Geraldo Rivera has been sticking to his talking points that if Trayvon Martin had not been wearing a hoodie, he may not have been shot and killed by George Zimmerman and that "dressing like a wannabe gangster" contributed to his death. On his show this Sunday evening, Rivera was called out for his blame the victim game by Martin's attorney, who chastised Rivera for embarrassing his son again with the hoodie remarks and likened his justification of the Martin shooting to those who would justify rape by blaming the victim for what clothing they were wearing.

As our friends at News Hounds reported, this past Friday, Geraldo went on Bill O'Reilly's show and said this: Geraldo Rivera: It’s Reasonable For George Zimmerman To Have Racially Profiled Trayvon Martin Because Of His Size, Race And Hoodie “Thugwear”.

Here's more from their post on Geraldo being called out by Martin's attorney, Benjamin Crump: Trayvon Martin Attorney Tells Geraldo Rivera: You’re Embarrassing Your Son Again With Your Latest Hoodie Comments:

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When asked about his leadership and a recent article in National Journal questioning whether he's capable of controlling his caucus or not, Speaker of the House John Boehner came up with this rather odd metaphor:

Boehner Compares His Caucus To ‘218 Frogs In A Wheelbarrow’:

In an interview scheduled to air on ABC’s ‘This Week’, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) compared his sometimes unruly GOP caucus to “218 frogs in a wheelbarrow,” the number of votes needed to pass a bill in the House.

“I’ve never been shy about leading,” Boehner said. “But you know, leaders need followers. And we’ve got 89 brand new members. We’ve got a pretty disparate caucus. It’s hard to keep 218 frogs in a wheelbarrow long enough to get a bill passed.”

Boehner claimed there was only so much they could do with Democrats having control of the Senate and the presidency, pretended any of them have had any intentions of compromising with Democrats and repeated the Republican zombie lie on why the Senate hasn't passed a budget rather than just passing these stop-gap measures as they've been doing for the last couple of years. As Vyan over at Daily KOS reminds us in this post from last year, the Senate didn't pass a budget because the Republicans blocked it. Heaven forbid George Stephanopoulos or any of his fellow Villagers might take the time to point that out to their audience when one of these Republicans repeats that lie.

Transcript below the fold.

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During his Fox Business special, Bad Speech which reaired on their sister network, Fox News this Saturday, John Stossel highlighted several incidences which he called "assaults on speech," the first of which was the firing of Pat Buchanan from MSNBC.

Apparently both Buchanan and Stossel are terribly upset with Van Jones' organization, Color of Change, for exercising their own free speech in protesting the kind of hatred Pat Buchanan had been peddling for ages now. Here's their petition which Stossel read part of to Buchanan:

Below is the message we'll send to MSNBC President Phil Griffin and NBC News President Steve Capus on your behalf. You can add a personal message using the box on the right.

I'm writing to demand that you fire Pat Buchanan immediately. Buchanan has a long and consistent history of peddling white supremacist ideology as legitimate political commentary, on your network and elsewhere. He recently went on a white supremacist radio show to promote his new book -- which argues that increasing racial diversity is a threat to this country and will mean the "End of White America."

Pat Buchanan has the right to express his views, but he's not entitled to a platform that lets him broadcast bigotry and hate to millions. If MSNBC and NBC want to be seen as trusted, mainstream sources of news and commentary, you need to fire Buchanan now.

Stossel only read the portion where they said he peddled white supremacist ideology and his response was to say he didn't know what that means. Stossel also read part of the list from this post by Think Progress: Why MSNBC Dumped Pat Buchanan: His 10 Most Outrageous Statements:

3. Claimed Jerry Sandusky’s atrocities are because of “Homosexual marriage.” Buchanan appeared on a right-wing radio show on November 15 to make some convoluted comparisons: “Let’s take this Penn State thing…these horrors, there’s an organization that marches in the gay pride parade in New York called—used to—called the North American Man Boy Love Association, which advocated voluntary sex along the lines of exactly what was going on at Penn State. Many of our political icons have marched in that parade right behind that NAMBLA float […] This is now, homosexual marriage is now the civil rights cause of the decade.”

Buchanan's response was to just start laughing and deny he made the statement. Stossel didn't bother to point out that the link goes to a Media Matters post with the audio of the interview, so people could go listen for themselves and hear what he said.

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I was fairly sure that wingnut Rep. Steve King would say something completely ridiculous or untrue as soon as I saw his name on the list of guests on C-SPAN's Washington Journal earlier this week. The crew over at Think Progress proved me right when they flagged this portion of King's interview that morning:

Steve King Claims Obamacare Will Grow The Number Of Uninsured, Calls For ‘Personal Responsibility’:

During an appearance on CSPAN’s Washington Journal Thursday morning, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) claimed that the Affordable Care Act would increase the number of Americans without health insurance, dismissing analysis showing that 30 million people would gain coverage under the law.

