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The Public Observer takes a look at the economy

 

Tax cuts versus spending. That's just one of the issues facing Washington lawmakers as they shepherd a nearly $1 trillion dollar economic stimulus package through Congress.

The House earlier this week approved an $819 billion stimulus package in a 244-188 vote that didn't get a single yes vote from a Republican. The Senate's working on its own version and Republican leaders want to change the tax cut-spending ratio found in the House version, which calls for about $2.80 in direct spending for every $1 in tax cuts. The Senate Republicans, sticking to form, want more tax cuts and less spending.

Democrats want to have a bill ready for President Obama to sign by Feb. 13, before the Presidents' Day holiday. Obama called the tanking economy a ''continuing disaster'' for American families after the Commerce Department released a report Friday showing the economy shrank at a 3.8 percent rate at the end of last year -- the worst quarterly performance in 25 years.

The economy has continued to nosedive despite the Treasury Department's $700 billion bailout program for the financial industry that was passed and signed last fall. For a good look at how that money has been doled out and spent, check out this up-to-date page by Pro Publica.

The economic crisis obviously is being felt around the world and reactions have completely varied. In France, for example, more than 1 million demonstrators took to the streets this week to protest the government's response to the economic crisis and also launched labor strikes.

In the United States, a 40-year-old man apparently killed his wife and five children after he and his wife were fired from their hospital jobs for lying about their income in an attempt to get cheaper child care.

Obama warned last month that the economy would get worse before it gets better, let's hope that it doesn't get much worse.

--Paul Chavez, Clear365 news editor

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For the latest news and analysis, vist the Clear365 News section.

THE SOUND BOOTH: Franz Ferdinand is ready for the dance floor

Franz Ferdinand's new album, 'Tonight: Franz Ferdinand,' is set for official release today (Jan. 27), but as luck -- or rather, technology -- would have it, many of its tracks have been rampantly traversing cyberspace for some time now.

At first listen, some of those tracks may come as a surprise. It appears the album is not the 'pop' release some fans expected when the Scottish indie band announced they were collaborating with producer Brian Higgins (who also produces Girls Aloud and Sugarbabes). Turns out, the band scratched the Higgins' sessions when they realized their styles didn't quite mesh. But pop fans need not despair: As Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Karpranos promised, while the band's "last record was … like a teenager having sex," its new effort is "a bit more assured and a bit friendlier for the dance floor."

'Tonight: Franz Ferdinand,' the band's third album, is a musical party grab-bag, containing all the goodies that never quite made sense in one place ... but with each luck of the draw, you're continually surprised by how well they fit together here. An amalgam of inspiration and influences ranging from '60s pop and '70s disco to Afro-pop and electronica, the album was recorded in a rundown building in Glasgow over an 18-month period. In a recent Rolling Stone interview Karpranos says, "We'd record one song five different ways, which is where the luxury of time comes in."

Notable tracks like 'Lucid Dreams' and 'Dream On' take on something of a pensive, psychedelic, spooky air, while 'No You Girls,' 'Turn It On' and 'Bite Hard' have a more playful '60s-pop feel. Toward the bottom of the goodie bag, the album even takes a turn to the introspective, closing with an acoustic ballad, 'Katherine Kiss Me.'

Of 'Tonight' as a whole, Karpranos says: "I wanted there to be life in it. I wanted there to be joy ... I wanted the adrenaline to come squirting through your blood stream. It's a dance-floor record, it's supposed to move you physically."

Consider it a mission accomplished!

-- Joyce Liao, 365 Blogger, The Sound Booth

Watch Franz Ferdinand in adrenaline-spewing action:

Check out more new releases -- plus download DRM-free albums, tracks and ringtones -- at Clear365 Music

The Public Observer on the arrest of Congo rebel Nkunda

  

Congo's powerful rebel leader Gen. Laurent Nkunda calls himself a man of peace and Christ, but the Congolese government in 2005 issued an arrest warrant accusing him of crimes against humanity. Human Rights Watch has documented summary executions, torture and rape committed by his soldiers and troops under Nkunda's authority also have been accused of conscripting children soldiers.

Rwandan troops this week captured Nkunda, who was once an ally, after converging on his stronghold in a tiny electricity-less town on the Ugandan border. The Associated Press reported on his arrest and the political moves behind it that could threaten Congo's first democratically elected government in 40 years.

The AP also moved a brief profile on Nkunda that included details on his penchant for fancy eyewear and the wire service also filed a Q&A on why Nkunda is so important and why his arrest matters. Here's one salient point: Nkunda's rebel group threatened to topple the Congolese government and his power grab could have exploded into an international conflict repeating the fighting in the 1990s when six African nations fought in the Congo and some 5 million people were killed -- the largest war casualties since World War II.

For more on Nkunda and the turbulent political situation in Congo, visit this special report by the Council on Foreign Relations and for a qiuck look check out this fact box provided by Reuters.

--Paul Chavez, Clear365 news editor

Photo credit: AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo, File

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For the latest news and analysis, visit theClear365 news section.

The Public Observer: Inauguration-o-rama

 

Barack Obama will make history Tuesday when he takes the oath of office -- using Lincoln's Inaugural Bible -- to become the nation's 44th president and its first black commander-in-chief.

Before we delve into the inauguration, let's take a quick step back and ponder the end of the Bush administration. The Economist in a story headlined "The frat boy ships out"  takes a look at the legacy of George W. Bush. It's not pretty.

Over at the Washington Post, online columnist Dan Froomkin examines Bush's Thursday farewell speech under the headline, "Bush Ends With a Whimper."The comprehensive column includes multiple reactions to Bush's good-bye address and also examines his legacy.

Suffice to say, Bush's sayonara speech highlighted the good, skirted the bad and didn't offer up anything new. One could make the argument that there hasn't been a meaningful presidential farewell speech since 1961, when President Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower famously warned of the military-industrial complex in his final address from the Oval Office.

INAUGURATION-O-RAMA

The inaugural events actually start Saturday when President-elect Obama and his family board a train in Philadelphia that will bring them and Vice President-elect Joe Biden and his family to Washington as part of a 135-mile "Whistle Stop Tour."

A record crowd is expected to attend the festivities and it will have the highest security of any inauguration, with the Secret Service receiving help from 58 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to provide security.

The inauguration festivities won't suffer from a lack of celebrities. U2, Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce, Stevie Wonder, Garth Brooks and Usher are just some of the artists who will be performing Sunday at a free concert on the National Mall that will be broadcast on HBO. Several other concerts also will be held over the weekend with top-rate talent and many artists and celebrities either will be performing or attending various inauguration balls.

There could, however, be a dearth of homeless people at the inauguration. Local officials estimate that more than 6,000 homeless people live in Washington and those who live along the parade route and in the National Mall and Capitol Hill areas will have to uproot their encampments by Monday night. Shelters, churches and homeless service providers will be providing shelter, warm meals and TV sets so the homeless can watch the inauguration.

NO PRESSURE

There will probably be some 2 million people on the National Mall witnessing Obama take the oath of office and listening to his first speech as president. How will Obama's speech rank when compared to Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy or Thomas Jefferson? The AP in this story reviews some famous past inaugural speeches and offers some clues as to what Obama might say.

The again, it might not matter anyway. The AP in another story reveals how the media either didn't comprehend or just flat-out panned inaugural speeches and phrases from Lincoln, Roosevelt and Kennedy that today are held in great esteem.

Despite the chance that the media might miss the message, The AP nevertheless offered advice from five of its writers on what Obama should or shouldn't say in his speech.

 
--Paul Chavez, Clear365 news editor

 

BLOG: The Public Observer - Jan. 9, 2009

The 111th U.S. Congress was sworn in on Tuesday and new members included Anh "Joseph" Cao of New Orleans, the first Vietnamese-American to serve in Congress.
Cao, 41, has a rather unique story. Not only did the 5-foot-2 Republican attorney upset an 18-year incumbent -- who happened to be the first black congressman from Louisiana since Reconstruction -- but Cao also overcame long odds as a former refugee.
Cao was only 8 when Saigon was about to fall and his parents sent him, his brother and a sister to the United States to seek a new life. 
According to this report by The Associated Press, Cao earned a physics degree from Baylor University in the 1980s, trained to become a Roman Catholic priest, obtained a master's in philosophy from Fordham University and worked with the poor in Mexico until a struggle with faith steered him toward law and eventually politics.
Cao's refugee success story, which also was chronicled in The Times-Picayune, comes at a time when there are a growing number of refugees worldwide.
In a briefing Thursday, Antonio Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, told the UN Security Council that the number of refugees worldwide had increased over the past two years to more than 11 million. His figures did not include the estimated 4.6 million Palestinian refugees in the Middle East who fall under the mandate of a different UN program.
Guterres said the increase in the number of refugees under his office was primarily due to the crises in Iraq and Somalia. The list of countries contributing to the swelling ranks of refugees also included: Afghanistan, Chad, Sudan, Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
While armed conflicts were the most well-known causes for displacement, other causes included natural disasters, drought, rising sea levels and the current global economic crisis.
''Conflict, climate change and extreme deprivation will interrelate, strengthening each other as causes of displacement,'' Guterres said in his briefing.
Representatives on the Security Council said that protecting refugees, particularly women and children, and creating the conditions for safe reintegration would take the cooperation of UN agencies, international financial institutions and non-governmental organizations.
Though the worldwide refugee situation is in dire straits and growing worse, success stories like Cao's may give some hope to the millions of refugees without a home and the people helping them.

Photo credit: AP Photo/Alex Brandon

--Paul Chavez, Clear365 news editor

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For the latest news and analysis, visit the Clear365 news section.