Issue 11: August 19, 2011.

United States

• GOP Presidential Candidates
  • The GOP held its second debate, in which 10 candidates participated, ahead of the Iowa straw poll. Pawlenty and Bachmann continually exchanged tit-for-tat exchanges criticizing each other.
  • The Iowa Straw poll was held and bat-shit Bachmann won. Thankfully the straw poll has an awful history of prediction who will win the GOP domination, but it is important to the candidates as they try to rally their bases and raise funds.
  • After a dismal showing in the straw poll and debate, Pawlenty officially announced he was abandoning his bid.
  • Rick Perry (governor of Texas) formally announced that he was going to seek the bid and immediately went to Iowa to begin fund raising and campaigning. He immediately was seen as a top-tier contender, but still behind the likes of Romney and (now) Bachmann.
  • Perry received some attention and criticism after saying that if Ben Bernanke (head of the Fed) printed more money, Perry would view that as "almost treasonous" and alluded to the idea that if Bernanke went to Texas he would get beat up.
  • A former Reagan Treasury official said on CNN that Perry "...is an idiot, and I don't think anyone would disagree with that."
  • In a shot at Perry and his stance on teaching creationism in schools and disbelief in climate change, Republican candidate John Huntsman (former Ambassador to China & governor of Utah) tweeted “To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.” And that is awesome.
• Super Committee
  • As part of the debt ceiling "deal" a Super Committee of 6 democrats and 6 republicans (3 per party per chamber of Congress) were appointed by the respective chamber's party leaders. The committee is charge with producing a plan to cut $1.4 trillion in spending. If they fail to achieve a plan that gets approved by Congress steep cuts will be imposed in defense, entitlements and discretionary spending. Perhaps luckily, the public will probably be saved from hearing most of the brinkmanship except for positioning at the very beginning and end of it.
• Not Fun State Fairs
  • A grandstand stage in Indiana collapsed after a poorly built stage and high winds from an oncoming thunderstorm hit it. 6 people were killed
  • At the Wisconsin state fair widespread white vs black fights broke out after an initial fight happened, a group of younger black guys were kicked out and returned later with "hundreds" of people and attacked random people leaving the fair, pulling people out of cars and assaulting them. It's a lovely state.

International

• Eurozone Debt Issues
  • Italy is the country de jour as the Eurozone debt fears spread to larger and more meaningful economies.
  • Italy's economy is absolutely huge compared to Ireland or Greece, and the EFSF (European Financial Stability Facility) is WAY too small to rescue or bailout the country should it come to the point of restructuring their debt.
• London Riots
  • After a man was shot and killed by London police in a drug raid violence broke out on the streets of London, and across the country, as typically younger people took to the streets, looted and vandalized the city.
  • It was largely seen as an a-political group that was loosely organized, if at all, and consisted mainly of younger Britons who feel disaffected by the government after a series of austerity measures that hit their demographic especially hard. That said, the riots/protests were never political and more seemed to be pissed off kids breaking shit.
  • The original police report said the main originally killed by police fired on them first, but it was later shown that the man killed had not fired anything on police.
  • Scotland Yard was largely criticized for the shooting as well as the failure to respond to the riots quickly or effectively enough.
  • The riots lasted a handful of days before calming down
• China Violence
  • Several Chinese troops were killed in a western China province as a small, mainly Muslim, ethnic group set off strings of violence against government troops. They have been fighting the government for awhile now, but have largely been fairly inept at accomplishing anything meaningful prior to this.
  • The group is mainly based in the northern, lawless tribal regions in Pakistan and the Chinese government is putting pressure on the Pakistani government to take control of the region and has appealed to them to allow China to set up a military base in the area, which has been denied so far.
• Syria
  • Assad continues to use the military to attack his own citizens as the country continues to implode.
  • The US has finally called Assad's rule as illegitimate and called on him to step down as the death toll tops 2,000 and 2 videos of violence have outraged the public. One showed a 7-9 year old boy who was detained by security forces and what appears to be signs of torture and cigarette burns on him, the other of a 3 year old girl who was shot in the eye from a regime sniper.
• Libya
  • Rebels have been able to make progress in key towns around Tripoli (Qaddafhi's stronghold) and are close to cutting off his supply routes from Algeria.
  • If a couple more key towns fall to the rebels they could effectively surround Tripoli, which could force the regime's hand in either fighting to the death or giving up.
• Egypt's Islamists
  • Held a series of large rallies in Tahrir Square (same place the revolution took place) to promote more Islamic influences on the formation of the new government and to protest how long it is taking for the temporary military council to implement reforms.
• Israel Protests
  • Younger Israeli's held demonstrations across the country to protest the high living costs and how the government has largely ignored the problem
  • Following the protests Israel approved the building of more settlements in the West Bank, which effectively created a ring of settlements around the Palestinian side of the edge of Jerusalem. The international community was not impressed.
• Stealth Helicopter
  • Unnamed US officials told various media outlets that the US is relatively certain the Pakistan showed various Chinese officials and engineers what was left of the wreckage of the stealth helicopter before turning it over to the US.
• Afghanistan Helicopter
  • The largest single death toll of US troops happened in Afghanistan as a helicopter with 21 Navy SEALs and a handful of other troops was downed in an area of Afghanistan rife with violence.
• Somalian Famine
  • Continues to get worse as international aid is being denied by the rebels/terrorists and, when delivered, typically hoarded by local warlords. Beautiful country though.

