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It looks like Sen. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III decided to give his fellow Armed Services Committee member, Saxby Chambliss, a run for his money to see who could make the most absurd statement during the hearing on sexual assault in the military this Tuesday.

GOP Senator Suggests Porn Is To Blame For Military Sexual Assaults:

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) detoured from a line of questioning about sexual assault in the military to raise the possible connection between the availability of pornography on military bases and sexual attacks on servicemembers.

Sessions joined the Senate Armed Services Committee in time for its second panel of the day, having missed the first session due to a conflicting meeting of the Budget Committee. Once there, Sessions wasted no time diving into the issue, asking several questions of the assembled military commanders in the panel.

During his questioning, however, Sessions brought up his concern that access to pornography on and around military bases was creating “problems” among the soldiers, sailors, and pilots:

SESSIONS: Mr. Chairman, I’d just add a letter, a document here that was given to me from Morality in the Media. Pat Truman used to be in the Department of Justice. I knew him when he was there. He points out that, a picture here of a newsstand and an Air Force base exchange with, you know, sexually explicit magazines being sold. So, we live in a culture that’s awash in sexual activity. If it’s not sold on base, it’s right off base. There are videos and so forth that can be obtained, and it creates some problems, I think.

Sessions then immediately segued into asking questions about the panel’s responses to sexual assault situations, asking what they would do if “you had a female soldier who had felt she was assaulted by an NCO, higher rank,” leaving his previous comments hanging in the air. He didn’t return to them during the rest of his questioning, leaving his full meaning unclear. However, while a few studies have found that pornography makes men more sexually aggressive, there’s no real-world evidence bearing out the claim that this translates into sexist attitudes or sexual violence. In fact, many more recent studies have been unable to show causation between viewing pornography and carrying out sexual violence. Read on...

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From ABC's This Week, Sen. Jeff Sessions was happy to do a little fearmongering over the effect of more legal immigration on our economy and cites a flawed study from a right-wing anti-immigration group while doing it. Republican Senator Blatantly Lies and Claims More Legal Immigration Is Bad for the Economy :

The conflict within the Republican Party on immigration was fully exposed when Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) made the opposite point on Fox News Sunday, “When with we reform our legal immigration system, we get these people that are already here now paying their taxes and not taking anything out of the system, this will be a net positive for the country economically now and in the future.”

Rubio was making the argument to his fellow Republicans that they can get something for nothing by increasing legal immigration, but both liberal and conservative analysts agree that adding more legal immigrants will be good for the economy.

Sen. Sessions was relying on a paper from the anti-immigrant Center For Immigration Studies (CIS). The right wing group arrived at their conclusion that immigration reform would have a net negative impact by not counting the 11 million immigrants that already illegally in the country.

Republicans like Jeff Sessions are preaching to a vanishing choir. Read on...

As Sen. Chuck Schumer rightfully explained during the segment, what's driving down wages are those working in the shadows right now. Republicans like Sessions don't want a path to legalization for these immigrants because they don't want them voting and they like the cheap labor for business. I don't pretend to know what the legislation is going to look like that comes out of the Senate this week, but I do have no doubt that whatever their starting point is, Republicans will do their part to muck up the works and make it worse.

Full transcript below the fold.

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Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) on Tuesday faced tough questions from CNN host Soledad O'Brien for his plan to cut the food stamp program and "hurt people who need food," including 20 percent of his own constituents in Alabama.

Speaking to Sessions in an interview on CNN's Starting Point, O'Brien wondered if cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) should be on the table as part of the so-called fiscal cliff negotiations.

"Absolutely," Sessions insisted. "This month was a record increase in food stamp participation at a time when unemployment is declining."

"But there are people who say if you're doing cuts, you invariably hurt people who need food," O'Brien observed. "It's 61 percent of households in your state have children who are recipients of the food program that they're on."

"Soledad, this program has been growing out of control at an incredible rate and there are a lot of people receiving benefits who do not qualify and should not receive them," Sessions remarked. "No child, no person who needs food should be denied that food. Nobody proposes that. We are talking about an amendment that I offered that would have reduced and closed a loophole of $8 billion when we would spend $800 billion was opposed by saying it would help -- it would leave people hungry in America, but it would have only eliminated abuses in the program."

The CNN host, however, pointed out that the Alabama Republican had voted twice to grow the program and the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities had determined that "SNAP has one of the most rigorous quality control systems of any public benefit program."

