I like Ed Schultz. I listen to him on Air America in the morning. I tape his TV show on MSNBC and watch it later.
The thing I like about Ed is that he tells it as he sees it. He isn’t afraid to express his view. He freely admits he is expressing his own opinions and is obvious when the “Op Ed” section opens his TV show. On his radio show, he listens to people with opposing views. He lets them express their opinion, never hesitating to correct a known fact that is being distorted by the caller. He argues and he agrees. He is a fan of President Obama, but doesn’t hesitate to offer another view. He is one of the few open-minded journalists asking open-ended questions and listening to the answers without interrupting, as does Chris Matthews. His “Psycho Talk” feature is spot on. He is open, tough, and a big teddy bear.
Ed Schultz is the spokesman for the middle class.
The BackChannel Blog 
Morning peeps
Morning all. Hello Bev. I really need to watch Ed Shultz; see what you are all talking about. Maybe he’s on at 4 on MSNBC? If he’s got good listening and interviewing skills, that alone will make for a treat.
Driving again; check in from home. Take care.
Nice piece, Bev. I couldn’t agree with you more. As I said the other day, The Ed Show is my new favorite show. You listed all the reasons so I don’t have to. Thanks! 😉
BTW, it’s on at 6pm eastern, dog’s eye.
A blue collar liberal, what’s not to like?
here is the Dickipedia entry for my governor Rick
(Governor Good Hair as Ms Molly Ivans called him) Perry.
http://tinyurl.com/qmdrmq
Looks like someone else is on HuffPo mailing list!
🙂
You have my sympathy, Doots. Perry is such an embarrassment.
I really miss, Molly Ivans. She had such a way with words!
I am not on the Huffpo list Brian I go over there and dig like I have always done.
Yeah, Nannymm, we are continually embarrassed by the butt in Austin. Fortunately this will last only a short time longer. Looks like he will get a strong challenge from Kay Baily Hutchinson. She has filed papers to “explore” the possibilities of running for Governor of Texas. She is a Repub but compared to you know who she is a breath of fresh air. I don’t see a Democrat winning in Texas for a few years.
Looks like Maureen Dowd is in a bit of trouble:
“A TPMCafe blogger charged plagiarism earlier after picking up on a striking similarity between a passage in Maureen Dowd’s column today and a recent post by TPM editor Josh Marshall.
Dowd: “More and more the timeline is raising the question of why, if the torture was to prevent terrorist attacks, it seemed to happen mainly during the period when the Bush crowd was looking for what was essentially political information to justify the invasion of Iraq.”
Marshall: “More and more the timeline is raising the question of why, if the torture was to prevent terrorist attacks, it seemed to happen mainly during the period when we were looking for what was essentially political information to justify the invasion of Iraq.”
http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0509/Dowd_lifts_TPM_passage_updates_column.html?showall
Yep, Maureen now joins the ranks of Joe Biden and Doris Kearns Goodwin.
Bev,
I like ol’ Ed. I don’t always buy what he’s selling, but he’s one of the few who’s genuine.
GOP sounds alarm on Latino voter gap
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22586.html
Doots,
I miss Molly Ivins too. She was a hoot.
Ann Richards too.
Jennifer Granholm, Supreme Court Candidate, To Be At White House
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/18/jennifer-granholm-supreme_n_204637.html
I’ve had a feeling for a while that the prez is going to tap Granholm.
Brian and Nanny.
don’t for get that butt head Mike Barnikel in your list of plagiarists.
It’s poetic justice that Maureen Dowd got caught since she is the one who pilloried Biden over his mishap.
Horsedooty is now to be know as Trout Boy! The transformation is complete.
lol@troutboy
Can I still call you Doots?
“trout boy?” I figured maybe bluegill.
Could be worse. Crappie, largemouth bass. 😉
I’m glued to NASA TV. This final space walk is surreal.
BTW Doots, STS-125 is over south Texas. Be sure and wave to them.
