Once again The Fates have come our way to provide a story, and once again, we have a contender for the "Ironic Story Of The Year".
It's got everything you need for serious irony: an irascible comedian who mocked religion at every opportunity, a city that loved him, and the rich coincidence of his having been born at the crossroads of New York City's communities of religious education.
And that's why, today, we'll be talking about the effort to name the street right next to Manhattan's Seminary Row...Carlin Street.
(And before we go further, a language warning: we'll be quoting George Carlin liberally, and that means there may be present today certain of the seven words with which he created one of his best known routines. You are now officially warned.)
So I thought I was going to have another Jay Inslee story for y'all today, but it turns out that I'm going to have to do more research before we can "come to press" with that one.
But that's OK, because the world's been busy doing a lot of other things - and while many of them get media coverage, some don't get a lot of notice at all.
And of course, there are also those stories that look one way at first glance...but look a lot different when you dig a bit deeper.
We'll hit a few of those today, have a bit of fun doing it, and get ready for what promises to be another busy week of strategically not doing things in Washington.
To make things even better, some of the stories will be real, and some won't.
If your view of politics is filtered by a lens marked "Progressive" or "Liberal", there's a pretty good chance that you've been gnashing your teeth and pulling your hair in frustration over the "give away the store, then negotiate" approach professional Democrats have used when facing the challenges from the Tea Party last year, and all that's come after.
Over and over and over people like me have written stories wondering why Democrats, starting with this President, don't get out in a very public way and slam Republican policies, over and over and over-especially when most Americans hate the things Republicans seem to love to support.
Turning over Government to the highest bidder?
Not so popular.
Going back to a heathcare system run by, for, and of the insurance industry?
Again, not so much.
Jacking up taxes and healthcare costs for you and me in order to provide another trillion in tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires?
So unpopular pollsters hardly believe it.
But there is another way, and today's story is in two parts: we're going to talk about how hard it is to get Democrats, as a group, to get loud and get aggressive-and then we're going to talk about Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, who is out there showing any reluctant Democrat just exactly how you can "grow the brand".
So, the thing is, I'm not the one who tends to follow the herd.
If everyone's backed up on the freeway, I'm the one who will look for the longer but less crowded country road. When everyone's talking about whoever out-sang or out-danced or out-cake-bossed someone else, I'm the one with the blank face-and if there's a room full of people line dancing, I'll be the one over in the corner having a smoke and wondering what went wrong with y'all.
And that's why, while everyone else is all excited about Glenn Beck's imminent "disappearance" from the television firmament...I'm not so sure.
In fact, I can easily see a scenario that leads to a lot more Beck, and that's what we'll be talking about today.
Democratic Members of Congress, through the Democratic Caucus New Media Working Group, will be participating in a Congressional Twitter Town Hall, Thursday (tomorrow), from noon-1 PM EST, and I wanted to personally invite you to join us. We're taking questions with the #AskDems hashtag. You'll be able to follow Democratic responses here.
We're focusing on budget issues and spending priorities. Since we anticipate far more questions than we can possibly answer, we're encouraging Twitter users to retweet the questions they're most interested in seeing answered. Remember, if you don't use the #AskDems hashtag, we won't see it during the town hall.
The Twitter Town Hall is being 'hosted' by Rep. John Larson, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, Rep. Mike Honda, chair of the New Media Working Group, and me, Rep. John Garamendi. I'll post a list of Members of Congress confirmed to participate on my Twitter feed soon. It would be great to see this community participate in the conversation.
I just read a story on Yahoo! News about Speaker Pelosi's last press conference. The story itself was pretty spare, but there were more than 6,000 comments. I didn't read them all. I couldn't. I found them too shocking. The level of information was so abysmal. The personal invective was so crude. And the spelling was so bad. It was a real eye-opener.
I have no idea why so many people are so fixated on whether or not Nancy Pelosi has had plastic surgery. But it was a frequent topic. Having seen the Speaker in strong sunlight, I certainly saw no evidence of it.
Calling her a witch and a bitch was also popular. Again, I'm sure none of these people have ever met Ms. Pelosi. I found her perfectly pleasant the time I did.
You may have noticed that we aren't really in love with the state of the Sacramento press around here. Not that they aren't trying, but given their workload and the amount of resources the press corps as a whole is given, it's just a herculean task. So, any new addition is a welcome one.
California Watch, a project of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Center for Investigative Reporting, launched a new feature-rich Web site today California Watch offers readers access to the state's largest investigative reporting team, their ongoing reporting, and the databases and research that fuel their work. Readers can use the site to dig down to the local level of their region, city or town on a number of topics - and take action.
California Watch opened bureaus in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento this fall, employing a diverse 13-person editorial team that includes veteran, award-winning reporters, such as Lance Williams, formerly of the San Francisco Chronicle, and journalists from the digital media world, including Mark Luckie, author of the popular 10,000 Words blog. The reporters are assigned to beats ranging from education to heath care to government accountability.
