Sunday shows: Cheney, Donilon, Daniels, Rice, Kerry

ABC's "This Week" with Christiane Amanpour: Condoleeza Rice, Pakistan Ambssador Husain Haqqani and Obama security advisor Tom Donilon, with Liz Cheney, Tom Ricks, George Will, Jake Tapper, Martha Raddatz, Lawrence Wright and Pierre Thomas.

Bloomberg's "Political Capital" with Al Hunt: Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-Ind.).

CBS' "Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer: Donald Rumsfeld and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.).

CNN Fareed Zakaria "GPS": Rice, Gen. Michael Hayden, Richard Haas, Haqqani and Jugnu Mohsin.

CNN's "State of the Union" with Candy Crowley: Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Imd.), Anita Dunn, Tom Davis and Donilon.

Fox News Channel "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace: Former Vice President Dick Cheney and Donilon, with Bill Kristol, Paul Gigot, Mara Liasson and Juan Williams.

NBC's "Meet the Press" with David Gregory: Rudy Giuliani, Michael Chertoff and Hayden, with Bob Woodward, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Mike Murphy.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Office of the Vice President (Cheney)

Donald Trump has read a lot of books on China: 'I understand the Chinese mind'

Donald Trump recently reeled off an impressive list of Chinese books that he has read over the years that has helped him understand the nation and people that he does business with.

"I've read hundreds of books about China over the decades," Trump told Xinhua, the official news agency of the People's Republic of China.

"I know the Chinese. I've made a lot of money with the Chinese. I understand the Chinese mind," said the billionaire, who has continually stated that if he were president he would levy a 25% tax on Chinese imports.

Asked to name any of his favorite tomes on China, Trump reportedly listed the following 20 books right off the top of his head.

1. "The Party" by Richard McGregor
2. "On China" by Henry Kissinger
3. "Mao: The Untold Story" by Jung Chang
4. "Tide Players" by Jianying Zha
5. "One Billion Customers" by James McGregor
6. "The Coming China Wars" by Peter W. Navarro
7. "The Beijing Consensus" by Stefan Halper
8. "China CEO" by Juan Antonio Fernandez and Laurie Underwood
9. "Poorly Made in China" by Paul Midler
10. "CHINA: Portrait of a People" by Tom Carter
11. "The Man Who Loved China" by Simon Winchester
12. "China Shakes the World" by James Kynge
13. "Mr. China" by Tim Clissold
14. "Country Driving" by Peter Hessler
15. "The Dragon's Gift" by Deborah Brautigam
16. "Factory Girls" by Leslie T. Chang
17. "The Heavenly Man" by Brother Yun
18. "1421" by Gavin Menzies
19. "Seven Years in Tibet" by Heinrich Harrer
20. "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" by Amy Chua

That's quite a difference from when Katie Couric asked Sarah Palin in 2008 what magazines and newspapers she reads:

Couric: And when it comes to establishing your world view, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this to stay informed and to understand the world?

Palin: I’ve read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media.

Couric: What, specifically?

Palin: Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years.

Couric: Can you name a few?

Palin: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too. Alaska isn’t a foreign country, where it’s kind of suggested, “Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C., may be thinking when you live up there in Alaska?” Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.

File this away if Trump and Palin ever square off in a debate.

-- Tony Pierce
twitter.com/busblog

Photo: Donald Trump and his wife Melania Knauss-Trump attend the "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty" Costume Institute Gala at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art on Monday. Credit: Larry Busacca / Getty Images

Levi Johnston to release a tell-all book about Sarah Palin's family

Levi Johnston, the 20-year-old father of Sarah Palin's grandson, announced Monday that he is writing a tell-all book about the controversial Alaska family.

Johnston, who fathered a baby boy with Palin's oldest daughter, Bristol, while the couple were high school sweethearts, says he wrote the book "for me, for my boy Tripp and for the country."

"Deer in the Headlights: My Life in Sarah Palin's Crosshairs," is being billed as a coming-of-age story and is due out in the fall.

"I want to tell the truth about my close relationship with the Palins, my sense of Sarah and my perplexing fall from grace -- how I feel and what I've learned," Johnston said in a statement released by his publisher, Touchstone Publishing.

President Obama and first lady paid $453,770 in 2010 federal taxes, donated 14% of income to charity

As Tax Day reaches the 11th hour and some Americans wince at how much they will be forking over to the government, most won't pay as much as the Obamas did. The President and the first lady released their joint tax returns Monday and showed that even though they earned about two-thirds less than  they did in 2009 when the president's book sales were skyrocketing, they still paid out close to a half million dollars in federal taxes.

President Obama and his wife, Michelle, earned about $1.73 million in 2010, their return stated. They also paid $52,000 in Illinois state taxes. The president receives a $400,000 salary, the majority of his income came from sales of the his books, "Dreams from My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope."

