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Archive for February, 2009

Obama’s Afghan Surge

by Doug Mataconis @ Wednesday, February 18th, 2009. Filed under Al Qaeda, Barack Obama, Politics, War On Terror

It looks like President Obama is following through on his campaign promise to focus more military power on the Afghan War:
WASHINGTON — President Obama will send an additional 17,000 American troops to Afghanistan this spring and summer in the first major military move of his presidency, White House officials said on Tuesday.
The increase would come [...]

General Motors Says It Needs Another $ 16 Billion

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, February 17th, 2009. Filed under Auto Industry, Business, Economics

General Motors released it’s TARP funding request late today:
DETROIT — General Motors Corp.’s restructuring proposal says the company may need up to $30 billion in government loans as it implements a survival plan that includes cutting 47,000 jobs and closing five more U.S. factories.
GM submitted the dire plan to the Treasury Department on Tuesday to [...]

What A Surprise, Chrysler Wants More Money

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, February 17th, 2009. Filed under Auto Industry, Business, Economics

Not surprisingly, Chrysler says it needs more money from the TARP program to survive:
DETROIT — Chrysler intends to cut 3,000 more jobs and increase its loan request to the federal government by $2 billion, according to the plan that it filed Tuesday afternoon with the Treasury Department.
The company, which received $4 billion from the government [...]

Obama Considering Swedish Model For Bank Bailout

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, February 17th, 2009. Filed under Barack Obama, Credit Crisis, Economics, Politics

President Obama is apparently looking to go Scandanavian:
Nationalisation, long regarded in Washington as a folly of Europeans, is gaining rapid ground among US opinion-formers. Stranger still, many of those talking about federal ownership of banks are Republicans.
Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator for North Carolina, said that many of his colleagues, including John McCain, the defeated [...]

A-Rod Talks About His Steroid Use

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, February 17th, 2009. Filed under Baseball, New York Yankees, Sports

Alex Rodriguez spoke to the media today about his admission that he had used steroids while playing for the Texas Rangers:
TAMPA, Fla. — Eight days after admitting his steroid use in a television interview, Alex Rodriguez offered more details in a news conference after his arrival at Yankees spring training camp on Tuesday. With dozens [...]

Obama Signs Stimulus Bill, And Hints At Another One To Come

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, February 17th, 2009. Filed under Barack Obama, Business, Credit Crisis, Economics, Politics

Even as he was signing his stimulus bill into law today, President Obama was not ruling out a second one in the future:
DENVER — President Obama has not ruled out a second stimulus package, his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said on Tuesday, just before Mr. Obama signed his $787 billion recovery package into law with [...]

Amateur Hour At The Analysis Table

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, February 17th, 2009. Filed under Barack Obama, Business, Credit Crisis, Economics, Politics

Michelle Malkin and several other conservative bloggers are having a lot of fun with this particular statistic:
On Nov. 4, after Barack Obama clinched the White House, the market closed at 9,625.28.
In mid-morning trading today, the day President Obama signs his massive Generational Theft Act into law and a day before he unveils a massive new [...]

Sirius XM Saved From Bankruptcy

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, February 17th, 2009. Filed under Business, Economics, Satellite Radio, Technology

It looks like a last minute loan from the owner of DirecTv has prevented what seemed to be an inevitable Chapter 11 filing:
Liberty Media has agreed to loan Sirius XM Radio $530 million to help save the satellite radio provider from bankruptcy.
Liberty Media, which owns DirecTV, and Sirius said in a news release that the [...]

Hell Hath No Fury

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, February 17th, 2009. Filed under In The News

In China, things turn ugly when the recession forces a businessman to cut back:
BEIJING, China (CNN) — A married Chinese businessman who could no longer afford five mistresses held a competition to decide which one to keep.
But the contest took a fatal turn when one of the women, eliminated for her looks, drove the man [...]

Environmentalism And The Cult Of Death

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, February 17th, 2009. Filed under Economics, Politics

An interesting take on what it means to “lower your carbon footprint:”
Everything we do to sustain our lives has an impact on nature. Every value we create to advance our well-being–every ounce of food we grow, every structure we build, every iPhone we manufacture–is produced by extracting raw materials and reshaping them to serve our [...]

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