In technology news, the new BlackBerry Storm smartphone has a New York Times reviewer calling it the “BlackBerry Dud.” Unlike its predecessors, the BlackBerry Pearl and Bold, the Storm model doesn’t appear to live up to the BlackBerry tradition. According to the review, the new touchscreen (designed to compete with the iPhone) doesn’t respond well to touch. And its lauded email capabilities have been compromised on the new Storm. Hey BlackBerry makers, Research in Motion (R.I.M.) maybe you should have listened to the old adage: if it’s not broken don’t fix it….(Note: Blackberries still outsell iPhone).

With the U.S. economic problems looming, President-Elect Barack Obama named Paul Volcker, the former Federal Reserve Chairman to head his Economic Recovery Advisory Committee. Obama chose Volcker for his independent and fresh thinking. “At this defining moment for our nation, the old ways of thinking and acting just won’t do,” Obama said at a news conference in Chicago reported Bloomberg. This economic board will look for new ways to revive the U.S. economy.

In other President-elect cabinet news, sources tell CNN that Defense Secretary Robert Gates will keep his job for at least the first year of Obama’s administration. These sources also report “Obama is interested in some continuity at the Pentagon because he is entering office while dealing with two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the international financial crisis.” Other analysts claim the new president-elect is demonstrating his commitment to bipartisanship.

And if we haven’t noticed, the President-elect is making his cabinet picks fairly quickly. Obama is once again making presidential history with choosing his picks faster than most of the other presidents. Many political insiders are surprised because of the President-elect’s extensive candidate questionnaire and background check. Yet Obama appears committed to acting quickly to ensure a quick transition that will strengthen the economy and preserve jobs, which are on the minds of most Americans.

And if following up on his earlier threat to Obama, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said al Qaeda has sent a “plausible but unsubstantiated” report to Federal authorities that may have mentioned attacking transit systems in or around New York City. The DHS and FBI said Tuesday that the attacks would be waged with suicide bombers or explosives on trains and subways. Although the agencies don’t have details at this moment, they issued the warning because of a potential attack during the holiday season.

Gay marriage scored a victory Wednesday in Connecticut. A Superior Court judge issued its final ruling to uphold the earlier 4 to 3 Connecticut State Supreme Court ruling that said same-sex couples have the right to wed. This recent news stands in sharp contrast to California’s Prop. 8 referendum that banned same-sex unions in that state.

Where in the world is Osama bin Laden? That is exactly what President-elect Barack Obama wants to know according to his national security advisers. Obama plans to renew the United States’ commitment to finding the al Qaeda leader. During the Oct. 7 presidential debate, Obama said, “We will kill bin Laden. We will crush al Qaeda. That has to be our biggest national security priority.”

And Obama appears to be sticking to his principles and promises… President-elect Barack Obama will not allow lobbyists to help pay for any costs related to his transition to power said his transition team yesterday. As he promised to keep big-time money interests and lobbyists out of his campaign, Obama remains firm that lobbyists will not foot his transition and inauguration bills.

Mo’ money, mo’ money, mo’ money for more finance companies? U.S. Treasury Secretary Paulson is seeking to include non-bank financial institutions, such as credit card, car loan and student loan companies into the government’s $700 billion bailout. Paulson said Wednesday that he wants to help American households and businesses have access to various credit and borrowing options. Apparently, there is still $350 billion that is uncommitted after putting the first half into direct capital investments into banks.

And for troubled homeowners, the verdict is still out on government help. The House Committee on Financial Services is looking at what the banking industry can do to help distressed homeowners. Chairman of the committee, Rep. Barney Frank, told CNN “not all borrowers should necessarily be rescued.” Some banks like Citigroup and IndyMac have taken matters into their own hands and launched homeowner programs. Yet “Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Economy.com, estimates that 1.6 million Americans will lose their homes this year through foreclosure or distressed sale, and that another 1.9 million families will lose their homes in 2009.”

