The latest from The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com
- Henry Miller: Ending New York Governor David Paterson's Downward Spiral
- Stephen C. Rose: Obama Pattern Language Primer -- 14
- Dylan Loewe: Whigs: It's Time for a Comeback
- Holly Cara Price: Rubbernecking: The Bachelor: After the Final Rose, Part 2
- Daily Show's Jon Stewart Reveals CNBC Mistakes
| Henry Miller: Ending New York Governor David Paterson's Downward Spiral | Top |
| New York Governor David Paterson severely damaged his Administration with his botched process for filling the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton, and he's been in a downward spiral ever since. A new Marist poll shows his approval rating - now only 26% - at the lowest point of any New York governor since 1982, when the poll began. But New Yorkers still need an effective Governor - especially in this economic crisis - and there are five steps that Paterson should take immediately to steady his Administration: o Surround himself with trusted advisors. The Governor is rightly rebuilding his staff, which has been in turmoil since late October when his chief of staff, Charles O'Byrne, left amid a tax scandal. The turmoil has grown to the point that the Governor even approached O'Byrne about coming back - an offer that O'Byrne rightly declined, presumably not wanting to provide another reason for the Governor to be parodied on Saturday Night Live . O'Byrne did agree, as the Governor subsequently announced, to "work as a volunteer in a leadership position with my 2010 campaign." But the Governor should be surrounding himself with other informal trusted advisors as well - not for the next campaign but for broad advice now. All elected officials need trusted advisors. It's not clear who the Governor's are, and he needs them more than ever. The problems that arose during the Senate selection process, especially the unnecessary embarrassment of Caroline Kennedy, were ones that could easily have been avoided with the help of informal advisors. President Obama relied on just such advisors - including Caroline Kennedy ironically - to help him select his Vice Presidential nominee. The Governor should follow that example. o Take full advantage of the Office of Governor. Paterson is becoming increasingly isolated, as business and civic leaders sense his political weakness and look toward a gubernatorial election in just 20 months. The Governor was not helped by a recent Quinnipiac poll, which predicted that he would lose a Democratic primary to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo by more than two-to-one (55 to 23). But Paterson is still Governor in a crisis, and virtually no one in the state's business and civic leadership would turn down a request for help. Paterson, therefore, needs to create opportunities to associate himself with those leaders, and them with him. He should create blue ribbon panels or commissions - not for show but to address serious problems in the State and make substantive recommendations for reform. The commissions would help him in devising and achieving those reforms, and they would enhance his own political strength by association. o Don't worry now about 2010. Invitations were recently sent out for a fundraising event in support of Paterson in 2010. That should stop. Paterson and all of his political apparatus should be focused on 2009. The State is facing a fiscal crisis of enormous proportions, the Governor's Administration is widely viewed as adrift, and the public is looking for leadership now. Conventional political wisdom suggests that an incumbent can strengthen himself by looking as though he will be a force for many years to come. But Paterson was never elected Governor, so he took office without any public assumptions about how good he would be in this role. He, therefore, must prove himself now. Looking ahead is just a distraction - and a dangerous one for someone who is already down two-to-one in the polls within his own party. o Capitalize on the current legislative session. The next four months will be crucial for the Governor. With the Legislature in session, they are the peak months for State action on the fiscal crisis and State budget, on future funding of mass transit in New York City, on education funding, tax issues, and other needed reforms. And for the first time since the New Deal, the Democrats control the Governor's Office and both houses of the Legislature. Inherent in Democratic Party control is an assumption that the Governor should be strengthened by that arrangement. That raises both the expectations and the stakes for Paterson and reaffirms his need to demonstrate impact now. Paterson took office in the midst of last year's legislative session, and by next year's session the Governor's race will be in full swing. This is the only full session where he can make a timely