Friday, April 11, 2008
Your Morning News 4.11.08
Posted by Josh in American Airlines, Barack Obama, Carla Bruni, Democracy in Action, Endless War, hillary clinton, Iraq, Philadelphia, President Bush
People on the East Coast are STILL talking about yesterday’s weather. The key for chatter today will be having a story about that bitchen walk you took yesterday. However, there are some stories kicking around.
BREAKING — The Associated Press is reporting that Senator Hillary Clinton and senator Barack Obama are… kinda the same!! The article details how the two have very few differences in most major policy areas. This might be a fun one to e-mail to your friends who are hardcore partisans for either candidate.
American Airlines cut flights yesterday, are cutting more flights today, and will probably cut more flights over the weekend. If this comes up at the office make loud noises of sympathy for anyone you know who has to travel at any point in the next month.
Bush administration conflict, naked pictures, and political shakedowns after the jump
The President yesterday ordered an indefinite suspension of troop pullouts from Iraq. He tried to soften the announcement by saying that the war “is not endless.” That just means his Presidency is not endless (though they are working on it) but have no illusions, we will be in Iraq until at least January 20th. The really interesting part of this story is that later in the day Defense Secretary Gates and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs testified to Congress that the suspension of the drawdown was not indefinite and that we would continue removing troops in the fall. This is a rare split in an administration that has traditionally valued being on-message above anything else.
A nude photograph of Carla Bruni, former supermodel and France’s first lady, was auctioned off at Cristie’s yesterday for $91,000. The really surprising part of this story is that I was able to find a credit card company that would advance me the money. On an unrelated note, I am trying to raise $90,980 to pay off some debt. Any donations would be appreciated.
The last item today is only for political junkies or people who hate Pennsylvania. The best part about the extended primary season is that we get exposed to all the quaint election traditions from different areas of the country. Apparently, there is a Philadelphia tradition of political campaigns giving out “street money” to the city’s Democratic operatives in return for them getting out the vote. The operatives in turn give out the money to their volunteers (though one wonders how much of it gets skimmed off the top). Apparently the Obama campaign is refusing to play ball. I didn’t think it was a big deal until I saw that “the amount of street money Obama would need to lay out for election day is $400,000 to $500,000.” Some Ward leaders are threatening to flip to Clinton if the Obama campaign doesn’t pay up. DEMOCRACY IN ACTION!!!