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If anyone thought the NRA's Wayne LaPierre's rambling, bizarre speech wasn't quite bad enough this Friday morning and needed just one more dose of right wing crazy to make it through their day, the producers at MSNBC's Hardball managed to find some nut to bring on the air to one up him. Guest host Michael Smerconish and guest David Corn seemed equally appalled when fellow guest, author Steve Siebold, came on and not only defended LaPierre's push to have more armed guards in our nation's schools, but he wants the teachers and students armed as well.

When Smerconish asked him what would happen if a teacher did not want to be armed, Siebold's response was that he wouldn't want his kid going to that school. And when he asked him why he didn't think we should arm all of the children as well if he actually believes that more guns make everyone safer, Siebold responded that they shouldn't be arming children. When Smerconish pointed out that seniors and college students are adults, Seibold was all in for arming them as well.

I don't know where MSNBC found this nut job, but shame on them for giving him an ounce of air time.

You've just got to love these Republicans. They attack teachers and their unions and their collective bargaining rights, and then turn around and expect them to do double duty as law enforcement. Here's what's becoming an all too common idea from the wingnuts out there who think more guns is the solution to everything: Oklahoma Republican’s bill would arm teachers and train them like law enforcement:

McCullough plans to introduce legislation that would give school teachers and administrators the right to carry firearms in school. Under current law in Oklahoma, it is a felony to possess a gun on school property.

“I’m going to err on the side of trusting my teachers if it comes down to it,” the lawmaker explained. “I am not going to trust a madman.”

And McCullough explained to KOKH’s Marisa Mendelson that parents shouldn’t worry because teachers would required to get the same type of Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training (CLEET) certification that police officers have.

“These teachers would be trained at the same level as our law enforcement are currently trained,” he said. “They would be trained in target acquisition, in marksmanship. They would be trained in all of the things that our current police officers are trained in.”

Oklahoma parent Tom Jones, however, wasn’t comforted by McCullough’s assurances.

“I don’t believe that’s the answer, I really don’t,” Jones insisted. “I’d have to ask, how are you going to screen the teachers? How do you know you don’t have a mentally ill person?”

Republican state Sen. Ralph Shortey is also on board with McCullough’s plan, but he said that he would allow any teacher with a concealed-carry permit to bring firearms into the school without additional training.

“When citizens have the liberty to protect themselves, they will do so, and they will do so responsibly,” Shortey told The Oklahoman.

These people aren't going to be happy until they take us back to the days of the wild, wild west. Virginia's Governor Ultra-Sound-McDonnell wants to do the same thing in his state as well: Virginia Governor McDonnell Wants More Guns In Schools.

And we heard the same from Texas wingnut Gov. Rick Perry: Rick Perry Tells Tea Party: Allow More Guns in Schools .

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It seems Mitt Romney only believes poll numbers when they end up in his favor -- Romney On Polls: ‘You Can Ask Questions And Get Any Answer You Want’:

Confronted with polling from New York City showing parents standing with teachers unions at an NBC News education forum Tuesday, Mitt Romney took a swipe at poll results in general. During a question and answer session at the NBC event, a New York public schools parent told Romney that polling showed parents "support the union to protect our kids three to one over the mayor and the chancellor."

Romney, who spent much of the session condemning teachers' unions, said the results were meaningless.

"I don't believe it for a minute," Romney said. "I know something about polls, and you can ask questions and get any answer you want."

Romney didn't only get the polling wrong, he also got a quote wrong while attacking the teacher's union -- Romney Defames Teachers at NBC News Education Event:

During his presentation today at an NBC News Education forum in New York City, Mitt Romney repeatedly declared his belief that teachers' unions do not care about students or education, that those aren't "teachers' interests." In order to "prove" his case, he evoked (and mis-attributed) a right-wing canard about a speech by a senior teachers' union official, further demonstrating his contempt for educators.

In response to a question from a member of a New York City school board, who cited a recent Quinnipiac study showing NYC parents trust the teachers' union nearly twice as much as the mayor to protect their children's interests, Romney expressed disbelief in the poll. He then went on to "quote" the "head of the national teachers' union as having said, 'We don't care about the children. We care about the teachers.' in order to back his anti-union position. Unfortunately for Governor Romney, he got both the speaker and the full quotation wrong.

