News Today

These are the words of Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso. He’s talking about the economy, which has become really the only issue to be focused on in our own presidential elections. No matter who you listen to though, you pretty much hear the same thing. Bad times are here.

The United States economy contracted in the third quarter, partially due to people’s unwillingness to spend in a recession. U.S. consumers cut spending at the sharpest rate in 28 years in the third quarter. Early reports for the fourth quarter don’t look too promising either.

All across the globe countries are slashing interest rates in an effort to stimulate the balking global economy. China, Norway and the United States all cut rates this week. Japan is considering cutting rates on Friday and the European Central Bank, Britain and Australia are expected to follow next week.

Janet Yellen, president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, called the recent trends in the global economy “deeply worrisome” and added that U.S. federal funds rate could potentially go “a little lower” than 1 percent in the future.

“The mortgage meltdown is far from over, the economy and financial markets are still reeling from it,” said Yellen.

Here’s my question. Why are we cutting interest rates? Was this not one of the reasons (to be fair, there were plenty) we got into the crisis in the first place? I’m not an economics expert by any means, but when you cut interest rates and artificially pump the markets with money (the bailout money being divied out now), all that’s going to do is weaken the value of the dollar even more. Does anyone understand this process better than me? Am I interpreting something wrong? How is this going to do anything but prolong the recession?

What is going on with the McCain campaign??? What started with Sarah Palin criticizing the McCain camp’s decision to abandon Michigan has turned into a political nightmare for the McCain camp. Palin was described earlier this week as “going rogue” but today the McCain camp hit back at their vice presidential candidate.

“She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone,” said a McCain adviser. “She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else.”

What is that? Are you kidding me? You don’t do this within ten days of an election. What is wrong with this campaign? That’s incredible! How much spite is in that comment. No relationships of trust with any one including her own family? I thought she was supposed to be your average hockey mom, doncha know?

You know, I seem to remember a certain conservativeally criticizing me for posing the question “would it be too much for a mother of five to run for vice president?”

Should I let it go? I’ll let it go…

Anyways, the McCain adviser continued:

“Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves, as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom.” said the McCain adviser.

Perhaps if McCain had properly vetted his VP candidates before he could have seen this coming. Instead, according to a new article from Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, the two met for the second time ever at McCain’s ranch for a little over an hour before McCain decided to offer her the slot.

“Her lack of fundamental understanding of some key issues was dramatic,” said another McCain source with direct knowledge of the process to prepare Palin after she was picked. The source said it was probably the “hardest” to get her “up to speed than any candidate in history.”

I really just do not understand this campaign.

Guess who got their gas for $2.23 today? That’s right, this guy.

In fact, gasoline is now about a penny cheaper than it was a year ago, and about $1.50 less than it was when it peaked earlier this year. All in all it’s been the biggest decline in retail gas pricing ever over a two week period.

“The drop is unprecedented,” said Trilby Lundberg, whose survey tracks gas prices in the United States. “It was dictated by the crash in crude oil prices and deepened powerfully by falling U.S. gasoline demand.”

Despite threats by OPEC to cut production to combat the diving prices, oil settled down nearly $4 a barrel on Friday most likely due to increasing fears of a global economic recession.

“The even weaker economy now suggests that despite a price crash on the street … it is still probably not enough to inspire any strong comeback in demand any time soon,” Lundberg said.

Is it really just ten days away? Ten days away from what could easily be viewed as the most historic (and perhaps most important) election that our country has faced yet?

Nah, that’s just sensationalism. I would know, I’m a journalist! :)

Nevertheless we are 10 days away from electing a new President of the United States and the stakes could not be greater (there I go getting all sensational again).

Ten days, just a little thought.

Now earlier I had been getting into U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and I wanted to follow up on this subject a little bit. I know it’s not the most interesting of all subjects to read about, but what happens over there directly affects what happens to us in the United States. This is true now more than ever before. I only wish I could be the bearer of better news.

Where to start… Israel? Let’s start out with Israel.

According to reports out of Jerusalem, Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni has abandoned her quest to become Israel’s second female prime-minister and will most likely ask for a general election (which would probably take place in February).

Livni was charged with the task of creating a coalition for Israel’s new government and was lobbying for the support of the Orthodox-Shas party. The talks apparently fell through because Livni refused to pledge that the future status of Jerusalem would not be on the agenda in negotiations with the Palestinians.

