News Today

According to the wife of rescued Captain Richard Phillips. A tearful Andrea Phillips thanked President Barack Obama after she recieved word of the rescue on Sunday. Somali pirates had held Phillips hostage for five days after attempting to board his ship, the Maersk Alabama, in a bizarre and uplifting story.

“You have no idea, but with Richard saved, you all just gave me the best Easter ever,” she said through a spokesperson for the family.

It was the first seizure of a U.S. vessel in almost 200 years, or as my mother put it the first since the time of “Johnny Depp pirates.” Let’s recount the events that led up to Richard Phillips’ heroic rescue.

The Maersk Alabama was a U.S. flagged cargo ship carrying food and aid for Rwanda, Somalia and Uganda. The ship was well prepared for a piracy attack (Phillips and his crew had performed piracy drills to be better prepared for a situation like this) and that likely saved the lives of the entire crew.

When the pirates boarded the ship the captain ordered the crew of 19 to lock themselves in a cabin. Also they disabled their own ship so that the Pirates wouldn’t be able to use it. Phillips then heroically surrendered himself in an effort to save his crew. The four discouraged pirates ditched the Maersk Alabama with the captain and took off into the Indian Ocean in an enclosed lifeboat.

The pirates did have food, water and a radio on their boat, but they didn’t have a lot of fuel. The Navy began to negotiate with the pirates, who were demanding $2 million for the safe return of Richard Phillips.

At this point the pirates had to know they were in trouble. They were out of fuel miles off of the coast in a lifeboat that was being shadowed by three U.S. Navy destroyers and a helicopter. At one point the U.S.S. Bainbridge bumped the lifeboat as it began to float closer to Somali shores and a little bit later the U.S.S. Bainbridge actually had to tow the pirates and their lifeless lifeboat out out of choppy waters.

On Friday Phillips tried to escape by himself, but the pirates were able to recapture him. Vice Admiral William Gortney, the commander of the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, said that the Navy had every intention of finding a nonviolent resolution to the situation but that as negotiations soured it was becoming all too clear that the captured captain’s life was in jeopardy.

One of the pirates, perhaps seeing the writing on the wall, surrendered on Sunday. He had been stabbed with an icepick during the boarding of the Maersk Alabama on Wednesday and needed medical attention. Where the captured pirate will be tried has yet to be determined. If he goes to trial in the United States he will likely face life in prison. Both piracy and hostage-taking carry life prison sentences under U.S. law.

President Obama gave the go ahead to take the pirates out twice on Sunday. The Navy Seal snipers, who were on board the U.S.S. Bainbridge within a hundred feet of the lifeboat, got the official ok after one of the pirates had pointed his AK-47 at Phillips back. Within seconds they simultaneously fired on the three remaining pirates, killing all of them.

Phillips was then rescued after four long days in the lifeboat and is reportedly in good health and good spirits.

After his rescue sailors on the U.S.S. Bainbridge presented him with a note from his wife that read “Your family is saving a chocolate Easter egg for you, unless your son eats it first.”

He will return home to his family on Tuesday.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that all four of the pirates were between the ages of 17 and 19.

“Untrained teenagers with heavy weapons,” Gates told a group of students and faculty at the Marine Corps War College. “Everybody in the room knows the consequences of that.”

I‘m back!

And what a week I missed. From a controversial rocket launch in North Korea to the first seizure of an American vessel in over a century. It’s been an interesting couple of days.

One thing that definitely caught my attention was the news that the U.S. budget deficit has just about reached a trillion dollars this year. The record deficit for the first six months of the fiscal year was a whopping $956.80 billion.

Now this isn’t something that can be blamed solely on President Barack Obama. The fiscal year began in October while we were still under the Bush administration. As we all know Obama didn’t take office until January 20th.

Still, one has to question some of the actions that Obama has taken. So far the Obama administration has given $293 billion in T.A.R.P. money to ailing banks and financial institutions. Tack on another $60 billion for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

If you take the T.A.R.P. money out of the picture then those budget deficits don’t look nearly as frightening, do they?

Folks, our ballooning deficits are a real problem. They aren’t going to go away magically and they certainly aren’t going to go away with government bailouts. Our government has spent $1.95 trillion dollars in the last six months. This is simply not sustainable.

The Congressional Budget Office announced in a March report that they expect the budget deficit to hit $1.845 trillion by the end of the year. If their predictions are correct the budget will make up an estimated 13.1% of the country’s total economic output.

The Obama administration predicts a $1.750 trillion deficit in fiscal 2009, but says that figure will fall to $1.171 trillion in 2010. This is based on the assumption that their predictions about the economy come true. The administration forecasts a 1.2% contraction in our GDP for calendar 2009 but an expansion of 3.2% in 2010.

It is a painstakingly slow and agonizing process, believe me. It’s one of those situations where the more I learn the more I dislike - and remember this all started with a three page document. Sifting through the results and consequences of the Troubled Assets Relief Program is a process that can be described as murky at best. However that picture became a little more clear on Saturday when the White House team released their TARP firm ties.

