As we get ready to start our annual holiday break Tuesday afternoon, like many media organizations, we've been trying to look back at the past year.
It's been a record year for Congress, though not in a good way. As Steve Benen pointed out clearly on Friday, the 113th Congress in the first half of its session, passed the least number of bills since the end of World War II. As Benen also noted, the meager few bills they passed weren't good.
In cae you'd forgotten Congress - specifically, the Republicans in Congress, led by their extremist tea party faction - also shut down the federal government this year, while almost blowing up the world's economy by not raising the debt ceiling. Republican action not only didn't achieve their initial stated goal, to stop the implementation of Obamacare, but it also ended up costing the government - meaning taxpayers - $24 billion while hurting the economy.
Meanwhile, bills that Congress has routinely passed during other highly partisan sessions, like the Farm & Food bill, never got approved by both chambers before Senators and Congresspersons high-tailed it out of DC. The long-term unemployment extension bill also never got passed. That means instead of the bare minimum of assistance, millions of unemployed Americans are getting a lump of BS and and a brush-off from Congress at Christmas that smacks of Ebenezer Scrooge.
As Timothy Egan wrote in the New York Times over the weekend, this misguided treatment of America's poor, mostly by Republicans, has - just like their pointless shutdown, and empty debt ceiling threats - proven only their arrogance, ignorance, hypocrisy, and smallness of spirit.
In short, instead of working together to make America and the world a better place, Congressional Republicans this year have made America a meaner, less productive, less worthwhile place to live and do business. What's worse is that most of those members of Congress have also screwed over veterans, the poor, and anyone they don't agree with, in exchange for their own perceived political benefit.
In truth, most Republicans in Congress - and not a few Democrats - reminded us this year of a young woman who lost her job over the weekend.
Justine Sacco was, up until this weekend, the senior director of communications at corporate media giant IAC. As she boarded a plane to South Africa, she tweeted out a vile disgusting message that would have made any ignorant racist proud. "Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!" read Sacco's comment. As she travelled the Atlantic, on a flight without wireless internet, she obviously was not working much, enjoying her position of privilege. The internet and Twitter, however, were both working very well, and by the time Sacco landed in South Africa, her tweet had gone viral and she was without a job.
No matter what Ms. Sacco said in her apology, the cruelty and arrogance of her initial action spoke volumes - both about her own attitude of entitlement and about how some Americans see themselves in relation to the rest of the world.
We hope that in 2014, Americans remember those members of Congress in 2013 whose actions mirrored those of Ms. Sacco. Hopefully, Americans will follow the same course of action with those selfish Congressmembers as Ms. Sacco's now-former employer did with her.
Of course, it's unlikely that next Christmas, when the tables are reversed, that we will leave a lump of metaphorical coal in the stockings of those soon-to-be former members of Congress without legitimate job prospects, as they're doing to the unemployed this year.
After all, some of us really do know the meaning of the season - generosity, forgiveness, peace, and joy.
Monday, December 23, 2013
Friday, December 20, 2013
Missing From The List
As Republicans in the Senate prepare to skip town, before all their work is done, and join the millions of Americans already on holiday break, we've also begun preparing for own own holiday break next week. Unlike at many workplaces, however, we're all still putting in full days - even our editor Amy, who is nearly nine months pregnant.
That kind of tenacious work ethic obviously isn't the norm at every media organization.
We say "obviously" because of what we see every day. We see the hundreds of stories that race around the media daily, and we cultivate them for you in the dozens of links in our daily extended edition. If you think the list of links we give you is extensive, you should see the massive lists of links we collect daily that don't make it into our final edition.
That kind of thorough curation gives our staff a particular ability to look around the media industry and tell when people are focusing on a truly important story - like Medicaid expansion efforts in our home state of Nebraska - or when our media colleagues are blowing up a ridiculous piece of trash as a huge story because they'd rather not actually perform real journalism that day.
You can call us media Grinches if you'd like - and we're certain Beltway whiners like Chris Cilizza will. That name calling still won't change a simple fact: News doesn't care that journalists, like most Americans at this time of year, would rather give a half-effort at work because their minds are already on vacation.
The perfect example of this kind of massive yet lazy media distraction is the "Duck Dynasty" incident sucking up most the media's attention right now.
In case you'd missed it, an ignorant, Southern redneck member of the "reality show" called "Duck Dynasty" gave an ignorant, bigoted, redneck interview to GQ, that just hit the media this week. A&E, the channel that presents the show, decided to suspend the offending member for the indefinite future. Not surprisingly, the ignorant rednecks that the GOP panders to these days immediately saw the suspension as a personal attack from 'the lib'rul meedia' on their way of life. That, of course, led the pandering hypocrites in the GOP to immediately condemn A&E, and claim that the cable channel was violating the First Amendment right of Republicans' favorite redneck to say whatever he wanted, yet reap no repercussions from his poorly chosen words.
The irony that these same idiots recently pushed MSNBC to ask for the resignation of noted journalist Martin Bashir, after Bashir said something on TV that offended them, continues to escape these people.
The fact that there are also a host of FAR more important stories getting pushed out of the media spotlight by their latest stunt hasn't likely even occurred to the idiots fighting the 'Duck Dynasty' wars.
For example, Obamacare continues to prove its becoming a massive success every day. Democrats around the nation are also going to be making a massive media push over the holiday break to try to get Congress to extend unemployment insurance for the long-term unemployed, who Congress screwed over at the end of this year.
There are stories about Iran's temporary peace deal with the West, the massive credit card breach at Target stores, same sex marriage becoming legal in New Mexico, and even the Christmas story of President Obama commuting the draconian drug sentences of eight Americans who'd already served more than enough time.
Most of those stories though, were missing from the lists of many of our lazier colleagues in the media today. Thankfully, as we noted previously, we'll have all of those stories and more in our expanded edition later this afternoon.
After all, some of us in the media are still putting in full work days.
That kind of tenacious work ethic obviously isn't the norm at every media organization.
We say "obviously" because of what we see every day. We see the hundreds of stories that race around the media daily, and we cultivate them for you in the dozens of links in our daily extended edition. If you think the list of links we give you is extensive, you should see the massive lists of links we collect daily that don't make it into our final edition.
That kind of thorough curation gives our staff a particular ability to look around the media industry and tell when people are focusing on a truly important story - like Medicaid expansion efforts in our home state of Nebraska - or when our media colleagues are blowing up a ridiculous piece of trash as a huge story because they'd rather not actually perform real journalism that day.
You can call us media Grinches if you'd like - and we're certain Beltway whiners like Chris Cilizza will. That name calling still won't change a simple fact: News doesn't care that journalists, like most Americans at this time of year, would rather give a half-effort at work because their minds are already on vacation.
The perfect example of this kind of massive yet lazy media distraction is the "Duck Dynasty" incident sucking up most the media's attention right now.
In case you'd missed it, an ignorant, Southern redneck member of the "reality show" called "Duck Dynasty" gave an ignorant, bigoted, redneck interview to GQ, that just hit the media this week. A&E, the channel that presents the show, decided to suspend the offending member for the indefinite future. Not surprisingly, the ignorant rednecks that the GOP panders to these days immediately saw the suspension as a personal attack from 'the lib'rul meedia' on their way of life. That, of course, led the pandering hypocrites in the GOP to immediately condemn A&E, and claim that the cable channel was violating the First Amendment right of Republicans' favorite redneck to say whatever he wanted, yet reap no repercussions from his poorly chosen words.
The irony that these same idiots recently pushed MSNBC to ask for the resignation of noted journalist Martin Bashir, after Bashir said something on TV that offended them, continues to escape these people.
The fact that there are also a host of FAR more important stories getting pushed out of the media spotlight by their latest stunt hasn't likely even occurred to the idiots fighting the 'Duck Dynasty' wars.
For example, Obamacare continues to prove its becoming a massive success every day. Democrats around the nation are also going to be making a massive media push over the holiday break to try to get Congress to extend unemployment insurance for the long-term unemployed, who Congress screwed over at the end of this year.
There are stories about Iran's temporary peace deal with the West, the massive credit card breach at Target stores, same sex marriage becoming legal in New Mexico, and even the Christmas story of President Obama commuting the draconian drug sentences of eight Americans who'd already served more than enough time.
Most of those stories though, were missing from the lists of many of our lazier colleagues in the media today. Thankfully, as we noted previously, we'll have all of those stories and more in our expanded edition later this afternoon.
After all, some of us in the media are still putting in full work days.
Thursday, December 19, 2013
No Time For Rewards
As almost everyone in the political media predicted - including us - the Senate passed a stinker of a budget bill Wednesday afternoon and promptly sent it to President Obama to be signed.
Outdoing even our prediction on Wednesday and before the President had even signed the bill, both politicians and members of the media were already congratulating each other on cable TV on Wednesday afternoon, for finally accomplishing a budget bill. As we'd stated bluntly early Wednesday morning, and Ezra Klein reiterated Wednesday afternoon, just because Democrats and Republicans were able to come to a deal, that isn't necessarily a good thing.
For millions of retired service members, the budget bill really puts the screws to them - not to mention the millions of Americans who are about to get their long-term unemployment insurance cut off as a "gift" from Congress, since neither side could come to an agreement on that issue.
To make things worse for both the unemployed and the retired service members that the budget bill screws over, since the unemployment rate has fallen to 7% - a good thing - the Fed decided to follow through with their planned tapering off of stimulus funds over the next few months. That action, in the short term, will likely increase interest rates for everyone in America just a bit next year.
In short, this is no time for applause or rewards, at least for Congress, regardless of what some of our colleagues are saying.
Then again, this budget issue isn't the only topic our media colleagues are getting wrong right now.
Look at all the year-end writeups bemoaning President Obama's fifth year in office. Yet as both Steve Benen and Jamelle Bouie pointed out, all the doomsaying about the President's year is incredibly exaggerated and disproportionate - and the claims of disaster certainly don't reflect what's likely to happen in Obama's next three years.
Just look at Obamacare. A few short weeks ago, many pundits and Republican politicians were insisting the new health insurance program was going to fail in spectacular fashion. Yet patients are now pouring onto the exchange in ever-increasing and record numbers, and the Affordable Care Act looks more likely than ever to succeed.
Consider the 2014 Senate race too. What looked to some Republicans like a healthy chance to grab control from the Democrats, now appears to be a pipe dream, at best. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell looks to be in serious political trouble heading into his re-election campaign. What's worse for Republicans, President Obama is going to nominate Senator Max Baucus to become the Ambassador to China, effective almost immediately. That means the Democratic governor of Montana will appoint a replacement for Baucus - likely a Democrat - who could then run for that same seat as an incumbent, who will have a significant advantage over any Republican challenger.
If it seems to you like the political races and debates that have happened this year didn't turn out in any way like you thought they would, you're not the only one, on either side of the aisle.
That, in short, is our point today.
The year rarely ends the way anyone thought it would at the beginning. That's why politicians run for office and why bills are debated in Congress. That's also why athletes and teams compete like they do.
While many people are taking vacations, or even slacking off at work just a bit, we hope the best our colleagues, both in politics and media, take a lesson from Congress, on what not to do.
This is no time for rewards. Right now is time to prepare for the next round.
Outdoing even our prediction on Wednesday and before the President had even signed the bill, both politicians and members of the media were already congratulating each other on cable TV on Wednesday afternoon, for finally accomplishing a budget bill. As we'd stated bluntly early Wednesday morning, and Ezra Klein reiterated Wednesday afternoon, just because Democrats and Republicans were able to come to a deal, that isn't necessarily a good thing.
For millions of retired service members, the budget bill really puts the screws to them - not to mention the millions of Americans who are about to get their long-term unemployment insurance cut off as a "gift" from Congress, since neither side could come to an agreement on that issue.
To make things worse for both the unemployed and the retired service members that the budget bill screws over, since the unemployment rate has fallen to 7% - a good thing - the Fed decided to follow through with their planned tapering off of stimulus funds over the next few months. That action, in the short term, will likely increase interest rates for everyone in America just a bit next year.
In short, this is no time for applause or rewards, at least for Congress, regardless of what some of our colleagues are saying.
Then again, this budget issue isn't the only topic our media colleagues are getting wrong right now.
Look at all the year-end writeups bemoaning President Obama's fifth year in office. Yet as both Steve Benen and Jamelle Bouie pointed out, all the doomsaying about the President's year is incredibly exaggerated and disproportionate - and the claims of disaster certainly don't reflect what's likely to happen in Obama's next three years.
Just look at Obamacare. A few short weeks ago, many pundits and Republican politicians were insisting the new health insurance program was going to fail in spectacular fashion. Yet patients are now pouring onto the exchange in ever-increasing and record numbers, and the Affordable Care Act looks more likely than ever to succeed.
Consider the 2014 Senate race too. What looked to some Republicans like a healthy chance to grab control from the Democrats, now appears to be a pipe dream, at best. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell looks to be in serious political trouble heading into his re-election campaign. What's worse for Republicans, President Obama is going to nominate Senator Max Baucus to become the Ambassador to China, effective almost immediately. That means the Democratic governor of Montana will appoint a replacement for Baucus - likely a Democrat - who could then run for that same seat as an incumbent, who will have a significant advantage over any Republican challenger.
If it seems to you like the political races and debates that have happened this year didn't turn out in any way like you thought they would, you're not the only one, on either side of the aisle.
That, in short, is our point today.
The year rarely ends the way anyone thought it would at the beginning. That's why politicians run for office and why bills are debated in Congress. That's also why athletes and teams compete like they do.
While many people are taking vacations, or even slacking off at work just a bit, we hope the best our colleagues, both in politics and media, take a lesson from Congress, on what not to do.
This is no time for rewards. Right now is time to prepare for the next round.
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