This is a switch from the Bush WH way of doing things:
“President Obama told Americans that he would be pushing for more transparency in government. Today his administration really took on that call by including a protester’s shout in the official transcript of the President’s Notre Dame speech. The transcript was emailed to the press after the speech.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/17/notre-dame-protesters-sho_n_204438.html
Gay marriage is good for the economy:
“AFTER 5 YEARS OF EXTENDING MARRIAGE TO GAY COUPLES, NEW STUDIES SHOW MASSACHUSETTS HAS ATTRACTED HIGHLY-SKILLED WORKERS AND EXPERIENCED ECONOMIC BOOST OF OVER $100 MILLION”
Click to access MAPressRelease_5.15.pdf
Supreme Court Hands Medical Marijuana Major Victory
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/18/supreme-court-hands-medic_n_204681.html
Conyers on Obama: ‘Why is he becoming so conservative now that he’s got the job?’
http://michiganmessenger.com/19296/conyers-on-obama-why-is-he-becoming-so-conservative-now-that-hes-got-the-job
It’s good to see some big name pressure being directed at the prez regarding “don’t ask, don’t tell”. Presidents need to be pushed sometimes!
Hello all. Back in Virginia on the deck, merlot at hand. My elder beagle is still with us; she’s resting on a blanket. (Not long for this world, but still kicking and enjoyed dinner with her usual pleasure.)
Ed’s at 6 p. Noted. Might have to catch him online, though.
Jennifer Granholm would be a good pick. Lots of good candidates. She has plenty of empathy.
On the MoDowd story: I’m not sure the lifting of Josh Marshall’s work was intentional, but it is poetic justice, is it not?
Suspect other bloggers are reviewing her body of work. Interesting to see if more “borrowing” emerges. Maybe not.
Dinner calls. Catch you later.
Not sure about Granholm on the SCOTUS. I prefer Napolitano, who looks like she would have no problem lifting up Scalia’s robe and giving him an atomic wedgie if he wrote a biased political opinion. 😉
I also like Mario Cuomo though he’s probably a little old to get into the game now. Bill Bradley might be good. Obama needs someone taller than Henry Waxman on the WH pickup team 😉
Bev, you’re going to make me turn on MSNBC even earlier then my 5:00 hour with KO (pdt). The only time I watch Ed it wasn’t particularly satisfying as the cameras were going crazy, the music was loud, even though his message was clearcut. How are you holding up in this our tenth day of 100 plus degrees? Did you have some thunderheads and rain yesterday? Just the thunderheads here in CG.
Trout Boy, you will always be HorseDooty to me.
Now there were two Texans I really appreciated: Molly Ivans and Ann Richards. They both could turn a phrase, make you laugh, and still make a very serious point. Miss them both.
The list is way too long on plagiarism and will grow even longer with more and more bloggers online. But, we should all welcome Maureen Dowd to the list. Plagiarism isn’t the scarlet A it once was, ask Richard Ellis and a lot of other academics, including Doris Goodwin Kearns whose reputations didn’t suffer all that much.
Have a good evening everyone.
Oh, and for my Colorado bias, I think former Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm or former Colorado Sen. Gary Hart would be great on the SCOTUS. We haven’t had someone on the SCOTUS since Bryron “Whizzer” White.
eprof2, give Ed another try. Maybe I’m just used to it now but it seems that the “busyness” of lights and music has been toned down. I don’t find it distracting like I did when the show debuted.
Did you say 100 degrees???? I’m gonna cry!!! We have another frost warning for tonight; it’s the 4th night in a row. I’m afraid my poor lilacs may not survive the shock. I had to fire up the wood furnace last night as it was 20 degrees and I was freezing. I may have to repeat the process tonight. 😥
eprof2 didn’t the history prof that wrote the book Brothers In Arms get accused of plagiarism?
Bill Bradley is too old.
“Bill Bradley is too old.”
You and Bradley do some one-on-one. I’m betting on Bradley. 😉
Yep, nanny, ten days of over 100 with overnights in the low 70’s. Today might hit 107, a record for the date. Keep the home fires burning there in upstate NY till the summer months come in a few more weeks.
Stephen Ambrose, “Citizen Soldiers,” was found out to have plagiarized his best selling book. His “Band of Brothers” is still under a cloud. Other famous people accused of plagiarism include: Martin Luther King, Jr., for his dissertation; T.S. Elliot; and, H.G. Wells. So as not to be accused of plagiarism myself, here is one of the references I used to update the earlier comment: http://www.cracked.com/article_17198_p2.html.
Presidents like to appoint justices who will serve 20 – 30 years. Bill Bradley is too old, he also doesn’t have a JD.
don’t think it is a requirement to have a JD.