As reported by Jason Van Thiel.

Issue 10 (July 22, 2011).

United States

US Debt Ceiling

• Political posturing continues as we approach the August 2nd deadline to raise the debt ceiling.
• The 'Gang of 6' has proposed a plan that has received fairly widespread acceptance, but it remains unclear if they can turn the proposal into legislation and have the votes to get it passed by the deadline.
• Major ratings agencies S&P and Moodys have threatened to downgrade the credit rating of the US unless the ceiling is raised and a credible long term debt reduction plan is implemented.
• Even Washington insiders have expressed their disbelief and shock at how this scenario has shown at how incompetent the current crop of congressional members and leaders can be. A lot of blame has been put on the freshmen class of Tea Party House members as they view their political dogma as more important than being pragmatic or getting anything done.

Military Aid to Pakistan Gets Cut

• The US has cut (suspended) part of the military aid it sends to Pakistan as the tensions between the US and Pakistan remained heightened after the Osama fiasco. The amount suspended is $800m, which is 40% of the military aid we send them annually.
• It was proposed to cut the aid completely off in a congressional committee, but that proposal was quickly shot down as that would essentially destroy all relations with the country.

US Execution of Mexican National (kinda)

• Texas executed a Mexican national (who had lived in the US since he was 2) after he was convicted of raping and murdering a 16 year old girl.
• According to international rules and those imposed by the International Court of Justice, the execution violated international rules that state foreign nationals must be granted access to advice from the consulate of the home country, which was denied to this guy.

International

Mumbai Bombings

• Coordinated terrorist bombs hit Mumbai, India during rush hour on the 13th. Over 21 people here killed as the bombs hit busy centers throughout the city.

Oslo Explosion

• This morning a large explosion rocked the center of Oslo, Norway, and damaged government buildings and a newspaper building. At least two people are confirmed dead at this point, but it happened less than an hour ago.
• The Prime Minister's office is close to the explosion, but he is safe and was not in the building at the time.
• Authorities have just confirmed that the cause was a bomb.

Somalia Drought

• A severe drought has hit Somalia quite hard and thousands of refugees are fleeing as they cannot get enough food or water to support their families.
• A UN agency has said at least $300M is needed in aid soon or there will be a humanitarian crisis.
• One would have thought people would have already fled the shitbox after decades of civil war and the complete lack of a central government.

Murdoch Scandal

• Rupert Murdoch and his son, James Murdoch, testified in front of a British Parliamentary committee investigated the phone hacking scandal.
• A protestor was able to get in the hearing and attempted (unsuccessfully) to hit Rupert with a shaving cream pie.

Hugo Chavez

• The anti-American president of Venezuela is in Cuba for ongoing treatment and surgery for cancer.

As reported by Jason Van Thiel.

Issue 9 (July 12, 2011).

United States

Debt Ceiling

• Yes, we are still talking about the debt ceiling as the two parties have held out on making any sort of deal until (likely) the very last minute so they can, once again, claim they tried their best to be ideologues when they present unpopular cuts/taxes to their bases. The deadline to have something done and in place and voted in is August 2nd.
• It looks like there will be somewhere in the range of 2T-4T of deficit reduction in whatever deal gets worked out, but the rhetoric has really heated up in the past few days as negotiations continue.
• It is widely seen that Boehner wants to compromise to get a deal done but there is an internal struggle within the Republican party between Boehner versus Cantor and the tea party candidates.

Yellowstone Oil Spill

• For reasons I can't figure out the media has been largely absent from reporting on the Exxon Mobil oil spill in the Yellowstone River on July 1st.
• Until recently floodwaters have hampered cleaning as well as testing of the water to determine the safety of the water and extent of the spill, but the estimates of the amount of oil spilled are relatively low.

Last Shuttle Launch

• The last NASA shuttle launch took place last Friday to supply the International Space Station (ISS). The mission is supposed to last about 12 days, after which the entire Shuttle fleet will be retired and American manned space flight will be put on hold for the time being.

Casey Anthony Outrage

• The public at large suddenly became legal experts after Casey Anthony was found not guilty and were outraged how the jury could find her not guilty. They were so outrageously outraged they even took to Facebook and Twitter to express how mad they were!
  

Betty Ford Died

• Of a massive drug overdose! Just kidding, but the former first lady did die. (Betty Ford Clinic joke in case it wasn't clear)

International

South Sudan

• After one of Africa's longest civil wars and over 2 million people dead, South Sudan became the world's newest nation as it seceded from Sudan after a peace deal which involved a secession referendum held in January of this year and received just under 99% of the vote by the Southern Sudanese.

