the mumbai attacks have citizen journalists playing a greater role than actual news journalists. apparently the tweeters are so on top of things indian authorities have asked people to quit posting detailed information on the service.
a new article in the washington post focuses on a recent study which includes gems llike ‘only 17 percent of college grads understood the difference between free markets and centralized planning.’ and ‘only 27 percent of elected officeholders in the survey could identify a right or freedom guaranteed by the first amendment.’ i’m sure everyone knew the bit about ‘the right to bear arms.’ hey, this might be why barack obama thinks the u.s. has 57 states.
seems like the washington post is trying to make up for their poor coverage during the presidential election. or perhaps the zogby/ziegler poll which showed that ‘57% of Obama voters were unable to correctly answer that Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate.’
the previous posting was about sarah palin heading down to georgia (the state, not the country) to stump for chambliss whose trying to hold onto his senate seat. but barack obama, who we know as the president elect because we’ve seen this seal in front of his podium during numerous press conferences, has recorded some audio for jim martin, but won’t be stumping for the man.
is obama concerned because he’s read karl rove’s editorial about his reverse coattails in the south.
sarah palin, the defacto head of the republican party, will spend some time in georgia alongside saxby chambliss who is campaigning against democrat jim martin in a run-off election in less than 2 weeks. who names their child saxby?
this race is important because with republican stevenson down, the democratic party is inching toward the filerbuster proof number 60 in the senate wing of congress. if chambliss loses his senate seat or if coleman goes down in minnesota, then nancy pelosi and crew will have their 60 seats.
does this matter? well, the u.s. constitution is all about checks and balances and the will of the people. one could argue that if the will of the people is that the democrats control everything, then so be it. the other side of such an argument is that perhaps, based on what happened with bill clinton during the first couple of years of his administration and the fiscal irresponsibility that was george w. bush for 6 years, both of whom led during those periods while their respective parties were in charge.
christopher hitchens, the man who spent election day eve railing against sarah palin and endlessly referring to her as THAT WOMAN! now tosses his two cents worth in about hillary clinton becoming secretary of state.
magazines are losing advertisers because fashion labels just don’t have the dough. and their customers are out of work. and marc jacobs has cancelled his annual christmas bash.
france’s socialist’s political party narrowly elected martine aubry as head of the party. she narrowly defeated segolene royal, who was the first female presidential candidate in the 2007 election, intends to challenge the vote.
how is the media covering this? it was top headline on bbc world this morning and is prominently displayed on the homepage of the channel as well. although we don’t watch cnn 24-7, this morning we did not see a story on this. the new york times ran an article earlier in the week about how the socialist party, the party of francois mitterand and the infamous 35 hour work week –which has destroyed the frenc economy, had failed to elect a leader.
although nicholas sarkozy was elected a little more than 1 year ago, defeating royal by 5% of the vote, it seems as if he has been the president of france for ages.
a piviotal job in barack obama’s new administration was announced late on friday. well, early enough to watch the market react, but late enough (if taken badly) not to cause real damage.
geithner who is white, or appears to be, like obama has lived outside of the u.s. and may bring much needed international knowledge to the table.
how is the press covering the story. the wall street journal seems pleased. despite geithner’s relatively young age (47), he’s the president of the new york fed and worked with the IMF for 2 years according to wikipedia.
the problem with hillary clinton as secretary of state, doesn’t really have anything to do with hillary. it has to do with bill clinton. if she is nominated to the seat, during the confirmation hearings, the republicans (who at the moment look like they don’t have a foot to stand on) will go through the financial contributors to all of bill clinton’s projects line by line. some of whom include members of families from oil rich countries, and by that we don’t mean the united states. as bob woodward recently asked, what is barack obama smoking?
but how is this story being convered by the mainstream political media? most publications such as the new york times are enthusiastic about all of obama’s appointments. there have been sceptical editorials in the washington post. the guardian, a british newspaper with a sizable u.s. readership, is gushing as well. other sceptics including the new republic which writes in a recent blog entry that no drama obama is inviting drama into the white house with open arms.
is brangelina a master of media manipulation? this new york times article alleges that angelina jolie and brad pitt only agreed to let people magazine photograph their twins if they would promise that the accompany article and future articles in the publication would be positive.
the article also reveals that according to their findings, the jolie-pitt foundation has received infinitely more than the $2M it has distributed –even if you only take into consideration the money brangelia have received for photographs of shiloh (who angelina once famously referred to as ‘the blob’) and the twins.
