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Just in case anyone didn't think that Michelle Malkin's display on Fox & Friends was quite enough with them carrying water for Wayne LaPierre and the NRA, they decided to bring in for good measure right wing rag The Daily Caller co-founder, and heir to the Swanson food fortune, Tucker Carlson, to lay the blame for the school shooting at Sandy Hook at the feet of President Obama, Democrats and Hollywood liberals. Because we all know that guns don't kill people, people who watch violent movies do.

Tucker Carlson: Obama Ignores Violent Media Because ‘Hollywood’ Donates To The Democratic Party:

The Daily Caller’sTucker Carlson appeared on Fox & Friends this Saturday and slammed President Obama for refusing to acknowledge the media’s role in our violent culture for fear of losing “Hollywood” donations. “Hollywood is one of the largest donors to the Democratic Party,” Carlson said, and because of this, the Obama administration ignores the violent media.

Host Dave Briggs asked Carlson if he thought Hollywood was “hypocritical” in speaking out against gun violence but never admitting their contribution to the problem. Co-host Alisyn Camerota suggested Hollywood is a “powerful lobby” that “bears some responsibility for the culture of gun violence”. According to Carlson, the main question Hollywood should be asking is whether “watching violence movies” and “playing violent video games” affects children. Carlson admitted “we don’t know” whether the media desensitizes people to violence but he believes “common sense suggests maybe.”

Carlson lamented that the role of media in America’s violent culture hasn’t been examined fully. He underscored his point that the reason for this is because Hollywood makes large contributions to Democratic to Democratic candidates:

“This is something Hollywood should be taking a close look at it. There ought to be some soul-searching. There ought to be, in the words of the left, some corporate responsibility here. And yet, you do not hear members of Congress on the Democratic side suggest this because they’re taking hundreds of millions of dollars from Hollywood.”

I'm not going to defend children being allowed to watch violent movies or play violent video games, but when it comes to controlling what adults watch, I guess Tucker suddenly doesn't like that "freedom" he and his fellow wingnuts are always railing about. Sadly no one bothered to ask Carlson why people in other countries manage to watch these same movies or play these same games, and somehow they don't have the same level of gun violence that we do here in the United States.

I'd also like to know just what they think any Democrats are supposed to do about what movies Hollywood puts out there. They seem to love the 2nd Amendment, but think it's perfectly acceptable to throw out the 1st if it suits their political agenda on any given day of the week, and as long as it means protecting the gun manufacturers in America and their profits.

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The best part of this segment about rational, sane gun laws is Matthew Dowd, centrist extraordinaire, taking a stand firmly against the usual gun argument that the answer to mass shootings like Sandy Hook is to simply arm everyone, including teachers, doctors, preachers and Santa. Dowd made an apt analogy to schoolyard bullies that's quite clear:

When there's a kid in the school yard with a baseball bat, we don't give everybody else baseball bats and say go to deal with it and defend yourself. What we do is we take the baseball bat away from the bad kid or the bully and then we sit down and say what can we do to make sure this doesn't happen -- we've got to take the baseball bat away from the bully.

When Matthew Dowd is the sanest voice, aside from Katrina VandenHeuvel who is always sane, progress is being made.

Grover Norquist plays the Tea Party hand as usual, claiming that this is just lefties ginning up lefty arguments for purely political purposes, which is the typical argument being advanced by gun nuts. I would like to remind Grover that he had no objection to two wars being started or passage of the Patriot Act because of 9-11. Is there no greater and more clear example of using tragedy to advance policy?

That's how it works, Grover. Things happen. People respond. Policy is made in response, for better or for worse. It sounds lovely to try and minimize it by saying "oh, you're just using this tragedy to advance your long-held beliefs." But that's how it works. It's time to stop saying that's a bad thing.

As for Mayor Cory Booker, he is playing the middle against the ends here, as usual. Since he's declared his intention to run for the Senate, he has made the political calculus that "sticking to the pragmatic center" is his safest and best pathway to that office.

Props to Dowd for leaving the safe zone and saying the right thing. Booker could take a lesson from him.

Full transcript below the fold.

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This Week with George Stephanopoulos marks the passings of one service member in Afghanistan:

US Army SFC Kevin E Lipari, 39, Baldwin, NY

According to iCasualties, the total number of allied service members killed in Afghanistan is now 3,243.

In addition, the following notable names lost their lives this week:

Florida state politician Doyle Conner, supercentenarian Dina Manfredini, baseball player Frank Pastore, Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye, civil rights leader Jesse Hill Jr, gay rights activist Richard Adams, SC politician Bessie Moody-Lawrence, NM politician Ben Luján, jurist Robert Bork, playwright Larry L. King, blues musician Jimmy McCracklin, MA politician Thomas McGee, bass guitarist Lee Dorman, baseball player Ryan Freel, supercentenarian Mariam Amash and heavy metal guitarist Mike Scaccia.

