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I don't know how many regular MSNBC viewers we have here at C&L, but this ad by Andrea Mitchell has been sticking in my craw since I first saw it air not long ago. As part of their "lean forward" series of ads featuring their various hosts, Andrea Mitchell decided to weigh in on the issue of voter disenfranchisement. The trouble here is she refuses to identify just who is doing the disenfranchising.

Somehow the word Republican never manages to leave her lips. Sorry Mrs. Greenspan, but there is one party out there doing their best to make sure people can't vote at unprecedented levels because they know it's bad for them if too many people vote.

Here's more from AlterNet on the topic -- The Cancer of Voter Suppression: The GOP's Silent Coup.

Their article pointed to a new report issued by the Brennan Center for Justice, entitled, Voting Law Changes in 2012.

Here is their executive summary of the report:

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Tea party reporter Susie Sampson gives us yet another installment of The Tea Party Report. This time from The Big Easy - New Orleans.

In a show of solidarity for slain Florida teen Trayvon Martin, some California Democrats donned gray hooded sweatshirts over their suits and ties during Thursday morning's legislative session.

The Sacramento Bee reports that State Sens. Curren Price, Juan Vargas, and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg were among those who paid tribute to Martin with sweatshirts with "In memory of Trayvon Martin" printed on the back.

In the above video, State Senator Curren Price calls the session to order with a statement of the facts of Martin's death when "neighborhood watchman" George Zimmerman shot him, twice, as he walked home from a near-by store to buy Skittles and iced tea. Zimmerman has claimed self-defense, and has not yet been charged with any crime.

Blue Bayou

I could listen to this one all night. Have a good Friday.

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From reports regarding a terrorist bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, resulting in over 200 casualties and calls from Capitol Hill for retaliation. The White House was debating how to go about it. The Hawks in Congress called for an immediate bombing of Hanoi. The bottom line was; this was the first time the Viet Cong hit so close, and it created an embarrassing situation for the U.S. to deal with. How it would be handled would give some indication as to how long this conflict would go on for.

Elsewhere on Capitol Hill - The HUAC Hearings took a turn for extremist groups on this day. With approval given to commence an investigation of the KKK, Black Muslims and The Minutemen. A few protests were voiced, asking how come the KKK and not CORE or the NAACP were being investigated. The old "those Civil Rights groups are loaded with commies" mantra went echoing around the halls of Congress.

And today was the day The Freedom Of Information Act was introduced, bringing an immediate storm of controversy and condemnation from the White House, saying people didn't have the right to know certain things. The opposition thought transparency was a good thing for the Government. But it was also hinted LBJ might just veto the thing if it passed the House and Senate.

Charles De Gaulle issued a stinging denunciation of the French Scientific community. Not that they were screwing up, but that they were insisting on speaking English, especially when it came to International Conferences. Long an opponent of too much Americanization of Europe, the latest tirade from De Gaulle brought into focus the fact that, as much as he claimed to love America, he just hated the way we spoke, and ate food, and listened to music, and drove cars.

And finally, a story about LeRoy Dunlap, who was convicted of robbery and murder in absentia in 1920, since he escaped custody before trial. Dunlap was handed the Death Penalty and managed to evade the long arm of the law for some 45 years, assuming a new name and a new life in the process. Until 1964 when his true identity was discovered. Most everyone had forgotten the case and most of the documents associated with the trial had been long destroyed. But the wheels of justice insisted on grinding forward, so he entered a guilty plea with the proviso that his sentence be reduced to Manslaughter and he be given a prison term, rather than the death penalty. Dunlap, who was 64 and a Grandfather, was convicted and sentenced to from 2-20 years and was eligible for parole when he hit 66.

And that's how it rolled on this particular March 30th in 1965 as delivered over NBC Radio via their News In Review feature.

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It's no secret that Fox News leans to the right, but one host may have crossed the line on Friday when he actively encouraged viewers to "vote Republican" if they didn't like big government.

During an interview with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy seemed to endorse the congressman's "Path to Prosperity" budget.

"This really is kind of a campaign document because it draws a bright line between what the Republicans stand for and what the Democrats stand for," he explained. "If you want big government then the Democrats are your party."

Doocy added: "Whereas, if you want a party that's making some hard choices, vote Republican."

During the interview, Ryan had declared his support for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

"Here's the reason why I endorsed him," the House Budget Committee chairman said. "It's clear to me he understands the fork in the road America is facing. It's clear to me he understands exactly what we need to do to stop America from having a debt crisis."

"I also think he's the best chance of winning and defeating President Obama in the fall."

On Sunday, Ryan indicated that he was willing to "consider" accepting a nomination to be his party’s vice presidential nominee.

“I would have to consider it,” the Wisconsin Republican told Fox News host Chris Wallace. “But it’s not something I’m even thinking about right now because I think our job in Congress is pretty important.”

(H/T: Media Matters)

The amoral and inaccurate Sen. Pat Toomey, lying wingnut extraordinaire, speaks at last week's PA Leadership Conference. He looks moderate compared to what the Corbett administration does to the poor.

The Republican relationship with economic health is akin to that of a leech and its host, which is why I will no longer refer to Republican "leadership." From here on out, it's "bleedership", especially in my home state of Pennsylvania under the Tom Corbett administration:

While many panelists at this weekend’s Pennsylvania Leadership Conference complained about the Pennsylvania government being too big, a new study shows Pennsylvania may be the poster-child for a stagnant unemployment rate due to state level cuts under Republican leadership.