"We've created an investigative reporting team for California that will not only expose corruption and wrongdoing, but will spark debate and give people the tools to learn more and identify solutions that will hopefully improve the quality of life in the state," said CIR Executive Director Robert Rosenthal. "California Watch is the next logical step for CIR. We will continue to produce high-quality investigative journalism on national and international issues, and at the same time dedicate significant resources to uncovering stories that are critical to the people of California."
Our favorite irascible media tyrant is in the news once again, and once again it's time for me to bring you a story of doing one thing while wishing for another.
We have heard a lot about the...how can I put this politely...challenges Murdoch seems to face associating factual reality with his reality, and we could have lots of fun going through his factual misstatements-but instead, I want to take on one specific issue today:
Rupert Murdoch says he hates it when people steal his content from the Internet to draw readers to their sites...which is funny, if you think about it, because he has no problem at all stealing my content (and lots of yours, as well) for his sites.
I wasn't going for the alliteration, but it just worked. Unfortunately, media coverage of Sacramento is not working. Not because the reporters aren't doing their jobs, but because the money just isn't there. In the open thread yesterday, we noted a couple of former California reporters moving into government/political jobs.
Well, we've lost another member of the press corps. This time it's a direct blow to coverage of the capitol right now. From today's CapAlert AM Alert:
Now, you can add the Mercury News' Edwin Garcia to the list. His last day -- after spending the last three and a half years in Sacramento -- will be May 1.
I actually got to know Edwin Garcia a few years back when he did a story on some stuff I was doing on YouTube and around the tubes. He is a gifted writer and a generally fair reporter. I won't say that I always agreed with his take, but it was always reasonable.
As much respect I have for this medium, blogs and such, this model is not one that can necessarily be plopped down to take up the slack for the loss of reporters. We have seen public interest journalism growing recently, and other states have good models for that. Take a look at Colorado Independent and Michigan Messenger for examples.
In California, we have the California Progress Report. Frank Russo built a source of news and opinion that was enormously valuable. Since he left to be Asm. Nancy Skinner's (D-Berkeley) Chief of Staff, the Consumer Federation's Foundation has worked to build the site. They are having a fundraiser for the site on April 20 in Sacramento. I'm hoping to attend the event myself after coming back from Coachella.
Unfortunately, we have to help fund a future journalism structure in California. It is just to important to let coverage of the Capitol wither away and die. We need more than just the SacBee Dans and the George Skeltons of the world to make Sacto transparent. We need real media. We need them poking around in the legislature and the administration. I'm optomistic that we will figure out some sustainable business model for journalism in the long-term. But we are going to go through a short-term period of news darkness.
Finally yesterday's media blackout on the march on the state capitol is over with. Unfortunately, the two sources I was hoping would end that blackout--the LA Times and San Francisco Chronicle--are still missing in action. Sure, the Chronicle has an article on students protesting cuts in education, but it's about a protest that occurred across the border in Nevada to lobby Republican Governor Jim Gibbons; 35 students from a high school in Ely did this, and the absence from school apparently counted as a school activity. In any case, it's an AP wire article.
Allow me to back up a bit. The march at the state capitol was held to protest possibly looming cuts in education at the college level. It was held to demand a return to non-fee-based, free access to education at the college level. Granted, Governor Schwarzenegger spared community colleges in his latest budget. Our fear was that we may be next. So, the Student Senate for California Community Colleges called for a march to be held yesterday (beginning at Raley Field in West Sacramento). The march culminated with a rally at the west side of the state capitol.
Today's San Jose Mercury News front page story is about California's budget problem: that they are still one vote short. But Californians reading the story are not told why one more vote is required, not are they told who it is required from -- until the 10th paragraph. The 10th paragraph reads,
The votes were there in the Assembly. But in the Senate, only two Republican senators were prepared to buck party orthodoxy and vote to raise taxes. Three were needed.
Even in this 10th paragraph readers are not informed that every Democrat is voting for the budget.
There is some good news on the prospects of getting a budget in California. Eleven California newspapers including Sunday's San Jose Mercury News carried a near-unprecedented front-page editorial titled, Outrageous budget fiasco has shamed California, calling out the Republicans for not participating in the budget process, saying,
"... [M]ost of the blame for the immediate crisis falls on Republicans in the Legislature, who this past summer -- to a person -- signed a pledge to not raise taxes. ... Democrats and the Republican governor have offered significant compromise, but GOP lawmakers cling to ideological purity -- schools, health care and other essential responsibilities be damned."
As voters in the United States are entertained either by the minutia of electoral politics anticipating the next gaffe by Sarah Palin or the latest frivolous update on the artificial and superficial lives of magazine-created celebrities, people in Africa are suffering from a myriad of crises for which the Western World is largely responsible and which we now ignore at our own peril. Both the media and the two candidates for president ignore Africa because the public has not been stirred by enlightened discourse on events on that continent.
