Joining today's showis Mark Halperin, Kelly O’Donnell, Donny Deutsch, Stephen Battaglio, Amy Holmes, Richard Clarke, Dexter Filkins, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Justin Stangel, Eric Stangel, Nancy Gibbs, Brian Sullivan, Leigh Gallagher, Gov. Bobby Jindal and Michael Cerveris...
It was an all-star lineup that marked the only guest appearances on the final Late Show with David Letterman.
But what a lineup! Here, in his final list, are the "Top 10 things I've always wanted to say to Dave:"
10. Alec Baldwin: "Of all the talk shows, yours is the most geographically convenient to my home."
9. Barbara Walters: "Did you know you wear the same cologne as Muammar Qaddafi?"
8. Steve Martin: Your extensive plastic surgery was a necessity...and a mistake."
7. Jerry Seinfeld: "I have no idea what I'll do when you go off the air. You know what, I just thought of something: I'll be fine."
6. Jim Carrey: "Honestly Dave, I've always found you to be a bit of an over-actor." (He gesticulated wildly).
5. Chris Rock: "I'm just glad your show is being given to another white guy." (Dave: "You know, I had nothing to do with that.")
4. Julia Louis-Dreyfus: "Thanks for letting me take part in another hugely disappointing series finale." (Seinfeld smirks). (Dave: "I had nothing to do with that either.")
3. Peyton Manning: "Dave, you are to comedy what I am to comedy."
2. Tina Fey: "Thanks for finally proving men can be funny."
1. Bill Murray: "Dave, I'll never have the money I owe you."
David Letterman was ushered into retirement Wednesday by four presidents declaring "our long national nightmare is over" and a succession of stars delivering a final Top Ten list of things they always wanted to say to the late-night host. The taped intro of President Barack Obama and former Presidents George Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush referenced President Gerald Ford's declaration to the country when he took office following the 1974 resignation of Richard Nixon. Letterman sidled up to Obama to say, "you're just kidding, right?"
Ten stars from Steve Martin to Tina Fey delivered the final Top Ten list of "things I've always wanted to say to Dave." Julia Louis-Dreyfus, with Jerry Seinfeld standing nearby, said, "Thanks for letting me take part in another hugely disappointing series finale."
Number One was Bill Murray: "Dave, I'll never have the money I owe you."
Letterman said goodbye after 33 years and 6,028 broadcasts of his late-night shows on CBS and NBC. The final "Late Show" broadcast ran long, some 17 minutes over its usual hour, and CBS let the show air without cutting it. The transplanted Hoosier, who made Top Ten lists and ironic humor staples of television comedy and influenced a generation of performers, will be replaced by Stephen Colbert in September.
Letterman joked in his monologue that he's been on the air for so long that the hot show when he started was "Keeping Up with the Gabors." He said that Stephen Hawking figured out that the 6,028 broadcasts included "about eight minutes of laughter." "You want to know what I'm going to do now that I'm retired?" he said. "By God, I hope to become the new face of Scientology."
Letterman, whose wife Regina and son Harry were in the audience, was serenaded at the end by the band Foo Fighters. They sang, "Everlong," the same song they played when he returned following heart surgery in February 2000.
Several audience members who filed out of the theater after the show had tears in their eyes.
"It was really incredible," said Will Landman of Long Island, New York. "It was the best way he could go out." Letterman "was guarded but you could tell it was really hard for him," said John Bernstein, who flew in from Los Angeles to see the finale. "You could see his emotion," he said. "But I think he's feeling a lot more than he's showing."
His last few weeks have been warmly nostalgic, with Letterman entertaining old friends like Murray, Tom Hanks, George Clooney and Julia Roberts. Anticipating the end, viewers sent Letterman to the top of the late-night ratings the week before last for the first time since Jimmy Fallon took over at NBC's "Tonight" show and they competed with original telecasts.
From his start on NBC's "Late Night" in February 1982, Letterman's comedy was about more than telling jokes. He attached a camera to a monkey's back, tossed watermelons off a roof and wore a suit of Alka-Seltzer to plunge into a tank of water. Celebrities used to being fawned over either clicked with his prickly personality or didn't, and when Cher called him a more profane version of "jerk," it became a memorable moment.
He shifted to CBS in 1993 when NBC gave the "Tonight" show to Jay Leno instead of Letterman, a slight he never forgot or forgave. Letterman even began his final monologue Wednesday by joking, "It's beginning to look like I'm not going to get the `Tonight' show."
