Charles & Eddie -- Would I Lie To You? (1992)

There are 436 representatives and 100 senators in Congress today. The Washington press corps is comprised of several dozens of reporters. And I'm not sure we could get a complete accounting of think tank members, specialists and activists, leaving literally hundreds and hundreds of people within the Washington DC environs potentially available for the Sunday news shows.

So why on earth is John McCain on my screen again, for the tenth time this year?

What the hell is that? Lack of imagination? Lack of creativity? Or is it more likely a lack of interest in having any kind of real conversation or discussion of the issues?

My vote is the latter.

Would that there was a liberal as popular with the producers as McCain to be able to provide a little bit of sanity and fact-based discussion. Hey, a girl can dream...

Happy Mother's Day to all my fellow moms. May your Sunday be filled with pancake syrup kisses and the recognition you deserve.

ABC's "This Week" -- Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Jack Reed, D-R.I. Foreign Policy panel: ABC News’ George Will; former Joint Chiefs of Staff Vice Chair Gen. James Cartwright (USMC, Ret.); Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus; and ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl. "Powerhouse" panel: Will, Donna Brazile, Matthew Dowd, and Jonathan Karl, plus former Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., and Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash.

NBC's "Meet the Press" -- Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; former diplomat Thomas Pickering, who helped lead the State Department's review of the attack against the U.S. in Benghazi, Libya. Panel: Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) who is a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan; New York Times columnist David Brooks; the BBC’s Katty Kay; and Afghanistan veteran and author Wes Moore.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" -- Howard Fineman, The Huffington Post; S. E. Cupp, MSNBC Host of "The Cycle"; Joe Klein, TIME Magazine; Kelly O'Donnell, NBC News Capitol Hill Correspondent.

CBS' "Face the Nation" -- Pickering; former Defense Secretary Robert Gates; Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. Maya Angelou.

MSNBC's "UP with Steve Kornacki" -- Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Executive Director, CEO and Co-Founder; Celinda Lake, Democratic Pollster, President, Lake Research Partners; State Sen. David Haley (D-KS); Fmr. Sen. Sheila Frahm (R-KS); Thomas Frank, Author, “What’s the Matter With Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America,” Columnist, Harper’s Magazine; Urvashi Vaid, currently Director of the Engaging Tradition Project at the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law at Columbia Law School; Pat Brady, Former Chairman, Illinois Republican Party; Rachel Stassen-Berger, Political Reporter, The Star Tribune; State Sen. Kelvin Atkinson (D-NV)

MSNBC's "Melissa Harris-Perry" -- Marian Chilton, Associate Professor at Drexel University / Director of the Center for Hunger-Free Communities; Mauricio Lim Miller, Founder of Family Independence Initiative; Michael Tanner, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute; Mayor Kasim Reed of Atlanta; James Perry, New Orleans Housing Lawyer; Jeremy Rosen, Policy Director at the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty; Diana Furchgott-Roth, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute; Rev. Vivian Nixon, Executive Director of the College and Community Fellowship / Co-Founder of the Education Inside Out Coalition.

CNN's "State of the Union" -- Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine; former Ambassador Thomas Pickering, co-chairman of the State Department's accountability review; Reps. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii. Panel: Republican Consultant Alex Castellanos, Democratic Strategist Mo Elleithee, and The Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" -- Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, former CIA and NSA Director Michael Hayden, and former CIA Counter-terrorism chief Robert Grenier.

CNN's "Reliable Sources" -- popular culture commentator Lola Ogunnaike, Paul Farhi of the Washington Post and Jim Warren of The New York Daily News; Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Connie Schultz; Bloomberg View columnist Margaret Carlson, The Hill’s Bob Cusack, and the National Review’s Jim Geraghty.

"Fox News Sunday" -- Reps. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and Adam Smith, D-Wash.; Rep.-elect Mark Sanford, R-S.C. Panel: Bill Kristol, The Weekly Standard; Dennis Kucinich, Fmr Rep (D-OH); Kimberley Strassel, Author, Member of The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board; Juan Williams, Fox News Political Analyst.

So what's catching your eye this morning?

