Happy Tuesday!
Hello everybody, and welcome to the Shuster "Daily Briefing" for February 10, 2009. I am thrilled to tell you about some very cool additions to our growing on-line community. First, check out the great stuff now on our web site.
Per your requests, we have organized show videos so you can see all of the "Hypocrisy Watch" segments together. Same goes with "Muckraker" and "Briefing Room." It means you can now go straight to your favorite part of the show and see that segment from earlier shows you may have missed.
Also, you will notice that I am now using "Twitter."
I'm posting every few hours or so. The medium allows me to share thoughts/observations throughout the day and get your feedback in real time. Kudos to my friend Joe Trippi for inspiring me to do this and helping me get started.
To give you an example of the enormous potential with Twitter, last night around 11 p.m., I was thirsty and was trying to decide between vending machine options of Coke and Pepsi. I remembered an article in recent weeks about one of them doing a good job tracking their "carbon footprint" in bringing products to market. But, I couldn't remember which. So, I posted the question on Twitter and got detailed information and story links from the Twitter community in five minutes. (The answer was Pepsi.)
Needless to say, I'm excited to "tweet" and I encourage you to join in. It's a lot easier than it may appear. Plus, once our broadcast is over tonight at 7 p.m. EST, I'm going to Twitter and give you my thoughts on which segment I liked the most.
We are going to start the 6 p.m. show tonight with the big vote today in the U.S. Senate. The Senate passed the president's $838 billion economic recovery plan.
It's the biggest proposal in U.S. history and now heads to a "conference" meeting with the House to "reconcile" differences with the plan the House passed last week. There are some rumblings that this conference negotiation could be brutal. We will talk about that off the top with Rep. Steny Hoyer, one of the Democratic House leaders.
Helping us analyze the news that Hoyer makes will be Washington Post reporter Chris Cilizza.
The action in Congress came just as President Obama was holding a remarkable Town Hall meeting in Florida. He took questions. One of them came from a homeless woman who explained her various troubles and asked the President for help. He went over to her, gave her a hug/kiss, and said his staff would "get her information."
It was an incredibly moving moment. We will talk about that moment and the President's feelings about this day with somebody who traveled to Florida with him, Democratic Congressman Kendrick Meek.
Republicans say the language is "inappropriate" and frightens American consumers at a time when consumer confidence is a key factor in the recession. On the other hand, every economic indicator says this is the biggest economic crisis in 70 years and is in danger of becoming worse. We will debate the proper language with Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis and Republican strategist Tony Blankley.
In today's "Hypocrisy Watch," we are going to bring you an international edition of sorts. Two years ago, my wife and I went to Africa for our honeymoon and spent a few days at Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe side at the beautiful Victoria Falls hotel.
He is also about to celebrate his 85th birthday with a lavish party. All this as his citizens are starving. It's yet another reason that the Western world needs to find a way to get rid of this imbecile.
In "Muckraker," we are taking another look at the Alex Rodriguez steroid scandal. The reporting today makes it abundantly clear that A-Rod lied through his teeth in interviews the last few years. Plus, the impact on baseball is already being felt.
Finally, we have a great "Briefing Room" for you today. One of my producers found a hilarious song that's been written about the TARP money. The lyrics include, "I want some TARP, they are giving money away for free, I want some TARP, save a little bit for me."
Today's "Quote of the Day" comes from Bob Dylan:
"A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom."
Thanks in advance for watching "1600." Our show airs each weeknight at 6 p.m. in Washington, D.C.; 5 p.m. in Chicago; 4 p.m. in Denver; and 3 p.m. in San Francisco.
Shuster