The Love We Make -- Premiering this weekend on Showtime

We all have our own personal stories on 9/11: where we were, what we saw, who we lost. The thing is, I don't know if I necessarily feel like sharing them, just because it's been ten years. It feels exploitative, and wrong. Which is, of course, exactly why we'll be inundated with 9/11 coverage today. Channel after channel, they are going to rehash the tragedy, with all the hysteria and hyperbole they can muster. But will they media take an honest eye to what happened? Will they admit that changed subsequent criticism of George W Bush? 'Course not. We'll have to relive collapsing buildings and sad survival stories and pictures of children who grew up in the last ten years without a parent. Personally, I'd rather watch the Mayles brothers' documentary of the Concert for New York that grew out of the tragedy.

ABC's "This Week" - Part of the network's Sept. 11 coverage.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Part of the network's Sept. 11 coverage.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Katty Kay, John Heilemann, Rick Stengel, Helene Cooper. Topics: Is Perry Like Reagan, The Westerner Who Can Defeat The Establishment Romney? In Bad Economic Times, Would Perry's Far Right Rhetoric Get Overlooked?

CBS' "Face the Nation" - White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

CNN's "State of the Union" - Vice President Joe Biden, former Bush White House chief of staff Andrew Card, former CIA Director Michael Hayden, Rumsfeld and others as part of the network's Sept. 11 coverage.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - Remembering 9/11.

"Fox News Sunday" - Brennan, Rumsfeld, Giuliani; Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.; Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich.

So what's catching your eye this morning?

Cold Cold Heart - Norah Jones

I had the distinct displeasure of listening to the ultra-conservative radio station here in San Francisco (amazingly, we have three conservative stations here to the one remnant of the late Air America) this weekend as my husband and I drove around running errands. I don't do it often, because it makes me question my faith in humanity. But after listening to the weekend host not only rationalize, but agree with Allen West's** offensive "plantation" remarks, I came to some conclusions. In order to be a conservative, you have to either have a cold cold heart or you simply cannot figure out the most basic logical equation. Because as I listened to this host complain mightily about all these welfare queens being created by the existence of "Democratic" programs (as if only Democrats take advantage of these programs) and said that we needed to end them right away to get people to pull themselves up from their bootstraps. No, see, as a liberal, the next logical question for me is, "But what if they can't? What do we do then?" And that's where we see the failure of the conservative dogma. Either they haven't thought it through...or they just don't care. Those people don't stop needing help just because you make it harder for them to receive it. As much as conservatives like to paint the whole by the mythological exception, there are people who simply do need assistance. And here, in the wealthiest country in the world, there is absolutely no excuse for us to let fellow human beings falling through the cracks like that.

I'll leave it to you to decide in which category this Sunday's news show guests fall. Jon Huntsman is the featured guest on This Week. There are times he does appear to be the only adult in the Republican clown car of a primary, so I imagine his time on the campaign trail is not much longer. Not to be overshadowed, Rick Santorum is heading for the far more friendly territory of Fox News Sunday, although between you and me, I think Chris Wallace struggles mightily to find ways to make Santorum not seem crazy. And if it's Sunday, it's time for some more Grampy McSame, this time facing Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation.

ABC's "This Week" - Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, a 2012 GOP presidential candidate; David Axelrod, senior political adviser to President Barack Obama's re-election campaign.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Robert Gibbs, adviser to the Obama campaign; Gov. Mitch Daniels, R-Ind.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Katty Kay, John Heilemann, Rick Stengel, Helene Cooper. Topics: Is Perry Like Reagan, The Westerner Who Can Defeat The Establishment Romney? In Bad Economic Times, Would Perry's Far Right Rhetoric Get Overlooked?

CBS' "Face the Nation" - Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe; former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie.

CNN's "State of the Union" - Axelrod; Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell, head of the Republican Governors Association; Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, head of the Democratic Governors Association; Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - Economist Jeffrey Sachs, TIME’s Rana Foroohar, CFR’s Richard Haass, and British historian Andrew Roberts.

"Fox News Sunday" - Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a 2012 GOP presidential candidate; former Bush political adviser Karl Rove; former Obama White House aide Bill Burton.

