Archive for the ‘Politics’ tag
Michael Palin No Longer the Funniest Palin
A soon-to-be internet sensation: John Cleese comments on the absurity of Sarah Palin running for VP of the United States.
[From John Cleese on Sarah Palin: "Monty Python Could Have Written This." - Boing Boing]
Give a Man a Hug
A painfully funny commentary about McCain supporters.
Russia’s War on Palin
I love that Sarah Palin not only cannot backup her foreign policy experience with Russia. It shows a level of evasiveness we haven’t seen in politics in a long, long time. Commentators have tried to call her out on this, late-night humorists have mocked her. Now, she has gained a new enemy: Russia.
Turns out, the Russians aren’t buying this claim, either. They are attacking not only this claim, but her entire qualifications to serve in office. One outlet has even dubbed her “Mrs. Nobody Know-it-All”.
If she thinks the NY Times hates her, wait until she feels the wrath of media outlets who could care less about winning her approval. She’s losing credibility at home; abroad, it seems, it’s already gone.
Becoming an epidemic?
The media and John McCain’s staff seems to have come down with a case of foot-in-mouth disease. The gestation period seems to vary from a period of days to a few months.
Lobbying for the Award
Here in Washington, D.C., we see a lot of lobbying advertisements, far more than the rest of the United States. Since most of the Congressmen and their staff reside here, we are the target market for these “issue ads”.
Today, I saw a link to an issue add from Northrup Grumman claiming that “KC-45: It won on the most American of Values: Merit”. As you may remember, the decision to award the contract to Northrup and EADS, the European manufacturer of Airbus, was somewhat controversial. However, the only argument put forth by Boeing seems to have been “we’re Boeing. We’ll give you the privilege of giving us lots of money through sub-standard leases in exchange for a substandard aircraft”.
From what I can remember, this is the first time I’ve seen an ad asking to keep a contract award, to to be given one.
[From America's New Tanker - KC-45]
Is Universal Healthcare Possible?
PBS’s FRONTLINE program, which always achieves an incredible level of journalism, recently ran a program on healthcare systems around the world. The premise of the program is whether the U.S. could learn anything from other modern, post-industrial, capitalist societies. The answer, of course, is “yes, the U.S. has a lot to learn.”
Rocky Lost
Hillary Clinton today stated that “When it comes to finishing a fight, Rocky and I have a lot in common. I never quit.”
I would like to point out that in the movie Rocky, he lost.
[From BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Clinton will fight 'like Rocky']
Not “entirely dictated by market expectations’”?
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) cut the federal funds rate by 75 basis points today, on continuing concerns that the US economy is going down the tubes fast. With inflation on the rise, the dollar on the slide, and more and more jobs simply ceasing to exist, it’s hard to argue.
According to the BBC, the Bank of New York is quoted as saying that “By cutting 75 points rather than 100 points, the Fed sought to restore leadership over the market and indicate that its actions would not be entirely dictated by market expectations.”
How exactly is this not giving in to “market expectations” entirely? Its as if the Fed said to the (stock) market: “Okay. We’ll bake you a cake. We’ll ice the cake for you. We’ll even put candles on the cake. But you better believe we’re not going to light the candles for you. You can’t tell us what to do.”
From [BBC NEWS | Business | Federal Reserve slashes US rates]
