Guests:George Washington, The Coalition To Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights (not our first president)

"In Michigan, voters struck down racial preferences for admission to state colleges and universities. That happened in 2006 by 58% of the vote. Of course it was appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled this week 6-2 that the people of Michigan have a constitutional right to say no to affirmative action in education. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is angry about the ruling...
"The Justice firmly believes that minorities in America do not have equal protection under the law. She believes that because of the past, when blacks and other minorities were kept back by the white establishment, they have never been able to catch up. Therefore, the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment should carve out a special place for minorities, whereby they would be given preference in some areas...
"The problem is that by giving one person preference based on skin color or ethnicity, you harm another person ... Hiring, admissions, and other circumstance should be based upon achievement. So if you are a poor person and you achieve a certain grade level, as Judge Sotomayor did, that should weigh heavily in your favor ... Therefore, you take race and ethnicity out of it."
Mr. Washington pointed out that Talking Points is forgetting race has a tremendous impact - being poor and black is different than being poor and white. He accused the Factor and the Supreme Court of ignoring the reality of what blacks and Latinos face in this country.
According to the Factor, while minorities may have the deck stacked against them, to give certain skin colors preference in jobs and admissions, you'd have to overturn the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which was passed specifically for all races, colors, and creeds to be treated equally.
Mr. Washington countered that the color blind theory the Factor advocates would end up excluding one half to one third of the black and Latino students.

Guests:James Carville

Last Sunday, moderate New York Times columnist David Brooks said President Obama has a "manhood" problem in the Middle East - that is, he's perceived by many as not being tough enough there.

Carville began the conversation by claiming this "manhood" thing is getting out of hand, but he did concede that the President's foreign policy has been ad hoc. Yet, in his opinion, it has been out of necessity - for example, when Assad gassed his own people, he posited that the President was very tough but Congress didn't back him so he had to walk it back.

The Factor warned that Putin and the mullahs are likely to take advantage of Obama because they see him as Carter-esque. He also submitted the weakness the President showed towards Assad was a mistake. Carville reminded us that there was no public support for a bombing campaign in Syria, nor was there an appetite for it among the upper echelons of the military.

In another foreign policy arena, the Factor mentioned how the Chinese want to take a bunch of islands from the Japanese and Filipinos, and he's concerned President Obama won't be able to stop them. Carville wondered how Obama can be expected to end the historic animosity between the Chinese and Japanese.

Guests:Ed Henry

While in Japan, President Obama answered a question about Russia and the Ukraine by saying further sanctions are teed up and ready to go.

Ed Henry, who is traveling with the President, reported that the Japanese are very nervous China may move on these islands, and that watching President Obama deal with situation in Ukraine has exacerbated their anxiety. When Obama was pressed by a reporter about defending Japan, he got a little agitated, so everyone appears to be on edge.

Guests:Heather Nauert


The first correspondent expressed anger over gasoline prices approaching $4 gallon with the President delaying approval of the Keystone pipeline. Nauert mentioned this is the time of year when gas prices generally go up, but they have gone up 36 cents since the start of the year. The Factor commented that the building of the pipeline won't bring down gas prices.

Next, a Factor viewer is mad as hell that the captain of the South Korean ferry took his duties to those young passengers so lightly. Nauert explained how the ferry company had the least experienced person at the helm, and for this negligence, 11 people have been arrested.

The approval of powdered alcohol by the government has some Americans quite livid. Nauert announced that while the freeze dried alcohol was approved by the feds earlier this month, approval was temporarily rescinded because of a packaging discrepancy. This innovation doesn't sit well with the Factor.

One Factor fan wanted to know why drug cartels in Mexico haven't been labeled as terrorist organizations and why we're not taking them out with drones. Nauert outlined our qualifications for drone strikes: they have to be against terrorists who pose a threat to us; no other government can be capable of addressing the threat; and there must be near certainty that no civilians will be killed. The Factor chimed in that because Mexico will say they're addressing the problem, we can't use drones against the cartels.

Finally, Factor producer Jesse Watters of Watters World fame is accused of having a smug air of superiority. Defending Watters' treatment of a bunch of potheads in Denver, the Factor said the Watters World mandate is to capture what's going on in a certain place - if the potheads seemed dumb, that's because they are.

Guests:Megyn Kelly

On May 21st, the 9/11 Memorial Museum is set to open at Ground Zero. Included in the space will be a short film about the rise of al Qaeda, to which some are objecting.

The Factor laid out the beef - you can't zero in on jihad or the killers because you're besmirching all Muslims. He asked when this nonsense is going to stop.

Megyn, who interviewed a critic of the al Qaeda film on her show, said they attribute any link between the terrorist group and radical Muslims as a misrepresentation.

Wrapping up, the Factor concluded that this film is just a smidgeon of the museum and that there's absolutely nothing wrong with it.

Guests:Bernie Goldberg

There is no supervision on the Internet. Therefore, a bunch of websites have sprung up doing terrible things. Media Matters defames conservatives daily. Former CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson recently discussed how the website made her a target when she persisted with the Fast & Furious story.

The Factor asked if there's anything wrong the quid pro quo of taking money from people like George Soros to then harm the people he disagrees with on your website. Bernie made a distinction - it's not right to take money from wealthy people to defame their opponents, but it's acceptable to take money from partisans who want you to point out biases and inaccuracies of other side. He cautioned that there's not a shred of evidence that anybody gave Media Matters any money to defame Attkisson.

The Factor is convinced George Soros and his ilk ensure these Internet people have comfortable lives if they go after people like O'Reilly and Limbaugh.

Viewer Email
Archie Barton, Las Vegas, Nevada... "You stated to Stossel that you don't know what Facebook is. Please resign from the Factor so a younger journalist can take over."

James Isaacson, San Diego, California... "Stossel is like a pothead trying to rationalize Facebook. Its value can be replaced in a variety of ways without all the downside."

Chris Johnson, Billings, Montana... "Canadian and British wages may be rising faster than ours, but taxes take the money away."

The singer Beyonce is on the cover of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People issue. The Factor recently criticized her for her new video in which she cavorts around doing all sorts of explicit things. Could Time Magazine be jabbing The Factor? We'll have a report on this tomorrow evening. Here's a tip: don't miss it!