On Monday morning, the
Supreme Court (
not to be
confused with
SCOTUSblog)
delivered its highly-anticipated
ruling in the case of
Hobby Lobby v. Womenz.
In it, a supermajority of the Court's male justices found that the "religious liberty" of "closely-held" for-profit corporations outweighs the reproductive rights of "Beyonce voters"—much to the dismay of their female colleagues.
Even though the ruling was ostensibly narrow, by the end of the week, it had already expanded.
And God knows there's more to come.
Bottom line: It's a man's world, baby!
Morning lineup:
Meet The Press: Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson; Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID); Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair; Roundtable: Carolyn Ryan (New York Times), Lori Montenegro (Telemundo), Michael Gerson (Washington Post) and Chuck Todd (NBC News).
Face The Nation: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ); Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC); Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL); Roundtable: Authors David Ignatius, Sandra Brown, Karin Slaughter, Lee Child and Jeffrey Deaver.
This Week: Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R); Bishop Mark Seitz (Catholic Diocese of El Paso, TX); U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske; Roundtable: Democratic Strategist Donna Brazile, Matt Bai (Yahoo News), Republican Strategist Matthew Dowd and Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA).
Fox News Sunday: Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY); Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA); Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA); Roundtable: Nina Easton (Fortune), Mara Liasson (NPR), Sociopath Liz Cheney and Charles Lane (Washington Post).
State of the Union: Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX); Murietta, CA Mayor Alan Long (R); Roundtable: RNC Spokesman Sean Spicer, DNC Spokesman Mo Elleithee and Former HP CEO Carly Fiorina.
Evening lineup:
60 Minutes will feature: an interview with Kim Doctom, one of the world's biggest internet pirates (preview); an interview with author Malcolm Gladwell (preview); and, a report on the destructive potential of volcanoes around the world (preview).
On Comedy Central...
The Daily Show and The Colbert Report were in reruns this week, so there are no new videos to share. Instead, here's Jon Stewart's report on the Hobby Lobby lawsuit from earlier this year.
And Stephen Colbert's 2011 report on President Obama's diabolical plan to provide women with free birth control.
Note: The Daily Show and The Colbert Report will not be airing this week.
Elsewhere...
Convicted felon Dinesh D'Souza's new "documentary" film, America: Imagine the World Without Her, was released this week, and he makes some rather interesting arguments in it.
[S]hortly after setting out to disprove the notion that America "stole the labor of African Americans"—his words, not mine—D'Souza admits that the "enslavement of African Americans was theft—theft of life and labor." I'm no logician, but I'm pretty sure that calling something true is an ineffective way of proving that it's false.
No matter, though. D'Souza just barrels ahead. He's no longer trying to say that slavery wasn't theft. Now he's just saying that it wasn't as bad as liberals seem to think.
He notes, for example, that even though Frederick Douglass was opposed to slavery, he "didn’t want to leave America"—as if working to right a wrong from within the system is somehow tantamount to admitting that the wrong isn't so grievous after all.
Meanwhile...
Fox News hyped an "exclusive" interview with Bill Ayers as though it was still 2008.
We may be years removed from the 2008 presidential election, when Sarah Palin accused Barack Obama of "palling around" with the anti-war radical, retired professor and former domestic terrorist, but Ayers hasn't fallen off the right's radar.
Look no further than Fox's much-ballyhooed "exclusive" interview with Ayers this week. Megyn Kelly, Fox's self-described "straight-news anchor," sat down with the Weather Underground leader last week, and she and the network have been hyping the interview ever since.
She offered a dramatic preview Thursday on her program, "The Kelly File."
"Well, he was a main figure in Barack Obama's presidential campaign back in 2008. The terrorist Sarah Palin accused Mr. Obama of 'palling around with,'" Kelly teased. "For months, he dodged the press until after his friend was elected President of the United States. It has been six years and for the first time ever the man who is personally believed to have set several bombs off in this country comes into the Fox News headquarters and answers for his acts."
And, speaking of palling around with terrorists...
Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) is taking some heat over his constituent outreach efforts.
Members of the administration of Maine's Tea Party Gov. Paul LePage confirmed on Monday that the governor, who is in the midst of a tough reelection campaign, spent as much as 16 hours during 2013 meeting and speaking with members of the Sovereign Citizens, the far-right group designated as a terrorist organization by the FBI, reports Maine Public Broadcasting News (MPBN).
Not only did LePage spend office hours with members of the Sovereign Citizens, MPBN reports, but he also at one point joked with his guests about hanging Democratic politicians in Maine for treason.
According to Jack McCarthy, a Maine radio show host with ties to the Sovereign Citizens who attended one of the meetings, during a discussion of supposedly treasonous Democrats, LePage was well aware of his interlocutors' violent language.
God bless America.
- Trix