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And Now For Something Completely Different: Davos Features “Refugee Run” (by Bill Easterly, NYU, thanks to Economist’s View)
When somebody sent me this invitation [above] from Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, I thought at first it was a joke from the Onion. What do you think of the Davos rich and powerful going through the “Refugee Run” theme park re-enactment of life in a refugee camp? Can Davos man empathize with refugees when he or she is not in danger and is going back to a luxury banquet and hotel room afterwards? Isn’t this just a tad different from the life of an actual refugee, at risk of all too real rape, murder, hunger, and disease? Did the words “insensitive,” “dehumanizing,” or “disrespectful” (not to mention “ludicrous”) ever come up in discussing the plans for “Refugee Run”? I hope such bad taste does not reflect some inability in UNHCR to see refugees as real people with their own dignity and rights.
Obama Signs Fair Pay Act (American Constitution Society)
President Obama’s first bill signed into law provides workers greater ability to challenge discrimination in pay. Late yesterday Congress gave final approval to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act and Obama signed the bill this morning. The law is named after the Alabama woman who worked at Goodyear for many years only to learn that she had been paid significantly less than her male counterparts.
House OKs stimulus, without GOP votes (Detroit Free Press)
A week and a day after Barack Obama became president, the House made good Wednesday evening on its promise to move a vast economic stimulus package – worth about $819 billion — in hopes of getting the American economy moving again… Not one Republican voted for the bill, even though Obama met with them personally on Tuesday at the Capitol. Twelve Democrats voted no… The problem, Republicans said, was that the bill spends too much and doesn’t cut taxes enough.
Bipartisanship? DeMint Predicts Zero Senate GOP Votes For Obama’s Recovery Package. (Think Progress)
[H]ours after the GOP’s defiant no-vote, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor ironically penned an op-ed in Politico saying that the GOP should not simply become the party of “no” to the Obama agenda. “We pledge to become a party of inclusion, not exclusion,” he proclaimed… The recovery legislation will now be heard by the Senate. Is there hope for bipartisanship there? Unlikely. Today on Fox News, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) excoriated the legislation and said that he “thinks” the bill will receive zero Senate GOP votes.
Boehner’s Bitch (by Steve at The Left Coaster)
[T]he GOP won’t respect you until you cut them in an alley fight. If Obama puts in all this effort to buy their votes and gets the cold shoulder, then let’s see what kind of guts our new president has. Because I know if Hillary Clinton had won with 350 electoral votes by running on a platform of universal health care, and putting Main Street over Wall Street, only to see the GOP leadership do this right out of the box, she and Rahm Emanuel would have cut John Boehner’s nuts off and made Mitch McConnell eat them, every damn day.
Maybe Hillary gave them some advice:
Vote for the stimulus, or else (On Politics, USA Today)
Honey didn’t work, so now the Democrats are going to the stick. A coalition of liberal Democratic groups — including Americans United for Change, MoveOn.org Political Action, AFSCME and SEIU — will run 30-second TV spots starting today in four states and Washington, D.C., that urge five GOP senators to support the Senate’s $888 billion economic stimulus plan. This comes a day after the House’s $819 billion stimulus plan got a total of zero Republican votes. The targeted senators: Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Charles Grassley of Iowa.
Quote of the Day (Political Wire)
“We will run campaigns in their districts.” — An unnamed Democratic official, quoted by Politico, in reaction to House Republicans voting against President Obama’s stimulus package.
House Republicans on Defensive (Political Wire)
House Republicans “are reacting strongly to reports that the White House plans a political onslaught to pressure Republicans into supporting the stimulus package and to punish those who don’t,” reports Marc Ambinder. House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) ” will soon issue a statement contending that Obama’s promise to ‘put an end to petty politics’ is ‘threatened’ as the White House and their allies ‘are making political threats rather than crafting a bipartisan economic stimulus plan.’”
Not One GOP Vote – Not One (by Alegre)
BHO sold out poor women to curry favor with the Republicans, and for his troubles (and ours) he got all of ZERO votes from the goopers. Now as a friend pointed out earlier, he had to have known this was coming. The fools on the Hill may not have a spine when it comes to standing up for women, but they know how to count votes… [They] must have told him long before he came down solidly on the side against poor women that this betrayal wouldn’t make any difference to the republicans. So the question … is why did BHO insist on stripping out this Medicaid funding for family planning knowing it wouldn’t make any real difference? Was this an act? Or did he really want to jettison poor women on this issue?
Feminists do not horse-trade women’s rights to care for their bodies for Republican votes (by heidiliofpotpourri at The Confluence)
Please note: no way in hell does a feminist look like a person who is willing to horse-trade funds for family planning benefits under Medicaid to placate Republicans, who will do anything to beat back money for family planning which they are trying as quickly as possible to turn into an epithet. Family planning is a good idea. So is birth control in most people’s lives. So, in some cases, is access to safe and legal abortion. Family planning, birth control, access to safe and legal abortions: these are not dirty words. They are real world, practical options – options needed, at least as options, by all women if they are to be truly autonomous actors in our society; and therefore options that must be as available to those whose health insurance is provided by the government as to those whose insurance is provided by private insurers.