The Spinners -- It's a Shame (1970)

It's a shame, the way we get the same people over and over. It's a shame, the way the news is framed by these fools. It's a shame, the way they mess around with our heads. Why do they use us, try to confuse us? How can they stand to be so cruel? Why don't they free us from this prison where we serve our time as their fools?

As I retrieved the various emails I get from the Sunday show p.r. departments, gathering the guest list, I was humming this song. The same old people, the same old conversations. Darrell Issa promises that he has new information on Benghazi! Rudy Giuliani thinks he knows where the intelligence failure lies in the Boston Marathon bombing! And Candy Crowley is going to bring out a panel on Muslim radicalization! Interestingly, Bob Schieffer veers off the "scary brown terrist comin' to git ya" meme and is apparently very interested in Jason Collins' recent coming out. And he's booked the first openly gay professional athletes I remember to discuss the not-so-hard-to-believe reality that there are (gasp!) gay people in sports. Bet you dollars to donuts that George Stephanopoulos will ask the hard-hitting question of Warren Buffet about his newly created Twitter account. And good ol' John McCain will be gunning for war somewhere...probably Syria this week. It's just a shame...

ABC's "This Week" — Investor Warren Buffett; Panel: James Carville, Mary Matalin, Jim DeMint, president of the Heritage Foundation; former Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M. and ABC News’ Cokie Roberts. Whoopi Goldberg.

NBC's "Meet the Press" — Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.; Rep. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani; former Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif.; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich; former Democratic Congressman Harold Ford; Editor of the National Review, Rich Lowry; and MSNBC contributor as well as political columnist for the Miami Herald, Joy-Ann Reid.; former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" — Katty Kay, BBC; Dan Rather, HDNet; David Ignatius, The Washington Post; Kathleen Parker, The Washington Post.

CBS' "Face the Nation" — Reps. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., and Darrell Issa, R-Calif.; Ayanbadego; former NFL lineman Esera Tuaolo; retired tennis players Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova; Ted Leonis, owner of the Washington Capitals, Wizards and Mystics; Domonique Foxworth, president of the NFL Players Association.

MSNBC's "UP with Steve Kornacki" — Abby Rapoport, The American Prospect; Nate Cohn, The New Republic; Joan Walsh, editor-at-large, Salon.com; Nia-Malika Henderson, The Washington Post; Maria Teresa Kumar, president, Voto Latino; Michael Hanna, senior fellow at The Century Foundation; Amr Al-Azm, History Professor at Shawnee State University in Ohio and member of the Syrian opposition; Andrew Tabler, senior fellow, The Washington Institute and author of In the Lion’s Den: An Eyewitness Account of Washington’s Battle with Syria

MSNBC's "Melissa Harris-Perry" — Eugene Jarecki, Filmmaker of “The House I Live In”; William “Billy” Murphy, Criminal Defense Attorney / Former Circuit Court Judge for the city of Baltimore; Kathleen Frydl, author of the upcoming book, “The Drug Wars in America, 1940-1973”; Michael J. Steinberg, Legal Director of the ACLU of Michigan; Ange-Marie Hancock, Associate Professor of Political Science and Gender Studies at USC / Author, “Solidarity Politics for Millenials: A Guide to Ending the Oppression Olympics”; Kai Wright, Editorial Director of Colorlines.com and Fellow at the Nation Institute; Martina Navratilova, Tennis Legend / LGBTQ Advocate; Wade Davis, Former NFL Player / Came out after he retired from football / Director of Job Readiness at the Hetrick Martin Institute; Matt Welch, Reason Magazine.

CNN's "State of the Union" — Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Director of the Center for the Study of Terrorist Radicalization at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies; Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, Founder and President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy; Jessica Stern, former member of the National Security Council under President Clinton and author of DENIAL: A Memoir of Terror; and Suhail Khan, a Senior Fellow for Christian-Muslim understanding at the Institute for Global Engagement. Panel: The Hill’s A.B. Stoddard and Bloomberg’s Jeanne Cummings.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" — Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass and Anne-Marie Slaughter. TIME's Rana Foroohar and the Financial Times’ Gillian Tett. Author Salman Rushdie.

