The Huffington Post, Daily Kos and other left-leaning sites benefit from the right’s belief that there are rules and decorum in political debate and civic engagement.
The thing is, he’s apparently serious.
Memory Lane
Here’s the New York Times story about the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act:
Congress approved landmark legislation today that opens the door for a new era on Wall Street in which commercial banks, securities houses and insurers will find it easier and cheaper to enter one another’s businesses…
“Today Congress voted to update the rules that have governed financial services since the Great Depression and replace them with a system for the 21st century,” Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers said. “This historic legislation will better enable American companies to compete in the new economy.”
The decision to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 provoked dire warnings from a handful of dissenters that the deregulation of Wall Street would someday wreak havoc on the nation’s financial system.
Thank God this Summers guy no longer has any power over American economic policy.
On a happier note
David Carr on the Austin Chronicle, and why it is holding its own in these difficult times:
Part of the reason may have to do with price (free) but there is something else afoot. The Chronicle is knit into civic and cultural life in Austin to a degree that may make other newspapers nervous. While other regional news outlets do house ads and commercials about their connection to the community, The Chronicle started the South by Southwest conference, its founders have helped finance local filmmakers, and when you step off the airplane and see a huge bookstore branded with The Chronicle’s name, it’s clear that the weekly plays big for its size.
Louis Black, The Chronicle’s editor and founder — along with Nick Barbaro, the paper’s publisher — does not want to tempt the angry media gods. A very conservative person in some regards, he points out that the business has lived on cash flow since the outset and never has taken on any significant debt or partners. They own The Chronicle’s building and the building where the festival is set up.
The festival was founded by Mr. Barbaro and Mr. Black, along with their friend Roland Swenson, back in 1987, which, come to think of it, is just about the time that the newspaper took off as well. After taking a big hit from Craigslist — “let’s just say that the unlicensed massage category suffered significantly,†Mr. Black said — the newspaper has been stable and healthy.
It’s best not to generalize too much about a newspaper that covers a city whose unofficial battle cry is “Keep Austin Weird,†but there is a palpable connection to The Chronicle here. Many people will also point out that Austin is a notoriously liberal, literate place, but that hasn’t done a lot for The Austin American-Statesman, which, like so many other daily papers, is in decline and up for sale.
“They are a big part of the story here and always have been,†said Frank Hendrix, who owns Emo’s, a club here, and was overseeing three stages during the festival.
(edited)
The nations of political talk
A friend at the Yale Project on Climate Change forwards the results of a survey they conducted prior to the 2008 elections, trying to determine who is listening to and/or watching O’Reilly, Limbaugh, and Hannity, as well as Olbermann, Stewart and Colbert. Short answer: a disproportionately small percentage of the population.
Bidness
The very last of the magnets go out today, and that’s probably the end of that for awhile, due to another project moving on to the front burner. My industry is dying and my career’s in meltdown, but I’m very busy! Anyway, as I’ve said numerous times, it’s a foregone conclusion that a few orders will get screwed up — just email me if you have a problem and we’ll sort it out.
Also: this project I’m taking on is likely to keep me pretty busy for most of the next month or so, which means that updates to the blog will be even less frequent than usual.