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tv   The Rachel Maddow Show  MSNBC  February 20, 2012 9:00pm-10:00pm PST

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me on radio xm 127 monday through friday, 12:00 to 3:00, like the ed show on facebook. "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. good evening, ed, thanks to you at home for staying with us this hour. university of california at davis, november 18th of last year. university police decided to clear away protesters in an occupy style encampment on campus and when some of the student protesters refused to move, this happened. campus police lieutenant doused a row of seated, calm student protesters with huge amounts of pepper spray fired out of an extinguisher from nearly point blank range. a terrible thing to watch. people across the country watch it. that pepper spraying cop became a further spark for the occupy movement. with instant iconic status, the pepper spraying cop became an
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online mime. he showed up all over the place. people started inserting him in historic images, pop culture settings. the day after that happened, the very next day, the day after the pepper spraying, there was an almost equally resonant that happened in response. the chancellor of the school, who sent in the police to break-up the occupy protest on campus, gave a press conference about the pepper spraying. students who came to listen or take part in the press conference were not allowed in the building. and in the midst of confusing reports about public safety concerns, and the chancellor maybe being intimidated by the presence of the students, what ultimately happened the students gathered outside and this is the way they protested when the chancellor emerged.
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this was an intense time on the campus, and in that context, in that environment, silent protest, students lining that walk there, not saying anything to the chancellor, was a resonant and powerful thing. we saw this happen again today. in a totally different context. in the state of virginia. watch. this was the silent protest at virginia state capitol in richmond today. in part it was silent because of the rules for gathering on the capitol grounds. prohibit assemblage without a permit. they don't mandate you be silent. organizers looking at that decided that these people,
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meaning the state representatives, these people are used to signs, yelling, chanting, et cetera. it is not new. they are not used to silently being stared at and looking us in the eye. that is what patriot testers did. and it was a powerful way to protest. in part because it's not a typical way to protest of the this was a way of showing rather than telling one of the complaints people have particularly that women have this was a mostly female group of protesters today, one of the complaints, you can show it rather than explain it, about this round of controversy right now in american social conservatism. >> what i want to know is where are the women? >> from the outrage over house republicans convening a hearing on the issue of insurance coverage for contraception, where the table for the first panel of witnesses looked like this, to the overall dynamic of the wave of new restrictions this past year on abortion rights. the new wave of restrictions even on access to contraception,
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it's politicians making decisions for american women, because american women suddenly this year can no longer be trusted to make these decisions for themselves. so, in this case, in virginia today, this is a political tactic that conveyed the message in two ways. all of these people being willing to show up to make feelings known about virginia's proposed legislation to mandate forced medically unnecessary vaginal ultrasounds for women seeking an abortion without the woman's permission and over the objection of her doctor, a way to show up and say i am against the proposed law. but they are also showing up in a way that makes their case. the protesters are being seen and not being heard. for today at least this, protest worked. the house in virginia was supposed to vote on the state's now famous anti-abortion mandatory trans vaginal sonogram bill, but the sponsor of the bill had it held for the day.
