We can't say preparing for today's commentary was easy.
While the ridiculous levels of heat are affecting millions of Americans, we can't directly blame the heat for our difficulties today. Our offices are all comfortably air-conditioned , and Paul even had the energy to create two cartoons for today, a 'Two-Fer Thursday,' if you will.
The biggest reason we had a difficult time today is the sheer volume of information we needed to wade through, especially on the two major stories dominating the legitimate media landscape this week: the budget and debt ceiling debate, and the Rupert Murdoch scandal.
On the topic of the budget debate, the situation continues to remain bleaker than we'd hoped, but not as bad -yet- as we've feared. It's become increasingly obvious that a majority of Americans want a compromise on the debt and budget, the President wants to compromise on a debt deal, and even some sane old-fashioned Republicans want to compromise on a deal. The problem remains that some far-right, regressive Republicans are willing to risk destroying the fiscal stability of the world, unless they get one-hundred percent of everything they want - and their political enemies get nothing.
We only wish that the blistering heat wave sweeping the nation were the only reason for these legislators' insane behavior. Sadly, though, these ideologues were this way long before the mercury ever hit triple digits.
The Rupert Murdoch/News Corp. scandal also continues to blaze even hotter, much like the incessant heat wave affecting the United States and Canada. All signs in the U.S. are pointing to major criminal actions coming down the road. News Corp just hired the law firm known in DC circles as the folks you go to when you're guilty. The other members of News Corp's Board of Directors have also hired their own law firm - a different one. To add to Rupert's legal problems in the U.K. and U.S., Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has now said that Murdoch will have to answer questions in Australia for his company's actions. It seems the only friend Mr. Murdoch may have is Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. Of course, Talal is the second-largest shareholder of News Corp. stock, so we highly doubt his support is without ulterior motives.
On both topics dominating the news right now - "Murdoch's Mess" and "The Debt and Budget Battle" - the jury is far from in, either literally or figuratively.
We hope you read through the stories on both topics thoroughly, and make up your mind for yourself on each.
After all, you may as well read all the articles on either story that you can find. We highly doubt you'll be outside running a marathon anytime soon.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Defensible And Indefensible: Snake Oil & Real Medicine
For a long list of reasons we won't go into today, it's rare that you'll see us defending Michele Bachmann much over the next year or two. Frankly, some of us really don't like her. Still, we dislike snake oil salesmen masquerading as legitimate news media sources even more.
Of course, since some of the planet's most well-known fake information peddlers are currently busy lying to the British Parliament and dodging pies, we've chosen to defend Ms. Bachman, at least a little bit today.
An online rag whose name we won't even mention ran a story yesterday, citing anonymous sources, stating that GOP presidential candidate and U.S. House member Michele Bachmann suffers from severe, somewhat debilitating migraine headaches. According to this unsourced story, Ms. Bachmann treats her condition with high levels of medication - which the story made sound as though Ms. Bachmann is a drug addict.
As we mentioned, there are many reasons we disagree with Rep. Bachmann - including the behavior of her bodyguards on Tuesday, which was far outside the range of acceptable conduct. Still - there is absolutely NO reason to accuse her of being a drug addict.
Bachmann addressed the spurious rumor herself on Tuesday morning, saying "Like nearly 30 million other Americans, I experience migraines that are easily controlled with medication." We applaud her for stepping up and addressing the slur directly. Thousands of her fellow Americans suffer from the same debilitating problem and also successfully treat it with prescription medications.
Whether someone has a physical or mental disease, or challenge, or handicap - or whatever you choose to call it - as long as they do their job to the best of their abilities, and try to be the best at what they do, we have absolutely no problem with them. We've had presidents and legislators who've been morbidly obese, had polio or Alzheimer's, were missing limbs, or have suffered traumatic brain injuries, or had any number of other challenges. Most of them have served honorably and ably. If Rep. Bachmann has some bad headaches now and then, and takes a few prescription pills to fight off the pain, we could frankly care less.
There are SO many more important things to worry about.
The insanity that is the debt ceiling and budget debate is still going on in Washington, DC. Yes, the plan put forward by the so-called 'Gang of Six' was praised by President Obama yesterday afternoon. Yes, it's basically the same three-dollars-in-tax-cuts-for-every-one-dollar-of-revenue plan the President has been pushing for some time. No, there aren't any real details in the plan yet. No, it won't likely pass. Yes, we and the rest of world are getting mighty jumpy about the whole damn thing right now.
Michele Bachmann's migraines certainly don't rate on our list of things to be worried about - and they frankly shouldn't rate on anyone else's list, either.