On the tech front…. Hoping for a boost in e-mail users, Google adds video and audio chatting to Gmail with new service called Google Talk. Although video and audio chatting aren’t new technologies, Google’s the first major email provider to add the new technology directly to its email system. Google wants to gain the lead on Yahoo and Microsoft, which still have more users.

1) McCain needed a win, and he didn’t get it. Most  post-debate polls pointed to a clear Obama win, and on CNN — still using those absurd blue and red circular scorecards — even the Republican strategists handed it to Obama.

2) McCain still hates earmarks. Tagged at about $18 billion of the nearly $3 trillion total federal budget, they are — to risk understatement — inconsequential. Sure, $18 billion is a lot, but at a time when the government just anted up $700 billion in bailout money to maybe halt the country’s economic meltdown, the federal deficit has doubled to $10 trillion in the last eight years, and the war in Iraq alone is eating up $10 billion a month – earmarks barely even register. That, of course, didn’t stop McCain from attacking Obama twice for voting for a $3 million overhead projector for a Chicago planetarium. Wow.

3) McCain: “I’ll get Osama Bin Laden, my friends. I know how to get him. I know how to do it.” Well, I’m sure that’s news to George Bush. And Bin Laden. One wonders why he hasn’t suspended his campaign to do that yet.

4) My favorite part of the debate: Shortly after criticizing Obama for announcing that he’d be willing to launch unilateral attacks into Pakistan if Pakistan refuses to take out al-Qaeda camps or Bin Laden (advising that America needs to carry a big stick and walk softly), Obama points out that McCain was the one who — among other notable gaffes — sang ‘Bomb Iran’. Watch how quickly McCain’s body language changes — hilaaaarious (c) Dave Chappelle/Nick Cannon.

Afterward, McCain tried to explain himself by pointing out that it was a joke shared with an old veteran buddy of his. Wrong wrong wrong, wrong wrong again (I know…) — check out the video below:

5) Oh, and the New York Times released a remarkably blunt editorial taking the McCain-Palin campaign to ask for descending “into the dark territory of race-baiting and xenophobia.” All in all, not the best time to be a McCain supporter.

This piece was originally posted on Matt’s blog.

Meantime, the McCain campaign is not campaigning. The senator from Arizona wants to be clear that, on the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, he’s merely visiting the Middle East to take a lay of the land. It’s a good thing, too, because McCain has repeatedly confused Shia and Sunni Iraqis and Iranian militants with Al Qaeda— which is no small thing given our propensity as a nation to invade countries we have associated, rightly or wrongly, with the Bin Laden band. At a press conference Tuesday in Jordan, it took Sen. Joe Lieberman leaning into McCain’s ear to get him to stop repeating the words “Iran” and “Al Qaeda” in the same breath. McCain finally comes out with an… “um… Iran is training extremists, not Qaeda members,” as if it were a simple oversight or vocabulary choice, the whole incident signaling that to McCain on some level it’s pretty much all the same.

Will this kind of repeated bungling dilute impressions, particularly among the press, that McCain is “The Man” when it comes to matters of national security? It should. McCain has based his entire candidacy around his expertise on our military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. While Obama and Clinton are talking about Pastor Wright, McCain is taking the opportunity to be photographed seriously treading the stubby desert ground of the Middle East, making important-sounding pronouncements— their being confused pronouncements only perhaps making them seem more familiarly presidential— because it’s the setting and the seeming concern you convey that has mattered for these past five years and not the grasp you have of the related realities!

Reporter to McCain in embattled Sderot, Israel, yesterday: “Do you agree with President Bush’s approach to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process?”

McCain: “If I come back here as a candidate, I will articulate my plans… Very frankly, I’m just here assessing the situation.”

Let’s hope Lieberman accompanies McCain on any planned fact-finding missions he might be forced to take to Wall Street. Lieberman can lean into his ear there too and explain what the hell is a Bear Stearns and how a deregulated loan market brought out “extremist groups” in strip-mall offices in every town in the country— attacking our way of life and our American dreams!

