01
Feb
Obama Goes One On One With Clinton, Key Issues Missing in Debate
TAKING IT TO THE STREETS: (Reuters) - A drunk broke off his rendition of a Charles Aznavour song to ask rush-hour Paris commuters for 50,000 euros (37,109 pounds) on Wednesday, inspired by the scale of the trading scandal at French bank Societe Generale. “Got five euros sir? No? Maybe 50,000 euros then. I’m not a banker. I’d bet it on the horse-races,” said the drunk, who got no money but plenty of laughs.
HILL V OBAMA ONE ON ONE
SENATE DEBATING STUIMULUS BILL
RUPERT MURDOCH KOWTOWED TO CHINA
The 17th Democratic debate took place last night. It was a one on one in the Kodak theater in Hollywood before an audience of elected officials, Hollywood stars, political partisans what looked like a lot of people on suits. Through my eyes both candidates tried to be cordial, stay away from personal attacks, attract John Edward’s voters and bait John McCain and the Repugs.
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and The AP seemed to be looking for a confrontation but I found both candidates hitting their message points. I found Obama more articulate but Hillary Clinton was no slouch and scored some better one liners. They discussed their differences on policy issues like policy wonks—mandates versus no mandates on health care ad infinitem but I think that actually lost the audience they were really seeking—the one that was not in the room
I saw most of it and would score it for Obama but once again after an hour and half there was no real analysis of the economic crisis except a focus on bad Bush tax hikes and foreclosure issues. There was no criticism of the banks, the Fed, the economic stimulus bill and many of the issues that most voters are concerned about. What will it take to get these candidates off exchanges about Iraq in 2003 to America today.
MoveOn will release its member poll Frdiay and I am told it will endorse Obama, which suggests that generational solidarity may be more important than race or gender. Obma’s campsign raised $30 million last month, mostly on the internet.
Once again, a network contriolled the debate, or should I say the show, with Wolf Blitzer in this case getting as much “face –time as the candidates and was trying to get the two candidates at each other’s thoughts. At one point Hillary Clinton said, “Good Try Wolf, Good Try.” May I ask: who elected him?
Best line I saw on TV was I think a comment by journalist Margaret Warner on Rudy Giuliani< “Like many New Yorkers, he went to Florida to die” On the Repug side, Romney was attacking McCain for “Nixon-like tactics.”
ALTERNET: 30 WAYS OF LOOKING AT HILLARY
WHAT WILL SENATE DO ON STIMULUS BILL?
WP: With bipartisan support, the Senate Finance Committee yesterday approved a $157 billion economic stimulus plan that rivals the measure fashioned by President Bush and House leaders, setting up a Senate showdown that could determine who will receive rebates from the federal government and how…
Yesterday afternoon, the NY Times reported: “Democrats in Senate Short of Votes for Stimulus Bill
Democrats said they would have no choice but to adopt a less expensive economic stimulus package approved by the House.
In other words, there will be no challenge to a bill framed by the Bush Administration, embraced by the House with few changes and now rubberstamped by the Senate. Shame. Shame.
REAL NEWS: DOUG HENWOOD ON ECONOMY
Soldier Suicides at Record Level: Increase Linked to Long Wars, Lack of Army Resources
WHAT THE FBI IS DOING THESE DAYS.
In a commentary on Mediachannel and other sites I called on the FBI to step up its investigation of white collar economic crimes. In the interim, I came across these pieces about what the FBI is doing instead.
1. Playing “Cop to Cop” in China
UPI: BEIJING, China, Robert Mueller, director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, was in Beijing this week for discussions with counterparts concerning security preparations for the upcoming Summer Olympics. He also told reporters about his agency’s “cop-to-cop diplomacy” with China.
Mueller told reporters Wednesday that he was “impressed” by the thoroughness and professionalism of the security preparations for the Olympic Games. The head of the FBI met with officials from three of China’s main law enforcement agencies: the Ministry of State Security, Ministry of Public Security and People’s Armed Police as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The FBI now has more than 100 task forces devoted exclusively to fighting terrorism. But is the government manufacturing ghosts?
HEWLETT PACKARD SPIED ON A REPORTER
ALSO DID YOU KNOWm YOUR COPIER MAY BE BUGGED
WP story on how every color printer has a secret tracking code:
It sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it isn’t. The pages coming out of your color printer may contain hidden information that could be used to track you down if you ever cross the U.S. government.
Last year, an article in PC World magazine pointed out that printouts from many color laser printers contained yellow dots scattered across the page, viewable only with a special kind of flashlight. The article quoted a senior researcher at Xerox Corp. as saying the dots contain information useful to law-enforcement authorities, a secret digital “license tag” for tracking down criminals.
