Newscoma

Yesterday was a very odd day and I own it. It was one where I couldn’t breathe trying to make sense of some things that have happened over the past couple of weeks and how things had snowballed. This might get a little personal, so if that’s not your thing, look at this picture of a skunk on a leash.

After awhile, I thought that I was, to put a personal spin on it, grieving. Grief is a funny thing. Sometimes it just shows up, gives you an asswhupping and then you have to heal from an emotional beating. I admit, I froze up yesterday like a statue.

Rex and The Vol Abroad write about being positive and I think that’s excellent. We don’t need to be frozen, as Rex writes. And this post by Christopher Penn is a must read.

Now, let me explain my worries as my grief will make more sense. About eight years ago I had a medical emergency that tapped every bit of my savings and I spent five days in ICU (it’s something I don’t want to get into, quite frankly.) Two years ago, I had major surgery and what little savings I had built up were gone. Again.

That’s neither here nor there really, but I’ve spent the best part of eight years playing catch up. I had health insurance, campers, but the bills were overwhelming.

There are people like me who are panicking a bit, but as an optimist, I think I’m going to be all right. However, I’m not alone. There are thousands of people like myself that made sound business decisions that were annihilated due to unexpected emergencies. And what happened in our government in the last few weeks is overwhelming. I heard yesterday that the Domestic Violence Program that I spent thousands of hours trying to secure here is going to shut it’s doors. I got on the phone, called people and am trying to assist the best that I can. I grieve the loss of that program not because of my involvement, but because people need it.

Because that’s just life.

This isn’t a geographical issue, it’s a just a reality. Sometimes folks get bad breaks. I have had it MUCH luckier than other people I know and for that I’m grateful.

And that’s where the grief comes in.  But grief is fleeting.

For me, I’m looking, as Aunt B said so sweetly in an email to me, to get into the lifeboat to escape the sinking ship and that’s really scary. I love Hoots, but I also know that I’m up against a wall.

But, I’m the woman that says do something every day that scares you and I haven’t changed my mind on that one.

So I’m looking to blog against despair as The Vol Abroad says.

I’ve always thought that good things come out of bad ones, but you have to get through the murky fog to see the sun.

And that’s all right too.

So, the Democratic candidates for president all got together yesterday at the Yearly Koz Kos convention.

Here’s some of what they said according to an Associated Press story:

The first question went to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who was asked why he once cited Justice Byron White, a conservative, as a model Supreme Court justice. “I screwed up on that,” he said. “I love John F. Kennedy and figured if Kennedy had supported him …,” Richardson said.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was asked what three lessons she learned from her failed health care reform effort during the presidency of her husband, Bill Clinton.

“It is not enough to have a plan. You’ve got to have a political strategy,” the New York senator, adding: “In 90 seconds, I don’t have the time to tell you all the mistakes I made.”

Another leading candidate, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, said he would allow the U.S. to continue running a budget deficit to meet health care and other needs. “We’ve got to make some investments.”

Edwards received the largest applause when he suggested his rivals were tinkering around the edges – “I just heard some discussion about negotiation, compromise” – rather than overhauling government. He said the nation needs “big change, not small change.”

Edwards, the party’s 2004 vice presidential nominee, called on the field to join him, along with Obama, to forsake donations from lobbyists. That is a pledge he said Republicans should take, too.

“We don’t want to trade their insiders for ours,” he said.

Clinton, who accepts such donations, did not respond.

I blog. I like blogging, but I can’t help but think of what Slartibartfast wrote last Thursday in regards to the Nashville Mayoral and councilmen races.

I’m afraid that tonight we’re going to get a reminder of just how little influence we bloggers have on local Nashville politics.

And, all in all, he spoke the truth.

We blog. We read other folks blogs, be they politically right, left or center. The candidates see that the Internet can make things happen, that social networking avenues can easily and inexpensively get their style across (notice I didn’t say substance) and that we are in a time of change when it comes to disseminating and distributing information and news. But, from what I read about Nashville’s races, there was a great lack of interest in this contest that will impact a major metropolitan city in the next four years and many blogs were talking about it a great deal. And, of course, it came down to money in that race which, who had it, who didn’t and guess who came in the front.

Candidates with dough.

