The Young Turks Need To Correct Their Story On Ginger Lee

Ben Mankiewicz of The Young Turks mocked Ginger Lee in a Young Turks segment during the height of the Anthony Weiner scandal. Mankiewicz cklaimed that Ginger Lee was looking for a payday. Mankiewicz kept asking during the segment why Ginger Lee would hire Gloria Allred. Mankiewicz kept asking "what wrong" happened to Ginger Lee. Mankiewicz was extremely snarky during the segment.

I asked Mankiewicz on Twitter if he was so curious why didn't he do the due diligence as a journalist and Ginger Lee himself.

.@BenMank77 Perhaps this video clip will help you remember. http://t.co/pwdVzgli8C You could have asked @gingerlee why she hired Alfred.

— Michael Hussey (@pushingrope) December 19, 2013

I expressed a long-term problem I have with The Young Turks.

.@BenMank77 I worked with Tina Dupuy. So we have a connection. What kills me about TYT is you never reseaech anything. Contact @gingerlee.

— Michael Hussey (@pushingrope) December 19, 2013

Politically, I agree with The Young Turks on 95 percent of political issues. I can't take The Young Turks seriously because they perform a lazy form of journalism.

Ginger Lee chimed in and explained why she hired Allred.

@pushingrope @BenMank77 That moment that you need Gloria is when people are camping in front of your home for days at a time. When you're

— Ginger (@gingerlee) December 19, 2013

@pushingrope @BenMank77 having a nervous breakdown because you want to be left alone because there were NEVER any pics, sexts, or ANYTHING.

— Ginger (@gingerlee) December 19, 2013

That is a good reason to hire Allred. Nancy Pelosi was discussing a House investigation into Weiner. If Ginger Lee is called to testify she would most certainly need an attorney.

Ginger Lee answers Mankiewicz's question about a big payday.

@pushingrope @BenMank77 And I never made a single dime. No interviews on Inside Edition. No ABC, NBC, CNN. NONE. I didn't get a 'payday'.

— Ginger (@gingerlee) December 19, 2013

Ginger Lee is making a living in real estate and selling antiques at flea markets. Ginger Lee has very expensive medical bills due to lupus. She hasn't gone back to porn and a bad foot has kept her from stripping. Ginger Lee is hardly raking in the money.

One thing to note about the Twitter exchange is Mankiewicz never answered the question about why he didn't contact Ginger Lee. If Mankiewicz wanted to know why she hired Allred he could have asked her. I got quotes from Ginger Lee for a post written on this blog. She isn't hard to get in contact with.

I think Mankiewicz and the team at The Young Turks mean well and are passionate progressives. However, they are not journalists.

Write A Caption: Anthony Weiner

Journalist Kate Rose took this photo of the classy Anthony Weiner giving the media the middle finger as he left his campaign headquarters. Hat tip to Laffy. I hope this is the last time I ever have to blog about this clown.

Joel Award: Anthony Weiner

It is time to give out the Joel Award. The award goes any celebrity, pundit, blogger or politician that purposely contradicts himself or herself.

Anthony Weiner's political fortunes are disappearing. This is not news. What is news is Weiner telling CNN that he had inside knowledge on what role his wife Huma Abedin would play on Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

Former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) on Monday said his wife Huma Abedin would have a role in a 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential bid but acknowledged that his sexting scandals had hurt his spouse “personally” and “professionally.”

Asked if he knew what role Abedin would play in a possible Clinton campaign, Weiner replied, “I do. … I’m not telling you,” in an interview with the CNN BuzzFeed YouTube channel.

Someone on Team Clinton must have told Weiner to drink a cool glass of shut the fuck up. Weiner is backtracking and claims he has no knowledge about a Clinton presidential campaign.

"I have no insight into campaign 2016. I'm struggling right here with 2013."

The sexting scandals were bad enough. Weiner is now pissing off the Clintons. Weiner's political career is over.

Quote of the Day

Huma: “My husband did horrible things, but I’m addicted to danger … [sound of maracas, trumpet] CARLOS DANGER!”

