Cheat Sheet
The Best In Brief
Please register to manage your email preferences and comment on the site.
When the Justice Department issued indictments today for five Blackwater guards involved in the killing of 14 Iraqi civilians, it did so partially on the basis of the testimony of a sixth guard, who reached a plea bargain last Friday. Jeremy Ridgeway, 35, admitted that he killed at least one civilian and plead guilty to one count of manslaughter, attempt to commit murder, and aiding and abetting. In documents connected to his guilty plea, Ridgeway said that he and the other guards “opened fire with automatic weapons and grenade launchers on unarmed civilians” and that none of the civilians “was an insurgent, and many were shot while inside of civilian vehicles that were attempting to flee.” Another victim, he said, was shot “while standing in the street with his hands up.” The guards could face mandatory 30-year prison sentences in convicted.
Finally a little good news: Markets around the world gained sharply today, closing ahead for the second session in a row. After flirting with 9,000 in late trading, the Dow ended the day at 8,934.18 points, up 298.76, or 3.5 percent—its best close since November 7. The S&P gained 3.8 percent, to 909.70, and the Nasdaq did even better, closing up 4.1 percent. Rumblings of an imminent auto bailout deal and Obama’s plans for the biggest infrastructure investment since the 1950s “stirred the bulls,” Marc Pado of Cantor Fitzgerald told MarketWatch. US Steel and Alcoa led gainers among raw material producers, and GM and Ford also surged.
The Associated Press is reporting that the Tribune Company has filed for bankruptcy protection. Tribune Co., whose holdings include the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Cubs, has $13 billion in debt, largely from the complex transaction in which the company was taken private by Sam Zell last year. Tribune Co.’s next principal payment isn’t due until June, but it has been in danger of missing lender-imposed financial targets.
Fans of Jay Leno will be thrilled to hear the late-night ratings leader is getting a new 10 p.m. show on NBC. The Tonight Show host had been slated to give up his chair to Conan O’Brien in May 2010, but NBC has since worked to keep him, “fearing that he could leave and start a new late-night show on a competitor,” The Times reports. NBC will announce Tuesday that he has signed a new contract for a similar show at 10 p.m., to be set at Leno’s studio in Burbank, Calif. “No broadcast network has ever before offered the same show in prime time five nights a week,” The Times reports, adding the deal could help NBC “greatly reduce costs of developing and producing other prime-time shows.”
Is Obama eligible to be president? His campaign thought it settled the question months ago, when it posted his birth certificate online. But that didn’t stop certain concerned citizens—some might call them conspiracy theorists—from questioning the Democrat’s eligibility. Today the Supreme Court rejected an emergency appeal from one such citizen, Leo Donofrio of New Jersey, who suspected Obama isn’t a “natural born citizen” of the United States because his father was a Kenyan-born British subject. The court rejected Donofrio v. Wells, the second Obama citizenship case it has tossed out, without comment. “In neither case did the Court seek a response, thus indicating it had little interest in either or had found them to be completely without merit,” quips SCOTUSblog.
New York magazine has a fascinating profile of one man making a major profit from the financial crisis, Jim Chanos, whose short positions have netted him a reported 50 percent return. Chanos, who manages $7 billion as president of Kynikos Associates and recently closed on a new $20 million triplex, made his career shorting Enron, and this summer he cashed out his portfolio’s stake in financial and real estate stocks. Chanos waxes philosophical about how short-sellers are viewed: “I’ll always understand the Schadenfreude aspect to short-selling. I get that no one will always like it,” he says. He also reveals his next targets: the health care industry and defense companies.
The Washington Times has news of another victim of the meltdown: Freedom’s Watch, the conservative political advocacy group bankrolled by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, is closing up shop. The group, which pumped $30 million into the election this year, is a victim of Adelson’s plummeting fortunes—the casino magnate’s Las Vegas Sands Corp. has lost 95 percent of its stock value—and has decided to shut down instead of a post-election downsizing. Founded in September 2007, Freedom’s Watch “touted itself as an answer of sorts to the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org…[spending] $15 million on an ad campaign supporting President Bush’s surge of troops in Iraq just as Gen. David Petraeus was being summoned before Congress to testify about the strategy,” the Times reports.