Those 1500 bloggers who showed up at Yearly Kos are going to vote anyway and they had the cash to actually go and see the candidates yesterday. Can they make a difference in the big picture? I’m thinking there might be an impact but folks can’t get too ahead of themselves. The internet does tend to shine a light on things. But is it taken as seriously as we, as bloggers, think it does?

Yes, candidates need to take into the equation that power of the tubes. There is no doubt. But they are still going to have to be very aware of traditional media outlets, and sometimes the two entities collide. Candidates’ biggest enemy, or friend for that matter, is going to be the immediacy of the internet. They know that, but there is just a lot more to it.

And sometimes I wonder if there is so much information out there that it gets lost in all the static. And smaller bloggers are already being edged out a bit by the guys that are making money. (CYNIC ALERT.) So, if a little guy has some crucial information will it be lost in the virtual highway?

Just pondering it all.

And this is what I’m thinking about today.

Update: I have been schooled on spelling. Spellcheck didn’t catch it. And, I’d moved on to other things.

I am in the wrong damned business.

“Like the massage fingers?” White House communications boss Ed Gillespie asked NBC’s David Gregory, as reporters settled into their comfy new chairs. “Try Number 3,” another reporter advised.

And then this:

The cost of the nearly yearlong renovation — which took in the briefing room and media working quarters as well as one section of the White House press office — is unknown. Early estimates were around $20 million (€14.5 million). But the time frame, originally envisioned to be three months, swelled to nine months and then more with many unanticipated problems.

Apparently is was a dilapidated mess, and they did need an upgrade that included internet capabilities, I get that. And, it is the White House. I get that.  But doesn’t it take some of the charm away regarding the romantic days of fedoras with scoop on their hats and reporters on the White house beat. I mean, to have massage chairs? Or was that a joke. Tell me it was a joke.

Wider blue-leather briefing room chairs replace the old stained-and-duct-taped upholstered ones. Each of the 49 seats, one more than before, also now has Internet, phone and power connections.

_The former hot television lights have become an expensive array of cooler, more environmentally friendly ones.

_The area below the briefing room, for years a swimming pool built in 1933 for Franklin D. Roosevelt, is now a technician’s dream – rack after rack of video equipment and 570 miles of cable.

_New microphones mounted in the ceiling balance sound that is fed into a state-of-the-art audio system.

I want a massage chair. I want to a chair that makes me all comfy and lazy while asking the president questions.

Please tell me that tax payers didn’t pay as much as they are saying.

I’m begging you.

I mean, couldn’t some of that money gone to something else.

Yeah, I know.

I’m old school.

Rooting around the tubes as I sometimes do, I though I’d share some of the revelry, pain and idiocy around the blogosphere.

Shall we dance? Well, by golly, I think we should.

• Massachusetts passed the country’s first law requiring adults to get health insurance in April, 2006. In the past 14 months, it has taken several steps toward covering its 372,000 uninsured residents (about 6 percent of its population). If you don’t have the dough, how can you afford it? This is my question.
  
• Malia saw a man with a monkey on his back. On what I believe is a Harley-Davidson. Yamaha. This is funny.
• Obama wins the money race this quarter. When’s the election? Oh, yeah, November 2008. This is a money race more than it’s a political race. No offense to Obama, I’m just tired of it always being about the Benjamin’s.
• Ric Romero states the obvious. About cheaper alternatives to the IPhone. Yeah, I cheated. It’s from Fark.
• If I haven’t said it recently, I adore Tennessee Jed.
• What’s GOP Sen. Robert Lugar talking about? You better read it. He’s wanting an “orderly” withdrawal from Iraq.
• More blogs at traditional news outlets. This time, The City Paper in Nashville is jumping on the blogosphere freight train with several posts since Monday. Of course, I’ve been reading Political Animals. I kinda like the name.
• Southern Beale makes several good points about the UK Terror Scare.
• An anatomy of grief over the loss of a beloved sibling. My friend, Freezertroll, talks about a painful anniversary.

Time for a new week, but I actually have Wednesday off. First holiday in a long time. So it is of the good.

And I’m spending part of the day with Big Daddy. Which is of the better.