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it was two bills that the silent demonstrators were protesting today, forcing the state legislators to walk past them while they stood there and looked at them. was the trans vaginal ultrasound bill not voted on but hb 1, hb 1 as in house bill number one, the first bill filed in the virginia house of delegates after republicans took over all branchs of virginia state government this year. the very first thing republicans did when they got full power in virginia was file hb 1, a bill to ban all abortion. likely ban hormonal birth control as well. personhood has passed in the virginia house. it has not yet passed in the senate. we also learned that pennsylvania republicans are moving ahead on their own version of vast virginia's ulasmention on saturday night l this weekend. like virginia's forced ultrasound bill, this bill being pushed in pennsylvania not only
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mandates that women have a medically unnecessary ultrasound, but because of the detail required in the ultrasound, in some of the same language as the virginia bill, it would likely require in most cases, medically unnecessary internal vaginal probes, forced by the state against your will. in the lehigh valley newspaper, in the decade the in ten years before republicans took control of the house in pennsylvania over ten years, there were a total of 19 abortion bills voted on in pennsylvania. 19 over ten years. so less than two a year before republicans took over the house. after republicans took over the pennsylvania house, there were 34 anti-abortion votes just in one year. this is what it's like in republican politics right now. this is what it's like in pennsylvania republican politics, this is what it's like in virginia republican politics, this is what it's like now across the country. anywhere republicans have power, they moved abortion and even
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opposition to contraception up to the top of the political agenda. and i recognize this is state politics and the national media is generally not that great at covering state level politics. we can't talk about anything going on until it's happening at the federal level. to be hon jeest this is happeni at the federal level, too. from the moment they came in power, republicans in the house of representatives, have been waging a war on women's health. if you don't believe me, just look at the first bills they introduced after they arrived here in washington d.c. and were sworn into office. the first three bills they introduced were direct attacks on women's health in america. the very first bill, hr 1. would have totally eliminated title x funding for family planning and teen pregnancy prevention. another one of the opening round of bills, more than a year ago would ly codified
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the hyde amendment. didn't include an exception for the health of the mother. finally, they introduced a bill would have rolled back every single one of the gains we worked so hard to get for women in the health care reform bill. would have removed the caps on out of pocket spences that protect women from losing their homes or their life savings if they get sick. it ended the ban on lifetime limits on coverage. it allowed insurance companies to once again discriminate against women by charging them higher premiums. or even denying women access for so-called pre existing conditions that by the way include pregnancy. >> washington democratic senator patty murray putting it in context. after a whirlwind year on abortion, the beltway media is bewildered, a guy ahead by ten points in the latest poll, is the guy who staked his entire
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political career on being super anti-gay and super anti-abortion. the guy whose primary legislative record from his time in the senate is anti-abortion record. the guy main streaming his long time opposition to contraception. the guy who this weekend argued women should not have pre-natal testing covered by insurance. rick santorum has always been like this. this is not a new fangled version, this is who he has been as a politician. it's remarkable a major party would pick a guy like rick santorum to be their nominee. but it's not remarkable for any of the reasons the beltway pundit class thinks. it's not like republicans are choosing him as the presidential nominee because they don't understand this. because they don't know about social conservative slews, not like social issues are an agenda that he has and actually people really like other things about him. this what is rick santorum has to offer as a candidate. this is what the republican party is looking for this year.
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this is what the republican party is like right now. yeah, it's mostly playing out in the states but house republicans doing it too, we have not been watching the republican party close enough as they take this hard, hard right turn on social issues this year. joining us now is dahlia lithwick, slate magazine, thank you for being here. >> hi, rachel, thanks for having me. >> looking at this protest in the virginia capital today, i wonder if the size of it and the speed with which it was organized tells us anything important about the reaction to this virginia bill, this trans vaginal sonogram bill. >> you know i was amazed this appeared to have come together on facebook, largely on facebook, over the course of just a few days, rachel, watching the footage and hear you talk, the other thing i found poignant if you think about the purpose of the