Murdoch Scandal

• The British former newspaper-turned tabloid News of the World hit a huge scandal in the UK when it was revealed the it's reporters paid off police to receive information and hacked the phones and voicemails of British officials (including Gordon Brown, the former Prime Minister), widows of servicemen killed in Iraq/Afghanistan, and a missing 13 year old girl.
• The public blew their lid over the entire story but mainly when it was revealed that while the 13 year old girl was still missing News of the World employees were hacking into her voicemail and deleting messages b/c her VM was full so more messages could be left. This (obviously) led the police and her family to believe she was still alive, which she wasn't. Yes, that is your skin crawling right now.
• Advertisers started fleeing the paper en masse, and Murdoch shut down the paper completely.
• News Corp. (Murdoch's main holding company) had been involved in a bid to take over British satellite broadcaster, BSkyB, and now has received enormous political and public pressure to abandon the bid.
• The Murdoch media empire also includes Fox News and the Wall Street Journal.

Syria

• US and French diplomats visited Hama, the center of the Syrian unrest, to speak with the opposition. Damascus issued a fiery statement condemning the visit and mobs subsequently attacked the US and French embassies in Damascus.

Libya

• Reports have circulated that Gadhafi has sent emissaries to New York, Turkey and Paris to begin talks as Gadhafi is reported to be ready to step down and leave the country.
• Battles have continued across the country but is largely in stalemate with the opposition still controlling the eastern half of Libya and various pockets in the west, but failing to make inroads in advancing towards Tripoli.

As reported by Jason Van Thiel.

Issue 8 (June 18, 2011).

United States

GOP Presidential Debate

• On Monday CNN held the first GOP Presidential debate in New Hampshire.
• Participants were: Mitch Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich, Michelle Bachmann, Rick Stantorum, Ron Paul and Herman Cain.
• It was fairly widely viewed that Bachmann was the most impressive during the debate, considering the low expectations most people had for her. Despite that, Romney had the largest target on his back since he is the clear front runner at this point and he emerged from the debate almost completely unscathed by the other participants.
  

10 Members of Congress Sue the Administration

• The suit is over the conflict in Libya and that Obama hasn't sought Congress' official approval of "hostilities" and that such hostilities have gone beyond the 60 days given to the President to end or seek approval of actions according to the War Powers Resolution Act of 1973.
• The Administration has sent Congress a package of documents outlining why the Libya mission does not constitute "hostilities" because NATO took the lead in the operation on April 7th, and the US has mainly been in a supporting role of surveillance and operations.
• The War Powers Resolution does not define what amounts to "hostilities" so the suit is widely seen as a public and political move to put pressure on the Administration, since the courts cannot rule on what is undefined.
  

Weiner Resigns

• New York Rep Anthony Weiner announced he is resigning from the House on Thursday after his whole sexting/twittering scandal.

John Edwards' F-Buddy

• I'm a bit late on this, but John Edwards was indicted on 6 counts for using campaign funds to pay to keep his mistress hidden.

USA Supplying Arms to Mexican Gun Cartels

• This is old news, but just in case you've missed the reports over the past several months, most of the guns and weapons used by Mexican drug cartels to kill Mexican police and civilians originate in the US due to the ease of obtaining powerful weapons here.

International

Syria Crackdown

• Syrian troops continue to crack down on protests across the country with tanks encircling some cities in the north, prompting thousands of people to flee into Turkey.
• The international community has remained relative quiet about the atrocities happening there, with only a few select governments calling the regimes continued rule as illegitimate.
• Reports and pictures of troops torturing women and children have surfaced, to which the regime denies they are real.

Pakistan Arrests

• Pakistan has arrested multiple CIA informants that helped during the Bin Laden raid along with several people suspected of helping Bin Laden.
• The action has further strained the already tense relationship between the US and Pakistan.

Greek Violent Protests

• Protests in Greece erupted Wednesday over proposed austerity measures in order to try to bring Greece's fiscal house in order.
  Petrol bombs have thrown at riot police and violence occasionally breaks in various clashes.
• Short rant: If anyone compares the US's debt situation to Greece you can immediately stop listening to what they are about to say since they clearly don't know how our different monetary systems work. Ever since Greece joined the Euro zone, they lost the sovereign ability to create their own currency and therefore are constrained to what the ECB does and what taxes they collect. In this aspect, they are much like the relationship between the individual states and the US. Minnesota is revenue-constrained and therefore either has to raise revenue through taxes or cut spending (or both) if they run a deficit since there are no Minnesota-Dollars they could create (and most states have a balanced budget resolution in their constitution). However, since the US, and only US, can create Dollars and therefore, (barring a congressional action) the US cannot default on its debt, since it would just make more dollars to pay it's obligation and (likely) cause inflation and devaluing the dollar to a certain extent.

