Poisoning Frogs, Toddlers And Now Office Workers

Plus: Find out what made President Bush cry “uncle!"...now FEMA wants immunity for all of those heckuva jobs...LA residents soon to be asked, “Paper or paper?"...when the pandemic breaks out, will you make the list of “people to be saved first"?..Big Tobacco to do battle with Even Bigger Money Guys...what would you do if your hubby “went tribal” in the middle of your labor?..SuperPoking you all the way to the gym...and say farewell to the Huxtables. It’s Thursday, July 24 and this is Mic Check Radio. DUCK! It’s Bob Novak!

Celebration Excuse

July 24 is a day of travel, whether to Salt Lake City, Tennessee, or just the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

1847

The Mormons settle in Salt Lake City, laying the ground work 160 years later for our favorite HBO drama “Big Love.”

1866

Welcome home, honey! Tennessee becomes the first Confederate state to rejoin the Union.

1911

Why, isn’t that Machu Pichu? American archaeologist Hiram Bingham discovers the ancient Incan settlement in Peru.

1969

The Apollo 11 astronauts – including Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, who had just become the first Americans to walk on the moon – splash safely down in the Pacific.

1974

The Supreme Court tells President Richard Nixon he must turn over the infamous White House tapes to the special Watergate prosecutor.

2002

Nine coal miners were trapped in a mine in Pennsylvania. They were all rescued three days later.

Eat More Cake

1802: Author Alexander Dumas. You know him as the guy who wrote “The Three Muskateers”
1897: Aviatrix Amelia Earhart. You know her as the female pilot who mysteriously disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937
1916: Author John D. MacDonald. You know him as the guy who invented the hardboiled detective Travis McGee.
1935: Cartoonist Pat Oliphant. You know him as a Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist, possibly from his iconic Richard Nixon drawings.
1949: Actor Michael Richards. You know him as Kramer from Seinfeld. You’d like to forget his racist tirade at a comedy club in 2006.
1956: Gov. Charlie Crist. You know him as the Republican Governor from Florida.
1963: Basketball player Karl Malone. You know him as “The Mailman,” ‘cause he always delivers.
1964: Baseball player Barry Bonds. You know him for his controversial home-run record.
1968: Actress Kristin Chenoweth. You know her from her Broadway roles (like “Wicked”) or as the voice of Stewie’s singing nemesis on “Family Guy.”
1969: Singer/Actress Jennifer Lopez. You know her as the diva J-Lo
1982: Actress Elizabeth Moss. You know her as Zoe Bartlet from “West Wing” and Peggy from “Mad Men.”

Daybook

POTUS

Delivers remarks on the Freedom Agenda, Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington D.C.

Participates in a photo-op with officers of the National FFA Organization, White House, East Room.

OTHERS

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez: Delivers remarks at the Consumer Electronics Assn. news conference, Capitol Reflecting Pool, Washington D.C.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice: Travel to United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Samoa and Hawaii July 20-28.

United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab: Attends meeting of the World Trade Organization’s Doha round in Geneva, Switzerland.

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings: Delivers remarks and signs a Letter of Cooperation between the Agriculture Department and the Education Department, Agriculture Department, Washington D.C.

STUMPIN

BARACK OBAMA

Speech and meeting in Berlin.

JOHN MCCAIN

11:30 AM

Town Hall in Canton, Oh.

ON THE HILL

Senate

10:00 AM

Senate Judiciary Committee: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. will testify on this full committee hearing addressing needed state and federal coordination on crimes associated with polygamy.

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee: The full committee hearing will address current policy related to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

2:15 PM

Senate Finance Committee: Hearing on tax and financing aspects of highway public-private partnerships.

2:30 PM

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee: Gov. Martin O’Malley, D-Md. will testify in this hearing on improving federal program management by use of performance information.

House

10:00 AM

House Education and Labor Committee: Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis. and Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn. will testify in this hearing on reducing childhood obesity and improving physical education.

House Energy and Commerce Committee: Hearing addressing whether consumers of insurance are protected for the long-term.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee: Full Committee hearing addressing Medicare drug benefit discounts.

11:00 AM

House Judiciary Committee:Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa; Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Texas; Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif. and Rep. David Davis, R-Tenn. will testify in this hearing addressing immigration raids.

House Foreign Affairs Committee: Hearing on the preservation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Nonproliferation Regime in today’s heavy nuclear enviroment.

2 PM

House Judiciary Committee: Hearing on the lessons learned from the 2004 presidential election.