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ultrasound bill and all the ultrasound bills in the states, the whole objective is force people to see that which they don't want to see, i find it very, very profound that all these folks just stood there in front of their state legislators and said "i'm here, look at me, look at my children, my pro-life spouse, look at us and tell us you really are going to violate our bodies and you can cavalierly do that for no medical reason based on some notion that we don't know what is going on" so it does sort of flip the premise of the ultrasound on its head. you want to see who is there, you want to see real people with real consequences here we are and i think that is very poignant. >> dahlia, you i think more than anybody has done more to help non-lawyers understand the legal means by which some of these issues have been approached by the right, the way that abortion rights have been sort of chipped
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away at, from the edges by the anti-abortion movement and conservative movement more broadly. when you look at the approaches to legislation like this, trying to change state laws like this, approaches in terms of federal legislation, is there any connection that i just can't see because i'm a liberal between the way they have approached this issue, as a policy matter and the rhetoric about supporting small government? >> you know, there is none. this is -- it makes no sense for a party that purports to want to shrink government down to the size that you could drown it in a bathtub to then sort of insert it in your uterus, rachel, it makes no cognitive sense. it's important to see where this comes from. you and i talked about this over the years. this is an invitation from is the -- justice kennedy, in the partial birth abortion case, anounlss to america in a 5-4
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decision that women are going to have regrets about their abortions, that they don't really fully appreciate what they are doing, and that more information is better the government is entitled to do what it can to make them understand the consequences. and bracket how infantilizing, what it did is open the flood gates for any kind of law including trap laws, that determine the size of a janitorial closet in an abortion clinic, but opens the door for any kind of legislation by any state that thinks they are helping women understand that which women are just cognitively not able to understand. >> do you think that this ultrasound law in virginia, there is a number of ultrasound laws around the state, the virginia one is notable for having language force it to be an internal ultrasound, invasive one, do you see that it would be challenged on specific legal grounds that might differentiate
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it from the other you will tral sound bills or other restrictions we've seen? >> you know, it's an interesting question, since you and i have been sort of thinking about this in the past week, a lot of folks have pointed out that this is substantially similar to the texas ultrasound law. that was challenged but not on the grounds of a woman's right to choose or undue burden under the supreme court jurisprudence, it was challenged by doctors, the texas law. who said they didn't want to be commandeered in reading a skriep that wasn't true and terrorizing their parents, i think it was a choice to challenge on those grounds. i should note the challenge failed and failed at the fifth circuit last month, but that was the decision the decision was for the physicians to go forward and challenge it, not the women themselves. >> we will see those doctors lined alongside the capitals. thank you very much, i
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appreciate it. >> thank you, rachel. at long last, somebody is sticking up for the rights of a very, very, tiny minority in the country. the people sticking up for the hi are minority is billionaires. >> here for the interview is michael moore. please stick around for that. ok, guys-- what's next ? chocolate lemonade ? susie's lemonade... the movie. or... we make it pink ! with these 4g lte tablets, you can do business at lightning-fast speeds.
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self appointed arbiter of truth, polifact called it a date. i rate that statement mostly, not really but maybe true, actually false. stay tuned for the details.
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it has been three weeks now since the fine city of st. louis, missouri hosted the first parade to mark the end of the iraq war. 100,000 people showed up in st. louis to say welcome home and thank you to the men and women who fought in that nearly nine-year war. since then, since the successful parade thing or needs e ing or other parades. regular citizens, pushing their local government to let them throw a parade to welcome home the veterans much the most recent city to add the name to the list of confirmed parades is richmond, virginia. the virginia parade set for may 19th, a saturday, also armed forces day. richmond's welcome home our military parade has own facebook paid. we linked to that on the blog. the white house is planning to go mark the end of the iraq war with a gala dinner later this month. a dinner that they have given the name "a nation's gratitude"
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held in the east room, attend's hand picked group of veterans of all ranks and allstates representing all service branchs. military families will be there, too. in total, 200 people will go to that white house dinner and that is a great honor for those 200 veterans and military families, nothing wrong with that at all. but what about the other 1.5 million americans who served in iraq? what about us af rage americans, the rest of us, civilians who want a chance to say thank you and welcome home since the war was fought in our name. whether or not we agreed with the reasons for fighting it. wishing the iraq war had never happened is one thing. pretending it didn't happen is another thing. iraq and afghanistan veterans of america is the nation's first and larnest organization of veterans of the wars in iraq and of afghanistan, they are asking the president to convene a meeting of mayors nationwide, mayors and leading veterans groups to plan a national day of action to
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recognize iraq war vets now that the war is over. as for whether or not there is going to be a new york city ticker tape parade for iraq war veterans, except for viet nam where we snubbed the veterans, we didn't recognize them until 10 years after the end of viet nam, now that the iraq war is over, will there be a ticker tape parade for iraq veterans? the pentagon still says they don't think there ought to be. the line is that they were all for the st. louis parade and other cities doing parades to welcome home troops but the pentagon says they are against new york doing it. i've talked to them directly and i don't get it, either. but now more cities after st. louis are apparently on deck, richmond, virginia on may 19ingth, good for them. i hear we are afwobout to have e cities. i have to say i think the new york question still is not
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settled, we will keep you posted. this thing is still in motion. immerse yourself in all over relief with alka seltzer plus. it's specially formulated to speed relief to every inch of you. liquidate your flu symptoms with alka seltzer plus. my dad and grandfather spent their whole careers here. [ charlie ] we're the heartbeat of this place, the people on the line. we take pride in what we do. when that refrigerator ships out the door, it's us that work out here. [ michael ] we're on the forefront of revitalizing manufacturing. we're proving that it can be done here, and it can be done well. [ ilona ] i came to ge after the plant i was working at closed after 33 years. ge's giving me the chance to start back over. [ cindy ] there's construction workers everywhere. so what does that mean? it means work. it means work for more people. [ brian ] there's a bright future here, and there's a chance to get on the ground floor of something big, something that will bring us back. not only this company, but this country. ♪
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in the great state of maine this weekend, they voted some more. republicans in four places in maine met and caucused and tried to settle the question whether maine republicans meant to give most of the state's 24 delegates to the establishment candidate, mitt romney or congressman ron paul. maine republicans tried to settle the question at moreorless state-wide caucus two weeks ago when the party
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chairman declared that night, mitt romney the winner. he said mitt romney had won over ron paul by 194 votes. at the time, this seemed like great news for mitt romney. who was coming off losses in missouri, machine -- minnesota colorado. turn around, he announced romney won even though an entire county and several towns had not voted and a dozen towns that had voted nevertheless got recorded in th having zero votes. other town results landed in the e-mail in box. he asked the towns to e-mail him the results asome ended up in junk mail. when republicans confronted him he told them to go stick their heads in an ice fishing hole. then he had in fact recorded the result gs from the one count that voted that showed up with the zeroes, he said he had counted those votes, he had them but wasn't going to tell anybody what the results were.
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to avoid stirring up more drama. he said. the maine republican chairman also said he would not count the votes in washington county. where there are 7000 registered republicans and where they postponed the caucus because of a forecast for snow. washington county could still caucus the party chairman said but the results wouldn't count. in the end, the chairman caved on that, and now, he says washington county might count. turn out was heavy in washington county, three times what they have seen in recent years, no where near the crowds that had been predicted. then as he told us he would dork the county kmar man told the world what had happened there. >> we had four votes for newt gingrich. we had 57 votes for rick santorum. we had 80 votes for mitt romney and 163 votes for ron paul.
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>> ron paul skunked mitt romney. ron paul did not win in those places by enough overtul overtake mitt romney's statewide lead. if you have been following this, want to know what happened, what started in main as mitt romney winning by 194 votes, was then revised to mitt romney winning by 239 votes. now after washington county we expect that mitt romney will have won we 156 votes, but maybe it's 117 votes if you count the bangor news. who knows. the next time maine republicans tell you that they should be trusted to fix voting problems in maine, remember, this is how the state party runs their own ee leb shuns when left to their own devices. michael moore for the interview coming up. [ male announcer ] the draw of the past is a powerful thing.
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the right relief for nasal congestion...in a pill. ♪ new from robitussin®. relief made simple. new from robitussin®. today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities. siemens. answers. little history, i was born and raised here i love this state. it seems right here, trees are the right height. i like seeing the lakes. i love the lakes. there is something special here
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the great lakes and the inland lakes that dot the parts of michigan. i love cars. i grew up totally in love with cars. >> when mitt romney went to donald trump's hotel in las vegas to bask in an endorsement, hard to believe it was february 2nd. it was the beginning of a month of february that has not been kind to mr. romney. this is the graph we showed last week i still think is the most important thing in the 2012 horse race. that navy blue line shooting up is mitt romney's unfavorability rating. then there is michigan, the michigan primary a week from tomorrow being cast as do-or-die moment. romney grew up in michigan, his dad was a popular governor them. he won the primary in the '08 election, campaigning there this year. if he can't win in michigan it will be a shock to the system. the most recent polling shows mr. romney behind rick santorum.
