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I'm not sure how the Republican party came to be known as the party of "compassionate conservatism," unless it was simply because they used to at least pretend to care about the problems of the middle and low-income class people. In this 2007 video of Republican Mitt Romney's exchange with a wheelchair bound man suffering from a rare and deadly form of muscular dystrophy, Romney's compassionate conservatism takes an icy cold form, as he turns his back on the ill young man, Clayton Holton, and walks away without answering his question.

This exchange, and others like it, will no doubt keep cropping up to haunt Romney throughout his campaign. His complete inability to relate to, or show anything resembling empathy towards mainstream Americans is stunningly on display here. If his position on medical marijuana was due to something he believes is a greater good, as a contender for president of the United States, he should certainly be able to articulate that.However this is likely due to the fact that Romney has no real solutions for real people's problems.

Transcript:

Sick Man: "I suffer from an extremely rare type of muscular dystrophy and I have to take medication or I'll die. Right now I weigh less than 80 pounds, I have all my life. Um, I have support of 5 of my doctors that I am living proof that Medical Marijuana works. I am completely against legalizing it for everyone but there is medical . . ."

Romney: "And you have synthetic marijuana that's available and other . . . "

Sick Man: "It makes me sick. I've tried it and it makes me throw up. I have tried all the medications they are and all the forms they come in after my stimulators, the steroids. I have muscular dystrophy, that's completely against my DNA."

Romney: "I'm sorry to hear that."

Sick Man: "My question to you is, will you arrest me and my doctors if I get medical marijuana?"

Romney: "I'm not in favor of medical marijuana."

(Romney looks away, moves on to next person mid-conversation)

Sick Man: "So, will you have me arrested? . . . "

Romney: "Hi, how are you?" (moving on to next person in line)

Sick Man: "Excuse me, will you please answer my question?"

3rd Person: "You're not going to answer his question, Governor?"

Romney: "I think I have."

3rd Person: "No, he asked you if you were going to arrest him. He asked if you were going to arrest patients like him, Governor? You're just going to ignore a person in a wheelchair?"

Romney: "I spoke with him."

3rd Person: "Yeah, but you didn't answer his question!"

Granted, the Obama administration's stance on medical marijuana isn't any more appealing to medical marijuana advocates than Romney's, and came under fire from Democrat Nancy Pelosi earlier this month for the continued raids on marijuana dispensaries. The difference is that I doubt Obama would turn his back and walk away from someone with a legitimate concern about any issue, let alone a sick man in a wheel chair.

At least Romney didn't throw this man down on the ground and cut his hair off.

Clayton Holton, while still wheel-chair bound, and suffering the effects of the muscular dystrophy as it ravages his body, he is able to maintain some semblance of normalcy in his quality of life. He continues to credit marijuana for keeping him alive, and remains a staunch advocate of medical marijuana.

[Video Credit: Heather, H/T Ministry of Truth]

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina members of the media noticed there was widespread devastation in the South. Watching it on television, as a person of Southern heritage, to me it was clear: “Some of that was like that before the storm.” And it was. And it still is years later. Now since the Southern states have primaries for the next few weeks – combined with Mitt Romney doing his best Rand McNally material at campaign stops – the South is in the spotlight once again.

However, in this election cycle there are no real Southern candidates. Newt Gingrich represented Georgia but was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (and retains that accent). To contrast that, both the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention events are being held in southern states (North Carolina and Florida).

Here’s what the nation ignores unless there’s a disaster (or an election which could also qualify as a disaster): Of the bottom 10 poorest states in the union – nine of them are Southern states east of Texas. Mississippi is the poorest state of all. Child poverty. Unemployment. Under-employment. Lack of education. Lack of resources. The nation’s highest obesity rates are found south of the Mason-Dixon line.

Despite the conservative bona fides, the South isn’t pulling herself up by her bootstraps … mainly because she can’t see her toes she’s about to lose to diabetes. These are deeply and consistently Republican voters – but being poor and Republican is like being a cow and pro-leather. The South is a parable as to why that is: Their prejudices are being exploited to prod them into being against their own best interests.

In the South there’s been a long (and storied) resentment of outsiders coming in and telling them how to run their lives. But without fail, when the economy is bad anywhere – historically the first group to be blamed are the noobs. Hence why a new wave of anti-immigrant legislation has been pouring out of the southern region of the U.S.