So what's catching your eye this morning?

**Corrected to reflect correct attribution

Who knew Fox News Sunday mashes up so well with Monty Python? (via yours truly) It's always a trip to see what Jon Kyl gets away with on Fox News Sunday. That said, I'm looking forward even more to seeing what everyone else will NOT get away with on Meet The Press, given that Rachel Maddow is on the panel this morning:

The Chris Matthews Show: Panel with Joe Klein, Time magazine; Trish Regan, CNBC; Katty Kay, BBC; Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune.

Meet the Press: White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. Panel: David Brooks, New York Times; former Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.); Ed Gillespie; Rachel Maddow.

ABC's This Week: White House advisor David Axelrod; Rep. Arizona immigration law: Brian Bilbray (R-Ca.); Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.). Panel: Ron Brownstein; Ruth Marcus; the Washington Post; Reihan Salam, National Review; George Will.

Fox News Sunday With Chris Wallace: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.); David Axelrod, White House Senior Adviser.

What's catching your eyes and ears this morning?

Gee, what are the odds Dick Cheney will once again accuse the Obama administration of making the nation vulnerable to terrorist attack again this morning when he makes a fresh round on the talk-show circuit with an appearance on ABC's This Week?

Fortunately, Joe Biden will also be out there, making two appearances in one day (on "Meet the Press" and "Face the Nation"). Right-wingers love to make fun of Biden, but stacked up against Dick Cheney, just about anyone looks good.

ABC's "This Week" - Former Vice President Richard Cheney sits down with guest anchor ABC News’ Congressional Correspondent Jonathan Karl.

CBS' "Face the Nation" - Vice President Joseph Biden.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Vice President Joseph Biden, former Rep. Harold Ford, Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Ill., David Brooks, Rachel Maddow.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: John Heileman, New York Magazine; Katty Kay, BBC Washington Correspondent; Gloria Borger, CNN Political Analyst; Bob Woodward, Washington Post.

CNN's "State of the Union" - National Security Adviser Jim Jones; Sens. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - Paul Volcker, Obama's key economic advisor and former fed chairman, on a crisis even more serious than financial reform. Then, Iran increases its nuclear capabilities - what options are left? Finally, a discussion with South African President Jacob Zuma. 20 years after Nelson Mandela was set free, where does the country stand?

CNN's "Amanpour" - An exclusive interview from Haiti with U.N. Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie. Christiane speaks with Jolie about adoption in Haiti and child trafficking in the midst of the disaster. Iran's Rallying Cry: 31 years after Iran's Islamic revolution there are massive pro- and anti-government rallies. The government vowed opposition protests would be crushed. We look at Iran's Islamic republic at odds with itself.

"Fox News Sunday" - "As Washington recovers from its historic snowfall, a political storm continues to rage over homeland security. Should John Brennan, the president's chief counterterrorism adviser, step down? We'll get reaction from Gen. Jim Jones, White House national security adviser, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C."

What piques your interest this morning? Leave your tips in the comments.

"President" Newt Gingrich on Da Ali G Show

Oh look, President Newt Gingrich is on the Sunday shows. Again. Gosh, I'm so glad that the media is around to tell us just who embodies the change for which we voted. And looking around, it's no better on any other show: former Bush attorney Ed Gillespie on This Week, former governor Mitt Romney on Fox News and every single milquetoasty DINO booked (I'm looking at you, Feinstein and Specter) is paired with a camera-hogging, sound-byte ready (if fact-negligible) Republican like John Kyl, Mitch McConnell or Lindsey Graham. Hello: reality-based community to media--it's 2009, not 2000. Catch the hell up already.

ABC's "This Week" - Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and John Cornyn, R-Texas; Ed Gillespie, former Bush White House counselor.

CBS' "Face the Nation" - Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Pre-empted for the French Open.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Gloria Borger, Dan Rather, John Heilemann, Katty Kay. Topics: Has President Obama solidified a lasting majority for the Democratic Party? How should Republicans respond to Obama, and who are their promising stars? Meter questions: Will Senate Republicans attack Sonia Sotomayor as a liberal or show deference to her? YES: 10 NO: 2; Is Obama winning the national security policy debate with Cheney? YES: 11 No: 1.

