How to Turn Those Death Panel Frowns Upside Down

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Sunday August 23, 2009 · 6:05 PM PDT

2009/08/23 · 18:05

As muzikal203's post this evening reveals, many of Senator Grassley's constituents still apparently labor under the misapprehension that getting free advice from a doctor to help with a difficult end of life decision can itself be fatal. I am ashamed to admit that for weeks now I have ridiculed their position, but if the Senator is to be believed, the ridicule has only made them more scared.

I now finally see that telling scared people that they shouldn't be scared is like saying there isn't a monster under the bed, and then turning out the light. I see now that, rather than mocking these people, we should have been supporting them. Friends, let us leave our cynicism behind and take these fellow citizens at their word. If they are scared, our mission needs to be to cheer them up and make them feel more secure, not to talk them out of it.

steve234

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Wednesday March 11, 2009 · 2:33 PM PDT

2009/03/11 · 14:33

Forget Lehman, Bear, AIG, credit default swaps, capital ratios, the credit crisis, subprime mortgages, the demise of the uptick rule, naked shorts, the cost of the War in Iraq, rising unemployment, and Wall Street gone amuck. The Chairman of JPMC has cut through the clutter, and put his finger on what is really ailing our economy and standing in the way of our future prosperity. In a word, it is us. Well, not exactly the "we are the change we've been waiting for" kind of us. More like the "us" in the crowd to whom the tennis referee says "quiet please" so that the annoyed player repeatedly bouncing a tennis ball to himself can finally serve.

Jamie Dimon, chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co., said the U.S. can rescue its banking system by the end of the year if officials start cooperating and stop the “vilification” of corporate America.

So, Kossacks, elected officials, and ordinary citizens, please do your part and just keep your opinions to yourselves. There are serious people out there trying to concentrate.

Is NPR's Morning Edition Slip-Sliding to the Right?

steve234

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Monday March 09, 2009 · 6:07 AM PDT

2009/03/09 · 06:07

At first I thought I was imagining this, or listening too sporadically as I rushed to get my son to school in the morning. But more than once over the past several weeks, my usual morning staple--NPR's Morning Edition during morning drive time--seemed to be taking a noticeable Republican and faux-bipartisan turn. At first I thought the problem was isolated to anchor Steve Inskeep, who would do his morning newscasts with a daily spin on "Day 45 of the Obama Presidency, the Dow dropped another 11 points yesterday, and the economy still isn't fixed; is the Obama Administration in trouble?". Add to this a regular check-in with a Wall Street Journal economics reporter, some regular political hackery from Cokie Roberts, whose only observations sometimes seem to be "things are a mess in Washington", and I was beginning to wonder. Was it always this way and was I just being unfairly partisan? Where they never that good, just refreshing because their actual reporting was good and they were to the left of the Bush administration?

But lately, the trend seemed to be spilling into the actual NPR reporting as well.

Poll

241 votes Show Results

Has NPR's weekday morning reporting turned more conservative since Obama was elected?

241 votes Vote Now!

Has NPR's weekday morning reporting turned more conservative since Obama was elected?

Yes, for no apparent reason.

63 votes

Yes, because they're trying to be in opposition to whoever's in power, and now that's Obama.

17 votes

No, you need more coffee in the morning.

6 votes

No, they were always this way.

93 votes

They sound fine to me.

7 votes

I like them because they're still better than Morning Joe.

12 votes

I've given up listening to traditional media in the morning.

43 votes

RIP CNBC and DJI

steve234

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Wednesday March 04, 2009 · 8:37 PM PST

2009/03/04 · 20:37

On the third day of his decimating week, Jon Stewart tonight turned his new-asshole ripping gaze from last night's destruction of Rush to tonight's demolition of both CNBC and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. How should I put this? I don't think we have to worry about Rick Santelli starting any more tea parties.

Tough to tell which was my favorite part. I'd have to say it was a toss up between videotape of CNBC's adoring recent portrait of $8 billion Ponzi schemer Allen Sanford on the eve of him being exposed ("How does it feel to a be a billionaire"" "Pretty good"), Stewart starting his own revolt on his set for being stood up Santelli, or the graphic of a Dow Jones Industrials average ticker being embedded in Barack Obama's face so we don't have to be distracted by watching it in the corner of the screen while we are trying to listen to what Obama is saying. I haven't laughed this hard since . . . yesterday!

Or maybe it was showing us the unimpeachable accuracy of the Dow with a comparison to other Dow lows (We win WWII! Reagan elected!) and highs (Titanic sinks!).

Repubs better keep quiet on Thursday morning. There's still one show left this week.

New Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll Shows Huge Jump in "Right Direction" Numbers

steve234

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Tuesday March 03, 2009 · 4:06 PM PST

2009/03/03 · 16:06

Just posted to the online Wall Street Journal:

President Barack Obama enjoys widespread backing from a frightened American public for his ambitious, front-loaded agenda, a new poll shows.
He is more popular than ever, Americans are hopeful about his leadership, and opposition Republicans are getting drubbed in public opinion, the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds.