The couple donated $245,000 to 36 different charities last year, which totaled about 14% of their income. The entirety of the proceeds of his 2010 children's book, "Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters," was donated to a charity benefiting children of slain and disabled soldiers.

In 2009 the Obamas raked in $5.5 million, mostly due to the best-selling books which were at the peak of their popularity.

Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, earned $379,178 in 2010. They paid a total of $86,626 in federal taxes, $14,479 in Delaware state taxes, and $3,515 in Virginia income taxes.

Unlike the Obamas, the Bidens were not as financially generous with their charitable contributions, giving about 1.4% of their adjusted income to donations. But according to the veep's press secretary, the Biden's do-gooding didn't begin and end with the wallet.

Elizabeth Alexander, Vice President Biden's press secretary, issued a statement to CNN that emphasized that the Bidens also donate their time to charitable causes.

"The charitable donations claimed by the Bidens on their tax returns are not the sum of their annual contributions to charity,"  Alexander told CNN in a statement. "They contribute to many causes with their time, as well as their checkbooks," she said.

RELATED:
Obama blasts continued tax cuts for the rich
White House releases Obama, Biden tax returns
Obama's income drops, but still a millionaire, tax returns show

Note: Andrew Malcom is on vacation.

-- Tony Pierce
twitter.com/busblog

Photo: U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama listen to their national anthem during an arrival ceremony at the National Palace in San Salvador March 22, 2011. Credit: REUTERS/Jason Reed

Arnold Schwarzenegger gets animated by Stan Lee for 'The Governator'

Arnold Schwarzenegger may not be California's governor anymore, but thanks to the creative mind of Stan Lee soon he'll be back as the Governator in an animated TV show and corresponding comic book due out next year.

Schwarzenegger, who's cartoon image graces the cover of this week's Entertainment Weekly, told the magazine that he has always embraced the Governator moniker.

"When I ran for governor back in 2003 and I started hearing people talking about 'the Governator,' I thought the word was so cool," the cigar-smoking Republican told the weekly. "The word Governator combined two worlds: the world of politics and the movie world. And [this cartoon] brings everything together. It combines the governor, the Terminator, the bodybuilding world, the 'True Lies' …"

Whereas Schwarzenegger is a legend on the big screen, Lee is a deity in the comic book world, co-creating such iconic superheroes as Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor and the X-Men.

On this latest project, Lee tells EW that the Governator is a semi-fictional superhero that pulls from Schwarzenegger's much publicized real life.

Al Gore update: He will write a book

Al Gore, remember him? Joe Lieberman's running mate.

A former newspaper reporter and inventor, Gore led the Democratic Party into oblivion in 2000 by losing his own home state in the presidential election against some Texas yahoo. Gore has signed to write another book.

The publisher describes the upcoming tell-all tome as "an X-rated look at the seamier side of American public life where empty-headed liberal celebrities with hypocritcally huge carbon-footprints and this year's spouse receive immense sums of money simply for showing up at glitzy ceremonies to exchange meaningless awards."

The working title is: "A Convenient Truth."

No, not really. The book will actually be another riveting account of "the political, social and economic forces that are shaping what America and the world will become in ensuing decades," according to the publisher.

According to Gore, who likes long sentences as well as long court fights:

With this new work, I hope to help start a conversation about the large-scale drivers of change that are defining and shaping our future — from the rapid development and integration of radically new technologies to the planet-changing impact of the climate crisis, to poverty, globalization, and the democratization of knowledge accompanying the emergence of a ubiquitous Internet linking ever more intelligent devices.

Could there be a Current TV reality spinoff show in the democratization of knowledge?

The book was acquired by a new Random House editor, noted talk-show guest Jon Meacham, who recently led the Newsweek print edition into oblivion.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Don Emmert / AFP / Getty Images (Happy Joe Lieberman helped Gore lose the presidential election in 2000 before switching sides and doing the same for Republican John McCain in 2008).

U.S. museums (Smithsonian) agree with U.S. senator (Sanders) to sell more products made by U.S. workers

It took a senator to get the message across to the Smithsonian folks about a growing movement to buy products made in America.

Vermont's first-term Bernie Sanders is an independent who calls himself a democratic socialist and caucuses with Democrats.

He says he's extracted a commitment from Smithsonian Institution officials to begin selling more USA products within 90 days.

Or else, Sanders says, he's prepared to introduce legislation to force such a policy on the vast conglomerate of 19 museums and nine research centers with some 30 million visits annually and gift shop/catalog sales above $40 million.

In a January letter to the museum, the mayor-turned-senator wondered why a museum system owned by the people of the United States celebrating the history of the United States could not find United States companies employing United States workers to make mini-busts of United States Founding Fathers, among other things.

