Breaking: AIG Employs Real People With Thoughts and Feelings

An AIG employee offers his resignation.

Ch-Ch-Change We Can Believe In

Get your limited edition Chia Obama here.

Full Court Press

Lately The Politico is not one of my favorite political websites. In the last few months since the election its taken a sharp right turn. But Mike Allen has a really interesting behind the scenes look today at the planning that goes in to preparing questions for presidential press conferences.

Give it a read. A morsel:

The president’s answers were notably long at his last press conference. Although reporters have been told to expect crisper ones this time, Henry pointed out that the long ones can be smart strategy.

“He can get his message out by hitting five or six points instead of just one or two,” Henry said. “But also, the longer the answer, the more people kind of forget the question, and it can take the sting off. At that first news conference, there were some answers where I was thinking, ‘What did that guy ask again?’”

44 Turns Up The Volume On His Megaphone

If you need yet more dramatic proof that our new president is the antithesis of our old president, check out this op-ed by 44 published in 30 newspapers around the world today.

Where Dubya was stubborn, myopic, and unable to understand how multilateral cooperation on issues of global concern was beneficial, Obama is a true statesman, talking directly to the citizens of the world about how the global economic crisis cannot be fixed by one nation's solutions. In advance of the meeting of the Group of 20 this week, he insists that they must "embrace a common framework" to stop the global decline.

Although I laud the president's efforts here, one can't help but wonder if his concern over China's talk of replacing the dollar as the global reserve currency had something to do with penning the piece.

Raising Cane

An interesting piece from the NY Times about sugar's revival, and how it has nothing to with nutritional value.

Pat Crawford of the Center for Weight and Health at the University of California, Berkeley, remembers when sugar was such a loaded word that cereal makers changed the name of products like Sugar Pops to Corn Pops.

Even though overall consumption of caloric sweeteners is starting to drop, Dr. Crawford says an empty calorie is still an empty calorie. And it does not matter whether people think sugar is somehow “retro,” a word used to promote new, sugar-based versions of Pepsi and Mountain Dew called Throwback.

“If people really want to go back to where we were, that means not putting sugar in everything,” she said. “It means keeping it to desserts.”

Amen

Battle Royale

Last night far right columnist Anne Coulter and far left comedian Bill Maher met for a debate. I'm of the opinion that neither one does the cause of liberalism/conservatism much good, but they are an intriguing pair of souls so I found this little review at Politico quite interesting.

The White House Briefing Room Seat Conspiracy

Let's see if this one grows legs.

Yesterday Sean Quinn at 538 posted a terrific piece breaking down the game of musical chairs that seats the members of the White House Press Corps in Robert Gibb's briefing room. He looks at seats that may become vulnerable in future months and also at the apparent "process" by which each news organization is seated. He also provided this handy seating chart for those interested in who has the ability nowadays to ask the big questions of our government.


Today, Al Giordano gets in on the action,
calling for more access for "new media" journos and looking at who exactly is on the 9-member WHCA who sets the seating charts and what they have to gain in making those assignments. Money quote from AG:

The obviously better solution would be to assign seats on a rotating basis, assuring that all media, big and small, corporate and independent, get regular shots at being able to ask questions from the front rows. The public would certainly get a wider range of issues and matters attended to that way.

Winner of the Day: Science

Scientists and science lovers everywhere rejoice, Barack Obama just signed an executive order to reverse Bush's order to stop federal funding of stem cell research.

Today, with the Executive Order I am about to sign, we will bring the change that so many scientists and researchers; doctors and innovators; patients and loved ones have hoped for, and fought for, these past eight years: we will lift the ban on federal funding for promising embryonic stem cell research. We will vigorously support scientists who pursue this research. And we will aim for America to lead the world in the discoveries it one day may yield.

In addition, former first lady Nancy Reagan issues a statement in support of Obama's decision.

Countless people, suffering from many different diseases, stand to benefit from the answers stem cell research can provide. We owe it to ourselves and to our children to do everything in our power to find cures for these diseases – and soon. As I’ve said before, time is short, and life is precious.”

Pitchfork Gets A Facelift

Pitchforkmedia, one of my favorite websites for the latest music news, got a new design over the weekend.

There is a nice flow to it. It makes sense having a Best New Music link up top and center, instead of down in the lower left corner like in the previous design.

The ethics of a leak

Ed Droste, frontman of Grizzly Bear, knows a thing or two about leaks. He infamously leaked a track from Animal Collective's masterpiece Merriweather Post Pavilion that came out earlier this year. But now that it has leaked and the shoe is on the other foot, it sounds like Droste is of two minds about it all. One one hand, he knew it would leak -"Realistically speaking, it's probably going to leak" - that's him from a Pitchfork interview less than a month ago. But on the other, Droste would like his fans to implement a little of the honesty policy and wait until the record comes out.

"So yeah, it leaked. I'm happy people are loving it. Makes me smile! Just
remember it's not a top notch sonic example. So keep that in mind."

but later on his blog he explains

"I have conflicting opinions about it, as it's really complicated, but ultimately it saddens me that a bummer-quality version of Veckatimest is going around. Please consider putting your energies into a pre-order or into waiting till May 26 for the album the way we intend it to be presented."

All of this can be found in Pitchfork's article about GB's summer tour , I just wanted to re-post it on my blog for posterity, and because I find it interesting.