To make matters worse the conservative Likud party led by former prime-minister Benjamin Netanyahu is favored heavily in the polls and would be expected to take power again if it does go to a general election. Netanyahu takes a hardline stance on negotiations with the Palestinians.

So that whole peace-with-Palestine thing? The returning of taken lands? Arab countries recognizing Israel and vice-versa? Not happening, forget about it, peace in the Middle East is a pipe-dream anyways.

Now let’s move on to Iraq, where the news isn’t much better.

Iraq’s largest Sunni party has apparently decided to “suspend all official contacts with the Americans, both military and civilians,” due to a U.S. military raid on Friday.

Our news report states: U.S.-backed Iraqi soldiers arrested a wanted insurgent leader suspected of training roadside bomb cells in an operation Friday that killed an armed man who opened fire on the troops.

Their news report states: A senior member of the Iraqi Islamic Party was killed in his bed and five others were arrested during the raid in the Halabsa area on the outskirts of the former insurgent stronghold.

Which one’s the truth? Probably neither one, actually.

The IIP is demanding an apology and an explanation from the U.S., essentially signing their own death warrant. You don’t get an apology in Iraq from the U.S. government, if you’re lucky you get nothing. If you have any power or pull, you’ll get a bomb.

Just how much does it cost to make Sarah Palin look “so durn purty?” A lot of money apparently. In fact Amy Strozzi, Gov. Sarah Palin’s traveling makeup artist, made easily more money last month than any of McCain’s advisers.

Strozzi (who won an emmy on the show “So You Think You Can Dance”), was paid $22,800 for the first two weeks of October alone. Angela Lew, who is Palin’s traveling hair stylist, apparently received $10,000 for “Communications Consulting” in the first two weeks of October.

Palin’s $11,000 dollar-per-week lipstick job isn’t the only thing catching negative attention in the latest Republican National Committee’s campaign finance report though.

The Federal Elections Committee is currently investigating a claim that $150,000 dollars in campaign funds were used illegally to buy Governor Palin and her family clothes shortly after the Republican National Convention.

Jeff Larson, a Minnesota-based Republican consultant, was reimbursed for purchases of $75,062 at Neiman Marcus, $41,851 at Saks Fifth Avenue, $4,902 at Atelier New York, $4,397 at Macy’s and $5,103 at Bloomingdale’s.

Melanie Sloan, who to be fair is a staunch liberal, called it “ridiculous that RNC would spend $150,000 to outfit a vice presidential nominee and her family at any time,” even more so at a time when many Americans have been hit hard by the sagging economy.

“Mark my words,” the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.” “I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate,” Biden said to Emerald City supporters, mentioning the Middle East and Russia as possibilities. “And he’s gonna need help. And the kind of help he’s gonna need is, he’s gonna need you—not financially to help him—we’re gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it’s not gonna be apparent initially, it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re right.”

You know at first look, this seems pretty obvious. With a 10-trillion dollar-and-raising national debt, a global economic crisis, the daunting task of truly ending America’s dependence on foreign oil, the challenge of creating new jobs and cutting unemployment, fixing a hurting education system, and fighting two wars across the globe the next president will face plenty of challenges. Oh yeah and also increasing instability in the world today. Barack Obama will definitely have his hands full if he gets elected.

Still, there’s something about this comment that worries me.

Mostly it’s the lack of details (a common theme in this election). He did cite the Middle East and Russia as possibilities, but he really didn’t go into detail about it any more than that. I want to know what kind of threat we’re in, and I want to know what Obama plans to do about it. Obama speaks about transparency in government, and has vowed on many issues to improve this, but he’s missing a chance to prove it here.

Perhaps this is what his 30 minutes of prime-time tv he bought on CBS and NBC is for? I hope, at least. We’re hearing increasing news about hard times that are on the way, what does Biden know that

Today Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak said today that Israel is considering a comprehensive peace plan proposed by Saudi Arabia in 2002.

The plan is basically that Israel would withdraw from the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights (all lands captured during the 1967 war) in exchange for Arab recognition of Israel. The plan has been endorsed by the 22-member Arab League of Nations.

“There is definitely room to introduce a comprehensive Israeli plan to counter the Saudi plan that would be the basis for a discussion on overall regional peace,” Barak told Israel’s Army Radio.

One positive sign that Barak noted was the “deep, joint interest” with Arab leaders in containing Iran’s nuclear ambitions and limiting the influence of the radical Islamic Hezbollah and Hamas movements.

