It's a holiday weekend, Santa and Christmas are right around the corner at our house…and yet, the news keeps on coming. Funny how that works, isn't it?
– Bob Geiger has the Saturday funnies. For my money, it doesn't get much better than the Ann Telnaes at the top of the stack…and then it does get better the further you read. We must all have some good editorial cartoon karma built up this week. (Do NOT miss the Dwane Powell one.)
– In the WaPo, Colbert King has some fantastic op-ed reporting on an issue that needs a lot more scrutiny — that it is happening in our nation's capitol and being sanctioned by the State Department by a failure for them to stand up for the powerless is horrendous. I was fortunate to meet Colby King at the Eisenhower Foundation symposium that I attended — and the panel on which he and Ray Suarez participated was exceptional. I've been promised transcripts of the entire conference at some point after the holidays, and I cannot wait to share excerpts with all of you.
One of the main points that a lot of these reporters touched on was the lack of personal experience with poverty or other problems on which they were reporting — that the way the journalism profession is structured these days requires a younger reporter to have some means of family support for the very low intern salaries in order to feed themselves, which ends up being a self-selecting upper and upper-middle class division in who ultimately ends up being a reporter. And how that skews the perspective on so many things from story selection to which problems most need sunshine to lack of outright empathy for folks who have spent the last few months living on ramen noodles and ready-to-rot veggies from the mark-down produce bin to save pennies for a present for the kids. It's a question of perspective, and one that is not easily resolved — but one that media agencies around the country ought to be asking themselves about — because the homogeneity of the newsroom leads to a lot of lock-step reporting and thought over time, but a diversity of opinion and experience can lead to a lot of critical questions that need to be asked actually being brought up in the first place.
– For our NYC-area readers, this is pretty scary stuff. And…um…considering it is more than five years after 9/11/01, does anyone know why they are just getting around to this analysis now?
– Sean-Paul has a great round-up for anyone who has been following the Leverett/Iran/Bush Administration saga.
– Stirling has some thoughts on the loss of American influence — and some thoughts on what we can do about it.
– Media Matters has put together the most outrageous statements of 2006. Uh. Mah. Gawd.
– Crooks and Liars has a great video clip from Jack Cafferty on the costs of Iraq. And while you are there, don't miss these Daily Show classics: "We're Not Winning, We're Not Losing" and "'one more shot' at Bill Kristol."
– Laura Rozen has some great bits and pieces up on Iraq — and on Bandar's back channel to the Bush White House. Very interesting stuff.
– David Neiwert shares some important thoughts on journamalism, smear tactics and the flinging of poo.
– And this week, TBogg has treated us to boobages and sociopaths. What a combo. (TBogg is just funny.)
– Taylor has some film suggestions for everyone. Personally, I can't wait to see "We Are Marshall," because it was filmed right here in WV.
– And, just in case you somehow missed it, Billmon is blogging again. Yay.
Related posts:
Spotlight
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
Advanced search
Fitz??
There are children. And then ‘there are children’. Won’t you please spare a dime and perhaps some time, for those kids who will have no Christmas joy? The kid’s whose everyday life is consumed with survival. And trying to stay unhurt.
The hard part for most people is knowing where and how to help; there are so many scandals, and so little of what you send to some charities seems to go to the needy–judging by the amount of additional manipulatively penned junk mail any contribution provokes. I’ve just dropped off three toys at the local ‘Cops Who Care’ distribution center. Where can I find a worthwhile charity that is set up for PayPal?
Poverty. The shame and stain on my country. The United States of America. Supposedly the richest nation on earth. I am ashamed of America.
And please tell me we aren’t the only two? three? people who don’t have anything better to do this morning than read screens!
spurious @ 3
Good on you!!!
It amazes me how protected these people are. They must live in those new homogenous suburbs. Or wear blinders like my mother used to. She has gotten very involved at the local food bank and no no longer carries on about how the poor are responsible for their own plight. I thought Katrina had started to open journalists’ eyes to the “other half”. It was really embarrassing to watch their “discovery” of the real NOLA.
Spurious, you did have to say that didn’t you? I won’t be here for long. I should be working on all the holiday getting ready, but I am taking a few minutes to drink my coffee and get recharged for the day. I was up way late wrapping presents.