— David Roberts (@drgrist) July 23, 2013

Huma Abedin would likely be the White House Chief of Staff, if Hillary Clinton wins the 2016 presidency. Why in God's name is she with Anthony "Carlos Danger" Weiner.

Ginger Lee's First Interview

Candice Raines (aka Ginger Lee) gave her first interview after the Anthony Weiner scandal. Journalist Richard Lawson gives the fairest media treatment of Raines that I have seen. I have blogged that the media treatment of Raines was unfair. Raines explained that part of her support was Weiner being one of the few male politicians to speak at the pro-choice Walk for Choice rally.

“He was one of the only male politicians to attend one of the rallies and spoke during it,” she said. “And when he did so, he was very adamant about the fact that women have a right to choose what women do and it’s not really up to other men to legislate what a woman does with her own body because they are not the ones in possession of said uterus.”

This part of the fascinating contradiction with Raines. She can sound like Amanda Marcotte when talking about progressive women's issues. Raines can then rant about her love of Hello Kitty and Britney Spears. A person can be pro-choice and collect Hello Kitty merchandise. There is nothing wrong with that. It is just rather unexpected.

Raines told Lawson that she has needed health care since she was a teenager because of a mental illness. Raines would not disclose the illness to Lawson. It is well-known that Raines suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. The illness is treatable but requires constant medication. Raines also has lupus, which affects her body's immune system. Raines financially falls into the bracket of making too much for Medicaid to buy private health insurance.

Raines isn't being quite candid about her obsession with Weiner.

“I have said I love and want to have babies with Jon Stewart, Anderson Cooper and Keith Olbermann,” Raines said of her blog, adding that no one has mentioned that.

Raines posted on her blog about what she wanted to do with Weiner.

Oh my god. Yes. He can get buck wild anytime I’m around. Did I just type that out? I think that was supposed to stay inside my head. Oh well, fuck it.

Raines has a personal history of getting involved with older and immature men. Two of the relationships were with employees that her and the men involved were trying to keep secret. The relationships were eventually discovered. In Raines, defense, there is no evidence that she ever tried to hook up with Weiner. It may have well been just an online crush.

Raines has a grounded outlook on the Weiner scandal. She is self-aware enough to know the scandal is not the most imporatant event in the big scheme of things. Raines also plans to keep on being a progressive activist.

“This whole fiasco is a drop in the bucket,” she said. “And it was over something so inconsequential and so insignificant that it doesn’t really make a giant difference. … I’m still going to talk about the things I care about.”

Good for her. I hope Raines keeps blogging about the things is cares about. Whether it is health care or getting Britney Spears tickets.

How the Media Has Been Unfair to Ginger Lee

The media has been trying to figure out who Ginger Lee is? The Daily Beast ran the story "Weiner Porn Star’s Mystery Past." People in the porn industry tended not to remember Lee. Her former manager, who goes by the moniker Bad Ass Frank declined to be interviewed. Lee's former agency Adult Talent Managers would not grant an interview. Another former female adult actress who worked with Lee defended Lee keeping the adult film industry at arm's length.

One former performer, whose credits indicate that she appeared with Lee in a 2007 film, explained: “I no longer want people to know the name of that porn star. I am sure [Lee] felt the same way.” Yet she did not remember meeting Lee either.

Another performer that worked with Lee said, "“I never saw her hanging out or at industry parties." The gossipy porn industry loves talking trash about their former talent. Porn entertainers crave attention and usually do not hesitate to dish dirt to the media. It seems that the few people that remember Lee are extremely loyal to her. That is unheard of in the porn industry. No one is looking to catch their 15 minutes of fame from Lee and Weinergate.

Lee was born Candice Raines on November 25th 1983 in Macon, Georgia. Raines briefly went to college to train as a nurse. Raines also briefly worked as a real estate agent before becoming a stripper in Nashville, Tennessee. Her mother is a doctor. Raines got into stripping for financial reasons.

