Thursday, May 22, 2008
Your Morning News 5.22.08
Posted by Josh in Airlines, Congress, Diplomacy, Israel, Lebanon, President Bush, Syria
Tentative peace agreements are breaking out all over. Israel and Syria announced that they were engaged in negotiations for a comprehensive peace treaty while the Lebanese Government and Hezbollah have reached an agreement that brings Hezbollah back into the government and gives them a significant role. Israel is hoping to drive a wedge between Syria and Iran, and Syria is hoping to regain lost territory and begin opening up ties with the United States. The Lebanese agreement leaves the US-backed government in a weak position, but avoids outright civil war that they probably would have lost anyway. Notice anything in common about these two agreements? They both don’t involve this guy. Perhaps that was the cornerstone of administration policy the whole time: if we fuck up enough, countries will realize they need to sort it out without our help.
The House overrode President Bush’s Veto of the farm bill. However, the House will likely have to pass the bill all over again because it was delivered to the President’s desk with a section missing (about 30 pages out of 673). Take your pick as to which is more embarrassing, the House forgetting to deliver all of it, the President signing it without realizing that a section was missing or the fact that the entire $307 billion bill is stuffed with subsidies for farmers at the same time food prices are skyrocketing.
Were you getting screwed enough by airline travel? Me neither. Because of the high price of oil, American Airlines is taking a variety of cost-cutting measures including cutting domestic flights, laying off workers and charging for all checked bags. Starting June 15, it will be $15 to check your first bag and $25 for the second. I have no officially decided to spend my vacation eating beans in my apartment.