Karzai Calls for New Afghanistan Review

By ecoscott on 8/14/10 10:09am
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Yes, we are still in Afghanistan and yes, it is still going pretty much the same as it was the last time you checked. The U.S. forces are going after certain pockets and having minimal success- the Taliban are still in the mountains and not coming out or surrendering anytime soon. I mean, it’s been 10 years. Sometimes you sit back and think, what is going to change now? Why can’t we just exit the war… oh, wait, we’re doing that next summer. But in the meantime, we are increasing our troop levels, and that may have something to do with an increase in the civilian death rates in the country.

A statement issued by the presidential palace said Obama agreed in a video call to start talking about a review, which Karzai also proposed in a letter.

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Hindenstockmarket?

By ecoscott on 8/13/10 9:02pm
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What do you get when you put a gigantic balloon filled with a highly flammable gas up into the air? First, you get an amazing spectacle that was getting press around the world for the amazingness of what it could accomplish. Then, you get one of the largest disasters in the history of air travel. I’m talking about the Hindenburg, of course. A huge blimp full of helium that was supposed to be the biggest, brightest and best of what would be a new revolution in air travel that would change the way the world got from one place to another. It didn’t change much- it blew up. No one is really sure why the fire started, but what was supposed to be the future ended up very publicly falling apart and shattering public confidence. Sound familiar?

I’m talking about the stock market, of course. Credit default swaps were a bit of a Hindenburg incident, and there very well could be more.

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Lemonade Stand Closed to Generate Revenue

By becksta on 8/5/10 12:54pm
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International Online Politics

By ecoscott on 8/3/10 10:21pm
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The Interweb is the dawn of a new era- and just after dawn, I believe, it has discovered politics. If you read me, you know that for me that means money, and this is no exception. But it’s more than that as well, as there are plenty of social issue still working themselves out on the Internet’s pages. Here are a few of the more recent, and I think interesting, examples:

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Obama and Iraq

By ecoscott on 8/2/10 7:27pm
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Technology and Politics

By ecoscott on 7/31/10 10:47am
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This is a message for everyone in Washington- it’s not quite a Manifesto, but it is a laundry list of what I think are opportunities that should become imperatives in the near future. The gulf between Washington’s operations and the way they use Technology is criminal. Look at the ideals we had as a nation when we were founded, of Democracy and Freedom of Speech and connecting people across cultural, racial, ethnic and ethical divides, and you will see that we have a huge opportunity to fight, learn, agree, disagree, and be heard on social media. And listen, of course, which is the biggest thing that Congress and the rest of Washington needs to do.

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Money.

By ecoscott on 7/15/10 6:35pm
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Let’s talk about money a little more. It makes the world go ‘round. It’s the root of all evil. It talks. It is all that and more. It is what keeps the U.S. in a power position around the world, it is what motivates so much of our actions, it is what so many people base their lives on. Many of those people are living in New York City, and still many more of them are working at Goldman Sachs, the company that is feeling the heat from the government about how it marketed some of its subprime mortgage debt packages. In the end, they scammed people, but there’s no way the government or the courts are going to come out and say that. They are not going to point a finger at a company that has billions of dollars and say you are a liar and you scammed the American public. Just like they aren’t going to say that to BP.

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Is Japan a Preview of Obama's fate?

By ecoscott on 7/11/10 2:53pm
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In a preview of what may lie ahead for the Democrats with the fall elections, Japan’s voters turned in poor marks for the ruling party.

Here’s the exact quote pulled from the Reuters article:

“Voters dealt Prime Minister Naoto Kan's Democratic Party of Japan a stinging rebuke in the election, depriving the DPJ and its tiny ally of a majority less than a year after the Democrats swept to power with promises of change.”

And here’s what I think it could look like the day after the fall elections:

“Voters dealt President Barack Obama’s Democratic Party a stinging rebuke in the election, depriving the President and his allies of a majority less than two years after the Democrats swept to power with promises of change.”

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Auditing Undocumented Employers

By ecoscott on 7/10/10 6:02pm
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There are a lot of issues around immigration- what should we do about it, who has the authority to make those calls, and what kind of federal legislation should and will we have to deal with the growing problem in the future. With Arizona just passing their law and it looking to go into effect later this month, the immigration issue has come to the forefront of the nation’s consciousness. Everyone seems to have an opinion, and in fact, 59% of everyone seems to agree with the law that Arizona passed. So if there is wide and majority support for deporting people who are undocumented rather than admitting the reality of how our economic and social world actually runs, what is the government really going to do about it?

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No Blame for North Korea

By ecoscott on 7/9/10 12:16pm
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Sometimes it’s better to look at the big picture and make a concession or two so that your long-term goal will get accomplished. And if you’re an international diplomat dealing with an unprovoked sinking of a warship in the midst of major international nuclear negotiations, well, there is plenty of room to make things go as smoothly as possible. And if it just so happens that the country you are negotiating with is the same as the country that probably sunk the warship, well, you have to decide whether you want to blame them for what you are pretty sure they did or try to get them to agree with you on the nuclear thing.

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