If we push, we may be able to get the family planning funding back in the bill:
Go Cecile Go! (Call WH @ 202-456-1111) (by Alegre)
From Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood… “I’m stunned. We’ve just confirmed news reports that provisions to expand access to affordable family planning will be stripped from the economic stimulus bill. Removing this provision is a betrayal of millions of low-income women, and it will place an even greater burden on state budgets that are already strained to the breaking point.” We need you to take action now by calling the White House and voicing your support for the Medicaid Family Planning State Option. Call the White House comment line at 202-456-1111 to speak out now.
Fight the kleptocracy:
The Journey Continues (by Ann Lewis, NoLimits.org President)
Everywhere I’ve gone in the last few months, I’ve seen people I worked with in Hillary’s campaign. I heard about the work you were doing, and how many of you signed up for Hillary Sent Me. I know you were a big part of the election victories that have made us all so proud –and left us all feeling better about the future of our country… Hillary didn’t just put 18 million cracks in that glass ceiling – she opened the doors a whole lot wider for all of us. Now its up to us to keep going through and to bring our friends.
Click through to join NoLimits.org, a community for people who “want to keep working for a better future for every child, from every family – a world in which no limits is not just our goal, but a reality!”
Fact-Checking Conservative Outrage Over STD Prevention Provision In Economic Recovery Package (Think Progress)
“The House Democrats’ bill includes $335 million for sexually transmitted disease education and prevention programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.” Aside from the fact that many conservatives are squeamish about giving money to anything associated with sex, they seem unable to grasp the concept of preventive care and how it can help lower government health care spending. The $335 million provision to help stop the spread of STDs is part of a Prevention and Wellness Fund in the economic recovery legislation.
Quinn’s “modest proposal” for “Obama’s America”: “That we feed fetuses to the poor” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
REPORT: GOP Lawmakers Outnumber Democratic Lawmakers 2 To 1 In Stimulus Debate On Cable News (Think Progress)
As Media Matters has documented, during the Bush administration, the media consistently allowed conservatives to dominate their shows, booking them as guests far more often than progressives. The rationale was that Republicans were “in power.” It appears that old habits die hard. Even though President Obama and his team are in control of the executive branch and Democrats are in the majority in Congress, the cable networks are still turning more often to Republicans and allowing them to set the agenda on major issues, most recently on the debate over the economic recovery package.
Unfuckingbelievable (by Susie at Suburban Guerrilla)
I was out at a local bar [last night], and was talking to a bunch of working-class women. They’re Democrats who have voted Republican in the past, and they were actually talking about the stimulus bill as it played on the TV. Their conclusion? Something along the lines of “How about a nice big cup of shut the fuck up?” “They got us into this mess,” a nurse told me. “Why the hell would anyone pay attention to them?” A teacher’s aide felt the same. “These are the same people who ruined this country. We tried their way, now it’s time for another way,” she said. Not one of them agreed with the Republicans. Not one. In fact, one of them also brought up the birth control funding that was originally included in the bill: “How can those men have the nerve to say birth control has nothing to do with economics?” she said. “Spoken like a man, who can always zip up and walk away while a woman has to bust her hump to feed and raise the kid.” (You got the feeling she’d been there.)…
I will once again remind you the Republicans used the exact same scare tactics with Bill Clinton’s budget… They never do what’s good for the country, they only care about what’s good for their party. Fuck them, and fuck their party. No capitulation, no surrender. No more appeasement. Decent people should shun them on the streets.
Voters Favor Democrats in Congress (Political Wire)
The latest Diageo/Hotline poll finds that 49% of voters approve of Democrats in Congress while 38% disapprove. However, congressional Republicans do not fare quite as well with just 26% of voters approving of their job performance. Looking ahead to 2010, Democrats lead Republicans by a whopping 46 to 22% on the generic congressional ballot. First Read: “It’s worth pointing out that the Republican Party is about as unpopular now as the president who just left office.”
Conservatives Losing It (The Bellows, thanks to Economist’s View)
[W]hat the conservative pundits have to throw at the stimulus bill — crank economics and charges of socialism. And a deep, abiding fear that a piece of Democratic legislation may push American toward a sharp break with the recent Republican past — and that Americans may like it.
Cranky, perhaps. But beginning to be successful. As usual. See below.
Dick Armey and post-partisan harmony (by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory, Salon)
Those claiming that Obama has masterfully depicted the Republicans as arrogant obstructionists by extending the hand of compromise should review [the] latest Rasmussen Reports poll, which finds the public split almost evenly on whether they support the Obama/Democratic economic recovery package, with a clear trend towards increased opposition.
