While we wait for the Royals to resume their “win-now” season, there’s a lot of news to distract us.
I’m talking about news that all of us need to know, but which we’re not getting from The Star because it has blinders on to just about anything that isn’t local and isn’t produced by its parent chain, McClatchy Newspapers.
With the gloom and rain this morning, I had plenty of time to read Monday’s New York Times, and I want to call your attention to several interesting stories, none of which you would know about if you were reading The Star.
:: Because Congress is so polarized the Affordable Care Act probably won’t be getting needed amendments.
The lead story in today’s NYT, written Jonathan Weisman and Robert Pear, said that virtually no law “as sprawling and consequential” as the Affordable Care Act has passed without changes known as “technical corrections,” aimed at making sweeping laws more manageable. Not so with the Affordable Care Act, Weisman and Pear said.
“Republicans simply want to see the entire law go away and will not take part in adjusting it,” the reporters wrote. “Democrats are petrified of reopening a politically charged law that threatens to derail careers as the Republicans once again seize on it before an election year.
“As a result a landmark law that almost everyone agrees has flaws is likely to take effect unchanged.”
:: An aide who has totally gained President Obama’s ear during just the last three years is White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, 42.
Among other things, Obama relies on her for advice on judicial nominations, and she coordinated his response to the Boston Marathon bombings.
Ruemmler
An inside-the-A-section story by Jackie Calmes said that Ruemmler helped shape the major speech that Obama gave last Thursday, announcing new limits on the use of armed drones and asserting again that he wanted to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
When Obama went to Boston after the bombings in mid-April, Ruemmler went along at Obama’s request. “She came with us because there was information coming in, and he wanted one filter,” an Obama deputy chief of staff was quoted as saying. “He wanted Kathy.”
:: A dangerously wide gap has formed between the American people and their armed forces.
An Op-Ed piece by Karl W. Eikenberry, a retired Army lieutenant general, and David M. Kennedy, a retired history professor, said that the gap began forming after the government’s decision 40 years ago to drop the draft and go to a professional, all-volunteer force.
“For nearly two generations,” Eikenberry and Kennedy said, “No American has been obligated to join up, and few do. Less than .5 percent of the population serves in the armed forces, compared with more than 12 percent during World War II.”
The two men contend that “somehow, soldier and citizen must once again be brought to stand side by side.”
They suggest reinstating a draft lottery: “Americans neither need nor want a vast conscript force, but a lottery that populated part of the ranks with draftees would reintroduce the notion of service as civic obligation.”
:: Houston officials are considering razing the Astrodome, nicknamed the Eighth Wonder of the World after it opened in 1965.
The reason? To provide 1,600 parking spaces for the 2017 Super Bowl, to which Houston recently won the rights.
Jere Longman, a native of southern Louisiana, wrote a first-person story about the Astrodome and its lasting importance to Houston. Demolishing the Astrodome, he wrote, would be a desecration.
“Demolition would be a failure of civic imagination, a betrayal of Houston’s greatness as a city of swaggering ambition, of dreamers who dispensed with zoning laws and any restraint on possibility.”
Longman said that despite the signs of neglect (it was closed in 2008), the Astrodome “continues to summon a city’s innovative past and futuristic promise.”
“By contrast,” Longman said, “Reliant Stadium next door is a dull football arena, designed with all the imagination of a hangar to park a blimp.”
:: This last one might not qualify as “need-to-know” news, but it sure caught my attention.
Staff member Sam Roberts reported that officials with New York hospitals are expecting an upswing in births in late July and early August — nine months after residents stranded in their homes without electricity. You get the picture, don’t you: People had a lot of time on their hands, and a lot couples reached out, literally, to each other.
One couple that is expecting is 34-year-old Rachel DeGregorio, who has a doctoral degree in neuroscience, and her 33-year-old husband Scott, a radiologist. A baby boy, whom they plan to name Jack, is due July 24.
“I have documented the day Jack was conceived,” Rachel was quoted as saying. “We had sex three times.”
All I can say to that is that for just one day I’d like to be 33 again and have a horny girlfriend during a power outage.
***
P.S. At this writing, shortly after 11 pm. Monday, I see on kansascity.com that Star sports columnist Sam Mellinger has awakened from his long spring nap.
After virtually ignoring the Royals’ three-week-long, downward spiral, Mellinger tonight posted a column (which will be in the morning’s printed edition), saying, “Someone’s got to go.”
He says, among other things:
“The personalities best equipped for leadership may be (Jeff) Francoeur and (Mike) Moustakas, but each have been bad enough that they’re part of the discussion about what needs to change. Along with those two, hitting coaches Jack Maloof and Andre David, (Manager Ned) Yost and Chris Getz could all be sacrifices in an effort to refocus a group that shouldn’t be nearly this bad. If things don’t improve, it won’t be long before owner David Glass looks at (General Manager Dayton) Moore.”
Sam’s in there with too little too late, but at least he — unlike a lot of the sports radio talk-show hosts — has called for heads to roll.
Best analogy I can think of is that when a machine stops working properly, you change out some of the parts to try to get it running pretty well again. You don’t let it continue to go clunk, clunk, clunk.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Interesting stories Fitz but as always the NYT has the wrong point(s) of view.
The Affordable Care Act will crumble under it’s own weight because it is simply bad law. The chickens are coming home to roost on the spin that ACA would lower insurance premiums, health care costs and improve the quality of health care.
Ms. Ruemmler. Big hat, no cattle. Another alleged wunderkind bureaucrat who should probably spend more time baking cookies.
The future of combat is drones and robots. All a draft will do is conscript a bunch of sissies who will endanger the lives of those with whom they serve in a far greater way than the idiots who dispatch them in the first place.
The true notion of “service” doesn’t even resonate with today’s youth. Can’t wait until the NEA memo goes out to the indoctrinators, er, uh, I mean teachers, telling them to teach, er uh, I mean brainwash their students with the ideal that “service” is good and noble.
The Astrodome, like Kemper Arena, both state of the art at the time of their opening have outlived their usefullness. SHEBOYGAN!!!!! Blow em up, recycle the remains and move on. Nothing lasts forever. Thank God that maxim applies to buildings and presidential administrations. Maybe the Astrodome can be recycled into a border wall.
If your wife will allow it I can procure a horny thirty-ish girlfriend for a day as well as the pharmaceutical drugs, (if required), for a three-fer. All in the name of research and journalism of course. Power outage optional.
No, no, no, Smartman, you’ve got it all wrong. All of it. But I’m only going to focus on the last element of your comment. The fantasy was conditioned on me being 33 again — not on any current scenario, with Patty giving me a pass (not in the cards) and me taking some sort of miracle drug to allow me to try to struggle through the assignment. It’s hell being a 67-year-old man with fallen arches.
Whoa, there Smartman… “baking cookies”? Voice your opinion of Ms. Ruemmler all you want, but let’s leave out the sexism. Otherwise, your moniker will be in serious doubt. (BTW, I love the hat/cattle slang, one of my favorite Texas-isms.)
bryandavidk, no sexism intended. I believe that Joe Biden and Eric Holder should spend more time baking cookies too.
Fair enough. (leaves desk to go get some cookies)
“baking cookies” is a pretty silly comment — and not needed.
Big tent, no chief. Would be a more apt description. Obama always has preferred females around him–since he has always viewed the gender as subordinate to himself (and they fawn better). Except for Biden, he fawns best.
Not sure what Mellinger brings to the Star–I’ve tried, really tried to read his stuff, now I just skip past. I can find Whitlock and Poz on the Internet anyway.
Welcome to the comments dept., Jennifer. This dept. needs more people who will parry our beloved Smartman’s wayward cudgel.
P.S. I have nothing to add to the funny “cookie” give and take, but I did just go over to Prairie Village to get two donuts.
Thanks. Just happened upon your blog and have enjoyed reading the stories.
The bias one experiences from our moribund media establishment exactly takes the form of censoring certain news items whilst promoting others. The recent murder case of Kermit Gosnell is a prime example. Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the IRS scandals are certainly examples of news that barely escape from behind their self-imposed iron curtain. Fox was the only major news outlet covering Benghazi save for one lone C-BS investigative reporter whose stories were not only not given any air time, but who also was chastised by her superiors for doing the job the rest of their employees failed to do. Even after discovering that HRH King Hussein, Mullah to the Stars was monitoring their own private communications his media lackeys barely squeaked out a modest protest.
Interestingly enough, now that the institutions that are supposed to provide checks and balances to Dear Leader’s uber authoritarian machinations are as least becoming restless, we’re starting to see the ammo on gun store shelves stay there a little longer.
Sad moment for blogging in KC when John Landsberg is shutting his down to go to SC. He correctly cites this blog and Tony’s KC as the two that remain that are worth reading and to that let me add a third. Dwight Sutherland is now doing a weekly column for Hearne Christopher that promises to be very informative. So, Fitz, you’re not only going to have to pick up production, but you need to get enough donuts for all of us.
Help me understand the raving for Tony’s KC. I’ve been there (although not always appropriate for viewing at work) and really don’t learn much. I don’t like reading “anon sources” stories much and its just a bunch of links to other sites. What am I missing here?
I’m already starting to wilt under the production pressure…Geez, I thought retirement entitled me to work at my leisure. And now there are all these calls for me to STEP IT UP! I’ll have to take all this under advisement…while I play some golf.
Doing a round with our Commander-In-Chief?
Jenniferm, TKC is the KC version of The Drudge Report, an aggregation of local news stories that Tony thinks are important. Comments are generally, rude, crude and occasionally humorous. If you want to get a quick snapshot of what’s happening in KC it’s a great place to visit. More Reggie and Jughead than Woodward and Bernstein.
Jennifer — Here’s the down low…Tony is the powerhouse of area bloggers, getting thousands of views a day. He’s found a winning combination based on incredible production, girlie pictures, good sources and lightning strikes against people he homes in on…Thing is, you can never be sure who’s going to get electrified, and we other bloggers don’t want it to be one of us. So we bow to the Zeus of the Bloggers.
I was once on the receiving end of one of his bolts…I saw him at a function that night, and he said, sincerely, something like, “Hope you didn’t mind what I wrote today.” I just smiled and shook my head, hoping that would be the last time I got singed.
In addition, he’s a good guy, very smart and interesting. To boil it down to a few words, then…power and personality.
Fitz, all due respect but Tony wields no “kingmaker” power and he is socially awkward, not to mention, more sartorially challenged than your average dead tree media newsie gumshoe. In the big scheme of KC Blogging he occasionally rips a fart that can clear a room but will never shatter the windows. He is the Joe Francis, (of Girls Gone Wild fame), of local blogging……..Big hat, no cattle.
He could in my opinion be a much bigger deal than he is but that would require real time, energy and effort. He ain’t “that guy”.
I like Tony’s site and the work he does. Where he falls down is that he needs to have more diversity in the photos he uses. Not all dairy cannons have to be the size of watermelons to be visually pleasing. And, he is too doctrinaire in leading the Hispanic community down the same path to slavery that black “leaders” have done with theirs.
Welfare colonialism is not the direction a deeply religious, entrepreneurial community needs to go. By the same token, Republican leaders need to recognize that Hispanic migration is a solution to the labor force shortages caused by liberalism’s devastating “entitlement” programs.
Caught the reference to Dwight Sutherland’s writing on KC Confidential and then stumbled onto your Tony screed.
Tony works his ass off getting all those links assembled and pairing them with his quips. That said, there’s no much depth to it, but like smartman says, for the mostly uninformed who don’t spend much if any time on actual news sites, it’s a drive thru news digest.
What he doesn’t do – and doesn’t seem to get – is the importance of fact checking hardly any of the things he puts on his site. I’m talking about those “kickass tipsters.”
Which speaks to Jenniferm’s overview.
The site was on the big time wane this past year before I cut Craig Glazer loose and Tony picked him up. Since January, Tony’s numbers have risen greatly post Craig. And KCC’s have slipped, frankly.
Just like they did when Greg Hall bailed before we more than doubled.
Most of you guys don’t know the behind the scenes on Bottom Line and enjoyed it on the surface for the news and spin. And that’s cool. Count me among your number for most of the dozen years off and on. But there is quite a bit more to the quirky character that ran it.
OMG, all that’s really left now is Gateway.
Alex Parker’s MediaKC has its moments but Alex is back in Chicago and it’s hard to stay on course from that distance with a full time job and girlfriend.
I used to do lots of local media but oddly got the most complaints of all about covering personalities that many people either didn’t know or care much about.
It takes work to work a beat like that and while it definitely could be done, it’s kind of a thankless task. Tony kisses up to a number of the tv news and talk radio types, so maybe he’ll enter the fray more forcefully.
Hey, losing Bottom Line is almost as bad as when Jimmy C took a powder for however many months!
I almost think you have to be quirky to have a good blog, Hearne. I mean, you certainly qualify, as does Tony, and I think I do, too, in my own quasi-mainstream way. Landsberg seems to me like the most conventional of the lot of us.
It’s in the blog that we can flaunt our quirkiness — which might not be so appreciated in some of the other parts of our lives.
I suspect that as much as many would hate to admit it, those of us who actually give a shit about what’s going on in the world (outside of trying to earn a paycheck and going along to get along) have far more in common in terms of our personality traits than what separates us. That we perceive different solutions to the things we care about simply provides a veneer suggesting we’re somehow different. Bottom line is that I have more in common with boat rockers like Tony than I do some ass kissing brown-noser who hasn’t had an original idea in decades.
This has evolved into quite a philosophical discussion of blogging…And, yes, John, the commenters are part and parcel of the medium. We all own a piece of this “new” way of expressing ourselves and getting the bile out.
Well, Tony let’s the bile flow and that’s why you won’t see discussions there like you do here. Sites like this and John Landsberg’s are valuable precisely because the bile doesn’t flow and you actually have some interaction between opposing viewpoints and reasonably rational arguments. The more you have of that the more valuable the site. The ones like those affiliated with most newspapers are just worthless because bile, and no information, is all you get. That’s not to say Tony’s site isn’t valuable, just not valuable from the standpoint of discourse.