What’s that? Oh nothing, just the President-elect’s first YOUTUBE VIDEO!! Though the weekly radio address has been a Presidential standard for years, Barack Obama has added a weekly Youtube address. Though it seems like this is a leap forward in Presidential accessibility, it is worth noting that comments on that video have been turned off. That is probably for the best, it really wouldn’t do to have some schmuck tell the President-elect “GEEZ KILL YO’SELF.”
Iraq’s cabinet on Sunday overwhelmingly approved a proposed security agreement that calls for a full withdrawal of American forces from the country by the end of 2011. The overwhelming nature of the vote bodes well for the agreements full vote in Parliament because it is likely all of the political parties will support it. So the war is over - maybe?
President-elect Obama and Senator John McCain are meeting today in Chicago to attempt a reconciliation after a bitter campaign. Here is an interesting debate to have in your office: What role will John McCain play in the upcoming years? Will he lead the Republican opposition and through his mastery of the ins and outs of the Senate change or kill President Obama’s proposals? Or, will he give a big F.U. to the Republican base and lead the moderate Republicans to compromise with the Democratic majority. I don’t know, but I feel like having to suck up to Joe the Plumber may have been the last straw.
Finally, a note of major concern to 2.0somethings, Total Request Live ended last night after a ten-year run as the anchor property of MTV. The show launched the careers of artists like Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys, ‘N Sync, Eminem and Christina Aguilera, so it would be easy to joke that the world would have been better off without it. But for a lot of people our age, TRL was was the first exposure we had to the communal experience that is pop culture. I am going to celebrate by heading over to MTVmusic.com and throwing on some videos of LFO, The Bare Naked Ladies, 98 degrees, Limp Bizkit, Korn, Sugar Ray or whoever, closing my eyes and for a brief second, pretending that I just got home from school.
Man, this election has had some ups and downs. Thank god we have been here, day after day, giving you a brief rundown of top stories and explaining the news of the day. Yup… every day…. no 3-month gaps here. No sir. Anyway, very glad to be back and looking forward to talking about the news with all of your again. Back to it!
The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times lead with election news. the Post leads with a new poll that shows Obama with a 7-point lead in VA. The poll largely credits voters belief that Obama is better-equipped to handle the economy. The LA Times has a story about the growing popularity of Californians voting by mail. Voting by mail greatly increases turnout though some feel that it makes voters more likely to make a mistake in voting. The New York Times leads with a preview of the states where the candidates will be campaigning and points out that both campaigns are focusing on traditionally Republican states. Though I have mocked it in the past, Bill Kristol’s column has become an invaluable preview of what the McCain campaign’s message will be. This week will be Commander in Chief week. Kinda like shark week but with more saluting.
USA Today leads with the news that the Pentagon will continue the policy know as “stop loss.” The program involuntarily extends soldiers’ tours of combat duty and is largely seen as a glaring symbol of how overstretched the military is. Bad news for soldiers, their families, an human decency, but it could mean a sequel for these guys.
The Syrian government has condemned attacks on a village on the border of Syria and Iraq. Iraq said the area targeted was used by militants to launch cross-border attacks in Iraq. The US has neither confirmed nor denied the incident.
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.
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.
