SOME NEWS HEADLINES....
Draft-Dodger Cheney's Security Requirements Too Much for Disabled Vets Convention
During
the Vietnam war, Dick Cheney applied for and received no less than five
deferments from the draft. Decades later he told a reporter that he had "other priorities"
that outweighed going to Vietnam. So because Dick Cheney sat out the
war, another young man went in his place, and that soldier may have
been among the 58,000 who died or the 300,000 who were permanently
disabled in Vietnam.
During his Senate confirmation hearings as defense secretary in
1989, Cheney falsely claimed under oath, "I would have obviously been
happy to serve had I been called."
This is an interesting historical footnote today in light of news that
the Disabled Veterans of American, better known as the DAV, has rescinded its invitation
to Cheney to speak at their convention next month because his security
requirements would have caused extreme physical strain on DAV members.
Cheney would have required the predominantly elderly veterans, many of whom lost limbs in battle, to assemble in the meeting hall at 6:30 a.m., after which the doors would be closed and no one could leave the room, even to go to the restroom, until after Cheney's speech. Since Cheney was scheduled to begin his remarks at 8:30 a.m., and probably would have spoken for the better part of an hour, the vets would have been trapped in the room for nearly three hours.
NOW on PBS: John Edwards on Poverty
Even though he's no longer running for president, John Edwards is still a man with a mission: to cut poverty in the United States by 50 percent in 10 years. This week, NOW's David Brancaccio talks with Edwards about how he plans to achieve this ambitious goal and what role it may and should have on the upcoming presidential election.
"What's happening in America today is middle class workers, people who are like my parents and my family, the family that I grew up in, they are having a terrible time," Edwards tells NOW.
The current economic crisis has Edwards and his followers more committed than ever, but will their efforts gain enough momentum to make a difference?
The entire program is available in streaming video or audio at their website. NOW also provides John McCain and Barack Obama's positions on poverty.
NASA established fifty years ago
After the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union in late 1957 awoke the US to the possibility of a developing outer space "gap" with the Russkies, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law on July 29, 1958, thereby creating NASA. Only 11 years later, NASA landed men on the moon. Happy birthday, NASA.
(link)Rampant politicization of the Justice Department gets total silence from Fox News.
Yesterday, the Department of Justice released a report concluding that agency officials "violated both federal law and Department policy" by basing the hiring, firing, and promoting of some Department applicants and officials on politics. Though the report could result in criminal perjury charges against some DOJ officials, Fox News has decided the report is not worth highlighting. The station devoted three sentences to the report yesterday, in the middle of the day; none of the prime-time shows covered the report. Both CNN and MSNBC devoted prime-time coverage to the story.
Krauthammer Links Obama's Berlin Speech To Hitler's Nazi Rallies
Last night on Fox News' Special Report, host Brit Hume asked the "All-Star Panel" for "help" in determining whether or not Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) got "a bounce" in the polls as a result of his recent trip to the Middle East and Europe.
Referring to Obama's Berlin speech that was reportedly in front of more than 200,000 people, neo-conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer said he did not get a bounce because apparently, Americans don't like it when politicians emulate Adolf Hitler at a Nazi rally:
HUME: Panel, help. Did [Obama] get a bounce from the trip or not? […]
KRAUTHAMMER: I'm not sure — I don't think he got a bounce. I'm not sure it was his intention. You don't get a bounce out of standing in front of 200,000 Germans at a rally who are chanting your name. Bad vibes sometimes, historically.
Sirius Completes XM Merger; Shares Off 42% In 4 Days
from BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily - Barron's Online by Eric SavitzSirius (SIRI) and XM (XMSR) this morning completed their merger, at long last. Terms of the deal called for XM holders to get 4.6 SIRI shares for each share of XMSR.
But are investors are celebrating? No, they are not. Instead, they are in a selling frenzy. SIRI shares, in fact, are down 32 cents, or 17%, to $1.56, and have now now dropped 42% in the last four trading days.
Sirius this morning repeated its previous forecast that the company expects to generate $400 million in synergies in 2009. It expects to post adjusted EBITDA of more than $300 million in 2009, and to reach positive free cash flow, before satellite expenditures, for the full year in 2009.
So why so much pressure on the stock? I suspect there are a number of contributing factors, including the unwinding of positions by risk arbs, the impact of the large hedging-related stock offering announced this week, and some general concerns about the prospects for the merged companies.
