It looks like Dan Froomkin got out just in time.
Archives for July 2009
What will Dana Milbank say?
This seems like a credibility-destroyer to me:
For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to “those powerful few” — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper’s own reporters and editors.
The astonishing offer is detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he feels it’s a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff.”
The offer — which essentially turns a news organization into a facilitator for private lobbyist-official encounters — is a new sign of the lengths to which news organizations will go to find revenue at a time when most newspapers are struggling for survival.
It’s time to stop pretending that elite national media does anything other than represent wealthy interests, isn’t it?
I don’t think a blogger ethics panel is enough to take care of this problem. Some blogger ethics legislation is in order.
Freefalling
Bad jobs numbers:
The pace of job losses quickened in June after slowing just a month earlier, casting a shadow over the Obama administration’s attempts to stanch months of declines in the labor market.
The American economy shed 467,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent from 9.4 percent, the Labor Department reported on Thursday. Job losses were widespread among the construction, manufacturing and business and professional services sectors.
The losses were sharply higher than economists’ expectations of 365,000 lost jobs.
Economists said a decline of 322,000 jobs in May had raised expectations that the market was bottoming out as the economy struggled to right itself, but the numbers on Friday dashed some of those hopes.
The figures also raised questions about whether the Obama administration, which has already passed a $787 billion stimulus plan, needed to step in again to shore up the American worker.
Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs and the rest of the Wall Street gangs are posting record profits and handing out record bonuses, all because the American taxpayer spent trillions to shore up their recklessness. And since it cost so much, we are now being told we can’t pass another stimulus or do anything about health care. But hey- Matt Taibbi wrote a tough article and Jake DeSantis was stared at rudely once, so it all evens out.
If the Democrats can not pass regulation of Wall Street in this climate, we should just give up.
And while we’re at it- at the same time the economy is tanking an unemployment is skyrocketing, states are hammering social services.
Sad Times
This is depressing:
Asked if he has plans to run for public office, he replied, “I hope not. You know, I talked to God about that and he was like, ‘No.’”
He continued, “I believe he’s gotten me on this grassroots movement. If I can encourage leaders to step up, that’s what I would like to do. That’s a heavy role. That’s something I don’t know if I am prepared to do yet.”
But Wurzelbacher said he will keep that door open if God ever calls him to be that leader.
I was really looking forward to whatever campaign he would run, and even more looking forward to the Pajamas Media crew pretending he was a serious candidate.
Been a really banner day for the 2008 McCain campaign- all the Palin news, now this. Those guys showed some really excellent judgment, didn’t they?
Sanford and Sun
At what point is Mark Sanford going to realize that his best option is to file for divorce and head down to Argentina? In the last 48 hours he has shot himself in the foot with the “I’m trying to fall back in love with my wife” remark, and then reloaded and shot his other foot with the “I met my soul mate” nonsense, and he appears to be out of feet and aiming at his head next.
I used to wonder if he was going to resign. Now it is just a matter of when, I think.
Not a Photoshop
Wow:
When I saw it at Sullivan’s, my first thought was that it has to be a photoshop done by her enemies.
It isn’t. It is part of a photo shoot for Runner’s World. Has anyone seen Rich Lowry today?
Also, I eagerly await the multiple Red State diaries screaming about her mistreatment of the flag.
Too Crazy For Even the Republicans
Way to go, Michele:
Three House Republicans on the subcommittee overseeing the 2010 Census are asking Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) to reverse her decision to boycott the national population count, fearing others will follow her lead.
“Boycotting the constitutionally mandated Census is illogical, illegal and not in the best interest of our country,” Reps. Patrick McHenry (N.C.), Lynn Westmoreland (Ga.) and John Mica (Fla.), members of the Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census and National Achieves, said in a statement Wednesday.
***Sources say the GOP Members approached Bachmann privately over the past few weeks and asked her to stop the boycott. They decided to go public because Bachmann appeared unfazed by their request, according to a GOP aide.
Patrick McHenry was last seen trying to blame the Mark Foley scandal on Nancy Pelosi, and Lynn Westmoreland was last heard calling Obama “Uppity.” In other words, these are real, certified, live wingnuts who find Bachmann too crazy for their tastes.