I do believe that Mika Brzezinski is mad as hell and isn’t going to take it anymore. You can go over to see the video at The Pesky Fly, but I wanted to point you to the some of the comment sections of these sites. The issue came when she didn’t want to lead with a Paris Hilton story, believing that the story of Indiana Republican Sen. Richard Luger breaking from President George Bush regarding the Iraq War. Some folks think it was staged. It really doesn’t matter, the point was made and a good point it was:

BBC News: Newscaster’s On-Air Protest
Zeitgeist: The Journalistic shot heard round the world. 

The Guardian: I have a new hero and her name is Mika Brzezinski. I agree with him on the Network reference because it’s what I initially thought as well.

Robert Greenwald  

Mike Tomasky: We’ll always have Paris.

Newsbusters doesn’t agree with Mika’s decision. I’ll post that as well.

I guess people are starting to figure out we want our news back.

To go even further than Adams, here is the famous quote Howard Beale from the movie Network:

I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell – ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Things have got to change. But first, you’ve gotta get mad!… You’ve got to say, ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Then we’ll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!!!

Man, I love that movie.

It appears its subpoena time in Washington. The White House has one. The Vice-president’s office has one.

And when I get a subpoena (which has happened in my line of work) I usually have to show up to answer some questions, but I think the most important issue is will they?

Warrant-free eavesdropping has always bothered me.  As it should everyone.

The White House contends that its search for would-be terrorists is legal, necessary and effective — pointing out frequently that there have been no further attacks on American soil. Administration officials say they have given classified information — such as details about the eavesdropping program, which is now under court supervision — to the intelligence committees of both houses of Congress.

Echoing its response to previous congressional subpoenas to former administration officials Harriet Miers and Sara Taylor, the White House gave no indication that it would comply with the new ones.

I hope the White House complies with the inquiry. If folks have done nothing wrong, then there’s nothing to worry about.

Right.

Right?

I think it’s going to be a long, hot summer for Bush and Co. The only person I honestly see staying out of the crossfire these days is Condi Rice.

Even Dick Cheney is backing up a bit over documents and his crazy reasoning that his office was a separate entity. And, from all appearances he’s backing up because if he’s not a part of the executive branch, then Rep. Rahm Emanuel talked of cutting off funding his office. $4.8 million smackers is a lot of dough. Now, as hard as this is for me to write, Cheney isn’t a stupid man.

Dick Cheney’s office is abandoning a justification for keeping the vice president’s secret papers out of the hands of the National Archives, while asserting a new argument for withholding them.

Officials working for Cheney had tried to claim he is separate from the executive branch, but they will no longer pursue that defense, senior administration officials tell The Politico.

But this was pretty … umm … stupid.  When did politicians forget they are public servants?

That was a rhetorical question.

So, searching the tubes today makes me wonder, as I said a few months ago, if there is a lot going on in the back, dark smoky rooms (well, I guess there not as smoky as they used to be) and that Bush and Co. are going to have a rough summer. I have no doubt that the smoky rooms have been pretty full lately.

Oh, and yeah, the House gave itself a raise if you didn’t know. Hope they earn it.

I think it goes without saying since last November I honestly believed there might be some changes in Washington. There might be some balance introduced into what I believed was an administration that was given entirely too much power.

I thought that the American people were very clear about their beliefs on the Iraq War. I think the polls show right now how the nation feels about our president but of course congressional polling isn’t much better.
I thought there might be some thoughtful debate. I really did. I, again, believed that although the House passed this bill, that the Senate might come through. But what happened last night on the floor of the Senate offers toothless benchmarks but gives the president the right to waive them.

Obviously I was wrong. It’s politics as usual.

I am not the only one disappointed.

Remember this regarding a bit of legislation back in March. I do. A lot of people might not. More than anything, I just wanted to see the president seek congressional authorization before we as a nation go off and do something like the Iraq war again. I wanted there to be accountability.

The Commander Guy is still the Decider. Not a thing has changed.

Bush can waive the fuzziest of benchmarks if he so chooses. Benchmarks that were meaningless in the first place.

The Democrats in Washington have some explaining to do.

