I’d already been planning to mention Tuesday’s “Democracy Now!” piece on the sorry state of the newspaper industry … widespread layoffs, drastic cuts in coverage and newshole, plunging stock prices with Wall Street devaluing the entire industry. Profit margins continue to be perfectly respectable, but because they aren’t as obscene as they had been in the past, newspapers are considered a sinking ship.

Most of this national trend is reflected in the sad state of the local newspaper, but so far my former employer had managed to dodge the layoff question.

Until Wednesday, when it laid off 16 employees – including eight in the newsroom. A great deal of knowledge, talent and skill is being given up in the name of profits. And the way in which it was handled was tacky, as is typical for that operation. Meanwhile, excellent workers left behind in a newsroom where morale is already low are made paranoid, for this likely is just the beginning.

Devaluing everything they espouse to promote: Attention to “local-local” coverage that can’t be found anywhere else; attention to detail in the eyes of that dying breed, the copy editor. Combined with drastic cuts earlier this summer in space for nation/world and local news, it almost seems as if the LJS is trying to put itself out of business.

Before the downward spiral started a little over a year ago, the stock price for Lee Enterprises, which owns the local “product” (they don’t like to refer to “news” nowadays, which should tell you something) routinely traded in the $30-$35 range and sometimes went as high as $40. As of this morning, Lee stock was trading at $3.20 (up from $2.98 a few days ago). One Wall Street blog puts 1 in 8 odds on Lee declaring bankruptcy by year's end.

Industrywide, the crisis is obvious terms of both international news – nearly all of the major players have slashed their foreign correspondent staffs, and the Boston Globe shut its international division down entirely – and in local news, which can be devastating to towns in which the local newspaper is the sole source of news that is more than an official press release.

Journalism once was considered the Fourth Estate, a nongovernmental check on the executive, legislative and judicial branches, without which a healthy democracy could not function. That’s not a view shared by the average American these days. But when there are no more journalists looking for the story behind the sound bite, we’ll all suffer the consequences.

And when there are no legitimate investigative news outlets left operating, who will the blogosphere plagiarize from?

Here are a couple of really good recent pieces on the woes of the newspaper industry:

At Truthdig: “Bad Days for Newsrooms -- and Democracy”

From Eric Alterman at The Nation: "I Read the News Today ... Oh Boy"

Wish I could stand in solidarity with my colleagues who haven’t yet given up hope, but the truth is I’m glad I jumped ship. I’m embarrassed to be associated with the current state of mainstream journalism, locally and nationally.

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Currently reading: "This Land Is Their Land: Reports from a Divided Nation" by Barbara Ehrenreich

Currently hearing: "Allegria," The Gipsy Kings

Don't let these men make your birth-control decisions for you!

Watch McCain squirm over a very basic question on women’s reproductive health rights:

McCain out of touch on birth control

Yeah, it’s kind of funny that he feels ill-equipped to comment on whether it’s right that insurance companies cover Viagra for men but not birth control for women. (Hmm, hitting too close to home there, John-Boy?)

But the reality is less amusing. In the Senate, McCain twice has voted against requiring insurance companies to cover birth control (a move that would not only improve women’s health but would benefit insurance companies as well, as it would help protect against future outlays).

And, meanwhile, he’s still riding out the storm over his old joke about women enjoying rape.

McCain Ape Rape Joke Recalled By Sources

Lovely. Yes, this is exactly who I want setting the tone for our country. Oh, and he’s for the Hundred Years’ War in Iraq, too!

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From a feminist blog I've recently discovered and like, here's some more scary news on politics and women's health:

HHS Proposal Undercuts State Birth Control Laws

The Bush administration is trying to push through a new regulation allowing any health-care agency that receives federal funds to refuse to assist women with their contraception needs. Most agencies receive some type of federal money, btw.

Think of what that would mean -- for the women you know -- and, oh yeah, men, too, 'cause from what I understand it takes one of each to make a baby. Think of what it would mean for your own already rising health-care costs -- contraception is a lot cheaper than covering the health costs of pregnancy and child-raising. Think of what it would mean when the needs and values of the majority are overruled by a handful of right-wing extremists.

Intolerance unveiled.

Did you read about the Moroccan-born woman who was denied French citizenship because she chooses to veil her face?

Read it here: A veil closes France's door to citizenship

The idea of the veil stirs mixed emotions in me, of course. I detest the idea of a woman believing it is necessary to hide herself. And I try hard to believe that men are trustworthy enough creatures that we needn’t worry about fanning the flames of their lust as we simply go about our daily lives.