A few years ago, it seemed possible that Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice would meet one day on the stage of a presidential debate. Instead, they’ll have to settle for a dinner date. The current secretary of state will host her successor for dinner at her apartment at the Watergate tonight. Clinton spent the day visiting the State Department, meeting with career employees and members of the transition team. Rice, meanwhile, has just returned from her trip to India and Pakistan, and has told reporters that Clinton will be a great successor.
Ferraris, private planes, Chanel shoes—these are just some of the luxury objects that have been confiscated from drug cartels, paramilitaries, and guerrillas by the Colombian government in recent years. The enormous mansion of the famous cartel leader Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, killed in the 1980s, still lies empty in an upscale neighborhood of Bogotá. Three commercial airplanes belonging to an extradited trafficker are abandoned in a hangar. The Colombian government doesn't know what to do with thousands of objects and properties that, if sold, would bring needed money to its coffers. Legalizing them takes years and selling them is proving very hard. After all, who wants to buy 100 pair of luxury brand shoes that belonged to a woman connected to the drug cartels? Who wants a portrait of Pablo Escobar with other famous drug lords, or be singled out for riding in the $250,000 black Ferrari of the dangerous drug trafficker "Rasguño"?
Dramatic pictures are emerging from San Diego, where an F-18 supersonic military jet crashed into homes this afternoon after its engines failed. San Diego police said the pilot managed to eject before the crash, which occurred just before noon Pacific time, but that three people were killed on the ground. Several homes were on fire—and one appeared to be completely destroyed—in the University Hills section of the city, which is about two miles from the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.
The journalist Julia Klein picked a fitting publication to discuss the fate of the newspaper. In the online magazine Obit—a publication devoted to death—Klein bids adieu to the trade she still plies. "Before people die, they often rally for a while, giving hopeful signs of robust good health. So, too, for newspapers: In the aftermath of Barack Obama’s presidential victory, thousands of people jammed art-deco newspaper lobbies around the country and demanded print editions to show their grandchildren. Don’t be fooled. Those newspapers will someday be as historic as the headlines." The recent opening of the Newseum, which is devoted to journalism, is well-timed. "The quest for an elusive new business model is on: a formula that will somehow preserve newsgathering—and jobs—even if print itself disappears. But its advent will not save most of us, and the way of life that we cherished will find its final resting place in museums.”
Kalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, and his four codefendants have told a military judge at Guantanamo Bay that they want to confess and plead guilty. Mohammed had said earlier that he wanted to be executed and achieve martyrdom, and the judge at the pre-trial hearing said he would investigate to make sure that the guilty pleas were the men’s own wishes. “We all five have reached an agreement to request from the commission an immediate hearing session in order to announce our confessions... with our earnest desire in this regard without being under any kind of pressure, threat, intimidations or promise from any party,” the men wrote in a letter.
The popular sentiment this year is that Wall Street executives begging for a bailout better not expect to receive their typical eye-popping bonuses. So Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain's request for a $10 million kicker angered some, like New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who called it an "thumb in the eye of the taxpayers". But James Surowiecki, the New Yorker's financial columnist, says if anyone deserves a bonus this year, it's Thain. "Unlike the executives at Lehman and Bear, Thain recognized Merrill’s vulnerability and its need for a deep-pocketed parent." True, the company's stock has lost 75 percent of it's value, but Surowiecki says the blame for that lies with mistakes made before Thain ever took office. "Instead he played the hand he’d been dealt, and, as it turned out, played it very well."
In the wake of Sarah Palin, it’s easy to forget the rocky primary run of Mitt Romney. Thankfully, it looks as though we’ll have a reminder in 2012. Romney has begun hiring staff members and consultants with money from a political action committee he established ostensibly to support other GOP candidates. But only 12 percent of the $2.1 million that the Free and Strong America PAC has raised has gone to other candidates. He has spent twice that on the salaries of his aides, who are compiling contributor lists that will be handy should he run for president in 2012. Other money has been spent on travel. There is an ethical dilemma, The Boston Globe points out, in soliciting for donations under the pretense of supporting other candidates and then spending it on yourself, but the practice is legal.
