Minorities understand the pandering process

By Egberto Willies

Senator Marco Rubio ‘Loser,’ ‘A Token Slave Boy’ Says Univision Assistant

While Republicans in their bid to show that they are inclusive are placing minorities like Marco Rubio in the forefront, it is essential to understand that it is a failing proposition for one specific reason; it is dishonest. Latinos and all other prideful minorities understand the pandering process. This type of pandering makes the problem worse for Republicans because minorities know that the GOP assumes that they are less than intelligent by making a façade or semblance of inclusion, inclusion.

The Miami Herald picked up on a story in which an Univisión staffer attacked Senator Marco Rubio. On the surface it may seem like a silly Facebook type back and forth. What should be understood is it is a window into how most minorities feel about GOP window dressing when needed in high places (e.g., Michael Steele, Marco Rubio, Hispanic Governors, & Women), but with policies anathema to their demographic.

Miami Herald

It’s the latest attack in a lengthy feud between the Florida senator and the powerful Spanish-language network that conservatives charge is anti-GOP and anti-Rubio.

The latest incident began Wednesday night after Rubio’s spokesman, Alex Burgos, announced the high-profile Florida senator would give the GOP’s first-ever bilingual rebuttal to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech.

That led Univisión employee Angelica Artiles to let loose a string of partisan criticisms.

“Oh. wow, the loser is going to speak after our President,” Artiles wrote on spokesman Alex Burgos’ Facebook page at 9:33 p.m. Wednesday. “Anything to get publicity. Ask him to do us a favor and stay home that night.”

Sentiments like that reflect the prevailing political feeling among Univisión’s higher-ups at its Doral headquarters, say Univisión insiders. Artiles is executive assistant to Daniel Coronell, Univisión’s vice president of news.

When The Miami Herald picks up a story about major players at Univision placing disparaging comments about Rubio on Facebook it serves two purposes. It is a message to the body politic that they must not be fooled by superficialities. It is also a message to the GOP that the body politic is watching and/or will be made to watch.

When President Barack Obama was elected, the Republicans sensing a country was changing to be more inclusive, immediately elected Michael Steele Chairman of the Republican Party. Under Michael Steele, the GOP won big in 2010. When the Tea Party inspired “false nativism” took sufficient root, Michael Steele as a symbol of multiculturalism and inclusivity became unnecessary and was fired.

Reince Priebus was brought into power in 2010. In the 2012 election he was beaten badly. He lost senate races he should have won, he lost congressional districts he should have won, he lost a presidency ripe for takeover, and he lost the composite popular vote for the House, the Senate, and the Presidency. For all of that failure Reince Priebus was re-elected.

Republicans current attempt to seem inclusive will fail. Minorities are not looking to see tokens on TV, in governorships, or in high-profile places. That is not where power really resides. They want policies that give them equal access to success. They want a real opportunity to be at the table. In that light the Univision staffer is correct, Marco Rubio is “a token slave boy” and all the connotations that come with that statement.

Next XBox to require Kinect connection, game installs

By Kyle Orland

As Sony and Microsoft both start showing signs that their next generation of consoles will be revealed soon, we're getting in to the heavy-duty rumor-mongering season. The latest credible rumor comes from a well-informed-sounding source going by the handle SuperDaE (by way of Kotaku).

You may remember him as the one who tried to sell an apparently genuine, codenamed "Durango" development kit on eBay before being shut down by Microsoft. He has new information he claims is from white papers intended to prepare developers to work on the new system.

According to Kotaku's report, the next Xbox will integrate a new version of the Kinect not as an optional motion-control accessory but as a required peripheral included with every system that "must be plugged in and calibrated for the console to even function." That would seem to raise some obvious privacy concerns, and it strikes us as an unnecessary power and processing drain for games that don't use the depth-sensing camera.

On the other hand, packaging a new Kinect with every system would let designers create motion and voice controls for their games without worrying about fragmenting the market (though it still seems odd it would have to be plugged in at all times).

