News & Politics Blog 1328 items | updated May 17 2013

By Stephanie Whiteside / current.com / @stephgwhiteside

If you were thinking to yourself that the "Frankenstorm" hitting the East Coast in the form of Hurricane Sandy was a result of climate change and rising sea levels, don't worry. Pastor John McTernan has cleared it all up: Hurricane Sandy is really a result of the gay agenda. McTernan posted a call for prayer and claimed that Hurricane Sandy is an example of the way God is systematically destroying America.

Watch more Hurricane Sandy coverage on "The Young Turks"
at 7E/4P tonight on Current TV, repeating at 11E/8P.

By Stephanie Whiteside / current.com / @stephgwhiteside

Romney wants to cut FEMA. Or he doesn't. It depends on which Romney you ask. As Hurricane Sandy bears down on the East Coast, Romney has flip-flopped yet again. Meanwhile, the GOP is accusing President Obama of cutting emergency funds, when it's actually the Republican-controlled House that is responsible.

During the GOP primary, Mitt Romney called federal disaster relief "immoral" for adding to the national debt. His solution? Put the responsibility back on the states or the private (for-profit) sector:

By Jo Piazza / current.com / @jopiazza

The next 72 hours will continue to be wall-to-wall media coverage of Hurricane Sandy.

President Barack Obama and former Gov. Mitt Romney have and will to continue to offer their concerns and condolences for those East Coasters affected by the storm.

But will anyone — the media or the candidates — talk about the real climate issues that may have contributed to Sandy and will likely contribute to similar storms going forward?

“It is fairly predictable that most of the media will focus on the near-term impact of the storm, but I think the media generally has been fairly poor at explaining the climate connections in a lot of these stories,” Joe Romm, the editor of Climate Progress, told Current.

What does former FEMA chief Mike “Brownie” Brown
think about the Obama administration's response to Sandy?
Find out on “The War Room,” tonight at 9E/6P.

By Jessica Roy / current.com / @CurrentJess

Lena Dunham's tongue-in-cheek video about her first time voting is the latest installment in an ongoing series we like to call "Republicans Ride the Sanctimony Pony."

Dunham tweeted:

My first time was with @barackobama – I highly recommend you do the same: ofa.bo/Lena #Obama2012

—Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) October 26, 2012

Republicans across America clutched their pearls simultaneously, with self-righteous outrage. #MyFirstTime began trending on Twitter, with unctuous tweets flying: "hapless pussy baiting," "pandering to uninformed young women," "it's comparing voting to being deflowered by a 50-year-old man" (are we still using the term "deflowered"?), and "Democrat moms, do you really want your president talking to your daughter about her first time???" Rush Limbaugh called it "insulting to women," which, to be fair, is a subject on which he is an expert.

Today, the National Federation of Republican Women sent out a press release. It was titled "Obama Campaign Sinks to New Low with Ad Comparing Voting to First Sexual Encounter" and subtitled "Young Women Exploited, Insulted by Campaign's Reckless Lack of Judgment." It goes on to say:

This week, President Barack Obama became the first sitting president to participate in early voting, Hurricane Sandy started on a potentially violent path up the East Coast and the candidates faced off in the final presidential debate. Get caught up with The Week in Photos:

LINK: http://current.com/photo-galleries/the-week-in-photos-102026/

By Jo Piazza / current.com / @jopiazza

We’re no longer just dealing with a war on women.

The conservative agenda that seeks to limit access to women’s health care and birth control while defining rape and marriage is an attempt to constrict sexual activity.

Playboy contributing writer Nancy Cohen joined Bill Press on Friday morning to talk about her latest story for the magazine on this topic, “Screwed: Say Goodbye to Your Sex Life If Things Go South in November.”

Cohen argues that the Republican Party is controlled by sexual fundamentalists whose refusal to stay out of our bedrooms could chill sexual relations on a grand scale.

By Jo Piazza / current.com / @jopiazza

Unfortunately for the rest of the GOP, the comments about rape made by Republican Richard Mourdock, U.S. Senate candidate in Indiana, do not live in a bubble.

The Senate candidate’s remarks that pregnancies resulting from rape are intended by God — made during a debate in his home state of Indiana on Tuesday night — could have an impact on at least four Senate races in other states, including Ohio, Wisconsin, Nevada and Massachusetts.

Democratic strategist Karl Frisch told Current that the comments will force the extremely conservative tea party–backed candidates to either stand up for women or stand up for their own warped 1950s mentality.

By Carrie Mihalcik / current.com / @CDMihalcik

The Obama campaign went on the offensive Wednesday night, calling out Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for supporting U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, who is running in Indiana.

The campaign released three tweets highlighting Romney's support for Mourdock, including Romney's endorsement of the Senate candidate in a recent TV ad.

By Stephanie Whiteside / current.com / @stephgwhiteside

As Election Day nears, fears have surfaced about possible tampering with electronic voting, as Tagg Romney's Solamere has a business relationship with Hart Intercivic, which makes electronic voting machines. While that particular theory is up for debate, it is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to concerns over how votes wlll be counted this November.

The theory that Bain is planning to fix the election for Mitt Romney is likely unfounded. The thinking goes like this: Hart Intercivic, which makes electronic voting machines used in Ohio, is owned by investment company H.I.G Capital. H.I.G Capital, in turn, has business ties to equity firm Solamere Capital, which is owned by Tagg Romney. While Solamere Capital is emblematic of the crony capitalism practiced by the Romneys, with Tagg Romney trading on his father's name and connections in business, the idea of rigged voting isn't so straightforward. H.I.G. Capital is a partner of Solamere and has partnered with the firm on other ventures, and Solamere has denied any direct or indirect investment in Hart Intercivic, giving them less influence over the production or control of the voting machines.

By David Shuster / current.com / @DavidShuster

Dear President Obama,

As you head into the home stretch of this campaign, you should follow the example of Cheri Bustos, the Democratic candidate for Congress in Illinois’ 17th District.

Bustos has opened a clear lead over her incumbent Republican opponent by standing with the district's Sensata workers whose jobs are being outsourced by Bain Capital to China. This past Saturday, I had the chance to speak with Bustos on "Take Action News" about Sensata and the importance of U.S. manufacturing. (My interview with Cheri is 20.5 minutes into the second hour of the show podcast, which you can download here.)

Bustos is a thoughtful, caring citizen whose professional experience would put most representatives in Congress to shame. She served as a city council member for East Moline, was an executive for a nonprofit hospital and spent 17 years as an investigative reporter at the local Quad City Times. I'm a little biased on this. Still, it would be nice to see more journalists representing Americans in Congress. After all, reporters see the consequences of corruption and bad policy up close. And they've already got an appreciaton for transparency and serving the greater good.

By Jo Piazza / current.com / @jopiazza

The term "October surprise" has a long and storied history in American electoral politics. 

Salon.com reminded us that 50 years ago this week, America received an "all too real" October surprise when the Bay of Pigs incident brought our country to the brink of nuclear war.

"October surprise" has been widely used by the media since the 1972 election between Richard Nixon and George McGovern when on Oct. 26, the national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, announced that he believed peace was finally at hand in the long-standing conflict in Vietnam.

Nixon went on to achieve a 20-point lead in the popular vote.

Since then October surprises have dealt with hostage crises, terrorist videos and drunk driving — heady stuff.

Yet today, billionaire reality TV personality and longtime birthermonger Donald Trump decided to manufacture his own October surprise publicity stunt.

Watch Cenk Uygur smack down Trump's attempt at a surprise
with an Elbow from the Sky on "The Young Turks"
tonight starting at 7E/4P.

By Jo Piazza / current.com / @jopiazza

Attacks on victims of rape have become all too commonplace this campaign season.