I was married to a person in the Marine Corps at the time that I started dancing and we were broke as all hell, so I needed a job that brought in actual cash more than once every 2 weeks. The town we lived in didn’t have many job opportunities worth a damn for women that didn’t want to work in call centers or be waitresses.

I’d never even been in a strip club until the day I started working in one.

Raines then became a feature dancer. The strip club laws in Tennessee were restrictive. Raines decided to tour the strip circuit. The best way to become a name as a feature dancer is to make porn movies. By industry standards, Raines wasn't in many porn movies. It was enough to give her feature dancing career a boost.

Raines on getting into adult movies.

No classifieds in the paper or anything like that. I was actually a dancer first. Nashville changed all the strip club laws, (yay for crazy religious nuts making sure strippers couldn’t make money!) and when they did that it pretty much killed all the money being made in Nashville. It was all part of an effort to ‘save’ girls from stripping, by regulating us until we were so miserable we quit. Little did they realize, more than half the girls just left town, a quarter of them started escorting after work to make up for the lost income, and the final quarter stuck around and got a little bit more bitter and a lot more poor as the months passed. I didn’t want to quit dancing. I knew if I did some magazines, movies, and stuff like that I could be a feature dancer and get paid to travel and dance all over the country, so I got my butt on a plane and went to LA to work so I’d have enough ‘cred’ to be a feature dancer full time.

Long story short, crazy Christians trying to ‘save’ me and other Nashville dancers from stripping helped me onto the path to other adult work. <—-I didn’t burst into flame typing that.

Read more »

Markos Moulitsas on Weiner

Markos Moulitsas shares my view on Anthony Weiner. I was more than happy to throw Weiner under the bus. If Weiner stayed I could easily live with that.

Moulitsas dismissed that talk.

"No one gives a sh-t," he said. "Who cares? It's a sensationalistic story."

He said Republicans will have a hard time making hay out of Weiner's stepping down. He said he "wouldn't have cared" if Weiner stayed, and added that Republicans have no cause to say anything about it.

"If the Republicans are gonna talk that trash about getting David Vitter to resign, then maybe we can talk about me calling for Anthony Weiner to resign," he said.

Side note: is it a coincidence that Weiner resigned the day after Ginger Lee said she would corporate with the House ethics committee?

Breaking: Obama on Weiner

Word is that President Barack Obama is going to publicly call for Rep. Anthony Weiner to resign.

Side note: I don't buy that Weiner is distracting Obama and Congressional Democrats from passing their agenda. By June 9th of this year the Senate called 87 roll call votes. By the same time in 2009 the Senate called 205 votes. Democrats still hold the majority.

The fact is that Obama and Senate Democrats aren't trying to pass anything. What agenda is Weiner being a distraction to. The fact is that Obama and Democrats could have extended the debt ceiling when they still had super-majorities last year. Don't count on Obama to keep his promise of moving the top tax bracket back to the Clinton era level of 37 percent. Obama won't even try.

If Democrats want to get rid of Weiner because he is damaged goods that is understandable. But spare me the bullshit that Weiner is holding up the President and Congress from governing.

Update: Obama to MSNBC's Ann Curry.

"I can tell you that if it was me, I would resign,'' Obama told Curry.

[...]

"When you get to the point where, because of various personal distractions, you can't serve as effectively as you need to, at the time when people are worrying about jobs, and their mortgages, and paying the bills - then you should probably step back,'' Obama said.

Obama added that what Weiner did was "highly inappropriate'' and that he has "embarrassed himself" and his wife and family, but said it will ultimately come down to a decision by Weiner and his constituents as to whether he will continue in office.

Ed Schultz Says Weiner Must Go

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

MSNBC host Ed Schultz gave an eloquent speech on why Anthony Weiner staying in office is becoming a distraction for the progressive movement. The sexting is an issue between Weiner, his wife Huma Abedin and the women Weiner contacted. The question is should Democrats spend more time defending Weiner or dealing with the debt ceiling and unemployment? The answer is obvious.

Progressives will say that it isn't fair that Sen. David Vitter can pay a prostitute to watch him parade around in diapers and keep his seat. Unfortunately, life isn't fair. Republicans are hypocrites on sexual morality. That doesn't change the fact that Weiner has dug a hole and his dragging the Democratic Party down with him.

