Friday Funday: Just The Beginning...

As we hinted at on Thursday, we're taking our annual holiday vacation starting today, immediately after we publish today's edition. As usual, there will be brand new Paul Fell Cartoons published over the next week and a half, including the annual Paul Fell Holiday Card, and a special Paul Fell Prediction cartoon before the Capitol One Bowl game, featuring the Nebraska Cornhuskers (and some other dog-eared team).

There was some political news on Thursday, primarily the collapse and failure of Speaker Boehner and the Republicans in Congress to pass their own middling 'tax and budgetary 'Plan B.' You might call it the first major public battle of the GOP civil war -- or the Republican-caused political apocalypse if you wish.

Today is also supposed to be the end of the world, according to those nuts who believe in the Mayan apocalypse theory. We hate to spoil their end-of-the-world/holiday festivities, but by the time you and most others read these words, the sun will have already come up in Australia on December 22nd - proving that December 21st wasn't the end of the world. Maybe the Mayans just got bored with giant stone calendar making and quit with 2012.

We've always thought that's when they must have discovered paper.

As we do every year at this time - especially in light of the events of last Friday - we want to thank you, our readers, both in the U.S. and around the world. Whether you're a subscriber to our e-mail edition, or you come to these pages through our Facebook or Twitter pages, we're incredibly grateful to you for reading, appreciating, and passing on our work to your friends, family, and coworkers.

This year has been anything but boring, with a seemingly never ending stream of news and a political campaign season cranked up to 11 - though as Jamelle Bouie noted yesterday, the odds were always good the President Obama would win re-election.

Our annual countdown - or count up - of important numbers was thankfully less eventful this year than it has been for much of the last five years.

As usual, our reading lists topped 16,000 news, opinion, and commentary stories, not including the ever-growing numbers of books we also read - in either digital or "dead tree" formats. As of today's edition, we'll have published 237 issues this year, on top of the regular jobs of our staff members. Paul also drew somewhere around 400 cartoons this year, just for this publication - which averages out to more than one cartoon every day of the year.

For the first time in many, many years, we're not entirely sure of what to expect next year, politically, in the United States - a feeling that's both exhilarating and a bit worrisome.

Like most sensible people in positions similar to ours, we're still concerned that the collateral damage from the GOP's civil war, and the total inability of Republicans in Congress to actually govern, could push the U.S. and world economies into another recession.

Even so, we still have hope.

After all - if you believe the Mayan apocalypse theory, the entire Earth should be gone right now. Which it's quite obviously not. Seriously - the Mayans weren't even worried about today.

Looks like somebody on our staff will have to take back the overdue library book lying around the office after all.

May your 2013 be the best year ever.
Happy holidays from all of us.

We'll return to our regular publication schedule January 2, 2013

Over And Out

As some of our staff huddles in Lincoln and "enjoys" the new snow this morning and we begin getting ready for our vacation next week, we're nearly giddy with the thought of not touching our computers or drawing utensils for a few days.

We say this partly because our frustration level this week has been nearly off the charts. At President Obama's press conference on Wednesday to introduce his gun safety task force, members of the media  barely asked President Obama anything related to guns.

Instead of focusing on gun safety laws - which is difficult, and what real journalists should have been doing years ago - they proceeded to badger, cajole, harangue, and repeat questions about the fiscal cliff and debt ceiling - which the President, in a relatively patient way, answered more than once.

It wasn't that the President's announcement about the gun safety task force was boring. It wasn't. It was filled with facts - including the fact that the task force will be headed up by Joe Biden, and will have recommendations for action on gun safety laws ready by mid-January. The President stated these facts and others assertively and clearly, without drama.

Of course, that seems to perpetually be the problem for some of our colleagues in the media - that the President isn't dramatic enough for their liking. We honestly wonder at times if some members of the media would rather have Americans trying to light one another on fire, than to have Americans actually trying to solve our collective problems.

If we didn't know better, we might think some members of the media might be working to bring America down from the inside.

Of course, there's no need for them to try to do that. It appears that John Boehner and the Tea Party extremist Republicans already have the whole "bring America down" thing covered, as Boehner and the gang seem intent on throwing in the towel on fiscal cliff negotiations, and potentially collapsing the economy.

In case you missed it - and with the Speaker's press conference lasting less than sixty seconds, many did miss it - John Boehner came out to the media today and effectively threw a temper tantrum.

Boehner stepped up to his podium and said he will force a vote on his "Plan B" fiscal curb option today, which essentially just puts off dealing with the tax and budget problems again until after the new year. Boehner then attempted to make an ultimatum to the President, obviously forgetting that the Republican Party lost the election, and losers don't get to make ultimatums.

The President, on the other hand, offered a budget plan that closely mirrors the infamous balanced Bowles-Simpson plan. It even has a huge number of concessions to extremist Republicans - which angered the President's own base and still doesn't fix all the budget problems. Still, it's far better than anything Boehner offered.

Boehner insisted in the final seconds of his micro-press conference that if we go over the fiscal cliff, it will be the President's fault - which is as untrue now as it it's ever been.

President Obama and Congressional Democrats have once again shown they are willing to compromise. Speaker Boehner and the extremist Republicans have shown they can't, and they won't. That said, it's obvious that if we do go over the cliff, it isn't because Obama and the Democrats didn't try to find a sensible compromise.

It's because Boehner and the Republicans never had any intention of making a deal in the first place.

Ringing Hollow

There's been a great deal of discussion this week about last Friday's massacre in Connecticut, as there should be. For the more ethical media organizations - including ours - the discussion thankfully hasn't been just the stereotypical pro-gun/anti-gun fight that leads nowhere.

We began by breaking down the five basic parts of our national gun violence problem on Monday, and we've seen others in the media focusing on some of those same five points. We also tackled the poverty and inequality piece of the gun violence problem on Tuesday, since it's the subject that will receive the least amount of attention, while being the key factor in most of the gun violence problems that don't make national news.

Today, we're taking on the one piece of the puzzle corporate America doesn't want us - or anyone - to talk about: America's broken lobbying and political finance laws.

We all know the truth about the relationship between politics and money in America right now. When the biggest lobbying organizations yank their proverbial leash, Congresspersons of every political party come to heel like well-trained dogs.

This isn't a new thing.

As Rachel Maddow pointed out last night, the gun lobby prevented President Johnson from passing more effective gun safety laws as far back as the aftermath of the John F. Kennedy assination. Even when the families of the victims of Columbine and Virginia Tech banded together in 2010, they couldn't get the gun show loophole closed.