The tricks subsided as Letterman mellowed with age and fatherhood. His audience welcomed him back after a heart bypass, listened as he became the first late-night host back on the air after the 2001 terrorist attacks and saw him acknowledge to inappropriately having sex with a subordinate.
Rival Jimmy Kimmel paid tribute to Letterman by not making a fresh ABC show on Wednesday, where he usually competes in the same time slot. Fallon opened his Wednesday monologue by saying: "I want to thank you for watching this on your DVR after you watched Letterman."
Mika has braces on today. They are laughing at her Cindy Brady like lisping.
Iowa republicans assess GOP 2016 field in a focus group moderated by John Heilman.
Iowa Republicans Are Worried About Jeb Bush's Viability. Focus group participants say they're worried the former governor's family loyalty—and his last name—could hurt him. Iowa Republicans say they feel overwhelmed by the large number of potential candidates at this stage of the 2016 presidential nominating contest and are waiting for the field to shrink before they focus on the race. But they share one concern: Jeb Bush’s viability. Contrary to earlier polling, likely Republican caucus-goers who participated this week in a Bloomberg Politics/Purple Strategies focus group in Des Moines said they were not especially troubled by the former Florida governor's past support for Common Core federal education standards or changes to immigration policy.
Instead, they said Bush's loyalty to his brother, former President George W. Bush, and his stumbles in saying whether he would have invaded Iraq may weaken his chances for the nomination as well as his ability to beat Hillary Clinton if she is the Democrats’ 2016 nominee. “He should have known that question was coming.”
Randi, 59, a retired lawyer. “Our country’s a country and I think it should be run like a business—and I don’t think it should be run like a family business,” said Lucy, 68, a retired saleswoman. “I just think he seems to follow a little bit into his brother’s footsteps, he’s not anywhere near as charismatic as the dad, and that’s too bad.” She also described Jeb Bush as “too laid back.”
Several participants indicated that they would prefer a candidate who appeals to younger voters and represents the future. The participants—five men and five women—also suggested that they would be open to considering candidates with limited foreign policy or governing experience if they had significant accomplishments elsewhere and demonstrated leadership and the ability to surround themselves with experienced advisers.
Initially, none of the participants said that it was crucial for candidates to appeal to blacks, Hispanics, or women. Pressed on how to appeal to a broader coalition of voters, Crystal, 30, a house cleaner, said Republicans needed to address immigration “because that affects a lot of Hispanic people that are here already.” “I think we need a candidate that is going to make people feel safe, so this is going to be a safe place for them. And then they will have the confidence to vote for a candidate.” While participants didn't describe Bush as the Republican front-runner, they acknowledged his fundraising ability and stature as a leading candidate.
Randi, 59, a retired lawyer who described herself as a moderate, was the only panel member to say Bush may be best poised to beat Clinton. Yet she said she was surprised and disappointed by his handling of the Iraq question. “He should have known that question was coming,” she said, and had a “canned answer” ready. “I’m surprised that he wasn’t able to come forth and not have to go three times at it.”
Others cast their doubts about Bush in strategic terms, saying they are open to him personally but worry that other Americans’ resistance to him or to the family name may be hard to overcome, particularly in a potential general election matchup against Clinton.
Though Clinton also has family history in the White House, “it seems like no matter what obstacles she comes across, she's like Teflon,” Lucy said. “You know? It just kind of rolls off of her—or whatever Teflon does.”
“It’s just such a negative connotation when you see that Bush name, that people get, they get turned off, they don’t even know why they get turned off,” said Craig, 63, a retired teacher. “He can be the best candidate, but I just don’t know if, with the name connotation with the media, if he is electable or not. So that’s the only problem I have with him.”
“It’s too bad that that’s his last name, because I think people are really going to hold that against him, and I don’t think they should,” said Crystal, the house cleaner.
“It’s not fair, but it’s reality.”
Iowa Focus Group Participants on Electability - As for other Republicans:
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s history of fighting labor unions was seen as a potential strength in the caucuses and a potential weakness in a general election. “It’s appealing to me, yes,” said Randy, 44, an underwriter. “Will it be appealing to the middle part of the electorate on whether, you know, he’s getting the union vote?” he said. “Let’s just say what it is: It’s not happening.” Only one member of the group expressed concern that Walker is not a college graduate. Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz appealed to some participants for their libertarian and conservative stances, while others questioned whether either could win the general election.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio’s background as a child of Cuban immigrants appealed to participants, as did their impression of him as a family man. Craig said Rubio embodies “the American dream.” But Michelle, 32, a CPR instructor, said she had been turned off by Rubio's previous openness to a bipartisan immigration compromise that she regarded as amnesty for undocumented workers.
Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who narrowly won the Iowa caucuses in 2012, didn’t hold much interest for the group. “He didn’t win,” Crystal said. “So why would I put all of our energy behind him again?” Even those participants who could identify one or two candidates they were particularly interested in said they were largely ambivalent at this stage in the campaign, with eight months to go before the Iowa caucuses.
“I’m just listening and hearing and hopefully the field will narrow down, and them that will help me more knowing what I want to do,” Lucy said. Added Randy: “If you could narrow that field down from the beginning, so with only six to eight people show up in Iowa and then you narrow it down from there, give them the less ammo, less time to beat on each other ... maybe the electability question maybe could take care of itself.”
Bloomberg Politics, in conjunction with Purple Strategies, conducted two qualitative focus groups in Des Moines, Iowa, one of likely Democratic caucus participants and one of likely Republican caucus participants. Each group consisted of 10 participants, both men and women, and from a variety of ages and socio-economic and educational backgrounds. Qualitative research results cannot be statistically analyzed or projected onto the broader population at large. As is customary, respondents were compensated for their participation. For more from the focus groups, watch With All Due Respect at 5 p.m. ET/PT on Bloomberg TV or BloombergPolitics.com.
A Filibuster or NOT a dfilibuster? Sen. Rand Paul’s latest filibuster last night with a 10 plus hour speech.
At 1:18 p.m. Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) took the Senate floor to decry the potential extension of the legal authority underpinning the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of private telephone records — a controversial practice brought to light by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
“There comes a time in the history of nations when fear and complacency allow power to accumulate and liberty and privacy to suffer,” Paul started. “That time is now, and I will not let the Patriot Act — the most unpatriotic of acts go unchallenged.” Now seven hours later, Paul is still at his desk on the Senate floor, still talking. But is it a filibuster? Some Senate watchers have sniffed that Paul’s speech is not in fact a filibuster. That’s because the Senate is not actually amid debate on extending the surveillance authority, it’s debating trade legislation, and a petition to limit that debate is pending. That means, regardless of how long Paul speaks, he will have to yield the floor no later than 1 p.m. Thursday, when a vote on the “cloture” petition must take place under Senate rules.
But Paul himself is calling his speech a filibuster, and with good reason: If he keeps talking long enough, he can upend Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s carefully laid plans for the week, prevent amendments to the trade bill, delay consideration of the surveillance legislation, and otherwise prevent his Senate colleagues from enjoying their holiday weekends. And if Paul can talk until 1 p.m. Thursday, he will have talked for 23 hours and 42 minutes — second-longest in recorded Senate history, exceeded only by Strom Thurmond’s 1957 record of 24:18.
Here is how Paul’s speech stands to affect Senate business should it continue past midnight: Paul is already keeping the managers of the trade legislation from processing amendments to that bill, which could affect whether the legislation gains the 60 votes tomorrow necessary to close debate and move toward final passage. If he keeps talking past midnight, he will delay McConnell from filing a cloture motion on legislation to address the impending Patriot Act lapse, pushing those votes into Saturday or beyond. And while the Senate was already on a trajectory toward some rare weekend work, given Democrats’ pledges to draw out debate on the trade bill, Paul’s maneuverings could guarantee it. In the words of the Washiongton Post's Paul Kane, “if this isn’t a filibuster, there’s no such thing as a filibuster.”
The NSA wants Donny Deutsch him to stop forwarding his emails to them.
Islamic State seizes Syria's ancient Palmyra.
Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria have entered the Unesco World Heritage site of Palmyra after seizing the town next to the ancient ruins, reports say. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there were no reports yet of any destruction of artefacts. The militants had taken control of the nearby airport, prison and intelligence HQ after government forces pulled out of the area, the monitoring group said.
IS has previously demolished ancient sites in Iraq that pre-date Islam.
The BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut says acute international concern over Palmyra might actually spur the jihadists on to make destroying it a priority, since they delight in challenging and horrifying world opinion. The ancient ruins are situated in a strategically important area on the road between the capital, Damascus, and the contested eastern city of Deir al-Zour.Palmyra is also close to oil and gas fields which the Syrian government uses to generate electricity for areas under its control in the west of the country. Rising out of the desert, the site contains the monumental ruins of a great city, which Unesco and others consider one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world. Dating back to the 1st and 2nd Century, when the region was under Roman rule, Palmyra is dominated by a grand, colonnaded street.
