Video: President Obama Speaks on the Annual Afghanistan-Pakistan Review

I’m reading Jon Krakauer’s Where Men Win Glory abut the f-ckery surrounding Pat Tillman’s death by US friendly fire and he goes into some decent detail about the modern (post-World War II) history of Afghanistan and how the Taliban came to power in the wake of their victory, as the Mujaheddin forces (with weaponry funded by the US’s CIA channeled via Pakistan’s ISI), over the Soviets in Afghanistan. Honestly based on what I’m reading, the US is f-cked. That country has about as much of a shot of becoming a functioning, self-governing democracy as I do of ever becoming say, a world-class rapper!



More:

Read an Overview of the Afghanistan and Pakistan Annual Review. [alt. link: NYT]

The Washington Post‘s Eugene Robinson says: In Afghanistan, the US is on track to nowhere.

The New York Times: “For Americans, anxious about the war in Afghanistan, there is not a lot of comfort or clarity to be found in President Obama’s long-promised strategy review.”

[via the White House blog]

How Much Will Maintaining the Upper-Income Tax Cuts Reduce Unemployment??!

I spotted this one via The Colbert Report last night:

“In September, the The Congressional Budget Office found that those $100 billion in tax cuts on income above $250,000 would reduce unemployment in 2011 and 2012 by… somewhere between 0.1% and nothing at all.”

! :/

Read the full post at the ‘American Politics’ on The Economist

Related:

President Obama, GOP Tout Tax Cut Deal But Extension Comes at a Heavy Price – “Extending Bush-Era Tax Breaks Good For Short-Term Economy, But Would Add $900 Billion to Already High Deficit. [emphasis mine]” [ABC News]

Hit the jump for President Obama’s address announcing the deal on extending the tax cuts. (more…)

Riots Break out in Rome after Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi Survives No-Confidence Vote

Read more via The Guardian.

The UK, Italy, where else?

Central Provision of Obama’s Health Care Bill Struck Down in Virginia Federal Court

Read more via The New York Times.

Update: The judge who ruled health care reform unconstitutional owns a piece of a GOP consulting firm that worked against health care reform! [Gawker]

:/

Clinton and Obama-era diplomat, Richard Holbrooke Dead at Age 69 Today

He was most recently serving as special envoy to the Af-pak (Afghanistan-Pakistan) region in the Obama administration when he suffered a torn aorta which he unfortunately succumbed to today despite undergoing 20 hours of intensive surgery this weekend. Holbrooke is best known for shepherding the Dayton Peace Accord that ended for conflict in Bosnia of the early 90’s to signing.

Am i doing the nerd equivalent of listening to a rapper’s entire catalog when they die if I put Holbrooke’s To End A War book on my request list at the library?

Read more about Richard Holbrooke via The New York Times then ht the jump to watch a 5-track playlist of Richard Holbrooke being interviewed on Times Talks about Afghanistan & Pakistan.

(more…)