CNN's "Reliable Sources" — The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza and Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times. Legal analyst Lisa Bloom. Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau. Former Washington Post reporter Elsa Walsh.

"Fox News Sunday" — Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Reps. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and Stephen Lynch, D-Mass. Panel: Jennifer Rubin, Columnist for The Washington Post; Julie Pace, The Associated Press; Nina Easton, FORTUNE's senior editor; Evan Bayh, Former Democratic Senator from Indiana.

So what's catching your eye this morning?

There are weekends that I feel that watching the Sunday news shows are about as constructive as paying someone to argue with you just for the sake of arguing. Looking at this lineup, I'd say this is one of those weekends. McCain. Again. Lindsey Graham. Again. Newt Gingrich. Again. Bill Friggin' Kristol. Ross Douthat. Karen Hughes. Peggy Noonan. George Will. Again and again and again. Is it too much to ask that these Sunday shows just expand their dating circle a little bit? Can't we try just once booking people who are not historically wrong to discuss the issues?

ABC's "This Week" - Reps. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md and Bloomberg View columnist Jeffrey Goldberg. ABC News’ George Will, ABC News contributor and Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, ABC News political analyst and special correspondent Matthew Dowd, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair; Reps. Peter King, R-N.Y., Keith Ellison, D-Minn.; Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn,and Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, GOP strategist Mike Murphy, NBC’s Chuck Todd, and former counselor to the president Karen Hughes.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Bob Woodward, The Washington Post; Gloria Borger, CNN Senior Political Analyst; Michael Duffy, TIME Magazine; Lesley Stahl, CBS News.

CBS' "Face the Nation" - Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. Panel: The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan, Harvard University's David Gergen, plus CBS News' Norah O'Donnell, John Dickerson and Clarissa Ward. CBS News' Bob Orr and John Miller.

MSNBC's "UP with Steve Kornacki" - Kristian Ramos, Policy Director, NDN's 21st Century Border Initiative; Jordan Fabian, Political Editor, Fusion (ABC/Univision joint venture); Lorella Praeli, Director of Advocacy & Policy, United We Dream; Ryan D. Enos, Assistant Professor of Government, Harvard University (specializing in American Politics, Political Psychology, and Race and Ethnic Politics); Rev. William Barber, President, North Carolina NAACP; Gerrick Brenner, Executive Director, Progress NC; Karl Smith, Assistant Professor of Public Economics and Government, University of North Carolina; Penda Hair, Co-Director, Advancement Project; St. Rep. Rick Glazier, (D-NC); Alexis Goldstein, Occupy Wall Street, former employee who worked on Wall Street; Josh Barro, Columnist, Bloomberg View; Jesse Eisinger, Senior reporter, ProPublica; Karl Smith, Assistant Professor of Public Economics and Government, University of North Carolina; Liz Kennedy, Demos.

MSNBC's "Melissa Harris-Perry" - Tom Colicchio, Chef/Owner of Craft Restaurants / Head Judge on Bravo’s “Top Chef”; Marion Nestle, Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, NYU; Ramez Naam, Author of “The Infinite Resource”; Ricardo Salvador, Director of the Food Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists; Andrea Plaid, Associate Editor at Racialicious.com; Jelani Cobb, Associate Professor at UCONN; Jane Junn, Professor of Political Science at USC; Raquel Cepeda, Author of “Bird of Paradise”; Kathryn Joyce, Author of “The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking and the New Gospel of Adoption”; Tarikwu Lemma, Has two failed adoptions from Ethiopia; Karen Moline, Has an adopted son from Vietnam; Jacqueline Pata, Executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians.

CNN's "State of the Union" - Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind.; Reps. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.; Nicholas Burns, former undersecretary of state; Michael Chertoff, former homeland security secretary.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - Former CIA chief Michael Hayden and Google's Eric Schmidt; director Mira Nair.

CNN's "Reliable Sources" - Syndicated radio host Michael Medved, Current TV’s Cenk Uygur, and Jane Hall of American University; Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen; Daily Beast reporter Michelle Cottle; New York Times columnist Ross Douthat.