Can chicken nuggets save us from recession? McDonald’s reported a global increase in comparable sales of 7.7 percent in November. Same-store sales went up 4.5 percent, buoyed, says Dow Jones Newswires, “by its breakfast business and the popularity of its chicken lineup.” European same-store sales were up 7.8 percent and Asia saw 13 percent growth. Same-store sales fell for McDonald’s for the first time ever in March, but have grown since then.
In today's Washington Post, Emil W. Henry Jr. offers a conservative case for Obama's public works spending project. "Infrastructure expenditures are capital investment for future growth," he writes. In 1960, investment in infrastructure was 50 percent of GDP. Today, it is two percent. China spends nine percent of GDP, while Europe spends five. "Unimaginative adherence to a historical orthodoxy that ignores economic realities and global competition," Henry writes, "may simply extend the Republican stroll in the wilderness." Meanwhile, in The New York Times, Bill Kristol is arguing—no surprise here—that Obama's stimulus money should be spent on the military instead of public works. "If you think some government action is inevitable, you might instead point out that the most unambiguous public good is national defense." The recommendation is couched in a larger argument about the necessity of "big government conservatism." "What's politically vulnerable about big-government liberalism," he writes, "is more the liberalism than the big government."
Mickey Rourke is lapping up the attention these days, like a professional wrestler taking in the cheers of the crowd. Anthony Lane is the latest critic to pile on. Playing a pro wrestler on the downside, Rourke, Lane argues, recaptures a bit of what once made him great: "the way that he angled himself at the world, as if both sure of his place within it and, deeper down, afraid that it might still spit him out." As endures another brutal match, "he earns the caress of our pity...precisely because he never stoops to beg for it." Beware some sentimentality, but worth seeing.
After weeks of opposing a bailout for automakers, the White House said today that it is “very likely” to reach an agreement with Congress this afternoon. "If they want to work with us we'll meet them halfway," said White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, adding that the White House was awaiting draft legislation "so we can get this done." Democrats have been busy hammering out $15 billion in emergency loans that will be offered in exchange for strict federal oversight. They have already complied with one of the administration’s requests by allowing President Bush to appoint a single “car czar” to oversee reform, rather than a board culled from six federal agencies. Under the plan, the loans would be issued on December 15. Then, on February 15, the czar would review the Big Three’s progress and would have the option of pulling back the loans. Long-term restructuring goals from the companies would be due on March 31.
After a weekend of accelerating speculation, New York Gov. David Paterson is looking to put the brakes on rumors that Caroline Kennedy will be chosen to replace Hillary Clinton as New York's junior senator. The New York Post has a "source close to the governor" saying that the odds of a Kennedy appointment are no better than 20:1. Paterson has spoken with Kennedy and admitted to "liking and respecting her" but is worried, the paper puts it, that she "doesn't have the personality to be an aggressive fighter in the Senate on behalf of the state's increasingly desperate need for federal financial help." Asks one administration insider: "The bottom-line question is: Can Caroline Kennedy be the tough, hard, calculating, aggressive, articulate and, yes, obnoxious type of senator New York needs and expects?" The Post's sources also say that Paterson is weeks away from a decision and that Hillary Clinton is "dead-set" against Kennedy taking over.
"Every modern recession includes a media séance about how horrible things are and how much worse they will be," David Carr writes in today's New York Times, "but there have never been so many ways for the fear to leak in. The same digital dynamics that drove the irrational exuberance—and marketed the loans to help it happen—are now driving the downside in unprecedented ways." In any given morning, Carr braves televisions in taxi cabs and elevators, news tickers in Times Square, email alerts, online advertisements, and instant messages that all feed the fear. "This recession got deeper faster because we knew more bad stuff quickly," Carr writes. "I used to worry that my TiVo thought I was gay—doesn't everyone enjoy a little Project Runway at the end of a long, hard week? Now I worry that my browser knows I am about to lose my job."
