Ana Marie Cox, political columnist for the Guardian, on Tuesday night predicted the 2012 elections would mark the last time that both presidential candidates opposed same sex marriage.
Even though North Carolina voted Tuesday to ban same sex marriage, Cox noted on MSNBC's The Last Word that support for same sex marriage had consistently gone up over the recent years.
"I do think -- and I feel a little silly being so hopeful, because this is such a disappointing election return -- but I do think we are seeing the last election were both parties are going to put someone forward who is against marriage equality," she said. "I really do think that as a country we are moving forward on this."
Cox said that Minnesota voters might rejected a proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit same sex marriage.
"I think it is because voters are getting tired of trying to weigh in on this," she explained. "It just doesn't have the same attraction that it did to voters even four or eight years ago."
President Barack Obama has said he is opposed to legalizing same sex marriage, but supports giving equal rights to gays and lesbian couples. He has said his views on the subject are "evolving."
A Republican running for U.S. House in North Carolina's 8th Congressional District is continuing to insist that President Barack Obama is not an American citizen because he has examined the birth certificate of one of his staffers who was born in Hawaii.
Speaking to CNN's Anderson Cooper on Monday, Dr. John Whitley said that he had personally verified that the president's birth certificate was "a poorly reproduced forgery."
"What we did was we took a bona fide original birth certificate from Hawaii and we subjected it to the same scrutiny that the document experts hired by [Arizona] Sheriff [Joe] Arpaio did," Whitley explained to Cooper.
"You say Sheriff Arpaio hired experts," Cooper noted. "He hired nobody. He had volunteers who were some former investigators, a volunteer posse, allegedly working on this."
"I would think that Sheriff Arpaio, who is a great American, as far as I'm concerned, he would not ask someone to review a document that he did not feel they were expert and qualified to render opinion," Whitley replied.
"You're saying somebody who works with you, who you -- who has a bona fide Hawaiian birth certificate. How do you know it's a bona fide Hawaiian birth certificate?" Cooper wondered.
"I have seen it," Whitley declared. "I have it. I have ran my fingers across the seal. I have looked at it."
"So you know that -- you know that nonpartisan organizations have also looked at the certificate of live birth that President Obama's campaign released in 2008. They ran their fingers along this raised seal, as well, and have declared that a legitimate document," Cooper pointed out. "You also know that there were -- that the former health director in the state of Hawaii has testified and given an affidavit that she examined President Obama's birth certificate in the records and that it's legitimate and that the Republican governor of Hawaii has verified that, as well.
"So it's part of some conspiracy from the governor of Hawaii, the health director of Hawaii, FactCheck.org, and nonpartisan organizations that have examined that, as well as the state registrar, who has confirmed the 2011 document that was released is the actual birth certificate? They're all in some grand conspiracy?" the CNN host pressed.
"I'm not sure -- I'm not sure that we -- well, I'm just saying I don't think the document that the White House recently released as a long form of his birth certificate is an actual, legitimate copy of the original birth certificate," Whitley said.
Republicans in North Carolina's 8th District head to the polls on Tuesday to decided between Whitley and Richard Hudson, who has also said "there’s no question President Obama is hiding something on his citizenship."
"Some of the birth people would deny that they’re doing it as a kind of modern way, or contemporary way, to raise the old race issue," University of North Carolina journalism professor Ferrel Guillory told McClatchy Newspapers. “But I think within that birther sentiment is a package of emotions and predispositions.”
Tuesday's primary winner is expected to face off against incumbent Rep. Larry Kissell (D) who was elected in 2008.
Watch this video from CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, broadcast May 8, 2012.
An Indiana high school has expelled a bullied 17-year-old gay teen for brandishing a stun gun his mother had given to him for protection, according to the Indianapolis Star. Darnell "Dynasty" Young was ruthlessly bullied each day walking to and from school and work. After a recent altercation in which other boys pelted him with rocks, spit, broken glass and other debris, his mother, Chelisa Grimes, armed her son with a taser out of concern for his safety.
The teen, who is openly gay, sparked the taser over his head when confronted on school grounds by six other boys. The incident resulted first in his suspension, then his expulsion from school.
Repeatedly, Young said, he sought help from school administrators to stop the bullying. They did nothing but chastise him for his habit of wearing jewelry and carrying a bag, advising him to "tone it down."
Since his story became public, Young has received an avalanche of support, including a supportive Tweet from Kris Jenner, wife of Olympic champion Bruce Jenner and mother of Kim Kardashian. In a video interview with the Star, he said, "I believe in God, and God has blessed me with this life."
At the end of the video interview, wiping away tears, he confessed that when the bullying was at its worst, he had contemplated suicide.
