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Here's one more thing we can thank the House Republicans for. Milk Prices Likely To Soar In January After Republican Obstruction Blocked The Farm Bill In The House:

House Republicans let the five-year farm bill expire at the end of September without a new law to replace the massive measure covering billions of dollars in programs, including food stamps and agriculture subsidies. The Senate passed its own bipartisan, 10-year farm bill in June, and House Democrats and farm state Republicans attempted to force the House to consider a bill to replace it. But the GOP leadership steadfastly refused to vote on it.

As a result, milk prices could jump as high as $6 to $8 per gallon after Jan. 1, when the government will revert to following antiquated 1949 regulations without a farm bill in place: [...]

In the short term, farmers would see a windfall by selling to the government at a higher price, but as the New York Times reports, that would lead to higher prices in stores and less milk available for manufacturing butter and cheese. “I don’t think customers and food processors are going to pay double what they are paying now for dairy products,” said Dean Norton, a dairy farmer and president of the New York Farm Bureau.

These people have absolutely no interest whatsoever in actually governing or any concern for what damage they do to the American public and our economy. As David Cay Johnston noted in the clip above, Boehner doesn't have any control over his caucus and this is what we're going to get to look forward to for the next two years.

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After watching the better part of a couple of days of coverage on this tragic school shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in CT, I was glad to see at least one show on television where there was a discussion about the fact that what happened there, and the trauma that those children and their families are going through right now, is an all but too common occurrence which is sadly all too familiar to Americans living in our inner cities across the country.

Whether it's Chicago, or New Orleans or the other big cities across the country facing high crime rates, far too often the violence has been glossed over and ignored to the point by our national media, that it's just considered acceptable or something we're expected to live with.

As Melissa noted, to date Chicago has suffered at least 425 gun-related homicides in 2012 as of Dec. 14. The Huffington Post has more on that story here: Chicago Homicides Reach 400 This Year, City Turns To Twitter For Ideas To End Violence. And 117 of those victims this year alone were under the age of 21.

And in her home town of New Orleans, we've had 174 murders, most of which are gunshot deaths and in Los Angeles, there have been 512 homicides recorded for the year, and 75 percent of those deaths resulted from gunshot wounds.

HARRIS-PERRY: These are the gun related homicides that get treated as routine -- tragic, but expected. And yet, they need to be included when we talk about Newtown, CT, because their victims are just as real.

The Nation's Ari Melber followed with this:

MELBER: So while we understand exactly how terrible this is and why the story of it and the way it happened is so dramatic and we're rushing to it and the President's speaking to it, it's also true as a policy matter that if 27 people dying is something that connotes the President's attention or our attention and action, well then every day is this day, as you were saying and all around the country.

As Michael Eric Dyson noted, President Obama did bring up those in Chicago during his statement following this most recent shooting and made this important point:

DYSON: The reality is, we've become accustomed to believing that little black and brown kids and poor white kids in various spots across our landscape are doomed to this kind of violence by this... we are surprised it happened here. It's not supposed to happen here.

Which means by implication, that it's supposed to happen there, in Detroit, or Oakland, or California, in LA and the like. And I think that's the tragedy here.

As Harris-Perry rightfully noted a bit later in the segment, she just wants the same level of outrage when you're seeing these kids in our inner cities having their childhoods taken away from them with the violence that they are growing up around as a part of their daily lives as we've seen from these mass shootings that garner so much national attention in the media.

I hope if there is an ounce of good that comes out of this shooting, it's that conversations like this one are more common where we're talking about what we can do to put a stop to gun violence along with a host of other topics that are all interwoven with the same subject and those are not just gun control and gun violence, but mental health, providing adequate health care for all of our citizens, education, poverty, our social safety nets and just what kind of country we're allowing way too many of our children to grow up in.

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After the news that JP Morgan Chase lost $2 billion on high-risk credit derivatives this week, as usual, Sen. Bernie Sanders was one of our few voices of reason out there about what to do with these still too-big-to-fail institutions -- break them up.

