News Digest: July 2010

So, I’m starting up a new gimmick on this blog – I’m going to start posting a group of links to news items I find interesting, entertaining, etc., but did not think enough of them to warrant a full blog post. Call it a news digest. Maybe I’ll do this more than once a month, but so far I’ll plan on it being monthly, given the frequency I make blog posts at all.

Deficit posers?
The GOP may be all for cutting the deficit, but their position on taxes trumps their position on the deficit, especially regarding a tax on big banks. So I’d really like it if they stopped whining about the deficit and/or calling themselves “fiscal conservatives”.

Future of Journalism
Once upon a time, American journalism was partisan. When big-city papers began merging into monopolies, they lost their partisan edge and became bland and inoffensive as a business strategy, in order to appeal to the whole city. But that nonpartisan ethos morphed into a perceived necessity for “objectivity” which itself has morphed into a false sense of needing to report “he said vs. she said” kind of stories without recognizing which side may be lying. So in a bid to appear nonpartisan, the formerly partisan news media has actually become less effective and largely overrated at doing its job as professional journalists.

Good Idea
Kevin Drum suggests a payroll tax holiday as a means of delivering economic stimulus as a way to let fence-sitting Republicans support economic relief measures that increase the deficit but still fulfill GOP dreams of lowering taxes further.

Policy Chair Seeks End to His Own Committee
Congressman McCotter, chairman of the taxpayer-funded GOP Policy Committee, wants to abolish that same panel as a substantive (if modest) gesture toward fiscal relief. But as POLITICO reported, the controversy his proposal has caused is actually part of some turf battle by proxy between Boehner and Cantor, and that the alleged budget savings would likely just be reshuffled between leadership offices anyway. So much for that idea.