This is what happens every single time: the Democrats do everything possible to “accommodate” the Republican position and then get attacked anyway (they voted in large numbers for the Iraq War in and then got attacked for being soft on Terror in 2002; they voted for virtually every Bush “Terrorism” policy and the same thing happened, etc.). Here, they did everything possible to change their bill to please Republicans and nothing is happening except full-scale GOP opposition accompanied by a constant barrage of GOP attacks against them as big-spending, reckless, wealth-transferring liberals. Ultimately, the success of this program will be measured by whether it produces successful results, so why shouldn’t Democrats use their majority to enact the policy they think is most likely to achieve that?
The House Bill Was Crap (by Deacon Blues at The Left Coaster)
This wasn’t Barack Obama’s bill, but rather a piece of wish-list crap from David Obey. It had pork, way too little infrastructure spending, and wasn’t worth the paper it was written on… If we are going to do this right, the final package should have about $150 billion in tax cuts, $200 billion in aid to the states, at least $100 billion in assistance for troubled homeowners and the unemployed, and at least $400 billion for infrastructure including a good chuck for energy supply systems and green energy sources instead of the pitiful $32 billion he had in direct energy-related infrastructure spending. Anything less than this for infrastructure is a fraud.
There will be a better bill, with better choices and better balance, and it will get GOP support at the back end of this process. But there was no reason whatsoever for any GOP House member to alienate their red district constituents to vote for a sham and a liberal wish list. And Nancy Pelosi has no one to blame but herself for letting Obey run loose in the china shop to produce utter crap.
Stimulus Plan Brings Real Relief (by Marie Cocco)
Now for an economic strategy that really trickles down. Down to laid-off workers who lost their health insurance with their jobs. Down to the working poor and the newly poor, who need food stamps for their families to survive. Down to the teachers who will remain in their classrooms because states won’t have to severely reduce their aid to cities and counties. Down to construction workers, and perhaps even down to those just laid off at Caterpillar who might be called back from the unemployment line. They can get to work making the heavy equipment the construction crews will need to repair roads and bridges and sewer lines…
[A] glimpse of what might help the most was provided by the CBO analysis of the economic boost it estimates will come from the various provisions of the $825 billion stimulus legislation written in the House. Those that produce the most bang for the buck — about $2.50 in added economic growth for every dollar spent — are the precise opposite of what we’ve been doing until now. They are the very sorts of initiatives congressional Republicans still largely oppose.
The current stimulus package is a good start, but we need more.
Act on a Larger Scale (by James K. Galbraith, an economist at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, and author of “The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too”, thanks to Alegre)
The stimulus package is an impressive feat of fast drafting, progressive principle and good politics. It should pass and it will help. But given the depth of the crisis and the lock-up of the financial system, it is not an end-point, only a start… It will become necessary to think and act on a larger scale, to recognize that the private financial sector will not recover until after household balance sheets have been restored. Another package will be needed, and here’s what it should include:
– Open-ended support for the current operations of state and local governments for the duration of the crisis, including open-ended support for public capital investment…
– Comprehensive foreclosure relief, through a 90-day moratorium followed by restructuring except in cases of demonstrable borrower fraud.
– Increase Social Security benefits, say by 30 percent, and a lower the eligibility age of Medicare to (say) 55 years of age. This would offset the deep drop in equity wealth of the elderly population, while favoring the poor. Expanding Medicare eligibility would permit more workers to retire, freeing firms from carrying health care costs for older workers.
– A payroll tax holiday to restore the purchasing power of working families…
– A Reconstruction Finance Corporation, to meet industrial needs for credit and to help with restructuring and modernization.
– Jobs programs, in the spirit of the New Deal, to hire people to do what they do best, including art, letters, drama, dance, music, scientific research, university teaching and the work of the non-profit sector — including for community organizations.
– An energy program with a framework adequate to meet the climate crisis and sufficient to reduce demand for oil and quell speculation as the economy recovers. [Emphasis added, in all cases.]
Democrats: The party of business (by Joan Walsh, Salon)
I don’t think MSNBC did this purposely, but the network’s setup for President Obama’s speech Wednesday morning was priceless. It featured GOP Rep. Jim Gerlach explaining why he’s “leaning against” Obama’s stimulus and recovery plan, while the CEOs of IBM and Honeywell were praising it in a split-screen shot… Obama doesn’t look like he’s trying for 80 votes in the Senate anymore, as one of his aides once foolishly said earlier this month; he looks like he’s wielding his electoral mandate for change, and he should. And he and his staff are mostly ignoring John Boehner’s House Republicans, who seem determined to make their party irrelevant with their sloganeering and obstruction while the economy falls apart.