As Media Matters recently reported, this was actually a 2009 speech by Bob Chanin, former general counsel (not head) of the National Education Association, which was incompletely excerpted by both Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh to try to make the same anti-union point as did Governor Romney today. Media Matters then produced a substantial excerpt from the speech, placing in bold the mid-sentence to mid-sentence portion focused upon by Limbaugh, Hannity and now Romney, but including the rest of the context to demonstrate that Chanin was actually making the opposite point: Read on...

As they noted, given the way he launched his campaign, and I'll add, the amount of lying he's done since, this comes as no big surprise.

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Looks like Mitt Romney might want to get himself a better Communications Director than Gail Gitcho. From this Thursday night's Anderson Cooper 360: Anderson Cooper Explains Non-Partisan Congressional Budget Office To Top Romney Adviser:

Romney Communications Director Gail Gitcho says the “CBO” report from the Obama administration claimed that the stimulus would keep unemployment below eight percent. The CBO doesn't work for Obama, as Cooper notes, and it never wrote that. The eight percent figure comes from a projection authored by Obama aides before he even took office.

These surrogates get used to getting a lot of fact-free, unchallenged air time way too often. It was nice to see one of them challenged when trying to tell a few whoppers as Gitcho was here. We've already discussed the fact that the Romney campaign just can't quit lying. Here's Steve Benen's latest compilation from this week: Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. XXII.

Full transcript via CNN:

COOPER: So, Gail, the big focus today was jobs. Something Governor Romney had to say about public sector jobs got a lot of attention a few days ago. I just want to remind our viewers what he had to say back then.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: He wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers. Didn't he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did. It's time for us to cut back on government and help the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Now, you know, the Obama campaign has hit those comments hard, saying he wants to fire firemen, police and teachers. Then earlier this week Governor Romney pushed back with these comments.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: Of course, teachers and firemen and policemen are hired at the local level. And also by states. The federal government doesn't pay for teachers, firefighters or policemen. So, obviously, that's completely absurd.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: But the federal government, though, does provide billions of dollars every year in essential funding for schools and first responders and a big percentage of that aid goes to pay for personnel. Like more than $14 billion I think under Title 1 this year. Billions more programs for improving special education and a lot of that is hiring special education teachers, community policing support. So without that federal aid, many of those positions would disappear.

Would Governor Romney want to cut those federal programs?

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Stephen Colbert had a bit of fun with GOP presidential candidate 'Rmoney' after his comments that President Obama didn't get the message from Wisconsin about cutting teachers and firefighters.

COLBERT: Well said. Obama is totally out of touch. Romney then flew off in his private jet to watch Rafalca compete in the national dressage championship.

And Romney was just getting luke-warmed up. […]

Yes! Only Romney has the courage to say what we're all thinking. America is being sucked dry by fireman, policeman and teachers. These big-government teet moochers are so lazy they can't even take the stairs. Some of them slide down poles.

Must be nice. And the worst part folks is our kids look up to these parasites. Ask any brainwashed six year old what he wants to be when he grows up and it's always members of public service unions; firemen, policemen, teachers.

Kids need to start admiring society's real heroes; job creators.

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The chairman of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's national steering committee on Monday defended the candidate's "wisdom" that state and local government needed to "cut back" on teachers, firefighters and police.

"Let me respond as a taxpayer, not as a representative of the Romney campaign," former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu (R) told MSNBC's Chris Jansing. "There are municipalities, there are states where there is flight of population. And as the population goes down, you need fewer teachers."

"If there's movement to the suburbs, those teachers and policeman are needed somewhere," Jansing noted.

"If there's fewer kids in the classroom, the taxpayers really do want to hear that there will be fewer teachers," Sununu insisted. "Absolutely."

"I think this is a real issue and people ought to stop jumping on it as a gaffe and understand that there's wisdom in the comment," he added.

At a campaign stop in Iowa on Friday, Romney had blasted President Barack Obama's call to hire more teachers, firefighters and police.

