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MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry had a few words for old Fat Tony after the remarks he made during this week's Supreme Court hearing on the Voting Rights Act -- Voting is no ‘racial entitlement,’ Justice Scalia:

Dear Justice Scalia,

It’s me, Melissa.

By now, we know you well enough that there’s not much you can say or do that would come as a surprise. We can set our watches by your decisions that, predictably, will be in alignment with the Court’s most radically conservative reasoning. We know that unlike your friend Justice Clarence Thomas, who has a permanent mute button on, you will always voice an opinion, and it will be heavily influenced by your political agenda..

But even given all of that, what you had to say during Wednesday’s oral arguments still came as a genuine shock.

Commenting on Congress’s nearly unanimous re-authorization of the Voting Rights Act in 2006, you said, “I don’t think that’s attributable to the fact that it is so much clearer now that we need this. I think it is attributable, very likely attributable, to a phenomenon that is called perpetuation of racial entitlement.”

You went on to say, “I am fairly confident it will be re-enacted in perpetuity…unless a court can say it does not comport with the Constitution…It’s a concern that this is not the kind of a question you can leave to Congress.”

Racial entitlement? Not a question you can leave to Congress? Even for you, Justice Scalia, this is a particularly willful misreading of the Constitution you claim to adore.

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From this Monday's America Live on Fox, it seems regular Stuart Varney is just begging for another tongue lashing from Stephen Colbert. He just can't seem to stop himself from worshiping the British series Downton Abbey and the good old days where we didn't have any of that messy "ultra-democracy" where those poor "fat cats" are asked to do things like pay their taxes, or have the food they're selling inspected, or do their part to make sure we live in a civil society.

It looks like Varney has been beating this drum for about a month or so now, but apparently hasn't gotten tired of it yet. He was also continuing his attacks on "goodies" such as universal preschool, which he was attacking last week. Who wants their kids going to school when they could be waiting on some benevolent aristocrat instead?

Here's part of Varney's exchange with Megyn Kelly:

VARNEY: What other TV show have you ever seen in modern TV shows where the rich are made to look generous, honest, classy and looking after people with their money and their power? Where else do you see this?

KELLY: Yeah.

VARNEY: You are taught in America today these people, the rich, well they are evil, they are unscrupulous, they're abusers, they are as the President says "fat cats" and they should pay their fair share. The President wants to demonize the rich and make them pay for all the goodies which are showered upon our democracy. [...]

Let me throw something else at you. Where else in modern American television, do you see profit and the pursuit of profit to be good. That's what you see in Downton Abbey. They introduced profit into the running of the Earl's estate to save the estate. Profit is good. It keeps people in jobs. When do you see that today in modern television? [...]

Well, we're taught that rich people, the aristocrats, they treat people badly and to be governed by these people is a very bad system. Juxtapose that with the way we are governed today in this ultra-democracy. Are you happy to be pushed around by the bureaucracy? Are you happy to have people from the government tell you what to do, where to go, what to have inspected, how much to pay in taxes and have money taken off you? It's a ultra-democracy. It doesn't look quite so good with a critical eye.

As I said, Varney is just begging for Colbert to do round two of a segment like this one.

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From this Saturday's Up With Chris Hayes, his Story of the Week is a good reminder for anyone who is not thrilled with a lot of the ugliness of our democratic process, or frustrated with dealing with the United Nations -- it sure beats the alternative.

Hayes: The beauty of process:

ABC's Martha Raddatz did, I thought, on the whole, a pretty good job moderating Thursday night's vice presidential debate, particularly when asking questions on her area of expertise, foreign policy. But her final question of the night, about the negativity and sordidness of electoral politics, really bothered me.

Here's what she asked:

I recently spoke to a highly decorated soldier who said that this presidential campaign has left him dismayed. He told me, quote, "the ads are so negative and they are all tearing down each other rather than building up the country." What would you say to that American hero about this campaign? And at the end of the day, are you ever embarrassed by the tone?

That soldier, of course, isn't alone: Lots of Americans feel the same way. I've heard the same thing from random voters I've interviewed in every campaign I've covered. And it's a recurring theme among the political press paid to cover politics to bemoan the nastiness and negativity of the thrust and parry of electoral politics. But it's an impulse we should collectively resist, because it contains the kernel of an insidious view of the value of democracy and diplomacy and bureaucracy and the manifold ways that we as human beings channel and resolve conflict in a non-violent fashion.

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Jon Stewart took a shot at Sarah Palin as well on this Monday evening's The Daily Show, but he spent the majority of this segment absolutely skewering Sean Hannity and Dan Senor, or as we like to call him, Baghdad Bob, for their sheer and utter hypocrisy on the topic of whether the United States ought to be promoting democracy around the world.

Apparently their view is completely dependent on whether it's George W. Bush, or that Kenyan usurper they hate so much in the White House. Stewart ended the segment by having Senor literally debate himself.

Maybe that hack Scarborough can show Senor this clip the next time they decide to have that neocon warmonger sitting in on the entire three hours of Morning Joke again.

The latest from the brilliant Mark Fiore. Schoolhouse Rock has been trampled by the new guy in town -- ALEC.

Watch it and share.

This report from Rachel Maddow this Thursday was really shocking. I knew things were bad in Michigan after watching some of her previous coverage on these so-called emergency managers circumventing democracy in their state, but not this bad. Rachel summed up this segment with this statement and it's spot on:

The 2010 elections ushered in a lot of radicalized Republican legislatures and governors across the country and have done a lot of radical things. Scott Walker is famous for a reason.

