Cable News, Arizona Fools, and MBS Blues

Bringing this week to an end:

·         I don’t understand why some liberals get so upset when there isn’t any balance on cable news shows.  Cable News is a business owned by big business.  Now, I will complain about the likes of Dylan Ratigan, Joe Scarborough, and Chris Matthews, not because they criticized President Obama, but because they believe they ARE the story.  Their egos and how they treat their guests is the stuff that makes Limbaugh ‘Limbaugh’.  If you don’t like the show, don’t watch and change the channel.
·         Want to know why Rachel Maddow is the best cable news talk show host?  Research and fact-based data and analysis by her and her tireless staff.   While most of her peers love to demonstrate their dominance by talking like an expert, Maddow backs up her assertions, hypotheses, and conclusions effectively and efficiently.  And that is what makes going on her show dangerous for the wing-it (and wing nut) kind of guest and equally dangerous for anyone else that chooses to go toe to toe with her on a talk show panel.
·         As much as I hate to listen to the same old tired Tea Party crap from Jim DeMint, Alan West, Connie Mack, Kelly Ayotte, Steve King, and the rest of the representatives from GOP Primary states, I understand why these same people dominate the cable news shows this time of the year.  To accuse CNN and Soledad O’Brien for being pro GOP and Fox-lite is a ludicrous claim reminiscent of people calling Jon Stewart a traitor for having Condoleezza Rice on his show to promote her book about growing up in the south.  Watch O’Brien and you will see a host that treats her guests fairly and firmly and it has her that was ahead of the curve on the Romney “I don’t worry about poor people” quote.
·         Just when Arizona couldn’t get any crazier, the state legislature wants to create an armed militia.  Yes, last year our esteemed Governor issued an executive order to create the Arizona State Guard and now the legislature wants to establish a $1.9Million budget to hire, train, and arm the new state posse.  While many states have state guards to support local authorities and the National Guard, none of them, none of them, arm these groups.  As Michael Lytle, a border expert at the University of Texas at Brownsville, says of the new Arizona Guard “If it’s to man observation posts, that’s one thing, but if they’re going to arrest people, that’s something completely different.  I just don’t know any place where state guards perform that kind of mission – you’ve got kind of an unprecedented situation out there.”
·         Just when Arizona couldn’t get any crazier, take two.  Pinal County Sheriff, Fox News darling and Congressional candidate Paul Babeu has a bit of a budget issue.  It seems his sheriff’s office is facing a $3.2Million budget deficit.  This comes after a $613,000 deficit last year.  So, the Tea Party loving anti-Obama and immigrant hater can’t manage his own department’s budget is now ready to join the self-professed alleged fiscal conservative brethren in DC.  Perfect.
·         Here is a good idea from a source I have frequently ridiculed.  It seems Romney economic adviser, and former chairman of the George W. Bush Council of Economic Advisors, Glenn Hubbard has come up with the idea of Wall Street bailing out Main Street.  Specifically Hubbard’s plan, that has bipartisan support from Johnny Isakson (R-GA) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA), would call for refinancing 13 million home owners who are current with their payments by reducing their mortgage interest rate.  The plusses include it pumps $40Billion of consumer stimulus into the economy as homeowners will have more cash, it doesn’t add to the nation’s debt, it doesn’t require other citizens to fund the bail out, and it could help sure up Freddie and Fannie balance sheets.  Who loses?  Well the folks holding mortgage backed securities who will lose as a result of the re-fi early payback, but that’s a risk that always been there for these investments.  Yes I back an idea from Glenn Hubbard, the man who got completely eviscerated in the documentary Inside Job, and ask President Obama to back this plan.

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