“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: Ms. Amanpour talks with top Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod in an exclusive.
The roundtable with George Will, ABC News senior political correspondent Jonathan Karl, economist and former Clinton economic adviser Laura Tyson and Bloomberg Television’s Margaret Brennan dissect the economic proposals from both sides of the aisle. And Republican strategist Mary Matalin and Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus join the roundtable to discuss all the week’s politics.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), and The New York Times’ David Sanger join Christiane to discuss the latest on the failed terrorist plot.
ABC News senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper tours the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and discusses King’s legacy with civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-GA).
Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer:Coming up on Face the Nation: Topic: “Fast and Furious” gunwalker case Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman, Oversight & Government Reform Committee; Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Ranking Member, Oversight & Government Reform Committee and Sharyl Attkisson, CBS News Investigative Correspondent.
The Chris Matthews Show: This week’s guests, Nia-Malika Henderson, The Washington Post National Political Reporter, Katty Kay, BBC Washington Correspondent, Joe Klein, TIME Columnist and Major Garrett, National Journal Congressional Correspondent, will discuss:
Is Mitt Romney perfectly positioned to take the Independent vote and beat Barack Obama?
Will the Wall Street protests become a big part of politics in ’12?
Meet the Press with David Gregory: Meet Herman Cain, contender for the Republican presidential nomination.
Two big-name supporters of two leading GOP presidential candidates square off: Gov. Tim Pawlenty for Romney and Gov. Bobby Jindal for Perry.
NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd and the BBC’s Katty Kay will discus the 2012 race and strategists Kevin Madden and Ron Klain on prepping candidates for debates and the importance of their performances.
State of the Union with Candy Crowley: Candy Crowley sits down with former House Speaker and Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich to discuss the 2012 GOP race, as we are just days away from CNN’s Western Republican Presidential Debate in Las Vegas.
Then, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), ranking member of the Armed Services Committee shares his thoughts on the U.S.’s response to Iran, the President’s jobs bill and the overall state of the economy.
Plus, DNC Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) shares her party’s perspectives on the 2012 campaign.
Also, as part of our special coverage of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) talks about his role in the civil rights movement as we honor the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. We will have live coverage of the dedication centered on President Obama’s address.
New York – This year has witnessed a global wave of social and political turmoil and instability, with masses of people pouring into the real and virtual streets: the Arab Spring; riots in London; Israel’s middle-class protests against high housing prices and an inflationary squeeze on living standards; protesting Chilean students; the destruction in Germany of the expensive cars of “fat cats”; India’s movement against corruption; mounting unhappiness with corruption and inequality in China; and now the “Occupy Wall Street” movement in New York and across the United States.
While these protests have no unified theme, they express in different ways the serious concerns of the world’s working and middle classes about their prospects in the face of the growing concentration of power among economic, financial, and political elites. The causes of their concern are clear enough: high unemployment and underemployment in advanced and emerging economies; inadequate skills and education for young people and workers to compete in a globalized world; resentment against corruption, including legalized forms like lobbying; and a sharp rise in income and wealth inequality in advanced and fast-growing emerging-market economies.
David Sirota: Government by Death Panel
Remember the good ol’ days when Republicans were running around the country screaming that Democrats’ proposal to fund voluntary end-of-life counseling would somehow create a government-sanctioned death panel? Ooh boy, the heartland was ablaze back then. Wracked by anger at a Democrat occupying the White House, an enraged Middle America was genuinely scared about the prospect of a secret group of bureaucrats putting together a “kill list” of citizens deemed to be too much of a nuisance.
The fears, of course, seem rather quaint these days. The notion of a White House bothering to request the statutory authority to execute troublesome Americans is just so … 2009. After all, last week we learned from Reuters that fellow countrymen labeled “militants” by the Obama administration are now unilaterally placed on a “kill list” by “a secretive panel of senior government officials.”
Eugene Robinson: Flavor of the Week
Just be patient and you, too, can lead the polls for the Republican presidential nomination. Witness the ascent of Herman Cain.
Don’t laugh. “There’s a difference between the flavor of the week and Haagen-Dazs Black Walnut, because it tastes good all the time,” Cain told reporters this week. “Call me Haagen-Dazs Black Walnut.”
All right, go ahead and laugh. Cain will surely respond with what has become his all-purpose retort: “As my grandfather would say, I does not care.”
At the moment, though, we don’t have the option of not caring. According to a stunning new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, Cain now tops the GOP field with support from 27 percent of Republican primary voters, compared to 23 percent for Mitt Romney and just 16 percent for Rick Perry.
Dave Johnson: Help Verizon’s Workers Try to Save the Middle Class
Here is a practical application of the ideas and energy of #Occupy Wall Street. Verizon’s workers are in a struggle against a giant corporation. They need your help leafleting at Verizon stores, reaching people to explain what is going on.
Verizon is a huge, very profitable company. But Verizon is trying to make its workers take pay and benefit cuts, so that a few at the top can make even more money. If this sounds familiar it is because this is what is happening to our economy across the board. Big companies are using the fear caused by the unemployment crisis to take away more and more benefits, cut back wages, make people work longer hours, and basically shred the middle class. 99% of us are finding it harder and harder to get by while a few at the top are getting more and more.
Michelle Chen: While Washington Dithers, Labor Brings Jobs and Equity Home
The 2012 campaign trail is already littered with silver bullets and peppy slogans about boosting America out of its unemployment slump. But for the most part, the plans that politicians have trotted out–from Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 mantra to the GOP’s latest corporate welfare formulas, to Obama’s limp blend of free-trade policies and woefully inadequate stimulus–stick faithfully to the path of neoliberalism, paving the way for more outsized corporate profits.
So does anyone have a plan to steer industry toward the needs of communities? Researchers at Cornell University have located a few novel ideas, well outside the Beltway, that are blazing small trails in economic disaster zones. Their study focuses on project labor agreements that are designed to meet workers’ needs for decent wages and working conditions, while upholding principles of equity in local hiring practices.
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