How Dumb Is Anthony Weiner?

Dumb enough to email porn star Ginger Lee and tell her to lie about their online correspondence. This is being reported by TMZ so take it with a grain of salt.

On June 2, Weiner emailed Lee, "Do you need to talk to a professional PR type person to give u advice? I can have someone on my team call. [Yeah, my team is doing great. Ugh]."

It's unclear if Weiner's PR team is from his Congressional staff. If so, Weiner could run afoul of House Ethics Rules as well as the law. Weiner put on a full court press, urging Lee to lie about their relationship. On June 1, he emailed her: "The key is to have a short, thought out statement that tackles the top line questions and then refer people back to it. Have a couple of iterations of: 'This is silly. Like so many others, I follow Rep. Weiner on Twitter. I don't know him and have never met him. He briefly followed me and sent me a dm saying thank you for the follow. That's it.'"

Weiner suggested a nice touch -- some good ol' Southern charm: "And then maybe insert some y'alls in there."

According to the article, Weiner instructed Lee to say that Weiner's direct meesage was thanking Lee for following his Twitter account. An interesting side note is that Lee follows Oliver Willis, Down With Tyranny, Truthout, Mother Jones and the anti-Scott Walker DefendWisconsin. This maybe my dream woman.

Litbrit on the Nicole Sandler Show

Video streaming by Ustream

Litbrit appears on Nicole Sander's talk radio/internet show. You can catch Deb's British accent at the 35 minute mark. Sandler and Deb talk the Anthony Weiner controversy.

Deb and Sandler agree that Weiner's defense of not saying at whether or not that photo is of him is incredibly lame. I was disturbed by Weiner's office threatening to arrest a journalist.

Deb makes the observation that female politicians don't do sex scandals. Perhaps because the career-minded women that enter elected office know the media will crucify them. The media was often harsh to Hillary Clinton during her time as First Lady. Bill Clinton's approval ratings went up during the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. There is a double standard.

Weiner's Office Sends Police After Journalist

Rep. Anthony Weiner is losing my sympathy. Sending law enforcement after CBS New York political reporter Marcia Kramer is a bone-headed move. Kramer went to Weiner's Congressional office to ask the Congressman questions. This exchange with press secretary David Arnold transpired.

Kramer: “All I want is for him to say something to his constituents, the people who have to vote for him.”

Arnold: “I don’t think you can say he hasn’t said anything to his constituents. He spoke for nine hours yesterday.

Kramer: “But not to anyone in New York. You know, this is the sort of in-the-bunker in the capitol, not to anyone in New York.”

That should have been the end of that. Instead, someone in Weiner's office called the Capitol Police.

Police officers asked for identification. One cop told Kramer that if she went into Weiner’s office and didn’t leave if she was asked, she could be arrested.

“If you go to an office and are asked to leave, you can be placed under arrest,” Officer Michael Miller said.

Kramer responded, “But I wasn’t refusing to leave.”

According to the article, Kramer was never asked to leave Weiner's office. The Capital Police talked to Kramer after she left the office.

CBS reporter Nancy Cordes asked Weiner if the infamous tweet is of his junk. Weiner gave an evasive answer.

Cordes: “Congressman, I think the main question people are asking is, was that a picture of you?”

Weiner: “Well the main question that a lot of people are asking is did I send the photograph. I did not, this was a prank, a hoax.”

Cordes: “So it sounds like it was a photo of you.”

Weiner: “Well we’re going to try to find out exactly what happened.”

I personally could care less if Weiner sent that tweet. I am one of the few progressives that felt sorry for Mark Sanford. I'm a social liberal. People's sexual lives (Mark Foley preying on minors is the exception) shouldn't be public domain. That doesn't mean Weiner can use law enforcement to harass the media.

Silly Breitbart

Andrew Breitbart has Weiner on his mind.

