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Lawrence O'Donnell took a look back at the presidential campaign of Newt Gingrich during his Rewrite segment now that he's finally going to officially drop out of the race and noted that "Newt is now the first, and no doubt the last historian to refer to the Gingrich presidential campaign as 'a terrific campaign.'"

I guess this means Gingrich is going to quit bilking the taxpayers out of their money to pay for his Secret Service protection. He'll have to finish his book tour without it.

Gingrich Releases Thank-You Video:

The latest in Newt Gingrich’s drawn-out exit from the Republican presidential primary is a goodbye video titled, “Thank You To All Of Our Supporters.” Though news that Gingrich will drop out of the race is almost a week old, Gingrich says in the video that he wants to give his supporters “insider advance notice” that he will be suspending his campaign on Wednesday.

Gingrich calls his suporters “vital” and tells them, “we’re going to continue out there on the road, both Callista and I will be talking, campaigning, making speeches, doing everything we can to help defeat Barack Obama.”

Gingrich will officially announce the suspension of his campaign Wednesday in Virginia.

A brief history of unions -- is the move by Workers' Voice the next big step in the evolution of unions?

In an unprecedented move, Workers' Voice—the super PAC of the AFL-CIO, has given control of its $4.1 million in campaign funds to its members, both union and non-union. The move is being done to incentivize members to take more of a stake in the organization and boost participation in an important election year.

Members of the organization who take part in campaign-related activities will be rewarded with currency within the organization and that currency can be used to determine which campaigns the super PACs literal money funds and how it is used. The more phone banking, canvassing and volunteering members do, the more currency they can earn. The money can be directed to online advertising, voter registration, GOTV and other operations. The final details of the program are being worked out, but it could have a big impact on 2012 elections.

"We are kind of jumping off a cliff and opening ourselves up to democracy. We are going to empower people and empower workers in a way that's not been done before," said Workers' Voice spokesman Eddie Vale. "There may be a congressional race that isn't much on people's radar in D.C. But if there are a hundred activists in that congressional district who get their asses out of bed every morning and make phone calls and knock on doors, we feel they have earned the right to put [our] resources there."

...

"If you wanted to make a $50,000 contribution to drive X number of phone calls on behalf of a candidate you like or against a candidate that you hate, you can do that," said Vale. "This is a new incentive model that no one has every tried. I think we have a real shot at doing something unique and meaningful here."

...

"Nothing even close to this has been done before," said Vale. "Nothing like this has been done in politics that I know of."

If successful, it is not difficult to see the program being replicated elsewhere and could spur activism and give a boost to more grassroots candidates, the kinds of candidates that are often ignored by the party and interest group apparatus in D.C.

I love Netroots Nation. It's hard to be depressed when you're around so many bright, passionate people who are working so hard to make our country better, and it's always fun to meet people face to face when you only know their online personas. So I'm happy to tell you about this great opportunity to win a NN scholarship:

Want an opportunity to win a scholarship for Netroots Nation 2012, the country's biggest gathering of progressive activists?

Netroots Nation is teaming up with Rally.org for the first-ever Raise the Future contest, which invites people from around the country to fundraise for progressive causes for the chance to win an all-access pass to Netroots Nation this June in Providence. Ten winners will receive an all-access pass to the conference, hotel accommodations and invitations to VIP events (a $1200 value).

Sign up at rally.org/raisethefuture.

It's easy to participate: just recruit the most donors for one of the six featured causes—or choose one of your own—using the Rally.org fundraising platform. This contest is unique because it's not about how much money you raise, but the number of donors you engage.

The featured causes include Elizabeth Warren for Massachusetts, National Wildlife Federation Action Fund, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Washington United for Marriage, Truman National Security Project and New Leaders Council.

There's still plenty of time to sign up (and win!). The contest runs through May 15, with finalists announced May 17th.

It takes less than four minutes to get started. Sign up at rally.org/raisethefuture.

Cracked - learn to spot a BS political story in under 10 seconds;

Gothamist - Ghouliani, Mittens photo-op at NYFD fire station, roundly jeered by New Yorkers;

The American Prospect - come on people, it's Dan Savage;

The Booman Tribune - liberals have known for years Rupert Murdoch wasn't fit to run NewsCorp;

Towleroad - anti-gay wingnuts force out-gay Romney advisor to quit;

blogenfreude blogs at stinque.com and will finish that screenplay one day, dammit.

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Credit: Blue Gal

And this would be the anniversary of the day a president (and a "news" network) totally did not ever even think of using the military for political gain.

Tonight is the last night of our Newstalgia Fundraiser. We take the money to the building owner tomorrow and hope for the best. (It costs more to house the recordings and archives of Newstalgia than it does to house a blogger!) Thanks to everyone who has given so far, and if you want to put us over the top, tonight's the night. Every small contribution helps:

Open thread below...

Tonight's song title is could possibly win the award for the most times love is mentioned. How many songs about love can you post?

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In saving one's skin - playing the "hapless boob" card works wonders.

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In short, the Members Of Parliament found Rupert Murdoch had a curious habit of "looking the other way" with regards to the Phone Hacking Scandal. And as a result, was deemed by the panel to be "unfit to run an International Business".

