"Jon Stewart Changes Fox News 9/11 Responders Bill Opinion" (video)

The Young Turks, video (08:47):

Cenk Uygur (host of The Young Turks) explains how Jon Stewart of The Daily Show changed Fox News coverage of a bill to help 9/11 first responders.

Ari Melber on "Lesson for Obama: Organizing 101" on The Young Turks (with video)

The Nation with video (13:05):

Nation Net Movement Correspondent Ari Melber joins The Young Turks to talk about Obama's inability since in office to galvanize the public on a grassroots level and to get any legislation passed through Congress. Based on a column by prominent organizing expert Marshall Ganz, Melber criticizes Obama for not polarizing people around the issues, such as health care and the stimulus. Melber discusses Ganz's argument that "you always polarize to move people; that creates the urgency for action...then you have to be realistic enough once you build power to depolarize and to settle or make a deal." Melber says Obama's strategy was the opposite; he placed emphasis on bipartisanship first.

Because of this strategy, Melber says, Organizing for America, Obama's campaign organization that remains tied to Obama, wasn't in a position to mobilize. "When the president was pursuing a strategy of 'let's compromise with everyone,'...OFA wound up being in a very weird position where...there was nothing they were clearly fighting for so there was no strategy," Melber explains.

Melber argues that OFA could have been used in very creative ways, but the administration was too afraid to alienate any Democrats. "I think his folks expected to get a lot more credit for bipartisanship than they've gotten," Melber points out. "They thought that by laying out this whole 'Kum Ba Yah' outreach that the establishment would have given them more room to maneuver [but it's been] quite the opposite."

Young Turks: "Ari Melber of The Nation on Newsweek/Obama Controversey" (video)

Young Turks, video (09:38).

Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA9) on The Young Turks (video)

The Young Turks, video (13:19).

Howie P.S.: It's refreshing to see one of our Washington state elected officials sharing their views in some depth on television. I get the impression they like to lay low, out of sight.

H/t to Darryl.

BONUS QUOTE OF THE DAY

Wes Clark, Jr. today on "The Young Turks" show on Air America:

I favor war crimes trials. These people don't deserve impeachment, they deserve prison.