Is Obama's Ambassador Gunning for His Job?
Mon, 3 Jan 2011 04:39 am PST
The Atlantic Wire - When President Obama appointed Utah Governor Jon Huntsman to serve as U.S. ambassador to China in 2009, political strategists deemed it a cunning political move. Enlisting Hunstman, a fast-rising GOP star, would surely preclude him from launching a 2012 presidential bid. Or so they thought. Full Story | Top |
Rep. Issa: Obama Administration 'One of the Most Corrupt'
Mon, 3 Jan 2011 07:21 am PST
The Atlantic Wire - Rep. Darrell Issa Sunday said the Obama administration is "one of the most corrupt"--a slight downgrade, since a few months ago, Issa said the president himself was one of the most corrupt "in modern times." President Obama might brush aside the confrontational clarification as typical Sunday talk show bluster if it weren't for the the fact that Issa has subpoena power. Issa is the incoming chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and he plans to preside over hundreds of investigations into the administration. Full Story | Top |
The Richard Holbrooke I Knew
Sun, 2 Jan 2011 07:41 pm PST
The Daily Beast - He was the most dynamic foreign-policy force of his generation. Leslie H. Gelb recalls his dear friend, their partnership—and how Holbrooke pushed to make AfPak work til the very end. Full Story | Top |
Charles Krauthammer's Selective Attack on Obama
Sun, 2 Jan 2011 07:37 pm PST
The Daily Beast - Conservative Charles Krauthammer blasts the president for using the bureaucracy to advance his latest policy moves. Guilty as charged—but he’s got plenty of company. Just ask George W. Bush. Full Story | Top |
Mama Grizzly mating habits: The WikiLeaks cable you won't see
Mon, 3 Jan 2011 06:30 am PST
The Christian Science Monitor - Upon release of the WikiLeaks cables in November, a foreign diplomat told Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton: “You should see what we say about you.†Following is a (fanciful) cable that the ambassador of a small embassy in Washington might send to his foreign minister. Full Story | Top |
The iPhone Alarm That Didn't Ring
Mon, 3 Jan 2011 02:57 pm PST
The Atlantic Wire - 2011 has ushered in a troubling trend: iPhone users the world over are oversleeping, missing flights and trains, and arriving late at work, foiled by alarm clocks on their phones that refuse to sound. The programming error is affecting non-repeating alarms set for the first days of January. Full Story | Top |
Why Facebook's Goldman Deal Is Bad for the Investment World
Mon, 3 Jan 2011 02:56 pm PST
The Atlantic Wire - The big news on Wall Street today is Goldman Sachs's $450 million investment in Facebook. The deal makes a lot of sense for Goldman and its senior clients (who will now get to invest in the much-hyped social network). But some finance bloggers say it's bad for the investment world. That's because the injection of cash allows Facebook to stave off an initial public offering while giving a privileged few Goldman clients the ability to invest in the company. It also seems to skirt around regulations put in place by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Here's how The New York Times' Dealbook describes the deal:In a rare move, Goldman is planning to create a "special purpose vehicle" to allow its high-net-worth clients to invest in Facebook ... While the S.E.C. requires companies with more than 499 investors to disclose their financial results to the public, Goldman's proposed special purpose vehicle may be able get around such a rule because it would be managed by Goldman and considered just one investor, even though it could conceivably be pooling investments from thousands of clients. Full Story | Top |
Happy Hour Vid: Which RNC Candidate Owns the Most Guns?
