Great little video about Democrats and their communications issues….
Thanks, to Aunt Lily, for forwarding…
Tone-Deaf in D.C. – NYTimes.com
Bob Herbert’s thoughts on the election results. I encourage you to follow the link to the complete story:
It would be easy to misread the results of Tuesday’s elections, and it looks as if the leaders of both parties are doing exactly that.
Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are offering voters the kind of change that they seem so desperately to want. We’re getting mind-numbing chatter about balanced budgets and smaller government and whether Mitch McConnell and his gang can chase President Obama out of the White House in 2012.
What voters want is leadership that will help them through an economic nightmare and fix a country that has been pitched into a state of sharp decline. They long for leaders with a clear and compelling vision of a better America and a road map for getting there. That leadership has long been AWOL. The hope in the tumultuous elections of 2008 was that it would come from Mr. Obama and the Democrats, but that hope, after just two years, is on life support.
Tuesday’s outcome was the result of voters, still hungry for change, who either switched in anger from the Democrats to the Republicans or, out of a deep sense of disappointment, stayed home.
AND
What this election tells me is that real leadership will have to come from elsewhere, from outside of Washington, perhaps from elected officials in statehouses or municipal buildings that are closer to the people, from foundations and grass-roots organizations, from the labor movement and houses of worship and community centers.
The civil rights pioneers did not wait for presidential or Congressional leadership, nor did the leaders of the women’s movement. They plunged ahead with their crucial work against the longest odds and in the face of seemingly implacable hostility. Leaders of the labor movement braved guns, bombs, imprisonment and heaven knows what else to bring fair wages and dignity to working people.
America’s can-do spirit can be revived, and with it a brighter vision of a fairer, more inclusive, and more humane society. But not if we wait on Washington to do it. The loudest message from Tuesday’s election is that the people themselves need to do much more.
Filed under Media, Politics, Social Commentary, The Economy
A Duchess With a Common Touch – NYTimes.com
Great NY Times article about Deborah, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire. She was one of the famous society Mitford Girls and became quite a businesswoman.
YEARS after the fact, Deborah, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, looked in her mother’s engagement book to see what had been written on the momentous day of March 31, 1920.
Nothing.
“She didn’t refer to my birth at all,” the duchess said. “There was nothing for five days, and then, on the fifth day, in capital letters, it said ‘KITCHEN CHIMNEY SWEPT.’ ”
“No one took any notice of me except Nanny.”
Maybe so, but not for long. Now 90, the duchess is doubly famous. First, as the lone survivor of the six celebrated Mitford girls, who included Nancy (the renowned comic novelist), Diana (the renowned beauty and wife of the fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley) and Jessica (the renowned Communist, author and naturalized American). Second, as the woman who transformed Chatsworth, one of the grandest of England’s grand houses, from a museumlike relic into a family house and self-sustaining business that is visited by 600,000 people a year. Along the way, Deborah Cavendish, to use her civilian name (her friends call her Debo), has become something of a national treasure, as grand as the queen but as approachable as anyone, effortlessly bridging the gap between Us and Them in this perennially class-conscious society.
via The Saturday Profile – A Duchess With a Common Touch – NYTimes.com.
Filed under Entertainment, History, Social Commentary, Style
Barack Obama, Phone Home – Frank Rich-NYTimes.com
Frank Rich nails it today:
You can’t win an election without a coherent message. Obama, despite his administration’s genuine achievements, didn’t have one. The good news — for him, if not necessarily a straitened country — is that the G.O.P. doesn’t have one either. This explains the seemingly irrational calculus of Tuesday’s exit polls. Voters gave Democrats and Republicans virtually identical favorability ratings while voting for the G.O.P. They gave Obama a slightly higher approval rating than either political party even as they punished him. This is a snapshot of a whiplashed country that (understandably) doesn’t know whose butt to kick first. It means that Obama can make a comeback, but only if he figures out what he has to come back from and where he has to go.
The president’s travails are not merely a “communications problem.” They’re also a governance problem — which makes them a gift to opponents who prefer no governance at all. You can’t govern if you can’t tell the country where you are taking it. The plot of Obama’s presidency has been harder to follow than “Inception.”
