News Roundup - Hour 1
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-07-30/news-roundup-hour-1
President Barack Obama receives a briefing in the Situation Room of the White House on the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, July 21, 2010
Official White House photo by Pete Souza via Flickr
A federal judges blocks parts of Arizona's immigration law from taking effect, BP gets an American CEO and President Obama pushes for more loans to small businesses. A panel of journalists joins guest host Susan Page for analysis of the week's top national news stories.
Guests
David Corn
Washington bureau chief, "Mother Jones" magazine; author of several books, most recently, "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War." He blogs at politicsdaily.com.
Karen Tumulty
national political reporter, The Washington Post.
Stephen Hayes
"The Weekly Standard," author of "Cheney - The Untold Story of America's Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President"
Comments
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There are many Arizonans like me who breathed a sigh of relief that Judge Bolton ruled the way she did. SB1070 was a badly conceived and poorly written piece of legislation which would have led to harrassment of citizens on the sole basis of complexion. My hope is for TRUE immigration reform that shows justice for all.
I thought the nation had moved beyond that thinking but apparently not. It's a sad time when a law enforcement official (Sheriff Babeu -- McCain's dang fence) goes on a white supremacist radio program to drum up support from the Keep-America-White crowd and proceeded to accuse President Obama of TREASON!
We have another pompous, grandstanding Sheriff (Arpaio) who is carrying on a war against cleaning people and dishwashers rather than criminals. I don't consider those poor, hardworking people to be a threat.
In a word, what our Arizona legislature is doing is SCAPEGOATING.
In light of Representative Rangel and the very low public opinion of congress, please discuss term limits. Such as, rotating single terms of 8 years for senators and 4 years for representatives. Additionally, a prohibition of congressmen lobbying for 8 years seems reasonable.
President Obama's position on the Afghan war is not self-contradictory, it is nuanced. Afghanistan is important to American interests but is not infinitely so. If we can win the war, we should do so. But if we cannot, we should get out. President Obama gave the military a last chance to reverse the debacle that President Bush left, but he also did not give them a blank check. This was wise.
I certainly hope that Representative Rangel gets a public trial. The Congress and the American people need to bring all corruption to light.
The Arizona law oversteps the bounds of the federal law, by requiring the withholding of people to verify their nationality status.
The Arizona law is worrying. I live in Florida & they are pushing for the same legislation, even though parts are deemed unconstitional. The politicans pushing for these changes are all up for re-election. Do these people really want reform or to remain in office. Florida's 2nd largest indusrty is agriculture and it would be destroyed in the Arizona type laws were passed.
Concerning extending the "Bush Tax Cuts", why are we even having this conversation, by that I mean "why was a "Sunset" clause even put in the original bill.. thank you for your show.
Trickle down economics didn't work when Reagan flimflammed the country with it. I find it disingenuous to claim that the wealthy will save this country by spending their money on luxury foreign import cars, surplus homes, high-priced education for their children, travel abroad, diamond jewelry and plastic surgery.
Trickle down economics didn't work when Reagan flimflammed the country with it. I find it disingenuous to claim that the wealthy will save this country by spending their money on luxury foreign import cars, surplus homes, high-priced education for their children, travel abroad, diamond jewelry and plastic surgery.
The comments made by one of your commentators on the small business lending proposal indicates a singular lack of understanding of economics. He claims that a tax break is the same as better access to funds. Consider the example of a business owner who needs 2 million to grow and needs half of that from the bank. If he gets access to that loan he would produce taxable income. So the reduction of his tax rate would be quite irrelevant when he has no funds and hence no growth or income, due to lack of access to credit. Please impove the quality of such commentators or at least challenge them on such stands that they take.
Thanks
Please ask what are the incomes of those that are saving more?
If we know that people are saving we should know what the average income is. This would help answer the question of whether or not tax breaks work.
I wonder how this law will affect naturalized citizens. Do we have to carry our papers? Or is it only for green card holders and/or visitors/various other types of visa holders? If citizens do not need to carry their papers with them, it is very possible that those who are naturalized citizens, like myself, may be stopped by an over zealous police officer who may assume that anyone other than whites , may be an illegal. I am, at times,mistaken to be of Mexican descent, even though I immigrated from India. Unless ALL Arizonans are REQUIRED to carry their papers with them at all times, this law, if it goes through, may be teter on the brink of legalized discrimination.
It is often the case that a WHITE man/woman from ANY part of the world stands a smaller chances of being questioned about their legal status, when travelling with a brown skinned person, even though the latter may be the citizen, while the former may be the visitor/ illegal!!!!
Regarding the requirement to carry ID - legal resident aliens are already required to carry their green cards at all times. Since these are the same format as a driver's license, it's not too difficult. However, naturalized citizens (who are not currently required to carry ID) only have a naturalization certificate. That is a standard size sheet of paper, which it is illegal to copy. Carrying that wouldn't work very well. The only way an ID requirement would work fairly would be if everyone - native-born citizen, naturalized citizen and legal resident - carried the same ID.
I've been trying to get someones attention who does the podcasts... Thepast couple of months I've been getting 2 podcasts of hour 2 and none of hour 1. I am a big supporter of NPR.
I have listened to the show for more than two decades, and I am a regular contributor to WAMU. However, today's show reminded me of a longstanding problem I have with the Friday show.
The first (U.S.) hour of the politics roundup is interesting when it sticks to politics and cringe-inducing almost every time it strays into economics. Karen Tumulty's implosion on savings rates of the high and low-income populations this morning was not even close to being an isolated incident. Her proposition on the spending/savings implications of tax cuts for different income levels had it exactly backwards, and her attempted save after the follow up was utter nonsense. Almost every time I listen to the show, something similar happens with one or another of the guests whenever economics or economic policy comes up. None of this is a matter of judgment or ideology -- this is just about the facts and their obvious implications.
The show seems to try to balance political commentators from left, right, and center or neutral. Perhaps as a consequence, there never seems enough flexibility to draw on the many people available to NPR who could at least pass a high school economics course final exam. Please book people who have a basic or preferably better understanding of economics when you want to talk about economics (David Wessel, Mark Zandi, Fred Bergsten, Paul Krugman, Doug Holtz-Eakin, and David Leonhardt among others come to mind and represent a wide range of ideological viewpoints and backgrounds even though they share competence in economics). Alternatively, please, please, please quit confusing or annoying your listeners and humiliating your guests by having them address economic topics on which they are clearly out of their depth. Continuing to have them address economic issues only undercuts their (and your) credibility on political issues.