Last year, Alabama passed HB 56 or Hammon-Beason Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act which led to a mass exodus of labor in the state. There were reports of crops rotting in the fields and an estimated cost to the state in the billions. Now the governor of Mississippi has endorsed a similar plan. Capitalizing politicians will say these heavy-handed laws are to keep out illegal immigrants but in practice it’s anyone who looks vaguely foreign being forced to show their paperwork.

Not exactly the land of the free. And sure not Southern hospitality.

Are immigrants, as these laws imply, parasites on the system? It’s actually the poorest (and yes, Southern) states that are the ones not carrying their own weight. For every dollar Alabamans pay in federal taxes, they receive $1.66 in federal money. In Louisiana it’s $1.78 per dollar. Mississippi gets $2.02 per dollar they give the dreaded federal gubmint.

There’s a way to help this region get off the federal dole: Welcome immigrants.

California has a huge immigrant population (both legal and illegal) and while certainly not void of any problems, the state still boasts of having the 8th largest economy in the world. And grumble as you will about Californians, for every dollar they pay in federal taxes – the rest of the country receives nearly a quarter of it.

Southern conservatives can bemoan “paying for someone else’s birth control” but in this way the New England states are paying for “someone else’s” (namely the South’s) Lipitor.

Welcome immigrants. When you welcome immigrants - you welcome tourists, you welcome tax revenue and then, counter-intuitively, the South can be more self-reliant. That’s a conservative principle in a “severely” right-leaning culture.

The best thing the South can do to save herself is welcome the world. Be a place immigrants move to. Let smart people from other countries call themselves Alabamians. Let hard working people everywhere call Mississippi home. Welcome the world to the South.

Basically enact the opposite of HB 56.

Scarce put up New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's speech defending his nomination of Solahi Mohammed to NJ's Superior Court earlier. And as much as I find to vehemently disagree with Chris Christie--and there are volumes of disagreement-- there's something refreshing in seeing a Republican reject typical xenophobic memes and speak on an intellectually honest level.

The question on Sharia Law seemed to set Christie off, as he said exasperated:

“Sharia Law has nothing to do with this at all, it’s crazy! The guy is an American citizen!” He concluded that the “Sharia Law business is just crap… and I’m tried of dealing with the crazies,” adding with disgust and frustration that “it’s just unnecessary to be accusing this guy of things just because of his religious background.”

Lawrence O'Donnell thought so too, and awarded Christie with the first ever The Last Word standing ovation for refusing to capitulate to the ugliness that is the Republican Party's unabashed islamophobia and rightfully characterize those practitioners as "crazies."

Unfortunately, there's consequences to be paid for such honesty. Certainly, getting applauded by liberals on the derided liberal station MSNBC isn't good for one's conservative cred. Next thing you know, Christie's mug will be up on Pammy Geller's website as a islamo-fascist terrorist lover.

Balloon Juice: We are all strapping young bucks now

Bay Area Houston: Giving the bird back to the Harris County, Texas GOP

his vorpal sword: CNN, A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing: Governor Moonbeam?

The Reaction: How long have Republicans been back in power?

Pruning Shears: Recalibrating convenience, privacy and security

Happy Valley News Hour: Tea Party 'Howl'

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The speaker in this video is ex-New York Times Reporter Kurt Eichenwald giving a keynote speech at the 2010 HCCA Compliance Institute. In this short clip, Eichenwald describes the culture at Columbia/HCA as one driven by a "cult of personality" centered around Rick Scott. He goes on to describe the fraud that went on at the company under Scott's management as systemic, and directly related to the culture and attitude of the company, along with an utter lack of compliance safety nets.

This is the man Florida just elected as governor of their state. With due respect to my friends in Florida, WHAT were you thinking?

Via NPR:

It wasn't so long ago that Scott built the biggest and brashest chain of hospitals in the land. Back in the '90s, Columbia/HCA, as the company was then called, had hospitals from coast to coast and a reputation as one shrewdly run operation.

But there was trouble under the surface, as whistle-blowers and government investigations ultimately revealed.

Columbia/HCA's profits were fueled in part by kickbacks paid to doctors and inflated bills sent to Medicare and Medicaid, the Justice Department alleged.

Of course, Scott excused himself during the campaign by saying he was never convicted of any crimes. Well yes, that's true. He wasn't, mostly because he turned tail and ran days before FBI raids on HCA facilities. Still, the company was nearly destroyed in the process, and ultimately had to pay the largest fine for Medicare fraud in history.

