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Chris Hayes took a shot at him the night before and this Thursday, The Daily Show's Jon Stewart took his turn skewering Rand Paul for his appearance at Howard University. Paul asked the audience there how his party has managed to go from being one that elected the first twenty African American congressmen to becoming a party that now loses ninety percent of their vote, and Stewart was happy to answer that question for Sen. Paul.

Stewart proceeded to explain for Paul that maybe that pesky Southern Strategy employed by Nixon and St. Ronnie and Bush Sr. -- all the way up to recent times and presidential contender Gov. Rick Perry and his Niggerhead Ranch -- might tend to alienate a voting bloc.

Jon continued by going through baby Paul's train wreck of a speech at Howard which you can read more about here: The history Rand Paul struggles to understand:

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Fox's Bill O'Reilly opened up his show this Tuesday evening by using the death of former Mouseketeer Annette Funicello to opine over whether America was somehow "a better country" back in those days when, as Media Matters noted, white America was "kind of unified" and if that "made it easier for society to function."

I'm fairly sure that it did make it "easier for society to function" if you were a white male, like Bill-O. If you were a woman, or a minority... well... maybe not so much.

O'Reilly was also opining during the segment for the days back when America was "more wholesome." Pardon me if I have a little bit of trouble hearing from someone who is apparently in the middle of a divorce right now and can't control his temper because of it on that topic.

I don't want to hear about the "need to be more wholesome" from someone who had to settle a sexual harrassment suit with one of their former employees.

I don't want to hear about the "need to be more wholesome" from someone who was accused of harassing his ex-wife's boyfriend.

I don't want to hear about the "need to be more wholesome" from someone who is capable of visiting Sylvia's restaurant with the Rev. Al and making the ridiculous statement he did about the patrons and their so-called m-f**king iced tea.

Sadly, we're not likely to see O'Reilly off the air any time soon, along with his fellow Nixon-loving cheerleader here, Monica Crowley who was ready to take up his cause and argue with Alan Colmes. It's sad that the two of them here just literally proved what many of us have known all along about Fox and that is, they'd be more than happy to take most of the country back to the '50's socially and rolling back civil rights. Just don't bring back those tax rates. That would be treasonous!

h/t Media Matters

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You've gotta' love these so-called "small government" Republicans who don't mind imposing their religious views on the rest of the country. Someone needs to explain to this wingnut that marriage is a civil right and that it is not a requirement that those who get married have children.

Here's Iowa's next potential candidate for U.S. Senate embarrassing his state yet again: Republican says marriage is like selling alcohol and cutting hair:

Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa said Tuesday that same sex marriage should be prohibited because the government had the right to regulate human behavior.

“The state’s require a marriage license,” King said. “A license is by definition a permit to do that which is otherwise illegal. Licenses are used to direct and regulate human behavior — a license to drive, a license to fish, a license to hunt, a license to cut hair, a license to do brain surgery, or a license to join the bar, or actually own a bar. And this is all a proper thing for our state to do because they are regulating and promoting certain kinds of activity and behavior.

“That’s why there is a marriage license,” he continued. “You have to meet the qualifications in the same fashion as all of the other licenses I have mentioned. Marriage is promoted by the states because that is the best way that we know how to promote the best of our culture and civilization into the next generation.”

Same sex couples should be excluded from this institution, according to King, because marriage is about “natural procreation” and children “need a mom and a dad.”

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I'm not sure how much more "polarized" the debate over gay marriage could possibly be than it is already, but that was the concern expressed by New York Times op-ed columnist David Brooks on this Sunday's Meet the Press when asked if it matters that so many states have laws in place either restricting or banning gay marriage.

I wonder if Brooks thinks that interracial marriage ought to be put back up for a vote because that debate was "polarizing" for the country as well? Conservatives always seem to be terribly concerned about judicial "overreach" when it comes to civil rights or the rights of ordinary citizens, but don't have a problem when they "overreach" and give corporations and the wealthy the right to buy our elections. That's just fine.

GREGORY: David Brooks, the country is divided and there are forty one states that either ban it or treat gay marriage as something different than traditional marriage. Does that matter?

BROOKS: Yeah, but I think the trend, I'm with Hilary, the trend is pretty amazing. Listen, we've had five thousand years in western civilization, has there ever been a society that's given complete equality to gays and lesbians until ours and currently western Europe? No. This is a big, historic moment and the movement I think is just overwhelming and gradual and almost irreversible. Now why is it happening? One, because a lot of brave gay and lesbian people had the courage to come out and people got to see them. Second, because it became about marriage. It became about order. It became about having committed, long term relationships, which people conservative and liberal believe in.

