Gustav

Afternoon Apertif: Daily News Roundup

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

After all that build-up, Hurricane Gustav has come and gone, leaving huge swathes of power outages and a big ol’ mess for returning evacuees to clean up, but no broken levees or national disaster areas.  While people begin making their way back to that part of the waterfront, Gustav’s sister Hanna is heading ominously toward Florida.  No rest for the wicked, as they say.  Hanna is expected to hit landfall on Friday.  Ike will be following sometime thereafter.  On top of the actual danger and damage being done, The Channel Wire, a tech news company, has reported that phishers are massively exploiting these events.  How depressing.  Please, be cautious when giving out personal information online.  (Servicey!)

John McCain is releasing an ad stating that Palin is much more experienced than Obama.  As questionable as that claim is, I look forward to the irrefutable rebuttal in which Obama says he’s just much, much smarter.  Kidding, of course.  About the rebuttal.  Obama is way too classy to say something like that.

General Petraeus is saying that troops could depart Baghdad as soon as next summer!  Attacks are down to a mere five a day (which is still, I know, really sad and terrifying.  My heart goes out to all Iraqis), and American troops have withdrawn out of 14 of 18 provinces!  There is a long road ahead, but there appears to be, if not a light at the end of the tunnel, at least some road signs up ahead.

Still-President Bush has announced that the US will donate $1B in aid to Georgia, following their altercation with Russia over South Ossetia.  Still-Vice President Cheney is due to arrive in the former Soviet republic tomorrow for “discussions” with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili.

On a lighter note, the return of “90210″ had a solid showing in the ratings last night, bringing in 4.9 million viewers and dragging the CW network into first place for adults 18-49 years old.  Congratulations, Brenda, Kelly and the whole gang at Beverly High!

And don’t forget that Sarah Palin will be making her speech at the Rupublican National Convention tonight!  More coverage on that to follow…

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The McCain Campaign’s Media Mastery

Monday, September 1st, 2008


McCain appears in New Orleans in April with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal

Sen. John McCain’s online experience may be limited to email printouts he receives from staffers and occasional glances at “The Drudge Report,” but don’t let his crotchety voice and snow-white hair fool you. This man — or at least his campaign — knows a thing or two about manipulating the media.

Today, McCain will have you know that he is putting his country first more than anybody, including Sen. Barack Obama. In a statement released late yesterday, McCain’s campaign manager Rick Davis made the case that his candidate’s retooling of convention plans shows that he cares more about hurricane victims than the presidency. This, of course, is meant to contrast with Obama, who apparently hates America because he made campaign stops yesterday.

Throughout the day today, McCain’s campaign proclaims that their efforts will go toward ensuring the safety of those living along the gulf coast, even at the expense of political gain.

Using this tragic time for political purposes is unacceptable, and should not be tolerated. And by the way, our vice presidential candidate-you know, the one who detests sex-ed and stands on a soapbox full of abstinence-her daughter is 17, unmarried and a little bit pregnant.

The latest sneaky news dump out of the McCain campaign comes less than a week after they stopped the Obama acceptance speech raves in their tracks by announcing Palin’s selection the very next day.   Not surprising seeing as this is the same machine that made Britney and Paris legitimate conversation for political pundits.

As for the moral implications of using a hurricane you’re accusing your opponent of politicizing to slip incriminating news under the radar, the McCain campaign might say the American people on the gulf coast are suffering too much for us to be thinking about such frivolous matters. But maybe Davis’ criticism of Obama holds some water here. Maybe instead of staying out of the way, raising money and gathering volunteers, he should start talking louder about America and posing for some hurricane photos.

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Jamaicans Don’t Build Castles on the Sand

Friday, August 29th, 2008

Most Jamaicans keep their homes pretty low-key. Huts made with wooden slats or metal sheets dot the landscape along the coast and for miles inland. Most of them are no more than one large room, so families congregate on the fields outside instead. Hustlers hoping to make their money from tourists spend the hot, lazy days on plastic chairs along the road, shouting occasionally at passers by to come and view their goods, buy a beer or share a joint.

Everything on the island is transitory, from the tourists to the real estate. Concrete makes no sense to the citizens of this Caribbean paradise, who know that it only takes one stormy summer to level everything back down to zero. Last year, Hurricane Dean pummeled the island with torrential rain and biting winds. On Thursday, Hurricane Gustav flooded the plains of low-lying areas, including the city of Portmore on the outskirts of Kingston.

According to the National Hurricane Center, Gustav swept along the east side of the Jamaica Thursday, hovering threateningly close to the capital city of Kingston, before creeping further toward the U.S. border. The winds are up to 70 mph, and as the hurricane heads North-East, New Orleanians are being told to evacuate. Meanwhile, Jamaica’s Northern region battles the tropical storm. Residents and tourists in high-risk areas were told Wednesday to evacuate, or hunker down and prepare for a big one. Three years to the day after Hurricane Katrina, the people of New Orleans are in panic-mode. But Jamaicans experience the same sense of déjà vu every summer.