"Fox News Sunday" - Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas. Israeli Ambassador to the US, Michael Oren. Brit Hume, Fox News Senior Political Analyst; Amy Walter, National Editor, Cook Political Report; Bill Kristol, The Weekly Standard; Charles Lane, Editorial Writer for The Washington Post.

So what's catching your eye this morning?

Apropos of nothing, but after the week we've had, I needed some levity. Clearly the stars were in some catastrophic alignment and it just seemed like an endless level of stress to endure. But now that it's calmed down a bit, I feel the need to give a little perspective.

As awful and horrifying as the Boston marathon was, it was six deaths (three at the marathon, two police officers and suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev) and approximately 140 injuries. That's bad, no one disputes that. But you know how many people died at the Deepwater Horizon explosion? Twelve. I don't know that we'll ever get an honest accounting of the injuries as a result of poisoning of the gulf. And there's no bloodlust coming from Lindsey Graham to hold those corporations responsible. There have been 3,530 gun deaths since Sandy Hook, including 11 on the same day of the Boston Marathon, one of whom was a one year old baby. But Congress doesn't think closing the gun show loophole is politically doable. Two days ago a bomb left in a coffee shop in Iraq killed 27 people and left 50 injured. This week, the Syrian government launched two air strikes against their own people, killing at least 25, including many children. In Afghanistan, a British soldier shot four Afghan boys at close range, killing three of them. And in Guantanamo Bay, 63 indefinitely detained prisoners are starving themselves to death.

It doesn't make me feel better to know that it's worse elsewhere, but it should be a reminder to all of us that life is fragile, precious and worth savoring for however long we have. There are no guarantees; safety is illusory. My heart grieves for Boston, but it also grieves for the others as well. And the value of a human life should mean something, no matter its geography.

ABC's "This Week" -- ABC News Senior Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas; Chief National Correspondent Byron Pitts; ABC News legal analyst Dan Abrams, former White House counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke, and former FBI agent Brad Garrett; Boston Mayor Thomas Menino; Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., Council on Foreign Relations president Richard Haass; ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz; and editor of The New Yorker David Remnick. Author Dennis Lehane.

NBC's "Meet the Press" -- Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick; Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich; Former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff; The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg; NBC's Tom Brokaw; historian Doris Kearns Goodwin; Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan; NBC’s Justice Correspondent Pete Williams and former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Michael Leiter.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" -- Bob Woodward, The Washington Post; Gloria Borger, CNN; Michael Duffy, TIME Magazine; Lesley Stahl, CBS News.

CBS' "Face the Nation" _ Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick; Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis; Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas; former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani; former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge; Carlee Soto, Erica Lafferty and Neil Heslin, who lost relatives in the Newtown, Conn., school shooting.

MSNBC's "UP with Steve Kornacki" -- Guest list not provided.

MSNBC's "Melissa Harris-Perry" -- Guest list not provided.

CNN's "State of the Union" -- McCaul, Giuliani; Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and William "Mo" Cowan, D-Mass.; former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales; former Rep. Tim Roemer, D-Ind.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" -- New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. Stephen Flynn, founding co-director of the George J. Kostas Research Institute for Homeland Security at Northeastern University, Philip Mudd, a senior research fellow at the New America Foundation, Harvard School of Public Health fellow Jessica Stern and Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens.

CNN's "Reliable Sources" -- Mediaite’s Joe Concha, The Washington Post's Erik Wemple, and Lauren Ashburn of The Daily Download; Callie Crossley, host of WGBH radio's "Under the Radar with Callie Crossley," USA Today's Christine Brennan, The Washington Post's Vernon Loeb.

"Fox News Sunday" _ Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. Panel: Bill Kristol, The Weekly Standard; Jane Harman, President of Woodrow Wilson Center & Fmr Congresswoman (D-CA); General Michael Hayden, Fmr CIA Director & Principal at The Chertoff Group; Juan Williams.

So, what's catching your eye this morning?

Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive

It's funny how songs resonate differently at different points in our lives. When I fell in love with my husband, I zeroed in on all the swoony, romantic declarations in music. When we had kids, love songs took on a different meaning, because the primal love one feels for a child is not romantic but powerful in its own way. Then, I resonated with the messages of comfort and support. Hell, I can listen to the Beatles' "Across the Universe" daily and it can sound naive and plaintive, cynical, tragically optimistic or weary and resigned, depending on my own mood.