'World's battle'
Syrian state media said pro-government forces had been pulled out of Tadmur, the modern settlement next to Palmyra, after "assuring the evacuation" of most of its inhabitants.
The town's population would normally number around 70,000, but it has recently been swollen by an influx of people displaced from other combat areas.
Our correspondent says there was in effect nothing to stop the militants entering the ruins following the collapse of government forces. If there were Islamist militants in the captured prison, he adds, they may now have been recruited by IS. The Syrian Observatory reported that more than 100 pro-government troops were killed in overnight clashes around Palmyra.
A researcher from the monitoring group also told the BBC on Friday that IS now controls more than half of Syrian territory.
However, the BBC's Arab Affairs Editor Sebastian Usher says this figure may give a false impression because there are large areas to the east under IS control that are not very significant strategically.
Palmyra: the 'Venice of the Sands' - Professor Kevin Butcher
For such a remote city, Palmyra occupies a prominent place in Middle Eastern history. From modest beginnings in the 1st Century BC, the city gradually rose to prominence under the aegis of Rome until, during the 3rd Century AD, the city's rulers challenged Roman power and created an empire of their own that stretched from Turkey to Egypt. Palmyra was a great Middle Eastern achievement, and was unlike any other city of the Roman Empire. Like Venice, the city formed the hub of a vast trade network, only with the desert as its sea and camels as its ships.
Only small parts of the site have been excavated. Most of the archaeology lies just beneath the surface rather than deeply buried, and it is particularly vulnerable to looting. If the city is destroyed by IS, a major chapter in Middle Eastern history and culture will be yet another casualty of this tragic conflict. Syria's head of antiquities, Maamoun Abdul Karim, said on Wednesday that hundreds of Palmyra's statues have been moved to safety but that large monuments could not be transferred. "This is the entire world's battle," Mr Abdul Karim warned. He called on the US-led military coalition against IS to prevent the group destroying the ancient site. However, the coalition says it does not co-ordinate its actions with the Syrian government.
The founder of the Association for the Protection of Syrian Archaeology, Cheikmous Ali, said the operation to move the objects began two months ago, but it picked up speed earlier this week. "Some objects are still there, it's not 100% empty," he told the BBC.
But "considerable damage" had already been done by the Syrian air force bombing and soldiers digging trenches at the site, he continued. Unesco's director-general, Irina Bokova, said she was "deeply concerned" by the situation. "The fighting is putting at risk one of the most significant sites in the Middle East, and its civilian population," she said in a statement.
Dexter Filkins and Adam Kinzinger are now on Morning Joe discussing the sames things we just did with Richard Clarke. Dexter feels that Iran reminds him today of when it was 2005. He says it is coming a part at the seams in Iran with the many fractions and groups. It is a difficult situation as the Congressman says now too about when Joe says that we may need to send in more troops. We do not need to send another 150K of our military people over there, but we need to do something is the consensus all around. We could be seeing a civil war in Iraq. And, as long as the war in Syria continues, the war in Iraq will too. This is an absolute mess. Syria is the key to this issue. We have never really heard the options about what to do in Syria after we 'drew that line in the sand.' And when ISIS went into Iraq last year, the Iraqi army fled and/or did nothing about it.
Regardless of it all today, Please stay in touch!
At 1:18 p.m. Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) took the Senate floor to decry the potential extension of the legal authority underpinning the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of private telephone records — a controversial practice brought to light by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
“There comes a time in the history of nations when fear and complacency allow power to accumulate and liberty and privacy to suffer,” Paul started. “That time is now, and I will not let the Patriot Act — the most unpatriotic of acts go unchallenged.” Now seven hours later, Paul is still at his desk on the Senate floor, still talking. But is it a filibuster? Some Senate watchers have sniffed that Paul’s speech is not in fact a filibuster. That’s because the Senate is not actually amid debate on extending the surveillance authority, it’s debating trade legislation, and a petition to limit that debate is pending. That means, regardless of how long Paul speaks, he will have to yield the floor no later than 1 p.m. Thursday, when a vote on the “cloture” petition must take place under Senate rules.
But Paul himself is calling his speech a filibuster, and with good reason: If he keeps talking long enough, he can upend Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s carefully laid plans for the week, prevent amendments to the trade bill, delay consideration of the surveillance legislation, and otherwise prevent his Senate colleagues from enjoying their holiday weekends. And if Paul can talk until 1 p.m. Thursday, he will have talked for 23 hours and 42 minutes — second-longest in recorded Senate history, exceeded only by Strom Thurmond’s 1957 record of 24:18.
Here is how Paul’s speech stands to affect Senate business should it continue past midnight: Paul is already keeping the managers of the trade legislation from processing amendments to that bill, which could affect whether the legislation gains the 60 votes tomorrow necessary to close debate and move toward final passage. If he keeps talking past midnight, he will delay McConnell from filing a cloture motion on legislation to address the impending Patriot Act lapse, pushing those votes into Saturday or beyond. And while the Senate was already on a trajectory toward some rare weekend work, given Democrats’ pledges to draw out debate on the trade bill, Paul’s maneuverings could guarantee it. In the words of the Washiongton Post's Paul Kane, “if this isn’t a filibuster, there’s no such thing as a filibuster.”
The NSA wants Donny Deutsch him to stop forwarding his emails to them.
Islamic State seizes Syria's ancient Palmyra.
Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria have entered the Unesco World Heritage site of Palmyra after seizing the town next to the ancient ruins, reports say. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there were no reports yet of any destruction of artefacts. The militants had taken control of the nearby airport, prison and intelligence HQ after government forces pulled out of the area, the monitoring group said.
IS has previously demolished ancient sites in Iraq that pre-date Islam.
The BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut says acute international concern over Palmyra might actually spur the jihadists on to make destroying it a priority, since they delight in challenging and horrifying world opinion. The ancient ruins are situated in a strategically important area on the road between the capital, Damascus, and the contested eastern city of Deir al-Zour.Palmyra is also close to oil and gas fields which the Syrian government uses to generate electricity for areas under its control in the west of the country. Rising out of the desert, the site contains the monumental ruins of a great city, which Unesco and others consider one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world. Dating back to the 1st and 2nd Century, when the region was under Roman rule, Palmyra is dominated by a grand, colonnaded street.
Syrian state media said pro-government forces had been pulled out of Tadmur, the modern settlement next to Palmyra, after "assuring the evacuation" of most of its inhabitants.
The town's population would normally number around 70,000, but it has recently been swollen by an influx of people displaced from other combat areas.
A researcher from the monitoring group also told the BBC on Friday that IS now controls more than half of Syrian territory.
However, the BBC's Arab Affairs Editor Sebastian Usher says this figure may give a false impression because there are large areas to the east under IS control that are not very significant strategically.
Palmyra: the 'Venice of the Sands' - Professor Kevin Butcher
For such a remote city, Palmyra occupies a prominent place in Middle Eastern history. From modest beginnings in the 1st Century BC, the city gradually rose to prominence under the aegis of Rome until, during the 3rd Century AD, the city's rulers challenged Roman power and created an empire of their own that stretched from Turkey to Egypt. Palmyra was a great Middle Eastern achievement, and was unlike any other city of the Roman Empire. Like Venice, the city formed the hub of a vast trade network, only with the desert as its sea and camels as its ships.
Only small parts of the site have been excavated. Most of the archaeology lies just beneath the surface rather than deeply buried, and it is particularly vulnerable to looting. If the city is destroyed by IS, a major chapter in Middle Eastern history and culture will be yet another casualty of this tragic conflict. Syria's head of antiquities, Maamoun Abdul Karim, said on Wednesday that hundreds of Palmyra's statues have been moved to safety but that large monuments could not be transferred. "This is the entire world's battle," Mr Abdul Karim warned. He called on the US-led military coalition against IS to prevent the group destroying the ancient site. However, the coalition says it does not co-ordinate its actions with the Syrian government.
Richard Clarke is on Morning Joe making great points about the inaction of the US over in that region and with regard to ISIS. We have training the Iraqi army now for over ten years. that is not working. The Iraqi army is bad at it. We need special forces units like what we did over the weekend in that last raid in Syria. We could arm the Kurds but the Baghdad Government does not us to do it. We could arm the Suni Militia but we have NOT done that either because the Baghdad Government does not want us to do it. We could provide air support for the Iranian backed Shiat militia group. We have not done it because of the POTUS is scared about the backlash from our congress that he would get for making the decision. We are faced with a huge threat and we have zero ways of liberating Mosul this year. We were planning to liberate Fallujah at the beginning of the year and that will not happen anytime soon, let alone this year.
Regardless of it all today, Please stay in touch!
