For those with strong stomachs, here's the line up for the Sunday Chat & Chews.
ABC's This Week (airs Sunday, check local listings):
Guests: Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla.
Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop of Washington
The Rev. Rick Warren, author of "The Purpose Driven Life"
[. . .]
Then an Easter morning conversation with the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, on Terri Schiavo, the pope and the Catholic bishops' latest stand on the death penalty.
[. . .]
In "The List," the best-selling author of "The Purpose Driven Life," the Rev. Rick Warren, shares his Easter message.
Our political panel: John Dickerson of Time magazine, ABC's Claire Shipman and George Will.
And we'll remember a distinctive automaker and an elegant cabaret singer who played one room for nearly four decades.
NBC's Meet the Press (Sundays, check local listings):
REZA ASLAN
Author "No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam"
REV. ROBERT DRINAN,
S.J.Author, "Can God and Caesar Coexist?"Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
DR. RICHARD LAND
Author, "Real Homeland Security: The America God Will Bless"President of The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission Southern Baptist Convention
SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D-CT)
2000 Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate
JON MEACHAM
Author, "How Jesus Became Christ"Managing Editor, Newsweek
REV. JIM WALLIS
Author, "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It"
You may need to have a stronger stomach than usual to get through that.
By the way, they still haven't corrected their "about" page which still lists "Gloria Steiner" instead of "Gloria Steinem." Here's the paragraph that's been up for years and that Meet the Press has shown no interest in fixing:
Since those beginning days, "Meet the Press" has interviewed First Ladies Eleanor Roosevelt, Nancy Reagan, Rosalynn Carter, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Laura Bush appeared on "Meet the Press" the first three years of her husband’s presidency. Other notable women appearing as guests over the years on "Meet the Press" include: Barbara Jordan, Shirley Chisholm, Jane Fonda, Phyllis Schlafly, Geraldine Ferraro, Gloria Steiner, Elizabeth Dole, Madeleine Albright, Tipper Gore, Condoleezza Rice, Nancy Pelosi, Shirley Temple Black and Caroline Kennedy.
Over at CBS's Face The Nation (Sundays, check local listings), Blinky Bob Schieffer takes Easter Sunday off and Bill Plante subs for him.
Thirty minutes of Schiavo because Lord knows, there's not been enough on this topic.
Will someone please tell me, for the love of God, when will the press in this country find the Schiavo story!!!!!!!!! (That was sarcasm.)
Here are the guests:
Tony Perkins
President, Family Research Council
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Democrat - Florida
John Harwood
The Wall Street Journal
Karen Tumulty
TIME Magazine
Andrew Cohen
CBS News Legal Analyst
Again, do the Sunday chat and chews if that's you're thing. It's not mine. Someone argued in an e-mail (may have been more than one person, sorry, and I'm blanking on who) that it's important to watch because it's how you learn about the world.
If that's how you feel, more power to you. I disagree. I think you get the official line explained by many people who have no expertise to speak on or by people who want to speak of things that they can't possibly know. I don't care for insta-experts. (And am surprised that This Week didn't pull Cokie Roberts out of mouthballs for a panel this week.)
I get the official line seven mornings a week in the New York Times. I feel I've served my time and don't need to add to my sentence by also taking in the Sunday chat and chews.
If you watch for humor, insight or knowledge, more power to you. But myself, I have other things I'd rather be doing.
Let's note Nightline tonight. (ABC, airs at some point after your local news that follows the prime time schedule, check your local listings.)
This is from the e-mail (authored this time by Sara Just) that you can sign up for if you're interested in knowing the topic and guests for each night's Nightline:
Tonight we look at the survivors in one of the areas hardest hit by the tsunami. "Nightline's" David Marash is in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. The children in this tragedy cope in their own unique way. Tonight you will hear from one boy who now lives in a camp for people who have been displaced by the tsunami. The children here are seeking signs of normalcy through their grief, and a song this one young boy wrote is helping them find it.
The tsunami did not only destroy homes and lives, it also destroyed a way of life. In Aceh's fishing villages, the boats, nets and all of the equipment that sustained the communities were sucked away by the tsunami. Also, paper records that identified who owned parcels of land were destroyed. Now that the houses are gone too, how can these villagers lay claim to their property? A massive recovery effort of these documents will be required. In other words, it's going to take more than just blankets and clean water to put these lives back together again.
To me, that actually sounds interesting. I've got company over and if they're gone or still here but want to watch, I'd like to check it out. I'm including it because I know the tsunami was something the community cared a great deal about. And I'll give Nightline credit for following
up on the story. Especially in a week where one topic and one topic only dominated.
Also, Cedric's e-mail posted this morning was written last night. I hurried through copying and pasting it into an entry and forgot to note that. I'll correct this later.
And yes, Democracy Now! is posted twice on the site. We'll leave it because it really was an important. I contacted Shirley and she attempted to e-mail it in as well. We both used various accounts and got lucky because two made it through.
E-mail address is common_ills@yahoo.com for this site.