From the Senator's press releases: Break Up Big Banks:

J.P. Morgan Chase revealed that its in-house trading operation lost $2 billion in the past six weeks. "The debacle at J.P. Morgan Chase reaffirms my view that the largest six banks in this country, including J.P. Morgan Chase, which have assets equivalent to two-thirds of our GDP, must be broken up. This is important in order to bring more competition into the financial marketplace and to prevent another ‘too-big-to-fail' bailout," Sen. Bernie Sanders said. "At a time when 23 million Americans are either unemployed or underemployed, huge financial institutions should not be involved in ‘making wagers or high-stake bets.' They should be investing in the productive economy creating jobs and improving our standard of living."

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From this Saturday's Up with Chris Hayes, a really wonderful segment talking about the generational divide we've seen between younger and older voters with party affiliation, the difference in the ages we've seen at these “tea party” rallies as opposed to those at Occupy Wall Street, the wealth gap between households over 65 and those under 35 and the differences between the social safety nets afforded our seniors and those for younger Americans.

As Chris went on to explain, it makes for some interesting and complicated dynamics when you look at how those differences are being played politically by the Republicans.

HAYES: The politics of all of this are far from straightforward, because the central democratic irony of American politics at this moment, is that those that most benefit from the social welfare state, people over 65 are the most conservative cohort, the demographic most aligned with the party committed to its destruction.

So Republicans need to marshal support for undoing the social welfare state while simultaneously promising their base they'll get to keep their part of it. It's a rhetorical two-step they've perfected. The first step is to cloak their contempt for the universal benefits of social insurance in the righteous mantle of defending future generations. They want to gut the welfare state and scrap some of the most successful programs in the nation's history on behalf of the grandchildren.

They hate to do it, really, but they must, to make sacrifices now for those in the future to prevent bankruptcy... for the grandchildren.

Cut to clips of John Boehner, Rand Paul, Joe Walsh, John McCain and Mitt Romney all fearmongering over the national debt and on how we have to “save” Social Security and Medicare for future generations and “the grandchildren.”

HAYES: See, the kids and the grandkids, that's who they're doing it for. But then the second step... and this is the key, is to tell current seniors and boomers, not to worry. We won't be scrapping your benefits. No. Heavens no.

Cut to Mittens, saying that current seniors don't have to worry about changes to Social Security.

HAYES: Let's all remember that Paul Ryan's plan to phase out Medicare, the one that every single Republican member of the House voted for, wouldn't apply to anyone over 54 years of age.

So the rhetoric the right employs is that they are the courageous guardians of the interest of the nation's grandchildren, but what they're actually proposing is to maintain the same benefits for the grandparents and then destroy it for the grandchildren.

If there's a more disingenuous aspect of modern conservative rhetoric, I don't know what it is.

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As Driftglass pointed out in his weekly Sunday morning post with his take on the weekend talk shows, or the 'Mouse Circus" as he describes them, this segment on Meet the Press discussing former Vice President Dick Cheney's soon to be released memoir is yet another demonstration of everything that's wrong with our corporate media.

Here's more from Driftglass:

Two, correctional-facility-based questions bookended the Mouse Circus today: one asked and one unasked.

• Asked: Why the Hell weren't prisoners being held on Riker's Island evacuated?
• Unasked: Why the Hell isn't Richard Bruce Cheney and most of the rest of his Republican politico-criminal enterprise rotting away the rest of their lives in federal prison?

Interred beneath the vast, complicit media silence between the implications of these two questions is where you will find most everything that is wrong with the United States in this Year of Our Lord 2011.

Which is why, rather that daring to look Evil in the eye and asking "Why?", everyone instead settled into their comfortable media roles, giggled and whispering uncomfortably about how little regard cyborg and unindicted-war-criminal Cheney had for anyone that stood in his way, and how really, really unapologetic Vice President Sociopath is for anything.

As if this were some kind of surprise.

More at his blog with the rest of his critique of this Sunday's Mouse Circus and warning for anyone not familiar with his site, some of it's not safe for work.

Transcript via NBC below the fold:

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Georgetown professor Michael Eric Dyson explained to conservative columnist George Will Sunday that the Constitution is not an "anti-evolutionary device."