Perhaps, the only good thing to come out of Katrina, was that the media and many people like me, were forced to look at the face of poverty in America. Unfortunately, with no leadership to seize this revelatory moment for the purpose of trying to meaningfully address
poverty in this rich land, many of us, me included, have slapped our ‘ignorance is bliss’ blinders back on and proceeded on our merry way.
Sorry Gnome, me too! Got to get my fix of sanity before braving the crowds.
Re solitications for charities, this is sort of a pet peeve of mine. When my half sister and her mother died within weeks of each other, I submitted change of address forms to the post office after their house was sold, redirecting any final mail to my house. Big mistake! The important stuff (banks, etc.) required its own forms, and all I accomplished was to channel a constant barrage of professionally written, emotionally manipulative junk mail to my mailbox. After almost three years, it is still coming; they must have donated $25 to each of 100 charities, besides their favorite political contributions. How much does it cost to prepare and mail all that stuff?? Really makes you stop and think before reaching into your pocket. Now I only donate anonymously.
Ray Suarez knows about poverty. He wrote a book about disintegrating cities and I think he is the smartest guy in tv ‘journalism’. When he did ‘Talk of the Nation’ on NPR, I was always amazed at the depth of research he did every day. He would make a great HUD Secretary.
john in california @ 11
I’ll go with with what you are telling me. Yes!
I dunno, Christy. I think that first Telnaes cartoon might just qualify as an instant classic. Her second cartoon, at the bottom, is pretty good too–but that first one just nails so many things in one neat frame.
Christy, my dad was a newspaperman. I,too, am a newspaper brat. My dad disagreed with me, but I saw “All The Presidents Men” (Woody and Berny) as the turning point for what you talk about, the “glamour” profession of journalism.
My dad had no training, just a keen mind, a clear writing style and a curiosity that would have killed a tiger. He didn’t accept things at face value, there was always deeper digging to do. So unlike today, where pack journalism is the norm.
Although he worked at the National Journal (editor), the SF Chronicle (reporter) and LaTimes (editorial writer) in addition to being a governor’s press secretary, his most proud memory was of saving a man’s life by believing his story when no one else would, finding evidence of his innocence and persuading the cops to believe him.
He lived in rooming houses until he met my mom and sometimes would surruptitiously take the not-yet-empty plate of the guy sitting next to him at the diner after the guy left, among many other things to survive.
I don’t really like the communications major aspect of modern life. Take some classes to learn how to manipulate the truth in order to convince people. I have a hard time believing that make-up, a telegenic smile, the ability to project and skill at parrotting are good for our democracy.
I wish more reporters were like my father and Mrray Waas. Dad would always counter my arguements against the mounting corporate onwership of Newspapers and TV with the notion that his beloved profession had too much integrity to allow itself to be corrupted. He was naive, I see now, but then so are many of our own ideals. The idea is to live up to our ideals, not to live down to reality.
Ethics, shmethics.
It really kills me. And more importantly it really kills the children of poverty. Hillary says ‘it takes a village’. And hello Hillary. We’re spending how much to fight an obscene “war” in Iraq? Per day?
Oklahoma kiddo @ 15
She had to destroy the village to save it.
Christy your writing always moves me … thank you.
Happy Holidays to all of FDL writers and commenters, you’ve all made a difference in my life this year and I am so grateful.
Spurious,
It’s not that we don’t have anything else to do this morning (ahem afternoon here in NY), it’s that we make the effort to show up even when we have conflciting obligations.
Christy says:
Ya start out as a cocktail weenie, that’s what ya write. Versus this kind of bio:
http://www.mysteryauthorsonline.com/buchanan.html
Also, profiled by Calvin Trillin:
http://www.newyorker.com/archi….._archive01
Now, put me in a pub with Buchanan, Hiassen, Trillin and beer. That’s journalism. Oh, Sebastian Junger, too. Spent many hrs. and beers researching like a Gloucester wharf rat for ‘Perfect Storm’. Saw him speak (via CSpan) from Salem’s Peabody Museum (old witchy stompin’ grounds for me.) about birthing the book. Started out as ‘most dangerous occupation’ study, after he had workded as a tree-limb-cutter and fell on the job.
