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NBC Meet The Press (Tim Russert)

Below are the topics and guests announced for this program, along with my take on the "memes" that the show is trying to push. With each guest's name are a series of links that I found in a web search that helped me get a handle on who they are and what their likely positions will be when they are interviewed.

Meme:
- The wise men of the ISG have spoken, so we will praise them as the gods they are (so long as Bush disagrees with them, even if we don't agree with everything they say either)
- The Neocons are dead, long live the Neoliberals!
- What Tim Russert said when planning this weeks show: "I know, let's have a panel discussion with one guy who only thinks the war may be lost and three people who not only think it's lost, but who want to debate whether George Bush should be strangled, shot or burned alive as punishment."
- OK, everybody owes Tom Ricks an apology... his lies and fantasies turn out to be the point of view we all want to get behind now
Topics:
- The Iraq Study Group Report
  - Four days after delivering their report to President Bush, the Co-Chairs of the Iraq Study Group discuss their recommendations for winning the war in Iraq.
  - The report listed 79 recommendations for changes in U.S. policy on Iraq, but what are the chances for implementation?
  - Where do we go from here? Four military and foreign policy experts weigh in on the report and its repercussions on U.S. involvement in Iraq & the Middle East.
Guests
- James Baker
  - Co-Chairman, Iraq Study Group
  - James A. Baker, III Institute for Public Policy web site | Bio
  - James Baker, “realist” (Hot Air, MD - Dec 8, 2006)
  - Baker report: Israel must withdraw from Golan (Ynetnews - Dec 6, 2006)
  - ISG recommendations be implemented all-together: James Baker (The News - International, Pakistan - Dec 8, 2006)
  - The Iraq Study Group and James Baker’s Saudi Connection: Dem Skepticism Takes a Magical Holiday (Men's News Daily, CA - Dec 8, 2006)
  - Troops Out, Oil Companies In: The Baker Agenda? (Huffington Post, NY - Dec 7, 2006)
  - Going Bananas: 'NY Post' Pictures Baker and Hamilton as 'Surrender Monkeys' (Editor & Publisher - Dec 7, 2006)
  - GOING BANANAS OVER 'SURRENDER MONKEYS' (New York Post - Dec 8, 2006)
  - Baker reacts to 'surrender monkey' press (Washington Times - Dec 7, 2006)
  - FACTBOX-Five facts about James Baker (Reuters AlertNet, UK - Dec 6, 2006)
  - Presidential ingratitude (Boston Globe - Dec 9, 2006)
  - James Zogby: Bush and the ISG (Yahoo! News - Dec 8, 2006)
- Lee Hamilton
  - Co-Chairman, Iraq Study Group
  - President and Director of The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars | Bio
  - Heed Hamilton (Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, IN - Dec 9, 2006)
  - Hamilton: Iraq Recommendations Must Be Implemented As a Whole (Voice of America - Dec 7, 2006)
  - FACTBOX-Five facts about Lee Hamilton (Reuters AlertNet - Dec 6, 2006)
  - Going Bananas: 'NY Post' Pictures Baker and Hamilton as 'Surrender Monkeys' (Editor & Publisher - Dec 7, 2006)
  - GOING BANANAS OVER 'SURRENDER MONKEYS' (New York Post - Dec 8, 2006)
  - Baker, Hamilton Discuss "New Way Forward" Proposal for Iraq (PBS - Dec 6, 2006)
  - A bipartisan path to surrender? (Washington Times, DC - Dec 6, 2006)
  - Jimmy Lohman: Lee Hamilton - So Easy to Ignore (BuzzFlash - Dec 7, 2006)
- Ken Adelman
  - Former member of Secretary Rumsfeld's Defense Policy Board
  - Right Web Profile
  - Ken Adelman: a Rat Abandons a Ship of Fools (Harper's Magazine, NY - Nov 20, 2006)
  - Death of the Blair doctrine (The Age, Australia - Dec 3, 2006)
  - Neo-cons lash out at Bush over Iraq war planning (ABC Online, Australia - Nov 20, 2006)
  - END OF THE AFFAIR (The New Yorker - Nov 13, 2006)
- Eliot Cohen
  - Military Historian and Professor at Johns Hopkins School of International Studies
  - Author Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime
  - Right Web Profile
  - "The ISG Speaks Not For Me," Or, "It's The Mullahs, Stupid" (Town Hall, DC - Dec 7, 2006)
  - Neocons Move to Preempt Report: Jim Lobe (Antiwar.com, CA - Dec 5, 2006)
  - Defending Rumsfeld (Indiana Daily Student - Nov 12, 2006)
  - Bush adrift (Town Hall, DC - Nov 27, 2006)
  - New consensus emerges on Iraq—we were wrong (FinalCall.com, IL - Nov 7, 2006)
  - Weighing Options for the Best Exit from Iraq (NPR All Things Considered - Nov 13, 2006) Note: streaming audio
- Richard Haass
  - President of the Council on Foreign Relations
  - Council on Foreign Relations web site | Bio
  - SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD HAASS "Iraq Is Not Winnable" (Spiegel Online, Germany - Nov 13, 2006)
  - Iraq Roundtable: Withdrawal, More Troops or Same Strategy? (ABC News - Nov 29, 2006)
  - Is 'American era' ending in Mideast? (Middle East Online, UK - Nov 29, 2006)
  - The real meaning of a Democratic sweep: Neocons or liberals? (Online Journal, FL - Nov 8, 2006)
  - The New Middle East (Foreign Affairs - Nov 1, 2006)
- Tom Ricks
  - The Washington Post's Senior Military Correspondent
  - Author Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq
  - 'Go big' in Iraq war: US report Pentagon outlines three options (The Age, Australia - Nov 20, 2006)
  - Iraq report recommendations optimistic: analyst (ABC Online, Australia - Dec 7, 2006)
  - Readings in the Age of Empire Doug Bandow (Antiwar.com, CA - Dec 7, 2006)
  - The Israeli interest in Iraq: who has the answer? (Ha'aretz, Israel - Dec 7, 2006)
  - 'Fiasco' details foreign policy failure in Iraq that will haunt us for years (Lincoln Journal Star, NE - Nov 25, 2006)
  - Blaming the Iraqis: What Took So Long? (ZNet, MA - Dec 5, 2006)
What would you like to ask this week's guests? (web page for submitting questions for this weeks show)
Meet the Press mailbox (web page for comments)