I just got back to town late last night from taking my daughter to sleep away camp. I got her settled in to her cabin, met the counselors and some of the other girls, and drove the five hours home, missing her already.
As I was preparing for today’s show – around 45 minutes before showtime – the phone rang. It was the camp nurse. After telling me not to worry, she said that they had just called an ambulance! When my heart slowed down enough for me to hear her over the loud thumping, she explained that Alison passed out this morning. She quickly came around, but was disoriented and, since she bumped her head when she went down, they wanted to be safe… so they were taking her to the hospital.
First day at camp, and my kid winds up taking an ambulance to the emergency room!
So, if I sounded a bit distracted during today’s show it’s because I was! I was also interrupted a few times with calls from the camp nurse, the doctor, and the admitting office at the hospital!
The good news is that she’s fine. They gave her two units of IV fluids and told her to use a lot of salt on her food and, after running a whole slew of tests, sent her back to the fun of summer camp! It seems as if my kid was dehydrated. I now have 5 weeks and 5 more days of this… Ugh.
In between all of that I did a radio show! We listened to a bit of Michele Bachmann’s announcement that she’s running for president (only a little, as that’s all I could handle!). I replayed my Friday interview with Van Jones (because it was that important!) from my fill-in for Randi Rhodes.
I had a very quick conversation with Firedoglake News blogger David Dayen (quick only because the doctor called just as we started getting going), who was explaining the latest on the debt ceiling negotiations.
Victoria Jones checked in from the Talk Radio News Service with word of the last SCOTUS decisions of this session.
And Crooks and Liars‘ Nicole Belle joined me for our regular Monday morning “Fools on the Hill” segment, recapping the Sunday talking head shows. This is what she brought us today:
Whenever I watch these shows, I do it on two levels. The first, obviously, is what is actually being said by the guests. Are they being factual? Are they answering questions? Are they monopolizing the conversation or filibustering the interview to prevent hard questions from being answered? But I’m also looking at it from a second, more meta level of who is getting booked, how the questions are being framed, if the interviewer is allowing the guest to run roughshod over him or if he’s controlling the interview. Often times, what’s NOT being said is as important as what IS being said.
Case in point: This roundtable from This Week on the debt ceiling debate. Listening to journalists George Will, Chrystia Freeland, Jonathan Karl and former WH Comm. Dir. Anita Dunn, it’s quite clear that they know that this is all kabuki theater, that in the end, after all the dramatic exits from negotiations and public proclamations, that Congress will vote to raise the debt ceiling. Just like they have nine times during the eight years of the Bush administration without the least whimper. But you know what’s not being said? WHY are they going through all this drama? Because the Republicans have decided that it’s a smart political move to hold the full faith and credit of the richest country in the world hostage in order to make Obama a single term president.
Speaking of kabuki theater, Sen. Jon Kyl, who followed Eric Cantor out of the debt ceiling negotiations last week wasn’t asked about this drama queen move, but was given lots of time by Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday to reinforce that raising taxes on millionaires is just about the worst thing in the world and that’s why the Republicans will not do it at all.
In a rare show of an unapologetic liberal being booked on the Sunday shows, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was on State of the Union and told Candy Crowley that for all his theatrics, Eric Cantor can’t handle the truth about cutting big oil subsidies.
Moving off the economy, Chris Christie was invited on Meet the Press…for what reason, I’m not sure. But he wanted to make sure that the gays in New Jersey better not hope to see marriage equality in their state any time soon. Because Christie isn’t “a fan of same sex marriage.”
Michele Bachmann is expected to actually officially announce her candidacy today. But she’s making the rounds of the safe media the Sunday prior. But I don’t think she expected quite the question she got from Chris Wallace, when he asked her if she was a flake. This apparently REALLY angered some of Bachmann’s fans, who let Fox News know in no uncertain terms and later in the day, Wallace issued a video apology. But yet, no apology still for editing the last week’s interview of Jon Stewart. In fact, quite the opposite.