End of An Era... Ben Bradlee Dies

If you're a person of a certain age, you know the name Ben Bradlee.  You know he was executive editor of the Washington Post.  He supported and protected young reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward while they sought to uncover the greatest government scandal in our nation's history.  He worked with  Katharine Graham, owner of the WaPo, for 26 years; they published the Pentagon Papers and are closely aligned with the defining moment that changed politics and how we will forever view our elected officials, our government, our defense department and our country: the burglary at the DNC headquarters in the Watergate building ultimately resulting in the resignation of Pres. Richard Nixon 

Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee changed politics in America forever.  As editor of The Washington Post during the critical years of the Viet Nam War - the beginning of the Clinton presidency, 1965-1991, he and Post owner Katharine Graham prevailed against the U.S. Government in a 6-3 Supreme Court decision, allowing the Post to publish the Pentagon Papers,a study of U.S. political and military activities in Viet Nam.   They went on to support and publish the Watergate scandal as written by two unknown-at-the- time reporters, Woodward and Bernstein. 

He was a great newspaper man.

When Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, then two young reporters, first approached Bradlee about a burglary in the Watergate complex the details were murky, but he was certain there was a story...he supported Woodward and Bernstein as they began pursuing leads and took direction from an anonymous source known as “Deep Throat.” They were young reporters, though, without sources on the record. PBS NewsHour’s Jim Lehrer asked Bradlee in 2005 how he knew they were right.

“Because nobody told me they were wrong and nobody could prove they were wrong; they weren’t wrong,” said Bradlee. PBS Newshour The Rundown 10/21/14

In reading a few of the hundreds of articles published since his death was announced, I am struck by stories of his humanity, his sense of right and wrong, his kindnesses.  Often, portrayals of people who've changed the world are two-dimensional.  Bradlee sounds anything but that. 

He was a great mentor. 

He left us alone. He never told us what the story was, how he wanted it written, or what it was supposed to prove that he already believed. You were in charge. And when you’d had your say, he stood by you, battling the detractors, defending your choices, answering all charges of incompetence with praise for your guts and good sense. “You can’t do any better than surround yourself with the best people you can find,” he wrote in his memoir, "A Good Life,” “and then listen to them.”  M. Sherrill Washington Post 10/21/14

I received a letter from Ben dated March 6, 1970. It began: “Dear Ted: You got nosed out in the finals of the toughest competition we have ever had... You are really a year premature and your lack of previous experience in journalism was a tough hurdle for us to overcome. I was particularly sorry about you, because I was attracted by your love of writing, and your attitude generally. I hunch that you have a hell of a future in this business, and I hereby urge you to reapply again and again. I enjoyed my time with you enormously. Keep up your interest in this business. You will make it. Sincerely, Ben Bradlee”  Ted Gup  New York Times  10/22/14

He was a patriot.

 “You don’t think of journalists automatically as patriots, one. You don’t think of them as real authorities in the question of what is classified and what isn’t, and what is a threat to the United States and what isn’t. But in fact at that time, we were,” said Bradlee in his interview with the Academy of Achievement. “We were more expert that a lot of the government witnesses who testified against us…most of us had served in World War II and had quite fancy security clearances. So we did, and there was no threat to the national security, and information, truth, is not a threat to security, and we believed that.”  PBS News Hour  The Rundown 10/21/14

He was a leader.

He took over an also-ran newspaper and turned it into a battleship like the one on which he served in World War II. Once the newspaper he ran gained steam, there was only the relentless effort to beat the competition, to find and woo talent, to afflict those that The Post deemed worthy.In the more than quarter-century he helped lead the newsroom, from 1965 to 1991, he doubled its staff and circulation, and multiplied its ambitions. He would have been a terrible newspaperman in the current context — buyouts, reduced print schedules, timidity about offending advertisers — but he was a perfect one for his time.   David Carr NY Times  10/22/14

I find the last line in the above David Carr excerpt particularly appropriate as I wonder what Ben Bradlee would think of today's media, sensationalist reporting and irresponsible journalism.  

A Week Without Plans

I took vacation July Fourth week to spend time with a West Coast friend visiting family in the Hamptons.  Her plan was to rent a car (one way) and visit us first.   We would then drive her to Sag Harbor, stay at her brother in law's, go to a party & return to N.H. in a few days.  It sounded fun despite six hours of driving each way.  I thought she booked ahead as we discussed this several months in advance.

