2.0somethings

Unless you live under a rock, you know that Senator Obama has been in Iraq for the past few days. Yesterday, after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pulled back on remarks he made over the weekend agreeing with Senator Obama’s plan for Iraq, his chief government spokesman released a statement saying that the Iraqi government supports a timetable to get US troops out of Iraq by 2010. If you check your box scores you will see that is essentially the same thing as Senator Obama’s plan.

My favorite development of the past few weeks was the rise of Texas oilman and corporate raider T. Boone Pickens as a major advocate for alternative energies and wind power. Wind power is great, but mostly I just like getting to say T. Boone Pickens. Today the New York Times offers a strong endorsement of his alternative energy plans.

To go along with that, the Los Angeles Times has a survey piece on the state of oil and whether we have found all there is to find. Some say that we have but others say that we have only found the easy oil and that there is plenty of oil but it will just be harder to access. My favorite statement about the idea of “Unconventional oil” is from Al Gore’s Rolling Stone interview: “you know, junkies find veins in their toes. It seems reasonable, to them, because they’ve lost sight of the rest of their lives.”

Today’s story you should read to feel like a well-informed citizen is on how the economic downturn is affecting women. Economists had thought that the decline in the percentage of women working was the result of women choosing to stay home, but studies are showing that the majority of women who have left their jobs have done it for the same reasons men have. Namely, they have been laid off while their job was moved to Kuala Lumpur. The whole piece is worth a read and has some great graphics.

Since the Supreme Court is about to recess for the summer, the Justices have been cranking out opinions like a college freshman cranks out poorly written term papers on The Republic. To be fair, most of the Justices have to clear out of their dorms by Monday and be home in time to start their summer jobs. Chief Justice Roberts lifeguards at his local YMCA, Antonin Scalia mows lawns and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dons a mask to fight crime on the streets - where she is known only as “The Talon.”

Like any college student, the first decision they turned in was top notch, but as the deadlines started to pile up it became more hit-or-miss.

They have barred the death penalty for those that rape a child - This was actually a decision that was applauded by rape victim groups. They argued that if the death penalty was on the table, there was nothing to prevent a rapist from killing his victim. More broadly, the court ruled that the death penalty is off the table for any individual crime where the victims life is not taken.

They ruled that Americans have a right to guns - This is the first major pronouncement on guns in the history of the court and by far the biggest ruling ot the year. If you read only one of the articles I link to, read this one. The case was focused on Washington DC, and many of the Justices cited the heavy amount of crime in that area as a rationale for the right to own a weapon. Would a case have gotten a similar result if it was in Bathesda? Expect the NRA to file lawsuits everywhere there is a gun ban. It is now no longer safe to do anything.

The court reduced the penalty against Exxon that a jury awarded after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 - They reduced the amount that the company must pay in punative damages from $5 billion to $500 million. Keep in mind that Exxon made $10 billion in the first quarter of this year but also that they have already paid $4 billion in cleanup fees, fines and restitution.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Sometimes the Morning News gets me a little down and I worry that I am bumming people out with tales of death and destruction. Because of that, I thought I would preface today’s news with this video because as Jeff put it, “as fucked up as the world may seem, you can still go to the DMZ and dance like a goofball.”

While insurgent activity in Iraq is declining, Afghanistan has seen a 40% increase in attacks over the last several months. Though the actual number of casualties is still relatively small, it is a tough problem for the US to address since there aren’t really any troops left. In related news, the Army has made the official flightpath out of Baghdad for returning soldiers include a brief 4-month layover in Kandahar.

The Zimbabwe runoff election is scheduled to be held this Friday. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai (who won the initial election, but not by enough to prevent a runoff), has dropped out of the race and sought refuge in a foreign embassy at the request of his supporters. President Robert Mugabe has led a campaign or terror, including thousands of beatings and dozens of murders of opposition activists. Other South African leaders are trying to decide what they want to do in advance of the election, but no matter what they do it is likely at this point that Mugabe will win. All of this is set against the backdrop of a catastrophic economic situation. The inflation rate is in the millions (compared to the US inflation rate, which at around 3% is considered kind of high). A single U.S. dollar is now worth 14 billion Zimbabwean dollars on the black market.