Health care reform remains at the root of this chaos. Obama has never explained why a second-tier priority for him in the 2008 campaign leapt to the top of his must-do list in March 2009. For much of the subsequent year spent fighting over it, he still failed to pick up the narrative thread. He delayed so long in specifying his own priorities for the bill that his opponents filled the vacuum for him, making fictions like “death panels” stick while he waited naïvely for bipartisanship to prevail. In 2010, Obama and most Democrats completed their transformation of a victory into a defeat by running away from their signature achievement altogether.
They couldn’t talk about their other feat — the stimulus, also poorly explained by the White House from the start — because the 3.3 million jobs it saved are dwarfed by the intractable unemployment rate. Nor could they brag stirringly about a financial regulatory reform effort that left too many devilish details unresolved, too many too-big-to-fail banks standing and nearly all the crash culprits unaccountable.
AND
Even in victory, most Republicans can’t explain exactly what they want to do besides cut taxes and repeal health care (a quixotic goal, given the president’s veto pen and the law’s more popular provisions). A riotous dissection of this empty agenda could be found on election night on MSNBC, where a Republican stalwart, Representative Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, called for “across the board” spending cuts. Under relentless questioning from Chris Matthews, she exempted defense and entitlements from the ax, thereby eliminating some 85 percent of the federal budget from her fiscal diligence.
Pressed about Social Security and Medicare, Blackburn would only promise to have an “adult conversation” with Americans on the subject. That’s the new Republicanese for punting. The G.O.P. budget guru, Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, also called for a “conversation” in a specifics-deficient op-ed manifesto in The Financial Times last week. Boehner and Mitch McConnell, in their postelection press conference, declared no fewer than 11 times that they were eager to “listen” to the American people. At the very least they are listening to a message guru like Frank Luntz.
Were they to listen to Americans, they’d learn that they favor budget cuts mainly in theory, not in fact. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll this summer found that three-quarters of Americans don’t want to cut federal aid to education — high on the hit list of most fiscal hawks — and more than 60 percent are opposed to raising the Social Security retirement age to 70. Even in the Republican-tilted electorate of last week, exit polls found that only 39 percent favored extending the Bush tax cuts to all Americans, including those making $250,000-plus. Yet it’s a full Bush tax cut extension that’s the entirety of the G.O.P. jobs program in 2010. This will end “uncertainty” among the wealthiest taxpayers, you see, and a gazillion jobs will trickle down magically from Jackson Hole.
Obama has a huge opening here — should he take it. He could call the Republicans’ bluff by forcing them to fill in their own blanks. He could start by offering them what they want, the full Bush tax cuts, in exchange for a single caveat: G.O.P. leaders would be required to stand before a big Glenn Beck-style chalkboard — on C-Span, or, for that matter, Fox News — and list, with dollar amounts, exactly which budget cuts would pay for them. Once they hit the first trillion — or even $100 billion — step back and let the “adult conversation” begin!
Better still, the president should open this bargaining session to the full spectrum of his opposition. As he said at his forlorn news conference on Wednesday, he is ready to consider policy ideas “whoever proposes them.” So why not cut to the chase and invite Congressional Tea Party heavyweights like Jim DeMint, Rand Paul and Michele Bachmann to the White House along with the official G.O.P. leadership? They will offer the specifics that Boehner and McConnell are too shy to divulge.
DeMint published a book last year detailing his view that Social Security be privatized to slow America’s descent into socialism. Paul can elaborate on his ideas for reducing defense spending and cutting back on drug law enforcement. Bachmann will explain her plans for weaning Americans off Medicare.
AND finally:
In the 1946 midterms, the unpopular and error-prone rookie president Harry Truman, buffeted by a different set of economic dislocations, watched his party lose both chambers of Congress (including 54 seats in the House) to a G.O.P. that then moved steadily to the right in its determination to cut government spending and rip down the New Deal safety net. Two years after this Democratic wipeout, despite a hostile press and a grievously divided party, Truman roared back, in part by daring the Republican Congress to enact its reactionary plans. He won against all odds, as David McCullough writes in “Truman,” because “there was something in the American character that responded to a fighter.”
Surely there are dozens of supporters reassuring Obama with exactly this Truman scenario this weekend. But if he lacks the will to fight, he might as well just take his time and enjoy the sights of Mumbai.
