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While quite a few Republicans are waking up to the fact that maybe it's not such a good idea to insult huge swaths of the voting public as Mitt Romney did when he made his remarks about President Obama winning the election because he gave "gifts" to minorities, women and young voters, it seems The Blaze's Will Cain hasn't gotten the message yet either.

This Sunday evening on CNN during Don Lemon's show, Cain appeared with regular LZ Granderson, and after Lemon played recordings of Bobby Jindal, Newt Gingrich and Haley Barbour all condemning Romney's remarks, both men were stunned when Cain decided to come to Romney's defense.

And as Granderson rightfully pointed out during the interview, besides being extremely insulting, Romney's remarks weren't even accurate, regardless of Cain's weak defense of them here. Cutting the middle man out of the student loan program, making sure women have affordable access to contraceptives, allowing people to stay on their parents' insurance plans, and allowing children who were brought to the United States to stay here instead of being deported are not "gifts." They're good policy.

If Cain wants to make sure that the Republican party remains the party of hateful old white men and help his buddy Willard make sure no one else ever wants to vote for them again, just keep talking buddy.

h/t Dave

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CNN's Don Lemon took the Romney campaign to task for doubling down on their lies about the embassy attacks and their ridiculous claim that the Obama administration apologized to or sympathizes with the attackers. While I was glad to see yet another cable anchor take them to task for this latest lie, I have to wonder where Don Lemon has been, given the statement he made at the end of his "No Talking Points" segment here:

LEMON: President and the secretary of state were front and center. The optics were in their favor and they knew it. And quite frankly, there was nothing the Romney campaign could do to counter. Yet in an odd contrast, before the ceremony had even ended, Mitt Romney took to the stage in Ohio to bash the very people who were paying tribute to the fallen. And from my perch here at the anchor desk and to many of you watching at home, you wrote me and told me it felt weird, uncomfortable and sad. How can a man in a campaign who throws around the word patriot so often get this one so wrong?

Don, if you don't know the answer to that question, I've got some recommended reading for you via Steve Benen -- Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. XXXIV.

The Romney campaign has been doing their best to set a world's record for the number of lies told during their campaign and you're asking how the latest one happened? Really? Maybe they'd have been doing less lying if the media had been doing a better job of calling them on it from the start, instead of constantly either just ignoring the lies, or using weasel words and being unwilling to call a lie a lie for fear of being called biased, or impolite, or...gasp, liberal.

Full transcript below the fold.

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CNN host Don Lemon on Sunday suggested that Daily Caller reporter Neil Munro may not have heckled President Barack Obama last week if the commander-in-chief had not been black.

Munro claimed on Friday that he had thought the president had finished delivering an official statement on immigration policy when he began yelling questions in the White House Rose Garden. But as CNN's Howard Kurtz noted, "[H]e kept on talking while the president was trying to speak."

"Neil Munro, how dare you?" Lemon asked on Sunday, noting that Daily Caller founder Tucker Carlson had defended Munro by saying that former ABC reporter Sam Donaldson had also shouted questions at President Ronald Reagan.

For his part, Donaldson told The Washington Post that he never treated Reagan in the way that Munro had disrespected Obama.

"I never interrupted any president while he was making a formal presentation of any sort," Donaldson explained.

"Many on the political right believe this president ought not to be there – they oppose him not for his polices and political view but for who he is, an African American!" the retired correspondent added in an email to The Huffington Post.

On Sunday, Lemon thanked Donaldson for pointing out what he called "the elephant in the Rose Garden."

"We also respect the office of the presidency just as we respect the courage of a man or a woman who dons a uniform to fight for our country," Lemon continued. "As a journalist, I know there are ways to get my question answered. It may not always be on the timeline I want, but there is always a way to do it."

The CNN host concluded: "And, Mr. Munro, interrupting the leader of the free world at the White House in the front of an international audience is not the way. And quite frankly, you are the one who should be asking and answering a whole lot of questions of yourself."

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This sort of segment is one where CNN regularly makes me feel that they're even worse than Fox "news," because they don't have the same brainwashed viewership Fox does, but they're still pushing the same sort of fake balance and right wing memes that you see on the other network that calls themselves "news." And I use the term lightly for either of them.

