Lawrence.com

On Deck

...wherein we listen to what Lawrence's movers and shakers are moving and shaking. to.

Dennis "The Kooch" Kucinich, Ohio congressman, presidential candidate, DNC attendee, proponent of impeaching President Bush and Vice President Cheney, unimpeachable taste in music

1. The Beatles, "Magical Mystery Tour"
2. The Rolling Stones, "Their Satanic Majesties Request"
3. Simon & Garfunkel, "Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M."
4. U2, "Boy"
5. Willie Nelson, "Red Headed Stranger"

Tubers

...wherein local TV connoisseurs intimate what keeps them on their couches.

Gavon Laessig, lawrence.com hack-about-town, political convention groupie, enjoys interviewing himself

1. "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" "Olbermann's Edward R. Murrow meets Otter from 'Animal House' schtick is the perfect antidote to what passes for journalism in the 24-hour meat grinder of cable news. He's the lone progressive voice out there, and what a smart-assed voice it is. When he's not busy mocking Bill O'Reilly, he's delivering eloquently excoriating 'Special Comments' against the Bush administration that are the closest thing we have to truth telling in the Fourth Estate these days. His Democratic National Convention coverage was hilarious. He tag teamed with MSNBC cohort Chris Matthews, and you could tell they hate each other. They bickered like an old married couple."
2. "The Daily Show with John Stewart" "The other bastion of honest coverage on cable. 'The Daily Show' uses satire as a scalpel and vivisects politics, and the media that covers it, with equal abandon. I bumped into one of their correspondents, John Oliver, as he was taking the piss out of Hillary Clinton dead enders in Denver. I was a stammering little fan boy when I introduced myself to him. I also nearly tripped over Rob Riggle, another correspondent, at the Pepsi Center. That dude is huge."
3. "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer" "The only respectable, traditional news program. It doesn't bother with the salacious missing-white-girl-of-the-week/shark attack bullshit that has come to define most of the modern media. It actually pays attention to international affairs. The other nice thing is that it doesn't fall into that trap of fake balance, where you bring in a liberal and a conservative to spew out talking points and call it a day. It strives for genuine objectivity and simply reports the news. They often use 'New York Times' columnist David Brooks as a political analyst, and I saw running around in the Pepsi Center as well. Brooks is the anti-Riggle. He's tiny and has a disconcerting amount of junk in his trunk."

Bound Up

Jonathan Alter, Newsweek editor, best selling author, DNC attendee, not big on the hobby front, but enjoys skiing and the Chicago Cubs

Currently reading: "The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals" by Jane Mayer "It's about how the U.S. government reversed decades of policy and began torturing prisoners, about how Dick Cheney and David Addington basically hijacked the federal government and purged it of anybody who raised constitutional objections. They drove a radical right policy on civil liberties and torture through our government. It's not a real pick me up."

One book everyone should read: "The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope" by Jonathan Alter "Since you opened the door for me-it's about Franklin Roosevelt and how he transformed the country. It's out in paper back! It's relevant not only for people who like history, people who are interested in what great leadership is and what makes a great leader tick-who Franklin Roosevelt really was and how he rescued the country in just a few weeks in the dark winter of 1933-but also for people who are interested in who Barack Obama. In his stump speech, Obama always talks about how this is a defining moment. My book is called, 'The Defining Moment,' and he's given me a couple of shout outs when he's seen me in the audience. He's familiar with the Roosevelt period as being the original defining moment, but I think he wants a second defining moment-redrafting that social contract people have with their government."