Author Archive for Aaron

The final debate

Published
by
Aaron
on October 16, 2008
in admin
. Closed

Sunny pretty much sums up Obama’s performance over at LC.

I felt that Obama wasn’t prickly enough in the exchanges. But Sunny is right, Obama needs to appear calm and collected in the face of such attacks - there is no political value in being “an angry black man”.

The public are responding to Obama’s ice-cool disposition. They don’t like John McCain’s volcanic seething and erratic policy swings.

But there was something I noted while watching/listening to last night’s debate.

Continue reading ‘The final debate’

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The seed of McCain’s new economic plan

Published
by
Aaron
on October 15, 2008
in economics, politics and usa
. Closed

Apparently, he robbed the entire plan from Hillary Clinton.

Obama needs to open the wagons for the Clintons. To continue as if Bill and Hillary don’t exist may not help if it means McCain can gain traction by association. Of course we don’t know the ‘history’, but Obama doesn’t seem to be making the most of their promises to help. Call them out. Make the call.

If they refuse, then we know where the Clintons stand.

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McCain 4.0

Published
by
Aaron
on October 15, 2008
in humour, politics, usa and video
. 2 Comments

ROFL.

via. Sunny @ LC

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Is McCain’s presidential campaign over?

Published
by
Aaron
on October 14, 2008
in politics, polls, scandal and usa
. Closed

There have been some pretty poor presidential campaigns. But I wonder if any have collapsed quite as spectacularly as John McCain’s has over the past few weeks?

It’s not that long ago, September 3rd in fact, that Sarah Palin’s barnstorming turn at the Republican Convention threatened to carry the ticket into the White House. Yet now, McCain’s strategy seems to be changing daily, with his team thrashing around in a desperate attempt to find an approach that offers some traction with voters.

The campaign isn’t working and many Republicans are bracing themselves for a crushing defeat. If Obama does swamp McCain, it wouldn’t be the first landslide in recent memory.

Continue reading ‘Is McCain’s presidential campaign over?’

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Troopergate Spin

Published
by
Aaron
on October 12, 2008
in politics, scandal and usa
. 1 Comment

From The Guardian ::

Palin’s solicitor, Thomas Van Flein, said there was no evidence she had breached any ethical code. ‘In order to violate the ethics law, there has to be some personal gain, usually financial. [The report] has failed to identify any financial gain.’

No-one ever claimed that Palin had gained anything tangible from firing the State Trooper - indeed, uncovering such ‘profit’ was never the objective of the probe. The investigation sought to uncover if Palin had broken the rules by pursuing a private feud, something the report concluded she was guilty of.

The moronic Tod Palin, or “First Dude” as he is annoyingly referred, clearly looked to use his wife’s office to push his cause. To some extent the report concludes he succeeded.

It really asinine to claim that Palin didn’t breach the Alaskan ethics code, when the report they cite concluded that she did.

Meg Stapleton, a spokeswoman for the Republican Presidential candidate John McCain, said the legislative council was ‘making a tortured argument to find fault without basis in law or fact’. A campaign statement said: ‘This report also illustrates what we’ve known all along: this was a partisan-led inquiry run by [Barack] Obama supporters and the Palins were completely justified in their concern regarding Trooper Wooten given his violent and rogue behaviour.’

Known all along?

This is really odd. The investigation was launched a month before Palin was chosen for the VP spot. It was authorised by a majority Republican bipartisan committee. And she promised she would fully cooperate with the investigation before being selected by McCain.

I don’t think there are many political points here for the Dems, but this is complete bullshit. Simple as that.

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On the attack…

Published
by
Aaron
on October 10, 2008
in economics, finance, politics, usa and video
. Closed

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A president and his awesome power

Published
by
Aaron
on October 10, 2008
in economics, politics and usa
. Closed
President Bush tried to reassure the nation today that the economy is strong enough to weather the current crisis, but by the time Bush stopped speaking nine minutes later, the market had dropped another 107 points.

The Bush effect.

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Sean Hannity: A Journo?

Published
by
Aaron
on October 10, 2008
in media, politics and usa
. Closed

So, Sean, are you a Journalist or not?

The irregular quote of the day

Published
by
Aaron
on October 10, 2008
in economics, europe, finance, media, politics and uk
. Closed

Dave Osler has a great piece over at LC. As the newspapers tear into UK councils who invested in Icelandic banks, Dave explains exactly what the authorities were up to ::

For some reason, this morning’s newspapers are full of outcry about what UK councils are doing investing in Iceland anyway. The answer to that seems quite simple; they were seeking the best returns for the council tax payer, which is exactly what they should be doing. Remember, Iceland’s leading banks offered high rates of interest and enjoyed AAA credit ratings. Sounds fair enough to me.