There was a little too much pandering to the CEOs for my taste, of course. I wasn’t thrilled when Obama blamed the economy’s troubles on “a sense of irresponsibility that prevailed from Wall Street to Washington” and then said the burden for recovery will fall on “executives and factory floor workers, educators and engineers, healthcare professionals and elected officials.” I’d like the burden to fall heaviest on those responsible for this mess, some of them probably in Obama’s audience this morning… He’s trying to make Democrats the party of business and prosperity, and he looks like he’s succeeding. It’s going to be fun to watch the House Republicans now.
I’m all for making the Democratic Party the party of business and prosperity, but it has to be done using liberal principles, or it’s another sell-out to the right wing.
Geithner Says ‘Range of Options’ Considered for Banks (Bloomberg)
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the department is considering a “range of options” for its financial rescue plan, with the goal of preserving the private banking system. “We have a financial system that is run by private shareholders, managed by private institutions, and we’d like to do our best to preserve that system,” he told reporters today in Washington.
These are the people the administration is asking for their opinion on how to fix the banking crisis:
What Red Ink? Wall Street Paid Hefty Bonuses (New York Times)
By almost any measure, 2008 was a complete disaster for Wall Street — except, that is, when the bonuses arrived. Despite crippling losses, multibillion-dollar bailouts and the passing of some of the most prominent names in the business, employees at financial companies in New York, the now-diminished world capital of capital, collected an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses for the year… Some bankers took home millions last year even as their employers lost billions.
Uncle Sam Has -1,096% Return Rate on Big Bank Investments (by Luke Mullins at The Home Front, U.S. News & World Report)
Taking billion-dollar stakes in banks was never popular, but government officials insisted it was essential to stabilizing the rickety financial system. So how have these investments performed so far? Time magazine crunched the numbers: “Since October, the government has deposited $165 billion into the accounts of the nation’s eight largest banks. Yet those same financial firms are now worth $418 billion less than they were four months ago. And the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the government’s preferred shares are worth at least $20 billion less…All told, the government’s annualized rate of return on its investment in the nation’s largest banks is -1,096%.”
Bad (by Paul Krugman)
As the Obama administration apparently prepares to launch Hankie Pankie II — buying troubled assets from banks at prices higher than they will fetch on the open market — it occurred to me that an updated version of an old Communist-era joke may be appropriate: under Bush, financial policy consisted of Wall Street types cutting sweet deals, at taxpayer expense, for Wall Street types. Under Obama, it’s precisely the reverse.
New bank bailout could cost up to $2 trillion: report (Reuters)
U.S. government officials seeking to revamp the financial bailout have discussed spending another $1 trillion to $2 trillion to help restore banks to health, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter. The paper said the Barack Obama administration could announce its plans within days but has not yet determined the final shape of its new proposal, and the exact details could change.
BofA board lets Lewis keep his job, titles (McClatchy)
Bank of America Chairman and CEO Ken Lewis, under pressure from investors for a declining stock price and his troubled Merrill Lynch acquisition, emerged from a closely watched board meeting Wednesday with both of his titles and the support of his fellow directors.
Soothing the suckers (Al Schumann at Stop Me Before I Vote Again)
“Reform is certainly needed, yet, for all the excesses and instability of finance, a complete clampdown would be a mistake…” From the eternally gaseous pages of The Economist, where the geese that steal the golden eggs can count on a sympathetic hearing. Fortunately, there is a simple way to prevent financial crises. Not all of them, certainly, but quite a few. The most important thing is to stop deliberately creating moral hazard. For example, when policy makers make a policy that turns out to be bad, they shouldn’t receive jobs in academia, seats on boards of directors, newspaper columns, awards from think tanks and further opportunities to make bad policy. This sends the wrong message!…
There is a real world model for dealing with situations like this. Noted philosopher Margaret Thatcher observed that it is wrong for people to cast their problems at society. They must learn to look after themselves; to take personal responsibility.
JPMorgan Exited Madoff-Linked Funds Last Fall (New York Times)
JPMorgan Chase says that its potential losses related to Bernard L. Madoff, the man accused of engineering an immense global Ponzi scheme, are “pretty close to zero.” But what some angry European investors want to know is when the bank cut its exposure to Mr. Madoff — and why… [T]he bank suddenly began pulling its millions out of those funds in early autumn, months before Mr. Madoff was arrested, according to accounts from Europe and New York that were subsequently confirmed by the bank. The bank did not notify investors of its move, and several of them are furious that it protected itself but left them holding notes that the bank itself now says are probably worthless.
The definition of a “two-tiered justice system” (by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory, Salon)
Under all circumstances, arguing that high political officials should be immunized from prosecution when they commit felonies such as illegal eavesdropping and torture would be both destructive and wrong [not to mention, in the case of the latter crimes, a clear violation of a treaty which the U.S. (under Ronald Reagan) signed and thereafter ratified]. But what makes it so much worse, so much more corrupted, is the fact that this “ignore-the-past-and-forget-retribution” rationale is invoked by our media elites only for a tiny, special class of people — our political leaders — while the exact opposite rationale (“ignore their lame excuses, lock them up and throw away the key”) is applied to everyone else.
