Do you remember tug-of-wars from your childhood? I remember the adult in charge lining up us kids by height and then going down the line, alternating which team we would be on, to ensure that neither side was unfairly stacked. That notion of balancing the sides to make things fair has morphed in modern media to this simplistic binary equation of Republican vs. Democrat. But it's a false equivalence, because it assumes a completely valid argument on both sides, and as we chronicle daily here at C&L, rarely do we see sensible, much less valid, arguments coming from the right to make the "balance" actually informative. Instead we get death panels, socialicommunistmarxism, concern trollism over deficit spending and the Olympic Games.
This week, despite the fact that bills are coming out of committees on health care reform, the bobbleheads have decided we need to talk about Afghanistan. So we have National Security Adviser Jim Jones on Face the Nation and State of the Union, UN Ambassador Susan Rice on Meet the Press and former CENTCOM Commander Anthony Zinni on Face the Nation. The economy will also get big play, with former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan on This Week and Sen. Barbara Boxer and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm on State of the Union to talk unemployment. But never fear, health care will be discussed, with of course, the media's version of "balance" of putting Party of No members John Kyl, Lindsey Graham, Saxby Chambliss and John Cornyn on to obsfuscate some more. One bright note in the morning, Rachel Maddow will be back on Meet the Press roundtable, so we have a chance of some reasonable discussion there. That is, if the Davids--Gregory and Brooks--give her a chance to talk.
ABC's "This Week" - Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan; Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and John Cornyn, R-Texas.
CBS' "Face the Nation" - National security adviser James Jones; Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.; retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni; Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo.
NBC's "Meet the Press" - Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Bob Woodward, Katty Kay, Elisabeth Bumiller, Howard Fineman. Topics: Will President Obama send an additional 40,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan? Will Israel attack nuclear facilities in Iran without U.S. consent? Meter Questions: Was the anti-Obama venom unavoidable? YES: 6 NO: 6; Has Obama Got Command Back? YES: 12 No: 0.
CNN's "State of the Union" - Jones; Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.; Gov. Jennifer Granholm, D-Mich.
CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - The United States holds its first one-on-one talks with Iran in decades. Will this new diplomatic approach work? Hear what our panelists have to say. Plus, the author of a controversial UN report on the Israel-Gaza conflict earlier this year. Finally, an interview with the President of Columbia on everything from the war on drugs to free markets and US relations.
"Fox News Sunday" - Sens. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Bob Casey, D-Pa.
In a post I did last week I was asking the whereabouts of George Bush. We now have a Bush sighting, and it's not about him defending Dick Cheney's lust for torture.
Bush also is quoted as saying Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was "being put into a position she is not even remotely prepared for" after McCain announced her as his vice presidential running mate.
“I’m trying to remember if I’ve met her before. I’m sure I must have.” His eyes twinkled, then he asked, “What is she, the governor of Guam?”
Everyone in the room seemed to look at him in horror, their mouths agape. When Ed told him that conservatives were greeting the choice enthusiastically, he replied, “Look, I’m a team player, I’m on board.” He thought about it for a minute. “She’s interesting,” he said again. “You know, just wait a few days until the bloom is off the rose.” Then he made a very smart assessment.
“This woman is being put into a position she is not even remotely prepared for,” he said. “She hasn’t spent one day on the national level. Neither has her family. Let’s wait and see how she looks five days out.” It was a rare dose of reality in a White House that liked to believe every decision was great, every Republican was a genius, and McCain was the hope of the world because, well, because he chose to be a member of our party.
When he says he's a team player all that meant was he didn't want to offend the wingnut base and their love affair with an unqualified VP choice. It's no surprise that he bangs McCain, but what will his loyal followers say after they read him attacking the teabagger Queen?
When I heard that the percentage of white voters who came out for McCain/Palin was...Schififty Five, I couldn't resist making this little mashup with the Group X song.
You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!
DOWNLOADS: (1600)
PLAYS: (5491)
After Wednesday night's speech, Bill O was running with McCain's original idea to "fix" health care by opening up all insurance companies to compete in all states. The problem with that is that each state has its own laws governing health care and it would cause incredible conflicts that could not be resolved. BillO is actually stumping for the federal government to destroy states' rights and their laws. Wow.
BillO: Why wouldn't the president say, let's let everybody compete. Let's let all the insurance companies compete nation wide and that will drive the price down...
Axelrod: Well first of all we have a system of state regulation, you know that of the insurance industry that makes that difficult. What we want is these individual market places. Some markets have competition, other markets don't.
BillO: The Feds can override the states...
Axelrod: Excuse me?
BillO: The Feds can override the states, you know that. You can make it so that all health insurance companies compete nationwide.
Axelrod: This is a historic moment with you calling for the feds overriding the states. I didn't realize you had that...
O'Reilly: Federal jurisdiction, you know federal jurisdiction takes precedence in almost every legislative area...
Axelrod was so shocked that he had to ask BillO to repeat himself. O'Reilly is a socialist now.
This is another example of how disingenuous conservatives are. If they want something---everything goes....Now he can't complain about anything the federal government does from now on because what he's saying is far more radical than anything that has been put forth by the Obama administration. Can you imagine the uproar that would take place if the president said he was going to override the states?
How we wish we could quit you, Mrs. Palin. But the right wing blogosphere is celebrating the First Annual Sarah Palin Day, the anniversary of the glorious hour she was announced as McCain's running mate.
You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!
DOWNLOADS: (1657)
PLAYS: (4730)
Rachel Maddow on the Republicans attempt at revisionist history that Ted Kennedy would have been all about compromising to the point of making it a lousy bill just to get something passed on health care reform.
Maddow: In other words if only Ted Kennedy were still here. If only he had a health care bill those Republicans say they would have voted for that. You know, ah, Ted Kennedy did have a health care bill. Senator Kennedy was chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee which approved a health care reform package in July. It's called the Kennedy bill. And Senator Kennedy, helped write that bill. Senators Hatch, and McCain and Gregg, all voted against it. But the revisionist history goes even deeper. They aren't just saying they would have voted for a Kennedy health care bill, even though they had the chance and they didn't.
They're saying they would have voted for a Kennedy health care bill because Ted Kennedy would have compromised with them, because Ted Kennedy was all about making concessions to Republicans.
[.....]
Apparently in the history of Ted Kennedy's life and work as imagined by the GOP today Senator Kennedy was the great compromiser. Ready to water down health care reform in order to bring Republicans on board.
As Rachel notes, Kennedy was anything but that. And to add to Rachel's point, here's a little mash up of some of the "news" coverage from today calling for "Kennedy-like" bipartisanship.
You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!
DOWNLOADS: (344)
PLAYS: (1166)
Later in her show Rachel gave some kudos to friend of the site Bob Cesca for his column at the HuffPo titled, Healthcare Reform Named After Ted Kennedy Must Not Suck. If there's one point to get across with all this yapping about what Senator Kennedy would have or would not have done to reform our health care system, I agree with Rachel that Bob's very simple, yet honest statement hits the nail on the head. Bipartisanship be damned if it means passing a lousy piece of legislation, and do not put Senator Kennedy's name on it if that's what we're going to end up with.
Maybe it's just me, but I think we're hurtling towards a Howard Beale moment between the blogosphere (the *new* media) and the mainstream media. You have cozy little holidays between politicos and the "journalists" scheduled to interview them like George's tweet above, oblivious to the appearance of conflict. And you have DFH bloggers trying to explain to corporate journos like Marc Ambinder, Chuck Todd and Joe Klein that we actually do know what we're talking about and moreover, we're correct more often than they are, much to their consternation. With the ridiculousness that passes fortop stories, how much longer will it be before we all collectively yell out that we're not going to take it any more?
Aside from the aforementioned lovefest between Georgie and McCain, the same ol' complainers are on: Grassley on Face The Nation; Orrin Hatch on Meet the Press and Lieberman on State of the Union. Ironically, the death of newspapers is the subject of The Chris Matthews Show. Betcha not one of the journalists will accept responsibility for the demise because of their abdication of their journalistic integrity.
ABC's "This Week" - Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
CBS' "Face the Nation" - Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Kent Conrad, D-N.D.; former national Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean.
NBC's "Meet the Press" - Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Karl Eikenberry, U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan.
NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Bob Woodward, Tina Brown, Gloria Borger and Joe Klein. Topics: Can America survive without newspapers? Will online news fill the void? When city papers fold, who's going to watch City Hall? Meter Questions: Will outspoken fringe players dominate GOP for the rest of Obama's term? YES: 9 NO: 3; If unemployment is still high next year, will Obama revise his tax proposals? YES: 11 No: 1.
CNN's "State of the Union" - Mullen; Eikenberry; Sens. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Ben Cardin, D-Md.; Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo.
CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - Encore presentation of Fareed's Emmy nominated interview with China's Premier Wen Jiabao. Plus, the always interesting Malcolm Gladwell tells us how to get to Carnegie Hall and more.
"Fox News Sunday" - Jim Towey, president of Saint Vincent College and former director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives; Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa.; Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.; Tammy Duckworth, an assistant Veterans Affairs secretary.
You know, I've been doing this Sunday morning shift for a few years now and I'm feeling a lot of sympathy for Bill Murray's character in Groundhog Day. Every morning I wake up, and it's the same ol' participants and the same ol' conversations and the same ol' media bias. Look at this line up: Sen. John "I didn't get elected POTUS, but I'll get the Sunday shows!" McCain on State of the Union; former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan on This Week (not to mention the ever-unbalanced and factually-challenged Michelle Malkin as part of the roundtable); National Economic Council's Larry Summers on both Face the Nation and Meet the Press and Senators Jim DeMint and Mike Pence on Fox News Sunday. Most egregiously, Tweety poses the question whether overt and extremist racism might actually help the Republicans. I can hardly stand it. Balance? A liberal perspective? Some journalistic integrity? Ha!
Doesn't it sound eerily familiar to pretty much every Sunday?
ABC's "This Week" - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner; former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.
CBS' "Face the Nation" - Lawrence Summers, director of the National Economic Council.
NBC's "Meet the Press" - Summers; former Reps. Harold Ford Jr., D-Tenn., and J.C. Watts, R-Okla.
NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Eugene Robinson, Norah O'Donnell, Jennifer Loven, Howard Fineman. Topics: Why is President Obama losing public support for health care reform? Could racist talk from extremists help mainstream Republicans in elections? At the end of 2009, will Obama be viewed as a change agent? YES: 8 NO: 4; Will a handful of Senate Republicans vote for the final health care bill? YES: 11 No: 1.
CNN's "State of the Union" - Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz; Christina Romer, head of the Council of Economic Advisers.
CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - Will a new president help to stop the deadly downward spiral in Afghanistan? Fareed interviews the two candidates with the best shot at unseating President Karzai in this month's Afghan elections. Plus, is the U.S. government interfering in Iran? Spying? Supporting the opposition? Sending in radio and tv messages? All of the above?
"Fox News Sunday" - Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y.; Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.; Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind.
Luckily, I got you babes to let us know what you see this Sunday morning. Leave your tips in the comments.
As I was pleased to note last night in an update, pressure from the Netroots was instrumental in getting Sens. McCaskill (D-MO) and Specter (D-PA) to come out against the Thune Amendment, an assault on federalism, personal security and the proposition that Dems might actually stand up for something.
The vote is at noon. Keep your calls coming, as we are on the cusp of wining this one and saving countless lives, not to mention shutting down a key element of the right-wing machine in DC: The NRA.
You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!
DOWNLOADS: (108)
PLAYS: (2872)
Rep. Mike Castle faced an angry constituent who wanted to know why he wasn't doing more about expose President Barack Obama's true Kenyan citizenship. To the lawmakers credit, he attempted to knock down that rumor.
You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!
DOWNLOADS: (851)
PLAYS: (2558)
Watching the talking heads on the Sunday shows can be infuriating most of the time and here's an example of what I mean. During the 2008 election, health care reform was a central issue that Americans were considering when they went to vote. It was a huge issue for the Democratic Party as all the candidates including the final three stumped for weeks on the principle of health care reform. But in the eyes of Michele Norris, that's not what happened at all and she's supposed to be the liberal on the panel I assume.
MS. NORRIS: But outside of the Beltway there's an interesting data point here that people involved in the process talk about, the fact that some 90 percent of the people who voted actually have health insurance and three-quarters of them are satisfied with what they got.
And there's different ways of looking at that. And one way to look at that is to say that perhaps there is not the public mandate for this that would dictate this sort of rush to legislation, and that's going to make it harder to make that point and sell that when they, when they...
My God, what is she talking about? There's a lot of things Villagers can say to torpedo health care reform, but this is just gibberish. America knows that our health care system is in shambles. Even John McCain campaigned on a crappy health care plan, only his idea wasn't reform at all, but how does this mean that President Obama doesn't have a mandate? Why is Congress consumed with this legislation then? It's because he has a mandate that he's doing it! That's a major reason why Obama won the election. And if we look at the 40 million or so who are uninsured, well that number is almost as big as the amount of votes John McCain tallied. And doesn't the President represent all of America?
I have pretty good health insurance that's very costly now and none of my doctors are accepting it anymore in California. How's that for health care? It's been the trend for a few years now in the sunshine state. I just had an MRI on my wrist to see if there's a ganglion cyst buried there. I had to pay over 50% of the cost and now the doctor wants to do surgery, but I have to pay at least half of that too. Guess what? I'm not going to have the surgery. Thanks a lot PPO. Oh, my health care is so wonderful that my wrist will remain in pain until..who knows...And I have a good health care plan which is better than most people have. Calling Michele Norris. Please wake up. It's the talking heads that are making Americans more worrisome about change. Anytime we make some sort of change in our own life it's pretty scary. The fear card is being played over and over again as negativity from the press pool is being trumped up too. Are they so alien to the rest of the country that they have to make a mockery of it?
If you didn't see John McCain's weasel defense of Sarah Palin quitting her position as Governor after he vouched for her character when he chose her to be his VP, you should. David Gregory even listed his own political history, which included scandals, personal attacks and being tortured to list a sort of character building for not quitting, and asked again, "How could she just quit?" His responses were very weird. Palin threw in the towel when it got rough and walked away from the voters of Alaska to make a fortune of doubloons.
If anybody should quit a governorship, it should be Arnold because he's led the great state of California into financial ruin in tandem with the legislature. Is California worse off than Alaska? You betcha. Did Arnold quit? No...I kinda wish he would.
You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!
DOWNLOADS: (1042)
PLAYS: (5467)
John McCain was on Meet the Press again this morning and was trying to defend Sarah Palin's decision to quit her job as Governor. When you win an election, you are making a vow to the people that voted for you that you'd work as hard as you can for the duration of your position. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place trying to make sense of her decision and even his answers didn't make any sense whatsoever. Gregory worked him over and tried to get him to admit that she didn't have the commitment to public office like he did, but McCain rehearsed as well as he could and still came off sounding like chalk on a black board.
(rough transcript)
Gregory: You must have been shocked to see Sarah Palin resign as Governor?
McCain: Well, I wasn't shocked. Obviously I was a bit surprised, but I wasn't shocked. I understand where Sarah Palin made the decision to where she would be most effective for Alaska and for the country...
Gregory: But you say you were surprised a little bit, why?
McCain: She had not called me and we discussed it since and I better understand the reasons for her decision...
Gregory: What were they?
McCain: Well, how could she best serve? How could she most effectively serve Alaska and the country and that was her
Gregory: But Senator, you have a reputation of personal and professional toughness and sticktoitiveness. You sought the highest role in the land as President of the US. You never quit.
McCain: No, I don't think she quit. I think she changed.,...
Gregory: She made a promise to the voters to serve out her term, didn't he?
McCain: I don't know if there was a quote "promise," but I do know that she will be an effective player on the national stage. And I will say...
...she's popular republican of her own party, she ignited our base, she did a great job as my running mate even under the most sustained personal attacks in certainly recent American political...
Gregory: Sen. McCain, you have faced torture, personal attacks, political attacks, investigations, you have never resigned from anything. Is it consistent with your qualities of leadership to resign an elected post like that?
McCain: Oh, sure.
Gregory: It is consistent?
McCain: If you can be, the question is how can serve most effectively...
The whole attack meme is so disingenuous. Every day Barack Obama is personally vilified and was during the campaign (nobody claimed she was a terrorist lover) and Sarah hasn't been subjected to anything that comes close to the personal and professional onslaught of attacks that Hillary Clinton did and is still receiving by the right and the media. Palin's been in the spotlight since the campaign. Hillary has been attacked on a daily basis since 1992 and yet she has managed to never quit a thing. How can Sarah serve Alaskans at all if she's not in office? I'm sure many Americans would like people to defend them in this way. She announced that she quit her job, but that's not quitting. She's just leaving office to better serve her people. Riiight. I mean what does that mean? Pols resign during scandals, (except republicans I should say) but she was voted in by the people for four years. She called herself a lame duck with almost half her term left. When did that become a lame duck status? Resigning would only help her to make a ton of money and build up a national base, not a local one. McCain wouldn't say he'd endorse her for 2012 yet, but did say she'd make a great president. Could he say anything else?
What is astounding is the New York Times chart which takes politicians out of the mix and breaks it down into the values that the Right espouses: Anti-divorce, anti-porn and anti-teen sex. Well gosh, even with my admittedly and embarrassingly bad math skills, it's clear that eight out of the ten states with highest rates in the categories of divorce, teen pregnancy and online porn usage were states where McCain came out ahead in the 2008 election.
Ahhhh, help...we need more teabaggers to save us...
