Monday, February 4, 2008
Your morning news is late today because of last night‘s game. While 2.0somethings is strongly pro-Patriots, we can appreciate that it was actually nice to have a Super Bowl that was an exciting game, and we are honored that… OH who the hell am I kidding. WE LOST TO THE GIANTS. THE GIANTS. How in God’s name did Manning make that pass. HOW. WTF. Brady was sacked 4 times. WHERE WAS OUR OFFENSIVE LINE. Ok, it is out of our system. Mostly.
Man, how about those ads.
All the papers are focused on tomorrow’s Super Tuesday primary. It is the largest primary election event in history. National polls have Senator Barack Obama in a dead heat with Senator. Hillary Clinton. Those same polls show Senator John McCain with a large lead in the Republican race. When the topic comes up at lunch today, sound authoritative by saying that national polls don’t matter because it is not a national election, you need to look at the polling numbers state-by-state. If you do that, it looks like Senator Clinton will pull off some wins tomorrow.
California, with its ungodly (241) number of primary delegates, is one of the biggest prizes in tomorrow’s primary. All of the candidates were there yesterday. The biggest news was that California’s first lady, Maria Shriver, made a surprise endorsement of Senator Obama. Shriver’s husband, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, endorsed Republican Senator John McCain a while ago. Shriver is also a member of the Kennedy family, which gives the endorsement more resonence.
New polls are showing that concern over the economy is at its highest mark in the past decade with most people thinking we are already in a recession. The economy is now considered the number one issue in the Presidential campaign. Don’t let this dissuade you from buying cool stuff we talk about. The poll doesn’t break it down by age, but 18-29 year-olds did represent about 20% of the respondents.
Google finally weighed in on Microsoft’s bid to take control of Yahoo. Google basically said that they fear for the free flow of ideas on the internet. More realistically, Google is organizing its lobbyists and working through back channels to make the deal as unpleasant as possible for Microsoft.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Senator Clinton and Senator Obama met last night in the final (why not?) debate of the Democratic Primary. Since Senator Edwards dropped out of the race, this was the first chance voters had to see Clinton and Obama debated head to head. Despite the rancor the two candidates have shown each other, the debate has been described as “low key” and “gentle.” Both of those are code for boring as hell. Both candidates took pains to criticize the President and Senator John McCain and show a united front — then they made out backstage.
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Thursday, January 31, 2008
As we predicted, Rudy Giuliani officially dropped out of the Presidential race and endorsed John McCain. Unfortunately, history decrees that Giuliani can’t do anything in this campaign without being overshadowed, so one of the other candidates had to drop out too. Kudos to John Edwards for stepping up to the plate.
That is right, Democratic candidate John Edwards officially withdrew from the campaign yesterday. Edwards said, “It is time for me to step aside so history can blaze its path.” (In case you are confused, John Edwards was the one who wasn’t the black guy or the woman). No word on an endorsement from Edwards yet. Most recent reports had chests of gold being delivered from the Clinton and Obama offices to Edward’s home in North Carolina.
Republicans turned their attention to California yesterday for a debate between the Presidential candidates at the Ronald Reagan Library. It was the final Republican debate before next week’s Super-Duper Tuesday (Imaybe). The two front runners, Sen. McCain and former Gov. Romney, went at it like dogs over a soup bone. Gov. Romney accused McCain of distorting his record on… etc etc. Unfortunately, at no point in the night did Sen. McCain’s most recent endorser, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, spring to his defense by attacking Gov. Romney with a broadsword or dropping him off of a cliff. Maybe he is saving it for the general election.
As part of the newly launched “War on Interest Rates,” the Federal Reserve has cut interest rates for the second time in 8 days. Despite this “bold” move (Can it really be bold if that is what everyone expected the move to be?) many people say the economy is still in trouble.
Remember waaaaaaay back in 2006, when Israel invaded Lebanon? Well, they did. It turned into a huge mess, and the Government commissioned a formal inquiry into the whole thing. It is kind of like the Iraq Study Group, but with (Jewish joke redacted because Josh isn’t Jewish no matter how much he wishes he was). The report, released yesterday, says that Israel political and military leaders made huge mistakes in the War’s conception and execution. Apparently, many predicted that the report would be more scathing in its assessment of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Because it wasn’t, Olmert will most likely not partake in the ancient Isreali custom of political leaders who botch wars being forced to resign. How quaint.
Finally, China has been hit with massive rains and blizzards, which occurred during the biggest Chinese holiday of the year. Because of the bad weather, millions are stuck in airports and unable to return home. The Chinese government is trying to control the snow, and has dispatched the army to help clear roads and keep people calm. As one BBC commentator put it, “large crowds make this Government nervous.”
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
They fought on the beaches,
They fought on the landing grounds,
They fought on the fields and streets,
They fought on the shuffleboard courts and on Space Mountain,
They never surrendered… What?… Oh, that guy is surrendering?
After a bruising primary on which he staked his entire candidacy, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani will most likely announce today that he is dropping out of the Republican primary. Senator John McCain won the Florida primary, narrowly edging out former Governor Mitt Romney. Many people are saying that this solidifies Sen. McCain’s position as front-runner of the Republican primary. Additionally, the Florida win gives him momentum and credibility going into next week’s Super-Duper Tuesday when 22 states will have primaries or caucuses. However, you can’t count out Mitt Romney, who has more money than god and better hair.
On the Democratic side, Senator Hillary Clinton won the Florida primary — sorta — and held a massive Potemkin celebration for the national media. While the Democrats held a primary yesterday, Florida had moved their primary earlier against the orders of the national Democratic party so any delegates elected in Florida won’t be allowed to vote at the Democratic Convention. In deference to the national party, no Democratic Candidates campaigned in Florida or ran any advertisements. So Senator Clinton won the primary, but didn’t really win anything. Not surprisingly, Senator Clinton has been saying for a few days now that not seating the Florida delegates is unfair.
The Republican party is mad at Florida for the same reason, but rather than revoke all of their delegates, the Republicans are allowing Florida to send half of their usual number of delegates.
Meanwhile, back at the White House, President Bush is sending out signals that there are no major troop reductions from Iraq in the near future. In fact, word is that when the President leaves office our troop presence in Iraq there will be as large or larger than it is now.
On the other side of the capitol, Attorney General Michael Mukasey told the Senate that the practice known as waterboarding is definitely torture–proabably–maybe–OK in most cases–Usually. Even if it is, apparently he isn’t sure if it is always illegal. Last time I checked we signed a treaty with some specifics on the matter. But that was before 24 started and we realized how kick-ass torture is.
The New York Times has a great article detailing the inconsistent and confusing laws surrounding buying and selling alcohol in America, especially online. In the article, the author confesses to breaking the law and ordering wine directly from a California winery. Don’t worry, he has already been arrested and waterboarded to give up the name of the winery.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
The papers this morning all lead with coverage of the President’s State of the Union address. As advertised, the President focused on jobs and the war in Iraq. He also announced plans for modest new spending proposals on education and economic stimulus. The speech was notable for its lack of ambition. The President, rather than announcing bold new policy initiatives and spending his last year planning his place in history, spent the speech rehashing the events of his Presidency. Rather than go in an experimental direction (Peace in our time) or return to the sound that made the band famous (Axis of Evil), the President just cashed in and went with a Greatest Hits. The upcoming year will see the White House focus on tying up loose ends. You know — make the President’s tax cuts permanent, paint the deck, finally get around to reading that Iraq Study Group report that has been lying on the nightstand for months now — that kind of thing.
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