jonathanchait)

GUEST

Ilyse Hogue, President, NARAL (@ilyseh)

Heritage Foundation immigration study backfires

Allison MacDonald — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:33:58 +0000

Last week, when the Heritage Foundation released its cost-estimate of the immigration bill currently being marked-up in Congress, it aimed in part to highlight the flaws in the reform, claiming it would cost taxpayers $6.3 trillion. Instead, the Heritage Foundation drew attention to its own flaws.

The report had already been discredited by many conservatives when the Washington Post revealed that one of the report’s co-authors, Jason Richwine, had written a doctoral thesis at Harvard University in which he argued that Hispanic immigrants have lower IQ’s than whites.

Richwine resigned from the Heritage Foundation on Friday, but the think tank did little to temper the flames of the controversy, issuing a statement which said: “It is our longstanding policy not to discuss internal personnel matters.”

On Monday, on NOW with Alex Wagner, the panel discussed the fallout from the Heritage report and what it means for its influence on the issue of immigration.