Filed under Education, Health Care, History, Media, Politics, The Economy, Uncategorized
Daily Kos: Republicans win office, kill jobs immediately
From DailyKos:
After campaigning on a platform of “Where are the jobs?”, the newly Republican Midwest will quite suddenly have fewer of them. As zwoof mentioned, Governor-Elect Kasich in Ohio has killed the federally-funded passenger rail project that would have connected Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland. Apparently, Kasich does not like the idea of putting Ohioans to work building new infrastructure that would keep a ton of people employed and provide people with a transportation option that would reduce fossil fuel consumption.Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, 300 people working on the high-speed rail project that would connect Madison and Milwaukee have been let go owing to the election of Republican Scott Walker, who has vowed to kill the $810 million federally funded project over the objections of both mayors, who say that it will revitalize their downtown areas and create and sustain economic development.Typical, really. Vote Republican, kill jobs. Just like the Bush years.::
via Daily Kos: Republicans win office, kill jobs immediately.
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Oscar-nominated actress Jill Clayburgh dies at 66
Jill Clayburgh was one of my favorite actresses. She was such a critical part of the 1970’s film scene with her signature role in “An Unmarried Woman”. I always thought she should have won the Oscar for that part…I will miss her. I was looking forward to many more years of her work…
Jill Clayburgh, whose Broadway and Hollywood acting career stretched through the decades, highlighted by her Oscar-nominated portrayal of a divorcee exploring her sexuality in the 1978 film “An Unmarried Woman,” died Friday. She was 66.
Her husband, Tony Award-winning playwright David Rabe, said she died after a 21-year battle with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. She was surrounded by her family and brother when she died at her home in Lakeville, Conn., he said.
She dealt with the disease courageously, quietly and privately, Rabe said, and conducted herself with enormous grace “and made it into an opportunity for her children to grow and be human.”
Clayburgh, alongside peers such as Anne Bancroft, Shirley MacLaine and Jane Fonda, helped to usher in a new era for actresses in Hollywood by playing women who were confident and capable yet not completely flawless. Her turn as a mother dealing with life after 16 years of marriage in “An Unmarried Woman” earned Clayburgh her first Oscar nod.
“There was practically nothing for women to do on the screen in the 1950s and 1960s,” Clayburgh said in an interview with The Associated Press while promoting “An Unmarried Woman” in 1978. “Sure, Marilyn Monroe was great, but she had to play a one-sided character, a vulnerable sex object. It was a real fantasy.”
The next year, Clayburgh was again nominated for an Academy Award for “Starting Over,” a comedy about a divorced man, played by Burt Reynolds, who falls in love but can’t get over his ex-wife.
via Oscar-nominated actress Jill Clayburgh dies at 66 – Yahoo! News.
Filed under Broadway, Entertainment, Movies, New York, Social Commentary, Television, Theatre
Anna Kendrick: Life Upon the Wicked Stage « Lost in the 21st Century
I love it when I find new performers and then learn they are already seasoned veterans…
Anna Kendrick was nominated for an Oscar this year for “Up in the Air.” She’s also been in the “Twilight” movies. I knew she looked familiar and discovered a couple of clips of earlier musical performances I had seen. I thought I would share.
Her she is as a very small child, singing a song from “Show Boat” at the “Leading Ladies” Broadway Benefit– with the “Cabaret” Kit Kat Club girls. She had just been nominated for a Tony Award for “Hight Society” when she appeared in the show on Broadway:
via Anna Kendrick: Life Upon the Wicked Stage « Lost in the 21st Century.
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Finding A Place For Colored Boys : Tell Me More : NPR
I have mixed feelings about seeing this film. I loved the play, but Tyler Perry scares me….
I’ve hated all his movies up until now. To me, he has played the worst black stereotypes for a lot of cash.
But I think I will go see this film. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
This article makes a very good point. Why hasn’t someone written the black male point of view? I would love to see that, too…
Or maybe Essex Hemphill or other writers wrote it, but it has yet to be filmed…
This is a gap in popular culture I would like to see explored outside of the world of E. Lynn Harris, the black, male Jacqueline Susann.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
I’ve already seen For Colored Girls.
I was slightly coerced (pushed!) by my colleagues to accompany fabulous Tell Me More host Michel Martin to a screening the other day.
But I’m thinking, “here we go again.”
The last thing I wanted (or needed) to see was another film that painted the black man as society’s stammering uber-demon, who comes to steal, kill and destroy; or another project that portrays black men as this nation’s perpetual delinquents — jobless, thoughtless sexual misfits who can’t stop screwing long enough to pick our heads up and realize how we’re letting down our women, our children and families, our God and our America.