I was wrong.

My girlfriend thought she could wait til after she'd arrived in town.  Not only was everything unavailable, a last ditch effort to fly Islip to Portland, ME. had ballooned from $128 to $432, one way.

Everyone stayed put.  I now had a week off without plans.

My son suggested we do things on a whim such as take our boat on nearby lakes for a day of swimming, sunning, relaxing: head to the various coastal beaches; visiting my favorite local "cities" like Portland and Portsmouth; BBQ on the Fourth.

Huh?  "...on a whim"?  Well, okay.  We decided to roll that dice.

My husband and I took each day as it unfolded, making our plans at the last minute and based entirely on what appealed to us at the moment.  I have gone to the lakes twice, spent a weekend at the beach in Maine, tried new restaurants,  read, napped, had satisfying conversations with strangers (quite a few surprisingly), gazed at the scenery, savored meals and enjoyed each minute while in it.

I've checked email once; used my cell for necessary conversations as opposed to random ones; used my Kindle Fire not at all.

In a NY Times op-ed on the subject of busyness, "The Busy Trap", cartoonist and writer Tim Kreider, nails the silly reasons so many of us find ourselves with so little time to reflect.  He puts the blame on us, our need to feel needed, our desire to look and/or feel important.

The present hysteria is not a necessary or inevitable condition of life; it’s something we’ve chosen, if only by our acquiescence to it. . . Almost everyone I know is busy. They feel anxious and guilty when they aren’t either working or doing something to promote their work. . .

Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets. The space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing back from life and seeing it whole, for making unexpected connections and waiting for the wild summer lightning strikes of inspiration — it is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done.

I've had a wonderful week of unexpected surprises every single day.  Nothing was planned.  Everything evolved from a spur of the moment idea.  I feel better than I've felt in months and I have only my girlfriend to blame.

Thanks, sweetie!  

Who Increased the Debt?

Who indeed?

Paul Krugman's  NY Times Op-Ed today focuses on the myth of debt recovery in the past.  

You often hear assertions to the effect that in the past the economy has always rebounded strongly after a recession, so there must be something special at work here — and that something special must be the socialist in the White House.

Yet the reality is that weak recoveries have actually been the norm for the last two decades: both the 1990-1991 recession and the 2001 recession were followed by prolonged “jobless recoveries”.

Take another look at what we're going through and tell me we should be out of danger now two years after the failure of the biggest banks and financial firms in the world as well as the automotive industry.  

Come on people.

Class Warfare and the Social Contract

Friday's Washington Post article by Sally Kohn dives into the history of our current bout of "class warfare".  It has always existed but she maintains this come-to-fruition edition began in 1971.

The class war began in 1971. That year, soon-to-be Supreme Court justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. wrote a confidential memorandum to a friend at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce about the “Attack of the American Free Enterprise System.” In the mid-20th century — from the New Dealto Social Security to environmental and civil rights laws — the government had cut into corporate profits while creating middle-class prosperity. Falsely believing that capitalism was under attack, Powell wrote: “It must be recognized that businessmen have not been trained or equipped to conduct guerrilla warfare with those who propagandize against the system.” His proposal, from which the modern conservative movement grew, was to equip business elites for that battle with aggressive policies to make Americans believe that what’s good for wealthy chief executives is good for them, too.

She goes on to cite statistics detailing the growth of the income gap, corporate profit and executive pay.  It's succinct and worth the read.  According to the article, it is all according to plan.

Paul Krugman writes about the "social contract" applying to everyone but the lucky few in his New York Times Thursday op-ed:

To be fair, there is argument about the extent to which government policy was responsible for the spectacular disparity in income growth. What we know for sure, however, is that policy has consistently tilted to the advantage of the wealthy as opposed to the middle class.

Some of the most important aspects of that tilt involved such things as the sustained attack on organized labor and financial deregulation, which created huge fortunes even as it paved the way for economic disaster. For today, however, let’s focus just on taxes.

