Sunday Morning Talk Show Thread 25 June 2006

Various big media television networks ^ | 25 June 2006 | Various Self-Serving Politicians and Big Media Screaming Faces

[Alas Babylon!]

The Talk Shows

Sunday, June 25th, 2006

Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows:

FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and John Warner, R-Va.; Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.; Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.; presidential speechwriter Michael Gerson.

MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis.

FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sens. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.

THIS WEEK (ABC): Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Richard Durbin, D-Ill.; outgoing Harvard President Lawrence Summers (TW may be preempted in some locations due to coverage of the World Cup.).

LATE EDITION (CNN) : Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai; Sens. Joseph Biden, D-Del., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.; Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani; former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger.

[Morgan in Denver]

Or,

Oops, there goes another Democrat rant....

[Carolinamom]

Thanks. I remember that toasting picture. But there is another one of her dressed in yellow and dancing....would have looked like a flamingo dancer if she'd had a rose between her teeth. LOL

[OldFriend]

The media is determined to make it more difficult to protect this country from attack. It's almost as tho they are wishing for something terrible to happen.

I haven't watched a single show today. Only soccer!!!

But it seems that Warner and Levin engaged in a love fest all week. Don't know for sure why, but it was rather sickening to watch.

Is Warner going to be stepping down from the Chairmanship of the Armed Services Committee?

[OldFriend]

And you can see why the rest of the stations just hate FNC.

The attacks on that station just make it obvious that the truth is hurting the dem agenda.

[Phsstpok]

Robert Duvall is one of my favorite actors, starting with his Boo Radley in  To Kill a Mockingbird. I saw a lot of my Grandfather's youth in his performance in Lonesome Dove. Duvall does, occasionally, talk about politics, and he's rather more right than left. I think that's part of the reason he doesn't live in Hollywierd most of the time. I think he lives mostly in a small town in Virginia.

Because of the premier of part one of Broken Trail tonight on AMC they've been showing Open Range, where he starred with Kevin Costner.  I'm actually listening in the background to the final part on AMC right now. Basically he was still playing Gus McCrae from Lonesome Dove and I bet that's what the character in Broken Trail will be.  That's fine with me.  I know he's got range and I like the Gus McCrae archetype.  John Wayne had more range then most people will give him credit for, but he knew enough to return to characterizations that worked (quick aside, one of the neat things in Wayne's last movie, The Shootist, is how they used clips from lots of different John Wayne movies as background for his character).

Now this may seem totally off topic, but it's not, stay with me here.  Albert Einstein would perform "thought experiments," or in German "gedanken experiment" (really, experiment is the same).  Well one of my favorite time wasters is gedanken casting of the film versions of my favorite books.  Robert Duvall shows up a lot in those hypothetical casts (see, I told you I'd get there).  The book that I return to repeatedly in casting and recasting (mostly as people grow to old or die) is Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land.  Duvall is one of my top three to play Jubal Harshaw, my favorite character in that book.

 

[Txsleuth]

You just said that one line was overboard..and since I haven't read it...I will trust that you are correct...


However, I got this ping...but then the later one, about Kristin Brietweiser's book being timed for the 9/11 Anniversary...

I haven't gone to that thread yet...but, I would guess that it the headline is true...Ann Coulter is feeling very vindicated right now....LOL

[Carolinamom]

Here's another sickening award...Julian Phillips of F&F was given the Edward R. Murrow award for excellence in broadcasting.

[Txsleuth]

I am pretty sure the Senators are "term limited" on those committees...otherwise Orrin Hatch would still be Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, IMHO>>>

But, I don't know if Warner's time is up...our luck, Chuck Hagel would be the next in line...grrrrrrr

[Txsleuth]

YOU are joking, right??

Julian Phillips???

With Brit Hume on his same channel????

[Carolinamom]

Thank you for that passage from President Bush's 1st inaugural. Both the words and the meaning have stayed w/me to this day. He really meant it and I think so too.