Despite all the wailing and gnashing of teeth over the deaths of 20 children in Connecticut, and the surprisingly fast movement towards new gun safety legislation that both the White House and Congress are already making, we have to admit the reality, that it's doubtful any comprehensive gun safety legislation will ever be passed.

That doesn't mean there aren't other ways to force the gun lobby to roll over and learn who the masters really are.

As they've done in tackling poverty and inequality, teachers also led the way on the fight against the gun lobby on this week, as the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) decided to yank the $751.4 million chain they have on Wall Street private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management.


For several years, Cerberus has been the owner of Bushmaster, the company responsible for making the most popular assault weapon in America. On Tuesday, at 1 AM, Cerberus made a sudden announcement, saying they would immediately be selling their majority stake in Freedom Group, the umbrella weapons manufacturing group that includes Bushmaster, due to the threat of CalSTRS to take their investments elsewhere.

Cerberus wasn't the only business on Tuesday ditching some of their attachment to weapons that aren't necessary for hunting. The Dick's Sporting Goods chain announced Tuesday they were immediately pulling "modern sporting rifles" - semi-automatic weapons that can sometimes be classified as 'assault weapons' - from every one of their stores, including online, at least temporarily.


All Americans can and should do the the same thing with our campaign donations the next time an election rolls around, by giving only to those candidates who come out in favor of sensible, effective gun safety laws.

If the only kind of speech the lobbying organizations are going to allow is money, then we need to make sure the American people are the masters.

Right now, that's simply not the case.

Choking Off The Future

As the funeral services for those killed in last Friday's massacre at Sandy Hook elementary began this week, the multi-faceted problem of gun violence in America highlighted by those deaths is one that we hope won't be forgotten anytime soon.

Not every episode of gun violence focuses on the same parts of the overall problem. Some, like Friday's attack, lead us to concentrate on the issues of gun laws and mental illness. Some draw us to issues of poverty, or heroism.

We've heard many times, from many different people over the last few days, that while the teachers and school officials who died defending their students in Connecticut were heroes, many Americans wish there was a group that would defend them at their workplace, if - God forbid - anything like that would happen again. Which, given our nation's history, it most certainly will.

The shooting deaths of four other students in February of this year, reminded us that there already are multiple organizations in place trying to fight the poverty component of our national gun violence problem. The teachers in Connecticut were all members of one of those groups.

You see, they were all members of the Teachers Union.

Before you groan, and turn away, you need to remember - we've been pointing out the link between poverty and gun violence for years, including in the aftermath of the shootings in Ohio and Washington this past February. That unions are now being squeezed brutally by "right-to-work" (for less) legislation, doesn't change the fact that unions have already been fighting this societal relationship between poverty and gun violence since the beginning of the union movement.

According to an ABC/Washington Post poll this week, after the Connecticut shootings, more Americans are finally seeing those societal issues as key pieces of our gun violence issue.

When the union-backed 'OUR Walmart' group made news within the last month with their attempts to unionize retail workers, one of their key reasons for mobilizing was that as working poor people, they were aiming for better wages and for more time with their families. As crime statistics show, more properly engaged parents more often lead to more well-adjusted young people and adults. Further, if mental health issues do develop in young people, parents who are involved with their children are more likely to notice - the first step to getting treatment.

For those individuals who support efforts like anti-union "right-to-work" (for less) legislation, they are already weakening their community safety net in favor of short-term profit gain for a small group of already wealthy individuals. In effect, those who favor anti-worker policies are Scrooges of the worst kind, squeezing those who are attempting to protect our collective future in exchange for a relatively few more dollars in the short run.

If you don't believe that, think about what the holidays - and especially Christmas - may mean to your family, and how nice it is that many retailers and restaurants close at least one day a year, to allow even their poorest workers to have time with their families.

Now understand that this year, McDonald's is pushing ALL of its franchisees - all 14,000 of them - to keep their stores open on Christmas, just to goose the corporate bottom line, at the sacrifice of American families all over the nation.

If those McDonald's workers had a union working for them, we bet they'd be home with their families on Christmas, spending precious moments with their children - moments that may make the difference down the road between children who believe their parents work hard and care for them, or a young person who believes their parents don't care enough to even spend Christmas Day with their kids.

What's the real cost to America of corporations stealing time from families, that parents rightfully should have to help raise healthier, more well-adjusted children?

Ask the parents of the kids shot dead in gun violence this past year, what price they'd pay to have their children back.

We Must Do Better

As we set Friday's edition to publish, a horrible act was already happening in Newtown, Connecticut.

Twenty-eight people, including the shooter, died Friday in Newtown, the eighth major example of gun violence this year in America. Sadly, it's only one of thousands of acts of gun violence in our nation annually. Sixty-two acts of gun violence in the last thirty years have been mass shootings, killing four or more people. Fifteen of the twenty-five worst mass shootings in the world over the last fifty years took place in America, with five of them happening since 2007.

All this unnecessary death, and yet most of the time, on the topic of gun violence and gun safety, our elected officials simply stand around screaming at each other while more people die every day.

As Americans, we need to admit that our gun safety laws are garbage. The laws we have were specifically tweaked by attorneys and lobbyists to NOT work effectively. The last batch of potentially smart gun safety laws? Got shelved due to politics, that we know was influenced by one of the most powerful and feared lobbying organizations in the country. The fact is, we have too many people in America who have guns that don't respect them and don't know how to use them properly. We need better, more effective gun safety laws - something that about 85% of non-NRA gun owners agree and about 75% of NRA members agree with.

Our mental health care system also bears a great deal of responsibility of our gun violence, though thanks to ObamaCare it will be getting a great deal better over the coming years. That said, America is currently both the most heavily armed nation in the world and the most violent. Instead of pushing people to get mental health care when necessary, we still stigmatize it - and that's stupid. If you're sick, get healthy.

Neither our gun safety laws or our mental health care system have been helped by our lobbying and political finance laws. As we already noted, three quarters of NRA members want more effective gun safety laws. The NRA obviously doesn't care what their membership wants, though. As a lobbying organization, they've made it clear that their primary goal is to make millions of dollars a year to spend on political campaigns - not to make gun safety laws. We must reform the lobbying and political contribution laws, and get the money out of its prominent role.

Our media ethics are also garbage - both on the entertainment side and on the news side. We glorify violence in our entertainment media, and run like cowards in dealing with it responsibly in our news media.

