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Bashir rattled off a laundry list of Republican bad behavior, from Arizona governor Jan Brewer pointing at the President to Rep. Joe Wilson shouting “you lie!” to Newt Gingrich using the term “food stamp president.” “Why do Republicans think this is acceptable behavior in public?” Bashir asked.

“Demonizing the President is both morally wrong and dangerous,” Jackson began, citing “the continued demonization and then somebody shoots an AK-47 in the White House… to demonize him and demonize the poor is unacceptable.” Noting that there wasn’t much of an explanation here, Bashir pressed on, asking whether Jackson was predicting “some sort of terrible outcome.” “Ignorance and hatred and violence is in a certain pattern,” Jackson continued, citing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and noting that “George Wallace never hit anybody.”

“I’ve seen, sir, that remarkable photograph of you on the day Dr. Martin Luther King was murdered,” Bashir replied, “are you saying that Barack Obama’s very safety is being imperiled?” “Absolutely,” replied Jackson, “ignorance and hatred leads to violence.” He went on to argue that “there is something unholy about this.” Seems like we’re a long way off from the days Jackson was privately calling for President [then Senator] Obama’s castration.

The segment via MSNBC below:

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The two discussed many topics, including President Obama and Newt Gingrich‘s potentially racial comments on food stamps. Jackson began his discussion of the economy noting that the banks came out pretty well from the housing crisis why many families were economically devastated. He went on not only to criticize the banks for the mortgages themselves, but their distribution, saying, “banks have to admit they steered and clustered blacks into subprime mortgages.” Bolling gave him a chance to clarify: “you said the banks had to steer the black community into buying homes?” He noted that the banks had actually lost a lawsuit where it was proven they were targeting black families, calling it “flat-out discrimination.”

They also went on to talk about Newt Gingrich‘s comments about food stamps, and Jackson argued that the food stamp program was not a black program, noting that 49% of people in the program were white. Bolling agreed, but noted that the problem he had with the attacks on Gingrich for calling President Obama the “food stamp president” was precisely that food stamps had no realistic ties to the black community.

Jackson also commented on President Obama, adding that he had a problem with Republicans who were “on the ship [but] willing to sink the ship just to get the captain.”

The segment via Fox Business below:

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“There’s nothing to jump into the game for,” Hill replied when asked why Sharpton and Jackson had not done so, as “their interest is justice, just like my interest is justice.” “I don’t think anything unjust is happening to Herman Cain,” he argued, noting that, as a presidential candidate, “he’s getting exactly what he deserves.” O’Reilly asked him to clarify, as none of the sexual harassment accusations were specific, to which Hill noted he didn’t believe the presumption of guilt was fair, but that Cain wasn’t receiving that so much as the standard media scrutiny that comes with running for President. Here the two difference. “We have a presumption of innocence in this country, and that is not in play right now,” O’Reilly argued, noting that the presumption of innocence is a cultural courtesy aside from its legal function after Hill argued that Cain wasn’t being convicted of a crime.

RELATED: Jonathan Capehart: White Republicans Afraid To Criticize Cain Because He’s Black

O’Reilly insisted that this was a political issue, however, and not a race one. “If this were a liberal politician, you can’t sit there and tell me Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton wouldn’t be screaming bloody murder,” O’Reilly argued. As they were civil rights activists and this isn’t a civil rights issue, however, Hill contended they had no place in the matter. Neither did they then, O’Reilly replied, with Tawana Brawley or OJ Simpson. “What you’re saying is that they’ve been wrong two times,” Hill replied, “now they should be wrong again with Herman Cain.” O’Reilly replied simply, “that’s rich!”

O’Reilly gave Hill the last word after expressing his very strong disbelief in the idea that Sharpton and Jackson were acting out of a “lesson learned” from past experiences, a point Hill reiterated, adding that the media scrutiny was just for a Presidential candidate.

