January 2010

Will the Federal government really reduce its GHG emissions?

The U.S. government has announced its intention to reduce its GHG emissions by 28% by 2020. Apparently President Obama issued an executive order.

It’s funny that I am finding myself taking a much more cynical view of the Obama presidency after the state of the union address. I’m not sure what it is, yet, but something about everything coming out of the White House now seems to strike me as political chess less so than it used to. Maybe I was swept up in the honeymoon period for longer than some, maybe I truly believed in what Obama was saying for the past year, or maybe I just wanted to.

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Chris Matthews on MSNBC“He is post-racial, by all appearances… You know, I forgot he was black tonight for an hour…”

That’s the quote getting so many people up in arms all over the Internet. Disclaimer: Chris Matthews is an idiot. Watch the video for yourself, but keep watching because here’s what he said next:

“He’s gone a long way to become the leader of this country and passed so much history. I mean it’s something we don’t even think about. I was watching and I thought, wait a minute …he’s an African-American guy in front of a bunch of white people and there he is president of the United States and we’ve completely forgotten about that tonight.” –C. Matthews.

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President ObamaPresident Obama stood up for his first state of the union address tonight amidst the proverbial massive applause. While there is massive uncertainty about what he will talk about and what he is going to make happen.

He proposes taking $30 billion toward small business loans. This is great- agreed. How about triple that?

He proposes eliminating all capital gains taxes for business.

He proposes slashing tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas and shift them to companies who give jobs to Americans. I like this- but how are you going to do it? That’s easy to clap for. He references the tax bill that the House passed and urges the senate to adopt something similar. He says he wants a job bill on his desk without delay.

We are a half hour in and he hasn’t mentioned the health care situation at all.

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President Obama will face a tougher crowd than on the campaign trail...President Obama is not doing well- and it is in this climate that he will take to the podim to deliver the State of the Union address. On one hand, presidents have to give this address regardless of the state of the actual union all the time, so it is no big deal. On the other hand, this one will be as much a state of Obama as it is a state of the union. Obama’s approval numbers have been dropping, and though he is still one of the most popular presidents ever, it’s obvious that the honeymoon has been over for a while. It’s not all his fault- the economy was bad when he got here, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were already well entrenched, and the housing/financial crisis was on its way spiraling downward.

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ObamaEveryone is trying to figure out what to do about the bank crisis, how to move forward, and how to prevent anything like what happened in 2007 from ever happening again. The hard part, of course, is that there is no set answer- no economics text book is written about what you are supposed to do when the house of cards known as credit and loans actually collapses. For decades now our economy has been built on the principle that the more you lend the more you will make- so it was in some senses inevitable that as our banks got better at making loans we would get better at getting them, and once everyone had borrowed as much money as they possibly could…, well, something would have to give.

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Will Chrysler take off or crash again under its new 5 year plan?With all of the attention paid to the role of Wall Street in the financial crisis or to the political difficulties surrounding the health care reform bill, it is easy to forget that last year around this time some of the nation’s largest automakers were staring bankruptcy in the beady little eyes, and in some cases submitting to its stigmatizing but forgiving ways.

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Iran's Government has accused the U.S. and Israel of killing an Iranian Scientist.Iran has just vowed revenge on the U.S. and Israel for the killing of a scientist.

That word! My first inkling was to write about how this reinforces the way that Iran looks at the world- that everyone is out to get them and that the way to respond to any slight, be it to their nuclear program or to someone educated from their country, by vowing violence… but then I thought about how many different countries do the same thing. The U.S. does stuff like this all the time and we just call it defending ourselves- doing what we have to do.

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House Leader Nancy Pelosi Is Doing What She Can To Get The Votes To Get The Bill PassedThe Labor Union has said that they now support a higher tax on high-cost health insurance, one of the many methods that Democrats are trying to institute to pay for the new reformed health care system. It’s a big deal- Labor Union support would count as one of the major hurdles that the bill had to get in order to have any hope for moving forward.

It is being called the “Cadillac Tax,” and it was a big divider between the Senate and the House versions of this bill. Many are hopeful that this will mean adoption by both houses and sending of the health care bill to the President soon.

