All the polls predict that Speaker-In-Waiting Boehner should start measuring the drapes for his new office. Is his rhetoric changing to fit the new job, shifting from politics to policy? Maybe.
Is unemployment headed above 10%? That’s the prediction from BofA Merrill Lynch.
And there’s no recession in the world of politics. Election spending is set to top records.
Good Morning & a very happy post-Labor Day! We have now entered “official” campaign season…
Hurricane Earl is over North Carolina and will proceed up the East Coast today and tomorrow… leaving a beautiful, long Labor Day weekend for vacationers to enjoy.
David Plouffe – campaign manager for Obama/Biden 2008, and possible architect of the successful pre-White House communications plan – is reportedly waiting for the call to get started on Obama/Biden(?) 2012. He will appear on Meet the Press this weekend. Politico says he won’t be campaign manager this time around, though. Instead, he’ll probably be a senior advisor or consultant.
And, speaking of media, from former Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal’s Yale course syllabus this fall… “Communicating the Story – the Media Enviornment”
Happy Friday & Happy Labor Day Weekend! Here’s what’s in the news this morning:
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Coming to a news station near you: Hurricane Earl vs. East Coast!! Evacuate! Forecast models show the category 4 storm moving rapidly NE, approaching North Carolina today and then moving up the coast, coming dangerously close to Long Island and the Cape.
Chuck Norris kicks off “Trigger the Vote” campaign.
And the FEC wants even more control over independent players in elections (surprise!). By a vote of 5-1 commission decided to subject any ads or messages that can be seen as the “functional equivalent of expressed advocacy” for candidates/campaigns to FEC finance restrictions.
Every week here at SAM we give out an Irreverent Messenger award to a person who deserves recognition for their outstanding communication skills in support of freedom and accountability. As a result of all of this talk about messengers I’ve began thinking about the messaging coming out of our very own executive branch of government. While watching White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs’ interview with Fox’s Gretchen Carlson an interesting question dawned on me: what kind of messenger is the White House’s messenger-in-chief?
Let’s start with a quick history: the first White House Press Secretary was appointed by Herbert Hoover in 1929 just seven months prior to the stock market crash kicking off the Great Depression. Hoover may have been motivated to create the post by his well known distaste for the press, but regardless, the position has endured through more than 80 years and 14 administrations. It has, however, evolved. In fact, the first official White House Press Secretary, George Edward Akerson, didn’t need to worry about appearances since he addressed the country over the radio–not that we’d hold it against him if he looked like Peter Griffin anyway.
It isn’t every 10 year-old that gets to meet-and-greet Donald Trump. But then again, Joey McGuire isn’t just any 10-year-old. He’s a 10 year-old CEO. Joey is SAM’s Irreverent Messenger this week not for meeting Trump, but for exhibiting an entrepreneurial streak that made the famous billionaire want to meet him.
As the CEO of his own shoe shine business, Beverly Shoe Shine – already with three to five customers a day and three part-time employees – and as the publisher, writer, editor, and delivery boy for his own weekly newspaper, Joey is demonstrating every day that the American entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well. And more importantly, its future is safe. Joey recently described his inspiration for his business to Chicago Sun-Times writer Mark Konkol:
“My dad brought home a shoe kit from Grandpa’s house, and I started shining my family’s shoes. It was really fun. And I was inspired a little bit by Donald Trump. I watched his show, the ‘Celebrity Apprentice,’ once. I thought it would be fun to own my own business when I get older. So I just started a business.”
Yesterday, the Federal Communications Commission appealed the Second Circuit Court of Appeal’s decision last month to strike down the FCC’s indecency policy as too vague to be constitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that the FCC does have the right to regulate broadcast content, but the Second Circuit Court made it clear in its decision that the FCC’s policy opens the door for infringement on free speech because it is so broad.
The Second Circuit Court’s decision can be seen as a welcome limit on the FCC’s gradual expansion of its regulatory power, both over broadcasts and other media. However, not everybody sees it this way. Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council, supports the FCC’s attempt to appeal the decision, saying:
“The FCC’s challenge of the Second Circuit ruling is an important step in the right direction. Without Supreme Court action, the Second Circuit ruling would kick down the door for indecent content to be aired at any time of day over the public airwaves – even in front of children.”
Listen to the latest Engaging Democracy.
