Why I {heart} Alex Pareene:
Monday was an exciting day for professional haters of Politico, the famous website and newspaper. There is a new memo! Politico memos are their own little literary genre. Usually composed by Politico’s co-founding editors, John Harris and Jim VandeHei, these internal (but always leaked) communications are heavy on obnoxious management buzzwords, ridiculously unjustified boasting, and occasional slightly psychotic-sounding exhortations to WIN. They are generally light on self-awareness, and directives to produce quality journalism…
This new memo is from Jim VandeHei, formerly the executive editor and now the CEO of the entire company. It is about “the culture of Politico,” and in it VandeHei attempts to explain what makes Politico great and instruct his employees on how to make it even better. Nothing in VandeHei’s memo speaks to the actual work Politico is supposedly engaged in, which is reporting. It could be a memo from the CEO of a company that makes iPhone games, or complex financial products. “We work for a hot brand doing important work with some of the smartest people in the world.” “People who thrive here are highly talented, self-motivated doers who are brimming with passion and a desire to win.”…
While he will remain a grossly overpaid fount of meaningless clichés, and indeed he will likely now be an even more overpaid one, VandeHei’s abandoning the editorial side to take charge of the business side is, in a way, good news. It is perhaps bad news for people who actually have to work at Politico, what with the enforced relentless positivity and constant “blunt,” “candid” written and in-person reviews, but it could be good news for the country, because it is VandeHei’s editorial sensibilities that have led to much of what is broadly “wrong” with Politico…
***********
Apart from pondering the perils of ‘mindshare’, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
? Martin
I’ve never heard prostitutes described that way, but whatev.
tybee
i wonder if these changes will get passed…
http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/
LanceThruster
Synergistic integration!
tybee
@? Martin:
that is an insult to working girls all over the world.
Baud
To win what exactly?
Sad_Dem
This afternoon I’ll be synergistically interfacing with a new media delivery vector to enhance my responsiveness to changing conditions. And after I’ve played Tetris on my phone…
Sloegin
Winning.
schrodinger's cat
Today is the National Cat Day, according to ICHC. Beware, Lolcatus of the Borg will assimilate you.
Anoniminous
They don’t ally agile product development synergistic with Six Sigma quality management so they are not in pursuit of excellence.
I haz a sad.
Baud
@schrodinger’s cat:
I thought every day was cat day.
hedgehog the occasional commenter
Dinner with the spousal unit (25th anniversary is today). Next week we are off to someplace warm and sunny, with rum.
schrodinger's cat
@Baud: It is!
lamh36
I attempted to follow that the thread on the “demise of the netroots”, but seeing as I wasn’t much around during the inception, I pretty much zoned out. Plus, the BJ commentariat, as much as I love em, are way too snarky for a novice like me to try learn to interpret while I was on my lunch break. So I’m catching up on my blogroll and came across these post from Booman Tribune and I would love to hear what others here at BJ who have been around since the “beginning” think of Booman’s analysis. He wrote two very interesting post about the subject.
The Netroots Did Not Fail
by BooMan
Better, But Still Wrong
by BooMan
kindness
Reason to celebrate.
If Vandehei’s level of competence in being a business manager as on par with his competence of being and Editor, Politico will be a dead web site soon enough. We’ll be able to buy the name from some outfit (GoDaddy?) and print our own Onion of the day’s news and the people that shape it.
Sadly that isn’t far removed from what Politico does now.
Mustang Bobby
@Baud: “To win what, exactly?”
A lovely set of steak knives!
different-church-lady
OMG, now it’s obvious why Politico is so awful: to the guy running the place, political porn is just another “product” to be hawked through the exact same corporate framework that every consumer product company uses to hawk toasters or smart phones or 50 gallon drums of polyurethane. It’s off-the-rack corporate management, and it’s not just killing Politico, it’s killing all of corporate America.
LanceThruster
from The Business “DoubleSpeak” Generator
—–
I haven’t divulged this to the general public yet, but I’m in the initial stages of exploring various possibilities of interest as a regenerative move while demand for increasing services enables continued success factorability.