The budget office’s numbers show that the federal tax burden has fallen for all income classes, which itself runs counter to the rhetoric you hear from the usual suspects. But that burden has fallen much more, as a percentage of income, for the wealthy. Partly this reflects big cuts in top income tax rates, but, beyond that, there has been a major shift of taxation away from wealth and toward work: tax rates on corporate profits, capital gains and dividends have all fallen, while the payroll tax — the main tax paid by most workers — has gone up.

Krugman goes on to quote Elizabeth Warren saying "There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own.  Nobody."   

That was so good I had to find the video.

I still believe President Obama made a HUGE mistake not making her head of the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau she helped create.   That said, perhaps it is kismet.  She's now running for the former U.S. Senate seat held for decades by the late, liberal Ted Kennedy, now occupied by Republican Scott Brown.   Perhaps the balance of power will shift...again.

Slaughter in Norway & America

A twin terror attack in Norway Friday afternoon has claimed the lives of 93 persons, most of them children.  At this point, one man has been arrested.  According to the NYTimes, he's a "right wing fundamentalist Christian"  claiming responsibility in this almost unfathomable act of religious and military inspired retribution against "threats of multiculturalism and Muslim immigration."

Face of a mass murderer
Anders Behring Breivik

Gunman Kills 5 then Self at Texas Roller Rink

An apparent domestic dispute turned deadly at a private children's party in a Grand Prairie Texas roller rink Saturday evening.  According to the NY Times, the gunman wounded four people, killed five, then killed himself. 

What in the name of God is going on in this world?

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory: The Fire That Changed The Work Place

"It was the deadliest workplace accident in New York City’s history."  opening line of "Triangle Fire" on PBS' American Experience



Triangle Bldg burning





Today is the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, a catastrophe which killed 146 workers trapped in the upper stories of a Manhatten garment factory building.  This disaster led to major reform on multiple levels, including establishing maximum working hours, child labor laws and safety regulations. 

Workers at the Triangle Shirt Company

Most of the people who died were young immigrant women.  The average age was 21.  They'd come to America, seeking a better life. Instead, they found a terrible death. 



I first heard of the Triangle Fire in a Women's Studies class in college.  It was where I learned about scurrilous  working conditions in general and tragedies in specifics.  Over the years I've heard it referred to in passing but it seemed to fade away.  This year, however, brings a renewal of interest with the 100 year anniversary.  I watched the PBS show a few weeks ago. HBO has produced a new documentary as well.  It airs tonight, 11pm, on CNN thanks to cooperation between the media entities. 

As horrible as it was, the backlash against so many heretofore unchallenged workplace practices began to take effect.  The public demanded accountability and safety precautions and protection.  The NY Tiimes has a wonderful photographic slide show with accompanying historical information as well as the memorialization and celebration of the victims today and every year.  Ironically, the building stands.  It was fireproof.  NYU uses it for departmental studies and the Times pictorial has a photo of the devastated room below  as it looks today.


Burned out room on 9th floor

 

Now What?

Qaddafi Forces Hold Strategic Town as Allied Attacks Continue

Rebels want Qaddafi alive to face trial. Per HuffPost, they don't want any international forces to invade the country..."believe we can do it ourselves..." 

Death toll from Japan’s disasters over 8,000; more than 13,000 missing

Japan's "worst crises since WWII." 

Workers Flee Japan Nuclear Plant As Smoke Rises 

They know what needs to be done; question is, can they do it in time?

A Very Liberal Intervention

I hope this guy is right about the President's intentions but I'm not feelin' it.

Say It Ain't So Maxine

Congresswoman Maxine Waters

I've always admired Maxine Waters. She voted with courage and common sense against the invasion of Iraq. She was also co-sponsor of a House resolution to impeach Dick Cheney for "making allegedly false statements about the war." She has worked hard for the downtrodden in California. She is a ten term congresswoman and one of the most powerful members of the House. Like all powerful leaders, she has her supporters and detractors. She's now under scrutiny now for possible ethics violations.

Waters is under investigation for arranging a meeting between the federal regulators and executives of a bank in which her husband owns $250,000.00 in stock. The investigation involves conflict of interest as to whether she helped steer government aid to the bank while she was a member of the Financial Services Committee.

