On the White House – With ‘Annapolis,’ a Warning to Israel – NYTimes.com:
“By bringing up the word, Mr. Obama was sending a warning to the government of new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that reneging on the goals outlined during the Annapolis Middle East peace conference in 2007 would put Mr. Netanyahu on the wrong foot with the Obama administration.”
(Via NY Times.)
Sometimes you have to be a hard ass with your friends, not just your enemies.
Why Are Army Recruiters Killing Themselves? – TIME:
“Last year alone, the number of recruiters who killed themselves was triple the overall Army rate. Like posttraumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, recruiter suicides are a hidden cost of the nation’s wars.”
(Via Time Magazine.)
This is just wrong.
msnbc.com video: President Obama greets troops in Iraq:
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
(Via MSNBC.)
Sorry, Palin. Looks like the troops support Obama!
UPDATE: I think that’s because as the old addage goes: No cares how much you know until they know how much you care.
What The Geese Are All Roaring About – Ta-Nehisi Coates:
“It’s true hip-hop has a problem respecting women, but this is a symptom of deeper truth–the music doesn’t respect men. It doesn’t respect that essentially male moment, when standing at the bus stop, when sitting in English class, when in that sales meeting, a dime-piece floats past, and cognition stops. It doesn’t respect the exhilarating terror of being attracted to a woman. To cop to that violates the pimp ethos. One can’t be out of control, and be the player president.”
(Via Ta-Nehisi Coates.)
This is real.
Defense chief proposes weapons cuts:
“‘It is important to remember that every defense dollar spent to over-ensure against a remote or diminishing risk — or in effect to run up the score in a capability where the United States is already dominant — is a dollar not available to take care of our people, reset the force, win the wars we are in and improve capabilities in areas where we are underinvested and potentially vulnerable,’ Gates said.”
(Via Yahoo! News.)
I’ve been saying this for years. I can’t wait to see how those “small government” conservatives react to this.
UPDATE: Good analysis on his speech.
The Ever Spending Story | The Daily Show | Comedy Central:
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart M – Th 11p / 10c The Ever Spending Story
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor
(Via The Daily Show.)
Jon Stewart’s displays usual genius.
Microsoft’s latest ad attacks Mac aesthetics, computing power — RoughlyDrafted Magazine:
“The strangest point of this ad is that Giampaolo didn’t get the portability, battery life, and power he was looking for, he just ended up with a cheap-appearing machine that obscured its real technical limitations under a flashy layer of misleading, specification-oriented marketing, the very thing he thought he was avoiding with HP: buying a brand rather than a computer. And that’s exactly what Microsoft wants people to do: buy its brand rather than a computer that does what they want it to do.”
(Via Roughly Drafted.)
Great summary on why Microsoft can’t even sell itself. It has to sell others. I wonder how Dell or Lenovo feel about this ad.
Most Americans Don’t Blame Obama for Economy, Poll Finds – washingtonpost.com:
“The number of Americans who believe that the nation is headed in the right direction has roughly tripled since Barack Obama’s election, and the public overwhelmingly blames the excesses of the financial industry, rather than the new president, for turmoil in the economy, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.”
(Via The Washington Post.)
It looks like the public is still in a realistic mood. Still, Obama’s plan needs to start having some effects soon or the public will turn on him.
An Ultimatum for Carmakers From Obama – NYTimes.com:
“‘And so today, I am announcing that my administration will offer G.M. and Chrysler a limited period of time to work with creditors, unions and other stakeholders to fundamentally restructure in a way that would justify an investment of additional tax dollars; a period during which they must produce plans that would give the American people confidence in their long-term prospects for success,’ Mr. Obama said.”
(Via NY Times.)
If only private shareholders, particularly institutions, would be so activist, we wouldn’t be in a far better position.