IMF President

• The current front runner, and widely anticipated next president of the IMF, Christine Lagarde who is the current French Finance Minister, has been globe trotting several emerging countries to try to reassure them of her candidacy.
  The emerging world has long criticized the IMF for always having a European president, given the increasing influence, power and need for oversight of emerging nations, and they feel someone experienced in dealing with emerging nation's finances would be best for the IMF.
• Historically the IMF has always been run by a European and the World Bank run by an American.
• The US is tacitly supporting Lagarde by remaining relatively quiet about the candidates, but is widely seen to want to keep the IMF/World Bank status quo with an American remaining in the deputy position.
• The only other real candidate is the head of the Mexican central bank, Agustin Carstens, but is seen as a long shot.

As reported by Jason Van Thiel.

Issue 7 (June 2, 2011)

United States

More Tornadoes

• Tornadoes slammed Massachusetts, killing 4 people and causing fairly widespread damage
  

Romney Officially Launches Campaign

• Mitt Romney (former Governor of Massachusetts) has official announced his plans to run for President in 2012 after a failed attempt in the 2008 Republican primaries.
• His main problems to overcome will be the health care law he passed while Governor was basically the model of Obama's plan, which Republicans obviously dislike (although there wasn't the fervent debate, town halls and angry tea baggers the national plan saw). And while being relatively socially conservative he is a Mormon which will be an issue for the Evangelical south to vote for him in the primaries.
  

Rep. Weiner's Weiner

• Supposedly someone hacked Representative Anthony Weiner's Twitter account and one of his followers (who happens to be a college-aged girl) a picture of "someone" from the waist down in tight grey briefs.
• The girl, who lives across the country, said she follows his twitter account because she respects him, but has never met him nor has she ever been to DC or NY.
• Weiner has said they are investigating who hacked his Twitter account and vehemently denies sending the picture, but when asked if the picture was, in fact, of him, he skirts the issue saying pictures are easy to doctor nowadays and he can't say with certitude that the picture isn't of him.
• This is hilarious.
• Also, the day after he got upset with the press constantly asking him about the incident he apologized for being a bit "stiff" (ba-dum-CHING!) with reporters.

International

China Hacking Gmail

• Gmail said a sophisticated hacking attempted targeted the gmail accounts of journalists, US officials, military officers and Chinese dissidents. They did not directly blame China's government, but said the attacked originated in China, and given the targets it seems likely it was more espionage than random hacking.
• China rejected the claim, saying it was "unacceptable" to blame China for the attempt.

E. Coli Outbreak

• A new, toxic and highly infectious strain of E. Coli has broken out in Germany with several cases reported around Europe from people who had visited Germany. They don't know the source yet, but Spanish Cucumbers have been suggested and a few countries have banned fresh fruit and vegetable sales from the entire EU as a result.

Bosnian Genocide General Arrested

• Ratko Mladic was finally arrested in Serbia, 16 years after he was first indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for genocide. He was in charge of the Bosnian Army and responsible for the killing of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in the town of Srebrenica.
• During a recent poll 51% of Serbs did not want him to be extradited to The Hague to stand trial and 40% still viewed him as a "hero". But the arrest has much wider implications since Serbia is seeking membership in the EU and this is seen as a step towards that goal in that Serbia can no longer be accused of housing a perpetrator of genocide.

MENA

• More violence has erupted in Syria and the regime continues to crack down on protestors using military vehicles and equipment, while calling for dialogue.
• Yemen violence also continues as the calls for the President to step down in 30 days is now being resisted by the President and is does not go far enough for the protestors.
• Light(-ish) protests in Egypt erupted again in Tahir square because they feel the military is not being quick enough with the reforms of the revolution.

Completely off-topic but an article I found interesting (it may take a bit to get used to his writing style): http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2011/05/second_life_is_a_second_chance.html

As reported by Jason Van Thiel.

Issue 6 (May 23, 2011)

United States

• GOP 2012 Candidate
  • Pawlenty has officially announced he is running for President. The entire world yawned.
  • Mitch Daniels, former Governor of Indiana, has announced he is not going to be running for President. While his national name recognition is fairly low, he was considered one of the top potential candidates with significant ability to raise money. People speculate he thinks his chances of winning vs Obama are low in the current environment and we may hear more from him in 2016.
  • Donald Trump bowed out of the race. On a personal note, I'm extremely disappointed in this since he would have been hi-larious in the debates.
• Tornadoes
  • Sunday saw more tornadoes in Missouri and MN. Last count I heard was 116 dead in Missouri and expected to climb. Continuing thunderstorms and lightning have hampered efforts of rescue and cleanup.
• Mississippi Floods
  • The US Army Corps of Engineers opened the Louisiana spillway a week or so ago to relieve flooding from more populated and industrial areas of Louisiana, including New Orleans. They essentially purposefully flooded an area roughly the size of Delaware that consisted mainly of agricultural crops and various energy related industries (couple refineries etc.).
• Arnold
  • The terminator had some love child with his house keeper or some shit, doesn't really matter.

