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.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
So, it has been a few days huh? Well last week I was in DC celebrating a historic event and a great day for our country. It was day that a lot of people thought wouldn’t come, but a few faithful who worked hard and truly believed were rewarded when [LAME ASS ARIZONA CARDINALS JOKE].
Tough crowd. Anyway yes, we have been on a bit of a sabbatical for inauguration and then post-vacation work craziness.
What kind of world has Obama inherited? Yesterday about a dozen companies announced layoffs totally around 75,000 jobs. What is most significant about these job cuts are that they aren’t affecting the usual banking and real estate industry, the ax is falling across large swaths of manufacturing, retailing and information technology, taking out workers from New York to Seattle. Expect to see more cuts as companies take stock of 2008 and begin implementing 2009 plans.
Thankfully, the Senate has saved us! They have confirmed Timothy Geithner as President Barack Obama’s Treasury secretary by a 60-34 vote. Though there were threats about derailing his nomination because of some tax issues in his past, not even the US Senate is stupid enough to force a protracted battle over a Treasury Secretary nomination with a staggeringly popular President during a financial crisis.
Since he not only has to save the US economy but also the entire world, President Obama did an interview with Al-Arabiya, an Arabic-language satellite TV network in which he stressed that the US ‘not your enemy.’ Woo! Public Diplomacy totally rocks! Anyone know why he didn’t do Al Jazeera?
Good news? You say you want good news? How about the fact that Bill Kristol is no longer a columnist at the New York Times? That’s right, his last day was yesterday – you won’t have old Bill Kristol to kick around anymore. Who are we kidding? He friggen loved it and is moving over to the Washington Post to continue his liberal-enraging, correction-requiring brand of commentary. Thank god, I, like every other blogger ever, was terrified about not having Bill Kristol columns to make fun of every week. That might force me to think, or possible to do some actual research!
As a bonus, head after the jump to see a hilarious Kristol image from our archives.
Keep reading
Friday, January 9, 2009
News out of the Gaza strip remains grim. International aid groups are ratcheting up their criticism of Israel, claiming that Palestinian civilians are being completely neglected and that aid workers are being hurt and killed. The United Nations has suspended activities in Gaza and launched an official investigation into the Israel military after a UN driver was killed while in a UN-marked aid truck; the Red Cross has released a harsh statement condemning Israel for what it calls failures of international humanitarian law. While criticism mounts, the current US administration continues to back Israel somewhat unconditionally, ugh. It is tough to take a stand on this issue at the office, but it is likely that no one will bring it up.
Economic news at home is similarly grim. Major retailers, including discount stores like Wal-Mart, reported declining sales figures for December and warned that the next few months will be even worse. Additionally, the final employment report for 2008 has been released and it shows that the US lost a total of 2.6 million jobs in 2008, which is apparently the most in a single year since WWII ended in 1945. Job loss accelerated as the year went on meaning that it is likely to continue well into 2009 and also that various stimulus schemes used by the Bush administration didn’t really work. The Obama economic team is overhauling his proposed stimulus package after the initial plan met with some criticism from congressional leaders. How to talk about this at the office? There isn’t much to say besides that it sucks and hopefully no one is getting laid off.
The Florida Gators beat Oklahoma 24-14 to win the BCS national championship. I guess that means the Gators are the best team in college football? I dunno, that whole thing is so fucked up. Here is hoping that President-elect Obama will fix it. There is probably a pretty killer party in Gainesville right now, so if you can make it head on over.
Palm, a company that was once the king of handhelds but has lagged seriously since the creation of smartphones, has rocketed back into relevance with the introduction of the Palm Pre at this year’s CES. While iphone killers seem to pop up (and fail) with increasing regularity, this one looks great. Gadget writers I respect are lining up to sing its praises. The phone features multitouch, is on a 3G network, runs on a linux platform and integratse mobile facebook and gmail apps into the software of the phone itself. For example, if a friend calls their facebook photo pops up. Unfortunately, it is currently exclusive to Sprint… grrrrr…
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
First up, news we are pretty sure is important but can only loosely explain why: The Federal Reserve cut its target interest rate to historic lows between zero and a quarter percentage points. I am pretty sure that this means that banks can borrow money from the Federal Reserve and pay essentially no interest on it. That, hypothetically, means that banks will lower the rate at which they lend money to households and businesses. However, since no one is investing anyway, it doesn’t appear that this is going to work.
Dana Milibank, a Washington Post columnist, is complaining that we are trading a “sports-obsessed president who doesn’t like tough questions,” for “another sports-obsessed president who doesn’t like tough questions.” His evidence for this is that at Obama’s press conference naming his new Secretary of Education, he avoided the media’s questions about Gov. Blagojevich. Is this the beginning of a trend of stories saying that Obama isn’t open enough with the media? Almost certainly, but keep in mind that he is already having a press conference every few days and demonstrating a refreshing amount of openness in going around the media to talk to the public directly.
Tom Friedman has a great column asking the question, “What is really the difference between Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme and the totally legal subprime deals?”
Finally, Time has named Barack Obama person of the year. This reminds me of Jeff and I debating who would be person of the year last year (I thought Obama until Jeff said that would be next year after he had won the election, kudos ). Man, can you believe that “You” was two years ago? How lame was that!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
The National Bureau of Economic Research has officially declared that the United States is in a recession, news which sent the Dow Jones industrial average plunging nearly 680 points, or 7.7 percent. Government officials are saying they will do everything possible to turn the recession around. Who knows if they will be successful. I had no idea what officially makes it a recession; thanks to Slate’s Explainer, I do now:
One widespread definition of a recession—the one used by newspapers—is a decline in the gross domestic product for two or more consecutive quarters.
President-elect Obama yesterday announced who will be in his national security team. Leading the team will be Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as Secretary of State and President Bush’s Defense Secretary Robert Gates as, well, Defense Secretary. Two key takeaways from this are that I am sick to death of hearing the phrase “team of rivals” and that THIS is the best news ever.
After being panned last week for taking three separate corporate jets to ask for bailouts, the heads of the big three automakers will be most likely driving to Washington for a series of meetings with Congress. The head of Ford will be taking Ford’s new hybrid car while the other two haven’t decided how they will get there. Here is a thought: book coach tickets and skip this bullshit. That, or really have fun with it and road trip in an old VW bus.
Finally, if you get paid to run for a living it is probably not a good idea to carry around a loaded gun. It is probably a worse idea to try to unload it while drinking wine and shoot yourself in the leg.