I was working out this week and heard "Stayin' Alive" playing and it hit me more than it has in the 35 years (gulp!) I've heard this song play:

I've been kicked around since I was born
Now it's all right, it's okay
You may look the other way
We can try to understand
The New York Times' effect on man

Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother
You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin'
I'm a-stayin' alive, stayin' alive

Life goin' nowhere, somebody help me
Somebody help me, yeah
Lyrics from eLyrics.net

Isn't that what we're dealing with, in a nutshell, albeit in a falsetto disco one? We're all struggling to stay alive, some of us in quite literal crises and been kicked around. And we're trying to get those politicians who have the power to make things better for us to not look the other way. We're also hoping that the media will take notice and effect change. Although looking at the line-up again this week, it looks like we're going nowhere again.

ABC's "This Week" -- Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.; New York Yankees’ Mariano Rivera and Robinson Cano; Panel: ABC News’ George Will; House Judiciary Committee chair Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.; Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill.; Washington Post Columnist Ruth Marcus; and Wall Street Journal Columnist Kimberley Strassel.

NBC's "Meet the Press" -- Rubio; Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Mike Lee, R-Utah; filmmaker Ken Burns and Jackie Robinson’s wife, Rachel Robinson, actor Harrison Ford; Panel: Lee, Gillibrand, BBC’s Katty Kay, New York Times Columnist David Brooks, and NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" -- Kelly O'Donnell, NBC News; David Ignatius, The Washington Post; Nia-Malika Henderson, The Washington Post; Mark Mazzetti, New York Times.

CBS' "Face the Nation" -- Rubio; Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Patrick Toomey, R-Pa.; gun control activist Mark Kelly. Panel: The Washington Post's David Ignatius, The New York Times' David Sanger, Cook Political Report's Amy Walter and CBS News Political Director John Dickerson.

MSNBC's "UP with Steve Kornacki" -- Eliot Spitzer, Fmr. Governor of New York and Rep. Jerry Nadler, Neera Tanden, Center for American Progress; Maya Wiley, Center for Social Inclusion; Professor and Author David Cay Johnston; Mattie Duppler, Americans for Tax Reform; and author Mark Blyth.

MSNBC's "Melissa Harris-Perry" -- Carmen Wong Ulrich, President of Alta Wealth Management / Personal Finance Expert; Dean Baker, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research; Lisa Cook, Assistant Professor of Economics and International Relations at Michigan State University; Josh Barro, Columnist for Bloomberg View; Dorie Clark, Former spokesperson for Howard Dean / Author, “Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future”; Soffiyah Elijah, Attorney and Scholar; Majora Carter, President of the Majora Carter Group; Michelle Major, Director and Producer of “Venus and Serena”

CNN's "State of the Union" -- Rubio, Manchin, Toomey; Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Panel: Democratic Strategist Donna Brazile, Republican Strategist Ana Navarro and the Wall Street Journal’s Washington Bureau Chief Gerald Seib.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" -- David Stockman, Austan Goolsbee. Steven Brill and David Goldhill. Anthony Bourdain. Ratan Tata, the former chairman of India's Tata Group.

CNN's "Reliable Sources" -- Amy Holmes of The Blaze, Ana Marie Cox of The Guardian and the Washington Post’s Nia-Malika Henderson. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN). Paul Begala. Robert Greenwald.

"Fox News Sunday" -- Rubio; Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and John Cornyn, R-Texas. Panel: Scott Brown, former Republican Senator from Massachusetts; Marjorie Clifton, Founder of Spike the Watercooler; Karl Rove, former Bush White House Senior Adviser; Evan Bayh, former Democratic Senator from Indiana.

So what's catching your eye this morning?

If you're interested, I'll be on "Talking Left" this morning, available via WeActRadio this morning, speaking with my buddies Danielle, the LeftNeck Chick and Shane-O. Other guests include Brad Friedman of Bradblog and Joshua Holland of AlterNet.