The outrage over the shooting of Trayvon Martin that finally made its way into the national spotlight is well-deserved. And not just because of what happened to this one black child, who unfortunately found himself on the wrong end of a gun when he was doing nothing wrong. It really has rallied people from all across this country who are fed up with the racism that is still festering in way too many segments of our society.

It's gotten the attention of a national audience about how insane some of these gun laws are that have been passed in states all across the country. People are asking questions about why the NRA, ALEC and Walmart are happy to see people armed to the hilt and allowed to shoot first and ask questions later if it means more sales for the gun manufacturers rather than rational policies about when you ought to be considered to be defending yourself.

It has managed to have people all across the country talking about racial profiling, and white privilege, and the fact that no white child has to be taught at a young age that it might not be safe for you to run in public, or that you might be killed for how you dress, or if you're acting in a suspicious manner in public and you'd better stifle yourself in that regard if you don't want to be a target like Trayvon Martin was.

That was apparently completely lost on CNN regular contributor, Will Cain, who got very upset when the issue of racial profiling came up during this segment and who was basically taking the same line as Larry Pratt did the other day, which is that Zimmerman may have somehow been justified in shooting Martin and we can't be sure because no one knows what happened during the altercation between the two, if there was one.

Don Lemon managed to aggravate me even more than Cain did, because apparently it's all right to lie and pretend you don't know full well that the shooting of Trayvon Martin was not justified, when it was Zimmerman that was pursuing him even after being told to stand down by the police, as long as you're "civil" or "polite" to each other and don't yell too loudly.

It's muddying the waters on issues that are actually important and that Republicans don't want to discuss because it would mean admitting their complicity in that boy's death by pushing to have everyone in this country armed to the hilt. And it's not a "great conversation" when you allow the likes of Cain to pretend there's no racial aspect to the Martin shooting or what conversation we should be having about it now.

Transcript below the fold.

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It seems Herman Cain has finally had some GOP oppo research catch up to him, regardless of his campaign's claim that this is just the "liberal" media out to get him. I'm just curious whether we'll ever find out if it was Mitt Romney or Rick Perry's camp that put this out there since they're the two most likely suspects IMO.

From TPM -- Report: Herman Cain Accused Of ‘Sexually Suggestive’ Harassment In 1990s:

Herman Cain just became the latest politician to face sexual allegations that could undermine his surging career.

Poiltico went up Sunday with a blockbuster story of Cain’s time as president of the National Restaurant Association, the industry trade group that was Cain’s first foray into the Washington political scene.

Politico reports “at least two” women working at the NRA when Cain ran it “complained to colleagues and senior association officials about inappropriate behavior” by the man who is now the national frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination.

More:

The women complained of sexually suggestive behavior by Cain that made them angry and uncomfortable, the sources said, and they signed agreements with the restaurant group that gave them financial payouts to leave the association. The agreements also included language that bars the women from talking about their departures.

Details on the incidents described in Politico include “conversations allegedly filled with innuendo or personal questions of a sexually suggestive nature” and “descriptions of physical gestures that were not overtly sexual but that made women who experienced or witnessed them uncomfortable and that they regarded as improper in a professional relationship.”

As they noted, the Cain campaign declined to answer questions posed to them by Politico. They did however respond to Geraldo Rivera on Fox, with some shall we say, fairly awful results.

Mediaite has more on that here -- Geraldo Blasts Herman Cain’s Spokesman During Call-In For Not Denying Sexual Harassment Claims.

My guess is we can now finally stick a fork in the Herman Cain presidential campaign that wasn't looking all that serious in the first place to me. The man looked like he was a whole lot more interested in selling his book and auditioning for a spot on Fox "News" as we've seen from other grifters like Palin and Gingrich than making any real effort to ever actually try to win the nomination, even though he was taking off in the polls.

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During this week's Meet the Press, Herman Cain was asked about a statement he made during a campaign stop in Tennessee this week where he said this:

ROANE COUNTY, Tenn. (WVLT) - A Republican candidate in the heated race for the GOP presidential nomination was in Roane County on Saturday afternoon.

For Herman Cain, a trip to Tennessee was a trip back home.