now that everyone knows that change is not coming to washington but a mini-clinton restoration is taking its place, the american people are now being told that this financial crisis this and the recesiion (both of which are of course connected) may go on for 2, 3, or even 4 years. the barack obama people, like david axlerod and robert reich. (who was bill clinton’s labour secretary) are trying desperately to lower –some might say trample, on people’s expectations.
you know the magazine must be hurting when jon meacham goes on hannity and colmes to push newsweek magazine (as well as his new book). you can located the video of this exchange about the similarities between obama and lincoln (NOT) on fox news.
here are the similarities between obama and lincoln. lincoln had only served for 2 years in the house of representatives. barack obama served for less than 2 years in the senate prior to running for the presidency. abraham lincoln was the first republican president. barack obama is the first black president. both studied law. so we’ve got the neophyte bit covered and the first one of something covered. and they both served a term (or in obama’s case almost a full term) in the federal government representing the state of illinois. but the similarities end because the operative word is that abraham lincoln was a member of the GOP.
lincoln had a legal career which spanned 2 decades. during which he argued numerous landmark cases. the cases on which obama has worked have so far not been scrutinized by the press or revealed by his former law firm.
during his campaign abraham lincoln and stephan p. douglas debated in an endless series of town hall meetings famously called the lincoln-douglass debates. something that barack obama refused to engage in with john mccain. it is conceivable, that obama would’ve prevailed and could’ve turned a modest win into a landslide of ronald reagan proportions. but we’ll never know.
but one thing’s for certain, this newsweek barack obama cover story is uncritical.
according to newsweek, known for its flair and fair and balanced reporting, eric holder, former deputy attorney general in the clinton administration has been offered a job as attorney general. well, looks like the 1990s are about to play themselves out again. hopefully without the lewinsky scandal. so far obama has announced 2 white guys and leaked the names of two women and two minorities. now all his supporters will be some what appeased. its a balancing act that the outgoing president, george w. bush, played but in a slightly different way.
anna wintour, whose been editor of vogue for like forever might be retiring. click here for more information. could this have anything to do with the conde nast’s recent budget cuts? or is the timing of this leak just a coincidence?
why a disaster? 1.) hillary clinton voted for the iraq war 2.) who do you think will really be in charge? 3.) hillary only speaks one language. it would be nice if language skills was an actual job requirement here. but this is the united states and most english speaking people are monolingual. although condi rice’s russian was suspect. 4.) those americans who live overseas will be forced to look at her every single day on TV. 5.) we thought the 90s were over 6.) shakespeare may have said, ‘keep your enemies close,’ but he didn’t mean that close.
article 18: Amending and revision the constition. section 3 states ‘the electors may amend the Constitution by initiative.’
section 4 states: ‘a proposed amendment or revision shall be submitted to the
electors and if approved by a majority of votes thereon takes effect
the day after the election unless the measure provides otherwise. If
provisions of 2 or more measures approved at the same election
conflict, those of the measure receiving the highest affirmative vote
shall prevail.’
yesterday, cbs ran a taped interview with barack obama as interviewed by steve kroft. not only did kroft basically hand obama his answeres.he didn’t press him for any details and there were virtually no follow-up questioins. and was the timing of the interview a way to cover up the fact that barack obama missed the g-20 summit this weekend, aka bretton woods 2?
the g-20 summit that’s taken place this weekend in washington dc is being billed as bretton woods 2. all the heads of state of the 20 most economically relevant nations have descended on washington and barack obama is tucked away in chicago. or perhaps hiding.
so what was the original bretton woods? set forth in 1944, the meeting of key nations was attended by 730 representatives of 44 nations and was organized by franklin d. roosevelt and winston churchill in the hope to establish economic cooperation. the meeting established a set of rules and regulations surrounding the international monetary system. a general description can be found here.
it is possible that george w. bush set up the meeting for this particular time partially for political reasons. had john mccain prevailed and become president of the united states, the meeeting would’ve reassured global markets. and perhaps bush and his handlers also took into consideration that if barack obama won (as he did), he would be hardpressed to prepare for such a monumental meeting and with george w. bush leading the event, obama’s stature within the community would be diminished.
the no on proposition 8 californians seems to have taken a page out of the mccarthy book of intimidation. clickhere for the details.
californians voted by 6 percentage points to amend the california constitution. this occured via a democratic process. californians have voted twice on the issue within the past 10 years. it is now up to the courts to interpret what all of this means.