"People highlight the program as actually not having a lot of fraud," O'Brien explained. "Most people who are on it are not somehow working the system. They're just hungry people."

"That's not accurate," Sessions replied. "They're counting the computer system fraud error rate, but they're not out counting the real people who are filing false incomes or haven't reported changes in their income."

O'Brien continued to press Sessions, noting that "the problem could be in the reverse" because less than 70 percent of the people who qualify for food stamps were using the program.

"I guess when you are thinking of things to cut, people basically say, why are you trying to balance the budget on people who are making under $23,000 a year?" she asked. "I think that range, roughly, is the national average for what a family of four would get on food stamps. So, why not cut something else? There are other things that could be on the table before you pick a program that is feeding the nations poor children."

"I say all programs need to be examined in this government," Sessions shot back. "This government is wasting money every day. There is no doubt about that. And food stamps is a program that was totally exempted from any oversight when it has gone up four times in the last ten years in the amount we spend."

"Two of those times you voted for it, sir!" O'Brien interrupted. "Some people would say it's growing because people are hurting."

"I voted for the [agriculture] bill that had that in it, probably so," Sessions shrugged.

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Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, the great Senator from the state of Alabama did his best to diminish the fact that the Senate just passed the Democratic tax plan to extend the Bush tax cuts for all income under $250,000, which all of the Republicans just voted against during this interview on Fox over the weekend.

Passing tax cuts for the 99 percent, well that's just playing games and a political statement in Sessions' world. Unlike the very serious Republicans who are determined to hang on to those Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest among us. God knows they can't go raisin' taxes on those "job creators." The world would come to an end if we asked millionaires to pay a few more percentage points in taxes don't ya' know.

Sessions also managed to completely ignore the fact that Republicans were the ones holding the economy hostage the last time we had the threat of a government shutdown. He even went so far as to pretend that Democrats believe there's some sort of political benefit to that sort of gamesmanship. I'm not sure where he got that idea, because the fact that Congress allowed our credit rating to be lowered the last time Republicans pulled this stunt is one of the reasons that Congress' approval ratings are at an all time low right now.

Sessions seemed to be suffering from the same memory lapse as his fellow Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who tried blaming the cuts to military spending as part of the sequestration plan, when Republicans are the ones who insisted we make the defense cuts rather than raise taxes.

Sessions followed that by pretending that spending on food stamps is not stimulative to the economy (which is utterly false) and attacking those who are dependent on our social safety nets during this horrible economy that his party is primarily responsible for creating. It's kind of tough pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps when there are no jobs to be found, or very few due to the fact that the economy has not recovered and the fact that Republicans have been doing everything within their power to make sure it stays that way.

Naturally there was no mention by the Fox host Uma Pemmaraju about Republican governors laying off government workers so they can give their corporate campaign donors tax cuts, or the fact that the Republicans have blocked almost every bit of stimulus or the jobs bills that the Democrats have tried to get passed. Heaven forbid facts are ever allowed to get in the way of a Republican's talking points on Fox.

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Jon Stewart hit the hypocritical Republicans this Tuesday night for their apparent problems with basic math and their opposition to passing the Buffett rule after attacking the money spent on Planned Parenthood:

STEWART: So, let's see if I can get this straight. $47 billion in millionaires’ money is less than $300 million in mammograms and birth control.

They might care about the public noticing their blatant hypocrisy if they were capable of feeling shame, but they've made it obvious over the years that they are not.

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Al Sharpton did a good job this Wednesday of going after Fox for their ridiculous attacks on Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, claiming that she should recuse herself from the upcoming hearings on the constitutionality of the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act. This Thursday on Fox's America Live, even Megyn Kelly was throwing cold water on Sen. Jeff Sessions latest assertions as to why she should not be allowed to hear the case.

SESSIONS: Megyn, the key thing in those emails was the clear evidence that she directed her chief deputy, her personal deputy to take charge of the legal defense of the health care bill after it passed while she was Solicitor General. And therefore she made decisions in the legal defense of this bill.

And you're a lawyer, but you know, in a law firm, if a superior lawyer directs a subordinate to take a position in a case and begin work on it, they can't then appoint a judge to sit on that case. So I think...

KELLY: So let me ask you about that Senator, because, what should she have done? She was the Solicitor General. She couldn't have taken it knowing that she was possibly going to be on the short list for the Supreme Court. She had to give it to somebody else.

