Punting the Pundits: Sunday Preview Edition

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

The Sunday Talking Heads:

This Week with Christiane Amanpour: Christiane Amanpour will be reporting live from Tripoli, Libya on the historic and violent struggle for control of the oil-rich nation.

Jake Tapper will host the roundtable with Governor Jan Brewer (R-AZ), Gov. Deval Patrick (D-MA), Gov. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) and Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC), to discuss the federal and state budget crises and constituent responses to the shortages.

Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: Mr. Schieffer will interview with N.J. Governor Chris Christie

The Chris Matthews Show: This week’s guests are Dan Rather, HDNet Global Correspondent, Savannah Guthrie, NBC News White House Correspondent, Trish Regan, CNBC Anchor and Correspondent and John Heilemann, New York Magazine National Political Correspondent.

They will discuss these questions:

Is “Cuts” — Not “Jobs” — The New Winning Four-Letter Word?

Will Oil-Fueled Inflation Ruin Obama’s Economic Recovery?

Meet the Press with David Gregory: Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) gives an exclusive interview and an interview with Senator John McCain (R-AZ), ranking member of the Armed Services Committee from Cairo.

The round table guests are former head of the RNC, Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS); chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO); host of MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” Lawrence O’Donnell; president of the AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka; and editorial board member and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Kim Strassel who will discuss the the economic and budget crisis..

State of the Union with Candy Crowley: Guests are Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut (I-CT) and Sen. John McCain of Arizona (R-AZ) discussing the Middle East. Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) will discuss the national budget battle. Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) and Gov. Dan Malloy (D-CT) will talk about budgets on the state level. Economist Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics and Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the former director of the Congressional Budget Office will give their insight on the Middle East crisis and the economy

Fareed Zakaris: GPS: War criminal Paul Wolfowitz gives his perspective on Libya and the role the United States needs to play. Fareed will give his view on the events. Economist and NY Times best selling author Michael Lewis will look back at the the world financial crisis.

Am I the only one who will be sleeping through this crap?

John Nichols: Why Did Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Participate in Discussions About Disrupting Peaceful Rallies?

Embattled Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has now acknowledged in a press conference and in a nationally television interview — with Fox News host Greta Van Susteren — that he engaged in discussions with political allies about hiring “troublemakers” to disrupt peaceful demonstrations against his budget repair bill.

“You said you thought about it?” asked Van Susteren.

“We did,” replied Walker. “We had people contacting (us). I even had lawmakers and others suggesting riling things up.”

Lester Pines, one of the most prominent lawyers in Madison, the Wisconsin capital city where the largest demonstrations have taken place, referred to that comment as “a scandal.”

“If , in fact, they took any steps toward implementing that (plan to disrupt rallies), that’s a crime,” explained Pines. “If they took steps to implement that, they engaged in a conspiracy to deny people their civil rights.”

Michelle Chen: The Recovery That Wasn’t: Bouncing Back to Lower Standards

To understand America’s economic “recovery,” think about climate change: at first, it may look like your boat is finally rising again. And then you realize that it’s only because the deepening ocean is swallowing up the shore and pushing you further out to sea.

That’s what the latest analysis from the National Employment Law Project (NELP) tells us about the new jobs that are supposedly lifting workers out of the Great Recession. In fact, we see a pattern of solid jobs evaporating and being replaced by worse ones. So the job growth is offset by overall downward mobility throughout the “recovering” workforce.

Ralph Nader: ‘Mad as Hell’ in Madison

The large demonstrations at the state Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin are driven by a middle class awakening to the spectre of its destruction by the corporate reactionaries and their toady Governor Scott Walker.

For years the middle class has watched the plutocrats stomp on the poor while listening to the two parties regale the great middle class, but never mentioning the tens of millions of poor Americans. And for years, the middle class was shrinking due significantly to corporate globalization shipping good-paying jobs overseas to repressive dictatorships like China. It took Governor Walker’s legislative proposal to do away with most collective bargaining rights for most public employee unions to jolt people to hit the streets.

Republicans take rigged elections awash in corporatist campaign cash seriously. When they win, they aggressively move their corporate agenda, unlike the wishy-washy Democrats who flutter weakly after a victory. Republicans mean business. A ram rod wins against a straw all the time.

Michael R. Miller: 83rd Academy Awards: A Clenched Fist on Every Lapel

Sunday evening, February 27, hundreds of millions of movie fans will watch the 83d annual Academy Awards. These viewers may not be aware of a fact that merits particular attention this year, as Wisconson’s public sector employees stand up for their rights: every presenter and almost every recipient on the Oscar broadcast belongs to a labor organization. Every musician in the pit, every camera operator, every cable puller — everyone involved carries a union card!

The benefits of collective bargaining for workers in the film and television industries — a category that includes actors, writers and directors as well as so-called technicians — are obvious: We are more or less adequately compensated when we apply our rare skill sets, acquired and honed during years of apprenticeship and hard work, to make films from which investors may profit in perpetuity. The Motion Picture Industry Health Plan provides affordable health care to us and our families. When required to toil 16 hour days, we are paid overtime rates for the sacrifice of our time and, on occasion, our health.