[Carolinamom]

I found that tidbit in Phillip's bio w/the list of his awards. Unbelievable, isn't it? LOL

[Laverne]

Here is a little tidbit I just saw on Drudge, no story yet:

MSNBC will be dropping some of its talk-show lineup in favor of more taped reports.. Developing...

Yeah, thats the ticket -- LOL! I don't understand why they don't just go ahead and throw in the towell. Until they get rid of Sissy CHrissy and Olberidiot and their ace reporter (LOL) David Schuster, the station doesn't have a prayer of succeeding.

[Phsstpok]

He's pretty arrogant for someone who had to have his @$$ pulled out of the fire in his last primary.

This is his last term, if he even lives to fill it out.  He blames conservatives for all of his troubles, particularly his near defeat in the last primary.  He's looking into the abyss and his failures are starting back at him. He will be a bizarre footnote to history, cited only by the lunatic fringe and universally dismissed as the ultimate lightweight who happened to be involved in the most momentous events of his lifetime.  History came knocking at his door, repeatedly, and he wasn't up to the task, repeatedly.

He's stuck between the first and second stages of Kubler-Ross' five stages of dying (thank you Bob Fosse and All That Jazz for educating me about that little bit of pop culture).  He knows all of his failures, deep down, and he's lashing out.

Do not hate him.  Pity him.

But don't stop working to marginalize him and undo the damage he does...

[tarheelswamprat]

The "mobile weapons labs that weren't mobile weapons labs" (BDS version) is another story that gets trotted out regularly. It's being recycled now as a way to try to discredit the 500 chemical weapons shells story.

That particular issue always puts me in rant mode because of the clumsy, stupid and dishonest way in which it was handled. The refusal of both sides to engage the matter with facts, logic and scientific analysis was utterly breathtaking. You would expect opponents of the weapons lab thesis to take this tack, but why the proponents who knew better allowed themselves to be steamrolled into docility is still a mystery to me. Here are two examples of this:

1. The Scientific Aspect: Molecular Permeation - The assertion of those who claimed the vehicles were merely used to store hydrogen for weather balloons is relatively easy to test. When a reactive gas such as hydrogen is stored under pressure in a metal container, some of the molecules of the gas permeate into the first few microns of the metal surface and react/bond with the metal molecules. If the metal container has been used to store hydrogen, metallurgical analysis of samples from the inside of the tank would show a higher level of hydrogen bonding than would samples from the outside of the tank.

Thus the questions with which "our side" should have pounded the deniers include "Were hydrogen molecular permeation analyses done on these vehicles?", "If so, who performed those tests, and if not, why not?", and "What were the results?" This last also should have been followed by a firm insistence on seeing the actual documentation of the tests and results, not mere acceptance of some talking head with an agenda's "characterization" of the results. In other words, put up or shut up.

2. The Common Sense Aspect - If we accept for a moment the premise that the weather balloon thesis of these vehicles' purpose is correct, then consider the following:

You're an Iraqi officer in command of the area in which these vehicles are located. It's early 2003 and tensions between Iraq and the US coalition are rising. The invasion seems imminent. Suddenly you get a call - it's started. The Americans are actually coming, the shooting has started, and some of your fellow officers are being killed. You ask yourself "What can I do, what MUST I do?" After carefully considering your options you know what you have to do:

Bury The Weather Balloon Trucks!

Yeah, that's the ticket. All hell is breaking loose, or is about to, and your priority is burying some "harmless" weather balloon trucks.

Of course the correct response to this is simply "WHY?".

Not only did I never see a rational answer to this rather obvious question, nor to the ones in section 1. above, I don't even remember seeing anyone on "our side" attempting to get an answer.

Rant mode off...(for now)

[Morgan in Denver]

I'm sure someone can do better, but here goes...