Bryce Covert and Mike Konczai illustrate a painfully obvious point in The Nation regarding the Commonwealth’s cutting of public jobs and enacting partisan social legislation. And while Pennsylvania may be the most obvious example used by the authors, we’re one of many states undergoing a conservative transformation to the dark side.

Republican state legislators, empowered by new control of the governorship and the state house, proposed one of the most stringent mandatory ultrasound bills in the country. The House passed a voter identification law that could block 700,000 Pennsylvanians from voting, most of them young, of color, and poor. Meanwhile, the same state legislators led a successful charge to shrink public employment. The number of government employees fell over 3 percent that year, one of the sharpest declines in any state.

The piece goes onto to explain that “Pennsylvania isn’t alone.” In fact, as we’re all likely aware, 2010 was a blood red electoral year, and happened because those Republicans promised massive job growth if they only got the chance to rule over us. Lots of swing and oft-blue states went red. The result: the economic and social equivalent of a tire iron to the face. In those 11 states where Republicans have taken control since January 2011, “public sector layoffs are disproportionately concentrated, leading to one of the biggest rounds of job losses for the public workforce since record keeping began.” And with that has come a massive increase in conservative bills meant to limit voting by minorities and the poor, and limiting abortion rights.

In 2011, Pennsylvania state and local employment by the state legislature dropped by more than 3 percent, according to the article. Corbett’s lowering of the corporate tax rate and imposition of a low effective tax rate on drilling the Marcellus Shale have “made the deficit even worse.”

“There could have been fewer layoffs than there were,” said Mark Price, an economist based in Pennsylvania. “They could have avoided this.” As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has found, many of these newly GOP-dominated states, including North Carolina, cut corporate taxes, or cut taxes on high-income earners, including Maine and Ohio. Wisconsin did both.

I don't believe they wanted to avoid this. Repeat after me, class: Cheap, disposable labor with no legal protections! It's the Holy Grail of the Grand Old Party.

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Last week, in a fit of anger at the injustice of the Trayvon Martin case, director Spike Lee stupidly tweeted the address of a George Zimmerman of Sanford, Florida. The only problem was that it was NOT the George Zimmerman who shot Trayvon Martin. It was instead the address of an elderly couple whose son shared the same name. At universal condemning, Lee apologized to the couple and today, agreed to a settlement for their distress. I agree with Balloon Juice's John Cole's initial reaction: Spike Lee is an idiot and should not be encouraging vigilante "justice". Unfortunately, Lee also gave the likes of Sean Hannity all the ammunition he needed to run a segment like the one this Thursday.

That said, I do agree with Ellen over at Newshounds who pointed out Hannity's hypocrisy. If he wants appoint himself the campaign donor police for President Obama (as they've done and failed already with Bill Maher), he probably should avoid playing the "both sides are equally terrible" game with his statements, considering his own connections to a charity run by a slavery-justifying, misogynistic Jesse Peterson:

A few quotes from Peterson, via the above links:

“I’ve often said that, ‘Thank God for slavery,’ because, you know, had not, then the blacks over here would have been stuck in Africa… The ride over (in a slave ship) was pretty tough but you know, it’s like riding on a crowded airplane when you’re not in First Class. It’s a tough ride. But you’re happy when you get to your destination.”
“Women’s rights are “a trick from Satan.”
“One of the greatest mistakes that America made was to allow women the opportunity to vote.”
"N)ot all, but most (women) turned into little whores.”

Or the hours upon hours of hate and misogyny that Rush Limbaugh spews on his show daily and that he was still doing this week despite hemorrhaging sponsors, as Media Matters documented here -- Limbaugh: If Health Care Reform Law Is Overturned "College Co-Eds" Might Have To Pay "To Have Protected Sex".

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Yeah, this is pretty much what I thought, but it's still depressing to actually hear it from Wendell Potter. The insurance companies are just salivating at the thought of getting their hands on all those additional premium dollars - they just want to make sure there are as few consumer protections as possible so they get to keep most of the money instead of spending it on pesky things like patient care:

Wendell Potter spent 20 years as top executive with CIGNA. He wrote “Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans”. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has the Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act - with a decision expected in June - the insurance industry whistleblower says the industry’s real goal is not to repeal the law, but to defeat Democrats in November.

Wendell Potter: “They don’t want the bill - quite honestly - to be overturned or repealed. They want the bill to go forward with the individual mandate intact. But what they want to do is to get people to vote out the Democrats who voted for the bill so that they’ll have more friends in Congress to strip out the consumer protections.”

Potter says for-profit health insurers are killing health health care and their unsustainable system will implode within a few years. That’s the view he got from the CIGNA corporate ladder.

"The higher up that ladder I climbed the more I could see what these companies do to meet Wall Street’s profit expectations. And most of the big insurance companies are now for-profit companies. They cancel people’s health insurance when they get sick. They refuse to sell coverage to people who need coverage. They price policies so high that small businesses can no longer afford care. They are spending less and less of our premium dollars on our health care and more and more to reward shareholders and senior executives.”

When millions of dollars are being pumped into Washington by anti-government and anti-tax ideologues, you're bound to find Democrats willing to play along. And when your Washington press corps can't be bothered to get even the smallest details right — well, that must mean the Bowles-Simpson Medicine Show is back in town.

It's here, folks. Journalists are still cooing over a failed proposal they're calling "moderate" and "centrist," based on the radical and unpopular plan put forward by two individuals named Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles.

Another budget, one that's both economically sound and more politically popular, was summarily dismissed by the same media as "partisan" and extreme.

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