Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachman says it's fine for a gay man to get married -- as long as it's to a woman.

During a town hall event in Iowa Wednesday, Jane Schmidt, president of Waverly High School Gay-Straign Alliance, asked the candidate why same sex couples couldn't get married.

"They can get married," Bachmann explained. "They can marry a man if they’re a woman. Or they can marry a woman if they’re a man."

"Why can’t a man marry a man?" Schmidt wondered.

"Because that’s not the law of the land," Bachmann insisted. "[T]hey have the same opportunity under the law. There is no right to same sex marriage."

"So you won’t support the LGBT community?" Schmidt pressed.

"No, I said that there are no special rights for people based upon your sex practices. There’s no special rights based upon what you do in your sex life. You’re an American citizen first and foremost and that’s it," the Minnesota Republican replied.

Bachmann is at least wrong about one thing: Same sex marriage is "the law of the land" in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont and Washington, D.C.

It took the journalists at Bloomberg News two years - and presumably lots of legal fees - to pry information out of the Federal Reserve that should have been made public long ago. We now know that the Fed's secret $7.7 trillion lending program wasn't just the most massive bank bailout ever seen, and it wasn't just free money for mega-bankers - though it was certainly both of those things. It was also the greatest hoax in stock market history.

No, scratch that. It was the greatest hoax in the history of money. And it was built on lies. How many? Let us count the ways.

Here's the first one: The banks paid back all the money back that they were given. No, they didn't. They paid back the principal on these loans. But by obtaining loans at rates far below market value, we now know they received the equivalent of $13 billion in cash giveaways.

Here's another lie: Fed economists support a free-market economy.

Ben Bernanke is a conservative economist who claims to support a free-market system. But we now know that the Federal Reserve lent astonishing sums to US banks in secret, and Bernanke fought with all the resources at his disposal to ensure that this information didn't become public. He didn't just want it to be held back to avoid a panic during the crisis. He wanted it kept secret forever.

I don't know what you call somebody like that, but I know what you don't call him: A capitalist. Free markets need transparency, so that investors and customers can make informed decisions and 'the wisdom of the market' can prevail. Nobody wanted the market to do its job. When it came to banks, they wanted it to be blind, deaf, and dumb, unable to make sound judgments about their financial soundness.

They still want it that way. They don't want investors to know how badly Wall Street executives failed at their jobs. They don't want the free market to do what it does best - thin the herd so it's free of incompetent managers like the executives who still run our largest banks.

You can believe in the free market, ur you can believe in today's Wall Street. But you can't do both.

Here's another lie, one that's spread by Dimon and others: Giant banks are more efficient. Size brings efficiency in other kinds of business, but these banks needed massive help. America's six largest banks accounted on any given day for an average of 63 percent of the debt on these loans. The only thing they're more efficient at is wringing free money out of government-created institutions.

And, wow. Jamie Dimon sure is a hypocrite. As Bloomberg noted:

JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon told shareholders in a March 26, 2010, letter that his bank used the Fed's Term Auction Facility "at the request of the Federal Reserve to help motivate others to use the system." He didn't say that the New York-based bank's total TAF borrowings were almost twice its cash holdings or that its peak borrowing of $48 billion on Feb. 26, 2009, came more than a year after the program's creation.

He also didn't mention that these favorable loans gave his bank nearly half a billion dollars in cash it otherwise wouldn't have had. Know what's convenient about that? It helps make up for the three-quarters of a billion Dimon's bank gave up to settle charges of bribery and corruption in Jefferson County, Alabama.

Chase borrowed massive sums of money, either because it was in bigger trouble than it has admitted or because it was bleeding an emergency public program out of greed. Either way, they weren't doing anybody a favor except themselves. How big a favor? Chase netted $457.9 million.

Citigroup's an even more extreme example. Once our largest bank (until continued mismanagement led to ongoing shrinkage). It only exists because Robert Rubin and other officials in the Clinton Administration,cleared the way for the largest merger in history with the enthusiastic support of the Republicans. That merger combined a bank with an insurance company, a harbinger of bad things to come in the risk area.

Citigroup's got the equivalent of a $1.8 billion gift, courtesy of Uncle Sam.

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan sneers at his critics, especially those who think you shouldn't foreclose on families without obtaining proof that you own their mortgage. "Oh, sure," he said in response to government demands, "we'll do our homework."

Bank of America's gift came to $1.5 billion.

Goldman Sachs shouldn't have been eligible for any Fed giveaways because it wasn't a commercial bank. But a special "waiver" allowed Goldman allowed to become commercial bank so it could be rescued from actions it took before it was a commercial bank. Before that it was an investment bank. Yet, strangely, it seems to have kept operating as an investment bank even after the transition, too, even though commercial banks aren't allowed to do that.

Understand that? Don't take it personally if you don't. You're not supposed to.

Goldman Sachs's take? Just under $1 billion.

Washington's always telling us that bankers may have done naughty things, but they weren't illegal things. That gets us to our next lie: There's no evidence that bank executives have committed crimes. Thanks to Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, we may be about to discover whether that's true regarding foreclosures and mortgage filings. But when it comes to stock fraud, the evidence is already piling up.