But wait, check this out:

Only $1.6 billion of the $120 billion Iraq funding bill before Congress is tied to benchmarks for the Iraqi government, according to the AP. The bulk of the money, $99.5 billion, goes straight to the Defense Department and other provisions of the bill allocate $465 million for fighting wildfires and $425 million for rural schools. — T. W. Farnam

You got that, didn’t you? Most of the money is going to the Defense Department while only $1.6 billion is even loosely strung to a benchmark.

Barack Obama said this on his website last night.

“We must fund our troops. But we owe them something more. We owe them a clear, prudent plan to relieve them of the burden of policing someone else’s civil war. We need a plan to compel the Iraqi people to reach a political accommodation and to take responsibility for their own future. It’s time to change course.”

“I opposed this war in 2002 precisely because I feared it would lead us to the open-ended occupation in which we find ourselves today.”

“This President has led us down a disastrous path and has arrogantly refused to acknowledge the grim reality of this war, which has cost us so dearly in lives and treasure.”

“After he vetoed a plan that would have funded the troops and begun to bring them home, this bill represents more of his stubborn refusal to address his failed policy.”

“We should not give the President a blank check to continue down this same, disastrous path.”

Yeah, that’s great. Clinton has something along the same lines but the reality is that they cast their votes long after it was pretty much decided on the Senate Floor. Sen. Harry Reid covered all the bases for the presidential election next year, didn’t he.

John Edwards sent out a mass e-mail last night condemning the vote calling it a blank check. Here’s the website.

Finally, Bush says it will be a “bloody summer.”

U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday predicted a bloody summer in Iraq for U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians, saying he expected insurgents and al Qaeda to step up attacks to try to influence the U.S. debate over how long to stay in Iraq.

Nothing has changed. Campaigning for office means more than keeping those pesky promises these people made to get elected. It goes for both parties, both the Republicans AND the Democrats.

It’s all wheel and deal in Washington.

Rant over.

So Presidential candidate  John McCain allegedly dropped the F-Bomb.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) hasn’t spent much time in the Capitol this year as he seeks the GOP presidential nomination. But one of his rare appearances this week provided a pretty salty exchange with a fellow Republican.

During a meeting Thursday on immigration legislation, McCain and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) got into a shouting match when Cornyn started voicing concerns about the number of judicial appeals that illegal immigrants could receive, according to multiple sources — both Democrats and Republicans — who heard firsthand accounts of the exchange from lawmakers who were in the room.

snip

“[Expletive] you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room,” shouted McCain at Cornyn. McCain helped craft a bill in 2006 that passed the Senate but couldn’t be compromised with a House bill that was much tougher on illegal immigrants

Sorry campers, I’ve dropped the F-Bomb myself. Cheerfully, I might add.

Non-story.

Still don’t like McCain, the guy has been too busy campaigning for president to even be in the Senate these days (which I don’t necessarily approve of but on the other hand, isn’t that the way of this presidential election. Welcome to the world that getting into office is a full-time job and actually having the job you were elected to is insignificant.)

Non-story about the cussing. The real story is about this.

I sent this to some of my newspaper buddies today, but I’ll link it here as well.

Michael Silence of the Knoxville News Sentinel posted a memo from the Senior Vice President Mark Contreras of Scripps.

Here’s a snippet:

You’ve no doubt read about recent challenges in the newspaper business. We’re certainly not immune to many of these trends.

In the first quarter of this year, our total revenues were down 7.8% compared to last year, our expenses were down slightly, and our profit was down 28%. Many of our industry peers posted similar results. While online revenue remained strong (up 20%), total ad revenue fell due to classified advertising declines at our larger papers, as well as some softness in retail advertising.

The long and the short of it is that any business that has declining revenues and sharply declining profits must do something about it.

Two questions come to mind: how did we get here and what are we going to do about it?

How did we get here?

In short, the newspaper business has delivered solid revenue growth for decades. Despite the development of competing alternative media – such as radio, broadcast television, cable television and others – we adapted to changing consumer and advertiser behavior and still found ways to consistently grow.

There’s more there. Interesting stuff. The comments are interesting as well. You might want to go give it a gander.

Sometimes my reaction to political news surprises even me.

The big news over the weekend was the incredible amount of money raised by presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards. The first time I watched the account on CNN, I was incredulous. Then, I read about it here on the ‘tubes and it sort of hacked me off.