Hillary in Oz

So, that Hillary Rodham is sure doing a nice job in the State Department. After a hugely successful Asian diplomacy tour last week Mrs. Clinton has moved on to tackling the Palestinian- Israeli conflict with a trip to the middle east this week. Most of what she is doing this week is largely symbolic, reiterating America's commitment to Israel and a two-state solution, while the finer brush strokes of policy detail should come in later trips. But Hillary has handled it with grace, showing how the rigors of the presidential campaign enhanced her abilities as an expert communicator.

Video

Money Shot

continuing on with the economy...

Andrew Sullivan has an insightful post about the Treasury Department's big idea to save the banks - and how Geithner does not inspire much confidence in the markets. I think its becoming obvious that Tim Geithner may go down as Obama's worst cabinet appointee - just one look at the man makes me nervous.

From the Pops file..

My Dad forwarded this along to me last night, and I thought it was clever. I google searched to see who I should be giving credit to and couldn't find an author - so hat tip if you found my blog - Mr. Donkey Parable Author.

A PERFECT PARABLE for 2009:

Young Thomas, clever and bright, bought a donkey from a farmer for $100.

The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day.

The next day the farmer drove up and said,
"Sorry Thomas, but I have some bad news, the donkey died."

Thomas replied, "Well, then just give me my money back."

The farmer said, "I can't do that. I went and spent the money already."

Thomas said, "OK, then, just bring me the dead donkey."

The farmer asked, "What are you going to do with a dead donkey?

Thomas said, "I'm going to raffle him off."

The farmer said "You can't raffle off a dead donkey!"

Thomas said, "Sure I can. Watch me. I just won't tell anybody he's dead."

A month later, the farmer met up with Thomas and asked,
"What happened with that dead donkey?"

Thomas boasted, "I raffled him off! -- I sold 500 tickets at
two dollars a piece and made a nice profit of $898.00."

The farmer said, "Didn't anyone complain?'

Thomas said, "Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back."

The farmer shook his head in amazement, and walked away.

A year later, Thomas comes running into the farmer's yard,
out of breath and looking frightened.

"You must help me hide!" cries Thomas.

The farmer asks, "Why? What's wrong?"

Thomas explained, "I went all over the village, hiring people
to sell raffle tickets for the same dead donkey, and then those
people hired other people to go to other villages and
sell raffle tickets for the same dead donkey, and now there are
thousands of raffles taking place all over the kingdom.
Millions of people and pension funds bought my raffle tickets,
but the donkey started to stink and everybody found out it
was dead, so now they want their raffle ticket money back!"

The farmer suggested, "Just pay back the money, Thomas."

"I can't!" Thomas moaned. "I spent it all on bonuses for
my raffle salespeople, and private jets, and huge mansions,
and an opulent lifestyle to which we, in the raffle ticket business,
have become accustomed."

The farmer thought a moment, then smiled.
"Don't worry, Thomas. I know what to do."

Thomas asked, "What can possibly be done?"

The farmer answered, "Your raffle operation is the
biggest business in all the land. It's too big to fail.
The King will bail you out,
for the good of all his loyal subjects.

And with that, Thomas beseeched the King
for billions of dollars to create the R.T.R.P.
(Raffle Ticket Relief Program) to buy back
all the worthless raffle tickets.

Everybody thought that would be the end of it,
but it turns out the King didn't have enough
money to bail out the Raffle ticket holders, so he
issued official "Raffle Bonds" to borrow money
from other lands.

Everybody thought THAT would be the end of it,
except when the rulers of other lands figured out
their lent money was being spent on dead donkey
raffle tickets, they stopped lending it. So the King
decided to just print the money to buy back the
dead donkey raffle tickets.

Everybody thought THAT would be the end of it,
until it turns out that printing money causes each
individual dollar to be worth much less, so prices
for goods and services rose enormously throughout
the kingdom. The King decided to issue a new
paper currency denominated at 1/10th the face value
of the old dollars, and forced everyone to exchange
their old money for new money so prices would
come down to normal again.

Everybody thought THAT would be the end of it,
until the same thing happened with the new currency,
so the people rose up and toppled the King with
torches and pitchforks, and installed a new ruling
government with a new currency backed by gold.

And THEN they all lived happily ever after.

The End.

Jonah Lehrer and Plato

Somehow I missed the fact that Jonah was coming to The Strand last week to discuss his new book, How We Decide, but thankfully the book store's website is streaming video from the discussion.

I haven't had an opportunity to watch the entire discussion, but in the early moment's Jonah takes on Plato's metaphor about decision making, "the rational rider controlling the emotional horses", and updates it, "the rational rider riding an elephant."

Ginger Kids

Jenny Wicks documents gingers (people with red hair, light skin, and freckles) in a fascinating and beautiful new series of photographs called "Root Ginger". Some research suggests that this recessive gene may die out completely as we move forward with evolution.





hat tip Andrew Sullivan

The Obama Code

I have been meaning to blog about this all week. An incredible essay posted at 538 earlier this week breaks down the way Obama communicates his ideas to the American people.

What they miss is the Obama Code. For the sake of unity, the President tends to express his moral vision indirectly. Like other self-aware and highly articulate speakers, he connects with his audience using what cognitive scientists call the “cognitive unconscious.” Speaking naturally, he lets his deepest ideas simply structure what he is saying. If you follow him, the deep ideas are communicated unconsciously and automatically. The Code is his most effective way to bring the country together around fundamental American values.