And so those two things have moved, I think, the debate, tectonically. To me the only fear now is the court. If the court overreaches and tries to impose a solution from the top and that sort of freezes and polarizes the debate.

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During a discussion about RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and his latest effort to try to "fix" the GOP and his so-called "minority outreach initiative," which, as we already discussed here, looks like it's headed to be a massive flop, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough decided he'd give old Reince a hand with that minority outreach program by badgering guest Eugene Robinson and demanding he name "the top three issues that make that sort of outreach difficult for Republicans."

Note to Joe Scarborough -- if you want to help out with reaching out to African-Americans, here's a few things you could do. One, don't do it while badgering one of your African-American guests to rattle off a list while you brow beat them and presume that they would want to speak for every other African-American in the country. And don't pretend you don't know full well what the real answers to your questions are already.

Here's a hint on why the Republicans lost the majority of the African-American vote: The New Deal and the Civil Rights Act. And then we there's the Southern Strategy and demonizing and fearmongering to win elections. And to this day you can throw in voter disenfranchisement, these White Supremacist groups and militias cropping up everywhere, the birther movement, the overt racism we saw come from these TeaBirchers and the fact that the Republican party looks like they've completely lost their minds since the election of the first black president.

I'll leave it at that but the list is miles long when it comes to what Republicans have done to slowly disenfranchise the majority of the electorate other than old white men. Good luck with that outreach program Reince. You're going to need it.

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From this Sunday's This Week on ABC, former HP executive and California Senate candidate Carly Fiorina apparently believes that people's civil rights should be put up for a vote... because we all know how well that's worked out in the past. And don't dare call anyone like John Boehner insincere or uncompassionate, because heaven forbid that might hurt their feelings.

We'd hate to get weepy Boehner crying again. And God knows we can't have any of those activist judges deciding things like this. They're only supposed to act that way when it comes to writing new laws that give corporations the same rights as people my friends.

RADDATZ; Let's more on to another big topic for the Republicans this week, and that stunning announcement by Rob Portman that he now supports same-sex marriage. Obviously a personal decision for him, the only Republican senator to support same-sex marriage. George Will, does this go anywhere?

WILL: He will not be the last, because the demographic tide here is large, powerful and execrable. I have said on this program before, opposition to gay marriage is literally dying, it's an older demographic. And if you raise the question among young people, they're not interested. And I dare say this is one of the good things about CPAC. As you saw at CPAC, this was another division and again, a healthy one. It's largely young people attend CPAC. And this is not at the top of their agenda. It's not even on their agenda

RADDATZ: I might take awhile for them to die out, though, George.

DOWD: I think that there's been an amazing -- and George is right, there has been amazing -- in the last ten years, I think there's been almost a 20-point change in people's perception of gay marriage in this country. I think Rob Portman is another domino in this whole effect.

I think Republicans, any Republicans that stand in the way of this, are standing in the way of march of history on this.

Rob Portman I know well. I did debate prep with Rob Portman in years past. He's a good person. And the people that I think that have criticized him and said, oh, by the way, hHe only did it was a personal thing that affected him personally, he wasn't going to do it otherwise. To me, why do we criticize people for that? The person that started MADD, it was a personal thing. The people that -- many people who have come out against gun control have been personally affected by it. If somebody's path to the truth, or somebody's path to a place where we actually think they're open and compassionate is a personal decision, god be wtih them.

FIORINA: I think we have to be careful, because John Boehner's views, which are different from Rob Portman's views, are equally sincere. And I think when we get into trouble on this debate when we assume that people who support gay marriage are open and compassion and people who don't are not. It's why I believe the right way to solve these very personal issues is to let people vote on them, don't have judges decide it, don't even have representative government decide it, let people vote on it in the states.

I think people of both points of view, accept the democratic process. What they don't always accept is a bunch of self-important, self-appointed judges saying this is culturally the new norm.

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I'm not sure why 'Gun Appreciation Day' organizer Larry Ward decided it was a good idea to come on and spar with the Rev. Al Sharpton over the legacy of MLK and whether he would have approved of his upcoming event, which is scheduled just before the holiday honoring Dr. King, but all I can say is, it wasn't pretty.

Ward appeared on CNN last week and made the ridiculous statement that "slavery would not have happened if slaves were armed" and pretended that his event "honors the legacy of Dr. King." Sharpton took apart that and the rest of his arguments quite nicely during this interview.

WATCH: Gun Appreciation Day organizer insists he’s honoring MLK’s legacy, Sharpton responds:

Ward joined Rev. Al Sharpton on PoliticsNation to defend his controversial comments about King, and Sharpton argued vigorously about King’s legacy, pointing out that the civil rights leader preached non-violence and was killed by a gun. [...]