Much of the time, things that are labeled as "news" aren't news at all. They're designed to look & sound like news, but at the same time not upset viewers, listeners, and advertisers. We are ashamed of how some of our news media colleagues have handled this disaster - and how they handle themselves daily. As members of the media, we must put getting it right above getting it first. If advertisers don't like that...? They can take their money and find someone else who will reach the same audiences we do. We know they won't be able to do that.

As for our entertainment colleagues, they also share responsibility in many of these shootings. According to the coroners' reports in Connecticut, the shooter shot the kids accurately from a distance. Other reports make it clear the shooter had significantly less training than is considered necessary to be as chillingly effective as he was. How did he attain those skills? Likely, video games. It's how we improve our professionals in the military. But we'll let anyone - even the mentally ill - play the same training games at home.

Finally, while our economy is improving, we can't ignore the the toll the recession has take on families over the past few years. We have parents who work three jobs, who can barely keep a roof above the heads of their families, let alone parent well. Being able to earn a living wage - and give parents the time to guide their children properly - should be an American right, not an unreachable goal.

As we've said in these pages before, and as President Obama himself reiterated last night during his address in Newtown, America can and must do better. To throw up our hands and say "This is just the price we pay for having lots of guns," is a cowardly and ignorant way of living.

America can do better.

Friday Funday: All We Want Is A Brand New Death Star

About this time of year every year, even though our staff members are all fully-grown adults, we usually begin to notice that special holiday spark in ourselves. It's like our inner children coming out to play, as we begin to think about the toys and games of our past. This annual change of mindset seems to be a common effect that crosses borders, languages, and religions too.

Call it the spirit of the season, or the Santa effect.

That's not to say that all of humankind is suddenly acting like happy, well-behaved cherubs this month. There are still plenty of people playing politics right now, just in Washington, DC. The fiscal curb talks remain at a standstill, as the GOP continues their farcical attempts at looking like Santa, while acting like Scrooge.

There was also what we believe was an amazingly wise and unselfish act on Thursday, as Ambassador Susan Rice withdrew her own name from consideration for Secretary of State. She clearly chose to put the best interests of the nation above her own ambitions - something we're pretty sure earns her a spot on Santa's "good" list.

As Jonathan Bernstein noted almost immediately after Rice's announcement, "Absolutely everyone who voiced any objection (conservative lawmakers and media, for instance) will have an interest in claiming that he or she was the one who derailed the nomination. Doesn’t make it true." Last night's sad and disgusting cable news coverage of Rice's actions proved this true.

Ambassador Rice remains strong-willed and determined, and more than qualified for the position of Secretary of State. She was certainly not scared away by the propagandists on Fox or the blowhards on right-wing radio.

She may have been a bit concerned about Americans, however, who made it clear this week, in a legitimate official national petition, that they know exactly what they want for the holidays, for America: A brand new, real-life, moon-sized Death Star, just like in the Star Wars movies.

While we may be kidding about the Ambassador's motives, we are not kidding about the Death Star.

An official petition, created on the White House's official "We The People" petition website, has now gained more than 25,000 signatures, urging the Obama Administration and Congress to begin construction of a real-life, planetary-sized weapon by 2016.

Unlike the GOP's proposals on the fiscal cliff, the real-life Death Star proposal by a semi-anonymous "John D." from Longmont, Colorado has more than a few details, facts and numbers, thanks in large part to the economics blog Centives.

Earlier this year, the folks at Centives sat down to figure out exactly how much it would cost to build a real "Death Star," in current dollars, and what kind of a timetable it would take for humankind to accomplish such a massive engineering feat.

You can check out the details yourself, both on the wacky proposal, and the exact proposed specifications of the man-made planetoid. While our inner children giggled at the thought of actually being able to visit a real-life Death Star - like a space theme park, filled with lightsabers and R2D2s - we were all taken aback by the estimated completion time for such a project.

As Michael Binkley might say, a Jedi knight doesn't wait 15 years for a sequel, let alone 833,315 years for a Death Star.

Maybe we'll just have to set our holiday expectations a bit lower this year. Like gift cards for the staff to Bed, Bath, and Beyond - or Toys R Us.

Lego Death Star anyone?

Shooting The Messengers

As we've been getting ready for some of our year end activities, our staff members have been doing something most of us in the media do at this time of year - organizing and compiling stories with similar subjects from the past year, while trying to make some sense of the year as a whole.

As we noted back in October, just before Superstorm Sandy smashed into New Jersey and New York, our American media landscape has taken some serious blows this year. As we noted then, "digital journalism" jobs continue to increase in number, even while overall media jobs continue to shrink.

Just recently, we saw even more of our industry colleagues gutted in what's seemingly become an annual pre-holiday mass firing by media behemoth Clear Channel. As cruel and gutless as that annual practice has become, however, someone else in the media has sunk even lower.

Jim Romanesko posted on his website Wednesday, that the management at the Kansas City Star forced two reporters to engage in a Donner Party-like exercise this week, when Star management told experienced reporters Karen Dillon and Dawn Bormann that one of them had to leave the paper - and that the reporters had to decide themselves who survived.

If there is a more gutless, cowardly way of managing journalists, we're not sure we want to know what it is.

With the Tribune Media Company about to emerge from bankruptcy, and the legendary Cleveland Plaindealer suffering its own cuts while trying to stay a daily newspaper, we're aware this isn't the easiest time to work in the media. That doesn't mean there isn't a job to do.

One of the largest stories that few seem to want to regularly deal with is the potentially long-term drought affecting nearly two-thirds of the interior of the United States. A major report yesterday made it clear: In less than half a century, the main source for water for 40 million Americans, the Colorado River, could effectively dry up. The scientists' initial idea? Tap the Missouri River, which also supports millions of Americans.

Two other major news stories that popped up this week also didn't receive nearly the coverage they should. Attorney General Eric Holder proposed that America should finally have one single voting standard for national federal elections - which could seriously eliminate false claims of voter fraud, while adding millions to the voters rolls. Meanwhile, it appears the Republican leadership in the U.S. House is attempting to quietly take apart the House ethics process - which, as Jonathan Bernstein noted was installed after the last time Republicans ran the House.

These stories all need seasoned members of the media to continue following them and reporting on them - not just untrained digital stenographers or fools who think merely blogging makes them a journalist.

There ARE other ways to make money for media companies, from gutting the salaries and benefits of overpriced executives, to selling their properties to smaller groups of investors - which would have the added benefit of diversifying the media. Sadly, most media executives have only shown a continued desire to hurt themselves and the corporations they run by getting rid of the people who actually make those companies successful - the workers.

The fact is, continuing to gut the people who do the real work, when so many have already cut their staffing back beyond ethical and honest levels, is simply no longer an option, if media companies expect to have any kind of serious future.