The content of the coded information was supposed to be a secret, available only to agencies looking for counterfeiters who use color printers.
Now, the secret is out.
ICH/AFP: US Invasion And Occupation Killed One Million Iraqi’s
More than one million Iraqis have been killed because of the war in Iraq since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003, according to a study published Wednesday.
US Oil Companies Offered Five Million Dollar Bribes To Iraqi MP’s
Reported today on Akhbar Alkhaleej newspaper
An Iraqi MP preferred to remain anonymous told the newspaper that highly confidential negotiations took place by representatives from American oil companies, offering $5 million to each MP who votes in favor of the Oil and Gas law.
WAS THE US ORCHESTRATING ISRAEL LEBANON WAR?
Tony Karon reports;
While Israel’s Winograd Commission has certainly pulled no punches in excoriating the Israeli military and political leadership for their botched war in Lebanon last summer, there appears to be a massive lacuna in its conclusions. Israel went to war in haste without a considered plan, without weighing alternatives, without establishing clear objectives and without an exit strategy. That much Winograd was prepared to say bluntly. But what he doesn’t explain is why.
And here, I think, he’s avoiding the elephant in the room: the very clear sense, throughout the Lebanon misadventure, that Israel was coordinating its actions with Washington to an extent that the Bush Administration’s own decisions had a decisive impact on how Israel waged its campaign. I had previously written about how in order to truly understand the brutal botchup of Lebanon, the commission would have to probe the U.S. role in Israel’s decision making — the war was one in which I believe Israeli leaders ceded an unprecedented level of control over Israeli decisions to the United States.
It was clear, at the time, that the neophyte Olmert was outsourcing his decision-making to Condi Rice. I wrote at the time of the sense that Israel was waging a proxy war for the Bush Administration — a sense confirmed at the time by the hawkish dean of Israeli military correspondents, Ze’ev Schiff, who wrote at the height of the conflict:
“U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is the figure leading the strategy of changing the situation in Lebanon, not Prime Minister Ehud Olmert or Defense Minister Amir Peretz. She has so far managed to withstand international pressure in favor of a cease-fire, even though this will allow Hezbollah to retain its status as a militia armed by Iran and Syria.
“As such, she needs military cards, and unfortunately Israel has not succeeded to date in providing her with any. Besides bringing Hezbollah and Lebanon under fire, all of Israel’s military cards at this stage are in the form of two Lebanese villages near the border that have been captured by the IDF.
“If the military cards Israel is holding do not improve with the continuation of the fighting, it will result in a diplomatic solution that will leave the Hezbollah rocket arsenal in southern Lebanon in its place. The diplomatic solution will necessarily be a reflection of the military realities on the ground.”
GLOBAL COOLING
M&G: China winter disaster spurs propaganda drive
China has turned its battle against brutal winter weather into a propaganda push to try to comfort millions of cold, stranded and dismayed citizens, even as storms threaten to continue lashing many areas. Snow, sleet and ice blanketing much of central, eastern and southern China have killed dozens.
# Millions suffer in China
THE ECONOMIC CRISIS
WILLIAM BUTLER IN FT: The US and the world economy will pay the price when, in due course, the Fed has to clean up the mess it is creating by its reckless pursuit of the maximum employment objective.
RIGZONE.com: Haliburton Enjoys $15.3 Billion in Revenue for 2007
Halliburton reported that revenue was $15.3 billion for the full year 2007, an increase of 18% from the full year 2006, and operating income was $3.5 billion, an increase of 8% from the full year 2006. Income from continuing operations for the full year 2007 was $2.5 billion, or $2.66 per diluted share, compared to 2006 income from continuing operations of $2.2 billion, or $2.07 per diluted share. 2007 earnings per share were positively impacted by improved operating performance, a lower share count, and the favorable income tax impact from the ability to recognize United States foreign tax credits that were previously assumed not to be fully utilizable. Net income in 2007 was $3.5 billion, or $3.68 per diluted share, compared to 2006 net income of $2.3 billion, or $2.23 per diluted share. Income from discontinued operations in 2007 included a net gain
>>There was no criticism of the banks, the Fed, the economic stimulus bill and many of the issues that most voters are concerned about. What will it take to get these candidates off exchanges about Iraq in 2003 to America today.
February 1st, 2008 at 12:35 pmMy point was that militarism and military spending is a root cause of
February 1st, 2008 at 12:38 pmmany American problems.
And there is no discussion of our militarism and its costs permitted in political debate.
February 1st, 2008 at 12:40 pm