The new Kinect will reportedly improve its tech specs over the current model, as has been widely reported and assumed—just not as much as you might think. The 3D camera's depth will only have a depth-sensing resolution of 512×424 according to the new report.

That's a rather modest improvement over the 320×240 resolution in the original Kinect and well below the "hundredths of a millimeter" tracking promised by devices like the Leap Motion.

Still, SuperDaE claims the new Kinect will be able to detect thumbs and open/closed hands, and it will sport a wider viewing angle for easier calibration. The new Kinect will also have an improved 1920×1080 2D camera and the ability to track up to six players at once, according to the report, with slightly more points of skeletal articulation on each player.

Bill Maher Fires Back at Donald Trump Over Orangutan Suit: "Don, Just Suck It Up!"

Bill Maher has a message for Donald Trump: Stop monkeying around with the courts and "suck it up!"

The Real Time host devoted Friday night's "New Rules" commentary to blasting the real estate mogul for suing him for $5 million after Trump took up Maher's challenge and proved once and for all he's not—wait for it—the spawn of an orange-haired orangutan.



In a lawsuit filed last week, the Donald claimed the funnyman failed to hold up his end of a written agreement promising to cough up the money if Trump furnished his birth certificate to disprove the comedian's so-called "Aper" conspiracy theory. The latter, by the way, was a satirical jab at the brash businessman's $5 million offer to President Barack Obama to donate that amount to charity if Obama produced his college records.

On his HBO show, though, Maher wasn't having it, mocking Trump further and noting that it's his own birthright as a comic to make fun of public figures.

"This is known as parody. And it's a form of something we in the comedy business call a joke," said the comedian. "Just like we're the gun country, we're the joke country. We love our free speech and we love celebrities getting taken down a peg. So Don, just suck it up like everybody else!"

Maher also couldn't resist bashing Trump for suggesting late-night jokes are now "legally binding agreements."

"Yes, I'm sure this will go all the way to the Supreme Court," quipped the former Politically Incorrect star. "I'll tell you the legal system in this country is not a joke. It's not a toy for rich idiots to play with."

Predictably, Trump wasn't thrilled with the segment, slamming Maher repeatedly on his Twitter page on Saturday.

"Dummy @BillMaher forgot to say that he made an absolute offer which I accepted. Hopefully, charity gets $5M dollars," tweeted The Apprentice star, then wondered, "How does @HBO employ @BillMaher with a pathetic show that he does---- what kind of 'a special' is that? Complete garbage!"

He concluded his rant by writing: "@BillMaher's so called show on HBO must be the cheapest 'special' produced in the history of television--- it sucks!"

Somehow, we doubt Trump will go on Real Time anytime soon.

Cheney: Obama picks ‘second-rate’ people

The Huffington Post’s Howard Fineman and Salon’s Joan Walsh discuss Dick Cheney’s claim that President Obama’s cabinet picks are “second-rate.”

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Should Elderly Politicians Make Like the Pope and Quit?

By David Weigel

Joseph Ratzinger wasn't shy about it. He's quitting the papacy because "both strength of mind and body are necessary" to do the job well, and "I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me."

Unless he's infallibly well-sourced and saw this coming, Keith Humphreys' meditation on aging politicians is just eerily timely. Pope Benedict is three years younger than Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who's puttering around condemning the very idea of Cory Booker running against him. Humphreys:

What the press ought to do instead is communicate reality: The burden of proof is entirely on Lautenberg to demonstrate that he isn’t too old to be an effective senator until the age of 98. Extrapolating from life table data, a 92 year old has only a 1 in 6 chance of living to 98, and that’s the combined rate for males and females. And those who do live to 98 have an extremely high rate of significant physical and/or mental decline. It should therefore not be some awkward responsibility for Cory Booker to hint vaguely about “new ideas”, “vigor” etc. as a way to gingerly raise the age issue. Rather, the press should put the question straight to Lautenberg: “Senator, if you are re-elected the odds are very low you will survive your term at all, much less do so in good health. Is that fair to the people of New Jersey when there are certainly other politicians in the state who could do the job?”. That keeps focus on a legitimate question that the public has a right to have answered (whether Booker brings it up or not).