Keep this to yourself, but I’m currently leading a group of top-level researchers with the purpose of looking into methods of activating ground floor entry points as a protective measure for the day when high success probability offsets opportunity costs.
As a lifelong student of business interactions I continue to notice ways of assisting mid-level management as an intermediate step while high success probability stimulates my specific advancement criteria.
I’m establishing active directions in the area of facilitating executive social networking as a way of stimulating consumer interest until profit scalability substantiates my marketing projections.
I’ve traveled the globe in search of any and all methods of restructuring vertical and horizontal relationship hierarchies as long as the primary win-win relationship maintains its momentum.
An often overlooked area, but one I have firmly committed to, is studying the effects of disproportionate access restrictions as an ever-increasing side effect while extensive confirmation of hierarchical component testing stimulates my specific advancement criteria.
Most CEO’s would scoff at this, but I’m secretly approaching the area of facilitating executive social networking as a protective measure for the day when demand for increasing services perpetuates continued client involvement.
My ultimate goal in this situation is integrating executive security measures during the time cross sales marketing potential continues onward into the future.
Apparently, most people, other than myself, have closed their eyes to the possibility of establishing beachheads in customer saturation as an ever-increasing side effect while profit scalability stimulates my specific advancement criteria.
I welcome arising opportunities for thwarting production facility waste in order to insure that maximum logistical synergy moves to the forefront of the client’s big picture vision.
As a lifelong student of synergistic interactions, I’m sure you can appreciate the various implications of allocating scarce resource scenarios in anticipation of the day when minimum loss of after-tax revenue perpetuates continued client involvement.
Most people wouldn’t think of this, but I often dream of assisting mid-level management during the critical time before high success probability maintains its momentum.
Violet
VandeHei wants everyone at Politico to focus on their core competencies to synergistically action the key deliverables for the relevant stakeholders going forward
different-church-lady
@lamh36:
Good god, THAT. Every single word of it. Matches my memory exactly. (Mind, it’s not like I was a highly active net-rooter, just someone looking for sanity back when the entire country seemed to be eager for an unfocused revenge war.)
Mike in NC
Famous, no. Legends in their own minds, yes.
Violet
@LanceThruster: That makes my head hurt. I worked with those kinds of people and there is little I detest more than management speak. Corporate MBA-types (and wannabees) hide behind it in hopes people don’t notice.
srv
It’s really rich to criticize this VandeHei fellow on a blog where the overpaid John Cole has a WIN THE MORNING category and has always shirked his editorial responsibilities to the democrat fluffersphere.
Baud
@lamh36:
I really liked his take. I’m no expert on the “Netroots,” but what he says jives with my experience.
? Martin
@Baud: Mine too.
Lurking Canadian
@Violet: the people around me have adopted “on a go forward basis”, or sometimes just “on a go forward”, if they’re being succinct.
How this is different from the humble Anglo-Saxon “from now on” is not clear to the likes of me.
They also like to prate about something called “best practices”, which appears to be synonymous with “the way I like things done”.
different-church-lady
@srv: Shirley, you jest.
cmorenc
@LanceThruster: Lance, that masterful prose could be the script for a business-managerial version of the famous Turbo Encabulatorskit for engineering technobabble.
Omnes Omnibus
@cmorenc: Damn you, I was just looking for that.
different-church-lady
Commenter Ché Pasa nails it: (note, link chain is below)
Link chain:
Booman: “Better but Still Wrong”
— “Pachacutec”, guest blogging on Ian Welch’s site
—- quoted passage is a comment to Pachacutec’s essay
Gin & Tonic
Speaking of whores, just when did Markos fall in love with the “liberal” McAuliffe? I’ll accede to the notion that Mac is better than Cooch, but to make him out as some lefty hero? The mind reels.
kindness
@srv: There really is no need to prove to us what an incredible asshole you are. We agree with you, you are an incredible asshole.
gogol's wife
@Lurking Canadian:
God, I hate “best practices.” It’s a big buzzword for academic administrators.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
I noticed that the other day. I don’t mind the rhetoric, but it’s totally inconsistent with how other Democrats — particularly Obama — have been viewed.