CNN's "State of the Union/Reliable Sources" - Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas; Gillespie; Sameh Shoukry, Egypt's ambassador to the U.S.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - In a speech in Cairo this Thursday, President Obama called for a "new beginning" for relations between the U.S. and the Muslim world. Fareed brings together a panel of experts from around the Muslim world and the region to react to and analyze the speech...and what it means for U.S./Arab relations. Plus, author Michael Lewis on the economic crisis and the future of Wall Street.

"Fox News Sunday" - Sens. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass.

So, what's catching your eye this morning?

Oasis -- Don't Look Back In Anger

It's more of the Republican Legacy Tour this Sunday. The main event will be beleaguered former Secretary of State Colin Powell on Face The Nation. He's getting it from all sides: the left, unwilling to forgive him for his lies in getting us into war and now the R(ush) N(ewt) C(heney) Party, unhappy with his recent honesty regarding the health of his own party. And the man who puts the N(ewt) in RNC will be on Meet The Press, to continue to show that despite the fact that he was forced to leave Congress in disgrace for his own hypocrisy years ago, he's the best they have to be the "new" face of change for the Republican Party. And of course, the compliant media keeps their focus on the GOP for yet another week.

ABC's "This Week" - Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

CBS' "Face the Nation" - Former Secretary of State Colin Powell; author Alvin Poussaint.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Michael Duffy, Katty Kay, Jennifer Loven, David Ignatius. Topics: Will the right or the left be a bigger thorn for Obama on national security? Has Obama already begun his reelection campaign with travel to red states? Meter Questions: Is Obama winning the national security policy debate with Cheney? YES: 11 NO: 1; Can Obama keep Pakistan's government in power? YES: 2 No: 10.

CNN's "State of the Unionk/Reliable Sources" - Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge; Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - Fareed sits down with Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in an exclusive interview. Musharraf is the guest for the hour and they discuss his years in power and resignation, Pakistan's deadly struggle against the Taliban, strained relations between India and Pakistan, and Benazir Bhutto's death.

"Fox News Sunday" - Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.

So, what's catching your eye this morning?

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While I think it is premature to write an obituary for the Republican Party, it's hard not to watch this clip and not come to the conclusion that the party is in critical condition.

What is a consensus amongst the talking heads is that the GOP is lost today: no leader, no clear idea of what values to champion, no clear idea if it should be centrist or move even further to the right. Of all the things that the Bush administration destroyed in their term of office, their own party is probably the most surprising.

And who is it poised to rise again like Lazarus to prove the divine right of the GOP, according to those Beltway insiders? Newt "Love means never having to say I'm sorry to my other wives" Gingrich. Even Chris Matthews cannot hold back his patented guffaw at the thought.

Ultimately, the group agrees that it remains to be seen whose idea will resonate with the general public, but it appears that no one currently vying for the top role has been able to offer an idea that we haven't seen for the last 30 years. So have I got this straight? No obvious leader, rudderless and no new ideas?

Awwww....couldn't happen to a more deserving party.

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One of the more laughably adolescent and petulant aspect of Bush's Farewell Legacy Tour is the refusal to examine any aspect of his presidency, brushing it off with a "Well, you may not agree with me, but you have to agree that I made tough decisions."

Maybe it's not so surprising that the guy who got to Harvard and Yale on legacy and who needed to be bailed out by Daddy and friends on every business he attempted thinks that he deserves credit for merely sticking it out and not pushing off "hard" decisions to others. Certainly, that has been his modus operandi before public office. But clearly, that excuse isn't flying with the media any longer, as exemplified from this segment of The Chris Matthews Show, which highlight the fatal flaw of Bush's reasoning: you don't get credit for making the tough decisions, you get credit for making the right decisions.

KAY: Of course he had to face tough decisions. Because that’s the job of the American president, you have to face tough decisions. And you have to face them well and make the right decisions. I think the trouble is in all the interviews he’s given—these farewell interviews—he still really hasn’t answered satisfactorily the central question of his presidency: Why did he invade Iraq? It’s not enough to say it was a tough decision, so I made it, you have to say it was the right decision. [..]