Ward justified his argument by pointing out that King once applied for and was denied a gun permit, but Sharpton added that King later said he was glad he had been turned down for the permit and that he would never carry a gun again.

Ward continued to push the issue as a civil right. “Dr.King fought for equal opportunity, and we look at cities like Chicago and New York that have a majority of minorities in it right now and those cities themselves do not grant the same access the same equal opportunity that somebody in Texas would have to defend themselves.”

Sharpton and Ward discussed Ward’s claim that slavery wouldn’t have happened if slaves could own guns. When Sharpton pointed out that armed slave rebellions of the early 19th century failed to liberate any slaves, Ward continued his argument that gun ownership is a civil right and that citizens have the right to use whatever weapons the government uses against them.

Ward also tried to distance Gun Appreciation Day from the Newtown shooting. ”This Gun Appreciation Day, just so we’re clear, is not in reaction to the shooting in Newtown,” Ward said. “It’s in reaction to the reaction.”

When asked if Gun Appreciation Day included appreciating high capacity ammunition and automatic weapons, Ward said, “Absolutely,” adding that he believes that “any ban on a semi-automatic weapon would not have changed the outcome of what happened in Newtown.”

According to ABC News, "Ward represents conservative clients through his firm, Political Media; Revolution PAC, the libertarian group launched by Ron Paul supporters, is one of his biggest." Color me not shocked given Ron Paul's history. Looks like he's doing his best to make sure he raises his profile by getting some face time in the corporate media with this stunt.

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Conservative columnist Ann Coulter asserted on Sunday that Democrats were making a mistake by "dropping the blacks" in favor of Hispanics because rights for LGBT people and immigrants are not true civil rights.

ABC's George Stephanopoulos asked Coulter what she meant in her lasted book, "Mugged: Racial Demagoguery from the Seventies to Obama," when she wrote that feminists, LGBT activists and immigrants rights groups had "commandeered the blacks' civil rights experience."

"The way that liberals have treated blacks like children, many of their policies have been harmful to blacks," Coulter declared. "We do have a legacy of slavery and Jim Crow laws. We don't owe the homeless, we don't owe the feminists, we don't owe women who are desirous of having abortions or gays who want to get married to one another. That's what 'civil rights' have become for much of the left."

"Immigrant rights are not civil rights?" Stephanopoulos pressed.

"No, I think civil rights are for blacks," Coulter insisted. "What have we done to the immigrants? We owe black people something, we have a legacy of slavery. Immigrants haven't even been in this country."

Univision's Jorge Ramos pointed out that if Republicans continued to refuse to embrace Latinos, "they're going to lose not only this election, they might lose the White House for a generation."

"That's why Democrats are dropping the blacks and moving on to the Hispanics," Coulter explained. "There are a larger group of Hispanics now."

"You can have open borders or you can have a welfare state. You cannot have both," she added. "When you have a big government giving out all sorts of things then you have to care very much who the immigrants are -- and it ought to be for something other than who lives within walking distance."

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Civil Rights era leader and icon Rep. John Lewis gave one of the more powerful speeches at the Democratic National Convention this Thursday evening which moved many of the convention goers to tears and I've got to admit, myself as well. It is truly tragic that we're still having to fight these battles and that the Republicans are trying to take us backwards.

h/t Pam Spaulding for the transcript:

I first came to this city in 1961, the year Barack Obama was born. I was one of the 13 original “Freedom Riders.” We were on a bus ride from Washington to New Orleans trying to test a recent Supreme Court ruling that banned racial discrimination on buses crossing state lines and in the stations that served them. Here in Charlotte, a young African-American rider got off the bus and tried to get a shoe shine in a so-called white waiting room. He was arrested and taken to jail.

On that same day, we continued on to Rock Hill, South Carolina, about 25 miles. From here, when my seatmate, Albert Bigelow, and I tried to enter a white waiting room, we were met by an angry mob that beat us and left us lying in a pool of blood. Some police officers came up and asked us whether we wanted to press charges. We said, “No, we come in peace, love and nonviolence.” We said our struggle was not against individuals, but against unjust laws and customs. Our goal was true freedom for every American.

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A really funny parody by Kate Lambert where gays can turn the rights denied them into cold hard cash. As she says:

“Are you a citizen of the United States and a member of the LGBT community?Do you have civil liberties you can’t use? Did you know that due to your sexual orientation, you might have over a thousand federal benefits lying around collecting dust?…Now’s your chance to turn these denied rights into cash!”

Lambert's previous effort, How to Sponsor a Uterus is also highly recommended.