“I strongly believe that the Arab initiative is the best approach to peace between the Arabs and the Israelis,” said Ghassan Khatib, a former minister in the Palestinian Cabinet, “It fulfills all the legitimate objectives of Israel and those of the Palestinians and at the same time it has this regional dimension and it reflects one of the rare issues on which Arabs have consensus.”

Barak has also spoken with Israel’s Foreign Minister/Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni about the plan. Livni is currently trying to assemble Israel’s new government in her bid to become Israel’s second female prime minister. Barak, the leader of the labour party, is expected to hold a high-ranking position in her government.

As foreign minister Livni has been leading US-backed negotiations with the Palestinians since the 2007 Annapolis conference. Livni has promised to keep working with the peace process if she becomes prime minister.

Livni requested to have 14 extra days to form the new government, a request that current prime minister Ehud Olmert is expected to grant. Right now she’s lobbying for the support of other parties, including the Shas, to form a majority in the 120-member Knesset.

According to an official one of the Shas demands is a promise not to discuss the fate of Jerusalem with the Palestinians. Livni chose not to respond to questions about the peace agreement.

If Livni cannot get her government together in time then Israel would likely hold general elections. If this is the case then the most likely winner would be the conservative Likud party.

Yuval Steinitz, an Israeli lawmaker from the Likud Party and a member of parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said that for Israel, the Saudi plan is a nonstarter and called Barak’s remarks “an empty political gesture.”

What will the next chapter of the Middle East conflict contain? It will very likely depend on what happens in the next 14 days and whether or not Livni can get her majority.

I wanted to take a step away from the looming presidential election and focus a little bit on foreign policy. There’s been quite a bit of news this week across our borders, and this is a subject that has taken a step back in the media the last month or so. It shouldn’t be though, because a lot of steps need to be taken by the next leader of our country in order to restore America’s reputation across the globe. Today I’m going to be examining the Middle East.

Leading off the discussion is Iraq:

United States and Iraqi officials are currently hammering out details on a “Status of Forces Agreement.” One of the premises being pushed by the Iraqi’s in the agreement includes a time-table for withdrawing U.S. forces from the region by 2011, starting with a pullback of U.S. forces from Iraqi cities and towns by next summer.

Another point of contention in the agreement would be a policy allowing U.S. soldiers and contractors to be convicted in an Iraqi court for major crimes committed off-duty and off-base. The one stickler with this? Iraq’s current judiciary system does not guarantee due process.

The main purpose of the “pact” though is to give Iraqi troops more military control and responsibility. American troops would no longer be allowed to detain suspects or search homes without Iraqi legal authorization with the exception of active combat, and anyone who is detained by U.S. forces has to be handed over to the Iraqi’s within 24 hours.

My take? This is great. Democracy in Iraq is beginning to stand on its own two legs. Let’s just hope for our troop’s sake and the sake of the Iraqi people that the training, guidance, and money we’ve given them the last few years will prove to be enough.

Next up is Iran:

Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, mayor of Tehran and a possible contender for the presidency of Iran, signaled that he would support opening up communications with the United States. He said the talks would be to the mutual benefit of both countries and that it would go a long way towards “superpowers” acknowledging Iran’s role in Middle East peace and stability.

When we look at Iran it’s important to examine the history of our relations with the country. Following President Jimmy Carter’s rebuking of the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi human right’s practices relations with the country began to strain. Then in 1979 the Iranian revolution broke out. The Shah was replaced with anti-American leader Ayatollah Khomeini. At one point students took over the American embassy and held 52 hostages for 444 days.

Needless to say, relations with the country stagnated and have not really changed to this day. These relations include strict U.S. sanctions on Iran which are signed through 2011 (Iran Sanctions Act) and also (according to Iranian claims) around 10 billion dollars in frozen Iranian assets from 1979.

The Bush administration’s policy in Iran was essentially no policy, no conversation, nothing to do with the country other than naming Iran as one of the Axis of Evil. This included a fax from the Iranian government following the invasion of Iraq in 2003 which offered to open up its nuclear program and to cooperate with the United States in hunting al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and the Hamas terrorist groups. President Bush made no reply to the letter.

Although the Bush administration chose not to respond to Iran’s offer, intelligence reports show that Iran has weakened its relations with terrorist groups as of late. Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell says the trend dates back to an Iraqi-government assault last spring on militants in the Basra region of southern Iraq. Following the assault Iranian insurgents fled the borders and have not returned. The level of bombing technology used by the Taliban in recent attacks is far less sophisticated than the devices used by Shia militants in Iraq, showing evidence that Iran is exercising restraint in its dealings with Afghan insurgents.

