Majikthise

Video: My GRITtv interview with Laura Flanders

Yesterday, I sat down with Laura Flanders of GRITtv to talk about the alleged phone-tamperers who were arrested last week for dressing up as phone repairmen and attempting unsuccessfully to access to the main telephone cabinet for Sen. Mary Landrieu's office. One of the four, Stan Dai, is a former assistant director for a intelligence recruiting program funded by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. My fellow guest, Dr. David Price is an anthropologist who monitors the intelligence community's attempts to insinuate itself into academia.

Media Consortium outlets have been scooping the established press left and right on the phone tampering story. Check out some of the highlights in the latest edition of The Weekly Pulse.

Fox News: A totally legitmate news outlet

One fake news show spots another. Jon Stewart catches Sean Hannity's producer trying to pass off footage of Glenn Beck's 70,000 teabagger march as Michelle Bachmann's 10,000 teabagger Superbowl of Freedom:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Sean Hannity Uses Glenn Beck's Protest Footage
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

(via Americablog)

Does Chris Christie look fat in this?

NJ governor Jon Corzine's new ad insinuates that his Republican opponent Chris Christie abused his status as a US Attorney to get lenient treatment for two serious traffic infractions.

The ad sticks close to the facts: In 2005, Christie was pulled over for going 58 in a 40 zone. It turned out that the car's registration had lapsed and Christie couldn't produce proof of insurance. Remarkably, the cop let him drive home, despite New Jersey's strict policy of towing unregistered vehicles. The Lambertville police director initially claimed that Christie got loud during the traffic stop, but later reversed himself.

Christie denies that he pulled rank. He says he was allowed to drive home because his children, his wife, and his deputy were in the vehicle and he didn't want to leave them. Curiously, the tickets Christie received in connection with the incident were marked "no deal." This wasn't Christie's first brush with traffic laws, either. In 2002, he turned the wrong way down a one-way street and hit a motorcyclist. The cyclist ended up in a trauma center and Christie's rental car was totaled, but Christie walked away without a ticket.

The ad also alludes to Christie's failure to pay income tax on the interest from an unreported loan he made to a subordinate while he was a public prosecutor.

The takehome message is that Chris Christie has one set of rules for himself and another for everyone else. You can decide for yourself whether that argument is convincing, but the underlying allegations are true.

So, how does the Christie camp respond to the ad? By accusing Corzine of mocking his weight. Welcome to non seqitur hour in GOP-land.

[Podcast] Journo: I love my "socialist" kidney

Most people think of single payer health care in America as something akin to science fiction--a bold idea that might be possible someday, but certainly not an option in the here and now.

Journalist Jennifer Nix points out that the U.S. already has single payer care, not only for the aged (Medicare) and the poor (Medicaid) but also for patients with end-stage renal disease (kidney failure) who need dialysis or a transplant.

Nix has a unique perspective on Medicare ESRD, as the latter program is known. It saved her father's life in 1973 and her own life this year. Nix found out in 2008 that she inherited the same cystic kidney disease that put her dad on single payer dialysis in the seventies. Medicare ESRD covered a stint on dialysis, her kidney transplant, and anti-rejection drugs for a limited period after surgery (her private insurance covers them now).

Since its inception, Medicare ESRD has enabled over 1 million people survive regardless of their ability to pay. If your kidneys failed tomorrow you won't be left to die because you can't afford dialysis or a transplant. Wouldn't it be nice if all Americans could enjoy the same level of security for their hearts and other organs?

Here's my podcast interview with Nix at the Daily Pulse.

Video: Honduras update

Good work from the Real News Network.

Howard Dean Talks Budget Reconciliation (Video Exclusive)

By Lindsay Beyerstein

Last night, I quite unexpectedly scored an exclusive video interview with Howard Dean at the 92nd St YMCA where he was promoting his new book on health reform.

I asked him about the chances that Democrats will try to use budget reconciliation to pass a health care bill and thwart a filibuster. The conventional wisdom is that reconciliation is too risky. Dean begs to differ. Watch. 

Hot mic fells "family values" pol

California State Assemblyman Michael Duvall (R), a stalwart advocate of family values and the sanctity of marriage, has resigned a hot mic picked up his graphic boast to a colleague about having sex with two married female lobbyists (sequentially, I assume). via Steve Benen

FOD: Death Panels

Death Panel Advisors - watch more funny videos

Glenn Beck claims Americorps will be Obama's SS

Seriously, folks. Glenn Beck and his cronies believe that Obama wants to enlarge Americorps to be his shock troops, his fedayeen. Beck and his guests convince themselves that Americorps will be the ones who will disarm the radical militias in South Texas if the military refuses to follow the president's orders.

In the clip, Beck claims that Americorps has "just received half a trillion dollars in funding." What the hell is he talking about? Half a trillion dollars is $500 billion. Half a trillion dollars would put Americorps in the same league as the Pentagon.

For FY 2010, the president requested less than two billion dollars for Americorps' parent agency, the Corporation for National and Community Service, and congress appropriated $90 million less than he asked for.

Half a trillion dollars for Americorps would the agency in the same league as the Pentagon. Is Beck talking about the $5.7 billion national service bill which, amongst many other things, would put Americorps on track to grow significantly between now and 2017.

Update: Commenters tell me that Beck corrected himself later in the show. A grownup must have realized the claim was too preposterous, or more too easily falsifiable, even for the Glenn Beck side show.

It's even funnier that Beck's guests played along with the half-trillion claim. Surely they knew it was false. This wasn't just an incidental mistake, it was the hook for Beck's crazy conspiracy theory.

Jon Stewart vs. Betsy "Death Panels" Betsy McCaughey

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Exclusive - Betsy McCaughey Extended Interview Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Healthcare Protests