The effin’ scoundrels! How dare they invest my taxes in high-return, triple-A accounts. Outrageous. Quick! Someone contact the tabloids.

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Palin clears herself of any wrongdoing

Published
by
Aaron
on October 10, 2008
in politics, scandal and usa
. Closed

As if by magic, the McCain-Palin campaign has pre-empted today’s official state ethics report, with their own report which completely clears Palin of any wrongdoing.

Sarah Palin and her family are accused of abusing her office to settle a long-running family feud - the much discussed “Troopergate” scandal.

Talking Points Memo reports ::

Lawmakers are expected to release their own findings Friday. Campaign officials have yet to see that report — the result of an investigation that began before she was tapped as McCain’s running mate — but said the investigation has falsely portrayed a legitimate policy dispute between a governor and her commissioner as something inappropriate.

I suppose the McCain team should be commended for getting their retaliation in early. It’ll be interesting to see how they spin the two reports if the official one criticises the Governor.

UPDATE ::

MSNBC - “The move came hours after the state Supreme Court refused to halt the ethics investigation.”

Hmmmm.

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America adopts British Finance Proposal

Published
by
Aaron
on October 9, 2008
in economics, uk and usa
. Closed

Not good enough for financial titan George Osborne, but fine for the White House, the NYT reports ::

The proposal resembles one announced on Wednesday in Britain. Under that plan, the British government would offer banks like the Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and HSBC Holdings up to $87 billion to shore up their capital in exchange for preference shares. It also would provide a guarantee of about $430 billion to help banks refinance debt.

UPDATE ::

I am happy to support the Government when they do the right thing, but the British people need to know that there is a credible alternative to this failing Government. ~ David Cameron

It appears I missed it - the Tories have finally backed the government’s plan.

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Kosovo referred to ICJ

Published
by
Aaron
on October 8, 2008
in economics, europe, politics, russia and usa
. 1 Comment

From the BBC ::

The UN General Assembly has voted to refer Kosovo’s independence declaration to the International Court of Justice.

The ICJ will be asked to give an advisory, non-binding opinion on the legality of Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia in February.

Seventy-seven countries voted in favour, six against and 74 abstained.

[...]

Most EU countries abstained - Britain called Serbia’s request primarily political.

This is something of a diplomatic coup for the Russians (not to mention the Serbs).

As the United States and Russia continue to manoeuvre politically and militarily across Eastern Europe and Central Asia, many countries will again be forced to pick sides in what could become a new Cold War.

This is not lazy hyperbole. Who could have predicted that 5-years ago Russia would openly attack a US ally? It happened this summer, and many Eastern European countries are getting jittery as Russia continues to rebuild itself, thanks to its oil and gas receipts.

American primacy is over. Iraq, Afghanistan and the crisis on Wall St. have seen to that.

Internationalists hoped that globalisation, and the interconnectedness of international markets and trade, would lead to a peaceful transition from behemothic empire to collective prosperity and security. However, greed and hubris has meant this dream has collapsed.

We now see the nascent state of Kosovo referred to the International Court of Justice. Whether or not the case is legitimate is not for me to discuss, but to watch Russia and the U.S. use Kosovo as a political football is deeply worrying.

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The irregular quote of the day

Published
by
Aaron
on October 8, 2008
in asia, politics and usa
. Closed

Patrick J. Buchanan writes in Human Events ::

Before either a President Obama or McCain sends 10,000 more troops into Afghanistan, he should conduct a review as to whether this war is winnable, and at what cost in blood, money and years.

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Election ‘08: The final straight…

Published
by
Aaron
on October 7, 2008
in politics, polls, scandal and usa
. 2 Comments

Ok, so it may not quite be the final straight. But it is undeniable that Barack Obama’s growing lead is starting to panic the GOP. Republicans are worried that there may not be the time to turn it around.

Rightwing blogs are denying that it’s over, claiming that Kerry led Bush going into the ‘04 election - only to lose. But as leading Democrat blogger Oliver Willis points out, this is simply not the case (wot, you mean rightwingers lie?). Bush was leading Kerry at this point in ‘04.

Moreover, the Obama lead is beginning to bring more and more States into contention. This is a result of Obama’s adoption of Howard Dean’s ambitious 50-State strategy (something it should be noted, that was ridiculed by the Clintons), and the increasing economic concerns of the electorate. In polls Obama crucifies John McCain on the economy.

Continue reading ‘Election ‘08: The final straight…’

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Weekend funnies.

Published
by
Aaron
on October 7, 2008
in humour, politics and usa
. Closed

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