The poll shows a huge increase in the percentage of Americans that believe the country is now headed in the right direction--from 12% just before the election to 26% in mid-January to 41%--even though the economy is getting significantly worse, and many of the President's plans have barely been announced, let alone fully fleshed out, enacted or given time to work.
According to the poll, two-thirds of respondents said they were "hopeful", and only 28% of respondents said they were "doubtful", about the President's leadership and plans.

The survey also clearly showed how well the Republicans have been doing under the new Administration.

steve234

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Tuesday February 10, 2009 · 4:58 PM PST

2009/02/10 · 16:58

[Diarist's Note: This diary isn't about the merits of nationalizing the banks, attaching strings to further Federal bank backstops, whether the money should be given directly to the people, whether the banks should just be allowed to fail, whether Geithner is really a Wall Street lackey, or any similar issues. It's just about the press's reaction to today's Treasury and Fed announcements.]

Stocks Slide as New Bailout Disappoints blares the current headline atop the New York Times online edition. I mean, forget the stimulus package passing the Senate, here is irrefutable evidence that the Treasury's bank bailout plan has already failed: the Dow dropped almost 5% today. The market has spoken! Head for the hills! What more evidence could people possibly want?

Actually, I think the drop meant something a little different.

steve234

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Sunday February 08, 2009 · 6:49 AM PST

2009/02/08 · 06:49

If you are dealing with an adversary that has a long history of negotiating in bad faith, and you want to show that you are going to start fresh, let bygones be bygones, and try to work together with them, you do not start by making a material concession.

In fact, you do the exact opposite.

steve234

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Saturday February 07, 2009 · 11:58 AM PST

2009/02/07 · 11:58

About 25 years ago, when I was a young in-house lawyer, I attended a seminar by Herb Cohen, author of the classic bestseller, "You Can Negotiate Anything". Like the book, much of Cohen's presentation was devoted to how to constructively use the variables of power, time and information to negotiate successfully, but one segment of his materials was reserved to discuss the aggressive, bad faith negotiating style that he described, somewhat datedly to the current-day reader, as "Soviet style" negotiation.

After listening to last night's medley of through-the-looking-glass Republican Senate speeches, I found myself wondering whether a look back at this concept--and at the "how", instead of the "what" of the Republican approach--might yield insights into the debate over bipartisanship that has been conducted on this blog over the past couple of days as the stimulus package has been shaped by the new political realities in Washington.

steve234

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Tuesday November 11, 2008 · 4:47 PM PST

2008/11/11 · 16:47

In a prescient piece on NPR two days before the election, Daniel Schor pointed out that it was during the Great Depression that Congress moved up Inauguration Day to its current date, January 20, from a date in March. He then argued that, with everything we have going on in the World these days, shortening the transition yet again so that the new president-elect, whoever that might be, could get started was an equally compelling idea.

steve234

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Sunday November 09, 2008 · 5:45 AM PST

2008/11/09 · 05:45

And now, as the excitement builds towards our new administration, who among us has not been gleefully anticipating the moment--the Andrew-Shepherd and Sydney-Ellen-Wade, Jack-and-Susan-Stanton, Josiah-and-Abbey-Bartlett moment--when the statuesque young African-American first couple glides gracefuly around the dance floor, changing in yet another way the way we will look at the leaders of our country, putting the whipped cream, the final flourish on top of the ceremony, pageantry and patriotism of the inauguration?

steve234

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Thursday November 06, 2008 · 6:11 PM PST

2008/11/06 · 18:11

Pretty much the same thing that happened two days after Bush was elected . . .

Antigua's prime minister wants to rename the island's highest mountain peak ''Mount Obama'' in honor of the U.S. president-elect. . . .

Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer announced the plans Wednesday in a congratulatory letter to President-elect Obama.

Attorney General Justin Simon said Thursday he will research if parliament needs to approve the name change.

Aaron for Obama

steve234

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Tuesday November 04, 2008 · 8:29 AM PST

2008/11/04 · 08:29

When you have a child with autism, you learn to do a lot of things for them that they cannot do for themselves, at least not yet. You say "Goodnight Dad" to them at night to try to get them to echo you, and reinforce them when they finally do, so that eventually they say it at the sight of you tucking them in, not just because you told them to. You hold up a juice box you know they want without giving it to them, prompting them to approximate the "j" sound, then the "ju", and eventually the name of the thing itself, shaping responses hundreds and hundreds of times until eventually one day you hear "juice box please" from down the hall. You break down taking a shower into 67 individual steps and teach them all in a long chain, one by one, in order, so that as scrubbing the left bicep five times becomes mastered, it acts as a stimulus to move down to the left forearm and scrub it five times. It can take months, it sometimes takes years, but eventually what you do for them becomes what they do for themselves.

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How to Turn Those Death Panel Frowns Upside Down

Jamie Dimon Explains It All

Is NPR's Morning Edition Slip-Sliding to the Right?

RIP CNBC and DJI

New Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll Shows Huge Jump in "Right Direction" Numbers

Today's Dow Drop and Geithner's Proposal

Bad Faith, Bipartisanship and Compromise

Bipartisanship and "Soviet Style" Negotiation

Moving Up Inauguration Day

Turn the Inaugural Balls Into Showcases of Sacrifice

Antigua Wants to Rename Highest Peak 'Mount Obama'

Aaron for Obama