As we look around the world right now, from Wisconsin to the Middle East, and even into Asia, it seems as though the internet is - in part - finally beginning to meet its potential as a force to help oppressed people get their messages out, and to demand just treatment.
Individuals can now reach out and come together with other like-minded people from anywhere. They can take on the forces of despots like those in the Middle East, or wannabe despots like certain Governors here in the U.S.
Sadly, the one force that technology still seems powerless against is that of extreme self introspection - or what we call too much navel gazing.
As we put this commentary together, we look at news sources from all over the world. That includes newspapers from the U.S. like the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the LA Times and more. We also look at some of the more influential overseas sources like the BBC and Al Jazeera English, as well as assorted other sources. We even dig into more hardcore news sources like McClatchy, and more reliable professional writers from blogs like The Huffington Post.
Today, as we look at each of their front pages, online and off, the difference between what the world is talking about and what passes for news in America are very stark - and somewhat sad.
Sure - virtually everyone has at least one story above the fold about what's going on in the Middle East, and most are talking about Libya today. However, to a significant degree, many news sources in America have minimized their coverage of things that are happening beyond U.S. borders that can and do affect us all.
For example, Fox News and some of the right wing TV and radio sources were screaming over the last few days about Iranian Navy ships transiting the Suez Canal on their way to Syria.
Do we know if those ships made it through? Did anything remarkable happen with their passage? If it didn't, why did the price of crude oil shoot up nearly ten percent yesterday?
If you're checking most American news sources, you'll likely have to dig, either into the B, C, or D sections, or several clicks down online, if you want to find the answer. Many of them simply won't have complete information for you.
They'll tell you the score of Podunk State versus Georgetown - and admittedly, we appreciate that, as there is a Georgetown grad among us. They'll also give you dating tips, and tell you what people in America are eating, reading, watching, and listening to. They'll always be willing to share the latest political rumors, and what childish - and usually pointless - slurs the major political parties are throwing around.
What they won't often tell you, unfortunately, is stuff that is truly news.
That's the part that scares us most - and scares the despots in the Middle East and elsewhere too.
Their people are beginning to smell the heady scent of freedom. Their media is growing, and reporting real news.
The nightmare question for Americans is this: why isn't our news media doing the same thing?
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Unwise Moves Cut Both Ways
While both houses of Congress are technically off for another week, their latest example of being disconnected from constituents is a cut above (or below) their usual antics. This past weekend, the GOP-led House made sure to take another few whacks at everyone who isn't counted as among the top two percent of this nation's richest folk - and then they went on vacation.
Based on the actions of previous Republican Congresses, it wasn't really a surprise to any of us that the current GOP-led House passed their latest attempt at a Continuing Resolution (C.R.) at 4:40AM this past Saturday morning.
Sadly, it also didn't surprise us much that Republicans are sending the Senate a budget bill that will never make it through final passage.
The braggadocio, trash talk, and willful ignorance of more important issues we're seeing coming from some - but not all - in the Republican Party on budget issues is very reminiscent of the actions of a cornered bully. Persons like this, in our collective experience, will often strike out at anyone - including women, children, and the elderly - when forced to face up to the ugly reality and uncomfortable effects of their actions.
The Republican-led House followed that behavioral example in submitting their Continuing Resolution, which included gutting funding for PBS, killing funding for NPR, attempting to defund the health care insurance reform bill, hacking away at portions of the E.P.A., and stripping non-abortion funding of family planning clinics (including funding for Planned Parenthood).
We pointedly mention that not all Republicans seem entirely on board with all of these actions because some Congressional Republicans have displayed some true budgetary wisdom recently.
Most of us proudly cheered the vote of many Congressional Republicans last week who joined the President, the Secretary of Defense, and virtually every Democratic member of both chambers when they voted to kill the unnecessary second military jet engine funding. It was a wise and sane cut, one that the Speaker of the House, Republican leader John Boehner, was not truly in favor of. Unfortunately, that kind of sensible bipartisan budget cutting wisdom is rare.