I don’t like the concept of the veil.

Yet it is not for a free, democratic society to tell a woman she CANNOT wear the veil. Certainly it can decree that no one else can force a woman under the veil. Certainly it may advocate the tossing aside of the veil along with other misogynistic concepts. But in telling this woman she cannot exercise her free will, France aligns itself with the very same strictures it seeks to outlaw.



Below the surface.

I’d not heard of Kay Ryan before she was named poet laureate last week. In browsing through some of her work, I felt this one particularly speaking to me:

Surfaces
By Kay Ryan

Surfaces serve
their own purposes,
strive to remain
constant (all lives
want that). There is
a skin, not just on
peaches but on oceans
(note the telltale
slough of foam on beaches).
Sometimes it’s loose,
as in the case
of cats: you feel how a
second life slides
under it. Sometimes it
fits. Take glass.
Sometimes it outlasts
its underside. Take reefs.

The private lives of surfaces
are innocent, not devious.
Take the one-dimensional
belief of enamel in itself,
the furious autonomy
of luster (crush a pearl —
it’s powder), the whole
curious seamlessness
of how we’re each surrounded
and what it doesn’t teach.


Mixing it up.

In one of the many time-sucking, space-filling, procrastination-aiding tasks I have set myself this summer, thus successfully avoiding such worthier pursuits as learning the language I’ll need for the next two years or losing 20 pounds through daily 40-mile bicycle rides, I’ve been entertaining myself with the creation of new mix lists. To wit:

Waiting for Peace (Corps): Becki’s Summer ’08 mix
(tunes I’m listening to lately – some new, some old, some relevant, some not)

Wake Up / The Arcade Fire
Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway (Again) / Wilco
Play / Kate Nash
In Step / Girl Talk
I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You / Black Kids
When the Day Met the Night / Panic! At the Disco
Candy / The Self-Righteous Brothers
I Like It, I Love It / Lyrics Born
Ooh La La / Goldfrapp
L3t Teh Be34t C0ns013 Yov (Pewep Merix) / Tilly & The Wall
It's the Beat / Simian Mobile Disco
Bust a Move / Young MC
Think Afrika / Seun Kuti
The Electric Version / The New Pornographers
Natural's Not In It / Gang of Four
Dissolved Girl / Massive Attack
Ramblin' (Wo)man / Cat Power
Excursions / A Tribe Called Quest
Adventure / Be Your Own Pet
say i am / Tom Tom Club
I'm The Toughest Girl Alive / Candye Kane
The Future Freaks Me Out / Motion City Soundtrack

Noisy Summer mix
(fairly obvious, I think)

Noisy Summer / Raveonettes
sunshine and ecstasy / Tom Tom Club
Summer Daze / Luscious Jackson
Another Fine Day / Golden Smog
The Summer / Yo La Tengo
Blister in the Sun / Violent Femmes
Sunshine / The Meat Purveyors
Broken A/C Blues / Duane Jarvis
Ice Cream Cone / The Tijuana Gigolos
Machines of Summer / Drive-By Honky
Sun In My Mouth / Björk
Summer In The City / Regina Spektor
Asleep on a Sunbeam / Belle & Sebastian
Beneath The Blue Sky / The Go-Go's
Summer Teeth / Wilco
Sunshine / Floetry
Sunday Sun / Cinematics
Looking at the Sun / Matthew Sweet
It's Summertime / The Flaming Lips
Red Sun / Neil Young
Sunset / Kate Bush
Starlit / Erin McKeown

Under the Covers
(cover tunes you might not have expected)

Smells Like Teen Spirit / Tori Amos
Oops! ... I Did It Again / Richard Thompson
Yo vivire (I Will Survive) / Celia Cruz
Love Will Tear Us Apart / Nouvelle Vague
Stand by Your Man / Lyle Lovett
She's a Lady / The Self-Righteous Brothers
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction / Cat Power
Every Rose Has Its Thorn / Rex Hobart & the Misery Boys
Shine / Dolly Parton
Joy / Bettye LaVette
Comfortably Numb / Dar Williams w/Ani DiFranco
Rebel Rebel / Seu Jorge
Wooly Bully / Billy Bacon And The Forbidden Pigs
The Hokey Pokey / Brave Combo
Breathless / X
Good Lovin' / Grateful Dead
Ain't That Peculiar / Chocolate Genius
Let's Get It On / Jack Black
Gloria / Patti Smith
Baba O'Riley / The Waco Brothers


Quote of the day:

"I arise in the morning torn between the desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day." — E. B. White