That, by definition, is what a “two-tiered system of justice” means and that, more than anything else, is what characterizes (and sustains) deeply corrupt political systems. That’s the two-tiered system which, for obvious reasons, our political and media elites are now vehemently arguing must be preserved.
Obama Must Prosecute Bush War Crimes - Special Comment (video by Keith Olbermann, MSNBC, posted on YouTube)
You helped make the guy, Keith, with your sexist hate against Hillary. Now lie in it.
Rove will not respond to Conyers’ subpoena, says Conyers is “sort of like Captain Ahab and I’m the whale” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Obama to Send Letter to Iran (Political Wire)
The Obama administration has “drafted a letter to Iran from the president aimed at unfreezing US-Iranian relations and opening the way for face-to-face talks,” the Guardian has learned. “Diplomats said Obama’s letter would be a symbolic gesture to mark a change in tone from the hostile one adopted by the Bush administration, which portrayed Iran as part of an ‘axis of evil’. It would be intended to allay the suspicions of Iran’s leaders and pave the way for Obama to engage them directly, a break with past policy.”
Judge rejects Obama delay request (BBC News)
A military judge at the Guanatanamo Bay detention facility has rejected a request by US President Barack Obama to suspend the trial of a detainee. Correspondents say this could be a setback to Mr Obama’s plans to close the facility.
Judiciary Committee Backs Holder (Political Wire)
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 17 to 2 to recommend that Eric Holder be confirmed by the full Senate as the nation’s next Attorney General.
Obama ethics question: New WH lawyer’s firm sought bailout (McClatchy)
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Wednesday named a politically connected top executive of a financial services company that’s seeking federal bailout money to be his chief legal counsel on the economy, a move raising ethical concerns with watchdog organizations and casting a shadow on Obama’s campaign theme of change.
Google Exec Katie Jacobs Stanton Joins Obama Administration (Paid Content)
Google CEO Eric Schmidt may not be interested in the new federal CTO post but a member of his team is headed to Washington, D.C.: business development exec Katie Jacobs Stanton is joining the Obama administration as “director of citizen participation,” MediaMemo reported and we have confirmed. As Peter Kafka notes, the title doesn’t clearly define what Stanton’s responsibilities will be when her new job begins in March. But given her background at Google—she worked on the search giant’s election team, on its Open Social initiative, and helped launch Google Finance in 2006—she likely will be involved in the development of online tools that help Americans get more involved with what’s going on at the White House.
Wealthy Freshmen Increase Congressional Net Worth (Capital Eye)
WASHINGTON–The new crop of lawmakers that Americans tasked in November with shoring up the ailing economy are wealthier than the group that was already in Congress, a study by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics has found. And though freshmen might be worth more on average, their investments still look a lot like those of returning members–their money is primarily wrapped up in the ailing finance, insurance and real estate sector. Congress’s new members reported a median net worth of $1.8 million in the required personal financial disclosure forms that they will now have to file annually. That’s more than twice the $815,000 median for those incumbents who won re-election.
Recruiting rich people to run for Congress was a purposeful strategy by Rahm Emanuel, when he was head of the DCCC. He called them self funders. And he ran off a number of really progressive candidates in favor of these rich blue dogs.
New York Poll: Paterson’s Senate-selection process takes a hit (On Politics, USA Today)
Albany-based Joseph Spector of Gannett News Service tips us off to a Siena College Poll that finds Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, New York’s new senator, faring better than the man who appointed her. Spector reports that state voters approve of Gillibrand nearly two-to-one, 51%-28%. But 62% rated Gov. David Paterson’s handling of the process as poor or fair. And nearly two-thirds want future Senate vacancies to be filled by an election, not a gubernatorial appointment.
The Rise of Kirsten Gillibrand (Political Wire)
A Politicker NY profile of newly-sworn in Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) explains why she was picked: “She is a leviathan — a Schumer-esque fund-raising monster with a political pedigree; a careerist overachiever who has studiously cultivated ties to a surprising number of the most powerful Democrats in the state and the country; a fearsome campaigner who, despite her wholesome appearance, is comfortable in the mud.” ”Ms. Gillibrand is the pure, unadulterated political creature that a state like New York demands. And now that she is a senator, it seems impossible — naïve, even — to picture her as anything else.”
Because there are no ambitious male politicians, right? (County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Looks like the media’s soft spot for sexism when covering women in politics was not a 2008-only deal. (We didn’t really think it would be.) Last week, the press brought back the unlikeable and overly ambitious Tracy Flick character, from the film Election, to describe Kirsten Gilibrand, the new senator from New York. Flick was also used last year to make fun of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin.
Blagojevich says he has done nothing wrong (CNN)
In an attempt to remain in office, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich appeared before state senators in his impeachment trial Thursday, saying he has done “absolutely nothing wrong.” “I’m here to appeal to you, to your sense of fairness, your sense of responsibility, and to the truth,” Blagojevich said in a closing address that lasted less than an hour… “I’m asking you to acquit me and give me a chance to show my innocence,” he said.
