Keith Olbermann gone from Current

Keith Olbermann and Current have parted ways, and not very amicably.

Current TV was way too amateur-looking to make any headway in the cable waters. I had hopes that having Keith meant they were preparing to up their game, but sadly it was not true. Their failure to promote, their many technical problems, their inability to upgrade to HD means that they'll continue to be media joke fodder as a network with viewership in the double digits. It's a good thing that Keith is free to move on to something else.

Surly

Right wingers will be in a surly mood today. New unemployment claims have dropped to a four-year low.

The Labor Department said Thursday that jobless claims fell 5,000 to a seasonally-adjusted 359,000 in the week ended March 24, the lowest since April 2008, when the economy was in the depths of the recession. The four-week moving average dropped 3,500 to 368,500.

The department also made its annual revisions to the past five years of unemployment benefits data. The revisions increased the number of unemployment benefit applicants in recent months. But the downward trend remains intact.

When unemployment benefit applications drop consistently below 375,000, it usually signals that hiring is strong enough to lower the unemployment rate. The decline has coincided with the best three months of hiring in two years.

Zimmerman’s story continues to fall apart

George Zimmerman’s story of how he shot Trayvon Martin continues to fall apart. In surveillance video just released, there’s no evidence of any wounds or blood, as he claims he received when Trayvon “attacked” him.

But the far more disturbing thing is that this shows the police report itself was a lie. There was a police cover-up here, and the Sanford cops need to explain why they knowingly wrote down false information.

A police surveillance video taken the night that Trayvon Martin was shot dead shows no blood or bruises on George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch captain who says he shot Martin after he was punched in the nose, knocked down and had his head slammed into the ground.

The surveillance video, which was obtained exclusively by ABC News, shows Zimmerman arriving in a police cruiser. As he exits the car, his hands are cuffed behind his back. Zimmerman is frisked and then led down a series of hallways, still cuffed.

Zimmerman, 28, is wearing a red and black fleece and his face and head are cleanly shaven. He appears well built, hardly the portly young man depicted in a 2005 mug shot that until a two days ago was the single image the media had of Zimmerman.

The initial police report noted that Zimmerman was bleeding from the back of the head and nose, and after medical attention it was decided that he was in good enough condition to travel in a police cruiser to the Sanford, Fla., police station for questioning.

His lawyer later insisted that Zimmerman's nose had been broken in his scuffle with 17-year-old Martin.

In the video an officer is seen pausing to look at the back of Zimmerman's head, but no abrasions or blood can be seen in the video and he did not check into the emergency room following the police questioning.

Zimmerman was not arrested although ABC News has learned that the lead homicide investigator filed an affidavit urging Zimmerman be charged with manslaughter. The prosecutor, however, told the officer to not file the charge because there was not enough evidence for conviction.

The individual mandate was a Republican idea

Republicans screech about the individual health insurance mandate being "fascism," and leading to the end of freedom in America!

So it's absolutely no surprise whatsoever that the individual mandate was a REPUBLICAN idea.

Romney’s just a regular guy

Mitt Romney’s a regular guy, just like the rest of us. I mean, don’t we all need elevators for our cars and a lobbyist just for our house?

Sarah Palin operates on instinct

Sarah Palin is defending Rick Santorum for losing his cool, verbally attacking a reporter and spewing obscenities at him in front of his own daughter.

But of course, if a DEMOCRAT had done that…

"Santorum's response to that liberal, leftist, in-the-tank-for-Obama press character really reveals some of Rick Santorum's character," Palin told Greta Van Susteren on Fox News. "And it was good, and it was strong, and it was about time, because he's saying enough is enough of the liberal media, twisting a conservative's words, putting words in his mouth, taking things out of context, and even just making things up."

On Sunday, Jeff Zeleny of the Times asked Santorum about his characterization of Mitt Romney as the "worst Republican in the country to put up against Barack Obama."

"Stop lying," Santorum shot back, claiming that his remark was only in the context of Romney's position on health care mandates. "Quit distorting my words ... if I see it, it's bulls---."

Santorum has since defended his outburst repeatedly, telling Fox News on Monday morning that "if you haven't cursed out a New York Times reporter during the course of a campaign, you're not really a real Republican."

Gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gay

Pat Robertson enters a new phase of senility as he returns to the old "devil makes you do it" argument. He says the reason gay men have gay sex is because gay demons are gay making them gay do it. Gay.

You kiss Jesus with that mouth, Rick?

Mitt Romney can’t tell the truth and Rick Santorum can’t handle the pressure. Ladies and gentlemen, the best the Republican Party has to offer.

CBS This Morning had the exclusive video of Republican hopeful Rick Santorum‘s blowup at New York Times reporter Jeff Zeleny. Zeleny asked the former Pennsylvania Senator if Romney was the worst Republican in the country, which set off Santorum.

“What speech did you listen to? Stop lying! I said he was the worst Republican to run on the issue of Obamacare. And that’s what I was talking about! [...] Would you guys quit distorting what I’m saying? [...] I’ve been saying that at every speech. Quit distorting my words, if I see it, it’s bullshit!” Santorum erupted. “Come on, man! What are you doing?”

“You sound upset about this,” Zeleny observed.

What will be the impact of high gas prices?

Jesus on slutgate

Here's a thought for Christian right wingers who support Rush Limbaugh's attacks on Sandra Fluke: Think back to your Jesus, and ask yourself, would Jesus support the powerful big-mouthed bully, or the woman accused of being a whore? Have you forgotten that Jesus actually came to the defense of a woman about to be stoned for being a slut?

James O’Keefe is a sexual predator

After his run in with a CNN reporter aboard a boat where he was trying to set her up, some of the details looked seedy to me and I started referring to James O'Keefe as a wannabe sexual predator.

I was wrong. He's not a wannabe at all. He IS a sexual predator.

Warning, you'll need a shower after you read this.

Ann Coulter sinks to new levels of vileness

The first word that comes to mind when I hear Ann Coulter’s name is “vile.” She’s a poo who flings monkeys.

She sunk to new lows today by saying “Maybe it’s time” for conservatives to “go after the Obama children.”

Official GOP ballot

Found on Facebook.

Etch a sketch

Rachel covered it brilliantly tonight.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Facts catch up to Mitt Rmoney

Facts have a way of catching up with you, and they've finally caught up to Mitt Rmoney (sp). With the economy visibly improving, he can't sell his lie anymore that Obama "made the economy worse." No, he didn't. The economy's getting better, and everyone knows it. And the facts have finally backed Mitt into a corner.

An astounding number of lies

On her show tonight, Rachel Maddow covered Mitt Rmoney’s (yep, that’s how I’m spelling his name now) lies – how he lies about anything and everything, from large issues to small, insignificant things.

One expects lies from politicians, but I've never seen a politician lie this much before. It's astounding.

His latest whopper: it wasn't President Obama, it was Bush who saved us from another Great Depression!

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said Wednesday at a town hall meeting in Maryland that George W. Bush deserved credit for preventing the United States from entering an economic depression, not President Barack Obama.

“I keep hearing the president say that he’s responsible for keeping America from going into a Great Depression,” Romney said. “No, no no. That was President George W. Bush and Hank Paulson that stepped in and kept that from happening.”

Romney has said he supported the Troubled Asset Recovery Program (TARP), the controversial $700 billion dollar bank bailout enacted in 2008 in response to the subprime mortgage crisis.

But Romney opposed Obama’s plan to bail out the auto giants General Motors and Chrysler with federal funds, a program that is credited with saving the two firms.

Romney gets Swift Boat backing

Liars love liars.

A reclusive Texas homebuilder who helped finance the “Swift Boat Veterans” attacks against Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004 contributed nearly half of the $6.4 million raised by a super PAC backing Mitt Romney last month. 

Bob Perry, owner of the Houston-area custom homebuilder Perry Homes and a longtime backer of conservative causes, gave $3 million last month to the pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future, according to a report filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission.

Justice for Trayvon may be coming soon

George Zimmerman’s cold-blooded killing of Trayvon Martin is finally headed for a grand jury. Hopefully, this means that justice is on its way. And at long last, a racist central Florida community may be called to account.

Santorum’s little temper tantrum game

So here's how Santorum's game plays out: He goes on the campaign trail and interview shows and talks about contraception, porn, gays, etc.