Click into the image to watch Keith Olbermann dissect the McCain comments at MSNBC.

Felicia (Felecia?) Pearson, the woman behind the wildest most-intriguing character on TV, hitgirl Snoop on The Wire, came out this week with a memoir called Grace after Midnight. We haven’t had the honor of peeping it yet (G-C publishing, send us a copy already!) but the stories in that book are sure to be the real stuff that the people behind The Wire have tapped into and why it’s one of the best shows ever about topics that have otherwise been buried under nuclear-war-safe Yuka Mountain-size loads of cliche.

Awhile back, the big fans at Fader did a Q&A with Pearson. This is our favorite section:

Are you from the area where they film the show?
Yes sir, right in it, right where they film it in the hood.

Do people recognize you now?
Yes sir.

Do they treat you differently?
No, because they are people, they don’t play with me. I’m just the same old person, I don’t act different or nothing like that, I mean some family members come and put their hand out like I got millions or something like that, but you know family always have the tendency to get on your nerves.

Weekend recommends: The memoir and all five seasons of The Wire, download or dvd. Don’t answer the phone. No need to get dressed. Everybody at your house has to be watching or reading. Drinks start only after six pee emm.

ps: Can we decide (HBO uh and uh) how we’re spelling girlfriend’s name?

According to the news report:

In 2005, a family friend told Siyam that he’d been questioned by Homeland Security agents who’d asked whether Siyam was leading troops of youths into the Philippines to convert them into anti-American Muslims.

Read the full article for more FBI fear and paranoia.

Spinning off Mushy’s recent appearance on the Daily show, Daryn Cambridge explored the idea at his blog:

Two weeks ago, Jon Stewart interviewed Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. After discussing the multiple assassination attempts on Musharraf’s life by Al Qaeda forces, Stewart said to Musharraf, “You seem to be at the forefront of the [terrorist] threats, yet you seem much calmer about it than we [Americans] are.” President Musharraf confidently replied, “Yes, I am.” The audience immediately chuckled at the irony of such a statement. The President of Pakistan– having survived two separate Qaeda attempts on his life and presiding over one of the central national arenas in the global war on terror where Osama bin Laden is perhaps residing and planning future attacks — is less stressed about the terrorist threat than we are in America. Stewart, equally perturbed by the irony, brought his head out of his hands and took a giant bite out of one of America’s most recognizable symbols, a twinkie. At this moment, Stewart and Musharraf, albeit briefly, elucidated the stark contrast between what is actually happening and how we are choosing to react. Our perception of the current global situation can be altered and tinkered with by politicians, who can strongly influence the way our media portrays a story…

We Americans are different: we think we’re special and the rest of the world thinks we’re especially isolated and willfully ignorant. Newsweek, it turns out, panders to both sides of the equation, printing two dramatically different versions of its weekly magazine– one for domestic readers and a completely different version for foreign readers. Check it out here.This week, in the European, Asian and Latin American editions of the magazine, readers are presented with a cover story on the unfolding disaster of American policy in Afghanistan and a warning of future entanglement and bloodshed. In the U.S. edition of the magazine, however, the cover story is a book review article of the latest work by American celebrity photographer Annie Liebovitz (the one who took the photos of Tom and Katie and Suri!).

I suppose it’s only fair to mention that the Liebovitz piece is… an exclusive! Here are the teasers from the foreign and domestic editions (you guess which is which):

1) The Rise of Jihadistan
Five years after the Afghan invasion, the Taliban are fighting back hard, carving out a sanctuary where they—and Al Qaeda’s leaders—can operate freely.

2) Through Her Lens
In her new book, Annie Leibovitz, our most famous photographer, places celebs side by side with surprisingly personal images of love and loss. An exclusive.