But coverage of Lautenberg goes just the opposite direction—it high-fives him for his vigor. A recent Philadelphia Inquirer story pointed out that the senator had returned from "a cold that became the flu" and was "wielding a cane—which he insisted he didn't really need," but otherwise focused on his "feistiness." A Star-Ledger story quotes Lautenberg on the Bob Menendez scandal(s), but the quotes are nearly word salad: "I don’t want to be part of the external review at all. It’s much too sensitive a thing to be discussed randomly." Someone else watching Lautenberg deliver some of these quotes (i.e., me) might say that Lautenberg walked slowly with the cane and took ages to make his point.

Those details don't appear in the stories because they seem subjective and mean. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was unable to work while recovering from a bullet that penetrated her brain, and I can't recall any mainstream calls for her to resign. The two members of the Senate who've suffered from strokes, Illinois' Mark Kirk and South Dakota's Tim Johnson, were robust guys stricken in their 50's. Johnson went on to re-election, and nobody's telling Kirk he shouldn't run again.

Decorum plays a role here, as does the (mostly true) confidence that staffers can do most of a senator's work. But should the media play along?

GOP's possible sequester strategy means food aid, teacher cuts

The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart and Lehigh University’s Dr. James Peterson debate why Republicans may prefer the sequester cuts – which the White House today says could mean teachers fired and more than half a million without food aid – to any compromise.

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U.S. Postal Service Victimized by GOP Privatization Scheme

By Ernest A. Canning

The massive operating deficits that have driven the U.S. Post Office to announce an end to delivery of First Class mail on Saturdays, beginning in August, are not the product of postal service ineptitude. Those deficits are not the product of increased public access to emails or from competition by private delivery services like UPS or FedEx.

The U.S. Postal Service has been victimized by the Orwellian-labeled Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA), which embodies a scheme designed to destroy the constitutionally established U.S. Postal Service in order to privatize mail and parcel delivery. In a lame duck session, at the peak of the USPS' profitability and productivity, a then Republican-controlled Congress forced the U.S. Postal Service "to pre-fund 75 years worth of pensions" in the span of ten years, "a requirement not made of any other public or private institution." If not for the onerous and unprecedented requirements of the PAEA, the U.S. Postal Service, which is not funded by any taxes, would now be experiencing a $1.5 billion surplus.

The contrived demise of the postal service must be understood within the broader subversive goals of libertarian and right wing philosophy --- a philosophy which, despite the express provisions of both the Preamble and Article I of the U.S. Constitution, rejects the right of government to "promote the general welfare"...

'Privatization' threatens democracy

"The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself," President Franklin D. Roosevelt warned in a speech to Congress on Apr. 29, 1938. "That, in its essence, is fascism --- ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power."

In The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein provided valuable insight on "privatization," a concept in which wealthy elites seek to turn everything that was historically considered part of the public domain into an activity or resource that can provide the billionaire class with an opportunity to extract a profit.

Klein offers concrete examples documenting the authoritarian repression and economic desolation that befell every nation that embraced "neoliberal" free market economics and its accompanying austerity measures. As historian Chalmers Johnson observed on the book's cover, The Shock Doctrine "rips away the 'free trade' and globalization ideologies that disguise a conspiracy to privatize war and disaster and grab public property for the rich few" --- all, as part of "our headlong flight back to feudalism under the guise of social science and 'freedom.'"

Where Klein discussed the disturbing prospects of privatized police and fire services, the ultimate absurdity came during the Sept. 13, 2011 'Tea Party' Presidential Primary Debate when former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) went beyond a call for the elimination of the of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Romney suggested that FEMA's critical disaster relief function should be privatized.

Hurricane Sandy so exposed the folly of privatized disaster relief that the mendacious Republican Presidential candidate evaded reporters and the issue, even as he shamelessly sought to exploit the disaster via a staged photo op that included fake food donations.