"There's a retrospective cast naturally built into our politics, but what has happened today is a large number of Americans, this one included, believe that the somewhat promiscuous expansion of government power in recent years, raises questions about whether we still have a government of limited, delegated and enumerative powers," Will told ABC's Christiane Amanpour during a discussion about whether the Constitution was still valid.

"Wow, I think this retrospective cast that George Will refers to is absolutely right," Dyson replied. "But there are some gaps, some holes, gulfs, abysses. You read the Constitution and the Congress but 'Oops, I forgot the part about slavery.' You talk about women and people of color who have been distorted, relegated to the margins and all together seen as marginalia. I think the Constitution is a powerful, living, vibrant document. I think it's been hijacked by people with narrow, vicious and parochial visions."

He continued: "I think the assertion that we, of all people, this generation is somehow vulnerable to rebuff the Constitution is like a regalian problem: You think that your generation is the greatest generation and the apotheosis of history finds its resting place point in you. Slow down. The point is the Constitution is it's durable, it's powerful. Because of its flexibility, black people and others are able to argue their way into an American identity in a vision for democracy that initially they were barred from, so I think that it's powerful."

"To say the Constitution is a living, evolving document as you did, is almost oxymoronic," Will argued. "A constitution is supposed to freeze things. It is an anti-evolutionary device as Justice Scalia said. It is intended to put certain things beyond the reach of transient majorities."

"That's all great on paper, which is where it's written," Dyson shot back. "When it makes the transition from parchment to pavement, there again is the rub. The reality is when I talk about the document being living and vital, I'm talking about the interpretation of it. I'm talking about the meaning of it."

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When President Barack Obama praised the NFL's Eagles for giving quarterback Michael Vick a second chance, it was inevitable that the pundits at Fox News would feign outrage.

But no one could have predicted that one Fox News host would go as far as to call for Vick's death.

"President Obama -- it has been confirmed by the White House -- called the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles and during the course of their conversation, thanked him for giving Michael Vick a second chance," Fox News' Tucker Carlson reported Tuesday while filling in for Sean Hannity.

"Now, I'm a Christian. I've made mistakes myself. I believe fervently in second chances but Michael Vick killed dogs and he did it in a heartless and cruel way and I think, personally, he should have been executed for that," he continued.

"But the idea that the president of the United States would be getting behind someone who murdered dogs, kind of beyond the pale," Carlson said.

Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie told Sports Illustrated's Peter King Monday that Obama called him and was passionate about Vick's comeback.

"He said, 'So many people who serve time never get a fair second chance,'" Lurie said. "He said, 'It's never a level playing field for prisoners when they get out of jail.' And he was happy that we did something on such a national stage that showed our faith in giving someone a second chance after such a major downfall."

White House spokesman Bill Burton clarified that Obama "of course condemns the crimes that Michael Vick was convicted of, but, as he's said previously, he does think that individuals who have paid for their crimes should have an opportunity to contribute to society again."

Burton also said that part of the reason for Obama's call was to talk about alternative energy plans for Lincoln Field, where the Eagles play.

Carlson wasn't the first Fox News host to be be upset by the president's actions.

"The criticism is to specifically praise giving Michael Vick this kind of a chance in some way excuses, perhaps, what Michael Vick did or sends some sort of a message to people that it's not that bad," Fox News host Megyn Kelly worried.

Filling in for Keith Olbermann on MSNBC Tuesday, Sam Seder pointed out that while Obama didn't excuse what Vick did, President George W. Bush did excuse I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby after he was convicted in the Valerie Plame case.

"Tell me if I'm wrong here," Seder asked sociologist Dr. Michael Eric Dyson. "In the media, at least, it seems to me that there appears to be two standards for two different crimes and for two different presidents."

"You're absolutely right," Dyson said.

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Now that the media has decided to help whitewash Andrew Breitbart's hit piece on Shirley Sherrod by using what happened as an excuse to talk about race relations non-stop instead of the fact that this is not the first time Fox News and Breitbart have done hit pieces on organizations like ACORN and others that were patently false and the need for some accountability for their actions, we continually get treated to segments like this one. The big elephant in the room that is ignored is the real need for something to be done about the fact that six companies control our media and they need to be broken up. Until that happens we're going to be fed the stream of garbage that calls itself "news" like we have here.

