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Here's something you don't see every day -- someone in our corporate media actually calling out Republicans for feeding them lies. Good for CBS and Major Garrett.

Via TPM: Wow, This is Pretty Epic:

Generally, once partisan, tendentious sources leak information that turns out to be wrong, nothing’s ever done about it. That’s for many reasons, some good or somewhat understandable, mostly bad. But on CBS Evening News tonight, Major Garrett did something I don’t feel like I’ve seen in a really long time or maybe ever on a network news cast. He basically said straight out: Republicans told us these were the quotes, that wasn’t true. Quick transcript after the jump …

SCOTT PELLEY: Also at his news conference today the president called for tighter security for U.S. diplomatic facilities to prevent an attack like the one in Benghazi, Libya, last year that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

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As the families of those who were killed in the Newtown massacre prepare to head to Congress to push for stricter gun control laws, I've got to wonder if any of those members watched this heart-wrenching interview from 60 Minutes this Sunday.

You can watch the entire interview at their site, but I wanted to share the very end of the segment and if this doesn't just break your heart, it's made of stone.

Newtown families voice support for gun control:

Scott Pelley: Do any of you fear that after only four months the impact of this on the Congress is beginning to fade, and the memory of how we felt on that day is beginning to fade?

Francine Wheeler: Well, people do change because the country goes in different places. But we're gonna bring it right back, so that America can see. Four months, to them, it feels like it just happened a moment ago. And yet--

Scott Pelley: To you.

Francine Wheeler: And yet it's been years since I've seen my son. OK? So we're just-- we're not going anywhere. We're here. And we're going to be here.

Jimmy Greene: We don't get to move on. We don't have the benefit of turning the page to another piece of legislation and having another debate and playing politics the same we we've been doing. We don't have that benefit. We're gonna live with this for the rest of our lives. So our legislators need to hear us.

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Ezra Klein, filling in for MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell this Tuesday evening, ended this segment responding to Goldman Sachs CEO, Lloyd Blankfein's assertion that the Social Security retirement age should be raised with a question that we all already know the answer to:

KLEIN: [A]ll these folks who like to talk about raising the Social Security retirement age as if it's a complete no-brainer, they need to think harder about why they have settled on the single cut to Social Security that will concentrate its pain on people who are poor, who haven't fully shared in the remarkable increase in life expectancy and who really don't like going to their jobs every day. Why are they the people who should sacrifice the most on Social Security?

Because they haven't bought the politicians, who as Klein noted, too often are more than happy to stay at their jobs until they drop dead, unlike most Americans out there.

I just want to thank Ezra Klein for saying on television what way too few of his fellow pundits are willing to say out loud. Raising the age equals a cut in benefits for the poor and those who work physical jobs that most people just cannot continue working as we get older and our health declines, and for advocating that the cap be lifted. And for pointing out again what he wrote in his article at The Washington Post last month -- There’s nothing ‘courageous’ about raising the Social Security retirement age.

Here's what Blankfein told CBS's Scott Pelley:

BLANKFEIN: You're going to have to undoubtedly do something to lower people's expectations -- the entitlements and what people think that they're going to get, because it's not going to -- they're not going to get it.

PELLEY: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid?

BLANKFEIN: You can look at history of these things, and Social Security wasn't devised to be a system that supported you for a 30-year retirement after a 25-year career. ... So there will be things that, you know, the retirement age has to be changed, maybe some of the benefits have to be affected, maybe some of the inflation adjustments have to be revised. But in general, entitlements have to be slowed down and contained.

PELLEY: Because we can't afford them going forward?

BLANKFEIN: Because we can't afford them.

We wondered whether he thinks the government needs more revenue in the form of higher taxes.

BLANKFEIN: In the long run, there has to be more revenue. And, of course, the burden of that revenue will be disproportionately taken up by wealthier people. That's just logical.

PELLEY: So higher taxes on wealthier people?

BLANKFEIN: More taxes on wealthier people, to the extent that we need to raise more revenue, and we do need to raise some more revenue.

PELLEY: Why is an increase in revenue, in tax money, necessary? Why can't you just cut your way out of the deficit?

BLANKFEIN: For sure certain people in this country wouldn't like the society you would have if you did that, and personally, I don't think I would like it either, if we went as far as to close our entire budget deficit in that way.