So when Sandy slammed into the Jersey shores and the President called for swiftly cutting through red tape to insure prompt assistance from FEMA and other federal agencies, the climate-science denying, oil industry oligarch Koch Brothers' keynote speaker, Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), had a very significant decision to make. He could responsibly step forward on behalf of the citizens of the Garden State or he could abide by the ideological dictates of his plutocratic benefactors and be reduced to the same feckless sycophant that his party's standard bearer displayed with his fake food donations.

To Christie's credit, he chose the former. Orwellian hard-right ideology simply gave way to a profound reality. No private organization is capable of handling a disaster of that magnitude, which requires res publica in the form of a coordinated effort of government at the federal, state and local levels. Thus, despite his prior commitment to the Koch brothers' privatization agenda, the harsh reality of the massive scope of Sandy's devastation compelled Christie to opt for sanity.

But the U.S. Postal Service is not FEMA. The absurdity of privatization is not as readily apparent, and, as forcefully demonstrated during a Feb. 6 segment of The Ed Show on MSNBC (posted below), host Ed Schultz appropriately notes that a wide swath of the corporate-owned mainstream media has failed to report the fact that the forces of privatization, not the rise of email, explains the U.S. Postal Service's economic woes.

Where were the Democrats?

Schultz correctly notes that the scheme to destroy the U.S. Postal Service was hatched by Republicans during a lame duck session of Congress. Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress from 2008 to 2010. Why were there no efforts to repeal the PAEA during that session?

Schultz discusses whether or not the GOP will succeed in destroying the Constitutionally-mandated U.S. Postal Service all together. The answer to that question, it seems, depends largely on how forceful the President and Congressional Democrats are in both speaking out and acting on the issue.

It also depends on the extent of which the corporate media bothers to exercise its own Constitutional mandate to inform the electorate by addressing the real source of the Postal Services demise. It depends upon how forceful we the people are in speaking out as well.

Video of the 2/6/2013 Ed Show segment on the U.S. Postal Service's announcement to end Saturday deliver of First Class mail beginning in August, follows below...

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Ernest A. Canning has been an active member of the California state bar since 1977. Mr. Canning has received both undergraduate and graduate degrees in political science as well as a juris doctor. He is also a Vietnam vet (4th Infantry, Central Highlands 1968). Follow him on Twitter: @Cann4ing.

God of War Ascension 30 Minutes of Kratos Gameplay Walkthrough Part 1 - HD

Kratos unleashes his wrath today, as we get to see the Spartan warrior in a live-action trailer, new single-player screenshots, and the first 30 minutes of the game. God of War: Ascension will be unchained on March 12th, and will include an exclusive access demo of The Last of Us.

Silicon Valley Start-Up Paid Workers $2.66 Per Hour...In Pesos

By Elisabeth Parker

“It wasn’t right what they were doing. It’s not the way to treat people,” an anonymous former contractor told San Jose Mercury News Reporter Eric Kurhi on February 7th, when asked why he blew the whistle on Bloom Energy. As previously reported by Kurhi, the leading Sunnyvale, CA clean energy start-up had been underpaying 14 Mexican contract workers for two years, at the equivalent of $2.66 per hour in pesos. Not only does this compensation fall below California’s minimum wage of $8.00 per hour, it’s also far below the $11.48-$24.01 per hour welders — like these workers — earn in the Golden State. Oh, and the workers often toiled over 50 hours per week and received no overtime pay. Kurhi’s colleague Brandon Bailey also reports that the workers were here on visitors’ visas, “which generally don’t allow [visa] holders to work while they are here.”

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wages and Hours division — via signed court order from U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh — ordered Bloom Energy to pay $31,922 in back wages, $31,922 in damages, and $6,160 in civil penalties ($70,004.00 total). The Department of Labor requires minimum wage and overtime to be paid regardless of the workers’ immigration status. Ruben Rosalez, a regional Labor Department administrator told reporters in a press release:

“This investigation has remedied illegal pay practices for a group of workers subjected to substandard wages. It is appalling that this was happening right in the heart of Silicon Valley, one of the wealthiest per capita areas in the U.S.”