Anthony Weiner on Social Security

The stock market tanked in 2008. President Bush's proposal to privatize Social Security and recipients invest their retirement money in stocks was extremely unpopular. Rep. Paul Ryan is the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee. Ryan advocates privatizing Social Security. Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner takes Ryan's plan to task.

I hope the GOP runs on Ryan's proposals to privatize Social Security and turn Medicare into a voucher program with slow adjustments for cost increases. Those proposals are a recipe for political failure.

Pelosi Pushes For Senate Reconciliation

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told MSNBC health care reform is not dead.

She continued, "Put it this way, the present system is unsustainable. We can no longer afford it. It's about the character of our country as Sen. Kennedy has said. We will make every effort to have a health care bill. But we will make progress whatever it is. One way or another we will go forward with that."

There is an even more interesting twist. The Nation's David Corn tweeted that Pelosi supports reconciliation. Pelosi wants the Senate to start the reconciliation process. After Scott Brown was elected to the Senate, Pelosi made it clear she was not going to make a last minute push to finish the health care bill. The majority of Pelosi's caucus feels to the health care bill is too corporatist and lacks true reform. The House Democrats would rather kill a bad health care bill than run on the current version. President Obama has used the 60 filibuster proof votes to masks his attempts to strip the bill of the public option. Max Baucus, Kent Conrad and Ben Nelson are faced with the unenviable task of either voting against reconciliation of siding with health care industry lobbyists. I do not feel their pain.

Update: Rep. Anthony Weiner tells Talking Points Memo the White House and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are disorganized about how to go on the reconciliation process.

"The idea of doing the Senate bill and then doing the reconciliation on spec just to see what happens--I don't think anyone really thinks that's a good idea," Weiner said. "I don't know if the Senate literally has to move first, but at least they have to give us the high sign on what it is that they can do and can't do. And we're not getting much guidance from them, and we're also not getting much guidance from the mothership about what the White House really wants, and what they're prepared to push for, etc."

Weiner adds that Reid doesn't know from "issue to issue" if he has the votes. The White House and Reid continue to behave as if Democrats are in the minority.

Obama on the Stupak Amendment

Talking Points Memo's Amanda Carpenter reports on President Barack Obama's position on the Stupak-Pitts amendment in the health care bill.

Classic-Obama tells ABC no "sneaking in funding for abortions, but, on the other hand, that we're not restricting women's insurance choices"

Could Obama be anymore vague? The Stupak-Pitts amendment would restrict abortion for many low income women. Congressman Anthony Weiner fears health insurance companies will not paticipating in the exchange will offer private coverage for abortions. Insurance companies will not offer coverage for abortions, to stay in compliance with the law. This is what makes Obama's vagueness so unsatisfying.

Public Option Alive

President Barack Obama has never previously said the public option must be in the health care bill. Senator Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi have promised the public option in the bill. Obama's Joint Session of Congress speech left progressives wondering if the public option was being abandoned.

"The public option -- the public option is only a means to that end," the President said. "And we should remain open to other ideas that accomplish our ultimate goal."

Administration officials implied a health care bill without the public option would be acceptable.

Rahm Emanuel's comments to the Wall Street Journal created a progressive backlash.

WASHINGTON -- It is more important that health-care legislation inject stiff competition among insurance plans than it is for Congress to create a pure government-run option, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said.

"The goal is to have a means and a mechanism to keep the private insurers honest," he said in an interview. "The goal is non-negotiable; the path is" negotiable.

Kathleen Sebelius and Robert Gibbs made similar comments on the Sunday talk shows. The White House held private meetings with health industries companies and refused to make the visitor logs public. Obama attempted to have Tom Daschle appointed as Health and Human Services secretary. Daschle is a paid advisor for UnitedHealth and Tennessee Hospital Association. He has also worked as a lobbyist. Daschle has been going to the White House in attempts to steer Obama from the public option. To make matters worst: a memo of the deal the White House and Max Baucus struck with the pharmaceutical industry has been leaked to Huffington Post reporter Ryan Grim.



The Baucus bill has been greeted with contempt. Senator Jay Rockefeller said he won't support the Baucus mark up.