The businessman, born in the state, is trying to get its support while he applies for the world's most powerful job.

His road to the White House rolls through Rocky Top, and he got plenty of support.

"I expected to be greeted warmly, but this has just been over the top at every stop that we've made," Cain said.

Talking in Roane County to Tea Party supporters at Roane State Community College in Harriman, the man who never shies away from a controversial statement, got his biggest reaction when talking about securing the country's border.

"When I'm in charge of the fence, we're going to have a fence, 20 feet high, with barbed wire. It's going to be electrified and there's going to be a sign on the other side that says it will kill you." Cain told supporters.

Here was Cain's defense on Meet the Press this week:

GREGORY: On immigration, you said at an event in Tennessee that you would build an electrified fence on the border that could kill people if they try to cross illegally.

CAIN: That's a joke, David.

GREGORY: It's a joke, so that was...

CAIN: It's a joke. That's a joke.

GREGORY: That's not a serious plan?

CAIN: That's not a serious plan.

GREGORY: OK.

CAIN: No, it's not.

GREGORY: You got a big laugh out of that, but that's not what you'd do.

CAIN: That, that's a joke. that's a joke. I've also said America needs to get a sense of humor. That was a joke, OK?

GREGORY: OK. So that's not serious.

I'd love for anyone to watch the video below of the event and tell me if Cain did not look like he was serious. Or for that matter if the crowd that was cheering him on thought he was.

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Republican operative and (unfortunately for the rest of us) regular CNN contributor, Alex Castellanos tried repeating the standard Republican lie that the United States is somehow "just like Greece" and that we're going broke. Thankfully, Your Money host, Ali Velshi was there to call him out for it.

If he'd treat his regular guest, Stephen Moore this way when he has him on during his weekend show, I might almost be willing to forgive him for subjecting us to that Wall Street Journal hack week after week in the first place -- almost.

Naturally host, Don Lemon had to break things up when Velshi was just getting started making his points. Heaven forbid we can't be uncivil to one of their regular propagandists when they get called out for the lies in their talking points.

Transcript via CNN.

LEMON: Yes, and Donna -- and Wolf is going to jump in here, but just real quickly, I have to say, you know, Alex, you heard what Donna had to say, yet in the final hours, the House speaker was concerned about defense spending. And we didn't hear some of the points that Donna just brought up.

CASTELLANOS: Well, I don't think there's a great danger of civility breaking out in Washington any time soon...

(LAUGHTER)

CASTELLANOS: ... despite Senators McCain and Durbin's effort. But no, you know, something good has happened in all of this, and that is that we are talking not only about a serious issue like spending and the debt and are we going to spend ourselves along the path of Greece, but we're also talking about jobs and taxes, as I think these senators were just talking about.

I take exception a little bit to something Ali said, that we're not talking about jobs. That's all this debate has been about. No one's going to invest and create jobs in a country that's spending itself into insolvency. So the first thing you have to do is get some fiscal discipline. You know, if, Don, say some nice news network like CNN were going to hire you but you knew they were going bankrupt, it might affect your decision.

VELSHI: Alex! Alex! Alex!

CASTELLANOS: Spending and jobs and taxes...

VELSHI: We're not...

CASTELLANOS: ... we're now seeing a preview...

VELSHI: Alex!

CASTELLANOS: ... of the next...

VELSHI: Alex!

BLITZER: Go ahead, Ali.

VELSHI: Alex...

BRAZILE: There you go. Cut in.

VELSHI: ... what are you talking about? We're going bankrupt?

CASTELLANOS: Yes.

VELSHI: What are you -- come on! What are you talking about, Alex? We're not going bankrupt. America's never gone bankrupt. Greece can't issue bonds. America can. There was no question -- we have a AAA credit rating, Alex! We weren't close to bankrupt.

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CNN's Don Lemon bragged about how he and his network are going to make an effort to not allow politicians to come on their shows and just repeat talking points instead of answering direct questions by their reporters. Well, that's all well and good, but if Lemon thinks this interview with Rand Paul was some example of what we should expect from those that want to call themselves journalists in our media, he's going to have to do a better job than he did with Rand Paul here.

