HANDLING THE FOURTH ESTATE
The Obama Administration may have the smartest, most finely calibrated press operation in White House history, parceling out scoops, partisan talking points, and First Family tidbits to a desperate media. Just don't ask them to admit it. The administration has started with 14 professionals working in the office of the press secretary—and an astounding 47 more devoted to other aspects of media and message - which is significantly more than the communications staffs of many Fortune 500 corporations. But the media operation goes deeper than that. It’s more central than in any previous administration, and run more knowledgeably.
(VANITY FAIR)
Domingo Soto's Personal Blog https://domsoto.blogspot.com/
Friday, June 05, 2009
Thursday, June 04, 2009
THE VIRUS OF RACISM
Some pundits are engaging in blather about the emergence of a "New Racism", insisting rather ironically that whites rather than people of color are the real victims of personal and institutional racism. This article does a tremendous job in describing the reality of an emerging "New Racism". It's fault, I think, lies in treating the two as separate things and in talking about "Old Racism" as something whose time has passed. They can be more easily explained as permutations of each other not unlike a virus that has reconstituted itself. The "old racism", defines differences in terms of fixed biological categories. The emerging strain operates in various guises, proclaiming race-neutrality, asserting culture as a marker of racial difference or marking race as a private matter. While the old crude form of racism uses biological referents and pseudo-scientific legitimations and buttresses its appeal to white racial superiority, this new strain cynically recodes itself within the vocabulary of the civil rights movement, invoking the language of Martin Luther King Jr. to argue that individuals should be judged by the "content of their character" and not by the color of their skin.
(TRUTHOUT)
Some pundits are engaging in blather about the emergence of a "New Racism", insisting rather ironically that whites rather than people of color are the real victims of personal and institutional racism. This article does a tremendous job in describing the reality of an emerging "New Racism". It's fault, I think, lies in treating the two as separate things and in talking about "Old Racism" as something whose time has passed. They can be more easily explained as permutations of each other not unlike a virus that has reconstituted itself. The "old racism", defines differences in terms of fixed biological categories. The emerging strain operates in various guises, proclaiming race-neutrality, asserting culture as a marker of racial difference or marking race as a private matter. While the old crude form of racism uses biological referents and pseudo-scientific legitimations and buttresses its appeal to white racial superiority, this new strain cynically recodes itself within the vocabulary of the civil rights movement, invoking the language of Martin Luther King Jr. to argue that individuals should be judged by the "content of their character" and not by the color of their skin.
(TRUTHOUT)
OBAMA MORE POPULAR THAN CHENEY WITH GOPers
A new survey shows that the Cheney and Sotomayor debates threaten to further Isolate the GOP. President Obama's job approval stands at 57 percent among likely voters, virtually unchanged over the last four months and just a point off his all-time high. But Cheney's persistent visibility does not appear to be helping matters for the Republicans. With a 51 percent unfavorable rating, the former vice president is at his lowest level of popularity since Democracy Corps first measured it in 1999.
A new survey shows that the Cheney and Sotomayor debates threaten to further Isolate the GOP. President Obama's job approval stands at 57 percent among likely voters, virtually unchanged over the last four months and just a point off his all-time high. But Cheney's persistent visibility does not appear to be helping matters for the Republicans. With a 51 percent unfavorable rating, the former vice president is at his lowest level of popularity since Democracy Corps first measured it in 1999.
Cheney is a deeply divisive figure, popular only with the conservative base of the Republican Party but unpopular with everyone else, including independents and moderate Republicans. In fact, President Obama (+5) is more popular with moderate Republicans than Cheney.
(Democracy Corps and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner)
AARC Public Library - Church Committee Reports
WHY WE WORRY
One unfortunate byproduct of 911 was the excuse it provided for a relapse to things Big Brother. Published in 1975 and 1976, the Church Committee Reports are the most extensive review of intelligence activities. They detail the formation, operation, and abuses of U.S. intelligence agencies and help explain the subsequent limitations placed on them.
(AARC LIBRARY)
One unfortunate byproduct of 911 was the excuse it provided for a relapse to things Big Brother. Published in 1975 and 1976, the Church Committee Reports are the most extensive review of intelligence activities. They detail the formation, operation, and abuses of U.S. intelligence agencies and help explain the subsequent limitations placed on them.
(AARC LIBRARY)
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Truthdig - Reports - Reagan Didn’t Do It
BOTH SIDES TO BLAME
In 1997 a cabal of powerful Democrats and Republicans enabled the wave of newfangled financial gimmicks that resulted in our current economic collapse. They blocked any effective regulation of the over-the-counter derivatives that turned into the toxic assets now being paid for with tax dollars. Earlier, Ronald Reagan had signed legislation making it easier for people to obtain mortgages with lower down payments. But as long as the banks that made those loans expected to have to carry them for 30 years they did the due diligence needed to qualify creditworthy applicants. The problem occurred only when that mortgage debt could be aggregated and sold as securities to others in an unregulated market.
(TRUTHDIG)
In 1997 a cabal of powerful Democrats and Republicans enabled the wave of newfangled financial gimmicks that resulted in our current economic collapse. They blocked any effective regulation of the over-the-counter derivatives that turned into the toxic assets now being paid for with tax dollars. Earlier, Ronald Reagan had signed legislation making it easier for people to obtain mortgages with lower down payments. But as long as the banks that made those loans expected to have to carry them for 30 years they did the due diligence needed to qualify creditworthy applicants. The problem occurred only when that mortgage debt could be aggregated and sold as securities to others in an unregulated market.
(TRUTHDIG)
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