Sunday Roundup, Pt. 2

Aaaand, now we're on to FOX "News" Sunday. It's not a news show, and probably doesn't belong in this category. Except that Meet the Press has fallen to FOX's level, evening things out a bit. But MTP has nothing on FOX when it comes to a naked partisan agenda. It couldn't be clearer when watching the show who the "us" and who the "them" are.

The big first issue here is again Guantanamo Bay, and the canard that "terr'ists" would be "released" into the United States. This is such a deeply idiotic point, it even seems beneath Chris Wallace. But no, he goes there. Republicans on this show and others are ignoring that George W. Bush and John McCain both talked about closing Gitmo. Republicans all seem to think now, that the prison is just terrific, has some sort of dampening field for all of the terr'ists' super-villain powers, and is the only way to keep the prisoners from moving in next door.

Wallace has a very similar line of attack to David Gregory, but even more shallow, if possible. It's all about "Cheney said/Obama said/who's right?" There is no depth, no insight to the questions or the answers by the guests. Why do I watch these shows? Why?

Today's trend: Republicans mentioning terrorist attacks of the past, like Khobar Towers, the 1993 World Trade Center attack, the U.S.S. Cole, etc. Forgetting, perhaps, that some of the perpetrators are currently in US prisons. Oh, and be afraid, be very afraid.

FOX has trumped the irrelevance of Newt Gingrich on NBC by featuring Karl Rove, a man of zero integrity and undetectable credibility. I'm not sure if there is another person besides Dick Cheney that inspires such revulsion in me, just sitting there making utterances without shackles on their hands and feet. But I digress. . .

"Power Panel" time! Every time I type that phrase, I wonder who at FOX finds these people "powerful." Except for Cheshire Cat William Kristol, the panel is all understudies this week. No Brit Hume, no Juan Williams, not even that dark haired lady with the tiny forehead. Curiously, both of the "liberal" panelists come from areas that don't seem thoroughly liberal to me, The Washington Post, and Fortune Magazine. I mean you've got these two up against a guy from The Weekly Standard (a straight-up partisan magazine) and Bill freakin' Kristol. Still, I guess the usual "liberal" panelists are both from NPR, so things haven't changed much. On FOX, extreme partisans on the right are "balanced" with center-right/center-leftists. I'm listening to Nina Easton right now--the "liberal"--taking issue with Obama for mentioning that he'd inherited much of what is on his plate. WTF, Nina?

More dumb stuff about "releasing terrorists" into our streets. More dumb Cheney vs. Obama speech stuff. Some crystal ball gazing about Obama's Supreme Court pick. All of it speculative (which is all these panels can do, I guess), and none of it consequential. Everything said by every panelist could be dead wrong, and they will all still be asked back to chatter more in the future. I really might stop watching this crap. Oh, and the FOX "Power Player of the Week?" Who cares? It's about as meaningful as being on a "Who's Who" list.

This week, there will be no more political show watching for me. This Week with George Stephanopolous is pre-empted until late in the day (when I'll be at a party), and as usual, Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer is on at the exact same time as the two shows I watched. Sorry, Bob, my DVR won't record three shows at once!