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While most Americans are focused on the upcoming Iowa primary race and who's up and down in the polls among the GOP presidential primary contenders, Rachel Maddow asks, just who is winning the Murdoch primary, a subject as she noted that TPM's Josh Marshall started writing about back in August of this year.

Into the Fast Lane:

All eyes are on Ames today. Except all the eyes on Rick Perry’s announcement in the aptly picked state of South Carolina. But wherever you point your eyes we’re now getting into the first real round of winnowing in the Republican presidential field. [...]

But watching Fox News’s coverage today reminded me of another primary which may be as important as New Hampshire or South Carolina in the GOP nominating process: the Murdoch primary.

Murdoch’s role in getting behind one or the other national candidates (parties) in UK elections is quite open. Cameron’s need to ease Murdoch back behind the Tories actually played some small role in his entanglement in the phone-hacking scandal. But that’s a story for another day. The process is somewhat known in New York, where the Post speaks for the Murdoch clan. But it’s no less true in UK national politics. Murdoch virtually always gets behind the Republican. But the question is, which one. And of course it’s not just the New York Post. It’s the centerpiece, Fox News, and for the more upscale folks it’s the new prize: the Wall Street Journal.

It’s one thing when the Republicans are out of office you can go to town trying to make a star out of a Michele Bachmann or Sarah Palin. But now that we’re moving into the fast lane, what kind of treatment does Bachmann get in the Murdoch press? Even more interesting to watch will be the treatment of Rick Perry and Mitt Romney, the two men who at the moment at least appear to stand a real chance of securing the nomination. [...]

Keep watching: the coverage will be the tell.

And as Rachel asked, after watching the contrast between Bret Baier's grilling of Mitt Romney this Wednesday night and then Baier subsequently going on the air with Bill O'Reilly and basically accusing Romney of being a whiner and Newt Gingrich's hour long softball interview with Sean Hannity, which of those candidates are currently winning the Murdoch primary?

Media Matters has more on the Fox primary and who they've been giving air time and favorable coverage to here -- The Fox Primary By the Numbers, November 14 - 20.

AMR, the parent company for American Airlines filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday, despite a history of paying massive bonuses to top executives. Most talk about the filing has centered around the idea that it was done in order to bring down labor costs. In other words, it would seem, the company is looking to get out of its collective bargaining agreement with workers in order to cut jobs, salaries and benefits.

While American has some financial troubles, the idea that workers are primarily responsible for it doesn't pass basic scrutiny. Flight attendants protested against American earlier this year in response to the big bonuses given to top executives despite the company having troubles and while workers earned less than $40,000 a year on average while working schedules of over 70 hours a week:

The top five execs have reaped $100 million in bonuses since 2005, while the carrier lost more than $4.2 billion. In 2003, the flight attendants agreed to cuts in pay and benefits worth $340 million annually, which they say kept American out of bankruptcy.

The filing was surprising to some, considering that several of the unions covering American workers had recently reached tentative agreements on moving forward:

Prior to Tuesday’s announcement, TWU had just reached tentative agreements with American for new contracts in some of its bargaining units that were awaiting ratification by members. Other union members at American were still working without a contract extension agreement four or more years since expiration. Although TWU has been preparing for the possibility of bankruptcy for two years, Little says management never indicated during negotiations that it could be imminent. “We didn’t get any advance notice, except perhaps five minutes before the media knew about it.”

Little suggested that the board of parent company AMR may have made the bankruptcy decision against the recommendation of CEO Gerald Arpey, whose retirement AMR also announced on Tuesday.

Transport Workers Union President James C. Little's reaction:

We are very disappointed by today’s action by AMR. The Transport Workers Union will do everything possible to protect our members at both American Airlines and American Eagle. Work at both airlines will continue through the Chapter 11 reorganization.

Our union had tried to work with AMR managers to make the company more cost competitive and more efficient. In the past month we had reached tentative agreements for both flight dispatchers and fleet service workers. Fleet service is American’s largest bargaining unit. Other TWU units at both American and Eagle had previously inked agreements. Our aircraft mechanics and maintenance workers, represented by TWU, have saved the company several hundred million dollars over the past decade through boosted productivity and by bringing in work from other airlines.

While we think this bankruptcy could have and should have been avoided, it does not come as a surprise. TWU engaged special bankruptcy counsel two years ago as a contingency and our attorney Sharon Levine of the firm Lowenstein Sander PC will file claims on behalf of TWU members later today in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

This is likely to be a long and ugly process and our union will fight like hell to make sure that front line workers don’t pay an unfair price for management’s failings.

We also will do everything possible to protect our passengers. American Airlines does more maintenance in-house and in the USA than any other major US-based airline. Other bankruptcies in the airline industry have seen aircraft overhaul and other repair work sent to less secure, poorly regulated maintenance facilities in third world countries. We will do everything in our power to maintain quality and safety for this airline and its passengers, while protecting the interests of our members.