I’d bet the closest ChurchLady has ever come to that is the trees cut to supply the paper his words appear on.
Grameen Bank.
I’m almost done reading Muhammad Yunus’ Banker to the Poor. What an inspiration.
But it’s also a maddening book in so many ways. Governments and corporations and banks aren’t fond of Grameen much of the time and do much to discourage(and outright lie to)people into believing in ideas like this. So simple,so effective,and it makes money to boot.
I think,from now on,when I have money to give,I’ll give it to Grameen. We need programs like this in America,there are a few,but not nearly enough.
Mr Yanus won that Nobel Peace Prize for damn fine reasons.
Well pups, I’ve got to get on with my day. I’ll check in later. Thanks for being such a great literate community. Confession: I wrapped until midnight, but I read until 2am. My bad?
From the BBC today:
End of the NeoCon Dream
Might have been covered elsewhere, but I thought it worth the link.
Happy Holiday to all … tomorrow I spend driving to bring my kids here for Christmas.
“At the table of peace there will be bread and justice.”
I don’t have an attribution for that quote (found it years ago on a set of holiday cards sold by Syracuse Cultural Workers), but those are words to live by, at any time of year…
I want the Iraq ‘war’ stopped. I want the Bush boys and girls held to account. There is no “gray area” on this.
G’morning! For those keeping track, we just had another little shaker in exactly the same place, same depth, 3.5 so just a little weaker.
Fiance had said not two minutes earlier, “will we have an earthquake every two days now, you think?”
OK Kiddo … UN Sanctions against Iran just passed … not good news
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6205295.stm
Teddy! I hope it stops shaking!
I was in SoCal for a big aftershock of northridge and it was impressive … yeow!
And I want Democrats who supported this Iraq thing, that is, those Dems who cannot admit they made a mistake in supporting the Bush lies getting us into this Iraq fiasco, held accountable also. Period.
looseheadprop @ 18
Hey! I can’t hang around because I made the effort to show up here so much earlier in the month when I had conflicting obligations of Christmas shopping, so now I have to pay for it by going and getting Malled today. *g*
Oklahoma kiddo @ 24
I suppose this is filed as ‘better late than never’ as D. Brancahcio (sp?) is talking ‘NOW’ (PBS rerun from last nite) deconstructing ‘Curveball’ and Powell/UN presentaion and the ’sixteen words’ with interviews with D.Kay and Wilkerson. etc. A sad tale about ’sound and fury signifying’ blood, oil and sand. And death. And money. And woe. And blame.
I’d bet a visit to PBS/NOW website would be somewhat of salve for ya Oklahoma kiddo.
But, I suppose it comes down to the same equation of releasing/declassifying ‘Dealey Plaza: the whole truth’. WHat are you gonna do about it now?
Iran and sanctions? Now we’re getting down to ‘it’. The ‘build-up’, that is.
Thanks, LHP and Redshift! Here in CA it’s a bit later but same deal. Merry Merry.
spurious @
5
Well, in all honesty…But such productive urges will surely pass.
;>)
Siun @
26
“The resolution, which demands that Tehran end all uranium enrichment work,…”
Well, it’s been almost an hour – has Bush declared Iran to be in violation of the U.N. demands yet?
Good morning pups.
Rumi posted this link at the end of the late nite thread. I thought it was worth moving upstairs.
looks like the press is once again selling the war/surge lock stock and barrel, no questions asked.
The very generals (troops on the ground) who are suddenly supporting the additional troops idea are the same who failed so miserably the first few years. Odierno, who is mentioned in the article is the torture general! No mention of this at all in the article. Gaaah!
New general takes the reins as No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq
Oklahoma kiddo @ 31
So was that the Friday news dump? I can hardly believe they’re going to go ahead with Iran after all that’s happened in Iraq. Maybe they figure it’s their last shot so to speak.
darkblack – So very good to see your name!
Teddy … they just said something on MSNBC about your little shake … and mentioned some concern that that faultline is due for something larger so please do whatever one does to be careful!