We spend a lot of time in these news updates showing how charges of voter fraud are used to discredit voter participation efforts and prime the pump for voter suppression efforts, such as the passage of voter ID bills, pushing for proof of citizenship, engaging in draconian voter purge efforts, and imposing sever restrictions on voter registration drives. We have also spent a lot of time carefully delineating the politics behind these efforts, starting with our March 2007 report The Politics Of Voter Fraud and continuing on in these diaries to name but two venues.
I am looking for people who would be willing to collaborate with me in an attempt to continue something similar to a very comprehensive project that gave "grades" of gay rights legislative, judicial, and executive bodies on the federal, and state/provincial levels in the US, and even the rest of the world, that, until recently, was done by Bill Myers. You can see one of the latest versions of it available on the web here, courtesy of The Wayback Machine. I could especially use someone to keep track of events in California as they happen.
Over the last few weeks I have been writing about the plight of security guards working for a company called Inter-Con, a contractor at Kaiser Permanente Hospitals in California. One post I wrote on this was titled, Why Don't We Hear About Labor Issues Anymore? and I want to get to that subject some more here. But first, I want to go over what was covered.
Title stolen from Media Matters. They listen to right-wing talk radio to keep an eye on what they are saying thank goodness. Today in the wake of the announcement that Sen. Teddy Kennedy has a brain tumor Michael Savage decided to play the Dead Kennedys "in some respect for" the Senator. Here is the Media Matter's summary. You can listen to it on their site and read the full transcript. digg it
On the day it was announced that Sen. Ted Kennedy had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, nationally syndicated radio host Michael Savage opened his show by interspersing audio of Kennedy singing "Ay Jalisco No Te Rajes" with clips of news reporters discussing Kennedy's diagnosis and audio from Kindergarten Cop in which Arnold Schwarzenegger's character says, "It's not a tumor." Later, Savage played the Dead Kennedys song "California Über Alles" after stating: "The poor guy's been suffering for years, you know? Unfairly he's been accused of alcoholism, but we see now that it was something much more deep-seated. And so, to cut this out in some respect for Ted Kennedy, here's a tune coming at you from the Dead Kennedys. Go ahead and play it, please."
This is absolutely despicable. Senator Kennedy is revered on both sides of the aisle as a "senator's senator" and is at least partially responsible for just about every major piece of positive legislation in the past 40 years. He will go into the history books as one of the greatest and most influencial Senators in United States history. While Savage may not like his politics, Sen. Kennedy is owed respect, especially this day of all days.
That wasn't all Savage had to say.
At one point in the program, he told a caller, "You know I'm playing the Dead Kennedys not to mock Ted Kennedy. It's just appropriate, that's all."
You know what is appropriate...for Savage's advertisers and the stations that cary him to hear from you. Savage is SF based and aired all over the state. According to this site, these stations carry Savage's radio show.
KNEW Oakland
KFMB San Diego
KERN Bakersfield
KSTE Rancho Cordova
KIXW Apple Valley
KTIE San Bernardino
KFMB San Diego
KFMB San Diego
If anyone listens in during his show tomorrow, please make a note of his advertisers and let us know. I have to assume that this is going to be a blogosphere wide project in the coming days.
Last week security guards working at Kaiser Permanente facilities in California went on strike to protest illegal anti-union activities on the part of their employer, Inter-Con Security. Instead of hiring security guards directly in California, or using a union-friendly security contractor, Kaiser contracts with Inter-Con. The strike lasted three days.
A few local TV news broadcasts covered the story, and there were a few newspaper articles announcing that there was going to be a strike. But there was almost no actual coverage of the strike except on progressive sites and labor outlets. What's up with that?
I'll let folks draw their own conclusions and pick their own fights for the most part, but I thought this poll (link changed to pdf of Field Poll) was pretty interesting (favorable/unfavorable/net):
California Nurses Association/Nurses: 53/15/+35
California Hospital Assn./Hospitals: 33/30/+3
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger: 40/40/0
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez: 20/29/-8
Chamber of Commerce/Business Groups: 25/36/-11
News Media: 28/46/-18%
Republican State Legislative Leaders: 22/48/-26
Health Insurance Companies: 16/55/-39
I will throw a few rather obvious ones out along with one that may be less so. One- people don't care much for politicians. Two- they care even less for the media, which is interesting as the media keeps cutting back on news coverage. Three- they HATE insurance companies, which makes me wonder why anyone keeps trying to keep them in the equation.
Also, CNA's numbers are pretty darn impressive. Some of that is that people just like nurses I would imagine. But average Californian on the street, if they have an actual opinion of CNA proper, it's likely to be an opinion on single-payer. Which makes me think that, given the opportunity, people might be pretty supportive of single-payer.
