Diversity

The photo at the right is not a MSNBC staff meeting. In reality it is the newly elected, all white male United Steelworkers Executive Board (the page is from the current Steelworkers Union magazine, "USW@Work").
Interestingly, almost every photo in the magazine features women and minority members. So long as they know their place, I suppose it is an excellent relationship. They pay the dues, and the good old boys reap the benefit.

(Cross-Posted at Althouse)


The D's are right that (Obamacare) repeal would be a huge problem with Obama in the Oval Office. While I expect a big swing in both the House and Senate this fall, it will not approach a veto-proof majority.
However,there is another path to killing the beast. If the House goes R, the budget will be in the hands of the repeal forces. Then, they must refuse to fund anything and everything in the bill. Further, they must enact and across the board cut on HHS of 10-20%. You have to kill any discretionary monies that could be used to get elements of the program up and running. Force the administration to use any grey area funding to keep current services alive.
There is a high chance this would force a game of chicken over government shutdown. This would be a good thing, IMO. The D's will scream that a shutdown will murder women and children, and the media will help, but if the R's can stick to their guns they can win the battle - and keep the Obama from being insulated from the issue in 2012.

(Cross-posted at the Chicago Boyz site)

Broadcast news is now a cost and entertainment driven service. Stories that give good video will get play, while more meaningful stories which don't show well get shuffled to the back. Hence the networks are all over the plane crash in Austin, and the worker trapped in a hole at the casino construction site. A few months ago balloon boy was the biggest story on air for days.
Meanwhile, wholesale prices jump 1.4% in January. How many hours did CNN and FOX spend on that story? (I'm sure they covered it, but not with the same vigor).
The deepest issue with this nationalization of media coverage was noted above - there is only so much news consumption time, and if we spend it on stories which have no effect on us at all, we have a lost opportunity cost for stories which have large impacts on our lives.
Show of hands - who has read or watched coverage of your local governing body in the last three months (town/city council, county commissioners or county executive meeting, whatever is your first line of control). I believe the greatest amount of freedom comes with decentralization of government, but if people are unwilling to exercise control over local events, the freedom is lost. Spending an hour a week watching coverage of a Las Vegas shooting instead of watching your local leaders consider tax increases and service changes is an abdication of your role as a citizen.

After a long break...

I'm going to get back on a reasonable blogging roll again. It has not been a lack of things to discuss, but the crush of Christmas, New Years, work, football, Kindle and recreation crowding the net to the side. Except where needed to enhance the above.

The Economy is still a train wreck

and which sector is government spending all its' time trying to fix? The one that is actually working, of course:

Health care employment continued to increase in October (29,000). Since the start of the recession,
health care has added 597,000 jobs.

No Sheeples Here: Congress Has Its Fingers In Its Ears

Here is a link to an excellent summary of the coming Health Care debacle. Read at risk to your blood pressure.

No Sheeples Here: Congress Has Its Fingers In Its Ears

Nobel

The Founders were (rightly) worried about the influence of foreign institutions on American policy. Clearly, there were concerns about foreign governments (see the great fear the Jeffersonians had that Hamilton and the Federalists were in league with Britain). But there were also concerns about other organizations as well. The primary example was the Catholic Church, with the long history of behind the scenes attacks against the British throne still fairly fresh in the collective memory.
Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution was drafted specifically to reduce the chances of foreign influence:

No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States: and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.

We have traditionally focused on the "present" in this sentence, as the titles of nobility were diminishing in value even as the Constitution was drafted. However, the concern of foreign influence is as real today as it was 220 years ago. The Nobel was awarded in an attempt to influence American foreign policy. Europe is attempting to move towards greater influence in world affairs, and key to that goal is a diminished America. By encouraging the weakness of Obama's foreign policy, they seek to strengthen themselves.

I do not suggest Obama is required to (or even should) decline the prize. While declining in a forceful manner could have improved his strength at home and abroad, he chose to accept. However, he must guard against allowing the award to influence his decisions in Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea, and other troubled areas around the world. To allow the prize to enter into .his decision-making process would indeed be allowing a foreign body undue influence on American foreign policy