Love And Respect

Working in the media - and especially in national or international media - there's a certain mystique, a type of near-immortality we occasionally experience when we meet and talk with those who enjoy our work. In general, it isn't something members of our staff truly enjoy - though we do know people who crave it.

Like so many members of the Republican Party right now, those people who love fame are often desperate to have people like them, no matter how silly, stupid, or offensively they act. We admit - we're just as mortal as anyone else - a fact we've been reminded of heavily this week, as a handful of well-known media figures died.

From the Broadway, TV, and film actor James Gandolfini, to the intense and direct journalist Michael Hastings; from the legendary country musician Slim Whitman, to former Rolling Stone writer and CMT executive Chet Flippo, to Nebraska Public Radio music director and host Bill Stibor.

Each of these individuals were amazing people, and all of them were individuals we'd had direct contact with, or that we know some of you, our readers, had regular contact with.

For all of the TV and radio moments, and incredible journalism these members of the media provided, one of the most interesting things we noticed as we looked at this group was that each member was also like our own staffers, in that they didn't crave fame. It's incredibly obvious that each one of them simply wanted to practice their craft at the highest level, to become the best at doing what they loved.

While we'd never want to trade the creative efforts of any of those individuals, we can only imagine what kind of federal government we'd have if the men and woman in Congress - and especially in the U.S. House of Representatives - had even one-tenth the commitment to excellence that this group of recently passed media professionals held every day of their lives.

That lack of committment was blindingly evident on Thursday in the abject failure of House Speaker John Boehner to keep the extremist fanatics in his Republican caucus in-line. That was when the latest House version of the Farm Bill failed spectacularly, just before the House left for another long weekend. In short, this version of the Farm Bill died because Republican extremists insisted that poor people on food stamps needed to give up all government food support, so that massive corporate agribusiness would get to keep most of their multi-billion dollar subsidies.

As former House Speaker and current Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said after Republicans cannibalized their own bill, "It's silly. It's sad. It's juvenile. It's unprofessional. It's amateur hour." On that, we can not disagree with Congresswoman Pelosi one bit.

It's easy to see why so many efforts in Congress fail these days, on both sides of the aisle, and in all kinds of committees. Far too often our politicians today seem desperate for the kind of fame, love, and respect our five media professionals had all earned in their respective careers.

The best don't primarily crave fame or love. They just do what they do better than anyone else, like those media professionals who passed away this week.

Those individuals earned our respect.

We only wish Congress would try to do the same, for once.

Jockeying For The Keystone Battles

While there are many reasons we enjoy Paul Fell's cartoons - like today's edition with President Obama and the Keystone XL pipeline - the biggest reason is that humor can often take the edge off discussing complex powderkeg issues. Climate change and the Keystone pipeline definitely fall into that category.

We've been hearing rumors for several months now, since the President mentioned climate change in his second inaugural address, that President Obama would indeed be taking on climate change issues in his second term. As Kevin Drum noted, Obama's pick earlier this year of Gina McCarthy to head the EPA - pending Senate confirmation - was a huge clue that those rumors about the President's choice of direction indeed look to be true.

Yesterday, the New York Times published another story that gave even more credence to the idea that President Obama is indeed looking at taking on climate change by taking on big oil, big coal, and big energy in his second term, by preparing to enact new emissions limits on power plants. That story matched the speech Obama gave in Berlin on Wednesday, where he again hit the idea that if Congress would not act to curb climate change, he would.

For those people who support President Obama, and believe he truly does care about the issue of climate change, all of these are good signs that bolster their opinion of him.

There are also, however, plenty of other legitimate sources and rumors that say President Obama may just be ready to jump on board the Keystone bandwagon, and allow the pipeline to go forward - and those signs are worrying, indeed.

According to a report by Juliet Eilperin in the Washington Post last week, at a recent San Francisco area fundraiser, President Obama made some private remarks expressing how politically difficult some of the decisions on climate change may actually be to implement. The President is somewhat hamstrung on all sides right now, with a Congress unwilling or unable to accomplish anything, an economy growing far too slowly, unemployment higher than most would like, and a continually growing need for more energy in America.