So, is it that Newsweek thinks U.S. readers don’t give a shit about the unraveling disaster in Afghanistan? (Do we?) Or is it that Newsweek thinks we care more about Annie Liebovitz and her celebs? (Do we?) Or is it that Newsweek thinks we’ve had enough of bad news? (Have we?) Or is it that Newsweek doesn’t want to print any more bad news about Bush leadership this election season? (Why?)

Why exactly won’t Newsweek run what it clearly thinks is an important story on major events for the only people who have the power to influence those events?

Papers in Europe and the Middle East were the most brutal– which may seem a foregone conclusion now, but in the immediate wake of the attacks, European editors across the political spectrum couldn’t have been more supportive, exclaiming across the top of Le Monde, of all places, that “We are all Americans.” And editors in the terror-plagued Middle East expressed hoped that al Qaeda, in awakening the sleeping giant that day, would at last meet its end. Obviously most of all of that good will is long gone.

The British Financial Times: “The way the Bush administration has trampled on the international rule of law and Geneva Conventions, while abrogating civil liberties and expanding executive power at home, has done huge damage not only to America’s reputation but, more broadly, to the attractive power of Western values.”

Lebanon’s Daily Star: “Instead of isolating and wiping out Al-Qaeda, Bush has created a long list of new foes in his ever-broadening war on terror. In doing so, he has bolstered the popular impression that the United States is waging a crusade against Islam– an impression which Al-Qaeda skillfully exploits in order to gain more support.”

Egypt’s Al-Ahram: “Five years ago, the history of the world changed twice, once in the hands of Bin Laden and his gang, and once in the hands of Bin Bush and his administration.”

Jordan’s Al Ghad: “The administration of George W. Bush used a vengeful mentality in dealing with the 9/11 crime and has turned the entire world into a battleground.”

The Australian papers were reportedly more sympathetic.

Watada is the first military officer to face charges for opposing the war and the government seems to be pursuing his prosecution to deter further objection from within the ranks of the Armed Forces. Watada faces a maximum sentence of seven-and-a-half years.

But the military lawyers might have a hard time winning this case. Watada has been straightforward and reasonable throughout. He is no radical, patsy or opportunist. As the Wiretap story makes plain, his motivations fall in line with the highest ideals of the US military code and the laws of war that govern soldier conduct throughout the world, laws that have been strengthend since being disregarded over the last decade or so in places like Bosnia, Rwanda and Sudan, where soldiers who “just followed orders” are now having to live with what they did while dodging investigators from the Hague International War Crimes Tribunal. Watada is right to not want to join that class of soldier.

Here’s some of the wiretap story that speaks to Watada’s motivations:

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Lt. Watada was moved by a profound sense of duty and patriotism and enlisted in the Army right out of college in 2003. He received no monetary assistance from the military to pay for his education. His first two years in the Army were spent in a tour of duty in South Korea.

“It is a preconception that we have when we join the military that people just blindly follow orders,” Lt. Watada said in a phone interview. “But if you can’t distinguish between lawful and unlawful orders, the Abu Ghraibs will continue to exist.”

Since January, Lt. Watada has twice submitted a formal resignation application. But… the Army maintained he had not fulfilled his obligation. He then offered to serve in Afghanistan, a war he considers unambiguously tied to Al Qaida, but was turned down. He also said he was willing to face a nonjudicial hearing, resign his commission, and accept a less-than-honorable discharge. But this, too, was denied.

Lt. Watada did not apply for conscientious-objector status because he does not oppose all wars, just the war in Iraq.

“I think the people at the top could have pushed for the resignation if they wanted to,” he said. “They have kind of expressed surprise that the military did not want to get rid of me quietly.”

By comparison, the Administration’s actions with regard to US constitutional law, the US military honor code, and the international rules of combat constitute a record of lawyerly shucking and jiving and craven retreat from principle that any schoolyard child could tell you isn’t the best approach to winning lasting security.

Watada’s case may force more of these issues into the spotlight and spur increased mainstream media debate on Iraq and on the needlessly reckless conduct of the Bush Administration’s War on Terror more generally.

Here’s a video of Watada making his case.