So we know Iran has scaled back, what we don’t understand is why. One theory is that Iran is preparing for a Barack Obama presidency. A recent poll in Iran showed that 75% of their citizens supported opening up relations with the United States, something Obama has advocated.

This isn’t to say that they’ve stopped meddling completely though, and of course there still is the subject of Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

Iran claims that their nuclear program is to generate electricity only. The United States claims differently. Iran’s program actually is in line with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) policies. Somewhat ironically, Israel’s is not.

Now it’s not easy to tell who is telling the truth in this situation, a situation that could change for the better or for the worse with the upcoming Iranian election, but we need to prepare ourselves for a few scenarios. What happens if Iran attacks Israel? What role will the U.S. play? In the past Iran has vowed to wipe Israel off the map, have they changed those views?

Finally I want to discuss Israel:

The United States has vowed to never let anything like the holocaust happen again (ironic considering how much genocide goes ignored, specifically in Africa) and has pledged unwavering support for the country of Israel. With the support comes a lot of money. In 2002 we sent an estimated 3 trillion dollars in aid to the country, although only 3 billion of that actually showed up in the budget.

So why are we sending so much money over there? Israel has one of the most influential team of lobbyists to grace the streets of Washington. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) 2002 annual conference included 50 senators, 190 representatives, and more than a dozen senior administration officials. In 1992 the president of AIPAC David Steiner was even forced to resign after boasting to New York businessman Harry Katz about his political sway.

Here’s where my beef comes in. Included in U.S. support for Israel has been ignorance of what they’re doing with our military support. Israel routinely rains our bombs and missiles down on Palestinian targets in their own country. I have no problems supporting the people of Israel in working towards peace. Is that really what the Israeli government is working towards though?

I‘m still confused as to what that means. I tried it, and I can assure you it is possible. In fact I didn’t even need nails, the jello just stuck on its own. Now I just have a nailed in wall covered with jello that I need to clean up. Thanks a lot John McCain.

A couple of notes from an interesting day around the campaign trails:

John McCain slammed the current administration today on the stump with running mate Sarah Palin, “We cannot spend the next four years as we have spent much of the last eight: waiting for our luck to change.”

In my opinion this is what that campaign needed to be doing months ago. They needed to hit back at George W. Bush hard. I don’t care if you’re in the same party as him, people in America are fed up with Bush. He may even go down as the worst president in the history of the country. Any association you have with him is going to hurt you greatly. Of course you can find more common sense in a two year old than you can in the McCain campaign and I’m sure he’ll abandon this tactic after a few days as well.

Barack Obama announced a few details on a new plan to stimulate the economy that he and several other congressmen are working on. Highlights of the plan include a 90-day moratorium on home foreclosures at some banks and a two-year tax break for businesses among other things.

“I’m proposing a number of steps that we should take immediately to stabilize our financial system, provide relief to families and communities and help struggling homeowners,” Obama told a crowd of 3,000. “It’s a plan that begins with one word that’s on everyone’s mind, and it’s spelled J-O-B-S.”

As November 4th draws nearer and candidates buckle down and fight for votes in the key states, lets take a look at how the electoral map is shaping up.

So without further ado, I now direct you to the worst and most crudely drawn map of the United States you’ve ever seen and hopefully will ever see in your entire life. Apologies ahead of time.

Oooookay, once again sorry for that. Why is Kentucky so big? I don’t know. Why does Minnesota look pregnant? I don’t know. Why can’t I draw the United States correctly? I blame standardized testing. Anyways — let’s examine what the map is telling us.

The mark for winning is at 270 electoral votes. Let’s assume that the leaning states are still too close to call (because if we don’t, Barack Obama at 277 already has enough). Obama currently has 211 that are solidly for him (Dark Blue). John McCain has 143 solidly for him (Dark Red).

Now this leaves 184 votes that are too close to call. 66 of those are leaning more towards Obama, while 15 (Georgia) are leaning towards McCain. We’ll go ahead and give McCain Georgia.

What this means is that in order for McCain to win he would have to take all of the swing states (giving him a 261 count) and then either Virginia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota or Washington, all of which are leaning towards Obama.

It doesn’t take a mathematical genius to tell that this doesn’t look promising for the McCain camp. It’s still too early to call anything for certain, but the numbers definitely aren’t in his favor. Even if McCain can manage to take one of the states leaning towards Obama, then all Obama would have to do is just take one of the swing states and he would win.