Senseless Violence

We've long believed that it's best to avoid making decisions in the heat of anger. If you make a decision while you're angry, you run a larger than normal risk of your decision being a poor one. Unfortunately, like so many other axioms on anger and violence, this one is ignored far too often.

Most of the attention in the media today - including ours - will be focused on three incredibly heinous acts of violence that took place Tuesday. Sadly, we expect that few of our colleagues, if any, will make the same connections we're making today.

There was the random act of violence yesterday at the Clackamas Town Center mall in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area on Tuesday evening. Three people - including the shooter - died when the gunman ran into a mall with a semi-automatic rifle and opened fire. We can guarantee that most of the media outlets that choose to talk about this incident today will be talking about it exclusively in terms of gun violence. No history of the shooter, no discussion of mental illness, or poverty, or any other factors that lead to this latest disaster will likely be the core focus.

No, the majority of these debates will turn into little more than screaming matches that serve little purpose other than raising our blood pressure. This is the sixth time this year we've faced the topic of gun violence in this digital space. There's little more that we can say about the topic that we haven't already said again, and again, and again, and again, and again.

The second major incident that caught our attention was the premeditated act of violence against the rights of millions of workers in Michigan by that state's duplicitous Governor, Rick Snyder. Even in the midst of over ten thousand of angry Michiganders flooding the Michigan state capitol on Tuesday - and his own comments earlier this year that now prove he's a liar - Gov. Snyder signed a bill striking a massive blow against workers in his state.

As we noted in our Tuesday edition, extremist Republicans have awakened an angry lion by their actions in Michigan. Between GOP extremists attempting to incite violence at the protests, and the Teamsters president James P. Hoffa literally predicting civil war in Michigan, we have no doubt that the only thing that will be passed by Gov. Snyder and his cronies in Michigan the next two years will be gas. If the job of a governor is to govern, Snyder has effectively castrated himself politically. We doubt Snyder's concerned with that, however. Like Jim DeMint, it's likely Snyder has a cushy position waiting for him with Koch Industries once he’s thrown out of office.

It's too bad Snyder and extremist Republicans preferred to satisfy their senseless visceral urges instead of doing the job they were hired to do, of governing.

The third act of violence we noticed Tuesday was a surprise act of violence, as North Korea fired a long-range missile in the general direction of its neighbor South Korea. The missile ended up being a satellite launch - which is effectively an intercontinental ballistic missile - albeit one that North Korea didn't tell any of it's neighbors it was firing. The insanity of the action speaks for itself.

All three acts of violence - along with the continued and ever-escalating insistence by Republicans that they're going to blow up the U.S. economy unless the President and Congressional Democrats give in to their infantile tantrums - have one thing in common.

Denial runs through them all.

If Americans actually cared about reducing preventable deaths from random gun violence, we would enact sensible gun control. If Snyder and the extremist Republicans in Michigan cared about their citizens, they wouldn't have violently steamrolled through their anti-worker legislation. If the North Korean regime cared about its people, they'd stop their insane nuclear weapons program. If Congressional Republicans cared about governing responsibly, they'd realize trying to tank the U.S. and world economies will only end in their demise as a political party.

There are some days that make us just want to pull the covers back over our collective heads, and go back to sleep until all the insane people are gone.

Yesterday was one of those. Let's hope today is better.

Waking The Lion

For all that the holiday season is supposed to be a time of peace and goodwill, the sad and disgusting news coming out of Michigan today ultimately should not come as a surprise.

In case you missed it, after a year that began with Michigan's Republican Governor Rick Snyder saying that 2012 was not the year to jam through anti-worker laws, Gov. Snyder and Michigan state Republican politicians are now on the verge of jamming through a major anti-workers rights law - one that may effectively begin an open-ended state of virtual war in Michigan.

As we already noted, this kind of antagonistic behavior from Republicans shouldn't surprise anyone in America today - even during the holiday season. We've already seen similar divisive - and ultimately unsucessful - attacks on workers and the labor movement over the last two years from Republican governors in Wisconsin and Ohio. Judging by the actions of these Republican governors, they seem to figure that, as long as their heads are still attached, they may as well stick them into the depths of anti-union laws.

What harm could there be?

Of course, as Congressman Sander Levin noted on Monday, Gov. Snyder doesn't even seem to understand the real-world implications of the law that he and his Republican state lawmakers are attempting to cram down the throats of the people who elected him. Snyder doesn't even understand how unions work.

In short, as President Obama stated so succinctly in his visit to the Daimler-owned 'Detroit Diesel' shop on Monday, so called 'right-to-work' laws really are "right to work for less" laws. This isn't just a catchphrase.

After years of debate, and insane amounts of research, economists and labor experts agree that, under 'right-to-work' laws, workers reap fewer gains from any economic growth or successes enjoyed by their employers. Wages of workers decrease and benefits are cut back drastically, while executives and their corporate parents benefit handsomely.

Furthermore, 'right-to-work' laws encourage freeloaders by allowing non-union workers to get the benefits of the collective bargaining agreement, while paying nothing for them.

Local economies don't benefit from 'right-to-work' either. In fact, they usually pay an even heavier price, since workers' overall compensation shrinks so drastically. Since workers have less money to spend, the local tax base dries up too. Since workers are making less, they rely on public services more, making the burden on cities and states even worse.

There is no significant economic benefit for Gov. Snyder and his Michigan state lawmakers in trying to cram this through. This is a purely emotional reaction to heavy losses suffered by Michigan Republicans at the state level ballot box in 2012, which will put Republicans in the minority in the Michigan House in January 2013.

Don't think this is something that most Michigan Republican voters wanted either. The Detroit Free Press, who supported Snyder religiously over the past two years, blasted him in their Friday editorial. Gallup polls show Americans across the nation agree with the Detroit Free Press, that Americans want compromise - not violent partisanship.

Even Major League Baseball and Major League Football hate the Republican Governor of Michigan right now - and there will likely be players from both leagues, along with thousands of other Michiganders, protesting at their state capitol today.

We truly hope the Governor does not sign this anti-worker legislation into law today.

If he does, it may be the last legislation he'll get the chance to sign until his term is up.

This was one sleeping lion he should have left alone.

Puppetry And Guarantees

While our readers in the Northern Midwest really began feeling the freezing temps of winter this weekend, the annual news freeze also began for those of us working in the national media.