demonstrations have a place in every society. it is a form of free speech. and as long as they are peaceful, most people have no problem with them. but to take the whole thing one step further and to spit on a little old lady making a counter demonstration or to bring a woman to tears by smearing her for contributing to the yes on proposition 8 fund, or sending envelopes filled with white powder to the mormon church will make the general population as a whole less sympathetic.
let the courts decide. it could take 10 years for the whole thing to snake through the system. but the u.s. system works. and it has served the united states well for over 230 years. unfortunately newsom, the mayor of san francisco forgot this in 2004 when he took it upon himself to re-interpret california law.
a financial pow-wow is happening this weekend in washington dc. last week ‘a blog about whatever’ pointed out that barack obama will not be attending. today, the international herald tribune basically supports his idea to duck the meeting.
it is conceivable that george w. bush picked this moment partially for political reasons. had john mccain won the election, it would’ve shorn up the markets’ trust in him. and with a barack obama win, it could show him up as the financial and political neophyte that many suspect that he is.
with the absence of obama at the g-20 summit and george w. bush being basically the lame duck president that he is, gordon brown is asserting himself on the world stage according to the international herald tribune. brown was recently quoted as saying that he was prepared to take obama under his wing and teach him about the financial markets. that may sound condescending. and well, quite frankly it is. but brown was chancellor of the exchequer of the uk for 10 years.
last weekend on ‘dateline london‘ gaven esler and some strange woman from the washington post, talked about the possibility of john mccain joining a barack obama administration. are these people delusional? these must be the same people who mistakenly believe he would’ve considered running with john kerry in 2004. unfortunately, the ‘dateline london ‘program is available to watch on the web, if you are based in the uk.
it is tradition that the outgoing president sits down with the president elect to have a private conversation. up until obama’s meeting with george w. bush, no one has ever blabbed about this conversation.
with bill clinton, someone once said this following his endless stream of bimbo eruptions, ‘once white trash, always white trash.’ perhaps this time around one might say, you can take the man out of the the southside of chicago, but you can’t take the southside of chicago out of the man. details about the conversation are on my way news.
there has been little if any protest by conservatives over the election of barack obama. that’s due to multiple reasons. one of which is, the powers that be in the party didn’t expect to win. but as the democratic primary dragged on and on, hope started to rise. the second reason is, due to the large turn out of black and latino voters, proposition 8 passed. many african-american voters turned up to vote for obama, and in the process, 70% of those voters voted ‘yes’ on proposition 8, which amends the california state constitution to define marriage as being between a man and a woman. around 60% of latinos voted to amend the state constitution as well. so the phrase ‘the lord works in mysterious ways,’ has recently assumed a whole new meaning for the focus on the family types and others who favored the passage of the amendment.
russia has re-inserted itself as the foreign policy issue of the moment. poland’s president, lech kaczynski, released information to a polish news outlet following his converation with u.s. president elect barack obama saying the u.s. will continue with plans regarding the missle-defense/shield for eastern europe. while obama’s people say he has not made a commitment.
up until about a year ago, the positions of prime minister and president in poland were occupied by the identical kaczynski twins. from 2005, he has been the president of poland, having initially run as a member of the far right law and justice party which he co-founded with is brother.
the office of president in poland is primarily a ceremonial role. the prime minister, donald tusk, is the head of state.
stephan hann took the time to sign a couple of autographs in the photo below. the fashion designer, who once worked at the germany opera house (deutsche oper) and later attended a fashion school on the east side of berlin has worked with designers such as yves st. laurent.
his exhibition at the museum of applied arts featured his signature style of using found objects to create fashion masterpieces. everything from celluloid to lexmark paper to champagne caps from moet to the financial times.
this is burried in an article about silvio berlusconi (the italian prime minister and a friend of bush and mccain) referring to obama as being tanned. shouldn’t world leaders be calling obama? is he giving up power already?
obama’s economic advisers consist of congressman david bonior, former fed chairman paul volcker, former treasury secretary larry summers, time warner chairman richard parsons, fomer labour secretary robert reich, former treasury secretary robert rubin, former SEC commissioner roel campos, mayor of los angeles antonia villaraigosa, michigan governor jennifer granholm, warren buffett, former congressman david bonior, former fed vice-chair roger ferguson, and google ceo eric schmidt. while some may be obsessing about the lack of semi-colons in this incomplete list. let’s take a look at some of the people.