International

• DSK Rape Case
  • The head of the IMF, Dominique Straus-Kahn, was arrested in New York after allegedly sexually assaulting a hotel maid in the hotel he was staying in.
  • DSK was the front runner to be the Socialist Party's candidate for the French presidency against current President Nicolas Sarkozy.
  • He has a long history of sexual philandering and other past allegations from 2 different woman have surfaced since his arrest.
  • There's been an odd feeling in France and various part of Europe (Italy mostly) that this is an unjust arrest for one of the most powerful men in the world and/or the allegations have no merit. Political figures in France and Italy have much more leeway for extra-martial sexual adventures (Pres of Italy was accused of paying for sex with an underage girl and no one really cared), but given the nature of the charges the public "outrage" comes off as incredibly crass and weird.
• Palestinian Protests
  • 11 Palestinian protestors were shot dead last week by the Israeli military as they protested the anniversary of the creation of the state of Israel. Palestinians refer to the day as al-Nakba meaning "the catastrophe". The worst happened in the Golan Heights along the border with Syria. It's fairly widely believed Syria's govt had a hand in busing protestors to the border, as the internal strife in the country would prohibit any large number of people organizing or traveling together.
• Obama Mid-East / Israel Speech
  • In an unexpected move, Obama tried to reignite the Israel-Palestinian peace process during a speech saying that the process should be one of "two states and two people" with borders based largely on the pre-1967 borders (pre Six Day War) with mutually agreed land swaps.
  • Netanyahu and the Israeli right didn't appreciate his comments and said it went too far. Israeli's left generally liked the comment as it puts pressure on Netanyahu to abandon his coalition's hard-right (religious) allies and work with the more moderate Kadima party. Netanyahu and the hard right were generally responsible for torpedoing Obama's last attempt at negotiations when they refused to halt settlement building in the West Bank.
  • Keep in mind that what Obama said was an almost mirror image of Clinton's peace plan, which came the closest to achieving a workable peace deal in recent history.
• Greek Debt Crisis, part deux
  • Worries spread throughout Europe and the US that Greece will need to restructure their debt (effectively default). As the ECB (European Central Bank) and IMF say they are committed to continuing the previously agreed upon bailout, widespread criticism of this plan has continued and people are urging the ECB/IMF to reconsider and do an orderly restructuring of their debt.
• Spanish Youth Protests
  • Large scale protests by the youth in Spain were seen ahead of municipal elections. The main grievance among the crowd is the youth unemployment rate is around 40%, despite being the most educated, multi-cultural young adult population the country has ever seen. They are politically disenfranchised without a particular ideology but want serious reform among their politicians.
  • Extremely strict and sticky labor laws are widely seen as the major culprit in limited economic growth, productivity and jobs. They have even been referred to as Spain's "lost generation".
• Syrian Sanctions
  • The US and EU have put sanctions and froze assets of leaders of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria as the violent crackdown on demonstrations and anti-government protests continue.
  • The total toll is impossible to pin down, but it is estimated that upward of 900 people have died since the unrest began (in February I believe).
• Iceland Volcano
  • Another impossible to pronounce volcano in Iceland erupted on Saturday (rapture!) sending a large ash cloud into the sky and heading towards Ireland and the UK. Flights have been canceled and airlines are nervous as they remember the chaos that the 2010 eruption caused for flights all across Europe.

As reported by Jason Van Thiel.

Issue 5 (May 5, 2011)

Believe it or not, more things happened over the past week than the Osama jazz.

UNITED STATES

Osama
-Not sure if you heard or not, but the CIA led an operation using 2 dozen Navy SEALS to storm Osama's "secret" compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan and shot him in the chest and the fucking eye.

-The White House has stated that it will not release the pictures of Osama, giving the reason that they are extremely gruesome (piece of skull missing and visible brain matter) and could provoke attacks against troops and more anti-American rhetoric. He made the analogy that it would be like spiking the football after a touchdown and that we don't want to release it as a "trophy".

-Pakistan is under widespread western criticism about how close Osama was to the capital, Islamabad and to the Pakistan's version of West Point, which was located in the same city as his compound.

-Reaction across the Arab world as been relatively quiet with regimes issuing reserved statements, if at all, in fears they could provoke protests in their own countries about becoming an American lackey. There were a couple of street groups hailing Osama as a hero, but they were rare and each were small groups.

-In information found at his compound, there apparently were idea notes on to attack the US's railroad system by trying to derail trains over bridges and by valleys on the anniversary of 9/11. The administration stressed that these were only preliminary ideas and pose no credible threat.

-In a hilarious street group interview, a group of local Pakistani's told a CNN reporter they didn't believe Osama was killed in Pakistan and that he died in Afghanistan 10 years ago. They then said if it really happened why wouldn't the US release the pictures but then the CNN reported asked if the pictures were released would they believe it and they all said "no".

-Beyond that, do me a favor and ignore 90% of the media coverage on this, beyond any new information on who in Pakistan's military/intelligence agencies knew where Osama was or al-Qaeda's reaction is all politicking and bullshit.