We have wondered whether it is a case of foot-in-mouth disease or a missing sensitivity gene in certain members of the Republican Party that leads them to make such outrageous comments about the crime of rape and consequences for a woman's body in the aftermath of that violent act. 

On Tuesday, Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock declared that he opposes aborting pregnancies conceived in rape because "it is something that God intended to happen."

For more on Mourdock's remarks and the response from both sides of the aisle, watch conservative commentator
Mark Levin tonight on Joy Behar: Say Anything! at 6E/3P.

By Victor Balta / current.com / @VictorBalta

After three debates, one thing is clear: a lot of people out there think that Mitt Romney is lying, a lot of the time.

For the third time, we analyzed the public perception of truth during the presidential debate at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., and for the third time there was a strong representation of opinions that former Gov. Mitt Romney was lying. But this time there was a twist.

Partnering with Crimson Hexagon — which set up a truth monitor exclusively for Current TV — we found this time that 13 percent of the conversation about truth telling focused on President Obama lying. This number is up from 2 percent in the first debate and 3 percent in the second debate.

By Carrie Mihalcik / current.com / @CDMihalcik

Editor's note: "The Weekly Planet" is now just "The Planet," taking a look at the pressing issues facing the environment as they arise. 

President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney managed to discuss the economy, education, jobs, the deficit and several other domestic issues during the "foreign policy" debate on Monday night.

One issue that wasn't mentioned on Monday night, or in any of the presidential debates, is climate change. This is the first time in more than a decade that climate change has not made an appearance during the presidential debate cycle.

By Jo Piazza / current.com / @jopiazza

The third and final presidential debate had none of the warrior movements or the sniffing and circling of the first two debates between President Barack Obama and former Gov. Mitt Romney.

For this bout, the two men were mostly seated in front of moderator Bob Schieffer while they verbally duked it out on foreign policy. The GOP nominee may not have been as strong as the president on international issues, but if you dialed down the sound on your television he sure came off as warm and likable.

Want more debate analysis?
Watch "Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer" starting at 8E/5P tonight.

By Jo Piazza / current.com / @jopiazza

Speaking to a fired up crowd in Delray, Fla., President Barack Obama diagnosed his opponent, former Gov. Mitt Romney, as having a Stage 3 case of Romnesia during the third and final debate that took place at Lynn University on Monday night.

“Gov. Romney’s foreign policy has been wrong and reckless. Last night he was all over the map,” Obama said. “Last night he claimed to support my plan in Afghanistan, but he has opposed a plan to actually bring our troops home. We’ve come up with a name for this condition. It’s called Romnesia. We had a severe outbreak last night. It was at least Stage 3 Romnesia.”

Want more debate analysis? Watch "The War Room" with Jennifer Granholm tonight at 10E/7P.

By Carrie Mihalcik / current.com / @CDMihalcik

On Monday night, Mitt Romney forgot about a key component of participating in a presidential debate — pointing out what he would do differently. During the foreign policy debate at Lynn University, Romney repeatedly endorsed the president's actions and policies in the Middle East.

"(Romney) ended up essentially endorsing a great many of the positions that President Obama has taken," said Al Gore during Current TV's coverage of the presidential debate. "The net result was a clear win for President Obama."

Former Vice President Al Gore assesses Mitt Romney’s performance during the third presidential debate on foreign policy as part of Current TV’s Politically Direct coverage of the 2012 election.

“Gov. Romney, time after time, took pains to say, ‘Military action should be the very last resort. We should handle this peacefully. We should use negotiations,’” Gore says. “In all of the specific instances that they debated, he basically endorsed President Obama’s strategy.”

Current TV host John Fugelsang and former Vice President Al Gore weigh in on how President Obama and Mitt Romney fared in the third presidential debate, which focused on foreign policy, along with Current TV hosts Jennifer Granholm, Eliot Spitzer and Cenk Uygur as part of Current TV’s Politically Direct coverage of the 2012 election.