The bad terrorist men are coming to get you! Oooga booga booga! Isn't it funny how Republicans have continually intoned they are the only ones able to keep us safe from the scary men, but when the Obama administration actually decides to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five others for their terrorists acts, they turn--to a one--into the biggest WATBs at the thought of these Guantanamo detainees in a super-max prison standing trial through the American court systems. For all their jingoistic "We're #1" exceptionalism, these Republicans have remarkably little faith in our criminal justice system. And who better to represent these little p*ssified pseudo-toughs than Rudy "A Noun, A Verb and 911" Giuliani? He scored a trifecta of appearances, besting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who only will be on two shows. Meanwhile, the Republicans aren't done scaring Americans about health care reform, and you can bet the Pete Hoekstra on Face the Nation, Newt Gingrich on Meet the Press and Mitch McConnell on Fox News Sunday will be amping up the rhetoric.

ABC's "This Week" - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

CBS' "Face the Nation" - Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich.; Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Clinton; Education Secretary Arne Duncan; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.; the Rev. Al Sharpton.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Eugene Robinson, Katty Kay, Peggy Noonan, Michael Duffy. Topics: Will Obama Suffer Longterm Damage For Afghanistan and Health Care Delays? Will Sarah Palin's Book Tour Convert Her From Republican Rogue to Frontrunner? Meter Questions: Will President Obama Sign a Health Care Reform Bill This Year? YES: 5
NO: 7; Will Delays Over Afghanistan and Health Care Hurt Obama's Image Longterm? YES: 5 No: 7.

CNN's "State of the Union" - Giuliani; White House senior adviser David Axelrod; Sens. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Judd Gregg, R-N.H.; Gov. Brian Schweitzer, D-Mont.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - Fareed gives you a sneak peak into the HBO film he narrated entitled Terror in Mumbai. Plus, an incisive panel discussion on President Obama's first trip to China and the most important relationship in the world - between Beijing and Washington.

CNN's "Amanpour" - Amira Hass, Ha'aretz "Occupied Lands" correspondent, and Aaron David Miller, former diplomat who served six U.S. Secretaries of State discuss peace prospects in the Middle East.

"Fox News Sunday" - Giuliani; Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

So, what's catching your eye this morning?

For those of you who follow the inside baseball, National Journal has a look at the Republican strategy on healthcare reform: Delay, misinform, obfuscate... You know, the usual:

Grassley, the Finance Committee's ranking member, is the influential wild card among Senate Republicans, and he covets his reputation for independence. McConnell stays in close touch with the folksy Midwesterner, eager to keep him in the GOP fold. Many congressional observers have decided that Grassley is negotiating in good faith with Democrats to see if he can help get a reasonable bill out of Finance, but these sources expect him to reject a conference report later this year if it moves too far left.

In an interview, Grassley contended that Republicans should be delighted that he's on the job. "If they wonder whether or not our being involved [in the Finance talks] is doing any good, wouldn't you rather have a conservative Republican at the table than have nobody at the table?" he asked. "And secondly, hasn't our party, plus the grassroots of America, been pleading for time to study [legislation]? And suppose I was not at the table: There would be debate on the floor of the Senate, not in the Finance Committee."

Grassley said that Republican leaders asked him to block any Democratic moves to ration health services or implement a public option, although he tentatively supports a public cooperative that is not government-run. "So, the two things that Republicans are most concerned about -- the public option and rationing -- ain't going to be in it," he concluded.

Asked about his balancing act with Grassley, McConnell said that his colleague has been "very open" with the caucus. "I think it's been just fine," McConnell said of the Finance discussions. "I do read that some of the Democrats may not be that happy with it. But I don't think I have felt, nor do I think most of my members have felt, that they were trying to hide the ball on us."

Meanwhile, his "reputation for independence" is looking a little compromised. The New York Times:

"Some Republicans have begun to warn that Mr. Grassley should tread carefully on the health care bill if he wants to become the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee."

Politico:

"The three Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee are under pressure from their leadership not to cut a deal too quickly .. and that message has been delivered frequently in recent weeks."

The Hill:

"Senator Chuck Grassley, the senior Republican on the Finance Committee, has assured his GOP colleagues that he will not sell them out and strike a private deal with Democrats on healthcare reform."

[...] On Wednesday morning Senator Grassley said, the group was "on the edge" of agreement. But later in the day he walked those comments back, saying, "I think we’re on the edge of getting something. Now, when I say ‘on the edge,’ that could be within a week. It could be within two weeks, or it might not be until we get back after Labor Day."

Awww. I think it's sweet that they let him think he's independent -- and that Max Baucus is playing along with it.

♫♪Vacation, all I ever wanted...Vacation, had to get away♫♪ I'm sure that there is some wistful whistling in the halls of Congress, however we're going to be amping up the pressure--bolstered by Nancy Pelosi and James Clyburn--to demand that Congress forgo their August recess to keep working on health care reform. Health care reform will be one of the topics of discussion this Sunday morning. Unfortunately, another topic will clearly be Henry Louis Gates' arrest, because the media will never pass up a shiny distraction in lieu of what really matters, like honest discussion of health care reform.