CNN's Anderson Cooper hosted a panel segment to discuss Howard Dean's statement on Fox News Sunday that Fox's coverage of Shirley Sherrod was racist. One one side we have the Reverend Michael Eric Dyson. And on the other side Red State blogger and now CNN contributor Erick Erickson. So CNN's idea of "fair and balanced" is to make a professor of sociology at Georgetown University have to debate a right wing flame throwing racist about race. Nice. Although now that he's part of their "Best Political Team on Television" what else should we expect from them? His hire ranks right up there with that of Republican operative Alex Castellanos.

I'd like to know why CNN thinks that someone with Erickson's history should be brought in to discuss race...ever. He's the Pat Buchanan of CNN. This is a man who called Obama's Nobel Peace Prize" an affirmative action quota". He defended Rush Limbaugh and the racist "Barack the Magic Negro" song. He also defended President Obama being portrayed as the Joker. But here he is on CNN being asked to weigh in on race relations in the United States when he's part of the problem.

Thankfully Dyson did point out just how dishonest Fox has been on the time line of when they ran with the Sherrod story but apparently Erickson doesn't want to let a little pesky thing like facts get in the way of his spin. Erickson also slammed Media Matters as "nothing but a left-wing hit job". Yeah, whatever you say Erick. That's some severe projection you've got going on there buddy.

I'm sure Erickson has a lot of disdain for Media Matters since they do a good job of documenting his hackery day in and day out. I have little doubt that sunshine is not something Erickson appreciates very much.

Transcript via CNN below the fold.

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Isn't this lovely? Another day, another Arizona Republican trying to score points political points from exploiting the racial tensions in that state. Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne defended the new law to CNN's Anderson Cooper. Here's more from the HuffPo.

Arizona Ethnic Studies Law Signed By Governor Brewer, Condemned By UN Human Rights Experts:

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed a bill targeting a school district's ethnic studies program on Tuesday, hours after a report by United Nations human rights experts condemned the measure.

State schools chief Tom Horne, who has pushed the measure for years, said a Tucson school district program promotes "ethnic chauvinism" and racial resentment toward whites while segregating students by race.

"It's just like the old South, and it's long past time that we prohibited it," Horne said.

The measure prohibits classes that advocate ethnic solidarity, that are designed primarily for students of a particular race or that promote resentment toward a certain ethnic group. It also prohibits classes that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government.

The Tucson Unified School District program offers specialized courses in African-American, Mexican-American and Native-American studies that focus on history and literature and include information about the influence of a particular ethnic group.

...A Republican running for attorney general, Horne has been trying to restrict the program ever since he learned that Hispanic civil rights activist Dolores Huerta in 2006 told students that "Republicans hate Latinos."

Here's Tom Horne's exploratory site for his run for AG. This guy looks like Lou Dobbs' long-lost brother who's hoping his stance on this is going to elevate him to higher office.

Transcript via CNN below the fold.

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One of the commenters at Video Cafe reminded me of this segment so I decided to pull it out of the video vault. A little over a year ago on March 13, 2009 Bill Maher had Andrew Breitbart and Eric Michael Dyson as the only two guests in this interview on Real Time. Sadly Maher strayed from his usual show format that night with three of these interview segments in lieu of a monologue, opening interview, a larger panel segment and New Rules.

When I watched this a year ago my main thoughts on Andrew Breitbart were how obnoxious he was and how he really just ruined the show and I didn't understand why Maher wanted to give someone like this any kind of a format. A year later after Breitbart and his underling O'Keefe did the hit piece on ACORN and after watching him lie about the racism and hatred coming out of the crowds at these Tea Party rallies, I thought a reminder might be nice of what a slimeball this guy is. He defends Rush Limbaugh's racism in this segment and says this about anyone who points out the truth about Limbaugh's racist rhetoric.

Breitbart: Calling a person a racist is the worst thing you can call a person in this country.

Sorry Breitbart, but there are a lot worse things you can call people. Calling Limbaugh a racist is just stating a fact. Thankfully Michael Eric Dyson was there to shoot down Breitbart's nonsense. This is one of the most obnoxious segments I've ever watched on Real Time.