Although the panel was split along Partisan lines - with four of the Conservative Members of Parliament voting not to include the "unfit to run a company" disclosure, they were unanimous in their agreement that Murdoch had mislead and deceived the Leveson Inquiry as to the true nature of the scandal.

In the report findings, aired over BBC Radio 4 's program PM, it was considered by some to be not all that earth shattering and that the scandal as a whole had more interest in Westminster than it did on the street.

Whether or not that's true remains to be seen. It's interesting to note that calls on this side of the Atlantic for an FCC inquiry into the operations of Murdoch's Fox News seem to have made more newsworthy headlines in the UK than over here. The move may be regarded as more symbolic than anything else, judging by the somewhat punchless and ineffectual state the FCC is in. However, there is still the ongoing DOJ Investigation of Phone Hacking and Bribery charges involving News Of The World related cases over here.

And all that lurks somewhere in the future.

But for now, Westminster has spoken and Rupert Murdoch's school of Tabloid Journalism received a slap on its faux-incompetent wrist.

ED. NOTE: We are just thisclose to our fundraising goals to protect this fabulous archive of Gordon's. If you haven't contributed (even $5 moves us closer to the goalposts), please consider doing so tonight.

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A Fox News guest on Monday rejected calls to drop the use of term "illegals," and suggested that undocumented immigrants could "return to their country" if they didn't like the slur.

The Daily Caller's Michelle Fields told Fox News host Sean Hannity that liberals were trying to "demonize" conservatives in the Colorlines campaign to "Drop the I-Word."

"I'm not stopping it," Hannity insisted. "Illegal immigrant! Illegal!"

"People that enter into the country illegally are illegal," Fields remarked. "OK, that's not a racial slur. That's not racist. This is simply just liberals trying so hard to change the subject, to distract voters from Obama's failed policies."

"I think it's a racial slur, to be sure," left-leaning Fox News contributor Bob Beckel replied. "It's hate speech, which you right-wingers are pretty good at."

"So, you think I'm a racist?" Hannity wondered.

"I just think that in and of itself it is a racist word," Beckel replied.

"If illegals are so upset about the term 'illegal,' why don't they return to their country, apply for a visa and then come back legally," Fields advised. "And then we won't call them illegals."

In a online video produced for the Drop the I-Word campaign, Baruch College Professor Robert Smith explains why the word is so dangerous in political discourse: "'Illegal' functions like a racial epithet. It’s a way of legitimizing violence against a particular group of people because of what they are. That the definition of a hate crime."

(h/t: Media Matters)

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Tuesday at an event with Rudy "9-11" Guiliani, Mitt Romney declared with emphasis that he "certainly would have taken that action [himself]." The action he was referring to was giving the order for Navy SEAL Team Six to go into Pakistan and kill or capture Bin Laden.

Shake the Etch-a-Sketch, folks. Here's Mitt Romney in 2007, responding to the right wing frenzy over candidate Obama's statement that he would launch military strikes in Pakistan if necessary:

"I do not concur in the words of Barack Obama in a plan to enter an ally of ours... I don't think those kinds of comments help in this effort to draw more friends to our effort," Romney told reporters on the campaign trail.

Obama on Wednesday said if elected president in November 2008 he would be willing to launch military strikes against al Qaeda targets inside Pakistan with or without the approval of the Pakistani government of President Pervez Musharraf.

"If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will," Obama said.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who is one of the Republican front-runners, said U.S. troops "shouldn't be sent all over the world." He called Obama's comments "ill-timed" and "ill-considered."

"There is a war being waged by terrorists of different types and nature across the world," Romney said. "We want, as a civilized world, to participate with other nations in this civilized effort to help those nations reject the extreme with them."

Later, Romney emphatically denied that he opposed entering Pakistan for the purpose of taking out Bin Laden, saying he clearly stated that "it was naive to announce [Obama] would enter Pakistan".

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Fla. State Sen. Chris Smith wasn't happy with Governor Rick Scott's task force to review the state's 'Kill At Will'/'Stand Your Ground' law, which received national attention in the wake of the killing of teenager Trayvon Martin. So he created his own task force.

Scott's official state version of the task force was filled with legislators who voted in favor of the law in the first place and failed to include people affected by the law or who might seriously question it. Smith saw through the governor's ruse and created his own task force, which released a report on the law that is sharply critical of the law. Smith's task force was much broader than the governor's, including law enforcement, state prosecutors, public and private defense attorneys, and other legal experts

In the years since passage of the drastic revisions to Chapter 776 of the Florida Statute regarding the use of force in self-defense, Floridians have grappled with the tragic consequences of a arguably, ambiguous law which has shown demonstrable confusion within and among police departments, prosecuting offices and the courts. While commonly referred to as the ―Stand Your Ground‖ law, the statutes have not simply helped law abiding citizens protect themselves from attack, but instead, have often been used as cover for the perpetrators of crimes. Each day that goes by without legislative action places innocent lives at stake. While the focus on public safety and the previously well-established principles of self defense are paramount to the Task Force‘s review, the evaluation is also concerned with preventing operation of a system tantamount to lawlessness, where any person can, within a matter of seconds, render himself investigator, judge, jury and executioner, all in one. In a civilized society, governing institutions must provide all Floridians with grounds for confidence in the justice system.

The task force unanimously approved the following recommendations: