August 11, 2013


Seinfeld - "The Opposite" (1994)

My husband has a friend who I jokingly refer to as "the Costanza" because his life just seems like a series of consequences from poor choices. It's hard not to wonder what his life would be if he had simply ignored his natural instincts and done the opposite. He could hardly have done worse. In many ways, I see the national dialog is similarly infected with Costanza-ism. After 30 years of failed Republican policies, it seems like it would behoove us collectively to wonder if maybe doing the opposite of those instincts would give us better results. Maybe instead of cutting Social Security benefits we should expand them. Maybe instead of starting up a whole new Cold War with Russia over Edward Snowden (admittedly, not the whole or even largest reason to disagree with Russia), we could be honest and admit that we would have done the same thing to them had the situation been reversed. And can we just point out that listening to conservatives about climate change has resulted in the warmest year on record? Maybe it's beyond time to do the opposite.

ABC's "This Week" — Edward Snowden's father, Lon, and attorney Bruce Fein; Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.; Reps. Ed Royce, R-Calif., Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, and Louie Gohmert, R-Texas; Donald Trump. Panel: ABC News’ George Will and Donna Brazile, Huffington Post Media Group editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington, “Bloomberg West” anchor Cory Johnson, and editor of The New Yorker David Remnick.

NBC's "Meet the Press" — Reps. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and Steve King, R-Iowa; Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.; Anu Bhagwati, executive director, Service Women's Action Network. Wall Street Journal's Kara Swisher, The Washington Post’s Barton Gellman and NBC Special Correspondent Ted Koppel. Panel: David Ignatius of the Washington Post; Republican strategist Ana Navarro; David Brooks of the New York Times, and Former Governor of New Mexico and UN ambassador, Bill Richardson.

CBS' "Face the Nation" — Reps. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., and Peter King, R-N.Y.; Michael Hayden, a former head of the CIA and the National Security Agency. Journalism Panel: The New York Times, Bill Keller, Politico's Editor-in-Chief John Harris and Len Downie, the former executive editor of The Washington Post. Foreign policy panel: The New York Times' Eric Schmitt, The Washington Post's Rajiv Chandrasekeran and CBS News' Margaret Brennan.

MSNBC's "UP with Steve Kornacki" - Raul Reyes, USA Today; Fmr. Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA); Brian Beutler, Salon.com; Elahe Izadi, National Journal; Richard Socarides, Fmr. White House senior advisor during the Clinton Administration; Rashad Robinson, Executive Director at Color of Change; Julia Ioffe, The New Republic; Miriam Elder, BuzzFeed.com; Dave Wasserman, The Cook Political Report.

MSNBC's "Melissa Harris-Perry" - Peter Goodman, Business Editor, Huffington Post; Lynette Khalfani-Cox, Co-founder and personal finance expert, askthemoneycoach.net; Stephen Lerner, Labor and community organizer; Shanna Smith, President, National Fair Housing Alliance; FXX host W. Kamau Bell; Tanner Colby, Author, “Some of my Best Friends are White”; Lizz Winstead, Author of “Lizz Free or Die”; Carlos Andres Gomez, Author, “Man Up: Cracking the Code of Modern Manhood”; Rachel Noerdlinger, President, Noerdlinger Media; Rachel Garlinghouse – Author “Come Rain or Come Shine: A White Parent’s Guide to Adopting and Parenting Black Children”.

MSNBC's "Disrupt with Karen Finney" - Spencer Overton, George Washington Law School; Steven Clemons, The Atlantic; Fmr. Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA); Nia-Malika Henderson, Washington Post; Lee Fang, The Nation; Joan Walsh, MSNBC Political Analyst; Kim Marten, Barnard College, Columbia University; Heidi Boghosian, Exec. Director, National Lawyers Guild.

MSNBC's "The Ed Show" - Katrina Vanden Heuvel, The Nation; St. Rep. Brian Sims (D-PA); Annette Taddeo, Miami-Dade Democratic Party; Mayor John Fetterman (D-Braddock, PA); David Cay Johnston, Author, “Perfectly Legal”.

CNN's "State of the Union" — Reince Priebus, Republican National Committee chairman; Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C. retired Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Ernie Banks, USA Today Sports Columnist Bob Nightengale, and documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. Panel: CNN Crossfire host Stephanie Cutter, CNN Political Commentator Kevin Madden, CNN Political Commentator Ben Ferguson, and CNN Political Commentator Errol Lewis.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - Peter Bergen and Gregory Johnsen; former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak; former media tycoon Conrad Black.

CNN's "Reliable Sources" - (Guest host: Brian Stelter of the New York Times) American University’s Jane Hall, Paul Farhi of The Washington Post & Jenna Wortham of The New York Times. Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget. Jeb Boone, former editor of the Yemen Times, and freelance reporters Adam Baron and Iona Craig. ESPN President John Skipper.

"Fox News Sunday" — Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Democratic strategist Joe Trippi and Republican strategist Chip Saltsman. Panel: Bill Kristol, The Weekly Standard; Joe Lieberman, Former U.S. Senator (I-CT); Carly Fiorina, Former CEO of Hewlett Packard; Julie Pace, White House Correspondent for The Associated Press.

So what's catching your eye this morning?

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