PELLEY: What kind of society would it be?

BLANKFEIN: I think it would be one where the safety net would be more porous and lower to the ground.

Rough transcript of Klein's full response below the fold.

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John Boehner seems to think that he's got some leverage right now when it comes to the Bush tax cuts expiring, or that's at least the face he's putting on in public. If they want to keep any of them in place, he'd better get to the negotiating table, because President Obama is holding all of the cards right now, and simply has to do nothing to allow them to expire -- Republicans To Obama On Taxes: Let’s Compromise By Not Raising Taxes:

President Obama ran on raising taxes and won. House Republicans ran on not raising taxes, and got to keep their majority. So now the GOP is offering a familiar sounding compromise: let’s not raise taxes.

More specifically, Obama’s re-election, and the looming expiration of the Bush tax cuts, have made House Republicans’ prime imperative to preserve the current tax rates on high earners, which Obama campaigned and won on returning to Clinton era levels.

It’s a big ask, given the results of the election, and Obama’s long-standing pledge to veto legislation that extends all of the Bush tax cuts, even temporarily. Thus, their hopes rest on a vague suggestion that they’ll concede higher revenues in a future tax reform agreement with Obama, so long as he drops his demands for higher tax rates and agrees to cut entitlement spending.

This sounds familiar because it’s broadly speaking the same deficit cutting deal Republicans spent most of this past Congress pursuing — one that raises little, if any revenue, let alone revenue from high earners. And early signs indicate that Democrats won’t bite.

“Because the American people expect us to find common ground, we are willing to accept some additional revenues, via tax reform,” House Speaker John Boehner said in the Capitol Wednesday — his first major address since Tuesday’s election. “But the American people also expect us to solve the problem. And for that reason, in order to garner Republican support for new revenues, the president must be willing to reduce spending and shore up the entitlement programs that are the primary drivers of our debt.”

As a model, Boehner cited a revenue neutral 1986 tax reform initiative spearheaded by President Reagan and Speaker Tip O’Neil. Top Democrats, including Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), have loudly rejected that framework, arguing that it raises too little revenue to address medium-term fiscal imbalances, and lets wealthy people off the hook for drawing down budget deficits. Read on...

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Heaven forbid CBS's Bob Schieffer might want any of their viewers to have to think too hard about who is actually mucking up the works when it comes to the gridlock and gamesmanship being played over the extension of this payroll tax holiday.

Here we go with the Villagers favorite game of "both sides" are equally at fault when it's the Republicans obstructing and making it impossible to govern -- Schieffer: "Dysfunctional" Congress does nothing -- again:

If you ever needed any proof that the congress is totally dysfunctional and unable to do anything - even something it wants - their failure to agree on a payroll tax cut extension is it.

Forget who is at fault. They all are for letting it go this far. Both sides are so determined to undermine the other that they can't even figure out how to do something they both want: Extend the payroll tax cut.

If this gridlock continues, it will be a fitting end to a year in which Congress accomplished absolutely nothing.

Nothing, unless you want to give them credit for not allowing the government to shut down. I give them no credit for that because I think that is the least we should expect of the people we send to Washington. Yet, that was what they spent most of their time arguing about.

What made this latest episode more odious than usual, is that by sending the legislation to a conference committee, House Republicans killed Senate legislation but did not have to go on record as saying they had voted to give people a tax increase. But make no mistake. That is exactly what they have done if this stands.

There is a reason that Congress has a 9-percent approval rating, and today's antics are like putting up a neon sign to remind people of it.

So he admits it's the Republicans who are playing games, but still wants to treat both parties as being equally unreasonable. Way to keep things "fair and balanced" there Bob.

I've got a chart for Bob to take a look at if he thinks all sides are equal with their responsibility for the gridlock in Washington from Kevin Drum at Mother Jones -- Chart of the Day: Republicans and the Filibuster.

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In an interview that aired Sunday, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly shocked CBS' Scott Pelley by telling him that the NYPD has the capability to shoot down a plane if needed.

"Are you satisfied that you've dealt with threats from aircraft, even light planes, model planes, that kind of thing?" Pelley asked.

"Well, it's something that's on our radar screen, Kelly replied. "I mean in an extreme situation, you would have some means to take down a plane."