You can add to the President's complicated decision on this issue the conduct of companies like Transcanada, who the President would be siding with, if he choses to authorize the pipeline.

It's not just that Transcanada has been acting like a bully lately. They've also been promising the highest safety standards if the new Keystone XL pipeline is built - while at the same time choosing to use a lower grade of oil spill detectors for that pipeline. This is also in the wake of one of North America's largest environmental disasters ever, in Northern Alberta, Canada, by a company that has done a significant amount of business for and with Transcanada.

As Greg Sargent at The Plum Line noted on Wednesday, for now, the approach President Obama appears to be taking is somewhat of a  good thing. At least he's talking about climate change, energy policy, and what steps Americans can and should take to make things better. That position alone is more than most politicians of any party are taking, and far more than virtually any CEO of almost any private corporation.

What decision President Obama makes on the pipeline though, is anyone's guess. Some are sure he will allow it. Others are still insisting he won't. We have even heard rumors that should he authorize it, there are those prepared to violently attack the construction of the new pipeline.

For now, we hope this heated battle of words remains just that, words.

We also hope the President makes the right decision on this issue.

The Naked Truth

There are times where being in the media is both exciting and terrifying, as we must keep our attention on an incredibly broad range of rapidly changing - and sometimes shocking - stories in the short term, while we continue to keep our collective focus on stories that take months or even years to see through.

For example, over the last twenty four hours, the big headlines included both the NBA and NHL finals. They also included more discussion about the NSA's spying, and writer Glenn Greenwald. The great majority of that chatter still hasn't focused on the truly important debate on security and privacy - though there have been notable exceptions like the piece in the Washington Post on Tuesday from Katrina Vanden Heuvel. The headlines have also included more wrangling on the immigration reform bill currently working it's way through the U.S. House, including some amazingly good news about the immigration reform bill from the CBO.

There was even a ridiculous story centering on Republican Congressman Michael Burgess from Texas, who appears to have some seriously warped ideas about fetuses. The U.S. House also passed a pointless attempt to limit abortion to twenty weeks or less. We suppose we should be grateful that the Republican-led House didn't generate yet another pointless story by tossing in their 38th ultimately pointless vote to try and retroactively kill President Obama's health care reform law.

Obamacare has been one of those stories that's taken years to see through, and it's still not a finished product yet.

Like a new suit that doesn't quite fit yet, the President's signature legislation of his first term still needs to have a few alterations - though not quite the fantasy redesigns some Republicans would like to see.

For all the promises to unveil a GOP alternative to Obamacare, and the internal party battles over the law,  Republicans still have yet to put together any replacement plan for health care. Most have begun to accept it's not going anywhere. As Ezra Klein's Wonktalk with Avik Roy showed on Tuesday, even some of Obamacare's greatest critics have now effectively accepted most of the main points of the law.

Whether or not anyone has truly accepted the reality that the Affordable Care Act is now etched in legal stone, you'll likely begin to see and hear a lot more about it soon. Groups like Enroll America, alongside many private insurance companies, are beginning to step up their grassroots campaigns, It's in the best interest of both the insurance companies and Americans to make sure everyone is registered for and able to take advantage of the new health care benefits available to all next year.

In states like California and Oregon, where Obamacare has been implemented as fully as possible at this stage, premiums and rates are not only dropping. Insurers are competing to drop their rates lower and faster than either the insurance companies or many health care experts expected.

Obamacare will also get another chance to become a campaign issue in 2014, though likely a very positive one. Dr. Donald Berwick, a Democrat, former Obama administration official,  and a key figure in the roll out of Obamacare announced on Tuesday the start of his 2014 campaign to become the Governor of Massachusetts.

For a government program that's been in the process of rolling out for more than two years, it may seem a little counterintuitive when we note that the naked truth about Obamacare is that its actually pretty simple to understand.

Obamacare may not fit perfectly at first for you and your family - and there are adjustments that will need to be made, both to individual plans and the system as a whole. That said, when states work WITH the Federal government, Obamacare appears to be better than the tattered old health care system Americans have been using, if and when they could afford to.

Obamacare, as it stands isn't a bad plan - And it's certainly better than the GOP's non-existent plan.