Not many details have been released. I read the NY Times and HuffPost articles this morning. I can't really glean much from either except to say if she did this, it was pretty darn stupid and maybe that's why I find it harder to believe than the charges against Charlie Rangel who has always seemed a grandstanding, loud-mouthed, showy member of the rank & file. Perhaps he genuinely feels for his constituents but his demeanor and the controversy he continues to inspire belies it. Maxine, on the other hand, has always appeared caught up by the needs of her constituents as well as the greater good. Perhaps this is my wishful thinking but...

...say it ain't so.

Maxine Waters from blackpast.com

 

Reverse Racism?

Shirley Sherrod with the "Family Farm Champion Award" from aglawllm.blogspot.com   2009

By now, you are probably familiar with the Shirley Sherrod situation.  If  not, go here.   Up until yesterday, Ms. Sherrod served as USDA director of agriculture in the state of Georgia.  She is African American.  She was asked to resign by Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsak.  She was also condemned by the NAACP.
The reason?  A  tape surfaced on the conservative web site BigGovernment.com showing Ms. Sherrod supposedly telling a story of how race played a part in her work with a white farmer 24 years ago who came to her seeking a loan.  The tape is edited.  It is only a segment of an entire speech she was giving at an NAACP dinner in which the point of the story was reconciliation through race.  The web site's edit makes the speech look as though she was influenced by her feelings towards whites to not help the farmer.  Interestingly enough, said farmer says he wouldn't have his farm today without her help back in the day.

This is all over the news.  It's a big story about racism on both sides of our government.  It's also about viral information, sound bytes, editing, spin. The mainstream media have expressed shock and surprise that the government and NAACP would punish her without vetting the tape, watching it in its entirety.  The conservative media are using this as an example of the NAACP, who last week accused the tea party of being "rascist", as now on the receiving end of the same thing.  One blogger whose writings incense alot of his readers feels she's been thrown under the "O Bus".

This is a fascinating debate and really points up the complex fast paced nature of news today.  While I abhor the tactics used by conservative media, they are on the right side this time (no pun intended) by calling for Ms. Sherrods "re-instatement" and apologies from the Administration.  The NAACP already issued their apology last night.

Another MASSEY ENERGY Mine Disaster

Twenty five miners killed in what is being described as the "worst U.S. mining disaster in more than two decades."   Performance Coal Co, operating in Montcoal, W.V. is a subsidiary of Massey Energy, the nation's largest mining corporation and its worst environmental offender.  Massey Energy has continuously been cited for major safety violations at their mine sites.

ABC News reported:

 The nation's sixth biggest mining company by production, Massey Energy took in $24 million in net income in the fourth quarter of 2009. The company paid what was then the largest financial settlement in the history of the coal industry for the 2006 fire at the Aracoma mine, also in West Virginia. The fire trapped 12 miners. Two suffocated as they looked for a way to escape. Aracoma later admitted in a plea agreement that two permanent ventilation controls had been removed in 2005 and not replaced, according to published reports.

Massey CEO, Don Blankenship, has, over many years, been the subject of articles and inquiries regarding his business practices including political support of those in position to do his company the most good. Massey Energy has been accused and convicted of ongoing safety rules violations usually receiving what is known in the industry as a "soft fine".  For example, a recent case involved a judge who overturned a $50,000,000.00 judgment against the company on appeal.  This judge had long ties with and received thousands of dollars in campaign finance support from Blankenship.   



Rescue efforts were suspended this morning because high levels of methane gas made the operation unsafe, according to the NY Times.
 
You can help by donating to the Salvation Army or Red Cross  both of whom are on the scene supplying aid.
 

Where do I go for Political POV?

 

Hosed   by Cole Scott

Thought I'd post some links to places I go for points of view on the news I'm getting from the networks, the NY Times, the Huffington Post, et.al.

the Field Negro   His profile indicates he is a lawyer. His POV is "candid discussions about race" Just started reading his posts.

Political Carnival  Hilarious posts on anything and everything political.  

FiveThirtyEight    Statistical breakdowns on everything from polls to stock market, etc.  A must stop for Type As.

Think Progress    Liberal POV striving for "Social and Economic Justice; Media Accountability;Healthy Communities; Global and Domestic Security".