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Surprise, surprise... another Republican senator decided to play the part of mouthpiece for the National Rifle Association: NRA-Backed Senator Says Washington Can’t Find ‘Real Solutions’ To Gun Violence:

On Fox News Sunday this morning, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) refused to answer questions about any specific gun control legislation he would consider supporting in the aftermath of the Newtown shooting. Host Chris Wallace referenced the suggestion made by the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre that schools need more armed guards and also President Obama’s call for more gun control, but all Barrasso could offer is that he is a “strong supporter of our Second Amendment rights.”

In fact, he suggested he might not support any relevant national legislation because “Washington is not necessarily the place” to find “real solutions”: [...]

Barrasso claimed that health care is part of the solution to the “culture of violence,” but he has led the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The American Psychiatric Association has said the law is crucial to extending mental health parity throughout the health care system and expanding access to mental health services to prevent tragedies like the Newtown shooting in the future. He also has supported decreased funding for health programs.

The NRA endorsed Barrasso this year, awarding him with an “A” rating for his support of their positions.

Full transcript below the fold.

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Here we go again with Lindsey Graham continuing to threaten to use the debt ceiling to inflict pain on the working class, or as he calls it, "saving Social Security and Medicare." Graham made this exact same threat almost a year ago where he was a little more specific about his plans for our social safety nets.

Lindsey Graham: Don't Allow Debt Ceiling to Be Raised Without Cuts and Means Testing for Social Security

Here he was on the same show, Meet the Press, again telling David Gregory that we should risk the full faith and credit of the United States of America if Democrats won't give him his pound of flesh from our senior citizens:

GREGORY: Sen. Graham, the question for you is could you vote for a bill that extended tax cuts for $250 thousand and below, extended unemployment insurance as the President wants to do and in some way delays some of these automatic spending cuts? Could you vote for that in the short term?

GRAHAM: No. If you want leaders, then you have to lead and the President's been a pathetic fiscal leader. He's produced three budgets and can't get one vote for any of his budgets. You know, Boehner will be Tip O'Neill. Obama needs to be Ronald Reagan and here's what I would vote for. I would vote for revenues, including tax rate hikes, even though I don't like them to get a... to save the country from becoming Greece.

But I'm not going to set aside the $1.2 trillion in cuts. Any hope of going over the fiscal cliff must start in the Senate. Not one Democrat would support the idea that we could protect 99 percent of Americans from a tax increase. Boehner's Plan B I thought made sense. To my Republican colleagues, the Ronald Reagan model is that if you get 80 percent of what you want, that's a pretty good day. We have the same objective of lowering taxes. I like Simpson-Bowles. Eliminate deductions, lower rates, put money on the debt. Tax rate hikes are a partisan solution driven by the President, but he's going to get tax rate hikes. […]

There will not be a big deal. The big chance for a big deal is with the debt ceiling. That's when we will have leverage to turn the country around, prevent it from becoming Greece and save Social Security and Medicare. And anybody listening to this program, I will raise the debt ceiling only if we save Medicare and Social Security from insolvency and prevent this country from becoming Greece. No more borrowing without addressing why we're in debt to begin with. That's where the real chance for change occurs, at the debt ceiling debate.

Chuck Schumer responded by reminding the viewers just how reckless Graham's remarks are and by reiterating that President Obama is not going to allow what happened the last time around to happen again. That apparently has had zero affect on Graham who is still going to go out there and stomp his feet and make ridiculous comparisons to Greece to try to scare the public, when the ones they ought to be afraid of are Graham and his fellow Republicans who are determined to continue to destroy what's left of the middle class in America and to shred every one of our social safety nets for the most vulnerable among us.

Graham feigns concern over the budget deficit now, but he never has those same concerns back when Bush was blowing mile wide holes in it with tax cuts for the rich and invading a couple of countries which he refused to put on the books. Graham's solutions never seem to include any military spending, since that's apparently the only jobs program that Republicans like -- putting military contractors to work.

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Ah, Republicans in disarray. It's a sight to see, and Senator Isakson says what we all know: If John Boehner had been able to keep his caucus united around a "deal", a deal would have been done. And because he wasn't, not only won't a deal be done, but the best anyone can do at this point is to pass the Senate bill extending tax cuts for the middle class.

Isakson admits what the House seems to be in a constant state of denial over: The only legislation that will pass now or after January 1st are the middle class tax cut extensions. As a practical matter, there's no reason not to extend those before the end of the year. Well, there's one reason: John Boehner won't accept reality and put the Senate bill up for a vote because it would pass because a majority of Democrats support it and God forbid they should do anything with the other side.

As for "miracles on Pennsylvania Avenue," let's just say I expect to see a snowball in hell before any miracles in Washington, DC.

Full transcript below the fold.

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Last night, Sen. James Inhofe did Fox News the favor of telling host Jeanine Pirro that Benghazi is “probably the greatest cover-up in my memory.” The predictable result was that the comment was re-played on Fox & Friends this morning (as it probably will be elsewhere on Fox) thus giving a boost to himself, Pirro’s not-very-prominent Saturday night show and, most of all, the Benghazi conspiracy theory that Fox clings to despite any and all facts disproving it.

