Tonight: Do Unemployment Benefits Create Laziness, Dems Dig for Dirt, and more...
Someone asked me the other day if it's ever a struggle to come up with things to talk about on the show. I told them the problem is finding the time to get to everything I want to discuss! Some of the things I plan to get to tonight from 7 to 9pm...
At 7:05: Do unemployment benefits make people lazy? Tea Party darling Sharron Angle, who is running for senate against Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada, has suggested people won't get up and go find a job if their unemployment benefits are extended. As insensitive as it may seem to tell people to get off their butts and get a job, does she have a legitimate point or is she off her rocker? Video of Angle after the jump...
You can watch her comments here:
Others say there is no compassion whatsoever in her statements and she "has no idea what it's like to be on unemployment." I'll talk with Ken Emanuelson with the Dallas Tea Party.
At 7:35: Obama vs Arizona. With the Department of Justice now suing the state of Arizona over over their tough immigration crackdown, I want to talk with a former Justice Department insider. So, I'll call former Federal Prosecutor Johnny Sutton and get his thoughts.
I'm beginning to think there may have been quite a bit of overreaction on both sides. Also, if the administration has good reason to think this will lead to racial profiling, why not let it go into effect and see if that happens? I can also see why even one case of racial profiling would be considered one case too many. Meantime, the punditry is hard at work, with some perhaps correctly saying that the hard line stance conservative Republicans have taken could be very bad for them in the long term.
At 8:05: The Washington Post today reports that Democrats are digging harder than ever to try to find dirt on Republicans. We've all heard the stories of investigators on both sides trying to find scandal-worthy material about their opponents, but "opposition research" can also simply mean going through your opponents record and explaining why they're a bad public servant. I'll talk with one of the best opposition research guys in Texas: Democratic Consultant Jason Stanford.
At 8:35: "Climategate" update. You remember the controversy over emails stolen from scientists? Emails about whether man-made climate change is real? Well, a new report seems to vindicate the scientists, but they are criticized for not being "more open" about their research. Eric Boehlert at Media Matters has been highly critical of some news outlets that he says made it into a much bigger story than it is. Eric will join me to share his take on the situation now.
I'll be adding to the agenda throughout the day!
