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prop-8 comes down to the actual word marriage. the federal appeals court ruling that the ban on same-sex marriages violates the constitution. voting 2-1 that a state could not revoke the rights of a majority group without a reason. on the significance of the wore marriage reinhardt went on to write:

same-sex couples won't be able to marry in the state yet senior counsel for the alliance defense fund: fans and foes of marriage equality say they are ready to take the decision to the supreme court. that's not likely to happen until 2013 maybe the year after. other cases challenging the federal defensive marriage act are already making their way through lower courts and gay marriage acts are moving across other states. clarify the practicality, did anything actually change today? >> nothing is different today

than it was yesterday. for same-sex couples. they are still currentingly not able to marry in california. but this says it is unconstitutional. you can't single out one group of people from different treatment than others. >> is it disappointing? is it a problem in any way that the judges were focusing mostly on that point, rather than the specific right for these marriages to occur? or is that an academic debate? >> certainly we believe that there is a fundamental right to marry the person that you love. it's a fundamental freedom that we should all value and all be able to take part in. so we would love to see a brood ruling at some point, but it is still positive that for gay and lesbian couples in california who want the same protections as

everyone else that this is a step forward in saying they are going to be able to have those rights. >> as positive as the court rules have been, do you sense your community is getting frustrated to this point? do you think we're headed towards a tipping point at which a large part of the political main stream will say it is now safe. we can now afore to back this now. >> for any community that has been denied their rights the gay and lesbian community would like to see that day come sooner rather than later, but this is a marathon, not a sprint. a process of educating the american public. going through legislatures and the court of public opinion, certainly. but we are seeing a major shift. you have see six states, and

hopefully california joining that list soon. the tide of history is on our side here. >> from the other side of the tide, in more ways that one there was a tweet from newt gingrich today: practically speaking is this ruling today more of a benefit to the lgbt community or the republicans still running on homophobia? >> i think you are going to have politicians out there what want to score some cheap political points, but they are certainly not playing the long game. what might be beneficial to them in a republican primary isn't going to play well in the general election when you have the majority of americans who support same-sex marriage.

>> michael cole schwartz thanks again for your time. >> thank you. >> when it comes to super pac will the president stand on principal? coming up. is on the new news network. >>it is an independent progressive voice and i love that. >>jennifer granholm joins current tv. she's a political trail-blazer. >>people like somebody who's got a spine. >>determined to find solutions... >>we need government to ensure that people have freedom. >>driven to find the truth... >>what's really going on? >>fearless, independent and above all, politically direct.

the president's switch on super pacs. but on this date exactly 200 years ago, charles dickens was born in portsmouth in england.

he has a dickensian childhood. time marches on. still talking about the super bowl, and we'll begin with the best of the commercials. and that including will ferrell's spot. continuing my professional friends inexplicable series of commercials aimed at just one market, the ad ran only in nebraska. from super bowl commercials to super bowl parades, and this morning the new york giants took to the canyon of heros, and fans came out to see all of their favorite players where they are on the giants or not.

yeah. apparently she doesn't know that mark sanchez is the quarterback for the new york jets and not the new york giants. finally we end as we always do with north koreans covering popular 80s hits on the accordion. we find the students doing this. ♪ >> now available on itunes. if you think that is good you should see them perform it in the pencil sketch version of it as well. the next major battle in the so-called culture war, the attempt to take down ellen degeneres. huge mistake. huge mistake right there.

>>this show is my fix.

"dumont's court of current issues" will not be seen tonight so we can instead bring you "countdown" the longest running new channel on television unless you consider fox, news. >> do you violate your own ethics so you have a chance to defeat opponents who do not have those ethics? in our third story in the "countdown," the obama campaign says it will participate in events to aide a pro obama super pac. on the president's recollection website last night.

his campaign manager wrote, quote: senior advisor david axle rod defended that decision this morning. >> the bottom line here is that the -- the citizens united decision was a bad decision from our perspective. it did open the flood gates, but now the rules are what the rules are. we have to live in the world as it is. >> last year two super pacs raised a total of $51 million to support the congressional and presidential rates. the gop presidential race brought in $40 million more. and the president's campaign

raised nearly $140 million last year. they say the president, vice president, for their wives will at ten these gathering. but finegold is calling the obama's decision a, quote, dumb approach. speaking of dancing with the devil, the race for the gop presidential nomination continued today in colorado and minnesota, and a non-binding primary in missouri. the contest in missouri will still cost taxpayers there an estimated $7 million. and while the romney campaign

does not appear to be worried about these contests it is clearly worried about the poll we told you about yesterday. trotting out the new gop mean for 2012 referring that all numbers they don't like are cooked somehow. the director of polling for the washington post the results are consistent with other surveys. more polling today from reuters. the gaps among those three latter candidates are within the poll's margin of year. so discuss this we bring in joe williams. >> good to be here.