About this time every year, as Americans and others around the world become more involved in the holiday season, the number and type of news stories are all but guaranteed to significantly slow down. Not surprisingly, this is also when the 'countdown stories' - many of which were likely written the week before Thanksgiving - are also dumped into the media, by journalists who may have already headed out for an early vacation.

For our staff, this is still a work week, as it also is for President Obama and Congress. Even so, we can guarantee that many Congressional Republicans, like many of our friends in the media, are "mailing it in" this week - and we can guarantee we've seen their puppet show on taxes before.

Many Americans seem to have missed two key facts in all the 'fiscal cliff' drama: the fact that President Obama and Congressional Democrats have already made massive spending cuts, and the fact that the actual problem is tax revenues being too low.

Suzy Khimm of Wonkblog pointed out over the weekend something we've also noticed most in the major media have missed. The 2011 Budget Control Act that President Obama and Congressional Democrats pushed past Republicans last year included $1.5 trillion in cuts to non-defense discretionary Federal programs. As confirmed by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, items like VA medical care and Pell Grants were already cut by Obama and Democrats in 2011, past points that are fiscally sound over the next decade.

Regardless of the facts regarding responsible fiscal policies, a handful of Congressional Republicans and others on the weekend talking-head shows continued to scream for more budget cuts this weekend, blasting anyone who disagreed with their faulty logic.

Surprisingly, some Republicans even openly admitted on those same shows that raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans will need to be part of any 'fiscal cliff' deal, as President Obama has said from the start.

However, raising income tax rates on the wealthiest Americans is only one tool in the revenue-raising toolbox.

To truly make a difference in the nation's overall budget issues, dividends will also need to be taxed like regular income, and capital gains taxes will need to go up - both of which will also hit the wealthy harder than the middle and lower classes. Loopholes that have allowed a growing number of corporations to pay lower tax rates than they should pay will also need to be closed.

We're almost positive that all of these items were discussed this weekend when President Obama and Speaker Boehner met privately to attempt to push budget and tax negotiations along.

But we can also guarantee that no matter what Boehner may be saying to the President in private, the politics of the extremists in the Republican party - people like the über-wealthy, anti-worker Koch brothers - will make Boehner spout more of their extreme anti-tax rhetoric in public this week.

As we noted earlier, we can just about guarantee who's really pulling Boehner's strings.
We've seen this performance before.

Friday Funday: The Meaning Of Hanukkah

It's been a long week, beginning as it did with the Jovan Belcher murder-suicide tragedy and ending with the brutal layoffs by the Bain Capitol-owned Clear Channel, and the attack by Michigan's underhanded, right-wing Governor to gut the rights of workers in his state.

It is Friday though, and this weekend, the beginning of yet another holiday - Hanukkah. It's been a few years since we'd discussed Hanukkah in these digital pages with anything more than a brief mention, so we were surprised when we brought our Hanukkah research back up, and compared it with some major news events going on here at home.

The brief version of the Hanukkah story is simple. Around 170 BC, the Syrian King Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who had recently inherited his throne, got frustrated with his Jewish subjects in the state of Judea. Spurred by other wealthy men in his kingdom (who had their own debts and political agendas), the Syrian King's army invaded Jerusalem, defeated the Jews, took their treasure, outlawed Judaism - and defiled the primary temple for worship.

The Jewish rebels survived however. Five years later they defeated the Syrian invaders and took back their homes and their place of worship. To celebrate, they planned a hanukkah - a dedication, in Hebrew. For eight days and nights, their temple menorah was supposed to burn as part of the cleansing and celebration - yet they had only enough oil for the lamp to stay lit for one night. Somehow, the temple menorah stayed lit all eight days and nights.

For people of the Jewish faith, it's a key piece of belief in this holiday that the lamp stayed lit because God wanted it to - in part to prove that their God sided with them, the rebels who had won the war.

Today in America, there are still 'wars' going on - including the war on workers.

Clear Channel, like many other media companies, got greedy over the last 15 years - something that got worse when they sold out to the corporation that is the primary modern symbol for greed and evil, Bain Capitol. Like the Syrians in the story of Hanukkah, those now in control of thousands of local radio stations will never be wise enough to understand what those stations mean to their local listeners. For those we know in the media who suffered at the hands of the latest blast of job losses from Clear Channel, as well as job losses from other media companies, our hearts go out to you.

On another battlefield, Michigan's Governor Snyder and his greedy Republican henchmen in the Michigan statehouse crammed through last-minute anti-worker legislation Thursday night. That's due to the fact that Michigan's Republicans will be losing a substantial number of seats when the Michigan legislature changes over in January.

There is a light for both of these stories though, reminiscent of the hanukkah menorah that awaited the ancient Jews, after their long exile, and susequent defeat of their enemies.

For media companies, it's inevitable that the corporate executives and Wall Street criminals who've created this mess will go to jail. Billions in fines are being levied almost daily, and a growing stream of corrupt executives look to be headed to jail.

The massive media companies like Clear Channel will likely end up selling their many of their local holdings to small groups of investors that include local media talent - rebellious, honest, hard-working people who know what their local radio and TV stations and newspapers mean to their neighbors and friends.

As for Gov. Synder and his GOP colleagues, their rush to push through this anti-worker legislation has likely left them legally vulnerable. It's highly likely Snyder's effort, like Scott Walker's in Wisconsin, will end up snuffed out in court.

For us, the key to understanding the Hanukkah story has always been simple. Do the right thing, fight for what's right, and if you believe, no matter how meager your resources, in the end, you'll have enough.

We hope you and your family have more than enough this holiday season.

Time For A Change

If you want to know why Americans hate Congress - something we pointed out yesterday - we've got the perfect example right here.

Wednesday afternoon, Speaker John Boenher apparently decided lawmakers in the House of Representatives were all worked-out for the week. That's after passing a lunatic bill (literally) and not much else during the past three days - except running from their responsibilities surrounding the fiscal cliff, and meeting with lobbyists. So Boehner cancelled today's House schedule so lawmakers could rest up, meet with more lobbyists, and get a jump on that four day weekend.

It's not like there's anything important they should be working on.

Like Speaker Boehner, and virtually everyone other American who keeps up with the news, we're pretty sick of talking about the fiscal cliff. We're aware Congressional Republicans are still desperate - both to find a deal that will pass, and a deal that won't chap the hides of their ultra-rich campaign contributors and lobbyist donors.

Why Congressional Republicans keep acting like whiney babies, while carrying around the unrealistic expectations of the even bigger spoiled brats that are the wealthiest Americans, is beyond us.

Frankly, it's time for a change in the GOP - something we think some of the more experienced Republican members of Congress are beginning to finally smell.