Sly
This kind of shit is mostly geared towards pushing regular staff to fear middle-management and revere the CEO, but it only ends up making everyone hate their job. If any business wants to develop any kind of handbook or memorandum designed to foster a positive workplace culture and acclimate employees to it, they should just copy the entirety of Valve’s Handbook for New Employees.
? Martin
@different-church-lady:
This has always been my interpretation of progressivism. It’s less about ideology and ‘winning’ and more about making things better, often incrementally and disappointingly small, but always making that kind of iterative change.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
The tribe that hate all the other tribes is still a tribe.
Trollhattan
Pierce will have to add a new version of his standby: Things
inabout Politico that make me want to guzzle antifreeze, part the infinity”MattF
All-caps all-the-time is bad, but… it could be worse. POLITICO! !!
LanceThruster
@Violet:
Occasionally, there’s elements that might have some nuggets of wisdom, but then you’re left to realize that the bloviations are meant to camouflage everything in bafflegab.
LanceThruster
@cmorenc:
Too funny (though in my expert technical opinion, it clearly needs more cowbell!)
xD
JoyfulA
When POLITICO was starting out, I read in comments somewhere that the VanDerHeis were selling their home and were having an open house. The intrepid commenter dashed over for a view and reported a small room devoted entirely to Bush II memorabilia.
I guess management-speak comes easily to those who idolize our first MBA president.
eemom
@different-church-lady:
“Pachacutec”, guest blogging on Ian Welch’s site
omg, the Ghosts of FDL Past.
Omnes Omnibus
@JoyfulA:
In a non-ironic, non-dart-throwing, admiring way? Why would someone do that?
MattF
@JoyfulA: Was there an altar to The Very Special Flightsuit?
lamh36
ok, this pic deserves a caption contest:
H/T: President Obama and Boehner at the memorial service for Tom Foley
Linnaeus
I wonder if anyone, like our new front-pager Richard Mayhew, can comment on this article in the LA Times re Obamacare? It’s making the rounds on Facebook and some of my right-wing acquaintances there are saying this is proof that the president lied, that it’s a disaster, etc.
Lurking Canadian
@Omnes Omnibus: well, sure. Wasn’t he like Mozart, an unappreciated genius unrecognized in his own time, or words to that effect?
JoyfulA
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t know! I was so grossed out I can’t forget it!
Ahh says fywp
Best practices is meaningful if youre stuck in some not invented here syndrome, but I prefer industry practices bc the word best is just an excuse for paralysis.
WereBear
@Baud: It is for me!
soonergrunt (mobile)
@Linnaeus: there’s a decent takedown of the current Obama lied meme over at TPM.
geg6
@lamh36:
Booman, who I don’t always agree with, is totally and absolutely spot on. It was the run up to the Iraq War that caused me, furious and outraged, to finally turn to the Internet to try to find someone, anyone, who was as distraught as I was and had been ever since December 2000. I found it in Kos and Digby and Duncan and FDL and Steve and TPM. And eventually, I found John Cole. I got there because I wanted to stop and then end the war, halt the continual GOP framing of every issue, stand up and say fucking enough already. I wanted some liberal policies enacted and more liberals in our courts. I got everything I wanted, if not exactly the way I wanted it. And I guess I’m old enough and have been active in politics long enough to have never been under the illusion that I had all the exact same goals and tactical preferences as everyone I’d fought to achieve the mains goals of the left with. I always knew there would come a point where our paths would diverge on some things. And I’ve certainly never done anything so disgusting as to hang out with Grover or the Kochs or Gary fucking Johnson, like so many of my “progressive” betters.
JPL
@Linnaeus: Think Progress did a pretty good job… the update at the bottom has Margaret Tavenner explaining the grandfather clause. link
Linnaeus
@soonergrunt (mobile): @JPL:
Thanks for the links!
rikyrah
Georgia insurance commissioner: I hope Obamacare implodes
FORSYTH, Ga. — Georgia’s insurance commissioner lashed out at the new federal health insurance program and its troubled website on Monday.
State Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens told Channel 2’s Lori Geary, “I hope this whole thing implodes,” when questioned about the health care plan rollout.
Hudgens had not spoken publicly about the Affordable Health Care Act since the nationwide rollout of insurance exchanges on Oct. 1. Geary drove to Monroe County to interview the commissioner.
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/georgia-insurance-commissioner-insurance-commissio/nbbQ7/
rikyrah
Bernie Sanders Exposes Ted Cruz and Explains Why He is a Koch Fueled Threat to Democracy
By: Jason Easley
Monday, October 28th, 2013, 7:44 pm
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) connected the dots and explained that by blocking Tom Wheeler’s FCC nomination, Ted Cruz revealed himself to be a Koch fueled threat to democracy.
http://youtu.be/FG0MCmny-ko
Ed Schultz asked Sen. Sanders about Ted Cruz blocking the nomination of Tom Wheeler to be the chairman of the FCC.
Sanders answered,
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/10/28/bernie-sanders-exposes-ted-cruz-explains-koch-fueled-threat-democracy.html
rikyrah
Senate advances Obama’s NLRB counsel nominee
By Ramsey Cox – 10/29/13 03:05 PM ET
Eight Republicans joined Democrats in advancing President Obama’s nomination of Richard Griffin to serve as general counsel to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
On Tuesday, the Senate voted 62-37 on a motion to end debate on Griffin’s nominations — 60 votes were needed to overcome a Republican filibuster.
Some Republicans criticized Griffin for being a labor advocate rather than an “umpire” while briefly serving on the NLRB, which settles major disputes between employers and employees.
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/331259-senate-advances-obamas-nlrb-counsel-nominee#ixzz2j9qS8mhI
Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook
PsiFighter37
@rikyrah: Wake me up when we blow up the filibuster over the DC Court of Appeals. The temerity the fuckers have to say that it’s court-packing…someone needs to hand them a history book and remind them what that means.
I guarantee that if one of the GOP-leaning justices croaks or retires in the next couple of years, they will claim that SCOTUS doesn’t have enough work to merit have 9 justices. If the old rules no longer work, change the rules. Republican political strategy = Calvinball at this point.
handsmile
@PsiFighter37:
That’s entirely possible and, in my view, probable if there are any vacancies on the Supreme Court within the next two years. With Neo-Confederates like Cruz, Paul, and Lee, I don’t see how Obama will get a nomination to the Court through the Senate. Not unless it’s John Yoo or Janice Rogers Brown.
FAQ, from the Supreme Court’s own website:
“Who decides how many Justices are on the Court? Have there always been nine?
The Constitution places the power to determine the number of Justices in the hands of Congress. The first Judiciary Act, passed in 1789, set the number of Justices at six, one Chief Justice and five Associates. Over the years Congress has passed various acts to change this number, fluctuating from a low of five to a high of ten. The Judiciary Act of 1869 fixed the number of Justices at nine and no subsequent change to the number of Justices has occurred.”
Yet one more reason, as if any more were necessary, why the 2014 midterms are so absolutely critical.
Debbie(aussie)
@hedgehog the occasional commenter: congrats. A milestone most definitely worthy of celebration. May you have many more wonderful years together.(almost at 33, for us)
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
Because OpenThread: Kevin Drum has a good article that our friend Irony Abounds may want to check out:
Check it, and Paul Waldman’s article at The American Prospect, out.
Cheers,
Scott.
Spike
@geg6: If by “Steve” you mean Steve Gilliard, then you are me and I offer a hearty “FTFY” in his memory.
mainmati
@cmorenc: Except that the brilliant Turboencabulator was a decades long satire that ended up in that video whereas Politico is a totally unselfaware, pomposity. Same rhetoric but a far different result.
hedgehog the occasional commenter
@Debbie(aussie): Thanks, and congrats to you as well!