Hastings, the hard-hitting journalist most widely known for the “Rolling Stone” magazine article that exposed General Stanley McChrystal’s lax management of his staffers and led to the general’s firing, died Tuesday morning in a car crash in the Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. He was 33.

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow paid tribute to Hastings on her show Tuesday night. “Michael was angry,” Maddow remembers of him after the publishing of his first book, I Lost My Love In Baghdad, the tale of the loss of his fiancee to an Iraqi ambush. “He was also loving, and thoughtful, and constructive, and brilliant, but he was angry about things that weren’t right in the world. He was angry with things that weren’t right in the world, and with war, and with loss, and that drove his reporting and it made him fearless when he realized he had found something important that he could report.”

Watch Maddow’s tribute in the video, above.

Mark Barden, whose 7-year-old son Daniel was shot and killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December along with 25 other people, gave a tear-jerking interview to Rachel Maddow Thursday night. He described the special Mother’s Day card that the community of Newtown put together for the mothers whose children won’t be able to wish them a “Happy Mother’s Day” this year.

“My wife Jackie and I still, we cry together every day,” he said. “We still try to come to terms with, ‘Is this really possible that this actually happened to us and to this community to Newtown?’ And man, if that’s not evidence that it can happen here, it can happen anywhere. It can happen anywhere, any day.”

Barden also fought back against claims that the Newtown families are being used as political pawns in the gun reform debate.

“Do you not think I have my own reasons for doing this?” he asked, taking out a photo of his son. “Is that not reason enough?”

Barden is one of several family members of Newtown victims who have become vocal proponents of what they call “common sense” gun reform, giving impassioned pleas to Congress to urge them to take action. He promised to “go state-by-state” if he has to in order to convince legislators to pass stricter gun laws.

“When I say ‘common sense,’ this is just about firearm responsibility and safety. This is not infringing on anyone’s second amendment rights,” Barden said.

The Newtown father also fired back at one Republican senator for his comment that the Newtown mass shooting should have nothing to do with the gun debate.

“Senator Jim Inhofe said we have no business engaging in a debate,” Barden said. “And I called his office and asked to speak with him. He was too busy to speak with me.”

Barden said he gave the staff his cell phone number, but that he’s “still waiting for him to call me.”

]]> http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/05/10/video-newtown-father-reveals-we-cry-every-day-in-heartbreaking-interview/feed/ 0 n_maddow_4theint_130509 kailanikm http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/04/16/watch-boston-but-also-nyc-oklahoma-city-atlanta-spokane/ http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/04/16/watch-boston-but-also-nyc-oklahoma-city-atlanta-spokane/#comments Tue, 16 Apr 2013 13:28:20 +0000 Michele Richinick http://tv.msnbc.com/?p=121126 ]]> “Nothing like this has ever happened at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Patriots Day in Boston,” MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow said on Monday night. “But it’s not like we as a country have no experience of people setting off bombs to kill and maim civilians, and to instill terror in us all.”

Monday’s explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon are the latest incident in the list of attacks by explosive devices in America during the past 20 years. In most of the cases, the causes took a significant amount of time to determine. But in each event, the devices were planted by different people, for different reasons, for different effects.

Included in the list are the bombings in an Oklahoma City federal building, at a Martin Luther King Jr. parade in Washington, in front of a New York City recruiting office, and at Centennial Olympic Park during the summer Olympic games in Atlanta.

Volunteers place crosses, symbolizing grave markers, on the National Mall in Washington April 11, 2013. The U.S. Capitol can be seen in the background. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

The sun rises above the U.S. Capitol as volunteers place crosses symbolizing grave markers on the National Mall in Washington April 11, 2013 (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

Volunteers place crosses, symbolizing grave markers, on the National Mall in Washington April 11, 2013 (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

Janelle Tupper of Cheverly, Maryland places crosses, symbolizing grave markers, on the National Mall in Washington April 11, 2013 (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

The sun rises above the U.S. Capitol as volunteers place crosses, symbolizing grave markers, on the National Mall in Washington April 11, 2013 (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

A volunteer places crosses symbolizing grave markers on the National Mall in Washington April 11, 2013 (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

Amy Chatelaine of D.C. places crosses symbolizing grave markers on the National Mall in Washington April 11, 2013 (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

With the U.S. Capitol in the background, members of the clergy pass through a field of crosses symbolizing grave markers on the National Mall on April 11, 2013 (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

As the sun rose over Washington, D.C., Thursday morning, volunteers and clergy members from Connecticut to California placed more than 3,300 grave markers on the National Mall to create a makeshift cemetery in honor of every person killed as a result of gun violence since the December massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.