As President Obama has made ever more clear since the election, including in his speech at the Business Roundtable on Wednesday, he and Congressional Democrats have the upper hand. Tax rates for the rich will have to go up, the debt ceiling will have to be part of the agreement, there will be some form of stimulus, and earned benefits will not have to be cut much more than he's already offered.

Republicans are running scared, for all of these reasons and more - including the fact that some Republicans have already begun to crank up their 2014 campaign machines.

Why do you think they're are already meeting with lobbyists, begging for dollars, instead of back in DC fixing the tax and budget problems?

The fact is, President Obama's refusal to bend to the tantrums of the far right may be paving a way forward for a deal. Several prominent Republicans have already publicly admitted - albeit quietly - that tax rates on the wealthy will have to go up, something a resounding majority of Americans already agree with. Further, stimulus ideas like continuing the payroll tax cut for one more year will also need to be included. As confirmed by Congress's own Joint Economic Committee, a temporary payroll tax cut extension would be a net economic boost - and as we pointed out Wednsday, any serious economic downturn will be pinned to Republicans, not Democrats.

Republicans are going to have to choose between their big business backers and the Tea Party freaks, including the right wing media. More than a few of them are also probably going to have to face primary challenges from the extremists on the right in 2014.

The facts are clear, though, as we've stated them multiple times over the last few weeks.

Republicans got their asses kicked in the 2012 election. Now, after that spanking, they're going to have lose at least two more times, heavily, on both the fiscal cliff and the debt ceiling.

It's time for Republicans to stop bawling like babies and dump the load of crappy ideas that protect the wealthiest Americans - ideas that members of the GOP have been hauling around for years.

In short, it's time Republicans had a change.

Like Stealing ACORN From A Blind Pig...

Whether you were playing hooky because of the unseasonably warm weather, or maybe just busy getting your holiday preparations together, you may have missed Gallup's semi-annual version of the 'Naughty and Nice' list that was released on Monday. Gallup's 'honesty survey', released every year about this time, tracks which professions Americans think are the most honest and ethical, and which ones are considered... well, dirty.

It should be no surprise to anyone that nurses and police officers came off squeaky clean near the top of the list. Wallowing near the bottom of the list were used car salesman - right next to "Members of Congress." Only ten percent of Americans trust Congresspersons to any degree these days.

To say those results surprised us would be a lie. National politics in the U.S. this year went far beyond mere mudslinging. We'd compare it to two well-dressed individuals rolling around in a hog lot - except we feel we'd be insulting the cleanliness of the pig.

The more important survey, released on Tuesday, came from the firm Public Policy Polling. They surveyed Republicans in the wake of the 2012 election and found that "49% of GOP voters nationally say they think that ACORN stole the election for President Obama."

Considering 52% of Americans thought the same thing in 2008, that finding might not be seem so bad − except that ACORN, the community organizing group for low-income Americans, has been dead and gone for over two years, after being driven out of business by right-wing extremists.

Those right-wing extremists are part of the closed epistemic right-wing world, consisting of stations like Fox "News", right-wing talk radio, and fanatical right-wing websites. For years, these propagandists have told their viewers and listeners that they have all the answers, while everyone else in the media is just lying.

Sadly, as we've warned many times before, the damage they've been doing to America isn't just to fill your crazy uncle's head with half-truths and outright fabrications.

Do you have a position on the Panetta-Burns deficit reduction plan? According to another PPP poll, one-fourth of America has a position on Panetta-Burns right now, which is amazing to us, since there is no Panetta-Burns plan. Zero. Nada. Doesn't exist.

Over at respected Wall Street magazine Business Insider, another poll was conducted to ask Americans what they think will happen to the deficit if we go over the mythical fiscal cliff. Forty-seven percent of Americans insisted that the deficit would increase if we go over the cliff - which may have surprised the experts, like the CBO and professional economists. They all know that if we go over the metaphorical fiscal cliff, the U.S. national deficit will go down.

Then again, the professionals - who actually understand the fiscal cliff - may not be surprised at all, considering how many Americans think our nation is headed for a literal precipice with all the discussion of a fiscal cliff.

This is why we continue to harp about the desperate need for standards and practices in the national media, even while some of our best known media institutions are gutting their staff as they bow to the whims of Wall Street.

It's easy for organizations like Fox, and the blowhards on right-wing radio, to keep telling lies to Americans and convincing them those lies are true - while hiding the all-too-disturbing truth.

What's difficult is thinking that the opinion of who is trustworthy in America has real value anymore - especially when the people determining public trust also believe in zombie community organizing groups and have real positions on fake deficit plans.

Drawing The Line

There are times we look at what's going on in our national political debate, and have to wonder if the bigger picture hasn't been drawn by the ghost of Chuck Jones. After all, it's a strangely accurate coincidence that the ongoing fiscal slope debate in Washington, DC appears more like an old Looney Toons cartoon every day.

In case you missed the latest episodes in this ongoing farce, late on Monday, Republican Speaker John Boehner finally offered a joke of a "counterproposal" to President Obama. Not only were there few real details in Boehner's proposal, but what details there were effectively shaped up to be like one of Wile E. Coyote's dreams. In Boehner's 'crafty' plan, the President and Democrats - as the Roadrunner - would give Republicans everything they want, falling right into Boehner's carefully laid trap. In reality, the White House sidestepped Mr. Boehner's idiotic "plan", just like the Roadrunner would have.

Put another way, as Steven Benen notes, "This isn't a "counteroffer"; it's a Christmas wish list written by kids without access to calculators."

Not to be swayed by their rediculous failed 'counterproposal', Congressional Republicans appear to have gone back to the drawing board, and created an alternate plan, where they'll attempt to draw the deadline for the fiscal cliff right off the end of the legislative calendar - like Wile E. Coyote trying to run into the painted tunnel.

Someone should really check Bohener's office and the pockets of Congressional Republicans for receipts from Acme.

The simple fact is that Congressional Republicans still mistakenly think they have some kind of significant leverage in the debt and budget negotiations going on right now. President Obama and Congressional Democrats know; on this issue, the Republicans have virtually no power right now.

If no agreement on the fiscal cliff is made, Democrats get what they want, as tax rates will go back up to Clinton-era levels, when the economy was doing well for everyone. Democrats will then offer their own tax cut for everyone except the rich, just after the first of the year. It will be a Democratic tax cut, however, with the name Obama emblazoned across the top - something Republicans will be loathe to vote for.