Then, on other shows, when he's asked about contraception, gays, porn, etc., he gets pissy about it, complaining that the media "won't let him" talk about the "real" issues.

Then he repeats it all over again, all while blaming the media.

Santorum “does not care” about unemployment

Rick Santorum says he "does not care" about the unemployment rate. You know, because it's not the government's place to "create jobs." So now you know. If you think jobs is a major concern facing the country today, Rick Santorum doesn't care.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said in Illinois on Monday that he was not concerned about the unemployment rate because it wasn’t the government’s duty to create jobs.

“We need a candidate who’s going to be a fighter for freedom,” he said during a campaign speech, “who is going to get up and make that the central theme in this race because it is the central theme in this race.”

“I don’t care what the unemployment rate’s going to be,” he continued. “Doesn’t matter to me. My campaign doesn’t hinge on unemployment rates and growth rates. It’s something more foundational that’s going on. We have one nominee who says he wants to run the economy. What kind of conservative says that the president runs the economy? What conservative says I’m the guy, because of my economic experience, that can create jobs?”

Arpaio says he’s not dropping it

Racist teabagger sheriff Joe Arpaio says he's not dropping his birther "investigation" of President Obama. And it has nothing to do with the fact that he's under investigation by federal authorities himself, of course.

“I’m not going to drop this,” he said. “You don’t think I did a press conference and let it die? I’ll make a decision real quick where to send the evidence we have. There are not many options. You do know this is complex. Many conflicts of interest from the White house to the Attorney General. I can go on and on.”

Of course, while Arpaio says we should be suspicious of federal authorities he sees no reason why anyone would question his motives, even though the sheriff has been in conflict for years with U.S. Justice Department, which is negotiating with Arpaio's attorneys over how to address alleged widespread discrimination in his office.

What if we passed a law…

What if we passed a law forcing people to watch videos of dying gunshot victims before they could buy a gun?

After all, if forcing a woman to watch a monitor to see a sonogram is okay, then forcing people to watch real victims suffering, bleeding out and dying isn’t that big of a deal.

Not just women

It’s not just women abandoning the GOP.

The Road We’ve Traveled

Limbaugh joins Twitter

Rush Limbaugh has joined Twitter.

Hoo boy.

I wonder if he's met @RushFAILblaugh yet...

Santorum vows to fight porn

Rick Santorum has made a vow to get rid of Internet porn – as well as porn on satellite, cable and in hotel rooms.

I think he just lost the Republican vote. Oh, the right wingers won't say it out loud, but Santorum's lost them just the same. Nothing gets between conservatives and their porn.

The war on women continues

The Republican-controlled Wisconsin assembly has voted to ban private insurance coverage for abortions, and mandate abstinence-only sex education classes. Oh, and it was passed in the middle of the night. Where’s Mike Huckabee to complain about legislation passed late at night?

Way to focus on jobs, Wisconsin!

MADISON — The Wisconsin Assembly passed bills limiting insurance coverage for abortions and requiring schools to teach abstinence during a late-night session that lasted until Wednesday morning as they pushed to tie up pending legislation.

The Legislature was poised to adjourn Thursday without passing its two highest priorities coming into the year: a mining bill to help create hundreds of jobs in northern Wisconsin and a measure pumping money into venture capital to help spur new business creation.

Instead, lawmakers spent the early morning hours Wednesday fighting over abortion rights and sex education. The Assembly also passed a bill creating the state's first wolf hunting season.

More bad news for conservatives

More bad news for conservatives and their message of doom and gloom: Jobless claims are back at four-year lows.

They’ll have to twist themselves in knots explaining why the economy is really getting worse, like Mitt Romney claims, or that any improvement can’t be credited to President Obama, like Allen West claims.

ODS makes you stupid

Republicans blame President Obama for the bad economy he inherited when he took office. Somehow, even though the financial crash happened before he was even elected, it was his fault.

So it stands to reason, now that the economy is improving, and so much so that even Republicans can't pretend it's not anymore, that they have to find a way to make sure Obama doesn't get credit for it.

Allen West has come up with an excuse: The economy's improving because business is excited about a Republican winning the White House in a few months.

