You ever heard of a basketball coach that won a 100-0 blowout being fired for it?
Me neither.
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Persona Non Grata
Posted: January 28, 2009 in Beltway DramaTags: Beltway Drama, George W. Bush, Mike Duncan, Republican National Committee, Republicans
According to today’s Washington Post, change is in the air as the Republican National Committee looks for its next chairman.
The United States is in a recession:
NBER Makes It Official: Recession Started in December 2007
Official recession watchers at the NBER said today that the U.S. is recession, and it began in December 2007. Here is the text of their statement.
The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research met by conference call on Friday, November 28. The committee maintains a chronology of the beginning and ending dates (months and quarters) of U.S. recessions. The committee determined that a peak in economic activity occurred in the U.S. economy in December 2007. The peak marks the end of the expansion that began in November 2001 and the beginning of a recession. The expansion lasted 73 months; the previous expansion of the 1990s lasted 120 months.
Jack Bauer is back, albeit only for a 2-hour TV movie prequel for the upcoming season of 24 scheduled to begin in January. I’m stoked about this because it’s the first new episode in nearly a year and a half, since the writer’s strike last fall led to the season’s cancellation. This isn’t a full-fledged new season, but it’s a good teaser of things to come: Jack on the run, a new female President of the United States is sworn in, and a new villain in a very high place.
“24: Redemption” sticks to the multilayered real-time dramatic narrative format that has made the show such a success. But they did something different here, which I think is a refreshing change: they moved the action in the show out of Los Angeles (according to the credits, the episode was shot in Cape Town, South Africa and Los Angeles). While during most seasons the action goes back and forth between LA and Washington, this time around Jack is living in hiding in a fictitious African country on the brink of war, helping out a friend who runs a UN and State Department-funded school for young boys.
Without getting into specifics, the show takes a turn into contemporary and historical events, doing its own take on elements from the movie Blood Diamond and the U.S. embassy evacuation of Phnom Penh and Saigon in 1975. How all of this is going to tie into the new season I have no idea, but it’s definitely good for the show to change the scenery from Washington and Los Angeles, as it expands the range of subjects, characters, and issues that can be worked into the plot.
January can’t come fast enough.
Political Turkeys 2008
Posted: November 28, 2008 in 2008 ElectionsTags: 2008 Elections, CNN, Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin
Just in time for Thanksgiving, CNN’s Bill Schneider has put out his annual list of the biggest political turkeys. I would add to this list Sarah Palin’s interview with Katie Couric, Hillary Clinton not competing in caucus states during the primary, and Bill Clinton’s criticisms of Barack Obama before and after the South Carolina primary.
The American Journalism Review has this sad story about local newspapers who are shutting down their DC bureaus as part of their cost-cutting efforts.
The 2008 Campaign in Pictures
Posted: November 26, 2008 in 2008 Elections, Barack Obama, PhotographyTags: 2008 Elections, Barack Obama, Photography
I am a bit of a photography geek and recently came across two excellent photo essays recapping Barack Obama’s improbable quest to win the presidency: this one from the Boston Globe, and this one from TIME Magazine photographer Callie Shell.
A Blogger in the White House
Posted: November 26, 2008 in Economy, Obama AdministrationTags: Blogging, Congressional Budget Office, Economy, Follow the Money, Obama Administration, Office of Management and Budget, Peter Orszag
Peter Orszag, Barack Obama’s nominee to be director of the Office of Management and Budget, has given up his duties blogging for his old job as director of the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO blog will continue under acting director Robert Sunshine.
Here’s hoping that Orszag continues his blogging at the White House.
For Your Consideration
Posted: November 26, 2008 in Movies, Pop CultureTags: Heath Ledger, Movies, Oscar Nominations, Oscars, Pop Culture, The Dark Knight
The lobbying blitz for awards season has begun in the movie industry. I think that while nominations or wins for Best Picture and Best Director (for Christopher Nolan) would do a lot to acknowledge the quality and the impact of “The Dark Knight”, the one that really matters – for fans of the movie, the crew, and the industry at large – will be whether Heath Ledger gets Best Supporting Actor for his showstopping interpretation of the Joker. This is probably the most dominant individual performance I’ve seen in a film in years where the character steals the show in every scene he’s in. The only other one that comes to mind from the past two decades is Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs.
The New York Times has an interesting story on the first all-female rock group in Saudi Arabia.
Icepicks and Nukes 