Mon, 3 Jan 2011 02:47 pm PST
The Atlantic Wire - On Monday, the five candidates running for Republican National Committee chairman sparred in an, as expected, contentious debate. But--putting aside the party's future direction and literary preferences for a moment--let's take a quick glance at an a single question posed by debate moderator Grover Norquist: "How many guns do you own?" The answers, noted by the Daily Caller, ranged from current chairman Michael Steele and others having zero to former Ambassador to Luxemborg Ann Wagner owning sixteen, including pistols, a glock, shotguns, rifles and her West Point-attending son's assault rifle. Full Story | Top |
Debtris: Animation Captures The Scale Of U.S. Debt (VIDEO)
Mon, 3 Jan 2011 02:19 pm PST
Huffington Post - The Sunday talk shows this week sparked fresh anxiety over the U.S. debt puzzle this week, with Austan Goolsbee, the chairman of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers pushing back hard against GOP refusal to raise the debt ceiling. Full Story | Top |
Digital Newsstands Failing as Google-Apple Battle Heats Up
Mon, 3 Jan 2011 01:38 pm PST
The Atlantic Wire - In Monday's paper, The Wall Street Journal shines a light on the battle between Apple and Google to become the dominant clearing house for digital magazines and newspapers. While Apple sells digital subscriptions via iTunes, Google plans to open a digital newsstand of its own on its Android software. Both are designed for reading on tablet devices. But will either platform succeed? In recent months, sales for digital magazines such as Wired, GQ and Vanity Fair have plummeted. As the Journal reports, Apple and Google may resort to more controversial tactics to keep publishers happy (e.g. giving away the "personal data" of subscribers to aid marketing efforts). Meanwhile, one major problem with iPad magazine sales has been publishers' inability to offer longer subscription deals as opposed to one-off $4.99 purchases. That problem will likely be solved later this month when Apple unveils its new subscription policy. But will Apple and Google be able to overcome the other myriad challenges facing for-pay digital media sales? Today's bloggers are skeptical:Neither of These Platforms Will Take Over, writes Tamlin Magee at Tech Eye:Is the iPad, or Google's alternative Android offerings, or any other tablet, really the be all and end all of news publishing? Probably not. The internet still hasn't killed the newspaper. Or the film industry. Or the music industry. It has been something which must be adapted to and worked alongside traditional means and we imagine tablets will be no different. Full Story | Top |
Oprah Winfrey Network Launches
Mon, 3 Jan 2011 01:34 pm PST
The Atlantic Wire - Oprah Winfrey, the media mogul with the Midas touch, launched the Oprah Winfrey Network on Saturday. Viewers tuning into the 24-hour cable network will see behind-the-scenes footage from The Oprah Winfrey Show's final season, couples seeking advice on how to improve their sex lives, children confronting workaholic parents, and contestants vying to host their own talk show, among other programs. Full Story | Top |
The Truth About Iconic 2003 Saddam Statue-Toppling
Mon, 3 Jan 2011 01:06 pm PST
The Atlantic Wire - What if the 2003 toppling of a large Saddam Hussein statue in central Baghdad, one of the most iconic and oft-repeated images of the Iraq invasion and ensuing war, wasn't what we thought? It has been widely portrayed as a moment of spontaneous Iraqi celebration of the U.S. invasion and Saddam's ousting. But a joint Pro Publica and New Yorker investigation concludes that the media, led on by a U.S. military hungry for good publicity, distorted the events at Firdos Square on April 9, 2003. Full Story | Top |
A Real December Review for Afghanistan
Mon, 3 Jan 2011 12:23 pm PST
The Nation - The Nation -- The War in Afghanistan is the longest in US history, at 110 months, and the most expensive, at $1 million per soldier and over $100 billion annually. There have been over 2,200 US and coalition casualties, and tens of thousands of Afghan civilian deaths. Additionally, nearly 600 US troops are wounded every month. Full Story | Top |
Bad Signs in Worsening Côte d'Ivoire Crisis
Mon, 3 Jan 2011 12:21 pm PST
The Atlantic Wire - Leaders from neighboring African states, the United Nations, and even U.S. President Obama are renewing their push for Côte d'Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo to leave the office, which he has clung onto despite losing a recent presidential election. Ongoing post-election violence has claimed at least 173 lives, a number expected to rise if the UN confirms reports of mass graves being dug by military elements loyal to Gbagbo. Earlier, we explored the pan-African effort to prevent civil war and possible reasons why crisis and violence persist in this West African country. Now here are the most recent international efforts to deal with Gbagbo and some worrying signs about this conflict's future. Full Story | Top |
After Sudan vote on partition, Obama cannot rest
Mon, 3 Jan 2011 12:18 pm PST
The Christian Science Monitor - Every US president since Ronald Reagan has sent the military into a new trouble spot somewhere in the world – except Barack Obama. And now he is trying hard to keep that record of no new intervention in the case of Sudan. This year, Africa’s largest country may be split into two. Full Story | Top |
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