Even the most impulsive people have expectations of how things are supposed to work in life. For example, town hall meetings with members of Congress are generally expected to be forums where constituents speak and Congressmembers are forced to pay attention - not literal war zones, like in a small town in Pennsylvania last night.
It's frustrating but almost certain that some town hall meetings this month aren't going to work out the way either Congressmembers or constituents expect them to - at times because some members of Congress have no intention of truly listening.
More this year than ever before, we recommend you get prepared and get involved in the meetings and events of your Congresspersons and Senators, as they visit their home districts over this month's recess. Part of that preparation might include a visit to websites like Accountable Congress, that can help you find the next town hall in your area, and even help you form some intelligent questions to ask your member of Congress.
We also highly recommend that you follow the advice of Thomas Jefferson and make sure you're well-informed before you get involved in your government. To us, that means reading a first-rate newspaper every day, like The Washington Post.
Of course, the Post announced its own seriously unexpected change Monday afternoon, one that many in the media, including our staff members, are still trying to process.
In case you missed it, the short details of the change are simple. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, has agreed to buy the Washington Post newspaper, and few of its related print products, including a few smaller newspapers. Bezos did not buy every part of The Washington Post Company (which will have to change its name), so some very important news sites like Slate and The Grio will remain publicly owned.
The paper itself, however, will be solely owned by Bezos, who made it clear in his message to Post employees, "The values of The Post do not need changing. The paper’s duty will remain to its readers and not to the private interests of its owners."
No one is really sure what to make of the deal yet. Many are saying this is the end of an era. That one of the nation's most important news sources will no longer be tied to the insane demands of Wall Street is something we can certainly applaud. Still, the idea of a single hyper-wealthy owner controlling one of the nation's most important newspapers brings to mind the kinds of yellow journalism so prevalent during America's first Gilded Age - and sadly, so common among right-wing media today.
Still, we've been cheered by looking at Bezos' former experience as part of a media ownership team, when he invested in the website Business Insider this past year. As many in the media have noted, during that time Business Insider's journalism and overall quality has improved, while the voices of their investors - like Jeff Bezos - continue to remain silent.
We hope that Mr. Bezos recognizes the incredible value of Post staff clusters like Ezra Klein's Wonkblog group and Greg Sargent's Plum Line group - but like Post writer Jim Tankersley noted, we also hope Bezos can help find a modern business model that will allow the Washington Post to continue being one of the nation's best newspapers.
With all the insanity in our national politics, now more than ever Americans need to have trustworthy news sources that deliver what we should always expect from our best news organizations: The truth.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Monday, August 5, 2013
Repetitive Notions
Repeating actions or ideas isn't always a bad idea, especially when you miss something the first time.
For example, the Dream Defender protestors that have occupied the Florida governor's offices for most of the last month kept up their repeated demands for the Florida Legislature to officially revisit the 'Stand Your Ground' laws this fall. After being beaten over the head for nearly a month with the same basic request, the Republican-led Florida House decided to bow to common sense on Friday, agreeing to officially revisit the law this fall.
If all Republican legislators would show that kind of good sense, chaos wouldn't be looming over Capitol Hill this fall. Sadly, common sense doesn't seem to be common at all among Republicans on the Hill. Even in the face of opposition from their own party, some GOP extremists in Congress like Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Marco Rubio, and Sen. Mike Lee continue to insist they'll shut down the Federal government in October unless they get everything they want.
That same kind of smashingly stupid repetition by House Republicans was on full display at the end of last week. For the FORTIETH time, Republicans in the House voted to repeal Obamacare, just before Congress members from both parties ran out of town for a five week recess, leaving massive amounts of work left undone.
As Rachel Weiner pointed out last week, those 40 votes in the House against Obamacare - or the 28 similar votes in the Senate - won't stop the Affordable Care Act from going into effect. That fortieth repeal vote didn't help the economy either - help that Friday's positive but disappointing jobs report showed our economy could really use.
As Steve Benen reported, most of the numbers in Friday's jobs report weren't bad - but they weren't great either. The July jobs report continued to make clear that Americans are still fighting the economic drag from unnecessary sequestration, while also fighting worries that the GOP Congress will blow up the debt ceiling and shut down the government when October comes.