The Republicans’ alternate backup plan as we noted above, is to only pass the bare minimum on the fiscal cliff: a tax cut for the middle class, with no tax rate increase for the rich, no closing loopholes, nothing on unemployment, and no extension of the debt ceiling. Yet, as Timothy Geithner told Speaker Boehner last week, and as the White House reiterated today, without tax rate increases on the rich, there will be no deal. Period. So Republicans won't get what they want that way either.

In fact, when the debt ceiling needs to be renegotiated in January or February, Democrats will vote to raise the ceiling, as both sides have without argument for most of our history as a nation. If Republicans balk and cause problems, like they did in 2011, Republicans alone will be held to blame for any economic downturn caused by their political temper tantrum. So refusing to be responsible legislators will only hurt Republicans, politically, in the end.

For Congressional Democrats, all they have to do is wait for Congressional Republicans' next cockamamie idea to blow up and fail, like the latest "genius" idea from Acme. Then Democrats can stick out their tongues, give the Republicans a raspberry, and speed away back to their normal lives.

You know, the more we discuss the topic, the more we realize the fiscal slope debate is exactly like an old Coyote and Roadrunner cartoon.

We recommend you watch out for falling Republicans.

A Time To Choose

It happens more often than most sports fans realize, the confluence of sports and elements like politics and ethics. For sports fans of many kinds - and especially for football fans - the events of this past weekend should have made it crystal clear that sports, like nearly every other part of life, collides with politics and ethics all the time.

For NFL fans, that realization began with the murder of Kasandra Perkins, mother of Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Javon Belcher's three-month-old daughter, at Belcher's own hand. That was followed by Belcher's suicide, committed in front of his head coach and general manager. It was capped by the Chiefs playing an NFL game that should not have been played for a whole host of reasons. Yet Chiefs players and coaches unanimously voted to go ahead with the game as scheduled, winning only their second game of the year in Belcher's memory, in what has been an otherwise dismal season.

For University of Nebraska Cornhusker fans, the terrible weekend began with the inexcusable meltdown of their football team in the Big 10 Championship game, a collapse of the kind that made many in Husker Nation begin to think some seriously violent and nasty thoughts. That implosion of the now twenty-third ranked Huskers was followed by an invitation to the Capital One Bowl, to be paired against the sixth-ranked Georgia Bulldogs.

Welcome to "sports" in America, in 2012.

Both Sunday's Chiefs game and the upcoming bowl game for the Huskers are embarrassing examples of why the attitude that 'sports always sets a good example for our kids' is sadly no longer the truth.

As Dave Zirin of The Nation magazine made clear, the pretense Chiefs' and NFL officials claimed - that going ahead with the game on Sunday was a good and maybe even healthy idea - can be completely disproven by years of science and player experience. Both factors say that when NFL players play a game while distracted, they are much more prone to dangerous and severe injuries. There is little that could be more distracting to an NFL player than knowing your friend and teammate killed himself yesterday, in front of your head coach, after murdering his girlfriend.

As for Nebraska, our own staff members have experience with the politics of bowl games and college football.

There are many who have called for Nebraska Head Coach Bo Pelini to be fired for "only" achieving a 10-3 season, after the disastrous Big 10 Championship meltdown. That would be exactly the wrong thing to do. If Nebraska were to fire Pelini now, with a new Athletic Director coming in, the message it would send is that Nebraska will ONLY accept all winning, all the time.

Not only is that an unrealistic goal - it's one that has a serious cost, beyond dollars, that we highly doubt Nebraska fans are willing to pay.

We've seen the price of that kind of 'winn at all costs' attitude over the last two years in the football programs of both Ohio State and Penn State. If your ONLY goal is about winning college football games, things like educating your students, respecting the law, and respecting the game become liabilities.

Big 10 officials also could have worked behind the scenes to help Nebraska secure a more fair and just bowl game. Instead, school officials will subject a team that achieved a 10-3 season to a likely slaughter by Georgia, in exchange for a very big financial payout - in part because the money is obviously more important than the players, or the fans. We have to wonder if some part of the bowl assignment against Goergia is punishment because neither the Husker players or the coaches could be perfect - which is sadly what is expected these days.

Neither the example of the Chiefs, the example of fairweather Husker fans, or the example of Big 10 executives is any kind of lesson to teach children.

It's time we, as fans, choose to put our mouths and our dollars behind what we really believe. Do we believe in the players as people, as fellow human beings, with all the failures and flaws we each have? Do we accept that humans are more important than money?

Or will we continue to expect machine-like performance and perfection - and punish those who are unable to live up to those unrealistic expectations?

Friday Funday: Alternatives And Miracles

While we've written, drawn, and discussed positive news events over the last few months, we're willing to admit an ugly truth to you today. Like most people involved in the media - especially those of us in the political media - the last few months have been some of the most brutal, unceasing periods of constant information juggling we've experienced in many years. Because of this, we're aware that some of our recent Friday editions have seemed a bit more serious, and a bit less playful.

It's an easy habit to fall into. You look at the world and see all the horrible things going on, and you quickly find yourself becoming a real-life embodiment of Ebenezer Scrooge.

Thankfully, our Editor-in-Chief, Paul Fell has a generally positive outlook, and he's not usually one to mope about. So when he asked us for today's edition to consider the alternative of how things would be if President Obama hadn't been re-elected, we found ourselves thinking about things in a very different way.

For one thing, it reminded us that within less than two years, we won't have to worry about not having health insurance in America any more. That reminded us of a friend of one of our staffers, a radio DJ named Sparky, who recently beat bone marrow cancer, and returned to work at his radio station, 104.1 The Blaze, in our hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska.

That reminded us of The Blaze's annual event to help children who might not be as lucky, the annual Kampout For Kids in Lincoln - which is today. If you're looking to help, you can get the details on the event here, or feel free to donate here.

Thinking about helping needy kids led us to talk about a story we saw in Slate, about a friend of a friend, and her Down Syndrome child, Eurydice - who it turns out has been far more of a blessing then her mother ever expected.

We're well aware there is plenty to focus upon, both in the United States and around the world, where things we've thought were turning positive have twisted and gone in a bad direction once again.

For example, the entire internet went dark in Syria yesterday, including telephone communications - a very bad event in that war-torn nation. The nation of Burma, where President Obama just visited to help praise that nation's positive moves toward democracy had riot police beat up monks and villagers who were peacefully protesting on Thursday. Egypt's Constitution did pass out of its Assembly yesterday - except with newly inserted language that could push its recent secular history in a more theocratic direction. Of course, the debate over the 'fiscal cliff' continues to be more heated all the time.