imprint, and with single-party control there will be no excuses. o Make reform the priority. Reform is Paterson's best bet. He was at his strongest last summer when he was warning the public about the pending fiscal challenges and demanding that the State cut its spending. New York has enormous need for reform (from taxes to education funding to the budget process to electoral reform and beyond), and Paterson's best chance is to show what he can accomplish. If he can positively and significantly reform State government, using the current crisis as the catalyst, he will have his best argument for 2010. The author, Chief Operating Officer of Goodman Media International, worked in the Administrations of New York Governor Mario Cuomo and Mayor David Dinkins. More on Caroline Kennedy | |
| Stephen C. Rose: Obama Pattern Language Primer -- 14 | Top |
| By Stephen C. Rose Continuing a series of looks at Christopher Alexander's A Pattern Language . Please read Our Crisis Is Not Economic as a starting point. THE ONLINE PATTERN LANGUAGE SUMMARY OBAMA PATTERN LANGUAGE PRIMER POSTS -- CUMULATIVE This section considers amenities in a viable, integral human settlement. The local shops and gathering places. Individually Owned Shops Street Cafe Corner Grocery Beer Hall Traveller's Inn Bus Stop Food Stands Sleeping in Public Individually Owned Shops [May be part of Shopping Street, Market of Many Shops] Alexander states: "When shops are too large, or controlled by absentee owners, they become plastic, bland and abstract." Clearly this sets up a conflict and even a debate. Mall culture and Wal-Mart hangar-sized boxes are the seeming default. But there may well be an argument for precisely the smaller.more niche-type outlets that Alexander wants. I use "outlets" with some care because I see storage and home delivery as the future of much if not most shopping. This enables a store to be more a node where someone places an order. Perhaps it has tables and chairs and is social. The proprieter in knowledgable in the niche area. And so forth. Clearly there is no room for huge stores in a settlement that is car free within its perimeter. Street Cafes [May be part of Identifiable Neighbourhood , Activity Nodes, Small Public Squares] Alexander states the obvious: "The street cafe provides a unique setting , special to cities: a place where people can sit lazily, legitimately, be on view, and watch the world go by." I would ideally place such nodes ever 300 feet or so and make them places where people could both gather and schmooze. And also where they might be able to get enough to eat to count as a viable meal. I am convinced that the kitchen's days are numbered and that the pedestrian settlement would pretty much make eating out cost effective. Corner Grocery [May be part of Market of Many Shops, Web of Shopping, Identifiable Neighbourhood] Alexander: "It has lately been assumed that people no longer want to walk to local stores. This assumption is mistaken." Alexander's right and one should be able to meet basic grocery needs within 800 yards max of one's residence. These communities should also have a kid business for elderly folk, where they carry the groceries for a small honorarium. Beer Hall [May be part of Neighbourhood Boundary, Promenade, Night Life] Alexander asks: "Where can people sing, and drink, and shout and drink, and let go of their sorrows?" And answers: "Somewhere in a community at least one big place where a few hundred people can gather, with beer and wine, music, and perhaps a half-dozen activities, so that people are continuously crossing from one to another." In Capri there are such spots including some that are, cleverly, underground, diminishing intrusive sound. My ideal is a community built on a futuristic matrix shere there is a good deal underground, including the mechanism needed to recycle everything in the community onsite. The matrix would include wind turbines and extensive solar paneling and operate as a shell for the community. In some cases even collecting and processing rain water. "Traveller's Inn [May be part of Magic of the City, Activity Nodes, Promenade, Night Life, Work Community] Akexander makes a cool point: "A man (sic) who stays the night in a strange place is still a member of the human community, and still needs company. There is no reason why he should creep into a hole, and watch TV alone, the way he does in a roadside motel." And elaborates: "Make the traveler's inn a place where travelers can take rooms for the night, but where- unlike most hotels and motels- the inn draws all its energy from the community of travelers that are there any given evening. The scale is small 30 or 40 guests to an inn; meals are offered communally; there is even a large space ringed round with beds in alcoves." Bus Stop [May be part of Mini-Buses] Alexander argues: "Bus stops must be easy to recognize, and pleasant, with enough activity around them to make people comfortable and safe." Adding: "Build bus stops so that they form tiny centers of public life. Build them as part of the gateways into neighbourhoods, work communities, parts of town...." In my ideal settlement there would be "rides". I can see a default vehicle of some sort that simply goes through the various promenades and picks people up and drops them off. They could be operated at modest speed by persons trained to ensure safe movement. They would not be frequent enough to discourage walking and not infrequent enough to cause impatience. Five minute intervals comes to mind. They could also double as security vehicles as they would in effect be patrolling the community. Food Stands [May be part of Activity Nodes, Road Crossing, Raised Walk, Small Public Squares, Bus Stop] Fine: "Many of our habits and institutions are bolstered by the fact that we can get simple, inexpensive food on the street, on the way to shopping, work, and friends." Sleeping in Public [May be part of Interchange, Small Public Squares, Public Outdoor Room, Street Cafes, Pedestrian Street] Says Alexander: "It is a mark of success in a park, public lobby or a porch, when people can come there and fall asleep." Indeed but we are far from being the trusting community that we need to become to enable this prescription: "Keep the environment filled with ample benches, comfortable places, corners to sit on the ground, or lie in comfort in the sand. Make these places relatively sheltered, protected from circulation, perhaps up a step, with seats and grass to slump down upon, read the paper and doze off." I would call this change I could believe in. NOTE: I am making an effort to find some visual basis for suggesting the structure of settlements I am trying to convey. So far I have found only the following: EXAMPLE ONE EXAMPLE TWO http://stephencrose.wordpress.com/ More on Cars | |
| Dylan Loewe: Whigs: It's Time for a Comeback | Top |
| With apologies to Tippecanoe...and Tyler too. This is your chance. Come out from the shadows. I know you haven't been a political party in 150 years, I get that. But this might just be the chance of a century. The leaders of the Republican Party have just finished convincing themselves that the reason the public was so turned off by their ideologically backward, anti-intellectual policy agenda was that it just wasn't ideologically backward or anti-intellectual enough. And by leaders of the Republican Party, I of course mean the folks waiting in line to kiss Rush Limbaugh's Oxycontin-dusted ring. That, by the way, might explain this whole thing. The Oxycontin. Kissing that damn ring. What else explains how a real-life group of adult people could make this many boneheaded decisions in a row? Michael Steele said yesterday that people didn't know what he was doing, and that's the way he liked it. Sounds like the Oxycontin to me. President Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, wrote in an op-ed yesterday that "we may find out what it means for a political party to hit rock bottom." I'll tell you who knows just what that's like: The Whigs. Less than 25 years after its founding, The Whig Party was toast. Chapter 7. Done. In under a quarter century. They were a strange coalition of folks, all with very disparate interests and expectations. The party never knew exactly where it stood or exactly what it stood for. They pushed, for example, for a central bank, but when Whig President John Tyler had the chance, he vetoed the central bank's charter. That was a pretty big deal by 1840's standards. Ultimately the party couldn't unify its factions and lost total control. Sound familiar? It ought to. It certainly can't be easy being a Republican these days. Must seem like a bunch of dead ends, what with President Obama's popularity higher than (dare I say it) Ronald Reagan, and with a party leadership that looks like it's straight out of an SNL skit. (One of the funny ones. With Tina Fey.) But listen up wayward Republicans, there's hope for you yet, and no, not that icky kind the president loves to talk about. It's time for you to unite, here, now, at this historic moment, and do what was meant to be done. It's time for you to bring back the Whigs. Think about it for a minute. The Whigs came into existence for the sole purpose of opposing a Democratic president's agenda. I know you like the way that sounds. They were also big fans of state's rights and loved to talk about "adhering to the great conservative principles," and we all know that's something you can get behind. Now, of course, you shouldn't be too worried about emulating the old party issue by issue. It's not something we've ever really been that big on. After all, Democrats used to be racists and Republicans used to be, well, Abraham Lincoln. So to some degree, you shouldn't get too hung up on what the Whigs used to be. Start thinking about what they can be going forward. Give it a whirl, see what you can come up with. Whatever it is, it can't be worse than Bobby Jindal. The party system has been stable for a while, sure, but this nation has a long history of parties ebbing and flowing out of existence. Usually, when a party becomes so impotent, its leaders so misguided, that it can't even provide a coherent alternative to the status quo, that's when there's a chance for a new party to make its move. Jefferson got it done. So did Lincoln. Now it's your turn. The rise of the Whigs starts with you. Make it happen. More on Barack Obama | |