Bloom Energy released a statement promising not to let this happen again, but not explaining why they thought they could get away with such blatantly illegal and abusive practices:

“We take full responsibility for this and have paid back wages, damages and fines … Furthermore, we are correcting and strengthening our internal processes to ensure that this does not occur again.”

The whistleblower — who remains anonymous so as not to risk future employment opportunities — also told Kurhi, that he had overheard workers complaining amongst themselves, including one who lamented, “I don’t know why I came up here. I could be down there making the same money and be with my family.” The workers had been transported back and forth between Bloom Energy’s factory in Chihuahua, Mexico and the Silicon Valley plant. When staying in Sunnyvale, the workers were put up in a hotel and provided with a $50 a day per diem for meals, but were required to return any money they didn’t use. The workers’ sub-standard wages were wired to their bank accounts in Mexico.

Susana Blanco, director of the U.S. Department of Labor’s wage and Hour Division in San Francisco told Nadine Natour from NBCLatino that “We were surprised that it was happening in the heart of the Silicon Valley, which is known for its high-paid salaries.” Yet she also seemed to enjoy playing a part in creating a much happier kind of surprise. When asked how the workers responded to the court decision, Blanco responded, “They were surprised … they were very surprised, because they thought they didn’t have any protection in the United States.”

Bloom Energy launched in 2002 cutting-edge, energy-efficient fuel cell batteries for high-profile corporate customers, including Walmart, Staples, AT&T, FedEx, Coca Cola, Kaiser Permanente, Adobe, ebay, and Google. The celebrated venture capitalist John Doerr, and former Secretary of State and Retired General Colin Powell serve on their board of directors.

Ayn Rand's Gospel of Selfishness and Billionaire Empowerment Is Plaguing America

By Thom Hartmann, Sam Sacks

The United States and other independent governments around the world are crumbling while Ayn Rand’s billionaires are taking over.

 

February 7, 2013 

 

Thirty years after her death, Ayn Rand’s philosophy of selfishness and billionaire empowerment rules the world. It’s a remarkable achievement for an ideology that was pushed to the fringes for most of her life, and ridiculed on national television in a notorious interview with Mike Wallace.

But, it’s happened. And today, the United States and other independent governments around the world are crumbling while Ayn Rand’s billionaires are taking over.

With each new so-called Free Trade agreement – especially the very secretive Trans Pacific Partnership, which has less to do with trade and more to do with a new law of global governance for transnational corporations – Ayn Rand’s reviled “state” (or what we would call our democracy, the United States of America) is losing its power to billionaires and transnational corporations.

Ayn Rand hated governments and democracy. She considered them systems of mob rule. She grew up in Russia, and as a child watched the Bolsheviks confiscate her father’s pharmacy during the Russian Revolution. Likely suffering from PTSD from that incident, Ayn Rand devoted her future writings to evil government, including the "evil" of its functions like taxation, regulation, and providing social services to the poor and sick.

She divided the world into makers and takers (or what she called “looters”).

On one side are the billionaires and the industrialists. People like Dagny Taggert, a railroad tycoon, and Hank Rearden, a steel magnate. Both were fictional characters in her book Atlas Shrugged, but both have real-world counterparts in the form of the Koch Brothers, the Waltons, and Sheldon Adelson. According to Rand, they are the “Atlases” holding up the world.

So, in Atlas Shrugged, when the billionaires, tired of paying taxes and complying with government regulation, go on strike, Ayn Rand writes that the American economy promptly collapsed.

On the other side are the “looters,” or everyone else who isn’t as rich or privileged, or who believed in a democratic government to provide basic services, empower labor unions, and regulate the economy. They are the leeches on society according to Rand (and according to Mitt Romney with his 47% comments). And, as she told Mike Wallace in in 1959, they do not even “deserve love.”

To our Founding Fathers, looking out for the general welfare of the population was an explicit role of the government, one of its most important and the reason this nation was created when we separated from Britian.

But to Ayn Rand, a government that taxed billionaires to help pay for healthcare and education for impoverished children was not just unwise economically, it was also immoral.