Instead, we'll have Mitch "Luntz's BFF" McConnell providing a lying counterpoint to Nancy Pelosi on State of the Union, and Sen. Jim "Hissy Fit" DeMint shouting over Sen. Kent Conrad on This Week. If that doesn't strike your fancy, David "Can't Carry Cronkite's Jockstrap" Gregory will be interviewing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about her recent travels to India and Thailand, but you know he won't be able to keep himself from asking about some imagined insurrection by Clinton against Obama. Oh look, David, another bright shiny thing to distract you instead of the real life issues Americans deserve to know about.

ABC's "This Week" - Sens. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Jim DeMint, R-S.C.

CBS' "Face the Nation" - David Axelrod, White House senior adviser; Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn.; Gov. Bobby Jindal, R-La.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Howard Fineman, Michele Norris, Michael Duffy, Ceci Connolly. Topics: Was President Obama right to enter the fray over the Professor Gates arrest? What does the Libby pardon debate say about the Bush-Cheney relationship? Meter Questions: Will a handful of Senate Republicans vote for the final health care bill?
YES: 11 NO: 1; Will Obama sign a health care reform law this year? YES: 12 NO: 0.

CNN's "State of the Union/Reliable Sources" - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; Axelrod.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - Trouble brewing in Iran: President Ahmadinejad defies the Supreme Leader in an unprecedented act, and Moussavi -- the candidate who might have actually won the June presidential elections -- announces he will create a large-scale social movement to oppose the government in power. Fareed has the rare opportunity to speak with someone on the ground in Tehran about what is really happening there.

"Fox News Sunday" - White House press secretary Robert Gibbs; Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.

So, what's catching your eye this morning?

I really can't take watching the Sunday morning shows anymore. It's infuriating to watch hosts like Bob Schieffer (not to single him out) just ask basic questions about the issues, have no facts on hand and rarely ask a follow up. It's a talking points wonder. What's so frustrating is that the networks have the resources to really fact check and dig deep into policy like on the health care debate, but instead the McConnell's are just asked to comment on proposals or rumors.

Appearing on CBS' Face The Nation Sunday, McConnell told host Bob Schieffer that Mr. Obama's plan for a government health insurance plan would essentially crowd out other insurers from the private market, eliminating competition.

"We can make incredible improvements in American health care, but I don't think having more government — in effect putting Washington between you and your doctor — is the way to go."

Schieffer countered McConnell's contention that the Obama plan would choose (or deny) which treatments a covered individual may get; the White House is not proposing any kind of rationing board, he said. He also repeated the administration's assertion that a public insurance plan would give people another option. "If they want to keep their private insurance, that's OK," Schieffer said.

"I know they say that, Bob," McConnell countered, "but if the government is in the insurance business there won't be any other insurers, it's inevitable."

"All of that really ought to be put aside if we want to get a truly bi-partisan proposal," he said bluntly.

The Republicans and bought off Democrats don't want real competition in the Health Industrial Complex, period. If they love the free market so much then make the health insurance have to compete against something other than their brethren. Do you trust the HIC to actually come through on any of their promises?

How about if CBS puts a few of their crack reporters to work to explain why so many Americans go bankrupt because of health care issues with a large number of them already being covered? The American Journal of Medicine:

Results:

Using a conservative definition, 62.1% of all bankruptcies in 2007 were medical; 92% of these medical debtors had medical debts over $5000, or 10% of pretax family income. The rest met criteria for medical bankruptcy because they had lost significant income due to illness or mortgaged a home to pay medical bills. Most medical debtors were well educated, owned homes, and had middle-class occupations. Three quarters had health insurance. Using identical definitions in 2001 and 2007, the share of bankruptcies attributable to medical problems rose by 49.6%. In logistic regression analysis controlling for demographic factors, the odds that a bankruptcy had a medical cause was 2.38-fold higher in 2007 than in 2001.

Conclusions:

Illness and medical bills contribute to a large and increasing share of US bankruptcies.

Is that so hard? Health care is driving the country into ruin and all we get is a "no" to the public option while the "single payer" plan isn't even mentioned anymore. When conservatives like Mitch mention the word Bi-partisan, what he means is that they can only come together if Democrats do what they say. Has a major network taken the time to actually explain what the "public option" would mean at all? Instead we got the Grassley's and McConnell's saying that the public option will drive Insurance companies out of business. Why is that exactly? Viewers wouldn't know because they get no information. Here's The Mad Twitterer on the public option:
If 100 million people want to join the Public Option, what's the problem?

Chris Wallace asked the penetrating question to Sen Grassley:

Is it Senatorial to twitter like that?

Yes, Grassley twitters like a bozo and his attacks of Obama on twitter showed you the child-like mind of conservatives. When Bush asked Congress to start working on something, you didn't hear people complain that he actually asked them to do their damn jobs. But Grassley was offended.

And CNN's John King just blathered HIC (Health Industrial Complex) talking points repeatedly about health care.

John King fed them the conservative straight lines and they delivered the propaganda punch lines, one right after the other. If anyone stepped in with something provocative, like the guy who said that his doctor was making him pay $1500.00 per family member, on top of his insurance premiums, just to stay with him. King just blathered on about taxes as if that's this fellows biggest financial problem rather than the fact that he's getting it coming and going from the health care industry.

I'm so sick of the lot of them.