RELATED: Wikileaks Releases Largest Document Dump In History, And No One In America Cares

The official Wikileaks press release on the program describes it as a series of “in-depth conversations” whose theme will be “the world tomorrow” (Russia Today described the focus in their press release as “controversy,” according to the New York Times)– which, sadly, is not exactly how SNL imagined an Assange-hosted show last year. It is also very modest.

Just kidding! It describes Assange as “a pioneer for a more just world and a victim of political repression… uniquely placed to catalyse a global discussion on how to go forward”:

Julian Assange will be hosting a series of in-depth conversations with key political players, thinkers and revolutionaries from around the world. The theme: the world tomorrow. [...]

WikiLeaks, as the world’s boldest publisher, has been at the front line of this global movement for understanding and change. Its founder, Julian Assange, as the subject of an ongoing Grand Jury investigation in the United States for over 500 days now, is one of the world’s most recognizable revolutionary figures. [...]

In recognition of this, Assange will draw together controversial voices from across the political spectrum – iconoclasts, visionaries and power insiders – each to offer a window on the world tomorrow and their ideas on how to secure a brighter future. [...]

The series will begin airing in mid-March, in ten weekly half-hour episodes. Initial licensing commitments cover over 600 million viewers across cable, satellite and terrestrial broadcast networks.

It also includes this quote from the man himself:

“Through this series I will explore the possibilities for our future in conversations with those who are shaping it. Are we heading towards utopia, or dystopia and how we can set our paths? This is an exciting opportunity to discuss the vision of my guests in a new style of show that examines their philosophies and struggles in a deeper and clearer way than has been done before.”

Say what you will about Assange (and there is a lot to say about Assange), if anyone is complex and interesting enough to host a TV show about politics in the world today, if only for entertainment value, Assange is the man to do it. We hope this one doesn’t go the way of the book deal.

Hartmann began with the debt talks, opening the floor to debate over how the President was handling the Republicans. The Weekly Standard‘s Daniel Halper had a bit of a dismal approach to it, noting that “the more I think about it, the more I think there’s not going to be a deal.” The Daily Caller‘s Jamie Weinstein added that he supported the efforts of Rep. Paul Ryan, suggesting Congress “follow the courage.” Christopher, on the other hand, found that it was President Obama who was coming out looking the best during the talks, arguing he “played it like a poker hand” and the reports of him “calling a bluff” were incorrect– “he’s not making a bluff, he’s check raising the Republican bluff.”

From the debt debate, Hartmann switched gears to the News International corruption scandal. “Is the writing on the wall?” he asked, adding jokingly, “can we at least have them take the word ‘news’ out of ‘Fox News?’” This sparked a heated debate, as Halper argued that the phone tapping scandal was not worse than the New York Times publishing the Wikileaks war files. “You’re saying it’s cool to publish the intimate story of 9/11 victims, of murdered children, but it’s not a good thing to publish the secrets of a government that has committed crimes?” Hartmann asked. Christopher also asked incredulously how the New York Times had broken the law, with Halpern’s argument being that the long-term detrimental effects of the Wikileaks files were much greater than the wiretapping. As for Fox News, Christopher added that, in practical terms, given the internal divisions between news and opinion at Fox, “Fox News viewers are going to be able to draw the line between what happened in England and Fox News,” as both are similar disciplines.

The panel also discussed the 2012 Republican field– specifically, whether Rep. Michele Bachmann‘s conservative statements will alienate her from independent voters– and, rounding out the segment’s topics, “the Chertoff porno scanner,” as Hartmann called the apparatus used to scan airline passengers by the TSA and the panel’s experiences with them.

The full panel debate via RT America below:

Hartmann began the discussion noting that many were offended by what they perceived as racial insensitivity on Brown’s part, and Christopher agreed that he could see an argument for such outrage. “These are people who have tremendous animosity for President Obama,” he noted, “so they’re not laughing with him; they’re laughing at him, and these are racial jokes to they’re laughing at his skin color.” On the other hand, he noted that to him the Mitt Romney polygamy jokes were also cringe-worthy, and that by bashing Republicans, Brown proved to some extent that “he’s not here to trash Obama, he’s an entertainer.” This still caught Republicans off-guard, he argued, probably also given to his previous work on Fox Business Network.

Hartmann also asked about another incident regarding conservatives and racially insensitive language– FBN’s Eric Bolling “Hoodlums in the Hizzouse” remark, directed at African leaders and the rapper Common being invited to the White House. Christopher noted that Bolling had apologized for the incident and that “he might have a genuine misunderstanding of why people were offended by that,” given that he did apologize once it was explained to him. Christopher also gave Bolling credit for arguing that Jon Stewart and Bill Maher said similarly offensive things without apologizing, and he did believe “liberals sometimes get away with things because they’re liberals when they shouldn’t,” but ultimately that should not open the door to conservatives getting away with it as well.

The segment via RT America below:

Here’s the most inflammatory section:

“[Assange] is very much a threat. Not just to the American government but the British government and any number of governments. And so, there is a concerted effort to nail him, to shut him up. In my opinion, if the legal attempt, which I’m sure the United States government is behind, if this fails, he’ll simply be assassinated by a CIA assassination team. It’s common practice for the CIA to do that. It’s nothing unusual about it. The Congress had many hearings in the mid-70s and it’s in the public record that they’re always assassinating people.”