While I agree that it's a good thing that anyone in our media doesn't want to allow any politician to come on their show and just filibuster the interview with talking points, and that definitely is a step in the right direction, it's also pretty worthless if when they do answer your question and lie, that they're not called out for that lie.

It's also worthless when your network continues to paint the "tea party" as some actual third party, instead of just the right wing of the Republican Party and to continues to do the lazy "both sides" false equivalencies as was done here by Don Lemon. Sorry Don, but there are not two parties unwilling to compromise to make government work. And the "middle" of our political spectrum does not lie between "compromising" on lifting our debt ceiling and crashing our country and our world's economy if one side does not get everything they want with destroying our social safety nets.

Lemon got onto Rand Paul for not answering his questions, but he did not let his viewers know that the Republican Party has gone completely off the cliff with the crazy train with electing extremists like Rand Paul and that the Democratic Party has moved way too far to the right, other than the members of the House progressive caucus who are about the only ones out there actually looking out for everyday working Americans and their interests these days. They're given no voice or very little in our corporate media with the usual exceptions which are some of the prime time shows on MSNBC.

The full interview with Rand Paul is below the fold and I hate to break it to Don Lemon, but if he thinks this represents some sort of hardball interview with Rand Paul and holding him accountable for how he's behaved since he's been elected with pushing his extreme right wing or Libertarian views on the rest of us and for lying about how their balanced budget amendment being included in debt ceiling negotiations that has zero to no chance of being passed through Congress with the clock is ticking is somehow either "rational" or a "compromise", I'd like to have some of what Don Lemon has been smoking.

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Poor little old Rick Santorum just can't seem to get a break. What has the world come to when an anti-gay zealot like Ricky has to suffer such harsh attacks as he received from CNN's Don Lemon asking him if he actually has any gay friends? Or maybe not, but some right wing blogs that I refuse to link to thought that Don Lemon was terribly unfair to Santorum for having the nerve to make him answer questions about his bigotry towards gay people.

Keep in mind here that Don Lemon has come out as not only being gay, but being a victim of pedophilia as well, so I doubt that Lemon would be anyone that would be expected to have a warm spot for Santorum in his heart to put it mildly. Given that background, I'd say he took it pretty easy on Santorum for his attacks on the gay community and his willingness to demonize them for political gain.

Santorum once again proved that he should be considered the part of the clown show that is the GOP's list of potential candidates running for president in 2012 with this interview and good for Lemon for painting him as just another Stephen Colbert satire where he claims he has black friends as proof he's not a racist.

In the segment above, after citing a new CNN poll which shows that voters are less concerned about social issues and more concerned about the economy, CNN's Don Lemon notes that those poll results might be "very interesting" to a presidential candidate like Rick Santorum, who he points out "can be very divisive on social issues, like gay rights." That was putting it mildly and it was good to see someone like Santorum being put on the defensive for his stance on gay rights for once, even if it was tepid at best.

I'm no fan of Don Lemon given his typical stenography for all things right wing on CNN and for a lot of his coverage on that network being little more than tabloid "journalism", but I was glad to see him put Santorum on the defensive where he deserves to be during this segment.

Rough transcript below the fold.

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From CNN -- One of Gadhafi's sons killed in NATO airstrike, Libyan official says:

One of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's sons -- Saif al-Arab Gadhafi -- was killed after a NATO airstrike, a spokesman for Libya's government said Sunday at a press conference.

Moammar Gadhafi and his wife were in their son's house when it was targeted, spokesman Musa Ibrahim said. Both of them are in good health, according to the spokesman.

The victim is one of two of Gadhafi's sons named Saif. The other is Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, who had previously touted reform but has emerged as one of his father's most visible defenders in recent months.

The house in Tripoli was destroyed by the strike, with a massive crater where the house used to be. At least one unexploded bomb could be seen at the scene.

The building was in a residential area of Tripoli, according to Ibrahim, who insisted that Saif al-Arab Gadhafi was a student in Germany who was not deeply involved in Libya's military and government.

Ibrahim railed against NATO after the fatal strike, calling it an illegal act and a "war crime."

UPDATE: Here's more from the AP -- NATO strike kills Gadhafi's son but leader escapes:

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