if they are having conscious attacks, then they didn't last very long. the two words are sheldon adelman, and now allowing him to compete in south carolina and florida. the three statistics are, $15 million, the amount that mitt romney spent basically vaporizing newt gingrich in florida. and 51 million, the statistics you just claimed, raising that kind of dough in one year to defeat president obama. >> is it coincidence that the president just endorsed the idea of the constitutional amendment to overturn citizen's united? and it seemed like the white house really undersold that

especially in light of the decision relative to the super pacs. >> but you have a bit of cognitive disconnect here. the president has spoken out against super pacs. he smacked the supreme court justices almost to their faces a few years ago. so this denonesation of the super pacs, and joining them basically, is creating a bit of abrasiveness between his support supporter supporters. so it's a little bit of trying to have both neat either fences. i think he does believe this and it's not necessarily a coincidence but just awkward timing. >> with the premise that you should not bring a knife to a gun fight, this decision is there blowback inside the democratic party, in the base?

or it is more theoretical at this point? >> it's more theoretical. there are people who have a lot of adjectives to this situation. they don't like this situation and basically there's good reason. because we saw the mud get slung in florida. it will be all-out war fair and a lot of slime will get thrown in 2012. so that is not very conducive to good government and good debate about where we take our nation. on the other hand it reminds me a lot of the people's mike at occupy protest. you can't possibly hope to compete with amps that go up to 11. because it will drawn out your message, and they can throw mud slinging, and it doesn't even necessarily have to be true.

>> romney attacking the abc post poll. you only have so many times you can work we refs without people dismissing you as a guy who works the ref. >> yes, but we are also talking about the republican's view of the media. you are cooking something against the republicans. you are a liberal by definition doesn't matter. doesn't hurt him with the base that much. general election same thing. the people he is trying to win over love this message. >> the general election is actually covered by the media they are trying to eliminate. the national distributor of working the refs actually calls them on it.

planned parenthood. anna talked to a conservative and it got a little contentious. drama, when we return.

jerry springer on the latest numbers. speaking of faking it, the florida legislature, taking one of those one size fits all koch brothers alec legislation introducing it into her own state house. details next on worse person. >>jennifer granholm joins current tv. she's a political trail-blazer. >>make your voice heard. >>detremined to find solutions. >>that partnership in order to invest in our country is critical. >>driven to find the truth. >>how did romney get his groove back? >>fearless, independent and above all, politically direct. the newest voice in cable news is on the new news network. >>it is an independent progressive voice and i love that. >>jennifer granholm joins current tv. she's a political trail-blazer.

>>people like somebody who's got a spine. >>determined to find solutions... >>we need government to ensure that people have freedom. >>driven to find the truth... >>what's really going on? >>fearless, independent and above all, politically direct. going on fox news to complain about how fox news treats the president of the united states. first because this is the spot where we try to make similar pushbacks against the heehots, first, during the super bowl an anti union commercial ran in washington, d.c. it was the usual three-card monty game trying to convince

people that collective bargaining is their endmy. this is a picture of mr. berman who has turned out to have made the commercial. he owns a house valued at $3,300,000. this is a guy portraying a disgruntled union worker. that's right. it is mr. berman who saved a little money by portraying the disgruntled worker. i worked as a mechanic at my father's garage all through high school and college. i have a berman story that explains how you can beat somebody that is that self rationalizing. back when "countdown" was supposed to be a bush supporter,

they booked mr. berman on my show. he was being paid by the fast-food so say there was no connection between obesity and fast-food. i pointed out my family mice included has struggled with weight issues and there clearly was a connection. mr. berman scoffed. and i asked him if he remembered that doctors said that wearing hats too often lead to hair loss, like his hair loss. that's when he yanked the ear piece out and ran away. the under up. the american family association. these are the people that released a video in which god,

explained that columbine happened because we had kicked god out of his schools. and then ellen degeneres. they told jc penney they should remain neutral in the cultural war, by firing a gay business. this is a good time to give jc penney some business. and then a republican state representative in florida. we know about alec the right-wing group that concocts laws. they produce these templates and individual lawmakers aller to them slightly and introduce them as their own bills. unfortunately sometimes being a vessel through which

billionaires do their dirty work does not require significant intelligence. it would reduce taxes in florida because she forgot about audit them slightly and introduce them as your own. her bill read, quote: i said it before and i'll say it again the main defense democracies lies in the stupidity of those who would destroy democracy like the representative from florida. today's worse person in the world!

>>i'm a political junkie.