The discussion started with a clip of Inhofe saying:

I have made a study of different cover-ups – the Pentagon Papers, Watergate and Iran-Contra. I’ve never seen anything like it. I think this is probably the greatest cover-up in my memory, anyway.

Of course, that’s ridiculous. Not even the Foxy Friends argued that was likely - though they studiously avoided saying one way or the other. As Karoli posted a few weeks ago, Rachel Maddow has demolished the whole cover-up conspiracy theory. So has The New York Times. And Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tom Ricks tried to tell Fox News but their widdle feewings were so hurt by his accusation that they were politicizing the tragedy that they booted him off the set before they could debunk it. But even if you believe that there are still some unanswered questions out there, the entire “conspiracy” boils down to Who Changed The Talking Points About Benghazi and was the danger of Al Qaeda downplayed to help President Obama win re-election?

Well, now that President Obama has been re-elected – despite Fox News’ best efforts – the “fair and balanced” network is turning its sights on Hillary Clinton, a likely nominee in 2016. I guess you need to allege a giant cover-up if you’re going to allege Clinton faked her concussion to avoid testifying about Benghazi. Even though there’s no question that she will testify later, as even host Clayton Morris acknowledged.

Morris pretended that questions about Benghazi are questions about the death of Americans: “At the heart of all of this, of course, is the four individuals who died during that tragedy. And the answers are still not being found, as our own Catherine Herridge reporting yesterday on our show.”

But rather than focus on what happened to those Americans, Morris immediately turned his attention to Clinton and kept it there. He said:

(M)ore questions emerging about who knew what when at the State Department and when these cables, these sort of desperate cables for security and security issues – a series of them – how far up the chain of command did they go? Did they go to Hillary Clinton’s office on the 7th floor? …At least one cable, according to Catherine Herridge’s reporting may have made its way to (Clinton’s) office. Did she look at it? Was there any actionable information on that? Why didn’t they ask for more security at the time? And Hillary Clinton, of course, still suffering from a concussion, or recovering from a concussion, so hasn’t been able to answer that but she will at testimony coming up.

Yet somehow with all those questions, nobody thought to point out, as Karoli did, that it was Secretary Clinton who ordered the review and the review was done. Furthermore, as the New York Times reported, “Mrs. Clinton accepted all of the panel’s 29 recommendations and has already begun to make changes.”

You may remember Columbia University 's business school Dean Glenn Hubbard from Charles Ferguson's fantastic documentary "Inside Job." He was said to be Mitt Romney's choice for Treasury. Oh, how the mighty have fallen! You really have to read the whole thing to appreciate what a weasel he is:

Hidden among the reams of material recently filed in connection with the lawsuit of monoline insurer MBIA against Bank of America and Countrywide is a deposition of none other than Columbia University's Glenn Hubbard. And boy, is it a wild deposition. It's like Inside Job, only Hubbard has to answer the questions he doesn't want to answer. Reading it is like watching a man try to avoid breathing in a gas chamber.

At issue here is the fact that Hubbard testified on behalf of Countrywide in the MBIA suit. He conducted an "analysis" that essentially concluded that Countrywide's loans weren't any worse than the loans produced by other mortgage originators, and that therefore the monstrous losses that investors in those loans suffered were due to other factors related to the economic crisis – and not caused by the serial misrepresentations and fraud in Countrywide's underwriting.

In other words, the Dean of the Columbia University business school testified that the fact that Countrywide claimed to have conducted thorough due diligence when in fact it was pressuring underwriters to approve 60 to 70 mortgage applications a day and failing to verify any income levels or other key information (to say nothing of the outright falsification of such data, which also went on on a mass scale) – he testified that these issues were irrelevant.

Investors in Countrywide loans, he reported, in specifically rebutting MBIA's claims of fraud, were probably victims of macroeconomic factors, among other things the expansion of lending guidelines by "the government-sponsored entities," i.e. Fannie and Freddie. You know, that old saw. So how much does it cost to get the Dean of Columbia Business School to say that Countrywide customers weren't injured by fraud? Well, MBIA's lawyer, David Freeburg, asked Hubbard that very question:

Q. How are you being compensated?A. I'm being compensated at an hourly rate for my work.Q. Do you know your hourly rate?

A. Yes, it's $1200 an hour.

For comparison's sake, $1200 an hour is about what Natalia, the woman New York Magazine called "America's #1 escort" in a famous profile many years ago, made early on in her career working for Jason Itzler, the self-described "King of All Pimps." It's not the top-end rate for the kind of Mercedes-class prostitute you'd romp with from an outfit like the Emperors Club, but according to the L.A. Times, it's still more than you'd have to pay for the usual "vanilla sex" or "Republican sex." Twelve hundred dollars an hour in America buys high-end companionship that can run a little bit kinky, if that's where your needs lay. And that's exactly what MBIA got with Hubbard's research.

So how did Hubbard manage to analyze Countrywide and conclude that mass fraud in its underwriting procedures wasn't problematic? Easy: He didn't look at the underwriting! All Hubbard did was take a group of Countrywide loans and compare them to a group of other loans from the same time period.

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