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This Wednesday on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, the Guardian's Glenn Greenwald was given a chance to respond to Rep. Peter King's calls for the criminal prosecution of those who report on classified information on that same show the prior evening.

Apparently King showed up on Fox the following day as well and told host Megyn Kelly that he didn't want them to go after just any journalists, but that he specifically wanted Greenwald and the Washington Post's Barton Gellman, who also wrote about the NSA, to be prosecuted for publishing the leaks. Lord knows he's not going to tell Megyn Kelly he thinks they should go after anyone at Fox for leaks on our contacts inside North Korea.

Greenwald pushed back at King's allegations that he was threatening to reveal the identities of CIA agents and he also got a shot in on him for his past support of those Irish terrorists when it suited him.

Glenn Greenwald To Anderson Cooper: Peter King And Others Targeting Me For ‘The Crime Of Doing Journalism’:

Greenwald admitted he was “really staggered” that a member of Congress, let alone the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, would “fabricate” this information calling for Greenwald to be arrested and tried for “the crime of doing journalism.” Cooper noted that King’s office declined to comment, and asked if any of Greenwald’s future revelations will reveal the identities of anyone in the field. Greenwald insisted it will not, and defended Edward Snowden as, contrary to popular belief, actually taking national security into account in deciding to reveal the classified information.

Cooper asked whether King is making it up or just mistaken, but Greenwald said he didn’t want to think about what’s going on in “the swamp of Peter King’s brain.” He mentioned how King has actually supported terrorist activity by the Irish Republican Army.

Cooper noted how while everyone accused WikiLeaks of damaging national security and putting people at risk, U.S. officials admitted that they couldn’t name anyone who died as a result of the info that WikiLeaks released. Greenwald argued that every time people release secret government information, the government responds by scaring people into blindly trusting whoever’s in charge to protect them, but ultimately journalists should be calling them out and demanding to know “what specifically has jeopardized national security."

I don't expect we'll see anyone in our corporate media take his advice any time soon. They constantly allow Republicans to come on the air and lie without being called out, or have segments like this one, where it's a day later before and they bother to let their audience know the politician was lying like a rug.

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So much for journalists and their 1st Amendment rights -- Rep. Peter King: Punish journalists who report classified information:

Representative Peter King (R-NY) on Tuesday night said that journalists who revealed secret government programs should face criminal charges.

Discussing the recent news about the National Security Agency, CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked the Republican if he believed journalists should be punished for reporting on leaked information.

“Actually, if they willing knew that this was classified information, I think action should be taken, especially on something of this magnitude,” King responded. “I know that the whole issue of leaks has been gone into over the last month. I think something on this magnitude, there is an obligation, both moral but also legal, I believe, against a reporter disclosing something which would so severely compromise national security.”

“As a practical matter, I guess there have been in the past several years, a number of reporters who have been prosecuted under it,” he added. “So the answer is yes to your question.”

Tough talk from a guy who liked 'palling around with terrorists' not so long ago.

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The man who is being hailed as a hero for rescuing the lives of three women kidnapped for a decade says that he would like any reward money to be turned over to the victims.

Charles Ramsey became an instant Internet sensation on Monday when he helped free Amanda Berry, Georgina DeJesus and Michele Knight from the house next to his where they had been trapped for around 10 years.

"Bro, I knew something was wrong when a little, pretty white girl ran into a black man's arms," he told WEWS following the rescue. "Something is wrong here. Dead giveaway."

On Tuesday, CNN host Anderson Cooper asked Ramsey what it felt like to find out that he had been living next to kidnapping victims.

"See, that's why now I'm having trouble sleeping," he explained. "See, up until yesterday, the only thing that kept me from losing sleep was the lack of money. See what I'm saying? So now that that's going on, and I could have done this last year, not this hero stuff, just do the right thing."

"Because there's a lot of people, they're saying you're a hero," the CNN host noted.

"No, no, no. Bro, I'm a Christian, an American, and just like you," Ramsey insisted. "We bleed same blood, put our pants on the same way. It's just that you got to put that - being a coward, and I don't want to get in nobody's business. You got to put that away for a minute. You have to have cajones, bro."

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If we can trust CNN's reporting this time around on the Boston Marathon bombing, this is very disgusting and disturbing to put it mildly: CNN: Unreleased footage shows suspects watched explosions :

CNN reports this evening that federal investigators have much more footage of the two men wanted in relation to the Boston Marathon bombing — and that some of that footage is shocking.

A federal law enforcement source “with knowledge of the investigation” told the network that the suspects stayed and watched as the two bombs exploded, then simply walked away from the horrific scene.

“When the bombs blow up, when most people are running away and victims were lying on the ground, the two suspects walk away pretty casually,” said the source — who CNN reported has seen the footage.

Here's more from the CNN article: FBI: Help us ID Boston bomb suspects:

'They acted differently than everyone else'

Other footage, still unreleased, shows that the two suspects stayed at the scene to watch the carnage unfold, a federal law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation told CNN's Susan Candiotti.

"When the bombs blow up, when most people are running away and victims were lying on the ground, the two suspects walk away pretty casually," said the official, who has seen the unreleased video. "They acted differently than everyone else."

While video of at least one suspect planting the bomb exists, the FBI had chosen not to release it, according to the official. One reason, according to the official, is that were the media to repeatedly show the suspects leaving the bomb, it might cause some people to overreact if they came into contact with them.

DesLauriers said intelligence had been developed on the first suspect "within the last day or so." The official who spoke with CNN said images of the second suspect were isolated Wednesday.

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I would love to know why Anderson Cooper and his producers at CNN thought anyone in their audience would benefit from hearing what wingnut former Rep. Allen West had to say about the recent announcement that the Pentagon is removing military's ban on women serving in combat, given his background.

I don't know about anyone else, but someone who bragged about torturing Iraqi policemen is not the person I want to hear from when it comes to any matters involving our military, but here he was, on CNN, being treated like he's someone who's sane and credible, which he's not.

Allen West Slams Women In Combat ‘Social Experiment,’ Suggests They Should Also Join NHL And NBA:

Former Republican Congressman and Army veteran Allen West made his views about the recent decision to allow women to serve in combat roles known this morning on Twitter and Facebook. And tonight, he brought those views to CNN.

Appearing on Anderson Cooper 360 along with retired General Rick Hillier of the Canadian Forces, West laid out his opposition to the new rule, saying that with all of the budget issues the military is having right now, the focus shouldn’t be on “this foray into an inequality trip.”

West then went off into an extended sports metaphor that seemed to have both Anderson Cooper and General Hillier baffled:

“I have to tell you, if this is the case, then why do we have separate hockey leagues? Women should be out there playing ice hockey with the guys in the NHL. We should not have a WNBA. I can’t shoot a three-pointer, but there are ladies who could certainly take me to the hoop. Maybe they should be competing with Kobe Bryant.”

Cooper quickly steered the conversation back to the more practical concerns surrounding women in combat, asking Hillier if he had seen any advantages in his career working with women in combat. Read on...

I'm guessing there are a whole lot of people out there that would rather have a woman serving next to them in combat than a loose cannon like West. He's no longer in the Congress but it seems our corporate media isn't done allowing him to pollute our airways.

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Jon Stewart took his viewers though some of the "highlights" of this week's Presidential inauguration, whether it was the media freaking out over whether or not Beyonce was lip syncing the national anthem, to Chuck Schumer overseeing the activities, to the media's reaction to President Obama's speech.

MSNBC was full of praise, Fox was doing their usual and broadcasting from some alternative universe where the likes of Peter Johnson, Sean Hannity, Stuart Varney and racist "Uncle Pat" Buchanan reside and then we had CNN, who had their anchors on fashion patrol.

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It seems the House Republicans finally woke to the fact that their demands to amend the bill that just made it through the Senate to avert the so-called "fiscal cliff" were going nowhere: New Year’s on the ‘cliff’ _ House to vote on Senate bill as GOP backs off demands for changes:

Maneuvered into a political corner, House Republicans abandoned demands for changes in emergency legislation to prevent widespread tax increases and painful across-the-board spending cuts and cleared the way for a final, climactic New Year’s night vote.

The decision capped a day of intense political calculations for conservatives who control the House. They had to weigh their desire to cut spending against the fear that the Senate would refuse to consider any changes they made in the “fiscal cliff” bill, sending it into limbo and saddling Republicans with the blame for a whopping middle class tax increase.

Adding to the GOP discomfort, one Senate Democratic leadership aide said Majority Leader Harry Reid would “absolutely not take up the bill” if the House changed it. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity, citing a requirement to keep internal deliberations private.

The legislation cleared the Senate hours earlier on a lopsided pre-dawn vote of 89-8. Administration officials met at the White House to monitor its progress.

“I do not support the bill. We are looking, though, for the best path forward,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., declared after one meeting of the party’s rank-and-file.

Despite Cantor’s remarks, Speaker John Boehner took no public position on the bill as he sought to negotiate a conclusion to the final crisis of a two-year term full of them. Read on...

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If anyone wanted to know where wingnuts Mike Lee and Rick Santorum got their talking points in opposing this United Nations treaty that just got voted down by the shameless Republicans in the Senate who were too afraid of the crackpots among their ranks to do the right thing, look no further than this guy -- Michael Farris.

CNN's Anderson Cooper did a nice job going after Sen. Mike Lee the other night when he was trying to defend leading the opposition to the treaty. This Monday evening, Cooper brought on the Home School Legal Defense Association's Farris to defend his position as well. Despite Cooper continually reminding Farris that the treaty would not directly impact United States' law or force parents of disabled children here to do anything, Farris continued to maintain that the opposite was true and that it has already impacted cases in the United States.

After he went off the air, Cooper did some follow up with their chief legal analyst at CNN, Jeffrey Toobin, who basically said that Farris was full of it. Farris continually challenged Cooper during the interview as someone who had no idea what he was talking about and painted himself as an expert because of his experience teaching law at the school he founded, Patrick Henry College. After reading a bit about it, it pretty well sounds like just another Liberty University, designed with the purpose of pushing home schooled evangelicals into the government and positions of power.

Here's more on that from Daily KOS: German reporter goes underground at Patrick Henry College:

Amrai Coen, a writer for the German weekly Die Zeit, wanted to visit Patrick Henry College, but the college administration refused her visit since the school had "bad experiences with foreign journalists." Undeterred, Amrai posed as a prospective student and showed up on campus on "Visitor's Day". Her piece on her experience that day provides a rare inside glimpse of life at America's Madrassa,

Nearly all of the students at Patrick Henry College have been home-schooled by ultra-conservative evangelical Christian parents. At Patrick Henry these young people can complete their christo-fascist indoctrination before joining right-wing think tanks and media groups in Washington. Students are taught to kneel before images of Jesus and Ronald Reagan; they attend lecturess on how America can waterboard its way to global dominance. Professors are dismissed if they actually teach science, since students are taught that the earth is only 6000 years old and baby Jesus frolicked with dinosaurs.

(Note: my translation from the Zeit piece)

The college has one mission: to save America from its downfall, from the abyss into which Barack Obama has steered the country in the past four years. Young conservative Christians are the soldiers in this wa. At Patrick Henry College they will be trained to fight one day on the front - as politicians, filmmakers, or entrepreneurs they will win back American society. Some have rejected Harvard or Yale in order to study here.

I'm sure much to the dismay of their founder, an LGBT group has also been making the public aware of how the school treats their students: Patrick Henry College, Homeschool Bastion, Has LGBT Group.

Here's more background on Farris from Right Wing Watch as well: Michael Farris Warns that the UN might 'Get Control' over Children With Glasses:

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As we already discussed here and as Jon Stewart rightfully mocked this week, Republicans have gone off of the rails with their opposition to this United Nations treaty that they just shamefully voted down in the Senate, because the homeschooling crowd is scared to death that the U.N. is going to somehow impose agreements from international treaties onto the citizens of the United States.

This Friday evening, CNN's Anderson Cooper decided to actually do his job and pushed back at wingnut Mike Lee, who was one of the leading voices in the Senate who made sure the treaty wasn't approved.

As Hullabaloo's David Atkins rightfully observed on that topic:

We shouldn't have to hit rock bottom for CNN to start actually doing its job. But at least we've found a level of insanity that will actually prompt some legitimate journalism.

As Raw Story noted, Cooper pretty well destroyed most of Lee's arguments about why he opposes the treaty. I'll be surprised if he's back on there any time soon. Cooper was polite, but he managed to show Lee for the dishonest embarrassment that he is along with the rest of them that voted with him during the interview.

Full transcript and video of Cooper's interview with Lee below the fold.

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I've heard Lady-Mc-Cheney, Mary Matalin say a lot of ridiculous things in her defense of Mitt Romney, but this segment from Anderson Cooper's show on CNN this Thursday evening may have set a new low, even for Matalin's standards, which generally range from low to non-existent. Apparently labor unions, paying people minimum wage instead of slave wages and poverty programs that keep people from starving when times are tough are harming upward mobility in America.

And in this idiot's world, women being allowed to control their own reproductive health and having access to birth control is not one of the primary economic factors in most women's lives, but instead something that has no affect on whether they get "upward mobility opportunities" as well. Really astounding from someone who I assume was alive and cognizant during the last half a century or so and who has been around long enough to maybe remember the days when women were discriminated against because they might not be able to remain at a job, because heaven forbid they might end up pregnant.

Who needs misogynistic men around when you've got women like Matalin doing as much or more damage to her own gender as her male counterparts could ever hope to do.

As to the rest of the segment on CNN, I was glad to see The New York Times' Charles Blow call out Matalin for presuming to know what's best for African-American voters and the fact that you can't separate the issues she was discussing from the economic impact on the lives of average American workers, no matter what their race or gender.

Transcript via CNN below the fold.

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