He went on to call into question the sexual charges against Assange, saying the case was another “common practice” tactic of the CIA to slander someone they find dangerous by painting him as a racist.

Roberts is no stranger to controversial comments. He vocally called for George W. Bush’s impeachment and has said the 9/11 Commission Report is “false” and part of a “cover-up.”

(h/t Reddit)

Check out the clip from RT America below:

Russia Today, a government-financed satellite news network, has aired a report linking the suicide bomb attack on the Domdedovo Airport in Moscow Monday with an American video game. According to the report, the airport attack “mirrors” a scenario found in the game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which includes a dramatized commando raid on a Moscow airport.

As The New York Times explains, the Russia Today report “emphasized that the video game was made by Americans” and includes an interview with Walid Phares, a Fox News terrorism analyst, who suggested that terrorists might “look at the games and say these games will serve them to train.”

The Times points out the airport attack in Call of Duty is in reality quite different from the suicide bombing: unlike the suicide bomb, the video game involves a group of attackers entering the airport with automatic weapons and firing at passengers–far closer to the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai.

Watch the video from RT below:

The president appeared with an entire back-up band, swaying to the beat like the leaves of a willow on a cool summer’s eve, for a charity fundraiser. According to the channel Russia Today:

When the hostess approached Putin’s table and asked him to sing for the audience, his immediate reaction was “are you kidding me?” But the hostess was determined to get the prime minister on the mic and reminded him about the songs he sang with the Russian sleeper agents extradited from the US last summer. Putin attempted to evade the proposal by saying that the singing she was referring to had come from the heart. However, after seeing the pictures of ill children shown to the audience on the big screen, he took to the stage.

He’s got a pretty great (understandably) Russian accent, and would probably make tons of money playing weddings in America, should he want a change of lifestyle. Not that he needs this new, cool appeal straight out of a Michael Bublé greatest hits album– the women of Russia routinely disrobe in his honor, and, lucky for him, he’s not gay or anything– but it certainly can’t hurt. As for the extremely fortunate crowd that got to see the overwhelming talent of their prime minister? They seem positively enthralled.

Wow. Online strategy gamers who wish to lead militias against Obama (?) can finally do so in “2011: Obama’s Coup Fails,” an “action-packed, satire-filled” multiplayer strategy game served up by United States of Earth.

Of course, the game is not very violent. No one in the Obama administration is killed or assassinated, the game’s creator explains; they are merely “captured” by patriotic citizen armies.

This game has been kicking around the ‘tubes for a while — Mother Jones‘ David Corn wrote a fantastic article on it last month — but Russia Today recently went behind the scenes with a camera crew. Among their findings: the game currently has 13,000 players, with hopes to draw as many as 200,000 next year. Also, its creators work behind a metal door in an undisclosed location in New York out of safety concerns.

From Russia Today:

Michael Russotto is the only mastermind out of 8 people behind the game not afraid to reveal his identity. He says over 13,000 members have already signed on, and hundreds of people play everyday. Michael is one of Obama’s harshest critics. “He is purposely destroying the economy of the United States,” says Michael. “The policies that he is enacting, it’s a guarantee of destroying us.”

This entire attitude is put in “2011: Obama’s coup fails”. Raids, skirmishes, assaults, hacker attacks and riots are at a player’s disposal as they try to win the game by fighting Obama and his troops. With player nicknames such as “fascism rising”, “osama” and “saddam”, critics call the game a promotion of domestic terrorism. But Michael Russotto explains that the game is not as violent as it may seem.

“Not one person in the Obama administration is killed, no one is assassinated,” Michael told RT. “They get captured … by American citizens who don’t want the United States to become any kind of dictatorship.”

Wired savaged the site as “poorly designed” and “the project of second-rate coders.” But “2011: Obama’s Coup Fails” also features futuristic political satire and fantasy written by its players, like this bit about the capture of “former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,” who of course went down using orphans as human shields:

After several tense moments Ms. Clinton appeared in the doorway, hiding behind several children used as human shields. With a little more coaxing from Bill she was finally separated from the children. At this time the Patriot forces moved in and executed a quick take-down of Ms. Clinton. As she was being moved to the transport, Bill Clinton can be heard saying, “So I guess this means that I’m not really going to get an intern?”

Ha! That Bill Clinton. He is very fond of interns.

• My roommate started singing this SNL Digital Short song last night, and I went to listen on Hulu only to find it not there. Strange. But it’s amazing. (SK)

• “Moldovan accused of murdering 1800-year-old.” Oh, Russia Today, you never fail to impress. (RQ)

• Why does every Merce Cunningham obituary leave us in tears? (ZT)

From NPR:

Cunningham once said that dance was movement, movement of any kind, and it is as accurate and impermanent as breathing. NPR’s Renee Montange asked Cunningham three years ago if that meant his last breath would be a dance.

“Yes or I can call it dancing,” Cunningham laughed. “Even if no one else does.”

From NYT:

Mr. Cunningham often spoke and wrote movingly about the nature of dance and would laugh about its maddening impermanence. “You have to love dancing to stick to it,” he once wrote. “It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive.”

From The New Yorker:

There was no discipline or self-denial involved in his neglect of his surroundings, just the carelessness of someone who woke up every morning, every day of his long, productive life, focussed on nothing but making the best dance possible that day.