Steve King (R-IA) leads the first "Freedom Summit" presidential forum in Des Moines.
Sen. Cruz, former. Gov. Huckabee, Gov. Christie, former Gov. Palin and former. Sen. Santorum are confirmed to attend.
Watch video below, courtesy of NBC News:
Bill Maher closed out Real Time on Friday with a "buyers' guide" for any billionaires looking to support one of the nine prospective Republican presidential contenders.
"The field is more crowded at an earlier time than ever because each of these corporate a*s-lickers wants to sign up mega-rich donors like Sheldon Adelson before one of the other guys in the pack blows him first," Maher explained, before presenting the upside and downside to each candidate.
For example, Mitt Romney's best attribute was his determination.
"Mitt wants to be president wants to be president like your dog wants that half a Slim Jim you dropped down inside the couch," Maher argued. "On the downside, Mitt's speeches are so boring, Bill Cosby uses them to knock out aspiring actresses."
At least Romney had an upside, according to Maher, who couldn't find one for Tea Party Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
"He's what you'd get if Ayn Rand had half a sex change and moved to Waco," he said.
Maher also offered some advice to former neurosurgeon and Fox News contributor Ben Carson.
"I know you don't practice anymore, but if you still have your brain tools, here's what I suggest," Maher offered. "Lie down, put a mirror over your head so you can see what you're doing, and start cutting, because you're an insane, paranoid liar who will say absolutely anything -- or as Fox News puts it, 'When can you start?'"
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), Maher said, faced an uphill battle if he entered the race, given his brother George W. Bush's abysmal 22 percent approval rating when his presidential tenure ended. That instantly gave an advantage. By comparison, he explained, Bill Clinton left the presidency with a 68 percent approval rating, which instantly gives his wife, ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a leg up.
"In terms of brand loyalty, Hillary's like if your last car was a Camry," Maher said. "Jeb is like if your last car was a clown shoots you out of a cannon."
Watch Maher break down the GOP's contenders, as posted online on Friday, below.
Real Time host Bill Maher admitted on Friday to being "obsessed" with Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) following her response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address.
"She brought up the fact that she wore bread bags on her feet," Maher said, suppressing a laugh. "I don't know if this was something that was widely done. And I've talked to people -- apparently it's a little more widely done than I talked about."
Ernst said on Tuesday that her mother sent her to school wearing the bags whenever it rained, painting it as an example of her family living within its means. She did not, however, mention that her family reportedly received more than $460,000 in federal farm subsidies.
Maher also mocked Ernst's statement last year regarding climate change, when she said she had "not seen proven proof that it is entirely man-made."
"Yes, but there are people who do," Maher said, alluding to the overwhelming scientific consensus attributing global warming to human behavior. "This is the point that Obama was making."
However, Maher joked, Ernst did not disclose her past as a country singer, at which point he produced a mock cover for her album, Bread Bags On My Feet.
He then listed the track listing, which included ditties like "Harper Valley NRA," "To All The Girls I've Underpaid Before," and "The Only Thing Gay About My Marriage Was The Priest," among others.
Watch Maher discuss Ernst's musical leanings, as posted online on Friday, below.
Former GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum accused media outlets of intentionally taking Pope Frances out of context in order to foment dissent among Catholics, Right Wing Watch reported.
"I know his heart, and yet he will say things that I know he means innocently and I know they're innocent," Santorum told Newsmax host Steve Malzberg. "But it can be taken by those, let's just say not so innocent, to try to twist what his meanings really is."
"You're talking about the liberal media with their agenda," Malzberg replied.
"Yeah, it is." the former Pennsylvania senator said. "They want nothing more than to drive a real division between the church, not just here but around the world."
Santorum did not criticize the Pope himself. Instead, he argued, reporters have twisted his words, like his recent remark that Catholics did not need to "breed like rabbits." Pope Francis later backtracked on that statement.
"I think this Pope is great," Malzberg said. "I just don't get a lot of the things he says."
Santorum said the issue is not how well the Pope discusses Church doctrine.
"The casualness of the conversation [with reporters] leads many who would love to see division leads them to take those and run with them in a direction that the pope certainly didn't attend," he said.
The Associated Press reported on Friday that Santorum is considering another presidential campaign, and will take part at a forum hosted by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) that will feature several other prospective GOP candidates.
Watch footage from the interview, as posted by Right Wing Watch on Friday, below.
Oklahoma Republicans are fighting the legalization of marriage equality in their state with a number of bills restricting same-sex or atheist couples from being able to wed.
The Daily Oklahoman reported that, under one bill submitted by state Rep. Todd Russ (R), only "an ordained or authorized preacher or minister of the Gospel, priest or other ecclesiastical dignitary of any denomination" would be allowed to sign marriage certificates.