A few weeks ago Eric, my colleague Julie, and I attended the 2010 Global Forum on Direct Democracy and U.S. Conference on Initiative and Referendum in San Francisco. This was the biggest event for Direct Democracy activists held in the U.S. in more than ten years. So if there’s such a thing as a Direct Democracy A-lister, they were at the 2010 Global Forum. Not just from the U.S. either. We met initiative and referendum proponents from Korea, Sweden, Germany, and Switzerland. By the way, if you’re wondering what is Direct Democracy, and are in want of a guidebook, let me suggest the aptly titled Guidebook to Direct Democracy. We got our hands on the 2010 version, and it’s helpful and easy to read.
According to the event website, the conference attracted more than 400 direct democracy activists, scholars, critics and leaders from around the world. Citizens in Charge Foundation and Initiative and Referendum Institute Europe were co-presenters of the conference, and were nice enough to let us set up our Engaging Democracy portable studio. We recruited a bunch of impressive folks for interviews — political scientists, activists, authors and educators from the U.S. and Europe — to learn more about how direct democracy works, and how some are advocating for it in their communities, states and countries.
In today’s podcast, we begin an Engaging Democracy series consisting of those interviews. In part one of our series, we talk with one of the people responsible for making the conference happen: Paul Jacob of Citizens in Charge. We asked Paul about Americans’ attitudes toward their elected officials today, and why they might consider Direct Democracy.
Listen to the podcast here.
Visit our Engaging Democracy page for more podcasts.
The jury may have only convicted ex-Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich on one of the 24 counts brought against him during his recent corruption trial, but for Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass – and many, many other Illinoisans who have lived under “the Illinois Combine” – the ex-Governor is still, in Kass’s words, “Governor Dead Meat.”
Kass’s scathing rebuttal to a Wall Street Journal editorial calling for the state not to retry the Governor on the 23 counts he faced, and for the resignation or firing of the U.S. Attorney prosecuting the case, makes him our Irreverent Messenger this week. In a detailed column in which he answers questions he received from readers (extra points for citizen engagement), Kass lays out the facts about the case against the ex-Governor that the WSJ may have forgotten, as well as the the reasons we should keep Federal Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald:
Tribune reporting shows that the jury voted 11-1 to convict former Gov. Rod Blagojevich on 13 corruption counts, including charges he tried to sell President Barack Obama’s old Senate seat. Fitzgerald was forced to pull the trigger early on the investigation when on Dec. 5, 2008, the Tribune published a story reporting that Blagojevich had been secretly recorded by the feds. He had no choice but to wrap up the investigation. Consider how the big dogs ran wild in the corrupt state of Illinois before Fitzgerald arrived. If he leaves, there will be little hope.
In 1774, Philadelphia welcomed the British pamphleteer Thomas Paine. Two years later – on the cusp of revolution – he anonymously began to sell his pamphlet Common Sense to the American colonists to advocate against British rule of the American colonies. Yes, he sold his pamphlet; in the first year alone he sold half a million copies – a remarkable accomplishment considering the steep price of publications, relatively high illiteracy rates, and a tiny two and a half million person population throughout British America.
What would have become of the entrepreneurial Thomas Paine had he been required to pay for a “business privilege license” to simply open shop? Common Sense may never have existed and the people of the British American colonies would have suffered from that loss. According to the Philadelphia City Paper, this licensing is exactly what bloggers today are facing:
For the past three years, Marilyn Bess has operated MS Philly Organic, a small, low-traffic blog that features occasional posts about green living, out of her Manayunk home. Between her blog and infrequent contributions to ehow.com, over the last few years she says she’s made about $50. To Bess, her website is a hobby. To the city of Philadelphia, it’s a potential moneymaker, and the city wants its cut. In May, the city sent Bess a letter demanding that she pay $300, the price of a business privilege license.
In the latest Engaging Democracy podcast, we take on the sometimes controversial intersection between technology and the state. Eric discusses how new technology and distribution mechanisms have consistently fueled the historical American practice of citizen journalism, beginning with pamphleteering in the colonial days and leading to today’s widespread use of video recording. But are current laws on recording video realistic for the new role they play in sharing information and affecting legal outcomes in court?
In the podcast, we discuss one particular application of law that’s received plenty of media attention this summer: police arresting onlookers who are videotaping arrests or other official actions. We talk to John Surmacz, who tells us about his arrest for videotaping an arrest at a party in Boston two years ago; and how he found himself suddenly involved in the most recent fight between new technology, and old state laws.
Listen here, and visit the Engaging Democracy page for more podcasts.
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