Why-oh-why is Dana Loesch being invited on the Sunday news shows? The Editor-in-Chief of Breitbart's BigJournalism site deserves no such association with either honest brokers or journalism. Actually, considering the larger panel discussion on the Susan G. Komen controversy and the massive amount of misinformation muddying the issue by Matthew Dowd and George Will, honest brokers and Sunday morning news shows have very little to do with one another either, but I digress.
Loesch is particularly worthy of scorn because she uses a discredited "sting" by the discredited Live Action organization, led by the discredited Lila Rose to amplify her point:
Now, you would think at some point in the past — it's been a year to the date since Live Action called Planned Parenthood clinics in 27 different states to ask whether or not they had mammography machines. You would think that at that point — they'd had a year — Planned Parenthood would invest in obtaining licenses to operate and own mammography machines and give mammograms so they could have avoided this whole thing.
HOAX EXPOSED: Rose's Video Does Not Establish That Planned Parenthood Ever Discussed Mammograms Provided By The Organization
Richards Discussed "Access" To Mammograms Through Planned Parenthood - Not Mammograms Actually Provided By The Organization. In the video at the center of Rose's hoax, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards discusses access to health care - including mammograms - not actual health care services provided by Planned Parenthood. Discussing GOP efforts to defund Planned Parenthood during an appearance on The Joy Behar Show, Richards said:
If this bill ever becomes law, millions of women in this country are going to lose their health care access, not to abortion services, to basic family planning. You know, mammograms, cancer screenings, cervical cancer. [CNN, The Joy Behar Show, 2/21/11, via Nexis]
Pro-Life Activist Jill Stanek: Richards Was "Correct." From Stanek's blog:
Again, proving that the best Sunday morning news-of-the-day conversation is to be found on Up with Chris Hayes, Hayes had on four women to discuss the Komen/Planned Parenthood backlash. Imagine that! Women like Amy Goodman, Anne Marie Slaughter, Melissa Harris-Perry and Michelle Goldberg to discuss the greater political ramifications of the reproductive health argument, instead of conservative white men. Will wonders never cease?
What appeared to catch the Komen Foundation and other conservative backers off guard was the immediate and grassroots rejection of this continued politicization of women's health issues by the conservative agenda. In an earlier segment of the show, Goldberg surmised that this is has as much to do with the insularity of conservative thinking (as evidence by Komen's continued help from Ari Fleischer) as well as the class issues, as Harris-Perry suggests in this clip. When an estimated one in five Americans have sought treatment for a wide array of health issues from Planned Parenthood (and that includes men) over their lifetime, it is truly a bridge too far for conservatives to threaten the very existence of this organization.
Republican, Democrat or Independent, the truth of the matter is that we are *not* a center-right country, and when conservatives choose to push that agenda, it all of us that remind them that we will continue to fight for the rights of those who don't get a voice in the discussion.
In Catholic masses all over this country, priests are injecting politics into their sermons, condemning the Obama administration for the new Health and Human Services regulations that religious institutions must offer contraceptive benefits to its members. It doesn't require members to violate their personal beliefs by taking advantage of the benefit, mind you. But this new regulation acknowledges that there are some who may work in a Catholic hospital who may not have the same stricture against contraceptives and want it to be part of their health services. But that's perhaps a too nuanced view:
The Catholic Church reacted strongly Friday to a White House defense of new rules that will force many religious employers to provide contraception to their workers in government-mandated health insurance plans.
"The White House information about this is a combination of misleading and wrong," said Anthony Picarello, general counsel of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He said the bishops would "pursue every legal mandate available to them to bring an end to this mandate. That means legislation, litigation and public advocacy. All options are on the table."
The new regulations were announced last month by the Department of Health and Human Services as part of an effort to guarantee that women receive free "preventive" healthcare services, including cervical cancer screening, breast pumps — and contraception. They require employers to include those services in their employee health insurance plans by August.
Religious institutions can qualify for an exemption if the services violate their beliefs, but not if they employ large numbers of people who do not share those beliefs. [..]
In a blog post Wednesday, the White House responded that the new rules won't force anyone to buy contraceptives. Cecilia Muñoz, director of the Domestic Policy Council, wrote: "Over half of Americans already live in the 28 states that require insurance companies [to] cover contraception." These include such large states as California and New York, she said.
The Catholic bishops shot back Friday, saying it was misleading to say that no one would be forced to "buy" contraceptives, because everyone who contributes to an insurance plan will be paying a portion of the subsidy that provides for free contraception.
Alex Castellanos and David Brooks are only too happy to pick up the bishops' mantle and further the meme that this is a solid shot across the bow of religious liberty in Obama's war on religion. How nice of them to legitimize Newt Gingrich that way. Rachel Maddow and Xavier Becerra try gamely to point out that refusing contraceptive benefits in the twenty first century is beyond ridiculous, but of course, host David Gregory gives Alex Castellanos the last word.
Mitt Romney says so many provably false statements in his stump speeches that it's hard to know where to begin to tear them down. Apparently, for Fareed Zakaria, when you use the title of his book out of context, that gets him in fact checking mode. What is obviously intended to be a red meat, "Obama hates America", jingoistic rallying cry for Romney's followers is a matter of great discussion on Fareed Zakaria GPS weekly. Set the record straight, Fareed:
In 1990, China represented 2% of global gross domestic product. It has quadrupled, to 8%, and it's rising. By most estimates, China's economy will become the world's largest between 2016 and 2018. And this is not simply an economic story. China's military capacity and reach are also expanding. Beijing's defense spending is likely to surpass America's by 2025.
It's not just China that's rising. Emerging powers on every continent have achieved political stability and economic growth and are becoming active on the global stage. Twenty years ago Turkey was a fragile democracy, dominated by its army, constantly in need of Western economic bailouts. Today, Turkey has a trillion-dollar economy that grew 6.6% last year. Since April 2009, Turkey has created 3.4 million jobs - that's more than the entire European Union, Russia and South Africa put together.
Look in this hemisphere: In 1990, Brazil was emerging from decades of dictatorship and was wracked by inflation rates that reached 3,000 percent. Today, Brazil is a stable democracy, steadily growing with foreign-exchange reserves of $350 billion.
I could go on, Mitt.
Barack Obama has succeeded in preserving and even enhancing U.S. influence in this world precisely because he has recognized these new forces at work. He has traveled to the emerging nations and spoken admiringly of their rise. He replaced the old Western club and made the Group of 20 the central decision-making forum for global economic affairs. By emphasizing multilateral organizations, alliance structures and international legitimacy, he got results.
I'm sure that even as I type this, Zakaria's comments are filling up with outraged notes from conservatives denouncing him as anti-American for even suggesting that Mitt might want to educate himself on the realities of the world. But frankly, I think it's high time the media start doing this for all Americans.
Boy, is it getting nasty out there. And I'm not talking the ads either.
Last week, when the candidates were still in Florida, trying to drum up primary votes, there was a little...how do you say it?...incident between a Ron Paul supporter and Newt Gingrich's security detail. Things got a little heated:
Yahoo!’s Chris Moody reports that [Eddie] Dillard, decked out in a “Ron Paul Rocks America” T-shirt and wielding a “Ron Paul 2012″ sign, became a target for Gingrich’s security personnel when he refused to move from one of Gingrich’s Primary Day campaign stops.
Dillard’s opposing signage was, apparently, too close to Gingrich and his wife Callista, so security attempted to nudge Dillard out of the way. Dillard held his ground until security decided to take action. Moody writes:
Gingrich aides and security personnel swarmed Dillard, trying to intimidate him into moving. One of Gingrich’s security agents stepped in front of him. When Dillard didn’t budge, the agent lifted his heeled shoe over Dillard’s bare foot and dug the back of it into his skin, twisting it side-to-side like he was stomping out a cigarette
Dillard attempted to photograph the action but his phone was knocked out of his hand. One Gingrich campaign aide shouted, “Just block him! …Everyone step on his toes!”