The Wall Street Journal continues its attempt to remake itself as the kind of paper that breaks marquee stories. They are reporting that the Justice Department didn’t hire many low-level officials and interns because they had associations with Democratic or liberal groups. The report that unearthed this information was produced by the investigation into the firing of several U.S. attorneys for political reasons. I can actually see the rational for replacing high-level attorneys or staffers with people in the same party, but to deny a kid who applied for the “Justice Honors and Summer Law Intern” programs? That is just petty.

Tom Friedman continues to exist. I can’t tell if this column is insightful or racist.

The Iraqi Oil Ministry is negotiating a series of no-bid contracts with a collection of Western oil companies. This would be the first major commercial oil development to take place since the US invaded Iraq in 2003. More than 40 companies from a variety of countries including Russia and China submitted proposals, and it is unusual for oil companies to get no-bid contracts (Only one country, however, has more than 100,000 troops in Iraq). There is a lot going on here and many ways you could look at this. You could argue that this supports the idea that the US went to war in Iraq for oil (an idea that has a lot of credence in that Arab world). You could also argue that this is a very favorable turn of events because the sooner oil production can start the sooner Iraq will have money to begin investing in infrastructure. You could also argue that no-bid contracts in general are a bad idea. However, you really don’t have to argue anything since no one will be talking about this at your office. Unless you work at Shell.

In the face of skyrocketing oil prices, Americans are driving less. Specifically, drivers have cut back by 30 billion miles over the last 6 months. This is the largest decrease since the fuel crisis in the late 70s. It’s weird to see market forces at work.

Senator Obama has opted out of Public Financing. We had mentioned he was considering it before, but now he has actually pulled the trigger. If he had gone with public financing, he would have been limited to spending $84.1 million for the general election campaign. Contrast that with the fact that he raised $95 million in February and March alone. See our previous coverage of the issue for the proper way to discuss this at the office.

A runoff election in Zimbabwe is planned for June 27th, and prominent international and African groups are escalating their rhetoric against President Mugabe. Since losing the initial election (but not by enough to prevent a runoff), President Mugabe has launched a terror campaign against the opposition party that has included beatings, murders, threats of civil war should he lose and multiple imprisonments of the opposition leader. “Every sign” that it “will never be free nor fair” indeed.

Because I didn’t post the news yesterday, some people might have missed that the Celtics won the NBA championship. Just an FYI that Boston rules.

You know it is a slow news day when the Washington Post leads off with a story about their new poll. Sure, it is the first Post-ABC poll since Obama secured the nomination, but you could have written about the US Open or something. The poll shows Obama with a 49%-45% lead among voters, but it is always important to remember that polls do nothing but capture a snapshot in time. If people bring it up at work, here are three factoids that you can cite to sound smart:

• Only 8 out of 10 Democrats support Obama for President - a quarter of those who said they favored Clinton over Obama for the nomination currently prefer McCain for the general election.
• 57 percent said McCain would continue to lead the country as Bush has and 38 percent said he would chart a new course. Compare that to the fact that 84% of the respondents said that the country is on the wrong track and you have a serious problem for McCain.

I doubt this actually changes anyone’s mind about anything, but Al Gore officially endorsed Obama last night. He did so using a 90-minute Powerpoint presentation that is expected to net him another Peace Prize. Some political observers are questioning whether he will be that active in campaigning for Obama since it became evident 20 minutes into his endorsement that he was just reusing his presentation from An Inconvenient Truth with the words “Climate Change” replaced by “John McCain.”

China has begun to lecture the United States on the status of our economy, a change from the glory days of us telling everyone how to live their lives. The Chinese economy, while growing at a massive rate, is mostly fueled by lead paint covered toys and misery.

That was some OUTSTANDING golf yesterday. Tiger Woods, in his first tournament back after having massive knee surgery, won the US Open in 91 holes. Tiger, the #1 ranked golfer in the world, finished the tournament tied with Rocco Mediate, ranked #158. There was an 18-hole playoff (that is why your office was so quite) and at the end of it the two were tied again. The tournament went to sudden death where Tiger won after Mediate missed a par putt on the Seventh hole. I was completely in the tank for the congenial and middle-aged Mediate, who played the best round of his golf of his life.