(more…)

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Lunchtime Snacks: Daily News Roundup

Friday, August 29th, 2008

McCain and Palin. Photo Courtesy of AP.Dems Turning a Whiter Shade of Palin: Sen. John McCain stunned the nation when he announced his VP choice: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. The young pro-life, anti-corruption, anti-gambling, mother of five Republican may be adding balance to the bill. Should not the Democrats have seen this coming? Is it possible the Sen. Hillary Clinton-contingent, those still rueing the day she took a backseat to Sen. Barack Obama, could flock over to a less liberal (ahem, pro-life), but perhaps comparably competent other female? Does that swap seem two-dimensional to women? Does McCain’s choice make his attacks on Obama’s inexperience seem now like cheap hypocrisy and the desperate words of a flailing candidate or the prelude to a brilliant strategic episode of ‘wisening up’? Could it be those doubting Obama’s Sen. Joseph Biden choice will see the lines blurring between one grizzled politician and another? The endgame for each side remains the same, but predicting the one more likely to achieve it has, perhaps, gotten a lot tougher.

Labor Day Weekend Travelers may Proceed Through LAX as Before, Worker Strike Over For Now: L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called for a three week “cooling off” period between “airline service workers and the private companies that contract with LAX for services.” The strike began 24 hours ago when airport employees, who are paid a paltry $10.50/hour without benefits, put a halt on the work day after months of “inconclusive talks” with their employers in which they asked for health insurance and a pay increase of 50 cents per hour. The mayor convinced both parties to lay aside their differences for now, hoping, also, to maintain efficient flow of airport traffic on one of the busier travel weekends of the year.

NOLA Oscillating Between Fear and Nonchalance While Bracing Itself to do Battle with Gustav: Seasoned New Orleans residents are aware Hurricane Gustav may be coming straight their way, this piece explained, some responding with jokes (”‘ain’t nothing too bad gonna happen…if I go to hell, I get to meet all my friends,” said Vernon Navarre), others, like Carey Galloway, with nervous agitation and packed suitcases. The Bush Administration, still smarting from the lambasting it received after its mismanagement of Katrina flew Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff into Louisiana towards the end of figuring out how best to aid the state in its preparation for the storm.

Karadzic Refuses to Plead: Appearing for a second time in court in The Hague since being taken into custody by the United Nations’ war crimes tribunal a month before, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, acting as his own defense lawyer, coolly declined to plead to the 11 charges, including those of genocide and crimes against humanity, against him.

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Daily News Round Up: The NObama Edition

Thursday, August 28th, 2008

This round up is an Obama-free zone!

When will the McCain campaign run its next negative ad on Joe Biden? We know troubles with plagiarism ruined Biden’s 1988 presidential bid, and now the LA Times is reporting about an especially close relationship between the Illinois law firm SimmonsCooper and the Biden family. SimmonsCooper employees have donated almost $200,000 to Biden’s various campaigns since 2001. The firm, which specializes in asbestos litigation, chose to work with rising-start Beau Biden’s law firm when handling asbestos matters in Deleware. When Joe Biden’s brother and son wanted to buy a hedge fund company in 2006, they turned to SimmonsCooper for financing.

It’s unlikely anything at the RNC will top the pomp and circumstance of the über-hyped DNC. Unless a hurricane swings into town. The McCain campaign said today it would consider postponing the convention if tropical storm Gustav had hurricane-force winds when it reaches land, expected sometime this weekend. Gustav will be moving across the Florida panhandle and Gulf coast within days of the three-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Thanks, pal, just a couple years too late. Moqtada al-Sadr, everyone’s favorite radical Iraqi Shiite cleric, ordered the 60,000 members of his Mahdi Army to cease armed operations. Sadr has long been blamed for bringing Iraq to the edge of civil war, and a freeze on Mahdi Army activities by Sadr last August helped decrease violent death in the country. Now Sadr is saying his group will focus on cultural programs.

And in the “hell in a hand-basket” story of the day, scientists are saying that Arctic Ocean ice has melted to its second-lowest level in three decades. The record was set in 2007 and there are still three more weeks in the Arctic summer. Senior scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center say we are now reaching a “tipping point,” where more ice is guaranteed to be lost each year. Ocean water absorbs heat from the sun, accelerating melting, while ice reflects it. When will the polar bear supplant the panda as the world’s cutest endangered animal?

Let’s close with this (via the AV Club): Aaron Sorkin plans to write a movie about Mark Zuckerberg and the creation of Facebook. Let’s hope it’s better than Studio 60, and has plenty of walking and talking.

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