But what`s happened in Michigan is the most radical thing Republicans have done anywhere in the country. They have eliminated democracy. They have eliminated voting rights at the local level in their state. They have tried to eliminate Democrats` voting rights in the state legislature.

Whether you`re on the left or you`re on the right or you`re in the center or if you don`t particularly care about politics, if all you care about is that we have a form of government in this country called democracy, we vote. If you care about the idea that we still use voting here, we still use democracy, if you care about the Constitution -- frankly, Michigan ought to have a flashing red light siren on it right now.

Chris Savage at Eclectablog, who has been following this story for some time now has more -- Michigan Republicans have ILLEGALLY passed over 96% (546) of their bills under “immediate effect”:

Last night, Rachel Maddow broke a huge story that has been happening since Republicans took over in Michigan in 2011 and has gone completely under the radar. Since January 2011, 566 bills have been signed into law. Of those, 546 of them, 96.5% were passed under “immediate effect”. Here’s the video from last night’s show that will blow your mind. Pay particular attention to around 12:30 where they show it in action. It’s astonishing. [...]

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From this Saturday's Up With Chris Hayes -- Story of the Week: Democracy for Billionaires:

Chris's Story of the Week asks who is Sheldon Adelson and what does it mean for democracy when a billionaire investor and casino owner like him can give a Newt Gingrich-associated super PAC $10 million?

Chris highlighted The New Yorker's profile of Adelson, "The Brass Ring" which you can read in its entirety here -- The World of Business, The Brass Ring.

You can watch the rest of the show from this Saturday here and here.

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Chris Hedges appeared last Sunday on C-SPAN's Book TV series, In Depth for a three hour interview which you can watch all of at their archives. Here's a portion from the beginning of the last hour where Hedges weighed in on Ron Paul and Libertarianism, the battle between the working class and the elites for democracy and on Oprah Winfrey and her role in the cultural and religious pursuit of personal wealth in America.

On Ron Paul and Libertarianism:

HEDGES: Ron Paul for me is sort of a funny guy. I mean, he says a lot of good stuff, but for me Libertarianism is sort of a preindustrial ideology. The idea that government should be so diminished... well, I mean, the problem is that government is anemic in the face of corporations like Exxon Mobil, City Bank and Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. And we need to find leverage by which these monopolies can be broken up and the power of these corporations can be curbed.

And so I think Ron Paul is pretty good in terms of empire, in terms of fiscal responsibility, in terms of Constitutional rights, but the core of his message, which is essentially to gut government is one that I think isn't going to do anything to diminish the power of the corporate state.

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Sen. Bernie Sanders on CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer talking about his proposed constitutional amendment that would overturn the Supreme Court decision in a case called Citizens United vs. FEC.

Blitzer asked Sanders about the time he "worked with" former Speaker of the House and now presidential frontrunner Newt Gingrich and I love his response here. They served together in the House at the same time, but never "worked together" as Blitzer described it and Sanders was didn't pull any punches with calling Gingrich out for what he is, which is a right-wing ideologue who doesn't have the interests of the working class at heart.

Sanders also noted that he wasn't a fan of the payroll tax holiday because of what that might mean for the solvency of Social Security, which I agree with, but was sure to point out that what he did support was giving some tax relief to the working class and making sure the rich start to pay their fair share in taxes.

Bernie then moved on to his petition and just how dangerous the Citizens United decision was to our democracy in the United States with the rich being allowed to essentially buy off our politicians.

You can sign Bernie's petition here -- A Petition to Support the Saving American Democracy Amendment.

Transcript via CNN below the fold.

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It seems millionaire Nick Hanauer's recent op-ed on why we need to be taxing the rich in America has, as Steve Benen explained, “caused a stir, and with good reason.”

Political Animal – Raise Nick Hanauer's Taxes:

If Hanauer’s name doesn’t sound familiar, he’s a very successful venture capitalist, playing a role in the creation of companies like Amazon.com. This week, he took on a standard Republican talking point: the notion that job creation suffers if taxes go up on the rich. Hanauer explained very well why the GOP’s approach is backwards.

I can start a business based on a great idea, and initially hire dozens or hundreds of people. But if no one can afford to buy what I have to sell, my business will soon fail and all those jobs will evaporate.

That’s why I can say with confidence that rich people don’t create jobs, nor do businesses, large or small. What does lead to more employment is the feedback loop between customers and businesses. And only consumers can set in motion a virtuous cycle that allows companies to survive and thrive and business owners to hire. An ordinary middle-class consumer is far more of a job creator than I ever have been or ever will be.

It appears that Hanauer, unlike GOP policymakers, understands supply and demand, and that three decades of concentrating wealth at the top doesn’t create an economic base that ensures broad prosperity. Republicans can keep lavishing more and more money on the rich, but they’ll only spend so much. [...]

Hanauer’s advice? Raise his taxes, make public investments, and get some money in the pockets of middle-class consumers.

Digby’s take on this rings true: “This is a person who really doesn’t want to kill the golden goose of capitalism but would like to save it. It doesn’t speak well for the future of capitalism that there are so few entrepreneurs like him.”

Damn straight.

Be sure to go read the entire editorial here -- Raise Taxes on Rich to Reward True Job Creators: Nick Hanauer.

Hanauer was a guest on Neil Cavuto's show on Fox Business this Wednesday and he did a great job knocking down every one of Cavuto's arguments and straw men as Cavuto desperately tried to rebut Hanauer's assertions on why the rich aren't paying enough in taxes.

Here's the shortened version of their conversation with a tiny bit of paraphrasing and which does not reflect Cavuto constantly interrupting and talking over Hanauer.

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