In The Guardian, the esteemed critic David Thomson returns to one of his favorite subjects: Nicole Kidman. At issue here is why Kidman’s movies—the latest of which is the limp Australia—never seem to earn any money. See, for example, The Stepford Wives, The Golden Compass, and The Invasion. On the one hand, Thomson says that Kidman is a 40ish actress uniquely willing to make brave choices (Fur or Birth). On the other, roles in films like Australia take her good looks and hide them in clothes that are, well, a bit too outback. “Kidman, I think, sometimes feels more at ease if she looks sensational. This is an actress who needs to be put in chic clothes in romantic comedies where she can be funny, and wicked, and drop a few of the clothes.”
Is GM Chairman and CEO Richard Wagoner finished? "If you're going to restructure, you've got to bring in a new team to do this," Sen. Chris Dodd said yesterday. "I think [Mr. Wagoner] has to move on." Barack Obama also called for the "moving on" of any CEO who "is not willing to make the tough choices and adapt to these new circumstances." Some of Wagoner's allies, like UAW president Ron Gettelfinger, are not expected to rush to his defense. Dodd and other Democrats are hoping for a vote on new bailout legislation that was hashed out over the weekend as soon as Tuesday. The bailout would provide the companies with $15 billion of short-term financing, which would carry them through March. The bill would also create a seven-person "auto board" of Cabinet officials and a chairman chosen by President Bush, which would hold the auto companies accountable for every transaction of $25 million or more.
From today's Washington Post: "Although the impact of Bush's judicial appointments is most often noticed at the Supreme Court, it has played out much more frequently and more importantly here and in the nation's 12 other appellate courts." During his presidency, Bush established conservative majorities in 10 of the 12 appellate courts, up from seven when he took over. Democratic judges complain that the appellate conservative judges simply reverse decisions whose social consequences they dislike, without paying much attention to the legal logic. As an example, the Post offers a case where the 6th Circuit's Republican majority overturned a decision by a lower, Democratic court and allowed a man to be convicted on handgun charges, despite the fact that the main witness refused to testify. Tension has run particularly high on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, where liberal and conservative judges have stopped lunching together.
The Justice Department announced today its charges against five Blackwater private security contractors who were involved in the killing of 17 Iraqis in September 2007. The charges include 14 counts of manslaughter, and a sixth guard admitted in a plea deal to killing at least one Iraqi in the shooting. Other charges include using a machine gun in a crime of violence. The guards surrendered themselves at a federal court house in Salt Lake City. Witnesses say the contractors opened fire without provocation, but Blackwater says it was self-defense. "We think it's pure and simple a case of self-defense," said a defense attorney. "Tragically people did die."
Major news from Pakistan this morning: authorities have arrested Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the Lashkar-e-Taiba commander whom Indian officials believe directed the Mumbai attacks. Lakhvi allegedly gave orders to the gunmen by phone during their terror spree, which began on November 26 and lasted three days. The New York Times notes, “It appears to be the first time that Pakistan has captured a senior operational figure in Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group that was founded in conjunction with the intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence in the late 1980s to fight a proxy war against India in Kashmir.” India has long sought Lakhvi, whom they believe led attacks on the Mumbai subway in 2006 and against an Indian military base, the Red Fort, in 2002.
Wall Street executives don't get to where they are with small egos, but this is beyond the pale: John Thain, the CEO of Merrill Lynch, has requested a bonus of as much as $10 million, claiming that his leadership helped the bank to avoid a much larger crisis. Merrill, mind you, was taken over by Bank of America amid concerns that, once Lehman Brothers failed, it would shortly follow. Shareholders approved Merrill's merger with Bank of America on Friday. Merrill's compensation committee has not yet reached a decision on Thain's bonus, but is leaning toward denying him and other executives bonuses this year, according to sources close with the proceedings.
Might this be an indicator of America's new post-partisan landscape? It's hard to think of two brands whose images are more opposed than Wal-Mart and Apple—one is cheap, unsexy, suburban, while the other is sleek, expensive, and cosmopolitan—but the two are partnering up. Wal-Mart has begun training its employees to sell the iPhone, which will hit its shelves this month. Wal-Mart is only the second mass-market retailer, after Best Buy, to sell the iPhone. There are unconfirmed reports that Apple will sell a 4GB iPhone at Wal-Mart for $99 with a two-year contract. When Apple sold a 4GB model in its first generation of iPhones, the price was $399.
Partner Sites: Expedia| Hotels| Hotwire| Urbanspoon| Vimeo