The debate via Fox News below:

Jackson suggested the current debate over the debt ceiling is another example of where Obama’s opponents are just eager to oppose everything he says:

“Here we are at this time trying to strip the number of days [allowed for voting], make voting more expensive and less accessible. This is the part of the anti-Barack Obama-mania that’s sweeping the country. These are the same people, you know who, under Bush, raised the debt limit 19 times, 4 trillion dollars . . . this is not about raising the debt limit, this is about in fact another way to undermine this President. We as a people, as a nation, ought fight back.”

Returning to his concerns about new voting restrictions being pursued in states with Republican governors, Jackson argued that the same people who denied the right to vote in the past are now trying to suppress it. He also claimed each state has its own “scheme” to undermine access and that “they’re targeting students, seniors, disabled, black and brown people.” And with Jackson on the case and presumably willing to lead this “fight” it will be interesting to see if the Obama Justice Department answers his call to investigate these new voting restrictions.

Watch the clip from MSNBC below:

“I’m Rod Blagojevich. I used to be your governor, and I’m here to tell the truth,” Blagojevich began his testimony, with all the drama Illinois has learned to expect from the former Celebrity Apprentice star. NBC Chicago’s “The Ward Room” blog was gracious enough to live-tweet the testimony, as well as compile some of the best and worst of what is starting to look like a rather rambly testimony. Despite confessing that his daughter warned him “watch your language,” he couldn’t help but apologize to the jury for his profanity with even more profanity: “”When I hear myself on those tapes, I sound like a f*cking jerk and I apologize.”

He also, it is reported, went through every major occasion in his life: proposing to his wife, becoming governor of Illinois, and the day Elvis died. He also “talk[ed] fondly about disco and the ’70s,” for which his attorney asked him, “Are you still in that era with your hair?” And while humble about his grades in law school, Blagojevich boasted he was “the only governor in the United States who could spin a basketball on all five fingers of his right hand.”

If you’re asking yourself what any of this has to do with the charges of corruption and bribery related to Sen. Barack Obama‘s seat, you’re not alone– so are the prosecutors, who have objected repeatedly and requested the governor stay at least moderately on the topic at hand. At press time, reports don’t show any indication of that happening anytime soon.

The very, very bad news about all of this is that cameras are not allowed in the courtroom, so there is no actual footage of Blagojevich testifying, though the Chicago media, having been lukewarm on this topic as recently as a few weeks ago, have now once again been inspired to follow every word of the trial. And as for the national media, we now await with bated breath the response of one Shepard Smith, who took nothing less than glee at covering the first Blagojevich trial and expressed more grief than anyone at the conclusion of the first trial when the former governor refused to testify on his behalf.

While The Blaze points out that Apple is a net job creator in America, there’s really no way to quantify whether they create more jobs than the advancing technology kills, but that’s beside the point. Jackson isn’t railing against the march of progress, but rather, our failure to keep up.

h/t The Blaze

And then, there’s a graphic allegation about Jesse Jackson himself, including “gestures and comments” that Bennett interpreted as an “invitation for sexual contact.”

WIlliams says Jackson’s group flatly denied the allegations in the complaint, which was filed a year ago.

Watch the story here, from NBC News:

Jackson claimed the Wisconsin Democrats were “steamrolled” and “ramrodded.” Kelly asked Jackson about the argument that Governor Walker tried his best to negotiate and that Republicans have not done anything illegal by taking advantage of certain legislative procedures. Jackson disputed the idea that the Governor was doing anything but representing the interests of Republicans.

The interview ended with Kelly bringing up the fact that President Obama‘s healthcare bill was similarly passed using procedural tactics, but Jackson returned to his argument that the poor are getting poorer and that workers need to continue nonviolently fighting back.