I realize this will not be a terrible shock to anyone who pays attention to Sunday talking heads shows, but lean in for the secret anyway. Yes, it's true. With only a couple of exceptions, the Sunday shows are full of old conservative white men who outnumber progressive/liberal voices by a substantial margin. If one were to split the "neutral" classification down the middle on the graph at the top, it would still leave conservatives as the dominant voice on Sunday television.

MediaMatters studied all of the guests on the Sunday shows from the beginning of January through April 5th. They concluded that Sunday shows need a major facelift in terms of ethnic and diversity and much more balance in terms of the ideological points of view represented.

In the first three months of 2013, the broadcast networks' Sunday morning talk shows once again skewed strongly to the right and featured a startling lack of diversity among guests. For better or worse, these shows -- ABC's This Week, CBS' Face the Nation, NBC's Meet the Press, and Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday -- occupy an elevated space in the national political discussion. This is where influential people -- like senators, representatives, presidential administration officials, Fortune 500 chief executives, and leaders of prominent non-profit organizations, for example -- get to set the terms of debate and frame the issues of the week. The shows enjoy considerably high ratings as well -- approximately 10 million weekly viewers collectively, according to recent numbers from TV Newser.

With that in mind, who the broadcast Sunday shows invite on as guests has significant implications for how discussions on major issues are framed. And once again, Republicans and conservatives have an edge over Democrats and progressives on these programs.While our report found that elected and administration officials hosted on these shows were much more likely to be Republican than Democratic, between the lines is an even more salient point: The findings run in stark contrast to previous trends and statements from the networks themselves.

The numbers on how women and minorities are represented on these shows are striking, and that runs across all of the networks with one exception: Up with Chris Hayes and Melissa Harris-Perry both defied the norms on MSNBC. It would be good for other networks to pay heed and consider shaking up their bookers' contact list a bit.

The entire report is fascinating. You can read the full report here.

On "This Week," Greta Van Susteren failed miserably in her attempt to explain Republicans' ideological refusal to raise taxes.

VAN SUSTEREN: The reason we have paralysis is because we don't have the money. And I think people want to take care of people. I don't think people want to take the safety net away from people who really need it. Because Americans are really good, decent people.

If we didn't have a revenue fight in terms of how much money we have, the condition of the economy, the condition of the national debt, we wouldn't be having half of these fights. And the two parties might be able to come together a little bit better if we fundamentally got this economy up and roaring, we'd be fighting a little bit --

Where does one even begin to unpack this mess?

Let's start with her claim that "people" don't want to "take the safety net away" with the fact that Republicans have signed on to a budget which slashes the safety net to give tax cuts to rich people, authored by an Ayn Rand disciple who once complained that the nation's "takers" outnumbered our "makers" and famously derided Social Security as a "hammock."

Oh, and by the way, the new chairman of the Heritage Foundation just went on Van Susteren's network and basically called 70 million Americans welfare queens.

So to argue Republicans don't want to get rid of the safety net is to literally argue that up is down.

But the oddest thing about Van Susteren's Palin-esque word salad is the first sentence:

The reason we have paralysis is because we don't have the money.

The government's "money" (or revenue) comes from taxes, which are currently at historic lows and which the GOP absolutely refuses to raise.

So Van Susteren is saying, in effect: Republicans are refusing to raise taxes because tax revenue is so low.

What?

To be fair, shilling for an unpopular party that wants to slash benefits for poor people to give billionaires lower taxes is never easy these days. But Van Susteren really made a mess of it this morning.

Take Action News -- April 6, 2013

We are well and truly through the looking glass when we have a Democratic president suggesting cutting the social safety nets that we have all paid into: Social Security for seniors, benefits to disabled veterans and Medicaid/Medicare while giving the barest of lip service to making millionaires pay 'fairer' taxes and absolutely no mention of how corporations are the true moochers in our economy. I've seen some people who insist that this is still that twenty-dimensional chess game that Obama is playing, but I can't see it. This is not a game for millions of Americans and the damage that will be done to this country to protect a few elites is monumental. If you haven't already called your congress person and told them that there is absolutely no way you will give you support financially or vote-wise to someone who will force the most vulnerable among us to bear the burden of fixing the economy, what are you waiting for?