Nature abhors a vacuum – both in the wild and in politics.  So, when people, organized in the form of a government, are removed from power, then money organized in the form of corporations and billionaires moves into the vacuum to take power – which is exactly what’s happening today, worldwide.

In the thirty years after her death, the United States crept closer and closer to Ayn Rand’s utopia. Reagan dramatically slashed taxes on the rich and went after labor unions. Clinton deregulated financial markets for the rich, ended welfare as we know it, and committed our nation to one globalist corporate free trade agreement after another.

And, under Bush and Obama, we’ve seen the rapid privatization of our commons, the further erosion of social safety nets, and more losses of national sovereignty with more so-called free trade agreements.

In Europe, we’re seeing sovereign governments neutered by Conservative technocrats. According to Ayn Rand, the rich can never be asked to sacrifice. So instead, it’s working people across the Eurozone who have to pay for the bad investments that the banksters made in the run-up to the global financial collapse.

As we saw in Greece in 2011 with the deposing of Prime Minister George Papandreou, and all across the state of Michigan over the last few years with financial managers laws, when democratic governments are unwilling to do the bidding of the rich, they're immediately replaced by corporate lackeys who will.

The Taggerts and the Reardens are holding the reins of government today.

Which explains why Corporate America paid an average tax rate of just 12% in 2011 – the lowest rate in 40 years. It explains why 400 billionaires in America now own more wealth than 150 million other Americans combined. And it explains why fewer impoverished Americans are getting less federal assistance than at any time in the last half-century.

Ayn Rand envisioned a world without governments – a world where the super-rich are free to do as they wish.

We tried that during the so-called Gilded Age of the late 19th Century – before Ayn Rand was alive. If she'd watched the ruthlessness of the Robber Barons like she did the Bolsheviks, she may have reached different conclusions.

She may have realized that American Presidents like Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Dwight Eisenhower were right when they made sure that wealth was more evenly distributed and the Billionaire Class was held in check.

Or she may have come to understand that corporations and billionaires owe their wealth to the state and not the other way around. Without favorable patent and copyright laws, a court system, an educated workforce, and an infrastructure to move goods about the country, then no one would be able to get rich in America.  We'd be like the Libertarian paradise of Somalia.

As Harry Moser, the founder of the Reshoring Initiative, argued in The Economist, “Corporations are not created by the shareholders or the management. Rather they are created by the state. They are granted important privileges by the state (limited liability, eternal life, etc). They are granted these privileges because the state expects them to do something beneficial for the society that makes the grant. They may well provide benefits to other societies, but their main purpose is to provide benefits to the societies (not to the shareholders, not to management, but to the societies) that create them.”

Sadly, this understanding of how democratic republics work - and why - has been lost in this generation.
 
And Ayn Rand’s disciples are making sure the next generation never finds it again.

Idaho State Senator John Goedde, who chairs that state Senate’s Education Committee, introduced a bill this week that would require all students to read Ayn Rand’s book “Atlas Shrugged” before they can graduate. Goedde explained that the book made his son a Republican and that it “certainly gives one a sense of personal responsibility.”

Between stupidity like this, and the re-birth of Ayn Rand through corporate-funded think tanks and Hollywood movies, the Billionaire Class wants to make sure the next generation buys into a toxic ideology that’s quite literally destroying the world as we know it.

They don’t want the 21st Century to be “America’s Century.” They want it to be the “Billionaire’s Century.” And if they succeed, then the middle class in America - and through most of the developed world - will go extinct.

 

Thom Hartmann is an author and nationally syndicated daily talk show host. His newest book is The Thom Hartmann Reader.

Sam Sacks is a former Democratic staffer on Capitol Hill.  He's now the senior producer on The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann airing weeknights at 7pm EST on Free Speech TV and RT America.

Ron Paul Manages To Incite Genuine Disgust From Both GOP and Dems

By Linda the Dolt

In the wake of 2012′s bitter political contests, former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) has single-handedly managed to forge a small swath of common ground between liberals and conservatives. On Monday, Paul issued a Tweet so insensitive that members of both political parties have since expressed their bipartisan disgust.