If that scenario of Republicans threatening government shutdown while holding the debt ceiling hostage seems familiar to you, it should. It's a repeat of a similar situation Congressional Democrats and President Obama faced in 2011, as Greg Sargent pointed out late Friday afternoon.
Greg also hammered on an idea similar to one we've discussed before. If Democrats and President Obama can stand up to the extremists in the GOP, while splitting off enough sensible Republicans to vote with the Democrats on issues like jobs and infrastructure, Congress may yet be able to break this repetitive cycle of stupidity.
We wouldn't necessarily count on that repetition ending anytime soon, though.
As Ezra Klein noted on Friday, the GOP is fully engaged on a pyrrhic kamikaze mission to try to stop Obamacare, on all levels, and at all costs. As they did with that fortieth vote on Friday, GOP ideologues on the Hill are making it clear: They'd rather bash their own skulls in multiple times than admit defeat even once on the issue of universal health care insurance.
At least in that regard, Republicans in DC are doing a bang-up job.
For example, the Dream Defender protestors that have occupied the Florida governor's offices for most of the last month kept up their repeated demands for the Florida Legislature to officially revisit the 'Stand Your Ground' laws this fall. After being beaten over the head for nearly a month with the same basic request, the Republican-led Florida House decided to bow to common sense on Friday, agreeing to officially revisit the law this fall.
If all Republican legislators would show that kind of good sense, chaos wouldn't be looming over Capitol Hill this fall. Sadly, common sense doesn't seem to be common at all among Republicans on the Hill. Even in the face of opposition from their own party, some GOP extremists in Congress like Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Marco Rubio, and Sen. Mike Lee continue to insist they'll shut down the Federal government in October unless they get everything they want.
That same kind of smashingly stupid repetition by House Republicans was on full display at the end of last week. For the FORTIETH time, Republicans in the House voted to repeal Obamacare, just before Congress members from both parties ran out of town for a five week recess, leaving massive amounts of work left undone.
As Rachel Weiner pointed out last week, those 40 votes in the House against Obamacare - or the 28 similar votes in the Senate - won't stop the Affordable Care Act from going into effect. That fortieth repeal vote didn't help the economy either - help that Friday's positive but disappointing jobs report showed our economy could really use.
As Steve Benen reported, most of the numbers in Friday's jobs report weren't bad - but they weren't great either. The July jobs report continued to make clear that Americans are still fighting the economic drag from unnecessary sequestration, while also fighting worries that the GOP Congress will blow up the debt ceiling and shut down the government when October comes.
If that scenario of Republicans threatening government shutdown while holding the debt ceiling hostage seems familiar to you, it should. It's a repeat of a similar situation Congressional Democrats and President Obama faced in 2011, as Greg Sargent pointed out late Friday afternoon.
Greg also hammered on an idea similar to one we've discussed before. If Democrats and President Obama can stand up to the extremists in the GOP, while splitting off enough sensible Republicans to vote with the Democrats on issues like jobs and infrastructure, Congress may yet be able to break this repetitive cycle of stupidity.
We wouldn't necessarily count on that repetition ending anytime soon, though.
As Ezra Klein noted on Friday, the GOP is fully engaged on a pyrrhic kamikaze mission to try to stop Obamacare, on all levels, and at all costs. As they did with that fortieth vote on Friday, GOP ideologues on the Hill are making it clear: They'd rather bash their own skulls in multiple times than admit defeat even once on the issue of universal health care insurance.
At least in that regard, Republicans in DC are doing a bang-up job.
Friday, August 2, 2013
Facts, Flim-Flam, Fans, & Fun
As we noted last Friday, the August recess for the staff and members of the U.S. House and Senate begins today - which means at least traffic will be better for us in DC over the weekend. In Nebraska, we're getting ready for Husker Fan Day today, and the start of Husker Football practice on Monday, while in our South Florida office, it's just a weekend off - which is a reason to celebrate anyway.
Before DC becomes as empty and shallow as some of its politicians already are, we wanted to give credit for some great work in the media this week, as well as call out at least one sad example of chicanery.