“Everybody in America has access to health care, and we even have many many organizations that make sure they fill those holes,” King explained. “The effort was to increase the number of insured in America and that number does not look like it will increase under Obamacare”:

KING: We’re actually going to get more people uninsured under Obamacare and this creates the foundation for a one-size-fits-all federally-run socialized medicine system. We’re not completely there and I think we are a lot better off to let the free markets do this and encourage people to be personally responsible.

King’s analysis of health policy couldn’t be more wrong. While organizations and hospitals do provide emergency services to uninsured Americans, the cost of that uncompensated care is shifted to private premium payers, resulting in higher health care spending system-wide. Obamacare accepts King’s premise of encouraging personal responsibility and will require able-bodied citizens to pay for their own health care expenses beginning in 2014.

As they noted, King also expressed his opposition to requiring insurers to cover people with pre-existing conditions and allowing kids to stay on their parent's health insurance plans, which may end up being at odds with his own leadership, once they finally release their alternative plan to the public.

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While discussing whether Gov. Mitch Daniels is going to support Richard Mourdock, who just defeated incumbent Sen. Richard Lugar from his home state of Indiana and Mourdock's statement that his idea of compromise equals Democrats voting with Republicans if we're unfortunate enough to see them gain control of the Congress and the presidency again, Daniels was apparently suffering from a severe case of amnesia when he made this statement that was flagged from our friend Jed Lewison over at Daily KOS:

Another dazzling display of Romnesia: Mitch Daniels says we're in 'peacetime':

As you watch this or read the transcript, keep in mind that from 2001 to 2003—during which time the Bush administration launched two wars, one of which we are fighting to this day, and two rounds of tax cuts for the wealthy—Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels was George W. Bush's budget director. Yet now he is blaming President Obama for allegedly creating a debt bomb:

Well, you know, he's been the president of this nation for the three years in which we have drifted ever closer to the biggest peacetime crisis we may have ever faced. There's no doubt it. It's a mathematical certainty. [...] To me the central question of this election is why such an administration deserves a second chance.

The fact that Mitch Daniels apparently has forgotten we are at war in Afghanistan—even though he served in the White House when we began the war more than a decade ago—is a fitting tribute to the Romnesia that has infested the Republican Party.

As he noted, Daniels and his ilk want to erase from our memory banks the fact that George W. Bush busted the budget with billions wasted in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is someone who worked for an administration that gave us those two "wars" off the books, an unfunded prescription drug plan and the Bush tax cuts which weren't paid for. And despite that, he's treated as someone we're supposed to take seriously by the media month after month.

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After Mitt Romney went pandering to the right-wing during his commencement address at Liberty University earlier this week, Bill Maher took his a few shots at the school during his New Rules segment on Real Time this Friday.

MAHER: And finally, new rule, you can't expect me to believe anything Mitt Romney said last week at Liberty University because a: He's a liar. And b: Liberty University isn't really a university. It's not like an actual statesman visited an actual college. It's more like a Tupac hologram visited Disneyland. [...]

This is a school you flunk out of when you get the answers right. [...]

Conservatives often say that gay marriage cheapens their marriage. Well, I think a diploma from Liberty cheapens my degree from a real school.

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As The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur pointed out in the segment above, if the Supreme Court ends up ruling that the Affordable Care Act, otherwise commonly referred to as "Obamacare" is not Constitutional or against the individual mandate, Republicans may very well find themselves in a very bad political position, since they do not have any program of their own ready to replace it with.

From Current's coverage of the video above: GOP quickly replaces Boehner-care back-up health care plan — to be used if Affordable Care Act gets repealed — with a ‘vision’:

Current correspondent Jacki Schechner joins Cenk to talk about the GOP’s backup plan in hope that the Supreme Court strikes down the Affordable Care Act. But “Boehner-care” was immediately considered too controversial, so Republicans back-tracked and said if the ACA is repealed, they’ll introduce their “vision” for health care reform.

“Not an actual plan, but a unicorn and fairy dust vision,” Schechner says. Cenk says, “Because what we needed was more Republican visions.”

As The Hill reported this week, Speaker John Boehner was still vowing to repeal the law entirely: Boehner: Keeping any parts of Obama health law ‘unacceptable’:

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) reiterated Thursday that he wants to repeal all of President Obama’s healthcare law if the Supreme Court doesn’t toss out the entire statute.

“We voted to fully repeal the president’s healthcare law as one of our first acts as a new House majority, and our plan remains to repeal the law in its entirety,” Boehner said to reporters. “Anything short of that is unacceptable.” [...]

If the court upholds the entire law or only throws out the mandate, Republicans will have to decide how to handle its politically popular provisions, including the policy that bars insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

Conservatives are lobbying their colleagues to avoid the temptation of leaving popular elements in place. Boehner made clear on Thursday that he’s committed to full repeal.