The symbolic graveyard served as the site for a 24-hour vigil on Capitol Hill that began Thursday around 11 a.m. as the Senate met to vote on whether to begin a debate on gun control legislation. The vigil, organized by the PICO National Network’s Lifelines to Healing and Sojourners, brought together religious leaders from various faiths who all spoke about the need for common-sense gun laws.

“We can’t ever go back home again,” said Rev. Sam Saylor of Blackwell Memorial AME Zion Church in Hartford, Conn., to the crowd. Saylor’s son, Shane Oliver, was gunned down at the age of 20 last year. ”Business in Washington can never be the same again. We can never take life for granted again.”

On her show Thursday night, Rachel Maddow spoke with Rev. Michael McBride, national director of the PICO National Network, about the vigil and the Senate’s 68-31 vote to move forward on possible legislation.

“We know this is just the beginning,” McBride said. “We have a huge and significant charge that is left within our care to move our Congress and our elected officials to enact the will of the American people, to make sure that they hear from us, to make sure they know that we will not accept partial solutions to comprehensive problems.”

He added that it was important for the voices outside of Washington to be heard. “Dr. King said we all live in a network of interconnectedness. We believe the pain of Newtown is similar to the pain of New Orleans, the pain of Chicago is similar to the pain of Aurora, the pain of Oak Creek is similar to Oakland. All the legislation that we are proposing will get us closer to the day we do not have to bury children…This is an opportunity for all of us to be united together. We believe the shared pain we have as a country can help us move forward.”

“We have vast community support,” Burkhart said. “We just have these loud and noisy extremists that people seem to hear from the most.”

Burkhart said they reopened in the name of justice and on the principle that women deserve access to reproductive health services.

Watch the segment below.

“And the predictions from most Court watchers are that  the Justices seem to not think this is the right kind of case,” Maddow said Tuesday.

If the Court rejects the case as a basis for nationwide same-sex marriage laws, then the lower court’s ruling that Prop 8 was unconstitutional would stand.

“So, if that  happened, gay marriage would be unbanned in California and couples there would have the same rights to marry as couple in Iowa, and Massachussetts, and DC, and the other seven states that recognize equal marriage rights,” Maddow said.

Wednesday, the Justices heard oral arguments on the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, which prevents the federal government from recognizing gay marriages.

Paul’s bill (S.583) immediately picked up 15 co-sponsors, all of them Republicans. As Rachel Maddow explained on her show the other day, the legislation, if approved, would “ban abortion altogether at the federal level,” and would probably ban hormonal birth control and in-vitro fertilization.

What about giving Americans the ability to make their own choices? Don’t worry; the Kentucky senator intended to make “exceptions.”

Paul said (clip below) that under his vision, “there are thousands of exceptions” to his proposal to ban all abortions in the United States. He added, “[E]ven if there were eventually a change in the law—let’s say people came more to my way of thinking—there would still be a lot of complicated things the law may not ultimately be able to address in the early stages of pregnancy that would have to be part of what occurs between the physician and the woman and the family.”

How reassuring. The senator intends to ban all abortions in the United States, and give fertilized eggs all the legal protections afforded to American citizens, but he hopes to do so in a vaguely pro-choice fashion.

How many exceptions would there be? Who would decide them? We don’t know—it’s not in his bill and Paul hasn’t been willing to explain.

Do you ever get the feeling Rand Paul hasn’t fully thought through the positions he takes?

Even during his 13-hour filibuster on drone strikes a couple of weeks ago, the Kentucky Republican wanted to know if the Obama administration believes it has the authority to “use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil.” The attorney general issued a one-sentence response: “The answer to that question is no.” Instead of digging further, asking who gets to define what constitutes “combat,” Paul walked away satisfied.

I can appreciate why there are so many Americans eager to have a high-profile champion of civil liberties taking bold stances in the Senate. I just don’t think Rand Paul is the champion they’ve been waiting for.

(This post originally appeared on The Maddow Blog here.)

Ordinarily, you might think the partisan disputes over the stopgap bill would be over spending levels and possible cuts, but as it turns out, the most contentious issue might be, of all things, gun policy. The New York Times reports that some unnamed lawmakers “quietly” added some “temporary gun-rights provisions largely favored by Republicans” to the CR. From the Times:

The provisions, which have been renewed separately at various points, would prohibit the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from requiring gun dealers to conduct annual inventories to ensure that they have not lost guns or had them stolen, and would retain a broad definition of “antique” guns that can be imported into the United States outside of normal regulations.

Another amendment would prevent the A.T.F. from refusing to renew a dealer’s license for lack of business; many licensed dealers who are not actively engaged in selling firearms can now obtain a license to sell guns and often fly under the radar of the agency and other law enforcement officials, which gun control advocates argue leads to a freer flow of illegal guns.