Watch the clip from Fox News below:

Amid a discussion about the union chaos in Wisconsin, Colmes responded to panelist Dana Perino‘s denouncement of a Nazi reference by Sen. Sherrod Brown by pointing out a number of people on the right that have done the same and been met with silence by this side of the aisle. “I don’t want any lectures from the right about rhetoric,” he began tersely, highlighting offensive comments from Rep. Louie Gohmert, Sen. Jim DeMint, and, yes, his own colleague. He asked Perino whether she was equally outraged “when Glenn Beck day after day invokes Hitler,” a comment greeted by the squawking of every other pundit on the panel. This time, however, Colmes wouldn’t let the issue settle and wouldn’t take evidence of those on the left making similar references as justification. Host Eric Bolling finally cut to break, apparently in the hopes of settling everyone down, to which Colmes muttered “thanks for mic-ing me up” somewhat irreverently.

But of course Colmes didn’t let the matter die there. Bolling changed the subject after the break, turning to Jesse Jackson‘s call for revolution. Once again, Colmes cited a double standard, asking what the difference was between Jackson’s revolution comments and “when Glenn Beck says ‘the revolution is now*,’ when he goes on about revolution.” The panel once again erupts in dissent. “Who brought up Glenn Beck?” a disembodied voice sounds amidst the tumult, as Bolling finally regains control and claims Jackson’s rhetoric was the type that brought about such things as the Tucson shootings earlier this year. Once again Colmes persists. Yes, the segment ends with Eric Bolling taking out a baseball bat.

While it is fascinating to watch Beck take such criticism from one of his colleagues, it is also not unprecedented– a network family that employs figures like Beck and Sarah Palin alongside people like Colmes or Juan Williams needs to leave space for dissent. If anything, it legitimizes the “Fair and Balanced” slogan significantly to allow the dissent. Perhaps the most surprising note in this segment is to watch Colmes, typically the least frazzled in any given political panel, go to bat so strongly for one of his main points.

*To be fair, Beck only uses the term “revolution” in pointing out that the left is trying to engender one, not in any attempt to foment a revolution of his own.

The segment via Fox Business Network below:

[h/t]

Schultz, reporting live from a rock concert ground zero of the Wisconsin union protests, couldn’t have expressed more pleasure at having the raucous, picketing mass behind him as he explained the tax policies of former Democratic governor and how they compared to current governor Scott Walker‘s, the crowd cheering wildly at the previous surplus but falling silent at the mention of Walker’s three tax cuts.

Special guest Jesse Jackson then joined the fray to much jubilation (and something that sounded suspiciously like a vuvuzela) and praised the protests for “going viral” and embracing the “Egypt spirit” (?). He then sent his congratulations to the Democratic state senators that fled the state and clarified that, to him, “this isn’t about money– this is about union-busting.”

Schultz also brings up tomorrow’s Tea Party-organized rally in favor of the governor’s cuts, and noted to Jackson (a South Carolina native) that the crowd would have to contend with tons of “outside influence” from places like Virginia tomorrow. Jackson gave the crowd only one piece of advice: “don’t get in a shouting match and become a distraction,” to which the crowd replied with a series of exuberant, distracting shouts.

The segment via MSNBC below:

Kirschner, who supported the collective move by the rabbis on this issue, noted that “this is not a question of permissibility, this is a question of sensibility,” arguing that the trivialization of such issues were offensive to him. While he ultimately clarified that he did not believe Glenn Beck, for example, was anti-semetic (“he is a strong supporter of Israel”), he insisted the language was unacceptable. He also particularly noted that Fox News president Roger Ailes‘ comments that the letter was “a partisan issue”, thus “dismissing” their concerns, was also hurtful.

Rabbi Levin had a somewhat different take on the matter– “somewhat” meaning “entirely.” Levin began his defense of Beck by noting that he was no fan of the TV host or allies like Sarah Palin, who he considered far too liberal for his tastes. “Glenn Beck, on the issue of homosexual marriage,” he noted, “is on the wrong side of the issue.” Then he read his defense of Beck et al– off a piece of paper that he notes was given to him by the Last Word crew:

The liberal left homosexual marriage-supporting, pre-born-baby-aborting, abandoning, not-kosher-eating, Sabbath-desecrating liberal rabbis have decided to use the Holocaust as a bludgeon, a baseball bat to beat and bash their right wing political opponents. This is scandalous.

