Mimi Kennedy (actress, Midnight In Paris) makes a point about how Hollywood exports violence abroad, and Jordan Zakarin (writer/editor, The Huffington Post) shares his thoughts on the cozy relationship between the film industry and the Pentagon. The final point is on what may be the most controversial moment in Oscars history involving Marlon Brando and Native Americans. Cenk Uygur (host, The Young Turks) leads the discussion with Mike Farrell (actor/activist/writer - president, Death Penalty Focus), Tina Dupuy (managing editor, CrooksandLiars.com), and Ed Rampell (film critic and author, 'Progressive Hollywood').

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I've had many, many conversations with people who struggle to understand why the media never seems to quite understand the extreme level of dissatisfaction and skepticism of politicians. My answer to them is invariably the same: one cannot overstate the insularity of the Beltway Bubble. These people live next to one another, eat together, entertain together and associate almost exclusively with one another. We get hints of it from time to time: David Gregory playing back up dancer to Karl Rove; media elites waxing rhapsodic on John McCain's barbecue prowess, and then there's just the sycophantic stylings of Wolf Blitzer:

I know it will probably sound weird, but I admire these politicians who put themselves out there before the American public knowing full well that all their warts will be exposed big time.

Most of them already have lots of money. They could easily coast at this point in their lives and sit back and relax.

Instead, they are working hard on the campaign trail.

I’ve seen them in action, and it’s tough. They get up early in the morning and go to sleep late at night. They have to deliver the same stump speech over and over and over again, and then answer an endless amount of often annoying questions at town hall meetings, at diners and from reporters such as me.

I’ve covered politicians long enough to know they certainly like the power that comes with elected office, but it’s still a rough and tough proposition. You think it’s easy going out there all the time and appealing for campaign cash?

Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul and Rick Perry could have taken the easy path and relaxed and enjoyed life. Instead of playing golf and hanging out with their children and grandchildren, they are working hard trying to get the Republican presidential nomination. In the process, they are bitterly attacked - often for good reason.

What the....? Blitzer, who distinguished himself as journalist during the first Gulf War, has reduced himself to saluting Republican politicians simply because they run for office? What's next--"Kudos for the Kardashians: An Appreciation of Talentless Wealthy Camera Hogs"? "Sympathy for CEOs: The Heartache of Golden Parachutes"? These men are gathering huge amounts of money from donors, attention for their egos and setting themselves up for healthy future speaking fees and lobbying gigs. With the exception of Romney, not another one of them has a mathematical chance in hell of nabbing the nomination, much less the general election. Think about it...what other motivation could they possibly have?

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If you're going to be out holiday shopping, set your DVRs for the debut of Cenk Uygur and the Young Turks on Current TV this Monday! Cenk will be on at 7pm Eastern/6pm Central weeknights on Current TV.

As an extra added bonus, if you watch on Friday, you might catch a glimpse or two of our own Tina Dupuy. :)

If you're not sure whether Current is available with your cable carrier, visit this page to get the channel number or petition your carrier to add them to the lineup.

Congratulations to The Young Turks on their new gig. Best of luck to them all!

Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks was filling in for Dylan Ratigan on MSNBC yesterday, and had on Sam Seder and conservative blogger Matt Lewis about Netroots 2010, Right Online, and media bias.

Lewis actually started arguing that the reason liberals don't have a Breitbart is because we don't need one -- we have the whole liberal media. No, really, he said that.

LEWIS: You don't need Andrew Breitbart. You have the Washington Post and the New York Times and three tv networks. The conservatives had to invent Andrew Breitbart because of the liberal bias in the media for decades. It's only been since the advent of the blogosphere the conservatives hope to keep up.

You don't need him. You've got networks. The Washington Post and the New York Times don't run any -- whatever the liberals want them to run.
It's obvious.

It seems like only yesterday when the Times ran that investigative series exposing false intelligence and urging President Bush not to invade Iraq, doesn't it?

This really needs to be heard to be believed. Boston-area radio talk show host Jay Severin was suspended this week for making highly inflammatory and racist remarks on his talk show about Mexicans. TYT's Cenk Uygur thinks the station didn't go far enough and Severin should lose his job:

As you heard in the video above, Severin has been suspended by WTKK-FM in Boston. But that is not nearly enough. If you don't get fired for this, what do you get fired for?

Here are just some of his prize quotes from the show:

"So now, in addition to venereal disease and the other leading exports of Mexico - women with mustaches and VD - now we have swine flu."

He described Mexicans as "the world's lowest of primitives."

"When we are the magnet for primitives around the world - and it's not the primitives' fault by the way, I'm not blaming them for being primitives - I'm merely observing they're primitive."

"It's millions of leeches from a primitive country come here to leech off you and, with it, they are ruining the schools, the hospitals, and a lot of life in America."

"We should be, if anything, surprised that Mexico has not visited upon us poxes of more various and serious types already, considering the number of criminaliens already here."

He also said that emergency rooms had "become essentially condos for Mexicans."

And on a 2004 broadcast, he compared Muslims to a fifth column in this country and said in response to a caller who thought people should reach out to Muslims: "You think we should befriend them; I think we should kill them."

But unfortunately calling for the murder of Muslim-Americans has become so commonplace and acceptable these days that he didn't even come close to getting fired for those comments. So, I guess he figured he had free reign to attack the other half of M&Ms.