The award for the slimiest and most unexpected slant-job from a major media organization this week has to go to the Associated Press. Whoever wrote their so-called "Fact Check" on President Obama's comments about jobs and the Keystone pipeline either must be getting a nice subsidy from one of the right-wing billionaires, or they must have had experience as an advance man for a two-bit traveling carnival.
The President's entire reason for mentioning the permanent jobs that Keystone won't generate is because it won't actually generate many permanent jobs, as confirmed both by Cornell University and the State Department! Not only does the AP piece confirm the President indeed told the truth about the permanent jobs numbers. It crams that key bit of information into the last graph of the piece, as though a copy editor might have said to the writer responsible for that dreck"Add this before publishing - or else."
Thankfully, there are a few other people in the media who deserve the kind of praise the writer of this week's AP smear job can only dream of receiving.
Greg Sargent at The Plum Line blog at The Washington Post has been superb lately, about many topics, including the continuing crack-up of the GOP, and Republican's quixotic quest to kill Obamacare. If you haven't read his work lately, or the work of Jonathan Bernstein and Jamelle Bouie, who also sometimes publish at The Plum Line, we highly recommend you click over and check them out.
Our acquaintance Lisa Desjardan at CNN also had an incredible piece that confirmed something we'd been meaning to research ourselves. Thankfully, it's not just our imagination: Part of why Congress is getting less done than they ever have before is because Congress is in DC working far fewer hours and days than they used to.
We also have to give big kudos to Michael Jantze, one of our favorite cartoonists, who is attempting something few have ever even tried before. He's reviving his much-loved, nationally syndicated, daily cartoon strip 'The Norm' through social media and crowd sourced funding. His efforts appear to be paying off well, as his campaign will be bringing "The Norm back to full daily status, which we're incredibly pleased to see. [Also - Full disclosure: Multiple staff members have donated to Jantze's project. Happily.]
No matter what you're doing this weekend, or where you're at, we hope you remember: As important as politics is to us and to most of you, our readers, there's a lot more to life than just Democrats and Republicans, elections and laws.
For example, Husker football...
Before DC becomes as empty and shallow as some of its politicians already are, we wanted to give credit for some great work in the media this week, as well as call out at least one sad example of chicanery.
The award for the slimiest and most unexpected slant-job from a major media organization this week has to go to the Associated Press. Whoever wrote their so-called "Fact Check" on President Obama's comments about jobs and the Keystone pipeline either must be getting a nice subsidy from one of the right-wing billionaires, or they must have had experience as an advance man for a two-bit traveling carnival.
The President's entire reason for mentioning the permanent jobs that Keystone won't generate is because it won't actually generate many permanent jobs, as confirmed both by Cornell University and the State Department! Not only does the AP piece confirm the President indeed told the truth about the permanent jobs numbers. It crams that key bit of information into the last graph of the piece, as though a copy editor might have said to the writer responsible for that dreck"Add this before publishing - or else."
Thankfully, there are a few other people in the media who deserve the kind of praise the writer of this week's AP smear job can only dream of receiving.
Greg Sargent at The Plum Line blog at The Washington Post has been superb lately, about many topics, including the continuing crack-up of the GOP, and Republican's quixotic quest to kill Obamacare. If you haven't read his work lately, or the work of Jonathan Bernstein and Jamelle Bouie, who also sometimes publish at The Plum Line, we highly recommend you click over and check them out.
Our acquaintance Lisa Desjardan at CNN also had an incredible piece that confirmed something we'd been meaning to research ourselves. Thankfully, it's not just our imagination: Part of why Congress is getting less done than they ever have before is because Congress is in DC working far fewer hours and days than they used to.
We also have to give big kudos to Michael Jantze, one of our favorite cartoonists, who is attempting something few have ever even tried before. He's reviving his much-loved, nationally syndicated, daily cartoon strip 'The Norm' through social media and crowd sourced funding. His efforts appear to be paying off well, as his campaign will be bringing "The Norm back to full daily status, which we're incredibly pleased to see. [Also - Full disclosure: Multiple staff members have donated to Jantze's project. Happily.]
No matter what you're doing this weekend, or where you're at, we hope you remember: As important as politics is to us and to most of you, our readers, there's a lot more to life than just Democrats and Republicans, elections and laws.
For example, Husker football...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)