To the argument from O’Donnell that the word Holocaust was too strong because it meant “literally burning Jews to death,” Levin replied that the reaction to Fox News was “the Jesse Jackson-ization of rabbis,” which then set of Rabbi Kirshner– a debate that threatened to spill into Maddow before O’Donnell abruptly ended it.

The lively dispute via MSNBC below:

Jesse Jackson appeared on MSNBC yesterday and let it be known that President Obama better enjoy his vacation now, because come January, Jackson expects a lot from the President. Not only does he want a renewed commitment to the war on poverty, but he also wants the President to go right to Congress and to stick up for the women and children Jackson meets in homeless shelters who apparently are working every day and still can’t afford the rent.

Jackson has seen enough and calls for “a radical reordering of our economy, bottom up, because those, the very top are drowning in wealth. It’s paper-driven not even productivity-driven.” Given Jackson’s unique and mangled pronunciation of so many words in the brief clip, it sounds like Jackson is actually the one under water and drowning.

Yet even on the substance Jackson seems out of his depth, since even though the growing gap between the richest and poorest Americans is a legitimate and worrisome issue, dismissing the wealthiest and their success as not productive doesn’t do much to advance his cause. Furthermore, arguing for radical income redistribution seems to be a war that tax-comprising and 2012-thinking Obama is no longer interested in waging. Overall it’s debatable which is crazier: the radical rearrangement of the economy or the idea that Obama wants economic advice from Jackson.

Watch the clip from The Ed Show below:

(h/t The Blaze)

Jesse Jackon appeared on MSNBC today and told Contessa Brewer that the new law, allowing police to require proof of citizenship from anyone they “suspect” of being an illegal immigrant, is the equivalent of ‘terrorism for the innocent…you look suspicious because you are Mexican.” Jackson also seemed to suggest that even Gov. Bill Richardson was at risk of being pulled over under this law because of his appearance. And further pointed out that it’s not the illegal immigrants who are to blame for our economy it’s Wall Street (alas, no ‘shitty deal’ reference). Video below.

Kurtz asked Wilbon about the shortcomings of his fact-checking and the resultant false attribution of a “bogus quote about slavery” to Limbaugh on his ESPN show Pardon the Interruption:

WILBON: That’s a journalistic no-no. What? If I had checked and found out the information that we had basic access to every day on deadline, I might have done it anyway. Still, that’s wrong and a journalistic no-no, and I said that to him.

But Wilbon put the brakes on the pity party there, saying “Let’s not make it seem like Rush Limbaugh has not insulted black people on his radio show… millions of black people know that.”

Meanwhile, Limbaugh has taken to the Opinion page of the Wall Street Journal to, as usual, decry the hypocrisy of his critics — most notably Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. He also singled Wilbon out by name:

Mr. Wilbon wasn’t alone. Numerous sportswriters, CNN, MSNBC, among others, falsely attributed to me statements I had never made. Their sources, as best I can tell, were Wikipedia and each other. But the Wikipedia post was based on a fabrication printed in a book that also lacked any citation to an actual source.

At this point the discussion of Limbaugh’s role in bidding on a stake in the Rams has moved so far away from the actual news: On Fox News it’s turned into a discussion of racism within the black community that emerges when black people try to defend people like Limbaugh; elsewhere, and on Reliable Sources, it’s turned into a discussion about journalistic ethics. And if Rush Limbaugh has his way, it will turn into one hundred other things (including good ratings) before it leaves the news because he’s had one crazy week of publicity.

ESPN’s Michael Wilbon on Reliable Sources with Howard Kurtz this morning: