January 2011
31 posts
Egypt
All indications are pointing to these being the last days that Hosni Mubarak will lead Egypt after being in charge of that country in the 30 years since Anwar Sadat was assassinated. I would strongly recommend this 2004 New Yorker piece by David Remnick which gives some broad background of the authoritative nature of the regime as well as some background into the opposition which exists there.
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Flavor Flav →
This Atlantic piece on Flavor Flav’s new Iowa fried chicken place is…well, just read for yourself. I particularly appreciated his comments to patrons after they ran out of chicken one night (“the whole nine.”
Lost Decade →
Ever since the economic crisis seriously deteriorated in the Fall of 2008, people have been warning about an insufficient response creating a “lost decade” akin to the one suffered by Japan in the 1990s. This article argues that, from a jobs perspective, the US already suffered such a decade from 2000-2010. Sort of scary stuff.
Quick Question
Can someone explain what all of the sucking up to Zuckerberg was about at the Golden Globes the other night? I had always thought that he had refused to cooperate with the film (not that I blame him one bit) but if you watched the Golden Globes last night, you would think that he or Facebook did. I wasn’t the only one who noticed, check out techcrunch’s coverage. I’m...
Dave Weigel Hits Palin Nail on Head →
Awaiting the Prez...
I have come to the conclusion that the best thing someone like I, who has a problem with the idea of Sarah Palin ever making decisions which have consequences to me as an elected official, can do going forward is simply to ignore her. She seeks victimhood (and props go to David Frum for pointing this out).
None of this Arizona thing is her fault. This should be said far and wide. But the...
Palin, whoa... →
Sorry, meant this to be longer before it rang the twitter bell. Will Saletan posts a cheeky response to Palin’s speech on Facebook this morning (man it feels weird to write that), basically saying that Palin’s not for keeping actions attributable to the criminals when it comes to terrorism. Not so sure I agree, as, well, there were others who helped plan and inspire some of the...
Packer Redux
The New Yorker’s George Packer is consistently pre-empting posts I’m about to make with reactions on the Tuscon shooting which I am reading and appreciating. Check out his latest here. A couple of excerpts:
…it won’t do to dig up stray comments by Obama, Allen Grayson, or any other Democrat who used metaphors of combat over the past few years, and then try to claim some...
NY Times, I love you, but sometimes... →
Explain to me why I should care that 50 Cent thinks Facebook is truly worth $50 billion. Because saying that kids like the internet, well, it just doesn’t do it for me.
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Debt II
Random thought. President Obama voted against the debt ceiling in 2006. He now wants to raise it in 2011. Sarah Palin is about the 3,000th person to note this in print but will get the most attention. Just wondering, I was one of those this week who was sort of like “hmm, sucks that the shoe is on the other foot, doesn’t it Mr. President?” But, isn’t it at least...
Health Care Redux →
A good piece by Slate’s John Dickerson. Here’s what I do not quite get. It’s one thing to criticize Democrats with “wasting” time passing the most comprehensive health reform package ever during 2009 and early 2010 while the economy was still belching smoke from the late 2008 meltdown. By the way, notice that the market has looked pretty good for 2010 and the...
“There are now thousands of investors in Facebook and more coming with these new...”
– Marc Beinoff, CEO of Salesforce.com, ironically, on his Facebook page. (Registration required.) If true, it seems as though Facebook is acquiring a huge competitive advantage as it seeks to get into different markets.
In the New Yorker, I might be missing the analogy →
but Steve Coll seems to be likening the assassination of a prominent Pakistani politician this week to having, in the U.S., the Secret Service similarly turning on a Cabinet member. Or even worse, a military aide to a high-ranking general, as he links this incident to the question of how confident the U.S. should be of the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. Scary stuff.
PS Completely...
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Bad Idea for COS →
The Politico looks at the idea of Bill Daley as a new Obama Chief of Staff through the prism of ticking off the left. OK. How about how it can be portrayed to the casual viewer? The President has, from time to time, been accused of Chicago-style corrupt politics. It’s typically been a baseless charge. However, can you imagine what legs the Rahm Emanuel/Joe Sestak “job offer”...
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Debt
Over the next several weeks, there will be a lot of discussion of the federal debt ceiling. Some will, without doubt, mention that the current President voted against it while a sitting U.S. Senator. True enough. The critical difference here is that past votes in opposition to raise the ceiling have been (silly) symbolic measures. The President, and his fellow Democrats, did not try to...