ABC's "This Week" -- Dan Pfeiffer, adviser to President Barack Obama. Foreign policy panel: ABC News’ chief global affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz, just returned from reporting at the North Korea border; New York Times chief Washington correspondent and author of “Confront and Conceal” David Sanger; Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren; and ABC News’ George Will. Politics panel: president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group Arianna Huffington; Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman; former Reagan budget director David Stockman, author of “The Great Deformation: the Corruption of Capitalism in America”; Van Susteren; and Will.

NBC's "Meet the Press" -- Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Bill Richardson, a former U.N. ambassador and New Mexico governor; Michele Flournoy, a former undersecretary of defense for policy. Panel: Richardson, GOP strategist Mike Murphy; Politico’s Maggie Haberman; and NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent, Andrea Mitchell. CNBC's Jim Cramer.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" -- Joe Klein, TIME; Katty Kay, BBC Washington Correspondent; Amy Walter, The Cook Political Report; Peter Alexander, NBC White House Correspondent.

CBS' "Face the Nation" -- Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and John McCain, R-Ariz.; former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Panel: Foreign Policy Magazine and The Economist writer Blaine Harden, The Wall Street Journal's Washington Bureau Chief Gerry Seib, CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Major Garrett and CBS News Congressional Correspondent Nancy Cordes.

MSNBC's "Melissa Harris-Perry" -- Panel guests TBA.

CNN's "State of the Union" -- Gov. Dannel Malloy, D-Conn.; Jon Huntsman, a former U.S. ambassador to China and Utah governor; Reps. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., and Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla. Panel: Mike Duffy of Time Magazine and the Cook Political Report’s Amy Walter.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" -- New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, The Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel, Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass and Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens. Morgan Stanley's Ruchir Sharma.

CNN's "Reliable Sources" -- ESPN senior college basketball writer Andy Katz; Ken Tucker, the author of an in-depth piece on “Grantland” about the history of the late-night wars; CNN’s Erin McPike, the Daily Caller’s Matt Lewis and Roger Simon of Politico; Michael Medved.

"Fox News Sunday" _ Pfeiffer; former Rep. Asa Hutchinson, who directed a National Rifle Association-sponsored study on ways to improve school safety. Panel: Brit Hume, Fox News Senior Political Analyst; Kirsten Powers, Daily Beast Columnist; Jennifer Rubin, Columnist for The Washington Post; Juan Williams, Fox News Contributor.

So what's catching your eye this morning?

John Fugelsang on Prop 8, DOMA and why Easter matters, from Current's Viewpoint

Happy Easter, my bunnies. At my home, the Easter Bunny is making an authorized delay until next weekend, because my 7 year old niece is coming to visit and her cousins think it will be more fun to wait and have her join them. Wasn't that sweet for them to give up their immediate sugar gratification for the sake of their cousin? So that frees me up to spend Sunday with my favorite people, you C&Lers. I imagine that the place of religion in our lives and government will be of major discussion this weekend, what with a new pope and Prop 8 and DOMA up at the Supreme Court. It always astounds me how so many conservatives are threatened by the fear of Sharia Law and yet feel no compunction about trying to create their own theocracy here.

ABC's "This Week" -- Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York; Round table: Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker; Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., ABC News political analyst and special correspondent Matthew Dowd, ABC News senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny, and editor and publisher of The Nation Katrina vanden Heuvel. Religion panel: Writer and religious scholar Reza Aslan; Rev. Calvin Butts, Pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York; author and atheist Susan Jacoby; Dr. Richard Land, of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission; and Sojourners president Rev. Jim Wallis. Former White House photographer Eric Draper.

NBC's "Meet the Press" -- Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. Round table: Former top adviser to President Obama, David Axelrod; Former Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA); the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson and the Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan. Actor Rob Reiner; President of the National Organization for Marriage Brian Brown; founder and President of the National Action Network, MSNBC’s Rev. Al Sharpton; and NBC News Justice Correspondent Pete Williams.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" -- David Ignatius, The Washington Post; Kathleen Parker, The Washington Post; Helene Cooper, The New York Times; Michael Crowley, TIME.