WATCH MORE TV

TIVO

The View: Dr. Linda Li, Dr. David Matlock

Regis and Kelly: Aaron Eckhart, Jim CramerEllen DeGeneres: Robin Williams, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson (R 5/6/08)

Chelsea Lately: Charo, Jason Kennedy, Heather McDonald, George Wallace

STAY UP LATE

David Letterman: David Duchovny, Black Kids

Jay Leno: Kelsey Grammer, Hugh Rowland and Drew Sherwood, Gavin McGraw

Late Late Show: Amanda Peet, Lance Morrow

Conan O’Brien: Emile Hirsch, Terrell Owens, Craig Baldo (R 5/8/08)

Last Call: Wayne Brady, Brett Dennen (R 3/13/08)
Daily Show: Geo Beach
Colbert Report: Garrett Reisman
Jimmy Kimmel: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Mel B, Does It Offend You Yeah?

 

Eavesdrop

STEAL THIS AUDIO

Who: Juan Manuel Santos, Minister of National Defense of Colombia

What: Colombia: Hostage Rescue & What Lies Ahead

Where: Center for American Progress

Santos on how individual rights are in the forefront of Colombian policies

Usually when there is a conflict, when there is some type of challenge, the individual rights are scarified and the collective rights are put on top. Not in this case, in this case we are trying to put the individual rights always in the forefront of our policies. That has made it more difficult.

Please log in to download this clip.

Santos on how the rescue mission had finally become a risk-free operation

We had in the past located the kidnapped people, even in the past with the U.S. armed forces, we had located them, we had saw the three Americans bathing in a river but we took no action because we had no control of the situation and the risk for the hostages was too high. But this time, it as almost risk free, and I said why is it risk free, and very simply because if this plan, if they catch us before we arrive they will just simply go away, as they have in the past, there will simply be no other jungle better, they simply know it up and down, it will simply go away with the hostages.

Please log in to download this clip.

Santos comparing the rescue operation to a Hollywood studio

At that time there was a lot of preparations...it was like a Hollywood studio. There was...we call them the novel and the actor. There was one actor who acted as an Italian, one that acted as an Australian, and if you see him, he’s very well a person that could have been extracted from “Crocodile Dundy", that movie. And another one was an Arab. There was two Caribbean, one Cuban and one probably Dominican, those were probably the ones that had a t-shirt of Che Guevara. There was a doctor, a real doctor, a nurse, a journalist, and a cameraman.

Please log in to download this clip.

Santos are the danger of being in on the operation

So there was nine, nine that were drilled 24 hours a day in their own script, they know the script they had IDs, they set up a fake humanitarian organization and they had to learn their lives because if they were caught or asked something and they didn’t respond correctly, they would be dead.

Please log in to download this clip.

Santos on the positive consequences of the operation

If you tell me what has been one of the most positive of consequences of all that has happened, is that our democracy is much, much stronger. We have gone through many severe frictions and what you are seeing with the scandals of the paramilitary, para politics, members of Congress, jail, is that this is due to what has been happening with our institutions.

Please log in to download this clip.

Santos on the why the military wanted to make it a clean operation

When we were planning the operation, the ones that decided, or suggested or proposed not to do anything with the guerillas that left after the helicopters took off...there were a whole lot of..more than 80 guerillas concentrated—they were there like sitting ducks, and it was the military who said no,no lets leave them alone, lets not even capture them or nothing. Let’s make this an absolutely clean operation. Not one drop of blood, not one shot. And it was there suggestion, it wasn’t mine , it wasn’t the president, it was the military that suggested that.

Please log in to download this clip.

Popularity Contest

While you were slaving over a hot computer yesterday, your colleagues were kicked back enjoying these nice cool stories from the top news websites.

ABC: ‘She Died in My Arms’: A Mother’s Mission for Safe Pools

NBC: Hurricane Dolly hits near South Padre Island

CBS: Obama: Surge Doesn’t Meet Long-Term Goals

CNN: Child molester hasn’t served single day of 43-year prison term

FOX: Former New York Teacher Arrested on Rape Charges for Continuing to Have Sex With Teen

NYT: A Locally Grown Diet With Fuss but No Muss

WP: Obama Shifts the Foreign Policy Debate

USAT: Hurricane Dolly makes landfall on South Padre Island

LAT: Los Angeles condo sells for $2,848 (per square foot)

BBC: Zimbabweans play the zero game

REUT: Not everyone can meet our nudist standards

Masthead

Questions? Comments? Send us e-mail.

Problems logging in? Reset/reactivate your password.

Mic Check is produced every weekday by Christy Harvey, Sara Langhinrichs and Nicole Murphy, and is a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Read more about Mic Check.

RSS icon RSS headlines feed