The measure, House Bill 1125, would bar county judges from performing weddings, and local clerks would not be allowed to issue marriage licenses. Couples are also allowed to file affadavits for common law marriages if they do not want their weddings performed by a church official. However, as KSWO-TV reported, Oklahoma does not currently recognize common law marriages.
Russ said the bill was designed to protect officials from being put in a position where they had to condone same-sex marriages.
"Oklahoma voted overwhelmingly against same-sex marriage, and yet the Supreme Court stuck it down our throats," Russ said, referring to the high court's decision last October not to intervene after a federal court judge struck down Question 711.
Voters approved the marriage equality ban at the polls in November 2004, but District Court Judge Terence C. Kern criticized it as being "an arbitrary, irrational exclusion of just one class of Oklahoma citizens from a governmental benefit."
The advocacy group Americans United for Separation of Church and State blasted Russ' proposal in a statement released on Friday.
"Bills like this aren't really about religious freedom, but about control," the statement read. "Russ and his allies in the legislature want to legally enforce a definition of marriage that has spiritual significance to them, and they find the idea that marriage means other, equally important things to different people intolerable. State legislatures, however, don't exist to pass doctrinal mandates."
Tulsa World reported on Friday that Russ' colleague, state Rep. Sally Kern (R), introduced three bills targeting same-sex couples. House Bill 1599, for example, would bar local and state employees from recognizing or granting marriage licenses to them under penalty of losing their jobs.
If it becomes law, judges who "violate" HB 1599 would be removed from office. The bill also calls for state courts to dismiss any legal challenge to the measure.
Kern also proposed a bill allowing businesses to refuse service to LGBT residents while granting them immunity from civil lawsuits, and another that would let parents seek gay "conversion" therapy for their children.
The bills were instantly denounced by LGBT advocacy organizations like Oklahomans for Equality. The group's executive director, Toby Jenkins, described Kern's proposals as part of an "all-out assault on the LGBT citizens of Oklahoma."
"The courts have already ruled on the legality of same-sex marriages," Jenkins told the World. "To take our state backward a decade is obviously what our legislators are trying to accomplish."
Watch KSWO's report on Russ' proposal, as aired on Thursday, below.
Editor's note: This article was updated to reflect Americans United for Separation of Church and State's status as a non-atheist group.
Daily Show host Jon Stewart was on the defensive on Thursday as correspondent Trevor Noah called out the U.S. for seemingly ignoring the Boko Haram massacres in Nigeria while focusing on the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France.
"Sometimes it just feels like Africa's the Vegas of Islamic terror," Noah said. "'What happens in Africa, stays in Africa.'"
Noah argued that, while more than a million people -- including several world leaders -- marched in Paris in solidarity with the victims of the mass shooting at the satirical newspaper's offices, Boko Haram's killing of and razing of two Nigerian villages earlier this month has not gotten the same kind of response.
"At least you could have sent us James Taylor," Noah said. "What, Africa doesn't get a friend?"
Since then, he continued, the "Black ISIS" has overrun an area the size of Slovakia.
"That's two Slovenias," Noah told a baffled-looking Stewart, adding, "That's 9 million American football fields."
"Holy sh*t, that's a lot of area," Stewart finally replied. "I did not realize."
African countries, Noah said, are fighting the same terrorism that the West is. He noted that Boko Haram and Islamic State share a penchant for the same atrocities, and that their members also use similar clothing.
"You know, we'd love to [help], Trevor," Stewart offered apologetically. "But our war on global terror calendar is so full, between the ISIS -- they're trying to set up a caliphate."
However, the host changed his tune when Noah pointed out that Nigeria control's the 10th-biggest oil supply in the world -- 37 billion barrels' worth.
"Actually, I think about it, we do have an opening, in between ISIS and Yemen, " Stewart gasped. "I think we can squeeze you in. Perhaps we can have James Taylor over there right away."
Watch the discussion, as posted online on Thursday, below.
Kentucky state Sen. Brandon Smith's (R) lawyer argued in court on Wednesday that he should not be charged with driving under the influence because of a provision in the state constitution, WKYT-TV reported.
Smith was arrested on Jan. 6, the opening day of the legislature, and charged with speeding and a DUI after allegedly blowing a .088 on a preliminary breath test. He was also reportedly caught driving at 65 miles per hour in a 45 mph zone.
But attorney Bill Johnson filed a motion to drop the charges saying that, according to Section 43 of the state constitution, Smith should not have been arrested in the first place.
"The members of the General Assembly shall, in all cases except treason, felony, breach or surety of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance on the sessions of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in either House they shall not be questioned in any other place," the section reads.
Johnson told the Associated Press that the provision was added to state law in 1891 to "keep legislators from being bothered by people who would arrest them during sessions."
