Creationism vs. Evolution, Faulty Pumps, Beer Shortage (gasp!) and OMG! Can You Believe This Paris C

"Morning Meeting" is a recap of our daily editorial meeting. If we had a show today, these are some of the stories you would probably hear.

Ah, Friday, je t'aime.

Good morning from BPP World Headquarters! I have returned from my adventure in our nation's capital, glad to be getting back into the lackadaisical, bucolic, easy-going, Sunday morning groove of New York City.

Coming up later today on the podcast: We're talking about/lamenting the end of The Sopranos this Sunday. Mike Pesca will join us for the convo — even though he's a reporter for another NPR show. Hey, he's kinda like our very own goomar.

Also — we were all very interested in what the president was drinking at the G8 Summit — if my beer sense is right (and it almost always is) that looks like a tasty lager of some sort. If so — tsk, tsk, sir. Tsk. Tsk.

(UPDATE: President Bush was indeed drinking a non-alcoholic beverage of some kind. Tsk, tsk on me.)

And now, the meeting...

 

NEWSCAST — The immigration bill stalls in the Senate, Putin surprises Bush with missile defense plan, the Prez's War Czar nominee says the Iraqi government can't cut the the mustard, stem cell legislation sailed through Congress but the White House says it will veto and San Antonio beat The Cleve 85-76 in Game 1 of the NBA finals. Some of us are not pleased.

CREATIONISM — There's a new USA Today/Gallup Poll out gauging the public's perception when it comes to religion and politics. Two-thirds of people polled believe that creationism is definitely or probably true. More than half, though, say that evolution is definitely or probably true. And twenty-five percent say that both creationism and evolution are definitely or probably true. On top of that: 53% don't care either way if a candidate believes one way or another. Oy, vey! Despite these mind numbing numbers, there's something to talk about here. Mostly that people have contradictory and conflated views on this subject. Luke was interested in the fact that, despite what science says about how things evolved, do we really know what happened before we know what happened? It would be great to get one of the folks at Beliefnet to talk politics and religion with us today. Other things that interest you about this story?

HEIMLICH MANEUVERING — ABC's 20/20 has a piece on tonight about the Heimlich family — specifically, the man who invented the Heimlich maneuver. Dr. Henry Heimlich has been under attack on the Internet — some guy saying that the good doctor's famous methods and medical practices are "useless, dangerous or crackpot." Turns out that the guy calling him out on the Internet is ... (Big, dramatic orchestral swell.) his son, Peter Heimlich! Peter's siblings — Phil and Jan — continue to support their father. We'd want to get the Doubting Thomas, er, Peter, on the phone.

PARIS HILTON IS OUT, C'MON! — I am sorry, but this makes me so four letter word mad. I am tensing up just thinking about this. Paris Hilton was let out of jail last night because of some dubious "medical condition." I — and everyone one else drawing breath today — am calling BS on this. And all of us here at the BPP are huffing and puffing over whether, say, a black rapper with a "medical condition" would have been allowed to leave, or what about some D-list actress — hell, what about someone who isn't famous at all? Would they ever be treated so nice? I think we all know the answer, ladies and gentlemen. And we would definitely be talking about this on the show today.

PASSPORT BACKLOG — So, it's hard out there for a passport seeker. So much so that the Bush Administration is thinking about easing new anti-terrorism rules that require passports for travel between the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The borders were much more porous before 9/11, usually just requiring a driver's license or ID card of some sort. We were wondering where the pressure to ease the rules is coming from? The State Department? Canada? (Oh, Canada.) The airline industry? Inquiring minds want to know.

DEAR GOD! A BEER SHORTAGE? — Alison pitched this as an "amusing" story, I personally think it's a very, very sad story. The Wall Street Journal reports today about how some of the most popular imported beers are in very short supply in America because their distributor — Anheuser-Busch — is running into distribution problems. It's all very complicated, having to do with rights and payments and such. The bottom line: There is a beer shortage in America! Specifically: Stella, Beck's and Bass. This gives us an opportunity to talk with Luke's favorite barkeep: Roger of The Tattletale in beautiful downtown Culver City, CA. It also gives us the opportunity to feature this Bud Light commercial, which I've been snickering over ever since my friend H sent it to me:

FAULTY PUMPS, GRUMPY DRIVERS — The high gas prices have got lots of people feeling low. (I totally stole that from a local news cast, thanks Fox 5!) Alison pointed out a story in this morning's Dallas Morning News that says faulty gas pumps may be contributing to the rising price of gas. It's all about the way gas pumps are calibrated. We thought it would be great to get the guy who wrote the article — Derek Kravitz — on the line to talk about it.

REMEMBERING STEVEN GILLIARD JR. — We wanted to take a moment to remember blogger Steven Gilliard Jr., he was the founder of The News Blog and helped create material for the blog DailyKos. He died Saturday, he was 42.