By Mark Green
After 18 days in Cairo, protestors show that Egypt changed over 30 years, not Murbarak. He's out, what's in? The women also discuss Obama giving the Chamber the business... and clash on whether Rumsfeld is terrific or delusional. (Click below to listen.)
*On Egypt: Mary notes that things are rapidly shifting in Egypt ("in the time it takes to take a shower")... then during the show Mubarak quits! In the protestor vs. pharaoh test of wills, the women applaud the victory for democracy, especially since the revolution's vision is, notes Arianna, "what our country was founded on." Then they differ in emphasis: Mary focuses on the role of the Muslim Brotherhood since for 90 years they've been pushing for a more Islamic state while Arianna distinguishes Iran since there are no mullahs or ayatollah ready to seize power.
*On Reagan: Ms. Matalin believes him to be a great man and president who was as much a libertarian as a conservative. What about arms for hostages? She lauds his candor and eloquence when he apologized for violating the law. Was he a standard conservative by today's standards since he favored amnesty for illegal immigrants, raised taxes six times after his first two years, left Lebanon quickly after the barracks bombing and was ok with gays in classrooms? Ms.Huffington talks about his pragmatism and ability to change not his position but the public's mind (air controllers).
*Obama vs. Business: The women agree that President Obama seemed to give two speeches in his "neighborly" visit to the business group that whupped him in 2010. His statement to get rid of, in effect, dumb regulations is seen as apple-pie rhetoric. Mary agrees with Bob Reich that so-called "job killing regulations" were not responsible for the current economic crisis but then complains about the 225 volumes and 35,000 pages of federal regulations. Arianna, however, likes the way Obama chided business for their chicken-little claims about health-safety regulation (drug safety, seat-belts, child labor) but, still, she doesn't hear one clear narrative that could be repeated and remembered.
*Listener's Question: Ken Dragoon from Portland, citing Wikipedia, emailed in to ask about Mary's source for her contention that plenty of scientists disagree about global warming. (Last week Arianna dismissed the view that there was any serious scientific dispute.) Mary robustly asserts that there were many critics of the UN Panel's conclusion, highlighting Ian Plimer's Heaven and Earth: Global Warming - The Missing Science; to the contrary, see Mark Hertsgaard's Hot: Living Through the Next 50 Years on Earth.
(To submit a question, send it to BothSidesRadio@gmail.com.)
*Quick Takes: The women disagree about a) Rumsfeld's refusal to be self-critical about Iraq, b) whether hospitals should refuse to allow the fathers of newborns to take pictures in delivery rooms and c) whether an anti-abortion group's video of a Planned Parenthood employee should lead to a cut-off of $75 million for its health care clinics. But they concur that it's no one's business if Captain Mark Kelly decides to fly on his scheduled shuttle mission rather than stay with his wife Gabby Giffords during her rehabilitation.
*"Your Week": In this element, Mary talks about her birthday dinner for Dick Cheney with some friends and senators; Arianna then discusses the AOL-Huffington Post marriage -- how the deal was concluded in Dallas as halftime, how the two companies' visions were in sync, how HuffPo will keep and spread its voice (unless Mary alters it on Both Sides Now).
Mark Green is the creator and host of Both Sides Now, which is powered by the American Federation of Teachers.
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