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closer than he was but still trailing. hence, michigan mitt romney ads like this one featuring mitt romney with his dad, also ads showing mitt romney driving a car, he has been doing that as well. do we have the car ad, too? he's driving a car, notable thing the one he's driving the car it's him driving a car made in canada. but still you get the idea. he meant to it look american. what can mitt romney do in michigan to turn around his fortunes on his campaign? we got word the next campaign move for mr. romney in michigan was going to be to bring back donald trump. mr. trump doing radio interviews on behalf of mr. romney in flint and traverse city and detroit and lansing, when we learned it was a donald trump phase made me wonder what the campaign expects from that. how the donald trump endorsement worked so far for the romney campaign and prospects. turns out, there is an app for that. trackable, graphically, we did
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it on the blog. this is the real clear politics.com graph of an obama versus romney head-to-head race, starts in mid-october. president obama on top the blue line, mr. romney the red line coming in lower. the point out which things start to go badly for mr. romney, the in flexion point you can see there, that point, that date, february 3rd, february 3rd, why is that date he oh what was going on for mitt romney february 3rd? oh, right, that was the day after the donald trump endorsement. it may just be a coincidence but that endorsement does coincide exactly with mitt romney's poll numbers being thrown down a dark well with no rope. the romney campaign doubling down on giving michiganers, all the donald trump they can handle. joining us is michael moore. thank you for being here. >> happy residents presidents
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day. >> do you love trees and cars. >> he does have that right. the trees in michigan are are just the right height. in wisconsin they go way you can't even see the top, in ohio just a bunch of shrubery. >> that is not a michigan joke? >> no, not at all. it's no joke. he likes the great lakes but all the little lakes, the poor guy, i just start to feel sorry for him on some level, not too much, but when i was in grade school, his dad was the governor of michigan. all through grade school, growing up, george romney, and romney, george romney was a man who supported the civil rights movement, when he was the ceo of american motors, took a pay cut because thought ceo's shouldn't be paid this much. he came back from viet nam after a tour to see what was going on, said we're not being told the
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truth. that cost him he had to drop out of the residential rates -- presidential race. >> he was positive i was brain washed, parroting what the generals told me we ought to leave. >> that ended his chances yesterday had america listened to him, think of all the lives that possibly could have been saved after '67, so that was his dad. his mom, lenore was our senator for a short period of time and one of the chief backers of the equal rights amendment for women. those of us who are 45 and older, we remember the romneys, even if you're not a republican, you remember them somewhat fondly. and this apple has fallen far from the tree. it's just -- mind boggling to see who he has become or whoever he thinks he is. >> is the romney name so sort of gold-plated it should be earning him the state? >> it should be. the name carried on.
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it was the lieutenant governor under romney, governor milken a very liberal republican, pro-choice, republicans in michigan have been fairly liberal up until this recent era. and now, we have there is two michigans. this is something people need to understand. i don't mean the lower and upper peninsula. there is the michigan has the long history of populism, union movement, sit down strike 75 years ago this month, uaw the first industry-wide contract. there is a lot -- that is the majority of the michigan. there is the other part of michigan, especially on the west side, a lot in the northern part of the state where i live up in the red part of the state, that always seems very upset what the rest -- what the majority of us are doing.
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they don't like the liberal senator or congress man or all too liberal for them, they hate detroit and flint, they moved out of there to get as far away sometimes as they can from these areas they don't particularly care for, and i think this is why santorum is probably doing well with them because it's a very -- just to give you the schizophrenic nature of the state, it's the state that the union movement began there, also the state of the right wing anti-semitic radio preacher before world war ii, the school district next to mine is where terry nichols went to school, the participated in the oklahoma city bombing, tim tebow, the boston goalie who wouldn't go to the white house, we went to the same high school. that high school produced me and him. so that is michigan.