>>this show is my fix. [ male announcer ] succeeding in today's market requires decisive action. i go to e-trade and tap into the power of revolutionary mobile apps to trade wherever. whenever. life isn't fully experienced sitting idly by. neither is investing. [ birds chirping ]

they have questioned his heritage, birthplace religion citizenship, income average, they have debated his middle name, his first name, his wife's hair style, which sports teams he likes how often he goes on vacation, if he plays too much golf on vacation his ability to throw a baseball now whether or not he is faking unemployment numbers, and complained about reading off of a teleprompter, while reading those complaints off of their own teleprompter. but when anyone else calls out the whore house fox new, as mr. springer did they listen. during the discussion he brought up the fact that fox has been

leading an offensive against the president since day one. on queue the hosts feigned outrage. >> we're here on fox news, every single day in fairness you guys every single day bash president obama -- >> i'm going to take you to task on that, because on this panel right here, we have a fair and balanced panel -- >> what is the rest of the show? every single morning you guys are slamming obama. you know you are. i'm not saying you don't have a right to. but every conversation is ago bad about obama. >> by the way, jerry, you obviously do not watch our show because you do not understand that there's reason, and we represent both sideings of the story, and leave it up to our viewers to decide where they fall. >> gretchen thinks she is an independent. she can't spell independent.

>> do you cling to your guns and religion? remember the president said that once. and it is because you are bitter. >> the reason people cling to their guns is they are afraid president obama are going to take them away. there is no doubt in my mind that this administration has claimed all out war on christians. >> the founding father set up a crazy system. >> in fact in the three-hour program this morning there was not one positive mention of the president, but attacks are not their only means of undermining this president, as we found out year, when they report on improving unemployment numbers, they don't believe they are true and cry conspiracy. >> it's the bureau of labor statistics, but that is the

department of labor, and they work directly for obama. >> are you saying they are cooking the books? >> i'm saying there is room for error. >> i don't think anybody should be surprised in an election year. >> joining me as promised, jerry springer. good to see you, sir. thanks for having me. >> have you recovered from your appearance? >> i walked right into it. and we were talking about the cover of news week magazine several weeks ago. the article is by andrew sullivan conservative writer and clearly i was a provacative headline, and it was tilted towards being for obama. he even said i have a bias toward obama. so they asked me what do you think about this they are being biased? and i said yeah, probably a little bit to the left, but i said we're sitting here on fox

news and you bash busch every single day -- excuse me, they bash obama every single day. i shouldn't win a pulletzer prize for that. >> do we have any incite -- we know why the people in charge of this do that. it is a litmus test so you can throw everything else out. and that tells me why. the bosses are doing it. but why do these people who work there do it? my theory has also been we have all encountered people on television who must be on television. and i'm wondering are they taking advantage of the people who have to be on tv? like the gretchen carlsons and

the briangy in the morning as well? >> well, i think what happens is you become part of the culture. and everyone around you is espousing that point of view day in and day our, and after a while you start believing your own sentences, and you forget that there was a strategy that, wait, we're going to create fox news, fox news is going to go after a certain demographic of very conservative men and that was the goal, and that's a demographic they went after. but they don't have those meetings every day among the reporters, but they hire reporters that have that point of view to begin with. but when i finished, the camera guys came up to me and apologized so it was like is there a separate, you know? so i don't think they are bad people. they happen to be conservative. that's okay. but just admit it.

because that would make it so much more credible. you don't go around saying no i'm not liberal. you say, hey, this is what i believe. and you are authentic and people agree with you. i love what you say. there are people who don't like what you say? >> really? >> i got their names. but that's it. and that's why i think they are ruining it. just be honest. >> it is still worth it trying to call them out? personally did you gain something -- >> that wasn't my agenda. >> of course not. but was it worth it? >> well, i think the more that there is a discussion about the fact that the media has biases in both directions then i think people start to with a grain of salt take what they hear on television. and i think that's going on. it's certainly going on with commercials. most people today really don't believe everything these political commercials say.

so i think after a while people are becoming pretty sophisticated. i think what we have to remember is the press, the media has always in american history been biased, except -- the only period it wasn't with -- with jefferson and adams in 1800 with the spanish american war. >> good grief yes. >> absolutely the media has always taken positions. it was after world war ii when we started to have the three networks, since that all of a sudden was the first national news we ever had, because newspapers were always local -- the first national news we ever had, because of that they felt a responsibility, that we got to try to be objective, and so we had walter cronkite et cetera, but other than that -- >> the fairness doctrine. >> exactly. >> which is something deeply opposed by the people of fox who

portray themselves as fair as balanced. >> yeah. but the whole fair and balance everyone understands is tongue in cheek. >> but you and i understand that, but the people on the air at least sell it like they believe it and the people who watch this absolutely believe it. >> i hope you are wrong. i got to think that -- >> they are not watching that stuff because there aren't any good cartoons on at 7:00 in the morning anymore. >> i think people like to listen to what -- to things that agree with what they already believe, and i think there was a constituency out there of -- i'm probableably labeling it but the angry white men. the same people that go to talk radio, and that constituency was perhaps not being met in the national media, and so roger ails brilliantly said hey, here is a market. let's go after