Now before some of you start making a "Free Speech" martyr of Severin, be clear what free speech means. It does NOT mean that you have the right to spew any kind of ugly thought you have on public airwaves. It means that the government cannot curtail your right to speak your mind. It doesn't mean that you do not have to deal with the repercussions of what you say. In this case, Severin's boss is not the government and they must assume the responsibility for allowing such unmitigated hate on the air. Avoiding Godwin references, how similar was Severin's rant to Radio Rwanda? Is that the kind of allusions with which WTKK wants to be associated?

LA Times:

Television network executives looking for new talent are accustomed to getting pleas from agents urging them to check out their clients.

But in the last few weeks, MSNBC has experienced a different kind of onslaught: a flood of unsolicited endorsements from fans of liberal radio hosts touting them as the network's next potential big star.

The grass-roots campaigns were triggered by the news that the cable channel is contemplating creating a new show for its 7 p.m. time slot, currently occupied by a repeat of "Countdown With Keith Olbermann." That prompted the launch of independent Facebook groups extolling the merits of two radio hosts: Cenk Uygur of the Internet show "The Young Turks" and Sam Seder of Air America.

The lobbying efforts have drawn thousands of supporters and led fans to pepper MSNBC with e-mails in support of their favorite personality. Hundreds of people have posted messages of support online, some even creating their own video spots. (Give the time slot to "The Young Turks," warns one, "or I'll switch back to CNN.") Liberal bloggers on sites like MyDD.com have also weighed in.

They all hope that MSNBC will choose a host cast from the same left-leaning mold as Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, who have helped power the cable channel's ratings.

"You have a block with two unabashedly progressive voices that doesn't exist anywhere else on cable news," said Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, founder of Daily Kos, who urged his readers to back Seder for the spot. "We want to take advantage of locking up that third hour, if we can."

MSNBC President Phil Griffin said he's not necessarily looking for someone who shares the political leanings of Olbermann and Maddow, but is delighted by the response.

"If people identify with us, I'm thrilled," he said. "Obviously, we're going to have flow between our shows," Griffin added. "But it isn't going to be ideology that drives it. I want that hour to be edgy, to be smart, to be a little snarky."

Both Sam and Cenk are good friends of the site and John's appeared on both of their programs, so we're not taking sides on this one. We'd be thrilled if either one gets the nod. But it's also nice to know that Griffin is sensing which way the wind blows and is receptive to listening to us instead of throwing yet another moronic right winger to spoon feed conservative talking points.

So good luck to both Sam and Cenk. Hope we see one of you (or both, dare we hope!) on the air really soon.

Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks talks about the politicization of the concept of patriotism.

Meanwhile, since the establishment media is determined to tie Barack Obama to everything anyone he may have ever had contact with has said, Cenk says it's time to play the "Six Degrees of Barack Obama" game.

Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks interviewed Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA06) about what the Democratic majority in Congress is planning to do to get us out of Iraq.

Lynn Woolsey: I'll tell you one of the things -- and you're just going to hate this -- because I hate it. But, there's this sense that we don't have the votes to do what we need to do, the right things to do, so we're not going to do anything, virtually. And what I say is, okay well if our troops, our wonderful troops over there say, "Well, you know, this is really hard and I don't know we can win this battle, so I think I won't do it." I just think we are looking at this so wrong. And I think the people of this country...89 percent of Americans polled are saying that our economy is directly related to our involvement in Iraq. I mean, they get it. We shouldn't be there in the first place. It's bringing our country down and our economy down. So I would think that the reason they made us the majority party anyway was so that we would do something about it.

The entire interview is available here. I'm out of words to express my disgust. Hopefully, you aren't and you can contact your congresscritter and remind them that even if they're calculating on you not voting for another Republican majority, there is always a "write in the blank" option on the ballot. That includes all incumbent Republicans. There isn't a safer action for Congress to make, given the polling of how Americans feel about the war and yet, they don't feel they can get the votes. Unbelievable. How about this as a reason? We can't afford this anymore.

From Stranahan.

Cenk Uygur and Wes Clark Jr. will be liveblogging the primary in conjunction with Brave New Films, with guests like Robert Greenwald, Jane Hamsher and Eric Boehlert.

Open Thread...

Cenk Uygur at TYT speaks to Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) about Congress's recent caving to the Bush administration on the budget spending bills.

I'm sure that Rep. Israel is a very well-intentioned congressperson, but it's clear that He. Just. Doesn't. Get. It. I can't think of a better recent example demonstrating how the Stockholm Syndrome has infected the majority party in Washington D.C.

Rep. Israel agreed with everything Cenk said--in principle. But he's lacking the spine to do anything more, as are the leadership "above his pay grade." That's where you MUST come in. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz told Ed Schultz weeks ago that she doesn't hear about these things from her constituents. I put in a call to my congresscritter and had much the same thing confirmed. They're asked about local interests like protecting local businesses and expediting government bureaucracy for their constituents, like passport facilitation. They get their share of angry calls, but what they don't get are calls of support for standing up against the Bush administration and their Republican counterparts. No one is telling them "if you play tough, we will have your back."

In a perfect world, they would not need us to do so. I have been guilty of making the angry calls--I told DiFi's office I would do everything I could to oppose any future re-election campaign she would choose to start. And I will. But I realized talking to my congressperson that I had to also say "I need you to represent us better. I will back you up if you do. I will write letters to the editor, whatever is needed to show that you have my support by acting like the majority party."

They are cowering after 25 years of Republican majority. They fear the Republican noise machine within their insulated Beltway Bubble. We have seen just this week how empowering we can be when we make our voices heard in a positive yet forceful way. So during this holiday break in Congress, please make a point of calling your representative's local office and let them know that we have their back, IF they represent us.

It's the only way we'll see any change.