White House Correspondents Dinner
-If you guys didn't see Obama's or Seth Myer's (from SNL) speech at this dinner, you should watch them, they are both hilarious.

INTERNATIONAL

Iranian Power Struggle
-As of April 30th, Ahmadinejad has apparently boycotted his official duties for 8 days (thus far), cancelling cabinet meetings and not showing up at his office. Supposedly it is in response to the Ayatollah Khamenei reinstating a cabinet member he had ousted, spurring rumors there is a power struggle underway between the President and the Ayatollah (the Ayatollah holds power over the Presidency).

Syria
-The government of Bashar al-Assad has pretty much all legitimacy in the south of the country as over 600 people have been killed by the security services. Of the 600, over half have been killed in Deraa (where the protests started).

-Reports that tanks have surrounded the city and cut off supplies to the city and have been occasionally shelling the old city.

-UN is considering economic sanctions against the country, the US have frozen assets of top officials and Turkey has become louder in its criticism on the violence the regime has been using, however large scale crackdowns on dissent, including wholesale massacres, is relatively frequent in Syria's history.

Libya
-Pretty much still a stalemate, Misrata still sucks balls to be in, although it is still controlled by the rebels. Reports that an aid ship taking in foreign oil workers and injured out of the city was attacked by government forces.

-A NATO missile struck a Qaddafi compound killed a few of his grandchildren and one of his prominent sons, Saif, who commanded an elite unit of Qaddafi troops.The move was largely seen as a shot across the bow of Qaddafi to get him to stop being a jackass.

Brazil Has More Gay Rights Than the US Does
-Brazil's Supreme Court has ruled that gay couples should have the same rights as married heterosexual couples.

-Yes, an emerging country that is largely Catholic has more rights for gays than American does. Thanks America's religious right.

France Tries to Be Relevant
-Sarkozy stated that France could recognize the Palestinian state (with the Hamas-Fatah unity government I mentioned the other week) if the Israel-Palestinian peace negotiations continued to go nowhere.

-While this is meant to coax Israel back to the negotiation table, this could backfire monumentally if it emboldens the Palestinians to not offer up any concessions to return to the negotiations, as it would be a HUGE milestone if a western country recognized the territory as a sovereign state.


As reported by Jason Van Thiel.

Issue 4 (April 29, 2011).

Lackluster performance as of late, I know, I know. I've been relatively a bit out of the loop lately, but here's the latest.

UNITED STATES

Strong Storms-Strong storms and several tornadoes ripped across the southeast US this week, killing almost 300. The hardest hit was Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where destruction was pretty intense.

Cabinet Shakeup-We've known something like this would happen for awhile since the Defense Secretary Robert Gates has made it known he will be resigning, but it became official this week that General David Petraeus (currently the head of the coalition troops in Afghanistan) will become head of the CIA and the CIA Director, Leon Panetta, is going to become the Defense Secretary.
Long Form Birth Certificate Released-A couple weeks after Donald Trump re-ignited the dead, fringe debate over whether Obama was actually born in the United States, the White House officially released Obama's long form birth certificate.

-As expected, Trump claimed credit over the release as he did a media blitz the next day. Some question the timing of the release being odd, others think this could have been a tactful political move by the White House because around now is when Republican candidates typically would declare their intent to run for President in 2012. This released gave Trump a media blitz and shot his poll ranking up amongst Republicans, potentially overshadowing any news release on a candidate running or maybe even discouraging potential candidates after seeing Trump's numbers. Since Trump wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in hell at winning the election, it could have been a smart move.
-The Administration's stated reason for the timing was that the debate is silly and there are more important things that need to be talked about.

INTERNATIONAL

Israel-The two ruling Palestinian governing bodies Hamas (Gaza Strip) and Fatah (West Bank) announced that it had reached an accord, ending an almost 5 year dispute between the two groups. This comes as a relative surprise to the world and will endanger peace talks with Israel, as Israel considers Hamas a terrorist group and refuses to negotiation any settlements with them or a government that includes them.
Morocco-At least 14 people were killed in Marrakesh, Morocco after an explosion went off at a cafe. The cause is not yet known, but all signs point to a terrorist attack.

MENA (Middle East - North Africa)-Syria continues to meet anti-government protests with severe force, death toll keeps increasing and is currently in the several hundred range.
-Yemen's President agreed to a 30 day time frame to step down and have elections. The move was welcomed in the international community, but was met with skepticism by the protestors.
-Libya continues as pretty much a stalemate right now. Misrata has essentially become deserted of civilians and is a giant hell hole. Two western photojournalists were killed on the "front line" by an RPG attack.

Royal Wedding-Blah. Kate is hot.

As reported by Jason Van Thiel.

Issue 3 (April 15, 2011)

UNITED STATES

Shut Down Averted
-Congress & and White House narrowly averted a federal government shut down with about an hour to spare on Friday night. The deal reached calls for $38.5B in cost cutting, and did not include any of the policy riders (EPA & Planned Parenthood) that the Republicans wanted.