"He wants to add more to government," the former Massachusetts governor charged. "He wants another stimulus. He wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more firemen, more policeman, more teachers.”

“Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did! It’s time for us to cut back on government!”

But on Monday, Romney adviser Bay Buchanan said that Obama was the one to blame for job losses in the public sector.

"He says 450,000 local and government state workers have been laid off, Buchanan told CNN's Soledad O'Brien. "Why do you think they’re being laid off, Mr. President? Do you not understand when the economy is suffering, when we are having the situation we’re having today with this slow, slow, almost no growth in the country sometimes, that he is impacting? His policies are impacting what’s going on in the state and local."

“If Barack Obama could just do half the kind of job that Mitt Romney did [as governor of] Massachusetts, this country would be thriving.”

A 2009 report by the National Commission on Teaching & America's Future predicted about a third of the nation's teachers would retire by 2013, leaving drastic shortages of experienced instructors.

(h/t: Think Progress)

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An adviser to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Monday said that President Barack Obama's policies were at fault for jobs cuts in the public sector -- even though the GOP hopeful recently blasted the president for wanting to hire more firefighters, police and teachers.

"He's the president of the United States, the most powerful man in the world," Bay Buchanan told CNN's Soledad O'Brien. "He had to take some responsibility for the economy that his policies have created after three and a half years. Take a little responsibility. Show a little leadership."

O'Brien wondered how much of a problem it was for the campaign that Romney had recently criticized Obama's call to cut back on the hiring of firefighters, police and teachers.

"Those three groups -- firemen, policeman and teachers -- are critical to society," Buchanan explained. "This idea that Obama has no responsibility. In [his] own ad, he really indicts himself. He says 450,000 local and government state workers have been laid off. Why do you think they're being laid off, Mr. President? Do you not understand when the economy is suffering, when we are having the situation we're having today with this slow, slow, almost no growth in the country sometimes, that he is impacting? His policies are impacting what's going on in the state and local."

"If Barack Obama could just do half the kind of job that Mitt Romney did [as governor of] Massachusetts, this country would be thriving."

During a press conference on Friday, Obama had called on Congress to pass a jobs proposal that would prevent layoffs and rehire public workers like police, firefighters and teachers.

“The truth of the matter is 3 million jobs over the last 27 months, over 800,000 just this year alone,” the president told reporters. “The private sector is doing fine. Where we’re seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government.”

At a campaign stop in Iowa that same day, Romney blasted that assertion.

“For the president of the United States to stand up and say the private sector is doing fine is going to go down in history as an extraordinary miscalculation and misunderstanding by a president who’s out of touch,” the former Massachusetts governor charged.

“And his answer for economic vitality, by the way, was, of course, pushing aside the private sector, which he said is doing fine,” Romney continued. “Instead, he wants to add more to government. He wants another stimulus. He wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more firemen, more policeman, more teachers.”

“Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did! It’s time for us to cut back on government!”

(h/t: Talking Points Memo)

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Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Friday said that President Barack Obama's call to hire more police, firefighters and teachers proved that he didn't "get the message" from Republican wins in the recent Wisconsin recall elections.

During a press conference earlier on Friday, Obama had called on Congress to pass a jobs proposal that would prevent layoffs and rehire public workers like police, firefighters and teachers.

“The truth of the matter is 3 million jobs over the last 27 months, over 800,000 just this year alone," the president told reporters. "The private sector is doing fine. Where we’re seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government."

At a campaign stop in Iowa, Romney blasted that assertion.

"For the president of the United States to stand up and say the private sector is doing fine is going to go down in history as an extraordinary miscalculation and misunderstanding by a president who's out of touch," the GOP hopeful charged.

"And his answer for economic vitality, by the way, was, of course, pushing aside the private sector, which he said is doing fine," Romney continued. "Instead, he wants to add more to government. He wants another stimulus. He wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more firemen, more policeman, more teachers."

"Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did! It's time for us to cut back on government!"

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Sunday that saving the jobs of police and firefighters was not the role of the federal government.

CNN's Candy Crowley reminded the Kentucky Republican that a recent Gallup/USA Today poll found that 75 percent of Americans supported President Barack Obama's plan to provide additional money for teachers, police and firefighters.