Bradley is 65. He could last 20 years.
eprof2 – yes, it’s hot! We haven’t had any rain, and finally had to turn off the swamp cooler and go to A/C. It’s always depressing to see the thunderheads forming near CG and then never making it to the valley, otherwise known as the cement jungle. As a kid, I remember watching the many big dust storms form in the south, fill the whole sky and then come roaring into the valley. Not very many anymore.
It’s 23 degrees here. At the rate we’re going, we’ll be lucky if we get 3 weeks of summer.
Bev, certainly a sign of permanent heat when valleyites turn off their swamp coolers. We don’t have one so it’s a/c or nothing. After 9:30 am, it’s the a/c, which is still on tonight at 8:30. Doesn’t run all the time but it’s getting a work-out today.
Oh, nanny, lo siento, mi amiga. I’d rather be hot than have to exist in the cold. Been there and done that in WA and OR. No mass!
Doots is right. Having a JD isn’t required but no one has advanced to the SC without one since pre-Civil War days. Then, of course, one didn’t receive a JD or even an LLB (prior to 1970) and merely studied with another lawyer in an apprentice-like system until the lawyer said you were ready to practice law.
My professor at the UVirginia, Henry Abraham, a constitutional scholar and political scientist, was on the short list for Reagan, but obviously didn’t make it very far. If you want to read about the SC, check out any one of his twelve or thirteen books on the court. Good reads.
Good night everyone. Don’t freeze, nanny.
dnd how much are you willing to bet no on with a penis will be nominated by the prez to sit on the court this time around? With or without a JD.
We are on a blog where a swamp cooler is not a potable.
Learn something new every day.
Listened to Ed Schultz on the MSNBC 3:00 a.m. rebroadcast. Interesting show; would definitely listen or catch it online in future. Not at 3:00 a, though, if possible.
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WaPost website is affirming my decision to drop the print paper. Recent web headline –“Obama’s Corruption” over a George Will opinion piece.
Today, “Obama’s Weakness” over op ed by conservative writer Ramesh Ponnuru. (It’s actually meant to be “Obama’s Abortion Weakness”, in which Ponnuru opines the pro-life side won the debate and abortion is a problem topic for Obama.)
This point in the Bush-Cheney administration? I think you would have seen “Alleged” or “Apparent” up with those headlines.
But I could be wrong.
Parsing lessons 101.
“Reading More Closely.” From Talking Points Memo:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/by_george_hes_got_it.php
Josh Marshall hails Politico writer Josh Gerstein’s analysis of a Leon Panetta statement. From Gerstein article:
“[CIA Director] Leon Panetta didn’t reject or deny House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s allegations that she was falsely briefed by the CIA about interrogations.
Look carefully at Panetta’s statement from Friday, especially the verb tense used. “Let me be clear: It is not our policy or practice to mislead Congress.” First, “let me be clear” always precedes an ambiguous statement. Without fail. Panetta isn’t opining on past acts. He’s referring to the current policy. He’s also not saying it never happens or happened that someone lied to or misled Congress. He’s saying the agency as a whole doesn’t intend to. …”
Marshall’s take:
“This is just right. This was certainly Panetta standing up for his Agency after Pelosi, the second person in line to the presidency, had taken a swipe. But to get the full significance of a document, even a simple memo, you need to look past the toplines to what the text actually says. And if you read Panetta closely he didn’t take any position at all on the key question of whether Pelosi was right or not. It was a point lost on virtually everyone in town.”
NY Times: Credit Card Industry Aims to Profit From Sterling Payers
” … Now Congress is moving to limit the penalties on riskier borrowers, who have become a prime source of billions of dollars in fee revenue for the industry. And to make up for lost income, the card companies are going after those people with sterling credit.
Banks are expected to look at reviving annual fees, curtailing cash-back and other rewards programs and charging interest immediately on a purchase instead of allowing a grace period of weeks, according to bank officials and trade groups.”
Interest immediately on a purchase? You try that.
Where are the scissors?
LOL: further down article, writer notes credit card issuers took advantage of some states’ “relaxing of usury laws.”
I’ll say.
Yesterday Panetta said in his 40 years he’s never seen such bitter partisanship, referring to Pelosi-gate.
I’m really starting to wonder if attacking Pelosi, particularly the obviously false attacks, might backfire.
NEW THREAD