After a weekend filled with listening to the nearly incoherent babbling of either sports fans who think Tim Tebow is the second coming of Jesus, or Republican political candidates pandering, lying, and tripping over social issues like marriage equality and contraception, we're more ready than ever to get back to work today.
If you absolutely need to know who won the two GOP debates this weekend, the short answer is the same one that Republican primary voters keep pushing to the top of their wish list: not Romney. The fact is, Jon Huntsman - the only Republican candidate we see who might give President Obama some real, fair competition in the general election - did very well in New Hampshire over the weekend. Rick Santorum also made a decent showing both days, though his popularity appears to have stalled. Everyone else was hit-or-miss at best.
If you didn't have to watch the debates this weekend, and you prefer to focus on issues of real importance, one of our media colleagues homed in on a topic we agree has significantly more importance than the GOP horserace - the increasingly important topic of voter restriction efforts.
As Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald noted over the weekend, the decision to implement voter I.D. laws by some states - especially those states more heavily controlled by the regressive wing of the Republican party - is effectively a poll tax against minorities, the poor, and the young, all of whom vote significantly more often for Democrats than they do Republicans. Thankfully, in December, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder blocked a version of a voter I.D. law from that bastion of ethics, South Carolina, as discriminatory and unjust legislation.
From the embattled Republican governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, to right-wing state lawmakers in Pennsylvania, conservatives all over the United States are attempting to make it more difficult than ever for many Americans to vote in 2012. Already in Wisconsin, voting rights groups along with the ACLU have filed suit on behalf of Americans with a legitimate right to vote, including 84 year old Ruthelle Frank, who does not have a birth certificate, and never has had one.
The Brennan Center for Justice has done extensive work debunking the propaganda of the right on the nearly non-existant problem of voter fraud. Even the George W. Bush Administration, which undertook a five year investigation of the issue, said that voter fraud was not a real and significant problem in America.
Unfortunately, that didn't stop the extremists on the political right who made a focused and targeted effort last year to restrict voting rights in states across the country ahead of the 2012 elections. More and similar voter restriction laws are being proposed by Republicans nationwide as state legislatures begin to reconvene this year. Sadly, many Americans - including those most likely to have their constitutional right to vote blocked by these new laws - are also unlikely to know that they may have effectively lost that right to vote last year.
We applaud the efforts that voter rights groups like the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty and the ACLU are undertaking on behalf of the poor, minorities, young, and old, to strike down the laws panicked Republicans have set in place to try and unfairly tilt the elections in their favor. Apparently, the only way the twisted party elite in the GOP believe they can win in 2012 is by cheating.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Friday, January 6, 2012
Friday Funday: Reaching For The Goal
From a football and movie filled New Year's Day, to a Husker football game where our favorite team may have actually won something better than a trophy, to a major political event in a neighboring state, to our President setting the tone for work in Washington, DC this year, it was anything but a short week for us. If the first week of 2012 is supposed to set the tone for the rest of the year, we hope that everyone is ready for the most intense twelve months in recent memory.
To begin the week, our favorite college football team lost their bowl game this year. Of course, we would have preferred a different outcome. However, after talking with some of our media contacts around the country, we think the Husker football team may have earned something more than a trophy this week.
More than once this past week, the topic of the bowl game, the on-field fight, and the post game behavior of the opposing team came up in conversations with our colleagues. Each time, the person we were speaking with would give their take on the game and note how classless South Carolina was in letting their ejected player become the game's MVP. Then, they would remark on how classy Nebraska Head Coach Bo Pelini was in speaking about the Gamecocks (compared to how Gamecocks fans and players were acting), and how stern Pelini was with disciplining his own player. Nearly everyone we talked to used words like "classy," respectful," and "sportsmanship" when privately describing the performance of our favorite college football team in that tough moment – a moment that made us proud of being Nebraskans.
We were proud of our friends in Iowa too, even our Republican friends, this week. If anything, the Iowa GOP Caucus this year still proved two of our favorite axioms about American government – that those who show up and participate can make a difference, and that almost anything is possible.
We couldn't have been more proud of President Obama this week either, for following through with actions on what some thought was merely a campaign catch phrase for 2012. "We can't wait," is what the President has been saying, and this week, he followed through on that, appointing the first head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Richard Cordray, along with three new members of the National Labor Relations Board.
The facts are clear: as an arm of the government, whether or not a policeman or military service member agrees with the rules and laws they have a sworn duty to uphold and enforce, they do their duties, fulfill their roles, and keep the system moving.
Sadly, many Congressional Republicans have, for far too long, acted like they were better than our servicemembers and police personnel, doing the DC equivalent of crossing their arms and stamping their feet, and impeding ALL progress, simply because they didn't want to enforce the law that created the CFPB - a law that some of them supported.
That the President finally treated the obstructionist Congressional Republicans like the petulant children they've been imitating has been something a long, long time in coming. We can only hope that the GOP members of Congress now decide to act like grownups the rest of the year - though we're not willing to hold our breath they will do so.
The best news from this week? The jobs numbers are up in the U.S., while the jobless numbers are down substantially, and unemployment has continued it's decline, a trend we vigorously hope continues throughout the rest of this year.
As you can see, even while we felt like we were being pulled in all directions this week, there were still some moments that make us think that 2012 may actually end up being a very positive year. It won't be easy - but as we've said for years, anything worth getting is worth working for. Some things are especially worth reaching for.
In the spirit of one of our more well-known media colleagues, congratulations on getting through another week of this stuff.
To begin the week, our favorite college football team lost their bowl game this year. Of course, we would have preferred a different outcome. However, after talking with some of our media contacts around the country, we think the Husker football team may have earned something more than a trophy this week.
More than once this past week, the topic of the bowl game, the on-field fight, and the post game behavior of the opposing team came up in conversations with our colleagues. Each time, the person we were speaking with would give their take on the game and note how classless South Carolina was in letting their ejected player become the game's MVP. Then, they would remark on how classy Nebraska Head Coach Bo Pelini was in speaking about the Gamecocks (compared to how Gamecocks fans and players were acting), and how stern Pelini was with disciplining his own player. Nearly everyone we talked to used words like "classy," respectful," and "sportsmanship" when privately describing the performance of our favorite college football team in that tough moment – a moment that made us proud of being Nebraskans.
We were proud of our friends in Iowa too, even our Republican friends, this week. If anything, the Iowa GOP Caucus this year still proved two of our favorite axioms about American government – that those who show up and participate can make a difference, and that almost anything is possible.
We couldn't have been more proud of President Obama this week either, for following through with actions on what some thought was merely a campaign catch phrase for 2012. "We can't wait," is what the President has been saying, and this week, he followed through on that, appointing the first head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Richard Cordray, along with three new members of the National Labor Relations Board.
The facts are clear: as an arm of the government, whether or not a policeman or military service member agrees with the rules and laws they have a sworn duty to uphold and enforce, they do their duties, fulfill their roles, and keep the system moving.
Sadly, many Congressional Republicans have, for far too long, acted like they were better than our servicemembers and police personnel, doing the DC equivalent of crossing their arms and stamping their feet, and impeding ALL progress, simply because they didn't want to enforce the law that created the CFPB - a law that some of them supported.
That the President finally treated the obstructionist Congressional Republicans like the petulant children they've been imitating has been something a long, long time in coming. We can only hope that the GOP members of Congress now decide to act like grownups the rest of the year - though we're not willing to hold our breath they will do so.
The best news from this week? The jobs numbers are up in the U.S., while the jobless numbers are down substantially, and unemployment has continued it's decline, a trend we vigorously hope continues throughout the rest of this year.
As you can see, even while we felt like we were being pulled in all directions this week, there were still some moments that make us think that 2012 may actually end up being a very positive year. It won't be easy - but as we've said for years, anything worth getting is worth working for. Some things are especially worth reaching for.
In the spirit of one of our more well-known media colleagues, congratulations on getting through another week of this stuff.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
While We Were Out...
As we mentioned in the first new commentary of 2012, a major focus for us in this new year is that we are striving to be be a better example of a solid media and communications outlet.
Some of the energy behind that goal was generated from a couple of messages we received over our recent holiday break, worrying that we might not return to production in the new year. It seems our publication is not the only media outlet that suffered from a similar lack of communication with its audience recently.
There's no need to worry about our collective sanity, as Paul is certain to continue drawing cartoons, and we're not about to stop writing and aggregating high-quality news and opinion content anytime soon. It frankly makes us chuckle a bit at how small actions some people make, and some stories that readers may have missed while we were away, can occasionally get blown out of proportion.
Take, for example, the story surrounding the U.S. Senator from Nebraska, Ben Nelson, that happened over the holiday break.
In case you missed it, Senator Nelson has decided NOT to run for re-election this year, 2012 - which leaves Nebraska Democrats shaking in their political shoes, and Nebraska Republicans gearing up for open war with each other.
We know exactly how the GOP side of the race is likely to unfold. It already began last year, with some offensive comments by leading Republican candidate and Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, and continued with true stories - leaked in a misleading way - about Bruning, likely leaked by one of the other Republican candidates.
We doubt the Republican contest for the nomination will get any less crazy in 2012. Just yesterday, state senator Deb Fischer, one of the many candidates for the GOP nomination, introduced legislation to - no surprise - limit the ability of Nebraska cities and towns in need of revenue to charge taxes to pay their bills. Meanwhile, some Republicans are still begging current Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman to enter the race and grab the nomination - which he would likely get, if he chose to run. At this point, it appears he may not want to declare for the Senate race.
On the Republican side, the problem is that the GOP is really at least five separate parties these days, who are all pretty sick of one another: the corporatists, the libertarians, the "religious" right, the Tea Party, and the real Republicans - sane, old-fashioned, moderate folks. Any candidate that tries to appeal to all five of those groups is going to have to try a series of crazy stunts and contortions that not even Cirque Du Soleil could achieve.
On the Democratic side, the divisions are less well-known than on the Republican side - but they are just as intense. In short, there are the passive Democrats, and there are the progressive Democrats. The passive Democrats would prefer to make nice with modern Republicans - who frankly would like to see the Dems elliminated from all Nebraska politics. So far, the passive M.O. of state Democratic Party leaders has basically emptied the top political offices of Democratic representation for Nebraskans.
The progressive Democrats are nominally led by Jane Kleeb, political activist, school board member, and wife of former Nebraska U.S. Senate candidate Scott Kleeb. To say that Jane is assertive and direct at times would be understating things. However, she might really shake up the race for U.S. Senate, if she were to run for the nomination, which could be a very good thing.Then again, that's exactly what many in the NDP seem to be afraid of.
Regardless of who runs and who wins, we have no intention of laying down our pencils, keyboards, mice, and cartooning tools any time soon.
After all - we're not running for the open U.S. Senate seat from Nebraska. That would be crazy.
Some of the energy behind that goal was generated from a couple of messages we received over our recent holiday break, worrying that we might not return to production in the new year. It seems our publication is not the only media outlet that suffered from a similar lack of communication with its audience recently.
There's no need to worry about our collective sanity, as Paul is certain to continue drawing cartoons, and we're not about to stop writing and aggregating high-quality news and opinion content anytime soon. It frankly makes us chuckle a bit at how small actions some people make, and some stories that readers may have missed while we were away, can occasionally get blown out of proportion.
Take, for example, the story surrounding the U.S. Senator from Nebraska, Ben Nelson, that happened over the holiday break.
In case you missed it, Senator Nelson has decided NOT to run for re-election this year, 2012 - which leaves Nebraska Democrats shaking in their political shoes, and Nebraska Republicans gearing up for open war with each other.
We know exactly how the GOP side of the race is likely to unfold. It already began last year, with some offensive comments by leading Republican candidate and Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, and continued with true stories - leaked in a misleading way - about Bruning, likely leaked by one of the other Republican candidates.
We doubt the Republican contest for the nomination will get any less crazy in 2012. Just yesterday, state senator Deb Fischer, one of the many candidates for the GOP nomination, introduced legislation to - no surprise - limit the ability of Nebraska cities and towns in need of revenue to charge taxes to pay their bills. Meanwhile, some Republicans are still begging current Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman to enter the race and grab the nomination - which he would likely get, if he chose to run. At this point, it appears he may not want to declare for the Senate race.
On the Republican side, the problem is that the GOP is really at least five separate parties these days, who are all pretty sick of one another: the corporatists, the libertarians, the "religious" right, the Tea Party, and the real Republicans - sane, old-fashioned, moderate folks. Any candidate that tries to appeal to all five of those groups is going to have to try a series of crazy stunts and contortions that not even Cirque Du Soleil could achieve.
On the Democratic side, the divisions are less well-known than on the Republican side - but they are just as intense. In short, there are the passive Democrats, and there are the progressive Democrats. The passive Democrats would prefer to make nice with modern Republicans - who frankly would like to see the Dems elliminated from all Nebraska politics. So far, the passive M.O. of state Democratic Party leaders has basically emptied the top political offices of Democratic representation for Nebraskans.
The progressive Democrats are nominally led by Jane Kleeb, political activist, school board member, and wife of former Nebraska U.S. Senate candidate Scott Kleeb. To say that Jane is assertive and direct at times would be understating things. However, she might really shake up the race for U.S. Senate, if she were to run for the nomination, which could be a very good thing.Then again, that's exactly what many in the NDP seem to be afraid of.
Regardless of who runs and who wins, we have no intention of laying down our pencils, keyboards, mice, and cartooning tools any time soon.
After all - we're not running for the open U.S. Senate seat from Nebraska. That would be crazy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)