CBS' "Face the Nation" -- Dolan; Mariann Budde, Episcopal Diocese of Washington; Imam Suhaib Webb; Rabbi David Wolpe; Bishop Harry Jackson.

MSNBC's "Melissa Harris-Perry" -- Stephen Lerner, Labor and Community Organizer for the Wall Street Accountability Campaign; Greg Kaufmann, The Nation; Anthea Butler, Professor of Religious Studies and Graduate Chair of Religion at the University of Pennsylvania; Kayla Williams, Fellow at the Truman National Security Project & Center for National Policy; Patrick Murphy, Former US Congressman (D-PA); Aaron Glantz, Reporter for the Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit media organization based in California; Rabbi Dan Ain, Director of Tradition and Innovation, 92nd Street Y; Christiana Peppard, Theology Professor at Fordham University; Katha Pollitt, The Nation; Chanel Martin, Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer of MadameYou.com; Candace Mitchell, Co-Founder and CEO of MadameYou.com

CNN's "State of the Union" -- Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. Prop 8 opponents David Boies and Ted Olson. Panel: strategists Donna Brazile and Kevin Madden, along with CNN Chief White House Correspondent Jessica Yellin. Senate Chaplain Barry Black & House Chaplain Patrick Conroy.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" -- Jordan's King Abdullah; India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani; former Australian Prime Minister John Howard; Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

CNN's "Reliable Sources" -- Eric Deggans, TV critics for the Tampa Bay Times, and Carole Simpson, former anchor for ABC News; The Washington Posts' Jennifer Rubin and AMERICAblog founder John Aravosis; PandoDaily tech reporter Hamish McKenzie; ESPN's tech analyst Katie Linendoll and WNBC New York 4 reporter Brynn Gingras; former journalist Allyson Bird.

"Fox News Sunday" -- Mark Kelly, Americans for Responsible Solutions and husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords; Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, D.C. Panel: Bill Kristol, The Weekly Standard; Mara Liasson, National Public Radio; Ed Gillespie, Fmr Sr Advisor to Mitt Romney & Fmr Counselor to President George W. Bush; Charles Lane, Editorial Writer for The Washington Post

So what's catching your eye this morning?

What's that they say about blind squirrels again? Here's Nooners, talking about what ails the GOP this morning on "This Week."

NOONAN: You know, I tend to think that the go GOP's central problems have to do with things we don't talk all that much about. One is what happened in 2008 and the continuing repercussions of the crash. The repercussions where the party stands, what its positions are on how to create growth, that is becoming in part within the party, a rising disagreement -- not disagreement, but a rising difference of emphasis between those who are saying the way we have to go is growth right now and those who are saying we've got to handle this debt and deficit thing. They're sort of different approaches.

Another is that I think the Republican Party has to make clear what its foreign policy is. It has had two wars for the past 12 years, people are still settling in and thinking -- I mean, the voters have said, we don't like that. We're not for that. The Republican Party has to make clear what it stands for and it's going to have to have a little bit of debate to get there.

So I think those two big things, and the policies that spring from them, will make all of the difference and so will an eventual compelling presidential candidate, somebody who is involved right now is going to work his way through. At the end of the day, it is the candidates who resolve a lot of unresolved things by taking a stand and speaking for forcefully for it.

Exactly right.

"Those two big things" -- the Iraq War and the Great Recession are indeed the two major reasons the Democratic Party swept into power 2006 and 2008, and they both loomed large in 2012. The problem for Republicans is they seem to be in complete denial about this. They're still insisting George W. Bush was a great president, that we "won" in Iraq, and that Barney Frank and irresponsible minorities caused the crash.

Do you ever hear Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio or Paul Ryan say the Iraq War or the radical financial deregulation of Wall Street were mistakes? No, you haven't. And as long as the official domestic policy of the Republican Party is tax cuts and deregulation and the party's official foreign policy is neoconservative, you won't.

Even if the Republicans decide to adopt less hateful policies towards immigration and gay marriage, they're still, at the end of the day, going to have to come to terms with the Bush administration. And that's something to date they've refused to do.

(h/t David of VideoCafe)