SESSIONS: Absolutely, but then you can't sit on the case. That's the question. I'm not saying she did anything wrong in commencing the legal preparation to defend the health care bill. That was perfectly alright for her. But once she's done that, she's involved herself in the litigation and is not normally, any private lawyer would not be able to sit on the case. Don't you think?

KELLY: Uh, we'll be talking about that on O'Reilly tonight, but I think you've got an uphill battle with that one Senator.

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Keith Olbermann didn't pull any punches with how he felt after reading a Tweet by Donald Rumsfeld saying he'd canceled his subscription to the New York Times after reading Paul Krugman's op-ed on 9/11.

From Countdown's Worst Persons:

OLBERMANN: Rumsfeld was bothered by that for some reason? Rumsfeld? Who with Cheney and Bush and all the others took the unanimity of that left and right gave them and exploited it in order to start a phony war in Iraq. Who ruined this nation's standing internationally with torture designed to get false information. Who spied on Americans without any law saying they could. Who fostered Islamophobia. Who spread panic and manipulated counter terror efforts to advance their own political power. That Rumsfeld?

Why did he cancel his subscription? Because Krugman didn't give him enough credit for all that? I've said it before and I'll say it again. Remembering that terrorism is as much about compelling irrational fear as it is about actual violence, between 2002 and 2009, the leading terrorists groups in this country were the Republican party and the presidential administration of George W. Bush.

Donald Rumsfeld, shut up! Today's Worst Person in the World.

Runners up were Rep. Peter King -- At UK terror inquiry, Rep. King defends IRA terror.

And Sen. Jeff Sessions -- Senate GOP largely quiet as Dems score points over disaster funding bill.

Looks like the Senate Democrats are pushing back at Mitch McConnell for making the ridiculous statement that only the Democrats are talking about their hostage taking and the continued threats of shutting down the government. Apparently old Mitch has forgotten that things like recording devices and transcripts exist and that we can go back and check them.

Here's more from TPM -- Dems To McConnell: What About All Those Republicans Talking About A Government Shutdown! (VIDEO):

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell says the only people talking about shutting down the government are a handful of Democrats.

So, Dems are asking, what about all those Republicans who've threatened a shutdown?

They're rounding up examples, and have put a few together in the below video.

And, of course, there's no shortage of examples, particularly from House Republicans for which there's no audio or video record. Read on...

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Jeff Sessions took to the Senate floor to bash the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell and he goes so far as to read a quote by a three-star general that me admits before quoting him "that he denied how he was quoted", but then goes on to read from The Washington Times editorial anyway. Here is the statement from Lt. Gen. Thomas Bostick about the editorial.

The Department of the Army released today a response by Lt. Gen. Thomas Bostick concerning an editorial entitled, “New Gay Army,” that appeared in the Sept. 16 edition of the Washington Times:

“The statements attributed to me are inaccurate. I simply did not make those statements. Moreover, as a member of the Department of Defense Comprehensive Review Working Group, I have been extremely careful not to express any views that might influence the integrity of the comprehensive review. I therefore have not expressed any opinions that might suppress the opinions of anyone participating in our discussions. I find the statements falsely attributed to me to be personally reprehensible.”

Spencer Ackerman has more on that hearing that Sen. Sessions was referring to. Go read the whole article but here's how it starts.

Senators, Fixated on Gays, Ignore Marines’ Future:

General James Amos, the first-ever aviator nominated to be Commandant of the Marine Corps, appeared this morning before the Senate Armed Services Committee to discuss how he’ll lead the nation’s Marines. It’s a big subject, because so much is in flux for the Corps: the Marine future in Afghanistan; how the Marines return post-Afghanistan to its traditional sea-borne role; what gear they’ll need to pull it all off. And Amos was so proud to lay out his vision for the Corps that he didn’t just bring his family to the Dirksen building, he also showed up with some of his high-school buddies. But what did Senators want to talk about? Gays, gays, gays.

The New Civil Rights Movement has more on Sessions floor speech as well.

GOP Senator Jeff Sessions Bashes The U.S. Military Armed Forces

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It looks like Jeff Sessions, Jon Kyl and Lindsey Graham's attacks on Thurgood Marshall during the Elena Kagan Supreme Court nomination hearing were even too much for Joe Scarborough to stomach. As Scarborough noted, it might not be such a good political strategy to look like you want to see Brown v. Board of Education over turned.

h/t Media Matters