For every dark story we saw though, we began to notice a corresponding bright spot, after Paul's request to see the alternatives.

For example, President Obama and Mitt Romney had lunch on Thursday, and from all reports it was a surprisingly pleasant meeting. After years of wrangling, the U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to recognize the state of Palestine and move it one step closer to full membership - a position that will likely force both Palestinians and Israelis to deal with each other more as equals. It may even lead to the 'two-state solution' that so many have talked about for years. There was even progress on U.S. troops leaving Afghanistan more rapidly, after Senator Jeff Merkley's amendment calling for early withdrawal passed with strong bipartisan support, in a 62-33 vote.

Closer to home, the Husker volleyball team swept its way to the second round of the NCAA tourney, and the Husker football team plays for the Big 10 Championship tomorrow.

The world still isn't perfect - and we don't expect it to be.

We've just considered the alternatives, as Paul suggested, and realized that everything isn't as serious or dark or as bad as it could be.

Call it the 'Ghost of Christmas Future' if you'd like.

We're calling it Friday.

Don't Stick A Fork In It – Yet

As we approach the holidays here in the United States, it's usually a difficult time for those of us in the political media. Political stories are often either ginned up hype - like the continued bogus and pathetic attacks on Ambassador Susan Rice - or inevitable procedural stories, like the "fiscal crisis/cliff" story.

For the record, our sources all say the same thing about the pending tax and budget deal. Either Congressional Republicans will wise up before the holidays - or their hand will be forced just after New Year, when the 113th Congress is sworn in. Either way, even the most committed conservatives are now admitting that taxes on rich Americans will have to go up, because that's really what Americans want.

The lack of substantive political news in 'The States' is one reason we've got our eyes trained on what's going on in Egypt. The other reason is that we simply don't trust Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi entirely, especially after his decrees last week. We've seen it happen far too often in history, in other nations around the world. People give up their lives fighting to reset their nation's political table for democracy, only to have the first person they elect steal democracy out from under the noses of the people.

If you only pay partial attention to U.S media coverage of Egypt, we can understand how you might get the wrong idea about what's happening there right now. You might think their relatively new President, Mohammed Morsi, is babbling incoherently about the 'Planet of the Apes' movies, that there's a 'second revolution' already underway, or that the Egyptian protests are turning into a cyberwar.

Frankly, if all of those things were true, we could understand some of the attitudes we've heard from our fellow Americans, that we should just "stick a fork" in Egypt's current government, that its days are numbered.

Thankfully, we have contacts in other parts of the world not subject to the U.S. media hype machine, who have a much better view of the situation.

To start with, what the Egyptian people are doing right now is something Americans went through over two hundred years ago - "learning to be free" as President Morsi told Bobby Ghosh in an interview on Wednesday.

While Egypt is still a key nation in stabilizing the Middle Eastern region, it's a nation that does not even have a Constitution right now. The assembly writing Egypt's constitution wrapped up its final draft on Wednesday, and will vote on their constitution today.

Yes, protests have erupted throughout Egypt, and the judges in Egypt's court system have even gone on an unprecedented strike, based on actions President Morsi recently took to temporarily expand the power of the Egyptian presidency.

Still, for all the apparent turmoil, many in the Middle East still see Egypt as a stable place. International investment is still being made in Egypt. It's still generally considered a safe country too, where refugees from war-torn nations like Syria continue fleeing for safety.

We agree that there is reason to be watchful and wary of what's going on in Egypt - and we will be watching carefully today as President Morsi addresses his nation. Hopefully, he'll present a new Egyptian Constitution to his people that may have just been ratified by the Assembly that nullifies any questions about his intensions.

As much as we might fear a power grab by Mr. Morsi, the Egyptian people don't seem to be completely ready to stick a fork in President Morsi or their fledgling democracy.

Yet.

Fairy Tales & Hot Air

As we've noted often over the years, if someone has a good tale to tell, we'll be some of the first people to pull up a chair and perk up our ears. We've also mentioned many times how we'd like to see more real compromise in our government, especially when it comes to the idea of taxes and budgets.

There's an interesting story working its way through the national media right now, that encompasses both of those things.

In case you missed the tale, Grover Norquist, the anti-tax lobbyist who has held a growing number of Republican legislators hostage over the last few years, is supposedly being laughed into irrelevance by Republicans eager to strike a tax and budget deal with Democrats before the end of the year. Norquist continues to blow hot air at the media about his own importance, while prominent Republicans keep saying they'll finally stand up to big, bad Grover.

The problem with this tale is that its key points are mostly hot air - and it almost completely misses the most important point of the 2012 elections.

The fact is, other than a few prominent Republicans making loud noises in front of journalists, few GOP Congressmembers appear to actually be willing make any serious compromises in the tax and budget discussions that have been quietly going on since the election.

There's no doubt - there has been a massive show put on by Republicans that they are done bowing and genuflecting to every whim of the unelected lobbyist Norquist. Many pundits and political sources have been cheered to hear Republicans publicly admit what The Daily Beast's Michael Tomasky put so clearly yesterday, that "The party that lost the election — lost the presidency, lost Senate seats, and yes, held on to the House, but lost seats there, too — doesn’t get to dictate terms" of any tax and budget deal.

As Tomasky also notes, it's only been a fairy tale though. Sure - ANY appearance of compromise by Republicans is a welcome change from the GOP's usual story of "My way or the highway." That's the problem - the extremism of those like Norquist has made even the fiction of compromise seem like a fairy tale come to life.

The fact is, as both House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader McConnell have made clear, the only kind of compromise this group of Congressional Republicans is willing to accept is the same old non-compromise - where everyone else is simply supposed to do what they say.

This tale may still have a happy ending, though.

For one thing, both Boehner and McConnell may be significantly more willing to change their tunes after the first of the year, when the newly elected Congressmembers are sworn in, and Republicans are at an even larger disadvantage.

The other point - the one most of our colleagues seem to have missed - is that Grover Norquist's days as the big bad anti-tax wolf may be over anyway.

If there's one thing the surviving Tea Party Republicans have made clear - especially off the record to some of our contacts in DC - is that no one is going to tell them what they can and cannot do. They may hate taxes - but no one is going to force them to do anything they don't choose to do themselves. Not their own political party's leadership, not their political donors, and surely not some unelected lobbyist with the name of a Muppet.

Though we're certainly glad to see a blowhard like Mr. Norquist is becoming irrelevant, that doesn't mean compromise is automatically coming back to Washington, DC.

If you believe it is, we've got a few more fairy tales we'd like to sell you.