{"id":4366,"date":"2009-03-10T06:20:38","date_gmt":"2009-03-10T11:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=4366"},"modified":"2009-03-09T21:56:38","modified_gmt":"2009-03-10T02:56:38","slug":"did-everyone-at-msnbc-drink-the-kool-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=4366","title":{"rendered":"Did Everyone<\/i> at MSNBC Drink the Kool-Aid?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speaking of “The Surge” Mitch, Erik Sorenson, Emmy-Winning TV Executive and former President of MSNBC has some advice for executive-level job-seekers:<\/p>\n

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The word “surge” got a bad rap during Hurricane Katrina<\/a> when related to Gulf waters breaching the levees and flooding into New Orleans.<\/p>\n

In some circles, it was further tarnished when used to describe troop buildups in Iraq (though that Surge is now widely believed to have been effective).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Wow, Erik. Can I quote you on that?<\/p>\n

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Now, the word surge is being used to describe hiring mandates for government agencies and programs funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 \u2013 informally known as “President Obama’s economic stimulus package.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Dude. No one I know is calling the Stimuless Package “The Surge.” What you heard was “The Scourge.”<\/p>\n

…or was it “The Gouge?”<\/p>\n

…or the “Re-Gurge.”<\/p>\n

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The legislation from Congress requires certain agencies to hire high volumes for mission critical programs. And the challenges facing those agencies (overhaul the health-care system, police new banking regulations, dismantle our dependence on oil) also require a higher quality of executives, managers and team leaders. And the technical nature of the challenges requires federal employees with more specialized skill-sets.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

All the more reason these programs should be left with the private sector – save regulating the banking industry – let’s leave that to Barney Frank.<\/p>\n

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There is no shortage of wonderful, qualified people currently unemployed and looking for quality work, so what’s the problem? “The federal government is a terrible recruiter,” <\/em>according to Max Stier – President of the Partnership for Public Service – a nonprofit group which promotes federal employment. Stier notes that private companies out-recruit the public sector in the trenches and that it often takes six to nine months to get a hiring decision.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

How ironic is it that a bloated and inefficient federal government can’t become more bloated and inefficient, even under mandate from Congress and the President…because it’s so bloated and inefficient.<\/p>\n

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If you are a capable executive or manager who is part of the 8.1% jobless, you might be interested in government work.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If you are an executive or manager, we can probably assume you are college educated, and among college graduates, unemployment is only 4.2% according to the latest data<\/a>, unless you consider the “seasonally adjusted number” which is 4.1%; either way, only 2% more than a year ago.<\/p>\n

So, probably not.<\/p>\n

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…a properly executed recovery effort will lift the economy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We’ll be sure to alert you if a properly executed recovery effort is in the offing.<\/p>\n

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Finally, our economy’s ability to sustain America for the next generation (your kids) and the one after that (your grandkids) [thanks for explaining what generation<\/em> means Erik-JR] will be very dependent on government decision-makers and their success in engineering an improved health-care system, innovation in the energy industry, an upgrade in our schools and the impending overhaul of the financial and auto industries.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Nice try, Erik. I think you meant our economy’s ability to sustain America for the next generation (my kids) and the one after that (my kids’ kids) will be in spite of<\/em> government decision-makers.<\/p>\n

You keep drinking that Kool-Aid, Erik. Tell us when your leg stops tingling too.<\/p>\n

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<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaking of “The Surge” Mitch, Erik Sorenson, Emmy-Winning TV Executive and former President of MSNBC has some advice for executive-level job-seekers: The word “surge” got a bad rap during Hurricane Katrina when related to Gulf waters breaching the levees and flooding into New Orleans. In some circles, it was further tarnished when used to describe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":228,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-socialism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/228"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}