paul volcker, former chairman of the federal reserve, was initially appointed by jimmy carter. that may not sound encouraging. but he’s credite with having tamed stagflation. and was reappointed by ronald reagan in 1983 and replaced by alan greenspan in 1987. you can watch an interview with volcker on charlie rose. an article from the new york times published in 1987, at the close of his tenure states that his legacy is that “…he freed the economy from its worst predicament since the great depression.” his reviews are somewhat mixed given that some believe his tight control of the money supply made the recession during the early 80s a lot worse.
governor jennifer granholm, the chief executive of the state of michigan, is originally from canda. she presides over a state with the highest unemployment rate in the u.s. in 2005, according to the wall street journal, she proposed to raise taxes on insurance companies, banks and thousands of small businesses that private studies said would have cost up to 20,000 jobs (obviously her canadian roots were showing). but her plan was killed by the legislature.
in may, the los angeles times reported that oprah winfrey’s ratings and magazine circulation have dropped. yesterday, it was announced that ms. winfrey would end her syndication run in 2011 (when her contract with king world runs out).
oprah’s political partisanship has undoubtedly damaged her ratings. maybe king world isn’t interested in extending her contract. are advertisers pulling out? the orpah people are spinning this saying, she’s always planned to put her show on a new cable network she’s developing. sounds like nothing less than spin.
according to the new york times, oprah winfrey’s ratings have fallen 7% thus far in 2008 and her magazine, O, has seen it’s circulation decline by 10%. these numbers are from spring. but worth taking a look at since king world’s announcement.
according to the bbc, barack obama will not be attending the group of 20 economic summit next weekend. is this by choice? the spanish prime minister will be incognito as well. according to an article in last weekend’s edition of the financial times, jose luis rodriguez zapatero, who the spanish fondly refer to as ‘little feet,’ wasn’t invited by the bush administration. and since then, he has been lobbying anyone who will listen to try to get them to get bush to send him an invitation.
why is it that this information comes from the financial times and the daily mail two uk based newspaper? apparently mccain’s campaign network was hacked as well. the u.s government cyber investigation believes this cybercrime originated in china.
the 1930 smoot-hawley act has been bandied around by a number of people, including publisher rupert murdoch. the financial times writes that barack obama’s campaign pledged to fiddle with NAFTA and address the china trade imbalance is raising the spectre of smoot-hawley.
what is smoot-hawley? the smoot-hawley act of 1930 raised u.s. tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods coming into the u.s. in response, foreign governments increased tariffs on american products. (since the u.s. barely manufactures anything these days, who knows how much this would affect u.s. businesses).
economists believe the political discussion leading up to the passage of the act is one factor that caused the stock market to crash and the passage was a factor in deepening and prolonging the great depression.
it had a similar affect as what the democrats arguably have done to the u.s. economy. back in the day when we were forced to endure the first round of political debates, the fundamentals of the u.s. economy were sound. but if you spend 18 months talking about what a horrible state the middle-class is in….this obviously has had a psychological affect on the american people. american optimism has completely vanished. but oprah winfrey would argue that it’s all been replaced by hope. but without the fireworks.
the original intention of smooth-hawley was to protect farmers. massive expansion in the agricultural production sector outside of europe during world war I led, with the post-war recovery of european producers, to massive agricultural overproduction during the 1920s. This in turn led to declining farm prices during the second half of the decade.but hoover and the congress at that time were convinced to seek protection for a wide range of products. smooth-hawley raised tariffs, created an international trade war, which in turn hurt american businesses. it was the high-water mark of u.s. protectionism in the 20th century. and has been credited with making a bad situation worse. as obama hasn’t actually been sworn in, it is too early for anyone to raise the spectre of smooth-hawley. but perhaps by doing this, it might lead the democratic party down a more moderate path.
your husband becomes the first black president in the history of the united states and the first non-white head of state of any western country. so what do you wear? well, if you’re like michelle obama, who freely admitted to jay leno that she shops on the internet, you wear something that looks like it was purchased atross dress for less. unfortunately, it wasn’t. because then she would’ve had an excuse. it was actually by narcisco rodriguez, better known as the man who made The Dress for the late mrs. john f. kennedy jr.’s wedding.
the downside to all of this for her is that she will see images of this dress for the rest of her life. perhaps now we understand sarah palin and the rnc’s investment of 1% of their budget in hair and makeup and clothing for the vice presidential candidate.
in an interview broadcast on the bbc rupert murdoch voiced concern that barack obama’s instinct might take him toward protectionism. while acknowledging that he liked him as a person, murdoch voiced concern regarding obama’s inexperience.
there’s a fairly lively comment section on murdoch’s wall street journal website concerning what a obama presidency will mean for small business owners.
