Today on the Menu we welcome CNN's chief business correspondent, and author of "Gimme My Money Back," Ali Velshi to discuss his reaction to last night's Not State of the Union address:

"There was some sense of moving the focus away from the immediate...which is bad markets, unemployment, and bad housing to things that are a few years in the future, and I thought was a good plan, it sort of instilled some hope. But there was still a great lack of specificity about the thing that we're most concerned about right now, which is a plan for the second half of the TARP money, the $350 million to the banks. I was a little surprised he didn't mention that."

Velshi goes on to detail the major reasons why (phew) this recession is not as bad as the Great Depression. He also says that he really didn't think Rick Santelli's outburst the other day "was a rant at all...I think Rick Santelli expresses opinion in a strong fashion every day." And of course we address the eternal question of paid content. Velshi's take: yes, we should be paying. You can listen to the podcast live every morning at 9amET on BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321. You can also subscribe to the iTunes feed of the podcast by clicking the "iTunes" button.