The Tweet was prompted by the tragic death of U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle on Saturday:

Chris Kyle's death seems to confirm that "he who lives by the sword dies by the sword." Treating PTSD at a firing range doesn't make sense.

To be fair, that does sound like a rather… risky? … form of PTSD treatment, but perhaps we can all agree it’s an egregiously dickish move to imply that Kyle’s death was caused by his own well-intentioned attempt to help a fellow veteran. Kyle dedicated much of his post-military career to helping PTSD sufferers such as his alleged killer, Eddie Ray Routh, who opened fire on Kyle at a shooting range.

While specialists will no doubt debate the safety and effectiveness of this form of PTSD treatment (the theory is that it reintroduces a small, “safe” PTSD trigger to help desensitize the sufferer), the rest of America has come to a consensus on the separate matter of Ron Paul’s comments. Even Paul’s own son, Rand, seems to agree that that was a stupid fucking thing to Tweet, Dad (not his exact words but given Rand’s proclivity for right-wing pandering, he was almost certainly thinking it).

Paul, an anti-war advocate, later offered his condolences, implying that his Tweet was meant as a criticism of “Unconstitutional and unnecessary wars” rather than of Kyle himself. While we don’t necessarily disagree with Paul’s anti-war stance, we’d like to offer him a few helpful tips for next time:

1.) If someone dies, do not use his death to make a completely tangential political point.

2.) And especially don’t do this within 48 hours of his tragic passing.

3.)  And double-especially don’t do this if the guy was just trying to do something charitable for a fellow veteran in need, even if the guy’s methods were questionable. 

4.)  And triple-especially don’t do this via some glib comment on Twitter, you asshat.  In fact, to be on the safe side, just never Tweet about anyone’s death, ever, from now on.

5.)  And also, you need to rethink those hideous shoes you’re always wearing. That’s not really relevant to this particular controversy, but as long as we’re offering some constructive advice here it seemed appropriate to bring it to your attention. 

That is all.

Fat Ass Chris Christie Needs To STFU

MSNBC's Karen Finney & Richard Wolffe join Lawrence O'Donnell to discuss FOX News, facelifts, and why Gov. Chris Christie feels a former White House doctor should remain silent about his weight.

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Hey, Chris Christie:

Eric Cantor tries to revive the GOP

House Republican Leader Eric Cantor gave a new speech with the same old details in an attempt to re-brand the Republican Party. The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson and The Daily Beast's Bob Shrum talk with Ed Schultz about the continuing failure to make substantive changes to the Republican Party.

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"New" Republican Plan, Same old goal

One of the most powerful Republicans in Pennsylvania could introduce legislation next month to reallocate his state's electoral votes. Ed Schultz explains how it works and why 5 other states have abandoned the idea. Contributing writer for The Nation Magazine, Ari Berman, explains how the plan puts Democrats and voters at a disadvantage.

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Most Americans Now Fear The Government

By Wendy Gittleson

Glenn Beck and Alex Jones might be hawking overpriced “survival seeds,” but you can be sure that the only seeds they are personally planting sprout a big, ugly strain of paranoia. That paranoia is growing – so much so that the majority of Americans now believe that the big, bad gubmint is out to take away their rights.

Please allow me to submit Exhibit One – Alex Jones on a five-hour freakout. You don’t have to watch the entire five hours. In fact, the first 15 seconds or so will give you an idea, but trust me, there are plenty of Americans who have listened to five hours.



Or there is this from Glenn Beck:



Obviously, I could go on. There’s Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and who could forget the Tea Partiers…right there, destroying the government from within.

According to an irony-filled poll conducted by Pew Research, a full 53% of Americans believe that the government is out to take away their rights. 43% feel that the government is more benign. That is almost a direct reversal from 2003 (during the George W. Bush administration), when the numbers were 45% and 54%, respectively.

 

Here’s where the irony starts: Despite the GOP’s laser focus on eliminating women’s reproductive rights, men are more likely to feel that their rights will be stripped away.

