Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Snow is blanketing much of the Northeast and Midwest today and I am left to ponder how it really wasn’t that long ago that reports of snow would send me into a frenzy of checking the local news for school cancellation reports. Now I don’t notice it unless it is enough to prevent me from opening my front door.
The House of Representatives is voting on President Obama’s$900 billion stimulus package *titter* today. Republicans are pushing back against the bill because they feel it focuses too much on spending and not enough on tax cuts. Obama spent yesterday trying to drum up Republican support. The whole thing does have an element of farce; For example, the title of the USA Today article is “Obama faces first test of bipartisanship pledge,” that same article also features the line, “The measure is sure to pass .” If you want to know why the Republicans are upset, read this Times article which details how Democrats are using the stimulus as an excuse to push through a lot of welfare and health care policies which have been stalled for years. If you are a Republican, you can argue how this crisis is no time to railroad through partisan proposals. If you are a Democrat, point out that Republican tax cuts and deficit spending helped get us into this mess and don’t forget to add that “NEENER NEENER NEENER WE WON THE ELECTION.”
Novelist John Updike passed away yesterday at the age of 76. Can’t say I am familiar with any of his work so i will leave i to the New York Times to handle the obit. I will also add him to the list of recently deceased famous writers I probably should have read already.
What’s that? An Islamic terrorist group has overthrown a US-backed government? Quick, dispatch a few aircraft carriers and tell the Marines to saddle up… Oh wait, Africa you say? Never mind.
Twentieth Century Fox has assembled a creative team to transform 1980s TV series “The A-Team” into a summer 2010 film. I love it when a plan comes together.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
The Israeli invasion of Gaza continues unabated, and the debate continues to rage internationally about civilian casualties. Yesterday. Israeli forces shelled a UN-run school filled with civilians, killing 40. It seems likely that the Israeli soldiers were returning fire at a few Hamas gunman who fired mortars from the school, but the incident underscores the fact that Israel is doing next to nothing to minimize civilian casualties.
Tom Friedman proves, yet again, that he writes for the New York Times and I don’t with a great column that put the Gaza conflict in the context of the greater Middle East. Raise a point from the article over lunch or in case your boss mentions the conflict to you and you will sound smart. Don’t feel bad about ripping off Times columnists, I do it all the time.
Senate Democrats, ever the masters of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, are raising a stink over President-elect Obama’s choice of former Clinton Chief-of-staff Leon E. Panetta for CIA director . Obviously, the Obama team goofed by not consulting with the Senate Intelligence Committee, but it seems to me that there is no real basis for criticism of his pick. As Matt Yglesias twittered a few minutes ago, “The case for putting a CIA veteran in charge of the CIA would be more compelling were the CIA’s record not so unimpressive.” If this goes beyond a few nasty media quotes and the dems really try to derail the appointment, that would be stupid.
January means the Consumer Electronics show and Macworld. Despite the recession, many of the gadgets on display at CES are just as cool as previous years. While Apple announced some interesting new innovations (a new macbook pro and DRM-free music), CEO Steve Jobs had to bow out of the convention for health reasons. Applewaters and fanboys are trying to decide if the keynote was boring because there were no really mindblowing innovations or products or just because of Job’s absence. Also, this has raised the question that if Jobs even leaves the company or takes a less prominant role, will Apple be able to continue its market and media domination?
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
A lame duck congress is when Congress gavels back into session after the November elections but before the new Congress is sworn in in January. The majority of the Congress and Senate live pretty far from Washington and like to go home for the holidays, so they don’t tend to call these sessions unless there is something pretty important going on. Like, say, the collapse of the US Economy.
Democratic Congressional leaders way that they want to pass emergency legislation to aid the imperiled auto industry during the lame-duck session that begins next week. President Bush, predictably, has said that he doesn’t favor tapping the $700 billion bail out fund to help automakers. Don’t these factory workers understand that there are employees at Goldman Sachs who need to sell their second houses in the Hamptons? Thank god we have a President who looks out for the little guy.
GM plant employees are not the only one’s looking at the prospect of unemployment checks. The nation’s top two intelligence officers are not to happy about the indication that they are going to shown the door by President-elect Obama. Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and CIA Director Michael V. Hayden today clearly leaked to the Washington Post that they want to remain in their current posts and that they feel early departures could be seen as politicizing their offices and keeping them could help stabilize the intelligence community. These are good points, but Hayden was in charge of the White House’s warrentless wiretapping program and both of them have publicly defended torture. Guys, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
Unemployed autoworkers and senior intelligence officers will both but unable to afford prescription drugs. Monthly premiums for Medicare’s prescription drug coverage will increase on average 43% next year. So, uhh, don’t get sick.
You know who has had it for too easy for too long? Whales. You know, the big lazy fuckers just swimming around out there, getting in the way of our submarines, eating our krill. Thank God the Supreme Court is here to put them in their place.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Democrat Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States on Tuesday, becoming the first African American to win the post and completing a meteoric rise from state senator to the White House. The Illinois Senator rode a message of change and an inspirational exhortation of hope to a victory over Senator John McCain of Arizona. Thought votes are still being counted, Senator Obama currently has 52% of the popular vote and 349 electoral votes. Obama gave his acceptance speech in front of 200,000 people in Chicago’s Grant Park.
This is the biggest news story in the world today, you can take your pick as to which newspaper coverage of the election you want to read. Or, you can do what I did and just go here and cry for a while. All of the coverage focuses on the historic nature of the election, both what it means for race in America and how President-elect Obama (there goes the crying again) is going to face a daunting set of challenges.
What do your favorite writers think?
- Tom Friedman calls this election the true end of the Civil War.
- Matt Yglesias is trying to insist that this is really a victory for a progressive agenda.
- Paul Krugman calls this an end to the Monster Years of American politics.
- Ezra Klein calls it the end of the 9/11 era.
For Senate News and more Crass Political Concerns, see after the jump.
Keep reading
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
As everyone predicted, Senator Clinton won the Kentucky primary and Senator Obama won the Oregon primary. So, if everyone knew that it was going to happen, why does it matter? Well, it does and it doesn’t. Senator Obama secured a majority in pledged delegates last night. He is still 100 delegates short of securing the nomination, but even if he received no delegates at all in the remaining primaries (not going to happen) he would still come out with a majority of pledged delegates. That means the only way Clinton can win is if she wins all of the remaining primaries by massive margins and then the superdelegates decide en masse to support her. At least, I think that is what it means, chances are Mike Gravel will end up winning the whole thing and usher the whole world into a youtube-fueled era of peace and prosperity.
So why doesn’t Hillary drop out? Ask her. This article actually lists a lot of good and thoughtful reasons she shouldn’t drop out. Read it and then inject some of them when your coworkers are bashing her.
Hey so, funny story, the FBI has a “War Crimes File” on stuff they saw the US Military do at Guantanamo Bay. Not so much funny “ha ha” as funny “collaborating with the Chinese Government to torture Chinese prisoners being held there.” Christ.
Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy has been diagnosed with a malignant tumor following his collapse and subsequent hospitalization this past weekend. It does not look good and I, for one, want wish the best to the Senator.