As the Frankfort State-Journal reported,authorities said that Smith refused to take an official breath test after being taken to jail.
However, Johnson said that his client was "told that he had 'refused'" after trying to reach him on the jail's phone for 15 minutes and failing because the phone did not work.
Under state law, Smith's driver's license would be revoked if he refused to take a test. But Johnson requested that Smith keep his license until a decision is reached on his motion to dismiss the charges. The senator's next court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 12.
Watch WKYT's report, as aired on Thursday, below.
[h/t Countercurrent News]
Former Fox News host Mike Huckabee said on Thursday that if he were elected president then he would have "God's blessing" to fight a so-called "secular theocracy" that had been imposed by atheists.
During an appearance on the Christian Life Today program, Huckabee told televangelist James Robinson that he was considering a 2016 presidential bid because the country needed to become a "God-centered nation that understands that our laws do not come from man, they come from God."
"It's the natural law of God," the former Arkansas governor said, adding that he was not calling for a theocracy.
"We have a theocracy right now," Robinson interrupted. "It's a secular theocracy."
"That's it," Huckabee agreed. "It's a humanistic, atheistic, even antagonistic toward Christian faith. And that's what we need to understand. Our basic, fundamental rights are being robbed from us, taken from us piece by piece."
At the conclusion of the program, Robinson said that people should pray that whoever was president would "keep God in the center of their focal point."
"Absolutely," Huckabee remarked. "And whether it's me or someone else, and I do ask people to pray. For me, this is not just a political or financial decision, it is a spiritual decision."
"You know, the only thing worse than not being elected president would be to be elected president without God's blessing," he observed. "I can't think of a worse place in the world to be than in the Oval Office without God's hand upon you. I'd rather not get near the place."
"But if that's a purpose, so be it. And that's my prayer."
Watch the video below from Life Today, broadcast Jan. 22, 2015.
(h/t: Right Wing Watch)
California Republican Rep. Tom McClintock said on Thursday that the minimum wage should not be raised because low pay was necessary for minorities and other unskilled workers who were not worth more than $7 an hour.
During an appearance on C-SPAN's Washington Journal, host Greta Brawner asked McClintock if he could get behind a presidential candidate like Mitt Romney, who is one of an increasing number of Republicans saying that the minimum wage should be at least $10.10 an hour.
But McClintock argued that raising the minimum wage would "rip the first rung in the ladder of opportunity for teenagers, for minorities, for people who are trying to get into the job market for their first job."
The California Republican explained that the minimum wage was not supposed to be a living wage that could support families.
"It's not supposed to support a family. The minimum wage is that first job when you have no skills, no experience, no working history. That's how you get into the job market, that's how you develop that experience, develop that work record, get your first raise, then your next raise, then your promotion."
McClintock continued: "If your labor is an unskilled person just entering the workforce is worth say $7 an hour at a job and the minimum wage is $10, you have just been made permanently unemployable. That first rung of the economic ladder has been ripped out and you can't get on it. That is a tragedy."
Watch the video below from C-SPAN, broadcast Jan. 22, 2015.
Fox News medical correspondent Marc Siegel lashed out on Thursday at parents who refused to give their kids vaccines for putting everyone else at risk.
Reports this week said that at least 70 cases of measles had been confirmed at Disney theme parks, with 62 of those cases occurring where the anti-vaccination movement is thriving in Orange Country, California.
During his Thursday appearance on Fox News, Siegel, who is an associate professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, wasted no time in blaming anti-vaxxers for the outbreak.
"Let me be clear on this, I see no debate whatsoever. Period," Siegel said. "This is the greatest vaccine that has ever been created in the history of vaccines."
The doctor pointed out that "measles is the most contagious virus known to man."
"If you had measles there would be a 90 percent chance that I would get it by sitting next to you if I weren't vaccinated," he told Fox News host Elisabeth Hasselbeck. "It's so much more contagious than the flu. We were talking about Ebola, this is a million times more contagious than Ebola!"
Siegel condemned parents for following the advice of celebrities like Jenny McCarthy, who has publicly spoken out against vaccines.
"Your celebrities did not go to medical school!" Siegel shouted at the camera. "In California, there's 13,000 parents that are taking a personal belief exemption, allowing their kids to go to school without that second MMR vaccine. You need one after you're 1 year old, and then you need one again before you're 5 or 6 years old."
"I think these parents are putting children at risk in schools. I think schools should consider not allowing these kids in. Make them be homeschooled if they don't have this vaccine. Why should my child be a risk because your child isn't vaccinated?"
Siegel pointed out that medical experts had found that many adults who thought they had lifetime immunity could also be at risk.