Re Iran, the election was only the beginning. There is still a staggering amount of work to do. I’ll keep going with carrying the small stones, learning more, contributing to the pushback.
Marathon not sprint.
Egregious – the vote on Iran came this morning …
also we have the Eisenhower strike force in the Gulf now with more arriving … these are aircraft carriers and the US is explicitly saying they are there to ensure Iranian compliance …
Eureka Springs, AR @ 37
Why, thank you, ES …And the best of the subjectively celebrated season to all.
;>)
Siun @
40
So, who’s doing the pushing and voting on this for the USA at the UN? Is Le Mustache still at work? Is there a neocon #2 underling making this happen? Is this really our Xmas present to the world? And how hard is it to get everybody to come in on a Saturday morning to vote?
Funny AP article about our geriatric leadership class.
Teddy – from the Beeb:
“But acting US ambassador to the UN, Alejandro Wolff, said the resolution sent a strong warning that there would be serious repercussions to Iran’s continued defiance of the international community.
“Today we are placing Iran in the small category of states under Security Council sanctions,” Mr Wolff said.
“If necessary, we will not hesitate to return to this body if Iran does not take further steps to comply.”
Wonder if Colin Powell will come out of retirement for the sequel.
Maybe Georgie is hoping to get things so far past FUBAR that everybody will just throw up their hands in despair and let him do whatever he wants. Including never stepping down as President.
1/27/07 ~ United for Peace: http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3436
Friends and family of this list will also be having a bluer X-Mas this year:
http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/Iraq/Iraq_danger.html
darkblack @ 41
Ho Ho Ho! love it.
Oklahoma kiddo @
12
I can corroborate that. Ray Suarez was awesome as the moderator of Talk of the Nation years ago. He set a standard that has never been met since in that post.
(In the Bay Area, Michael Krasney does a good job on the local show Forum).
*waving* to darkblack!
SusanD @ 46
I brought up the same point elsewhere (a Maccentric forum that has a poli discussion area) outlining that very scenariio, in sarcastic Swiftian mode replying to early speculation about ‘08 prez preferences, odds, etc. An apologist/F.U. fan quoted it with one word appended. “Priceless.”
This apologist/rationalizer has a modus of citing ‘history’. I hoisted that petard with “Who could imagine four downed planes would create the Patroit Act, torture, NSA, Gitmo, Abu Gharhib, renditions, MCA, Jose Padilla, Iraq…etc.
And added a warning not to be so smug about what ‘historical events’ may bring.
punaise @
51
As I cross the event horizon… back atcha, P.
;>)
SusanD @ 46
I’ve harbored that same suspicion for some time now. The optimist in me looks to Shrub’s anemic favorability ratings and concludes the country would come unhinged if he dared try.
Then the cynic in me notes that this administration and its backers are neofascists in neocon clothing. Throw in a compliant media and presto! Not a third term, but merely an emergency “term extension” with a hazily defined end point.
Bk – Well done.
Just sent an e-mail to the journalist who wrote the LA Times piece on Odierno. (see #35)
No more war!
Alejandro Wolff bio.
Brain Restoration Project: today while looking at both the puzzle and the answer page, I WAS able to complete the puzzle, unlike a couple days ago. Small steps…
With the early warnings on Iran by Seymour Hersch. One thing I have learned from all Bush presidents is that late january is prime attack season, they will do it no matter what public opinion is and we leftys (not all of us) have failed everytime to take heed and launch a successful preemptive protest.
I thought the article this week on student protests in Iran was interesting.
Sure wish our students would stand up this time around.
darkblack @
33
You are not alone.
darkblack. EXCELLENT Bush cartoons! Thanks.
new thread
jayt @
34
911? Oh thank God! I think my country’s been taken over by crazy people! HELP!
911: Your location?
Me: The USA. Hurry!
911: Any injuries?
Me: Injuries! Yes, injuries. Deaths. People losing arms and legs, brain injuries, PTSD, 20,000 of our troops injured, and children losing parents, 600,000 Iraqis dead, nearly 3000 of our troops dead, and they are sending more. And they want to attack anther country. HELP!
911: Have you tried calling your congressman?