Obama Derangement Syndrome. It makes people stupid.

Solving the GOP primary conundrum

I have a solution for sad Republicans wishing they could just get the primaries over with and get on with battling President Obama.

First of all, forget Newt. He’s done. And Ron Paul? Don’t make me giggle.

It’s between Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney. And as the evangelical crazies apparently have taken over the GOP, here’s my solution:

Find a nice big field somewhere. Have Romney and Santorum build altars, and let them select their own sacrificial animals to put on them. Then let them pray to God as loudly as they can. Whichever altar God strikes with lightening, there’s your candidate. Totally God-approved.

If evangelical right wingers really believe their mythology, they should be clamoring for Romney and Santorum to do this. If it was good enough for Elijah, it should be good enough for evangelical teabaggers.

You’re welcome, Republicans.

“Game Change” a huge win for HBO

"Game Change" is excellent television -- regardless of politics. Great writing, great acting, great direction. There are many Emmys coming for this one.

It's also the most-watched original HBO movie in 8 years.

HBO's "Game Change," the controversial movie about John McCain and Sarah Palin's 2008 presidential campaign, drew 2.1 million viewers on Saturday—the largest audience for an original movie on the cable network in eight years. Counting repeats, the film, starring Julianne Moore as Palin and Ed Harris as McCain, drew a total of 3.6 million viewers for HBO. "Something the Lord Made," starring Alan Rickman and Mos Def, drew 2.6 million for HBO in May 2004.

And while I had a grudging respect for Steve Schmidt before, this movie confirms it. I’m especially enjoying Steve’s work on MSNBC these days – he provides a Republican viewpoint that’s refreshingly free of bullshit.

Socialism marches on

Wow, Barack Obama's socialism sure is trashing the American economy.

ALL national advertising on Limbaugh suspended

Lawrence O’Donnell in the open for tonight’s The Last Word just announced that ALL national advertising has been suspended on Rush Limbaugh’s show.

The “Obama is a secret Muslim” conspiracy

 

Conspiracy theories are so much fun. Apparently, there's been a super secret sinister decades-long conspiracy to sneak a super secret undercover Muslim commie socialist into the White House with the super secret undercover American-sounding name of Barack Hussein Obama. Yeah, makes perfect sense.

In the midst of tight GOP primaries in both states, Public Policy Polling (PPP) has released information showing that a majority of likely GOP primary voters in the Deep South do not see Obama as a Christian. PPP's Alabama survey of 600 likely GOP primary voters found that only 14 percent consider Obama a Christian, while 45 percent said he is a Muslim and 41 percent answered that they were not sure.

A similar picture surfaced in Mississippi. Of 656 likely GOP primary voters surveyed, 12 percent said Obama was a Christian, 52 percent classified him as a Muslim, and 36 percent fell in the "not sure" category.

Gingrich, conservatives giddy over high gas prices

Newt Gingrich and right wing pundits are promoting the conspiracy theory that President Obama wants gas prices to be high. You know, because he's like pure evil, or something.

Except for the fact that Newt Gingrich, other Republican candidates and the same right wing pundits are the ones who are GIDDY over high gas prices because they know that's the one thing that hurts Obama's re-election chances.

The bad news for Republicans is that demand for gas in the US is currently low and we have an over-supply, so depending on where crude prices go, prices at the pump are set to stabilize and may even begin to fall in the next few weeks.

Unless the Koch brothers and other oil speculators can work hard to keep prices high, that is. But I'm sure they wouldn't do that just because it's an election year, would they?

More Palin word salad

Good god Sarah Palin is a blithering idiot. She says that Obama wants to "go back" to the era of slavery. Hey, Sarah, if we went back to the era of slavery, Obama would probably be someone's slave. You are so stupid I'm amazed you're even able to breathe.

Latest jobs chart from the White House

Our choice this election is simple: Do we want to keep moving forward, or do we want to go back to where we were in 2008?

Click to emjobify

Rejection

Ha! Rush's vanishing sponsors have forced him to run public service announcements. One from the American Heart Association was run today... and the AHA has asked that Rush NOT run their PSA's. Oh, that's rejection indeed.

Breitbart’s lies are marching on

Even though Andrew Breitbart is dead, his lies soldier on.