Hide your kids, hide your wife, and hide your husbands, too … (you know the rest).
Quite frankly, it’s a narrative I’ve had enough of, thank you very much.
In For Colored Girls, yes, there is a disproportionate number of troubled black men. There is one redemptive male character who isn’t a killer, a rapist, or a liar.
But although the movie (I never saw the stage version) is basically the story of black women who are — in awful ways — victimized by black men, it is also very much the story of black women, pressing through the grit and gravel of life and finding a hope and place of vulnerability that they can depend on. And that’s a beautiful thing.
I left the screening with Michel disturbed, for many reasons. It was, partially, because the film was so emotionally intense. But I was also disturbed thinking about how the men in For Colored Girls — although perpetrators — had struggles, too.
Where was their healing, their resilience? Where is the window into that pain? And who’s telling that story?
I feel blessed to have a motley circle of friends. And, specifically, among my black male “homeboys,” there is no shortage of issues among us. One good friend is a self-described “flaming heterosexual,” for whom dating (and mating) is like a sport. Another is navigating his way through his own sexuality — in the closet some days, out and proud on others. One was sexually abused as a youngster. Another grew up with an absent mother. And another suddenly lost his father at a critical time in his life.
We all have issues, and we’re working through them daily — sometimes selfishly, and not so wisely. And I believe (scratch that, I know) that among us, we’ve at times “fit the profile” of destructive black men, and caused others (including the women we love) a portion of pain.
My point? Hopefully one day, more narratives will unearth the delicate taboo of the wounded black male and his journey to find “god in himself.”
For Colored Boys? Right now, it remains unwritten, but that’s a story I’m waiting to see.
Filed under Broadway, Entertainment, Gay, Movies, Social Commentary, Style
Keith Olbermann Suspension Criticized By Reporters, Conservative Pundits
This is a ridiculous decision by MSNBC. Keith Olbemann’s show is their top rated broadcast. This is what happens when Corporations take over the Media…
Zach Wolf, of ABC, tweeted: “How is giving $2400 to Raul Grijalva less journalistically sound than his liberal nightly comments? I don’t get the MSNBC v. Olberman flap.”
Dave Weigel, at Slate, offered that the lesson learned from the saga is “if you’re media and you’re going to make a political donation, make it to the RGA.”
Rich Sanchez, whose tenure with CNN ended in far more nefarious controversy, expressed sympathies for Olbermann’s treatment: “Got to work w/ Keith when I was at MSNBC,” he tweeted. “He’s a solid journalist. Hope this passes.”
For progressives, in the end, the issue became one of false equivalencies. In addition to News Corps.’s donations, there have been more than 30 instances of Fox News employees or personalities supporting Republican causes, according to Media Matters, the progressive media watchdog group. If these individuals weren’t being punished, why should Olbermann? (The invariable response, in turn, lent itself to a rabbit hole of speculation about the politics of NBC operations.)
The loftier debate is whether the notions of ethical purity is outdated in journalism. Under strict interpretation of the rules, Olbermann violated his company’s policies. And for that, his punishment is, at least, rationalized.
But the notion that what he did is rare in the industry he serves does seem far-fetched. This past September, the Center for Responsive Politics produced a study showing that “235 people who identified themselves on government documents as journalists, or as working for news organizations, who together have donated more than $469,900 to federal political candidates.” One of those individuals was Chris Hayes, who gave $250 to the campaign of his good friend, Alabama Democrat Josh Segall. Hayes was rumored on Friday to be Olbermann’s replacement host that night.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today issued the following statement on MSNBC suspending Olbermann for exercising his First Amendment rights.
“It is outrageous that General Electric/MSNBC would suspend Keith Olbermann for exercising his constitutional rights to contribute to a candidate of his choice. This is a real threat to political discourse in America and will have a chilling impact on every commentator for MSNBC.”
via Keith Olbermann Suspension Criticized By Reporters, Conservative Pundits.
Filed under Media, Politics, Television
Lost in the 21st Century 
Our Banana Republic – Nicholas Kristodf: NYTimes.com
Another great article from Nichlas Kristof.
Sometimes I wonder why I post this stuff since it seems only the people who already know it are reading it…..
via Our Banana Republic – NYTimes.com.
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