"Difference is good," said his mother, walking up behind him and folding him in a warm embrace.
Young and his mother intend to appeal the suspension, but in the meantime he plans to get his GED and go to college. His supporters are planning a rally on May 15 to protest outside a meeting of Indianapolis Public Schools to protest the decision by school officials to expel him.
School district spokesperson Mary Louise Bewley issued a statement that read, "While the district does not condone bullying, it also does not allow weapons to be brought on our school campuses for any reason. Students who violate this rule will be held accountable."
Watch Darnell Young's interview with the Indianapolis Star and his twin brother Darrell Young, embedded below:
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Tuesday chided President Barack Obama for using a cartoon character named "Julia" to explain how his policies benefit women and middle-class voters.
"Liberals envision government guiding and providing every need of every citizen," Romney said, reading from a teleprompter in Lansing, Michigan. "Government will be at the center, the most important player in our lives."
"Have you seen, by the way, the president's vision for the future?" he asked. "To help us see it, his campaign has even created a little fictional character. It's on the website, living an imaginary life filed with happy milestones for which she will spend the rest of her days thanking President Obama. It's called 'The Life of Julia.' And it's a cartoon."
"Julia progresses from cradle to grave, showing how government makes every good thing in her life possible. Weak economy, high unemployment, falling wages, rising gas prices, the national debt, the insolvency of entitlements -- all these are fictionally assumed away in a cartoon produced by a president who wants us to forget about them."
Romney added: "By the way, what does it say about a president's policies when he has to use a cartoon character rather than real people to justify his record?"
The Obama campaign unveiled the interactive cartoon, "The Life of Julia," on its website last week. It attempts to show how the character would be affected differently by the policies of Obama and Romney throughout her life.
The website suggests, for example, that Julia would not have been enrolled in the Head Start program at the age of three under Romney's budget cuts. Julia's education might also suffer if Romney cuts funding for public education and allows Pell Grants to expire, according to the Obama campaign. The fictional character also benefits from Obama's policies on health care for young adults, fair pay for women, low interest rates on student loans, birth control coverage, prenatal care, small business loans, Medicare for seniors and Social Security.
"What does it say about the fiction of old liberalism, to insist that good jobs and good schools and good wages will result from policies that have failed us time and again?" Romney remarked on Tuesday. "President Obama is looking in the wrong direction. Looking backward won't solve the problems of today, nor will it take advantage of the opportunities of tomorrow. His are the policies of the past."
"The challenges of the present and the promise of tomorrow must be met by a new and bold vision for the future, and I will bring it."
North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue (D) on Tuesday insisted that voters should cast their ballots against the state's discriminatory constitutional amendment restricting marriage to "one man and one woman" because it was "about taking away rights."
While Perdue continues to be against marriage rights for North Carolina's LGBT population, the governor insisted that Amendment One was "not about gay marriage."
"This is our Rosa Parks moment in North Carolina because it's about taking away rights of people, civil rights," Perdue told MSNBC's Chuck Todd on Monday, noting that the wording of the measure went far beyond just restricting the rights of LGBT North Carolinians.
Experts warn (PDF) that the amendment could strip children of unmarried parents of health care coverage, interfere with the ability of unmarried couples to visit each other in the hospital, take away domestic violence protections for unmarried women and cause some unmarried seniors to lose benefits like pensions, health care and Social Security.
"The extreme folks that have been running the General Assembly, the legislature, this new Republican group have spent this past year, not on jobs, not on moving us forward and education," Perdue explained. "They've messed around in our bedrooms and our classrooms, and the people of North Carolina, I hope, are sick of it and stand up and vote 'no' on this amendment."
"We have a very clear statute on the books that defines marriage in North Carolina as being between a man and a women, so today's vote -- though some extremists have labeled as about being between a man and a woman -- it's about civil rights, it's about taking away rights of North Carolinians."
"Chuck, this hurts our brand," she added. "Our state has been known around the world as a progressive leader, as an inviting state, a hub of business and opportunity. This is bad for business."
Todd pressed Perdue on the "awkwardness" of being against the amendment and also against marriage equality.
"Y'all can continue to scratch your head for another 48 hours," she shot back. "It's very important to me that the folks in North Carolina who have not cast their ballot understand that this constitutional amendment takes away a lot of civil liberties, civil rights. It is not about gay marriage. That is not what this is about. We have a statute on the books. So for the voters of North Carolina, don't be confused. Go in there and vote 'no.'"
Last year, Perdue released a statement on her website explaining that she would vote against the amendment because it would "harm our state’s business climate and make it harder to grow jobs," not because everyone deserved equal rights.
