INDEPENDENTS ASSEMBLE! Tonight at 9 pm on your favorite new cable television news talk show, former congressman and three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul will deliver his verdict on President Barack Obama's lukewarm "reforms" of the surveillance state (I will give you a wild guess). Paul will also talk about how Edward Snowden should be treated back home, and how a certain senatorial son of his might galvanize the growing anti-surveillance sentiment in the country. "Progressive messaging expert" Richard Fowler will be on the Party Panel alongside former congressman Rick Lazio (R-NY) to talk about New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's pivot against the drug war during his second inauguration today, and also Patrick J. Kennedy's panicky pivot away from alcohol-prohibition comparisons. Eligible for further discussion will be death penalty cruelty in Ohio, and Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's superior approval ratings to those of Barack Obama. Also on the show will be beloved Reasoner Jim Epstein, to talk about his great piece from earlier today on how the real villain in Chris Christie's bridge scandal is the sprawling and corrupt bureaucratic mess, the New York-New Jersey Port Authority, which is a classic case of Progressive-era anti-corruption "reform" that ended up exacerbating the underlying problem. Not convinced yet? How about a round of "Ask the Communist" with Rolling Stone property-appropriator Jesse Myerson? Or a follow-up Kmele Foster-led round of "Is it Racist?" starring ASU frat-douches, Rob Ford's latest Jamaican-accented drinking binge, and the Twitter feed Yes, You're Racist. Send your hi-fives and sucker-punches to @IndependentsFBN and they may get used on air.