>PS: The fight that we had was about ~1% of 2011's budget, just sayin'.

Debt Ceiling
-The next big fight in Congress should be an interesting one. The US's debt ceiling ($14.3T) is expected to be reached in early- to mid-May. If Congress does not pass an increase to this ceiling, the United States technically goes into default as, by law, we cannot create more money to service our existing debt or incur more debt (to pay for anything).

-This would be absolutely catastrophic for the global economy and the US position in the economy. Given that, the chances of this not passing are essentially nil.

-However, given that this MUST pass, Republicans see this as an opportunity to try and include spending cuts and policy riders into the bill (sound familiar?). Obama called for a "clean bill" (nothing attached to it), but Boehner (Republican Speaker of the House, pronounced BAY-ner) pretty much said no-fucking-way Jose ("Guess what, Mr. President. Not a chance you're going to get a clean bill").

-It could very well turn into a giant game of political chicken, like the one we just saw, but with exponentially more dire consequences than a federal government shut down.

-Mitt Romney (former Republican Governor of Massachusetts) officially announced he was running for President in 2012, after coming in 3rd in the 2008 Republican primary.

Arizona is Retarded
-Arizona's congress has passed a law requiring presidential candidates to submit a long-form birth certificate in order to be placed on the state's ballot. The governor has yet to sign it, but with a Republican governor it looks likely to become law (she could abstain from signing it, but not actually veto it, and it would still become law without her "endorsement").

INTERNATIONAL

Portugal Bailout
>Portugal, the third EU country (behind Greece and Ireland), requests a bailout from the the EU/ECB (European Central Bank). The move follows a failure by Portugal's parliament to institute austerity measures aimed at getting their deficit and debt levels under control. As they were with the previous bailouts, Germans are pretty pissed that they will be called on again, to bailout their fiscally less-than-disciplined EU members.

Libya
>The AU (African Union) proposed terms for a cease fire, which was supposedly agreed to by Gaddhafi, but rejected by the rebels since it did not call for Gadhafi to step down.

>The rebels still suck at fighting and lack coordination, which has caused them to lose ground to pro-Gaddhafi forces. Reports say that pro-Gaddhafi forces have been indiscriminately shelling residential neighborhoods with artillery.

Cote d'Ivoire
>Ousted former president, Gbagbo, has surrendered and is in UN custody. Sporadic fighting continues in cities across the country.

Syria
>Protests have continued to escalate in Syria with security forces continuing to clamp down and have fired and killed a couple hundred protestors at this point.

Japan
>Monday morning another 7.1 quake hit northeast Japan.

>The Fukushima disaster has been raised to a level 7 (out of 7) on the scale a nuclear disasters. This technically puts it on par with the Chernobyl disaster, although it is releasing 10% (thus far) of the radiation that Chernobyl did.

As reported by Jason Van Thiel.

Issue 2 (April 7, 2011)

UNITED STATES

Government Shut Down-If a stopgap budget (6 continuing resolutions have already been passed leading up to this point) is not passed by midnight Friday, the federal government will shut down. This would cause tax refund checks to be delayed, federal parks and monuments to close, 800k federal workers furloughed and paychecks for other gov't employees to be delayed, including military personnel. Congress would still get paid.
-The cliff notes leading to this are:

>Republicans and Democrats haven't agreed to an official budget for 2011 (it was due back in September 2010)

>Newly elected tea party Republicans, dozens of which have never held elected office, ran on the promise to cut over $100B from the federal budget. They realized they couldn't swing this and dropped their target to $50B. Tea partiers got pissed that these guys weren't living up to their campaign promises started loudly criticizing them. This caused Republicans to dig in and not give up any further.

>Democrats presented a plan to cut $30-some billion from the budget, Republicans insisted on more.
Emergency meetings between both houses of congress and the white house in order to get a plan down.

>Apparently the numbers they have essentially agreed upon, but the Repubs have placed policy riders into their version, which are unacceptable for Dems.
>These riders are (prepared to be get mad that these could cause a govt shutdown, since in both cases the dollar value is minimal):
>Language stating the EPA cannot regulate greenhouse gasses (as upheld by federal courts according to the EPA charter). Mind you, the Administration has told the EPA to study the effects and gave the power for the EPA to enact and enforce rules on this, they have NOT made any thus far. Repubs say this power is "bad for business" and wants to strip the EPA of it.

>To strip federal funding to Planned Parenthood (despite federal funding to Planned Parenthood already bans the use of money to be used to fund abortions)
>Both parties are afraid of public backlash if this happens, but moreso the Republicans. Last time this happened was during Clinton's administration and the next election the Republicans (who controlled the house w/ Newt Gingrich) suffered a huge setback.

INTERNATIONAL

Another Japan Quake-Thursday morning a 7.1 quake rocked Japan in a similar region to the previous 9.0 quake and tsunami that caused massive death tolls and the nuclear mess. The quake cause buildings 200 miles away to sway, but no reports of major damage were reported.
Libya-NATO air strikes mistakenly attacked rebel forces, killing at least 13. It has been the second mistaken attack on rebels in a week.
-Rebels have been pushed back from some smaller eastern cities. Rebels have been claiming the air support has not been used enough (ironically, this comes just as the US has stepped back it's forces, with France and Britain taking their place).