"I believe that marriage is between one man and one woman: That’s why I voted for the law in 1996 that defines marriage as between one man and one woman, and that’s why I continue to support that law today," the statement said. "But I’m going to vote against the amendment because I cannot in good conscience look an unemployed man or woman in the eye and tell them that this amendment is more important than finding them a job."
Public Policy Polling's final survey before polls opened on Tuesday indicated that voters supported the amendment by a 55-39 margin. Polls are scheduled to close in North Carolina at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Watch this video from MSNBC's The Daily Rundown, broadcast May 8, 2012.
Playboy founder Hugh Hefner continued his recent castigation of Republicans Monday evening and defended himself from critics who say he has exploited women throughout the years.
“I’m on the right side of the sexual revolution too," Hefner told The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur in an interview. "I know what the world was like before Playboy and repression is very hurtful. If we’re not free in or own skins, if we’re not free in our own bedrooms then we’re not free at all.”
Hefner also expressed his delight for voting for President Barack Obama in 2008 but highlighted some areas he was disappointed in with the commander in chief.
"He turned out to be a war president, I wasn't expecting that," he said. " I think we need to get out of the way of a lot of parts of the world that are trying to solve their own problems. And I don't think we help by injecting ourselves into it."
Hefner also thought Obama needed to focus more on jobs hasn't been tough enough on Wall Street bankers.
WATCH: Video from Current TV, which was broadcast on May 7, 2012.
A Republican Senate candidate in North Dakota and his staff found themselves stumped recently by a voter who wanted to know the state's minimum wage.
A video of the exchange between Rep. Nick Berg (R-ND) and a young woman was posted by the North Dakota Democratic Party on Monday.
"I was wondering what is the minimum wage right now in North Dakota?" the woman asked.
"Hmm," Berg replied, pointing at a staffer and adding, "You know, this guy would know."
"I think it's probably seven something," the congressman guessed. "It depends -- they don’t have a minimum wage for waitresses in North Dakota."
Berg then posed the question to a staffer who only knew that it was "same as federal."
"Oh! Put it back on my shoulders!" the candidate exclaimed.
North Dakota is one of about 20 states where the minimum wage is the same as the federal minimum wage, currently $7.25.
As The Huffington Post's Amanda Terkel noted, Berg voted against raising North Dakota's minimum wage in 1999, 2005 and 2007 while he was serving as a state lawmaker.
The Center for Responsive Politics reported in 2010 that Berg had a maximum net worth of over $54 million, making him the 14th richest member of Congress.
Watch this video from the North Dakota Democratic Party, uploaded May 7, 2012.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Monday gave himself kudos for the U.S. auto industry's recovery because he had called to let car companies go bankrupt.
"I pushed the idea of a managed bankruptcy," the candidate told Cleveland's WEWS-TV. "And finally, when that was done, and help was given, the companies got back on their feet."
"So I'll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry's come back," he added.
In a 2008 New York Times op-ed titled "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt," Romney warned that if a bailout was provided to the auto industry then "its demise will be virtually guaranteed."
But according to Arthur J. Gonzalez, a former federal judge in U.S. bankruptcy court, G.M. and Chrysler only survived because they went into a managed bankruptcy strengthened by the government bailouts that were approved by Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
"One thing is clear, without government support in one fashion or another, there were no sources of funding," Gonzalez told ABC News earlier this year.
Obama campaign co-chair Ted Strickland on Monday responded by claiming that Romney was trying to "fool" voters with "dishonesty."
"Mitt Romney may think he can fool the American people by hiding his belief that we should 'let Detroit go bankrupt,' but the American people won't let him," Strickland said. "His comments today that he will 'take a lot of credit that the [auto] industry has come back' are a new low in dishonesty, even for him. Mitt Romney seems to think Americans will just forget the past and his very vocal and clear opposition to the successful auto rescue."
GM posted record profits last year and taxpayers have recovered nearly half of the $50 billion bailout. Chrysler in 2011 posted its first profit since 2005 and has paid back $11.2 billion of the $12.5 billion government loan. The Treasury Department has said that it doesn't expect to recover the remaining $1.3 billion.
Watch this video from WEWS-TV, broadcast May 7, 2012.
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) at a town hall event on Friday denied his worldview had been influenced by the libertarian writer Ayn Rand, who advocated the "virtue of selfishness" and called Christianity the "the best kindergarten of communism possible."
In video obtained by Think Progress, one of Ryan's constituents questioned why he had praised Rand's works in the past.
"This is kind of fun, because you know you've arrived in politics when you have your own urban legend about you," Paul responded. "This one is mine. I get a really big kick out of this one."
Paul, a practicing Catholic, explained that although he was fond of some of Rand's novels he did not embrace her philosophy. He acknowledged that it was Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged that got him interested in economics and politics.
"Just because you like someone's novels doesn't mean you agree with their entire worldview philosophy and she has a worldview philosophy which is completely antithetical to mine," he added.
Ryan has said that his Catholic faith helped shape his budget plan. But Catholics have his admiration for the atheist novelist.
"I grew up reading Ayn Rand and it taught me quite a bit about who I am and what my value systems are, and what my beliefs are," he said in 2005. "It’s inspired me so much that it’s required reading in my office for all my interns and my staff."
The Atlas Society previously told Raw Story that Ryan's policies are "very much in line" with Rand's philosophy.
Reuters' Rob Cox explained Monday on MSNBC how two major U.S. companies could help offset the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision.
Bank of America and 3M will be giving their shareholder the chance to vote on a referendum on Tuesday and Wednesday that would prohibit the use of corporate funds for any political election or campaign.
"I think it's ironic that it's actually going to be up to corporate democracy to save democracy," Cox said. "That's sort of the point here and I'm not sure that shareholders will think the same way citizens do. They're going to go out there and vote on their own self-interest, which is 'what will this do for my company?'"
However, he noted that the proposed policy could actually be good for business.
"I'll give you an example. Target two years ago put $150,000 into a sort of PAC-like organization just after the Citizens United deal and that organization basically supported a pretty far right Republican candidate who was very anti-gay. It created a big problem. In fact, there was a huge boycott online."
Former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) on Monday speculated that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy was embarrassed by the "almost lawless decision" in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission.
"This is a guy who is usually a careful justice," he told Sam Seder of the Majority Report. "He just started making these sweeping assertions about what corruption was, what companies do, like he was talking at a bar with somebody over a beer rather than anything that was a legal decision. It was really reckless. I am guess he might even be a little bit embarrassed at this point about what a sloppy opinion it was, and how it just asserted things that aren't proven."
The 2010 Citizens United ruling struck down key provisions of the federal McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law and gave rise to Super PACS, which can raise an unlimited amount of money to influence federal elections as long as they do not directly coordinate with a candidate’s campaign.
The ruling held that limiting corporate campaign spending violated the First Amendment, because political contributions were a form of political speech and corporations were legally persons.
Feingold described the current campaign finance system as "legalized extortion."
"It's not like corporate CEOs sit around their office and go, 'you know, I'd like to throw some money around in the political process,'" he said. "It works the other way. The politicians call up and ask for the money."
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Monday declined to agree or disagree with a woman that told him that President Barack Obama should be tried for treason, an offense punishable by death.
During a town hall event in Cleveland, Ohio, a woman said that the president should be "tried for treason" because he was "operating outside the structure of the Constitution."
"I happen to believe that the Constitution was not just brilliant, but probably inspired," Romney replied, avoiding the subject of treason. "I believe that, unlike what the president said about the Supreme Court, where he suggested it was -- not just suggested, he said that it would be unprecedented for the Supreme Court to overturn a decision by the legislature."
"I will respect the different branches of government if I'm fortunate enough to become president. ... And if you've got some specifics you want me to address in terms of policy, I'm happy to. Go ahead," the former Massachusetts governor added, inviting the woman to ask a follow-up question.
"Specifically, some of the executive orders he has done," the supporter noted. "Just in the last three weeks, some of the executive orders he has made with regard to the Secret Service and their protection of people and people being allowed to exercise their First Amendment right to protest in the presence of the Secret Service."
"I'm not familiar with the orders with regards to the Secret Service," Romney admitted. "But I will be happy to take a look at what he's done with regards to the Secret Service and protests. We obviously have a right to protest in this country and express our viewpoints. At the same time, we want to have people who are being protected and not be in danger. So, I'll see what specifically he has in mind and, obviously, we've all been disappointed by a number of things that have happened at the government level."
The woman was mostly likely referring to the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011, which Obama signed into law in March. While it is not an executive order, it does give the Secret Service the authority to define "restricted buildings or grounds" where protests can be limited for security purposes.
The United States Code at 18 U.S.C. § 2381 states that anyone giving "aid and comfort" to enemies of the United States "is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000."
In 2008, Republican presidential nominee John McCain often publicly confronted supporters when they made similarly outrageous comments.
At an October 2008 event in Minnesota, one women insisted that "Obama is an Arab."
"No, ma'am," McCain replied, drawing boos from the crowd. "He's a decent family man [and] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign's all about."
"I have to tell you. Sen. Obama is a decent person and a person you don’t have to be scared of as president of the United States," McCain told another man who said he was "scared" of a possible Obama presidency.
