This is an interview I did with The UpTake.

The Occupy movement has successfully put the economic injustice plaguing the United States on televisions across America, says Tina Dupuy, a nationally syndicated op-ed columnist and managing editor of Crooks and Liars.

The reason that most Americans were unaware of these issues before the Occupy movement caught fire this fall is that 60 percent of us get our news exclusively from local news sources. Those 30-minute local news segments devote a full 10 minutes to commercials and two minutes to “teasers” of stories to come. That leaves very little time for real news about real issues. Dupuy says that newscasters too often fill the gap with trivial stories such as reports about “Dancing with the Stars” or news of a cat stuck in a tree in Germany.

“We don’t have a real broad knowledge of issues that affect us, like the housing bubble or about what our local and national government is doing,” says Dupuy. “But at least now the local news is showing protest signs of what economic injustice is. They’re being forced to cover these issues and cover the raids, arrests and encampments and have the protestors on television talking about these issues.”

“Now we’ve seen our local news talk about the homeless population, talk about people who aren’t able to find jobs, talk about students who are now sharecroppers to banks because they have $200,000 in student loan debt — debt they can’t renegotiate.”

There has to be a law against this, right?

House Minority Leader Eric Cantor made it known today that tax loopholes would now be allowed consideration in the debt ceiling negotiations. According to the Associated Press, the statement was a break from his former position that they only be considered in an exhaustive overhaul of the tax code. It is a slight break in what has become a deeply entrenched partisan-specific debate. But Rep. Cantor has a problem with conflict of interest with regard to the negotiations, something that was made public a week ago. So why hasn't he recused himself not only from the negotiations but from having anything to do with the debt ceiling talks and/or its subsequent vote?

Last week, Salon.com ran an article revealing that Rep. Cantor had up to about a $15,000 investment in ProShares Trust Ultrashort 20+ Year Treasury EFT, a fund that deals in "shorting" U.S. Treasury bonds. To explain: a "short" increases in worth when something fails. In this case: U.S. Treasury bonds. If the debt ceiling is not raised and the United States defaults on its loans, treasury bonds are likely to see increased market volatility and an assured drop in worth. If that were to happen, Cantor stands to make a lot of money on his investment.

Yet, the congressman is in negotiations with Vice President Joe Biden and others in what is supposed to be attempts at resolving the debt ceiling issue and keeping the government from shutting down, which could occur should a compromise not be reached by Aug. 2, the last day Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner maintains he can keep juggling the government's bills in order to keep it running smoothly without defaulting on at least some of its debts.

You read that right. Eric Cantor will personally profit if we default on the debt ceiling. I had written some weeks ago that I thought this whole debate was nothing more than kabuki theater, because ultimately, the GOP would not go against their Wall Street masters and destroy the full faith and credit of the country. But when your lead negotiator is lining up side bets that we will, in fact, fail, then you have to wonder where his loyalties lie and whether any negotiations coming from the Republican could be considered "in good faith".

With the news that Boehner has canceled his scheduled meeting this morning with Obama because the White House will not absolutely take tax hikes off the table, I'd say it's time for the White House to separate distinctly and definitively the discussions of the debt ceiling and the deficit and tell Congress to vote to raise the debt ceiling without delay.

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Open Thread below....

We're very excited to announce that Grammy Award-winning musician Peter Frampton and his son Julian will be at Crooks and Liars today for a live chat to promote their album Thank You Mr Churchill and the single "Road to the Sun". Please join us at 3:00 pm Pacific/6:00 pm Eastern to chat with Peter and Julian.

That loud PLOP you just heard was Andrew Breitbart crapping a brick at this news:

Ousted Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod says she will sue a conservative blogger who posted an edited video of her making racially tinged remarks last week.

Sherrod made the announcement Thursday in San Diego at the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention.

This is long overdue; frankly, I always felt that both Van Jones and ACORN officials should have sued Fox and/or Breitbart after they were smeared, just so that they will think twice before smearing other people in the future. So Sherrod will be carrying the burden forward for many of us on the progressive left who have been victimized by these crooks and liars.