RATHER: As far as it goes, it’s a fair estimate that great presidencies are made out of crises. If you come up with the right answers. The business of tough decisions, every president has tough decisions to make. Herbert Hoover had tough decisions to make. He made some of the wrong ones. Gen. Grant, for all his generalship when he was president, made tough decisions, but made the wrong decisions. This is the way history goes, fairly or unfairly. It seems to me, you make the wrong decisions, you pay the price. [..]

WHITAKER: Chris, you know, Bush likes to think of himself as the Great Decider, but I think one of the things that history is going to record is how indecisive he was at key moments. You think about Katrina, and handling that crisis. You think about the current economic crisis, that he’s leaving and how he was sort of asleep at the switch as that all happened. And even on Iraq, even though he was decisive on going to war, he was incredibly indecisive about the aftermath of the war. And I think that that’s the root of a lot of the problems we’ve had there.

Wow, you know, these Media Elite types are actually starting to sound like us DFHs, aren't they? Too bad their honesty only kicked in as Bush got kicked out.

Transcripts below the fold

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John Amato has blogged about this and this clip from this week's The Chris Matthews Show is proof positive that the progressive blogosphere must be smart about picking battles in pushing a liberal agenda for America. Let's face it, you and I and the rest of the liberal blogosphere have been right more often than not and certainly exponentially over the Villagers that populate The Chris Matthews Show. But they're not ready to give up their coveted place at the table, and certainly not to upstart bloggers who don't have the decency to take them at their word any longer.

So to those oh-so-wise Beltway bobbleheads, we will be the "angry left" that Obama must marginalize in order to have a successful presidency. It won't be the Republicans with their bag of obstructionist tricks, ones of which WaPo's Ceci Connolly doesn't even have memory, that give Obama a hard time, it will be us, the "angry left." We are the ones to not give Obama a "honeymoon period" and we will be the ones fighting him as he attempts to execute his agenda.

Sigh. Do anyone of these chuckleheads ever consider that the reason the left has been so "angry" for the last eight plus years is that what we've said and what we've valued has been criticized, dismissed, sneered, condemned, denounced and our characters attacked? Of course not. And when the nation shows that they have awakened to what we've been saying all along and announced with their vote that they want to give the left a shot, we're still criticized, dismissed, sneered, condemned, denounced and our characters attacked because we might like to see some people actually reflective of our values in office.

Good to see the open minds of the Very Serious Villagers remain. Would that they would be so condemning of those who have been so very wrong all this time.

Transcripts (courtesy of Heather) below the fold

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This is truly a sad statement on the state of journalism in the US today. That the question "How is Obama different from Bush?" even needs to be posed -- much less discussed -- is truly insulting to the intelligence of the waning viewers that these guys get.

Hmmm....let me count the ways: One's a divisive ideologue who has risen to undeserved levels of status given his personal mediocrity and intellectual laziness due to his connections versus one who believes in a post-partisan government that gets things done who has had to overcome many personal obstacles to achieve great levels based on intelligence, charisma and hard work. I can totally see why the public would need this clarified.

The thing that continues to be so frustrating is the continued post facto admissions by the Villagers as to the deficits that we've had over the last eight years with Bush. Sure, now that he is two months away from walking out of the White House for the last time, we can admit that the world hates us and doesn't want to work with Bush, as Katty Kay does, or that he is stupid (to put a more honest term to Woodward and Borger's "intellectually incurious) and finds the whole "understanding other people's points of view" boring.

But where were they for the last four years? Where was their outrage and coverage of this then? How many soldiers' lives could we have saved if the media had been more honest about Bush? How many poor Iraqi civilian lives? Time and time again, the media abdicates their role in presenting context and in this case, their acceptance of the catapulted propaganda has led the country to the brink of ruin. And yet they feel no culpability. Instead, they treat us to these faux-hard hitting dialogues comparing and contrasting Obama to Bush. Brilliant.