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U.S. President Barack Obama is negotiating with Russia to reduce numbers of Nuclear WeaponsThe U.S. and Russia have been going through some major talks about nuclear issues over the past few months, and several times along the way other issues, like the Copenhagen summit or arguments about missile placements or Afghanistan have gotten in the way or delayed negotiations, but now a senior U.S. arms control official says that the two nations are “really close” to agreement.

What does “really close” actually mean? Well, that part we can’t be sure of. What we can be sure of is that this is getting a lot of press and is something that both countries want to do, so we can assume that they are certainly making progress and that something will happen in the near future. Good.

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Too many imports for the U.S.

The U.S. is having issues with money- and not surprisingly, the issues that most Americans are having- buying too much and more than we actually have money to afford, along with carrying a lot of debt that we don’t actually have the means of paying off anytime soon- and we are just not talking about it. The numbers are just in for November, and is seems that the U.S. trade deficit got much larger, ballooned is the term Reuters used, in part because oil went up over $5 per barrel and demand from consumers started going up again. It grew by 36.4 billion, or 9.7%, which is the largest deficit since last year in January, which could signal both healthy consumption in the economy and something to be worried about- we haven’t actually changed our habits at all.

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Netanyahu and others blame the Palestinians for obstructing peaceThe unthinkable is happening: the U.S. mentioned the idea of placing sanctions on Israel. After decades of being a staunch supporter of the 60 year old nation, U.S. diplomats are not hinting that they are considering some kind of sanctions or other action if Israel does not stop building settlements in the West Bank, but they are saying it is one of the possible courses of action.

"Under American law, the United States can withhold support on loan guarantees to Israel," said George Mitchell, a U.S. peace envoy.

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President KarzaiNothing says politics like leaders going back and forth with an international version of he said she said- and with so much turmoil in Afghanistan right now and the international community pointing fingers at President Karzai and Afghanistan’s corrupt government and leadership, it’s only natural that he would try to stand up for himself.

In recent weeks President Karzai has held the parliament in session past its planned winter break because they failed to pass his nominations for many cabinet positions, and the escalating violence in Afghanistan is underscoring the fears surrounding elections scheduled for later this spring. One of the major issues on everyone’s mind is that Karzai is having a tough time putting together his government, and the international community continues to point fingers toward what they say is a corrupt government.

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I find it amazing that after all these years there are still people out there that think the US is justified in their war on terror. What war on teror? It was and still is an invasion for oil.

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Tired of long lines and shoe removal?: High Risk Air, no security, no lines.The Skid Mark Bomber has renewed our interest in seizing up travel and making life another step closer to full blown lockdown. We currently take our shoes off, go through a metal detector, x-ray machine, 2-hour arrival, huge lines and now, because some idiot put explosives in his underwear we are considering even more security. What happens when the airlines are so locked up that the terrorists make a left turn and walk into a super market, mall, train, subway, federal building, office building, etc...? Then what?

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C'mon everyone, let's just pass my nominees on throughAfghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered that the sitting Parliament stay into their planned winter recess because they rejected 2/3 of his appointees.

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Taiwan's plans to purchase new F-16's are stalledPerhaps file this one under the growing file of Politics is Money stories- a U.S. business group head has accused Obama of compromising the security of Taiwan in the interest of promoting a better relationship with China. An interesting accusation, as Obama certainly wants to get closer, well, as close as possible, to the Chinese government- that is essential to the long-term safety and well-being of the United States and the world’s economy. But as the U.S. is historically a supporter of Taiwan’s government, would Obama truly be willing to short Taiwan just to cozy up to China? Or is this essentially a business move by the group leader, trying to use his political clout to get a good deal moving for Taiwan?

Here’s what’s going down:

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Avenge this: the new threat to America, skid marks.CNN reported today that a CIA official has promised to ‘avenge’ the death of their agents. First of all, why are we there again? Second, ‘avenge’? Really? Should the intelligence arm of our government use words like ‘avenge’? It’s a war, that we started. They punched back, no need to ‘avenge’. Our country is in a state of such disarray that I can’t believe the things I see on a daily basis. 

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