Blago’s departure won’t cure state’s political woes (by Greg Hinz, Crain’s Chicago Business)
Whatever his crimes and misdemeanors, high and low, Rod Blagojevich is only an example of what’s gone terribly wrong with Illinois politics. The state’s public life was a mess before he arrived. It’s still that way.
The New Fearless Leader (by Joseph Cannon at Cannonfire)
When Juan Cole dared to express doubt about Barack Obama’s Pakistan policy, Taylor Marsh declared Cole a reactionary boob. She marched up and down the cyber-streets of the Village, chanting “Number 6 is un-mutual.” In his response, Cole notes that Marsh never made any serious attempt to engage Cole’s arguments about Pakistan. That would have been too much like work. Instead, she simply took umbrage at Cole for daring to criticize He Who Must Never Be Criticized. Out with the old Fearless Leader; hail to the new Fearless leader. Same shit; different deity.
How al-Arabiya Got the First Interview (Political Wire)
Time goes behind-the-scenes to find out how President Obama granted his first television interview as president to Hisham Melhem, the Washington bureau chief for al-Arabiya, a Saudi-backed news channel headquartered in Dubai. “Whether it was because of the chemistry between the men or Obama’s scripted intention, Melhem came away with an interview that amounted to an unprecedented reach-out to the Muslim world by a U.S. President.”
CBS’s Bill Plante and the White House press corps’ double standard (County Fair, Media Matters for America)
NPR did a straight-ahead report about all those suddenly skeptical and aggressively inquisitive reporters showing up to work at the Obama White House. (i.e. NPR didn’t see the irony.) In particular, CBS’s Bill Plante was suddenly adamant about the media’s civic role: “The whole idea of an independent press as guaranteed by the First Amendment is that it would serve as a watchdog and check on the power of government.” Well, no argument there, Bill. But it sure would’ve been nice if Plante and company had mouthed the same watchdog declarations during George Bush’s time in town. Instead, what was Plante’s take on the GOP press operation, which immediately began limiting all kinds of information from the press and generally stiff-arming journalists on the White House beat?
Why Attacking the Press Never Works (by Roger Simon at Politico)
Smart campaigns know that it’s a waste of time to attack and ban the media. Seducing the media is much more productive. Attacking the media is a waste because it is not an issue voters care about.
It worked very well for the Republicans for a very long time. Maybe you’ve been asleep for the last 20 years, Roger. We’ll have to see whether it continues to work.
WaPo mocks Al Gore (County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Did you notice the dig at Gore found in the Post’s headline today about the former VP’s testimony before Congress about the urgent need to battle climate change? Here’s the headline: “Gore Delivers ‘Inconvenient Truth’ Lecture to Senate Committee” See, Gore didn’t simply testify. He lectured the senate. i.e. He’s a pompous blowhard. That’s the picture the Post news headline painted for readers this morning. UPDATE: Naturally, the Post’s staff clown Dana Milbank mocks Gore and his testimony as well, calling him Goracle. Get it? It sounds like Gore but it also sounds like oracle. Get it? It’s a play on words.
Beck has car idled outside of studio during show to “do our part for global warming” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Coulter: Liberals “would like to live with the terrorists. They agree about America” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
O’Reilly on the idea that “we in the free world have got to be better than” terrorists: “That’s just bull” (video at County Fair, Media Matters for America)
Are Republicans afraid of Rush Limbaugh?
Gingrey Begs Limbaugh For Forgiveness On-Air, Expresses ‘Very Sincere Regret’ For ‘Foot-In-Mouth Disease’ (Think Progress)
[Tuesday], Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA), the chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, complained to Politico about how Rush Limbaugh and other conservative talkers are able to “stand back and throw bricks” instead of offering “real leadership” in the middle of high-profile public policy battles. Gingrey’s brave remarks got him in hot water. [Wednesday] — because of what he called “high volume of phone calls and correspondence” in response to his comments — Gingrey issued a retraction, declaring his loyalty to hate radio. “I see eye-to-eye with Rush Limbaugh,” he said, later adding that he, Sean Hannity, and Newt Gingrich were “the voices of the conservative movement’s conscience.”
Palin: New PAC doesn’t mean I’m running for president (McClatchy)
Gov. Sarah Palin met with some of the legislative leaders this morning and a few reporters staked it out for the chance to get a few minutes with Palin. She hasn’t spoken to the press since the legislative session started a week ago.