asian industry is leary of possible protectionism arising under an obama administration and a democratic controlled congress.
the dow fell 500 points today. but somehow this is not big news for the washington post. and you have to scroll down the home page of the new york times to find this information.
this county by county election map, provided by the washington post shows that obama essentially played the john kerry and al gore game last night, but was far more successful. he ran up the margins in the urban areas of places like ohio and pennsylvania, which overpowered the more rural areas. but in terms of red versus blue and square meter, the u.s. is very red.
if you’ve been to europe any time since the democratic primary wound up last june, you would’ve been bombarded with europeans from the uk to germany begging you to vote for barack obama. we call this obama delusional syndrome.
had you paused long enough to ask ‘why should i vote for obama?’ you would’ve discovered, that like the u.s. media, the people had no idea what barack obama stood for or what his platform looked like, or had a clue about his life beyond what was clearly filtered and edited in his book. invariable one might say ‘he will end the iraq war.’ to which you could’ve replied, ‘and when the u.s. pulls it’s trooops out and declares victory as nixon did during the vietnam war, then what do you think will happen?’ and perhaps the response would’ve been, ‘i don’t know, but i’m tired of watching bad t.v.’
had you paused long enough to ask any random european the following question, ‘could barack obama get elected in your country?’ the answer would’ve been a resounding no.
here are some images on the wall street journal website of people all over the world celebrating barack obama’s win. as obama once said, his story wouldn’t even be possible in any other country. and although we had to listen to this line for about one and a half years, unfortunately, it’s true.
which is a certain sort of equality. in countries like the uk or germany, which have stricter rules regarding politics and advertising, it would not be possible to completely saturate the airwaves with wall to wall television commercials or to buy time on 7 TV channel to rollout your fluffy infomercial –without the opportunity for the opposition to challenge you. but in the u.s.a., it would’ve been possible had the mccain campaign had 7 – 20 million floating around. a.) to buy airtime b.) to produce a slick, fluffy piece of television propaganda.
with all the hoopla surrounding the election. and images of long lines. in 2008, 117 million people voted, 4 million less than who voted in 2004. barack obama has won the presidential election with 62 million to john mccain’s 55 million votes. in 2004, george w. bush won with 62 million and john kerry racked up 59 million votes. so about 4 million people sat this one out.
the final count is 63m to 56m. so 3 million less voters turned out in 2004 than in 2008.
bearing in mind that all elements were against him, john mccain managed to put in a good showing on election night. here is his concession speech. and here’s the reverend jesse jackson having a breakdown. crying in the way obama cried for his grandmother. net rumors and conspiracy theorists believe that she died last week and the obama campaign held the announcement until the last minute to counter anything salacious that the GOP might cook up.
nice that it’s live on the internet. but completely slanted. christopher hitchen keeps raving about ‘that woman,’ which he uses to refer to sarah palin.
according to the ever reliablefox news, Shakir Stewart, who replaced jay-z as executive vp of def jam, a division of universal music group was found dead on saturday.
ryan philippe, aka the ex-mr. reese witherspoon, is in suburban st. louis today with c-list actress olivia wilde to tell missourites they should vote for you know who. the two actors, who have most likely never stepped foot in flyover country, probably couldn’t even locate missouri on a map prior to barack obama pointing it out to them (obama only knows where it is because he lives in neighboring illinois).
john mccain’s vice presidential running mater, sarah palin puts in an appearnce in more rural missouri today with hank williams, jr.
joe, gaffe machine, biden gave about 1% of his earnings to charity last year. while barack obama has an aunt, who is written about extensively in his book living in the projects in south boston.
first barack obama disowned reverend wright. and now reportedly hisaunt is an illegal alien who has been living in a housing project in boston, obama says ‘all approriate laws should be followed in this case.’ and that he was unaware he had an illegal aunt. guess he just tossed his aunt under the bus.
but was millionaire barack obama aware that his aunt has been living in a ghetto in boston? was he aware that she has donated money to his campaign?
it took a UK based newspaper, the times of london, to uncover barack obama’s aunt who obama talks about in his book. but these days claims not to know very well, although she did attend his inauguration in 2004 — the same year she was reportedly denied asylum by a u.s. court and told to leave the country.
this blog is about a bit of this and a bit of that. a sort of ‘for the moment’ blog. and at the moment, it’s more about politics and less about other stuff. my byline has appeared in wired, l.a. weekly, s.f. bay guardian and i blogged about the film ... Continue reading »
