hang in there (photo: twolf1)

Good morning friends. I suppose the lineup bugged Scarecrow, here’s what he had to say:

Suppose the President’s Party, the Tea-GOP Party, and everyone else brainwashed by dominant free market, anti-government ideology since Ronald Reagan — including Clinton, Bush and Obama — had produced an economic structure that only three years earlier had caused the worst financial and economic crash since the Great Depression, putting tens of millions out of work across the globe and leaving much of Europe still in crisis.

And suppose that having listened to Tea-GOP zealots and thus failed to produce a sustainable recovery in the US from that collapse, these same people had allowed the economy to remain anemic, the states to become budget-starved and forced into massive cuts of public services, and 25 million workers to remain under- and unemployed.

And suppose further that virtually every sensible economist agreed that the economy desperately needed a major infusion of federal spending, and that without this major infusion of funding, the economy risked sliding back into recession, state budget crises would worsen and the unemployment rates would rise or at best remain stuck at intolerable levels. In short, only large federal spending could keep the economy from tanking again, just as it had kept the economy above water for the last two years.

Now suppose these same national leaders, starting with President Obama, had convinced themselves that what they wanted to do was exactly the wrong thing, indeed, the dumbest thing they could do. They wanted to impose massive federal spending cuts with or without large tax increases on an economy that needed exactly the opposite remedy, even though all reasonable economists explained these cuts would make the economy worse and cause even more unemployment. [Cont'd. Listings after the jump.]

And suppose we had the good fortune of having seen this austerity policy tried in several European countries already, and seen it fail exactly as predicted. So we already knew that what didn’t make sense in theory, also failed in practice. We had no excuses for not knowing this.

Even dumber, suppose these fools had set up a hostage situation involving the debt limit — which everyone with a brain knew had to be increased under all the proposals under discussion — in which the Tea-GOP insisted it would risk defaulting on the national debt, thus harming US credit and tanking financial markets again, unless the other side agreed to massive spending cuts that would tank the economy and increase unemployment.

And the President had foolishly, recklessly or cynically insisted that he would accept this blackmail only if Democrats agreed to make significant reductions in spending, including reductions in the nation’s most important, and Democratic, health and retirement programs for the elderly and the poor. In other words, the President proposed to make the Democrats pay the electoral price for both making the economy worse while cutting some of the most worthy and popular programs in American history, or be blamed letting the Tea-GOP ruin US credit.

Any rational observer would conclude that the Tea-GOP had been taken over by economic terrorists, the President of the United States was either a blithering idiot or worse, and the Democratic Party was being set up to take the fall for either destroying the credit of the United States or their own future and credibility with American voters.

Given all that, whom should the Sunday Talk Shows invite to explain this monstrous situation to the American people? The answer is: you wouldn’t invite any of the people ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, or Fox chose, because all of those invitees are either clueless, dishonest or complicit in this monstrous situation. So naturally, all those programs will feature exactly the people who are clueless, dishonest or complicit, and there won’t be a single person willing or qualified to tell the truth.

Shut them down. All of them.

And if you’re so inclined, do what Peterr also reminds me: go to your house of worship and pray for your country, because it’s probably going down.

To which masaccio replied: “It isn’t just the guests who are clueless or complicit. The people hosting are clueless and complicit, and pretend they are neither. We’d all be better off if they took Peterr’s advice, and sought forgiveness for their arrogance.”

Washington Journal.

ABC’s This Week: Debt Ceiling – White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley. Economy Roundtable: George Will, Donna Brazile, Al Hunt, Jonathan Karl.  Then, IMF Chair Christine Lagarde on the risks of a US default. Also, is the media too quick to rush to judgment? Murdoch hacking scandal – Vanity Fair columnist and ADWEEK editorial director Michael Wolff (who also wrote “Murdoch: The Man Who Owns the News”), NPR’s Nina Totenberg, and CourtTV founder Steve Brill.

CBS’ Face the Nation: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, and Democrat Budget Committee member Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL).

CNN’s State of the Union: House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).  Then, Rick Santorum.  After that, a discussion of Space exploration.

Chris Matthews: Is the Tea Party’s Flirtation with Default a Big Favor to Barack Obama? Is Michele Bachmann Too Far Right Even for the GOP?

Fareed Zakaria – GPS: “On GPS this week, we’ll circle the world in an hour – from transatlantic views on L’Affaire DSK to the civil war in Libya; the birth of a new nation in Africa and a look at how that continent’s “African lions” could be the next “Asian tigers”. Plus: how Hollywood has hit a Great Wall in China.”

Fox News Sunday: Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Minority Leader. Then, “Senator ‘Tea Party’” – Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC). Roundtable: Brit Hume, Mara Liasson, Steve Hayes, Juan Williams.

NBC’s Meet the Press: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.  Then, Tim Pawlenty.

Newsmakers: Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Chair of the House Republican Study Committee (RSC), emphasizes the efforts of RSC committee members to support legislation that cuts or caps spending, and requires the Federal Government to balance its budget. …

Q & A: Nick Gillespie, Editor in Chief of Reason.com and Reason.tv, and the co-author (with Matt Welch) of a new book about libertarianism. The book, his first, discusses the problems of the two-party system and the consequences of that system, and proposes solutions to America’s problems based on Libertarian beliefs.

Religion & Ethics.

60 Minutes: Shaleionaires – While some complain that extracting natural gas from shale rock formations is tainting their water supply, others who have allowed drilling on their property are getting wealthy and becoming “shaleionaires.”  Stand Down – Some veterans returning from Iraq or Afghanistan into the recession are finding themselves homeless. Report on an annual encampment in San Diego where veterans can find hope, help and services. Market Street – Report on a mystery that was solved about a 100-year-old film that we now know was made on San Francisco’s Market St. just days before the 1906 earthquake.

To The Contrary: Topics: New Campaign to involve women in politics
Younger Women Freezing their eggs. Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA). Cyberstalking. Guest Host: Irene Natividad, Global Women. Panelists: Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Tara Setmayer, Lara Brown, Jennifer Marshall.

Univision’s Al Punto: Hector Capriles Radonski, Governor of the State of Miranda and Leading Contender for President of Venezuela; Rene Jaquez, Special Agent, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; Andrew Breitbart, Tea Party Leader, Publisher, Editor and Commentator; Demian Bichir, Actor “A Better Life.”

Virtually Speaking: Avedon Carol and Correntewire‘s Lambert Strether “Our Media Not Theirs.” Developments of the week, highlighting issues neglected or misrepresented on the Sunday morning broadcasts of traditional media.

C-SPAN’s Book TV.

FDL’s Book Salon: Habeas Corpus after 9/11 examines the rise of the U.S.-run global detention system that emerged after 9/11 and the efforts to challenge it through habeas corpus (a petition to appear in court to claim unlawful imprisonment). Habeas expert and litigator Jonathan Hafetz gives us an insider’s view of the detention of “enemy combatants” and an accessible explanation of the complex forces that keep these systems running.  5pm ET.

FDL’s Movie Night Monday: Flex’s 10 Rules for Dealing with Police.   Based in Washington, DC, Flex Your Rights (Flex) collaborates with community activists to fight new policing schemes that violate citizens’ Bill of Rights protections. Come talk with Scott Morgan and Steve Silverman, hosted by Lisa Derrick.  8pm ET.