2. • Watch out for insider terms.
• Ditto for loaded (or meaningless)
terms and cliches.
• Avoid alphabet soup (NRO, NHTSA,
CFPB).
• Stay out of the weeds.
• Remember the boilerplate.
• Unify spellings in quoted material.
3. INSIDER TERMS
The group is an alternative to the
Republican Study Committee, which
some lawmakers contend has become
too close with the House Republican
leadership.
4. INSIDER TERMS
Better: “The president needs to show
good faith, that he’s going to enforce
the law of the land,” said Rep. Steve
Scalise, R-La., chairman of the
Republican Study Committee, a
coalition of House conservatives.
5. INSIDER TERMS
Nearly half of new vacancies in
science, technology, engineering and
mathematics occupations for which
there are H-1B requests remain unfilled
by domestic workers a month later,
according to a study by the Brookings
Institution.
6. INSIDER TERMS
Better: “Fidelity to text is the foundation
of the rule of law,” Hatch said Monday
during a presentation at the Heritage
Foundation, a conservative research
center in Washington.
8. INSIDER TERMS
Better: In the Senate, there aren’t
enough Republicans for the 60
votes needed to end debate and
proceed to a vote, and Democrats
have stood firm against undoing
Obama’s easing of deportations.
9. INSIDER TERMS
President Obama and Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
pledged to try to work together, and
the first test will be around Dec. 11,
when a continuing resolution to
fund the government runs out.
10. INSIDER TERMS
Better: House lawmakers then
approved a short-term funding
measure by voice vote to give
the Senate time to act on the
huge budget bill.
11. INSIDER TERMS
Abomination: House aides said the
chamber was prepared to vote on a
short-term continuing resolution –
or CR – to keep the government
flush with cash for several days to
buy time for the “cromnibus” to
pass both chambers.
12. INSIDER TERMS
The Khorasan Group develops
external attacks, constructs and
tests improvised explosive
devices and recruits Westerners
to conduct operations, according
to the news release.
13. INSIDER TERMS
Better: Shortly before noon,
Raven 23 heard that a vehicle-
borne homemade bomb had
detonated near where U.S.
officials were meeting with Iraqi
officials.
15. LOADED TERMS
• Health care reform
• Tax reform
• Campaign finance reform
• Education reform
16. LOADED TERMS
• to put or change into an improved
form or condition
• to amend or improve by change of
form or removal of faults or abuses
• to put an end to (an evil) by
enforcing or introducing a better
method or course of action
• to induce or cause to abandon evil
ways
18. LOADED TERMS
The Democratic Party’s
progressive wing has long seen
Hillary Clinton as too cozy with
official Washington and corporate
interests.
19. LOADED TERMS
Should it be capitalized like
Roosevelt’s Progressives?
Does it mean “liberal”?
Does it mean something different
from liberal?
Who knows?
21. MEANINGLESS TERMS
“In his 14 years as governor, two
Texases emerged. One for the
wealthy allies and special interests
he never fails to help out; and one
for the working families and very
poor who have to suffer the
consequences of his policies.”
22. MEANINGLESS TERMS
“Time and again he lined the
pockets of the wealthy and big
businesses with tax cuts, at the
expense of working families and
their children,” said Democratic
National Committee spokesman Ian
Sams.
23. MEANINGLESS TERMS
Elizabeth Warren won’t be afraid
to pursue a populist progressive
agenda and act for working
families, Chamberlain said.
24. MEANINGLESS TERMS
The deal would make permanent big
items on the Republican wish list
while only temporarily extending two
measures Obama wants to make
permanent: the Child Tax Credit and
the Earned Income Tax Credit, a tax
break for working families that is
set to expire in 2017.
26. DC CLICHES
• Drugeon joined al Qaida in
Waziristan, the mountainous region of
Pakistan where al Qaida continues to
maintain safe havens and training
facilities.
• New YouTube app provides safe
haven for young viewers
27. DC CLICHES
“Haven,” from Merriam
Webster: A place where you
are protected from danger or
trouble
28. DC CLICHES
• Underscoring how the incident has
become a political football, Karimi
himself appeared to parrot Karzai's
line in an interview.
• The research and development tax
credit is a political football that's
tossed around every year before
eventually being renewed.
29. DC CLICHES
• The botched rollout of HealthCare.gov
created a firestorm of controversy and
led HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to
resign.
• White House Press Secretary Josh
Earnest scrambled to clarify presidential
remarks that touched off a firestorm.
• The release of the executive summary
was certain to ignite a fresh political
firestorm.
30. DC CLICHES
• Maliki’s undermining of the movement,
along with a laundry list of other
grievances Sunnis have racked up,
means a revival of such a strategy is a
nonstarter.
• He cites a study that shows presidents
have used the address to ask for a
laundry list of requests from Congress
– a median of 31 requests since 1965.
32. HUH?
• The so-called Islamic State
• The self-proclaimed Islamic
State
• The self-styled Islamic State
33. Other ideas or questions?
Thank you for coming!
Beryl Adcock
News desk chief
McClatchy Washington Bureau
BAdcock@mcclatchydc.com
Twitter: @BerylAdcock