The election is more than a year and a half away. I’m not picking on the democrats as much as the political money machine as a whole. It comes down to money when you get right down to it. The country has discussed for years having some sort of cap on campaign fund-raising. Some sort of way to assure that anyone who wants to get into political office to serve as a public servant can do this. Yeah, there are hoops but then again there tons of loopholes so any real reform has proven itself meaningless.

But that’s a subject for another day.

I am not endorsing any presidential candidate right now and would just as soon give a vote to a basset hound on acid that I would any presidential candidate if I had to go to the polls today. You know why, because this country changes every fifteen minutes and I have no idea who is the best person to vote for in the fall of 2008.

And words and actions are two different things.

This post is really more about the Haves and the Have Nots. C.E. Petro wrote last week about the widening income gap and parts of her post had me thinking.

We see millions and millions (billions actually) funnelled into the world of politics and yet there are people in this country who are hungry. Health insurance has become a luxury item. (Yeah, I have health insurance but in many respects it’s nearly worthless.) Nearly one-third of my monthly income goes to insurance (car, life and health.) I had an increase in October, and it looks like we are going to have another increase this month due to unforeseeable circumstances. I worry about the folks who work for me on how they will pay this increase if it indeed occurs. Forty bucks a month is a great deal of money when a person is making less than 9 dollars an hour. This isn’t written in stone, but many of our employees are considering cancelling their health insurance because it’s the difference between paying their bills that are a reality today or paying for health insurance they may or may not need over the course of time.

It is a conundrum.

It appears, although I make less than $30,000 a year that I’m going to have to pay extra federal income taxes in to the government for the third year in a row. Budgeting is a nightmare. Gas is up again. Our water bill here in my hometown just went up about 12 percent on paper but in actuality it’s appearing with a 40 percent increase on every month’s bill (and yes we had a plumber come out to see if we had a leak. No leak.) Almost every company I know right now is downsizing for a multitude of reasons. Sometimes they downsize because they are in trouble. Sometimes, it just means they don’t have the money to keep employees on their staff. Sometimes, they are outsourcing.

I’ve seen some of my friends who were making a fine living in areas like real estate or economic development now scrambling. It’s not just the industry I work in, it’s everyone.

So, yeah, I’m personalizing this and attaching two things together that probably don’t deserve to be put in the same category but this is a post about money.

And when I see candidates raising amazing amounts of money when people I know are barely keeping a roof over their head, I can’t help but wonder where our country’s priorities have gone.  We can sit around and discuss political philisophy all day long and I actually enjoy doing that, but it is my opinion that there are going to be a whole lot of folks turning their backs on the political process because it doesn’t help them and they feel like it’s let them down.

So, cool beans. Candidates have raised a record-setting amount of money to run for president. But in the long run, is it just the story du jour and will it really make a difference when it comes down to the day-to-day lives of the common man?

Rant over.

And Digby, who can write rings around just about anyone, schools us on many things.

Here is a snippet:

This isn’t brain surgery. A reporter’s priviledge should not be used to help powerful people in government lie to the public about what it’s doing or punish its enemies for speaking out against it. It exists to protect people who are risking their livlihoods by speaking out against those same powerful people. This is not hard for rational people to understand and yet in Washington they are so confused by their relationships with the powerful that they seem to be speaking in tongues on this issue.

Read the whole thing. It’s quite good.

Sometimes you find some stuff on the tubes that it is so good that you just want to throw yourself into the road, crying to the heavens.

From a blog I’ve never gone to before called Execupundit, here is something that I just found to be helpful:

1. 1. I am sometimes under enormous pressure from upper management; pressure that you seldom see. Anything that you can do to make my job easier will be greatly appreciated.
   2. Your interests are important, but please remember that I also have to juggle the concerns and feelings of a bunch of other people, including individuals outside of the department.

and my favorite is this one:

I will make mistakes. Please give me the same understanding that you’d like me to give you when you blunder.

Lord knows I make mistakes. I do, sometimes so horrifyingly terrible that I want to hide under a blanket. But this guy sort of said what I couldn’t formulate into words about being in middle management. There is a lot of really good, useful stuff over there so head on over.

Now I have a long day, and night thus establishing the lateness of this post as I don’t post from work ahead of me and I need to get to the office.

H/T to Seth Godin’s Blog