| Holly Cara Price: Rubbernecking: The Bachelor: After the Final Rose, Part 2 | Top |
| These are times that try men's souls. We're dealing with global conflict, the plunging economy, loss of jobs on a massive scale, the imminent tax season, yet another new Facebook design, killer chimpanzees, a new U2 album . . . I mean, these are tough times. And now we're asked to accept the table-turning decision of Jason Mesnick , AKA The Bachelor . I ask you, people, how much more can we stand and stay sane? In a nutshell: Jason , who resembles nothing so much as a dorky Ken doll, is a 32 year old insurance account executive from Seattle and divorced single dad of a 3 year old son. As a contestant on last year's The Bachelorette , he proposed to Bachelorette DeAnna Pappas (on one knee, mind you) and was rejected as DeAnna went for the other guy, professional snowboarder Jesse Csincsak (BTW, it didn't last - but I digress). Hence, Jason was sent off in a limo and scored his own TV show as ABC's The Bachelor (Season 13). Thus began an eight week televised search for true love in front of the whole world as Jason sought to choose his soul mate from 25 eligible young ladies. Fast forward to the end, which took place on Monday night March 2nd. In a nail-biting climax, Jason stunned the world by telling his original chosen pick, 25 year old former Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader Melissa Rycroft , that they weren't right for each other and he still has feelings for runner-up Molly Malaney . Perhaps it's a slow world news week, but the media universe appeared to be rocked to its core by this development. Even MSNBC 's Keith Olbermann made this his #1 news story of the night on Tuesday, March 3rd prior to the airing of After the Final Rose, Part 2 . "This doesn't bode well for our country's argument about the sanctity of marriage," said Olbermann (himself a bachelor) as he discussed the earth-shaking situation with columnist Michael Musto . Let's return for a moment to the scene where Jason got on one knee (again) and proposed to Melissa on a romantic New Zealand cliff. After her excited reaction, he picked her up and whirled her around as the helicopter-cam flew overhead to catch the touching, semi-private moment. Six weeks later in real time on March 2nd, host Chris Harrison brought the two back together and Jason dropped Melissa like a hot potato on the world stage in favor of Molly . In an US Weekly story that was hotly disputed by Executive Producer Mike Fleiss and host Chris Harrison , the entire thing was pre-planned by the show's producers to get - what else? - big ratings. Back to Keith Olbermann on Tuesday night, March 3rd: "I feel like Charles Van Doren during the Quiz Show scandal. Yes it's true - reality television is scripted. And, literally, several viewers did not know that. Thus did this nation awake in unified pain and anger today. For the first time, everyone ranging from Ellen DeGeneres to Elizabeth Hasselbeck banded together in collective grief. Our number one story, a nation outraged by the season finale of The Bachelor ." Is it me, or is Edward R. Murrow spinning in his grave right about now? Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News , World News , and News about the Economy Quoting Chris Harrison on After the Final Rose, Part 2 : "Last night America watched the most amazing - the most jaw-dropping - in fact the most shocking finale in Bachelor history and we know that Bachelor fans all across the country are still buzzing." In the usual reality-show fashion, Final Rose Part 2 was played out in front of a live game show style audience made up mostly of women with a few token guys scattered here and there. The set was replete with mood lighting, soap opera style music, and copious amounts of candles and roses. Special guests included a smattering of the original 25 contestants, who voiced their outraged opinions over the surprise flip-flop outcome. Medical marketer Stephanie allowed as how the turn of events was gut-wrenching and, "...it was, like, better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." Harrison polled a few audience members, one of whom said, "you could tell that they were really in