April 19, 2014

Natalie Merchant--"Kind and Generous"

I hope the Easter Bunny has left some yummy treats out for you. As Easter is the season of rebirth, perhaps it won't surprise you to read that this is my last Bobblehead post with you fine people, for at least a little while. I have an opportunity to pursue a project I've been working on and off on a more full-time basis, so I'm going to focus on that until at least the end of the year.

And frankly, I have begun to change my mind about the Sunday news shows. For years, I insisted to everyone who asked me how I could stand to monitor the shows that it was important to focus on how the Beltway Bubble framed the debates to all of us , the "bungled and the botched" masses. But frankly, now that we have studies confirming what we've suspected for years: we are an oligarchy. And moreover, as the inequality beomes more entrenched, it's killing those of us not privileged to be among the elites, literally. So I don't know that it matters any more what they want us to believe. It's wrong. Period. It's all designed to promote the oligarchy.

So while you can see for yourself below that there is absolutely no way to fail within the Beltway Bubble, and you can always count on Chuck Todd and Bill Kristol to land on their feet, I want to thank my friends here at C&L, including my beloved Amato. We have had many laughs, a few fights, lots of frenzied deadlines and email exchanges and a common bond that has kept us working hard together for almost ten years. I would have burned out many years ago if it wasn't for the community and camaraderie of Heather, Susie, David, Stella Barkwell, Nonny, Fran/Blue Gal, Neiwert, Jamie, Scarce, Logan, Perr, Karoli, Deborah, the hardest working mods in the business and the dozens of past contributers with whom I have had the honor of working. They are, in a word, amazing. There are no words for the depths of my admiration for each and every one of them.

And I want to thank you readers and commenters too. There are far too many to name. You have surprised, entertained, antagonized, annoyed, inspired, challenged and enchanted me at different turns. I feel incredibly privileged to have been given this opportunity to get to know all of you from your comments and feedback. Your generosities of spirit, your commitment and overall breadth of knowledge has made this a really rewarding part of my life. Thank you and I will miss that interaction more than I can express.

Who knows? Maybe at the end of the year, I'll decide that I cannot keep silent any longer again and you'll find my byline back. But until that time, stay committed to liberal politics, stay involved and VOTE, damnit. I need your smart votes to counteract all those bozos out there.

And tell Chuck Todd and David Gregory that they epitomize everything wrong with the media as often as you can for me.

ABC's "This Week" — Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas; former New York City police commissioner Ray Kelly; retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. Political roundtable; Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, CNN “Crossfire” co-host S.E. Cupp, ABC News contributor and Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, and ABC News Senior Washington Correspondent Jeff Zeleny. Easter roundtable: the Rev. Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association; Dr. Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission; Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith & Freedom Coalition and author of the new book, “Awakening”; and ABC News’ Cokie Roberts.

NBC's "Meet the Press" — Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Ukraine's prime minister; Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn.; Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla. Chuck Todd, NBC News Political Director & Chief White House Correspondent; David Brooks, New York Times Columnist; Radhika Jones, TIME Deputy Managing Editor; David Shribman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Executive Editor.

CBS' "Face the Nation" — Gov. Deval Patrick, D-Mass.; Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. Panel: Peggy Noonan of The Wall Street Journal, David Ignatius of The Washington Post, Michael Duffy of Time, and CBS News Political Director John Dickerson.

MSNBC's "UP with Steve Kornacki" -- Fmr. Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA); Dahlia Lithwick, Slate; Blake Zeff, politics editor; Haley Adams, Founder, Yale Students for Hillary; Mark Glaze, Director, Mayors Against Illegal Guns; Basil Smikle, democratic strategist; Raul Reyes, USA Today; Josh Barro, New York Times; Pia Carusone, executive director, Americans for Responsible Solutions; Nick Acocella, writer, editor, publisher PolitiFax; Brian Thompson, New Jersey reporter WNBC.

MSNBC's "Melissa Harris-Perry" -- Rob Breymaier, Executive Director of the Oak Park Regional Housing Center; Tanner Colby, Author of “Some of My Best Friends Are Black”; Ron Christie, Columnist at the Daily Beast / Former Special Assistant to President G.W. Bush; Dorothy Brown, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law at Emory University; James Perry, Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center; Julian Marshall, Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Minnesota; Julian Zelizer, Author of Governing America / Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University; Tara Dowdell, Democratic Strategist; Karen Finney, Host of MSNBC’s Disrupt; Heather Hlavka, Assistant Professor of Social and Cultural Sciences at Marquette University; Pearl Cleage, Author of “Things I Should Have Told My Daughter”.

MSNBC's "Disrupt with Karen Finney" -- Jonathan Alter, MSNBC Political Analyst; Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, MSNBC Contributor; Goldie Taylor, MSNBC Contributor; Irin Carmon, MSNBC.com.

CNN's "State of the Union" — DNC’s Mo Elleithee, Sean Spicer from the RNC, and political handicapper Stu Rothenberg; Sen. John Walsh, D-Mont.; Lukman Faily, Iraq's ambassador to the United States; Kim Beazley, Australia's ambassador to the U.S.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" -- Harvard's Michael Porter, Simon Schama, author of The Story of the Jews.

"Fox News Sunday" — Sergey Kislyak, Russia's ambassador to the U.S.; Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington; Power panel: George Will; Rana Foroohar, Assistant Managing Editor,TIME; Robert Costa, National Political Reporter for The Washington Post; Evan Bayh, former Democratic Senator from Indiana.

So for the last time, tell me, what's catching your eye this morning?

Can you help us out?

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