When we at HUSTLER think of Willard Mitt Romney—the former governor of Massachusetts and current Republican Presidential aspirant—T.S. Eliot’s poem The Hollow Men comes to mind. How else would you describe someone who has no discernible identity? Oh sure, flip-flopper kinda works, but does it really convey the truly empty and vacuous entity that is Mitt Romney? Of course not.

So just how hollow is Mitt Romney exactly?

That’s not an easy question to answer, given that it’s impossible to know what Mitt really believes in—if indeed he believes in anything at all. In less than ten years, the former CEO of Bain Capital has totally reversed himself on such issues as abortion, same-sex marriage, gun ownership, tax reform, climate change, healthcare and probably a few other issues we’ve forgotten about.

Beverly Hills, CA – May 1, 2012 – Hustler Magazine and its publisher, Larry Flynt, today achieved another victory in defense of the First Amendment. In a unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, the court threw out a jury award of punitive damages in a lawsuit brought by Maureen Toffoloni, the mother of Nancy Benoit, the murdered wife of professional wrestler Chris Benoit. The lawsuit alleged that in publishing nude photographs of Ms. Benoit as part of an article about her murder, Hustler violated her right of publicity.

At trial in an Atlanta federal court, the jury awarded Ms. Benoit’s estate approximately $19.6 million in punitive damages for Hustler’s publication of Benoit’s images. The trial judge reduced that amount to the Georgia statutory maximum of $250,000, which the court of appeals decision vacated.

On appeal, Hustler argued that even if the nude photographs were not newsworthy, Flynt and his staff honestly believed that their publication was newsworthy and protected by the First Amendment. As a result, any award of punitive damages was unjustified. In agreeing with Hustler, the 11th Circuit panel found that Ms. Toffoloni had failed to refute the testimony of numerous…

By Christopher Glenn Fichtner, M.D.

The author of Cannabinomics: The Marijuana Policy Tipping Point makes a compelling case for legalizing marijuana, in fact, he suggests it’s inevitable.

ON JUNE 16, 2011, the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s declaration of “war on drugs,” the New York Times published an op-ed titled “Call Off the Global Drug War.” It was written by none other than former President Jimmy Carter, who cited the “courageous and profoundly important recommendations” of the recent Global Commission on Drug Policy.

These recommendations harkened back to Carter’s own message to Congress on August 2, 1977: “Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marijuana for personal use. The National Commission on Marijuana…concluded years ago that marijuana use should be decriminalized, and I believe it is time to implement those basic recommendations.”

THE GOVERNMENTS OF JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES, AS WELL AS ADVOCATES OF ATOMIC ENERGY, ARE COVERING UP THE AWFUL TRUTH ABOUT THE WORLD’S WORST NUCLEAR ACCIDENT.

Epidemiologist Joseph Mangano says that “the absurd belief that no one will be harmed by Fukushima is perhaps the strongest evidence of the pattern of deception and denial by nuclear officials in industry and government.”

Come meet Larry Flynt for his book signing tour of One Nation Under Sex!

POSTPONED TO JUNE

BIG BROTHER CAN DIG UP LOTS OF PERSONAL INFO—BUT SOME IS JUST HOGWASH.

And did you know that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are now testing ways to determine if someone is only thinking about or imagining some deep danger to our safety?

DOWNSIZING THE MIDDLE CLASS IS A RISKY BUSINESS.

While the superrich scurry for safety in their fortress enclaves, suburbs across the country feature boarded-up houses with mortgages that are deeply underwater.

It started when a bunch of college kids, responding to a tweet, descended on Wall Street. They stayed, and the crowd grew. Now there are thousands of them, and they’re not just in New York City anymore. Nor is the movement still limited to undergrads.

In a nation where 1% of the population controls almost half of the wealth, these protesters have chosen to call themselves the 99 Percent. They are the working class, the poor, the disenfranchised. They represent everyone excluded from a political process that has been hijacked by corporations and multimillionaires. The 99 Percent want their government back.

This looks and feels like something different. It feels organic. It reminds me of the 1960s’ antiwar movement. A long-simmering undercurrent of unrest in our country is now bubbling to the surface. Our politicians ignore this movement at their peril. As Bob Dylan said, “The times they are a-changin’.”

CEOs Get Paid More Than Uncle Sam

CEOs nationwide are reaping lavish rewards for their aggressive tax dodging. Of America’s 100 corporations with the highest-paid CEOs, 25 paid their top executives more in compensation than they did in 2010 federal income taxes. These 25 CEOs averaged a salary of $16.7 million.

The most profitable of all the firms? General Electric. In 2010, GE alone received tax refunds of $3.3 billion despite a whopping $5.1 billion in U.S. pre-tax profits. CEO Jeff Immelt’s 2009 compensation nearly doubled in 2010 as he raked in $15.2 million. Meanwhile, GE shut down 31 factories, reduced its workforce by 19,000 and cut pay and benefits for employees. GE also surpassed all other corporations in lobbying and political campaign spending. Its total investment in swaying politics to their advantage: $41.8 million.

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As seen in THE WASHINGTON POST Sunday, March 4, 2012