Right after declaring on Greta Van Susteren's show that President Obama has been "ham handed in the way he's handling the economy and foreign affairs" and that Rush Limbaugh and Chris Christie are right for criticizing him for heaven forbid something Republicans are going to do from now until the cows come home, which is campaigning for the next election, Bachmann let Greta know who some of her choices might be for either Attorney General or for Vice President if she were fortunate enough to win the GOP primary.

So who did she name? The former Senator from Pennsylvania whose name shall not be Googled, Rick Santorum for A.G. or potentially V.P. and the hairpiece that wanted to keep his ratings up for his reality show before President Obama made a fool out of him at the White House Correspondent's Dinner, Donald Trump for V.P. as well.

And the GOP clown show that is their primary race continues....

Even my lifelong Republican father who really doesn't follow politics much is ashamed of this crowd.

Bats Left, Throws Right: If Newt Gingrich is an historian, everybody's an historian.

MN Progressive Project: Al Franken and the Protect IP Act.

His Vorpal Sword: Selling the New Nixon (part one).

Balloon Juice: Sheblowsalot.

Pharyngula: Lonely, broken-hearted creationists.

Guest post by Batocchio. Email tips to mbru AT crooksandliars DOT com.

The tents and tarps may be gone, but the Occupy Wall Street series of concerts is continuing.

Third Eye Blind and Jackson Browne, who are both currently on tour, announced they were performing for Occupy Wall Street on Wednesday night. Organizers said they were not seeking publicity for the tour, but rather have been genuinely inspired by the movement.

They have also contributed to “Occupy This Album,” a benefit compilation album in aid of the cause.

Other musicians who have performed at the plaza include David Crosby and Graham Nash, Tom Morello, Talib Kweli, Michael Franti, Pete Seegar and Arlo Guthrie.

In the video above, Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind performs "Jumper" in support of Occupy Wall Street, Zuccotti Park, Lower Manhattan, New York City. December 1, 2011.

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Another late 1980's/early 90's band that went seriously underrated, under-appreciated and somewhat obscure even to hardcore devotees of the genre. Breathless were a fledgling post-Punk/Dreamscape/Indie/Alternative band that came out with three remarkable albums and faded from view. They re-emerged in 2000 and are rumored to be working on a new album now for release in 2012.

Tonight it's a non-album track via their Over and Over ep, issued by the Tenor-Vossa label in the UK in 1991. Moment by Moment (version) is an undiscovered gem (IMHO).

But don't take my word for it - check it out.

The 90's,

Politics Nation's All Sharpton let Newt Gingrich have it after the now GOP presidential frontrunner doubled down on his prior statements where he called child labor laws stupid and said that unionized school janitors should be terminated in favor of poor school children taking their place to keep their schools cleaned.

As Sharpton rightfully pointed out, there are 45 million working poor in America and 22 million children in poverty, and there are another 51 million that are working just above the poverty line, but Gingrich wants to paint them all as a bunch of lazy slackers looking for a handout with no work ethic and drug dealers.

SHARPTON: 100 million poor Americans are not poor because they don't want to work. They don't come home with cash because they did something illegal. They come home with too little cash because their wages are too low, because their jobs are being outsourced, because they're being laid off. Yes, there's illegal activity in poor communities, but most poor people are working everyday. I grew up in a poor neighborhood. People worked everyday. They got on subways everyday. Did they have poor people in our neighborhood that did things wrong? Yes. But I didn't meet the real crooks Newt, until I got downtown.

Amen Rev. What's amazing is that we're supposed to believe that Gingrich actually thinks it's going to help him win the GOP primary to do something like this and go about one inch shy of just outright calling black people lazy niggers, which is what he did here. This wasn't a dog whistle. It was a siren. And it was meant to inflame people like Sharpton, and liberals or anyone else who's not just openly racist in the United States and would dare to speak out about it.

I have a theory on why he did this and maybe I'm wrong and I'm happy if others disagree because this is just that, a theory, but I've felt from day one about Gingrich's candidacy as a lot of others have, that he's just trying to raise his profile so he can sell more books and pick up more speaking engagements to keep the money pouring in for Newt Inc. I think this is his way of trying to make sure he doesn't win the nomination but remains relevant with the conservative crowd, and that he just intentionally sabotaged his campaign and new frontrunner status with this latest move.

As I said, I may very well may be wrong, but I believe he's just a grifter like Palin and Herman Cain, and really does not want to either win the GOP nomination or be president. I think he's happy with his life making fools out of the people who send him money and living a posh lifestyle with his wife and taking off to Greece at a moments notice for some time on the beach.

What will really be amusing as I pointed out when Joe Scarborough looked like he was ready to lose his mind when Newt started moving up in the polls, is if it back fires and the Republican base is actually insane enough to vote for him and he wins some early primary races. As I said then, if that happens, pass the popcorn. The reaction from the pundits on the right will be if nothing else, fun to watch as more of their heads implode over the thought of Gingrich winding up as the Republican nominee.

Here's more on Newt's latest not so thinly veiled racist remarks.

Gingrich Says Poor Children Have No Work Habits:

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PLAY HERMAN CAIN OFF, KEYBOARD CAT!!!!!!

Open thread below....