It’s officially Thanksgiving week! I could have included “Family” with the other F words in the post’s title, as some of us will be having an annual political debate with relatives who may not have heard that the Republican-led House Select Committee on Benghazi found NOTHING – that would be NAUGHT, ZERO, ZILCH, ZIP, DIDDLY, SQUAT  – done wrong by the administration or anyone on the American side of that tragic day and event.

That’s big news, right? It broke on Friday, so the Sunday shows must have been all over the story… you’d think.

Report Mentioned By NBC, But Ignored On Fox, ABC, CBS

Only NBC’s Meet The Press Mentioned The New Intelligence Committee Report. Of the major network Sunday talk shows, only NBC’s Meet the Press acknowledged the House Intelligence Committee’s findings in a brief exchange between host Chuck Todd and Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ). Todd reported that the report was “exculpatory,” and found no evidence of wrongdoing or evidence to support conspiracy theories about the attacks:

TODD: Senator Flake, House Republican-led Intelligence Committee released a Benghazi report and basically, it’s pretty exculpatory. The key findings: no intelligence failure prior to the attacks; security at CIA facilities were sufficient; yes, security at state department facilities were inadequate; and yes, some of the development of the talking points that Susan Rice used were flawed. But no wrongdoing, none of the conspiracies found. Is it time for the Republicans to drop the Benghazi conspiracy theories?  

[NBC, Meet the Press, 11/23/14]

CNN did cover the story on State of the Union, giving Lindsey Graham the opportunity to proclaim, “I think the report is full of crap.” 

On the segment formerly known as The Steve Israel Hour, Howie Klein and I talked a bit about Sen. Bernie Sanders. It was in relation to Elizabeth Warren’s article at Huffington Post last week calling out President Obama for his nomination of Antonio Weiss to serve as Under Secretary for Domestic Finance at the Treasury Department.

I believe President Obama deserves deference in picking his team, and I’ve generally tried to give him that. But enough is enough.

Last Wednesday, President Obama announced his nomination of Antonio Weiss to serve as Under Secretary for Domestic Finance at the Treasury Department. This is a position that oversees Dodd-Frank implementation and a wide range of banking and economic policymaking issues, including consumer protection.

So who is Antonio Weiss? He’s the head of global investment banking for the financial giant Lazard. He has spent the last 20 years of his career at Lazard — most of it advising on international mergers and acquisitions.

That’s how it began, and she went on to explain what’s wrong with that person with his record being named to this post, and why she’ll vote against his confirmation.

And she’s not alone! Howie told us this morning that Bernie Sanders said he’d vote against Weiss too, with the following powerful words:

“The Wall Street crash of 2008, caused by the greed and illegal behavior of major financial institutions, created the worst recession in modern history. We need an economic team at the White House which will hold Wall Street accountable and fight for the needs of working families, not more Wall Street executives,” he said. “The American people are disgusted with Wall Street bankers who find loopholes in the tax code to help profitable companies shelter profits in offshore tax havens in order to avoid paying their fair share of U.S. taxes. We need economists in government who have a history of helping to create jobs, not helping corporations avoid taxes.”

With this country growing ever crazier by the day and knowing that Howie is an inveterate traveler, I asked him what countries he believes to be the sanest and most liveable. He pointed toward The Netherlands – but I want to point you to his travel blog. It’ll make great Thanksgiving weekend perusing!

And finally, it was time to catch up with the busy and prolific Jason Leopold, now doing investigative reporting for Vice News! There were three stories I wanted to discuss with him.

About the CIA Torture Report (that we really should have seen by now – he wrote “The Senate Report on CIA Interrogation is About to Reignite Debate Over the Killing of Osama bin Laden“.

Regarding Ferguson, “‘This Is Similar to the Way Jesus Was Treated’: Letters to Missouri Governor Shed Light on Racial Tensions in Ferguson Aftermath”

And about that pesky Net Neutrality, “Net Neutrality Emails Reveal a Cozy ‘Social Network’ Between the FCC and Telecoms”

As I’m readying to hit the Publish button on this post comes unofficial word that the Grand Jury in Ferguson will have their announcement later today. We’ll see, and keep our fingers crossed.

And I’ll be back tomorrow with the Gliberal Goddesses and the latest news and information…. radio or not!