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>> you're saying rather than thinking of michigan as a state that is any one thing if you can have a conservative state that gives you a specific kind of politics, but if you have a state that has a lot of liberal popul populism you end up with a combative form of conservatism? >> it swings way to the right sometime, because it's trying to fight in thisucleus of liberal thinking in america that is very much a part of michigan's history. and so, santorum probably is going to do very well with them, and it surprising i think a year ago, nobody would think this was even a contest, why bother, it's romney, michigan equals romney. and i don't think that is the case and i don't think it's because of his auto bail out thing the polls have shown republicans in michigan are opposed to the bail out to
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fairly large extent, because again they hate anything that has to do with unions, auto workers, african americans, there is a racial element, there is detroit and then there is the rest of us. and i think that romney -- i think the people just -- this is -- here is what i want to say. president obama i have been laughing a lot during this whole republican thing, and thinking why are we having an election, obama has another four years. i think that is a mistake to really feel that way. because i remember us laughing george w. bush, san totorum was saying black, not black people, always code with them, he does
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mean to get that in there, islamic policies, if he said obama was a serial killer, he would come back later and said i didn't say that i meant he likes cereal. i think this will be interesting next week in michigan, and the trees, the trees will be happy i think with the eventual outcome in november. >> if michigan is swayed by donald trump, i will be surprised. >> that is the weirdest thing sending trump to michigan. like here is a state had 15% unemployment, here comes donald trump. >> the you're fired guy. >> michael moore our translator from michigan, will you talk to us again? >> yes, i will. we will be right back. in all over relief with alka seltzer plus.
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american state's fight not to be completely owned by billion flairs, that is coming up next.
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in the 18 the 90's after montana came a state there was a debate where the capital should be. two cities, helena and anaconda. they each had a copper baron, the copper kings, in order to win the vote and benefit their companies and fortunes, these two guys did stuff like sponsor parades and speeches and
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firework gfir firewor fireworks. after millions of dollars were spent in the 1890s, helena won to the joy of one of the copper barons and the sorrow of the other. decades after that the people decided to pass the corrupt practices act to keep that sort of corporate influence out of state politics. because of the history, montana thought about things differently than the rest of the states and still do. in december the montana supreme court thumbed their noses at the u.s. supreme court by up holding the ban on corporate money in state politics regardlist of the citizens united ruling. this past friday the supreme court stopped montana from enforcing the limits they want to put on corporation donations in politics at the state level, until the supreme court can decide on the montana case. now we don't know if the supreme court will hear that case or when it will decide whether to hear it but until then, post
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citizens unite and pre-whatever they decide about montana we are all still living in a billionaire's world. today is the day we got the bit of disclosure we get from the super pacs that have overtaken the elections, why you might think as a mu man before writing a $5 check or $15 or $50 check to a candidate these guys write $500,000 checks for their given candidates, because who knows. the only thing we know for sure they have that kind of change sitting in their checking accounts. money being given in chunks that big means individual decisions by individual named billionaires can make all the difference in the world to a presidential campaign. the whole reason we think of newt gingrich campaign as alive is because of the news that one guy, his casino billionaire guy, is reportedly thinking about pumping another $10 million in the gingrich side over the next few days. he doesn't need other humans to
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donate. one guy's decision can keep the campaign at least vaguely viable. same thing frankly with rick santorum. when his billionaire or multi hundred millionaire started doing the media rounds talking about how women need to keep an aspirin between their knees to avoid getting pregnant, he tried to deflect saying i can't be held canable for what my supporters say. that is true. you can't hold a politician accountable by foster friess, he makes rick santorum possible. he's the sole major do nor, his billionaire. ron paul also has a billionaire. the eccentric founder of pay pal donated nearly $200 to ron paul. then there is mitt romney. naturally he has a lot of billionaires, you mie think he doesn't need one. glen greenwald has been writing
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about an idaho billionaire mitt romney's national campaign financial co-chair. frankly it looks like an ak of of bravery for glen and salon.com, frank van der sloot, described as a billionaire, lives in idaho, in addition to being the national finance co-chair, he runs a company which sells household products. he has involved himself m a number of political causes in idaho over the years, in what would seem to be a very high profile kind of way but he has taken a very aggressive stance toward anybody reporting on his political involvements. for example in 1999, idaho public television planned to air documentary how schools were taught about issues of sexual orientation. they led the opposition to the documentary being aired by paying for bill boards to be put up across the state railing against the documentary and warning about the homosexual
