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Samuel L. Jackson admonishes apathetic voters for this year's presidential election, reminding them what the stakes are. via Mother Jones:

Jackson, 63, narrates the video in a Seussian fashion, paying homage to the audiobook he recorded for Adam Mansbach's children's book sendup Go the F**k to Sleep. The clip consists primarily of the actor, clad in jeans and a black beret, magically appearing in houses and hurling obscenities and Democratic talking points at unsuspecting white suburbanites.

In one scene, for example, Jackson intones:

Sorry, my friend, but there's no time to snore.
And out-of-touch millionaires just declared war.
On schools, the environment, unions, fair pay.
We're all on our own if Romney has his way.
And he's against safety nets, if you fall, tough luck.
So I strongly suggest that you wake the f**k up.

The civically engaged actor promptly rematerializes to shout at the disaffected teens who organized bake sales to support of Obama's 2008 bid but have since lost interest:

STOP BULLSHITTIN'. GET OUT THERE AND SELL SOME CAKES AND COOKIES. NOOOWWWW!!!

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Some fairly astute analysis from the former ABC News anchor, of the kind he wasn't permitted to make when he was involved in network news, when the be-all and end-all was the promotion of a horserace election, no matter what the polling indicated.

On September 20, 2012, Charles Gibson, former "ABC World News" anchor, delivered the lecture, "The (Im)Balance of Power in Washington: How Things Went Off the Rails and How They Can Be Fixed," at Quinnipiac University.

The event was sponsored by Quinnipiac University's School of Communications.

Gibson's full remarks continue below the fold.

Who do I think is going to win the White House? There are 46 days until we vote. Predictions are perilous and my track record is not particularly good in making predictions.

But folks, Barack Obama is going to win.

And I don't say that-- (Applause.) I don't say that just because Mitt Romney is running an inept campaign, which he is.

He made a very maladroit statement on the Middle East; his 47% on the dole, et cetera.

You now hear backstage rumblings from prominent Republicans that have basically written him off.

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From the Majority Report, live M-F 11:30am EST and via daily podcast at http://Majority.FM:

Digby of the blog Hullabaloo joins Sam Seder as they talk Ron Paul, Gary John & Libertarianism as it relates to the 2012 elections.

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On this Sunday's Meet the Press, after being badgered by David Gregory on whether or not he would consider a third party run in the 2012 presidential election or not, Rep. Ron Paul told Gregory it's not something his campaign is concentrating on and that it would be a distraction, but also said he would not rule it out completely.

I'm really curious how the Villagers in the media are going to react if Ron Paul actually ends up winning Iowa. That would probably be as enjoyable to watch as how they handle it if he does decide to throw his hat in later as a Libertarian candidate if the Republican primaries don't go well for him.

Transcript via:

MR. GREGORY: Before you go, congressman, let me ask you about the strength of your following. Mitt Romney acknowledged it last night, saying everywhere he goes in Iowa your supporters are there. And he respects that. If you don't prevail in Iowa or don't prevail to get the nomination, will you endorse?

REP. PAUL: Oh, I have no idea. I'll wait and see about that. It depends on how the platform works out; and, you know, I was bragging a little bit last night when they asked us about our opponents up there, and I was very pleased that some of them are starting to use a little bit of the language that I use. We'll wait and see how things go and, and--since they are willing to change their positions and have in the past. So I'll keep my fingers crossed and see what happens. But my main goal is to look to January 3rd and January 10th, and we're doing well. So it's premature for me to be talking about what I'm going to do after January 10th until we find out exactly how this plays out.

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As Rachel Maddow reported this Friday, on the 10th anniversary of the start of the war in Afghanistan, Mitt Romney decided to announce the members of his national security advisory team, and as she noted, of the twenty two people he named, fifteen of them are people who worked on foreign policy for the George W. Bush administration, and around a half dozen of them are former members of the neoconservative think tank and now defunct, PNAC, or The Project for the New American Century.

Apparently Mitt Romney thinks it's a good idea to make all that's old new again with bringing in a bunch of neoconservative war mongers to advise him on matters of national security. If Mitt Romney thinks running as George W. Bush 2.0 on national security issues with the mood of the country being what it is right now after all the money and lives that have been wasted with the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, I've got to wonder what bubble this man is living in.

From The Washington Post -- Mitt Romney taps foreign policy, national security advisers -- here's some of the list of those Romney has tapped to join his team:

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From The Colbert Report, Stephen defends Rick Perry's "questionably named" hunting camp:

The Rick Perry family hunting camp once had a racially charged name, but many presidents have vacationed at questionably named resorts.

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When caught just the latter part of this interview on Fox News before I had a chance to go back and watch all of it, I thought maybe it was just Neil Cavuto who had lost his mind, but apparently the brilliant idea of having former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson drafted to run for president originated with The Mustache of Misunderstanding, Thomas Friedman.

From Tim Murphy at MoJo -- The Alan Simpson For President Movement Comes of Age:

When we last heard from Alan Simpson, the former Wyoming Senator and GOP co-chair of the Simpson-Bowles Debt Commission was railing against today's disrespectful youths, "walking on their pants with their caps on backwards listening to the Enema Man and Snoopy Snoopy Poop Dog." All of which make the calls for him to run for president as inevitable as they are inexplicable.

It began over the summer, when New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman said at the Aspen Ideas Festival that "If Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles want to run as president and vice president, I will vote for them." Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer reprised the idea in an interview with Simpson on CNN a few days later. For folks like Friedman, who pride themselves on the boldness of their ideas in the face of a crippling status quo (accurate or not), Simpson is a tantalizing choice. And now, with Republicans still freaking out about their choices for President and Friedman still pining for some sort of third-party savior capable of making tough choices and magically transcending checks and balances, the calls for a Simpson candidacy have picked up again (even though he's not running). [...]

Simpson is a pro-choice Republican who opposed Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and doesn't actually seem to understand how Social Security works—despite making it a signature issue. He is also, reportedly, old. But maybe this is his year.

To his credit, when Cavuto asked Simpson if there "was any situation under which he would consider running for president," Simpson laughed and told him "God, that's absurd. I mean, that really can't be... you're a bright guy." To which Cavuto responded, "Not really." Hey, Neil said something on the air I agree with for once!

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From CNN's The Situation Room, Jack Cafferty asks about something that's sure to be an issue if Texas Gov. Rick Perry actually wins the GOP presidential nomination for 2012 -- How much will it hurt Rick Perry that nearly 1 in 5 Texans live in poverty?:

Rick Perry loves to talk about all the jobs he's created in Texas... but that's only part of the story... and a bit misleading at that.

The other part of the Perry story is that nearly 1 in 5 Texans in the state where he is the governor are living below the poverty line; and that the poverty rate is growing faster in Texas than the national average.

CNN Money reports that Texas ranks 6th in terms of people living in poverty.

Both demographic and economic factors play into this high poverty rate - more than half the state are minorities and many Texans have little education. Especially in southern Texas, many families live in shanty housing with no electricity or indoor plumbing. In 2011.

Also, the poor in Texas don't get much help. The state has one of the lowest rates of spending on its citizens per capita; and it has the highest share of those without health insurance.

Relatively few Texans collect food stamps - even though many more qualify for them - and receiving cash assistance is difficult. Experts say part of the reason more people don't seek help is the Texas mentality that you should pick yourself up by your own bootstraps.

For his part, Texas governor Rick Perry says creating jobs is the best way to help his citizens. And it's true that Texas has created 40% of the jobs added in the U.S. in the past two years.

But many of these new jobs are low-paying ones. More than half a million workers in Texas last year were paid at or below the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. That's just $15,000 dollars a year for someone working full-time.

Texas has the highest percentage of minimum wage workers in the country... tying with Mississippi at nearly 10%.

With jobs and the economy sure to be the top issue in 2012...

Here’s my question to you: How much will it hurt Rick Perry that nearly one in five Texans are living in poverty?

Time for your weekly podcast with our own Driftglass and Bluegal, otherwise known as the Professional Left.

You can listen to the archives at The Professional Left Podcast and make a donation there if you'd like to help them keep these going and you can follow them on Facebook at The Professional Left Podcast with Driftglass and Blue Gal. Enjoy and have a great weekend everyone.

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MSNBC's Chuck Todd spoke to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus about this week's GOP debate and asked Priebus if he was concerned at all on whether Mitt Romney's arguments against Rick Perry during that debate on Social Security might not work given the fact that now Republican Sen. Ron Johnson who beat Russ Feingold in Wisconsin called Social Security a "Ponzi scheme" as well and won.

As Chuck Todd pointed out, the conventional wisdom that Perry's rhetoric is going to turn off voters in the Republican base might very well be wrong, and Todd asked Priebus if that was what he learned after watching the race between Johnson and Feingold.

Priebus responded by saying that "people understand that the government is making promises it can't keep" and asked if we can "be adults" and admit that and said the second question is what we are going to do to solve it. He then went on to praise Paul Ryan's and the House Republican's plan to privatize Medicare and said he thinks it's a "safe place" for all of our candidates to go and that "it's pretty clear that we have to start tackling our entitlements."

Priebus went onto note that even the Obama administration has said that we need to tackle our "entitlements" and downplayed Perry's over the top rhetoric, and Karl Rove's criticism of Perry as well. Sadly, he's right that we're going to find out before long whether one, the Obama administration helps the Republicans in the next election and cedes the ground to them on protecting our social safety nets rather than hammering them on the best issue they have to make some gains the next election.

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