"Republicans helped not break a filibuster, if you will, in a procedural vote," Crowley explained. "You basically got rid of that jobs bill which would have given money to the states, designed to hire or retain fireman, policeman and teachers. When we look at the polling, 75 percent of Americans supported that and yet, the Republicans were against it. So, how do you justify that in your mind?"

"Well, Candy, I'm sure that Americans do," McConnell remarked. "I certainly do approve of firefighters and police. The question is whether the federal government ought to be raising taxes on 300,000 small businesses in order to send money down to bail out states for whom firefighters and police work. They're local and state employees."

"The question is whether the federal government can afford to be bailing out states. I think the answer is no."

"The fact is that when you do ask people about this surtax on millionaires, and small businesses as you put it but millionaires in general, people support that, when it comes to not just firemen, policemen and teachers but also the infrastructure bill that's coming up, which you're also opposed to, as I understand it, which would help put people back to work on roads and bridges and rebuilding and that sort of thing," Crowley noted. "It seems to me that politicians are always talking about doing the will of the American people, and that the Republican Party can be seen at least politically as going against that."

"Yeah, these bills are designed on purpose not to pass," McConnell asserted. "I mean, the president is deliberately trying to create an issue here. Look, the American people don't think, I'm sure, that it's a good idea. Four out of five of the so-called millionaires are business owners, over 300,000 small businesses in our country that hire people. I don't think the American people think that raising taxes on business, small business in the middle of this economic situation we find ourselves in is a particularly good idea."

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So much for caring more about keeping teachers, firefighters and police officers working. The Republicans in the Senate with some help from the usual suspects when it comes to blocking anything that might help everyday Americans -- Ben Nelson (Neb.), Mark Pryor (Ark.) and Joe Lieberman (Conn.) -- blocked the passage of a portion of President Obama's jobs bill this Thursday night.

Lawrence O'Donnell showed us some of Vice President Joe Biden's speech from the day before, urging members of the Senate to support the bill -- Supporting middleclass over millionaires:

Vice President Joe Biden eloquently offers Republicans a simple choice: support your local sheriffs or support your local millionaires. MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell explains in the Rewrite.

Here's more from The Hill on the vote -- Senate deals second defeat to Obama's 'jobs' plan:

For the second time in two weeks, Senate Republicans voted in a unison to block “jobs” legislation, which the Obama administration and Senate Democratic leaders have made central to their agenda.

The measure, a piece of President Obama’s larger jobs package, failed by a tally of 50 to 50 after several Democrats joined with Republicans to the Senate from moving to the measure.

Democrats Ben Nelson (Neb.) and Mark Pryor (Ark.), who voted last week to block Obama’s full jobs measure, again sided with Republicans.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.), an independent who caucuses with Democrats, also said no, citing concerns about the legislation’s cost effectiveness.

As with last week’s vote, Democrats failed to woo a single Republican vote. The staunchly unified GOP opposition calls into question whether the Democratic strategy has been able to exert the intended pressure on centrist Republicans. [...]

The $35 billion Democratic measure was designed to prevent layoffs of teachers, police officers and firefighters in cash-strapped states. Most of the funding, $30 billion, would have gone to saving teaching jobs and the rest to first responders.

The most controversial element of the bill was a plan to pay for it by raising taxes on income over $1 million by 0.5 percent. Republicans argued that it would put more pressure on small businesses that are already having difficulty maintaining cash flow because of the tight credit market.

Republicans said the latest Democratic jobs measure is a replay of the $787 billion stimulus Congress passed at the beginning of 2009, which they argue had little impact.Senate Democrats say they will bring additional pieces of the president’s jobs bill to the floor. One measure will likely include infrastructure spending; another would extend the payroll tax holiday and extend it to employers; a third would extend unemployment insurance.

Democrats expect to propose the same pay-for — raising taxes on income over $1 million — for each.

And here's more from Greg Sargent on what the blocking of this bill means for the people that these Senators are supposed to be representing, the topic of which, sadly, we now have the answer to -- Will Senators do the right thing on jobs, or will they shaft thousands of their own constituents?:

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