In Romney's case, he only responded to the woman's comments after the event when the microphones had been cut off and reporters from The New York Times and The Washington Post asked him if Obama should be tried for treason.
“No, no,” Romney remarked. “No, of course not.”
"I don't correct all the questions that get asked of me," he later told CNN.
Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith asserted in an email to Raw Story that Romney's initial silence called into question his ability to lead.
"Today we saw Mitt Romney’s version of leadership: standing by silently as his chief surrogate attacked the President’s family at the event and another supporter alleged that the President should be tried for treason," Smith wrote. "Time after time in this campaign, Mitt Romney has had the opportunity to show that he has the fortitude to stand up to hateful and over-the-line rhetoric and time after time, he has failed to do so. If this is the ‘leadership’ he has shown on the campaign trail, what can the American people expect of him as commander-in-chief?"
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, a tea party activist that's appeared several times on Fox News, and founder of an organization where Sean Hannity serves as an advisory board member, said in a sermon recently published to YouTube that America's greatest mistake was allowing women the right to vote, adding that back in "the good old days, men knew that women are crazy and they knew how to deal with them."
In the video, published to YouTube in March, Peterson explains that he believes women simply can't handle "anything," and that in his experience, "You walk up to them with a issue, they freak out right away. They go nuts. They get mad. They get upset, just like that. They have no patience because it's not in their nature. They don't have love. They don't have love."
Despite his statements being online for more than a month, Hannity welcomed Peterson on his show last Tuesday to castigate the Obama administration over "taking credit" for the Osama bin Laden assassination -- but the segment didn't exactly go as planned.
In his March sermon, Peterson adds that Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown Law student who recently spoke to a House Democratic hearing on contraception coverage, was actually revealing "all the sex" college students are having. "It's really all about maintaining the freedom to kill babies in the womb," he says. "Women are now degraded. Women have no shame."
At roughly 8:30 into his 12-minute sermon, he doubles down, amazingly, saying that he believes America went wrong when it gave women the right to vote.
"I think that one of the greatest mistakes America made was to allow women the opportunity to vote," Peterson says. "We should've never turned this over to women. And these women are voting in the wrong people. They're voting in people who are evil who agrees with them who're gonna take us down this pathway of destruction."
"And this probably was the reason they didn't allow women to vote when men were men. Because men in the good old days understood the nature of the woman," he adds. "They were not afraid to deal with it. And they understood that, you let them take over, this is what would happen."
Peterson, founder of the conservative religious group Brotherhood Organization of A New Destiny (BOND), appeared on the Fox News Channel on May 1, more than a month after giving his controversial sermon. Fox News host Kirsten Powers even confronted Peterson about his "mysogynistic" speech and challenged Hannity to repudiate it, but the Republican opinion host did not, and instead gave Peterson a platform to denounce "liberal, women policies."
Speaking to Peterson on May 1, Powers protested his appearance on Hannity's show, explaining that she was "hijacking" it because "I didn't know I was going to be on with him." She then accused him of "using God's word to teach misogyny."
"I don't know if you noticed or not, but the liberal Democrat womens are calling themselves whores," Peterson replied. "They came out with their so called group of women who are within the Democrat party, and they are admitting that they're whores and they are saying that they are proud of it. I'm okay with that, I just don't want to pay for it."
"I have a responsibility to tell the truth," he added "You're on the side of lies. Why shouldn't I be on the side of truth? And it's the truth that's gonna make us free. Somebody gotta tell the truth, so I'm going to tell the truth."
That "truth," it would seem, isn't just about liberal women, or even women in general. Peterson made headlines in January after telling a Huffington Post reporter that he would like to see black people put "back on the plantation so they would understand the ethic of working... They need a good hard education on what it is to work." On his website, Peterson has published an open letter to Attorney General Eric Holder that advocates the arrest of New Black Panthers members.
In another post, he explains what he calls "the end of one-sided defense," in which Peterson insists that men should re-take the right to physically strike women. "While I certainly do not sanction men attacking women, neither is it right for men to allow themselves to be beaten by a woman," he wrote. "It's time for men to re-assert their right to self defense."
Peterson has also been on the leading edge of racially-motivated Republican attacks on Planned Parenthood, alleging at a press conference in 2008 that the group is responsible for killing "over 1,500 black babies" every day.
Neither Peterson nor a Fox News spokesperson responded to requests for comment.
This video was published to YouTube on March 5, 2012.
This video was broadcast by Fox News on May 1, 2012.
Correction: A prior version of this story called Peterson a Fox News "contributor," but he's actually just appeared several times on Hannity's program.