"I can check them with a simple blood test because the vaccine can wear off," he explained. "I give boosters to people who are traveling to endemic areas. I would consider giving a booster to people traveling to Disneyland if I found they didn't have immunity."
Siegel concluded by insisting that parents exempting their children from the vaccine was a "really wrong thing to do."
Watch the video below from Fox News' Fox & Friends, broadcast Jan. 22, 2015.
Daily Show host Jon Stewart blasted the plethora of Republican responses to the State of the Union address to open his show on Wednesday, combing through them until he found one worthy of his "Implodey" award for self-sabotage.
"How many f*cking people are at this tea party?" he asked in exasperation at one point, since he initially believed Tea Party Sen. Joni Ernst's (R-IA) official rebuttal on behalf of the party would be it.
"That seemed like less of a response to the president's address than an application essay to Nostalgia University," Stewart said of Ernst's remarks about growing up poor. "'Nostalgia University: It was better when your dad went there.'"
Instead, Ernst was followed by not only Rep. Curt Clawson's (R-FL) statement on behalf of the Tea Party, but individual responses by two prospective presidential candidates in Ernst's fellow senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rand Paul (R-KY).
Paul's remarks criticizing "liberal elites" for wanting to allegedly "impose their wills" on his state seemed to irk Stewart.
"'Liberal elites'?" the host scoffed. "You're a doctor and a senator, with a 12-term congressman father and a first name synonymous with a Russian novelist. That's pretty f*cking elite. So I guess the smear here is 'liberal.'"
But Stewart instead gave the "award" to Cruz, who screwed up his own statement so badly -- he tried to start over while airing it live -- that he ultimately deleted it.
"Here's a tip: If you're looking to run for president, maybe you shouldn't make your response to the State of the Union look like a ransom video," Stewart said. "Or the part of the porno everybody fast-forwards through."
Watch Stewart's commentary, as posted online on Wednesday, below.
WTTG reporter Emily Miller told a group of people rallying for gun rights over the weekend that cities which had strict gun control laws like Washington, D.C. were "not part of America."
In a video clip published by Media Matters on Wednesday, the chief investigative reporter for Fox's D.C. affiliate speaks at a Jan. 19 rally for Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL), whose newsletters have recommended advice on how to kill "urban thugs" who want to “Kill Whitey!”
"It's great to be in Virginia, which is part of America where you recognize the Second Amendment," Miller opens by saying. "I came from D.C. this morning, which is not part of America, because they don't recognize the Second Amendment."
She later explains: "I don't call myself pro-gun, I call myself pro-Second Amendment, because a gun is a tool and this fight that we're all in, this fight is for freedom, the freedom for the Bill of Rights."
According to VCDL's legislative tracking page, the organization supports lifetime concealed handgun permits, allowing faculty to carry handguns against even against the wishes of schools, and handguns in airport terminals.
The group also opposes closing background check loopholes at gun shows, and it "strongly" urges defeat of any bill that would make it a crime for a person subject to a protective order to possess a firearm.
Watch the videos below from Media Matters.
A Michigan man was sentenced to six months in jail this week for domestic violence after he punched his then-girlfriend, and beat her with a puppy until the animal died.
MLive reported that after Timothy Tucker punched his girlfriend in the eye in November, he began to assault her with a 2-week-old puppy.
Court documents said that the woman found fecal matter from the dead dog on her after the attack.
In court on Tuesday, the victim told Circuit Judge Alexander C. Lipsey that she was blind for weeks after the assault. She said that she struggled with depression, and that the attack "put me in a real dark place."
"I was hurt, scared in my own house, being attacked in my own house," the woman explained. "I'm still scared and I shouldn't have to feel like that from someone I cared about, someone I loved."
"He's going to find the wrong broken person and either they're going to kill him or he's going to kill them," she added.
As part of a plea deal, Lipsey sentenced Tucker to six months in jail and four years of probation. He will also be required to pay restitution, and entered into the Swift and Sure Sanctions Program, which is a stricter version of probation. One count of killing/torturing animals was dropped as part of the deal.
Lipsey pointed out that Tucker had three previous domestic violence convictions, and one conviction for illegal entry and destruction of property.
"The court looked fairly extensively at the history in this particular matter and it does appear the defendant has potential anger issues," Lipsey said. "There is a point at which the system can help but help is the operative word. The initiative has to come from the defendant, he has to be able to figure out if he's willing to accept help and act on it."
Kalamazoo County Assistant Prosecutor Mike Reisterer said that he had prosecuted a lot of cases in his 25-year career, but this attack shocked him.
"This is one of the few cases that turns my stomach. To take a two-week-old puppy and bludgeon his significant other to the point that she requires hospitalization and the puppy is dead ... is incomprehensible," Reisterer observed.
Watch this video from WXMI, broadcast Jan. 21, 2014.
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