DHS publishes 315-page book honoring Chertoff’s ‘Select Speeches.’ (Think Progress)
The Department of Homeland Security recently sent out an entire book honoring former Secretary Michael Chertoff’s “Select Speeches” from 2005-2008. The 315-page book contains 36 of Chertoff’s speeches and press conferences (many of which — if not all — are most likely available online). ThinkProgress recently obtained a copy of the book and contacted DHS to find out how much taxpayer money was spent on the book’s production. However, we received no response. But Michele Nix, a former top official for former DHS Secretary Tom Ridge, told ThinkProgress that this homage seemed to be exclusive to Chertoff, as the department did “nothing” similar for her former boss.
Just Five Republican States Left (Political Wire)
According to Gallup, there are only five states that now have a statistically significant majorities of Republicans. They are Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Alaska and Nebraska. In contrast, there are now 35 states that are majority Democratic with 10 states up for grabs.
Media Matters for America headlines
• Myths and falsehoods surrounding the economic recovery plan
• Media reports on CBO’s initial “analysis” of economic recovery plan falsely claimed it analyzed the entire package
• Limbaugh allowed Cantor to falsely claim on his show that CBO said recovery bill “is not a stimulative bill”
• After previously misrepresenting partial CBO analysis, Wash. Times ignored full CBO report’s conclusion on stimulus package
• Bernard Goldberg’s “bias” against the facts
• Dobbs misrepresents CBO projection of stimulus plan’s effect on output
• Beck falsely claimed “[o]nly 3 percent” of stimulus plan would be “spent in the next 12 months”
• The Hill repeated false GOP claim that ACORN is a “beneficiar[y] of the stimulus package”
• Fox News’ Cameron falsely claimed that “more than half of the money” in stimulus bill is “reserved for at least two years from now”
• Drudge misrepresents article to assert “Iran Nuke ‘This Year’ “
• AP ignores testimony by MN voters in Coleman case supporting rejection of absentee ballots
House Defeats Bill to Delay Digital TV Transition
Bucking the Obama administration, House Republicans on Wednesday defeated a bill to delay the upcoming transition from analog to digital television broadcasting to June 12 — leaving an estimated 6.5 million U.S. households unprepared for the switchover.
Fox Business Network’s Claman: ‘Our Industry … Is Under Massive Assault’
FBN anchor Liz Claman discussed the industry’s dire straits … on mediabistro.com’s “Morning Media Menu” podcast, saying,”Our industry, whether it’s print or electronic media, is under massive assault.” The anchor also shared specific tips for journalists who fear their jobs are in jeopardy.
Stats: Old Media’s Decline, New Media’s Ascent (Mashable)
Quick: what was the most widely-used form of media in 2008? If you guessed Internet news sites, blogs, or social networks, you’d be way off. Network TV news (NBC, CBS, ABC) is still used by the highest percentage of adult Internet users, with local newspapers and local TV news occupying the 2nd and 3rd positions, respectively, in a recently released survey from Ketchum. While old media is still on top, the trends in the survey, which has been conducted each of the last three years, point to a familiar story: media consumption habits are quickly changing. That said, some forms of new media are performing much better than others. For example:
- Blogs are now used by 24% of Internet users, up from 13% in 2006
- Social networks are now used by 26% of Internet users, up from 17% in 2006
- Videocasts are now used by 11% of Internet users, up from 6% in 2006
Slower growers include:
- RSS feeds: growing from 5 to 7 percent
- Podcasts: growing from 5 to 7 percent
- Business news sites: flat at 8 percent
Meanwhile, on the old media side of the house, some mediums are shrinking faster than others, with local TV news leading the decline, from 74% usage in 2006 to 62% last year. Cable news seems to be taking its place to some extent, growing from 47% to 49% usage in the same period.
Nonprofit Newspapers (by Steve Coll, The New Yorker)
If The Washington Post had a two billion dollar endowment, it would be able to fund a very healthy newsroom. And this is before revenue from continuing operations — advertising, circulation, etc., which could surely cover at least the cost of distribution and overhead.
The World, in Eight Weeks
As news organizations pare down their foreign bureaus, the Johns Hopkins-based International Reporting Project tries to bridge the news gap between Americans and the rest of the world.
Is Reed Targeting its Top Editors?
The news that Reed Business Information, as part of a wave of cost-cutting, laid off Publishers Weekly editor Sara Nelson sent ripples through the book industry. Now, a source says that other top editors at RBI are being targeted as well.
How Long Can the Great Media Families Last?
With the steady crumbling of Conde Nast, you have to wonder how long their chairman, Si Newhouse, can hang tough. Great media baron families like his are a dying breed. Unless the Murdoch family and others step their genteel games up, this sort of thing will go right out of style.
WaPo’s Book World Goes Out of Print as a Separate Section
The Washington Post has decided to shutter the print version of Book World, its Sunday stand-alone book review section, and shift reviews to space inside two other sections of the paper. The last issue of Book World will appear in its tabloid print version on Feb. 15.
NYT Co. Looks to Sell Red Sox Stake
The New York Times Co., which is scrambling to raise cash after downplaying its debt woes, reported a steep plunge in profit and said it hired an investment bank to sell its stake in the Boston Red Sox. Fourth-quarter earnings fell 48 percent as print advertising continued to deteriorate.
