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