"Do you mean to say that the NYPD has the means to take down an aircraft?" a stunned Pelley wondered.

"Yes, I prefer not to get into the details but obviously this would be in a very extreme situation," Kelly explained.

While some may find the NYPD's firepower comforting, others may question whether a department accused of wrongly pepper-spraying protesters can be trusted not to overreact.

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President Barack Obama told CBS Evening News host Scott Pelley Tuesday that he couldn't guarantee Social Security checks would go out on Aug. 3 if the debt ceiling was not raised.

"Can you tell the folks at home that no matter what happens, Social Security checks are going to go out on Aug. 3?" Pelley asked.

"This is not just Social Security checks," Obama replied. "These are veterans' checks, these are folks on disability, their checks. There are about 70 million checks that go out."

"Can you guarantee, as president, those checks will go out Aug. 3?" Pelley pressed.

"I cannot guarantee those checks go out on Aug. 3 if we haven't resolved this issue. Because there simply may not be the money in the coffers to do it," Obama explained.

I'd like to know when some people are going to start going to prison over this kind of thing. FDL's Dave Dayen had a good post up ahead of tonight's airing of this segment -- 60 Minutes Tackles Foreclosure Fraud Tonight, Exposing Unresolved Chain of Title Problems:

I am definitely looking forward to tonight’s 60 Minutes special on foreclosure fraud. In it, the head of the FDIC, Sheila Bair, will call for a cleanup Superfund to cleanse the country of toxic mortgages. [...]

It sounds like 60 Minutes actually got this and reported it correctly. Lynn Szymoniak, one of the leading experts in foreclosure document fraud, is profiled in the piece. You will see forged paperwork, misidentified dates, and fabricated documents.

Now, regardless of what you think of the proposed mortgage settlement, and the banksters’ counteroffer, it’s important to note that what Bair’s talking about would have to exist separate from that. Attorneys General or even federal banking regulators do not have the authority to waive claims in state courts on behalf of homeowners. So this Superfund would be a separate event.

More there so go read the rest and here's more from 60 Minutes -- Mortgage paperwork mess: the next housing shock?:

If there was a question about whether we're headed for a second housing shock, that was settled last week with news that home prices have fallen a sixth consecutive month. Values are nearly back to levels of the Great Recession. One thing weighing on the economy is the huge number of foreclosed houses.

Many are stuck on the market for a reason you wouldn't expect: banks can't find the ownership documents. Read on...

This was surprising. I knew former Rep. Duncan Hunter's son was a chip off the old block, especially after this comment he made -- Duncan Hunter: Yes, I would deport US citizens. I had no idea his brother was on the opposite side of the immigration issue, at least when it comes to the concerns over the very large number of people who have drowned trying to cross the irrigation project called the "All-American Canal". 60 Minutes featured Hunter in their segment The Deadly Passage of the All-American Canal:

Since 9/11, getting into the United States has become a good deal harder and, for some, much more dangerous. With border enforcement increasing, many illegal immigrants are now attempting to cross one of this country's most important irrigation projects called the "All-American Canal." The canal has become sort of a national moat on our southern border, and hundreds of people have perished in its waters. It is a carnage that has gone mostly unnoticed because many of the victims are buried without their names.

In the California desert, in a field of mud, is a graveyard that is hard to imagine in America. Bricks mark the final resting place of hundreds of human beings, identities unknown. They died traveling to America in search of a life better than their home countries could offer.

...Asked where the bodies are usually found, Dr. John Hunter told "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley, "Typically, they'll find them at the drops. So for example, there's five of these big hydro drops here. Drop one, they found over a hundred bodies at drop one, drop two they had 60. Drop three, 60 etc."

Hunter showed us the hydroelectric dams or "drops" that catch most of the bodies. Hunter is an unlikely activist: he's a physicist and life-long Republican who has spent much of his career designing weapons for the U.S. government.

"I'm a very right-wing guy," Hunter said. "I'm not an open border kinda person. I just don't believe we should be letting people drown in our backyards. It's inhuman."

Ten years ago, a newspaper article about rising immigrant deaths caught his attention. And today, the deaths in the canal system are an obsession.

Dr. John Hunter explained why he split with his brother on the immigration issue.

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