Me: yes…it didn’t help. He’s in rehab and is going to jail. Senators didn’t care either.
911: Looks like we have an out-of-control president…If you’ll just leave your name and number we’ll get back to you.
check out:
LAW & ORDER: CHRISTMAS INTENT.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQPPyVx21Bc
“I can corroborate that. Ray Suarez was awesome as the moderator of Talk of the Nation years ago. He set a standard that has never been met since in that post.”
Did you hear his last TOTN show? He took a sabatical, they tried out several new hosts, none of whom were smashing. He came back and said his reason for the move to TV was the amount of time it took him to do the most rudimentary excellent job on his shows every day. He couldn’t keep up the pace.
I thought that was interesting. Here’s a guy who has staff, access to information the common citizen does not, a great curiosity and desire to get it right and it was too much for him. The information age seems like it might swallow us whole. It’s a puzzle and like everything else, a quandry.
Who gets to decide what information is readily available? Who gets to control access to the rest? Who informs us and what’s their angle? How much information is enough to make informed decisions? How to connect all the random facts and factoids into a reasonable thesis?
And how do you know you have truth and not opinion when there is so much out there? I mean, look at what the right does with their share of the information. Incomplete pictures, on both sides, are inevitable.
I wish he’d come back. Wonder if his departure coincided with the politicization of CPB?
Eureka Springs, AR @ 35
heya ES…thanks for dragging me up the stairs. I’m in and out of here today with some work and I figured it’s time to start the holiday shopping. I usually wait till the last minute but this year I thought I’d get an early jump on it.
no time to read any comments even.
so, sorry if OT, but HOW could it possibly be OT to say:
Thanks Christy for your work and dedication, and your incredible talent for making your efforts worthwhile for the future of our world.
Merry Christmas to Mr. & Mrs. Redd and Peanut.
Too true, all a’ you…
Perhaps the most lammentable issue is that the “elected” officials in ever-increasing question are not only neofacists, but are alienated from the people they swore to represent to a far lesser degree than they are from their own selves (F.Pappeheim ‘59). In such a mentally detached condition, the corruptive effects of power are sublimated via God’s own carte-blanche which all religious fundamentalists issue themselves. They know that any “eternal damnation” issues some pesky epiphanies might burden them to confess in the future have already been borne freely from their souls by this irony; 2000 years ago a homeless enemy-of-the-state agitator who walked the same lands where hell on earth is now open for business in “God’s” name, but for Moloch’s profit is none other than Jesus Christ, their Lord and Saviour. Right…
Wanna hear a funny story from the other big story of G.W.’s reign of error? A god-like pscha-blues-smut lead guitarist I revere, borne and raised in the French Quarter, was living in the 9th Ward when Katrina came and swept it all away. He “stood” however, and while his home was a total loss, he and a friend of his spent the next four unspeakably sad days piloting his 11 foot “jawn boat” from one housetop to the next, pounding on roofs for any signs of life in the attics within, rescuing trapped and dying neighbors, freediving into local grocery stores to access vital supplies sitting on submerged shelves in order to sustain those he’d helped to save, etc. After four days had gone by with no sign of help, much less communication, from the outside world, the first official governmental personnel who came to their aid was a detachment of Canadian Mounted Patrolmen.
Meanwhile our country’s Nero was on holiday, squandering countless Louisiana National Guardsmen and Army Reservists to serve and die as his his private gladiators, using what could have been relief money at home as tinder to torch anything he and his Republican Brutes couldn’t loot.
The moral of this tragic tale? In the fullness of time, many of the people displaced from the 9th Ward whose houses and property had been in their families for generations, will likely never receive proper compensation, much less be provided proper notification as the plots of land which once supported their homes lapse into emminent domain, and thence to the auction block.
Yeah it’s baaaaad, and those responsible for said badness will be long gone, leaving all of us to deal with the karmic “3000-year oil change”. If we don’t install our own “New-Age World In Order”, embrace sustainable practices across the entire spectrum of society’s activities, dismiss the “growth-based” model of business (greed), and excersize patience, understanding and compassion at every turn, it will get alot worse. The U.S.’s rating in the civil war category is still the world standard.