Shortly before he died, he claimed to have explosive video of Obama in his college years that would damage him politically. Well, the video's finally been released by Breitbart's people. And... it's Obama hugging someone. A black professor. Heavens!

What's more, it's not even new. Breitbart claimed that the media was "covering it up." Except for the fact that the reviled-by-right-wingers PBS aired it first back in 2008. It’s also been available online since then.

Breitbart was hoaxing everyone right up until the very end.

Watch Obama Speaks at Harvard Law in '90 on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Bad news for Republicans

More bad news for Republicans... they'll have to ratchet up rants against abortion, women, minorities, union workers, gays and birth control, because they sure as hell can't talk about the economy.

(Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC)

Automatic Data Processing, Inc. reported this morning that the economy generated 216,000 private-sector jobs in February, well up from the revised 173,000 the firm reported for January, and above consensus expectations of 208,000. The monthly report by the government's Bureau of Labor Statistics, which surveys changes in both private- and public-sector jobs, will be released Friday.

ADP processes over 500,000 payrolls for some 430,000 separate businesses, covering more than 23 million employees nationwide. It is from those data that the jobs report is gleaned by Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC.

Every month, two days before the BLS releases its report, ADP releases its own. While the up or down trend of both reports usually meshes, analysts frequently point to the disparity in the actual count between the two. Indeed, over the past six years, that disparity has averaged 122,000 jobs for December, and it averages 75,000 across all months. So, the analysts say, ADP's report must be taken with a grain of salt. However, the ADP and BLS reports for Februarys since 2006 have exhibited the least disparity, averaging a difference of just 25,000 jobs between the two.

If that average holds, then Wednesday's ADP report is a good omen for Friday's BLS report.

Rush threatens to sue Rush

Canadian supergroup Rush is joining Peter Gabriel and has sent legal notice to Rush Limbaugh to stop using their music.

Rush, the Limbaugh one, used songs by Gabriel and Rush during his vile tirades against Sandra Fluke, and Rush has sent Rush a cease-and-desist letter.

“The use of Rush’s music in this way is an infringement of Rush’s copyrights and trademarks,” the band’s letter (PDF) reads. “The public performance of Rush’s music is not licensed for political purposes and any such use is in breach of public performance licenses and constitutes copyright infringement. There are civil and criminal remedies for copyright infringement, including statutory damages and fines.”

Rush is the second music group to demand that Limbaugh stop using their material without permission. They followed artist Peter Gabriel, whose music was also played during the inflammatory segment.

Sandra Fluke is considering a slander suit against Limbaugh.

GOP nomination prediction

My prediction: In the end, Mitt Romney (R-Money) will be the Republican nominee, and to pick up the south and the crazy Jesus-baggers, he’ll tap Rick Santorum (R-Taliban) as his running mate.

Palin finally weighs in on “slutgate”

Sarah Palin is only upset when liberals make sexist comments – or comments she can misconstrue as sexist. But Rush Limbaugh gets a pass.

Former Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) got caught by CNN’s “caucus cam” in Wasilla — and the whole CNN team to the opportunity to quiz her about the the GOP primary, her potential candidacy and, of course, her opinion on the Sandra Fluke affair. Unsurprisingly, Palin used the opportunity to call the liberal media hypocrites. “I think the definition of hypocrisy is for Rush Limbaugh to have been called out, force to apologize and retract what it is that he said in exercising his first amendment rights,” she said, “and never is the same applied to the leftist radicals who say such horrible things about the handicapped, about women, the defenseless.”

Fox News on high gas prices in 2008

As Fox News leads the right wing pundit & politician charge against President Obama on high gas prices, Media Matters has put together an interesting montage on how Fox News covered high gas prices back in 2008, when President Bush was in office.

The Daily Show takes on Slutgate

As promised.

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Jon Stewart nailed it on the Limbaugh “slut” controversy

The opening segment of Jon Stewart's Daily Show Monday night was ON FIRE, absolutely nailing the whole Rush Limbaugh controversy, and pointing out the absolute hypocrisy of some of the Fox News pundits who defended Limbaugh.

I’ll post the video as soon as Comedy Central puts it up tomorrow.

Stewart began by warning people who usually had sex during the Daily Show to just not watch tonight, because Rush Limbaugh was on. After playing his comments, he marveled at them for some time. “What is going through Rush Limbaugh’s fevered mind?” There were so many errors, Stewart noted: “he seems to believe that anyone on birth control is automatically having a ton of sex… [that] contraception is something a woman has to pay for every time she has sex.” Stewart also added that the shock about his comments appeared disingenuous in some ways, since Limbaugh “is and has been for many years a terrible person.” After making fun of the Republican candidates brushing it off in the most bizarre ways (like Romney saying that his objection was only to the word choice), he looked at the fact that the right didn’t oppose the subject of the comments. “Who do they not believe that reasoning is wrong? Because they think the same thing,” he explained, showing a number of Fox News personalities arguing the same thing more eloquently than Limbaugh.

“Everyone pays for shit they don’t want all the time,” Stewart noted, demanding a reimbursement for the Iraq War and oil subsidies.” He concluded the extended segment with a final swipe at Megyn Kelly for being against insurance coverage for contraceptives when her defense of maternity was so fierce in recent times.

Kasich caves

Governor John Kasich caves and says he’ll take that federal disaster aid after all.

The teabaggers are going to skin him alive.

Be afraid!

Yep, right wingers are not above scaring little kids about Obama. Good gods, these people are insane.

Obama Derangement Syndrome in action

Governor John Kasich would rather people die than accept help from President Obama.

Obama Derangement Syndrome is dangerous. It’s turned teabaggers into psychopaths.

Despite the Republicans' continual insistance that climate change isn't a real phenomenon, the tornado season started a full month earlier than most years in the Midwest. To date, there have been 46 confirmed deaths.

Wide swaths of the Midwest have been destroyed, leaving American people to pick up the battered pieces of their lives and rebuild.

But Governor John Kasich has just made it that much harder for Ohioans to do just that:

Ohio Gov. John Kasich said thanks but no thanks to immediate federal disaster relief Saturday, even as governors in Indiana and Kentucky welcomed the help.

Santorum didn’t do himself any favors on Fox News today

Rick Santorum appeared on Fox News Sunday today and didn’t do himself any favors.

He doesn't give very much to charity. He says that's because taking care of his sick daughter is so very expensive.

Thanks, Rick, for illustrating why we need universal health coverage. And prenatal testing.

"I was in a situation where we have seven children, one disabled child who we take care of, and she's very, very expensive," he said. "We love her and cherish the opportunity to take care of her, but it's an additional expense. We have to have around-the-clock care for her, and our insurance company doesn't cover it, so I have to cover it."

Santorum's comments about the cost of having a disabled child and the lack of insurance coverage are particularly interesting in light his recent criticism of free prenatal testing under the Affordable Care Act, which he opposes because the test results might "cull the ranks of the disabled" by encouraging expecting parents to have an abortion.

On the same show, Santorum came out firmly against contraception of any kind, which puts him at odds with a vast majority of American women.

On the subject of birth control and the controversial Blunt amendment, which would have allowed employers to deny contraception and other health coverage for moral reasons, Santorum tried to drive the conversation away from contraception and toward the issue of religious liberty. But pressed on his own views about birth control and confronted with the fact that 99 percent of sexually active women have used it at some point, Santorum defensively acknowledged that he believes it's morally wrong and that employers should be able to opt out of covering it.

"I'm reflecting the views of the church that I believe in," he said. "We used to be tolerant of those beliefs. I guess now when you have beliefs that are consistent with the church, somehow, now you're out of the mainstream, and that to me is a pretty sad situation when you can't have personal held beliefs. But that's not the issue -- the issue is whether the government can force you to do things that are against your conscience, and that's what we've been talking about on the road. We haven't been talking about my own personal beliefs."

Where’s Sarah Palin?

I’m kind of curious why Sarah Palin hasn’t spoken up yet about Rush Limbaugh’s vile, sexist attacks on Sandra Fluke. I mean, she’s usually up and at ‘em when she can misrepresent and misconstrue comments by Democrats as sexist and demeaning to women. Now that we’ve got Rush doing it outright, suddenly Sarah is very quiet. I wonder why.