At a time when our government is lecturing dictators in other countries about censorship, you’d think they’d be a bit bothered by the manner in which corporations are using our own public airwaves.

The Pentagon’s public relations machine is working overtime these days trying to sell a theme of “progress” in Afghanistan to push back against calls to end the war. The message machine behind this push is gargantuan, costing $547 million and employing more than 27,000 people. But, as our latest Rethink Afghanistan video shows, all that wasted P.R. money can’t paper over the fact that the Afghanistan War isn’t making us safer, and it’s not worth the cost.

California’s Proposition 19, which will legalize, regulate and tax marijuana, is currently winning, 50 percent yes to 40 percent no, according to a new SurveyUSA poll of likely voters sponsored by CBS 5 KPIX-TV.

Fifty-six percent of adults living in the state think California should legalize the use of marijuana, while only 42% oppose, according to a new SurveyUSA poll. The level of support is basically unchanged from last year, when a Field Research poll found that 56% of registered voters in California supported legalizing and taxing marijuana for recreational use. And the poll is consistent with a recent CBS News poll showing that 55% of adults in “western” states support legalization, with only 41% opposed. California voters will be voting on a ballot initiative that would legalize, regulate, and tax cannabis. Currently, a strong majority of adults support the general idea, so it seems its fate will rest on the turnout demographics.

The New York Times/CBS News poll that focused on the opinions of self-identified tea party members paints an interesting picture of people who choose the label. We know they are very white, basically 86% of the them in the pool were white non-Hispanics. As a group, they tend to be financially better off and have a high level of education compared to the general public. They are also, as a group, much older than the rest of the voting population, and are more likely to attend church and call themselves “born again” (39% among tea party members, compared with 28% among the general population).

Democrats risked internal fights over mechanisms to make the bill deficit-reducing and took serious political hits for adding new taxes to the bill. Yet, for all this, they get basically no credit. On a PR messaging front, all that time, effort, and political capital was completely wasted.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) has become the latest prominent Democrat to say that the House must move first on health care reform before the Senate can act.

Dan Rather has lost what appears to be his last attempt to keep his civil suit against CBS and Viacom alive.

Racist Louisiana justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell