Cheat Sheet

Is the news that Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson won’t be asking Congress for the second half of the $700 billion bailout good or bad for Democrats? Sure, they’ll take some of the blame away from the Bush administration if the plan goes wrong, but they can also look smart if the Obama administration comes up with an innovative way to spend the money. ProPublica has a rundown of how Paulson is plowing through his half of the cash, including the factoid that the Treasury has already given banks $148.6 billion as part of the Capital Purchase Program. Sixty billion dollars is still uncommitted, though the Bush administration says it will not use the money to help struggling automakers. Paulson instead is floating a number of ideas, among them helping homeowners or creating a loan program; we’ll know more when he testifies before lawmakers Tuesday.

A congressionally mandated scientific panel has found what tens of thousands of Gulf War veterans have maintained for years: Gulf War syndrome is real. The report comes after nearly two decades of government denials and vindicates the 175,000 US troops afflicted with the disorder. “The extensive body of scientific research now available consistently indicates that Gulf War illness is real, that it is a result of neurotoxic exposures during Gulf War deployment,” the report states. Those neurotoxics include the drug pyridostigmine bromide, which was given to troops to protect against nerve gas, and pesticides used to protect against insects. Troops with the syndrome have reported symptoms that include persistent headaches, concentration problems, general fatigue, and in some cases, chronic digestive and respiratory problems. The panel that conducted the study recommended that Congress appropriate $60 million a year to find a cure. “The importance...lies in what is done with it in the future,” said the panel’s chairmain, James H. Binns, a former principal deputy assistant secretary of defense and Vietnam veteran. “It’s a blueprint for the new administration.”

Pulsing beneath the action in Quantum of Solace is the narrative of a nontraditional James Bond willing to “defy the white-tie set” and act “more Michael Moore than Roger Moore” by risking his livelihood to save a Bolivian leftist regime, writes Juan Cole, president of the Global Americana Institute. Past Bond films were less right-wing than the Ian Fleming novels, assigning villainous tasks to far-reaching terrorist organizations rather than individuals, Cole writes; however, in Quantum lies a Bond “at odds” with the United States, one who harshly questions “the way the wealthy and powerful in the Bush era casually overthrew (or tried to overthrow) foreign governments in the global south to get at the resources they coveted.” The mission to rescue the Bolivian government is paralleled by the quest for vengeance of Olga Kurylenko’s character, equating her personal task with a more global one. Coles writes that he hopes “President Barack Obama can adopt the sort of policies that can get Bond back on our side.”

For the second time in four years, St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols is baseball’s National League MVP. Despite his team’s fourth-place finish and a strained calf that landed him on disabled list, Pujols hit 37 home runs with 116 RBI and a .357 batting average in his best-hitting season of his eight-year career. Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard and his 48 home runs finished second in MVP voting, flip-flopping the results from 2006, when Howard finished first and Pujols second. The American League MVP is announced Tuesday.

The pending capture of Mogadishu by Islamist rebels should probably dominate the small amount of attention that the media reserves for Somalia, but we can’t resist: Somali pirates have seized an oil tanker three times the size of an aircraft carrier. The capture represents a number of Somali pirate firsts: It’s the first time they’ve seized a Very Large Crude Carrier, the biggest ship used for oil, and, at about 450 nautical miles, it’s also the farthest pirate attack from shore. The ship was owned by the Saudi Arabian Oil Co.

More bad news from Wall Street: Citigroup, the second-largest U.S. bank, announced today that it's slashing 52,000 jobs globally as it attempts to restore profitability and boost a sagging share price. The bank’s stock dropped into the single digits last week, the first time since Citigroup formed in 1998. The bank has lost $20.3 billion in the last year. The cuts are the largest announced by any financial services company since the credit crisis began. Earlier this year, Citi laid off 23,000 people.

After the fiasco of his presidential campaign, it seemed Rudy Giuliani’s political career was in deep freeze. However, a new poll from Siena College shows New York Governor David Paterson leading Giuliani in a head-to-head matchup for the governorship by only six points, 49 to 43 percent. Giuliani remains popular in New York, with a favorable to unfavorable rating of 57 to 39 percent. Giuliani also leads Paterson among independents 54 to 37 percent and suburbanites 58 to 34 percent, while Paterson maintains a lead in New York City of 63 to 30 percent. It’s worth pointing out, perhaps, that Giuliani lost New York to John McCain in the Republican presidential primary.

Those hoping that something exciting would happen at today’s Obama-McCain meeting will be sorely disappointed. The two former rivals labeled their tête-à-tête a “productive conversation.” They apparently discussed working together on climate change, ethics reform, and national service. “At this defining moment in history,” they said in a joint statement, “we believe that Americans of all parties want and need their leaders to come together and change the bad habits of Washington so that we can solve the common and urgent challenges of our time.” The bad feelings will have to wait until at least January 20, 2009.

World-famous actress, humanitarian, mother of six—for Angelina Jolie, seemingly no territory remains unconquered. Now she's swooping into a coveted film role left open by Tom Cruise. The actress reported to BBC Radio that she would replace Cruise in the upcoming espionage thriller Edwin A. Salt, says Us Weekly. When Cruise dropped out of the Phillip Noyce-helmed flick in August, the CIA officer protagonist was reworked to be a female. Jolie says that after February, she plans to go on a yearlong hiatus: "I have a lot of children, and I need to make sure they're growing right and they've got us there for them."

2008 was supposed to be the “year of the woman.” But as Amanda Fortini writes in New York magazine, Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin “came to represent—and, at times, reinforce—two of the most pernicious stereotypes that are applied to women: the bitch and the ditz.” Hillary “inspired in her detractors an upwelling of sexist animus,” but the real damage was done by Palin. “By stepping into the spotlight unprepared,” Fortini writes, “Palin reinforced some of the most damaging and sexist ideas of all: that women are undisciplined in their thinking; that we are distracted by domestic concerns or frivolous pursuits like shopping; that we are not smart enough, or not serious enough, for the important jobs.” Politics’ newest queen, Michelle Obama, appears to be succumbing to the same forces: “As she prepares to move into the White House, she appears poised to recede into a fifties-era role of ‘mom-in-chief.’”

Fans of the Steelers probably sighed in relief when a final-play pickoff by Troy Polamalu thwarted the Chargers’ comeback try. Those who bet on the Steelers, however, were in for a longer night. Polamalu’s touchdown pushed the Steelers over their five-point spread, but in a decision that they would later admit was incorrect, officials reviewed the play and overturned it—to the tune of $32 million in Vegas. Sixty-six percent of money bet on the game was placed on the Steelers, so that means the windfall from this error went directly to the house.

News that the wildfires currently raging in California are threatening celebrity homes has earned them some extra attention. So whose mansions, exactly, are threatened? According to Sky News, it's a pretty likeable bunch, including Oprah Winfrey, John Cleese, Steven Spielberg, Ellen DeGeneres, Jeff Bridges, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The flames have so far destroyed 1,000 homes and still threaten 3,500 more.

Unreleased songs are usually unreleased for a reason, but this bears watching: Paul McCartney told the BBC’s Radio 4 that he wants to unveil an avant-garde Beatles song called “Carnival of Light.” The 14-minute track—described by Macca as “adventurous” in the best sense—was recorded in 1967 for an electronic music festival. According to the BBC, the song “is said to include distorted guitar, organ sounds, gargling, and band members shouting phrases such as ‘Barcelona!’ and ‘Are you all right?’” It’s no “Let It Be,” in other words. But McCartney adds, “I like it because it's The Beatles free, going off piste."

They say if you just wait 23 centuries, the same fashions will come around again. Back then, the Greeks erected the Colossus of Rhodes, a 34-meter high statue to the sun god Helios, and it stood for nearly 70 years until destroyed in 226 BC. The new collossus, designed by East German artist Gert Hof, will be a decidedly more modern creation: the world’s largest light installation. It will stand 60 to 100 meters tall and cost 200 million euros to complete. Built in part from melted-down weapons, the installation will celebrate peace, just as its predecessor did.

A timetable for troop withdrawals is one of the most controversial political debates in the United States. Not so in Iraq. Twenty-seven of 28 Iraqi cabinet ministers voted yesterday in favor of a security agreement that calls for a full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011. The measure also puts new restrictions on U.S. troops starting January 1 and requires the American military to pull back from urban areas by June 30. The White House welcomed the measure, which it hashed out in negotiations, as "an important and positive step." Some Sunnis are worried about the withdrawal of U.S. troops, as it will leave them at the mercy of the Shiite majority, but the Iraqi ministers expect the measure to pass when it goes to vote in the Iraqi parliament.

Miguel de Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina, the military leader of the terrorist group Eta, was arrested last night in the French Pyrenees. Rubina—who is called Txeroki—is suspected of killing two Spanish policemen in France last December. According to The Times of London, which calls Txeroki “Spain’s most wanted man,” he is also suspected of taking part in the bombing of the Madrid airport in 2006. This is the second major setback for Eta this year; its maximum leader, Javier Lopez Pena, was arrested in May.

The morning brings news that the Somali government is near collapse, clinging to the capital city Mogadishu as Islamist rebels march toward them. “Islamists have taken over everywhere else," said Somali president Abdullahi Yusuf. The major rebel group is called Al-Shabaab. The Guardian says it has terrorized the countryside this year with suicide bombings and the imposition of a harsh form of sharia law. Yusuf’s government has been plagued by internal strife, and the president urged all officials to regroup in the city of Baidoa and form a government. "The Islamists kill city cleaners, they will not spare legislators," he said.

If you haven't yet figured out how to feed your family in the current hard times, well, via The Independent, here's one solution: "Police in rural areas across Britain are reporting a dramatic increase in poaching, as the rise in food prices and the reality of recession increases the temptation to deal in stolen venison, salmon, or rarer meat and fish." These poachers are not a bunch of Davy Crocketts, but rather organized into armed gangs that intimidate local residents and trespass onto private property. "Poaching is particularly common on the urban fringes," said a Scottish spokesperson. "It's idiots going out into the country with guns, or crossbows."

Call it the dead bear market. It was only week ago that Damien Hirst had a record-setting $200 million auction, and everyone was saying the art market would be shelter from the coming financial storm. Even Hirst now says that you can chalk that up as wishful thinking. According to the Independent, Hirst said that the price of art was inflated and that he's looking forward to selling his artworks more cheaply. Last week, Hirst's painting of four skulls, expected to sell for $3 million at auction failed to find a buyer. Hirst called the painting "over-priced," and suggested that the economic downturn will force collectors to hold onto their artworks. "That is what an artist wants, for people to hang the works on their wall."