love when he proposed and she was SO excited...it was really real" (this is a reality-show staple theme; figuring out what is real and what is fake for TV. Like it's not all fake for TV - but I digress). Mr. Mesnick himself came out to sit with Harrison and explain himself to a hurting world. "It was definitely not the classiest thing in the world but I had to follow my heart and I think everybody out there knows what that's like . . . Even though I had to hurt people on the way I feel like I did it with integrity." Molly came out to join Jason in their first public appearance together since he told her he was choosing Melissa on the Kiwi cliffs. "People tend to forget that we're not just characters on a TV show, we're real people who have jobs and who have families," according to Molly . A 24 year old department store buyer from Grand Rapids, Michigan, she's planning to move to Jason 's city, Seattle, now that the secret is finally out. Meanwhile, talk show host Jimmy Kimmel skewered Mesnick on Monday night after the first part of the finale aired, calling him a " fickle pickle ." After some banter which made it clear that Jason seemed to have no idea he was the butt of the joke, Jimmy asked: "Does your son understand what's going on? ... Any chance you will dump him and replace him with a blonde child?" Kimmel also wondered aloud whether the rejected Melissa would start dating Flavor Flav . To sum up, the final word on whether or not the whole debacle was pre-planned by the show's producers to boost ratings comes from an EW.com interview with Executive Producer Mike Fleiss : "You can't have people staging this, they're not good enough actors....If he was acting, then Jason is the nation's finest actor, better than Javier Bardem , better than Brad Pitt , and Molly is the new Meryl Streep !" Oh, and by the way? Mesnick is pretty much the worst actor I think I've ever seen on any reality TV show. He kind of makes Sister Patterson , New York 's madre , look like Ingrid Bergman . By the way, you can book your very own The Bachelor Dream New Zealand Vacation and stand in the very spot in Queenstown where all the drama took place. Your stay includes a bottle of premium New Zealand wine on arrival, pre-dinner drinks and canapés, a superb 4-course dinner each evening, full lodge breakfast, use of all lodge facilities including an outdoor hot tub and return airport transfers. And you can reflect on the astute words of 17th century French author François de La Rochefoucauld , "There are few people who are not ashamed of their love affairs when the infatuation is over." Read more of Holly Cara Price 's ruminations on the slings and arrows of outrageous pop culture at Snoop* Du Jour . More on Jimmy Kimmel | |
| Daily Show's Jon Stewart Reveals CNBC Mistakes | Top |
| The Daily Show on Wednesday was supposed to feature guest Rick Santelli, a reporter on CNBC. Santelli is infamous for his rant against Obama's mortgage plan, calling homeowners who are struggling to pay their loans "losers." Santelli backed out, or err, "bailed out," as Stewart put it, from the interview. Instead, Stewart launched into a nearly nine-minute take down of the business news channel. Here are some of the highlights: Mad Money's Jim Cramer telling his audience that Bear Stearns is in good shape. "Bear Stearns is fine... If there is one take away, it's that Bear Stearns is not in trouble." Six days later the investment bank went under. Another Mad Money moment: Jim Cramer touting Bank of America stock as "now the cheapest and the best." That was back in October 2007, when the stock was worth $16 a share. Its now down to around $4 a share. Maybe the most shocking Jim Cramer gem is when he is advising that his audience buy stocks: "You should be buying these, and accept that they are overvalued, but accept that they are going to keep going higher. I know that sounds irresponsible but that's how you make the money." On that day in 2007, the Dow was at 13,930. It is now below 7,000. "If I had only followed CNBC's advice," Stewart says at one point, "I'd have a million dollars today. Provided I started with a 100 million dollars." There is also an interview with alleged $8 billion ponzi schemer, Allen Stanford. The reporter asks: "You managed to avoid the subprime debacle almost entirely. What told you it was not a wise move?" Stewart jumps in: "I ran a ponzi scheme! Instead of investing the money, I stole it!" Stewart says of Stanford and the reporter interviewing him, "F*ck you. You know, between the two of them, I cant decide which one of those guys I'd rather see in jail." WATCH: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart M - Th 11p / 10c CNBC Gives Financial Advice Daily Show Full Episodes Important Things With Demetri Martin Political Humor Joke of the Day More on Daily Show | |
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