Author: Michael Baranowski

This Week’s Stories
– The stingy, shortsighted, and essentially meaningless GOP budget plan.
– President Obama on mandatory voting (he’s for it).
– Starbucks attempt to get us to talk about race with our baristas.
– Mitch McConnell to the EPA: I hate you guys so much.
– The (not so high) rise and fall of Congressman Aaron Schock.
– The Obama / Magnum P. I. Connection.

Links
– How the Budget Process Works (in theory)
– If Everyone Voted, Not Much Would Change (The Monkey Cage)
– The Aaron Schock Workout (Men’s Health)
– Obamas not buying Magnum P.I. House (we refuse to believe this)

This Week’s Stories
– The Senate GOP ‘open letter’ to Iran: secretly brilliant, or not-so-secretly moronic?
– Hillary Clinton to the media: I didn’t do anything wrong. Technically.
– Ferguson, Missouri: some positive developments, then a tragedy.
– Is climate change a belief system or scientific fact?
– “It’s never good to be drunk at work, especially if you are in the Secret Service.”

Links
– The Senate GOP’s open letter to Iran (with the Iranian Foreign Minister’s reply)
– Climate Change: It’s not a religion. It’s a scientific fact. (The New Republic)

The audio on this week’s episode is, in places, less than stellar, thanks to one of Michael’s failed recording experiments. At first, we weren’t going to post this episode, but due to popular demand, we decided to put it up, but with this ‘low audio quality’ disclaimer. Things will sound better next week.

Also, you’ll notice that we ditched the opening music and announcer. If you have any preference between this format and the music / announcer approach we used in episode 02, please let us know.

This Week’s Stories
– Will the Supreme Court send Obamacare into a Death Spiral?
– Israeli PM Netanyahu’s speech to Congress (and Jay’s urinal moment with Netanyahu)
– Justice Department to Ferguson Police: You stink! (Also –  we might sue you.)
– Hillary Clinton once again shows her love of openness and transparency (not).

Links
King v. Burwell (Obamacare case) oral argument (U.S. Supreme Court)
Justice Department Report on Ferguson Police (Washington Post)
How Ferguson Uses Cops and Courts to Prey on Residents. (The Nation)
The Left Turns on Hillary (The Hill)

The Politics Guys, Episode 01 (February 22, 2015)

Show Notes & Links
This wasn’t our first show – just the first one we’ve posted. (Yes, the unposted shows were worse. Some were much worse.) The site is still under development, and we’re not on iTunes or Stitcher (yet), but minor technical difficulties aside, it’s reasonably representative of the approach we plan on taking in our discussion of the week in American politics. We’ll be doing this every Sunday until we either get sick of it or tire of the threatening email.

If you listen to the episode, you’ll notice that there’s no intro – we just start talking. We’re currently in the process of looking for someone to do the show’s introduction. If you’d like to be part the Official Intro Voice of The Politics Guys, let us know.

We’d love to hear what you think – good and bad. We’re full of ourselves, but not so full of ourselves that we think this initial effort can’t be improved in many ways. Please email us with your thoughts – we really would appreciate the feedback.

What ISIS Really Wants (The Atlantic)
This long but absolutely worth reading article was the basis of our lead discussion this week.

The Simpsons: Much Apu About Nothing (Season 7, Episode 23, 1996)
In our discussion of immigration, Jay mentioned this classic Simpsons episode, which The Onion’s AV Club seems to really like. (We’d post a direct link to the episode itself if we could, but come on – if you can’t dredge it up somewhere in quasi-legal fashion, you don’t really want to watch it.)

The Monster of Monticello
Michael was happy to express his deep and abiding hatred for Thomas Jefferson in this episode. Among his reasons for hating our third president – in addition to his disturbing history with slavery: 1) George Washington hated him, 2) Alexander Hamilton really hated him, 3) He was a hypocritical jerk.

Jen Psaki and Marie Harf
We somehow ended up talking about State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki. Ostensibly this was due to her recent promotion to White House Communications Director, but it was mostly about Jay’s mega-crush on her. And since we were talking about State Department spokespeople, Marie Harf’s name came up.