Enough with my musings though, let’s look at some numbers.

Lawrence Summers, a top economic advisor in the Obama administration, pulled in over $2.7 million in speaking fees from firms at the center of the financial crisis. Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America Corp. and the out of business Lehman Brothers all paid for Summers to speak. Summers also reported $5.2 million in earnings while serving as a managing director at D.E. Shaw, a hedge fund. Summers started at that position in 2006 and remained there until appointed by the Obama administration.

Thomas E. Donilon, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, made over $3.9 million representing clients including Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. Donilon also disclosed that he is on the steering committee of the Bilderberg group and is a member of the Trilateral Commission.

Some other interesting disclosures included White House Counsel Greg Craig, who reportedly earned $1.7 million in private practice at a law firm. This isn’t so shocking in itself until you take a look at the clients that the firm served. Those ranks include exiled Bolivian president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, Panamanian lawmaker Pedro Miguel Gonzalez Pinzon who is currently wanted by the U.S. government for allegedly murdering a U.S. soldier, and tech billionaire Henry Nicholas who is accused of securities fraud and various drug and prostitution crimes.

Senior Obama aide Valerie Jarrett reported $852,000 in salary and deferred compensation from Habitat Executive Services, a Chicago real estate development and management. She also disclosed almost $350,000 in director’s fees various groups including the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and USG Corporation.

The embattled and ousted Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich was indicted on Thursday for Federal corruption charges. Specifically Blagojevich was indicted on 19 felony counts, including scheming to auction off President Barack Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat, pressuring a congressman for campaign money and lying to FBI agents.

Five others were indicted along with the disgraced governor, including his brother Rob Blagojevich, former chief of staff John Harris, one-time chief fundraiser Christopher G. Kelly, former aide Lon Monk and Springfield lobbyist William F. Cellini.

Now I’m not going to lie, as much as justice needs to be served, I’m kind of sad to see this guy go. What a story, I mean the hits just kept on coming! Let’s take a moment to relive the ride that Rod took all of us on.

I guess this story starts in 2002, when Blagojevich was elected as the Illinois governor. Ironically, he ran on a campaign of cleaning up the “culture of corruption” in Illinois politics. Shortly after taking office Blagojevich was under Federal investigation. His top fundraiser and advisor Antoin “Tony” Rezko came under fire for working with longtime GOP government apparatchik Stuart Levine to split kickbacks from a state pension deal, but this was just the tip of the iceberg.

One month before Blagojevich was reelected in 2006 Rezko was indicted on corruption charges and Levine pleaded guilty to wringing cash from firms seeking state business. Later that year it was revealed that his wife Patti Blagojevich earned over $113,000 in real estate commissions through Anita Mahajan with a no-bid state contract. The woman’s banker husband was a major Blagojevich fundraiser and at the time had business pending before state regulators. At this point investigators began closing in on Blagojevich’s inner circle.

In April of 2008 the Chicago Tribune reported that 3 out of every 4 Blagojevich donors of $25,000 dollars or more received something back, jobs or contracts, from the state. A few months later Tony Rezko was convicted of using his ties to the governor to create a multi-billion dollar kickback scheme.

Next I’ll just go over a series of quotes that were collected by the FBI in their investigation. Believe me, these are good.

When Barack Obama’s senate seat became up for grabs Blagojevich got to work. “How much are you offering, [President-elect]? What are you offering, [Senate Candidate 2]? . . . Can always go to. . . [Senate Candidate 3].”

While Blagojevich didn’t specifically say what he wanted, he did explain: “It’s got to be good stuff for the people of Illinois and good for me…It’s got to be good or I could always take [the Senate seat].”

A day later (this is my favourite) Blagojevich was recorded in a phone call saying “I’ve got this thing and it’s f—-ing golden,” Blagojevich says. “I’m not giving it up for f—-ing nothing. I’m not gonna do it. And, and I can always use it. I can parachute me there.”

On November 10th in a meeting with his advisors Blagojevich boldly announced that he didn’t want to give that “Motherf—-er [the President-elect] his senator. F—- him. For nothing? F—- him.”

Two days later Blagojevich confided in Harris “that his legal problems could be solved by naming himself to the Senate seat.” Blagojevich also expressed “a desire to remake his image in consideration of a possible run for president in 2016.”

On December 9th the writing on the wall was beginning to become a little more clear for Blago, when the governor was arrested by FBI agents on a criminal complaint.

On January 9th while Blagojevich was out on National TV shows like the View, pleading his case to America, the House of Illinois voted to impeach him. Perhaps if he’d bothered showing up to his trial things would have turned out differently. Probably not though, I guess it all depends on what your definition of “Bleeping Golden” is.

Twenty days later the Senate convicted the governor and removed him from office.

Ah well. Another day, another corrupt Illinois politician. I’m sure there will be another. Still, mark this writer as one man who is sad to see Blago go.