You know, I find these Ron Paul supporters annoying myself, but there's no call for that kind of behavior. Maybe simple humanity is too much to expect from a Gingrich staffer. You can bet money talks to them, though. And Dillard is making sure to hit them where they hurt, having filed a lawsuit against Gingrich and his security team for assault and battery, seeking an unspecified amount of damages.
Wonder if Sheldon Adelson is willing to bankroll Newt for that too.
I don't think Thom spent nearly enough time on this, but it was perhaps the most provocative thing said at the World Economic Forum. South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu told the audience that's time for men to step aside and let women be in charge:
When we exclude women, we diminish ourselves
This shouldn’t be such a difficult topic for people of faith. It seems entirely consistent with the teachings of the world’s great religions that men and women are equal in the eyes of God. God isn’t stupid – He created Eve because Adam couldn’t make it on his own. Kofi Annan, receiving a report from the UN Alliance of Civilizations, said it is the faithful who are the problem - not the faiths.
Nevertheless, faith and gender remains a sensitive subject. My colleagues indulged me and allowed me to reflect on the apartheid era when the majority of South Africans were excluded and marginalised for something they could do nothing about: their ethnicity.
It seems to me that women are also sidelined for something they can do nothing about,their gender and humanity is the poorer for it. In my own church, which decided only in 1992 that women could be ordained as priests and bishops, it was quite a shock to realise how much we had diminished ourselves in our ministry when we saw the difference women made.
In this volatile time, when there is so much distress and dissatisfaction, we are wasting a huge source of talent and wisdom by not including women as equals in all aspects of life – whether in politics, business or religion.
Not surprisingly, this didn't go over well in the male-dominated WEF. But I think Tutu has a point. Look at this line up...it's not only pasty white, but overwhelmingly male, both hosts and guests. We women are 51 percent of the population and yet are only 17 percent of either house of Congress. Studies have shown that the more a society works towards gender equity, the higher the aggregate education of the entire population, the lower the birth rates, the lower the child mortality, the lower the incidences of domestic abuse and other forms of violent crime. All in all, by all measures, society improves when women have more of a voice in shaping their future. So maybe it is for us to work towards a more equitable society. By the way, if you want to hear more of my thoughts on this, Jacob Dean, producer of Thom Hartmann, has an internet radio show on Nicole Sandler's network every Monday evening and we talked about a women's revolution last week. Tell me if you don't agree that we need to put more gender balance in our society.
ABC's "This Week." Topic: Politics. GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul. Economic Roundtable: Glenn Hubbard, Lawrence H. Summers, Diane Swonk. Political Roundtable: George Will, Matthew Dowd, Arianna Huffington, Dana Loesch.
NBC's "Meet the Press." Topics: Politics; and the Super Bowl. GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich; New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg; Govs. Mitch Daniels, R-Ind., and Deval Patrick, D-Mass.; Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif.
NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Richard Stengel, Andrea Mitchell, Howard Fineman, Nia-Malika Henderson. Topics: Mitt Romney's gaffe on the very poor; negative campaigning in the general election.
MSNBC's "UP with Chris Hayes" - Panel: Melissa Harris-Perry, Michelle Goldberg, Amy Goodman, Anne-Marie Slaughter. Topics: Nevada Republican Primary results; Israel; Susan G. Komen vs. Planned Parenthood; The Obama Administration’s birth control requirement for Catholic institutions
CBS' "Face the Nation." Topic: Politics. Gingrich; former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Roundtable: Michael Kranish, Norah O’Donnell, John Dickerson.
CNN's "State of the Union." Topics: Politics; the economy; and the Middle East. Govs. Martin O'Malley, D-Md., and Bob McDonnell, R-Va.; Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; Dick Armey, chairman of FreedomWorks; Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala. Roundtable: Alice Rivlin, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Ron Brownstein.
CNN's "Reliable Sources with Howard Kurtz" - Topics: Coverage of GOP; Nevada caucus coverage. Panel: Jonathan Martin, Politico; Christina Bellantoni, PBS; Michael Shear, New York Times; Michelle Cottle, Daily Beast; Matt Lewis, Daily Caller; Felix Salmon, Reuters; Mark Potts, University of Maryland.
CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - Topics: Mitt Romney, GOP, religion, and Russia. Panel: David Brooks, New York Times; David Remnick, New Yorker; Peggy Noonan,Wall Street Journal; Chrystia Freeland, Reuters; Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore.
"Fox News Sunday." Topic: Politics. GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum; McDonnell; former Rep. J.C. Watts, R-Okla. Panel: Bill Kristol, Liz Marlantes, Liz Cheney, Juan Williams.
The press is supposed to confront and challenge politicians, to fact check, to provide a service to their viewership to be informed.
Which is why I'm less upset at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell publicly announcing that the Senate Republicans will be contributing an Amicus Brief to the case against President Obama's recess appointments than I am that Candy Crowley never bothered to mention that during the previous administration, Bush made 171 recess appointments--including Ambassador to the UN John Bolton--and Mitch McConnell never said boo to any of them.
The Justice Department is publicly rebutting Republican criticism of the legality of President Barack Obama's recent recess appointments of a national consumer watchdog and other officials.
The department released a 23-page legal opinion Thursday summarizing the advice it gave the White House before the Jan. 4 appointments. GOP leaders have argued the Senate was not technically in recess when Obama acted so the regular Senate confirmation process should have been followed.
Assistant Attorney General Virginia Seitz wrote that the president has authority to make such appointments because the Senate is on a 20-day recess, even though it has held periodic pro forma sessions in which no business is conducted. Seitz argued the pro forma sessions – some with as few as one member present – have not been sufficient for the chamber to exercise its constitutional authority to advise and consent to normal presidential nominations.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has said Obama has endangered the nation's systems of checks and balances, and Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch says the appointments are a very grave decision by an autocratic White House.
Autocratic? Such pearl-clutching hypocrisy. Sen. Mike Lee has promised to obstruct all further nominations as retribution for this completely legal tactic made necessary by Republican obstruction. This, of course, doesn't bother Mitch McConnell either. Because the tyranny of the minority to hold the entire country hostage against the desires of its populace is absolutely acceptable practice, if you're a Republican.
West called out not just President Obama, but Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and fellow Floridian Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.
“Take your message of equality of achievement, take your message of economic dependency, and take your message of enslaving the entrepreneurial will and spirit of the American people somewhere else. You can take it to Europe, you can take it to the bottom of the sea, you can take it to the North Pole, but get the hell out of the United States of America.”
He pledged that he will do everything in his power to stop President Obama from “destroy[ing]” the country.
I've got nothing to say to this hyperbolic absurdity except to note that it is only those least-versed in American history who can make such un-American statements. That he feels comfortable saying such things without fear of the House leadership condemning him (can you imagine the outrage if some Democrat said that about George W. Bush during his term? Quelle horreur!) shows how far down the dialogue has degenerated in the Republican Party. Nonetheless, West is becoming such an embarrassment to the Republican establishment that they are taking pains to redistrict West out of existence.
The teahadists eat that sort of thing up with a spoon, naturally. But the Florida GOP, which has a supermajority in the state legislature and is headed up by GOP Governor Rick “Voldemort” Scott, has undertaken a project to redraw the state’s districts—after being compelled to do so by votes on a ballot initiative in 2010. And it looks like Mr. West might be headed south.
Who would rob the nation of such a fiery demagogue? Wingnuts can’t pin this one on the Dems, who are pretty much powerless in Florida. But Colonel Mustard has a clue:
One of the rising stars of the Tea Party is about to be sacrificed by the Republican establishment in Florida, led by someone spinning for Mitt Romney.
Don’t say you weren’t warned.
It was Will Weatherford in the Conservatory with a wrench! Well, the truth is, West was in some trouble with voters anyway. I don’t live in his district, but from what I understand, voting in a certified loon like West was something of an aberration for that area, and it’s possible they find West’s constant grandstanding a bit embarrassing.
