TV SoundOff: Sunday Talking Heads

Good morning and welcome to your Sunday morning liveblog of your Sunday morning political chatfests. My name is Jason, and by the time your read this, I will be gone. Now, don't worry. By "gone," I do not mean that I have finally performed the act of seppuku over having to watch these shows. It will be many weeks before I'll be ready to do that. No, other HuffPosty duties have demanded my attention today, and I must tend to those. Not to worry! I will be back next week! But then, yeah, I'll be gone again the week after, because of vacation.

Anyway, sorry about that! I still thought it would be good to open up a thread here for people to watch the shows and interact with each other in the comments. I even solicited some topics for discussion, during the boring parts of the shows: like Fox News Sunday's "Power Player" segment, This Week's "Sunday Funnies" regurgitation, or anytime David Gregory is speaking, on Meet The Press.

--What's with MSNBC's lack of original news programming on the weekend? Shouldn't weekend news be part of being a big-boy news channel? Or would no one bother to watch it, anyway?

--What's with everyone NOT tracking where all the TARP money went, and then saying, "Oh, shucks, well, we couldn't have tracked that TARP money, because that would require powerful magic, sorry!" Isn't there a thing called "fund accounting?" Are any of you "fund accountants?" Are any of you powerful wizards possessed of TARP tracking magicks? Leave an incantation, in the comments.

--Lobbyists. They are THE SUCK. But what can be done about them? Is meaningful lobbying reform possible? Can it be reformed in DC, or have we reached the point where the imposition of term limits is the only thing we can do to disconnect politics from the money sickness. What would real reform look like, to you?

--What should I read at the beach? Right now I plan on reading the Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual, and my colleague Ryan Grim's new book, This Is Your Country On Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High In America. Any other recommendations?

--Was mentioning Ryan's book like that dangerously close to a shameless plug? Or would it be even more shameless a plug for me to suggest that if you love music and/or zombies and you live in the Washington, DC area, you should come see Wake The Dead, a one-night only cabaret performance from the supremely talented and magical and awesome friend of mine, Tracy Lynn Olivera, at the Davis Performing Arts Center on the campus of Georgetown University, Monday, July 27, at 7:30 p.m.?

Okay, we now return you to your regularly scheduled programming. Enjoy this day. Do try to not get arrested in the hopes that you will get to have a beer at the White House. Feel free to leave a comment, send an email to someone, or follow one another on Twitter. I will see you again next Sunday.

[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to [e-mail] -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]

Comments

[cloudminder]

read R. Emmett Tyrrell' s The Liberal Crack Up and The Conservative Crack Up
Chris Matthews had him on Hardball last week and I had completely forgotten about that leprechaun

read Jennifer Washburn's University, Inc.: The Corporate Corruption of Higher Education (Basic Books, 2005)

then read some of the stories posted here:

http://www.newamerica.net/people/jennifer_washburn
and
http://cloudminder.blogspot.com/

also watch Bill Clinton's entire speech at the CDC on stopping obesity in children -- it was a much bigger speech on so many areas, I wish he would really get a forum where he could say this stuff to more people -- it was on C span II or III

have a great vacay!

and this post above was buried on sunday morning on huff po -- but i guess that is cause you are winding down to go out of town??!!..­.

[greysilk]

Must read: The Lost City of Z by David Grann - A story about obsession and going to wall over it. And tons of historical doo-dads and bric-a-brac.

From Wikipedia:
The Lost City of Z is the name given by Col. Percy Harrison Fawcett, a British surveyor, to a city that he thought existed in the jungle of the Mato Grosso region of Brazil. This mysterious city is referenced in a document known as Manuscript 512, housed at the National Library [Rio De Janeiro] by a Portuguese explorer (Bandeirante) who wrote that he visited the city in 1753. The city is described in great detail without providing a specific location. Fawcett allegedly heard about this city in the early 1900s and went to Rio De Janeiro to learn more, and came across the earlier report. He was about to go in search of the city when World War I intervened. In 1925, Fawcett and his son Jack disappeared in the Mato Grosso.

[efmo]

Missed your round-up. Have a good vacation! It's a little old, but I loved Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers.

[charon]

I miss Jason's column more than I miss the Sunday morning talking heads, by a long shot. He actually makes it interesting by uncovering the underlying absurdities of the rather pathetic interviews and discussions they have.

Those absurdities reveal more about what is going on in America than the ostensible content of the shows themselves. Big Media whoring for Big Money while trying to pass themselves off as independent entities. "Daytime friends and nighttime lovers," as the song says. Unfortunately, it's the people of America who get screwed.

I look forward to Jason getting back to it soon.

[neesy08]

Enjoy your vacation.

[buggedabouttheus]

I am of no use. I knew you'd be gone Jason and yet I went to church after missing four months of Sundays, went out directly after to a lovely brunch with family and as of yet I have not turned that blasted teevee on. Truly, I miss you when you don't post but you have troopers here that have made me happy that I didn't record even one of those noos talk shows. Thank you Jason readers/posters who made thisSunday so lovely.

[JustLucky]

Aw, darn! I went ahead and made breakfast this morning instead of subjecting myself to watching Gregory hassling Hillary, thinking I could later find out here from Jason what had transpired. Nice to hear from some of you that she didn't let him get away with anything! I'll have to check it out on the website.

[Txtippy]

Jason,
Well I miss reading your blog this week......­.......and I even noticed that there were some democrats on the shows this week!
Ah, if only this will become a trend.

[4cats4]

Shouldn't David Gregory be fired for emailing Mark Sanford that he should come on MTP, because as a guest he can "set the agenda"?

[TheEmptinessOfTruthiness]

Jason you should read Ubiquity by Mark Buchanan.

[tlgeiger62]

And here comes Arianna!

[AGarcia]

HIllary was great on MTP. She really shut down DG's typical written-down contrarian attitude. She handled him beautifully. Jason missed a good one.

[Bloggerrogr]

Thanks for the tip! I don't have a tee vee machine, but due to the magickal internet thingy, I can watch the replay on The website. I'll be back after I czech it out. bye

[Klimb]

I saw it! Hillary nailed him and is looking great.

[marymansour]

I found Hillary Clinton absolutely wonderful on Meet The Press this morning. Not only was she humorous, smart and informational, I noted that she should have been on the thread that polled attractive older female celebrities. I realize Hillary is not an actress or model but she is still a celeb by any stretch.

[aznurse]

and yet all The Jerk Host wanted to talk about was Palin and ask 50 different ways if Clinton plans to run again. The answer "no" seemed to baffle him.

[Katherine Carpenter]

Did George Steph just prounounce "trough" as "trou" like drop trou? I'm trying to ignore the substance here.