If the trash rag promoters who tried to take a shot at Rep. Bachmann were serious, there are SO many more questionable stories they could have focused on in her life - especially the continuing questions surrounding her husband's counseling "clinic". The Bachmann's so-called therapy center has been proven to try to "cure" homosexuals by "praying away the gay." Homosexuality has never been recognized by the medical community as a "lifestyle choice", as the religious right likes to call it. It hasn't even officially been considered a mental disorder that needed curing since 1973. Since there is nothing to cure, we see no point in Mr. Bachmann's highly questionable methods - and we can't understand why his clinic has received so much government money to cure something that doesn't need curing.
As we said at the beginning today, there are plenty of reasons we are not fond of Rep. Bachmann and what she stands for. But if a media organization is going to attempt to claim legitimacy, the least it could do when attempting to tar and feather someone is start with actual facts.
In the case of the slanted story about Rep. Michele Bachmann and her headache medicine, we hope the only ones that end up with a headache are the people at the organization that started the unfounded rumor against her.
Of course, since some of the planet's most well-known fake information peddlers are currently busy lying to the British Parliament and dodging pies, we've chosen to defend Ms. Bachman, at least a little bit today.
An online rag whose name we won't even mention ran a story yesterday, citing anonymous sources, stating that GOP presidential candidate and U.S. House member Michele Bachmann suffers from severe, somewhat debilitating migraine headaches. According to this unsourced story, Ms. Bachmann treats her condition with high levels of medication - which the story made sound as though Ms. Bachmann is a drug addict.
As we mentioned, there are many reasons we disagree with Rep. Bachmann - including the behavior of her bodyguards on Tuesday, which was far outside the range of acceptable conduct. Still - there is absolutely NO reason to accuse her of being a drug addict.
Bachmann addressed the spurious rumor herself on Tuesday morning, saying "Like nearly 30 million other Americans, I experience migraines that are easily controlled with medication." We applaud her for stepping up and addressing the slur directly. Thousands of her fellow Americans suffer from the same debilitating problem and also successfully treat it with prescription medications.
Whether someone has a physical or mental disease, or challenge, or handicap - or whatever you choose to call it - as long as they do their job to the best of their abilities, and try to be the best at what they do, we have absolutely no problem with them. We've had presidents and legislators who've been morbidly obese, had polio or Alzheimer's, were missing limbs, or have suffered traumatic brain injuries, or had any number of other challenges. Most of them have served honorably and ably. If Rep. Bachmann has some bad headaches now and then, and takes a few prescription pills to fight off the pain, we could frankly care less.
There are SO many more important things to worry about.
The insanity that is the debt ceiling and budget debate is still going on in Washington, DC. Yes, the plan put forward by the so-called 'Gang of Six' was praised by President Obama yesterday afternoon. Yes, it's basically the same three-dollars-in-tax-cuts-for-every-one-dollar-of-revenue plan the President has been pushing for some time. No, there aren't any real details in the plan yet. No, it won't likely pass. Yes, we and the rest of world are getting mighty jumpy about the whole damn thing right now.
Michele Bachmann's migraines certainly don't rate on our list of things to be worried about - and they frankly shouldn't rate on anyone else's list, either.
If the trash rag promoters who tried to take a shot at Rep. Bachmann were serious, there are SO many more questionable stories they could have focused on in her life - especially the continuing questions surrounding her husband's counseling "clinic". The Bachmann's so-called therapy center has been proven to try to "cure" homosexuals by "praying away the gay." Homosexuality has never been recognized by the medical community as a "lifestyle choice", as the religious right likes to call it. It hasn't even officially been considered a mental disorder that needed curing since 1973. Since there is nothing to cure, we see no point in Mr. Bachmann's highly questionable methods - and we can't understand why his clinic has received so much government money to cure something that doesn't need curing.
As we said at the beginning today, there are plenty of reasons we are not fond of Rep. Bachmann and what she stands for. But if a media organization is going to attempt to claim legitimacy, the least it could do when attempting to tar and feather someone is start with actual facts.
In the case of the slanted story about Rep. Michele Bachmann and her headache medicine, we hope the only ones that end up with a headache are the people at the organization that started the unfounded rumor against her.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Why The Murdoch Mess Matters, Part II
There are people we know who've mentioned to us over the last few days, "What does all this hoopla with 'hacking phones' and 'Fox News' and Rupert Murdoch really mean?"
For those who don't work in news media or communications, we can understand how someone might question the value of the Murdoch corruption story dominating the news. Other than the ongoing drama of the U.S. debt & budget battle, this story seems to be taking up the other fifty percent of headlines right now.
