Thursday, January 17, 2008
South Carolina politics are dirty. “How dirty?” you ask. So dirty that John McCain has been employing a “Truth Squad” to keep track of and rebut stories that are flying around. So far it has just been silly stuff like accusing him of collaborating with the enemy when he was a POW in Vietnam or saying he has voted to use unborn babies in medical research.
In 2000, Sen. McCain was on his way to the nomination and these kind of attacks, orchestrated by Karl Rove and President Bush’s campaign, sank his candidacy in South Carolina and eventually nationwide. Also in McCain-related news, the New York Times OP-Ed page has a McCain love-fest today.
In case you hadn’t noticed, the economy is not doing so hot. Now this doesn’t effect us much, since as a demographic we don’t usually own homes, we don’t have long-term savings, and we are generally broke anyway (Or is that just me?). However, even if you were thinking about worrying about it, don’t be, The United States Congress is on the case! Apparently, the parties are willing to cooperate in order to pass some kind of economic stimulus package. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has said he is on board, and he has even said that it might be OK to run up the national debt even more to pay for it. I’m no big city economist, but isn’t debt of every level what’s crippling the economy now? Maybe Sen. McCain can spare his truth squad for the Congressional hearings.
The White House has been having trouble finding e-mails sent between 2001 and 2003. Many people believed that they had intentionally destroyed them, but it turns out it was nothing that nefarious, they just taped over them. I mean, sure, they are required by law to keep records of communications among the President’s advisers, but there was a totally awesome Buffy The Vampire Slayer season 3 marathon! So apparently, the White House is either trying to eliminated records of what happened during the run up to the invasion of Iraq, or it is too lazy and dumb to change a tape. Truth Squad to the rescue!
Finally, across the Pond, Scientists have somehow been given the green light to create human-animal hybrid embryos. Mankind’s days as the most dangerous game are officially numbered. I, for one, welcome our new hybrid overlords.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Today is the Republican and Democratic Primary in Michigan. Because Michigan moved their primary up so early, Democratic candidates are not campaigning there and only Hillary Clinton (and possibly DennisKucinich) are still on the ballot there. Some Democrats in Michigan are pissed about that. For Republicans, Michigan has been called a must-win for both John McCain and Mitt Romney. Both candidates are campaigning in their particular style, McCain by aggressively telling voters what they don’t want to hear an Romney… not so much.
These early primaries don’t matter so much except as to how they affect a candidate’s momentum going into “Super Tuesday,” which is the name for Feb. 5. On that day dozens of states have primaries and half of the total delegates are awards.
Today’s must read on foreign affairs: an in-depth look at the rise in Pakistani militant groups (Yes, in-depth means long, it also means awesome–don’t skip it). If you really can’t handle it, at least watch this interview Fareed Zakaria did on the Daily Show last night about Pakistan.
People are feeling cautiously optimistic about Iraqi stability and the US’s role there… and will for the next 10 years.
Monday, January 14, 2008
First, this story is why the morning news is not getting posted until 2 pm.
The Presidential campaign continues unabated. The New York Times put out a new poll that shows the race for both the Democratic and Republican nominations are in flux. Remember how last week, all anyone cared about was Iowa and New Hampshire? This week all anyone will care about is South Carolina and Michigan. The song is pretty much the same, just replace references to Farm Subsidies with references to Auto Makers and the new “Alternative Energy” Economy.
In the race for the Democratic nomination, the knives are starting to come out. People affiliated with the Clinton campaign have begun making veiled, and not-so-veiled comments about Obama and race. The most egregious comments are coming from people very loosely affiliated with the campaign. Having worked in campaigns before, I can briefly attest that sometimes whisper campaigns like this are started by the campaign itself, but more often then not prominent campaign supporters feel that they are “helping.” You have to make the judgment for yourself on which you think this is.
Iraq is showing some signs of political progress. That progress is in the form of patronage jobs. The short summary is that the majority of the insurgents are unemployed young men. If the government can provide them jobs, they will have money, something to do, and be less likely to try to undermine the government that is signing their checks. Garbagemen and Toll Booths = Political stability.
Finally, the Golden Globes were last night. There was no televised spectacular because of the ongoing writers strike. Not that anyone cares about the writers, but the Screen Actor’s Guild (The Actors Union) said that none of their members would attend out of solidarity. And what would the point of the awards show be without celebrity presenters and George Clooney on the Red Carpet. The only bit of interesting news from the awards themselves was that the major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX) won, in total, 1 award (for Tina Fey and 30 Rock).
