An interesting weekend in Washington. Two conventions claiming 11,000 attendees each. One, the CPAC convention was heavily reported in the press--including by me, below; the other was the annual Teach For America alumni conference, where I moderated a panel after I'd spent three days listening to the Republican presidential candidates at CPAC. Both crowds were pretty young, but they could not have been more different. The CPAC crowd was full of grievances--America was falling apart, into a European-style socialism, the tax burden "crushing" entrepreneurs. The TFA crowd was full of questions--how do you educate more kids and teach them better, how do you deal with the stultifying education bureaucracies, how do you take the rigor and excellence that marks TFA into the broader society? If the most important question at CPAC was the one that Ron Paul asked of his young supporters--if we offer you 10% tax rates for the rest of your life, would you agree to ask nothing of the government?--the TFA alumni would answer Paul's question with another question: What would a plan like that do for us as a society? And another question: Do you really believe that this is the most important question you can ask of citizens in a democracy? And another: Does the level of taxation have anything to do with the pursuit of happiness? Were people less happy in the 1950s and 1960s, when the marginal rates could reach as high as 70%--or in the 1990s, when the top rate was six points higher than it is today?

Quote by trojanrabbit:
Raine, I was actually responding to the Washington Monthly article where, yes the main effect of these cuts will be to throw thousands out of work. But we already know the Republicans don't believe in Education or any restrictions on how badly the environment can be polluted.

I did look over the proposed Continuing Resolution cuts over the weekend when it was shown that PBS and NPR were in danger (actually it's the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that's getting defunded and that's even worse) and surprise, the only department getting any increase was Defense. Of course, it's billed as "Common Sense" funding levels.

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Quote by Scoopster:
Ugh.. the new DailyKos layout is horrendous!

oh my.

It looks like an orange version of the original Huffpo. I think this is going to take a little getting used to.

Quote by Raine:

Quote by trojanrabbit:
Sorry, Wisconsin. That's what you voted in. Thought you had more brains than that. It's not like he didn't warn you.

It's really sad.

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Quote by Raine:

Quote by trojanrabbit:
Raine, I was actually responding to the Washington Monthly article where, yes the main effect of these cuts will be to throw thousands out of work. But we already know the Republicans don't believe in Education or any restrictions on how badly the environment can be polluted.

I did look over the proposed Continuing Resolution cuts over the weekend when it was shown that PBS and NPR were in danger (actually it's the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that's getting defunded and that's even worse) and surprise, the only department getting any increase was Defense. Of course, it's billed as "Common Sense" funding levels.

I think that we can get those cuts put back in. At least I hope so.

I really wish we would just cut the damn defense budget by 1-2% (I'd love to see more, you all know) But enough already!

I hope so too. I don't know how that would be done, though. Not sure how CRs work, does the Senate and Obama have to sign off on it.

In any event, cutting off CPB endangers PBS and NPR by removing direct funding to the stations themselves. It doesn't matter how little of the networks' budgets are affected, without stations to carry the programming, the networks don't exist. New Jersey is already putting their public radio stations on the auction block in the slim hope of keeping the TV side going because their budget was slashed. New Jersey better get ready to welcome 9 new religious broadcasters. I got into a mild Facebook argument where the side was taken that if the public radio stations can't make it with commercials, too bad. My response was that if you look at what passes for commercial radio, you know it won't fly, we need something not geared to the lowest common denominator.

Of course, you know I'm rather pessimistic about the state of broadcasting in general.

President Obama signs continuing resolution

In light of an imminent government shut-down as result of delays in passing last year’s appropriations bills, Congress has passed and President Obama has signed a continuing resolution to maintain the prior year’s funding levels through Wednesday while negotiations continue on last year’s budget work. The Office of the Press Secretary has just issued the following bill announcement:

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According to this, New Jersey is either looking for someone to just buy the stations and let the state keep the licenses or just buy the stations & licenses outright (valued around 4.2M total).

I don't see how they can tell someone who might buy the whole thing outright that they have to promise to provide "New Jersey-centric" programming. I suppose a religious station fills any need. Either that or they let it go for a year then flip it.

Now these are very low power stations so the operating costs for these stations are minimal, there's probably no "studio" expense per se and I'm sure for the most part the transmitter is unattended.

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Quote by Nina_Stratton:
Good morning all.

I read that Salon article you posted on FB, Raine, and was moved to look up Continuing Resolutions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuing_resolution

I still kinda don't get it, but it refreshed my memory on what an obstructionist dick Newt Gingrich was. I think Boner is just as obstructionist, and I'm really, really, concerned.

It's all pretty bad, We still haven't passed LAST years Budget which has been extended until MArch 4 with Continuing resolutions.

Obama had to sign a CR for FY 2009! I don;t know when the last budget was passed into law.

Quote by wickedpam:
I never got a Pell Grant, though I wish I had they would have helped out on a couple of semesters.

I don't get how people can think that only the elite should go to college or get some kind of education beyond HS in whatever they want their field to be.