"There are only about 4 to 7 [Co-ops] that exist [nationwide]. And I’m very skeptical… of starting up a system that doesn’t work."

Rep. Anthony Weiner called the bill "dead on arrival."

Rep. Weiner on Maddow: Baucus Bill Dead on Arrival- Watch more Politics Videos at Vodpod.

President Obama has had a sudden change of heart. The Hill reports Obama gave a near endorsement of the public option.

"I absolutely do not believe that it's dead," Obama told Univision. "I think that it's something that we can still include as part of a comprehensive reform effort."

Blogger Jesse Livermore predicted in August that the Baucus bill would fail. I agree that the bill will pass by reconciliation.

Side note: Health care industry officials that met privately with the White House.

Why Should We Protect the Private Health Insurance Industry?

Republicans have turn the fight against the public option into a battle cry for the health insurance industry. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) made this very argument.

"A new government-run plan would stack the deck against any would-be competitors. The private sector has to pay taxes; the government collects taxes. The private sector has to account for its employees and benefits, while maintaining minimum reserve requirements; the government does not. The private sector pays whatever rates it negotiates with providers; the government dictates payments."

Ryan and other Republicans seem intent on protecting insurance companies. Unfortunately, their time would be better spent protecting the public from private health insurance fraud. Florida CFO Alex Sink recently took action against companies selling unauthorized health insurance.

TALLAHASSEE—Florida CFO Alex Sink announced today that she has filed an Immediate Final Order (IFO) against Depawix Health Resources, Inc., Peck & Peck, Inc. (also known as Green Cross Managed Health System), and Smart Service, Inc. for soliciting and selling unauthorized health insurance in Florida. It is suspected that nearly 300 Floridians may have bought coverage from these Georgia-based entities. An investigation by CFO Sink’s Division of Agent and Agency Services revealed that the insurance was sold by both licensed and unlicensed individuals.

“Unauthorized health insurance can lead to serious financial hardship for Floridians, which is why Florida’s licensed agents should be vigilant about protecting consumers from this type of scam,” said CFO Sink. “We will take the most aggressive action possible against anyone who sold these unauthorized products and put Floridians at risk.”

Licensed insurers have met Florida’s stringent statutory financial requirements for licensure, and policyholders are protected by the Florida Life and Health Guaranty Association Act should a licensed insurer become insolvent. Unauthorized insurance does not offer these protections. Unauthorized insurance, particularly unauthorized health insurance, can lead to significant unpaid claims and out-of-pocket costs for victims. Agents or individuals who sell unauthorized insurance not only could lose their license but also could be required to pay all unpaid claims and could face felony charges.

CFO Sink has an ongoing campaign to warn consumers to “Verify Before You Buy,” offering easy-to-use links on her web site for consumers to check if a company or agent is licensed in Florida. Consumers and agents can verify licensure by going to www.MyFloridaCFO.com. Complaints about suspected unauthorized insurance can be reported on the web site or by calling 1-850-413-3089 or toll-free at 1-877-My-FL-CFO.

The fact that legal prosecution isn't persued against these companies is criminal. The health insurance industry sells bogus coverage and goes through great lengths to not make payments. The American people should be furious. Instead, tea baggers have defended the private insurance industry at townhall meetings.

Rob Piccirillo once operated the Florida Insurance Agency. He explained how the scam worked it's way down from the top.

I witnessed agency owners and mid-level managers conning their agents into believing they were doing the right thing by their clients. I saw beneficiaries bamboozled by those who lied to them, telling them they would receive extra benefits by signing their names onto forms that would switch their doctors and deny them coverage! I understand the way health insurance agencies are organized and managed like a true pyramid scheme, and how political it can be, i.e. the conducting of backroom deals with executives of health care facilities to attain access to leads.

Joe Scarborough's conservative idealogy will not allow him to back a public health care public health insurance option. Rep. Anthony Weiner told Scarborough insurance companies don't do check-ups operations and other forms of medical care. Weiner asked Scarborough what is the value of the private insurance companies. Scarborough could not provide an answer.