The word "pathetic" also appeared in Sanders' letter.

Many products on sale in the Smithsonian's network of shops, from stuffed space bears to jewelry and computer gear, are made you-know-where by you-know-Hu.

Initially, museum representatives made the familiar claim that American-made products were too expensive or hard to find. ABC News' Jonathan Karl and Ben Forer found one thriving USA-only shop just blocks away that helps support some 400 American craftsmen. 

However, now that politicians on committees controlling the museum are interested, museum officers this week decided to compromise and do it Sanders' way -- to do a better U.S. job of helping the U.S. economy with U.S. products on sale in the Air and Space Museum, the Natural History Museum and museums housing American artworks.

Sanders announced the museum commitments Wednesday, including one to open a new shop, called the Price of Freedom, selling only U.S-made products in time for this summer's busy Capitol tourist season.

Sanders, whose term expires next year, is himself made in the USA, having been born in New York City almost 70 years ago.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Speaking of American-made, click here to follow The Ticket via Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or click this: @latimestot. Our Facebook Like page is over here. We're also available on Kindle. Use the ReTweet buttons above to share any item with family and friends. Very few animals were slaughtered in the production of this item.

Photo: Smithsonian catalog (Even Vulcan Spock urges online customers to buy American-made).

Possible GOP candidate Tim Pawlenty introduces himself to the Tea Party Patriots

Remarks by Tim Pawlenty to the Tea Party Patriots Convention in Phoenix, as provided by his FreedomFirstPAC

I’m here today to say “thank you.”  Thank you for standing up to the “ruling class.” Thank you for standing up to the liberal power brokers, guardians of the status quo, and the royal triangle of greed: big government, big unions and big bailed out businesses.

Thank you for being modern day Paul Revere’s – rallying Patriots to the cause of this great nation. The promising work of Governors Walker, Kasich, Christie, and so many others is the direct result of the dedicated Patriots in this room and across the country who had enough, stood up, fought back, and are restoring this country’s foundation.

Our Founders put it in terms so simple even a politician should be able to understand: They started with a most important principle:  They didn’t say we’re endowed by our member of Congress or we’re endowed by our bureaucrat.

They said we’re endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights -- and that government derives its powers from the consent of the governed. And what government did our Founders institute and our Fathers ratify?  The one that begins, “We the people…”

The message of the Tea Party, as I see it, is simple. God made us to be free, and the Founding....

Sunday shows: Christie, Daniels, Walker, Scott

ABC's "This Week" with Jake Tapper: Govs. Nikki Haley (R-SC), Jan Brewer (R-AZ), Deval Patrick (D-MA) and John Hickenlooper (D-CO) and Christiane Amanpour reports from Libya.

Bloomberg's "Political Capital" with Al Hunt: Gov. Rick Scott (R-Fl.).

CBS' "Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer: Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.).

CNN's "GPS" with Fareed Zakaria: Paul Wolfowitz and Michael Lewis.

CNN's "State of the Union" with Candy Crowley: Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), and Govs. Scott and Dannel Malloy (D-Conn.), with Mark Zandi and Douglas Holtz-Eakin.

"Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace: Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-Ind.), with Bill Kristol, Dana Perino, Juan Williams and Mara Liasson.

NBC's "Meet the Press" with David Gregory: Gov. Scott Walker (R-WIis.) and McCain with Gov. Haley Barbour (R-Miss.), Kim Strassel, Richard Trumka, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II (D-Mo.) and Lawrence O'Donnell.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Why wait until Sunday for politics? Click here now to follow The Ticket via Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or follow us @latimestot. Our Facebook Like page is over here. We're also available on Kindle now. Use the ReTweet buttons above to share this item with friends.

Photo: Office of the Governor (Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels en route to meet with voters).

Late-night's best: The Kardashian$, Twitter, Home Depot, bankrupt Borders and a 1 HP Lamborghini

As The Ticket's 58,900-plus Twitter followers here and 6,500 Facebook fans here know, we regularly share our daily picks of the late-night jokes of interest, usually before broadcast each night. Feel free to pass them on to friends using the share buttons above.

Here's the regular Monday morning collection from the previous week:

Leno: This week is the 40th anniversary of the war on drugs. Our partner Mexicans had a moment of silence and then hours of laughter.

Conan: President Obama met with Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, today. The good news is he can create new jobs. The bad news is, they're all in Farmville.

Leno: So Facebook is thinking of buying Twitter for $10 billion to combine the two companies into the biggest waste of time the world has ever seen.

"SNL": Current TV. If you're not familiar with Current TV, it's a channel founded by Al Gore. If you are familiar with Current TV, congratulations on being Al Gore.

Conan: Reports today that last year the Kardashian sisters made....