Thursday, May 22, 2008
Tentative peace agreements are breaking out all over. Israel and Syria announced that they were engaged in negotiations for a comprehensive peace treaty while the Lebanese Government and Hezbollah have reached an agreement that brings Hezbollah back into the government and gives them a significant role. Israel is hoping to drive a wedge between Syria and Iran, and Syria is hoping to regain lost territory and begin opening up ties with the United States. The Lebanese agreement leaves the US-backed government in a weak position, but avoids outright civil war that they probably would have lost anyway. Notice anything in common about these two agreements? They both don’t involve this guy. Perhaps that was the cornerstone of administration policy the whole time: if we fuck up enough, countries will realize they need to sort it out without our help.
The House overrode President Bush’s Veto of the farm bill. However, the House will likely have to pass the bill all over again because it was delivered to the President’s desk with a section missing (about 30 pages out of 673). Take your pick as to which is more embarrassing, the House forgetting to deliver all of it, the President signing it without realizing that a section was missing or the fact that the entire $307 billion bill is stuffed with subsidies for farmers at the same time food prices are skyrocketing.
Were you getting screwed enough by airline travel? Me neither. Because of the high price of oil, American Airlines is taking a variety of cost-cutting measures including cutting domestic flights, laying off workers and charging for all checked bags. Starting June 15, it will be $15 to check your first bag and $25 for the second. I have no officially decided to spend my vacation eating beans in my apartment.
Friday, April 18, 2008
The New York Times leads with a great story on the fact that workers across the country are working fewer hours. For blue-coller workers, this means a lack of overtime pay that has traditionally been a staple of their salaries. Since talk of the recession has mostly focused on stock prices, I would say that this is today’s must-read. All the people involved in the wall street stories are still making more than $450 a week – trust me.
The Air Force spent $50 million through a blatantly corrupt process on a company to “jazz up” the Thunderbirds air show. That bid was more than twice the next lowest bid and the company barely exists. The whole thing was apparently designed to reward a former Air Force General and senior-level Air Force personelle were involved. It is a small amount of money (for the Pentagon), but the real news behind this story is buried in the 5th paragraph:
According to the report, Goldfein even arranged for President Bush to record a video testimonial in the White House Map Room that was included in the SMS contract proposal, demonstrating the company’s credibility and access.
I am pretty sure the President isn’t supposed to do that. Here’s hoping the video hits Youtube.
Iraq and baseball (not related) after the jump
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Friday, April 11, 2008
People on the East Coast are STILL talking about yesterday’s weather. The key for chatter today will be having a story about that bitchen walk you took yesterday. However, there are some stories kicking around.
BREAKING — The Associated Press is reporting that Senator Hillary Clinton and senator Barack Obama are… kinda the same!! The article details how the two have very few differences in most major policy areas. This might be a fun one to e-mail to your friends who are hardcore partisans for either candidate.
American Airlines cut flights yesterday, are cutting more flights today, and will probably cut more flights over the weekend. If this comes up at the office make loud noises of sympathy for anyone you know who has to travel at any point in the next month.
Bush administration conflict, naked pictures, and political shakedowns after the jump
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Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Not much news today as most of the country’s politicians and journalists hold their breath in anticipation of the testimony of Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker. Petraeus and Crocker will be testifying before Congress about the state of Iraq. Similarly to when they last testified, they are expected to say that things have improved and that significant progress has been made. Their testimony might be undercut somewhat by the fact that there are currenly pitched battles going onin Baghdad between rival Shiite militias.
President Bush has backed and sent to Congress a free trade agreement with Columbia. This puts him at odds with the Democratically-controlled Congress and their Union allies. Luckily though, it puts Mark Penn on his side. If they could combine forces they could screw it up so much that they actuallly do a great job and get the bill passed.
The Pope is coming! The Pope is coming! (side note: coolest thing I learned from the article is that the Pope’s plane is named ‘Shepard 1′)
Finally, David Brooks has a good column today on what political progress in Iraq looks like. I am cutting him some slack even though I am pretty sure his column is a review of a book review.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Quick side note, it’s 6:30 am and my Red Sox are losing to the damn A’s. That doesn’t really matter, because baseball is back.
Big news out of Iraq as President Bush yesterday conferred with General Patraeus and Ambassador David Crocker on the future of Iraq. The President acknowledged the sacrifices made so far but said that the US troops are doing little but try to police a civil war and it is time for them to start coming home. PSYCH. Actually he said that he was stopping the currently reductions in troop levels until at least after July–though probably until he gets tossed out of the White House next January.
The UN, Presidential Campaigns, Soot, and Pakistan after the jump.
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