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Friday, December 03, 2010

Stories to Watch: 12/3/10

Pizza tonight. We're supposed to get some snow up here, so I didn't get anything started. Figured I'd wait to find out if I had to dig out. Turns out, the whole thing's running behind the predictions and it won't hit until about 11. Still, pizza tonight. No losers in that miscalculation. Now here's the news...


President Obama makes a surprise visit to Afghanistan, but fails to meet with Afghan President Karzhai due to bad weather. Juan Cole says this is a sign of just how bad the security situation is in Afghanistan: "...Bagram is a short automobile ride away from Kabul, and what this snafu tells you is that the US does not even control the area between Bagram and Kabul sufficiently to risk putting the president in an armored vehicle to go overland."


Krugman doesn't like Obama's federal pay freeze much -- join the club -- and says i that, while he's not privy to what goes on in the White House, "from the outside it looks like moral collapse -- a complete failure of purpose and loss of direction."


Evidence of loss of direction: WaPo reports that Obama and Republicans are in talks to extend Bush tax cuts. No one, outside of Republicans, expects the talks to go in their favor.


Job growth isn't what it should be. Expect Republicans to offer to solve this by cutting spending and shedding federal workers, because that always decreases unemployment. If there's one thing you can be sure of, it's that the GOP will always offer the most counterproductive solution.


Julian Assange finds an ally in Ron Paul. And what's with the encrypted "history insurance" file available at The Pirate Bay? Whatever it is, it'd take a miracle to delete it now. Want to keep something where no one can possibly get rid of it and where it's still publicly available? The peer-to-peer cloud's the way to go.


Also, The Guardian hosts an online chat with the fugitive Assange.


Finally, Karl Rove gets his panties in a wad.

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