Novelist Carl Hiassen has a pretty blunt assessment:

Of his years as chief of Columbia/HCA, Scott says he takes responsibility for what occurred, but insists he didn’t know anything illegal was going on.

The fraud was so massive and institutionalized that his statement can’t be taken seriously. If he truly didn’t know what was happening all around him, he’s an incompetent fool.

Yes, that was my sense of things, too, and of course, he *did* know what was happening.

Meanwhile, the man who can’t grasp the definition of a promise has plenty of big ones to peddle. At every appearance, Scott grandly pledges to single-handedly slash property taxes, create 700,000 new jobs and shrink state government.

And right after that, he’ll climb into a great big balloon and fly Dorothy and Toto back to Kansas.

This is the guy Floridians have elected to implement the Affordable Care Act. The same guy that owns health centers across Florida. The same guy who allowed systemic and rampant fraud of the federal government to take place.

Good job, Florida.

You just have to see it to believe it, but yes, that's exactly what she did.

Note: It looks like they're not allowing their live stream to be embedded. You can watch the stream here or listen here.

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Remember this? This is Rachel Maddow's stellar segment on the "Swiftboat Veterans for Unaffordable Insurance", aka Rick Scott's organization, Conservatives for Patients Rights, the AstroTurf anti-health care reform group who led the opposition to any and all efforts to reform the health care system last year. As Rachel opined, "Having Rick Scott as your spokesman for health care reform is like having the eColi bacterium as your spokesman against handwashing."

Scott's involvement in Conservatives for Patients' Rights is just his latest venture. The real reason Floridians would be insane to even consider electing this man? His leadership of the Columbia/HCA hospital chain.

Columbia/HCA didn't just scheme to defraud Medicare a little bit. They schemed to commit fraud on a mega-fraud basis. And it wasn't just insurance companies they tried to rip off. It was Medicare, Medicaid, and even TRICARE, the health plan that covers our veterans. It wasn't only overbilling, either. Here's a partial list:

• Intentional year-end record fraud alleging payments from the government less than actually received, leaving the government with the burden of overpaying them.
• Payment of kickbacks to providers to inflate claims billed to Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE.
• Billing costs to the government which were not allowed.
• Inflating the cost of transferring patients from HCA facilities to other, non-HCA facilities.
• Inflating claims for indigent patients.
• Paying kickbacks for diabetes patients.
• Overbilling states for Medicaid patients.

The entire list and summary of the case is on the DOJ website.

Columbia/HCA settled the morass of fraud claims for $1.7 billion, the largest-ever settlement of a Medicare fraud investigation.

Scott will be quick to jump in and remind anyone who raises the Columbia/HCA fraud settlement as an issue that he personally was not charged with any crime. While that may be true, it is also true that the company was under HIS leadership, and it was a publicly-owned corporation at the time.

Not only was the government taken for a ride, shareholders were, too. When Scott resigned, he took his multi-million dollar golden parachute and waved goodbye to the mess he left behind. The only ones holding the bag at that point were the shareholders. After a painful cleanup and stock buyout making the company privately-held again, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) is poised for another $4.6 billion public offering.

This is the man who thinks he can lead Florida. The man who led a company while that company was busy defrauding the federal government now wants to lead a state. Even more concerning, his candidacy is actually getting some traction, leading me to once again ask this question:

Why is Rick Scott running for governor in Florida?

Read more about Rick Scott at Media Matters. They have a rich treasure trove of information there. And if you are in Florida, I hope you'll ask, and then repeat, my question above.

Bonus: Since "outsider" status seems to be some kind of political magic shield right now, Floridians should also ask themselves why billionaire Jeff Greene was a Republican until he became a Democrat and decided to run for the Senate.

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From the MSNBC:

WASILLA, Alaska - Sarah Palin plans to resign as governor of Alaska in a few weeks, KTUU-TV reported Friday.

Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate in 2008, made the announcement at her home Friday morning, the station said.

Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will take over at the end of the month, KTUU reported.

This raises many questions. Palin says she thinks she can be more effective outside of government. Really? More effective than being Governor? Hell, Mark Sanford was caught with a mistress and is in the midst of a major, public meltdown and he's staying in office. We'll stay on top of this and bring you more information as it happens.