The Raw Story    is "...an alternative news nexus....draws upon a panoply of news sources and select stories... most intriguing to an audience seeking news underplayed by mainstream media." 

FactCheck.org    the facts, ma'am, just the facts.  They check, clarify and/or correct statements made in the media.  A must for anyone following politics.  Check out Whoppers of 2009.

Favorite tv news show:  The Daily Show.  Nobody skewers news like Jon Stewart.

Favorite News Anchor:  Seth Meyers, Weekend Update.  Check out last night below.  Classic.

Lou Dobbs Would Rather Switch Than Fight

From yesterday's NY Times.com,  

"Months ago the president of CNN/U.S., Jonathan Klein, offered a choice to Lou Dobbs, the channel’s most outspoken anchor. Mr.Dobbs could vent his opinions on radio and anchor an objective newscast on television, or he could leave CNN.


For a time, Mr. Dobbs did tone down his TV rhetoric, but on Wednesday he made a more drastic decision: He chose opinion.


Mr. Dobbs told viewers that he was resigning from his CNN job immediately. Sitting before an image of an American flag on his studio set, he said “some leaders in media, politics and business have been urging me to go beyond the role here at CNN and to engage in constructive problem solving as well as to contribute positively to the great understanding of the issues of our day.”


He remained vague about how he would contribute 'to the national conversation,' saying that he was considering “a number of options and directions...

Well known for his opposition to illegal immigration, Mr. Dobbs was an outlier at CNN, which has sought to be seen as the neutral turf of cable news.

'If CNN wants to be seen as the thoughtful, unbiased, middle of the road alternative to Fox News on the right and MSNBC on the left, this decision goes along with that,' said Geneva Overholser, the director of the School of Journalism at the University of Southern California.

She said the anchor’s decision also makes sense 'if he really wants to be Lou Dobbs, man of opinion.'
Mr. Dobbs’s show drew an average of 631,000 viewers in October, putting him in third place behind Fox News and MSNBC. Like those for other CNN programs, his ratings have declined in recent months."


Big Whoop.  Gee, I wonder where he's going?  Could it be to ...hmmm...SATAN?  I mean, Fox News???

Rain Rain Please Get the @!*#! Outta Here!

Just finished nytimes.com article "In New York, It's the Summer That Isn't" and it's chock full of interesting tidbits, historic and ecologically.

1) Depending on today's high, "this will be the second or third coolest June and July recorded.." since 1903 or 1881.

2) July's average temperature, as of yesterday's high, was 72.6 degrees, "nearly four degrees below normal."

3) In June 2009, Con Ed produced 5.5% less power than June 2008. There were no
black-outs, brownouts or conservation calls.

4) Daily peak use average 10,934 megawatts. The projected high was 11, 945.
Electric bills have shrunk by 6%.

5) Attendance at city beaches through July was down 30%, from 7.1 million to 5.5.

6) In July 2008, the EMS answered 134 heat-related calls. This year there were
41.

7) Seattle, on the other hand, hit a record temp of 103 degrees last Wednesday.
It's been hot hot hot up there.

While the overall consumption of kilowatt hours, water resources and the like are down in a big city like New York, they are soaring in the usually more moderate climates of the country.

The meteorologist referenced in the article said most scientists attribute the cooling patterns to a "persistent high level jet stream" of cool air from North to Northeast as well as the heating and cooling of the atmosphere by the ocean temperatures. But he doesn't think they understand things all that well.

All I know is, it rained all of June. It rained all of July and if it rains all of August, summer will be over and I'll be living in a tropical rain forest. I hear tell of mountain trails usually clear and bushwhacked that have completely closed up and grown over again...much like the maze in the Harry Potter movie. The Shasta Daisies in my garden grow in large beautiful clumps and are divided by a footpath of granite stepping stones. I keep clearing the path by cutting flowers but no sooner is that done then it closes again.

My annuals are drowning, there are slugs everywhere, we're having an infestation of Japanese beetles which may have, hopefully,drowned by now. My dogs and cat are listless, cranky and full of gas from lack of exercise. The only good thing is the bugs seem to be drowning too. I think the super cool nights are killing them as they hatch. We don't have standing water around our home. Others who do say the mosquitoes are ferocious.

Photo is of one of my Gerbera Daisies from last year. This year's should look so good.