Ivory Coast-Supporters of the elected president, Alassane Ouattara, have essentially surrounded the previous president, who is still clinging to power, in the Presidential Palace. Rumors that he is negotiating his surrender have gone around, but so far nothing public has happened. The palace continues to be assaulted and shelled, but so far they have been held short of fully storming the palace.
-UN has told Ouattara that once he attains power (assuming it happens) to seriously investigate charges that his supporters have committed atrocities during the unrest.

Brazil School Shooting-A gunman walked into an elementary school in Rio de Janeiro and killed 11 people before committing suicide.
China Dissident-China claims the activist and artist I mentioned earlier this week was held on "economic crimes" (right...) and told the international community to fuck off and not interfere.

As reported by Jason Van Thiel.

Issue 1 (April 4, 2011)

UNITED STATES

Airplane Safety
-Sun Country cancelled several hundred flights over the weekend after a flight had to do an emergency landing. A 5ft section of the main compartment ripped apart at the seem mid-flight. No one was injured. The FAA and NTSB is reviewing the evidence and issued forced inspections, as that area of the plane is not routinely inspected. Several Sun Country planes have been taken out of service due to the inspections.

Obama Reelection
-Early Monday morning Obama launched his 2012 reelection campaign via a video e-mailed to supporters and posted to his website. He isn't featured in it, instead it is a comically diverse (think college brochure) group of supporters in battleground states stating their personal reasons for supporting Obama.

-Early guesses are pegging Obama's fund raising ability to be close to $1 billion for this election. If this happens, it would be the most expensive race in history and mark a ~25% increase over his totals for 2008.
The only Republican who has announced so far is our very own T-Paw.

9/11 Trials
-In a reversal of policy Eric Holder, the US District Attorney, announced that the 9/11 co-conspirators will be tried by military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay, instead of civilian trials by jury. Democrats criticized the move, Republicans high-five'd each other.

INTERNATIONAL

Libya Unrest
-Fighting continues across the country, heaviest in Misrata and Brega (major oil town).

-Turkey sent a humanitarian naval ship to Misrata to assist in medical care.

-US forces began scaling down their operation with Britain and France, under the leadership of NATO, taking the lead.

-Reports that Gaddafi has sent a diplomatic mission across Europe to discuss ending the conflict by shifting power to his sons. This will not be nearly enough for the rebels. As they do this, government forces continuing shelling civilian cities, causing a major credibility gap.

-Italy officially recognized the rebel council in Benghazi as the official government of Libya. France had already done so.

Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Unrest
-French troops were sent in to support existing French and UN troops already there, French troops took control of the major airport, which will allow it to begin operations again. UN has threatened strikes if violence persists.

-The unrest is due to the outgoing President Laurent Gbagbo has refused to give up power after losing the election in November. The winner of the election, Alassane Ouattara, is internationally recognized as the proper president.

-Forces loyal to each have been fighting across the country, but Ouattara forces have been making progress in obtaining control of major cities.

-Unrest has been going on for awhile, but until recently it has widely been overlooked and overshadowed by what's going on in North Africa.

-Ten bucks this helps you: Google Map of Cote d'Ivoire

Japan Nuclear Mess
-Radioactive water continues to leak out of the plant, they purposefully dumped a significant amount of radioactive water into the Pacific. The idea is to let the "less radioactive" water out, so there is room for the "more radioactive" water to stay inside the plant.

Haiti
-In a run-off election, Michel Martelly, won the Presidency.

-The first round of voting, in November, was widely seen as fraudulent and violent protests erupted afterwards. This round was seen as significantly more fair and calm.

Other Middle-East & North Africa (MENA) Unrest
-More crackdowns by government forces in Yemen.

-President of Yemen is widely seen as a US ally, specifically in the fight against terrorism (Yemen is a sh*t hole with significant Al Qaeda presence). The US, unexpectedly, shifted it's stance saying the Yemeni president should have a dialogue with the protestors (not a major shift) and possibly step aside (major policy shift).

-Afghanistan protests and violence have escalated in recent days following a pastor in Florida (same one from the 9/11 anniversary controversy) burned Qur'ans. At least 10 UN employees/officials/guards were killed on Friday after a UN compound was overran with enraged protestors.
-Protests (to varying degrees) continue in: Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Jordan

China Dissidents
-On Sunday Ai Weiwei, a prominent Chinese artist and human rights activist, was detained in Beijing attempting to board a plane to Hong Kong. He was reported to be about to release a new project criticizing the Chinese government's handling of the major earthquake Szechuan province in May 2008, where 70 thousand died when the shoddy construction of schools and government buildings caused them to collapse on people.

-Ironically (or not), PBS' Frontline just released the first part of a documentary about him the week prior.

As reported by Jason Van Thiel