Despite the fact that minorities are most likely to be wrongfully incarcerated, it’s white people who are most likely to fear for their freedom. Ditto for young people and older people.

Republicans fear the government more than Democrats. Gun owners more than non-gun owners.
Most significant though, was the partisan divide  - which of course, goes back to Alex Jones and Glenn Beck.

The growing view that the federal government threatens personal rights and freedoms has been led by conservative Republicans. Currently 76% of conservative Republicans say that the federal government threatens their personal rights and freedoms and 54% describe the government as a “major” threat. Three years ago, 62% of conservative Republicans said the government was a threat to their freedom; 47% said it was a major threat.
By comparison, there has been little change in opinions among Democrats; 38% say the government poses a threat to personal rights and freedoms and just 16% view it as a major threat. [Source]

In Republicans’ defense, it was Democrats who distrusted the government during the Bush administration, but instead of fearing the government, dissatisfied liberals expressed anger.

 There is one thing everyone agrees upon though – Congress doesn’t work.

 

Geraldo for Senate?

Geraldo Rivera expresses interest in running for Senate in 2014, and The Ed Show has obtained a (fake) exclusive copy of Geraldo Rivera's first campaign ad for United States Senate!

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GOP could be in need of storm aid

A huge stretch of severe storms ripped through the east coast yesterday with some of the worst damage happening in Georgia. Every entire Republican delegation from the state of Georgia, with the exception of Rep. Jack Kingston voted against Sandy aid.

Ed Schultz gives his thoughts on what should happen if the state of Georgia ends up needing federal assistance.

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Jindal plans cuts for the poor

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is planning big cuts to Medicaid that would have a devastating impact on his state's poorest citizens. “Tha Hip Hop Doc” Dr. Rani Whitfield of the National Association of Free Clinics tells Ed Schultz what these cuts mean for Louisiana.

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'Dead-Eye Dick' Cheney Asked For Gun Control Advice

By David



Dick Cheney may have accidentally shot a man in the face while he was vice president, but that didn't stop Fox News from flying to Nevada to get his advice on recently-proposed gun control laws.

Fox News correspondent Griff Jenkins caught up with Cheney over the week at the Safari Club International convention for gun owners and manufacturers, where the former vice president and his daughter, Liz, participated in a discussion about gun rights and the realism of torture in the film "Zero Dark Thirty."

Cheney told Jenkins he was "worried" about President Barack Obama's efforts to increase gun safety.

"We may end up in a situation where you get a proposal or a proposition that does, in fact, threaten the rights of law-abiding Americans, and at the same time, doesn't do anything with respect to the problem everybody's concerned about, such as the shooting that happened in Connecticut," the Wyoming Republican said.

"I find especially in groups like the group here and an awful lot of my folks in Wyoming who supported me all those years in Congress are very, very concerned that there isn't adequate regard for the rights of law-abiding citizens," he added. "We understand that there's clearly an effort underway, but one of the things we've done in Wyoming -- with respect to Jackson Hole, where I live, with respect to safety of schools -- we have a deputy sheriff, armed deputy sheriff at the schools in the city. And that's probably a more effective deterrent than anything that Congress seems to be debating at the present time."

"How worried are you the President Obama's gun control plan threatens the Second Amendment rights of every law-abiding American?" Jenkins asked.

"I think a lot of people are worried," Cheney said, pointing to a recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit which found that Obama had violated the Constitution by making recess appointments while lawmakers were using gimmick to keep Congress in session over the holidays.

"So I think the concern is very real and very legitimate, that the administration sometimes isn't as cautious or as precise, if you will," Cheney opined.

While on a 2006 hunting trip for quail in Texas, Cheney mistakenly shot 78 year old Harry Whittington in the face.

"I am the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend," he later told Fox News. "That is something I will never forget."

36 Republicans vote no on disaster aid for victims of Hurricane Sandy

36 Republicans vote no on disaster aid for victims of Hurricane Sandy. Yet, most of those "no" votes voted "yes" when it came to disaster relief for their own constituents. Ed Schultz looks into the hypocrisy, and discusses it with Salon's Joan Walsh.

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