Contrary to that article by The Hill, as TPM reported, it appears Republicans might be trying to have it both ways on what provisions of the law to keep in place and what risks that brings for them politically: Why An Adverse Supreme Court ‘Obamacare’ Ruling Puts Republicans In A Tough Spot:

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Andrea Mitchell invited civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis on her show this Thursday, and after opening the segment by showing his recent take-down of fellow Rep. Paul Broun on the House floor, for pushing an amendment that would have stripped funding for enforcement of Title V of the 1965 Civil Rights Act, Lewis spoke to Mitchell about how dangerous the recent efforts by Republicans to take our country backwards with are all of these voter suppression laws being passed in states across the country.

What I'm surprised they did not discuss are the recent efforts by the House Democrats to fight back against voter suppression:

Today, House Democrats did something really important. Something fundamental to our democracy. Today, House Democrats unveiled the Voter Empowerment Act - a legislation that would roll back many GOP state-sponsored efforts and laws to suppress the vote.

The bill will protect voters from restrictive voting measures that have been enacted in states across the country over the last year. These measures make it harder for millions of eligible voters to register or vote, and disproportionally affect our service members, the disabled, minorities, young people, seniors, and low-income Americans.

The bill will protect voters from restrictive voting measures that have been enacted in states across the country over the last year. These measures make it harder for millions of eligible voters to register or vote, and disproportionally affect our service members, the disabled, minorities, young people, seniors, and low-income Americans.

You can read more details on the bill in the link above. Mitchell also asked Lewis about President Obama's recent endorsement of gay marriage and as Think Progress reported, it looks like the numbers are starting to turn around on that issue in the African American community now as well: The Obama Effect: Growing Number Of African Americans Come Out For Marriage Equality:

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You've gotta' love Mittens tying himself up in knots this Thursday when asked about his previous comments regarding President Obama and Rev. Jeremiah Wright, which was about to be dusted off again for a new round of attacks by one of these Super PACs -- or it was until someone leaked the story to The New York Times.

Romney On Wright: ‘I’m Not Familiar Precisely With Exactly What I Said, But I Stand By What I Said Whatever It Was’:

Speaking at a campaign event in Jacksonville, Florida, Mitt Romney said even though he doesn’t remember invoking Rev. Jeremiah Wright on Sean Hannity’s show back in February, he stands by his comments.

“I’m not familiar precisely with exactly what I said, but I stand by what I said whatever it was,” Romney said.

Earlier today Mitt Romney said he “repudiate[s]” a plan to attack President Obama by hyping his connection to Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in an interview with the conservative news site Townhall. Romney said he would like to focus on the economy instead

Romney also accused the Obama administration of "character assassination" for the recent attacks ads on his time at Bain Capital. Character assassination is something the Romney campaign should know a thing or two about since that's what they've done to every one of their opponents with negative advertising since this presidential campaign season began.

Mitt Romney Says Bain Attacks Are Part of Obama’s ‘Character Assassination’:

Mitt Romney said today that he is “disappointed” in President Obama’s campaign for being “focused on character assassination,” saying that he considers the president’s attacks on his career at Bain to be an attempt to make him seem to be “not a good person or not a good guy.”

“I have been disappointed with the president’s campaign to date which is focused on character assassination,” said Romney. “I just think that we’re wiser to talk about the issues of the day, what we do to get America working again, talk about our respective records.” Read on...

Transcript of Romney's remarks below the fold.

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Vice President Joe Biden was out on the campaign trail this week in Ohio, and on the attack over Mitt Romney's record as a so-called "job creator" and a businessman who "knows how to create jobs" and get our economy moving again. Fox's Neil Cavuto brought on his former fellow Fox contributor turned Ohio Governor John Kasich to respond.

Kasich of course tried to downplay the credit the Obama administration was attempting to take for Ohio's economy improving and their unemployment rate falling below the national average, and instead credited himself for making Ohio a more business friendly state and making the same points we've been hearing from Republicans ad nauseum on what Paul Krugman has rightfully called "the confidence fairy." Forget the fact that what drives businesses to make investments and grow their companies are consumers and whether the general public has enough disposable income to afford their products. Kasich wants you to believe, like all Republicans, that fear of over-regulation, rather than a lack of customers is what's stifling our economy.

The "confidence" businesses actually need is going to be driven up by a strong middle class and consumers who can afford their products; which as we've seen over the last few decades is what Republicans are determined to destroy.

The Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern pointed out earlier this year exactly why Kasich does not deserve credit for turning Ohio's economy around: REMARKS: Chairman Redfern Says Kasich Should Credit Obama, Brown, Dems for Ohio’s Improving Economy in State of the State Address:

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