Readers Digest Cuts 280 Jobs; Publisher Forces Unpaid Furloughs Through 2010 (Paid Content)
The march of bad news continues: The Readers Digest Association is slashing 8 percent of its 3,500-member workforce—roughly 280 jobs—and is taking several other tough measures designed to get costs under control as part of a “global recession plan,” the company announced. Saying it wants to avoid additional layoffs, the company will mandate unpaid time off in both FY ‘09 and ‘10, and will suspend company-matching contributions to the U.S. 401(k) plans.
Times Publishing Puts Congressional Quarterly On The Block (Paid Content)
Political news service Congressional Quarterly (CQ) is now up for sale. Parent company Times Publishing Co. has retained JEGI to help shop the brand; the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based publisher says it wants to focus exclusively on properties located in Florida.
Time Inc. Stands Up to Wholesalers
Time Inc. has told a second major wholesaler that it would find alternate distribution rather than give in to demands for higher fees to deliver magazines. The number one U.S. magazine chain, with 24 consumer titles, was the first publisher to stand up to Source Interlink Distribution and Anderson News Co.
Conde Nast to Fold Domino
Conde Nast is folding Domino, the young “Shopping Magazine for Your Home” launched in April of 2005. A final March issue will be published, and Dominomag.com will be shuttered. “This decision … is driven entirely by the economy,” said Conde Nast president and CEO Charles Townsend.
Hard News on TV Draws Major Ratings
Even as many news programs face a post-election audience drop-off, “serious” television news is drawing serious ratings this winter, with viewers flocking to shows like CBS’s 60 Minutes and PBS’s NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.
Couric’s Role and Ratings Show Signs of Looking Up
For nearly two years, Katie Couric has been also-running and suffering a merciless press pummeling for her anchorship of The CBS Evening News, but now there are signs that show an uptick in viewers. “I was beginning to think only my parents and my brother were watching,” Couric joked yesterday.
ABC News Cutting 35-40 Staffers
ABC News is cutting 35-40 staffers as part of larger cuts at Disney-ABC Television. In an internal memo obtained by TVNewser, Anne Sweeney, president of the Disney-ABC Television Group, announces, “we’re now faced with the harsh reality of having to eliminate jobs in some areas.”
YouTube Close to Video Deal for Pro Talent
YouTube and the William Morris Agency, the Hollywood talent agency, are close to signing a deal that would place the company’s clients in made-for-the-Web productions. The deal would underscore the ways that distribution models are evolving on the Internet.
AOL to Lay Off 10% of Its Work Force
Time Warner Inc.’s AOL unit is laying off around 700 employees, or 10% of its work force, as a sharp decline in ad spending continues to pressure its transition from an Internet-service provider to an advertising business. The layoffs will occur during the next several quarters.
Online Viewers Not Hostile to Ads
ABC has learned that doubling the ad load from four to eight in its online primetime shows doesn’t decrease consumer interest in watching shows online, said Albert Cheng, executive VP of digital media with the Disney-ABC Television Group.
TiVo Chief: TV Ad Biz Faces Meltdown
The TV advertising marketplace is facing a meltdown in the next few years that will be far more destructive than the wallop the biz is enduring in the present financial crisis and recession, TiVo president Tom Rogers said Wednesday.
Nielsen Reorgs (Again): Gets Digital Oversight; Merges Media And Entertainment Pubs (Paid Content)
Nielsen Business Media’s latest reorg has netted the company a new digital chief: SVP Sabrina Crow will now tackle overall strategic development, including M&A activities and oversight of digital revenue, per THR. Formerly head of the Marketing, Media and Visual Arts Group, Crow will also be responsible for the new Brand Media Group, which encompasses trade pubs like Business Travel News and National Jeweler. Nielsen is also bundling its AdweekMedia group (Adweek, Brandweek, Mediaweek and Editor & Publisher) with entertainment pubs like The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard and Backstage. The aptly titled Media & Entertainment Group will also include the advertising-focused Clio Awards.
Access, Download, and View Your Mac Files From Your iPhone (Mashable)
You already know that you can use your iPhone to view your computer remotely. That’s yesterday’s news. What is current, though, is the brand new ReachMyFile iPhone app that lets you remotely access your files on your Mac and download them or send to contacts via email.
PayPal Joins OpenID Foundation (Mashable)
The OpenID Foundation has a new, very important member: PayPal… This doesn’t mean you’ll be able to log into your PayPal account with your OpenID account, but it means that OpenID might one day get “upgraded” to the point where it can be used for high security/retail transactions. The fact that PayPal is joining the OpenID foundation as a sustaining corporate member of the Board (more precisely, they donate $50,000 to the foundation each year) means they’ve taken a good, long look at OpenID and they consider it a viable option for unique online identification.
