Browse by Tags

• Bailout
• civil rights
• consumer debt
• economy
• faith
• human rights
• Iowa caucuses
• McCain
• New Hampshire Primary
• Obama
• Presidents' Day
• public policy
• racism
• recession
• service
• values

• A Failure to Frame

  The great unwinding of our governmental competence is finally complete. Having mis-managed the FDA, FEMA, the SEC, the war on terrorism, the Justice Department, and US-Russia realtions, just to name a few areas, this week we failed to respond to the global economic meltdown. We failed on many fronts -- we didn't see it coming, we exacerbated a bad situation by giving the financial markets more, rather than less, freedom -- but I never expected this administration (the one that invented the term "death tax" and presented the proposal to strip away meaningful environmental protections as "The Clear Skies Initiative") to lose a battle because they framed it wrong. Really... Posted Oct 02 2008, 08:21 AM by KTrapani with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: the media, public policy, economy, consumer debt, recession, Bailout

• Hail McCain, the great uniter!

  "The global economic crisis was barely averted today by the courageous efforts of US Presidential candidate, John McCain, who selflessly set aside his campaign -- putting country first, while rival Barack Obama practiced for a debate -- to work around the clock with a breakaway group of maverick House Republicans to get them to back the $700 billion troubled assets purchase plan first offerred over the weekend by the genius, Henry Paulson, Treaury Secretary. Senator McCain, as he has done so often in his long and storied career of public service, used his experience to reach across the aisle and single-handedly negotiate the most important piece of legislation ever acted upon by the US government... Posted Sep 26 2008, 07:44 AM by KTrapani with | with 8 comment(s) Filed under: the media, public policy, economy, consumer debt, recession, Obama, McCain, Bailout

• A lesson for Presidents' Day

  The war is coming to a close. There are deep divisions in the US between hawks and doves, between blacks and whites, between those who want the firm hand of a central government and those who believe in the autonomy of the states, between those who support the President and those in opposition. It is 1865. In Washington, DC, March 4 of that year is gray and blustery... not exactly the kind of day Abraham Lincoln had in mind for his second inauguration. Still, with the Civil War drawing to an end, there is hope and joy among the enormous crowds -- made up of wealthy Northern businessmen, a huge contingent of the Union Army, the entire US Government... the victors. Soon, they will have triumphed... Posted Feb 18 2008, 08:41 AM by KTrapani with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: human rights, faith, values, the media, service, racism, civil rights, Presidents' Day

• What is the role of the news media?

  Like most of you, I have been overexposed to the tv news media for the last few days. And, as several of you have commented, I much prefer the relative sanity of the print media. Still, I find myself wondering why they both insist on covering polling in much more depth than they cover the substance of the issues or the candidates. As we watched the treatment of both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, we learned much more about who was likely to win and, later, why the polls were wrong than we did about the differences between the candidates. On last night's edition of PBS's "The News Hour" -- generally a terrific source of informative news -- Judy Woodruff admiitted... Posted Jan 10 2008, 09:57 AM by KTrapani with | with 10 comment(s) Filed under: Iowa caucuses, New Hampshire Primary, the media