It is an important story, however, both in the U.S. and abroad - and not just from the standpoint of media and ethics, as we pointed out yesterday.
By the time you read this on Tuesday morning, Mr. Murdoch, his son, and the former News Corp. executive Rebekah Brooks may all be in front of the British Parliament, their version of Congress, for hearing on this matter. While it's not expected that any of the three will say anything shocking, it's entirely possible that one of them could say something which could incriminate them - and not necessarily just in the U.K.
In the U.S. for some time now, authorities have been investigating American corporations for growing levels of international corruption. IBM paid a $10 million fine over selling illegal materials to China and South Korea earlier this year. Maxwell Technologies, a California company, also paid nearly $15 million earlier in 2011 to settle both criminal and civil complaints of dealing products to China illegally. The French-American company Alcatel-Lucent settled their own corruption suit in 2009, after getting caught red-handed giving illegal benefits to Chinese politicians. All of these cases were prosecuted by either the U.S. Dept. of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, or both - and all were prosecuted under the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
The reason the hearings in front of Parliament today are so crucial is that the U.K. implemented its own anti-corruption act just this month - one that mirrors the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in many ways. Other countries have also been following the lead of the U.S. in this regard.
Any company that wishes to gain the benefits of doing business primarily in the United States faces certain legal restrictions, including the FCPA - in part, because the business they may be working on might involve the U.S. government or military secrets.
If that idea seems farfetched, remember that not too long ago, Apple Computer company was not allowed to sell its desktop computers to certain governments, because their computers were so fast (for the time) that each unit was considered a supercomputer. Even the sale of one such computer would have violated international laws and sanctions against countries like North Korea and Iran.
The ethical implications of toppling governments with propaganda that we cited on Monday are not the only reasons Mr. Murdoch and his now-former employees need to be investigated, and if guilty, prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
In a world where timely and sensitive information can be more valuable than gold, a company that deals almost exclusively in information, yet cannot be trusted to acquire that information legally, becomes a security risk of massive proportions.
In an interconnected world, where a device in one's hands can connect a person to the farthest corners of the planet instantly, following the law isn't just a matter of ethical or moral correctness in the media. It's a matter of security, both for the countries that company does business in, as well as the safety of the company's bottom line.
For those who don't work in news media or communications, we can understand how someone might question the value of the Murdoch corruption story dominating the news. Other than the ongoing drama of the U.S. debt & budget battle, this story seems to be taking up the other fifty percent of headlines right now.
It is an important story, however, both in the U.S. and abroad - and not just from the standpoint of media and ethics, as we pointed out yesterday.
By the time you read this on Tuesday morning, Mr. Murdoch, his son, and the former News Corp. executive Rebekah Brooks may all be in front of the British Parliament, their version of Congress, for hearing on this matter. While it's not expected that any of the three will say anything shocking, it's entirely possible that one of them could say something which could incriminate them - and not necessarily just in the U.K.
In the U.S. for some time now, authorities have been investigating American corporations for growing levels of international corruption. IBM paid a $10 million fine over selling illegal materials to China and South Korea earlier this year. Maxwell Technologies, a California company, also paid nearly $15 million earlier in 2011 to settle both criminal and civil complaints of dealing products to China illegally. The French-American company Alcatel-Lucent settled their own corruption suit in 2009, after getting caught red-handed giving illegal benefits to Chinese politicians. All of these cases were prosecuted by either the U.S. Dept. of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, or both - and all were prosecuted under the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
The reason the hearings in front of Parliament today are so crucial is that the U.K. implemented its own anti-corruption act just this month - one that mirrors the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in many ways. Other countries have also been following the lead of the U.S. in this regard.
Any company that wishes to gain the benefits of doing business primarily in the United States faces certain legal restrictions, including the FCPA - in part, because the business they may be working on might involve the U.S. government or military secrets.
If that idea seems farfetched, remember that not too long ago, Apple Computer company was not allowed to sell its desktop computers to certain governments, because their computers were so fast (for the time) that each unit was considered a supercomputer. Even the sale of one such computer would have violated international laws and sanctions against countries like North Korea and Iran.
The ethical implications of toppling governments with propaganda that we cited on Monday are not the only reasons Mr. Murdoch and his now-former employees need to be investigated, and if guilty, prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
In a world where timely and sensitive information can be more valuable than gold, a company that deals almost exclusively in information, yet cannot be trusted to acquire that information legally, becomes a security risk of massive proportions.
In an interconnected world, where a device in one's hands can connect a person to the farthest corners of the planet instantly, following the law isn't just a matter of ethical or moral correctness in the media. It's a matter of security, both for the countries that company does business in, as well as the safety of the company's bottom line.
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