Doug Terry is veteran television and radio reporter in Washington, DC who publishes the Terry Report. I read him fairly often, and for some reason, I am only now introducing him to you. I suppose the reason is simply that his often brilliantly concise essays just failed to hit any marks I was obsessing about that particular week. 

No matter, you can meet him now. Never mind the ugly website. He'll fix that someday (I hope). Here is some great content to get you started on this very gifted explainer of political memes, moments and mayhems:

*MUST READ* Why The Right Hates Washington, DC

Have you ever wondered? What is the great “evil” that the  Republicans, the right and the far right see in the Federal government? Why does the Tea Party crowd say “centralized government” as if the phrase were a code word for socialism or communism, those twin forces that once united our nation in opposition?

Explaining this phenomenon is certainly a subject worth longer treatment, but, for anyone wondering, a few points can be laid out in short order that might help to clear up the situation.

The Palin Problem

What Palin is doing is amazing. She is raising Reagan into something he was not, she is slamming the entire developmental history of the Federal government going back to, say, Hoover in the 1920s and she, if she were to be believed, she suggests that her own party was asleep at the wheel, because they were making no such exaggerated charges at the time Reagan came into office. Reagan’s famous statement that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem”  was preceded by the words “In the present crisis” (whatever that means). It was not a blanket, cover all statement, it was limited to that particular moment and era, even if not clearly defined.

You can follow Doug on Twitter at @terryreport

 

A classy letter from a class act.  Not many people I know would give up such a core position in such an exciting project as Sunlight, in order to to go help the Democrats try and save America. 

 

Best of luck, big guy. I am proud to call you my friend.

 

From: Brad Bauman, Communications Manager, Sunlight Foundation
Sent: 5/12/2010. Reprinted with permission

Dear friends,

 

While I sincerely love my co-workers over at the Sunlight Foundation, and have been so very lucky to work alongside some of the smartest, most innovative people I've ever met, I am sorry to say that I will be leaving the Sunlight Foundation at the end of this month.

 

The fact is, 2010 is going to be a challenging year, and as someone who has spent the better part of the decade working on behalf of Democrats, I can't continue to talk about how this is an, "All hands on deck" year without hopping on board myself. That is why I am going to be heading out on the campaign trail, but more on that later.

 

For the next few weeks I am going to help the Sunlight Foundation fill the Communications Manager position and I would very much like your help. We are looking for an aggressive go-getter, who would be able to assist Communications Director Gab Schneider in spreading Sunlight's message, and help her team build on the successes we've had this year.

 

Personality-wise, we're looking for a kick-ass pitch person who is ridiculously driven to make government transparency and accountability an issue the media can't avoid talking about.

The new team member would be joining a communications team of 3 and work closely with Sunlight's engagement team, policy shop labs and reporting group.

We're in a position where we get an average of 7-10 mainstream media/A-list blog hits per day at Sunlight (as many as 25-30 on big days), and the Foundation needs someone who can proactively push Sunlight's spokespersons, articles, visualizations, resources etc all the time.

The communications manager could expect weekly experience with TV (CNN and MSNBC most common), radio (NPR relatively common), mags (WIRED, Harper's, Fast Company, Mother Jones etc most common), news (nat'l and local), blogs (HuffPo, ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, Instapundit, you name it) and all the rest – including doing some content and strategy development (or leading projects if they're good at it). Again, it really comes down to whatever this person can make of it all that's possible.

 

We will soon be advertising this position far and wide, but ya'll are getting a sneak preview.

 

And also, you should know that Sunlight has EXCELLENT benefits.

 

Please, email me resumes at brad@sunlightfoundation.com, as I would like to help start vetting people immediately.

 

Thank you all for your love and friendship, see ya in the fight.