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lifestyle. in 2005, a local newspaper called the post register ran an award-winning series about how the boy scotts organization tried to cover up allegations of sexu sexual abuse in idaho. as glen green writes, how a norman bishop new of one scott leader's pedophile history but still recommend mepded him as a scott maker and how local leaders in the church had received warnings about the scout master. mr. van der sloot responded to that series. by taking out an ad in the same paper attacking the credibility of the reporting and outing the reporter who broke -- outing the reporter who broke the story, outing him as a homosexual. that reporter, peter zuckerman, had mot come out to his friends and neighbors yet. after the ads started running,
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strangers start the ringing his door at midnight appeared his partner was fire. other people have report on his activity an raised questions whether or not his politics, particularly a gay rights issues are shared by the candidates he supports. a number of reporters who raised those questions have found themselves to be targets of mr. van der sloot's lawyers. in february, a blogger with the website called the idaho agenda, wrote a piece titled romney receives big money from idaho's not-so-gay friendly mella luca company. that blogger received an accusatory letter from a lawyer, but before he could respond to the letter he received a follow-up miss i haive demandin compliance. the lauriend this issue to a mo
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serious level. in 2007 an independent journalist authorsed a piece on hishe curre senator. in the article talked about involvement in the issue of the gay documentary aired on idaho public television. for that dip in true history, she, too, says she received a warning letter from his lawyers accusing her of defamation. she also included the official photograph of van der sloot taken from the melaleuca's website. she was accused of copyright infringement. decided to post the letter they received from the lawyers, they responded by obtaining an after the fact copywrite certificate for that lawyer letter, demanding the hosting company remove the letter trt website on the ground it constituted copyright infringement.
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they sued the website for copyright infringement for the lawyer's letter without their consent. this is the national if i nabs co-chair of the mitt romney for president campaign. this what is we know from the public records about his activism, views and apparent strategy for dealing with people who report on him. he also sir erves billionaires e a lot of weight to throw around, they have always used that weight for all sorts of reasons, including trying to shape what we are able to know about how exactly they throe their weight around. in this post citizens united world we are living in the billionaires have never been wanting for influence in the country in the first place, now in the post citizens united world they are the ones we decided to hand our elections over to. because they needed that, too. tada. when you have tough pain, do you want fast relief?
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good news, politi fact is quitting, i think at least i think it. whether or not they are up and going out of business, it's letting us know i think that they are giving up. they are at least no longer trying. here is what is going on. my colleague, has an ad running about the gi bill. it provided tuition and other benefits to soldiers returning home from world war ii. lawrence describes the success of the program and says its critics derided it as well fair. >> the most successful educational program that we ever had in this country and the critics called it welfare. >> politifact fact checked that critics called it welfare. they looked at the record and they found that the chairman of the veterans affairs committee in the house at the time,
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criticized the gi bill by saying "thebane of the british empire has been the doll system. >> the dole is welfare, a slang term for welfare. so case closed, right? lawrence's ad said critics called it welfare. they found indeed critics of the gi bill did call it welfare. this is an easy one. politifact fact checks, find historical claim a to be true, they therefore rates the claim mostly false. they found it to be true but rate it mostly false. they print the evidence it's true. the bane of the british empire has been the dole system. we found no evidence of critics referring to it as well fare. dudes you published the evidence
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of critics referring to the gi bill as well fair, it's right there on the same page, you wrote it in your same article. what do you think the british do lfre system is? a pine apple? maybe bananas, everybody gets a sticker? did you seriously print this piece without once googling the dole to see what that meant? british, the dole. did you check to see if maybe it meant welfare? which is what you were supposedly fact checking. in space no one can hear you scream. this is why they have to go away or need to stop using "fact" as part of their name. they should go away. i have not talked to lawrence o'donnell, or anybody on his staff about this i've not talked to anybody else in the building but as a nation that cares about the word "fact" ought to demand it back from the people abusing it, there is a silver lining here. i think