Next time your found, with your chin on the ground There a lot to be learned, so look around Just what makes that little old ant Think hell move that rubber tree plant Anyone knows an ant, cant Move a rubber tree plant But hes got high hopes, hes got high hopes Hes got high apple pie, in the sky hopes So any time your gettin low stead of lettin go Just remember that ant Oops there goes another rubber tree plant When troubles call, and your backs to the wall There a lot to be learned, that wall could fall Once there was a silly old ram Thought hed punch a hole in a dam No one could make that ram, scram He kept buttin that dam cause he had high hopes, he had high hopes He had high apple pie, in the sky hopes So any time your feelin bad stead of feelin sad Just remember that ram Oops there goes a billion kilowatt dam All problems just a toy balloon Theyll be bursted soon Theyre just bound to go pop Oops there goes another problem kerplop

Next time your found, with your tail on the ground There’s a lot to be learned, so look around. Just what makes that Democrat rant Thinks he’ll get a security grant Anyone knows a Democrat can’t Tell a whine from a rant But he’s got high hopes, he’s got high hopes He’s got high apple pie, in the sky hopes So any time youre getting low Try to let it go Just remember Democrats can’t Oops there goes another Democrat rant When troubles call, and your backs to the wall Theres reason to be scared, that wall could fall Once there was a silly old fool Thought he’d learn to play political pool No one could make the fool cool He kept chasing that that jewel Cause he had high hopes, he had high hopes He had high apple pie, in the sky hopes So any time you’re feelin bad stead of feelin sad Just remember that fool mule Oops there goes another political tool Problems are like a trial balloon They’ll be busted soon They’re just bound to go pop Oops there goes some more Democrat slop

 

[F.J. Mitchell]

Somehow I don't believe that by "A Free Press" our founding Fathers meant , free to aid and abet the enemy, free to lie both by omission and by twisting what is reported, free to become the most effective propaganda machine our enemies ever had.

I have to believe that if our fore bear's were able to have a say today, a majority of those abusing the right to a free press, would be on trial for treason, rather than deceitfully and arrogantly abusing that right.

[GunnyBob]

If you are in Maine, will you mail me some fried clams?

[Phsstpok]

Shortly after 911 I made a "poster" in Microsoft Word to print out and put in a picture frame in my office of that bit from Bush's first inaugural.  It's still there and I still get comments on it.  I included the "Let's Roll" image (below) of the crying eagle above the text, which was set in a very specific font (which doesn't reproduce on the web).

 

Somehow it got out into the wild a couple of months later and a local (Memphis) auto dealership started printing up copies and giving them out. I was a little taken aback and concerned about the copyright of the person who did the image, but since I wasn't doing it and no one was benefitting from it financially I didn't make an issue of it.

About a year later I saw a copy on a co-workers wall and told him "I did that." He challenged me and told me where he got it. I had to go to my original Word document and show him the edit history to prove that it was my work.

It's one of my favorite quotes and watching President Bush deliver that inaugural, with that as the punctuation at the end, is the first time I had the feeling we were dealing with someone special as President.  I thank God (and His angels) for giving us George W. Bush to help direct us in this particular storm. 

[Carolinamom]

I felt the same way when I heard his speak these words...still do. I've saved your Let's Roll Eagle picture...an original!

[Phsstpok]

the picture's not mine. I should probably look for the original so that I can credit the artist. All I did was put it with those last lines from Bush's speach and format them for my wall.

I am not the angel who directs THIS storm. Not hardly. But I'm glad to share this with anyone else who feels as I do about this issue and this man.

I truly believe that God has given us this man at this time as our best (and last?) hope for maintaining a "normal" civilization. Failure now, against this enemy, is unthinkable. My greatest fear is that George Bush will do everything right, but won't be able to set things in motion so that a President Kerry or President Clinton (Hillary) can't undo it all and Neville Chamberlain us into oblivion. We've got just over two years to move while we still have him. Now is the time we must all commit all of "our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."