Attoney Michael Yaki at City Brights thinks so too:

Defamation law clearly puts Breitbart in a tough position. He deliberately aired a video that was edited in a way to put Sherrod in a very bad light. Breitbart even said on Fox News that the purpose of the tape was to show that racism existed in the NAACP, even though the speech Sherrod gave was precisely the opposite -- it was about overcoming prejudice and stereotypes. Before the tape, Sherrod was not a public figure for whom a higher legal threshold of "actual malice" would be required, though in this case it would be hard to say that malice or a reckless disregard to the truth wasn't present.

Fox, by way of offering Breitbart a forum, may be similarly at risk. Under the "republication" doctrine, Fox may be as liable as Breitbart for recklessly running (and rerunning) the doctored footage.

There is no excuse for those liberals who so quickly threw Sherrod under the bus without the benefit of hearing her side of the story. But while inexcusable, the fact remains that but for Andrew Breitbart, who deliberately manufactured this story and dressed it up with racist overtones, people today would have no idea who Shirley Sherrod is or what she does. And she'd still be at her old job.

Sometimes in the law you get the perfect test case. Shirley Sherrod's high tech railroading by Breitbart offers an unprecedented opportunity to make an example of the right wing's repeated distortion and discoloration of the facts. At the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights I've watched my right-wing colleagues and their media friends misrepresent and inflame the paltry facts that constitute the New Black Panther Party investigation. But while my conservative colleagues flail around like psychotic berserkers in the Panther proceedings, they have yet to cause collateral damage to anything but the truth. That is not the case with Ms. Sherrod, who suffered public vilification, private harassment and humiliation, and who was pressured to leave her job.

You know, we progressives like to rely on rational appeals a lot. And we're often frustrated when we discover that they're not working -- while Republican crooks and liars prosper with their often irrational appeals to people's emotions.

Thus, in the immigration debate, we can recite the whole litany of facts debunking the people -- like those in Arizona who passed and are now promoting its police-state immigration law, SB1070 -- who are trying to convince Americans that Latino immigrants are bringing with them a wave of crime. And you know what? The lizard-brain appeal often wins out.

We can point out till we're blue in the face that:

-- Despite the defenders of SB1070's claims that the law will brook no racial profiling, all Latino travelers from out of state -- including American citizens -- will be at risk should they choose to travel to Arizona if the law takes effect.

-- The law gives federal enforcement powers to local authorities -- something previously unseen in law enforcement.

-- Arizonans have been inverting reality when it comes to the levels and nature of immigrant-related border crime, conflating without evidence a handful of cases involving white victims while completely ignoring even more startling incidents involving white vigilantes and Latino victims.

-- The bill and its ensuing controversy has proven a major nexus for the mainstreaming of the racist right's white-supremacist agenda.

SB1070's defenders like to point to its popularity -- and yes, we can just as easily point out that, historically speaking, depriving the rights of others in this country has always been a popular proposition. But that's the rational argument.

We need to realize that we can make appeals that are both rational and emotional. Which is where this new video by the Black Eyed Peas' Taboo comes in.

Because really, the issues around SB1070 are very simple: right and wrong, just and unjust. And sometimes there's no better way to make that point than with a simple, great, heartfelt song.

And this is exactly that. The video features some guest vocals by Dolores Huerta, Eva Longoria, Oscar De La Hoya, Shakira & Juanes. It builds off the familiar riff of "One People" and becomes its own song.

Indeed, lots of musicians are joining this cause, and it can only help. Recall that Los Lobos has already made a statement of its own.

So while we're waiting for Judge Benson to rule on the Justice Department's suit to block the enactment of SB1070, here's something to remind us that sometimes the appeals from the heart can be the most powerful.

FWIW, Taboo was interviewed on MSNBC today about the video:

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Happy Independence Day from all of us at Crooks and Liars.

Open Thread for news, sports and festivities below....

GOP Motivational Posters

I posted this at Jesus' General last week, but I'd like to share it with Crooks and Liars readers.

AmericaBlog has the latest from MyDD. What's interesting is that Dailykos, TalkingPoints Memo, Raw Story, Eschaton, Crooks and Liars and Americablog nowhave more traffic than Instapundit, which remains the highesttrafficked conservative blog...read on

Wal-Mart's business is America's business

My latest letter for Jesus General since I received my new commision as Colonel.

"I think Col. Crooks and Liars might have something here:"