A final measure would require the bureau to attach a disclaimer to data about guns to indicate that it “cannot be used to draw broad conclusions about firearms-related crimes.”

Keep in mind, it’s pretty tough to defend the provisions in question. What’s wrong, for example, with having gun dealers conduct inventories to make sure firearms haven’t been lost or stolen? I don’t know, but under a Republican measure in the temporary spending bill, the ATF would be prohibited from enforcing this basic regulation.

Also note, some of these ideas aren’t new–they’ve been temporary policies included in previous spending bills–but the new GOP-backed proposals make the policies permanent.

What’s worse, these provisions appear likely to pass because Senate Democrats see related measures in the House bill as even worse. As Roll Call noted:

[A Democratic Senate] aide characterized the permanent provisions as a trade-off in negotiations that occurred late last year with House appropriators, who had sought to make additional gun-related riders permanent in the continuing resolution. Other riders — such as one banning the activities of the ATF from being transferred to another government entity, such as the more powerful FBI — are included in the Senate bill but not on a permanent basis.

According to the Senate aide, House appropriators also sought to include another provision that Democrats and the White House viewed as far more objectionable. [...]

Although the Senate’s gun language was agreed to late last year–before the fatal shooting of 20 first-graders at a Connecticut elementary school–gun-control advocates and some Democratic members of Congress said the deal now looks like poor timing. They said it undermines a concurrent effort in both chambers to crack down on gun violence.

Third Way’s Jim Kessler, a former aide to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), told Roll Call, “It shows that the NRA is always on offense and rarely on defense. Even in a very adverse situation for them, in which many in Congress and the White House are trying to do something constructive to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and crazy people, the NRA continues to advance its agenda.”

This post first appeared on The Maddow Blog.

Current Montgomery police chief Kevin Murphy offered Lewis an apology on Saturday at First Baptist Church for failing to protect the Freedom Riders in 1961—the first apology that Lewis has received, he said.

In an exclusive video obtained by The Rachel Maddow Show on Monday from the ceremony at First Baptist Church, Murphy is seen removing his badge from his coat and offering it to Lewis as a gesture of reconciliation.

“When you got off the bus in 1961, you didn’t have a friend in the police department,” Murphy said. “I want you to know that you have friends in the Montgomery Police Department—that we’re for you, we’re with you, we want to respect the law and adhere to the law, which is what you were trying to do all along. This symbol of authority, which used to be a symbol of oppression, needs to be a symbol of reconciliation.”

Murphy added that Lewis and the Freedom Riders changed the world, that their actions made a difference to the city of Montgomery and to the country as a whole.

Lewis accepted the badge and has kept it in his pocket since. ”It was very, very moving,” Lewis told Martin Bashir on MSNBC Monday afternoon. “I said, ‘I’m not worthy to accept your badge. Do you have another one [to wear]?’”

Lewis described the moment on Saturday as powerfully symbolic. “I’ve been arrested and jailed many times, especially during the ’60s—about 40 times—and never has a police officer offered to apologize. And when I started crying, I was crying tears of gratitude, and I guess that we had come to this point: even when I think about it today, for a young police officer—a young, white police officer; the chief in Montgomery, Alabama, who had not even been born 52 years ago when this all took place—to give me his badge, and he took it off of his lapel…I’ve been keeping it in my pocket all day.”

Murphy spoke with Rachel Maddow Monday night and said that the decision to give his badge to Lewis and to apologize was an easy one. “A badge is an officer’s symbol of trust,” Murphy said. “He said he didn’t think he was worthy to receive it, and I said he was more worthy than any man that I’ve ever met. That what he stood for has changed our city for the better, and I’m most indebted to him. The citizens of Montgomery are indebted to him for his acts of bravery and courage.”

Murphy also spoke about the class he started at the Montgomery Police Department for officers to learn about the department’s place in the civil rights movement and its history with race relations during the movement and in the decades that followed.

“It’s a critical analysis of the Montgomery Police Department’s role during the civil rights movement, and it’s unflattering at times, some of the things that the police department did or didn’t do,” he said. “It’s the police department’s job to preserve life and property. They failed to do that that day [in 1961].”

He added that the class was aimed at younger officers, especially, to explain why there are still walls between the police department and the community.

“I think Montgomery, Alabama, and the United States needs to heal,” Murphy said. “Segregation was a horrendous institution that scarred this country for many years. It scarred Montgomery. But it’s a new day, and people are working together more now than they ever have in the history of our country, than in the history of our state, and certainly in the history of our city, and we need to continue to move forward.”