The end result of all this random cutting is that the people who can least afford to be cut off at the knees - the middle class and the poor - appear to once again be the targets of the current Republican Congressional leadership.
Meanwhile, the wealthiest two percent of Americans and the corporations those wealthy folks control were asked to sacrifice little if anything.
We say this not with irony, but with concern for those who seem to be turning a purposeful blind eye to reality: there have been many other governments throughout history who have also attempted to pile significant and unwise cuts on the majority of their citizens at inappropriate times.
As the French revolutionaries showed Marie Antoinette and King Louis, and more recently, as the Egyptian people showed Hosni Mubarak, those kinds of cuts can work both ways.
Before the House released this funding bill, many people (including us) warned Congressional Republican leaders, more than once, to think very carefully before they swung their budget axes. The cuts the Republican leadership put into their bill would result in even more financial penalties that would test the pain resistance of the middle class, if they were ever enacted - and the Republican leadership knows this.
Yet they passed their slashed and cut version of the Continuing Resolution funding bill anyway.
Apparently, those frenzied Republicans must have also cut off their own ears before they heard our warnings.
Based on the actions of previous Republican Congresses, it wasn't really a surprise to any of us that the current GOP-led House passed their latest attempt at a Continuing Resolution (C.R.) at 4:40AM this past Saturday morning.
Sadly, it also didn't surprise us much that Republicans are sending the Senate a budget bill that will never make it through final passage.
The braggadocio, trash talk, and willful ignorance of more important issues we're seeing coming from some - but not all - in the Republican Party on budget issues is very reminiscent of the actions of a cornered bully. Persons like this, in our collective experience, will often strike out at anyone - including women, children, and the elderly - when forced to face up to the ugly reality and uncomfortable effects of their actions.
The Republican-led House followed that behavioral example in submitting their Continuing Resolution, which included gutting funding for PBS, killing funding for NPR, attempting to defund the health care insurance reform bill, hacking away at portions of the E.P.A., and stripping non-abortion funding of family planning clinics (including funding for Planned Parenthood).
We pointedly mention that not all Republicans seem entirely on board with all of these actions because some Congressional Republicans have displayed some true budgetary wisdom recently.
Most of us proudly cheered the vote of many Congressional Republicans last week who joined the President, the Secretary of Defense, and virtually every Democratic member of both chambers when they voted to kill the unnecessary second military jet engine funding. It was a wise and sane cut, one that the Speaker of the House, Republican leader John Boehner, was not truly in favor of. Unfortunately, that kind of sensible bipartisan budget cutting wisdom is rare.
The end result of all this random cutting is that the people who can least afford to be cut off at the knees - the middle class and the poor - appear to once again be the targets of the current Republican Congressional leadership.
Meanwhile, the wealthiest two percent of Americans and the corporations those wealthy folks control were asked to sacrifice little if anything.
We say this not with irony, but with concern for those who seem to be turning a purposeful blind eye to reality: there have been many other governments throughout history who have also attempted to pile significant and unwise cuts on the majority of their citizens at inappropriate times.
As the French revolutionaries showed Marie Antoinette and King Louis, and more recently, as the Egyptian people showed Hosni Mubarak, those kinds of cuts can work both ways.
Before the House released this funding bill, many people (including us) warned Congressional Republican leaders, more than once, to think very carefully before they swung their budget axes. The cuts the Republican leadership put into their bill would result in even more financial penalties that would test the pain resistance of the middle class, if they were ever enacted - and the Republican leadership knows this.
Yet they passed their slashed and cut version of the Continuing Resolution funding bill anyway.
Apparently, those frenzied Republicans must have also cut off their own ears before they heard our warnings.
Monday, February 21, 2011
The Stakes Get Even Higher
While today may be a federal holiday we're still working away. Unfortunately, in Wisconsin, it doesn't look like they'll be working anytime soon.
In case you haven't heard, the Middle East isn't the only place where unrest is rocking political and social stability. The unrest continues in Wisconsin - and strangely enough, in the Badger State, much like in many Middle Eastern countries, the reason for the work stoppage boils down to a small group of people who have an inflated sense of entitlement.
Specifically, the governor of Wisconsin remains defiant in the face of overwhelming protests against his draconian - and unconstitutional - attack on labor.
However, we feel it is important to point out that not every state-level Republican in Wisconsin agrees with the governor.
In fact, over the weekend, Wisconsin Senate Republicans came up with a compromise plan of their own. While their plan is still extremely flawed and unacceptable due to the elimination of collective bargaining rights of many state workers, it is at least a compromise, which is far more than their arrogant governor is willing to allow. The unions have already publicly said - even before the governor began his current line of attack - that they are willing to work to change their agreements in order to help their state's budget issues.
We have said it in these pages for several years now and will continue to say it likely until we are all dead and gone: the soul of effective government is compromise.
Governors - any governor of any American state - are NOT dictators. They do not EVER have the right to say, "This is what I want to happen. This is what we'll do - period." Governors have both rights AND responsibilities. Dictating what will occur without allowing for debate falls into neither of those categories.
Every governor - including the current delusional one in Wisconsin - has the responsibility of working for the best interests of ALL people in the state, INCLUDING union members. They, as governors, may disagree with unions. That has nothing to do with their obligation to protect the interests of the people, which in this case means standing with the unions.
Taking away the rights of collective bargaining is NOT in the best interests of union members or the citizens of the state of Wisconsin.
Are unions flawed? Yes. So are government structures and corporations. If we're going to agree to eliminate one, we need to be willing to eliminate them all.
However, that is not the most appropriate action.
The correct action in all three cases is to work to improve each - unions, corporations, and governments - while eliminating the worst parts of each.
The key is to keep working.
The lazy thing to do is to dictate to everyone what will happen - and to pompously expect them to obey.
In case you haven't heard, the Middle East isn't the only place where unrest is rocking political and social stability. The unrest continues in Wisconsin - and strangely enough, in the Badger State, much like in many Middle Eastern countries, the reason for the work stoppage boils down to a small group of people who have an inflated sense of entitlement.
Specifically, the governor of Wisconsin remains defiant in the face of overwhelming protests against his draconian - and unconstitutional - attack on labor.
However, we feel it is important to point out that not every state-level Republican in Wisconsin agrees with the governor.
In fact, over the weekend, Wisconsin Senate Republicans came up with a compromise plan of their own. While their plan is still extremely flawed and unacceptable due to the elimination of collective bargaining rights of many state workers, it is at least a compromise, which is far more than their arrogant governor is willing to allow. The unions have already publicly said - even before the governor began his current line of attack - that they are willing to work to change their agreements in order to help their state's budget issues.
We have said it in these pages for several years now and will continue to say it likely until we are all dead and gone: the soul of effective government is compromise.
Governors - any governor of any American state - are NOT dictators. They do not EVER have the right to say, "This is what I want to happen. This is what we'll do - period." Governors have both rights AND responsibilities. Dictating what will occur without allowing for debate falls into neither of those categories.
Every governor - including the current delusional one in Wisconsin - has the responsibility of working for the best interests of ALL people in the state, INCLUDING union members. They, as governors, may disagree with unions. That has nothing to do with their obligation to protect the interests of the people, which in this case means standing with the unions.
Taking away the rights of collective bargaining is NOT in the best interests of union members or the citizens of the state of Wisconsin.
Are unions flawed? Yes. So are government structures and corporations. If we're going to agree to eliminate one, we need to be willing to eliminate them all.
However, that is not the most appropriate action.
The correct action in all three cases is to work to improve each - unions, corporations, and governments - while eliminating the worst parts of each.
The key is to keep working.
The lazy thing to do is to dictate to everyone what will happen - and to pompously expect them to obey.
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